When Mario came to—woozily at that, the only thing that greeted his eyes was total darkness; a distant sound of crying could be heard which Mario identified as Merlux's crying, but no matter his efforts he could hardly move himself and if he could then he wouldn't feel it. He wanted to tell the little girl that he was alright and not to worry and that he was okay, but the words would never leave his throat. Suddenly, he felt a harsh strike against his face, and it seemed as if that had finally done the trick in getting himself to feel everything clearly. Of course, he had a splitting headache afterward.
"Augh…Geez Merlux, you didn't have to hit me so hard…" the man groaned out.
"Th-That wasn't me, Mister Mario…" came the girl's sniffling reply. Now fully awake, Mario could understand Merlux much more clearly, and having heard her confirm herself as not being the culprit, Mario shot up like lightning wondering who else the two were stuck with. His eyes soon found Snatchelle just retracting her mechanical hand.
"Holy—"
"Ease up, fat 'stache," Snatchelle said. "I ain't here to kill you, just to wake you up so your brat can quit screamin'."
"Mister Mario!" Said mage ran right up to the man and nearly crushed him with a hug, relieved that he had finally gotten up.
"Easy Merlux," Mario said with a smile. "I'm not going anywhere, not while you still need me."
"Tch," Snatchelle scoffed. "Woulda preferred if the brat had knocked herself out; wouldn't have to deal with the constant cryin' and all." It was then that Mario finally took proper notice of Snatchelle, anger flaring to life in a heartbeat.
"You wanna start somethin'? I hope you haven't forgotten that I nearly had you not that long ago. If you want another smack-down then be my guest."
"I ain't goin' to go soft on your fat ass like last time."
"Please stop!" Merlux begged. "No more fighting please? People are staring at us funny…" Merlux's mention of them not being alone got Mario to look around him; sure enough, he was surrounded by many others in the jail pit, recognizing some of them as the hoodlums he helped apprehend. Mario suddenly felt very a huge spike in on-edginess.
"You look like you know these people," Snatchelle pointed out.
"Yeah, that's the guy that got us all in here!" one of the inmates declared. "I am so gonna let you have it old man!"
"Hey, hold on—"
"Get him!" It was very soon that the inmates Mario had defeated nearly fell upon him like lions, stopped short of that with a magic barrier from Merlux. The magic energy soon exploded, sending the inmates flying in every which direction in the prison cell, and with each of them down on the ground Mario had a chance to finally explain himself to them before they jumped him again.
"Can you people hang on for just a second?! Look, I know that I'm the reason you guys are in here and you're pissed—rightfully so, but I swear on my honor that me siding with the police was more than what it looked like."
"Yeah right."
"No, seriously! I wanted to see who ran this city to find out why it was so messed up, and I felt that the police would take me and Merlux to see what was going on. Now that I know that the president is a greedy bastard trying to tear the outer-ring down, I want to help you guys out for real. Look: I really am sorry for landing you guys in here and I'll make it up to you by fixing this place up, but I can't sit down and talk to you guys about how we're going to get to that point if you're all ready to rip me to shreds." Naturally not many people took his word for it, but Merlux wasn't having any of that.
"We're really sorry that we beat you up, but now team Super Mario is ready to help you!" The words gave many people a once over at the pair, now finally realizing who had gotten locked up with them.
"Wait, seriously? You're THE Mario?"
"Yeah, check it!" Mario gestured for some room to bounce around and got to work on his trademark jumping prowess. In mere seconds, he had the entire crowd of inmate's sans Snatchelle wowed at his skill with dynamics and flair. Merlux tried her hand at attempting the same but ended up looking a hot mess, smiling and laughing despite her goof up. This helped everyone's mood lighten up by a considerable margin (outside of Snatchelle once again), and now everyone was ready and willing to listen to Mario.
"Alright folks, listen up," Mario started, "we can all walk out of here in one piece but we have to put our heads together for this one. Does anybody have any concrete information on where we are and who the prison warden is?"
