Thank you to the one person that reviewed my fanfic. It meant a lot to me. :) I hope next time you log in so I can reply to you and you can follow it and stuff. :D

P.S. All the characters in Mario Kart Wii are going to appear sometime in this story. Since there are a few baby characters in it, I decided to make them a different character instead of being the baby form of other characters. Because they are a different character, they have a different name. I also edited a few of their appearances to fit the storyline better.

Disclaimer Mario Kart Wii and all its characters belong to Nintendo

Chapter 2

The Next Generation

The wind rushed through Berry's blond hair as she sped up on her motorcycle. She did a trick in the air as she went off a ramp then made a tight turn to pass the finish line.

"That was amazing, my angel," congratulated Mario as he rushed up to her and plucked her off her motorcycle to spin her around in his arms.

"Thanks, daddy. With how well I did, I'm sure to win the Ultimate Mario Cup," she squealed.

"Well, this was only a trial run, so when you are actually on the track, it will be much harder. Remember to avoid objects on the ground, okay?"

She grinned widely as she declared, "Except mushrooms and stars."

"Even those can cause problems for you sometimes."

"I can handle it," she said as she waved off his worries.

"For a seven year old, you are quite the prodigy."

Berry's grin widened as he put her down. That's when they heard a crash. They ran over to the side of the road where it turned tightly to find Martin's kart banged up and him lying beside it as he rubbed his head.

"I'm okay, daddy," assured Martin as he smiled up at Mario.

Mario frowned at him as he shook his head. He walked over to his son to pull him to his feet.

"Martin, maybe you shouldn't compete in the Cup. You'll get hurt doing it," he sighed.

"But Berry is. I'll be fine," he argued.

"But Berry is two years older than you. She is more experienced. You're probably going to be the youngest contestant by far."

Martin crossed his arms as he said, "I don't care. I've been training for a Mario Kart Cup since I was capable of walking and I'm finally old enough to compete. I'm going."

"Don't worry, daddy. I'll look out for him and I'm sure once he's out on the track, the racing will just come to him. After all, we are your kids and you're the greatest Mario Kart racer ever," assured Berry with a big smile.

"That is true. Very well. You can both compete in the Ultimate Mario Cup, but don't slow Berry down, Martin. You both better give it your all."

Berry and Martin cheered as they jumped up and down together.

*BREAK*BREAK*BREAK*

"Ready, Luigi?" asked Mario as he leaned against a doorpost.

"Yep," replied Luigi as he closed his suitcase.

"Excellent. Do you want a servant to carry your suitcase?"

"No. I'm fine carrying it myself."

Mario shrugged his shoulders as he said, "Suit yourself."

They left the room to walk through the halls. Every time someone saw Mario, they bowed and greeted him respectively as he passed.

"Don't you ever get tired of that?" inquired Luigi after a couple dozen people had greeted Mario.

"Not really. I barely notice it now. Besides, I don't mind them knowing how amazing I am."

Luigi rolled his eyes. His brother was being egotistical, as per the usual. Mario named almost everything after himself. He named his kart racing, at least a dozen tracks, and even his son all after himself. Martin would have been named "Mario Junior" if it wasn't for the fact Peach came up with the name "Martin", which was a form of the name "Mario".

They walked into the throne room where Queen Peach was sitting on her throne with Berry perched on her lap. They looked a lot alike. They had the same blond hair and hazel-blue eyes. Only Berry's blond hair only came to her ears while Peach's ran all the way down her back. They both wore a gold crown adorning jewels of rubies and sapphires, but Berry's was less grand and smaller for it was the Crown of the Heir while Peach's was the Crown of the Ruling. They even wore matching pink gowns.

Martin sat in front of them wearing a white blouse, blue leggings, a red vest, and brown boots. He was the spitting image of Mario except he had his mother's eyes. He even wore Mario's old hat that had been given to him by Mario. He had given it to him since he no longer wore it because he now wore the Crown of the Spouse and he felt that since Berry was going to become the next Queen of the Mushroom Kingdom, then Martin should become the next Mario.

"Well, we're off," announced King Mario.

"Daddy, we'll miss you," his children declared as they ran up to him to give their father a hug.

"Let me come with you," begged Princess Berry.

"Me too!" whined Prince Martin.

He hugged and gave each of them a kiss on the cheek. "No. It's just for me and your uncle to do. You can't go, too." They pouted as he went to his wife and kissed her, too. "I'll return soon, my Queen."

