Title: Super Mario Bros Special
Category: Games » Mario
Author: C. Mechayoshi
Language: English, Rating: Rated: K+
Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
Published: 10-16-18, Updated: 03-08-19
Chapters: 5, Words: 4,793

Summary: (Teaser) Mario must save the Princess in an alternate universe where the sky is much bluer, Luigi is not his brother, the false Bowsers aren't false, and there's a strange Hudson Soft powerup… (Short stories)

Mario trudged up the flight of stairs to pause for a breath, leaning against a dirty window that showed the street below. He was on the thirtieth floor in an apartment that was one of many in ghettos of Brooklyn with intermittent power loss, aka no working elevators.

Mario owned 'Mario Plumbing', a company he'd started. Going on calls fixing the broken network of plumbing that was everywhere in Brooklyn was his life, and he had time for little else. Mario liked to keep busy, the exercise offset the frequent pizza stops, and he wondered what his next outing would be as he observed in real time a rogue on the street steal from his truck parked to the curb. Thankfully Mario kept the best stuff on himself.

Mario knocked on 1312 B. This person had called about a toilet that did it's job too well. He wasn't sure what that could imply, but this time in late 1986 was slow. Winter was a ways off so pipes weren't bursting just yet. After his self imposed work shift, Mario guessed he could stop at his parents on the other side of town for a large Italian dinner as usual. Mario was their only child, so they got lonely.

He knocked again. "Hello? It's-a me!" he called. This was his signature line. He could shout it down a street and everyone on the block would know it's him.

The door inched open. It was lit inside only by the windows with the curtains shut.

Oh yeah, Mario remembered that this was that guy that also had the flu. Toolbag in hand he dart to the room, hardly taking the time to even breathe let along touch anything unnecessarily.

Well he knew what it was, a light green colored toilet in a bathroom that was eerily empty. Not even a sink or window was in the room.

Mario peered over it, there was no water in the bowl so that was the first problem. The second? No flusher. Plus, the design was a bit weird and very circular. Mario couldn't see it being very comfortable to sit on but he was no judge. The apartment owner who was still in that first room did mention on the phone that this toilet was some sort of custom model from IKEA.

A heavy back wad dropped to the floor and a plumber got to work. Twisted under the pipes was he when the room began to shake rumble. Oh great the thought, pipe chatter as he called it when a ratty building was pilled to the brim with even more ratty piping. He stood up sweaty and his cap fell off right into that toilet!

Nah, actually this happened a lot and it was drained. It was just of matter of reaching his gloved hand in and-

Author note: Should I continue? Based off of the computer game which does have a pretty interesting history with all it's differences from the normal NES game. It was created at a 'sequel' if you would believe that…

It reminded Mario of that time as a kid at Coney Island. He bravely slid down that water tunnel head first to regret it instantly. Water rushed through his nose, he couldn't see anything, and he thought he'd surely die until he finally face plant in that pool below. He survived then, but he surely wouldn't now. Just before it pained him too much to hold his breath any longer the world went bright again before growing dimmer than before. He was ejected into a grassy field…

"Wake up! Hear me?" The farmer poked at Mario's body, thoroughly annoyed with his new guest from the green drainage pipe in the sky. If said pipe didn't provide for his garden, he swore he would relocate with all the fuss it caused.

Mario opened his eyes to see a short man with an odd spotted cap and a blue vest standing over him. He leaned up abruptly. The exotic flowers from the medium sized garden he was in reached to his head almost. The sun beamed down and the sky was clear. The air smelt very fresh, he couldn't be near the city anymore. But wait? Why were those clouds smiling? Was the sun up there kind of… angry? A chill went down his spine. The hills had eyes! Mario grabbed the farmer by his vest.

He shoved Mario off of him with impressive strength for his size. Mario fell backwards to disappear in the plants again. The farmer continued to speak but Mario was focused on getting out of the vegetation patch. Maybe he was wrong to call them flowers before. The thick green roots reminded him of Kudzu only with prickly thorns and the red spotted 'bulb' end had teeth! Mario finally sprung up from enigmatic flora.

