The first thing Luigi was aware of was the pain in his back, but it wasn't so bad because there was also some tenderness in his arms, legs, and especially his head. His everything hurt so his backache wasn't particularly special. Slowly, he opened his eyes. He stared down at the metal floor of the UFO. He must have been flung from his seat when they crashed. As far as he could tell, there was not any broken glass on the floor which was good as it meant the domed window did not shatter.

Slowly, Luigi pressed his hands into the floor and pushed himself up. He banged his head on the ceiling. Grimacing, Luigi pressed his fingers against the spot, certain if he took his hat off there would be a large, red lump there. He took several steadying breaths until the pain lessened and stood up as much as he could.

Mariella was still strapped in her seat, the only one in their party that could actually use the seatbelts, and a good thing too. Although he had only known her for maybe, just over an hour, Luigi did not want any child to get thrown around inside a crashing flying saucer. Especially if that little girl was his niece. Luigi was still getting used to that bit of information.

"Are you okay?" Luigi asked.

The girl looked down at her lap as her face crumpled, "That was scary," she said as she breathed heavily. Tears were not far behind.

"We're all okay, now," Luigi said quickly. "Please don't cry."

Mariella pouted as she crossed her arm. "I am not crying," she said stubbornly sticking her nose up in the air. However, she sobbed and buried her face into her hands as her small frame shook. This was not good. Where was Mario?

Not that he could get the girl to immediately stop crying, and Luigi did not blame her for her tears one bit. Between, the time travel shenanigans, escaping from the Toad Town jail, to being shot down, the entire day had been too much. Now they were sitting in a spaceship without power in an unknown forest, and all of this was because Luigi wasn't able to pilot the craft well enough to avoid that bonanza bill. Soon Luigi was also bawling.

A hand rested firmly on his shoulder. Luigi turned his head to see who this was. Through the blurry vision of his tear-saturated eyes, Luigi made out the red of Mario's shirt. "Mario!" He threw his arms around his brother's neck and continued to sob into his shoulder.

Mario gripped Luigi on either arm and shook him gently, and gave Luigi an encouraging look. This caterwauling was not solving anything. Although it did feel good to get the emotions out, no amount of tears would help Luigi figure out where they were, or if they would be able to turn the ship back on again. Reaching into his pocket, Luigi pulled out a floral handkerchief and blew his nose hard into it making a sound astonishingly similar to a goose with the hiccups.

Opening the window to climb out from the UFO proved to be far easier than Luigi had first feared. It seemed the window was held in place with a latch whose mechanism must have come undone during their rough landing so they were able to easily push the domed window open and climb out. As soon as his feet hit the dirt below, and a he had a chance to look up at the bare trees around him, Luigi wished he could have crashed somewhere else, anywhere else. Even whatever area Tatanga had turned into his main base of operations into would have been a preferable destination to Boo's Woods.

"What is this place?" Mariella asked as she stepped in front of Luigi. They in a small clearing although the trees were still rather close together. There was also the occasional bush tucked between the trunks of some of the trees, its branches just as bare as its taller neighbor's.

"B-boo's woods," Luigi explained. He gulped loudly. Despite the air being eerily still, the branches of the trees seemed to be lazily shaking and knocking against one another. Luigi realized it was not the branches making any sounds, but his knees knocking together. He shifted his stance so that his legs were apart and crossed his arms. Above him, a crowber cawed and leapt from its perch.

"Mama mia!" Luigi jumped above Mario's head and then slid in the loose dirt as he fell. That knocked the wind out of him. When he opened his eyes again, he was greeted by the faces of Mariella and Mario leaning over him. Luigi's cheeks heated as her sat up. It was just a little crowber flying away, it was not as if the bird was going to swoop down and cary any of them back to its nest.

Mariella giggled, although her face was still slightly puffy and pink from crying earlier. "You really are my uncle," she said. "He was always scared of ghost and anything creepy and crawly."

"Glad to know some things don't change," Mario replied in good humor.

Luigi got back to his feet and dusted his overalls off as her glanced back to the UFO. It wasn't smoking so at least they did not have to deal with a fire. When the bonanza bill had struck them it instead caused the power to completely shut off instead of an explosion. Mario stepped next to Luigi his hands in his pockets. "Do you think we can get this flying again?"

Luigi scanned the rather pathetic looking structure. Even if it did not blow up in the air, it was still most certainly damaged during the crash, with notches and dents in its sides. "Maybe if I had an entire workshop," Luigi replied. He did not even have any of the most basic tools on him at the moment.

Mario pulled back his leg and kicked the side of the UFO. Nothing happened. Mario shrugged, "It was something to try," he said.