"As you always do, my King," she assured him.

He waved them goodbye as he left with his brother, not noticing the frown on his face that had formed as he saw how he had everything and him, nothing. He wished he had what his brother had; a loving wife and beautiful, healthy children. It didn't seem like too much to ask for, but he could never seem to find the one for him while Mario easily found her.

Everything came easy to Mario and he obviously took them for granted. No matter where Mario went, he created a giant shadow behind him. No one ever noticed the brother of him. The only reason his family could break from his shadow was because they were of royal blood, so they had to be noticed. Luigi had no such thing.

They had been born to poor hatters who were killed early on in their lives, causing them to live on the streets with four other orphans by the names of Wario, Waluigi, Yoshi, and Birdo. The only reason Mario had become king was because a princess had noticed him, which it's hard not to notice Mario. Luigi thought he had met his one and only once, but she vanished into thin air after seeing her just once in his life. But that one time had been everything to Luigi.

"Looking at the potential tracks is one of my favorite parts," smiled Mario with satisfaction.

"Is Yoshi or Toad joining us this time?" Luigi requested.

"No. Yoshi is too busy planning a wedding with Birdo and Toad wants to be surprised this year, so he's not looking at any tracks."

"Didn't they both make one for the Cup?"

"Toad did. Yoshi just fixed up one from last year's Cup. For this Cup, I want some fixed up tracks as well as new ones to make it a mix of old and new."

"Fixed up tracks? You've never done that before. It's an interesting idea. Did you fix up any?"

"Yeah. I fixed up all my Mario Circuits and my Mario Raceway for the Cup as well as made a new Mario Circuit."

"How original," Luigi commented sarcastically.

Mario rolled his eyes as he said, "You're the one that calls all of their tracks Luigi's Circuit after knocking the name off of me."

"Correction. You name them. I don't care what they are called."

"Whatever."

They exited the castle and went into the royal limousine that was waiting for them out front. As soon as they were seated comfortably in the car, the driver began to drive down the road.

"Where to first?" Luigi asked.

"I want to show you something before we officially start looking at tracks," Mario smiled secretively.

Luigi simply raised an eyebrow at his brother.

*BREAK*BREAK*BREAK*

"Cows? You wanted to show me cows?" Luigi inquired with a raised eyebrow.

In fact, there were at least a dozen cows roaming around freely everywhere on a dirt track.

"I call it Mario Meadows. Do you like it? It's a present to Berry for entering her first Mario Kart Cup," announced Mario proudly.

"Does she like cows?"

"Cows are her favorite animal, so I had it specially made for her."

"Then she'll love it, but I think you should change its name."

It was Mario's turn to raise an eyebrow as he asked, "To what?"

"How about Moo Moo Meadows?" Luigi said as he tilted his head to the side.

"And you think that is better than Mario Meadows?"

"Yes. And 'moo' also starts with 'M', too."

"Fine. Have it your way," he replied as he threw his arms up before starting to make his way back to the car.

"Isn't Martin entering this year, too? Did you make a track for him, too?"

"Yeah. I fixed up Sherbet Land for him."

"How come Martin gets a fixed up track while Berry gets a brand new one?"

"Because Martin likes penguins and I already had a penguin track, so I didn't see a point in making a new one when I already had one."

*BREAK*BREAK*BREAK*

The sun was beginning to set when they made it to the last track they were going to put into consideration. They had been gone from their family for an entire month. The Sarasaland Kingdom was the farthest possible place from The Mushroom Kingdom. They seldom traveled there because of its distance. Really the only time they went there was for the tracks. Once to look at them and another to actually compete on them. There was usually quite a few there since the Queen of Sarasaland was friends with Queen Peach.

"This is the last one. What do you think of it, Luigi?" requested Mario.

Luigi glanced around the track. It had an elegantly paved road that looped around statues. One statues was of two children, one boy and one girl, about the same age as Berry, dancing with each other. The other statue was of a woman wearing the Crown of the Ruling and the same children were holding each of her hands. That was when he noticed the boy in the statues was wearing the Crown of the Heir. They must be her children. There was something about the woman that seemed extremely familiar to him.

"This track is beautiful. Has this person made a track for us before?" Luigi requested.

"Yeah. The Queen made a track for us in the Cup four years ago, too. It was a dazzling cruise ship. Why?" responded Mario.

"She looks familiar. That's all. Has she competed before?"

