The Dream (A Mario Fanfic)

[Super Mario]

Hey everybody. I used to write some semi-popular fanfictions on here, but it's been forever. I'm not sure if anyone who'd remember me is still around... I mean, it hasn't been that long, but still. Anyway, I'm going to try my hand at another. Just start it tonight (since it's late), and it'd be nice to get some feedback.

***

Mario almost yelped as the bedsire siren mercilessly kicked from his dream. His alarm clock (which was unreliably old and out of style) fuzzily blasted a terrible, smooth-jazz rendition of what we might call the "Toad House" theme. The groggy plumber fumbled for the undersized buttons on the blasphemous contraption while using the other half of his consciousness to continue his nightly battle with unruly sheets. Finally, after much confused awakening, all was still. The remnants of a bizarre dream were fading in Mario's mind, but like the doused embers of a fire, they quickly died down to a warm hum and died. Mario held his eyes closed, expecting the blinding morning sun to greet him all too soon upon opening them. But upon opening his eyes, Mario discovered that it was just the middle of the night. The lucid stars glimmered softly, and things seemed peaceful. He could hear the measurable rise and fall in Luigi's breathing--his younger brother was clearly still asleep. So what was going on?

Mario's eyes slowly focused in on the dim digital clock numbers: 2:58. Why was his alarm set for the middle of the night? Was this a very belated (or very early?) April fool's joke? Mario smoothed his moustache and sat up in bed, peering out the window opposite his top-bunk residence to the gentle spires that dotted the night sky so generously. Heroic Mario sighed, "Now that I'm awake, I'm never going to get back to sleep... may as well take a walk or something." He quietly climbed down from his bunk, stepping into prepared slippers, careful not to wake his slumbering brother. Mario ran a hand through his short-cut brown hair, pulling a red-tinted night gown on (though it was more pink now... neither brother was very good with bleach washing) and looking around for his usual red cap. After a few moments of hapless searching, Mario spotted it hugged tightly in the arms of Luigi, a pathetic excuse for a teddy bear. The older brother scoffed, and pried it away from his sibling with some difficulty, the green-affiliated Mario brother making an odd noise at this shift and loss, but remaining asleep.

Mario straightened his red cap upon his head, and quietly left the house, closing the door behing himself and stepping out onto the porch. He paced over to the railing, scanning the calm night air with sky-blue eyes. It was quiet and still, a picturesque evening. Mario stretched, the exercising of his sleepy muscles rushing blood through him and waking him further. He smiled lightly after a moment, musing to himself, "I wonder what the night life in Toad Town is like?" With that, the heroic plumber ambled quietly over to the dull-looking green pipe a few yards from the porch, and hopped in (as was customary), popping out the corresponding end within the western edge of Toad Town's central square.

Naturally, there weren't many people around. But Mario knew some shops were open 24-hours a day, and some of Toad Town's residents made a living off of the different atmosphere the bustling city offered during late hours. Mario, knowing how easy he'd be to spot (and not wanting to draw a crowd) flipped his hat inside out; the navy blue hue it sported, combined with his nightgown and slippers, did make him stick out a bit... but he certainly didn't look like the Mario everyone knew. Tucking it low about his face, he walked at a moderate pace towards the center of town.

Though it didn't hold a candle to Rogueport, Toad Town did have a bit of a shady side, and it made itself more than obvious to Mario as he ambled through its streets. Lonely Toads stood on cobblestone corners, watching alleyways in suspicious speculation; a gang of Koopa-Troopas could be heard bantering and laughing as they tagged the backside of a small general store. Mario raised an eyebrow at these odd going-ons, but didn't slow his pace any, beginning to wonder if taking a walk through the bad part of town at this hour had been such a wise idea. He began to turn down an alley that he assumed led back towards the more "civil" parts of town when a creepy looking Toad in a dust-coat stopped him.

"'Ey buddy... you here for the stuff?"

"What?" Mario had no idea who this Toad was or what he wanted.

"You know... the stuff..."

Mario simply stared at the character from under the navy blue hue of his cap.

The Toad scoffed and walked off. Mario watched him go, and he stopped at the next person he came upon, asking that unfortunate soul the same bizarre question. Mario almost laughed and continued down the alleyway; he was almost out the other side, when he heard some jovial laughing and clinking of glasses from behind a small wooden door that was accessible down a short flight of stairs at the side of the alley. Mario shrugged, curous, and walked down the stairs. He listened for a moment, before decidedly rapping upon the wooden barrier.

