(A/N: It should come as no surprise that "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" was able to inspire me, too. As the title implies, this fanfic has to do with Francis the hellhound, and how the problem with him was fixed. Does this sound interesting? Okay, let's begin!)
It was Friday afternoon in the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi were at home right now, just relaxing in the living room, for they were pretty tired after the hard plumbing work they had done that day. But they had gotten paid very good money for doing their job. Business was booming after they moved to the Mushroom Kingdom.
"So, Mario, tomorrow is Saturday, the beginning of the weekend. And you know what that means." Luigi pointed out to his brother.
"Yeah. It means we're off work until Monday. And that's a good thing." Mario replied.
"But it also begs the question: what are we going to do this weekend?" Luigi asked as he moved closer to his brother on the couch.
Mario was silent for a moment, trying to think of something they could do. After a minute, he said, "You know, Lu, there's still one problem back in Brooklyn that we haven't exactly fixed yet."
"What?" Luigi asked, a little surprised. He couldn't think of anything that hadn't been fixed yet.
"Do you remember the night when Brooklyn was flooding, and I wanted to save the city so we could redeem ourselves after a hard day?" Mario asked.
"Yeah, I do... But that problem seems to have been fixed already, Mario. The flood was all gone when we found ourselves back in Brooklyn, remember?" Luigi asked. He wasn't quite sure where his brother was going with this.
"Yes, Lu, I noticed that. However, do you remember what happened earlier that day, before the city was flooding?" Mario asked.
"Let me think..." Luigi said. After a minute or so, he said, "Oh yeah, I remember that day very well. We saw our commercial air on the T.V., we dealt with Spike being a jerk to us (not surprisingly), we learned that our van broke down, and then we got teased by our family at supper because most of them thought our commercial was dumb and we were stupid for leaving our job with Spike." Luigi said.
"What else?" Mario asked.
Then Luigi remembered that he forgot to mention something. He knew what that something was, too, and he didn't like to think about it.
"That's right... I cost us everything... all because I accidentally stepped on that dog's stupid bone and broke it, which made our first job turn out to be a complete failure. It was all my fault, Mario..." Luigi said, hanging his head. He felt guilty, like the whole thing was his fault, and he deserved the blame for it.
"No, Luigi, don't go blaming yourself for a little thing like that. You just said that it was an accident. Something like that could have happened to anybody." Mario said, placing his hands on Luigi's shoulders, which made Luigi look at him. Mario could never blame his brother for that. They were twins; two halves of a whole.
"I didn't really think the dog was going to hold a little thing like that against me..." Luigi moaned.
"He won't be holding it against you anymore, Luigi. We're going to make sure of that fact when tomorrow gets here." Mario replied.
Luigi realized what Mario just said.
"Mario, you're not suggesting that we..." Luigi began, sounding worried.
"I am. Tomorrow, since we'll be off, we're going to go back to the home of our first customers, explain to them what happened with their dog, and with luck, all will be forgiven." Mario said.
Luigi sighed in relief. He didn't want them to be killing the dog because he doesn't like violence. But then he realized what Mario's plan really was, and...
"With luck...? Aw, Mario, Lady Luck wasn't on our side that day. And the words 'with luck' aren't going to help me feel very confident about going back there to face Francis again." Luigi said, drawing his knees to his chest.
"If it's any consolation, Lu, I'm also a little nervous about doing this myself. Remember, Francis even tried to attack me for trying to save you." Mario recalled.
"Oh yeah, he did... But who are we trying to kid, Mario? His owners aren't going to believe us about him! Pet owners never believe you when you blame what happened on the animal... unless they witnessed it themselves!" Luigi exclaimed.
"Don't worry, Luigi. We'll think of an easy way to explain the situation to his owners. Or maybe they have seen him get hostile with strangers before, and then they will help us resolve the problem." Mario said with a confidence he didn't really feel.
That's when the brothers heard a knock at the door, which was odd. They weren't expecting anyone right now. However, their discussion had them feeling a little wary about how it could be...
"Who's there?" Mario asked.
