Mario was so high that he could see the entire Mushroom Kingdom from where he was, but now Mario was falling back toward his house. He crashed into the pipe on the roof and fell through the house. A Toad opened the door, and said to Mario, "Hey, Mario. Most people use a door to enter their houses! Anyways, I'm here to pick up Princess Toadstool since she's running late." He then left the house.

Mario picked himself up among the debris and went outside. He'll tidy up later. The toad was looking around, and said, "Where's the princess? I thought she was with you?" Mario tried to avoid eye contact. "Mario, what's with the silent treatment?" Toad groaned. "It's the princess, isn't it? Mario, could you save her like you always do?"

"Sure." Mario grumbled. "As if I don't have enough to do around here…"

Mario arrived at the familiar outlook to Bowser's Keep, but this time, a giant sword was impaled through the roof. "Cute trick, Bowser, but it's not gonna stop me from saving the princess!" Mario crossed the bridge to the keep again ready to barge in like last time when he was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.

"Halt! Who goes there?" Mario looked around, but couldn't locate the source of the voice. "An intruder!" Mario looked up, and saw that the sword was doing the talking.

"What? A talking sword?" Mario said astonished.

"This castle belongs to us, the Smithy Gang!"

"Who?"

Ignoring him, the sword continued, "It's our first step toward taking over this world!"

"Tough luck, buddy. I don't know if Bowser put you up to this, but I'm saving the Princess!"

The sword laughed. "Funny, we'd practically OWN this world if it weren't for nosy characters like you! So let's see you deal with this!" The sword was causing an earthquake that was causing the bridge to crumble. Mario started running, but the bridge was crumbling faster. As pieces of the bridge were falling, Mario jumped on top of the falling pieced until he jumped to the top of the hill on the other side. Seeing that the bridge was out, and there was no way to get across, Mario said to himself, "Today's not my day, is it?" he said as went back home.

Mario went back to his house to see that the debris was being cleaned up by Toad. "Oh, Mario, you're back already? Did you forget anything?" Mario told him what happened at Vista Hill. "So, the bridge is out? Just wonderful… Don't just stand there, we have to inform the Chancellor at once! Let's go!"

Mario walked out the door and started down Mushroom Way, as Toad came running back and hit Mario square in the face. "Oops, excuse me. Ooh, that was a nasty bump you got there. Here, one of Mushroom Kingdom's famous items will perk you up!" Toad handed Mario a mushroom.

"Thanks." Mario started nibbling on the mushroom. The day was looking up already.

"Umm… now why did I come rushing back? I had something to tell you…"

"Hey, mushroom-head! I'm not done with you!" A Goomba came out of the bushes.

"Ack! Now I remember! Mushroom Way is swarming with monsters! Probably because of the earthquake at the castle!" Toad hid behind Mario. "Mario, please do something? Do you know about timed hits?"

Mario scoffed. "Yeah, I know about timed hits."

Toad yelled back, "You hear that? He knows about timed hits! He's gonna punch your lights out!"

"Uh, no worries, my red brotha'. We cool here. Right bro? Yeah?" The goomba ran off.

"Heh, he's got more bark than bite, huh? Now, why else did I run back?"

"Um, the Chancellor?" Mario reminded him.

"That's right! We've got to tell the Chancellor about the Princess! Let's go!" Mario ran after him. Toad was right. Mushroom Way was filled with Goombas and Sky Troopas. Mario dodged some of them when he saw a gang of Goombas pestering Toad.

"Ha ha! Where's yo' red friend now?"

"We got ya this time!" Mario jumped on one of them which shocked the other two. "'Ey! The red dude's here!"

"Come on, we can take 'im!" Mario kicked the first one away and then jumped on the other one.

"Gee, thanks Mario! Come on, let's go!" Toad ran ahead.

Mario called out, "Wait for me!" Mario dodged more enemies as he ran after Toad.

"Hey, you!" Mario looked up to see a Lakitu. "What are you doing here?"

"Just passing through, you didn't happen to see a Toad run past?"

"Oh, he was running down the Hammer Bros.' path."

Mario cringed. "Well, thanks for the help."

"Yeah, no problem. I just got separated from the Koopa Troop, so without Lord Bowser's orders, I'm at a loss as for what to do." The Lakitu floated away throwing Spiny eggs as he left. Mario wisely started down the Hammer Bros.' pathway. He hadn't gone far when he heard, "Hey, you!"

Mario looked to see a pair of Hammer Bros. with one holding onto Toad. "You lookin' at us?"

"My hammer and I don't like you!"

Toad yelled, "Be careful! They've defiantly got a mean streak!"

Mario tried to be reasonable and asked, "Come on, he wasn't doing anything wrong, so just let him go and we'll go on our way."

The second Hammer Bro. yelled, "Now ya got mah hammer angry! You shouldn't 'ave done that!"

"This is our path and we don't like trespassers! Let's show them what exactly we do to trespassers!" They then started throwing enough hammers to blot out the sun. Mario shielded himself from the rain of hammers and then he jumped as high as he could and dropped on top of the Hammer Bro.'s head. The first guy fell as the other one started battering Mario with his hammer. When Mario got an opening he punched him in the chest. Both Hammer Bros. retreated into the forest."

"Phew, I saw my life flashing before my eyes!" Toad said. "Hey, look at this!" Toad pointed out a hammer with another hammer and a helmet engraved on it. "They must've dropped it when they ran away! You should take it! No one will stand a chance when you whomp 'em with this! It has the Hammer Bros. insignia on it. Do you think they'll go looking for it?"

"Na." Mario replied. "They've got plenty, I doubt they'll miss this one." Mario swung it around. "It might come in handy!"

"Oh, okay. Well, Mushroom Kingdom is just ahead! We're almost there!" Toad went running ahead as Mario followed close behind.