[IC] The Mushroom Kingdom: Between Worlds

[Jensoman]

The Mushroom Kingdom: Between Worlds

Toad Town

It was another beautiful morning in Toad Town. The city was bustling with Toads, Yoshi's, peaceful Koopa's, Goomba's, ShyGuys and Boo's. Basicly, there were people from all over the Mushroom Kingdom. It was often quite busy within the town. There were many people all around the big pool of water at the Main Square, going about doing their own business. The west entrance was close to the pool, which was swarmed with people moving in and out of the town. Today, however, it seemed as if a big crowd of people were gathered right next to the pool. They were several stands with seats for people to sit at.

There were several posters hanging on the walls in Toad Town. The posters read "Cap Card Tournament! At 9:00 AM today! Come and see the amazing card-battle skills of Card Masters from all over the Mushroom Kingdom, at the Toad Town's main Square!" However, it appeared that several hours had passed already, and it was already 12:00. The seats were filled with people as they stared at the last two competitors who were sitting at a table. "Ha! You're gonna get the beat-down of your life, CHUMP!" The first competitor shrieked, pointing his hand at the cloaked person before him. He held his cards in his other hand, grinning confidently. The shouting competitor appeared to be a Koopa, who was within an egg shell. He was known for his amazing Card-play, he was none other than Jr. Troopa!

Luigi was sitting next to Mario on one of the stands, cheering for Jr. Troopa. "You can do it, Jr. Troopa!" He shouted. One of the Toad guards turned to Luigi and made a gesture with his hand, to signal that he needed to stay quiet. This was to make sure that the card-players would not get distracted and make a mistake. People were certainly allowed to talk quietly too eachothers, but not to make too much noise. Of course, there was still some noise coming from the townsfolk that passed by regardless. Luigi turned to Mario with a smile. "What do you think, bro? Who's going to win?" He asked him quietly. "It's a shame the Princess couldn't come...I hope she'll have fun at the castle at least!"

There were some shifty folk running about the town elsewhere however, and it seemed that they were up to no good. While most of the guards were focused on the tournament, they took advantage of this to spread themselves wherever they saw fit. "Ah man...when are we going to capture the Princess? We've been here for hours!" A goomba muttered in an annoyed tone to a nearby Koopa. "Shh! Don't be so loud! If we mess this up, Bowser's gonna have my shell! And he'll give you a run for your money too!" He whispered back at the Goomba. There were several minions of Bowser all around, some of them blending in with the townsfolk while others hid in small, dark alleyways.

[Holy Soldier]

When Luigi looked over all he would see was a plumber with an arm embraced about a pile of snacks. In his right arm was a full bucket of buttered popcorn, and on top of the popcorn, were three chili dogs. His hand clutched a bottle of Koopa Cola that every now and then his left hand would swing by to grasp up and feed into his mouth. Currently, he was porking on two dogs at once both protruding from his mouth and slowly being whittled away like logs being forced into a wood chipper. Closing his eyes, Mario was at least polite enough to finish chewing his food before he bothered to answer his brother. He swallowed down his food with a weighted and audible gulp and then expelled an obnoxiously loud belch that caused several audience members to snap their heads back at him and give him glares.

Mario glared back at them and grumbled, “I don’t even know why I’m here. Card games are for nerds.”

His brows crashed together when he noticed one of the audience members peering back at him. Beneath her round toad hat, she had brown pigtails tied by pink bows and large circular-framed glasses. She was smiling at him, her fingers rising to her lips to stifle a giggle, and when she laughed Mario’s blue eyes grew when he saw her ample bosom quivering.

“On second thought…I think I like me some nerds.”

Mario shoved the food he had been munching on into Luigi’s arms and quickly rose from his seat to go climbing and side-stepping around people.

“If I don’t come back, then don’t come lookin’ for me!”

[Lmpkio]

Plotting Theme

KING BOWSER KOOPA PLOTS HIS WAY IN!

While the minions blend in nicely with the crowd, no one noticed a particular figure lurking in an alley way just several blocks from the Tournament's location. Hiding underneath a disguise of his own, which while corny as it is, Bowser lurks within the shadows, putting his feet up on the front of his awesome Bowser-Mobile. He hadn't used this car in awhile, the last time being around three years ago, so he decides to give it a whirl for today. Like always, to no ones surprise, he is planning to kidnap the Princess again, this time being in secret. So far, the plan to have disguised minions is working, or so it seems.

