(A/N: Can you believe I had another idea for a story that has to do with "Super Mario Sunshine"? Well, I did, and I'm going to write it out so you can see what happens! On with the show!)
Princess Peach was rather angry, and she had every right to be. Two weeks ago, she had planned to take a vacation at a tropical island known as Isle Delfino. From what she'd read on the website, it sounded like paradise, and this was something she wanted to see. She had invited her boyfriend, Mario, along for the fun. But when they arrived just the other day, they quickly learned that they were in for no fun at all!
The airstrip was covered with some disgusting paint-like goop, and if that wasn't bad enough, a few of the islanders were quick to blame Mario for making that big mess! Mario was very shocked at this, and so were his friends! Mario would never do a thing like that, and the mess was there before he even arrived! There's no way he could have done such a terrible thing! It didn't make any sense!
But Mario found an invention called F.L.U.D.D. (short for 'Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device'), and after learning how to use it, he went to work, cleaning up the mess. It was a very good thing he got it cleaned up, too, for the goop had a Piranha Plant hiding inside of it! Mario vanquished the creature and found something the islanders called a 'Shine Sprite', and they were happy to see it.
However, even though Mario had cleaned up the disgusting mess, vanquished the gross monster, and found something that pleased the islanders, the police showed up. But it seemed that they didn't even notice that the mess was cleaned up, for they had come to arrest Mario (even though he hadn't done anything wrong)!
And everything continued to go downhill from there. Not only was Mario being treated like a villain and arrested for no good reason, he was also judged guilty in the quickest and most unfair trial in the history of the justice system, and taken to prison! Peach tried to object to Mario being called 'guilty' during the trial, but the judge didn't seem to realize that she was a princess, and he unfairly overruled her objection!
So Mario was forced to clean up the entire island, even though he wasn't the one who made the mess! He had never been to Isle Delfino until he arrived yesterday afternoon! But so far, everyone except for Peach and the Toads thought he was the criminal, and the islanders were doing a pretty good job of demoralizing him and making him wish that he'd stayed at home with Luigi!
Earlier that day, after Mario cleaned up a HUGE mess in Bianco Square, Peach got a look at the real culprit. He looked like a translucent blue version of Mario, and he tried to make off with her! But Mario ran after them and quickly stopped the criminal from getting away with her because he loved Peach and would do his best to make sure no harm would come to her.
Unfortunately, the villain was undaunted, because he went after her again while Mario was busy. But rather than leave with her right away, he was waiting for Mario to show up and see just what he did before making his escape to Pinna Island. And right before he left, the villain couldn't resist taunting Mario by making a mean face and sticking out his very long tongue. I'm not kidding; his tongue was was so long, it made Yoshi's look short!
Well, Peach decided that she had dealt with enough malarkey for one vacation, and she knew that she wanted to help Mario prove to everyone that he was an innocent man. But how was she going to do it? The culprit took her into Pinna Park, and he was going to hide her somewhere in there. She had to come up with something that might help her stop the villain, and she had to do it quick.
Suddenly, Peach let out a gasp of shock, pointed behind the criminal, and shouted in a loud and frightened voice, "Oh my gosh! Is that Godzilla?!"
When the criminal heard this, he quickly dropped Peach and his paintbrush, then produced a small notebook that looked to be about the size of the handy dandy notebook used by Steve from "Blue's Clues".
"Godzilla?! He's my hero! Where is he?! I have to find him and get his autograph! I'm going to be the envy of everyone in the kingdom if I can get it!" the criminal exclaimed in excitement as he frantically looked around for the movie monster he admired.
Peach saw this as the perfect opportunity to help her man. She picked up the paintbrush, and used the handle to hit the criminal in the back of the skull with a good, hard WHACK!
The criminal didn't know what happened. One minute, he was looking around for Godzilla, and the next, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. Then everything went black, and he fell to the ground, dropping his notebook.
"Hmph! Serves you right, you little jerk! Now I can help Mario prove that he's not at fault." Peach said to herself as she sat down on the criminal's back so he couldn't get up and run away from her.
A minute or so later, Mario raced into Pinna Park, looking for Peach, as well as the blue faker who took her away and made lots of trouble for him. The princess needed his help, and he wasn't one to let her down when her life was at stake!
"Peach! Are you here, sweetie?!" Mario called out, his voice sounding worried. He always worried about Peach when she was in trouble. Right now, he was hoping that Peach was not suffering and could answer him.
"Mario!" a sweet voice called out. Mario looked in the direction the voice came from, and there was Peach, sitting on the ground nearby and fluttering her hand at him.
