Super Mario Bros.

World 5: The Underground

Another castle done, another clone defeated, another Toad saved, but still no sign of the princess. It was clear now by what this Toad explained to them that King Koopa is aware of the Mario Brothers movements and is placing Toads in each castle just to taunt them. That being said, King Koopa also seemed to be holding back his armies. He wasn't trying to stop them, save for the trial of each clone just to slow them down, like he was toying with them, waiting to see what they were made of.

King Koopa was definitely holed up in his last fortress on the farthest world. They just had to keep pressing on in the hopes that they would make it there.

Of course, this was easier said than done.

Every new world seemed to have it's own creatures, or it's own indigenous versions of creatures they were becoming familiar with. On one hand it made sense, considering Earth had dangers indigenous only to that world, but on the other hand, Mario and Luigi were getting a little tired of having to figure what that world has exactly before being able to continue. Sometimes the water is just thick air, sometimes there's no sun, sometimes the plantlife is thriving and sometimes it's not, sometimes the land is more broken up and there's so many pitfalls it's hard to tell where to go next or how to get across an area.

They knew they weren't going to simply walk through one world to the next, from the Warp Zone to the fortress and then the next Warp Zone, but it was becoming obvious that the Toads they saved knew next to nothing about the other worlds. This also made sense, considering back on Earth even if you heard stories of New York, if you lived your whole life in Belknap Montana you wouldn't really know what New York was like.

And though this time they were walking through empty rolling hills of red rock, they knew it was only deceptively quiet. If the last four worlds had taught them anything it's that you can't sit still without something jumping out at you.

Then again, they learned that lesson back in Brooklyn a long time ago.

Even though it was early morning when they arrived on this new world, time never synced up properly between worlds. So while here it was morning, on the world they left it was late afternoon. This meant they skipped night altogether, and desperately needed sleep. They weren't going to fight any monsters with suitcases under their eyes.

So Mario took first watch, picking apart the craggy ground. Every crack seemed to go down through the earth for miles, but they were no more than centimeters in width, each stone connecting to the rest somewhere below the light's reach.

And then suddenly Mario realized just how bored he was, describing the ground to himself. He got up and stretched. Luigi was still sound asleep, so Mario wasn't going to wake him, but it didn't look like there was anything for miles around. He started for the top of the nearest hill to get a better vantage point. Keeping an eye on Luigi, Mario scanned the horizon. There were a few trees with white leaves scattered around, but nothing actually harmful. Coming up empty again, he slid back down and returned to his seat in the shade of the hill.