In addition, he has a disguised Clown Car above the entire action, which was made to look like a Lakitu observer. He begins to check the minions down below, as well as picking other conversations from both them and the crowd. He then picks up a conversation from two of his minions.

"Ah man...when are we going to capture the Princess? We've been here for hours!" a Goomba mutters in a whisper.

"Shh! Don't be so loud! If we mess this up, Bowser's gonna have my shell! And he'll give you a run for your money too!" replies the Koopa with a whisper.

The Koopa King simply chuckled at this.

"Damn right you boys don't mess up." he says to himself as he continues watching.

As long as they keep hidden for long enough, the plan should work out perfectly. They'll nab a Bikini-clad Peach and drive off back to his castle. Surely, much evil fun is to be had here.

[Kafka Komedy]

La Bandita

Local: Toad Town
^{Operation: Stealin' From Dweebs}

Bonnie laughed to herself silently as she watched the Cap-Card tourney from the roof of a shop a street away. With all the commotion, the big crowd, the excitement, the people all focusing on some dumb card game. This was easy pickings! La Bandita was about to make a big score, that was for certain. She could easily steal from a majority of the people in the crowd, and she was sure most of them had brought their decks, filled to the brim with rare cards that could be fenced for large sums of coins. The thought of so much money in her sack almost made her drool in anticipation, but she opted instead for a sly grin.

Bon hopped down onto the street with a slight "Oomph" and made her way towards the big crowd, her light bag slightly swaying with each step. She emptied it out for the big steal today, the only things left in it were bombs (both smoke and regular) and The Giant. After all, she was sure the authorities would follow her after robbing the town blind, and she didn't want to walk into a fight empty handed.

Once she had gotten close, she eyed the resistance. There were quite a few number of guards here, yes, but that simply meant she knew where most of the opposition was coming from. Keeping her grin on, she walked closer to the crowd. The stands would be difficult to navigate quickly for anyone but her, ensuring that any people dumb enough to try and get their money back themselves would probably fall on their faces. "Hah! Whata perfect plan!" Bon laughed to herself. Truly, she was a villainous mastermind.

With incredible deft speed, La Bandita took off, zigzagging through the stands with her bag open and loosely throwing wallets, purses, and occasionally even food into her magic bag. Quickly, people took notice of the interruption, and many began shouting incoherently. This garnered the notice of the guards, who realized that something was going on. It seemed like both the players stopped too, unable to concentrate at this noise. To this, Bon couldn't help herself from giggling, snorting, and then openly laughing fairly loudly. What a dumb event, who the hell holds stuff like this outside? These people would get eaten ALIVE back at Rogueport! Of course, her merriment was short lived. When she had stolen from a toad who looked like she had actually went to school, Bon noticed a red and blue blur, with splotches of brown on it's head. She knew who this was, and she couldn't stop the "Aw, crap!" escaping from her mouth.

That was surely the famous Mario, the hero who took down thugs like her. Unless she ran like hell, he would beat the absolute crap outta her! With a sloppy hand, the rogue sealed her bag and leaped off the stands, before quickly running in the direction of the closest alley. Why did bad things happen to bad people so much?

[Filthy Mudblood]

"Oh, Luma, don't be silly. We're perfectly safe." A quiet voice murmured almost inaudibly amongst the growing crowd, a voice that was soothing and reserved. The voice belonged to that of Princess Rosalina, who appeared to be sticking out like a sore thumb with her glowing presence. She had seen a poster advertising this event, a Cap Card Tournament by the looks of it, and had made the decision to go. It had been a while since she had visited the urban parts of the Mushroom World, partly for fear of the increasingly common incidents involving, of course, Bowser and Princess Peach and also partly for fear of the bustling activity that she was still not quite used to. Beside her was her most trusted companion, Luma, who was hovering anxiously just above shoulder height. Rosalina herself had opted out of hovering today, mainly due to the funny looks she was bound to get. It didn't seem to matter though, everyone's attentions seemed to be fixed on the unfolding events of the Tournament.

"But Mama, can you not feel the growing tension?" The sweet, metallic voice that echoed in her mind was concerned, but not yet panicked. Only paying half attention to the small star next to her, the princess's eyes swept the crowd, subconsciously searched for one person in particular. A certain man almost certainly clad in red and blue. Her eyes had just landed on the figure she immediately recognised when, seemingly out of the blue, a blur of orange hair and a blue cloak appeared.