"Mio angelo! My angel!" Mario exclaimed in relief and joy. He rushed to Peach's side as fast as he could and gave her a tight hug. He was so happy to see her again. Peach gratefully returned Mario's hug, but she didn't stand up. She was afraid that if she did, the criminal would wake up, leap to his feet, grab her, and run off with her once again. So she vowed to herself that she wouldn't allow him to do that to her anymore.
"Are you okay, Peach? That little idiota didn't hurt you, did he?" Mario asked the princess in a soft voice as he broke off the hug and took her hands in his. He asked her these same questions the first time he stopped the criminal from taking her away.
"No, he just scared me. I'm all right." Peach replied. It was the same reply she had given him after he rescued her earlier on.
"The Star Spirits must be watching over you if you're not hurt." Mario muttered. Then he asked her, "Where is the little blue jerk now? I need to teach him a lesson for kidnapping you and taunting me!"
"I'm way ahead of you, Mario. Look what I'm sitting on." Peach said with a smile, and she pulled her silken skirts aside to reveal that she was sitting on the criminal's back.
"Mama-mia! You're sitting on him! Did you stop him all by yourself?!" Mario asked, surprise in his voice.
"I did." Peach smiled even more at Mario's surprise.
"How did you do it?! Tell me your secret!" Mario excitedly said.
"It really wasn't that hard. I tricked him into dropping me by acting like I saw Godzilla behind him. Turns out that Godzilla is his hero, and when he heard that, he dropped me and his paintbrush as he turned to find him and get his autograph. I seized the opportunity to grab his weapon, and I clunked him in the back of the head with it. And I guess I hit him pretty hard, for it knocked him unconscious." Peach quickly explained.
"Buon per te! Good for you, Peach!" Mario exclaimed, hugging the princess again. He was so proud of her for stopping the bad guy on her own! Even Daisy would be proud, if she knew about this.
"Hey, I know that you're an innocent man, and the best way to prove it would be to knock him out so we can take him to the cops." said Peach.
"You're right, Princess. He won't go willingly, but when he's not conscious, we can show them how wrong they were about me!" Mario said. But then he noticed something lying on the ground, just out of the villain's reach.
"Huh? What's this?" Mario asked as he picked up the item and showed it to Peach. It turned out to be a notebook, and it looked to be the size of the notebook Steve would draw clues in.
"It looks like he has a handy dandy notebook." Peach said.
"Yeah, but I don't think he was using it to play a round of Blue's Clues. Let's-a see if he might have written anything in here to give us some clues as to who he really is and." said Mario, and he looked at the first page. He found the words "To-Do List" written at the top of the page. What he read underneath those words made his eyes get big!
"Peach, you've got to read this!" Mario said in shock, handing the notebook to Peach.
Peach took the notebook and read the list to herself. Underneath the heading were some tasks, and the first four tasks had check marks next to them. The rest of them were unchecked. The list read:
Go to Isle Delfino
Disguise self as Mario
Cause mayhem everywhere
Get Mario sent to prison
Reclaim Mama Peach
Take her back to Papa
Live happily ever after
"What the-?! Who in the world could have written this list?!" Peach exclaimed, offended by what she had just read.
"I... I don't know! It's obviously someone who has a very sick mind, from what I can tell, but I can't think of who that person is right now! And that's mostly because the part about 'Mama Peach' is what worries me! I'm hoping whoever wrote that wasn't referring to you, because you're the only Peach I know of, and you're not a mama! At least, I don't think you're anyone's mama!" Mario said.
"You don't need to worry about that, Mario, because I'm not a mother, and I'm still a virgin! But if this person really thinks of me as their mother, then they're being very disrespectful because everyone knows that you can't add the names of your parents onto their title! It's not right!" said Peach.
"Thanks for the reassurance, sweetie. I had to be sure. Now what else has this idiota written in here?" Mario asked.
"Let's see." said Peach. That list was suspicious enough to make them decide that they wanted to try and find out more about who they were dealing with. She and Mario flipped through more pages to find drawings that shocked them to no end. The pictures were awful! They all showed Mario being killed in nasty ways by two familiar-looking monsters, and Peach was looking happy at the sight of Mario's death!
"Okay, that does it! We're taking this little dweeb to the police station right now!" said Mario as he closed the notebook. The pictures made him angrier than he already was. It was bad enough that the islanders thought he was the one who wrecked their home, but now this notebook showed him that he was framed by someone who hated his guts.
"I'll take the blue idiot. You take the notebook." said Peach as she stood up, then picked up the unconscious criminal and his weapon of destruction.
