Mario fact #2: In Mario Bros 2 for the NES or Super Mario Advance, when playing as Luigi and you jump, do you notice how he kicks his legs in the air, it is called a scuttle jump and it does not do much in the game that it originally comes from, but it does slow Luigi's decent in Super Mario 64 DS. This jump of his is only like this in that one game, but it does get nodded to in many other games that our green bean is in, such as Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2 (mainly after doing a triple jump in both of the Galaxy games), Super Mario 3D World, and even Super Smash bros 4 and ultimate makes a nod at the scuttle jump.

LN Fact: I hate the feeling of falling from great heights, even though I love riding roller coasters.

(Andrew pov)

As we traveled through what looked to be a hilly grassland I began to notice something.......odd. There were these blocks just floating in the sky, some brown and some gold with a question mark on all sides except the bottom and top, and there were a few on the ground here and there. There were also these floating coins around the place just like the blocks. I look ahead to see there were a few of these blocks sitting right above the path we were traveling along, though they we a bit high up.

"Hey Mario, what is up with all of the blocks?"

Mario: "You mean the ? blocks and brick blocks, well ? blocks can contain things such as coins or power-ups, brick blocks are destructible but sometimes can have hidden secrets inside of them, and there are also these invisible blocks which most of the time hold power-ups but can also hold a-coins or 1-ups."

Matt: "1-ups?"

Luigi: "They are basically extra lives, good thing to have in a pinch."

We were directly under the blocks from earlier and I looked at them, how were we supposed to get anything out of them? Suddenly Mario jumped and hit the block with his fist (No, I do not think he hits them with his head, well unless he is in the middle of a triple jump.) and a red flower sprouted from the top. Matt and I stood in shock as he proceeded to jump on top of the block with no effort, man this guy can move!

"How the- what the- when can you- huh?" I was baffled, and I could see Matt was as well. Luigi chuckled.

Luigi: "Yeah, that was our reaction when we first saw we could jump that high, and depending on the person your jump heights could be a-higher or lower, just-a depends on the person."

He proceed to jump OVER Mario and land on the block that was second from the last one.

Mario: "See, though that high jump of his comes with a downside, he slides a bit when he tries to a-stop running."

Matt and I nod in understanding, and Matt runs over to the second block and jumps and hits it from the underside and jumps on top, and I do the same to the last block. On top of the block I was met with a red flower, similar to the one Mario was with, while Matt was met with the same. Luigi, well, was met with nothing as he had not hit the block he was standing on beforehand. Mario gestured a kind of "go ahead gesture" towards us. Did he want us to do something with the flowers? Matt and I looked at each other before I reached out towards the flower. As soon as I touched the flower it disappeared and my outfit changed a bit. My jacket gained some flames around the ends of the sleeves, my overalls the same color my shirt used to be, my shirt became white, my hat became white leaving the A on my cap blue, and the bottom of my jacket gained a flame pattern while my hood turned white. Matt followed suit, his outfit turning a similar theme, except his overalls were orange, his hat bill turned orange, and his jacket turned orange and gained a similar flame pattern along the bottom and along the ends of the sleeves, his hood stayed orange though. Mario had also touched the flower in front of him, turning his hat white, overalls red, and shirt white.

Mario: "Those were Fire Flowers, they a-make defeating enemies a breeze if you have good aim, and even if you don't they are not limited so you can-a throw them as much as you-a want as fast as you want."

Matt and I were baffled, throwing things, what?!?!? (A/n Nani?!?!?) What are we throwing, hot potatoes? Mario then startled us by throwing a BALL OF FREAKING FIRE from his hand! We stood there for a few seconds before we both copied the movements Mario made, resulting in similar fireballs from our hands, and it did not take long for me to get a smirk on my face. I fired straight at Matt, only it did not hit him, it somehow went completely around him, not hitting him at all. It does not mean that he did not jump at the sight of a fireball emerging from his abdomen.

Matt: "What in the heck, Andrew did you just try to burn me."

I put my hands behind my head and whistles innocently while looking off to the side.

"Noooooooooo, I'm didn't do anything."

I smirked mischievously, before hopping down off the block avoid the incoming scolding that I was going to possibly get. As I land on the ground I see the block that Luigi was standing on suddenly turn brown like the rest before a Fire Flower fell out of the bottom. Luigi jumped down and grabbed the flower as the other two jump down.

Luigi: "You can also do a ground pound to get things out of blocks or break blocks below you."

His outfit looked very similar color scheme to Mario's, except with green instead of red. As we continued forward, we saw familiar figures and readied ourselves for a fight. Goombas and green shelled Koopas, about 10 Goombas and 8 Koopas, this may take a whole lot of effort. Suddenly Mario and Luigi started launching fireballs at the foes, taking them out quick, but the were not able to get all of them, there were a few left. The remaining foes charged at us, yelling some sort of battle cry, before they were swiftly taken out by a flurry of our groups fireballs.

