(A/N: Some of you might remember this "Super Mario Sunshine" fanfic back when I first posted it. Well, I have made some major adjustments to it, so it may not be as you remember! Now to start this fanfic!)
It was daytime on the dolphin-shaped island known as Isle Delfino, but the skies over the usually sun-drenched Delfino Plaza were quite dark, and there was a big mess of goop sitting in the middle of Bianco Square! It looked like today was not going to be a very good day, especially for a certain red-capped Italian plumber named Mario. That's right, Mario, the resident hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, was on Isle Delfino right now, and he was in for a very bad day!
Mario was feeling more than a little miffed right now. He was under the impression that when he got here, he was going to be on vacation, having lots of fun with his girlfriend, the beautiful Princess Peach. But what do you think happened when he arrived the previous day? He was greeted by an enormous mess of paint-like goop all over the airstrip, and a lot of unnecessary hostility from the Piantas, characters who lived on the island.
Most of the Piantas on the airstrip were quick to blame Mario for the mess on their island, but there was absolutely no way he could have been responsible for it! The island looked that bad when he'd arrived, and he'd never been to Isle Delfino until just now! Plus, Mario was a hero and good guy, not a mess-making villain! How could he have made the mess before he even arrived, and why would he have done it? He'd had no reason to do such a thing, but the Piantas refused to believe him!
The princess and the Toads soon realized what was going on, and they thought that the Piantas were being very unfair, treating Mario like a criminal when he was totally innocent. And they could see that he was very upset. Hating the sight of Mario looking upset, the group quickly agreed to help their friend as best they could.
"You people can't possibly believe that Mario made this mess. He would never do such a terrible thing!" Peach began.
"The princess is right! Mario didn't do anything wrong. He came here just to take a relaxing vacation with us! And he also hates messes as much as the next person. He cleans them up really fast." said Red Toad. (A/N: We all know that Luigi is something of a neat freak, and since Mario lives with him, I like to think he shows Luigi respect by helping him keep his mansion nice and clean.)
"And Mario is a nice, friendly person (unless you're an enemy). He's also the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, so he's not one to pollute an island that he's never been to. Not when he wants to take a vacation on it." said Purple Toad.
"Yeah! Now that you all know the truth about Mario, you can't really blame him anymore, can you? So I suggest you tell him you're sorry and help us find out who is really behind this mess." said Green Toad.
However, that wasn't enough. It didn't work. The Piantas still hated Mario for no reason, and they thought Peach and the Toads were lying liars who lie! The Toads were so angry that they couldn't even speak! Peach opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Mario just facepalmed, wishing they decided to go somewhere other than here, or maybe stay at home. He didn't know why the Piantas insisted on blaming him for the gigantic mess when he knew he didn't make it!
"How can you lot just sit there and blame Master Mario for the mess and accuse him, the princess, and the others of lying after hearing all of that?! He was on the bloody plane with us the whole time! I saw him, and the princess saw him! We know for a fact that he couldn't have done it!" Toadsworth, Peach's longtime steward, suddenly yelled. It was clear that he'd had enough of this nonsense from the Piantas, and he was going to have the matter out with them!
"My friends and I were all sitting in coach, but guess what? We saw Mario boarding the plane with us. And we even saw him getting off of it when we arrived here. He couldn't have left the plane while it was in the air." said Blue Toad. The other Toads nodded in agreement.
"Right! There's your proof that Master Mario wasn't making any messes on your island! Now you can stop blaming him for the stupid mess!" Toadsworth finished in a loud, angry voice.
Peach never saw Toadsworth get this angry before, and it worried her. She was afraid that if he got any angrier, he might actually start hitting the Piantas with his cane. She didn't want him to get in trouble, for Mario was already in enough trouble as it was.
As surprised as Mario was to see old Toadsworth showing some backbone and speaking up in his defense, he hoped he wouldn't go too far. That wouldn't do either of them any good.
Because Mario had no hard evidence to back up his claims, he was unfairly judged guilty in a (fake) trial, and ended up spending the first night of his vacation in a cold and lonely prison cell! Today was the first real day of the vacation, but he wouldn't get to have any fun with his friends! No, he had to clean up the mess, even though he wasn't the one who made it! Worse still, he wasn't allowed to leave the island until it was all gone, and he had to do all that work by himself!