"Okie-dokie. The people on the island will be feeling real stupido as soon as they find out about this guy and what he's been doing!" said Mario as he pocketed the notebook.
Then the couple made their way back to Delfino Plaza, eager to show the cops that everyone had Mario all wrong!
Back at Delfino Plaza, there weren't any problems at present, and only a little light had returned to the area, due to the work Mario had been doing. But the Toads were worried sick about Princess Peach. They saw her get captured, and since Mario wasn't there when it happened, they didn't know if he would be able to find her and rescue her!
One can imagine how the Toads felt when they saw Peach and Mario return to the plaza, and that Peach looked to be safe and sound. They immediately flocked around the couple, relieved at the sight of their princess and her red-clad hero.
"Princess! Thank the Star Spirits you're okay!" said Toadsworth in relief as he rushed over to have a look at the beloved monarch of the Mushroom Kingdom.
"I won't be completely okay until we prove to everyone that Mario is innocent, and luckily, we have all the evidence we need to back up our claims!" Peach said, and Mario nodded, confirming her words to be the truth.
It was then that Green Toad noticed what Peach was holding in her arms, and he nervously asked, "Princess, is that the...?!"
"Yes, I'm holding the true criminal. We're taking him to the police, for they need to see him. But we'll have to be quick about it. He's currently unconscious, and we don't want him to wake up before we reach the police station." Peach replied.
The Toads were stunned, but they moved so Peach and Mario could get to the police station before any more trouble broke out.
"They actually stopped the bad guy and knocked him out!" Red Toad said in surprise.
"Good! When the cops see him, that should be enough to help put Mario in the clear!" Yellow Toad said, doing a fist-pump out of excitement.
"Yeah! The islanders can't continue calling Mario a villain if they were to see who the princess is carrying to the cops! When the truth gets out, they'll all be running up to Mario and apologizing like there's no tomorrow!" said Purple Toad.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the islanders apologize to Mario! They were so rude and ungrateful to him, even when he saved their sorry butts!" said Blue Toad.
"I also want to see the islanders apologize to Master Mario for their rudeness! The things they've said to him were uncalled for! And the princess won't have to worry about being kidnapped once the real bloody criminal is shut up behind bars! Then we can finally have the smashing vacation we've been dreaming of!" said Toadsworth.
As the police station came into view, Mario and Peach couldn't help feeling excited. They knew that before long, Mario would be getting the apologies he deserved. He said to the princess, "I can't wait until the cops see the creep you're holding."
"Neither can I! You'll be receiving apologies left and right after the cops see him, read his notebook, and realize that they had you wrong!" Peach smiled.
As they approached the police station, Mario and Peach could see that the cops hadn't moved an inch from the building since that morning. They said that they'd be watching Mario, but if they had been, then this whole mess would've been over with before it even began.
"Okay, knowing that they lied to me proves that they're not really good cops, but for us, this is a good thing. We don't have to look all over for the police." Mario said.
"And we don't know how long Sleeping Blue is going to stay unconscious. I'd like for the cops to take him into custody before he wakes up." said Peach.
"They will. I can promise you that." Mario said.
"Let them know we're coming." said Peach.
"Officers!" Mario called out, getting the attention of the Chief and the rookie, both of whom looked very surprised to see Mario and Peach coming towards them.
"What's going on?!" asked the rookie.
"You're slacking off, aren't you?!" the Chief asked Mario.
"No, he wasn't! He's been cleaning up, he recovered quite a few of the missing Shine Sprites, and we also found some things to help us prove that you, and everyone else on the island, got Mario all wrong!" said Peach.
"Oh really?" asked the rookie.
"Sì." said Mario, nodding his head.
"What things did you find?" the Chief asked, sure that whatever they found would be lame and not good enough to be considered evidence.
"How's this for a start?" Peach asked, showing them Shadow Mario, who was lying unconscious in her arms.
"Whoa!" the cops said, not expecting that sight! They didn't expect two Marios to be on the island.
"Yeah, this is the guy you want to blame for your troubles, not Mario! This idiot was trying to kidnap me, but I managed to stop him in his tracks!" said Peach.
"He also dropped this when the princess stopped him!" said Mario, producing the notebook from his pocket.
"Let's go inside and discuss this matter there." said the Chief.
"Good idea." said Peach, and they all entered the police station. Once they were inside, Mario and Peach quickly explained the deal with the criminal, and how they finally managed to stop him in his tracks so they could bring him here.