The stranger, like Rose, had their gaze fixed on Mario and, instead of approaching him to ask for maybe an autograph or even a hero-plumber hug, they took off in the opposite direction. "How strange." The words slipped out of her mouth as her feet began to pull her forwards, despite her best intentions. Luma began to buzz anxiously in her ear, "We really shouldn't interfere, can't we just watch the Tournament?" But, uncharacteristically, Rosalina's curiosity got the better of her and she replied with a simple, "Hush, child."

[Holy Soldier]

Mario

Location: Toad Town - From Tournament to Alley
Mentions:@Kafka Komedy

It had happened so fast. A blue blur swept through the aisle that he had been climbing over. Mario paused and blinked, eyes following the fleeing figure and then hearing the angered audience members. Even the Toad girl who he had been hoping to score with was upset and crying about how her purse had been stolen. Wait a second…this might have been his chance to impress her with a heroic deed!

Beneath his thick gentlemanly moustache a mischievous grin expanded. Mario crouched before he sprang high into the air. He grasped the bill of his cap as he soared over the stadium, following the blue blur below. The red sleeves of his shirt and the blue pants legs of his overalls rippled in the winds that raced passed him. When he passed over a few buildings, he released his cap and raised his hands into the air as a giant wooden mallet materialized above him. Grasping the arm of the hammer, when he reached the apex of his ascent, Mario swung the mallet forward and the weight of the weapon carried him into a rapid spin. The plumber went whirling toward the alley before the thief, and he came out of his ball a few seconds before his hammer connected with the turf before her. The impact caused a mighty explosion of asphalt, stone, and other debris. The sky resounded with a thunderous thoom! that could have been felt quaking through the ground. The landing might had been shocking and he hoped that it would have stopped the thief in her tracks.

A tower of brown dust was billowing into the sky as the area around them crackled with the debris that was still pelting the alley. Mario straightened, coughing and trying to fan the smoke from his face. He had one hand resting on the butt of his mallet, giving him support while he leaned over looking a little green.

“Mama mia, I think I overdid it,” he groaned. His brain felt like it was still spinning inside his skull. His cheeks then dramatically inflated and the plumber turned his head to upchuck the hot dogs and cola he had eaten.

Spitting the chum from his lips, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and growled, “Damn it! You not only owe me that potential date you interrupted back there, but you owe me dinner too!”

Hefting his hammer onto his shoulder, Mario faced the bandit with a deep frown. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kick your ass? If you wanna run, I’ll chase ya. I’ll chase ya all over this town. How long is that tournament? Two hours? Yeah, I think I’d rather do this. This is more my style. So what’s your move? A beat down or are you gonna return that stolen stuff?”

He then brought a finger to his mustache as he muttered thoughtfully, “At least give me back that purse—wait! No, no! Everything you stole needs to be returned!”

[Zardoric]

Koopy Koopa

Koopy scratched his head as yet another store he wanted to enter was closed because of some stupid tournament. Why people got so into these stupid games he didn't know, at least his addiction was something healthy. Kinda. It made him better and helped people. Plus, if any of his experiments would ever work, he would be set for life. Or at least the next week. As he walked down the street he saw Bowser in some stupid disguise, in his car that he had completely forgotten to hide. If Mario and gang didn't know he was here, then they were blind. Of course, they never noticed so... yeah. He was just going to stay out of it. Anyway where is an open shop, he really wanted to get his hands on a fire flower. He wanted to see what would happen if he tried combining it with...
Oh what now? Koopa looked up to see something running towards him in a blue cloak and with a bag. Was it some sort of thief? Koopy quickly ran through what was on him and decided nothing was at risk. All of his money was in his shell, and he could summon that back in an instant. And now that he was looking around he saw Mario, Luigi, and some pretty looking lady that glowed, and had a floating star thingy floating around her. And right now everyone's eyes were on the thief. He could stop her of course, but what was the point? Eh, he could use the practice. Then just before he could act, Mario jumped in front of the thief making it near impossible for her to do anything but stop and surrender. Good excuse not to do anything. Koopy just backed off a bit as Mario barfed, and waited to see what would happen.