The good thing, though, was that upon his arrival, Mario found a pretty neat invention that could help him clean up the mess rather quickly. The invention called itself 'F.L.U.D.D.', which was short for 'Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device'. F.L.U.D.D. told Mario that it hoped to be of assistance, and it was. It helped him clean up the giant mess on the airstrip.
Mario figured that he could use it to clean up the island, even though he wasn't responsible for the mess. He also had to make sure the police were okay with him using this. The should be; they hadn't taken F.L.U.D.D. from him when they threw him in a prison cell the other day. Fortunately, the cops told Mario that he was allowed to use F.L.U.D.D. to clean up the mess.
Right now, Mario was in Delfino Plaza, the sight of which surprised him. The sky was rather dark, and the place wasn't sun-drenched like he and Peach thought it would be. That was what they'd read a month ago, when Peach first got the idea of taking a vacation and went online to look up new places to visit. She found Isle Delfino on one website, and it looked rather promising. Now they were learning that coming here was a big mistake!
"Some vacation this is turning out to be. I come all the way out here with Peach, expecting to have fun in the sun and the time of our lives, and what do I get? The short end of the stick! Mama-mia, now I know how poor Luigi often feels. I kind of wish I had asked him to join us..." Mario said to himself as he walked over to see the great big mess in Bianco Square. He had no idea who could have done this, because he never would have entertained such thoughts.
"Questo è così ingiusto! This is so unfair! I end up getting blamed for a gigantic mess I never made, and then they force me to clean it up by myself, and the only people who know that I'm innocent were called liars! When I find out who is really behind all of this, I'm going to give it to him or her real good!" Mario muttered to himself as he cleaned up the huge mess of goop in Bianco Square.
Mario was not the least bit surprised when he saw a giant, goopy-looking Piranha Plant emerge from the big pile of goop in the middle of the place. This was something he had to deal with the other day when he got off the plane and cleaned up the mess on the airstrip. He rolled his eyes, let out a heavy sigh of annoyance, and sprayed the gross-looking creature with F.L.U.D.D. three times to do it in.
When the mess was all cleaned up, a huge statue began to emerge from where the goop had been. Apparently, the statue must have sank into the ground when the mess appeared. However, it wasn't long before Toadsworth noticed that there was something rather odd about the statue.
"Princess, look! On the statue's head!" Toadsworth pointed out to Peach.
"...What?" Peach asked, her voice barely even a whisper as she looked up at the statue's head to see just what had gotten Toadsworth so excited.
On top of the statue's head stood a figure who appeared to be a translucent blue Mario with piercing red eyes. Not only that, but he was also carrying a giant paintbrush in his hand! He turned to look down at Princess Peach.
"...Mario?" Peach asked in a soft, surprised voice as she gazed at the figure atop the statue. The princess couldn't help noticing that this character looked to be the same size as her handsome, red-clad beau. He also appeared to have the same build as Mario, and even though his face was hard to see, it did look a little similar to Mario's.
However, Peach also recalled seeing someone who looked just like this guy in the promotional video for the island. And if that wasn't enough, she was positive she saw that same person out on the airstrip when they got off the plane the other day. What was he doing here? Could it be that Mario was framed by this guy?
The strange, Mario-esque figure jumped off of the statue's head and landed on the ground, on his feet. Then he quickly ran over to where Princess Peach and Toadsworth were standing. And then the figure snatched up the princess and started running off with her!
"MARIO!" Peach called out to her beau, her voice sounding very scared.
At the sound of Peach's frightened cry, Mario looked in that direction, and when he saw what was going on, his blue eyes widened in alarm, and he immediately leaped into action without another thought!
"FREEZE, PUNK!" Mario yelled as loud as he could, feeling very angry at the fact that the princess he loved with all his heart was in danger once again. She already had enough troubles on her plate as it was, with her boyfriend being in trouble and no one allowing her to defend him. And now she's being kidnapped by some fake Mario? This was just too much!
The plumber quickly ran after the criminal, spraying him with F.L.U.D.D. in hopes that maybe it would get him to drop Peach so she could run to safety while Mario dealt with the villain. No one, but NO ONE, was allowed to get away with kidnapping Peach as long as MARIO was around!
Mario finally got the villain down by the eastern fruit market. The criminal dropped Peach, and now he was lying on the ground, throwing a complete tantrum and behaving no better than a two-year-old who just lost dessert privileges for the night.
