Otherworldly Infection

Themes for this chapter: Vengeance is Mine (When a City Dies), Hell on Earth, Almost Dead.

Exit light...enter night...take my hand. We're off to Never Neverland!
-Enter Sandman, Metallica

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Chapter Six: Enter The Mushroom King and Queen

Hell had broken loose in the center of the Mushroom Kingdom. Toad Town, the capital city of the kingdom, screamed for their lives as a Toad ran into the small city yelling for a lock down of the town. "There's a MONSTER outside of town and he's huge!! And h-h-h-he..." the Toad suddenly threw up a large amount of blood and fainted dead away. No one had noticed a large bite mark on his arm. Everyone was too hysterical and panic ridden to care.

Toads of all shapes and sizes scattered and dashed right for their homes. The guards of the doors protecting the town quickly made a mad dash to seal the town up. A single Toad, who was in charge of reporting problems from town to the princess, charged to the castle as fast as his small feet could take him. It was lucky that the Mario Brothers were at the castle, helping Princess Peach and Sir Ike plan their wedding. With that in mind, the Toad felt much more at ease.

The Mario Brothers were the heroes everyone loved. Never once did they fail to save Peach or stop a disaster from happening.

While the messenger was away, the guards finished sealing all the heavy doors to town. The train station was closed and the scheduled run was canceled. There was much grumbling until the emergency lock down was made known to everyone. Then there was more panic and much more dashing towards the safety of their homes.

When the streets were deserted, except for a few door guards, a medic Toad approached the fainted Toad who had caused the ruckus in the first place. The Toad appeared to be sweating too much, even though the evening air was cool. The Medic mopped the sweat off and examined the fainted Toad carefully.

That's when he saw the massive bite mark. The Medic paled when he saw the pattern of the teeth marks. The marks stuck out everywhere. The attacker had to have very crooked teeth. No monster had ever had THAT crazy teeth before.

But while the Medic was too busy pondering over such a trivial matter, the fainted Toad groaned and hissed. His whole skin faded into a gray and sickly look and his fingernails sprouted claws. The Medic barely had time to react before the Toad slashed and just scraped his own arm.

"Oh my goodness!!" The Medic yelped. "Wh...what's happened to you?"

The Toad didn't respond, he just snarled at him. His once cheery eyes had faded into tiny, hollow pits of maniacal madness. The Medic Toad shuddered, torn between his duty and to run for his life. Unfortunately, his little dilemma cost him several precious seconds and the demonic Toad jumped on the Medic and began to tear open his throat. The Medic hardly had time to scream before his blood gushed up into the air like a geyser. The door guards grabbed their small spears for self defense and one had rushed forward to try and save the Medic Toad. The infected Toad turned around and jumped at the approaching guard, but landed on the outstretched spear with a sickening squelch.

"Mother of Mushrooms!!" the guard yelped. He threw his spear down and the infected zombie twitched and squirmed.

"We need our heroes..."

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"Mama Mia!!" Mario exclaimed when the messenger relayed all the information to Peach, Ike and the Mario Brothers. Daisy, who was visiting to help plan Peach's wedding and one of her bridesmaids, shirked away in fear. Luigi was hysterical and Ike and Peach were in conflict.

"Mario...I don't know if it's a good idea to send you out there..." Peach said.

"Princess, I've-a dealt with monsters, death and much worse before-a," Mario replied. "Remember when we-a fought Count Bleck? Me and-a Luigi and-a Bowser were sent to-a the Underwhere while you were-a in the Overthere. Nothing could-a be worse than that!"

"Mario..." Peach started. But Mario was already grabbing his brother and heading out. Luigi wasn't exactly a willing companion and he kept trying to claw his way out of his brother's grip.

"Hang on!" Daisy shouted and ran over to Luigi. She took his hat off and stroked his hair softly. "Luigi...please help him. Just be careful and if it gets too dangerous, just come back here." With that bit of reassurance ingrained in Luigi, his confidence got a bit better, but he was still shaking. Daisy replaced his cap and kissed Luigi on his cheek.

"I'll wait for you here, okay? Be careful."

"A-A-A-A-Alright, Daisy..." Luigi blushed. He stood up taller and walked out of the castle with Mario. Daisy looked longingly after Luigi and turned back to the throne. Peach smiled at her close friend.

"Do I hear wedding bells?" she teased.

"Only if you mean yours," Daisy retorted.

Ike chuckled. He had met Daisy a few days earlier after he had arrived in the Kingdom. She was different from Peach, and yet very alike at the same time. She was a good girl for Luigi. Peach was secretly planning for two weddings, even though Luigi hadn't popped the question to Daisy yet. But he had confided in Mario about his intentions and he had confided in Peach, who (of course) confided in Ike.

Oh romance! Ike felt like he was turning into a total sap, but at least he was a sap with a lovely bride.

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Mario and Luigi had split up and taken one half of the town each. It was a disaster...the infected Toad that had impaled itself was still moving around and causing a gruesome sight. Mario shuddered and thought, "This could be the sickest thing I've-a ever dealt with..."

The guards were still unharmed, which settled Mario's nerves a bit. He looked around and tried to find a way of putting the infected down for good. His eyes had settled on the Medic Toad, which the infected Toad was trying to eat but couldn't get close because the spear kept making it hard to kneel down and get close to the body. The sight would have been funny if it wasn't disturbing.

A guard came up to Mario. "Sir, the Medic has been dead for fifteen minutes now...we believe his head has been separated completely from his body. It might be best to figure out how to finish this one off..."

"Never!!" a hysterical Toad guard came running from Luigi's end of Toad Town with the green clad brother following him. "That's my brother! I won't let you kill him!"

"We don't have a-" The guard started to say when the ground began to shake. It stopped and then shook again. There was an ear splitting screech and something gray and blurry flew over the walls and landed in the town. The figure stood up and growled, his solid green eyes going from one person to another. It was Delta Nemesis.

Mario backed up and Luigi lost every shred of confidence he had earlier. The guards aimed their spears carefully, though they were shaking more than Luigi was. Delta Nemesis extended his blade and took all the guards down in one fell swish. The sounds of the dying Toads rose into the air and the blood flowed out until it touched Mario's shoes. The Mushroom Kingdom hero felt his rage increase and he cracked his knuckles.

"Stand-a back, Luigi!"

"Mario, noooooo!!" Luigi cried. But Mario didn't listen. He lept on Delta Nemesis and tried a stomp right on his head. Delta Nemesis roared in annoyance more than pain and he took a swung up with his blade. Mario jumped on the flat end and back flipped off the sword, sending it in motion to Delta's chest.

"I'll hold him off. Luigi, you-a must go! Tell Peach what's-a happened and get her to-a call for help!"

"M-M-M-Mario..." Luigi's teeth chattered. He backed away towards the castle direction, his eyes not leaving the terrifying monster.

Mario ran up and grabbed his brother. He began whirling around and around until he had enough momentum and threw Luigi in the direction of the castle. Luigi went flying but his gaze remained fixed down at Mario and the monster. Mario had turned back to Delta, rolled up his sleeves and got ready to make another jump. Delta growled and got ready to swing his sword again.

That was the last sight Luigi saw before he hit the castle window and landed in the throne room. The sudden impact and sick realization of everything that happened made Luigi dizzy and he passed out.

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I've rewritten the beginning so it has better description and wording. It's less awkward as well.

After more than half a year of being under hiatus, we're back! I plan to move ahead with the next chapter and keep going. Why? Cuz zombies are fun. :D

I know EXACTLY what happens next chapter. Now I just need to write it.

Until next chapter, keep infecting, folks!

-Moonlit Assassin and Delta Nemmy