The farmer began to smile before pointing towards the nearest hill with his watering can with a chuckle. "Just head over those hills. They can help you better there. Oh, if you see Peach, tell her that 'Toad' saved you. I don't get paid for this.."

Cutting the farmer off again, and Mario hated to be rude, he sprint for that hill and never looked back. Reaching the apex and glancing down his jaw dropped. He hoped he'd see some sort of landmark and he did: a 19th century castle, complete with a moat.

Author notes: No the series hadn't gone away, but I'd been handwriting a lot of stories recently only to end up changing things once I get to typing it on my computer. The extra dates reflect the handwritten versions.

Mario was gone with the wind. The closer he got the more details he noticed about the castle. It was in the middle of nowhere save for a lake and a ridge to the side with a waterfall. The white smooth stone structure with a pink roof stretched into the sky with a little weathering and a touch of green moss. Birds chirp and the air was fresh, maybe even a bit sweet, but area also felt dead…

Mario cross the moat and knocked. Right away the door swung open revealing yet another short vested person, this time with a blue hat.

"You're not looking for the princess are you? She's locked up in another castle!"

"Nooooo way!" reply someone behind Mario. That plumber spot the farmer from before tumbling down that hill he'd just come from. "What do you *pant* mean the princess isn't *pant* here? I've only been gardening for-" The farmer stop to check his watch then glanced upwards with a sheepish look. "... I guess I shouldn't promise the princess I'll be outside only for an hour while wearing a dead watch. It's been a long time ain't it? No wonder I'm so flipping tir-"

Abruptly the farmer fell out at Mario's feet, startling the plumber and the door guy alike.

"Oh dear oh dear oh dear. That was 'Toad' stranger, the princess's guard. Without him around we stand no chance."

Mario bent down and poked at the farmer, not seeing a response. What a role reversal! There was only one other thing to try.

"Stand clear. Here goes nothing!" Leaning over Toad's body, Mario took a deep breath before the Toad's eyes opened buckwide.

"You just saved Toad, by boogity. I must know what is your name," The guy in the door pressed.

Mario picked himself up from the hard ground. "It's- ouch! Mario Mario. I'm not repeating myself. That's how it goes."

Toad gasped. "I'm Toad Toad! Neat. Toadbert, this guy is from the Brooklyn Kingdom. He showed up outta nowhere."

Mario began to walk off. "Thanks for tying but I'll just find the nearest major highway. It won't be hard from there. Bye." And so Mario marched straight up the other nearest hill, not letting go the belief that maybe he could still wake up from whatever was happening. How far could a sewer system really take him from downtown?

At the apex of this hill he saw a forest farther down with high rising trees and woodland creatures rustling in the foliage, near yet unseen aside from to hungry looking plants like what he was tangled in upon arrival being planted just outside the rickety gate containing the greenery.

Toad snapped his fingers. "A 'high way'? Yeah, I can show you that but we need to cut through there to get to Toad Town."

Mario thought about it for a second. "Okay, fair enough. This Toad Town would have to have a visitors center with a map. One question. Do those plants with teeth bite humans?"

"Piranha plants? Yeah, all of the time actually," Toad replied, walking down hill.

Mario repressed a shiver as he followed. It wasn't like him to shy away from action but something told him the dangers he might face here would be nothing he'd ever seen before.

Mario stuck close to his new companion as the flat green land shift into a cool and shady forest. The air became groggy with many scents of vegetation, so much not one could be picked out individually. Mario sneezed periodically as they march through grass up to Mario's kneecap and Toad's neck. Blocked from farther progress they were by weathered wooden gate standing six feet tall even with its leaning outwardly. Mario could tell it'd done its job for some time completely undisturbed- until now.

Toad continued to tug on a convex board. "What, homeboy?" He answered in between the heavy breathing. "I've gotten my 'wood block' shots. I'm safe. TIMBER!" Behind his pudgy stature was enough strength to rip the board out of the ground. It flew over Mario's head and land behind him, impaling the dirt while the dust and wood chips settled. Toad stood proudly before his work, but Mario saw a problem right away.

