"Send this message to Bowser for me then. Tell him when we come for him, he'll be turtle soup when it's all said and done." The recording then turned to static as Bowser turned the recorder off. Bowser sat in his throne room with an annoyed expression on his face, realizing there were a couple of pests he would have to deal with before his final steps of his plan could be realized. Bowser ordered one of his troops to grab him a glass of water, and then turned his attention to the Koopa who gave him the recorder.
"Whoever, these people are," Bowser said with a fist clenched together in anger. "Will not be allowed to stop me. I have invested too much time in this plan and I will not allow it to be undone by a couple of rag tag warriors. Do you we have any Intel on them?" The other Koopa came back with the glass of water, and Bowser proceeded to drink from it.
"Not much intel." Replied the Koopa who took back the recorder. "Just a couple of humans who were able to slay a couple of Goombas and Koopas. Seems to me that they have been lucky this whole time and that their demise will be soon once they meet the bulk of our army."
"That's not good enough," Bowser said as he slammed his fist down one of the arm rests of his throne chair. "I want to make sure they don't even come close to approaching this castle. I can't have the princesses having the hope that someone will come rescue them. It defeats the purpose of having a secluded castle away from their homes. Send more troops after them and with posthaste."
"It will be done milord." The Koopa replied as he gave him a salute and proceeded to walk out of the castle. He then went to some of the small villages that were in the Darklands, and told them to be on the lookout for a couple of humans. "They will be coming here in order to stop the master's plan. Make sure it doesn't happen." Each village was put on high alert, preparing themselves for the upcoming battle with the Mario brothers.
Meanwhile back at the Mario Brothers campsite, the Mario Brothers had just finished waking up. They had gathered up all their things, and proceeded to venture forwards according to their map.
"Hey Mario," asked Luigi. "How long until we make it to the Darklands where this supposed Bowser's castle is?"
"Well, according to the map," replied Mario as he was studying the map itself. "We should get there at the most by a little more than a day's worth of walking. That is if we don't run into any more trouble."
"Please," said Luigi puffing out his chest. "Danger is my middle name."
"No," replied Mario giving him a devious smile. "Your middle name is Mama. Mister I don't want anything in our house to get dirty. You're always such a neat freak."
"Well excuse me." Replied Luigi rolling his eyes. "You want to clean our house? You want to cook?"
"No." said Mario in a lowered tone realizing that he just lost his argument.
"Exactly," said Luigi in a prideful voice. "Oh I take that back, I wouldn't want you to do the cooking. I don't think my stomach could handle it." Mario then gave his brother a playful shove, silently telling him to zip it. "Oh it's all for good fun bro. Besides got to talk about something to keep our minds off this long walk."
As they were walking by, they spotted a few Koopas grouped up together. "They are probably talking about something important," thought Mario as he stopped dead in his tracks. "Luigi and I should probably go find out what they are up to." Mario pulled Luigi to the side and spoke to him in a whispered tone to not catch the attention of the Koopa group. "Hey Luigi, we shoulda go spy on those Koopas. They might know information regarding the princesses."
"Okie dokie." Replied Luigi as the brothers spotted a few bushes in the distance in hearing range of the Koopa's conversation. They proceeded to sneak over there and do a little eavesdropping.
"So as you can see. Bowser believes we have a couple of humans who could be a potential threat in his eyes." One of the Koopas said while the others remained silent, trying to understand what their orders were.
"Mario, are they talking about us?" whispered Luigi.
"Of course they are talking about us," Mario said in a rushed whispered voice. "Now pay attention, I want to learn what they know."
"So, let's just eliminate them then." One of the other Koopas said. "All five of us are tough, I'm sure if we approached we could easily take them out…"
"NO!" yelled the leader of the Koopa conversation, startling all the Koopas there. "I have reports that 10 Koopas and 10 Goombas already tried that and not of them made it out alive. This is a potentially dangerous threat. What we need to do is have a heavy amount of resistance once they make it to the Darklands. So, this is our plan. I want all 5 villages in the area heavily secured…"
Mario and Luigi were listening very intently when all of a sudden, pollen from the nearby trees slowly crept into the bush Luigi was in. Unfortunately for Luigi, he had allergies to pollen. "Oh great," thought Luigi. "This is the worst time for it now." Luigi had the powerful urge to sneeze.
"Luigi don't you do it." Said Mario sternly as he pointed at Luigi and gave him the evil eye.
Luigi couldn't contain it anymore and suddenly put out a loud sneeze.
"And furthermore I want all troops to-," The Koopa was then interrupted by the loud sneeze coming from the bushes. "HEY! By the honorable name of our leader Bowser, I want whoever is in those bushes to come out with your hands up."
Mario and Luigi came out from the bushes, and proceeded to attack the small amount of Koopa adversaries. "Please," Mario said already getting confident from his last battle. "The amount we had to take on was nothing compared to this."
"Yeah face it guys," Luigi said in a boastful tone. "You have already lost this fight." The skirmish did not take too long; the Koopas were easily slain by the Mario Brothers since they knew of the Koopa's weakness. The victory over them allowed Luigi to loot 50 coins, a red mushroom, and a flower. What Luigi was also able to loot was the Koopa's battle plan for incase the Mario Brothers made it there. "Better take this too," Luigi thought. "This may come in handy when we get there."
Mario and Luigi walked a few more hours to their destination after the fight before deciding to spend the night by a hidden part of the forest where no Goombas or Koopas could find them.
"Hopefully they don't try to ransack us this time." Said Mario annoyed at the possibility of that thought.
"Yeah hopefully they-"said Luigi before Mario accidentally dropped a portrait of Princess Daisy right near him. Luigi could not help but becoming hypnotized by her beauty as he stood there with mouth slight ajar continuously starting at the photo.
"Uh Luigi." Mario said snapping his fingers in front of Luigi's face before he snapped out of it.
"Oh Mario what did I miss?" asked Luigi sheepishly. Mario just gave him one of those "I told you so looks" as Luigi's face started turning red.
"Now you know what we are fighting for." Said Mario as prepared the tent and the sleeping bags. "That's why we can't give up, and we have to fight until we win or until the bitter end."
Mario and Luigi both drifted into their own dreams, knowing that when they wake up, they start the battle to rescue the princesses.