A bright yellow light filled the room.

"Hmmm, interesting," said a Koopa in a white coat while taking notes. "Goomber, full power please."

The Goomba at the control panel turned the knob to "100%". Power Stars can't talk, but by the expression on it's face, you can easily tell what it wants to say. And the captured Power Star in the center of the room was begging for help.

I noticed that unlike the rest of my "dreams", my perspective was third-person. I could see everything from above. But I wasn't so sure these were dreams anymore.

"Wow. I've never seen a Power Star come to life before," Steve said. It was pretty weird seeing myself talk.

"That's because they need the correct amount of energy to revive," the Koopa scientist informed Steve.

Judging from the look on Steve's face, he wasn't just amazed by the Power Star; he felt sorry for it. He knew that even though people treated them as objects, they were alive. Collect 120! You won! But then what? What about the poor Stars? They have eyes and they talk (even with no mouth), so don't act like you didn't know they had life. Whoa! Wait...

I had started to think what Steve was thinking, I mean what I was now thinking because I was me again and- this was really confusing. I looked around. I wasn't above anymore. I looked at the Power Star. It was right in front of me.

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I woke up. I knew how to get out.

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2 hours earlier

"Mario?!?" I asked, not believing an ounce of his story. "Mario The Great?!? How-no, this can't be possible. Why should I believe a thief like you?"

I realized my mistake at once. Bowser Jr. took it as an insult.

"Thief?!?" Bowser scoffed, "If only you had been alive 100 years ago, you would know that I'm the descendant of Bowser the First, King of Bowser's Badlands." It looked like for a moment, Bowser was going to cry. But he regained the serious look on his face.

"Boy, have you been having weird dreams lately?" Bowser asked, with a suspicious tone in his voice.

I didn't know if I could trust him anymore. I turned around and saw John looking nervously at Bowser. He shot me a quick glance, as if to say "Don't!".

"I-no," I lied, not knowing what else to do.

Bowser eyed me carefully, then said, "You know, Steve, I don't think you really understand the situation yet."

He slowly got a bit closer to me. Then he took his hand out from under his robe. It had an electronic collar with some buttons. He got even closer. "I'm not the good guy."

He quickly pushed one of the buttons. I heard, "Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!", then nothing. I turned around. John was gone, and where his chair should have been, was a hole.

"Hey! He didn't do anything!" I shouted at Bowser.

Bowser looked at me as if nothing had happened. He then said, "Yes, he did."

A wicked smile formed on his face. "He chose a bad friend."

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"Look at them go!" the announcers exclaimed.

The racers zoomed past the finish line, entering the final lap. The red car, driverr #1, was in second place, trying to catch up to the first place car, driverr #3, who was in a purple car.

Lakitu was supposed to show the "Final Lap" card, but was too busy helping car #6 out of a pit. The course was DK Mountain, and the race was fast and frantic, like always.

"Now car #1 and #3 are tied, in a fierce battle for first," the announcer said to the eager crowd. Someone in the crowd didn't seem as eager as the rest.

The red capped driver in car #1 decided to use his last item, a mushroom, to gain a little advantage. The drivers finally approached the hill leading to the giant barrel. After drifting on the last turn and gaining some speed, car #1 was the first one to get to the barrel cannon.

"Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" the driver screamed as he was launched at an amazing speed of 130 MPH, and readied himself for the impact. Car #3 was right behind.

They landed on the rocky mountain below. The mustachioed driver of car #1 looked back and saw driver #3 approaching. His only chance of keeping the distance between him and #3 was the item box a few meters away. He drove through it and saw the item roulette on his display start spinning. It started slowing on a mushroom...but landed on a banana. He sighed. 1st placers never got good items. But he could still use it if he was skilled enough.

They approached the sharp turn with a hole in the center and boulders coming down from the mountain. This was his chance. If he could make #3 fall into the pit, he'd win for sure. He was adjusting his aim when suddenly-

BOOM!

They were hit by thunder! Driver #1 automatically lost control, dropped his precious banana and shrunk to 1/3 his original size.

"Hm!" he grunted angrily, but it just came out as a squeak. But he shouted with joy at what he saw behind him. The spinning effect of the thunder made his opponent in car #3 fall into the hole!

"Yahoo!" driver #1 squeaked happily. He was approaching the bridge, and regained his size. He was sure of his victory, but lost a bit of his hopes when he heard behind him a normally happy tune that meant terror to other racers. The star tune. Driver #3 had unluckily encountered one on the field when the rest of the racers dropped their items.

"Wa-ha-ha!" racer #3 shouted, announcing to driver #1 his soon-to-be defeat. Driver #1 tried to get away from the invincible power of the star, but driver #3 was just too fast. He got run over.

The star's power ran out just after flipping driver#1, but it was enough to get seconds ahead.

Driver #1 was recovering from the flip, and decided he had to use the final trick up his sleeve. It was difficult but necessary. He had to defeat driver #3 with the last crappy item he was about to get. Luckily, he could still see him ahead. Driver #3 picked up an item. He dropped the Fake Item Box behind him, not caring much about it. Driver #1 easily dodged it and grabbed an item as well.