"I'm impressed." Mario closed one eye to see though the missing board's gap. The air quality was even more, dare he saw, organic farther along. Mario step back however and stood next to the mere three inch space. "But you see, I'm not on enough of a diet to fit though that."

When he was seventeen Mario and family visit the Yosemite National Park. He remembered the grass, trees, running rivers, wildlife, and laughs when grandpa Pablo Pizzacaso mistook a long twig for a snake then to bravely 'save' the family, wrestled with it on the riverbank for five minutes. Speaking of absent minded walking, Mario trip over a vine, falling into a familiar bunch of green thorn plants! With his head in the nest, Toad pulled the plumber out of it by his overall strap just in time as a hungry piranha plant clamp its teeth down. Mario fell back onto Toad.

"Mario, watch where you're walking." Toad pushed him off, leaving Mario dazed on the ground. "Something's missing here… Where's your hat?"

Mario felt the top of his head. He jump up and his heart sank into his stomach. One of the dozens of plants in the slithering 'nest' held in its jaws his special embroidered hat. "That's super important to me!" he grab Toad and plead.

"Whoa! Uh, okay!-" Toad pulled from his pocket a little bomb with white eyes and a wind up key. "Duck, homeboy." Toad used his awesome throwing arm to launch the bomb in the middle of the pack of snapping plants. With the resulting explosion that was actually a lot less dramatic to what Mario imagined it might be, the horde withered away into something like tumbleweed.

Mario ran to safely collect his only slightly rumpled hat. When he put it on, he'd never understood why, but he could just feel his energy returning.

"Over here, Goombob. Yeah, I heard something," a raspy little voice said a distance away.

Mario glanced around as the bushes rattled in multiple directions. "But where? I hear things there, and there, and-"

"Halt! In the name of King Bowser state your name!" a short brown bipedal creature no taller than Mario's waist bark. He wore a sergeants hat and his friends, identical but with regular helmets, surround Mario and Toad.

"Yeah. The goombas lived around before that Bowser guy showed up with his lies and junk-"

"SHUDDUP. No need for a history lesson you weak little toad and you mutant mustache man. Operation: pounce em!"

The six mushroom like soldiers closed in on the two with a battle cry, "HAIL THE KOOPA TROOP!"

Toad's arms wrapped around Mario before tossing him directly upwards into the trees. Mario grabbed the branch overhead and hung from it. He got deja vu from a week ago oddly enough. He swung over the branch a few times to build speed and let go, sending himself another ten feet in the sky, now higher than the trees. He curled into a ball on the way down and slam in the middle of the goomba pack feet first. Two of the grunts were sent far away into the greenery but the others were flattened by his steel toed boots with an unexpected yet satisfying squash before disappearing into smoke.

Toad pulled him into a hug. "My mistake. Dude, your feet are awesome. Let me see them."

"Okay fine. But I've never seen anyone 'stomp' like that other than the elite Hammer brothers. Is that a regular weapon where you're from?"

"N-no. I...was actually recreating a plumbing job last week where the house was also on fire and I needed to escape alive. From the fifteenth floor. -And I was still suppose to unclog the toilet on the way out," he admitted, feeling himself blush. He'd leave out the part of him being into gymnastics while younger and less 'fat'.

Armed with his 'weapon' that doubled also as a transportation device, or 'feet', (though Toad did complain that he was tired of walking and ask to hitch a ride on Mario's back. The plumber decline,) the two had an interesting rest of the journey. They came across another goomba. Stomped. Then a turtle or 'Koopa'. Stomped. Then a red spiked koopa. A stomp was attempted and regretted instantly.

"How was I supposed to know you can't jump on a spiked enemy? Oh wait.." Toad smiled sheepishly.

After a little more of following the overgrown path they reached the other side of the same fence they'd needlessly assaulted before. Toad rubbed his palms together before Mario stopped him.

"Let's try this first," With a running start, Mario sprung over it entirely to Toad's amazement. He landed on the other side and cheered.

Mario reached his arm over from the top. "Grab on. This is so neat! It's another castle thing."

Toad wondered what that meant when he hopped up the pathetically short distance he could to reach Mario's gloved hand. He was pulled over into grass that would no longer slap him in the face constantly.

