Mario plucked the leaf off the ground, rubbing it between his thumb and pointer finger. He continued, Luigi following behind.
"The thief has to be around here somewhere..." Mario moved some branches aside, letting Luigi pass through them before moving forward.
Mario looked around the clearing. The job was too messy to be any of Bowser's Minions, but it wasn't left behind from somebody in the Mushroom Kingdom. He heard a rustle in the bushes and faced them.
"Waaa! Mario, help!" Luigi came running past him, being chased by bees.
"Weegee!"
Mario hurried after him. Luigi slipped on a bit of mud and went flying off a cliff. Mario skid on his knees and reached over the cliff to grab his brother. He caught Luigi, but the weight made his chin slam into the ground. He pulled Luigi back up the cliff. Luigi panted, and the brothers chuckled.
"That was a close one," Mario said. "What'd you do to anger the bees?"
"The hive fell and I accidentally stepped on it!" Luigi stood up and wiped a bit of honey off the sole of his shoe. He held his hand out to Mario. "Back to work, I guess."
Mario accepted it and Luigi pulled him to his feet. "Yeah, we need to find that slippery crook who stole the kingdom's mushrooms!"
They tapped arms, still holding hands. A glow started in the middle of their grasp. The brothers shared a confused look.
A beam fired into the air, knocking them apart. Wind whipping around them, Mario looked up to see a large vortex swirling above the cliff.
"Wait, what? Luigi!"
Luigi clutched the grass as the vortex increased its pull. Mario was torn from the ground, Luigi uprooting handfuls of grass as the vortex snatched the both of them. The brothers swam to each other within the vortex, grabbing hands.
"Mario, what's going on? New v-villain?"
"Whatever it is, it can't be good!"
Luigi started to slip from Mario's hands.
"Hang on!"
"Mario!"
Luigi was pulled away from him, flying in the opposite direction. Mario tried to reach for him, but he narrowly escaped Mario's reach.
"Luigi!"
"Mariooooo!"
Light beamed down on him as he slowly opened his eyes. Disoriented and dazed, Mario lazily sat up. Sand poured from his hat, and he felt kelp in his teeth. He was soaking wet and crabs examined his shoes with intent. He slowly shifted to his knees, then stood.
"Luigi...?"
He trudged across the beach, sand shifting and the water being squeezed out of his socks. The beach was barren until he came to a small area where some small, seed-like creatures stood. Mario walked to them, waving.
"Hi. Do you live here? Could you tell me where I am? And how to find my brother?"
The seeds looked to each other, then charged Mario.
"Aah! Not friendly!"
He kicked one into the other, then stomped them while they were stunned. He fanned himself off with his hat.
"Okay, so this little island also has monsters. Noted."
He continued ahead, feeling his energy returning to him. He slowed to a stop, seeing what was ahead. He checked his pockets, noting that he lacked a hammer.
Rocks.
He wouldn't be able to push them away, and without a hammer, they would be impossible to break. He imagined Luigi trying to shove the rocks and smiled.
"Mario!" Luigi's voice was distant, but it called to him.
"Luigi?"
"Mario!"
Mario jumped a few slightly steep steps, finally arriving to a small clearing. He looked around, but saw to sign of Luigi. He decided to wait. He waited for hours, or was it days? It felt like so long, that he sat in wait of Luigi. But finally, he heard Luigi's voice, clear as day.
"Mario!"
Mario jumped to his feet, running to the cliff. Luigi was far from the land, standing on what looked like a ship. Luigi waved to him.
"Luigi! I'm coming!"
Mario ran back into the trees, turned, and ran as fast as he could to the end of the cliff. He leaped, reaching as far as he could and seeing Luigi do the same. The water splashed under him as Luigi slowly came closer.
But gravity had other ideas.
He started to fall down, towards the rush of water. He came to a sudden stop, looking up to see Luigi holding his wrist tightly.
"Luigi!"
"Don't worry, Mario! I've got you!"
Luigi struggled a bit, but pulled him up. Mario dusted the sand off his overalls and smiled to Luigi. Luigi sniffled.
"Weegee? Are you okay?"
Luigi threw himself onto Mario, crying. "Mario! I was so worried something happened to you!"
Mario hugged him back, tightly, patting his back a couple of times. Luigi released the hug, wiping his eyes.
