Super Mario: A Novel by Axtlar

[Axtlar]

The following is a novel I wrote based on the Super Mario Bros. game. It is meant to be the story through Mario's eyes as if it was something that happened in real life, therefore everything in the plot is explained as realistically as possible. Take it as a movie script, if you will, in fact, if I ever become a movie director, this is the way I would direct a movie based on Super Mario Bros.
I hope you enjoy, and if you guys are interested in this first chapter, then I will continue to post each chapter every once in a while (maybe every week).

Super Mario
A Novel by Axtlár
Part 1

On a cold winter morning of 1983, New York’s damp sewers serve as an oasis for two hard working exterminators; they wear special anti-chemical suits and masks, and hold fumigation tools as they look for the vermin and pests they were hired to eradicate in order to impede the antecedent pipe-clogging problems of previous winters. Soon, the two exterminators find the “pests”: trembling red-ear slider turtles and small sea crabs covered in sewer gunk, seeking warmth; they were brought to the sewers involuntarily after the currents of fishing boats from the opposite extreme stranded them, incapacitating their return. The exterminators realize this and decide to wash and clean the little fellows and return them to their proper place, so they carefully collocate the animals in buckets and release them into their accustomed temperate home, the sea. The exterminators do not leave without doing their deed however, since encountering a large amount of cluster flies and cluster fly eggs inside crevices and small pipes obligate them to fumigate the pests. The exterminators, now exhausted, stand near the edge of the enormous horizontal pipe they are in as its residues flow down to the water below.



One of the exterminators removes his mask to view the horizon and the sun rising elegantly in the distance, he appears thoughtful as he sighs, gazing seriously, then mildly smiles; his brown, somewhat undulated, thick hair moves gently with the cold morning breeze as do the hairs from his premiering black mustache. His eyes, blue as the ocean itself, squint and blink in defense from the cold breeze’s shrapnel’s intent on stabbing them. He wears an identification tag pinned on his suit, reading “Mario”. The second exterminator, a slightly taller individual, removes his mask as well, and joins Mario; he resembles Mario to an extent in the facial features, except for the mustache, which has a different mold to that of Mario’s. He also wears a tag, but his reads “Luigi”.



“Non male…Vogliono restituire qualcosa da mangiare?” asked Luigi, to which Mario responded “Se”
After Mario accepts Luigi’s request to return to their home and get something to eat, he remembers to recollect their pay first, so they take off their suits revealing blue overalls over long-sleeved maroon sweat shirts while putting on maroon beret hats on their heads; as that is their plumbing business attire, then they head for the extermination company. Once inside the company’s decrepit establishment, Mario and Luigi are paid in coin packets. “Sorry, we’re out of bills,” explained the cashier. Mario, in bewilderment, rapidly counts the quantitative coins, and recalls the job offered eleven dollars an hour, “It’s-a correct!” he indignantly exclaims with a heavy accent to the cashier, consecutively demonstrating his extraordinary math skills. After this, the pair leaves the building, they mount a six-gear go-kart (modified for two passengers) and eventually arrive at a cheap apartment building, where they enter, climb the stairs to the second floor, and go inside their apartment room.




Mario and Luigi are two immigrant brothers from Venice, Italy, who recently moved to the United States in order to give their family plumbing business “Jumpman Plumbing” (which their deceased father passed down to) to the countries that need them the most, and to expand it into the Americas. The brothers are 25 and 24 years of age, with Mario being the oldest. Since their younger years, they have had a reputation for being very handy and skillful not only in the sense of labor, like construction, mechanics, demolition, and plumbing, among others, but also in the sense of athleticism, since they were in the military once as bombardiers and they also became champions of a French sport in their younger years: Parkour, subsequently inspiring Mario and Luigi’s father to rename the plumbing company after his sons’ pastime activities.



Mario commences to prepare a frozen pizza in the microwave and some black coffee. Both he and Luigi are now wearing more comfortable apparel, undershirts, as they converse about the earlier events.