"Ow ow ow OW! Not fair! Completely unfair! You shouldn't be allowed to use tools like that!" the fake Mario complained to the angry real deal.
"Yeah, well, you shouldn't have gone after the princess and snatched her up the way you did, you whiny baby! She's been through more than enough on this vacation already! She doesn't need a big jerk like you taking her away from me!" Mario retorted.
While the two Marios were engaged in a shouting match, the princess was sitting up, trying to catch her breath, now that the villain had fallen down and finally dropped her. She was so relieved that Mario had saved her once again, just like she knew he would.
Wait a second! The initial shock quickly wore off as Peach realized that the villain had finally dropped her! She was a free woman, out of his clutches! Then the princess smirked to herself and did something that one would expect her favorite cousin, Princess Daisy, to do if she was in a situation like this.
"GOTCHA!" Peach shouted as she suddenly leaped towards her kidnapper, who was still throwing his tantrum. She dove on top of him, grabbed him in a headlock, and maintained a tight hold on him. She didn't think that she possessed the strength to do something like this, but she had been very upset about the way things were going for Mario so far, and she felt the need to help her man. Her anger gave her the strength she needed to help him out.
Mario had to admit that he was very surprised to see Peach come to her senses and grab the faker the way that she did. He never expected to see his princess do anything like that to any of his enemies before when she was free from their clutches. She was proving to be a smart woman, and obviously very strong, with courage neither of them knew she had. He was so impressed by her boldness that he murmured to himself, "I knew I loved this woman for a reason."
"Hey! Let go of me, lady!" the faker yelled, struggling mightily to get out from under Peach and free from her tight hold. Even though he wanted to be let go, he didn't try to hit her, for maybe he seemed to know that hitting a woman, unless it's in self-defense, is the wrong thing to do. Or maybe he knew that Peach is a princess, and raising your hand to a princess could get you into far worse trouble than you ever imagined.
"You really expect me to let you go, after what you were trying to do to me?" Peach asked the villain in an incredulous voice, tightening her hold on him.
"Kinda!" the villain replied.
"Never! Mario, please help me out here!" Peach pleaded, not wanting to let the villain go free.
"You got it, Peach." Mario said. He knew just what to do in order to help his lady love. He quickly wrenched his arms behind his back. Then Peach got up and released him so Mario could sit down on his body, holding him still.
"OWWWWW! LEMME GO!" screamed the kidnapper.
The villain's yell was loud enough to grab the attention of the Pianta fruit sellers. The sound forced them to look up from their wares and find out just what was going on. And what they saw was quite a shocker to them!
The fruit sellers saw the man who they thought was the criminal, and he was sitting on top of a blue guy who, oddly enough, looked very similar to him in size and build. So there were two of them?! If that was so, then which one of them was the real villain?
But hold everything! Even though his arms were wrenched behind his back, the blue character appeared to be holding onto something. The object appeared to be a giant paintbrush, and the bristles of the paintbrush were covered with some paint-like substance. In fact, that stuff was the same gunk that was polluting their home!
"Oh my gosh!" said the banana seller.
"Look at that blue guy! He's holding a giant paintbrush, and it's covered in the stuff that's been ruining our beautiful home! Could he be the real villain?" the papaya and pineapple seller asked.
"Were we in the wrong for blaming Mario this whole time?" asked the coconut and durian seller.
"Uh-oh. If that Mario fellow is innocent, then I think we're all going to owe him a major apology for being so mean to him." said the pepper seller.
"It's okay, Peach. You can let go of the little dweeb now. I've got him properly restrained for you. This should give you plenty of time to go and convince the cops to come over here. They need to see this." Mario said.
"But where are the cops, Mario? I haven't really seen them since they hauled you off to prison the other day after the worst trial in the history of trials." Peach said as she knelt next to Mario and the restrained criminal.
"Uh, Miss? If you're looking for the police, they're right over there." the coconut and durian seller replied, having heard Peach's question and pointing her in the right direction.
"Yes, Peach. They're standing by the police station, rather than watching me like they said they would, the lying liars. Now go get them! Tell them there's something they need to see." Mario said, having heard the fruit seller's answer to Peach's question and seeing that the cops were still right outside, much to his relief.
"Thank you both." Peach said to Mario and the fruit seller as she got to her feet.
"No problem, Miss." the fruit seller replied.