An eye-slot slid upon. A raspy voice, represented by dark, bloodshot eyes, asked huskily, "What'chu want, nightgown man?"

Mario started a bit at the menacing sound of the voice, but answered confidently, "I heard some... noises. I was curious about what's going on down here."

The voice emitted what must have been a laugh (but who knows)... "This here's the ToadzEze pub. We're just a bunch of folks who like to have a good time. But you don't looks like no Toad t' me... unless... you're the new muscle?"

Mario stammered, not sure what the little man behind the door meant.

The Toad-bouncer laughed, "Alrigh', I get the point. Come on in. Don Pianta's been suspectin' youse."

Mario was rushed inside before he could react or resist. The last thing on his mind was how the Toad must have meant "expecting"...

***

Alright, I gotta' stop for now, I'm real tired, but I'll continue it tomorrow (er, later today, technically). But feedback would be nice. It's going to get more interesting, involve more characters than just Mario, this is more of an introduction to things.

[Screech]

This kind of reminds of a film noir. It may be that I've never figured on Toad Town having a seedy side. Really cool story.

[Super Mario]

Haha. I figure every big city has a little bit of a seedy side. This is actually going to re-adjust itself to a more normal Mario scenario in a little while... well, you'll have to keep reading and see.

***

Mario was rushed hastily inside the pub, with hardly any time to look around as he was rushed past packed tables of jovial patrons, who played games or took bets or drank their fill of 'Shroom Shakes. The interior of the pub was well-lit by hanging lanterns, and was mostly of a finished wooden decor, giving it an old-timey appeal. Mario figured that the night-shift working Toads must have come here to take things easy after their long day's work... hence the name of the pub itself, ToadzEze.

After a bit of confused stumbling and tripping over his slippers, Mario was rushed into a well-furnished back room: plushy red carpet, leather chairs, decorative plants, even a water cooler. There sat Don Pianta, hands folded upon his desk, two big Pianta goons on either side of him. Mario could tell they were sizing him up, which felt a little awkward considering he was in a nightgown. He was lucky everything was as dark as it was--no one had recognized his signature moustache yet.

After a moment, Don Pianta spoke up, "You the new muscle?" Mario didn't respond, knowing his cheesy italian accent would give him away. The Don laughed a bit, "Kinda' dumb, but we don't need your brains, eh? Not very big for what we was expecting." The Don and his goons chuckled a bit. Mario felt himself redden nervously beneath the shadow of the blue-hued cap.

Just then, a crash was heard, as a small, black-cloaked figure leapt from the Don's closet, throwing out a violet wand which cast an arc of lightning into the Don, sparking off of him and cracking through the air and wood of the walls. Mario whirled to face the figure, and suddenly was struck with a pain in the back of his mind... this was the figure he had been dreaming about before his alarm clock awoke him! As the creature disappeared into wisps of dark smoke, Mario stumbled and fell down, blacking out.

** A few hours later **

Mario stirred and awoke... he was still in his nightgown and slippers, and the flipped-out hat lay a few feet from him. He was sprawled on a mat of straw. A little bit of light from the rising sun poured through a window. A barred window. Mario was in the Toad Town jail!

He groggily rubbed his eyes and stumbled over to the bars, holding them. He called out to a tired-looking guard who stood a few feet away, "What's going on here!? Why am I in jail!?" The guard blinked a few times, watching him...

"Oh! Mario... right, um. What was I supposed to say... er..." The guard then recited some lines robotically. "You are being held as a suspect to the murder of the illustrious Don Pianta, until the true murderer is found or until you confess. You will be issued two meals a day, um, you have a lovely view of the eastern parlor..." The Hammer Bro. snapped out of his routine after a moment.

"Honestly, Mario, I don't know what the town officials are thinking! You're a hero! But we have to hold you until we know you didn't do it. The Don's men said you were the last one in or out of the Don's room, and while they may have seen... something... there isn't enough evidence to let you go just let. Unfortunately... bail's pretty high, considering."

Mario shook his head, "Mama mia... I should have just gone back to sleep." He twisted, stretching, sore from laying on a lumpy pile of straw. Mario nodded to the guard, "Well, thank you. Have you notified my brother? The Princess?"

