Hi guys, I'm TheUltimatePsychoFanGirl, but for everyone's sake, just call me "Psycho". I'm the author of this ridiculous idea so i apologize in advance if you find all this a bit bizarre.
Super Paper Swap is an idea I had for a while but was a bit nonchalant to publish, but since people have started to like it on my Tumblr, I thought I'd write the Fanfiction version that I had intended to make in the first place. Also, this is only my SECOND fanfiction, the first one being "Reboot". While on the topic of "Reboot", I do intend to make that a fully fledged fanfiction as well, just realize that my writing process is incredibly slow, so updates might take months at a time.
And now the disclaimer,
I do not in any way own Super Paper Mario or any of its ideas which are all property of Nintendo. Please support the official release of this game, its predecessors, and futures releases of its series.
Countless centuries ago, legends foretold of a book of prophesies that revealed a number of tragic future event. These futures were so terrifying that the book came to be called The Dark Prognosticus and was sealed away for the protection of all that lived. This is the tale of this book's last owner it is a tale of-
Oh? You say you've heard this story before? A tale of four heroes, of tragedy, and of love? I assure you that you might find this version of the story a bit different from what you remember. Don't worry, it's not too different from what you remember, although the details might be a bit "scrambled". Have I caught your attention once more? Then let us continue.
This is the tale of the book's last owner; it is a tale of love.
Our story begins in the humble home of two brothers, twins in fact, although one was slightly older. Their names were Mario and Luigi. The older of the two, Mario, was a plumber, and a skilled one at that. The younger brother Luigi, while also a plumber, invested more of his time on a different job; he was the famous hero of the two main kingdoms of the land, the Mushroom Kingdom and Koopa Kingdom.
Luigi was well renowned for being noble, if a bit cocky, but always striving to follow the path of justice, so his heart was always in the right place. His social image depicted as a brave and sarcastic hero, but those that were close to Luigi recognized him as a normally gentle person who cherished the fruits of his labor by making the most of every day that goes by without mass chaos interrupting the peace; days such as those were quite rare since there was always something going wrong. Today happened to be one of those peaceful days...for a very brief while.
"Quite a peaceful day, isn't it brother?" asked Mario, who was enjoying a cup of morning tea. The older brother of the residence was wearing his usual attire of a blue shirt under his red overalls with a bright red plumber-cap, adorned with his first initial in a white circle on the front, on his head.
Luigi, whilst in the middle of his own cup of tea, nodded before gulping down what was left of his drink and responding verbally for his brother so he did not come off as rude. "Sure is bro, sure is." Luigi wore the same clothes as his brother, however, instead of red, the younger brother wore green overalls and a green cap, and instead of a "M" on his cap he wore a "L". Both brothers had short, somewhat curly brown hair, a black mustache, sapphire blue eyes, and pale skin that was typical of their Italian ancestors. The peculiar choice of overall color had been a choice made by the brothers' parents when they were little as a way of finding one another if they got lost, after all, no normal parent would buy overalls in a color other than blue. The blue shirts, on the other hand, were consistently bought because they were the cheapest color to buy, no special reason, they were just cheap.
Mario was the older sibling of the two brothers, yet for some reason he was shorter than Luigi, a fact that drove them crazy when people couldn't correctly identify which of them was the oldest. Regardless of the annoyances that came with being twins, the brothers loved each other very much, the real problems, however, arose when it came to personal interests.
"Heh, I almost wish something interesting would happen." Luigi added, "If it were something to unite the kingdoms, that'd be pretty nice."
"Maybe if the entire kingdom was this peaceful all the time," Mario mumbled to himself, "you'd act more like a plumber and less like a lunatic adventurer."
"What was that?" Luigi asked, having caught part of his sibling's response.