The cops felt stupid for not keeping true to their word about watching Mario. If they had, then Peach never would've gotten grabbed up by him, twice.
"The fact that the criminal looks similar to me, except for the fact that he's all blue, may not be enough to confirm what Peach and I already know, but this notebook should be more than enough to help prove that I'm innocent." said Mario as he handed over the small object.
"Let's see what's in it." said the rookie as he and the Chief looked at the first page, where the to-do list was written.
"I'd advise you to read that list on the first page. It's-a very important that you do." Mario said, making sure they decided not to skip it.
So the Chief and rookie read the list. They weren't really sure why Mario said it was important for them to read it, but they decided it would be best to humor him and just read it. When they read the list, they learned why Mario told them to do so. Their eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets!
"Yeah, as you read, I was framed!" Mario said, smiling at the way the cops looked.
"And I'm fairly certain that the 'Mama Peach' this person is referring to might be me, Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom." Peach said.
"Oh... we're terribly sorry for any inconvenience, Your Highness." said the Chief as he and the rookie got down on the ground and looked as though they were begging for mercy.
"At ease." Peach said. Then she added, "Now I know what else you're thinking. If you want, we can verify right now that the handwriting in that notebook isn't ours."
"Very well." said the rookie. He handed Mario and Peach a piece of paper from the printer and asked them to write on it.
"Hold on a minute." Peach said. She turned and quickly handed the unconscious criminal to a darker blue Pianta cop who was standing around. She asked the cop to please keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't wake up, and if he did, to warn them. The cop looked at the criminal he was holding, then at Mario, and wondered what was going on. Had they been wrong about Mario all along?
Then Peach took a gold, ball-point pen from her purse and wrote on the paper in her cursive, graceful handwriting, "I didn't write in that notebook." Then she handed her pen to Mario and he wrote the same sentence that Peach wrote, but he didn't write in cursive, and his handwriting wasn't as neat as Peach's handwriting. Still, neither handwriting matched up with what they saw in the notebook.
The cops quickly compared Mario and Peach's handwriting with what was written in the notebook, and the Chief said, "Hmmm... there's no match."
"Exactly." said Peach as Mario handed her back the pen, which she put away.
"Look at the other pages. You'll see more proof that the notebook isn't mine!" said Mario.
So the cops did as Mario said, and they were surprised to see the drawings of Mario being killed by monsters and Peach looking happy about it.
"I would never draw myself being killed. And I certainly don't draw like that." said Mario.
"And I wouldn't make drawings like that, either. I love Mario too much to draw him being treated like that." said Peach.
"You two make very good points." said the rookie.
"So we'll take this criminal to a cell and see if he can tell us what he was thinking when he wakes up." said the Chief as he took Shadow Mario from the cop who was holding him.
"And this paintbrush of his will also make good evidence. Delfino Forensics should be able to figure out who wields it." said the rookie, setting it on the desk.
"Well, it's-a not me; I'll tell you that now. My fingerprints won't even be on it because I usually wear gloves." said Mario, holding up a gloved hand for the cops to see.
"Don't worry, Mario. After what we've seen, we believe you now." said the rookie.
"In the meantime, you and the princess wait right here. We'll come and get you if we need your help with the criminal." said the Chief as he and the rookie walked off.
So Mario and Peach sat down in the main room, wondering what they were going to do now.
The other cop looked at Mario and said, "I think everyone on this island made a mistake about you, Mario. You don't look much like a bad guy." And then he went to call Delfino Forensics and see if they would come and get the paintbrush so they could check it for fingerprints.
The Chief and the rookie reached the cells, and after unlocking the door to a vacant cell, they threw Shadow Mario into the cell, then locked the door. Shadow Mario began to wake up as soon as his head hit the wall.
"Ohhhh, what happened?" Shadow Mario asked himself. He opened his eyes, but the world was spinning really fast, and he felt nauseous. He closed his eyes again and waited a few more minutes before trying to have another look. He slowly opened his eyes, and the world began to slide into focus. With that, he tried to sit up against the wall.
"Oh, good. He just woke up." a voice said. Shadow Mario slowly turned his head in the direction of the voice, and he saw two Piantas standing beyond a set of bars.
...Hold everything! The Piantas were dressed like police officers, and there were bars in this dark and drab-looking place! Shadow Mario woke up more fully and realized that there was a hard bunk next to him. He began to realize just where he was, and it wasn't good.
"A-am I in... prison?!" Shadow Mario asked.
"How right you are!" said the Chief.
"What am I doing here? Last I remember, I was at Pinna Park, with Mama Peach, and then everything went dark..." Shadow Mario began.