"Nah. She's never competed. You probably met her once or twice through Peach since they're friends. In fact, I believe she was at our wedding. The maid-of-honor, now that I think about it."

Luigi's eyes widened as recognition hit him. She couldn't be the same girl he met that day that was engraved into his mind, could she? A strong gust of wind whipped around them at that moment, knocking Luigi's hat right off his head. Mario's crown didn't budge since a royal crown only came off in death or by that person's own will.

"Ah! My hat!" shrieked Luigi as he ran after it.

"Why do you still even wear that ragged old thing?" requested Mario as he watched him with a raised eyebrow.

Luigi's hat landed in front of a little girl. She had ruffled dark red hair to her shoulders that curled at the ends and was wearing green overalls. She looked only to be about six or seven. She leaned down and picked up his hat. She handed it to him while looking at him with her big silvery-blue eyes, the same color as his eyes.

"That's such a pretty hat. You must really love it," she grinned with missing teeth.

"Yeah. I do," Luigi replied breathlessly while staring back at her in awe.

"Hey, little girl. Are you competing in the Ultimate Mario Cup this year?" requested Mario as he jaunted up to them.

"No. I want to, but my mom won't let me," she pouted and shook her head.

"Not this again, Lily," sighed a woman.

Luigi and Mario turned around to see the woman from the statue walking up to them. She had the same dark red hair as the little girl, Lily, and a yellow gown. Just like the stature, she wore the Crown of the Ruling, except instead of being made of stone, her crown was made of gold with jewels of topaz and pietersite.

A little boy with neat brown hair and the same dark blue eyes as her was holding her hand. He wore the Sarasaland Crown of the Heir, along with a blue blouse, a yellow vest, orange leggings, and expensive looking blue shoes. That was when Luigi realized the little boy and girl were both from the statues, too. He should have known the girl was royalty even though she wasn't dressed like it since she wore topaz and pietersite earrings in each ear, the royalty symbol jewels of Sarasaland.

"Queen Daisy, a pleasure to see you again. I haven't seen you in awhile. Are you going to compete this year?" requested Mario.

Daisy laughed as she said, "Do you ask that to everything that breathes? I'm not going to compete."

"Why not? This is the second year you sponsor a track for us, but refuse to enter yourself."

"It's just not my thing. Besides, if I went, who would look after my children?"

"We could come with you and compete, too," begged Lily as she rushed up to her mother and tugged on her dress.

"Racing isn't really my thing either, but I wouldn't mind it," said the little boy.

Daisy laughed again as she said, "It looks like everyone is against me. I will think about it."

"Yes," Lily cheered before dragging her smiling brother down the street after her.

"Looks like my work here is done. Come on, Luigi," said Mario as he walked away with a grin on his own face.

Luigi hesitated as he looked at Daisy and then glanced at her children that were giggling and playing down the track.

"Your children are beautiful," he complimented.

"Thank you. Their names are Louis and Lily. They are both seven years old. They're twins."

He glanced at them again. "If you don't mind me asking this, where's their dad? I noticed you didn't make any statues of him. I'm sorry if this question upsets you. I really shouldn't be asking it at all."

She looked sad for a moment before she replied, "Louis and Lily never met their dad."

"Is he dead?"

"No. They've just never met him. They're father doesn't even know they exist. I've never been sure how to tell him about them. I don't think he will hate them. I just don't know how to say it and I feel like it's too late to tell him."

"It's never too late to tell him," responded Luigi compassionately.

She smiled sadly. "Perhaps. Did you know I named Louis after his dad? The father isn't named Louis, though. Louis is a form of his name."

"Really? Louis is a form of my name."

Daisy's expression turned blank as she said, "I know" before she turned and ran off to her children, telling them it was getting late and they better be getting home.

Just so you know, Berry is Baby Peach, Martin is Baby Mario, Lily is Baby Daisy, and Louis is Baby Luigi. As you can see, I edited a few of their appearances to fit the storyline better. I believe there is only one other character I edited the appearance of. (Besides the whole creature to human thing) I hope you are enjoying this so far. :)

P.S. I'm ignoring the fact that the DS version of Mario Kart was the first to put old tracks in a new game and also I'm ignoring the existence of Moo Moo Farm along with the fact Daisy was in Mario Kart: Double Dash. Shhhhh. Lol (Remember I did say that I was editing a few things to fit the storyline better, right?)

~Camille Cayden