The guard stammered, "Uh, erm... the Princess is at an important meeting with delegates from all over the Mushroom Kingdom... but she'll be here as soon as she can. Your brother didn't answer the phone, and we haven't been able to get ahold of him just yet."

Mario sighed, exasperated. He nodded wearily and walked over beneath the barred window, peering out of it. The view wasn't too bad. But Mario's biggest concern was getting out of jail, finding out what really happened, finding out the mystery of the cloaked figure, and *gurgle* ... getting some food! Mario's stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten in quite some time. He slumped down against the wall, sighing again and staring blankly at the bars opposite him.

After a moment, he heard some rustling. A leathery old Toad sat in the corner, leisurely holding a knotted old walking stick. A ridiculous gray beard covered most of his body--you might think he was wearing some kind of fur cloak in a darker room. The old timer nodded towards Mario, "Mornin', cellmate."

Mario almost laughed at the little Toad's appearance, but then thought better of it, and smiled a response, though his words frowned, "Morning..." Mario's mind was cluttered with questions, especially as to the whereabouts of his brother Luigi.

The old Toad nudged him with the end of his stick, "You want some 'a these here spicy anchovies, youngin'?" The old fellow laughed, as it knowing no one in their right mind would want spicy anchovies--at least not for breakfast.

Mario shook his head, a little irritated at the nudging. He turned his attention back to the bars of the cell, settling in where he sat and waiting...

--Meanwhile--

Luigi stammered in fear at the monster rising up before him, falling onto his behind and quaking as he beheld it...

***

Haha! Stopping there. Is Mario going to be set free? What's happening with Luigi? Will the Princess ever get out of her meeting!? Stay tuned for the next installment!

[luigenius]

Cool 'fic so far. My guess is that Luigi's dreaming!

[GiftedGirl]

AWESOME. :D

[Ultima Shadow]

This fanfic is, indeed, awesome. I, too, think that Luigi's dreaming. Keep up the good work! =)

[Super Mario]

Luigi quivered with fear at the monstrous beast rising out of the sand. He turned, looking for Mario and the others, but couldn't see them for the clouds of heavy sand that were being filtered through the air. Turning back towards the monster, he steeled himself, the sand beginning to clear as it had finished surfacing...

Luigi snapped awake. He bumped his head into the top bunk above him and yelped, falling out of bed and paddling on the floor for a moment as if he was drowning. After a moment, he calmed down, flustered, laying upon the floor and collecting himself (mentally... he was still in one piece). Mario's alarm-clock was going off very loudly above him, blasting an overly technical industrialized pop song about wrongly being in prison, and something about the greatest hot dog in the sky--at least, that's what Luigi thought it was saying.

He rubbed his head where he bumped it, sighing, "Eh Mario, why's your alarm clock going off so loud?" He climbed up to his elder brother's bunk, only to notice that *gasp* ... Mario was missing! He squinted at the clock, the stardust of sleepytime still in his eyes: 4:05. Luigi reached to turn the volume down and climb back down from Mario's bunk, thinking, I wonder where Mario's gone to, and why he'd set his clock to 4:05? And what was that dream I was having? But the more Luigi thought about the dream, the less he could remember about it.

He walked out of their bedroom, looking around, noticing Mario's nightgown and slippers and cap were gone. Luigi didn't like the look of things. He quickly went and got into his usual adventuring clothes (overalls, shirt, cap, you know the drill guys), packed up a backpack with some food, Mushrooms, his toothbrush, wallet, passport, handheld games... er... I'll cut the list off there, and headed out the front door, grabbing a flashlight on the way. Upon stepping out onto the porch, he called out inquisitively (a little frightened) ... "Mario?"

--Meanwhile--

Mario was being strongarmed. A couple of big guards had come and taken him from his cell to a huge moving-van like vehicle that was parked out behind the jail. It looked way too official, and way too serious, to be something that belonged to the almost crime-less town of Toad Town. Mario was hurled into the back by the foreign-looking fellows, and scrambled up onto a bench at the side. He was all flustered, but soon regained enough composure to cry out, "What's going on? Have I been convicted? Don't I get a trial?" The two men in the front seat shut a metal barrier between themselves and the back, laughing a bit.

Foreign Guard #1: "Haha. Little guy wants a trial."

Guard #2: "Pfffffffft. They all want a trial!"

#1: "Yeh. Well, I hope he's eaten, it's gonna' be a long ride."