Luigi placed his hand against the rim of the UFO and walked around the side of the it. Although the hull was scratched and dented in many places, Luigi did not find a spot that would allow him to open it up and access the engine. Funny how this entire adventure began when they could not get the princess' cruiser working again after it broke down on the road to Sarasaland. For Mario and Luigi that had happed in the late morning, but it felt like it had been years ago. Luigi supposed for Mariella it had been years ago. That got him thinking; how far into the future were they? Enough time had passed for Mario to have a child Mariella's age, but that did not do Luigi much good because he was not sure how old Mariella was exactly. He could ask her, but if there was any wisdom his mama had passed onto him, it was to never ask a woman her age.

A red blinking light in the corner of his eye distracted Luigi from his efforts to calculate how many years forward they had traveled. Luigi turned towards the light. It was coming from several yards into the woods. "Do you see that?" He asked pointing into the trees.

Mario squinted, "I see it," he said. "But I am not sure what it is."

Luigi swallowed hard. Perhaps it was a ghost light. "You could, walk over and find out."

Turning to his brother, Mario smiled in a way that Luigi absolutely did not like. "Or," Mario said. "We could walk over and find out."

"Okay," Mariella said as she pushed some branches out of her way and headed towards the source of the blinking light. Mario gave Luigi a knowing look as he followed Mariella into the thicket.

Hesitantly, Luigi took a step away from the UFO and then another. If that little girl could go and investigate without showing fear, so could he. Luigi pushed some of the lower branches out of his way and shuffled forward. The closer he got, Luigi noticed the light was coming from atop a small antenna which was in turn atop a scratched purple metal cylinder. So that's what happened to the bonanza bill? Was it getting ready to self-destruct, or worst sending its location back to Tatanga's base?

"That does not look good," Mario said.

Luigi gulped and shook his head. Mariella jumped and stood on her toes trying to get a better look. "What is it?" she asked.

"I think we are being tracked," Mario explained.

Mariella's eyes widened, "You mean they know exactly where we are right now?"

"Not exactly," Mario explained. "They likely know where the bonanza bill is, but they also know that we are near the bonanza bill."

Luigi looked up to the sky. So far, he did not see any signs of other UFOs gathering to catch them, but it could be a matter of moments until the sky was filled with more UFOs than crowbers, and there was a lot of those. The large black birds were perched on the branches staring down at the three of them with their bead-like black eyes.

Shuddering, Luigi looked back to his companions. Mario shrugged. "If they are using this to track us," he pointed to the bonanza bill. "It's probably best we move as far away from it as we can."

Hopefully, the coverage of the trees would keep them from being spotted from the air. As much as he hated to admit it, Boo's Woods was the best possible place for them to crash.

Luigi was careful to hang close to Mario as they made their way deeper into the woods. It was not at all clear if they were going in circles or not, but better navigation could wait once the tracker was out of sight. After the had gone far enough that the purple shell of the bonanza bill could no longer be seen, no matter which direction they looked, the travelers took a break to catch their breath.

Luigi's heart was still beating widely as he shivered, ever vigilant for any spooks that could be lying in wait for them. At least, so far, they had not encountered any boos or dry bones. However, there were still those blasted crowbers hanging out above them, as if Mario and Luigi wandering around their woods was the best entertainment they had seen in a long while.

Mariella sighed as she sat down on a large root of a tree that stuck up out of the ground. She looked up at the brothers. "So where are we going next?" she asked.

"Well," Mario scratched his head, "Let Luigi and me figure that out."

"Should we try to take, Mariella back home first?" Luigi asked, not wanting to have the wrath of future Mario coming down upon them if they put his kid in any sort of danger. That would be worse than the wrath of King Boo which Luigi was very familiar with being on the receiving end of.

Mario answered his brother in Italian, "If this is Boo's Woods, Bowser's castle should not be much further from here," he explained. "Assuming Tatanga hadn't taken over his kingdom too."

Luigi was not sure why Mario chose to speak in Italian. It was probably so Mariella wouldn't understand. "I don't think he has," Luigi replied. "When I was with Toadsworth he kept demanding if I knew where you and Princess Peach were. Since Jr. has her, and Toadsworth did not know that, I think it might be safe to say that Tatanga doesn't control him."

Mariella got up from her root and joined the brothers. Her face the definition of surprise. "Is this the Princess Peach from your time period?" she asked in perfect Italian.

Mario made a very unamused face as Luigi grinned at his brother. If she was part of the family, they really had no reason to think she couldn't speak the language. "Yes, it is," Mario answered her. "The reason Luigi and I are here is because your Bowser Jr came to our time to kidnap her."

"So you followed him to rescue her," Mariella finished. She paused for a moment and jumped up and down as if she were playing with an invisible jump rope. "I need to meet your Princess Peach!" she shouted so loudly that all of the crowbers started and flew away in a frenzy of black wings.