“Discriminazione razziale” said Luigi in an effort to express his disgust over the lack of printed currency for their job payment, to which Mario claims to have probably been a lie, and that it doesn’t necessarily relate to discrimination. Luigi disagrees and Mario desists the argument. Mario in fact thinks they were discriminated against, but does not wish to ignite any fires inside Luigi. Luigi does not cease, however; he keeps on arguing even going as far as mentioning Mario’s new date, Peach, who Mario just met the night before and plans on seeing the night after the next. The following is their conversation translated into English:
“How did you meet her, anyway?” Luigi asked,
“I already told you, I was practicing penalty shots at the park, and I kicked the ball away, so she got it, but instead of returning it to me, she just kicked it to the goal…You should’ve seen it, she’s pretty good…She’s also very bellisima, I wanted to meet her.” Responded Mario.
“Remember the last time you went out with a ‘bellisima’?” asked Luigi. Mario at this time was sitting down and taking a sip from his coffee cup. “That monkey almost killed her”
“It was a gorilla” Said Mario, “She should have seen it coming, those ties were probably too tight for it.”
“See what I mean? You always manage to choose the most extravagant, eccentric…crazy ones.” Said Luigi, reiterating his point. “She is a zoologist, right? How could she not foresee that the monkey was gonna grab her and climb that edifice that you also had to climb?” Mario was now looking more serious and defensive than before. “Look, Peach looks very normal to me, no tricks up her sleeve, I presume.” Said he to his defense.
“In any case, I don’t know how you get so many chicks.” Said Luigi both seriously and sarcastically.
“I don’t whine too much…and I’m more responsible than others” Responded Mario indirectly, making Luigi furious, who thereof exits the apartment and slams the door on his way out.
The next morning, Mario wakes up to find Luigi packed and ready to move out, he explains to Mario that he will show him he can be responsible, live better, and even make more money on his own; Mario also becomes upset and so the business is now divided as it seems the conflict was bound to happen since Mario and Luigi have had working differences in the past. Mario paints a big, red “M” on his go-kart followed by cursive “ario Plumbing” and knits said M on the front of his maroon beret, as his services are now known as “Mario Plumbing”, at the same time, Luigi, at a new apartment rental he just obtained, decides to use green shirts below his overalls and green berets in order to differentiate himself from Mario’s business, even though he plans on working temporarily as a plumber or handyman in general.



The next day, after having done a tiring, long wreckage and cementing gig for a local building, Mario hurries back home to prepare for his big date with Peach; he showers, changes his clothes to a more elegant, ad hoc style, and even wears some cologne to make a good impression. He accorded in a telephone call with Peach to meet at an Italian restaurant, to Mario’s dismay, as he believes it to be a mock-up of “real” Italian food, but decides to ignore it when meeting with Peach as to not seem like a negative person.
Mario arrives at the restaurant, a place so-called "Cavoli’s", the name of which almost produces a scoff from him, refreshing his memory of why he thought the managers needed an Italian dictionary to better their criterion.
Mario’s thoughts are abruptly interrupted as he finds himself beholding Peach while she gracefully walks towards him with her golden locks dangling softly for each step she takes. In Mario’s mind, the new song “True” from Spandau Ballet is heard loudly as if the band itself were playing in there. “Bellisima” thought he.



“Ready?” asked Peach, smiling, to which Mario responded a secure and resounding “Yes”

At the table the couple seat, Mario practices his English with Peach, provided that is the only language she knows. Their axis of conversation consists of sports like soccer, basketball, and tennis, among others, as well as their skills like Peach’s baking and Mario’s part-time and freelance jobs. “I work as boxing referee once, saw light-weight boxer beat bad a giant with K.O.! He-a won title now.” Related Mario. “Wow, that’s unbelievable…and that was here or in Italy?” asked Peach. “On first month here” replied Mario. Unaware of time, Mario and Peach kept on conversing about Mario’s accomplishments, now focusing on the incident with the gorilla; the rescue of Mario's former girlfriend Paulina, the gorilla's incarceration, and its zoo critter that wandered off into the wild. However, Peach soon looks at the time, 12:52 A.M., and suddenly stands and tells Mario she has to leave, to Mario’s confusion. After Mario tries to help Peach and asks her what is wrong, therefore, showing his interest and care, Peach claims it could be dangerous if she does not leave, and could lead her to be trapped forever, adding more to Mario’s confusion. After careful but quick deliberation, Peach decides to break the norm and trust Mario by telling him her secret, since he has shown to be a strong candidate for her friendship and maybe even her heart. She tells Mario to not change his mentality towards her after she shows him her secret, to which Mario agrees. “Take me to the place that defines you; your most robust pastime or workplace.” Said she. Mario, although a bit embarrassed, tells her the answer is plumbing, and the place is a big pipe that she would not want to set foot on for it being filthy. Peach smiles admiring his nobleness, but tells him she can handle it.

Once they arrive to the same place Mario and Luigi were exterminating cluster flies two days ago, Peach looks carefully to see if anyone is watching them, then takes out a strange apparatus that curiously has the raised initials "E.G.C.", she places it on the internal wall of the horizontal pipe they are in, the apparatus is then in some way absorbed by the wall. What seems to be a blue-colored, cubic inter-dimensional portal opens up, completely astounding Mario for he has never seen anything like that before. Peach takes Mario by the hand as she smiles to him securely and leads him inside the portal, where everything is blue, blue lights then appearing pitch black; Mario begins to experience the sensation of slow gyration, then rapid, and then slow again. They finally cross over to the other side of the portal; Peach crosses first, followed by a dizzy Mario that becomes even dizzier as the bright sun shines potent on his face. Peach helps him stand still and holds him by the arm as she utters the words “Mushroom Kingdom”.