#2: "What did they say his name was? It seemed like a big deal? Marvo? Marvin? The Great Gonzales?"

#1: "I dunno', who cares? What's the little freak doing running around in slippers and a nightgown murdering mob bosses? Anyway, all I know is, we're getting paid pretty good to do this, and no Toad Town delegates are gonna' stop me."

Mario was in almost total darkness. He quieted, knowing his shouting was no good, really beginning to wonder where Luigi or Peach or even Toadsworth were. He couldn't hear anyone else in the back with him, so he assumed he was alone. Would officials send a big moving van like this for a single prisoner? Why was he being treated so roughly, when he hadn't been proven guilty? When he was innocent no less?

--Meanwhile--

Princess Peach Toadstool was practically falling asleep as the stuffy delegates blathered on and on about trivial affairs. Peach knew what was important: the land's poverty, its need for peace between the borders and for the fair distribution of goods and food. But none of the other delegates wanted to discuss that, they all seemed concerned with fattening the upper-class paycheck. And this meeting had been going for hours now.

As the speaker's voice began to lull into a repetitive sound, Peach slowly slipped into a light slumber...

***

Oh snap! Even more weird stuff happening! Keep reading!

Note: I don't mean "foreign" in a racial sense, I mean it as they are people Mario has never seen before. Thanks.

[luigenius]

Goin' good so far. Thus far. Yep!

[Super Mario]

Mario breathed out slowly. The air was very hot. He opened his eyes. He was still in jail. No... this was different. The cell was larger. And it was so hot. Why was it so hot?

After a moment, Mario snapped out of his dream-like state. Either someone had knocked him out or he had dozed off during the ride in the big prison van. He looked around himself. Hot sunlight cascaded from the ceiling outside his cell. Across from him were rows and rows of other cells. He wasn't sure where he was, but he was definitely in a prison.

As a matter of fact, Mario was in Koopatraz, or "The Shell" as it was called by inmates. Probably the largest and most high-security prison facility within the confines of Mario's world, it was held on an island way out at sea, who knows how far from a place like Toad Town. Mario's nightgown had been replaced by an inmate's clothing, his M-insignia hat replaced by a number-code printed above his heart upon the dull orange suit.

The cell was very hot. Mario had already begun sweating, the space between the cells going up another story (to more rows of cells) and then ending in grates which let in the hot sunlight. Guards patrolled up and down each level, and even over the grates, casting their robotic shadows down upon the inmates.

Mario was housed with some of the most dangerous criminals in the entire world. At least, he assumed that, considering the high-security of this place. Unlike most prisons, the inmates here were constantly bombarded with sunlight--night only lasted a couple hours on this oddly placed island--and thus after a while they were driven into insomnia-induced madness. Mario swallowed nervously at the thought. How had this happened?

He hadn't even had a trial. And he hadn't done anything!

"This is absurd," Mario muttered to himself. He began to pace, part of him wanting to scream and lash out and attack the bars. He knew he had no items--no Mushrooms, bob-ombs, anything to help him escape. Just the pocketless suit they'd given him. He felt a forced calm settle over him after a moment. He had to find a way to escape... something was rotten about this whole thing, and Mario feared the shadowy figure had something to do with it.

The inmates around him had been pretty quiet up until now, when they started yelling at someone who must have been escorted by the guards--"Hey moustache! I remember you! You put me in here!" "Stick him in with the other 'stache brotha'!" "Let him come here so he can get stomped!"

Mario ran to the front of his cell, gripping his bars and looking down the hallway between the cells. A shadowy figure was walking past cells, down the hall towards him, flanked by two mean-looking prison guards. Every now and then the man would head through a particularly sunny patch of light, and Mario knew who it was. Luigi.

Luigi was terribly frightened, but he tried hard not to show it. After a moment, Mario's cell was opened, and the two brothers were reunited in this awful place. Luigi grabbed Mario in a hug instantly, "Mario, what's going on!? Why are we here? What's happening?" Luigi turned and grabbed at the bars of the cell, "Hey! Let us out of here! We're the Mario brothers!"

Mario grabbed Luigi, both out of concern and wanting to hush him up. He pulled him to the back of the cell, waiting until his hysterical younger brother calmed down, before speaking to him, "Shh. I don't think it's a good idea to have all of these baddies know who we are. I'm sure some of them have a bit of a vendetta against us. I don't know why we're here... I mean, I know why I'm here, unfair as it is, but how did you get here?" Mario looked quizically at Luigi.