"Oh? Nothing little brother, nothing" Mario was hesitant to answer. Unlike everyone else in the land, he didn't approve of his sibling going out on dangerous journeys with such a slim chance of survival. It had been that way since they were babies, a mishap with a stork ended up separating the brothers while being delivered, and poor Luigi had been dropped by the stork. Mario had felt helpless in being able to protect his younger sibling and had taken it upon himself to protect his brother from any harm, a feat that became much more difficult when they grew up and Luigi decided he didn't want to take the family business, plumbing, as a full time job. So as an alternative he decided to keep these feelings to himself, not that it helped since Luigi could always see right through him. Every day Mario hoped that something would convince his brother to stop adventuring, it would at least make people stop asking about his own capabilities as a hero; a major problem with being biologically related to a well-known person was the fact that, once people knew you existed, they expected you to be at just as good at whatever your sibling did that made them famous, and if you were an older sibling you were expected to be greater than them, which wasn't the case for Mario. He wanted nothing to do with traveling to new places or gaining new skills, he was just too stubborn to be convinced of anything, he usually made up for this by making plans for things to do with his brother during off-days.
"Hey bro," Mario perked up after a moment of embarrassment, "how's about we go talk to Princess Peach? Maybe she'll be willing to make some negotiations today."
"If it makes both of our lives easier, sure. Why not?" Luigi replied with a good-humored tone, with both parties satisfied they put away their now empty cups and prepared to leave.
The princess Mario spoke of was the ruler of Mushroom Kingdom, a very bad ruler actually. She was, to put it lightly, a huge jerk to everyone that she didn't consider a citizen of her kingdom. This wouldn't be a problem if she wasn't responsible for removing a number of natural inhabitants of the land from their homes to create the kingdom, not only that, but she was always looking for an excuse to find more territory to conquer. She meant well, but only for the well-being of her people, everyone else was tantamount to a wild animal for all she cared. Luckily, Mario and Luigi were a special exception, if only for the fact that she and Mario were both romantically interested in one another.
The brothers were ready to set off until, "Hey, why're you bringing your hammer?" Mario asked in reference to the hammer his brother carried along as a weapon of choice.
"Just in case the princess decided to cause trouble. Why'd you bring yours?" Luigi retaliated, having noticed Mario brought his hammer as well.
"In case you decide to try something stupid." Mario returned his brother's smart alec remark with one of his own. The two of them laughed at their brotherly humor and left the house.
Not even a minute after leaving, they heard a loud scream and immediately followed the sound to its source.
The brothers approached the screaming to find one of the inhabitants of the mushroom kingdom, a short, humanoid being wearing a blue vest and a spotted mushroom for a cap, commonly referred to as a toad. The toads were Peach's loyal subjects and relied on her to keep them safe, otherwise they would be in too much constant panic to save themselves. The fact a member of this species was in panic was a bad sign.
"SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! HELP!" The mushroom man continued to shout until the two brothers were able to calm him down.
Mario was the first to step forward and speak with the still shaken toad, "Look at me bud," he stood in the toad's line of sight and clasped his hands around its head, "What's going on? What's with the calls for help? Talk to me." He spoke in a voice that was stern but also collected, it was his way of calming people down when they were anxious or scared and it seemed to work well on toads.
"You wouldn't b-b-believe it!" The toad began, stuttering occasionally," Our c-castle was raided, and the princess was-was-"
"Was what?"
"KIDNAPPED!"
"WHAT?!", both Mario and Luigi asked in shock.
"But how? Usually you guys are the ones causing such chaos, and most of the time you only go after koopas as opposed to princesses." Mario wasn't wrong, normally Peach would send her followers to capture members of the Koopa Kingdom for forced labor, their King would be captured a brainwashed to do her bidding until Luigi came in to fix everything. With this in mind, one would think the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom would be prepared in case someone tried to kidnap her in retaliation, but somehow her captor had gotten the upper hand on her.
"Sounds to me like the tables were completely turned on you guys." Luigi couldn't help but bring up the irony of the situation. Mario on the other hand was incredibly worried, he let go of the toad and paced around his brother to assess the situation.
"We should get as much help as possible. I'm sure our old turtle friends won't mind a visit if it means getting on the princess's good side." Mario was referring to the koopa troopas that inhabited the Koopa Kingdom who had the appearance of man-sized, bipedal turtles. The koopa race was quite peaceful and desperately wanted to make peace with the Mushroom Kingdom, so the brothers knew the likelihood of both kingdoms negotiating would increase if the koopas were able to help.