Peach nodded in reply, then told Mario, "I'll be right back!" Then she hitched up her skirts and ran off to fetch the cops. Even though she was wearing high heels, Peach was able to move pretty quickly, much like Cinderella when she had to leave the ball.
Mario kept a tight hold on the criminal's arms as he watched Peach, praying to the Star Spirits that if she could convince the cops to come and see this little spectacle, maybe they would see that the blue jerk he was holding down was the bad guy they wanted, not him.
"Get off of me, you big dummy-head!" the bad Mario said.
"No way! I know exactly what you're going to do if I let you go! You'll run after my woman, grab her, and try to make off with her again!" Mario said.
"What are you, some kind of mind-reader?!" the bad Mario asked, sounding surprised at Mario's words.
"Maybe. But I'll tell you right now that I'm not stupid enough to put her, a princess, in harm's way! You can just forget all about having her in your stupid, evil clutches! I'm going to stay right here and help her out!" Mario declared, refusing to budge.
"You should forget all about her, if you know what's healthy!" the bad guy said.
"No can do! She's my girlfriend, and she means way more to me than you or anyone else on this island will ever know! And besides, I could never forget about Peach! I love her! I've been in love with her from the moment I set eyes on her! So you see, forgetting about her would be unhealthy for me, her loving boyfriend!" Mario said.
"Look, I've just about had it with you! You're going to be in really big trouble if you don't get off of me and let me go right this second!" said the villain, struggling underneath Mario, trying to wriggle out from under him.
"Unfortunately for you, I'm willing to take that risk. You see, during my many adventures, I have actually gotten used to taking risks. I take them all the time, and whenever I do, they usually come out in my favor!" Mario replied, keeping the bad guy still by sitting on him a little harder.
"Well, I can assure you that it's not going to be like that this time around..." the blue Mario warned.
"We'll see." Mario said, not believing him.
During this, Peach ran to the police station to get the cops.
"Police! Help!" Peach said, getting the attention of the lazy cops, who were thinking about getting donuts to eat while they watched Mario clean up the island.
The cops immediately snapped out of their daydream and looked up to see a beautiful blonde-haired woman wearing a light pink dress running up to them. Surprisingly, she was the same chick Mario had been talking to before he went to work on cleaning up the mess in Bianco Square. What was going on?
"What's the matter, Miss?" asked the orange Pianta, who was the rookie.
"Is that guy slacking off? Did he attack you? Did he attack someone else? Or is he making an even bigger mess?" asked the blue Pianta, who happened to be the Chief of Police.
"What if he's trying to make other people do his job for him?" the rookie asked the Chief.
"No, Officers! He's not doing any of those crazy things! If you were watching him, you would see for yourselves that he cleaned up the big mess and caught the real criminal! You really need to come with me and see what's going on! Please!" Peach said, motioning for the cops to follow her.
Realizing there was nothing else for it, the Chief and the rookie just shrugged their shoulders and decided it was best to do as the woman said, so they followed her to the eastern fruit market, which was only steps away from the police station. Imagine their surprise when they saw Mario, the guy they blamed for the mess, sitting on top of... a blue person who looked similar to him in size and build. And the blue guy was yelling up a storm.
"What is the trouble here?" asked the Chief at the sight before him, putting and end to the bad guy's constant whining and complaining, much to the relief of passersby.
"Who's there? Is that a cop?!" asked the fake Mario, trying to look for the source of the voice he heard above him.
"Be quiet, you." Mario said to the faker before looking at the cops and saying, "Officers, this guy I'm sitting on is the one you want, not me."
The cops didn't know what to believe, but they knew for sure when the fruit sellers decided it was time to speak up in Mario's defense. The banana seller said to them, "He may actually be right about this, Officers."
"Yes, Officers. We've all heard the blue guy mouthing off to the colorful Mario, and from what we've been hearing, it's not just because he's mad about Mario holding him down. Mario said he had a good enough reason to do that." said the pepper seller.
"And I think you might want to take a close look at what the blue guy is holding. It's going to surprise you and completely change the game." added the papaya and pineapple seller.
The cops did as the fruit seller suggested, and what did they see in the blue guy's hand? They saw his 'weapon of destruction', which turned out to be... a giant paintbrush! Now that weapon looked like the kind of thing a person might use to vandalize an island!
"SO! You are the real criminal, aren't you?!" the Chief asked the blue Mario.