Luigi sat down slowly against the little bunk-bed cot at the corner of the cell, watching Mario for a moment as if he had no recollection of the last 24 hours. After a moment, however, he began...

"I'd gone into Toad Town looking for you. There was no one around, except this shady little guy asking me if I was there for 'the stuff' or something... anyway, I snooped around a bit, and somebody mentioned you being in jail. I didn't believe it for a minute, but I didn't know where you were, so I went to the jail. You were gone already, but this little old Toad said he'd seen you. I talked with him for a bit, and he eventually offered me some spicy anchovies. Well... you know how I love spicy anchovies, so I had some of them. But they were so hot I had to find some water, and I was running and I tripped over a closed-down fruit stand and stumbled into this shady group of Koopa Troopas, some sort of gang or something." Luigi paused as if trying to remember the next part of the story.

"Well, they all got pretty mad, so I tried to explain that it was an accident, but my mouth was so salty and hot that I couldn't really talk right, so I started running away, but then I heard an explosion behind me, to I turned, and half of the block was wiped out! It was so awful! I saw this little dark cloaked man running into the distance... and well, they think I did it. We're both all over the Toad Town Local News."

***

That's all for now!

[Super Mario]

Mario sighed. He and his brother were convicted criminals? How had this all happened so fast? The little shadowy man was definitely behind it. But who was he... or what was it? And why hadn't they had a trial? The whole thing smelled like Rogueport harbor: fishy.

The brothers slumped against the back wall of the hot cell, the miserable heat causing them both to don a light sheen of sweat at all times. They groggily watched prisoners from across other cells. Most of them seemed pretty docile, harmless. Luigi started thinking upon the justice of the Mushroom Kingdom's judicial system, and if it always judged fairly. Mario started to think of how they were going to get out.

After a few minutes, a heavily-armored guard approached the front of the cell. "He's going to let us out. They know we didn't do it. They caught the shadowy man. Peach overruled the arrest. We're free. They're going to apologize for this." All of this raced through Mario's head, but when he saw the tray of 'food' that the man held out before him, his dreams of redemptions were shattered.

The tray (consisting of a couple pieces of stale bread and two glasses of water) was pushed beneath the bars to the brothers. They slowly rose and ambled over to it, eyeing it distrustfully.

"What is it?" pondered Luigi.

"Food..." mumbled Mario dryly.

Luigi sighed. "I know that. But it's certainly not delicious italian cuisine, either."

Mario knelt and grasped one of the pieces of bread. He squeezed it lightly, sighing at how rock-like it felt, before taking a bite reluctantly, and quickly washing the stale taste away with the bland, but cool, water. He quickly drank down the refreshing liquid, afraid it would get hot, deciding he'd be better off to not eat the bread.

Luigi gathered the two pieces and walked to a corner. He set his cap down and placed them within it. Mario watched him, before asking, "What are you doing?"

Luigi frowned at his work for a moment, before standing and turning to his brother, "Well, this corner is where the plumbing runs. You can tell from the slight discoloration of the stone. It'll be moist here. If we let the bread sit here for a while, it'll get softer and be easier to eat. We just can't let it sit too long or it'll get... moldy."

Mario nodded. Luigi sure was smart. He set the empty glass down near the bars of the cell (as if hoping for a refill), and then went and slumped onto the bottom bed of the bunk-bed-cots that had been provided for his brother and he.

Luigi leaned casually against a wall, but the look on his face was one of someone scared and uncertain. He watched Mario for a while, as if for inspiration, before asking, "So, we're both innocent, right?"

Mario was a little shocked at the question, but laughed after a moment, "Yes. But I'm sure everyone in here will say that... this place isn't for petty thieves." Luigi nodded to his elder brother's statement.

Mario wiped his brow with the back of his glove, "Mama mia... this wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so hot. Don't we get to go outside or anything?"

Luigi didn't answer, knowing the hot sunlight pouring in from above them was probably going to become a very unwelcome guest before too long.

After a moment, the brothers heard some racous cat-calling from the cells preceding their own. "Hey blondie!" "Not feelin' like a Princess now, huh!?" "Put her in here with me!" As the guards brought the woman to the front of the brothers' cell, Mario gasped, "Peach!?"

***

S'all for now! Woo!