Toad is currently in Toadette's care until his head heals. Mario and the others are heading to the lair of Dark Mario to attempt to stop him. Peach, Daisy, Wario, Waluigi and Toadsworth are all imprisoned by Dark Mario and Black Yoshi.?
Toad woke up from his nap. Toadette had taken good care of him while he was hurt, but his head had felt good when he woke up. He knew time was of the essence! He needed to hit the road to meet up with Mario and the others.
"Toadette, I hate to tell you this but I need to go now. I feel fine now and I really need to meet up with the Mario Brothers, if I can find them" said Toad.
"I understand Toad. But promise me that you will come back!" said Toadette.
"You bet!" said Toad. "I will return and we will have some more of that pie!"
Toadette grabbed Toad and kissed him on the lips.
"That is for good luck!" said Toadette.
"Wow!" said Toad as he waved and walked out the door. All Toadette could do was laugh as she watched Toad walk down the road. Toad probably stayed on the path for two hours, and walked for that long. It wouldn't be much longer before a Mushroom van would drive up right behind him.
"Hey is that Toad?" said Luigi, who was in the driver's seat.
"I think it is!" said Mario.
Luigi slowed the van down and rolled down the window. "Hey Toad! Do you need a lift?" said Luigi.
"Sure do!" said Toad as he climbed into the van.
"Where are the princesses?" said Luigi.
A lump came to Toad's throat as he was reminded of the night before when he got whacked in the head by the bounty hunters. "A couple of Bowser's bounty hunters came and kidnapped them. I tried to save them, honest! But they whacked me in the head!" said Toad.
"Drat! Now they have the princesses too!" said Mario.
"Don't sweat it Toad, we know you tried" said Luigi.
"I am very sorry, still" said Toad. "Where are we headed now?"
"To Dark Mario's castle!" said Mario.
Tuigi had unbuckled his seatbelt and moved up to sit by Toad. Yoshi was watching him, but he fell asleep.
"Hi!" said Tuigi.
"Uh Luigi! Who's the look-alike?" said Toad.
"Long story" said Luigi. "Let's just say, Dr Toadsworth's machines are still on top of their game!"
"Oh I see!" said Toad.
"He (referring to the clone) has been a pain in the butt ever since!" said Mario.
"I want to go catch that bumble bee!" said Tuigi.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" said Mario and Luigi together.
"Okay!" said Tuigi.
Dark Mario's plan is going as planned. Dark Mario was expecting the Mario Brothers to appear at any time. He still needed to keep Bowser around. He would be a great asset until he didn't need him anymore. Bowser enters a room where Dark Mario is sitting, he is continuing to piece his plan together.
"So Dark Mario, what is our next step?" said Bowser.
"We wait for the Mario Brothers?" said Dark Mario. "The capture of the princesses was a huge success and my means for the bait! I couldn't count on Mario to come after the Wario bros and the professor, but I can bank on them coming after the princesses. It is here where I will set the trap, and they will not know what hit them!"
"Great plan Dark Mario, but be mindful of the fact that I have set traps for him for years and he has evaded them everytime!" said Bowser.
Dark Mario begins to laugh. "Bowser, I've seen your idea of a trap! It's ammature!" said Dark Mario. "A giant tortes could get through you're traps!"
Bowser's face gave off an annoyed expression, but he figured that he was right.
"But I am going to show you how to do it, since you obviously don't know!" said Dark Mario.
Bowser gets angry again and makes a fist.
"Surely stupidity is fixable" added Dark Mario.
Bowser raises up his fist as if he is about to punch Dark Mario.
"Go ahead and try it you over grown turtle!" said Dark Mario. "You know I can beat you so if I were you, I'd suck it up and live with the truth!"
Bowser's fist loosened up and his arm lowered. "Darn it! He has a point again!" thought Bowser.
Bowser had a sudden feeling that things were not going as well as he had initially planned. More powerful or not, Bowser wasn't going to let him double cross him. He would keep an extra special eye on him until it was all over to ensure that he got his way as well.
Mario and the gang continued to drive full speed ahead to Dark Mario's castle. It was a longer drive than they initially thought. Mario was now driving because of his driving skills he had learned while training with a racing specialist. Just then the bounty hunters showed up in their Mushroom car chasing the Mario gang. Rod was the one driving and he rammed into the back of the Mushroom van.
"Oh so you want to play rough, huh?" said Mario. Mario hit the brakes and then hit the accelerator hard. He was now chasing them. "This move is called the bump and run!"
Mario drove up to the right rear quarter panel of the mushroom car and turned the steering wheel hard left, sending the mushroom car spinning. However Rod was able to save the car and continue persuit.
"He's coming back Mario and he looks angry!" said Luigi.
"Hit the brakes right in front of them!" said Tuigi!
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Are you stupid? Wait don't answer that!" said Yoshi.
"There has got to be something we can do to get rid of them" said Toad.
"Don't worry, I have another idea!" said Mario.
Rod drove the mushroom car to the side of the Mushroom van and had Reel get on top of the car to try to get on the van. Mario saw a huge rock that looked like a ramp coming up, so he slammed the side of the van into the car to keep Rod and Reel in line to hit the ramp rock.
"Reel, get back in here! We can't fight a van!" said Rod. "This is going to hurt, a lot!"
"Oooooh Noooooooo" said Reel as the car went up the ramp and flew into a huge canyon, sending the bounty hunters on a wild and painful ride to the bottom.
Mario stopped the van to take a breather after their brush with danger.
"Who were those guys?" said Luigi.
"Bounty Hunters, the ones that took Peach and Daisy, not to mention knocked me out in the process!" said Toad.
"Well they sure won't be taking anyone for a while" said Mario as he looked down the canyon.
"Can I jump down there?" said Tuigi.
"Be my guest" said Yoshi, but then he covered his mouth. "No, do not jump down there! Do NOT!"
"Tuigi, why don't you go back in the van" said Luigi. "I'll bring you an apple when we get back in the van."
"You really care about that goofy clone don't you Luigi?" said Toad.
"Yeah, he's like the son that I never had!" said Luigi.
Yoshi just rolled his eyes. "He's a clone!" he said to Luigi.
"He is also kind of a part of me!" said Luigi. "He may not be the smartest guy, but he's my new little buddy!"
"I hate to break up this argument but we have to be somewhere as soon as we possibly can!" said Mario.
"I don't know, Mario this just keeps sounding like some kind of a trap to me!" said Luigi.
"I don't care if it's Toad's mean cousin's birthday party! We have to save the princesses, and whoever else Dark Mario has!" said Mario.
"I have a mean cousin?" said Toad.
"Todd" said Yoshi.
"Oh yeah, I don't like Todd!" said Toad. "He stole my marbles when we were kids!"
Mario made some hand signals to get back into the van, so they could get a move on.
Meanwhile the bounty hunters did manage to survive the fall, but their car didn't.
"Aaaaaaaaaw! I didn't get Koopas Insurance yet!" said Rod. "Oh well, we managed to keep the Mario brothers headed into the boss's trap, and that's the main thing."
"Yeah, but how are we getting back?" said Reel.
"The old fashioned way!" said Rod.
"You mean we have to… walk?" said Reel.
"Don't be ridiculous!" We'll hitchhike!" said Rod.
"That sounds good!" said Reel.
WE ARE KOOPAS! DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM!
"What was that?" said Reel.
"The Koopas Insurance jingle" said Rod.
With that comical Koopas Insurance Jingle out of the way, it appears that Mario isn't about to let the possibility of this being a trap stop him. Next stop, Dark Mario's castle!