"Wow that was, uh......... anticlimactic."

Matt: "I, wholeheartedly, agree."

Then there was a faint banging noise from the distance, making us look around.

"What was tha-"

I did not get to finish my sentence as two rockets with eyes and arms raced at us and ramed straight into the four of us. All of our clothes turned back to normal as the rockets redirected their courses back towards us.

Mario: "Bullet Bills, no way to avoid the ones that track you, all you can do is jump."

Mario proceeds to jump onto the Bullet Bill and bounce off it while it disappears into little clouds of white smoke. It does not take me long to figure out what to do and I jump on the other one and take it out.

"Wow that was easy, jumping is a very powerful attack, good to know."

Mario: "We should probably not sit around, we need to get moving, come on me and Luigi know a shortcut, this-a way."

We ran toward a huge grey pipe, which was atop a ledge on a clift. We jumped up the clift-side, and once on the ledge Mario and Luigi then jumped on the pipe and then descended down inside. Matt and I were hesitant at first, but we soon followed suit descending into the depths of the pipe, hearing a *bwip-bwip-bwip* as we went. I felt like I was going through a windtunnel as we zoomed along the pipeline, turning up, down, left, right before the pipe became quite warm. We were suddenly thrusted out into the hot air of what looked to be the place on the map, and a couple hundred feet away stood an ominous castle with Bowser's head decorating most of it. The bros stood a few feet away from us, looking at the castle with determination. We walk up next to them, a similar feeling of determination that was emanating from the bros boiling up inside of us.

Matt: "So this is Bowser's Castle, looks a bit, uh, self-centered doesn't it?"

Mario: "Can't disagree with you, his face is nearly on everything of his, even his floor."

We soon we were on the castle bridge which was, surprisingly, unguarded.

Luigi: "You normally don't encounter any enemies until you're inside, so be a-careful."

"Noted." We ran past the front gates into the castle, where we were met with Koopa skeletons, red Koopas that wore helmets, these wrecking ball looking creatures with eyes mouths and sharp teeth being led on a chain by a small creature with a mask, and these small tinker toy Koopa things.

Mario: "Dry Bones, Fire Bros, Chain Chomps, ShyGuys, and Mecha Koopas, this is going to be a tough battle, eh guys?"

I crack my knuckles, while Matt punches his palm and Luigi straightens his hat.

Mario: "Okie dokie, here we go."

(no pov)

[just barely looking over the front wall]

A big dust cloud rose, and fighting could be heard from inside. Things flew out of the cloud left and right, most of the time landing back inside the cloud. You could see Koopa shells, hats, boots, a random flying Luigi, many thing of all sorts came flying from the fight.

[back inside]

The cloud finally settled, with the heroes victorious standing in the middle of two piles of unconscious enemies, well three of the heroes anyway.

Matt: "Where's Andrew."

Then a Chain Chomp, which was unconscious, came rolling around the corner with Andrew balancing atop of the metal canine.

Andrew: "Look out, I'm coming in!"

Andrew sped up, before jumping off the Chain Chomp, letting it roll towards the poor Koopas and Goombas standing in its path, racking Andrew a 1-up without his knowledge. There was suddenly a rumble and a Koopa that had a pair of shades and a pink shell like Bowser landed right in front of our heroes.

(Andrew pov)

I jumped at the sudden appearance of the large Koopa, but I put myself at my ready to fight stance.

???: "HAHAHA, Lord Bowser was right, I would find a pesky plumber duo here at the castle, but he never said anything about the other two, I thought it would have been those two troublesome toadstools again, but whatever a catch is a catch and you can't change that."

All of a sudden I felt like I was missing something. I checked my pockets, no everything in there, hat, still on my head, jacket, still wearing it, gloves, still there, boots, still there on my feet protecting them from the dirt on the.........uh ground? Ohhhh that's what I am missing the ground under my feet. Wait..........................ohhhhh, uh oh. I flail my arms and legs around in panic before we fell into the dark below as the trap door we were standing on shut leaving us in darkness. I soon felt ground as the lights suddenly cut on revealing a whole obstacle course.

???: "Welcome to Roy's Dangerous obstacle course, made by your devious host, me, Roy Koopa. Your goal is to make it through the course and make it to the throne room to fight me all the while trying not to get sent back to the beginning or fall in to one of my dangerous traps. I'll be waiting, see you later Super Loser Bros. Oh and before I forget you will still have to fight my troops along the waayy~. " and then the speaker cut off leaving us to observe the course.

"This could be better, we are stuck trying to make our way through a course filled with who knows what, meanwhile trying to survive the onslaught of enemies headed our way, that is just daannddyy."