"Anyway, Mario...I landed here. These nice people agreed to help me find you!"
"Well, I do want to meet nice people. I tried to introduce myself to some monsters earlier."
"Luigi?" Asked a soft voice.
The brothers looked, and Mario saw a short girl standing nearby. She wore a blue dress and her hat looked similar to a plug.
"Wait, you two look similar. Are you Mario? Luigi told me about you."
Mario nodded. "It's nice to meet you."
"My name's Connie. You're currently on Shipshape Island."
Mario looked up to the towering tree.
Connie seemed to know what he was thinking. "That tree? I've been growing it here. It's called the Uni-Tree."
"Uni-Tree?" Luigi asked.
"It's the main symbol of Concordia, which is where you are now. It also kept the world together. However...Just a little while ago, the Uni-Tree died. Concordia broke, into floating islands like this one."
"That sounds terrible," Mario said. "Hey, since we're here, why don't we help you fix Concordia?"
"That sounds great!" That was a new voice, and it came from Luigi's hat.
A winged pig flew from Luigi's hat, beaming. Mario and Luigi both stared at him, thinking about the commonly-used phrase of "when pigs fly" that Bowser and others had said to them previously.
"I'm Snoutlet! And no, I'm not a pig, so don't go sayin' I am!"
"Okay, we won't," Mario reassured him.
"How long have you been in my hat?" Luigi asked, fixing it.
"Since you got here. I saw it layin' on the ground and thought it looked comfy! You picked me up with your hat."
"Oh."
"But don't worry! I'm here to help! Connie and I can work with you to fix alla Concordia! And you told her you were from the Mushroom Kingdom, right? So maybe, once we finish with Concordia, we can help you find a way back home! How's that sound? It could be an equal payment, right?"
The brothers nodded.
"Great! Follow me!"
Snoutlet flew off, and the three of them followed him. He led them to a round, yellow cannon at the front end of the ship.
"Wait, so we need to fight other ships?" Luigi asked.
"Oh, no! This isn't for fightin'!" Snoutlet danced in a small circle. "There are islands floatin' 'round, and we need you to link them to the new Uni-Tree to unite Concordia again!"
Luigi sighed, relived.
"So we're going to use this cannon, to unite Concordia."
"So...What does that mean?" Mario asked.
"We're goin' to fire you out the cannon."
Both brothers screamed.
"Oh, come on! It'll be painless as long as you land right! Plus, this is the fastest way to travel!"
Mario and Luigi shared a look, then Mario nodded.
"That's the spirit!" Snoutlet sat on top the cannon. "So you just look through the telescope to find an island, and fire!" He pointed at a distant outline of an island. "And there's one comin' up! See if you can get there from here."
Mario and Luigi went to the back of the cannon, Mario standing on Luigi's shoulders to see through the telescope. The scope homed into the island, and a name became visible on the glass.
"'Rumbla Island,'" Mario read.
"Great!" Snoutlet cheered. "If you can see it, you can reach it!"
Snoutlet slapped the cannon, and the back shout out and scooped the brothers up. They were cramped in the cannon as it properly aimed to Rumbla Island. The cannon fired, the brothers flying out full-speed towards the island. Snoutlet followed after, ducking back under Luigi's hat. He poked his head out.
"To Rumbla Island!"
Author note: I'm farther in this game than draco70 is, so obviously I'm going to upload the chapters as separate islands to make it longer and so my sister can catch up in the game with me (I'm already in the Brrrrning Sea).
This is the first book in the new Legend of the Fallen series! Of course, it takes place after PMtOK, but we can pretend I'm uploading this after the fixed version of LotF and IHYS (shhhh, nobody needs to know)
Also, since I know how it ends (I saw it on Zokket's wiki while trying to take a picture of him) I'm changing his story. It doesn't make sense to me (besides the main reason he was evil, but even some details in that are a little weird) and also because it's my AU and I can do what I want.
I'm going to try and upload ONE CHAPTER A DAY, in order to keep with the schedule draco and I put together so we can both play M&L:B. This will be a bit on the long side, but nothing will beat Plus Ultra!, which is planned to have fewer chapters in the re-write anyhow.
Enough blabber, get reading! Stay Fresh!