[tex]

Toad Town

_{The Cap-Card Tourney}

Luigi reached out for his bro, but didn't stand a chance in stopping him from leaping into action. Not that he really wanted to. Again with the a-showmanship! The green-clad sub-hero didn't try to leap after him to assist, instead turning to keep track of the goings on between the cloaked figure and his opponent, that mischievous little koopa, Jr Troopa. It's not like his brother needed help dealing with a simple bandit after all. Mario's opinion of the event hadn't given him much incentive to help his brother with anything recently. Cap-Cards was the coolest thing ever! Luigi was probably one of its biggest fans, even though he wasn't very good at it himself. If only his bro could respect that. Ah well, it's not like he'd said no to the tournament invite. Their brotherly bond was stronger than any other in the mushroom kingdom! It was a great card to play when Luigi tried to convince Mario into tagging along to stuff like this.

The cloaked competitor seemed relatively un-phased by the Bandita's shenanigan's and Mario's followup, taking advantage of the distraction by playing two cards on top of one another. It was known as a cross play, where a player could stack two creature cards together to activate a special ability. The cloaked man stacked Protoman over Megaman and grinned, his barely-visible mustache twitching as he began to snicker. "x2 hero!" The man announced in a shrill, almost ear-wrenching voice. The x2 hero combo could wip Jr Troopa's entire board with a 10 damage AoE nuke if he couldn't counter play it immediately. What excitement!.. I guess...

Luigi gazed upon the play in awe, mesmerized by the perfect timing of his maneuver. Jr Troopa had overextended his board! This was the mysterious challenger's game if the little yellow egg-head couldn't counter him! Wooo... It was practically like watching an actual war between worlds, or something.

[Kafka Komedy]

La Bandita

Local: Toad Town
^{Operatives: @Holy Soldier}

Bonnie looked up in horror as an italian shadow blotted out the sun. Above her the mustachioed plumber span like a dreidel of death above her head. So it was Mario that she had the misfortune of summoning with her thievery. Following his vague trajectory, Bon realized that he lead his shot: she wouldn't be able to pick up enough speed to make it past him. She switched gears and attempted to stop herself, but she was already going too fast. The thug fell over as Mario came crashing down, the earth-shattering force combined with the attempt to stop herself threw off her gravity.

As the dust settled, La Bandita picked herself up off the ground, with a decent amount of effort. She got herself just in time to see the plumber blow some major chunks. She silently giggled, but resumed her tense stance as the hero growled. Still, she picked up on some info. She didn't know much about Mario honestly, but one thing she had just learned was, apparently, he was a fan of the ladies. The main thing he seemed pissed about was her cockblocking him, not really the fact she had just robbed over 50 people blind. Well, if worse came to worse came to absolute worst, she could make an attempt to seduce him. If she really had no other options.

As the man threatened her, Bon viewed her surroundings and weighed her options. Obviously the crowd behind her was a no-no. To her left were less people, certainly, but those were broad streets in broad daylight, and the western gate was too full of people to be a reliable escape route. To the right was a tad more people, including a koopa that she got odd vibes off. His dark purple shell and this look in her eye made her wary of his presence, even if he had yet to attack. No matter what, it seemed like the right road was the best of her options. For now, her plan was simple.

"Fine, fine I got the nerd's purse and, hey, some food on the side too, for such a grand hero. Lemme just reach in here and grab it..." She lied, hefting the bag off her shoulders and reaching into it with both of her hands. Very sneakily she slipped some bombs up her sleeves, and grasped her bat in her right hand. "Ah, here it is!" She exclaimed with a grin as she pulled the weapon out of her sack. With a deft flick of the wrists, three of the smoke bombs hidden in the bandit's sleeves exploded onto the ground masking her presence. With a quick laugh, she grabbed her loot bolted down the street to her right, hoping the Koopa wouldn't try anything funny, or that Mario had any tricks up his sleeve.

