Hey guys it's me, LinguineReturns! I want to apologise for missing an update last week, I have no real excuse other than playing Pokemon Sun and a boat-load of homework. To make up for it I'm posting chapter 4 and 5 now, and I'll post 6 as soon as I have finished it instead of waiting for Friday like normal (Hopefully before Monday).

Also thank you for the positive reviews, I'm new to writing so I'm grateful for all of you just reading in the first place.

I don't know how much longer this story will be but I would say around 10 chapters so unless I procrastinate again it should be done in 5-ish weeks, then I don't know what I'll move on to so if you have any suggestions PM me them!

Anyway, I'll shut up now. Enjoy

-LinguineReturns

Chapter 4 - "Rescue"

The sky was dark, darker than normal. The rocks around him went from brown to dark grey and even some were black. He passed pools of water that steamed as they were heated by the volcanoes, which were also black with red lava running down them. He knew that if he slipped and fell into the molten rock that he would surely perish but it didn't scare him, he continued sprinting forward while hopping over lava streams, skipping over Dry Bones and Jumping on to the flagpole.

His brown shoes sprung of the Swoop's head and he gabbed the golden ball at the top with his white gloves. He wrapped around the pole with his legs which were covered by his navy blue overalls. He slid down the cold metal pole and did a back-flip off of it, he landed and punched the air above him with his arm which was crimson red due to the sleeves of his red shirt.

"Mario number one!"

He cheered and tipped his red hat with his logo on the front. He then hoisted a flag with a red M in a white circle and red background onto the pole, the same logo as on his hat. Mario then went into the fortress in-front of him to claim the territory, allowing himself to move on to the next area of the fiery region he was running through.

As the grand door creaked open Larry gulped at what he was about to do. The outside light flooded the room and both the transformed koopalings could see a silhouette of a man standing sternly in the doorway, he slowly stepped forward until the door closed behind him. The koopalings adjusted to the light and to their dismay saw the red plumber that terrorised them, the one person they were hoping for it not to be, despite them knowing very well it would be. After all, that's why they were being punished in the first place.

"Bowser! Don't you ever get bored of kidnapping the princess?" Mario said to Larry who took a moment to remember that he looked like his father.

"Urr... No?" Larry replied questioningly after which her could hear his brother face-palming. Mario however didn't seem to pick up on his mortal enemy's strange behaviour and instead had used a fire flower he had in stock.

Without warning he threw two fireballs at Larry who took the first hit but jumped over the second one. He then pulled out his wand to cast some of his signiture blue fireballs but realised he didn't have a wand, in this time Mario had moved to the left side of him and threw a stream over fireballs at him. He jumped the first four but landed on the other two, he thought about what his father normally does and opened his mouth and without hesitation three large burning balls spat out at mario who dodged them with ease. Mario attacked once more but Larry had seen it coming and dodged it all, he then began to throw hammers at the flame-throwing hero which he dodged, he threw once last hammer but it went far to high above him.

"Ha! You must be losing your touch if you can miss by that far!" Mario taunted.

"I wouldn't say that" Larry replied with a cunning smile as rubble from the ceiling suddenly landed on Mario's noggin causing him to lose his fire power. Larry had tricked the plumber once again!

Mario jumped out of the rubble and landed on Larry's head which hurt, he followed his normal instinct and hid in his shell and began to spin towards Mario. The plumber ran from the spinning spiked shell that raced towards him, he chased him round the pillars through to the room next door and back out and even to the storage room for weapons. Mario saw a golden block with a white question mark on it and punched it, out popped an energetic small golden star which bounced around the room, he seized the opportunity and grabbed it turning into a rainbow. Running into the throne room again where they had began this fight Mario suddenly stopped which caused Larry to stop the chase and look at him, rainbow Mario then lunged at Larry touching him with the star power. Larry was blasted onto his back unconscious landing in the ceiling rubble from before, Mario smiled as his power wore off returning him to normal. He had won.

The red victor walked up to the chained princess on the throne, he quickly broke the chains holding her in place and helped her down. Ludwig was reluctant to let his nemesis assist him but he had to play along like Kamek and Bowser ordered, he stepped down nearly tripping as he had never walked in high-heels before. Mario looked up at him, took off his hat and bowed, he stayed bowing which prompted Ludwig to realise he was supposed to thank his "hero".

"Thank you Mario" he said in Peach's voice which caught him off guard for a few seconds. Then Mario looked up at him smiling waiting and Ludwig assumed he was meant to do something, but what? He desperately tried to think what Peach normally does and then when he realised, he was horrified by what he was meant to do. The thought of kissing Mario made him want to puke but he knew if he ruined the act his dad would punish him again and probably in a much worse way. He slowly leaned forward and pouted his lips, he struggled to brace himself for the horrible feeling of Mario's non-scaly skin so he closed his eyes to imagine someone else, anyone else. He quickly pecked Mario's cheek which left a lipstick mark, Mario blushed at the beautiful princess.

"Woah Peach, normally it's just the nose but I'll take cheek!" Mario teased playfully. *Internal Face Palm* Ludwig cursed at himself in his head that he could have only kissed the nose, but was surprised when Mario scooped him up bridal style and carried him out the castle. He hoped his dad's plan would mean this not lasting much longer but he had a bad feeling it might...