"I've heard that his name is Jefferson, that old dude you were working with earlier," one of the inmates said. "He brings us some food every now and then; maybe we can snatch his keys if he gets close enough."
"Or you could let me talk to him first," Mario offered. "I didn't see him around when the president sent us down here. Maybe I can convince him to let us out somehow. If not, I guess we can try to take his keys or take him along with us to get us all out of here. I don't want to mess the guy up though; he seemed pretty cool to me."
"Well, if you say so…" The group continued to discuss the means of escaping for a good while, but Snatchelle was disinterested and simply sat out the conversations going on. Mario had soon taken notice of this and he was having none of it.
"Don't think we can't see you sitting over there like a stick in the mud, Snatchelle," Mario said.
"The hell d'you care?" the bandit replied, sounding less fierce and more sullen. Mario had immediately picked up on the change in emotion and made to capitalize on it, albeit with cautious steps.
"Look, we're all in this together no matter how much we may not like it," the plumber replied. "We either stand together or fall divided."
"I'd rather fall alone than stand with you."
"Do you know your way around these parts?" The question had killed any further retorts the bandit could come up with. "I know you well enough to know that you don't plan on staying down here, and it looks to me that you don't know how to navigate this prison we're in." Snatchelle had nothing to say to that but turned her head away from Mario in disgust at her own vulnerability. Either she partnered up with the very man responsible for her being in prison to begin with or she stayed behind to be utterly alone. She didn't want to show it, but dying alone was the last thing she wanted despite saying otherwise.
"S-So? I can find my way out if I try hard enough."
"Can you? I doubt that the president and his guys left most of your arm's functions intact." Again, Mario showed Snatchelle just how much of a mess she was in, and loathe as she was to admit it he was starting to look more and more like the key she needed to escape and go on with her life. "Listen, I know I haven't been winning any 'nicest guy on the planet' awards lately, but if you want to talk about something then my ears are yours. I'll be more than happy to listen and help you out of something's bothering you."
Snatchelle was now seriously considering the man's words; she had a reputation as the baddest bitch to uphold, but what else did she really have? Other than said reputation that she never actually wanted in the first place and her trademark "diamond duster", she effectively had nothing. No friends, no family, no one to call her own. Even her own mechanical arm was a reminder of what she had lost and what she could have lost years ago, and every time she stopped to look at it for long she could feel a twinge of pain. By then Mario had to have noticed how hurt she had looked and was probably pitying her for whatever circumstances led her to become this miserable bandit. Eventually, Snatchelle just stopped caring about looking tough in front of him; he'd seen enough of her with her guard down so she figured that she may as well come on out of her basement completely.
"You really wanna know?" Snatchelle cautiously asked, hoping to see that Mario meant what he said. "I'm sure that a celebrated hero like you don't have to bother himself with listenin' to a street rat like me."
"Try me," was Mario's simple response, and in a bold gesture the man laid a single hand on the bandit's shoulder while looking at her dead in her eyes, never directing his stare toward anywhere else. His face was devoid of anything that would say that he was being disingenuous, and for a moment Snatchelle had forgotten why she had disliked the man so. The way he felt so real and how willing he was to work with someone who had nearly killed him and his kid (as far as she knew) made it hard for her to hate the guy completely. After much deliberation, the bandit prepared explaining her situation to Mario.
"Well, I'mma just be brief since we gotta get outta here soon. Long story short, life in this city sucks ass when you're growing up."
"Mmm-hmm, go on."
"My family was poor and sick, and everyone but me died from disease."
"Ouch. I'd hate to be the last living member of my—" The plumber had to cut himself short there, not wanting to drudge up fresh memories of his brother's untimely demise nor interrupt Snatchelle who was finally opening up to him. "Er, sorry 'bout that. Continue."
