You're the Hero Of Light, Charlie Brown

by Tiger lover 16

When the evil denisen of Darkness, the dreaded Dark Witch, escapes from her prison she sets about to build an army of villains to conquer the realm of light, and shroud all worlds in eternal darkness! Charlie Brown is made the new guardian of the light, and tasked with uniting fictions greatest heroes in an epic war to defend their worlds. Can you say "Good grief"? CBxPP and more.

8. You're in the Mushroom Kingdom, CB Pt 1

Tiger Lover 16: Hello folks, how've you been? So, this chapter didn't take too long then, thank goodness. I'm sorry for people waiting to read my other stories but I couldn't help it, this story is just too much fun not to write at the moment. I will be taking a hiatus from this story now until Christmas however, God willing I'll be able to finish off the next chapter's of Philosopher's Stone, Charlie Brown and You're Amazing, Charlie Brown by then, as a Christmas present for all my readers. Hopefully. I have got parts of both written, it's just getting back to them is the problem, especially when this story has become my main priority. That and my joint project It's Kingdom Hearts, Charlie Brown at the moment. Hopefully with the new year I'll be able to get back in the swing of my other stories. At over a year overdue I think it's been too long since an update for either. I haven't given up, I just don't know what I'm doing lately on this site. Well, all that aside, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I must say, I'm very pleased with how this one turned out. It may be a lot more light hearted than the last few chapters, but that's what makes it a fun read. The second scene, which introduces the Mario bros and a lot of principle characters, was written by Supah-Toon (Toonwriter's current penname), with me doing a little editing and changing the format to make it fit with the rest of the chapter, but it's still his work. I will admit, the scene he wrote contradicted a lot of what was originally planned. However, it turned out to make things better in a way, it gave a proper introduction to a lot of the characters before throwing them into the plot. Well, I'll save everything else for the notes on the bottom, have fun everyone

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Chapter 7, You're in the Mushroom Kingdom, Charlie Brown: Part 1

Slowly, his eyes flickered open. The bright lights overhead blinded him at first, but after a minute of blinking Charlie Brown's eyes eventually adjusted enough to the light that he could see most of what was around him. He soon realized he was in the Light Palace, Snoopy and Woodstock were sitting on a table playing a card game, Woodstock apparently winning, while Sparky was floating above in a meditative state, apparently oblivious to the rest of the world around him.

Shaking off a dizzy spell, Charlie Brown pushed himself out of the armchair he was sat in and rose unsteadily to his feet.

Back on the table, Woodstock revealed his hand, a full house. Snoopy's first reaction was shocked silence. His next reaction was to kick all the cards off the table.

"Luck, luck, luck! It's all a matter of luck! No skills involved!" Snoopy exclaimed. If it was an attempt to save grace, he was failing miserably at it. Woodstock shook his head at his friends antics and turned away, spotting Charlie Brown rubbing his head while trying to gather his thoughts. The little bird chirped merrily and tugged at Snoopy's arm, pointing to Charlie Brown when he had gotten his friends attention. Snoopy's face lit up and his tail started wagging as he ran forward to hug his owner, tackling him to the ground in the process.

Charlie Brown shook his head from the fall as Snoopy began licking his face, only to gag shortly after.

"Bleah. No offense intended, but I think you need a bath" Snoopy told his owner, who didn't understand him anyway.

Charlie Brown patted Snoopy on the head and looked up at Sparky, who opened one eye to look back at him. Sparky smiled as he resumed a normal stance.

"Hello again Charlie, did you sleep well?" Sparky asked warmly.

"I guess" Charlie Brown said distantly "But I'm don't really remember falling asle-" Charlie Brown stopped abruptly, panic spreading over his face as the memories of everything that had transpired suddenly rushed back into his head "GOOD GRIEF. Agate?! My friends? Sally, Patty, Linus, everyone! What's happened!? How long have I been asleep!? Are they alright!? Have we found them yet!? No-no we haven't found them, we haven't even started? Have we? Where-"

"Calm down child" Sparky placed a hand over Charlie Brown's head again, focusing whatever energy he had into calming his apprentice down. Charlie Brown took a deep breath and sighed.

"So what's happened?" Charlie Brown asked.

"Well, for once some good news. In the three hours I've put you to sleep for, I've discovered the location of each of your friends" Sparky explained. Charlie Brown and Snoopy smiled at this "But there is some mildly bad news..." Their expressions became more hesitant "Apparently they've been scattered across a total of ten different worlds, and I don't know exactly where they are on said worlds, just that they're there" Snoopy frowned impatiently as Charlie Brown looked dreary.

"Well that's not much good, looking for them in whole worlds sounds like finding a needle in a haystack" Charlie Brown said dejectedly.

"Not necessarily" Sparky said optimistically "True, we don't know exactly where they are, but I have enough information and knowledge of the worlds to give an educated guess as to their general area of the worlds, and one of your powers, which I'm going to have to teach you along the way, involves tracking down specific beings. So in theory, tracking them all down might only take as little as two or three days if we really keep at it"

"Three days?" Charlie Brown wondered "I guess that's not too bad... but can't we go any faster than that?"

"Would that you were more experienced at tracking and teleporting Charlie, but nothing is ever simple I'm afraid" Sparky said heavily "But let us not dwell on such matters. Follow me"

Still feeling discouraged, and a small amount of self loathing for his lack of tracking ability proving a hindrance, Charlie Brown followed Sparky through the door to the left of Odin's statue, Snoopy and Woodstock following along behind them. Charlie Brown could have sworn the Ancients' statue was glaring at him with it's one eye.

The hallways they came out in held doors of varying colours, all of them with a different, curious symbol embedded in the centre. These included a red door with a symbol of a white and red spotted mushroom that had eyes, a blue door with seven coloured gems, a door with some sort of round orange sphere symbol with four red stars as it's centre, a door with two symbols, a wand with a glowing red tip and a castle, and a door with the symbol of a chair made out of many swords in the centre, with a carving of a dragon breathing fire over the top half of the door and a very strange, gaunt, painted white creature carved on the lower half. But these were just some examples, there were literally hundreds more doors with their own unique symbols and themes.

Growing curious, Charlie Brown asked "So what are all these doors for?"

Sparky, who had been floating around and examining a few specific doors, turned his head and replied "These doors are an explorers best friend, I should think. These are the doors between worlds. Stepping through any of these doors will transport you to a location of yours or my choosing anywhere in a certain world"

Charlie Brown and the remaining pets marvelled at this new information, though Charlie Brown had a curious thought "Why would you need doors when you can teleport anywhere you want?"

"Not exactly anywhere. And it's for the sake of any guests I may have, so they can return to their world whenever they feel... so far they've gone unused for seven centuries. I don't get a lot of guests here" Sparky sighed "With a war with the darkness on the horizon however, that should change"

Charlie Brown walked past a few more doors, stroking the centre symbols as he passed. The knowledge that a whole world awaited him beyond any of them was mystifying, more than once he dared himself to open a door, just to get a peek at one of these worlds, but every time he lost his nerve and pulled his hand back from the handle. Snoopy on the other hand did not lack the nerve.

The first door Snoopy opened was a plain red one with black horizontal stripes, seemingly taking the place of a symbol. through the doorway Snoopy observed a street where a brown haired girl in overalls was walking. A spiky haired boy was sitting in a nearby tree, and as the girl passed he pelted her with a water balloon. The blond boy laughed at his prank... until the volatile girl grabbed a pebble on the ground and threw it at him. The small rock beaned the boy straight in the head, with enough force that it sent him falling out of the tree straight into an open trash can.

Snoopy closed this door and moved on to the next, which was plain brown and had a red circle with a black tyrannosaurus silhouette as the symbol. So it wasn't too much of a surprise when he opened the door to find a forest full of dinosaurs, but it did surprise him when a tyrannosaurus head suddenly lowered down right before them and roared. Snoopy and Woodstock floated above the ground in fright for a moment before Snoopy slammed the door shut.

Not deterred by their moment of terror, Snoopy and Woodstock looked to the next door, the symbol being a simple green leaf. Deciding this didn't seem too dangerous, Snoopy and Woodstock opened it up. The sight which greeted them this time was several attractive teenage girls bathing in a hot spring, their long hair and soap bubbles covering their... um... private areas. The girls playfully splashed each other, until the brunette with the cactus pointed the doorway out to the other girls. Then they all screamed. Their faces turning beet red, Snoopy and Woodstock slammed the door shut. Then, their hearts racing, the animal buddies pulled several wooden boards out of thin air and began nailing them to the door. When the door was adequately covered in boards, Snoopy finished by hanging a sign from the doorknob reading "Do not enter if you have any decency"

"Seriously though, why would Sparky have a door leading to THAT?" Snoopy asked, still red with embarrassment. Woodstock tweeted a reply, which made them both giggle at the unlistening spirits expense.

"Snoopy, can you and Woodstock please stop messing around with the doors. I've already lost everyone else I care about, the last thing I need is for you to get sucked into another world too" Charlie Brown scolded his mischievous pet and his friend. Snoopy grinned sheepishly and nodded in agreement. After another quick look around the trio spotted Sparky floating above them, meditating with his palms close together. A strange, misty energy began to form between his fingers. When Sparky lifted his hands, the energy dispersed in ten beams, each ending at one of the many doors. Above the doorframes, the energy reformed into new images... the faces of Charlie Brown's friends.

"I have marked the ten worlds where your friends have been scattered to" Sparky began as he floated near the door with the mushroom symbol, above which two faces floated, Peppermint Patty's and Sally's "Among them, only two worlds harbour more than one of your friends. Patricia and Sally as you can see have wound up in the Mushroom world, whereas Violet and Patty" he pointed to the door with the wand and castle symbols "Have ended up in the wizarding world. I can also determine that Linus is on Mobious, Schroeder is on the Marvel Earth, Lucy is in the Pokemon world, Rerun is somewhere in the Wumpa islands of Wumpa world, Franklin is on DC earth, Freida is in the city of Townsville, Pigpen is in the Dragon Ball world and Shermy in the Xiaolin world. So, now the only question is-where do you want to start looking?"

Charlie Brown was still pretty confounded by everything that was going on, but it didn't take too much thought for him to come up with the answer.

"Well, Sally is my sister, and if both her and Peppermint Patty are on this... Mushroom world? We should go there first" Sparky nodded in approval.

"Good choice. And while we're there we can perhaps recruit that worlds heroes, Mario and Luigi, to our cause. The Mario brothers are among the greatest and most capable heroes I know of in this universe, they would be an invaluable aid to our cause, and also our effort to find Sally and Patty. Mario has a knack for rescuing women" Sparky chuckled, though Charlie Brown was too unfamiliar with the subject to get the joke.

"So what do we do, just walk through the door?"

"Pretty much. The location you see through the frame isn't necessarily where you'll end up though, you'll be momentarily blinded by light until you have selected a location. As you haven't had the chance to visit this world yet, I will enter your mind to choose the location for you. I suggest you hold on to Snoopy and Woodstock's paw and wing on the way in, since I doubt they will want to miss out on travelling to different worlds" Sparky said with a knowing look to the two, who were suddenly dressed in their beagle scouts uniforms, ready for adventure. Snoopy and Woodstock gave an honourable salute as Sparky just rolled his eyes, not allowing himself to grin too much due to the serious matters at hand.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Charlie Brown asked after opening the door, to the image of a castle.

"It'll be fine Charlie. Like I've said many times before, just have faith" Sparky said kindly as he slipped into Charlie Brown head. Still looking apprehensive, Charlie Brown took a deep breath, held onto Snoopy and Woodstock and jumped in through the doorway. The trio disappeared in a flash of light, and the door closed behind them.

---

A beautiful kingdom filled with the largest variety of landscapes, flora, & fauna...each as unique (and weird) as the last...is shown to us as the backdrop for the next portion of our epic tale. We zoom into the hub of said kingdom, a large castle with hundreds of tiny mushroom headed men and women running around doing their jobs. These "Toads", as they're called, run around and work for the ruler of the castle and it's surrounding kingdom, The Mushroom Kingdom. Said ruler, Princess Peach, had organized a party today, and the Toads were running around trying to set it up. The occassion?

"The Eleventieth Rescue of our Princess!" One Toad had declared as a citizen asked him what the occassion was for the party.

"Oh yes, we must celebrate. The Princess demands it!" Another Toad said. "And she wants everything perfect for when the guest of honour arrives"

"Who's the guest of honor?" A female Toad asked.

"You must be kidding, right? Everyone knows who the guest of honor is!" Another female Toad scolded her. "Why,-"

"IT'S-A ME...MARIO!"

The familiar phrase prompted everyone to jump, turn around and gaze at the guest of honor. Wearing his signature red long sleeved shirt, brown boots, jean overalls, and red hat with an "M" inside a white circle, the chubby, mustachio'ed plumber hopped over a hill and landed on his feet on the grass. He gave a thumbs up to everyone, who cheered for the land's hero. Behind him was a taller man who looked like him, except he was leaner and taller and wore green instead of red, with an "L" inside the white circle of his hat. The taller man, who was the stockier man's brother, walked right next to Mario and waved along with him.

"Wow, Mario, the crowd's really-a happy today!" The green brother, Luigi, said as he waved to the crowd.

Mario continued his waving, "And-a why not? We just saved the princess from another evil Bowser plot! The eleventieth, the Toads say. I can never keep up" He chuckled before hopping over towards the castle with a "Yahoo!" Luigi followed suit, jumping past a napping green dinosaur with a white underbelly, red dull spikes on his back, and brown "shoes" for feet. The brothers hopped over towards the castle and then ran onto the drawbridge through the door. The party was currently commencing, with hundreds of Toads attending the event. Although, one tall and lanky purple wearing man with a moustache was stuffing shrimp puffs in his pocket while a yellow wearing, purple overalled fat man was hogging the punch. Already, several Toads were regretting inviting Wario & Waluigi.

The brothers stood in the main halls of the castle, where the party took place mainly, and enjoyed the company of the Toads, who were "Oooing" and "Aaahing" over the heroes. Suddenly, the trumpets were played as a Toad with a red spotted cap, Princess Peach's chief Mushroom Retainer, Toad (His parents weren't very good with names) came out with a box.

"Introducing...the princess and her companion...Princess Daisy...and Princess Peach!"

The Toad moved to the side as a yellow gown wearing brunette (who ruled a land a bit farther away from this one) walked out to the crowd. And behind her was the princess of this land. A pink gown wearing blond with blue eyes walked out to cheers from the crowd of subjects. They waved to everyone, especially the two heroes, before Toad spoke again.

"And now...to present our heroes with their special medals. These medals are for rescuing our princess so many times, we've just lost count! So we're calling it the eleventieth time! Mario...Luigi...would you come up here before the princess?"

The brothers nodded and walked up the steps as the crowd clapped for them. The green dinosaur waddled in just in the nick of time to watch the brothers get awarded. As for Wario and Waluigi, the Mario Brothers counterparts just booed as they hogged the food table.

The brothers stood in front of the princesses, who smiled and were presented with two gold medals by Peach's caretaker, the elderly Toadsworth. Princess Peach grabbed the medal with a green ribbon. Luigi took his hat off, showing his brown hair, and Princess Peach placed the medal over his head. Luigi put his hat back on as Princess Daisy gave him a smile. Peach then turned to Mario, and held up the medal with the red ribbon. Mario removed his hat and bowed politely before Peach placed a medal on his neck aswell. Mario placed his hat back on and turned to the crowd alongside his brother. The crowd cheered for the heroes (minus Wario & Waluigi) as Peach raised her hands.

"Now...let us enjoy the celebration!" Peach declared to the crowd, which was a signal for DJ Toad to start the true partying!

The party went on for hours as everyone had a great time (although the Wario brothers were escorted out of the party early for taking too many shrimp puffs and hogging the table). Mario & Luigi mingled and talked with everyone, and then conversed with the princesses. The event was deemed a success.

But one person didn't deem anything "successful"...

...far away in a different castle. A castle backdropped by a fiery land with turtles named Koopas patrolling it 24/7. The Koopas had been bullied the entire day by the ruler of the castle. His latest attempt at kidnapping Princess Peach had gone horribly awry, like always. The green, spiky shelled, yellow bodied, green faced, yellow snouted, white underbellied, red haired, evil eyed beast who inhabited this castle was named Bowser. His Koopas were in a state of fear, like they always were after a plan of Bowser's goes wrong..

...They were constantly in a state of fear.

"GRAAAH!" He breathed fire as he yelled in frustration, burning a helpless Koopa who had gotten him a drink. "That Mario...I can NEVER win with him around. I make plan..." he swung his tail, nearly hitting a Koopaling, "...after plan..." he swung his tail again, the Koopaling ducking this swing, "...after plan!" He swing his tail another time, and the Koopaling slid his head back into his shell. The poor turtle lifted his head back out and let out a sigh of relief...before Bowser purposely pounded him straight into the ground with his fist.

"I've tried the basic kidnapping, I've tried hiding in castles, I've tried my airboat, I've tried recruiting numerous villains, I've tried kidnapping OTHER princesses, I've tried paintings, I've tried going into space, I've tried turning her into a trophy, heck I remember being a BABY trying to hurt the brats...but nothing works. Nothing works at all. It's as if life is telling me to stop. I can't kidnap her...without MARIO and his sniveling coward brother Luigi stopping me! There HAS to be SOMEWAY...SOMETHING I haven't tried and done..."

Bowser paced around as his minions tried their best to keep him happy...or as happy as he was going to get that day.

---

The party had lasted three hours after the sun had left the sky and the moon rose up in it's place. No one had wanted to leave, but then again it was kind of hard to enjoy a party when everyone was tired and half the Toads drunk on root beer. Princess Daisy and her guests had been the first to leave, travelling back to her kingdom of Sarsaland. Wario and Waluigi were caught a few times trying to sneak back into the party, but were booted out. Yoshi had wandered off halfway through, chasing a butterfly that had somehow fluttered into the castle. Mario decided to go looking for him in the morning, the little dinosaur was more than capable of looking after himself if he ran into any goombas or koopas

And as for the guests of honour, the Mario Brothers were some of the last to leave. After thanking the princess for everything and saying their goodbyes to the Toads, Mario and Luigi departed for home. It was a rather long walk, even longer without Yoshi to ride on, but they made it back alright. As they approached the mushroom styled house they shared, the brothers discussed the days events.