"What's this city called again?" Mario asked, peering far ahead at a large stone structure erected on a hill a mile ahead. The other buildings were little mushroom shaped houses but windows in most were broken out and some were blackened from fire. Generally the area felt dead and the only thing that seemed 'new' was the fortress.

Author's note: Yes, Mario constantly reflecting to the Real World will add up to something.

The Mushroom homes where empty scavenged shells of the comfortable and quaint homes they would have been otherwise. Debris, tossed about furniture, and broken glass litter the entire area. The streets smelt heavily of smoke and the ash on the ground was thick enough for Mario to leave footprints as he followed and almost lost track of Toad in the smog. They were heading to the stone tower at the far edge of the village, Toad Town, supposedly.

Mario cough once they were at the foot of the tower. It was nothing like Peach's castle which could be mistaken for something at Disney, this was perhaps more like a 'scary house' in a park but a really low budget one with mismatched stone and dubious build quality. It wasn't even on level ground and had a tilt downhill. Who were these builders? Well, he wouldn't wait for long to find out because when he and Toad reach the foot of it a koopa on the second floor balcony holding a concrete smoother gasp and ran for cover.

"I wouldn't hire these contractors. Can we skip this place?" Mario asked. He felt warmth coming from the door that was open yet so dark he couldn't see inside and felt a familiar sense of foreboding. Hadn't he approached a construction site before when someone was kidnapped?...

"No way!" Toad reply, snapping him out of it. "This is a fortress where they hold victims inside, like the princess!"

Mario nodded. He took a cautious step inside where there was a corridor with a passageway on the opposite side and a mysterious gap in the floor where the heat radiate from. There was also a bubbling noise coming from it. Stepping within ten feet of the gap was like sticking his face into an oven. Mario had to check his facial hair. He could have sworn some were already singed off, yet Toad could stand right at the edge and look straight down.

"Ugh. I can't either…. Toad!" Mario warned. The koopa from before was now in the doorway with wide eyes boring into Mario.

"I-intruder alert!" the koopa shout. He moved out of the way to let both a living fireball and barrel roll in. One approached from the left of the lava pit and the other the right.

Mario ran to the right where the barrel was and hop over it gaining 100 points somehow. The barrel careen into a wall smashing apart, however the fireball had the ability to change directions. Before Mario could leave the room it retraced its steps to intercept them. The plumber skid to a stop to avoid running into the fire. He knew this enemy actually from a curious thing that happened in New York involving a construction site and a giant girlfriend stealing ape.

The flame stay in the doorway, knowing exactly what it was doing. Mario made a choice. He charged forward while carrying Toad under his arm did a front flip over the blaze, narrowly fitting through the gap it left in the door frame. The ground rumbled when they land on the other side into a new room. Before the fireball could spin around the ground shifted and the previous room was cut off, trapping them in. Mario and Toad got separated. Mario landed on his front while Toad's lighter body bounced all the way into partially dismantled canon launchers.

"Oww," Toad groan, shoving aside a sack of gun powder. He reflected on how it was really good the koopas didn't have time to install these infamous 'bill blasters' or they'd have just that much more trouble. "Mario?" He got up and step closer. Mario didn't stir. "Mario?" Toad rolled him over and gasp.

"I...tried..." Mario whispered. His skin was red and his clothes were badly burnt. Any bit of movement was clearly painful.

Mario didn't have to eat it, it only had to touch his skin for his entire body to glow. He leaned up with all his senses renewed and pain gone, plus he felt like he'd chugged twenty energy drinks. He smiled at Toad who seemed shorter now, or had he gotten taller? "What is this?"

"Just a local staple of our kingdom," he remark like it was nothing. "Now let's go!"

Mario looked ahead in this room. It was longer with more pits and now swinging firebars but he did see the end point as the final pit had a wooden bridge across it leading to what seemed to be a waiting room of sorts. Perhaps the princess was there? Then Mario heard sniffling behind him. He turned his head so spot in the corner of the room the earlier koopa shaking and teeth clattering.