The roulette spun once more, and driver #1 waited impatiently for the roulette to stop. His final chance, his final item was...a green shell! Driver #1 groaned, knowing how hard it is to hit someone with a green shell.

Driver #3 laughed, knowing the other drivers had no chance of catching up. Driver #1 tried to aim as best as he could, and fired the green shell, his last opportunity at winning.

The green shell missed driver #3 by a few inches. He was surprised, but glad it had missed him. The finish line was 50 feet away.

Driver #1 smiled. He hadn't missed.

KABOOM!

It turns out he wasn't aiming at driver #3, but at a Bob-omb someone dropped on the field a few feet away. Blown away by the amazing power of the Bob-omb, driver #3 was out of the race. Driver #1, Mario, had won.

"Yay!" the whole crowd cheered. They went to congratulate the Mario Kart Grand Prix Champion. Mario held the cup, with a golden star, above his head so everyone could see. Everyone could see the joy on his face.

Waluigi, driver #3, angrily got out of his kart. He had been so close. Every year, he lost to that "stupid plumber". He was so angry, he wouldn't be satisfied until he got revenge. He took out a wrench from under the seat. "Take this!" he shouted. With his good eye, Mario saw Waluigi about to throw the wrench. Mario quickly jumped and countered with a fireball. Waluigi saw the fireball and ducked.

Big mistake. Every racer knows that their karts have special protection so their kart doesn't get badly damaged with the crashes, items, and falls. They also know that these defenses are turned off after the race.

The fireball hit Waluigi's kart, and it quickly caught on fire. Waluigi turned around and saw his kart in flames. He got up to run, but it was too late.

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"To the dungeon!" Bowser commanded his guards. The guards grabbed me and took me to the other side of the room.

"Hey, let go!" I cried, and tried to free myself.

"Alright, you wanna do it the hard way?" Bowser asked. "Guards! Reunite him with his little friend."

"Wait, what?" Before anyone could answer, the guards threw me down the hole where John's chair had been.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh-oof!" I screamed as I fell into the dark hole. The fall wasn't that long, but long enough for John to see me falling and move out of the way. I hit the cold floor hard, and my arms throbbed with pain.

"Gaaaooww..." I moaned. It was also long enough to really hurt.

"You alright?" John asked, helping me up.

"Not really, but it'll pass," I answered, wiping blood off my face. It was a miracle I could stay standing.

Looking around, I remember some movies, specifically Koopaladdin. There were chains hanging from the ceiling, with wrist straps for "special" prisoners. There was a skeleton in the form of a Koopa on the floor with its hands missing. I looked up. There they were, hanging from the straps. I shuddered. If this is how they treat their own troops, I wondered what they'd do to us.

"WHOA!" John shouted from behind me. I looked at the skeleton. It looked back.

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with that last sentence?

I looked at the skeleton. It looked back. That's it.

"Oh my God, it's alive!" John shouted terrified. Looks like it wasn't a Koopa skeleton. It was a Dry Bones.

We heard a voice coming from above. "Have fun! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!" It was Bowser. He then shut the trapdoor-the only source of light.

"No!" I screamed. "That son-of-a-"

"Don't worry Steve, I still got my clip on flashlight," John said.

"Uuhhhhhhh..." a creepy voice coming from the other side of the room moaned. Dry Bones was slowly approaching us.

"Come on! Turn it on!" I yelled for John to hurry.

"Wait, I can't find the stupid button!" he said.

Judging by the footsteps, Dry Bones was now pretty close.

And knowing John, he wasn't next to me anymore. He was probably hiding from danger, as always.

It was just me and Dry Bones. In total darkness.

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The explosion was a horrible sight. People were running here and there, in what was supposed to be a happy event. The 16th annual Mario Kart Grand Prix was ruined.

What was even more horrible, was what happened to Waluigi. After his kart caught on fire, it blew up before Waluigi could get to safety. He was consumed by the fire, his flesh quickly blackening. His clothes caught on fire too, and he fell to the floor.

The paramedics tried to help. They couldn't. He was too badly burned. No one could do anything anymore.

Mario watched in terror. Waluigi was screaming, not being able to stand the pain. Mario tried to help, but couldn't do much. He got away from Waluigi. He covered his eyes with his hands as tears slowly formed on them. Waluigi was suffering, and it was all his fault. Suddenly, the screaming stopped. Mario was surprised and turned around.

What he saw made him cry even more.

Waluigi was dead.

And Mario had killed him.

I know that the last part is kinda cruel, but it's part of the story. The beginning is also a bit cofusing, but this chapter and the beginning of the next chapter are part of a flashback, as indicated by the "2 hours earlier". You'll understand by the end of chapter 4. As you can see, chapters are slowly getting longer. Chapter 4 will probably be twice chapter 3's length. Please review!