"Sure was a great party, huh Luigi" Mario summed it all up.

"Sure was, Mario. It's-a nice to be appreciated for a change" Luigi said dreamily.

"People always appreciate us though" Mario pointed out.

"They always appreciate you, half the time though it feels like no-one even knows-a who I am. Even Bowser calls me Mr Green, or Greenstache most of the time" Luigi corrected mopily. Mario patted him on the back.

"There there bro. Maybe some people forget, but I sure appreciate you" Mario said kindly. Luigi smiled.

"Gee, thanks Mario" Luigi replied. The brothers walked on in silence for a moment before Luigi brought up another subject "Bowser's been attacking an awful lot lately. I mean, I know he's always attacking, but lately it's become nearly a daily thing with him. You'd think he'd give us a break once in a while"

"Yeah, Bowser's a stubborn old turtle, but I'm not complaining. It gives my life purpose to toss him around by the tail" Mario commented eagerly.

"Sure, but I could sure use a vacation every once in a while. I'm still sore from that last magic blast Kamek shot me with" Luigi said while rubbing his hip with a pained expression. Mario considered his words for a moment then gave a shrug.

"I suppose a little break now and again would be nice. But I'm good either way" Mario said "Right now though, I do need a nap"

"Here, here" Luigi chimed in agreement. The Mario brothers made it to the door to their house, Mario reached for the handle...

And then an electric shock pulsed through his body and Mario fell on his backside. Luigi stared at Mario in shock, and then looked back at the handle. Mario rubbed his head and looked up, only to find himself and Luigi surrounded by a half dozen magikoopas (Koopas wearing blue wizarding robes), being supported by a few normal green shelled koopas and brown mushroom creatures known as goombas. The evil minions laughed sinisterly as Mario looked between them in uncertainty.

"An ambush huh... that's a new one" Mario commented nonchalantly as he stood up and wiped dust off his shoulders.

"Mario of the Mushroom Kingdom, by order of Bowser, king of the koopas and lord of Darkland, I hearby place you and your brother under arrest! Resistance shall result in a most painful beating" The lead magikoopa declared in a dignified, lordly voice. The rest of the minions did not share this, rather they all jeered like a bunch of rowdy hicks and called for Mario's head. While Luigi wore a cautious look, Mario simply hummed calmly.

"Under arrest huh? Could you come back tomorrow, I really don't feel like taking a tour of the koopa jail this evening" Mario quipped, much to the childish anger of the magikoopa.

"This is NOT your decision! I have an official statement from King Bowser Koopa, signed by Kamek, hand of the king, calling for your arrest! You can not simply refuse an order from the king!" The refinement in the magikoopas voice slipped away with each word he spoke. Mario merely smiled and stretched his legs.

"True. But there's just one problem" Mario said, cracking his knuckles "Bowser's not my king"

The magikoopa fumed

"Seize them!" he roared, and all at once the koopas and goombas charged forth. Mario and Luigi exchanged nods and jumped up, landing on two koopas. The frightened turtles slipped back into their shells, which Mario and Luigi kicked at the goombas, who were all sent flying and disappeared in a puff of smoke. All before the Mario brothers had hit the ground.

"What the-Magikoopa brigade class 32-B, fire at will!" The lead magikoopa declared. The other five magikoopas pulled out white wands with multi-coloured gems at the tips, which they held back while charging their spells. Mario and Luigi paused for a moment, then right as the wizarding turtles unleashed the full might of their attacks, they barrel rolled out of the way, the blasts instead crashed into the remaining normal koopas and sent them spinning off upside down.

Still trying to comprehend their screw up, the magikoopas were left open to attack from Mario and Luigi. Luigi hopped onto the face of the magikoopa on the far left, kicking him hard into the side of the house, while Mario swerved and punched the magikoopa on the right in the jaw, with enough force to send him flying back into the other three. The magikoopa Luigi had kicked into the wall shook off the impact, but he was then immediately squashed by the four Mario had struck as they also crashed against the wall.

The leader of the failed ambush squad could only gape in open-mouthed shock at what had just transpired. In just thirty seconds flat, the Mario brothers had completely demolished his troops, without breaking a sweat! And now they were throwing him warning looks. Gripping the hilt of his wand, the magikoopa realized he only had two choices. He could stand and fight 'til the bitter end, hoping by some miracle he would succeed... or he could run away screaming like a little girl. Obviously he chose the latter.

The Mario Bros watched the fleeing magikoopa in amusement. Luigi laughed.

"And they say I'm-a coward" Luigi said with a laugh. Suddenly, one of the defeated magikoopas piled up near the house managed to wriggle free of the group, only to trip over and drop his wand, which sent out a magic bolt that landed right next to where Luigi was standing, making a loud BANG noise. Luigi screamed at the top of his lungs and leapt into Mario's arms, clutching onto his brother for dear life. Mario had an embarrassed look on his face, but showed no other sign of aggravation as he pulled Luigi off of him and placed him back on his feet. Mario turned to the magikoopas, who all looked fearful and used their magic to teleport away. The green shelled koopas at the other side of the lawn also ran away.

"Well, we sure-a showed them, right Mario" Luigi said confidently, hoping to shrug off his humiliating moment back there. He noticed that Mario wasn't listening to him, rather he was thinking deeply.

"Something doesn't seem right about this. A plain ambush isn't really Bowser's style, and if he did intend to capture us he'd want to do it himself, and he'd at least bring the koopalings. I'm sure he must have known that little stunt would never have worked" Mario expressed his views. Luigi nodded, catching on.

"So then capturing us wasn't the objective, he must-a have something else in mind" Luigi said.

"You want my guess, this was a distraction" Mario replied. Luigi nodded in agreement.

"But from what though?"

BANG!

BOOM!

BANG AGAIN!

The Mario brothers jumped in shock and turned to face the direction of the castle in the distance, which they could see was under attack from an armada of flying ships, lead by an especially large one called the Doomship. All belonging to you know who.

"... I'm guessing that" Mario answered Luigi's question. The Brothers stared blankly at the distant scene for a moment before Mario's expression hardened and he began to run forward "Come on Luigi, we've gotta stop that crazy koopa before he makes off with the princess again!"

Luigi quickly followed after Mario, though somewhat reluctantly.

"Twice in one day, boy, that guy must really be getting desperate" Luigi said, thinking longingly of his bed "I hope we get more medals for this, because I really don't want to be doing this so late"

"Maybe we can sleep in at the castle, there's always a few spare bedrooms there. Now let's-a move it!" Mario called urgently, and the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom ran at top speed down the path to the castle. They only slowed down momentarily so Luigi could ask a question.

"Shouldn't we go pick Yoshi up if we're-a facing Bowser's whole koopa troop?"

"Not enough time. Besides, he's probably asleep somewhere, best not to wake the little guy" Mario replied without missing a pace.

"I envy that dinosaur" Luigi sighed, but kept up with Mario.

---

However, little did the Mario brothers know Yoshi wasn't asleep. Actually, he was still chasing that same butterfly from earlier through a field of flowers, just far enough away from the castle that he didn't hear the explosions. The saddled dinosaur laughed as he jumped up and down, trying to catch the butterfly in his hands. It would have been much easier if he used his tongue, but then he would impulsively swallow it. And Yoshi didn't want to eat the butterfly, he just wanted to play with it.

Up and down Yoshi leapt, landing softly each time in a different flower bed. For a while Yoshi was happy and carefree, oblivious to all but the pretty blue butterfly...

And then he landed in a thorny rose bush.

"YOSHI!" Yoshi screamed in pain, running around in circles as he tried to shake off the stinging pain in his tail and rear. After half a minute of this routine he finally skidded to a stop and shook about wildly, causing the thorns to fly off of his skin. Once finally free of the stinging nuisance Yoshi sighed and pranced off, forgetting his experience almost instantly as he began skipping happily through the flowers. Yoshi could have played right up until midnight before falling asleep in the comfiest flower bed he could find.

That is, if he didn't catch sight of something particularly unusual.

Hidden behind a high rose bush, Yoshi spied a blond human girl in a blue spotted dress, wandering through the flowers and looking very lost and uncertain. Yoshi made a funny face, a dinosaur of very little brains the Toad children sometimes innocently called him, but even he knew that human beings weren't a common sight here in the Mushroom Kingdom. Outside of the caveman village in Dinosaur land, the only humans Yoshi had even seen in his life were Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Wario and Waluigi. So where did this girl come from?

And while Yoshi may have been clueless as to her identity, I'm sure we all know she's Sally Brown, right? Well, if you didn't, you do now.

Sally observed her strange surrounding with a mixture of wonder, and worry. She had no idea what had just happened to her. One moment her brother was standing victorious against that creep Joe Agate, and the next second she was dragged through a dark portal. That memory sent shivers down her spine every time she thought of it. Though truthfully she only remembered the first few seconds where she was surrounded by darkness. She thought she remembered Peppermint Patty grabbing onto her to pull her out, but she must have lost her grip or let go, because Sally had seen no sign of her since. There was a big blank in her memory at that point, the last she could remember was waking up in a bed of strange flowers.

After that, Sally had just laid there for a while, struggling to remember what had just happened, and then struggling with comprehending it. She still didn't fully understand it, but she realized she was never going to get anywhere laying in the flowers, so she decided to get up and explore. So far that wasn't doing her much good either. She had no clue where on earth she was. And actually, if the floating yellow blocks with question marks on the sides were any clue, she might not even BE on earth. That thought, that she might be-no, definitely was-on another world, initially led her to squeal "Wow!" and then after a few seconds for the thought to sink in she added "Good grief!"

So yeah, now she was lost, torn away from her friends and brother, AND she was on another world. Trapped, most likely. She still didn't know how this happened, but she didn't need to know that to freak out. And freak out she did. Sally ran around screaming, huddled up on the ground hyperventilating, and said a prayer. After that was done she calmed down a bit, but only a little. How was she to stay even the slightest bit calm in this situation anyway, she was lost on another world!

Sally sighed.

"It's now official, bad luck runs in the family" Sally told herself grumpily. She knew it was considered weird to talk to herself, but with all that was going on, she really didn't care to keep her thoughts bottled up inside her head "I mean really, how unlucky can I get. Stuck on another world with no way to get home? Ooh, if I find Joe Agate, I'm going to... get my butt kicked for trying to slug him probably. Grr, this stinks" Sally came across a block that had apparently fallen out of the air and sat on it, pouting.

Yoshi continued to watch Sally from behind the bush. He wasn't quite sure what she was talking about, but he did notice she was upset about something. So, as was his nature, the little dinosaur decided to go cheer her up. He hopped over the rose bush and walked right up to her. Sally looked up from the ground right into Yoshi's face, the green dinosaur smiled at her and casually said "Yoshi"

For a moment Sally just stared cluelessly at Yoshi. Then she let out a shriek and fell backwards off the rock. Yoshi scratched his head, then apparently thinking she was playing a game he copied Sally's actions and fell back on the ground, adding his own squeal to further mimic her.

Sally pushed herself up slightly and took another look at Yoshi, who also got up and flashed her a toothy grin. Not the best move, Sally squealed and crawled away, hiding behind another bush with a smiley face.

"Don't eat me!" Sally yelled in fear. Again confused by her actions, Yoshi got up and waddled over to her. Sally, not wanting to seem like too much of a coward, picked up a nearby stone and held it up threateningly while backing away carefully.

"I'm warning you, stay away or I'll hurt you, you-you-whatever sort of dinosaur you are" Sally threatened.

"Yoshi" Was Yoshi's simple response. Apparently at her wits end, Sally threw the rock full force at Yoshi's face... missing him by a mile.

"... I'm even more like my brother than I thought" Sally sighed. Yoshi stared off in the direction Sally had thrown the rock, then turned back to her with a smile. Sally gulped as Yoshi continued to close in on her. She backed away, trying to make herself look threatening as she did so, but this attempt was ruined when she tripped on another rock and fell on her behind.

Finally starting to realise he was making her nervous, Yoshi grabbed a few nearby daffodils and held them out to Sally as he got up close. Surprised by this, and realising that Yoshi in all did not look very threatening, she cautiously accepted the flowers from him.

"Um... thanks" Sally said uncertainly. Yoshi clapped like a happy child.

"Yosh, Yoshi!" He cheered. Sally was left to scratch her head. What kind of crazy world had she landed on?

---

Somewhere around the centre of the path between The Castle and Toad Town, the capital of the Mushroom Kingdom despite it's relatively small size, a light portal popped up. Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Woodstock hopped out, and the portal vanished shortly after. Charlie Brown and the animals shook off a short dizzy spell and then marvelled at the lush green landscapes of the kingdom, accommodated by several of the worlds quirks like the floating blocks, enormous multi coloured pipes and the unusual creatures that roamed the lands.

"Wow, this is incredible" Charlie Brown gaped. He had been given a summary of the Mushroom World, along with a few others by Sparky the night before he'd fought Joe Agate back home, so he'd thought he knew completely what to expect when he arrived here. But seeing the world and it's beauty first hand... that was something else completely.

While the three of them were gawking at the landscape, Sparky rose up out of Charlie Brown's head and hovered down by his side. Noticing the stupefied look on his successor's face he smiled and nodded.

"It's all seems much more amazing when you see it for yourself, doesn't it?" Sparky asked rhetorically, though Charlie Brown nodded in response anyway "Trust me, the thrill never wears off"

"You know, even after all I've been through already, I still can't believe I'm actually on another world" Charlie Brown replied, only half consciously "I mean, this just really boggles the mind. This is a whole other world than the one I've always known, and it's still only a small part of what's really out there. Everything that people think they know about the universe, how it all works... no one's even come close to figuring out what's really out there. I just can't believe it..."

Sparky nodded again, he stayed silent for a moment to let everything sink in further before he responded "It is mind blowing, that's the main reason I've stayed out of matters which are not utterly world threatening. I mean no offense, but mortal minds can only comprehend so much. If all the people in all the worlds really knew the full magnitude of this reality, I don't know if they could all handle it. It makes me worry to think that now more and more people will be forced to come to terms with it, now that a universal war looms on the horizon" Sparky stared off distantly for a while before shaking his head "But that is not so much a present concern. Right now what matters is finding Sally and Patty, or at least the Mario brothers"

Charlie Brown nodded, and as hard as it was to put aside the sense of wonder and the curiosity to explore, Charlie Brown knew that finding Sally and Peppermint Patty was the most important thing.

"So... how do we find them again?" Charlie Brown asked. Sparky hummed thoughtfully.

"It is among your abilities to track people down, but we didn't have enough time to practise this. If I'd known we'd be in this situation before your friends were abducted I would have taught you the other night. But there's no sense moping. Tracking is a rather difficult technique to master however, so this process might take some time" Sparky explained. Charlie Brown sighed in exasperation.

"I could have guessed" Charlie Brown said dejectedly. Sparky patted him on the shoulder.

"It's alright Charlie Brown, assuming Joe Agate's still worn out from your last battle I'd say we have plenty of time to work on this. And remember, happy thoughts, that's the secret to using your powers" Sparky stressed. Charlie Brown gave a half hearted smile as a response, which Sparky replied with an awkward "A bit happier than that..."

While Sparky began instructing Charlie Brown on how to use his powers to sense Peppermint Patty and Sally, Snoopy and Woodstock wandered off a bit to get a closer look at the world. They soon came across a set of floating blocks, which caught their attention. Snoopy jumped up and grabbed onto the side of the block, climbing on top, using it as a lookout post. Woodstock intended to fly up after him, but the little bird's clumsy flying caused him to bonk his head against the bottom of the block. Snoopy was suddenly propelled through the air by a strange force, landing on the ground near where Woodstock had fallen. Snoopy shook his head, and noticed a gold coin fall on the ground before him. His eyes widening curiously, Snoopy sat up and grabbed the coin, eyeing it closely. He bit into the coin and gave it a sniff. Then his tail began wagging.

"Good gosh, it is-SOLID GOLD!" Snoopy exclaimed. Woodstock perked up upon hearing this, he hopped up onto Snoopy's elbow and took a good look at the coin. Then he cheered, and the two friends began to dance "We're rich, we're rich, we're rich!".

After a few minutes of their jolly fun the two stopped to wonder where the gold came from. Instinctively they both looked up at the floating block, which had now turned brown and blank on all sides. Devising a theory, Snoopy walked underneath a second question marked block and jumped, bonking his head against the bottom. After landing Snoopy rubbed his head to ease the pain, but he forgot it hurt completely when he saw a second gold coin fell down near him. Snoopy smiled from ear to ear.

"Woodstock, these blocks are all full of gold coins. You know what this means right? We bonk our heads against a few more of these things, and we're set for life! We can buy anything we want, a solid gold dog dish, a perfect nest, a new sopwich camel the Red Baron can't shoot down, anything! We've got it made!" Woodstock cheered in unison with his beagle buddy as they both began joyfully bashing blocks, quickly gathering up a huge pile of coins for themselves. Back with Charlie Brown and Sparky, the former had his hands on his head in a meditative manner, while the latter was observing him. Sparky looked over for a moment to the direction Snoopy and Woodstock were, and saw them bashing blocks and squealing with happiness as gold coins poured out. Sparky smiled lightly, not having the heart to go over and tell them the gold coins were actually only worth about a dollar apiece.

After amassing a three foot tall and four feet wide pile of gold coins Snoopy and Woodstock stopped to jump in it. The two animals swam around in the gold, laughing all the time. A shadow suddenly appeared over the two. Snoopy failed to notice because he had his eyes closed, but Woodstock opened his and noticed the figure standing above them. He stopped dead in fear, eyes gone as wide as they could get. Snoopy swam past, still laughing, and Woodstock pulled at his ear to get his attention. Snoopy opened his eyes and noticed aswell the figure standing over them.

