Fleet Forest
7:59 am
Mario stepped through the Teleporting Tree, and Goomblaine quickly followed after him. Both of them warily looked around.
They were at the very outer edge of the forest, and were currently standing in a large clearing. There was nothing surrounding them but grass and flowers, circled by trees on all sides. One particular tree, far taller and thicker than any of the others, rose up in front of them.
Everything was silent.
"Where are we now?" asked Goomblaine.
"More importantly, where's Hanner?" Mario countered.
He quickly got his answer. The dreaded sound of beating wings quickly reached his ears, and he looked up to find the Pudgy Budgie flock flying over them. Leading them was the monstrous Budgie, and it was still gripping Hanner in its claws.
Mario's blood ran cold. She appeared to have fallen unconscious, and she wasn't moving.
At the sight of the two intruders, the Budgies began shrieking in rage. Most of them dropped out of their flight and dived straight at Mario and Goomblaine.
"WAIT!!" bellowed the Budgie leader. Mario jumped, realizing he was hearing it speak for the first time.
Obediently, the other Budgies broke off their assault, flying loyally back to join their master. The giant Budgie flew over to a high branch of the fittingly large tree, perching on top of it and glaring down at Mario and his remaining partner.
Mario stared back up. It looked almost majestic, really, like an eagle or a falcon. Its tawny colored plumage shone in the early morning sun, and its pitch black eyes flashed with a frightening intelligence. It clacked its beak hungrily at them.
"You've been causing too much trouble in my forest," it squawked at them in a thunderous voice. "I've decided to deal with you myself."
Mario tried not to look afraid. "It's not your forest," he accused. "You took over this place. And we want to know why."
Every single Budgie suddenly burst out laughing. Mario winced at the sound.
"We can do whatever we want!" their leader shouted. "It's you who'd better watch your step! We know what you came here for! Just like all the others!"
Suddenly, it shuffled off to the side to reveal something Mario hadn't noticed before: an enormous nest made of branches and twigs.
Then there came a glow from inside the nest, and Mario's eyes grew wide.
Slowly rising up from out of the nest, hovering a few inches above it, was something that at first looked like an egg – but it was far too big for that, at least the size of a large book. It was glowing and shining in an unearthly light as it gave off a vibrant pinkish-orange color, the color of a rising sun. Etched into it, running all around its circumference, were a series of swirling wavelike patterns that glittered a bright silver.
Mario was overcome with the same awe he'd felt inside the Temple of the Sun.
"That… that's it," he realized, unable to take his eyes off the egg-shaped object. "That's the Sun Soul… it has to be!"
"Not bad lookin'," Goomblaine grunted.
"This is our treasure!!" the Budgie bellowed at them. "You were foolish enough to come looking for it – now you'll pay for it! Just like she has!"
It lifted up Hanner and started squeezing her even more tightly in its grip, threatening to slice her in half.
Mario flew into a panic, instantly forgetting about the Sun Soul. "NO!! LET GO OF HER!!"
He ran up directly underneath the tree and hurled his hammer with all his might, striking the Budgie directly in the head. It shrieked in shock and anger.
Goomblaine stared at him. "Don't ya need a Badge to do that?"
"I've never really understood why that is," Mario said frankly.
The Budgie didn't appear hurt, but was caught enough off guard that it opened its claws and released Hanner. She fell to the forest floor and landed with a thud.
"Hanner!" Mario cried, racing up to her. He crouched down next to her and started violently shaking her. "C'mon, Hanner, wake up, please!"
After a moment, Hanner let out a groan and opened her eyes. Looking like she was in a daze, she struggled into a sitting position and looked warily around.
"Huh… oh, Mario!" she gasped the instant she saw him. "I'm so sorry, I never should have run away! I've been such an idiot, please please please forgive me! I'll never – "
"Hanner! Later!" Mario alerted her, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away just as the Budgie leader was diving at both of them.
"You won't escape us!" it screamed at them, taking to the air.
Mario and Hanner raced back to where Goomblaine was standing, and all three of them turned to strike battle stances at the giant bird.
This was it – the battle for the first Sun Soul had begun.
Goomblaine whipped out his phone and Tattled on their opponent. "That's the leader of the Pudgy Budgies – it says here its real name is the Budgie Beast," he announced. "It can attack by flapping its wings and trapping us in gusts of air, or grabbing us in its claws. It also leads all those other Budgies, so it'll probably send them out to attack us too. Then we gotta take care of 'em before they all gang up on us."
"Got it!" Mario said in determination. He kicked off the fight by Jumping on the Budgie Beast's head as hard as he could, and Hanner followed up with a well-aimed Hammer Throw. The Budgie quickly retaliated by swiping its razor sharp claws at Mario, slicing him up and damaging him quite a bit.
"You okay, Mario?" Hanner asked in alarm.
"I'm fine… just keep fighting!" he urged, clutching at himself.
Goomblaine had already thrown himself into a Headbonk, bashing the Budgie's head with his own, but he couldn't get away before it grabbed him in its claws. He yelped in pain, and it took another Hammer Throw from Hanner to release him.