"After everyone died I found myself out in the streets like most everyone else. Honestly—it was a miracle that I was even born given how impoverished my family was." Mario gave the bandit a sympathetic sigh and kept silent, wanting her to keep going. "Anyways, the disease that killed my family showed up in one of my arms, and to keep it from spreading to my heart and lungs I cut that arm off."
"Oof, that must've been torture."
"It was. It took me three days to go through with it completely from how bad it hurt, and the blood loss made me weak as hell too. Eventually, I cut the thing off and struggled with life from then on. Hygiene, nutrition, safety, all those things were hard to come by for a girl as young and weak as I was back then, but nobody could really help a sick chick out for one reason or another. It was everyone out for themselves back then, and that's kinda true even now." Mario wanted to argue against that mentality but reeled in his tongue once again, giving the bandit more to say about her story.
"One day, though, some rich but un-fucking-believably fat bastard came strolling through the part of the city where I 'lived'."
"Sounds like Wario."
"You know the guy?"
"He's…an estranged relative to put it nicely. Anyways, do go on."
"'Kay. So one day this guy comes waltzin' 'round, eyein' up the hood with some scarecrow-lookin' knockoff and a mini-goth girl with him."
"Waluigi and Ashley I'd wager. Not all that surprising that Waluigi's playing sidekick for him, but I'd never think Ashley'd be following him around."
"The fat dude woulda passed me up had the kid not somehow spot me in hiding. Bein' the one-armed hood rat I was, I stood no chance against someone who could drag me though the air with her magic staff—let alone against a dude who bench-presses thwomps for shits n' giggles." Mario knew that said MicroGame president was a predictable man within his trademark temperament of greed, gluttony, and sloth—take those three traits out of the forefront of his expressions, however, and only the Star Spirits above knew what went on in the man's head.
"After passin' out for a bit, I found myself strapped down to an operating table with the dude's crew surroundin' me. The goth kid from before made half of my body numb so that some jumpsuited geezer with a robo-head could operate on me. Trust me: feeling half of your body bein' numb sucks."
"Wait, some old guy in a suit and a robo-head…Dr. Crygor? I thought he didn't operate on people other than himself…" The conversation was becoming all sorts of disturbing for the plumber; what reason would Wario want with someone like Snatchelle?
"That old guy was messin' with the nerves in my arm or some shit like that, and that's how I got my arm. The fat dude was hollerin' 'bout turnin' a profit once my arm started workin' like he wanted and stuff, though nobody else seemed to care." Snatchelle would have continued had she not notice the severe flush of red on Mario's face, complete with twitching. Though he had no fire flower on him, he had no need of one to get fired up: the thought of Wario abducting helpless people from poor streets only to use them as guinea pigs for his latest get-rich-quick scheme did naught but ignite a blaze of disgust within Mario. Before the plumber could think of things to say and do to Wario once he saw him again, Snatchelle nudged his arm to get his attention back.
"'Ey, you cool there? I've heard of bein' hotheaded but—"
"I'm fine," came Mario's reply, oddly devoid of much emotion besides a quiet fury. "Anything else?"
"Yea…I wasn't plannin' on stayin' with the dude anyhow, 'specially after he implied he'd take my new arm off of me to try out more arms. That scared the ever-living shit outta me, and the dude's crew could see it. I freaked out when they got close and tried to bust their caps 'til the goth girl froze me in place to explain. Though they risked gettin' fired they helped me escape with my new arm. Eventually I made it back here 'cause it's the only home I know and, well, the rest is history. Now those guys were actually kinda cool. Well, everyone 'cept for the porkchop's celery stick stalker."
"Good on the others for getting you out of there. I'd hate to think of what Wario would've done if you stayed."
"So anyways, there's your inside scoop on why Snatchelle's such a bitch. You're welcome by the way."