"It's me, Princess Peach." a feminine voice replied from the other side of the door.
"Oh! Come in, Princess." Mario said.
The door opened, and in came Princess Peach. After closing the door behind her, she smiled at the brothers and said, "Hey, guys! Sorry to just show up unannounced, but I just thought I'd drop in and check up on two of my favorite people in the Mushroom Kingdom."
Mario and Luigi couldn't help blushing at the compliment. The princess referred to them, a couple of plain old plumbers from Brooklyn, as her favorite people. Hearing that would be enough to make anyone feel special, no matter how low they felt.
"Are you guys okay?" Peach asked, noticing that in spite of their blushing faces, her good friends seemed to be a little nervous about something.
"Yeah. We're okay..." Luigi quickly replied, the color draining from his face.
Peach wasn't buying it. She could sense that not all was well. She sat down on a chair in the room and said, "No. No, you're not. What's the matter? Can you tell me?"
"Well, Princess, I don't think Luigi and I ever told you the reason why our plumbing business had miserably failed before it even had a chance to flourish." Mario said.
"You know you can call me 'Peach', right, Mustache? And come to think of it, no, you never did tell me about that. What happened?" Peach asked curiously.
Mario sighed and said, "Well, it all started when we got our first call..."
"Five minutes later..." said the French narrator.
"We didn't even get paid one red cent. And that's how our plumbing business went down the drain before it really began." Luigi finished.
A few beats of silence passed as Peach took in the story she'd just been told. She had never heard anything quite like that before.
"So you're telling me that the customers' dog got angry with you for accidentally breaking his bone, something his owners could very easily replace, and he attacked you and cost you your business right before it truly stood a chance?" Peach asked.
"You don't really believe us, do you, Princess? I don't blame you for thinking that we're making this up..." Luigi said, looking sad.
"No, Luigi, I believe you. Honest. It's just... so crazy to think that an animal would hold a little thing like that against you guys. You weren't even going to be there for 5 minutes. For all he knew, he'd probably never see you again after you got paid." Peach said.
"You're right, Peach. We weren't going to be there that long. As we told you, the plumbing problem was taken care of in just seconds." Mario replied.
"But it seems to me that you hadn't been sure how to explain to your customers what happened when they came up to the bathroom to see how the job was going and saw their dog in the middle of that mess. That's what the real problem is, isn't it?" Peach asked.
The brothers nodded their heads. Peach was right. How does one explain something like that to a pet owner without getting yelled at when the pet was the one who deliberately interfered with the job?
Peach thought about what had happened a few weeks ago, when Bowser attacked, and the war against him was taken to Brooklyn. She remembered when she saw the people in the city cheering for Mario and Luigi when they defeated Bowser in a battle he should have known he would lose.
"Say, were your first customers among the people cheering for you when Bowser was stopped and the city was saved?" Peach asked.
"Now that you mention it, yeah. They were. I even saw Francis in that crowd, and he nodded at me." Luigi remembered, before saying, "I think he might have forgiven me for breaking his bone, but I don't really know for sure. In fact, I'm not so sure I want to know."
"And that's because you're still terrified about the thought of going back to Brooklyn to tell your first customers exactly what happened with Francis?" Peach guessed.
"And having to face Francis again. But yeah, you're pretty much right." said Luigi.
"But can you blame us for feeling that way, Peach?" Mario asked.
"No, not really..." Peach said. She knew that as nervous as Mario and Luigi were, there was no way they could handle this alone. She was quiet for a minute, appearing to be thinking about something. Then she said to herself, "All right, I can see that you guys are seriously going to need peer support in this situation."
"Did you say something, Peach?" Luigi asked, thinking he saw her lips moving.
Peach looked Mario and Luigi in the eyes and said aloud, "It's decided. Tomorrow, when you guys go to Brooklyn to explain the situation to your first customers, I'm going with you."
"You're... Oh, no, Peach, you really don't have to do that..." Mario began.
"What kind of princess and friend would I be if I didn't try to help you guys? You helped me stop Bowser and save my kingdom, so I'm going along to give you guys peer support with the problem you two have yet to fix." Peach said.