[Desslok]

[[Very interesting so far. The illustrations are a nice touch as well.]]

[Axtlar]

[[Thanks, Desslok, glad you're liking it :}]]

[Axtlar]

Super Mario
A Novel by Axtlár
Part 2

A vast mountainous scene with vibrant green pastures opens up to Mario as his dizziness expires. From Mario’s placement, all the way to as far as his eyes can see, the green grass dances along with the wind’s wild race to nowhere. There is an establishment of sorts in the distance that resembles a castle with a flagpole and a flag adorned with the picture of a mushroom, apart from that, everything is nature. The inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom were not all human -from what Mario could tell- there were two nearby resting and saluting him, appearing to be fungi humanoids judging from their limbs and hat-like heads. Unknown creatures flew through the sky, flowers and mushrooms sprouted from the ground, and all seemed peaceful and harmonious.



“This is the land I am from. It’s not as interesting and fun as your land, but we also have hierarchies, flora, fauna…” Explained Peach to Mario, the latter of whom starts to formulate questions while his novelty perceptions overwhelm him.
“Why is it day? Did we go to future?” He confusedly asked.

“We traveled to another ‘dimension’ through that blue door…our ‘dimension’. It is said that there are far away ‘planet-oids’ and galaxies that no matter how far they are, they share a traveling connection, it’s a bit complicated for me, but that’s why it’s daytime here and night time in New York. I’ve been going and coming back a few times, that’s why I don’t get dizzy anymore…and it was all thanks to that machine I used earlier; it was given to me by a dear friend of mine.” Replied Peach looking at Mario cautiously, shamefully anticipating any signs of regret or fear in him of being there.

“It’s-a very nice place” said Mario inhaling profoundly and showing gusto from the contagious happiness of the place, which relieved Peach. “But why you talk in English too, like places in Earth?” Asked he.

“That’s exactly what I wondered the first time I traveled to New York…My friend explained it to me: he said some ‘planet-oids’ are bound to have similarities and ‘parallel’ things, especially if they are connected dimensionally…but we don’t call that language ‘English’, we call it Roga-Të; it is my fifth language, my first is the language of the mushroom people To’a’d, they are the majority, after all and there are many, many languages here just like in your land and your world.” Explained Peach before looking down sadly and relating the tragic past of the kingdom, “We never talk about it anymore, but the kingdom used to be divided, the Toadstool King of old, the first heir to the throne, ruled the land, while a self-declared ‘king’ wanted to usurp the throne and own the whole kingdom. King Toadstool II, then, generously let the other ‘king’ and his ‘subjects’ have a quarter of the land for them to live in, so they settled in. But one day, they turned on us, killing soldiers in their sleep and taking half of our land, threatening King Toadstool II to give them the whole land and the throne. We won by sheer luck in the end since we had more troops than they did, and the ‘king’ as helpless as he was in the end, was let go, and fled with his tail between his legs… We found out later on that their race is a race of barbarians that owned multiple lands and that was their sole purpose: to keep expanding their lands until they could own most of our world, like a parasite…they are thought to have died out, because they haven’t been seen in any part of the world since after those days.”

Mario begins to understand the history of the Mushroom Kingdom, its colorful ambience, and even a little bit about the whole world it resides in. He meets several of the “mushroom people” and friendly animals that roamed around. Mario and Peach run around and play on the grass, laughing like two children enamored of life. They soon lie down on the multi-colored flowers and look at the clouds above as they tell of their resemblances.
Peach picks out a small mushroom from the ground and gifts it to Mario while she says, “Every time you wish to visit me, go to the place that defines you and go through the blue.” Everything turns blurry.

In bed, the telephone’s rings wake Mario up as he cleans the saliva from his mouth. He is surprisingly in his home, wearing his pajamas. “Could last night have been a dream?” he thought, although wanting it to be true since he bonded with Peach, but then again what happened was the strangest thing that ever happened to him, which is more inclined to be fiction than reality. The phone call he received was that of a sink problem from a lady two miles away. Mario puts on his business attire but realizes he is missing his keys; he looks for them with no avail, then finds his clothes from last night tossed away on the opposite side of his bed, looks inside the pockets to find his keys and the mushroom Peach gave him, coming to the conclusion that last night’s events were in fact true. He finally puts the mushroom in his overalls’ pockets as he holds the keys, heads out his apartment room and building, mounts his go-kart, and heads off for his plumbing job.