He landed on the ground with a grunt and looked up at the Hammer Sis.
"Why are you helping me?" he asked suspiciously, remembering their last conversation.
Hanner just shrugged. "We're partners! That's what partners do."
Goomblaine raised an eyebrow, but neither of them had time to do anything else before they were alerted by an angry squawk from the Budgie Beast. It had landed on the ground and was jabbing its beak at Mario, who was doing his best to leap out of the way. Once when it thrust its head out too far, he took the opportunity to deliver a Power Smash right to its head.
"You insolent little WHELPS!!" it bellowed at them, reeling back in pain. "I will teach you! Pudgy Budgies, attack them!"
The other Budgies immediately obeyed. From where they had been circling high in the sky and watching the fight, they all grouped together and dive-bombed the trio, cawing furiously.
"Get behind me, guys!" Hanner shouted. Mario and Goomblaine quickly did as they were told, watching from behind the Hammer Sis as she performed a Multi-Throw on the attacking Budgies, a determined look set into her face.
Each one of the birds was greeted by a painful hammer strike to the face. All of them let out strangled cries and dropped to the ground, removed from the fight.
Mario grinned and flashed Hanner a thumbs-up. "Hey, did I mention?" he said. "You were right about those trees after all! All I said was we needed to find you, and they led us straight here!"
Hanner turned to look at him, looking completely stunned.
"GRAAAAAWK!!" the Budgie Beast bellowed in fury, snapping the group back to attention. "I swear you'll pay for your intrusion! You'll never get your greedy hands on our treasure!"
Before they could react, it began flapping its massive wings and generated a violent blast of wind. Mario, Goomblaine and Hanner screamed as they were sent flying backwards through the air.
"Hang on, you guys!" Hanner yelped. She dug her hammer into the ground and clung onto the handle for dear life, and Mario and Goomblaine each grabbed onto her shell. The Budgie Beast responded by beating its wings even harder, and the wind picked up and painfully slashed through the trio.
"You'd better not let go of that thing!" Goomblaine screamed at Hanner, the force of the wind bringing tears to his eyes.
Mario's mind was racing. He had to think of a plan. Her hammer was the only thing weighing them down, and if they were blown away, they were in for a fatal landing.
Unless…
"Hanner!" he shouted, struggling to be heard over the windy blast. "I need you to let go of that hammer, right now!"
Hanner turned to stare at him. "ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
"JUST TRUST ME!!"
Hanner swallowed hard, but nodded. Squeezing her eyes shut, she braced herself and let go.
Instantly, all three of them were thrown backwards, hurling through the air. Goomblaine and Hanner were screaming, but Mario grabbed onto both of them –
And they crashed into the branches of a tree.
"Yikes!" Hanner cried as she and Goomblaine scrambled to grab onto a branch. Mario quickly gained his balance as he stood up on the branch and raced along to the very edge of it, where the Budgie Beast was waiting below for them.
"You're starting to annoy me now!" it threatened.
"Let's take care of that!" Mario snapped back.
As he reached the edge of the branch, he took a huge leap off of it, his arms waving wildly as he fell through the air. Completely unprepared for this move, the Budgie Beast looked up at him in shock –
Just in time to see Mario land squarely on his head.
"AAAAAWK!!" it cried as Mario performed a flawless Power Bounce, jumping on its head time and time again. Each time he landed, the Budgie Beast fell further and further down until Mario had finally driven it to the ground, where it lay in a weakened heap.
"You guys ready?" he shouted at Goomblaine and Hanner, who had jumped to the ground behind him.
"Leave it to me!" Hanner declared, racing forward and grabbing her abandoned hammer back out of the ground as she ran. From where it was staggering and struggling to take to the air, the Budgie Beast looked at her with alarm in its eyes.
Was it truly about to be defeated?
Maybe I'm not perfect, thought Hanner, but I'm still better than you!
With one loud and angry shout, she threw her hammer in a flawless arc, striking the malicious bird directly between the eyes.
"Graaaawk… NOOOOO!!" it howled, flapping its wings crazily as it tried to remain standing. It was no use. After one long moment, it finally toppled over and crashed to the ground, its energy completely spent.
The other Budgies were stunned.
"They – they won?!" one of them cried.
"W-what do we do NOOOOOOOW?!" another one wondered.
Hanner answered that for them.
"Who else wants a piece of this?" she threatened, shaking her hammer dangerously at them.
All the Budgies cried out in fear. They flapped out of the trees and into the air as fast as they could, flying up and out of sight. After it had cleared its head, the Budgie Beast staggered into the air and followed after them, looking furious but undeniably defeated. They would never be seen in Fleet Forest again.
"Yeah! All right!" Mario cheered, giving Hanner a big hug. "I knew we could do it! That was terrific, you guys!"
Hanner just grinned. "Aw, are you kidding? That was nothing."
"Hey, guys," said Goomblaine, "you might wanna check this out."
Mario and Hanner turned to look at what was holding Goomblaine's attention.