"What?! I am so not the bad guy! The guy on top of me is the one who put the paintbrush in my hand just so he could get me in trouble!" the faker lied.
"That's a lie!" Mario and Peach shouted.
"Would you like to explain how?" the Chief asked Mario and Peach.
"I will. Do you cops know anything about the big statue in the square?" Peach began.
"Of course we do! You're referring to the Grand Pianta Statue! But it went missing when that giant mess appeared! Are you implying that it came back?!" the rookie asked in surprise.
"She sure is, Officer. That statue came rising up out of the ground when I cleaned up the giant mess in the square. I think the mess might have had something to do with its-a disappearance." Mario replied.
"Wow..." said the Chief, amazed.
"Please let me explain what happened. I saw the blue guy standing on the statue's head, and he had the paintbrush in his hand the whole time! He was holding that thing when he jumped down from the statue's head, ran over to where I was standing, grabbed me, and tried running off with me to do Grambi-knows-what!" Peach said.
"Honest! I even saw him holding it!" Mario added, looking the cops in the eyes when he said it.
"Is this true?" the rookie asked, getting up in the fake Mario's face.
"They're the liars!" the villain lied to the rookie's face.
"Don't believe him, Officers! He's lying to you!" said Mario.
"Mario's right! That blue character is the real criminal!" Peach added.
The fruit sellers all claimed that they saw him holding the paintbrush, too. If that was the case, then the cops knew that they needed to find out how much of this was the truth.
"You know what? I think we should all head on back to the police station, and we'll settle this in there!" said the Chief.
"That sounds like a plan, Chief." said the rookie, nodding in agreement.
"Okie-dokie." said Mario. He was still holding the villain's arms behind his back as he got up off of the criminal and stood up, pulling the criminal up as he did so.
"It's okay, Mario. We can take him from here." said the Chief, donning a pair of gloves and taking the paintbrush from the villain's hands.
"Hey, gimme that back!" the villain whined as he felt the paintbrush being snatched right out of his filthy hands.
"I'm afraid we can't do that. We're going to need it for evidence." the rookie said.
"Should I start releasing him now?" Mario asked.
"Yes, Mario. I'll take him as you let him go." the rookie said.
"All right." Mario replied. He slowly let go of one arm, allowing the rookie to take it. But when he let go of the villain's other arm, the villain seized the opportunity and quickly used his free hand to slap Mario across the face as hard as he could!
"Take that, you big jerk!" said the fake Mario in triumph as he hurt the real deal.
"Hey!" the fruit sellers shouted in unison, not amused with what they just witnessed.
"What's going on?!" asked the Chief. He had been looking at the paintbrush and was thinking about calling up Delfino Forensics and asking them to dust it for prints.
"The blue bozo just hit Mario in the face!" yelled the coconut and durian seller.
"OW! That hurt!" Mario yelled, bringing his hands up to his cheek in pain.
"Good! It was supposed to hurt!" the faker replied.
"That'll be quite enough from you!" the rookie said to the villain, grabbing his free arm and twisting it behind his back.
Peach moved closer to her beau, carefully moved his hands away from his cheek, and gave Mario a gentle kiss on that cheek, hoping to make the sting of that slap go away. Mario felt much better after the kiss. Peach always knew how to help him feel better whenever he was feeling sad or hurt.
"That should help you feel a little better." Peach whispered to Mario.
"It is helping. Grazie, Peach. Thank you." Mario whispered back.
"You're welcome, Mario. I love you." Peach replied.
Blushing, Mario hugged Peach tightly and whispered, "Ti amo anch'io, mia dolce principessa. I love you, too, my sweet princess..."
"OWWWW! STOP IT! LET ME GO RIGHT NOW, OR I'M TELLING ON YOU!" the criminal yelled, trying to scare the rookie into letting go of him.
"Ooh, we're soooo scared..." the rookie said, twisting the villain's arm a little harder.
"Hey, you might not want to twist his arm until it breaks. If it turns out that this guy we have here is the real criminal, then he's going to need both of his arms to clean up the mess he made. You know that." the Chief said to the rookie as they dragged the kicking and screaming villain into the police station.
Mario and Peach obediently followed the police into the building. They knew that this whole mess had something to do with them, too.
What happens next? Who is the criminal? Will Mario's innocence be proven? I can only tell you that these questions will most likely be answered in the next chapter, so stay tuned!