"I, er, thanks, but…there's one thing I'm not exactly getting here. I get why you're so unfriendly to most everyone, but I'm still wondering what I did to get you so particularly mad at me." Snatchelle was honestly hoping that Mario wouldn't pull that topic back up again, especially after she was finally starting to warm up to him for being a good listener. "I'll admit it; I try to be a nice guy but sometimes it doesn't click in me. I've got a friend who lives pretty out of the way from the Mushroom Kingdom, but we weren't friends at first. We met each other when he mugged me for my stuff, and when I went on yet another world-saving adventure I basically strong-armed the guy into helping me out. After gathering a few more friends to save the world with, I more or less ignored the little fella, and it got to a point where he eventually called me out for never caring to talk to him about his issues. Granted, we did make up in the end, but had I just talked to him early on instead of brushing him off until the literal worst possible moment, we'd have been in far less trouble throughout our journey together. So please, just tell me what's up; you can cuss me out 'til my ears turn blue or whatever helps you get it off your chest best. I'm sure I can take it." The memory of being confronted at being such a horrible friend and glory hound still burned his mind, and he wasn't about to have a repeat episode. The act had surprised Snatchelle in that he acknowledged his imperfection despite everyone else's worship of him, and instead of cussing him out she found herself laughing hard. That was certainly not what Mario had been expecting.
"Oh god, I just can't believe you man!" came the she-bandit's response amidst her ever splitting sides. "And here I thought you were a perfect, goody-goody two shoes, but you're one of the realest dudes I've ever seen! Oh man, I can't believe I actually got mad at you."
"I'm…sorry?"
"Heh, look man—sure, I was mad that the apparent hero of the Mushroom Kingdom couldn't loosen his forever fat coin purse for a few slumbodies like us, and I was ready to let you have it had you not listen to me for a few and even encourage me to fuck your eardrums over."
"Eh heh heh…well, I was bracing myself for it, thinking I'd have to go and get hearing aid after we got out of here."
"Ha! Well, not anymore. Honestly, I'm feelin' a lot better right now. Guess I probably won't have to steal for a bit with someone like you around, eh?"
"Yeah, that's a good thing. But hey, listen: I'm here for you if you ever need me for something while we're working to get out of here and take the president down. I've got a bandit friend who I've talked with about him being, ironically, the opposite of your run-of-the-mill lawbreaker. Everyone in his family was a bandit and that worried him; he didn't want to turn out like that, so he put his natural talents to use as a respected upholder of the law. Just because he was born a bandit didn't mean that he had to be one like the rest. That goes for you too if you ever feel like that."
"Really? I…wow, I've never heard of any bandit doing anything but your usual ghetto stuff. This bandit friend of yours still around?"
"Yep. I even heard he's getting' married to his lovely lady, and he don't plan to stop kicking crooks' sorry behinds."
"Good for him. You know…I've always wanted to be a singer and get married soon. Ma always told me to not chase after tv dreams, but I guess that's what's kept me going these days. I thought that one day I'd build up enough to get a career started and maybe move to the Mushroom Kingdom when I got enough cash. But, now…To think I'd have left others in these streets who're like me…"
"Hey, don't beat yourself up over it." The plumber wrapped an arm around the she-bandit and pulled her in for a hug. "We all feel like that sometimes." By now Snatchelle had come to see how everyone adored the plumber so easily aside of his mortal nemesis of course; not only was he ridiculously easy to talk to, he was as transparent as glass. She liked that in a man, and had her old flame not flicker out too terribly soon she'd have quit her life of banditry in a heartbeat if she had to just to be with him. She had to stop herself there though; she knew all too well of the legendary chemistry between the man and the princess he pined after, and if the mage kid Mario had with him was any indication then he had already claimed her. Speaking of said kid, she was awfully quiet as of late. Normally she'd be throwing words of encouragement, and one look at the kid's face told her all she needed to know; Merlux was serious-looking for a moment, though the expression quickly gave way to a bright smile when the bandit gave her a cocked brow and grin.
"Hey, is this your pops?" asked Snatchelle. For a spell there was confusion, but Merlux caught on soon enough and smiled even brighter.