Meanwhile, Charlie Brown was still in his meditative stance, straining himself to sense the aura's of his friend and sister.

"Feel anything yet?" Sparky asked.

"Just an itch on the back of my head" Charlie Brown replied dejectedly.

"Keep at it, I did say it takes time right" Sparky nodded. Charlie Brown continued to strain himself, but his concentration was ruined when the sound of a dozen explosions sounded off in the distance, and he jumped.

"What was that?!" Charlie Brown asked, looking around fearfully. Sparky, knowing full well what that explosion must mean, looked over to the Mushroom Castle to the North of where they stood, and noticed that it was currently under attack by a platoon of flying koopa ships. Sparky frowned and turned to his apprentice.

"It would appear the Mushroom Castle is under attack. We'd best go along to defend it, this is the opportune chance for us to recruit Mario and Luigi, as well as being your responsibility to defend the kingdom" Sparky explained. Charlie Brown looked on at the castle being surrounded by flying ships. He sighed, wishing among other things that he could just stick to finding his friends, but knew that it was indeed his responsibility to help out. And even if it wasn't, he couldn't just not try to help out. He covered his hands and feet with light and prepared to fly off, when Snoopy and Woodstock suddenly ran up and started pulling at his legs and arms, screaming in terror and barking or tweeting out warnings. Charlie Brown looked down at them oddly, then looked over to the direction at which Snoopy was pointing. There was a flash of red light which struck him dead on in the chest, sending the guardian of light flying back ten feet. The animals gasped as even Sparky was shocked. He looked to the attacker, a magikoopa. An old magikoopa possibly, though he didn't look that much different from most others, though he did have a look of authority about him.

"Aha, now I have you Mario brot-hey, hold on. You're not the Mario brothers?" The magikoopa observed, giving the group uncertain looks. A bit further away Charlie Brown sat up and clutched his stomach. That blast left him feeling oddly woozy and out of puff. After glancing over to make sure his successor was alright, Sparky glared at the magikoopa.

"Kamek, I presume. Bowser's right hand koopa?" Sparky summarised. Kamek floated up in a prideful manner.

"I am the advisor to King Bowser Koopa, king of Darkland and future overlord of the Mushroom Kingdom and all other Kingdoms of the Mushroom World. And who are you knaves, I was stationed here to hold back the Mario brothers. State your business crossing this way" The magikoopa, now identified as Kamek commanded.

"I am Sparky, former Guardian of light. And that boy you just attacked was my successor, Charlie Brown. And we're here to find Charlie's friends and recruit the Mario brothers to our cause of protecting the universe. But first we're going to go foil your master's little invasion plan" Sparky told him the honest truth. Kamek glared at him.

"Is that so?" The old koopa wizard questioned "Well, any potential ally to the Mario brothers is an enemy to the Koopa's. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you all captive"

Snoopy and Woodstock, though initially worried about the magikoopa, had quickly gotten over themselves, and even started to laugh at the wizard.

"Yeah right pal, my owner over there is unstoppable. You'd need an army to bring him down" Snoopy thought in a gloating tone. As though he had read the beagle's thought kamek glared at him and waved his wand about. As Charlie Brown had started to get up, still feeling oddly dizzy from that spell he'd been hit with, several clouds of smoke suddenly rose up around them. And when the smoke cleared, Charlie Brown found himself surrounded by Koopa Troopas, Goombas, two Hammer Bros (Koopas with helmets that seemed to have an endless supply of hammers on hand at all times), three short humanoid's in red hooded cloaks wearing white masks, called Shy Guys, and a glasses wearing koopa refered to as a Lakitu sitting on a cloud floating above him. Charlie Brown gaped at the sudden appearance of these enemies. Woodstock gave Snoopy a stern look, and the beagle smiled meekly and blushed.

"Alright boys, pound him into the ground!" Kamek squawked at the minions, who all glared at Charlie Brown (Though it was hard to tell with the Shy Guys) and prepared to move in. Charlie Brown wasn't as scared as he might have been, after coming out the victor against someone like Joe Agate he felt he could probably handle a few of these minions. He clutched his stomach again, why did it still hurt?

A goomba charged head forth to slam into Charlie Brown, who floated over it and struck it in the back with a light beam. The goomba screamed for a second before disappearing in a puff of smoke, confusing Charlie Brown, providing the right distraction for one of the Hammer Brothers to throw one of their signature weapons at his head. Charlie Brown fell back onto the ground, and a trio of koopas tried to body slam him. They instead landed on the light shield Charlie Brown conjured up, and send flying thirty feet into the air as Charlie Brown mentally urged the shield to rise up. When the shield vanished the force of it's rise caused the koopa trio to go flying off in the distance.

Charlie Brown smiled in satisfaction, but was immediately tackled from behind by another goomba. Charlie Brown flipped around and struck the brown mushroom creature in the face with a light punch, causing it to poof out of existence like it's buddy earlier.

Snoopy and Woodstock cheered for Charlie Brown on the sidelines, while Kamek just looked stoic. Sparky however was looking cautious.

"Yeah, give 'em heck!" Snoopy yelled like a rabid wrestling fan, while Woodstock wore one of those oversized novelty hands on his right wing and waved a yellow flag with a black zigzag pattern with the other. Kamek glanced at the cheering animals briefly then turned back to the fight, where Charlie Brown had just finished knocking out two of the Shy Guys. He was preparing a light sphere to take out the third when an orange spiked ball suddenly landed on his head. The sudden hit clearly stunned Brown as the sphere in his hand dissipated, and the back of his head was left bleeding for a moment as the spiked ball, revealed to have been some sort of curled up tortoise, fell onto the floor and began to walk away. Snoopy and Woodstock's cheering stopped abruptly and they both made uneasy noises. Kamek smiled deviously.

Back to Charlie Brown, the young Guardian rubbed the back of his head, which had stopped bleeding already as a result of his healing ability. He looked up to see where that tortoise had come from, and saw the Lakitu drop two more his way. Charlie Brown dodged the attack, but ran right into a hammer as a result. Charlie Brown shook off the pain and got up, only to be tackled down by two more koopas, who attempted to punch his out. He kicked them both off and knocked them out, dodged another hammer and shot the first of the hammer bros with a light beam. The koopa went flying back a few metres, but it's partner snuck up behind Charlie Brown with another hammer in hand. Before Charlie Brown could react he was struck in the back with surprising force, falling to the ground on his face.

Charlie Brown looked up painfully at the approaching enemies. Two koopas, one goomba, one shy guy, a hammer brother, and that lakitu still up in the air. Should have been easy, they weren't much stronger than those synthetic heartless back in the training room. So, why was he having such a hard time fighting them? Maybe it had something to do with this sickening feeling he was developing in the pit of his stomach, and that he wasn't moving as fast as he normally was. What was happening to him?

Back with the onlookers, Sparky was also realizing this discrepancy. He turned to Kamek and asked "What kind of spell did you strike Charlie with?"

Kamek smiled proudly "It's a little something I've been researching for use against Mario. It's a high powered stunning spell that leaves the victim feeling woosy and eventually caused them to become immobile. Funny thing is though, the effect is supposed to take place within a few seconds, this kid of yours must be very, very strong to hold out this long against it, especially if he's straining himself fighting that troop"

Sparky mentally groaned. He'd heard of this spell before, but he thought it was a long forgotten technique. Showed that Kamek really did his homework. The good thing was, with Charlie Brown's healing powers the spell wouldn't completely affect him and should wear off within a few minutes. That is, if he didn't get completely clobbered by the minions while he was still weakened. Sparky supposed it didn't help that his powers were probably not at their best after the shock of losing his friends. The spirit put his hands together and prayed for the best.

Charlie Brown coughed and covered his fist with light. The one remaining goomba growled lightly and ran forward, preparing to tack the hero again. But right before it could make contact it was suddenly flattened by a falling red and blue figure. Charlie Brown blinked in surprise, and after registering what just happened he saw that his saviour was a petite man in blue overalls with a red shirt and hat. The man looked down at Charlie Brown and smiled, telling him without words that he was going to be ok.

While Charlie Brown smiled and sighed, the koopa troop were in a panic at the appearance of this man, and even Kamek let loose a frightened exclamation.

"Wha-what!? Mario!" Kamek yelled.

"That's-a my name, don't-a wear it out" Mario cheerfully replied to the magikoopa. Snoopy and Woodstock sighed with relief while Sparky also felt immensely relieved at the all-too-convenient timing.

Mario turned to the remaining minions, who had all backed away in fear. The hammer brother managed to regain his courage and ran forth, only to be tripped up by an outstretched leg, which the helmeted koopa soon saw to be Luigi's. The younger but taller Mario bro waved his hand pleasantly at the Hammer bro before picking up one of his fallen hammers and bashing him on the head with it. The Hammer Bro was immediately knocked out, stars circling around his head.

The remaining four minions looked on in terror, but managed to pluck up the courage to attack anyway. The two koopas ran up in front of the two Mario brothers and began mimicking the Muhammad Ali shuffle, throwing a few fake punches to fool them. The Mario bros responded by punching the two turtles in the face, sending them crawling back into their shells. Mario picked up the shell of his opponent, spun it around and hurled it at the Shy Guy, who was sent spinning off into the distance with the koopa. The Lakitu floated above and tried to drop a barrage of spiked turtles on top of the heroes. Luigi pulled an umbrella out of thin air and held it above their heads, and for some ridiculous reason the turtles all just bounced off of it without making a puncture. The cloud flying turtle scratched his head at this development, as Mario jumped up onto Luigi's outstretched palms. The younger Mario brother tossed Mario into the air with all his strength, Mario flew right above the Lakitu and then landed down on his head, knocking him out.

With the Lakitu out cold Mario seemed to take control of the cloud and had it float down to the ground, where the red and blue clad hero jumped down to re-join Luigi. The Mario brothers looked over the remaining fallen minions and high fived each other. But then a sudden blast of green energy struck Luigi and sent him twirling through the air, landing in a bush. A thorny bush. Mario winced before turning to the attacker, a very pi##ed off Kamek.

"Must you two always get in my way?" The magikoopa asked, sounding more like a cranky old man than normal. Mario gave him a stern look and kneeled down, ready to make a dash.

"Well, yes. That's what we do" Mario said. The hero and villain glared at each other, staring one another down. Mario made the first move, running forward with his fist held back. Kamek launched a red blast, the same attack he had used on Charlie Brown earlier. Mario avoided it with a backflip and kept going. He leapt and prepared to slug Kamek in the mouth, when the magikoopa suddenly shrunk himself into a round ball and zoomed off in another direction. Mario landed, and a quick glance over his shoulder confirmed Kamek had teleported behind him, charging up a spell. Mario had little time to react as Kamek launched an enormous energy bolt down at him, the plumber managed to avoid the brunt of the attack with a jump, but the shockwave of the blast sent him flying high. Very unsteadily, Mario regained his positioning in the fall and managed to land on his feet, though he barely managed to not trip over in doing so. Mario looked back to see Kamek had gone, and instinctively he rolled out of the way of another attack from behind.

Back with Charlie Brown, the light guardian was re-joined by Snoopy, Woodstock and Sparky, all checking up on his health. If the white light engulfing his body and his more at ease stance were any indication, the effects of Kamek's spell were wearing off. Sparky sighed at this.

"Feeling better then?" Sparky asked, feeling obliged to do so. Charlie Brown shook the last bit of dizziness out of his head and nodded.

"Yeah, feel much better now" Charlie Brown replied. He watched on as Mario continued to dodge Kamek's attacks, getting pretty close to landing a few hits several times but always missing as the old magikoopa expertly avoided them. Likewise, a few of the spells Kamek cast at Mario nearly made contact, but Mario managed to avoid getting a full on hit every time, and eventually landed a punch to Kamek's chin, which earned him a magor scolding and a dozen more magic blasts sent his way. Charlie Brown admired their precision.

"Is he Mario?" Charlie Brown asked, Sparky nodded in confirmation "He's really good"

"Well, he has had a decade and a half of practise. Weaker minions like those he just fought are hardly an effort for him, someone as skilled as Kamek's a little more difficult but he'll come out victorious soon enough" Sparky explained.

"Hmm, well then I must be pretty weak to lose to them" Charlie Brown sighed dejectedly. Sparky rolled his eyes and patted his shoulder with his semi-solidified hand.

"No, you were just victim to one of Kamek's cheap shots, really dangerous spell. And let me tell you, there's no way Mario could have recovered from that so fast. If you were at full strength the entire Koopa troupa would be no match for you" Sparky said, consoling Charlie Brown as they continued to spectate the fight.

Mario dodged another explosive attack, but tripped over and landed on his stomach. Kamek grinned at this golden opportunity and charged up a blue spell. But before he could fire, he was struck in the back by something small, painful and VERY HOT. Recoiling from the sudden assault, Kamek flipped around to see Luigi, his costume having suddenly changed to red overalls and white shirt and hat. He was juggling a fireball in his right hand, and looking at Kamek with a smug expression.

"We had time to grab a few power ups on the way" Luigi explained. Kamek scowled and fired a magic bolt at Luigi, who dodged to the left. The younger twin hopped and ducked over several more magic blasts as he threw a few more fireballs at Kamek, with the magikoopa barely dodging them all, one even tore a flaming took off and incinerated his wizards hat. Kamek appeared to take that as a great personal insult, he charged up his wand again and launched a stream of water Luigi's way. Luigi jumped to the right, but at the last minute the stream of water swerved and hit him head on anyway. Luigi was thrown against a rock to struggle against the current of water, an odd sound effect echoed and Luigi's clothes flickered back to their typical colouring.

When the water finally stopped pouring out of his wand Kamek took a moment to laugh at the dazed Luigi and charged up a red spell. He heard Mario running up behind him, the elder brother did a running jump and prepared to land down upon Kamek's head, but was instead hit in the stomach by the koopa's magic bolt, and he fell back and skidded on the ground. Mario shook his head and looked up to see Kamek preparing another blast, a victorious scowl on his face. He was promptly sent flying by a light beam to the back.

Mario did a double take at what just happened, and looked to see Charlie Brown with his glowing hand outstretched. He had decided now looked like a very good time to get back into the fight. Mario was surprised by the boy's power, having not seen him in action before the koopas knocked him down. But he didn't question it, he just smiled, happy to have a bit more back up. He gave Charlie Brown a thumbs up and looked over at Luigi, who was just getting up himself. Luigi staggered about a bit, but ultimately he proved himself alright. Mario got up and together with Luigi went to confront Kamek.

The koopa wizard grabbed his head to stop it from spinning and looked up to see what hit him, but instead saw Mario and Luigi assuming fighting stances, a glowing Charlie Brown flying forth to join them. Kamek's eyes widened enough that you could just about see them under his glassed. One of his skills as a high ranking magikoopa was the ability to sense power in others, and now that he had a proper look at Charlie Brown he realised that the boy's power dwarfed his own, by a few hundred times perhaps. With a gulp, Kamek backed off.

"You can go now Kamek. Go-a tell Bowser we're-a on our way to deliver his butt kicking" Mario instructed. Kamek glared at him, but with Charlie Brown floating over him... no, no he wouldn't risk it. Kamek whistled loudly, and a broomstick appeared in the sky and hovered down next to him. Kamek hopped aboard and flew off into the distance. The rest of the minions were just about regaining consciousness, and noticing their commander was making a break for it they quickly followed suit.

Mario and Luigi cheered for their victory and turned to Charlie Brown, having to cover their eyes a bit due to the light emanating off of him. Charlie Brown realised how brightly he was glowing and turned it off like a light bulb, dropping to the ground. Mario relaxed his eyes and patted Charlie Brown one the back.

"Thanks for the help there kid. Say, what's-a your name?" Mario asked.

"I'm Charlie Brown. I'm... not from around here" Charlie Brown wasn't quite sure how to put it.

"Obviously, I think-a we'd know if there were any other humans like us around here" Luigi commented. He held out his hand for Charlie Brown to shake it, as did Mario, and asked "So kid, where-a you from?"

"Umm..." Charlie Brown mumbled, earning two raised eyebrows. Sparky floated in with Snoopy and Woodstock.

"It's a long story, you got a minute?" Sparky asked. Mario and Luigi hummed thoughtfully, turning in the direction of the castle, which was still coming under heavy fire in the distance.

"Well you're gonna have ta be quick, we'sa got a princess to save" Mario insisted. Sparky nodded, and began to explain everything that he thought the Mario brothers needed to know about. He explained about the Guardians, his sister, the upcoming war against the darkness, Charlie Brown's lost friends and how they were here to find them as well as recruit the Mario brothers. Said heroes hummed thoughtfully while trying to take this all in.

"Just when you think you've seen everything, huh Mario" Luigi said, Mario nodded.

"I guess there's always more to reality than what you make of it" Mario commented.

"So you believe us?" Charlie Brown asked. The Mario bros nodded.

"We're-a willing to believe anything these days. So, I guess you want-a our help in all this craziness?" Mario replied.

"Well, yeah, that would be appreciated" Charlie Brown nodded. Mario looked at Luigi, though the younger Mario brother sighed at the thought of getting thrown into a war he nodded anyway, knowing he'd get involved one way or another. Mario smiled and gave Charlie Brown's group a thumbs up.

"We're in" Mario accepted, much to the relief of Charlie Brown's group "-If-a you help us save the castle"

"Ok then, we were just on our way to do that anyway" Charlie Brown said "And after that we can go looking for my friends, right?"

"Well, it's a bit late, so Luigi might just go to bed, but we'll-a do what we can" Mario replied, pleasing Charlie Brown.

The conversation was interrupted by more explosions in the distance which shook the ground.

"I think we should all be heading to the castle now" Sparky recommended, earning a nod from everyone present as the team, now with the invaluable addition of the Mario Brothers, ran forth to liberate the castle from the Koopas.

