| |
|
The Chronicles of
Srevermore
Part One
Written By: Shayn Davis |
As the sun set over the hill in the distance, It
blinked slightly and lowered its gaze. It’ s eyes appeared as long
slits in the distance and then they slowly fell then vanished from
sight.
“I love the view from up here, don’t you?” said the Princess as she
scanned the Castle grounds from the balcony.
“Yeah...” Mario said half-heartedly for he was distracted by a low
rumbling sound in the distance, and flock of birds that rose out of
the forest, they sounded frightened. “Maybe I should go check that...”
he mumbled mostly to himself. “Mario, NO! We haven’t spent anytime
together lately!” groaned Peach. But Mario had already made up his
mind.
“I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.” with that Mario jumped down from the
balcony. He landed with a slight thud but was not hurt, his legs were
practiced shock absorbers. He took of running towards the pipe in the
courtyard and slid down it. The rush of cold air sucked him in and he
traveled at speeds that long ago would have churned his stomach, but
years of the riding Warp Pipes had put a stop to any queasiness. The
pipe pushed him out in front of his house, and he ran to the door.
“Luigi!!” Mario yelled, “There’s something in the forest!”
“And.....” he replied
“Well, I want your help...” he said taken aback
“Really!? Hold on!” Luigi sounded much more happy now. Inviting Luigi
was mostly a kind gesture, Mario almost always does everything solo.
Although, Luigi had rescued him twice and together they first plotted
the Mushroom Kingdom. But he just usually didn’t ask for his little
brothers help.
“Here, I grabbed your hammer.” Luigi said thrusting him the mallet
with the insignia of Hammer Bros. though marred, still visible. They
ran towards their back yard that bordered the forest, they jumped over
the fence, and started in the direction of the sound. The sky was now
deep blue with only the faintest stretch of light in the distance. As
the sky grew darker, the more they noticed the flashing lights coming
from the distance.
“Mario, what is that?” Luigi asked, more than a little nervous
“I don’t know...” Mario replied, the lights didn’t look like a fire or
anything they were used to seeing in the Mushroom Kingdom. As they got
closer, a Goomba was running, and it bumped right into Luigi.
“Ow!”he shouted.
“Nrrgggg....” the Goomba grumbled it was apparently a dumb one, one
that followed Bowser. He liked to keep most of his subjects dumb, so
they wouldn’t try to rebel against him. But, a lot of Monsters had
left him and gotten smarter, maybe it was a spell Bowser had over
them. Luigi hit the Goomba on the head and it fell over, it’s eyes
crossed. The Brothers headed towards the now subsiding light and were
only a few yards away from it now.
“Hello?” Mario shouted into the trees ahead.
“HELP ME!” a frightened voice shouted back. They rushed in and saw two
koopas, a wriggler, and several Bob-ombs surrounding a girl in a red
bow and a pink dress. Mario ran too the first koopa and jumped onto
his head, he immediately retreated into his shell. He then kicked the
koopa into the wriggler, and it was knocked back a few feet. One Bob-omb
rushed toward Luigi glowing red and sparking from the wick, Luigi hit
it with a hammer into the group of other Bob-ombs. They were all blown
into the sky, and two got stuck in the trees the other three fell to
the ground. One of them hit the now recovering wriggler in the head,
knocking him out for good.
“Are you okay? Mario asked the girl.
“Yeah ...” She said breathing hard. “Those last ones were giving me
some trouble.”
Mario noticed she was holding a frying pan in her hand very tightly.
Then he noticed Luigi gaping out behind her. As far as they could see
trees were cracked and broken, some were on fire, and goombas, koopas,
fuzzies, wrigglers and koopas were scared and slain. On further
inspection some were frozen solid.
“Yeah, as soon as I got here lots of those things started attacking
me.” She laughed a little and turned around to look at her work.
“Got here? Repeated Mario.
“Yeah, got here...” she said again giggling a little this time.
“How, did you find the portal in the sewer?” Luigi asked.