"Mister Mario isn't my papa; that would be Grandmaster Merlin, but he isn't here." The statement gave Snatchelle a once over between Mario and Merlux before busting out in laughter for the second time that day. How it was that she thought Merlux was Mario's child was now laughable aside of how close the two were. Then again, there was that rumor floating around that Princess Peach Toadstool used to be a redhead…
"Sorry 'bout that. But anyways, you helped me realize somethin': there are other people out there who care about me—you for starters, even if they don't show it at first. I know I didn't give others any chances, but I'm glad that you were the first to try and teach me an important lesson. I don't have to waste away in this hellhole as yet another youth who never got a chance to make it out of their station. I can do something about this hellhole and make it something better for everyone here."
"That's what I like to hear! You shouldn't have to settle for merely surviving out here; you and all the others have a future worth fighting for, and the president wants to take it away from all of you. I may be out on a mission to save the world by collecting the Goddess's Essences, but I'd be damned if I did nothing to help you guys oust this sorry sack of shit outta here! On my honor as Super Mario, we're busting out of this joint, cleaning the inner circle of its trashy president, and rebuild the City of Angels into a place where everyone can have their happy ending!" Mario certainly hadn't lost his touch at rousing a crowd into an uproarious choir, and chants of Mario rang true in the prison pits as all stood to their feet. True to his frank nature, though, he had to spoil the mood if just by a wee margin. "Now, let's start brainstorming ways of busting out of here."
"No need for that Mr. Gonzales," came an elderly man's voice. Lo and behold, the voice belonged to the gentlemanly police chief Jefferson, applauding Mario for his emboldening speech. "Forgive me for prying, but I hear that you are in need of a prison break to remove the president from power?"
"Jefferson! Boy am I glad to see you!"
"Careful man, he's the cop that put us in here!"
"Aw, don't worry 'bout it Snatchelle, I've got this." Mario jogged up to the senior officer and grasped the bars of the prison cell they were in. Then, he put into place his grand plan.
"Please! You gotta let us outta here! The president's gonna destroy the whole world if he isn't stopped! C'mon man, I'm begging ya!" Quite the pathetic display of pleading if you asked anyone but the innocent Merlux—who'd have likely done the same had Mario not beat her to it.
"Now, Mr. Gonzales, that was a quite immature show of pleading. You had only need to do so in a more dignified manner if you wanted to beg."
"Pretty please with a double-cherry on top of a toadstool delight? Two double-cherries on a whipped toadstool dream? How 'bout THREE—"
"Goodness, Mr. Gonzales. That is quite enough. You have made your point very clear."
"Really?! So you'll let us out?! I mean, come on; you're the chief of police! I'm sure you can sweet talk the president into—wait, no, euck. That came out wrong."
"I'm afraid that as chief police under the president, I could do no such thing for you my good sir. Such a station mandates upholding the president's law above all else unless he himself commits a crime—which by the laws established he has not."
"Aw, what? What kind of wacko puts in place laws that can be so stupidly abused?"
"That I cannot speak for, but such is the duty of the police force.."
"Darn."
"Fortunately for you my good sir, I have resigned from my position as chief police. Or rather, the president had planned to terminate my service anyhow." A childish gasp of excitement escaped Mario's lips as Jefferson reached into his pocket for the cell's key. In short order the cell's door was opened to the delight of all patrons sans the suspicious Snatchelle.
"Ah ha ha, hell yeah! Thank you so much Jefferson! We—"
"Do not thank me just yet; we must first evacuate this prison safely before mounting an assault on the president proper."
"Right then. Okay everyone, we're blowing this taco stand!" Another round of cheers erupted as Jefferson began leading the freebound group toward the prison's exit. Though Mario could certainly appreciate the former police chief's cooperation, Snatchelle's eyes bore into the man so hard that Mario felt compelled to question the man's intentions to put the bandit at ease.