[Zardoric]

Koopy Koopa

---

Koopy Shook his head at Mario's compliance, it was obvious that the thief was going to trick him. Koopy laughed to himself as she said "Fine, fine I got the nerd's purse and, hey, some food on the side too, for such a grand hero. Lemme just reach in here and grab it...Ah, here it is!", pulled out some smoke grenades, and threw them on the ground. As the smoke grenades went off Koopy started mumbling his spell. He never understood why people had a problem with magic. It was easy, especially Geomancy. In less then a second his shell was glowing purple and he had the blocks he wanted to summon ready, and choose where to place them. By the time the thief had moved three feet he was ready. The first block in placed in front of her, the second and third were placed on either side to prevent her from going around it, and a fourth was placed above her to prevent her from jumping out. The last one he placed as soon as she slipped inside the trap completely. He had seen her reaction time and knew she wouldn't, or shouldn't, be able to avoid the trap.
Once all of the blocks were in place, he took a quick glance around and said "Really? what is everyone gathered here for, and how did a thief get past the guards?". He shook his head again and made sure none of the blocks he had cast were being hit to hard. He didn't think the thief would be strong enough to break through them, but he had to keep track just in case. Hopefully Bowser and his crew wouldn't interfere with this little side show. If she did brake free then he would have to try something else.

[Lugia]

Starting location: Bowser's Castle, Exterior

It's been hours, now. I've been trying to climb this thing, exhausting almost my entire medical supply, and taking a few more hits to the head than I thought I would... stupid loose bricks. The loose bricks have proven themselves to be a bit of a double-edged sword, while, sure, they fell out, and made me fall all the way back to the ground, they at least supplied me with an extra ledge to jump off of, making the trip back up just that much easier, and while I was only down to a single roll of bandages, I knew this would be the one, this would finally get me all the way up to the top window of Bowser's castle, where a rematch with Bowser was surely waiting. Oh, sure, he probably hasn't kidnapped anyone, yet, today, but wouldn't it be awesome if I somehow stopped him before he could even pull it off? Heck, I know Mario's not going to do it, he's probably at that cap-card tournament, or something, and it was HIGHLY unlikely that Bowser, of all koopas would end up in a place like that. I tasted stone, again as my tongue made contact with yet another stone brick on his castle... wouldn't be much longer now, provided there aren't any more loose bricks between here and the window. I got a decent grip on the bricks as I tried to get even higher on the wall with my tongue, again, and this time, I tasted glass... must have been the window, right? If I still had my bat, this would be SO much easier, but, since I didn't have it, I had to basically kick the window until it finally broke, letting me inside the place.

The inside was... pretty much the same as the last one, just stone, with the occasional red carpet, as well as Bowser statue. Bowser was probably at his throne, which wasn't too far from where I was, right now, so, after tending to the wounds I got from breaking in through the glass window, I headed off towards it. I busted through the unlocked door, and shouted "Okay, Bowser, I'm here to finally settle this score ONCE AND FOR ALL! You know as well as I do that you're up to something evil, and I'm going to stop you before you even get a chance to do it!" I then paused for a moment, and actually looked at the throne room, only to find it empty, save for a life-sized statue of Bowser... Well, shoot... I can't fight a statue! It's a good thing nobody saw that, too... wait... could he SERIOUSLY be in that card tournament thing!? HIM, of all koopas!? Ugh... all this work... just to yell at a statue... I thought as I left the throne room, and made my way back down, this time, using the stairs, and going out the front door. Since I didn't have the key, I had no choice but to leave the front door unlocked, not that I'd actually lock Bowser's door if I could, of course, and I headed to the place where I'm absolutely sure the card tournament was being held. It was quite a walk heading back to the city, and even more to get to Peach's castle, but, eventually, I made it... just to find out that it wasn't there, in fact, nobody was there... so, I had to figure out where the heck they were actually holding this stupid event.

It took me about five tries, and I ended up getting lost every single time, but, eventually, I found the place. As I expected, it was packed to the brim, and, for some reason, there was a purple-shelled koopa blocking off the entrance."Great, I finally get here and the place is getting blocked off? Just my luck, today..." I commented as I walked away... of course, once I saw a familiar face, namely Mario's, I decided to actually stay, wondering if these blockades were actually just one of his friends capturing Bowser, or some other criminal. I almost said something, but then I realized that I would probably just annoy them, so, I kept my distance, just in case whatever was in there decided to escape, and was a threat to the Mushroom Kingdom. I had the urge to ask what was up with the blocks, again, but decided to simply casually check to see if I could see Bowser in the place. While I saw plenty of koopas, not to mention a few other things, none of them looked even remotely like Bowser, unfortunately. If he's not here... then where the heck IS he? Heck, all the shops in the area are freaking closed because of this tournament... I mean, I know cap-cards are popular, but are they really THAT popular? I thought as I continued to look around, just to see if I could see anything that might give Bowser away, hoping that I could find him somewhere in that audience, or even as a competitor... of course, I still couldn't see very much from where I was standing, so, he very well could be in there, just out of my view.