"So this notebook is yours, eh?" asked the rookie, holding up the notebook.
"What in the-?! How did you get my notebook?!" asked Shadow Mario, flabbergasted at the sight of his handy dandy notebook in the hands of Johnny Law.
"Mario and the princess found that you had dropped it after the princess knocked you out at Pinna Park. They told us everything you've done to them!" said the Chief.
"Mama Peach knocked me out?! Oh no... How could she do that to her own kid?!" Shadow Mario asked himself, feeling unhappy. Then he said to the cops, "But I had to do it! You see, Papa told me that Mama Peach was kidnapped by a bad man named Mario, so I came here to rescue her! The idea was to make you think he was bad so you would lock him up in prison, and I could get her back without him standing in my way!"
"So the paintbrush is also yours?" asked the rookie.
"Yes! And... wait a minute! Where is it?! I want it back!" Shadow Mario demanded after realizing that his paintbrush was not in the cell, or in the hands of the cops.
"It's going to Delfino Forensics so they can gather evidence from it." said the Chief.
"But it's mine! Give it back to me!" said Shadow Mario.
"After the people at Delfino Forensics get what they need, we will." said the rookie.
"How long will that take?" Shadow Mario asked.
"Days, at the most." said the Chief.
"How many?" asked Shadow Mario.
"It varies with each case. But first, you owe us the answer to a big question. Who are you, really? No human goes around looking like you." said the rookie.
"Okay, I don't suppose showing you who I really am would hurt. Plus, it might be easier for Mama Peach to recognize me if she sees me as I really am." said Shadow Mario. He did some flips and changed shape. Then he lowered a dark blue bandana with Mario's nose and mustache crudely drawn on it, and they saw a small creature they had never seen before.
The Chief and the rookie exchanged odd looks. If the kid was referring to Princess Peach when he mentioned 'Mama Peach', that didn't make sense. She was a human, and this kid looked nothing like her, but he claimed that she was his mom. How could that be?
"All right. This is how I really look. Now I want you to answer my question: is Mama Peach around here?" the child asked.
"Are you referring to the blonde-haired woman in the pink dress?" asked the Chief.
"That's her! So she is here!" the child said, looking pretty happy to know that she was here. His mama could get him out of there once she recognized him!
"Yes, she is. And Mario is with her." said the rookie.
"Go get them! They might as well know what's going on!" said the child.
"Keep an eye on the kid while I get Mario and the princess." the Chief whispered to the rookie.
"Yes, sir." said the rookie, looking at the kid who looked back at him.
"You and your boss will be letting me out of here and putting Mario back in real soon. When Mama Peach sees me, she won't be upset with me. She'll thank me for coming!" the kid said to the rookie as the Chief walked away.
"We'll see." said the rookie, not believing him. Peach already said that she loves Mario, and she was helping him prove that he was innocent.
"We've got the villain taken care of, but now he needs to tell us why he framed me." said Mario.
"He probably did it for a stupid, petty reason." said Peach.
"That's usually why most villains do what they do. But considering what the notebook said, this one's got me curious." said Mario.
"I know. Still, the sight of the criminal and what he wrote and drew should be enough to convince the judge to change everything and let you off. And when he does, I'm going to make sure that you're happy for the rest of this vacation." Peach told Mario as she gave him a kiss on the nose.
"Oh, I think you're already making me feel that way." said Mario, blushing like a madman.
"Good. And you know why I'm doing it? Because I love you." Peach said.
"Anch'io ti amo. I love you, too, Peach." Mario replied, and he leaned in to give the princess a kiss on the lips. She knew right away what he wanted, and she began leaning in as well. But just before their lips made contact, they heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. They jumped in surprise and turned to see the Chief standing there.
"Can we help you?" Peach asked, trying to hide her annoyance at being interrupted.
"Yes. The criminal woke up as soon as we put him in his cell. Not only has he revealed that his blue Mario form is a cheap disguise, he said that the notebook and the paintbrush are his, and he's telling us a lot of bad things about Mario. We need you to verify the truth." said the Chief.
"Whatever his accusations are, I can tell you right now that none of them are true. I know Mario well enough to tell you that he's not a bad guy. He's the sweetest man a princess could ever ask for." Peach said.
"Well, you'll know best when you see him and have him tell you what he was saying. Come with me." said the Chief as Mario and Peach stood up and followed him. Both of them could only wonder who the criminal really was, and what he was telling the police.
That's what they're going to found out in Chapter 2, so I'll advise you to stay tuned if you want to find out what's going on!