---

(Mushroom Castle, shortly before koopas assault)

Princess Peach was strolling through the throne room in her castle, where the duration of the party had been held. Right now her various Toad servants were busy taking down all the decorations and putting away the tables. A few of the Toads stood on ladders to remove the banners that had been hung up. Trampolines had been placed at the foot of each ladder, and a beanbag next to the trampolines. This meant that if a Toad fell off the ladder they would safely bounce into the beanbag unharmed. Turned out to be a great strategy, as the Toads did fall off a lot. In fact, it got to the point where they actually fell off intentionally when they were done, as a quicker alternative to climbing down. That was what they were like, always finding fun ways to do things.

As the Toads were busy, the princess discussed matters with Toadsworth and Toad, her two most loyal subjects.

"-And thus we may not be plunged into bankruptcy" Toadsworth said, having spent the last twenty minutes discussing the financial implications this party would have on the kingdom.

"That's nice Toadsworth" Peach replied. Though in truth both she and Toad had lost track of what he was saying just two minutes into the one sided discussion; Toadsworth had a habit of going on and on, and discussing every little matter in great detail when talking about royal matters, to the point that it sometimes became easy to lose track of what he was saying. But neither the princess or Toad had the heart to tell him that.

"Sooo... that cake was sure good, wasn't it" Toad piped up, wanting to change the subject to something that wouldn't get Toadsworth drabbling on.

"Hmm? Ah yes, most scrumptious indeed. I must say my dear princess, your baking prowess is phenomenal" Toadsworth complimented. Peach giggled appreciatively.

"Oh, I'm not all that good. I can never get the frosting quite right, I always use too much or too little" Peach insisted, ever the humble one.

"Still yummy either way. I just wish I had room for another bite" Toad said joyfully, patting his full belly.

"Yes, but while the cake was delicious I'm afraid we do have more important matters to discuss. For example, we need to address the crop shortage this year. I'm afraid we might not have enough corn or carrots to meet consumer demand in our main market areas, and our castles own turnip plantation was devastated by a wriggler infestation recently. Not a good sign" Toadsworth began solemnly.

"This is a problem. Hmm..." Peach placed a finger to her chin in thought, coming to a brief halt to let a few Toad's carrying a stone Mario statue pass by "I hear Grassland has had a great harvest this year, and the king does owe us a favour for when Mario chased off Bowser Jr's last raid there. Perhaps we could ask them to share a few crops"

"That might work, though the king of Grassland is known to be particularly prudent on sharing. Perhaps if we sent Master Luigi as an envoy, I don't think we could spare Mario for that long. Care to give your opinion, Master Toad?" Toad was caught off guard by the older Toad's question.

Toad scratched the back of his cap "Well, gee, I really don't know. I'm just here to be the cutesy sidekick, I haven't got a clue about politics or anything like that. But, um, maybe it'll work, yeah. Ha ha" Toad's face reddened and he looked away impishly. Peach and Toadsworth gave him blank looks.

"I guess we'll go with it" Peach said, suddenly cheery again. Toadsworth nodded as the trio neared the throne and Peach prepared to take her seat.

"I suppose the next item on our agenda is-"

Toadsworth was cut off when the door on the far right side of the room suddenly flew open and a Toad wearing a blue cap with green spots ran up to the princess in a hurry.

"Princess! Princess!" The Toad called breathlessly as he came to a stop before his ruler, panting heavily a few times before taking in one deep breath and saying quickly "We've found something that requires your urgent attention!"

"What is it?" Peach asked curiously.

"Well, it's not so much a something, more like a someone" The green spotted Toad replied, looking as though he had never lost his breath.

"Did Wario and Waluigi break into the vault again?" Toad asked straight away.

"No, it's... well, um... this is going to sound like an odd question, but... well, did you invite any other relatives besides Princess Daisy, princess?" The Toad asked. Peach raised an eyebrow.

"I don't have any other living relatives besides Daisy, so no. Why do you ask?" Princess Peach replied, though she was starting to get an idea of what he was trying to say.

"Well, um... you see, we found-oh, wait, here she comes" The Toad pointed to the doorway leading to the right wing of the castle. Peach, Toad and Toadsworth looked over and saw what had got the blue capped Toad into such a state. A young girl, probably thirteen or fourteen, wearing a green dress and blue shorts as well as sandles. Oh, and she was human aswell.

The eyes of every Toad that saw her grew to the size of dinner plates, in the case of Toadsworth this caused his glasses to go flying off his head. Even the princess was caught of guard. As for the girl herself, she seemed a little less than stupefied with everything she was seeing. She just paced casually around the throne room, staring at all the remaining party decorations and the usual ornaments that filled the room with an excited look.

"Gee, this sure is a swell place you guys live in, what did you say the rent was on one of these castles?" The mousy haired girl asked.

"Well, this castle is traditionally owned by the royal family, but any other castle in the kingdom, and there are a lot, would cost you about two hundred thousand coins" Said the Toad with the yellow spotted cap walking at her left hand side. He periodically exchanged looks of uncertainty with the similar colour-capped Toad on the girls right.

"Dang, and here I've only got ten bucks. Oh well" The girl said casually.

Princess Peach looked to her two right hands. After a quick exchange between Toad and Toadsworth they both shrugged, which Peach followed with a shrug of her own.

The mousy haired girl continued to look around, eventually passing by the throne and looking at Toad.

"Hey Mac, do you know where the nearest hotels are? I'm kinda stuck here until my friend comes to pick me up" The girl said.

"Mac?" Toad wondered, looking around to see if she was talking to someone else "Um, actually my name is Toad"

"Pleased to me you, Toady" She responded with a handshake.

"Toady?" Toad was again confused.

While Toadsworth was much too confused to do anything, Princess Peach, being a human herself and therefore caught less off guard by the new arrival, walked closer to the girl and addressed her "Excuse me, young lady, are you lost?"

The girl turned to look at the princess and gave her an unconcerned smile "Well, yeah kinda. You must be Princess Peach. I'm Peppermint Patty, nice ta meet you princess"

A lot of the Toads were staring at Patty with even more confusion, so not only was she a human, but she also spoke to the princess as if she were any other common person. Princess Peach for her part didn't mind at all, rather she just wanted to get a clear idea of who this girl was and how she'd gotten here.

"It's nice to meet you too Patty" Princess Peach began sweetly "So, I must ask, how did you get into the castle? Or were you outside the castle when the Toads found you?"

"Is that what they're called? I've been calling them Mushmen" Peppermint Patty said oddly, but put it aside to answer the question "And it's a pretty long story, you get ten minutes?"

"Of course. Please explain" Princess Peach replied. Peppermint Patty took a deep breath and contemplated how she was going to explain her story.

"Well, you see this is how I think it went down. Basically I'm from another world where there are just humans and none of these little mushroom guys around. My friend Chuck just became the Guardian of Light, which makes him sort of a protector of the universe, because the old Guardian Sparky was killed by his evil sister, the Dark Witch, the Guardian of Darkness, who was recently released by this fat egg shaped scientist. The Witch wanted to take over the universe and plunge all the worlds in the Realm of Light into Darkness, but she can't come into our Realm because of some sort of spell Sparky cast on her millions of years ago. So instead she gave half her powers to Joe Agate, who's this total blockhead jerk from our world. Chuck and Agate fought a life or death battle back in our home town, and of course Chuck kicked his evil butt in the end. But because he was such a sore loser he decided to kidnap me and all of mine and Chuck's other friends by dragging us through these portals of darkness. I'm guessing it didn't work quite as well as he wanted it to, because I came out in your basement rather than the Realm of Darkness. And, that's basically it. Oh, and Chuck's supposed to assemble an army of heroes from across the universe to fight the Witch. Right now I'm guessing I'm stuck here until Chuck comes to pick me up" Peppermint Patty explained without ever missing a beat.

The Toads all stared at Patty, even more dumbfounded than ever by her claims. Princess Peach however merely gave her an expressionless look for a while before it turned to a smile "I believe you"

"You do? Huh, I thought you were gonna think I was crazy. Thanks" Patty replied. Toadsworth looked nervous.

"Dear princess, are you quite certain you can trust her claims? It all sounds pretty confounded to me" Toadsworth tried to reason. Princess Peach shrugged.

"It's no more convoluted than anything else we've all been through before" Peach replied simply.

"She's got you there" Toad nodded to Toadsworth, who had no choice but to agree.

"So, what are you going to do now then?" Princess Peach asked. Peppermint Patty shrugged.

"Find a hotel or an apartment to stay until Chuck finds me. Shouldn't be too long I guess. Know anywhere where the rent is low?" Peppermint Patty asked.

"Yes, right here. You'll stay in the castle with us until your friend comes" Peach offered. Peppermint Patty made an excited exclamation.

"No way, really?! Thanks princess, you're awesome" Patty said eagerly. Princess Peach giggled.

"It's nothing. But, you said something about your friend needing to recruit an army of heroes, right?" Peach asked. Peppermint Patty nodded.

"Oh yeah, he's supposed to go around all of the worlds and recruit the best heroes about" Patty confirmed.

"Well then, it's fortunate you came to me. Our Kingdom happens to have two very great heroes, so when your friend Chuck gets here we'll have them here ready to help his cause" Princess Peach offered. Patty was ecstatic.

"You mean it?" Peppermint Patty asked. Peach nodded, and Patty sighed "Thank you. That'll be very helpful. To tell you the truth, Chuck's not the best at assembling a winning team. But then again, I never would have thought he could become such a swell hero overnight, so who knows what he's capable of"

Some of the onlooking Toads were looking kinda uneasy over this suggestion, and Toadsworth knew just why.

"Princess, are you quite sure it's wise to send Mario and Luigi off on this mission. Because in all honesty, I have to admit, this kingdom is virtually defenceless without them" Toadsworth said cautiously.

"I understand that, but if what Patty says is true, and I'm sure it is based on the sincerity in her voice, then protecting the universe is of far greater importance than just guarding this castle. I'm sure they'll be able to pop in to defend us occasionally anyway, and if not, we can always ask Wario and Waluigi to fill in for them" Princess Peach said optimistically. Toad and Toadsworth gave her uncertain looks.

"Uh... princess, do you really think asking Wario and Waluigi for help is such a good idea?" Toad questioned awkwardly. Peach hummed to herself.

"Well... maybe not the best idea, but we'll think of something" Peach said, still pretty optimistic. She gestured to two Toads with yellow and blue spotted caps respectively to come over "Please set up one of the spare bedrooms for Peppermint Patty" She glanced over at Patty again "Fancy any supper?"

"Hmm, now that you mention it I am kinda hungry. Sure, I'll eat anything. As long as it's low carb and high in protein, gotta stay in shape for the next baseball season" Peppermint Patty said, getting into one of her regular exercising positions. The Toads all raised their eyebrows at this display and sniggered, while Peach just politely nodded and instructed the two Toads to inform the chef to bring something like Patty described. As the two Toads scurried off, happy to help.

"If there's anything else you need just let me us know" Toad said to Patty, who nodded.

"Thanks" Peppermint Patty said. She hummed for a moment before she decided to ask "So, what are these Mario and Luigi's guys like? Do they have any super powers like Chuck?"

"Well, apart from enhanced physical ability they don't have any inherent powers. They do have a lot of power ups though, tons of battle experience and creativity in combat. They've beaten all kinds of opponent, some with powers of a cosmic scale. I think they'll be very helpful to your friend" Peach informed Patty.

"Ok, sounds good" Peppermint Patty replied. She wondered how useful overall they could be against any enemy as powerful as Joe Agate, but she didn't voice this opinion. Instead she asked of another curiosity "So, if you've got heroes here, what kinda villains you got?"

"Well..."

BANG!

BOOM!

BANG AGAIN!

The whole room shook violently, The Toads all fell down and on top of each other, many of them dropping decorations or seats they were carrying and causing them to go sliding everywhere. Up near the throne Patty, Princess Peach, Toad and Toadsworth were all struggling to stay upright and grab onto something. The two Toads failed and landed on top of one another, Toadsworth letting out a loud cry of pain as Toad squashed his back. Patty and the princess managed to remain upright through it all by grabbing onto the ends of the throne, though when the shaking finally did stop they were still left feeling sick and worn out.

"What the heck was that?!" Peppermint Patty gasped.

"Most likely our local villain" Peach replied tiredly. The main doors into the throne room sprung open as a Toad wearing armour that clearly didn't fit him properly walked in.

"Princess, we're under attack!"

"Yeah, we kinda got that" Toad said painfully as he and Toadworth struggled to their feet.

"Oh, right, sorry. But we're outnumbered and overpowered and there's no sign of the Mario brothers!" The Toad Knight shrieked.

"Quick, everyone-PANIC!" One of the fallen Toad's called out. Immediately the scattered Toad's all got to their feet and ran around in circles screaming at the top of their lungs. Peppermint Patty looked at this display of terror and gaped.

"What's everyone freaking out about, shouldn't they be barricading the doors or rushing to battle, or at least do something to protect you from attack?" An incredulous Patty questioned the princess.

"Yes, well, as lovable as they are Toad's aren't the most tactical people" Princess Peach replied. She turned serious and said "We need to get out of here, there's an escape tunnel set up in the next room, we just need to gather up every Toad we can and-"

There was a sudden explosion up ahead, followed by falling rubble as a giant hole opened up in the ceiling. A large figure swooped down from the hole and shook the earth as it landed. It was Bowser, wearing a bowtie and a red flower. The Koopa king let loose a monstrous roar that echoed all around the castle, terrifying the Toads to no end.

"-Too late"

Bowser grinned at Princess Peach as more of his minions climbed down into the room using ropes, and soon the throne room was as filled with koopas and goombas who went on to hold the Toads captive. Peppermint Patty looked Bowser over, sizing up the villain. After catching his eye and seeing him snarl at her Patty gulped.

"Now there's a villain for you" Peppermint Patty commented.

"Princess Peach! So good to see you again my dear" Bowser called over. Princess Peach remained surprisingly calm and graceful in the face of this invasion, as she always did.

"My, two attempts to kidnap me in just one day. That's rather rare for you Bowser, is this a special occasion? For you I mean, we've already had our special occasion" Peach said.

"Oh, it's pretty special. And this ain't a kidnapping princess" Bowser replied.

"It's not?" Toad asked, and everyone looked astonished by this revelation.

"Nope. You see, I've been doing some thinking" Bowser began pacing around the room, slowly making his way towards where the Princess and Patty stood "I know, weird to imagine me actually thinking something through, right? But I realise that none of my schemes ever work. No matter how hard I try or how creative I get, the whole kidnapping thing just never works quite the way I want it to. I suppose there are several reasons for this, not that I know any of them besides those irritating Mario brothers" He breathed fire at the mention of his arch-enemies "Lately I've been going over my horrendous track record, trying to think of SOMETHING I haven't tried yet, or a reason for my failures. Some sort of weakness or flaw I've overlooked. And you know what, I finally figured it out"

He stopped before Princess Peach, throwing her a look that urged him to ask what it was.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Time" Bowser replied "I always give them too much time. My plans are simple you see, I kidnap you and try to marry you, but for reasons I don't understand myself I never follow through with such before Mario and his annoying brother, what's his name, show up to take you back. Honestly, I always give them enough time to go running through eight different castles and environments, why do I do that? So this time, I've decided to speed things up"

The evil king gestured to the ropes his minions had slid down into the room on, where a koopa dressed up as a priest and carrying a bible was climbing down. Peach facefaulted.

"I'm going to hold the wedding right here and right now. I've sent Kamek and a bunch of my other minions to hold the Mario brothers up if they try to reach the castle, and I've set up an ambush at their home. More of my minions are guarding the castle to keep them away. With a little luck, and some haste, we should have plenty of time to pull off this wedding. Then, once we're married, I'll have the authority as King of the Mushroom Kingdom to order all your Toads to seize the Mario brothers and lock them up in the dungeon. And they won't fight their friends, so they won't be able to stop me this time. I'll finally be king of this kingdom, I'll have beaten the Mario brothers, and then I'll go on to conquer the rest of the world! Should be a synch being king of two kingdoms. And best of all, I'll be able to gloat to the Mario brothers about how I totally beat them for the rest of their lives as they're rotting away in a jail cell!MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The koopas cheered and whooped loudly in response to their master's declaration, the Toads all shivered in terror. Princess Peach gulped nervously and Toad and Toadsworth exchanged worried glances. And Peppermint Patty said plainly "What if she doesn't want to marry you?"

The cheering stopped abruptly as everyone looked at Patty. Bowser gave her a blank look and waved her off "Did I say I was giving her a choice?"

"But you can't force her to marry you, that's wrong!" Peppermint Patty said stubbornly. She was probably the only person who would argue with a giant turtle monster that could incinerate her with one deep fiery breath. Bowser laughed hysterically.

"Girly, I'm a villain. What do I care about what's right and what's wrong?" Bowser asked, and all the koopas laughed with him.

"You should, because I know someone who's gonna kick your scaly ass if you do something wrong" Peppermint Patty warned. Bowser just waved her off again.

"Like I said, Mario will never make it here in time" Bowser said, giving Patty a long look over "So who are you then?"

Peppermint Patty was about to answer when Bowser continued anyway "Oh wait, you're probably princess Daisy aren't you? Good, you can be the brides maid in the ceremony" Peppermint Patty looked dumbfounded.

"I'm no princess. I'm Peppermint Patty" Patty insisted. Bowser laughed.

"Yeah right, nice try, princess, but you can't fool me that easily. It's not like there are any other human women in this world besides Peach and her cousin, so who else could you be" Bowser said stubbornly.

"Actually, she's telling the-" Toad bravely stepped up to say, but was silenced by a wave of flames spat his way and Bowser's yell of "SILENCE"

"Why am I arguing over this, every second we wait is risking this whole plan. Everybody put up a few decorations and form two gallerys, HURRY!" Bowser spat at his minions, who nodded fearfully and ran about in a hurry trying to make the throne room look fit for a wedding, even despite the big gaping hole in the roof and rubble everywhere. Princess Peach exchanged a nervous look with Toad and Toadsworth.