Where there had been nobody else just moments before, stepping out from behind the trees and looking stunned were dozens of Koopas and Hammer Bros. Most of them appeared weary, beaten, and disheveled. They all looked around in confusion.
"What's going on? Where are we?" asked one of them.
"The – the last thing I remember, I was lost in the forest somewhere – and now we're all here!" another one exclaimed.
"Who are they?" wondered Mario.
Hanner looked delighted. "They're – they're everybody who got lost in the forest! They're back!" she cried in joy. "I dunno how it happened, but they're all here!"
"Hanner? Is that you?" asked one Koopa. "What are you doing in here? And where are all those birds? Did – did they leave?"
"Man, they were nasty," shuddered someone else. "They thought we were after their treasure or something, so they attacked us and sent us somewhere where they said we could never find our way out!"
Mario smiled. "Well, they're all gone now. We took care of them," he informed them. "You guys can all go home now!"
"HOME!! FINALLY!!" cheered a Hammer Bro, racing off into the woods in a random direction before slowing to a stop. "Uh… which way is home?"
Hanner looked over at the Teleporting Tree that Mario and Goomblaine had come out of and grinned.
"Just go through there!" she said, pointing at it. "All you need to do is think about going home as hard as you can, and you will!"
The others looked a little skeptical when she said that.
"OH COME ON!! I'm telling the truth!" she shouted.
"All right, all right!" said the Hammer Bro. "If you say so. Come on, you guys, let's go!"
Everyone eagerly followed after him, forming a line and crowding into the tree as quickly as they could. One by one, they vanished from sight until only Mario, Goomblaine and Hanner were left.
"Well, I guess miracles really do happen," Mario remarked.
"Yeah. Just great. Now we can get out of here too, right?" Goomblaine asked.
Mario forgot what he was about to say, as he was suddenly alerted by a bright glow emanating from behind him. He slowly turned around and looked, and his partners did likewise.
It was the Sun Soul. Now that its protector had been defeated, it was slowly and gently floating toward the ground, approaching them as though it had a will of its own.
Mario smiled as he walked up to it… but his smile quickly faded from his face, replaced by a look of confusion. The Sun Soul didn't seem interested in him at all. Though he was standing right in front of it, the strange relic floated right past him…
…and stopped in front of Hanner.
The Hammer Sis stared at it with wide eyes.
"M-Mario?" she said nervously. "What's up with this thing? I feel like it's… looking at me!"
Mario and Goomblaine looked equally stunned. But the Sun Soul stayed where it was, glowing even more brightly than before in Hanner's presence.
Unsure of what to do, she slowly reached out and took it in her hands.
"Ha ha… I think it likes me," she said with an uneasy giggle. "Huh… that's weird. It almost feels like… I'm holding onto myself. Does… does that make any sense?"
And then, suddenly, Mario realized what was going on.
"Goomblaine," he said in a shaky voice, "you remember what Rodolfo said to us? He said we had to find the Sun Soul… and the person it belonged to."
Goomblaine stared at him. "You're saying…"
"What? What do you mean?" Hanner looked up and asked him in alarm.
Mario's heart was pounding. He slowly grew a smile on his face.
"Hanner… I think our first Guardian is you."
Hanner nearly dropped the Sun Soul in shock.
"Me?!" she protested. "How can it be me?! You said the Guardians had to be, I dunno, really brave or pure or something!"
"Well, I don't know, but you were awfully brave back there," said Mario. "And if being pure means doing the right thing, well, you've been doing the right thing as long as I've known you. I dunno, Hanner, you seem like the perfect Guardian to me."
Hanner was dumbfounded. This couldn't be right! How could she be a Guardian? She was nowhere near as perfect or as admirable as they had been! This had to be a mistake…
But that Sun Soul in her hands… it felt like it was talking to her… and it was telling her it wasn't a mistake… that it really did belong with her… that it was part of her.
Her eyes started to sting.
"I think… maybe… maybe you're right, Mario," she said, trying futilely to keep her voice steady.
She smiled. "Don't you worry, Mario! I'll be the best Guardian you've ever seen! You'll be proud of me! I promise."
Mario smiled back encouragingly. He, Hanner, and Goomblaine watched in awe as the Sun Soul began to shine in triumph.
Mario found the Dawn Soul! His Star Power is now 1! With Hanner's help, he can now use the special move, Second Wind!
~END OF CHAPTER~
Mario and friends ventured deep into Fleet Forest and successfully defeated the monsters who had been plaguing the town. The citizens of Fleetmont can now rest easy, knowing the forest is safe once again. Not only that, but the first new Guardian of Day is none other than Mario's friend, Hanner! Will he be able to find the other five so easily? Mario's adventure has only just begun… what challenges await him in the future?
To Be Continued…
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A/N: Woo! What did you all think?
Anyway, I'm kind of having a dilemma right now… I have no idea how to incorporate Bowser into this story. I've pretty much got the plot all planned out without him as of right now, but I'm open to suggestions. Or would you be terribly disappointed if he didn't show up?
But aside from that, thank you all for sticking around for the first chapter. Here's to another seven!