Once the commotion had settled, Mario cleared his throat. "Can I ask why?"

"Because, she's my mama," Mariella lowered her head, "Papa asked me once if I remember her, and I tell him I do because if he knew that I don't it would break his heart." She scuffed a rock away with the tip of her shoe. "When everyone talks about her, they get happy-sad. Happy because they had a chance to know her, but sad because they don't have her around anymore. She must have been someone very special."

Mariella's mother was Princess Peach, and she was missing. That did make sense as Luigi thought about it. However, did this mean that Mario was technically the king of the Mushroom Kingdom? If the situation was not so melancholy, Luigi might have snickered at the thought of his brother in an ermine coat and crown.

"So it's just been you and your Papa?" Mario asked.

"Not exactly" Mariella answered, "before Uncle Luigi disappeared we had visitors all the time, and Captain Toad and Toadette have a little house next to ours." That was good to hear. Perhaps if Mariella was away from home long enough, future Mario and Captain Toad would come looking for her.

"If you don't mind me asking, why haven't you seen your uncle?" Mario said gently.

Mariella looked down at her feet and kicked the dirt. "It's been a few years. When my papa got sick he left to look for something that could make him better." Her face scrunched up with concentration. "What did he say it was called? Star cure?"
Star cures? Luigi had heard of those before. Eyebrows raised, he and Mario looked to one another and then back to Mariella. The two of them had collected them for Dr. Toadly.

"We have those in our time," Luigi said. "It cures the blorbs."

"Well that's what my papa has," Mariella explained as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

Mario's face turned a sickly shade of green. "Do you know how he got it?" he asked. Luigi figured his brother was asking so that he could avoid whatever the cause had been when they finally got back to the present.

Mariella shrugged, "Only, that it's not contagious." She waved her arms, "But that can't be helped right now." She clasped her hands in front of her chest in a way Princess Peach often did. "Are we going to save your princess?"

Mario shook his head. "We are," he said as the color returned to his face. "We just need to reach Bowser's Castle first."

"What are we waiting for?" Mariella said as she began to walk forward in no particular direction. When she realized the brothers were no following her she stopped in her tracks. "What is it?" she asked.

"We aren't sure where to go to reach Bowser's castle," Mario replied.

Mariella looked at the brothers as if they both had two heads. "I thought you said it was nearby."

Mario nodded, "That's because Boo's Woods is close to Bowser's Castle, but we aren't sure where in Boo's Woods we are."

"I never knew adventures would be so complicated," Mariella mumbled.

Luigi looked up at the trees again. Partly to check and see if he could see any of Tatanga's UFOs in the sky, and partly to see if those crowbers had returned. Both the sky and the branches above them were empty, but Luigi noticed that many the trees went up rather high. "What if one of us climbed up there to try and spot the castle," he suggested as he pointed to the tallest tree. "It is on a mountain that we probably could spot from flat ground if the woods weren't in the way."

Mario snapped his fingers, "There's an idea!"

Mariella clapped her hands. "I can do it," she said. "You saw that I am a great climber."

They did see? Luigi could not remember Mariella climbing up anything when she and Mario had rescued him from the police station. In fact they did a lot of falling during that operation if anything. He gave Mario a quizzical look.

Mario smiled. "She is a pretty good at climbing," he said. "Before we met up with you, I saw her scurry up a mushroom stem with a pair of garden sheers." Luigi decided he would wait to ask for more details on that, after they were away from the creepiest place on earth.

Mariella hurried up the tree until she was near the very top of the branches. She wrapped one arm around the tree and planted both legs on the branch and leaned out. Like a pirate looking for land from the crow's nest. "I see a volcano!" she said excitedly as she leaned even further from the tree. "And I think on top of it is a castle that kind of looks like a giant koopa!"

"That would be Bowser's castle," Mario answered.

Mariella pointed forward, "It's in that direction. I think."

"Good job," Mario said as he followed Mariella's hand, and pointed in the same direction. "Let's-a Go!"

Mariella beamed as she began her descent. Some of the crowbers were starting gather at the branches above them again. Most of them were content to simply perch and watch whatever the humans were up to. However, one of the larger ones had it in its birdbrain that it would be a good idea to swoop down and grab Mariella in its talons. The girl kicked and shrieked in its grasp. This time the other crobwers did not fly away in a panic at Mariella's shouts. Instead they cawed in such a way that was very similar to a bully's laugh.

"Unhand her," Mario shouted as he and Luigi tore in the woods after them. Because it was flying, even while carrying a human child, the crowber was much faster than the brothers could ever hope to be on foot. Soon it was out of their sight.

Kidnapped in the blink of the eye; Mariella was her mother's daughter indeed.