[Lmpkio]

@Lugia

King Bowser Koopa

As Bowser continues to lay lazily in his Bowser-Mobile, checking his little camera once in awhile, he was able to catch a glimpse of a familiar someone. No, it wasn't Mario, or Luigi. Nor was it Peach or some other princess unfortunately. Instead, it was just a simple blue Yoshi, carrying a regular ole' backpack. Now why would He, the King of Koopas, have his attention be grabbed by an insignificant, little blue, dinosaur? I mean, Yoshis are cute in some ways, no matter what gender they happen to be, but seriously, why must it be this guy?

Because this is Blake Shell, a Yoshi who had tried to pick a fight with Bowser in the past. And in all honesty, he actually put up a real good fight, and one that made the whole castle crumble into pieces. Yet, he is no Mario. Despite his strength and abilities, this Yoshi lost to the Koopa King. Was it by a close margin? One can argue that. In fact, Bowser thought him to be actually dead, his body crushed by the castle falling upon them. Apparently he was wrong. This surprised the King slightly, or rather he is quite impressed that he survived. A small frown rippled across his face.

"So..." he again says to himself, "Your actually still alive? Hmph. Count me impressed."

He then pauses as he looks at a camera screen facing towards the Tournament.

"No matter. I don't have time for you now, you little pipsqueak. For now, I got me a Princess to kidnap, hurr hurr..."

Speaking of the Princess... where the hell is she anyways?

[Jensoman]

Toad Town

_{The Cap-Card Tourney}

Jr. Troopa gazed towards the commotion that Bonnie had caused, trying to figure out who had the nerve to disrupt his match. He failed to get a clear view of Bonnie as she sprinted off however, so his focus fell onto the person who was chasing after her. 'Mario...I should have known that he would try to ruin things for me AGAIN!' The young koopa thought, glaring at Mario. He had spotted the plumber within the crowd from the very beginning of the tournament, but he chose not to pay much attention to him back then.

As the cloaked man shouted and slammed his two cards onto the table, Jr. Troopa failed to hear his words clearly, or realise exactly what move the cloaked man was performing. He was preoccupied with Mario's actions. He sloppily grabbed a card from his deck, and slammed his Link card onto the table as Mario stopped Bonnie and confronted her. 'Well, he won't mess anything up this time! THIS time-' Jr. Troopa thought, stopping his train of thought for a moment as he looked back at the table. "WHAAAT?!?!" He shrieked in shock, realising the cloaked man's play. He had whiped out his entire board. "NO!!!" The young koopa screamed, as a strong feeling of anger erupted from within, and got the better of him. He hopped off of his chair and kicked the table over.

"Stupid, STUPID, STUUUPPIIIDD!!" He roared, gazing back at Mario. It was all the plumber's fault! If he hadn't been there, surely he would have won!

"RAAAAAAHHHH!! MAARRRIIIIOOOO!!!"

[Holy Soldier]

Mario

Location: Toad Town - Streets
Mentions:@Kafka Komedy@Zardoric@Jensoman@tex

Mario glared at the bandit the entire time as he took her word for it and patiently awaited her reconciliation. Instead, he watched her cast bombs upon the ground as though she were some expert ninja. Mario turned his head and raised an arm to guard his face as smoke exploded everywhere. Caught in the screen, Mario coughed and growled:

"That does it!”

Charging out of the smoke, he glanced around at his surroundings seeing a purple-shelled turtle, and he was using some form of magic to seal the bandit within a stone prison. Mario grinned wickedly and then rendered a friendly wave to Koopy.

“Hey thanks buddy.”

Walking over to the stone prison, Mario rested a hand on one of the blocks and set his mallet next to him.

“Oh now you’ve gone and done it. What is it with you villains? I give you guys a chance to surrender and then you force me to go to extreme measures. Now let me warn you about somethin’,” Mario began. He grasped one suspender strap and released it before releasing his second one. “You can either promise to give back that stuff you stole or you’re gonna be in a world of misery.”

Patting his stomach, he grinned naughtily. “I’ve been holdin’ this in for a while so you can imagine it’s had time to charge. Since I was in public, I didn’t want to go and ruin Jr. Troopa’s game by cuttin’ this one in the middle of the tournament, but we’re not in the tournament anymore now are we?”