At his arrival, Mario parks his go-kart and dismounts it as he plans on entering the apartment building for his job, but is suddenly met by a hysterical Peach wearing a long fuchsia dress and heel shoes stained with gunk and mud, making Mario believe she came all the way from the big horizontal pipe to there. Peach, out of breath, tells Mario that she is in trouble and that “they want to take her away.” Passersby begin to notice Peach and her exasperated tone. Mario asks her to calm down and to explain what is going on, then, the now known blue inter-dimensional portal opens up out of nowhere near Peach’s position and a monstrous reptile-like beast with a spiked carapace and chains comes out of said portal, snatches a desperately screaming Peach and rapidly goes back into the portal, vanishing into thin air.



The passersby and multitude, having heard strange sounds from the incident -though not being witness to it since it took place in the blink of an eye- exclaim to Mario as to what happened and become suspicious of him since they noticed earlier Peach was discontent, screaming, then gone. “Hey, where’d she go, man?” “Somebody call the police, this guy’s a murderer” “Don’t let him get away! Get that scum!” The passersby yelled and soon try to take a hold of Mario while he pushes them away “I dee-dent do it, I have to save her!” Yelled Mario while he manages to release himself from them, he then runs to his go-kart and mounts it, he accelerates fast and soon two police cars are behind him in pursuit, then three more cars appear going in high velocity: about a hundred miles per hour, obligating Mario to accelerate to fifty more miles per hour than them, thanks to his go-kart’s piston capacity. Mario eventually evades the police cars and returns home, hiding his go-kart.



He thinks carefully, as everything so far is hard for him to take, “That was a monster, what if it already ate her? Something that savage certainly wouldn’t care for her life…but then, why did it come all the way over here just to take her? I have to go either way, I can’t lose her that easily.” He thought, regretting his actions, as he believes he could have impeded the abduction somehow. He writes a letter to Luigi, calls an operator to ask for Luigi’s address, spends an hour trying to find his apartment, until he finally does and slips the letter inside below the door.
Mario arrives quickly on foot to the place that defines him; he is now wearing a long brown coat (to be incognito) with a carpentry saw and a motor drill in one pocket and his beret in the other. He stands where the portal opened last time, but nothing happens, then he touches the wall and it opens, he goes inside and experiences the blue and the gyration once more, he crosses, but his dizziness is minor, getting accustomed to it by now. It is nighttime in the Mushroom Kingdom, and the blackest night, as Mario notices notorious differences from when it was daytime: debris litters the grass, as well as corpses of animals and mushroom people, enormous rusted, moss-covered vertical pipes are erected as if they were pushed through the ground from below to come up into the surface, and the flag beside the castle is now adorned with the picture of a skull.

As Mario walks in the dark, horrified, amongst the corpses, he finds one he previously met who is still alive. Mario holds the mushroom person's head from the back as the latter tells him, while coughing in between: “First of all, Peach is the princess of our land, she didn’t want you to know because she wanted to look normal, not pompous…”
“She is-a princess…? That not important now, what happened?! Where is-a she?!” Asked Mario.

“She’s been captured by King Koopa, and they are holding her captive in one of King Toadstool VII’s castles…He-It- wants her to be its queen, atrocious!” Related the native.

“But Peach say bad king and…subjects died!” Exclaimed Mario surprised and confused.

“Yes, it seemed that way, but the last one did not die…I don’t know how, but it reproduced and began to build a family that was living underground all this time…they had all that time to reorganize themselves, expand their race, and we didn’t even notice them living below us…all this time…they came through those old pipes that came out of the ground suddenly and invaded us…’King Koopa’ as he calls himself, is the legacy of that last ‘king’ but he was bound with chains around his limbs…I’m thinking he was a threat even to his race, or his race didn’t want him to invade, but he did it anyway for revenge, or who knows why…They are barbarians, and this one even more than what we know them to be. This one is more evil and heartless.” Explained the native who coughs uncontrollably while Mario helps him to stay stable. “You know why Princess Toadstool traveled to your world all those times…? She wasn’t just experimenting…She was looking for a light in the darkness that is your world …and I see she has found the light: you are that light…now brighten this darkness in here….brighhh…” The native dies mid-word in Mario’s arms, the latter of whom is saddened from what he has heard and witnessed, and closes the eyelids of the native with his fingertips.