"So, think your Mario bros will be here in time?" Peppermint Patty asked, knowing full well there was nothing she and a bunch of cowardly mushroom people could do to put a stop to all these turtle monsters.

"Sure he will... I hope" Princess Peach sighed.

---

Mario, Luigi and Charlie Brown lead the attack against the next blockade. A trio of giant goombas the size of elephants, probably grown to such a size by Kamek's magic Mario explained. Despite being a hundred times bigger than the normal goomba variety, their brains seemed more or less the same size, as they showed no better strategy in their attack other than charging about wildly. Made it easy to beat them, Charlie Brown just needed to erect an appropriately sized light barrier for them to crash into. Then while they were dizzy, Charlie Brown would throw Mario and Luigi up high in the sky to perform ground pounds on the right and left Goombas, with just enough force to squash them both, while Charlie Brown burned the middle one down with a barrage of white flames.

"How many does this make?" Charlie Brown asked his new companions.

"I'd say this is the sixth group of enemies trying to impede our progress. Bowser must-a really want to keep us away this time" Mario answered back, wiping dust off his sleeves.

Currently the heroes were nearing the end of the road leading up to the castle, the gates already in sight. And the whole way here they had come under attack by enemies. Three varieties of Shy Guys, a dozen koopas riding these giant yellow caterpillars called wigglers, many swarms of goombas, and Bowser had even set up a trap involving a huge dragon the Mario brothers called Hooktail. Charlie Brown was amazed at how, despite only having marginally superhuman strength (About enough to lift two tons Luigi had boasted), and the fact they had supposedly been up since sunrise and it was now the dead of night, the Mario brothers did not appear worn out. Much. Ok, Luigi was starting to look tired, but Mario kept up his hero act with vigour.

"What's your secret" Charlie Brown had asked them after their defeat of Hooktail.

"About two and a half decades of doing the same thing, keeps you super fit" Mario replied.

"So what's their excuse for the pot bellies?" Snoopy had whispered to Woodstock.

Now with the giant goombas out of the way and no other enemies in clear sight, the heroes only had a short trek left before they reached the castle.

"So, how exactly do we get in there, since the doors look closed and I'm guessing they'd lock them. Should I fly us in?" Charlie Brown asked. He could have suggested blasting down the doors, but figured that would be inappropriate, since this was a good princesses castle.

"Nah, there's a pipe in one of the bushes that leads past the doors. Just keep us covered from the doomships, and any bullet bill cannons they might have set up along the walls" Mario explained.

"What are bullet bills?" Charlie Brown asked, thinking it an unusual name.

"Giant bullets with eyes and angry mouths with sharp teeth, sometimes with arms on the sides" Luigi replied casually.

"Oh. Ok" Charlie Brown said. This world just kept getting crazier and crazier.

Mario's assumption turned out to be right, there were a dozen black cannons set up along the wall, and when the group got a bit too close to the castle these bullets popped out slightly, as though checking to see what was there, before being fired completely. These Bullet Bills didn't have arms, but they did seem to have sentience as they took their own course and followed after the heroes. They weren't too much of a nuisance though, they exploded on contact with Charlie Brown's shields.

"Sure-a speeds things up having you around Charlie, where have-a you been all these years we've been getting things thrown at us?" Luigi asked jokingly.

"Getting picked on for being a screw up" Charlie Brown thought to reply, but held his tongue 'cause it would probably sound awkward.

While Charlie Brown kept the group covered from the onslaught of Bullet Bills, Mario tore a path through several wandering goombas and led the group to a large orange pipe. Having already been told about how giant piped in this world often led to different places if you slid down them, Snoopy didn't think twice before jumping in. It took him a bit longer to jump out screaming, and the reason why became clear as a large venus flytrap like red plant with white spots peeked out of the pipe, and proceeded to spit a few fireballs in the heroes direction before sinking back into the pipe. Mario pulled a red and orange flower with black eyes out of his pocket, assuming the red and white colouring of his Fire Mario form. He walked closer to the pipe, waited for the piranha plant to rise up again and struck it in the face with a fireball. The hungry plant burned to a crisp straight away.

After having a look down the pipe to make sure there were no other nasty surprises waiting down there, the heroes hopped down. Mario slid down first, followed by Luigi, Woodstock and Snoopy. Charlie Brown waited a moment to ask Sparky "Why are there so many pipes around here anyway?"

"When you've been around the worlds as much as I have, you realise that some things just defy explanation or reason" Sparky answered vaguely. Charlie Brown stared at him for a moment then looked down the pipe. Holding his breath and hoping the inside of it was clean, Charlie Brown jumped in.

---

(Throne Room)

Following Bowser's rapid orders, the koopas, with the forced aid of some of the Toads, had converted the throne room into a relatively adequate presentation of a wedding chapel. The isles on the grooms side were filled with Koopas and Bowsers other minions, while the majority of Toads were on the Brides side. Toadsworth and Toad were forced to serve as the Best man and ring bearer respectively, while Peppermint Patty, who's continued complaints that she was not Princess Daisy fell on death ears, was forced to dress up in an orange dress and be the brides maid. She had punched the two girl koopas who shoved her into it afterwards, but wasn't about to fight the whole koopa troupa army. The koopas had grabbed a young Toad girl from the corner of the room to be the flower girl. So far the wedding was going... well, see for yourselves.

"HURRY IT UP WILL YA!"

The koopa priest cowered before his angry king.

"B-b-but sire, w-we can't skip past the pledge, it's an important part of the-"

"I DON'T CARE! We don't have time for silly little trivialities that no one even cares about anyway, just skip to the "I do"'s already!" Bowser demanded. The priest looked mortified.

"Erm, well... I... I suppose we can s-sk-skip the pledge, but after that comes the vows" The priest said meekly.

"Pass" Bowser said with an annoyed wave. The priest looked miserably at the bible in his hands.

"Boy, talk about your mean groom" Peppermint Patty whispered to Toad, who nodded despite himself "Are you sure those Mario guys will be here in time?"

"They better be. I don't wanna bow to Bowser" Toad wined, but he whispered too loudly and gained the attention of several people standing by the alter, most worryingly Bowser.

"Be quiet, we've got a lot of important wedding traditions to skimp over here!" Bowser growled while shaking his fist at Toad, who shrunk back behind Patty. Peppermint Patty couldn't believe how all this was happening and no one was doing anything to stop it. She felt sorry for these poor Toads, everyone must be pushing them around if this is what they're like in the face of danger. Kinda like Chuck, expect they were usually a lot more cheerful than him.

"Lighting of the candles? I've never even heard of that crap!" Peppermint Patty tuned in to hear Bowser yell.

"The unity candle is another important aspect of the ceremony, preceeding the pronouncement and communion" The priest explained. Princess Peach, shockingly calm despite her unease with her predicament, was still polite enough to raise her hand and wait for permission before asking a question.

"Excuse me, but doesn't the lighting of the Unity Candle proceed after we exchange the rings?" Peach asked. The koopa priests eyes widened and he gasped, covering his mouth before letting out a horrified squawk.

"Oh no, you're right! Dear lord, what have I done!" The priest broke down in a state of panic, muttering things that sounded like "Disgraced the sacred act" or "God forgive me my foolishness". Bowser rolled his eyes and pulled the priest back onto his feet.

"Forget it you chowder head, just skip to the next part" Bowser rudely demanded. Fighting back tears, the priest nodded and began reading some passages from his bible. Toadsworth sighed.

"Hardly a proper wedding is it. Though I suppose that's not what we want it to be" Toadsworth said drearily to Peppermint Patty. She noticed everyone in the isle looking up at once, and she saw a figure swoop in from the hole in the ceiling. A blue figure riding what appeared to be a broomstick. The figure stopped before Bowser, who recognised him as Kamek.

"Ah, hold the throne. Kamek, good to see you. What's the word?" Bowser asked, foolishly but happily expecting news of the Mario brothers capture or defeat. Kamek fiddled with his fingers and looked at the ground, refusing to meet his kings eye, which re-soured Bowser's mood.

"Well, my liege... they're here" Kamek said quickly. Bowser was silent for a moment. Then-

"WHAT!" The whole room shook from Bowser's furious roar, but even that was not as terrifying for everyone present as the look of pure, violent, undiluted rage on the koopa king's face. It took all the strength Kamek had in him not to wet his robes.

"I'm sorry sire, I-"

"HOW COULD YOU LET HIM GET HERE SO FAST! I MEAN, SERIOUSLY, WITH ALL THOSE AMBUSHES WE SET, INCLUDING THE ONE WITH YOU, HOW COULD HE GET TO THE CASTLE JUST LIKE THAT! You're bluffing, aren't you! TELL ME YOU'RE BLUFFING!" Bowser screamed, grabbing Kamek by the collar and shaking him around like a ragdoll. Even his beloved and respected caretaker was not safe when he was this angry. Though equally terrified at the situation, Peach, the Toads and Peppermint Patty all listened carefully to the very loud discussion.

"W-w-well, my lord... if it helps... they didn't get past my ambush on completely their own accord" Kamek whimpered. Bowser gave him a curious look.

"You know I don't speak fancy talk Kamek, what does accord mean?" Bowser asked, setting the magikoopa down roughly. Kamek straightened his glasses and took many deep breaths. If he were any other minions he would have been pounded by now. But luckily, Kamek was a little more important to Bowser than most minions.

"Later on I'm going to read a dictionary for you and expand your vocabulary" Kamek sighed. It shocked Peppermint Patty to see that he was actually able to make a joke in this situation. Or was it a joke? Either way, Bowser tapped his foot impatiently for a proper response, to which Kamek gave one "What I mean is they had help"

Bowser let out an impatient growl.

"Oh great, who have they teamed up with this time? Their evil clones? The Lumas? That nutty professor? Prince Peasley? Chippy?" Bowser listed many more names after that, none of which Peppermint Patty knew and some of which she was pretty sure did not exist in her world. It was looking like he was going to continue on like this for a while before Kamek cut in.

"None of his past team ups, sire. This one is worse than any of them. Honestly though he didn't seem like much at first, but his power... I've never seen such a thing" Kamek shuddered, perking the interests of everyone in that room. The Toads were naturally frightened by any indication of a being of unfathomable power heading their way, but the thought that he might be on their side did fill them with confidence and eased their tension. Kamek's words also got Peppermint Patty thinking. Could it be? Yes, maybe, she just had to keep listening.

"Ok, when you say powerful, how bad are we talking here?" Bowser questioned, not liking where this was headed. Kamek struggled to put it into words.

"Well, I didn't experience it first hand because I caught him off guard with an extremely powerful stunning spell-a spell which would have almost immediately left even Mario and Luigi immobile for hours on end, but he just shrugged it off in a few short minutes. But before I was forced to flee by he and the Mario brothers, I sensed his power... and... oh sire, I just can't tell you how bad it would be if that bald kid in the yellow and black shirt were to unleash his full might upon us" Kamek broke off in a fit of hysterics, greatly worrying Bowser, who had quickly forgotten his anger over the magikoopa and was starting to feel nervous.

Peppermint Patty on the other hand was ecstatic.

"CHUCK!" She cheered, making all the guests in the isles jump, as well as giving Toad and Toadsworth a start. Bowser looked at her curiously.

"Chuck?" The koopa king inquired.

"Yes, that sounds like my pal Chuck. And let me tell ya, when he gets here, you-are-screwed! He'll flatten you and your evil buddies here in five seconds flat!" Peppermint Patty announced, bursting out in laughter as she did so. There was a short silence after that, the atmosphere in the room ranging from terrified and forlorn if you stood near the villains, and hopeful and relaxed if you stood with the Toads or Princess Peach.

Bowser, panting wildly, made a grab for the koopa priest's throat and shook him around.

"YOU HEAR THAT, PREACHY? We've got probably five minutes or less before the Mario Brothers and their dangerous new friend get here! I don't care how ashamed it makes you feel, skip to the "I do"'s and confirm this marriage right now, I am NOT failing twice in one day!" Bowser demanded. The Preach babbled incoherently.

"B-b-b-b-bu-bu-but, th-the-oh, FINE! God damn it all, alright!" The Priest finally squawked "Bowser, do you take-"

"Yes I do" Bowser said hastily.

"OK then. And Princess Peach, do you take-"

"Yes she does!" Bowser yelled, holding Peach back. The princess pushed his enormous hand away.

"Um, actually I don't" Peach pointed out.

"Well I say you do, tough luck princess" Bowser told her harshly. He didn't really mean to sound nasty, he honestly did have great affection for the princess, but this was not a good time to be lovey-dovey. He could always make up to her on the honeymoon.

"B-but the marriage can't be real if both participants don't-" The priest stopped short at the terrifying scowl Bowser gave him "Um, but let's just say she does"

Now was a good time to panic. For the Toads, that's exactly what they were doing. Toad, Toadsworth and Peach were all looking at the door, praying for Mario to just show up. Peppermint Patty looked around, realizing that the Toads weren't going to suddenly pluck up the courage to do something and that they were now out of options, she decided it was time for something drastic. Putting aside all sense of reason, as she normally did, Patty lunged forth, fists flying in an effort to punch out the priest before he could finish his speech. She might have succeeded in disrupting the wedding that way... if Kamek hadn't appeared behind her to hold her back by the shirt. And for an old man he sure did a good job of holding back the volatile tomboy.

Princess Peach grimaced and said her prayers, Bowser smiled triumphantly as the priest said "Then by the power bested in me, unfortunately, I know pron-"

The priest was silenced by a loud tapping sound and the appearance of a large black sphere rolling before the bride and groom and directly in front of the priest. Everyone looked at it, upon closer inspection it appeared to be a bomb. A lit bomb.

...

...

"WAAAH!"

BOOM!

Everyone took cover as the bomb went off, Bowser shielded Peach from the blast while everyone else in the immediate vicinity managed to duck out of the way. Well, almost everyone, the priest was caught in the full brunt of the explosion and sent flying back into the wall, knocking him out cold.

The entire wedding reception broke out in a panic. The Toads all got up from their seats and began running around in circles, Bowser's minions all went on the attack-but in the confusion they just punched and shouldered and rammed into each other. The alter, really the area near the throne, was left completely charred from the blast and a large hole in the floor had opened up where the bomb had been.

Peppermint Patty, Toad, Toadsworth and Kamek all shook themselves off, their hearts pounding and themselves wondering what the heck just hit them. A bit further up Bowser turned around, releasing Peach and looking in the direction he thought the bomb had slid in from... and saw Wario and Waluigi standing there in an imposing manner, the latter juggling a bomb in one hand.

"Well, ain't that just-a nice. Having a wedding without-a inviting us. I'm-a so ashamed" Wario faked sadness, putting a hand to his forehead in the manner of a melodramatic actor. Waluigi shook his head and tutted.

"For shame" The purple wearing fiend pretended to sound offended. Bowser stared blankly at them briefly before growling.

"What the-you two! What the hell is your problem?!" Bowser demanded. Wario leaned against a pillar and rubbed the fingers on his other hand together nonchalantly.

"Oh, you know, we wuz just snooping around in the pantry, eating to our heats content after we were so rudely thrown outta the party earlier, when we'sa saw you and your goons trying to make-a the princess marry you and, you know, we decided to get in your way" Wario replied calmly. Bowser huffed.

"Since when do you two care about doing anything heroic? Last I checked you were villains too!" Bowser said indignantly. Wario and Waluigi exchanged looks and shrugged innocently at Bowser.

"Actually, I think-a we're sorta anti-heroes, we're greedy, self centred, selfish and mean, but-a we do good things sometimes when it's-a convenient for us" Waluigi clarified.

"And how is it convenient for you now?! You think the Princess will give you a big pile of gold for your services, the most you'll likely get is a cake, that's all she ever gives. And you can't be that desperate for a little frosted treat" Bowser complained. Wario shrugged again.

"No, I suppose-a not" Wario admitted "-Buuuut, I seem to-a remember that you once took a big pile-a treasure from me and never gave it back"

Bowser squinted at the yellow and purple clad Mario knock-off, and when he realized what he was talking about he growled "Aw come on! You're still sore about that, that was when we were babies for crying out loud!"

"Hey, if there's anything I do better than stealing and making a mess-a things, it's-a holding a grudge" Wario said deviously. He nodded to Waluigi, who threw several more bombs into the audience of minions, who were still absent-mindedly beating each other up. The explosions did kinda get their attention though.

"Oh for the love of-Kamek, get up and help me out here. Hey you goombas, straighten up and make a run for the lanky one! Koopas, defense formation alpha!" Bowser barked out commands at his minions, desparately trying to regain order among his disordered troups, but he was cut off as Wario ran at him and struck him in the gut with his famous shoulder tackle, knocking the wind out of the koopa king before proceeding to dive on him and go wild. Waluigi laughed like a madman while pulling many more bombs out of his overalls and tossing them at the koopas, goombas, shy guys and other minions. And while all this was happening Princess Peach, Toad, Toadsworth and Peppermint Patty attempted to lead everyone out of the room to safety.

"Boy, I never thought I'd be happy to see those guys" Toad cheerfully told Peppermint Patty as they held open the door to the west wing of the castle. Patty just nodded, she still didn't know what the ####ing #### was going on here, who Wario or Waluigi were, or anything else about this situation for that matter. Though, she supposed, if those weirdoes were on their side she owed them her gratitude. As she escorted, and often had to drag the Toads out of the room, one thought kept passing through her head.

"Chuck better hurry up and get here, 'cause I've had all the crazy I can handle for one day"

---

Returning to the field, Yoshi was currently waddling around Sally, looking her up and down and making happy, cartoonish noises as she observed him. She was used to weird and unusual things back home, after Linus she was considered the weirdest person in school. It probably was largely due to the fact that she talked to the school building, but no one else seemed to realize it could talk back to her. She'd seen plenty of other strange stuff too, dancing bunnies, mail boxes that would spit letters back out, mostly when it was her brother trying to send a valentine, and she had once flown with Snoopy on his doghouse. And I mean actually flew, but they had to go back because the service on the flight was terrible. But a little green dinosaur? Yeah, that was a step too far even by her standards.

