Chapter Six:

Odd Behavior

In the weeks following Lawyer Kong's visit and after the success of Luigi's gardening game, Mario, just like everyone else, hoped that all would be fine in the Mushroom Kingdom. However, things were about to take a turn just like they usually did when events came to pass.

One day, Mario walked into Peach's Castle and made his way through the foyer to collect some spaghetti from the kitchen, humming his trademark overworld theme when he noticed scorch marks on the wall.

The plumber stopped humming and scratched his head in confusion, then he heard a very familiar scratchy voice speak with urgency in their tone; "Goodness, Mario. We're under attack and the princess has been kidnapped."

Mario turned around, seeing Toad huddling in fear with absolute worry in his eyes. Taken off-guard, the dim-witted plumber approached the living fungus with a raised eyebrow.

This was not the Toad he knew. In the years he'd known him, Toad was a grumpy fella with a complicated relationship with Toadette, not to mention he'd wished for bad things to happen to Mario countless times and had been very antagonistic. Plus, he never once showed concern for Peach, despite being one of her servants.

"Uh, Toad?" Mario asked, "Since when did you care about the princess?"

"You have to help us, Mario." Toad pleaded, "Bowser is kidnapping the princess as we speak!"

WHAM! The star door at the top of the stairs flew off its hinges and Mario turned to see Bowser approaching with a screaming Princess Peach over his shoulder.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Bowser proclaimed, "Peach is mine and no one can stop me!"

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLP!" Peach screamed.

As if the matter couldn't get weirder, a pair of Koopas joined Bowser, both saluting the Koopa King. Then a trio of Goombas stepped forth, coming to their master's side.

"Hey, Bowser!" Mario called, "What's gotten into you today? You rarely kidnap the princess, aren't we supposed to have a frenemy relationship where we hang out now and again with you occasionally kidnapping Peach!"

Laughing maniacally, Bowser looked down to see Mario, his Koopa minions crossed their arms in gruff manners. "Well, well…" Bowser mused with a sinister grin, "If it isn't my nemesis, Mario, here to once again attempt to save the princess from the clutches of King Koopa."

"Quit being stupid and let's go play video games!" Mario yelled.

"I, the Koopa King, play video games with Mario? That's a laugh! I AM THE MOST FEARED TYRANT IN THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM!"

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" Peach pleaded.

At this point, Mario was irritated. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun, pointing it at Bowser, who dropped Peach with a yelp of shock. The Koopas shrieked and the Goombas gasped with surprise.

Mario tapped the trigger, attempting to shoot at Bowser. However, something happened. No bullets came out, instead, a fireball shot out and hit one of the Koopa Troopas, lighting him on fire.

Mario looked at the gun with confusion, then, as if things couldn't get weirder, his gun glitched out of existence and was replaced with a Fire Flower.

"Uh, Mario?" Toad asked.

"What was that?" Peach asked.

"My goodness!" Bowser remarked, "I don't remember seeing that before, unless you count the Nintendo Zapper..." He scratched his head, "And funny enough, I had this dream a few weeks ago where I got shot in the knee..."

"THAT DID HAPPEN!" Mario yell, "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?"

Before anybody could give an answer, the plumber walked out of the castle and found Luigi outside. The green Italian waved happily to his brother and Mario looked at him cautiously, hoping he wouldn't act so strangely as Bowser, Toad and Peach were. Well, there was only one way to find out for sure.

The fat Italian approached Luigi and reached into his inventory, pulling out a Sports Illustrated magazine with a shapely blonde woman in a red-string bikini at the beach on the cover, followed by a picture of a muscular Solid Snake.

Luigi's eyes widened at the sight of the first item and his nose grew in size a little, showing how excited the image of the chick on the magazine cover made him.

"Ooooh yeah." Luigi said with a grin.

His eyes then shifted to the Solid Snake picture and he seemed to get a little more delighted. But then, just like with the gun, the Sports Illustrated magazine issue glitched out and turned into... an edition of the Nintendo Force magazine.

And then, the Solid Snake picture glitched out and turned into a photograph of an 8-Bit Mario and an 8-Bit Luigi in the sewers facing Koopas. Luigi raised his eyebrow with confusion and surprise.

"Thank the Lord you're still normal, Luigi. Mario was-a so worried." Mario said.

"I know, everyone's been acting weird." Luigi agreed, "And this has been happening all morning, I was attacked by a couple Goombas outside the house, a bird grabbed my hat and these Whomps tried to smash me, then I saw Bowser and the Koopas on the move."

"And I was ignorant of it all." Mario quipped, "Mario was-a preoccupied with getting spaghetti from-a the fridge and there's-a something so fishy going on here."

"On top of that..." The plumber's little brother added, "There is something you need to-a see."

Luigi headed off with Mario following suit, but not before looking back to finally notice the holes in the castle's walls and ceilings, along with the airships in the sky. Strange, indeed. Bowser then burst out the castle door, carrying Peach in his arms while she screamed again.

"HEY! AREN'T YOU GONNA SAVE PEACH?" The Koopa King called, "I'M GONNA MAKE HER MY PRINCESS AND WE'RE GONNA RULE TOGETHER WITH KOOPALINGS!"

"Piss off, Peach is a b**** anyway!" Mario yelled.

"MARIO!" Peach wailed, "SAVE ME FROM BOWSER, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A HERO! MAAAARRRRIIIIOOOOO! I'LL MAKE A CAKE IF YOU SAVE ME, DON'T YOU LIKE CAKE! PLEASE, PLEASE SAVE ME, HELP ME! NOOOOOOOOO!"

Even with several Toads begging for Mario's help, the silly plumber and his brother were half-way across the Mushroom Kingdom countryside, passing by rows of mushrooms, until they came to a stop as Luigi pointed forward. Mario looked up, his eyes widening with shock.

'What in the world?'

Right in front of the Mario Bros and surrounding the Mushroom Kingdom's borders, glowing very strangely, stood a large firewall. Mario had seen plenty of force-fields before, but seeing a massive firewall around the Mushroom Kingdom was not normal.

What sort of sick joke was that, who would even go that route to set that up to block off the Kingdom from the rest of the world?

"This-a firewall just appeared today." Luigi explained, "Perhaps, it's-a the reason everyone's been-a acting so strangely."

"Mama mia..." Mario commented, his mind filled with shock.

He looked beyond the firewall, seeing nothing but a desert with gorges and rocks. Sure, the Mushroom Kingdom had a desert, but being isolated from the rest of the world isolated wasn't right. Fear set in and Mario ran towards the firewall, there had to be a way.

Despite Luigi trying to warn him, the plumber began banging on the barrier, but to no avail. And right now, with everyone except Luigi acting strange, one more question remained...

Where was SMG4?