“No, I used Teleport Omega. I didn’t think it would work personally,
but Poo said it would. Guess he was right.” She said. Mario and Luigi
looked at each other, there weren’t a lot of humans in the Mushroom
Kingdom, and the sewer in Brooklyn was how they got here.
“So, what’s your name? Luigi asked.
“Paula. Paula Polestar. Who are you.”
“We are Mario, and Luigi. The Super Mario Brothers!” Mario said with
gusto.
“Well then, maybe you’re the one’s I was sent here to find.” Paula
said.
“Where did you come from?” Luigi asked her.
“Eagleland.”
“Where’s that?
“Not here....”
“Why did you come here” asked Mario.
“To find some to help us.”
“Who is ‘us’.”
“The Chosen Four: Ness, Me, Jeff, and Poo.”
“What do you need help with?”
“This...thing we thought was dead has come back, and it’s stronger. We
can’t beat it this time. So I went looking for help.” Paula said, not
laughing at all this time.
“But why us?” Mario said.
“I don’t know, I just needed some heroes, and I guess I found them.”
“Well, we do have some experience fighting tough things....” Luigi
boasted.
“Really?” Paula wondered
“”Yeah, Bowser.” Mario said
“Whose that?”
“He’s a giant spiky koopa who breathes fire.”
“Oh. Can he change forms?”
“I don’t think so...”
“Can he manipulate reality?”
“No....”
“Can he be in multiple places at one time?”
“No...”
“Can he animate inanimate objects?”
“Maybe....”
“Can he posses people and animals?
“No...”
“Does he have an army of interstellar warriors?”
“Well he has an army...”
“Uhuh... Well, I don’t think you guys can help me. I’ve gotta go but,
maybe, I’ll come back for you.” Paula said looking sadder now.
“Sorry we can’t be of any help to you, Paula.” Luigi said looking sad
too.
“Well, bye.” Mario said already walking back towards the castle. With
another huge bang and more blinding light, she was gone.
“To bad she didn’t take us with her...” Luigi said dreamily, he had
wanted some adventure.
“To bad! Didn’t you hear what she said about that thing!? All those
powers it has? I’d rather never face anything like that!”
“Yeah, I guess...” Luigi grumbled. All the way back to the house they
argued about what Paula had said and wondered if she would come back
for them. They arrived home a few minutes later, and Luigi immediately
went to bed. Mario wanted to stay up for a while and eat something. He
walked over to the refrigerator and looked around. There was a piece
of cake, some berries, several mushrooms, some Tasty Tonic, lemon
soda, soup, and leftover mushroom pasta. Nothing looked particularly
appetizing, but he finally settled on the soup and the Tasty Tonic. He
took the food over to the table and heated his soup with a small
fireball he conjured from his hand. He got a spoon from the drawer and
sat back down, as he took a bite and swallowed he let out a muffled
scream....it was really spicy. He chugged down the Tasty Tonic, but
left half. He took the soup and slurped it down as fast as he could to
avoid the spicieness. He drank the rest of the Tonic and put the
dishes in the sink. He went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth and
changed into his pajamas. Mario climbed the ladder into the top bunk,
and fell asleep almost immediately.
A few hours later Mario was woken by extreme indigestion, he stumbled
to the bathroom to find antacids. He opened the medicine cabinet and
didn’t see anything, he grumbled slightly and walked to the kitchen.
As he was looking for something to settle his stomach, he happened to
glance out the window. He saw fire coming from the castle. He was sure
it was fire, Paula hadn’t returned. He yelled at Luigi
“Hurry, get dressed the Castle is on fire!”
“Mnnnnnn....” Luigi mumbled back. Mario had already gotten dressed and
grabbed his hammer, and started towards the front door.
“Luigi, meet me over there! Hurry!” and Mario ran off to the Castle.
He jumped into the Warp Pipe in his yard and jumped into it, and the
familiar rush of cold sucked him down, and then forced him up into the
Castle courtyard. He looked around and saw sheer destruction. The
Castle was burning in places, and enormous holes were crushed in
around the walls. The sky was thick with what looked like Paratroopas,
but these were bigger and stronger looking.