Mario walks ahead in proximity to the castle, he finds gold-colored coins the size of his palm, takes ten of them and places them inside his pockets for they may be of use as it seems to be the currency there. Once near the entrance of the castle, Mario’s head starts to ache; he remembers he has not had anything to eat at all that day, in the midst of the tragedies, he forgot to bring some food from home, but he remembers what's in his overalls' pocket, so he takes out the mushroom from the pocket, and with compunction eats it up. The taste is undeniably awful, but he soon feels better and more energetic, to his surprise. He enters the castle, it is infested with strange reptilian creatures the size of a human; there are flying turtle-like creatures, as well as grounded ones, and big chestnut-looking creatures with fangs and feet, all of them staring fiercely at Mario. “Where is-a princess?!” Yelled Mario. The creatures now guffaw at the strange noises the human makes, utter sounds in an unknown idiom to Mario, and slowly approach him as a lion its prey. “I don’t hurt animals! I don’t want fight wit you!”
The creatures growl and throw themselves at him thrashing, clawing and gnawing at his coat, which he quickly takes off, the creatures eat the motor drill and render the saw unusable. “Bestie dannatamenteeehh!!” a furious Mario shouts loudly and begins to fight the creatures since they are not helpless animals, but vicious beasts that ultimately provoked him. He punches and kicks the living souls out of the reptiles and chestnut-beings, he jumps on top of them, uses the carapaces of hiding reptiles to toss at others, and notices the carapace with the reptile inside is not as heavy as it looks -reminiscing from a time he tried to carry a tortoise half the size of said creature- he finishes them off, then looks for his coat on the floor: almost completely torn to shreds, as well as the saw, but looks inside the pockets to find his beret intact, and puts it on.
Mario keeps advancing and going up the castle as he “exterminates the pests” according to his thoughts. Finally, he reaches the top; far ahead from him, he sees a bearded man lying down wearing torn cloths and four beings with their arms and legs chained to the wall, all near the window that faces the exterior back end of the castle. Rapid flutter of wings is heard from above, Mario looks up and jumps out of the way to evade a falling giant turtle-creature with insect-like wings that it puts away inside its spiked carapace, as it lands, it produces a thud like no other that echoes distant into the castle and causes chandeliers and torches to fall. Mario tries to fight off the creature, but it moves very fast for him; however, Mario begins to accustom to its movements and soon his attacks start to affect the creature that it decides to use its wings for its advantage, which frustrates Mario for the creature is now even faster than before. Mario thinks of what could make him faster, so he takes out the heavy coins from his pocket, throws them up into the air, and as soon as he notices the creature become distracted by the coins, -it looking at them in confusion- he jumps and performs a deadly uppercut to the creature’s jaw, knocking it out. The coins and the creature fall to the floor while Mario lands with ease.



Mario proceeds and quickly manages to free the enslaved mushroom people, who turn out to be servants of royalty, all of which cry and hold the defunct bearded man in deep sadness. They tell Mario that that was King Toadstool VII, taken from his castle in the north into that one by that turtle-creature. Mario once again regrets having to close the eyelids of a dead person, and decides it is not going to be a memorable day at all. He asks the servants where Peach is, to which they respond, “The princess must be in another castle.” “How many castles are there?” He thinks. One servant, older and wiser than the others, instructs him to go to the far northern castle, the biggest there is, where he deducts Peach could be held. After this, Mario exits the castle and sets out to traverse into the north. He is threatened by another reptile; this one with an ominous expression on its face that strangely rides a cloud in the sky and starts to toss red spiked creatures at him, so he decides to run away but the creature follows from above. Mario soon discovers a river nearby of which’s current flows precisely to the north (how Mario knows which way the North is, was learned in the military by looking at where the sun rises and sets), he takes off his clothes and puts everything inside his overalls securely so that they don’t fall off, then he puts it on like a backpack using the shoulder straps like a pack’s straps, and enters the river to avoid the strange reptile and its “weapons”. The river soon takes him violently into a body of water where Mario submerges, he can hear faint music similar to waltz and finds more giant, harmful creatures; these resemble fish and squids and close in on Mario as he swims faster and faster fearfully looking back since he’s practically useless under water and is also running out of air. The music begins to sound louder as he advances, until it is unbearable to his ears, making him cover them while he swims. He finally finds the culprit: a giant music box of sorts, but cannot make it out entirely since he emerges out of the water for he could no longer withstand the thunderous music.



Mario is now on terra firma, and to his fortune, the cloud reptile is not following him anymore. He notices vast amounts of hostile creatures ahead on higher grounds, therefore being at a fatal disadvantage, so he enters one of the green pipes instead, one that conveniently was covered with earth in diagonal symmetry, enabling Mario to literally go downhill from there; he chose that route to see if perhaps it is a shorter trip. What he finds inside is total darkness and more hostility; he thought that maybe since the beasts emerged, none would be left underground, but he was wrong, both the underground and the surface are infested. Mario once again fights the vile creatures as he crosses above gaps and breaks bricks with his powerful punches that reveal subterranean roots and vines with orange flowers growing between the cracks. Mario does not think twice this time and eats the vines and flowers to fill his appetite (since he knows the inside of the stems contains milky substance with proteins). After a few minutes, his hands begin to sweat, and then become numb and hot; soon, his hands feel as if they are on fire making him frantically shake his hands and arms, slashing the air with them. He then starts to run trying to find water or something to put out the sensation, and discovers his hands emit heat and smoke as he swings them vertically, horizontally, or any other way, burning few creatures on his path as well as little of his own skin and hair. He approaches a vertical pipe coming out of the bricks that makes the floor, but a monstrous Venus' Flytrap-like creature with vicious two-row canines in the upper and lower jaw, emerges from it and threatens him, extending its stem, trying to devour him. “That’s it!” Thought Mario, frustrated yet again. He swings his arm towards the plant as if it was a Tennis racket and produces a fireball that burns the plant to salvia, which he then uses to extinguish the fire within his hands and system.