Lowering his suspenders down passed his hips, Mario bent over with his ass directed at the block prison.

“Surrender or I’ll use my foulest attack! Tell her Koopa! Tell her how serious this is. I won’t hold back. You’ll be baked alive in that Dutch oven!”

Mario fell silent and blinked as his ears started to strangely burn. Was someone talking about him? He grinned perversely. I hope it’s Peach or Rosalina or maybe it’s nerd girl. It just better be a babe!

[Filthy Mudblood]

Quite a scene seemed to be unfolding surrounding the mystery thief, so, despite Luma's reluctance, Rosalina advanced forward to investigate. It was unlikely that she would get involved, seeing as she knew perfectly well that Mario could fend for himself with ease, so she approached out of mere curiosity. Her attention was momentarily distracted by a furious scream coming from the center of the tournament, and she was hardly surprised that it was Jr. Troopa himself getting himself into such a state.

After another second of hesitation, Rosa followed her Luma to where he had flown ahead, unbeknownst to her the look of horror on the star's face. "Mama... you might not wanna see this." Rosalina rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, Luma, it's okay. Mario will have the situation completely under...- oh my!" The princess stopped short as her gaze landed on the Italian, or rather the rear end of him. Completely spread and uncovered for the world to see. A part of her wondered if the Cosmos stars would be able to see this...interesting sight and her lips twitched in amusement.

"Ahem...well... I think Luma and I shall help to diffuse the situation going on back there..." Her voice trailed off as she continued to stare at the nakedness of the man, unable to take her eyes off of his behind. "Stop staring and let's go." Luma's voice echoed in her head, snapping her of the disturbed trance she seemed to be in. Right. Back to the tournament.

[Lugia]

Starting Location: Cap-card tourney, outside

Out of nowhere, Mario jumped onto one of the blocks that the purple koopa placed... and... well, let's just say, I saw more of Mario that day then I ever needed or wanted to. Of course, I only saw it for a second before bolting inside the place. Once inside, I got a better view of the crowd, but, since the place was so densely packed, that actually didn't do me any good. I tried looking at everyone's faces, but I couldn't find any that looked quite like Bowser... until I saw a giant, red-shelled koopa with equally giant glasses in the crowd. That had to be him, right? Bowser was the only koopa I knew that was that giant. Just like Bowser to come to a place like this wearing some sort of disguise... I thought as I headed over to the giant koopa, who seemed to be focused on the tournament, rather than anything else. Once I got there, I shouted "Don't think you can hide from me, BOWSER! Take off that dumb disguise so we can have a REAL fight!" if I was strong enough, I probably could have grabbed him by the collar while I did that, but, well, he was big, and, as a turtle, he was also quite heavy for his size, making that even harder than it should have been, so, I settled on pointing at the koopa who I was absolutely certain was Bowser, and not just some other freakishly huge koopa.

[Kafka Komedy]

La Bandita

Local: Toad Town
^{Operatives: @Holy Soldier, @Zardoric}

As Bonnie turned to the left and began to run, her advance was almost immediately halted by something. A yellow block with a face on it was placed right in her path, so close that it hit her in the face. As she was recovering from the knock, 4 other blocks were placed around her as a makeshift prison. She was willing to bet it was that shady koopa who had done this. He was the only guy who was close enough and was paying attention.

Bon quickly looked around her new blocky abode. It was comprised of at least 5 large blocks that had two black eye-like slits. Bonnie quickly full-on bashed the blocks for a few seconds to gauge the durability. Only a small crack appeared, so it was clear that breaking out would be tiring and time consuming. The better idea was to wait, for at least a little while. She didn't know how long these would last, but she wouldn't be in here forever. Through the blocks, she heard the koopa who had trapped her speak. "Cuz I'm La Bandita, you snot-nosed jerkoff!" She yelled. It didn't make her feel much better about the situation, but at least there was the possibility that he felt worse.

As the thug equipped herself as best she could, taking quite a few bombs and smoke bombs out of the sack and hiding them in many locations in her clothes, she heard Mario speak. Her stomach dropped as he promised her "a world of misery." Apparently, he was just going to fart on her. She was tempted to laugh honestly. She grew up in Rogueport, and that city was pretty much a trash heap. Hell, she had even been in the sewers a couple times. How bad could one waft really be? But then, it was obvious Mario wasn't the goody two-shoes that the other villains portrayed him as. It was a definite possiblity that he was reeling up for some other attack. One so devastating it could cripple her for life! God, was this really the only way out?