Luigi was surprised by his brother's automatic decision to ask the koopas for help since Mario wasn't very fond of them for being "troublemakers"; by troublemakers, he meant that their tendency to be captured was usually the main reason Luigi had to save their king.
It then dawned on the little brother that Mario must have been incredibly desperate to save the princess if his first instinct was to find help for people he normally disliked. With that in mind he was quick to agree with his brother before a second thought could be made. "Good idea bro! Let's go on ahead then, shall we?"
Mario didn't hesitate to follow his younger sibling as they moved onward towards the volcanic region of Koopa Kingdom. The toad, in shock from the events that had unfolded in about a minute, decided to only watch the brothers from afar and ponder as to wether or not asking two plumbers to save the kingdom's acclaimed princess was the best choice of action.
In the heart of Darkland, the volcanic region of the Koopa Kingdom, was a castle made of grey brick and decorated in several places with black igneous rock, this castle was the home of Bowser, the Koopa King, and his supporters, with whom he was having a meeting with in the central room of the castle.
"Alright gang," said a deep and monstrous sounding voice, "today we will attempt to enact diplomacy between us and the Mushroom Kingdom!" This voice belonged to non-other than Bowser himself, who gave a tender smile to his allies which consisted of a variety koopa troopa and short, brown mushroom people known as goombas. Bowser himself was a much larger koopa with orange scales, a cream colored belly, a green face, red eyes, and red hair. The spike on his green shell, the horns on his head, and even the two spikes on his tail were neatly filed down to half their normal size to appear less threatening. He worn no clothes except for the thick, cuff-like bracelets on his wrists, upper arms, and around his neck; the cuffs had been around him since the day he was first manipulated by Peach, even now the princess was the only one that could remove them, and she always refused to do so, maybe today she would have a change of heart.
The crowd in front of Bowser roared with excitement, anticipating their adoring king's speech. Bowser smiled and spoke as calmly as his naturally booming voice could.
"Today, we will march onward to Mushroom Castle and negotiate a truce with Princess Peach; with the help of our friends, the plumbers Mario and Luigi, we will finally unite all species in this land for the betterment of everyone!" The crowd roared even louder than before, the winged parakoopas and paragoombas summersaulted in mid-air, hammer tossing Hammer Bros. noogied each other and linked arms, and hooded magikoopas swung their wands in a type of ceremonious dance. Very faintly, the word "guests" begin to pop up from the chatter between Bowser's supporters until it was audible to his non-existent ears.
"We have guests?", Bowser was a little surprised that anyone would visit him but was happy to welcome them inside anyway. "Hehe, why didn't anyone say something beforehand? Move aside gang, give our visitants some room to breathe." And so they did, revealing none other than Mario and Luigi as the King of Koopas approached the center of the room. The sight of the brothers brought a big, dumb smile on Bowser's face as he greeted the two of them.
"Well if it isn't my two good friends, how've you guys been?"
"Fine Koopa, fine." Mario muttered, just loud enough to be heard. Luigi stood and watched the exchange between his brother and his friend, having insisted that Mario talk to Bowser since he was the one that decided to ask for his help.
"That's good to know. What's brings you two here anyway?"
"You mean besides abusing the fact you always leave the front gate open?"
"I have a very good reason for that!"
"Princess Peach was kidnapped!" Luigi interjected, trying to avoid the start of an argument. "We thought you'd be willing to gather a search party to help us find her."
"Kidnapped?!" Bowser was in shock, "That's absolutely terrible, it's a good thing you came to us when you did we were-" his sentence was interrupted. A voice broke out.
"Release me! Release me at once!" The voice spoke, seemingly from nowhere.