Mario, now completely exhausted, frustrated, burned, and disoriented, sits down leaning against the pipe. “What have I gotten myself into…? Luigi was right. Peach is the princess of this mad world. How in the world do I manage to always find the ‘eccentric’ ones? Now I’m about ready to die here...These pipes could define me, too, they can be my tombstone.” Thought Mario to himself; hitting the back of his head against the pipe, arching his neck back which results in his head facing upwards. Soon a light shines on his face; it is moonlight coming through a ceiling pipe that leads to the surface, the clouds apparently cleared out to reveal the moon and the pipe. Mario sees this as a sign, “Brighten the darkness...I am the light.” He remembered in his thoughts which ultimately inspires him to keep on going, “she is worth it...she is worth it.” He puts his clothes back on and climbs a vine to get up to the pipe; he jumps off the vine and clings to the pipe, sliding down slowly to stand on the outer rim of the downward opening, now for the most difficult part: getting inside the pipe from his position, putting his Parkour skills to the test, if he fails, he could fall to his demise. What worries Mario the most is the impediments his somewhat overweight body could bring up, in comparison to his fit physique of earlier years that enabled him to be very agile. Mario hangs using only his fingers on the edge of the outer rim of the pipe, starts balancing himself back and forth like a pendulum until his foot reaches the inside of the pipe, then with enough flexibility, his back arches upwards as he grins in agony, clenching his teeth and closing his eyes shut, and manages to place one hand inside the pipe while the other still grips the outer rim, then both his palms are placed on one extreme of the inside of the pipe while both the soles of his shoes are placed on the other extreme, adding pressure from all four of his limbs. His body is not entirely extended; the pipe is not big enough for that, to Mario’s relief, otherwise, he could have fallen easily if it was. Mario begins to climb up the pipe in that posture, resembling a caterpillar curling, only ascending instead of advancing forward. After a while, Mario finally reaches the top, grabs the outer rim of the upward opening, and gets out, touching firm land once again, almost inciting him to kiss it. Mario once more sits down leaning against that pipe, catching his breath. He notices he has traveled in, more or less, the right direction and that no hostility is in sight. However, he views a distant small building atop the hills adorned with the beaten initials “E.G.C.”.

[Desslok]

[[Haha, Mario in a chase with the cops is not something I ever thought I'd see!]]

[Axtlar]

Super Mario
A Novel by Axtlár
Part 3


After resting for some minutes, Mario slowly stands up, then quickly falls on one knee noticing his right leg hurts as the cartilages from both the knee joint and foot joint have been significantly lacerated from his earlier scaling. He stands again and begins to walk, limping as he does, trying to refuge into the building, which, as he gets closer, seems very different from the castles; more modern, fabricated with more rigid and luminous materials than brick, and appears to have been attacked. There are, in fact, dozens of the vile creatures lying around the building, seemingly dead or perhaps knocked out. He finally reaches the front door, standing on stone floor, breathing heavily, raising his arm in an attempt to knock on the door, and on first contact with it from his knuckles, is mildly electrocuted, faints, and falls to the floor.

Upon waking up, Mario smells what he perceives to be salt gas, which awakened him. He is wearing a robe, lying on a cold, monotonous bed similar to those found in a hospital, except it seemed rather colder. Mario tries to move, but cannot, and notices the bed’s bars have ropes constricted into them that bind his arms and legs, and also his right arm is injected with a tube connected to a bag similar to serum bags, but cannot really tell if what’s entering his veins is benign or malign.
A little red-hooded creature wearing a white mask with three black holes depicting eyes and a mouth suddenly meets him.



The creature then takes off the mask revealing its head to be of a turtle-like beast, just like the ones Mario has been fighting, which makes Mario shout offensively to it, as if wanting to reach out and crush the beast. After that, the creature takes his reptilian head off -which again, turned out to be a mask- as well as the red clothing, and a smiling bespectacled little man with a conjunction of white hairs standing upright on the climax of his dome-shaped head, wearing a laboratory coat, is revealed.
“Ah-yama Eh tee tee?” Asked the strange man in a high-pitched voice, while Mario looked seriously at the man, thinking whatever his attempts were with the masks deal, were not funny to him, but rather cruel at the time from what he has been through. “Eeh, who am I intending to deceive, I am aware enunciation of Roga-Të is within your master abilities.” Said he, admittedly.