"Ah, Mr. M- ah jesus..." She mumbled to herself. "You couldn't hurt a poor girl like me, couldja?" She asked, trying to force her accent into something innocent, or sexy, or something other that her common tongue. It wasn't really working. "I was thinkin' of even givin' ya a... reward~." She lied, as her stomach did more turns. WHy was this day going so awful? Finally, she explained "But, if you wanna arrest me, I undastand..." The plan was that As soon as the blocks went down she would clock Mario and run. That koopa probably couldn't summon many more blocks, and she'd be ready for them this time. If she could just get out of this blocky hell, she would be home free!

[Jensoman]

Toad Town

_{The Cap-Card Tourney}

As Jr. Troopa screamed at his old enemy, many screams could be heard from further away. They emerged from the southern part of town. A large group of terrified townsfolk ran away from the South as a large group of Goblins, Octoroks, and the like swarmed into the main Square. The guards moved in front of the townsfolk in an attempt to stop the attackers, but there were far too many for them to take on alone. Some of them were simply overcome by fear, and ran away along with the townspeople.

"Eh..? What's goin-" Jr. Troopa muttered. "BAH! WHATEVER! PREPARE YOURSELF MARIO, HERE I COME!!" He shrieked, bolting away from the scene. The young koopa knew he had lost the tournament, so he simply didn't care anymore. He wanted to get back at Mario, believing that his loss at the Tournament Finale was all his fault. As he bolted off however, he ended up bumping into Kent C. Koopa. "Ey! GET OUTTA MY...wait. You're that guy who I faced in the Semi-finals, right?" The young Koopa muttered.

[tex]

Kent C. Koopa

That cloaked challenger put Jr troopa in a position of utter horror with one move! Yes, he'd used x2 hero earlier in the tournament against Luigi in the first round, but Luigi was an amature! In order for the cross play between megaman and protoman to work, Jr troopa had to have no action cards in his hand! There's no way that this cloaked man lured the masterful Jr troopa into expending his Light Arrows card! Kent C had lost to troopa's genius plays in the semi finals! He knew that the little egg-shelled card player wouldn't make that mistake! Was he really that distracted? No! Kent C stomped angrily that the one who deafeated his ultimate Squid-kid deck would not be taking home the victory!

But his trantrum was cut short by a strange little yoshi, claiming that Kent C was bowser in disguise. "Hey, buddy. I'm not Bowser, as cool as that'd be. I'm Kent C koopa," the massive koopa replied in a deadpan, matter/pf-fact sort of way. He seemed completely disinterested in the yoshi's words, instead keeping his focus on Jr troopa, who looked like he'd lost his temper completely.

Moments later, Kent C was met by his earlier opponent. He looked down at the little troopa and nodded. "Yea. You creamed my deck pretty easily, kiddo. I couldn't believe it at first..." Kent affirmed, not noticing the ruckus to the south.

[Lugia]

Starting Location: Cap-card Tourney

The freakishly huge koopa quickly explained that he wasn't who I was looking for... and, upon closer inspection, I figured out that he's got to be right... at least he didn't try to fight me, that would have been bad. A much smaller koopa, still in his eggshell then rammed right into the giant guy, and said something about semi-finals. Hm... so, this guy was actually playing this game, huh? Yeah, no matter what disguises he puts on Bowser wouldn't play this game, let alone make it to the semi-finals. I then turned my attention to a group of toads, goombas, and koopas who ran into this place, apparently fleeing from something. I tried to question them, but I didn't get any response from a single one. I then headed back OUT of the building, and tried questioning folks there, to... again... no response. I eventually made it back to the purple koopa, and asked "Hey, purple guy, any idea what the HECK'S going on here? There's a buncha folks just running here like they saw a ghost, or, given how many of them... an army of ghosts!" I then just sort of stood there, making sure to not see the full moon as I waited for any sort of response from him, or, really, anyone, at this point. Wait... oh! Maybe it's Bowser's doing, and I'm just wrong again on the location... but... which direction were they all coming from? I thought as I waited for some sort of response just so I'd have a better idea of where to run to in order to try to stop it.