Still, after getting over the surprise of seeing a creature that didn't exist on her world she had quickly come to like Yoshi. She liked cute things as much as any girl her age, and for a great big lizard creature Yoshi was pretty adorable. And his playful, giddy antics made her think of him as a happy little child. That just happened to be a dinosaur. Yeah, he was nice. At the very least his joyful mood kept her from feeling sad or grouchy over her predicament.

As Yoshi began skipping merrily through the flowers and jumping about, somehow hovering through the air for a moment before landing gently on the ground, then jumping up again for no other apparent reason than the fun of it. Sally paid close attention to his movements, and her gaze became a curious one as she noticed fully the saddle on Yoshi's back. What did that mean then? Was Yoshi some sort of mounting animal, like horses? Did people in this world ride dinosaurs instead of horses? That would be pretty cool, she thought. Another thought occurred to her, if Yoshi was wearing a saddle, then surely he must have belonged to someone. Someone friendly maybe, someone who could help her figure out where she was and how she could get back home? That last part was probably wishful thinking on her part, but Sally didn't like the thought of just being stuck on another world without having at least some clue of where she was and only a barely verbal green dinosaur for company.

"Hey Yoshi, come here boy" Sally called out like someone calling her dog. And like a dog, Yoshi came to a stop and ran up to her, obeying the command. Sally smiled at this, and though she didn't expect much of an answer she asked "Do you have an owner?"

Yoshi nodded and said his name. Best response she would get, Sally realized. At least he understood what she was saying.

"Do you know where they are?" Sally's follow up question. Again, Yoshi nodded "Can you take me to them?" Yoshi got suddenly excited, doing a sort of tap dance while nodding and making noises. Sally couldn't help but giggle at this.

"Alright then, lead the way" Sally insisted. Yoshi hopped up and began walking off, looking back and waving for Sally to follow him. And she did. The two walked through the vast green plains of unearthly fauna at a steady pace. They walked. And walked. And walked... and walked... and walked some more... and just kept walking for what felt like forever. It wasn't long before Sally's feet were starting to hurt and she was beginning to pant, just how big was this whole darn world!

"Are we there yet?" Sally finally nagged out.

"Yoshi" Yoshi replied, and Sally was convinced he was trying to say "Almost". Although, if that were true, then it would have been the fifth time he'd said it so far. Sally sighed. She wasn't built for walking long distances, she was built for lazing about on a beanbag all day. Any more of this trekking and her feet might pop right off her legs. There had to be a better way to travel than this.

Then suddenly it hit her, and Sally felt stupid that she hadn't thought of this sooner.

"Hey Yoshi, would you mind if I ride you the rest of the way?" Sally asked. Yoshi said his name giddily and ran forward, swerved around, ran behind Sally a few feet, swerved around again, then tossed Sally up into the air a few feet with his head so that she landed safely on the saddle. "Neat" She commented on Yoshi's precision.

"Yoshi" The little dinosaur squeaked appreciatively as he continued on his way, Sally holding onto his neck so she wouldn't fall off. At first she found herself very unsteady on top of Yoshi, but got over it in no time. And actually, when she stopped to think about it, she found this situation pretty empowering. She was riding a dinosaur! A small cute one maybe, but still a dinosaur. How many people in her class could say they'd done that? She couldn't wait to tell Eudora about this. And man, she really couldn't wait to brag about it do Lydia. She hated Lydia. And Tapioca Pudding, and Melody Melody, and every other girl who liked Linus except Janice, and maybe Mimi on a good day. But especially Lydia.

Mulling over what had probably become of her rival and the other kids who had sided with Agate, and more importantly what had happened to her friends, Sally's thoughts drifted to her brother. Where was he? Surely he must have been looking for her. And she knew he could travel between worlds, why wasn't he here rescuing her? Was he even bothering to look for her?! Of course he was, she knew her brother wouldn't rest until he found her, unless something was holding him back. That thought made her uneasy, had some other evil creep ambushed him? Was he alright? While Yoshi continued on course to the Mario brothers home, Sally couldn't stop wondering, what's must he be doing?

---

"So, this is pretty normal for you guys, right?" Charlie Brown asked.

"Yeah, pretty normal" Mario nodded. The group were now fighting what appeared to be a giant yellow octopus with a moustache wearing a crown, which had burst from the ground forming a huge pool around it in the entrance hall. The apparently royal octopus held Luigi, Snoopy and Woodstock high in it's tentacles, and was spitting fireballs and these big green fruits or something at Mario and Charlie Brown. According to Mario, the trick was to dodge the fireballs and send the green ones flying right back at him. Apparently all the worst enemies of the Mario brothers followed an attack pattern which could be exploited in order to defeat them. It left Charlie Brown to wonder why none of them ever thought not to expose their weak points or shoot Mario with something he could use against them. Well, maybe he shouldn't complain, it did make things easier.

The crown wearing octopus spat several more fireballs in the heroes direction, most of which were dodged by Mario or blocked by one of Charlie Brown's light shields. Finally the kraken got tired of this and spat a green ball at them, which Mario jumped up and kicked back at the octopus. The octopus tried to flick it away with one of it's tentacles, but Charlie Brown flew in and struck at the ball a second time with a baseball bat made of light... and missed. Mario made up for this by quickly running to the wall the ball was heading towards, jumping against it, kicking off and then kicking the ball again. This time the octopus failed to strike the ball back and was hit right in the eye, causing it to drop it's captives in pain. With his friends free, Charlie Brown proceeded to bombard the octopus with light spheres, forcing the beast to sink away into the depths of it's pool. Luigi pulled a tapestry off the wall and threw it over the hole, covering it up.

"Well... that-a went well... apart from the moment where he almost-a ate me" Luigi said, shivering at the memory.

"Honestly, we're-a wasting time on all these fights, let's-a just ignore the next few bad guys if they're not threatening any Toads and-a hurry to the throne room" Mario instructed, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Abiding by their new strategy, the Mario brothers and Charlie Brown's group opened up the doors to the next hallway and ran down the halls, jumping or in Charlie Brown's case flying over the various enemies that obstructed their path, stopping only once to rescue a few of the Mushroom retainers that had fallen victim to some magikoopas. Though they didn't generally stop to fight they did occasionally strike at an enemy trying to hold them up, but kept up their momentum. Though they took a few hits from passing minions, the heroes managed to make it to the door leading to the throne room relatively unharmed, though the strain of fighting their way here was finally beginning to take it's toll on the heroes and they were all starting to get exhausted.

"Ok, if Bowser's already made off with the princess, can we please take a nap before setting off to get our strength up?" Luigi panted. Though Mario was reluctant to agree, he had to nod while he panted heavily, unable to speak for a moment. Charlie Brown, who was only not worn out due to his constant healing, which he wished he knew how to share with the Mario brothers, stepped up to the door and reached for the handle, only to have Mario grab him by the collar and pull him back. The reason why became evident as a giant block with an angry face crashed down where Charlie Brown had just stood and began to slowly rise again.

"Whomps, dangerous things. Gotta watch out for 'em" Mario said as Charlie Brown stared in amazement at the slowly rising stone. It held a calm expression for a moment, which changed once more to an angry face as it crashed down again. This time when it began to rise everyone ducked underneath and forced their way through the door before the whomp could attack again. The heroes sighed with relief and then got into fighting positions, ready to take on Bowser himself. They were caught off guard however by what they saw.

The throne room was in utter shambles, the back wall and a good chunk of the roof had been completely torn apart, there was debris all over the floor, koopa shells and unconscious minions everywhere, too many scorch marks to count, and at the centre of it all Wario was still wrestling with Bowser, punching the giant turtle repeatedly in the face as Bowser tried to strangle him and Waluigi pulled at the koopa king's flaming red hair. Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Woodstock stared at the scene in utter disbelief, and while Mario and Luigi were believably less shocked they were still rather disturbed by the damage.

"You fat Italian slob!" Bowser insulted Wario.

"You even fatter blob of ugly fat!" Wario shot back as he grabbed a nearby chain and began choking Bowser with it.

"Is this also pretty normal?" Charlie Brown asked Mario, who shrugged.

"Less normal, but still not too unusual" Mario replied simply. He looked up and noticed Princess Peach and Peppermint Patty pulling rubble off a young Toad girl, who was immediately escorted out of the room by Toad and Toadsworth as the girls tended to more trapped Toads. Mario smiled.

"We're-a here princess! Sorry we're-a late!" Mario called over. Peach stopped in her tracks and looked over at Mario, smiling when she saw him. Charlie Brown also looked over in their direction. When he noticed Peppermint Patty he did a double take. Not sure if she was real or if his eyes were playing tricks on him he rubbed his eyes and looked again. Still there. Could it really be-yes, it could. It was!

"PATTY!" Charlie Brown practically cheered in his excitement. Peppermint Patty perked up at the familiar voice and also looked over in his direction, looking delighted when she caught his eye.

"Chuck! Hey, it's about time you got here! Mind giving us a hand over here?!" Peppermint Patty called out while waving, happy to see him again. Charlie Brown began to run over when he was suddenly knocked back into the wall as Wario went flying into him.

In the centre of the room Bowser stood up, Waluigi still holding onto him by the neck. Bowser reached behind and grabbed Waluigi, smashing him HARD into the ground and then kicking him away. He turned to Mario and scowled.

"Great, now you're here too" Bowser scoffed. Mario stood tall and heroic.

"It's over Bowser, go home and leave our kingdom alone or I'll give you your second beating today" Mario warned. Bowser's response was to snarl and spit a fireball upwards. Mario and co looked up to see the fireball smash into the ceiling above them, causing what little remained of it to collapse... Directly on top of them!

There was no time to move as the heroes were crushed under the rubble. Bowser laughed at this development, but contrary to popular belief he wasn't that stupid. He knew when he was beat and he had to flee, that dirty trick would just buy him time, he knew it. So with that he turned to Kamek and the few still conscious minions.

"Somebody grab the priest and let's get back to the Doomship. Come on, hurry!" Bowser commanded. Though only half conscious himself Kamek nodded and got up. He floated over to the Koopa priest and tapped his unconscious body with his wand, causing him to teleport back onto the Doomship. Kamek waved his wand at the rest of the minions in turn before disappearing himself. Now only Bowser remained of the invaders. He looked over to Peach and Peppermint Patty, who were flat on their back after only just barely dodging all that falling rock. While the girls were trying to get a grip on what just happened Bowser grabbed them and held them up in each hand.

"Come on princesses, time to scoot" Bowser said tiredly and somewhat dejectedly.

"For the last time I'm not a princess! And if you don't let go of me I'm gonna slug you into 1972!" Peppermint Patty threatened, though Bowser was not in any mood to pay her the slightest bit of attention and he carried the girls off towards the collapsed wall.

Over by the fresh pile of rubble, the rocks began to stir. They stirred a bit more before a light shown out and Charlie Brown emerged, pulling his team out with him. Luigi spun around dissily and steadied himself against Mario, who was hunched over and panting like he hadn't had a drink in thirty years. Snoopy and Woodstock were the last to emerge, looking somehow perfectly unharmed by the sudden impact. How'd they do that?

"Well, that was a dirty trick" Charlie Brown said, rubbing the rubble off of his head.

"Which is typical for him. I'm surprised I didn't expect that" Mario sighed. He stood up and scanned for Bowser, finding him standing by the edge of the room where the wall had given way with Peach and Patty slung over his shoulders, Patty wildly swinging punches at him to no avail. The winds suddenly picked up around the heroes, and they saw the Doomship descend. A white and green bowl like object with a clown face floated down before Bowser, out from which Kamek's head popped up. Bowser tossed the princess and Peppermint patty inside before hopping in himself, turning back to Mario and friends and waving.

"So long, losers!" Bowser called as the clown car floated upwards. Mario and Luigi gasped and ran forth, but were forced to stay back as Bowser spat a stream of fire at them, and the clown car sped off onto the Doomship. In a moment of panic Charlie Brown flew up and rocketed after the escaping villain, and more specifically Patty, but ended up crashing face first into an invisible barrier. Recoiling from that bump, Charlie Brown looked up to see the Doomship preparing to take off, Bowser having just boarded. Kamek looked down at him from the side of the flying ship, pointing his wand down to maintain the barrier. He grinned smugly and waved casually at the Guardian.

Getting distressed, Charlie Brown began thoughtlessly pounding at the barrier, not even covering his fists with light initially. The barrier started to crack and give way, but the Doomship had already risen high up in the air and was preparing to take off. In a last ditch effort Charlie Brown flew back and covered himself in a light aura, then flew at the barrier with his hands outstretched, the aura around him reshaping to make Charlie Brown look like a giant glowing arrow. Said light arrow crashed straight through the barrier, the aura faded afterwards and Charlie Brown flew faster, almost reaching the ship... when he hit another barrier.

The doomship finally set sail and took off into the horizon. Charlie Brown, more stressed out than ever continued to pound away at the second barrier, though as the ship flew further away his stance became more saddened and his punches more half hearted. When the Doomship finally disappeared over the valley Charlie Brown floated down to the ground and onto his knees, officially depressed. Snoopy and Woodstock appeared by his side shortly afterwards, Snoopy pushing his head under Charlie Brown's shoulder and rubbing his chest in a comforting sort of way, as Mario and Luigi walked over.

"There, there, it's-a going to be alright" Mario said while patting the disheartened Charlie Brown's shoulder. Charlie Brown was silent for a moment before giving an unpleasant "Ha"

"Alright? How's it going to be alright? Your princess and Peppermint Patty, who I'd only just found, have just been abducted by a monster and his evil minions, and we completely failed to stop them. How is that alright?!" Charlie Brown asked, distressed. Mario gave him a sympathetic look and answered:

"Because we're-a gonna get them back"

"How?" Charlie Brown asked.

"Just-a go after them and take the princess and your girlfriend back, that's-a how. We do it all the time, it's no big deal" Mario replied nonchalantly. Charlie Brown blushed, he had fallen death to the whole second sentence at the mention of the g-word.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Charlie Brown squeaked, his face beet red with embarrassment. Mario and Luigi exchanged looks and the elder brother chuckled.

"Oops, sorry. Guess I have a habit of just-a jumping to conclusions. But seriously, we will get them back. You don't-a have to be so nervous, we-a rescue the princess from Bowser every other day of our lives. It's relatively easy. Things will work out fine" Mario explained confidently. After taking a moment to work past the blushing, Charlie Brown calmed down a bit, though he still wasn't entirely convinced.

"Ok then, I hope you're right" Charlie Brown sighed.

"He is" Sparky suddenly reappeared, who the heroes only just now realized was absent since they had entered the castle.

"Hey, where've you-a been this-a whole time?" Luigi asked.

"I've been here the whole time, I just made myself invisible" Sparky replied, giving Luigi an "Aaah" moment. The green clad plumber was about to ask why Sparky had been invisible, but the spirit dog floated down to his apprentice and began giving him more encouragement "You can trust Mario, Charlie. He's been a hero for many years now, he knows exactly what he's doing. Bowser may have gotten away, but he and his army are weakened. He won't bring any harm to Patty, just be patient. At least now we know she's safe, and we know exactly where we'll find her. Why, perhaps we'll even run into Sally along the way"

That thought did cheer Charlie Brown up a bit. Yeah, it did feel good to know Peppermint Patty was safe, conditions aside. It was a lot easier to just go after Bowser for her than trying to master that tracking ability that still alluded him. And Mario and Luigi certainly knew plenty about this world and who they were facing, confronting the koopas at their base would probably be easy. Yeah, easy. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.

Toad and Toadsworth suddenly came back into the ruins of the room, noticing the destruction they both turned to the Mario brothers and Toad asked "He did it again?"

"Yeah, again" Mario nodded solemnly. Toadsworth began to break down and panic at the loss of the princess, whereas Toad looked worried but appeared already reassured that things would work out fine.

"Need anything power ups for your next journey then?" Toad asked while patting the sobbing Toadsworth's back.

"Well, if there are any extra super leafs or stars we'll take them, and maybe a few of those healing mushrooms. And a cuppa coffee for me and Luigi, we'll-a need it if we're setting off at-a this late hour" Mario nodded. Toad began to waddle off to fetch what Mario had asked, stopping by Charlie Brown to dust him off with a feather duster he extracted from under his cap and asked him "You want anything kid?"

"Um... no, I'm good" Charlie Brown replied, not sure what to ask of the Mushroom person. Toad gave him a friendly smile.

"Okey-dokey, if you need anything else though just ask" Toad said as he wandered off.

Charlie Brown looked after him and wondered aloud "How can he be so cheerful when the castle he probably lives in has just been attacked by monsters?"

"Like the answer to-a so many of your questions, it's just a matter of-a being used to it. Trust me, everything about our world that seems-a weird to you is pretty routine for all of us" Luigi answered immediately. He looked over to his purple wearing counterpart lying face down in the centre of the throne room and went over to help him up. At the same time Mario walked up to Wario and helped steady him to his feet. The yellow shirt, purple overall-ed counterpart huffed and puffed while regaining his focus.

"Man, that dirty koopa sure-a packs a wallop. I don't-a know how you can take his abuse all-a the time" Wario commented as Mario held him up by the shoulder.

"The secret is to just not let him hit-a you. And thanks for-a helping out there" Mario said gratefully. Wario huffed smugly.

"Well you'sa better be thankful, if-a not for us that scaly freak would-a married the princess and put-a you on display in a zoo or whatever. We saved-a the whole freaking kingdom" Wario boasted. Mario rolled his eyes at his cousins pompous attitude, but managed to smile through it anyway.

"So, you and Waluigi gonna help us go confront Bowser again at his castle?" Mario asked. Wario laughed sarcastically.

"Yeah right! No! We're-a done our good deed for the millennium, why should-a we break our backs fighting more of those annoying turtles" Wario said, suddenly regaining his strength and walking off towards his taller comrade. Mario sighed.