"Hey, uh, Jefferson man? I really can't thank you enough for helpin' us out here, but, would you mind me asking why?"
"Ah, yes, my resignation. In truth, I had never liked the man and only worked under him long enough to earn a salary for my family—that and to also earn my retirement checks. By the time the man had realized that I had worked past my retirement he was livid. He had meant to terminate me before then, but to my fortune it seemed he was too busy entertaining himself with his enclave of harlots. Mind my vulgarity by the way."
"It's fine, you're among friends here. A little vulgarity here and there is a given with me."
"Well then, permit me to say Gods be praised that I am rid of that damned dastard."
"Attaboy!" A hearty guffaw was shared between the two men as the party made their way toward freedom, ready to take on the man who made their lives miserable over the course of nearly a decade. This time they would take him down for good and restore the City of Angel's former glory.
Moonlight kissed the escapees of the president's underground prison as soon as they stepped foot in the overworld, right in the City of Angels' Outer Ring to everyone's surprise (barring Jefferson). The cool of outdoor light was already making the weary of the group feel much better than the emanations of prison torches ever could, and who could argue against breathing in air that wasn't laced with mold and dust? The atmosphere was most certainly setting up the right mood to storm the president's sanctum, and Mario was more than ready to lead such a charge.
"Alright, now that the president is exactly the kind of rat bastard I expected him to be, I'll wager that he's got tons of guards stationed everywhere in the Inner Circle. Best if we started out with the Outer Ring first and gather as many others as we can. We'll need all the manpower we can get and—"
"So it is true…" The voice brought Mario out of his planning and to a familiar man. Before his group was the glass-eyed man and his female associate in wheelchairs. Neither looked happy to see him despite the last they spoke with one another.
"Oh, hey guys! I see you got yourselves some wheelchairs. How they holdin' up?"
"They holdin' up just fine. Not sure the same thing can be said for you though."
"Huh…? Why not?"
"I see you're now workin' with that cop right there."
"Jefferson? Well, yeah—I mean, he's actually a cool guy and—"
"That's enough," came the woman's voice. "Point is this: he's our enemy, and you're his friend now. The friend of my enemy is my enemy is how it goes, right?"
"Wait a minute, what's going o—"
"We saw you decimate those guys with you earlier before they were all carted off to prison. So what, you've got them all working for that cop too?"
"Ey, hold up guys. You got this all wrong." Members of the rebels that once fought against Mario were now defending the man's rather unorthodox choice of assisting the police force to get close to the president and fix the problems the Outer Ring was facing. Though the wheelchair-bound pair listened to every word intently, their stance wasn't changed in the end.
"Hate to say it, but…that's not gonna change the facts: you got the cop and Snatchelle with you, and you still fought members of the rebels earlier. I don't think you's up to no good but nothin' we say can change the minds o' the others, so if they see you then pop goes the weasel. We're just here to give you a friendly warnin': best be sleepin' with one eye open from 'ere on out." With that the two disabled people rolled past a corner into the darkness of the night, but not before shooting Snatchelle a rather hateful look. As deserving as it was, the bandit couldn't help but flinch thanks to a change of heart. In a show of momentary defeat, Mario sighed in disappointment before turning heels toward the other direction.
"Well this sucks…guess we're storming the prez's office ourselves huh?"
"'Ey man, don't worry 'bout it too much." Came the reply of one of the rebels. "I mean—you got us. It took the cops forever to take us down. Ain't that right Jeff?"
"Yes, you were my most difficult adversaries during those days."
"That just means we got ourselves some decent firepower to hit the prez with eh? In the end we've got a good start if not just enough. C'mon everyone, let's get back to the Inner Circle as fast as we can. Oh, and, let's try not to get caught by anyone 'kay?" Everyone nodded in agreement and Mario let Snatchelle lead the way through the dark streets. Soon the darkness of the president's reign would end and the dawn of a new City of Angels would be born…