Mario did a frantic search for Peach, didn’t spot her, and against his
better judgment, ran into castle. The main hall has destroyed, and a
few Toad guards were trying to fight off some sort of monster with
spears. Mario rushed in to help them, he conjured a fireball and
hurdled it at the beast, it seemed dazed, but not hurt. A Toad rushed
in and stabbed it with his spear, the thing made a nasty gurgling
sound and was slowed down a bit. It seemed about finished when it
charged in and bit one of the Toads.
“Arhhh!” he screamed and fell to the floor. Mario then jumped high
into the air and landed on the beast with all his might, jumped up
again, and did an elbow drop on its bulbous head. It was defeated.
Mario bent stepped back to take a good look at the creature, and saw
it was smooth, brown and had large bottom teeth. Its eyes were glassy
black and it was about four feet tall. In fact it looked a lot like a
charged up goomba, and right when Mario thought this the black seemed
to evaporate out of it’s eyes and dissipate into the air. It quivered
and began to shrink, and it formed back into a regular goomba.
“Oh my god....” Mario whispered for he realized that it WAS an
ordinary goomba that had been changed into a monstrosity, and that the
paratroopas must have been affected by the same thing that changed
this goomba. The Toad that had been bitten shuffled to his feet and
thanked Mario.
“Did you see the Princess?”
“She was running around telling everyone that Bowser was attacking,
and when she woke me she was running down that corridor...” He said
pointing to a corridor towards the right.
“Thanks! If Luigi comes tell him to follow me!” And Mario sped off
down the long hallway.
As Mario ran down the corridor, past the tapestries that displayed the
history of the Mushroom Kingdom, he heard a long, growling noise at
the end. He was running faster, and faster when two demonic looking
Koopas attacked him. They were on all fours, and their necks were long
and protruded out about a yard. Like the goomba they too had glassy
black eyes, their skin was a sickly yellow white, although instead of
the regular red shells they were blood red with black patches. Mario
wasn’t going to give them a chance to attack, he jumped up and slammed
the first koopa on its head, and came back down on its shell. It
growled and retreated into itself. While it was distracted Mario
looked to the other one, it began to bellow and growl, so Mario shot a
fireball down into its throat. It was instantly defeated, and Mario
continued to run. A minute later he had reached the end and saw an
enormous hole at the end of a wall. He walked through, and saw Bowser,
but he was twisted and hideous. He was almost twice as tall as usual,
his spikes curved downward and were more sleek. And instead of being
bulky he was lean. His hair was a darker orange and reached halfway
down his back. His arms bulged out and were pulsating with black
veins, they looked as if they could crush stone with little effort.
And, like all of his new subjects, his eyes were the same glossy
black.
“So, you came at last.... I knew you would...” The new Bowser said.
“And I can make you keep coming... as long as I have the right
bait.....” With this he held up an unconscious Peach.
“PUT HER DOWN YOU BASTARD!!” Mario screamed and charged at him, Bowser
held up his hand and shot a beam of dark energy at him. The blast hit
Mario full on and he was thrown back several feet.
“Uhhhggg......” Mario groaned.
“I don’t even want this anymore...” Bowser said tiredly, he threw
Peach at Mario and she landed beside him.
“What I want now, is these...” Bowser held out his hands, concentrated
for a moment and a Power Star appeared. “ And I’m sure I have all this
place has to offer...” Bowser gloated. “Remember this Mario, I could
kill you now with mere thoughts, and I choose not to. But, if you come
after me I will strike you down with unimaginable force.”
“Wh-What are y-you now....” Mario managed to stutter out.
“I am what I was the last time you saw me, but I have had the gift of
Srevermore. I bid you and your lovely bride goodbye Mario, Bwhahaha......”
With that, Bowser took a step back and vanished. At that precise
moment Mario passed out.
|
|