"I thought as much" Mario admitted.

Wario grabbed the still heavily battered Waluigi by the elbow and unceremoniously dragged him off into what remained of the hallway.

"We're done playing hero for the day, if you need us for-a anything else, we'll-a just be going back to emptying the pantry" Wario said as he departed with his semi-conscious brother.

Mario and Luigi waved him off, as Mario leaned in close to a slightly recovered Toadsworth and whispered "Make sure they don't"

Charlie Brown stood at the edge of the room where the wall leading out of the castle had given way, staring off into the distance where Bowser's Doomship and the rest of the armada had vanished into the distance. Snoopy and Woodstock stood at either side of him, also looking in that direction. Charlie Brown resisted the urge to moan. So close, he had been so close to being reunited with one of his friends. Peppermint Patty was right there, just a short pace in front of him, and now she was gone again. Charlie Brown felt his fist tighten. He made a silent vow to himself not to let this happen again. he didn't care if he had to face the entire koopa army, he would do it five times if he had to. He would get Patty back, Ancients swear he would get them all back.

Toad retuned to the room carrying a brown sack and a tray with two cups of coffee on it. He handed the bag to Mario and allowed each of the brothers to pick their preferred drink. The bags underneath Luigi's eyes and the faint signs of darkness under Mario's eyes began to fade away as they drank, and they finished the beverages with relaxed sighs.

"That-a sure hits the spot" Mario complimented as he placed the cup back on the tray.

"It sure does. I think I might-a even be able to stay awake for more than five more minutes now. But still, I REALLY wish I could have just had my good nights sleep" Luigi said wistfully.

"Evil never sleeps Luigi, so we shouldn't either" Mario replied confidently.

"That's not healthy" Luigi pointed out. Mario thought about it and shrugged.

"Maybe not, but it's-a what we do" Mario said cheerfully. He looked back to Charlie Brown and walked over to him "So, Charlie, you up for a little adventure?"

Charlie Brown turned to him with a look of almost uncharacteristic determination and nodded "Yeah, let's do it"

"Alright then. Just-a one more thing before we go" Mario said, pulling out a whistle shaped like Yoshi's head "I hate-a to keep the little guy up, but we could really use Yoshi's help for this. So..." Mario brought the nose of the whistle to his mouth and blew. Charlie Brown stared curiously at him, he himself heard nothing at all, though Snoopy and Woodstock were suddenly on their knees clutching their ears.

---

Yoshi, with Sally still on his back, was now finally nearing the home of the Mario brothers. Sally took a long look at the Mushroom styled house.

"Mushroom houses huh? This must be the world where the smurfs live" Sally said, suddenly filled with childish mirth. She was a big fan of the Smurfs cartoon growing up, though perhaps not so much the movies. She looked back down at Yoshi, and wondered "But the Smurfs never rode around on dinosaurs. And dad said they're just fictional characters..." Sally sighed. So much for living childhood fantasies.

But then again she couldn't feel too disappointed. Smurfs or not, surely the people who lived in that mushroom house could be of help to her. They probably couldn't tell her how to get back home or anything, she doubted anyone who lived in a mushroom had the power to travel between worlds. But it would be nice to at least know where she was. And hey, maybe they would invite her in for dinner. She hadn't realized it until now, but Sally was starving.

"My stomach and I owe you a lot Yoshi, thank you. You're sure a lot more useful than my brother's pet beagle" Sally said kindly.

"Yosh, Yoshi" Said Yoshi, who really liked receiving compliments. He continued at a steady pace, but then when he was only five paces away from the house he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, unflinching. Sally took notice of this and stared at the back of the dinosaur's head in concern.

"Huh? Hey Yoshi, everything alright?" Sally asked. Yoshi did not respond. Confused, Sally leaned forward and gently tapped the back of the dino's head "Um, Yoshi?"

Sally scratched her head at Yoshi's odd behaviour. What she didn't know was that the dinosaur was listening, having just heard a high frequency sound that Sally's human ears could not register. Yoshi heard it again, and suddenly perked up. Sally was relieved to see Yoshi make some movement, but she wasn't prepared for when he suddenly bounded forward at great speed, soon reaching what must have been over a hundred miles per hour. Sally grabbed onto the back of Yoshi's neck, struggling to hold on one handed for dear life.

"Whaaaaa, whoa boy, slow down! Stop-stop!"

---

Back in the throne room, Charlie Brown stared at Mario in confusion.

"So, um... what are we waiting for?" Charlie Brown asked, noticing Snoopy and Woodstock still covering their ears and looking pained.

"You'll see in about..." Mario stretched out his hand, counting down the seconds with his fingers "Five. Four. Three. Two. One"

At the precise moment that Mario lowered his last finger a green blur shot into the room, almost toppling Charlie Brown over and onto Woodstock, before the blur settled in front of Mario, quickly revealing itself as Yoshi, who began licking Mario with his extremely long tongue. Mario could only laugh.

"Yes, it's-a good to see you too Yoshi" Mario said, patting the dinosaur's head. He noticed a shape behind Yoshi and turned to see Sally on his back, looking haggard and bewildered from her unplanned joy ride, her hair frizzled beyond belief and her clothes a mess. Right now she was panting heavily, apparently trying with all her might to neither faint nor vomit.

"*Gasp, pant, pant*... Okay... next... time... *Pant, cough cough cough*... If you're *Splutter*... going... to do that *Gasp, pant*... warn me first" Sally just barely managed to puff out, struggling to regain just some sense of composure. Charlie Brown, who she hadn't noticed because Yoshi stood with his back to him, stared at his sister with great uncertainty. After a long moment of silence, his mind finally clicked and he let out a mirthful yelp.

"SALLY!"

The sound of Charlie Brown's voice seemed to breath new life into Sally. Her tired and weary expression vanished in an instant and she stopped spluttering. She turned around, looking Charlie Brown right in the eye, but saying nothing for a time, apparently not knowing whether she could believe what she was seeing. She soon got over it.

"BIG BROTHER!" Sally squealed with equal joy. Charlie Brown ran forth to hug her, but was himself pinned to the ground as Sally leapt off Yoshi to hug him aswell. And hug him she did, with every last ounce of strength in her body. Brimming with joy, Charlie Brown could form no words to speak to her sister, instead all he could do was laugh and hug her back harder, as she laughed aswell and rested her head against his shoulder. Mario and Luigi weren't quite sure what was going on at first, but after catching on they both "Aww"'ed at the cuteness of it, while Snoopy and Woodstock both danced happily and waited their turn to give Sally a hug. Sparky just stared with wonder and gave a relieved sigh that Sally was alright.

It was a good few minutes before the laughing siblings finally loosened their grips enough to sit up, both delighted to have each other back.

"Oh thank Ancients you're alright. For a while I was starting to worry I would never see you again" Charlie Brown said, a thousand knots loosening in his stomach.

"I was worried I'd never be found. But then Yoshi showed up. I was going to slug him just now, but man was he smart to get me here" Sally replied, giving her brother another hug. Mario patted Yoshi again on the head.

"Atta boy Yoshi, rescuing little lost girls all by yourself. You deserve a treat for that" Mario said. Yoshi's eyes widened and he began hopping on the spot, making pleading dog-like noises. Mario reached into his overall pocket and pulling out what might have been a type of plum. He tossed it up into the air, and Yoshi shot his tongue out to grab it in mid-air and pull it into his mouth, savouring the sweet taste of it.

It was a whole ten minutes before Sally was finally convinced to stop hugging her brother so they could get up off the floor, but even then she stuck close to him, cuddling Snoopy and Woodstock and asking her brother lots of questions.

"Where've you been? Are you alright? Are we really on another world? How did we get here, was it Joe Agate? Is he anywhere around here so I can slug him? Where's my sweet baboo? And Peppermint Patty and Lucy and everyone else? What world is this? How long do you think we'll have off school after you and Agate tore it down?"

Charlie Brown's head was starting to spin at the rapid pace of her questioning, so politely held his hand up to try and silence his sister.

"Well, um, I didn't get all of that, but I'll answer what I heard. We're on the Mushroom World in the Mushroom Kingdom, I've been fighting turtle monsters and other weird things with this worlds heroes-they're over there-Everyone else has been scattered around other worlds thanks to Joe, and, I think they'll probably send everyone to another school while ours is being repaired, so you probably won't have too long off" Charlie Brown replied.

"Wow" Sally sighed. Her face suddenly fell into a curious frown "Turtle monsters?"

"Koopas. Not as ridiculous as they sound, though not-a exactly threatening either" Mario told her. Sally looked at him curiously, and again at Luigi. Mario was somewhat put off by the weird look she gave them "Something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing, sorry. It's just I wasn't really expecting this world to have people living on it considering how weird it looks. No offense, but I guess I was hoping for something a little more... you know, alien" Sally replied. That was when she noticed Toad and Toadsworth standing by the side of her smiling innocently. She looked at them for a moment before looking back at Mario, who responded by waving his hand and giving her a look that probably said, that alien enough for you? Sally nodded and gave him a look that she thought meant yeah, just about.

"Well, anyway, it's nice to meet you, I'm Sally" Sally properly introduced herself, shaking hands with Mario.

"Mario. Nice to meet you little lady. And this is-a my little twin brother, Luigi" Mario said, behind him Luigi took off his hat and bowed.

"Charmed" Luigi said in a more dignified voice than anyone had ever heard him say. An effort to look refined, probably because he wanted to pass himself off as anything but a coward. So it was unfortunate for him that one of Waluigi's discarded bombs hidden under the rubble picked that moment to explode for no reason. Luigi screamed and leapt right over where the roof had been, eventually landing in Charlie Brown's arms. Charlie Brown stumbled backwards, struggling to keep on his feet under Luigi's weight. Eventually he couldn't take it and collapsed on his back. Sally and Mario rolled their eyes.

"Brothers. You love them to no end, but they're so embarrassing, right?" Sally asked. Mario nodded coyly.

"Totally" The plumber agreed. The two exchanged a giggle before helping their respective kin get up. Luigi shook himself off and attempted to pick up his dignity.

"Well, it's nice-a to see we've reunited two loving siblings, but I'm afraid we've-a got business to do. Charlie Brown, if-a you'd like you can-a stay here and catch up with-a your sister, but we're just going to be leaving to rescue the princess and-a your friend Peppermint Patty. You can catch up with us later" Mario explained.

"Rescue?" Sally turned to her brother, who suddenly looked downhearted again.

"Oh yeah, Patty kinda got kidnapped by the Mario brothers enemy just now" Charlie Brown replied meekly. Sally's expression changed in the blink of an eye from uncertain to bewildered.

"Well then what are we all standing around here for! Let's go get her back!" Sally exclaimed, marching off proudly to the rescue... the other way from where Bowser had fled.

Charlie Brown and Snoopy ran up to Sally and pulled her back.

"Um, Sally, first off you're going the wrong way... although I suppose that's the right way for you since there's a big drop going out through the hole. Second, you're not going anywhere" Charlie Brown explained. Sally gave an exaggeratedly angry yell.

"What!?"

"I'm sorry Sally, but until I'm sure it's safe you're staying right here" Charlie Brown said with all the brotherly authority he could muster. Sally wasn't happy.

"What do you mean, I wanna help" Sally said insistently.

"Well I'm glad to hear it, but I can't let you go with us. Mario, Luigi and I are about to embark on a dangerous mission to rescue Peppermint Patty and the princess, you'd just be putting yourself in danger coming along" Charlie Brown told her reasonably. Sally however was not such a reasonable person.

"No I wouldn't. What, you think just 'cause I'm a girl I can't take care of myself?! I never took you for so sexist!" Sally yelled indignantly, confounding her brother.

"Huh? I'm not being sexist, I'm being realistic. You don't have any powers or anything that can defend you from our enemies if we were ambushed" Charlie Brown replied.

"Oh no?" Sally put to fingers to her mouth and whistled. As if he'd been trained to do it, Yoshi ran behind Sally and flipped her up onto his saddle. She folded her arms and looked down impressively at Charlie Brown, who just took one look at Yoshi's cutesy face and sighed.

"Sally, I hardly see how-"

Luigi cut in "Actually, Yoshi's-a more than capable of looking after anyone. The little guy can swallow enemies twice his size, and he's-a been looking out for us since-a we were babies. She's-a actually being quite reasonable" Charlie Brown sighed, not liking where this was going.

"She's eleven years old" Charlie Brown protested.

"Twelve in two months. And what does age matter anyway" Sally said.

"A lot. Look Sally, I love you, and I have a responsibility as your big brother to look after you. I've already seen you get kidnapped once today, and I just failed to stop Peppermint Patty getting abducted a second time. I just don't want to anything bad to happen to you" Charlie Brown explained sincerely. Sally gave him a sympathetic look, but still remained confident in herself.

"I understand that, big brother. But you don't have to worry about me, I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. Besides, I've got Yoshi, what's the worst a couple of turtle monsters can do to me when I'm riding a dinosaur" Sally said boastfully. Yoshi made a cartoony laugh.

Mario walked up to Charlie Brown and patted him on the shoulder "Kid, you might as well just give in. Trust me, when a woman makes up her mind on something, there's-a no way of stopping her" He said in a tone that brokered no argument. Charlie Brown sighed heavily, but knew from experience that he was right.

"Ok Sally, you can tag along" Charlie Brown said in a resigned voice. Sally cheered victoriously as Yoshi began playfully hopping on the spot and clapping his hands. Charlie Brown added "But you're not to get involved in any scuffles unless you have to, and you stay close to the group, no wandering off. And you have to be riding Yoshi most of the way. Oh, and at the first sign that things get too dangerous, I want you to go back to the Light Palace. Is that clear?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever" Sally said giddily, and Charlie Brown knew she had only been half listening. Charlie Brown sighed, deciding the sooner things got bad enough to send her back, the better.

Sparky floated down between the heroes, he had stayed out of the previous discussion to let Charlie Brown have a go at decision making, but decided now was a good time to add his voice in.

"Well, if you're all sure about this course of action then maybe we should all take half an hour to rest. I feel you two still need some catching up to do" Sparky said specifically to Charlie Brown and Sally. He then turned to Mario and Luigi "And I'm sure you two should take a nap, it doesn't help if you get too tired"

"Sounds like a plan" Luigi said, suddenly falling to the ground and going to sleep right away. The other heroes watched uncertainly as the younger brother began to snore, but soon they burst out giggling.

"I trust you two to get him to a bed" Sparky spoke to Toad and Toadsworth, who both nodded.

"You bet you can" Toad said, the two of them quickly hoisting Luigi up and carrying him off. In Toad's eagerness he didn't watch where he was going and bumbed into the wall on the way out the door and ended up dropping Luigi's head on the floor, earning a pained scream from the green and blue hero. Toad frantically apologised before he and Toadsworth lifted Luigi up again to carry him out.

"Ok then, now... um, Charlie Brown, where did Snoopy and Woodstock go?" Sparky asked. Charlie Brown, Sally and Mario looked around the ruined room, but saw no sign of either animal. Suddenly the ground began to rumble, and a hole opened up in the ground. The group watched as what looked like a mushroom shaped rocket rose out of the hole and prepared for take off, Snoopy and Woodstock visible through the window. Charlie Brown stared bewildered as the rocket took off, flying high into the sky. It was a moment before either of them registered just what was going on, and then they panicked.

"Oh good gried!" Charlie Brown exclaimed, lighting up his feet and flying off after the mischievous pair. The rest of the group just stood back and continued to stare off in amazement.

"I can see I've signed Luigi and myself up for one wild ride by agreeing to help you guys" Mario said blankly. Sparky sighed and nodded.

"That's putting it mildly"

---

Meanwhile, in the Captain's quarters of Bowser's Doomship, a room decorated with fine furnishings and black banners with the red symbol resembling Bowser's face draped over the walls, the silent koopa king sat in a throne at the end of the room. There was only one window in this room and only one lit candle, so much of the room was hidden in shadows. What could be seen with the little light provided was Bowser himself sitting miserably with his head leaning on his fist, a large cage in which Princess Peach and Peppermint Patty had been locked hanging next to his throne, and the frightened group of koopas standing before their king. Among them, only Kamek had the courage to step forward to address Bowser.

"So how's the priest?" Bowser asked, sounding like he really didn't care about anything at the moment. Kamek knew he did though, and that's why he shivered before making his reply.

"I'm afraid he sustained serious head injuries from that explosion, sire. Even with aid from my healing magic, I'd say he'll be out cold for at least a week" Kamek explained. Bowser heaved a long, heavy sigh.

"And figures he'd be the only priest in all of dark land. Figures that's what I get for living in such a rough neighbourhood" Bowser muttered. For a moment he appeared downhearted. Then for another moment he appeared ticked off. Then the next moment he became enraged and let out a furious roar before smashing a nightstand next to his seat.

"IT'S NOT FAIR! All I asked for was one little victory. Just-One! I even prayed to God that he'd let me beat those annoying heroes for just once, but nooooo. Because God doesn't seem to like me enough to let me succeed at anything!" Bowser spat, getting up and marching around the room in a fit, the koopas all backing into the corner in terror.

Bowser paced around, stomping the wooden floors as he went, complaining over and over about his misfortune "It was probably the best plan I'd had in years! All those booby traps I set up surely should have kept the Mario brothers away, that wedding should have gone down. But then those two loser Mario brother knock-offs had to just in and ruin everything! Sheesh, what is it with every guy in overalls giving me a hard time! Someone remind me to flatten those guys later! And that stupid kid with Mario-he doesn't look tough, but if he's anything like Kamek said... grr!"

In his blind rage Bowser ended up unknowingly punching a statue of himself into oblivion, sending chunks of rock flying across the room. He spent the next few minutes marching around grouchily before coming to a stop in the middle of the room by the table, which he placed his hand upon while trying to calm down a little.