“Yes-a, I talk in English! Why I’m tied?!” Shouted Mario, angered.
“Revision: Perhaps not ‘master’ abilities, after all. And, eeh! Line binding was just deceiving, mere deceiving. But then, again, perhaps you have become demented from the trials you have withstood, one cannot be too cautious in these times of sorrow and violence.” Said the man confidently, unbinding Mario completely, who tries to move. “Intent on movement product is futile, you are in the process of recuperation; body previously in deterioration. Just maintain a calm manner, of amity and cordiality are my intentions, after all.” Said he, with Mario still being somewhat suspicious of him.
“Elvin Gadd, at your service! Anomaly –professor and scientist- inhabitant of the sect that is the Mushroom Kingdom! That is correct; science is frown upon here, they prefer everything to be natural and modest, in technological reference, they are isolated from the rest of the planetoid’s civilization! Therefore, the repercussions from the inauguration of my wondrous ‘Elvin Gadd Cabin’ store were completely null…However, Peac-errrr-Princess Toadstool, like the good anthropologist that she is, found my devices to be of very apt use on her studying of the ‘Homo sapiens’, as your race calls itself, and has brought me impacting information for my research!”



“Ehhh…O.K!” said Mario a bit confused before introducing himself to him. Then the professor, as eloquent as he is, tries to decrease his tone, so that Mario could understand better, since he knows they are from different worlds and their language, although very similar, have their differences. The professor explains to him how the vile creatures tried to destroy his “cabin” and how they even managed to destroy most of his inventions inside, until he activated a force field that electrocuted everyone with the exception of him, which is why they couldn’t come in afterwards (and why Mario fainted), and he now holds some of the creatures for laboratory testing. He also explains the substance he used for waking Mario up to be “carbonnatus amonniumus”. Mario starts to trust the professor more and more as the latter explains things that Peach and the mushroom person already explained to him, with the addition of new ones.

“The princess is alive and well, by the way, from what I saw a couple of hours ago; you see, I monitor every single one of my Dimen-tal1000 portals that are activated, yes, I even saw you come in wearing that long gabardine (but I could not greet you for I was helpless here, and my aerial transport is broken, its repair is ongoing), and I saw you and the princess come in during the morning before all this tragedy fell upon us, and that is what ultimately started it. For Koopa had spies in the skies that saw the portal opening, knew of its existence, and invigorated him to invade and steal the princess’ portal for his scientists to duplicate. Yes, they also have scientists; it surprised me too, so we are definitely at a disadvantage here. Anyhoo, the princess tried to escape to a safe place: your world, with a portal that was already opened, –they stay open for as long as two days, but if one is to open a new portal after one is already opened, that person has to travel together with someone else, otherwise dematerialization could occur. Also if the portal being used is completely closed after the two days have expired and the person finds themselves on the opposite side of their world, they can never go back, not even if they possess another portal, since one can only open a portal if another is already opened, but with a companion, like I already mentioned, or they could also end up in limbo- but..." The professor rambled on while Mario finally understood what worried Peach on their date. "...Koopa used the princess’ portal (since he wasn’t the one to open the already opened one) and snatched her out of your world back into ours. They call themselves the Koopa race or clan, but I can tell you from my research on these fine specimens, their order is that of Testudinesus of the family Chelydridaesinesus, accompanied by what I’m hypothesizing to be subterranean Fagalesus of some sort that I have not seen before, to be honest. Anyhoo, how did you manage to stay alive after they attacked you? I thought by now you’d be done for.” Asked the professor to a carefully listening Mario that thought he spoke too fast for him.

“I-ah…just fight them…I ate weird flowers that make me shoot fire with the hands… And I tink a ‘shroom make me strong to carry big turtle.” Responded Mario, just realizing what happened on the latter of what he told.
“EGAD!” The professor yelled loudly, “The plants and fungi have an effect on you once you consume them! You are the first from your world to come here, and that is fascinating, fascinating, fascinating! Extragnoomestrials' systems change from difference of atmospheres. The mushrooms enhanced your strength, and the flowers, orange vine flowers? Yes, those are used for spices mostly, and they ignited a fire that you could project from your hands?! That is wonderful! Every food, vegetable or anything’s purpose here, when consumed by you, enhances said purpose to extravagant amounts…! You could be our only hope for ending this menace with those enhancements... If you help us, I, uhhh, I’ll give you this!” Said the professor before holding a box with a beat-up artifact of his resembling a video game of sorts with a visor. Mario, although unintentionally, laughs at the professor’s undeniably funny expression on his face and his offer, which makes the professor himself laugh with him, and both laugh for some seconds until they settle back down.