Mario and Luigi could see that her mind was made up. There was no arguing with the princess when she'd made up her mind.
"Okay, Peach. If you really want to join us in Brooklyn tomorrow, you can..." Luigi said.
"I don't mind. There's not a whole lot happening here tomorrow, so my schedule's open." Peach assured him. Then she added, "Plus, if Brooklyn has been repaired... I really wouldn't mind seeing it." She was thinking back to when Mario told her, "Come to Brooklyn. I'll buy you a turtle."
"All right. If you want to come with us, we're not going to stop you. Meet us here at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Then we'll take you with us to Brooklyn." Mario promised her.
"I'll be ready." Peach replied.
After Peach left the house, Luigi let out a soft moan.
"What's wrong, Lu?" Mario asked, hearing his brother's distress and seeing how upset he was. Mario didn't like seeing or hearing Luigi in distress. It always made him worry.
"Something tells me that even if Her Highness comes to Brooklyn with us, this is not going to end well..." Luigi replied.
"We can only hope that things do go well come tomorrow." Mario said as he wrote down what they needed to do in their plumbing agenda.
"Mario, I just can't shake the feeling that something really bad is going to happen. What if our customers react like Spike did whenever someone had to explain something bad to him?" Luigi asked fearfully.
Mario and Luigi thought back to when they were working for Spike. It had been a rough day for everybody, and one of their co-workers had to explain something that went wrong to Spike, and it was Spike's fault. That didn't go well at all. Everyone else jumped in fear when they heard the sound of Spike yelling in a very loud, very angry voice, "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! I DON'T! WANT! TO HEAR IT!"
(A/N: Dad told me that one of his old neighbors yelled that once. And if you ask me, it totally sounds like something Spike would have said in a situation where something went wrong and he was the one to blame for it!)
Mario and Luigi shuddered as they remembered that moment, but Mario reminded his brother, "No, Luigi. Neither of our first customers were Spike, nor were they anything like him. Besides, you know as well as I do that Spike never would have called us to fix his plumbing, even if his life depended on it."
"I know that, Mario but..." Luigi said.
"We've got to do this, Luigi. They have the right to know what went wrong that day." Mario said.
Luigi let out a heavy sigh and said, "I... I guess you're right, Mario. They deserve to know the reason why we... botched the job..."
"If they were among the people cheering for us when the city was saved, then I think they'll be more than willing to listen to our explanation tomorrow. I'm sure they'll give us the chance to tell them what they need to know." Mario replied.
Back at Peach's Castle, the princess had just finished telling her staff what she was going to be up to tomorrow.
"But Princess, who's going to rule the kingdom while you're away?" asked a member of the Toad Council.
"You, the Toad Council, will rule in my stead while I join Mario and Luigi in Brooklyn. And you don't need to worry. It's not like I'm going to be away for a month or something like that. It may be for only a few hours, at the most." Peach assured them.
"Why do you have to go, Princess?" asked another member of the council, who was nervous at the thought of the princess having to leave the kingdom.
Peach told them what the Mario Bros. told her, and how in a situation like that, they were going to need peer support. She was going to be the one to give them the support they needed.
"They're also my friends. I can't let them go it alone, scared as they are about what might happen to them." Peach added.
The Toads thought about her words, and they immediately knew that their princess was right. If any of their friends ended up in a situation like the one Mario and Luigi were in, they would want to be there to give them peer support, too.
"You're right, Princess. The Mario Bros. are going to need peer support in the situation they're in. You have to go with them. While you're away, we shall do our best to rule the kingdom as you do." the Toad General said.
"Thank you, General." Peach said politely.
That evening, Peach had an early supper because she thought it would be smart for her to go to bed early that night so when tomorrow morning came, she would be alert and ready to join Mario and Luigi at the time Mario told her.
And so this is where we're going to end Chapter 1. In the next chapter, they'll go to Brooklyn to try and resolve the trouble with Francis. Will they be successful? Stay tuned if you want to find out!