"I probably could have won. I probably, actually could have won. But not now. A week will give Mario and his pals plenty of time to reach my castle, and then I'll no doubt lose to that dumb plumber again no matter how hard I try to clobber him. 'Cause that's how it always works, I try my very best to do good at something only to get my ass handed to me by a freaking plumber. A plumber for crying out loud! What kind of self respective king loses to a guy who unclogs drains! GRRRRRRRAAAARRRRGGH!" Bowser's roars sent shockwaves around the room, rattling the cage the girls were in and sending several ornaments flying off the walls, coupling with the broken rocks to make the room look like a total mess. Not that Bowser cared right now.

Bowser panted furiously, his fists shaking in bottled up fury... but then all of a sudden the anger vanished from his eyes, and he stared at the ground in misery.

"There's just no way I can win is there?" He asked, sounding almost on the verge of tears "Nothing I do will ever be good enough, will it? I've spent my entire life trying to be a great conqueror, but I have nothing to show for it. I've accomplished nothing, my own wife's long left me, and my kingdom is a wasteland. Some king I am, I can't even lead my army to one single victory against just one fat little man. I'm pathetic"

The koopas all looked to their king with pity in their eyes as Bowser leaned against the table and stared sadly into space, silent except for the occasional resigned sigh. Even Princess Peach felt sorry for him, though Peppermint Patty paid almost no mind. She was preoccupied trying to break out of the cage.

"Come on, open" Patty grumbled as she tried shoulder tackling the door, the rattling the locks. Getting frustrated with the lack of progress she punched the bars, which earned her nothing but a few sore fingers. Princess Peach looked down at her and placed a comforting hand to her shoulder.

"It's not going to work Patty dear. I've tried breaking out of these cages before, unless you have a super star on hand nothing will work. Just stay calm and don't strain yourself" Peach advised. Peppermint Patty looked at her incredulously.

"Are you kidding princess, we've been abducted by monsters! We can't just sit around not doing anything, we've got to break free!" Patty insisted, but the princess shook her head.

"I've tried that many times before. Trust me, it's better to just wait for Mario and your friend to catch up to us. That's all we can do" Princess Peach told her. Peppermint Patty folded her arms.

"Well that might be fine for you princess, but I'm Peppermint Patty. And I am not accustomed to waiting around and letting the men do my rescuing for me" Peppermint Patty told her. Peach didn't continue further. She admired Patty's spirit, but she had to learn a thing or two about patience. She turned back to Bowser, who was currently fiddling with a gold coin on the table.

"Sire" Kamek began in a kind voice, stepping out of the corner. Bowser couldn't look at him, too wrapped up in his own thoughts. After a moment of thinking he dropped the coin he was holding and sighed again.

"Maybe I should just give up. Sign a peace treaty or something and spend my life trying to actually make something of my own kingdom instead. Even though Darkland has little to no valuable resources and the crummiest soil in the world. It's not like things are ever going to change with my current agenda. I'm locked in a loop fighting Mario, no matter how many variations of my plans I try out, it all ends the same. It's the status quo. I should just accept that I'm a failure and move on with my life" Bowser suggested, leaning against the side of the table. His expression gradually changed from defeated to enraged once more.

"But then everything I've done would be for nothing! I can't quit, because I'd just be PROVING that I'm a loser! I'd walk around the rest of my life with everybody laughing behind my back, saying "There goes the kind who never accomplished anything". And I REFUSE to live like that! I refuse to let Mario have the last laugh! I can never live in peace knowing that chubby jerk from Brooklyn has the last laugh!" Finally losing it, Bowser shot to his feet, shook his fist and yelled to the sky "ISN'T THERE ANY WAY TO BEAT THOSE PLUMBERS?"

"There is..." A mysterious voice spoke, causing everyone in the room to jump and look around. A figure stepped out from the darkest shadows in the room. A boy of thireen wearing an orange shirt, brown pants and a green cap. He gave the curious Bowser a sinister smile.

"-It's called siding with us"

"Agate!" Peppermint Patty yelled out, thrashing against the door to her cage and struggling to get out and pound the evil boy. Joe Agate just gave her a coy look and chuckled.

"Why hello Patricia, I see you're finally living the dream of being a go-go girl" Joe quipped, earning him further ire from Patty.

"I'll go-go you, you deranged son of a-" Princess Peach quickly covered Patty's mouth to muffle her threats, while Joe just laughed some more and turned back to the annoyed koopa king.

"What do you want kid, can't you see I'm throwing a hissy fit in here?" Bowser growled, not even bothering to wonder how a human boy got into his quarters. Joe laughed and paced around.

"I'm here to offer you a job" Joe answered. Bowser scoffed.

"For your information I'm a king, we monarchs do not work for snot nosed kids" Bowser spat back.

"Oh, but I think you'll find I'm offering you quite the business opportunity here" Joe said calmly "Good hours, loads of benefits, daycare for your kids... Mario's head on a plate"

Bowser raised a brow, that last suggestion earning his interest like Joe knew it would. Joe looked at Bowser and waited for him to reply. Bowser hesitated for a minute, thinking it through. With a stern look he told Joe "Go on" Agate's wicked smile widened.

My name is Joe Agate. I represent my master the Dark Witch, the Guardian of Darkness, and her Dark Empire. I am here to recruit you and your army to our empire, so that we may work together to conquer the universe" Joe explained. Bowser exchanged uncertain looks with Kamek.

"Conquer the universe?" Bowser questioned.

"You heard right. You see, the boy you saw with Mario earlier was my nemesis, Charlie Brown, the Guardian of Light. The Witch controls the half of the universe shrouded in darkness, your world is just one in many which resides in the Realm of Light, which is the half of the universe watched over by Charlie Brown now that the Witch killed the old Guardian Sparky. My master plans to build up her army with... what would be the proper term... eh, let's just say villains, for convenience sake. Villains from the Realm of Light to supplement her heartless armies and take over the worlds, thus shrouding everything in darkness" Joe Agate recounted. Bowser scratched his chin, sounding interested in Joe's story.

"And what would I get joining you weirdoes, I ain't no-one's lackey" Bowser insisted. Joe shook his head politely.

"Of course you're not, you're a king. That's why we'd like to offer you a position as a general in our army" Joe clarified "You and your koopas would join us, and you yourself would have a position of power and authority in our empire. And when we've killed Charlie Brown and conquered the world, you will be given this world to rule for your services"

"Hmm..." Bowser was starting to like the sound of this, but still couldn't be sure he could trust this boy.

"And how do I know you're not just some powerless dope who's making all this up?" Bowser asked. Joe covered his fist with dark energy and blasted one of the koopas in the corner of the room, blasting him out of existence. everyone in the room gasped, with the exception of Bowser, who looked... grudgingly impressed.

"You got guts to do that to one of my minions right in front of me" Bowser admitted. He leaned in dangerously close to Joe's face "I wouldn't do that again" He threatened, but then leaned back "But I'm starting to seriously consider your offer"

Joe, who had remained unflinching, grinned again as Bowser asked "Now, about Mario's head on a platter-"

"Just say the word and I'll off him" Joe said, waving his hands casually. Bowser grabbed him by the scruff of the shirt and picked him up.

"If anybody kills him it's going to be me. And I don't want to, I just want him pounded into the ground" Bowser clarified. Joe pulled himself free and nodded.

"Ok then, I can do that for you too" Joe said calmly.

"You sure you can do that?" Bowser asked, not one to be convinced that a child could beat the opponent he'd spent years battling. Joe nodded confidently. Kamek looked at Joe with a searching look, got up on the table so he was at Bowser's level and whispered into his ear.

"I must say sire, from what I can sense he's at least as powerful as that boy the Mario brothers accompanied. He could very well do as he says" Kamek explained, earning a nasty smile from Bowser.

"Hmm... I still don't know if I can trust you kid... but what the hell. I've got nothing to lose, count me in" Bowser said.

"Excellent. Glad to have you aboard" Came a new voice, and Bowser looked over Joe to see Dr Eggman and Thibault step out of the shadows aswell. Bowser frowned.

"Hey, who are you two?" Bowser asked rudely.

"Oh, yes, allow me to introduce my colleagues, Ivo Robotnik and Thibault. They'll stay to help us work out the terms of our new partnership" Joe answered. Eggman held out his hand so Bowser could shake it.

"Always a pleasure to meet a fellow villain" Eggman said. Bowser looked at his hand and grabbed it in his own enormous one, crushing Eggman's hand and earning a pained but muffled cry of pain from the scientist. Thibault meanwhile had noticed the cage Patty and the princess were trapped in, and laughed his head off at the sight of Peppermint Patty locked up.

"Well it's about time somebody finally locked that beast up!" Thibault laughed loudly. Peppermint Patty growled.

"Oh yeah, Thibault. Well why don't you come over here and say that to my face you coward!" Peppermint Patty yelled. Thibault sneered.

"Alright, I will" Thibault said arrogantly, walking right up in front of the cage and saying "It's about time somebody locked you-GAH!" Thibault was sent flying back into the table as Patty punched him in the face through the bars, looking quite pleased with herself as she did so. The other villains looked down at the dazed Thibault with disgust, shaking their heads.

"Yeah, he's a blockhead. So, do we still have a deal?" Joe asked.

As the three villains began discussing their new alliance, and of course what that would mean for their mutual enemies, Peppermint Patty and Princess Peach watched on in worry, giving each other concerned looks as the Doomship sailed closer and closer to Bowser's castle.

---

Tiger Lover 16: Ok, and done. Ok, maybe those last few scenes didn't turn out very well, but I kinda lost track around that point. Most of the chapter was easy to write, the last parts weren't, so it might not have turned out as good as it should have been. But overall I like this chapter a lot, it really sets up this new arc well I should hope. This will only be a three part arc, hence why this chapter is so long. Seriously, I think this is the longest chapter so far. Which kinda surprised me. Oh well. Now, since I'm pretty sure most people here don't like reading really long paragraphs, I've decided to split my authors notes into several small parts from now on at the bottom of the page, making it somewhat more of a trivia thing. See if that works better. So then, here are my points:

-Ok, so Mario is the first crossover, if you don't count Eggman's appearance since that's not a full crossover. I always knew I wanted Mario to be the first Hero to join Charlie Brown's side in this, video games are my main media interest, above cartoons and books and most other things, and Mario is pretty much the king of video games, so it felt only natural that he and his world should be the first to be explored to me. The Mario characters proved the best parts of this chapter to write, I've been doing a lot with the peanuts characters since I started writing for this section, so it's nice to get into writing some characters I don't normally write for. I did actually do a Mario story once, long ago. It's deleted now, it wasn't a good story and it actually made me feel kinda bad knowing how subpar my writing skills were then to where they are now. Not to say I'm now a top notch writer, I make a lot of mistakes and I'm learning all the time, but I am MUCH better now than when I first started. Given the fun I had writing characters like Mario, Bowser, Princess Peach and Wario, I can't wait to write for the rest of the characters planned for this arc, and the characters from other series.

-Of course, I really can't take all the credit for this chapter. The second scene, which introduces the Mario cast, was written by Supah-toon. And a great job he did at it. I had to edit it a bit, correct a few things and whatnot. Toad and Toadsworth were not in it and there were just all random Toads for example, and considering he writes everything as though he's writing for a cartoon I had to reformat it somewhat to make it flow with the rest of the chapter, though it is still close to exactly as how he originally wrote it. Funny story, this scene was not planned out by me, he just wrote it off the top of his head. My plan was just to have the chapter start with the Mario brothers sunbathing and discussing life when Bowser suddenly attacks the castle in the distance. The plan changed considerably when he finished his scene though. I'm not complaining, this works better. I also never planned Wario and Waluigi to be in this arc, they were going to appear much later, but considering Supah-toon managed to add them into his opening, I thought up a way to use them later in the chapter. I'm glad for it, their parts were some of my favourite moments this chapter.

-It occurs to me that Mario and Luigi might have seemed overpowered or just too good in this chapter. Well, that's not me portraying them as Gary Stu's. I've tried to emphasise here that they're seasoned veterans at the hero business. I mean, they've been fighting Bowser and other baddies for 28 years now in real time, I don't know how long it's been in-universe but it still must be a long time. They've been through countless adventures and fought their way out of all kinds of situations. I think they'd naturally be able to dispatch swarms of minor enemies with ease, and even vanquish more powerful foes with only slight difficulty. Obviously they're not invincible, as their fight with Kamek shows, but I wanted to emphasise how capable they both are. I'll say right now that Mario will be one of the magor players in this story, after Charlie Brown and Sparky he'll probably serve as a sort of third leader among the heroes, so I need to emphasise what a bad a## he can truly be. And considering he only has powers through a set of power ups and his normal form is not all that impressive when compared to other great heroes like Superman or Goku, who are all enormously powerful, I needed to emphasise his skill and experience to really make him stand out and demand respect. Plus, it provides a fun contrast to Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown, though probably one of the strongest beings in the universe even though he hasn't mastered anywhere near the full extent of that power yet, still doesn't have a whole lot of experience fighting, despite his victory over Joe Agate, whereas Mario, who's strength and ability's pale in comparison but who's experience and battle prowess are superior, handles himself better in this chapter. There'll continue to be a trend of this I think, but remember, Mario still only has minor superhuman capabilities, if he were forced to fight someone all powerful like Joe Agate or say Darkseid from Dc, and Freiza from Dragon Ball, he'd probably get thrashed because, experience aside he doesn't have anywhere near the strength to deal with them. Just some food for thought.

-I know there wasn't really enough development into certain character relations this chapter, but that's the best I could do because, honestly, Charlie Brown and the Mario brothers are both in a hurry when they meet up, so they don't have time to hang around and get to know each other. Interaction between the new group will get more focus next chapter, whenever that's out. Similarly, while I got to make a ton of references to the Mario series, I still feel that I haven't really delved much into that actual world this chapter. Oh well, I have two more chapters to dedicate to that.

-As for the villains in this chapter, I don't know if I got Bowser quite right, but I'll try harder next time. Kamek was an interesting villain to write, he'll probably have more focus in later chapters as well. I've even got a chapter centred on him in the planning stages somewhere down the line. Kamek's always been one of my favourite Mario villains due to his relationship with Bowser and position in the Koopa army. Apart from them I got to use most of the typical Mario enemies, koopas, goombas, shy guys, whomps. I'm sure everyone knows about them. If anyone doesn't get the reference to Hooktail, she's a dragon boss from Super Paper Mario. I haven't played any of those games myself and I don't think they're within main canon, but I enjoy shout outs. The octopus was from Super Mario Galaxy, King Kaliente, who actually swims in a lave pool, but I just thought it would be funny to include him. I plan to feature other enemies like this in later chapters, not all of them will just be cameos or jokes, some might have bigger roles, but it depends on the plot.

-Peppermint Patty finally gets a magor role in this chapter, and I must say I'm pretty happy with her scenes. Actually, probably my favourite individual line in this chapter is her quote "I'm no princess, I'm Peppermint Patty" Because I think that's so her. Peppermint Patty is famous for her tomboyish traits, she wouldn't want to be a princess if you paid her I think. I should say I'm surprised I haven't given Peppermint patty a more central role up until now, since she'll be a pretty important character as time goes on. I guess like a lot of the Peanuts gang she didn't have so much to do in previous chapters. She probably won't get much to do next chapter, being captured and all, but she'll be getting a bigger role after that. She's one of my favourite peanuts characters, and her and Charlie Brown are my favourite peanuts pairing after Sally and Linus, so you can bet I'll explore that at some point.

-While on the subject of Peanuts characters, I'm kinda disappointed with the whole reunion scene. I had no idea how to write that the way I wanted it to go, so Charlie Brown's and Sally's reactions might not be all that great, and that whole brothers comment might kinda sour it, but it is what it is. Sally's a hard character to write for, there's a specific way she acts that's hard to capture. Still, I'm glad I got to utilise her a bit in this chapter, hopefully I'll do a better job with her going forward. Sorry if that last scene with them is rushed though.

-I kinda wonder why the koopalings weren't at the wedding? I knew I never wanted them at it, I wanted to save them for the last chapter in this arc, but I couldn't really think of a good reason to explain their absence that didn't really slow things down too much. I guess I'll just leave it ambiguous. And anyway, Bowser's not the type to think every little thing through. If he was he might actually win a few times.

-On the wedding itself, I'll be honest, that was a tricky thing to write since I don't go to a lot of weddings and I'm not sure about all the details. I based a lot of the things Bowser insisted on skipping over on something I read about Christian weddings. I don't know if Bowser or anyone in the Mushroom Kingdom is Christian, they probably have their own unexplored religions in that world, but I don't have anything official to base that on so I just went with the whole Christian wedding scenario. Hope I didn't get too much wrong. It wasn't supposed to be a proper wedding anyway. There were supposed to be several small scenes showing the wedding and the heroes trying to rush to stop it, but this didn't work as well in writing so I altered it. Don't think this really works better, but as long as I got it written.

So, I guess that's all the main points I can think of. I just wanted to get the first chapter of this arc out as soon as I could, I've got so much to do before Christmas if I want to live up to my promise of updating my other two stories. Hopefully things will work out. I'm actually kinda disappointed that I have to take a break from this story now, it was just getting really fun to write, but I guess it's not a very big deal. Gotta think about priorities. I'm just hoping this story doesn't get deleted. It's actually been happening a lot lately I notice, a whole bunch of stories are getting taken down for violating even the smallest and most insignificant rules that no one even pays attention too except the really super attentative people, and the people who report stories to be taken down are just jerks who don't warn you and really don't have anything better to do with their lives than getting other peoples stories taken down. Honestly, I don't see anyone complaining about all the stories about musicians and bands over in the X-overs section, but stories that allow OC submission and whatever are being taken down. I'm particularly sore about this at the moment because my favourite story, P-nuts protectors, was unexpectedly taken down without notice. It's one of Supah-Toon's stories, and he's REALLY not happy about it. Neither am I! And he doesn't know whether he'll be able to recover any of it to repost it without the whole oc submission thing. Sad, isn't it. Well, I've gone on long enough. Hope you all enjoy the chapter, see you next update.