*timeskip brought to you by a group of munchkin bunnies eating a the carrot Bowser had to eat in M&L: Bowser Inside Story*

(1 hour later)

We dashed around a corner narrowly avoiding a flame bar and a Bullet Bill. We looked ahead and saw some stairs. Sighing in relief, we made up stairs falling over in exhaustion once at the top.

Matt: "Ugggggggghh. Never again will I look at what the army does for training and say it looks easy, ow, I think I pulled a muscle."

I lick my fingers and put out the tiny flame that on my shoulder. "I think I have third-degree burns everywhere, or I've be turned into a turkey roast that is well overcooked and then hit with a mallet randomly."

I looked up from my spot on the ground to look forward to see a sign that said 'weapons room, authorized personnel only, KEEP OUT!' so I got up and walked over and opened the door. The room was dim and the only lights that were on were above the weapons, which included four decently sized hammers. My eyes narrowed in thought, and motioned the guys over to my side. The looked inside and we all looked at each other and huge grins dawned on our faces. It did not take long for us to dash inside and grab the hammers, one for each of us. Mario and Luigi held theirs over their heads in one hand by the bottom of the handle in a weird pose. (you got the hammers, kidding, I am not going to do this when I have them get their items, I just wanted to have a subtle nod to something that any true Mario fan would get. You know who you are, TuT.) I shrugged and did a similar pose with my hammer while Matt, begrudgingly, did the same. I will say I felt a bit silly, but we spent no time getting out of there and back on track. To my surprise, Luigi told us that we did not need to carry our hammers around in our hand and instead put them in our pockets, which made everything we put in them shrink down, which meant that the whole truck ton of coins that were sitting in my surprisingly still light coin bag. It made our lives a whole lot easier, as the rest of our trip was a mad dash towards the throne room. We arrived at the door in record time, and we spent no time going through the door to confront Roy.

Roy: "Well, well, well, it seems that you have made it to here, I thought that I would die of boredom if you took any longer." He suddenly grabs what looks to be a bazooka of some sort "but I guess I can have some fun by blasting you till you're nothing but dust, so just stay still while I blast you." He then fired a bullet bill at us, which we promptly jumped away from.

He continued to fire at us as we jumped around him, with us jumping on his head at random points which made him mad.

Roy: "GAH, enough fooling around" he put on a helmet just as soon as Mario was about to jump on him, making Mario hurt his foot on the spike that sat on the top of the helmet, "HAHAHA, try and hurt me now, all you are going to do is hurt yourselves on the spi-" he did not get to finish as Matt clocked him over the head with his hammer.

I pulled out my hammer and ran towards Roy and did a similar motion and hit him directly in the face. He recoiled in pain as I put away my hammer away and jumped back to stand beside the others.

Roy: "Alright you asked for it!"

He growled in rage as he pulled out a wand and pointed it near the front of his bazooka.

Roy: "Let's see how you like my bananzi bi-" he was again cut of as he suddenly got rolled over by a chain chomp, the very same chain chomp that I had let roll around the castle after our courtyard battle. He was suddenly sent flying towards the wall and crashed through it, sending him flying off into the horizon, leaving us stunned and very confused at what just happened.

Luigi: "Well, eh, that-a just happened, whatever that was." We nodded in agreement as started to make our way down to what looked to be an empty holding cell. But there looked to be a note inside though. I picked it up and read it aloud for the others.

"Nice try you pesky plumbers, but the Princess is in another castle, and you won't be able to get to her, so don't even think about trying to rescue her." I throw the note into a lava pit a little ways away from the cell "dang, I thought we were so close to getting Peach back but we are back to square one."

Mario pulled out the picture that Peach drew and I pulled out my map, and we both looked at the next place that the picture had on it, the snowy mountain.

"It looks like we are heading to a place called Snowy Peaks as it is the only place on this map that is depicted and it looks to have a town, which we are going to have to find a place to stay the night in, as it is getting late." We soon made our way out of Bowser's castle and headed toward Snowy Peaks. By the time we reached the town in Snowy Peaks it was sundown and it was fairly cold, I was glad that I had gloves and a jacket. We made a beeline towards the inn and Mario got us two rooms, two bed in each. Matt and I walked into our rooms and I flopped face first onto the comfortable bed. My mind drifted off into the world of slumber as Matt did as well.

But little did we know that our group had been spotted by an odd figure and said odd figure planned to have an encounter with us in the morning.

And with that that ends our chapter, but who could that mystery figure be. I will give you a hint, in their first appearance they say the words 'Hello Yellow' in the first couple of sentences. Anyway, see ya!

Oh, another important thing, I am going to be on hiatus for a few months due to me having to work over the summer. I may be commenting on other stories but I am not going to be updating any of the main stories for a little while due to this. Alrighty!

KEEP ON A WORKIN'!!!

Word count: 3205 4/2/2019