Suddenly, a wave of energy coursed through everyone as a figure trapped in a magical barrier appeared, floating several feet above Mario, Luigi, and Bowser. Immediately, everyone recognized the figure as non-other than Princess Peach herself. She was between Luigi and Bowser's heights but had the same skin and eye color as the brothers; she was wearing a black dress with magenta below knee height, and an orange broach on her chest. She wore a pair of white gloves that went up to her elbows, a sash around her waist, colored magenta, and a golden crown lined with circular, orange and magenta gems placed on her seemingly delicate, blond hair. Everyone knew that Peach was not a force to be reckoned with, despite her dainty appearance, and if the incredibly unamused look on her face was an indication of anything, it was that the person responsible for containing was in for an unpleasant experience once she found a way out.
The barrier shifted to the right a few feet to make way for the next person that entered the room. This new arrival was somebody no one in the room had met before. It was a young woman of around the same height as Peach, if a little taller, wearing a long, sleeveless dress. The dress was white with a black sash around the neck and the waist and thin trims on the bottom of the dress in various shades of grey. The woman herself was slightly pale and had long, white hair with a rainbow bow, in the shape of a butterfly, tied into it. She floated in the air with her eyes closed and one hand clasping a black, heart-shaped locket that was around her neck.
The neutral expression on her face turned to that of malice as she opened her dark purple eyes and looked down upon her audience. "I'm afraid your dearest princess has been taken by no- other than me, Mistress Tempo." The evil woman introduced herself, her voice sounding like that of an angel that had recently fallen from the heavens.
"You kidnapped Peach?", Bowser asked, feeling a chill go down his spine as Tempo seemed to look through his very soul, "I can understand wanting her as a close ally, but I doubt she's going to be on good terms with you when she gets out of that barrier you've trapped her in."
She laughed at his response, "Hehehe, such a silly little turtle. You do not understand my reason for capturing the princess, I require this royal maiden for the destruction of all worlds." She spoke in a "matter-of-fact" sort of way.
"The destruction of all worlds?" Mario asked in the faintest of whispers, his eyes wide open in terror. He was about to pull out his hammer, but suddenly-
"Not on my watch lady!" Luigi jumped up to tackle Tempo to the ground, but was halted when a magic box trapped him in mid-air. He couldn't escape.
"What? How did you-" His was interrupted as the box exploded and dropped Luigi on the ground, unconscious and badly damaged. Mario immediately ran to Luigi's side, calling out his younger brother's name, but his words fell on deaf ears.
"I'm afraid petty fools cannot fair against our power." Said Mistress Tempo, she glanced at a corner of the room, as if someone else was there, and then down on Luigi with a saddened look in her eyes.
While everyone else was taken aback by the mistress's power, Bowser was quite upset by the events that had unfolded and decided to resolve the situation before more of his allies were harmed.
"Now you listen here Missy! You can come into my castle uninvited all you like, but when you kidnap and assault my friends, THAT'S WHEN YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR! THAT IS WHEN I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT ACCEPT YOUR COMPANY!" Bowser yelled at the top of his lungs, blood boiling like molten lava.
"GO GET HER TEAM!" The enraged Koopa King fiercely ordered, his followers obeyed and closed in on the mistress.
Tempo looked at the army around her, clearly annoyed. "Very well then, in that case, Bowser, King of the Koopas, I shall take you and your 'friends' as well."
"Wait, what?" asked a rather confused Bowser.
Mistress Tempo smirked as she materialized a baton in her hands and raised it into the air; from behind Tempo, a black vortex opened up and pulled almost everyone in room into itself. The various screams were heard until the vortex closed, leaving only Tempo herself and Luigi still visibly in the room.
"Hm hm hm," Mistress Tempo appeared to speak to herself, "preparations are finally in order, and I barely had to strain myself. Now all that remains is for the dimensional void to appear as foretold in the prophesy."
With that, she vanished as quickly as she appeared, leaving only Luigi. An unknown amount of time later, he began to hear a voice calling to him.
There we go, the first chapter.
Hope you guys enjoyed.
If you want to see more Super Paper Swap between chapters, then just pop on over to it's official tumblr blog of the same name, a simple tumblr search should do it.
And with that, I say Adios!