Mario had to admit that felt kind of good. His lengthened stride made actually jumping over the pits feasible. He could also jump over the fire on the ground or slide under the ones mounted to low ceilings. He felt like he could go on forever and not even the heat bothered him anymore. To top it off his clothes were repaired as illogical as it seemed by that mysterious mushroom.

"She has to be just ahead," Toad said when Mario was at the start of the rickety bridge.

"Bwa ha ha ha ha!" bellowed a deep voice as the lava below rumbled. Launching from it came a curled up spiky green shell. It rotated in the sky and land on the other end of the bridge with enough force to create a ripple wave effect. It was a koopa only about nine feet tall with horns, red hair, red eyes, and lots of sharp teeth. Mario was half expecting some sort of explanation from Toad but he was no longer in his arms or on the bridge or anywhere near him but instead hanging onto a tall lantern all the way on the ceiling terrified.

"KING Bowser to you, ugly. Like the renovations to Toad Town? The fun part was rounding all the weak little losers up for my slave labor coming soon," Bowser reply in a disturbing yet oddly conversational way. "But anyway, time to roast ya!"

Mario had to duck right away at the fireball Bowser shot, then jump over a lower one. The plumber steadily approach Bowser, hoping to slip by but the fire's patterns were tough to get though and he got caught once. Power drained from him but he wasn't weak or in pain, he'd simply reverted to normal, however this distracted him long enough for Bowser to spring into the air right over his head. Mario saw those huge feet heading his way!

Mario threw himself forward to land at the end of the bridge where there was a weapon rack. He bumped into it and chains, swords, and an axe broke lose, landing very close to him and cracking the stone. Bowser landed hard, creating another ripple that broke boards off the bridge. The Koopa King spun around with murderous intent that sent a chill down Mario's spine. Without thinking Mario grabbed the first weapon even though he was still vulnerable on the ground. Bowser was charging his way and so he squeezed his eyes shut and swung with all his might.

A flash of embarrassment could be seen on Bowser's hardened face before he plummet completely into the lava pool and sank down. The Mushroom Kingdom's oppressor was gone…

Mario shriek and dropped the axe, almost cutting him own leg off when Toad appeared out of nowhere. "Don't scare me like that! How did you even get here?!"

Toad showed him the white bird like wings sprouting from his back. "It's a wing power up that lets me do this." He began to seemingly 'swim' in the air and mesmerized, Mario watched him float all the way into the next room.

-But then he remembered he was supposed to be angry! He almost died and unlike the usual life threatening plumbing job (which were quite common, it helped Mario be competitive) he wasn't getting paid! Or was he? He followed into the next room and up some stairs. The top floor had only a mat in the middle and some poorly cut windows and a second toad person happily in the middle speaking to Toad.

"Like I said, she's in another castle," the mushroom retainer explain with so frivolous a nature that Mario became instantly annoyed.

The mushroom retainer turned to the plumber as the room got even dimmer. It was sunset already and the deep blue sky became a darker blue. "Then that's one down. Did you know Bowser cloned himself eight times to occupy different lands?"

Mario blankly accepted the 'prize', a power up that was a plaque with a 'Hudson Bee' on it. Consequently he received a reward of 8000 points and that was it. He didn't transform or gain any height, he just felt bad. Tired and bad.

The only thing that kept him sane on his first day in the Mushroom Kingdom was that later that night he and Toad snuck back to the fortress with explosives. Toad assured him it was a custom to blow up defunct Bowser structures and so Mario got the honor of pushing the plunger. The explosion was a punch to the chest but satisfying. THAT was something he couldn't do in Brooklyn.

They return to the castle and a older toad Mario had never met before named Toadsworth with spectacles and brown spots assured him very strongly that that was not at all a custom and that he and Toad would have to sleep outdoors in boxes.

Author note: Okay the differences between the NES game and the NEC PC-8801 and Sharp X1 remakes are super interesting. Did you know they added the Donkey Kong barrel and fireball in and also a wing item that is like the 'P-wing' in SMB3? Anyway, this story is going on a temporary hold while I finish some other projects of mine, so stay tuned!