“I don’t want nothing, I save Peach because I like her, it’s-a my responsibility, an I care about this world too!” Responds Mario, smiling.
“Thank goodness! I didn't have anything good to offer.” Said the professor jokingly. “So, those burns on your hands are the product of the flower's fire…Hmm, I’m going to get back to you on that, you try resting now, and I will see you in the morning, you cannot go save the princess no matter how many mushrooms you eat or medicine I give you; your body will eventually decay the more you use it without resting. The princess will be fine I am sure, since Koopa does not seem like a mindless monster, but an intelligent one that could want her for a specific purpose…Hopefully he does not know of your existence yet…Anyhoo, good night! May you sleep well, don’t let the Koopas bite!” The professor said before laughing but after removing the tube from Mario’s arm and turning the light off.

In the morning, Mario wakes up after quite a pleasant slumber; he opens his eyes and is startled to see the professor’s smiling face staring at him motionless. “How did you sleep?! Eeh, pardon, I hope you don’t mind my studying you.” Greeted the professor. Then the pair eats breakfast, but Mario eats only one bite, since the effects could be catastrophic if he tries eating more.
“Hey, tell me something: did the princess suffer any effects over at your world after having consumed anything? I mean did she even consume something with you that you know of? ” Asked the professor.
“Mmm, yes! She ate salad. But nothing happen to her” Replied Mario.
“Hmm, that’s strange…Maybe she was floating around all the time and you didn't even notice?" Replied the professor, both he and Mario stare at each other for a few seconds, then break into laughter once more. How the professor could make himself and Mario laugh at a time of despair –even joking about the abducted Peach herself- is beyond the both of them, but it is something that was needed. After this, Mario prepares himself to end the menace of Koopa and to save Peach. Professor Gadd instructs Mario on a shortcut he himself programmed before the creatures invaded his home: “Before my cabin and aerial transport were thrashed, I used the transport to fly from the far Northern palace castle (where I was on an expedition), but I noticed the creatures invading, so I decided to use one of my Warpatron900 teleportation devices on a pipe they were emerging from to use against them, so that, as they were coming out, they would go back down as soon as they touched the warp point! But on my urge from the invasion, I put it backwards, so they instead came out faster out of the pipe and into the superficies. But my plan wasn’t at all lost: on my way back to the cabin, I placed another Warpatron900 on a lone pipe near an already destroyed castle, synched it with the last one, and since then, all the monsters that attempted to come out of the Northern palace castle pipe, fell down through that one, instead. My plan seemed brilliant, but then more and more pipes emerged from the ground and my vast production of Warpatron900s was destroyed in my cabin. Anyhoo, only those two warp points remain, and I marked that pipe near the destroyed castle with a white infinitum sign, look for it; it’s near the closest castle from here to the north, enter it (the pipe, of course), and you will warp to the palace that surrounds the Northern palace castle, where the princess is. The trip will undoubtedly be shorter, but more difficult. Now come over here.” The professor leads Mario to a small study of his, which has also been maltreated by the creatures, and tells him while walking: “Did I ever tell you I love ghosts? You know, Specters? Apparitions? Poltergeist? Phantasmagoria? They are magnificent dead and transparent creatures that roam around mansions…maybe not known in your world, but here, they are practically plagues!” Said the professor before laughing. Then takes out a pair of white gloves from a dusty drawer “Here you go, I used to wear a pair of these babies all the time when I lived around Thwomp Volcano; they make you resistant against fire from your hands, arms, and as far as your chest. If you consume the spice flowers while wearing these, you will not experience heat or burns anymore.” Explained the professor, before continuing on and giving Mario a small yellow box with an interrogation mark. “Now take that, its contents are a medicinal capsule I created for immunity to sickness, I’m thinking it’ll enhance your immunity to superlative levels if you consume it responsibly. Use it to end Koopa.”
Mario thanks the professor for all his help, puts his clothes and beret back on, which he finds to be clean and fixed by the professor, puts the professor's gloves on and prepares to set off for the “infinitum” marked pipe near the destroyed castle.




“I’ll come back to help build cabin, I promise.” Said Mario as his parting words before turning around and walking off into the distance.
“There goes our savior…Superlative Mario.” Said Professor Gadd to himself, as he sees Mario departing. Then, the professor goes back into his cabin and continues the repair for his aerial transport.



To be continued in part 4.

[Desslok]

[[ Gadd is both charming and creepy at the same time, lol. ]]

[Axtlar]

[[ Haha, yeah, I know...I wonder why quotes or accented vowels are covered by a question mark, weird, I didn't notice this before.]]

[Desslok]

[[Must just be your browser, I don't see anything strange that.]]

[Axtlar]

[Yeah, you're right, it was the browser]