Super Mario Bros: The Fan-Adapted Novelization

Chapter 2-2: Back Underground

Upon entering the pipe, Mario and Luigi were met with a slow, steady fall that felt like it stretched on for hours. Was this what their parents felt when they fell through that tree stump in Florence all the way into the Mushroom Kingdom so long ago? Did it feel like they were floating in a black hole with no end?

Before they could ponder the nature of this pipe, and whether or not it was a trap, the brothers felt themselves hit the ground. Apparently the pipe exit was from the top of...wherever this place was. Much like the pipe interior, it was dark, with hardly any light, if at all. Perhaps this was the cave that the goomba from before told them about? If so, they were well on their way to Bowser's fortress, after all.

"Fa freddo," Mario shivered as he and Luigi gathered themselves back onto their feet. "And I can't see a thing in here."

Luigi paused, suddenly remembering back to their conversation with Toadsworth back above ground, specifically, the part where he brought up the fire flowers:

"They shoot fire at anything that tries to eat the flower."

"But has anyone ever tried to extract the pods before?" 

He took out the flower in his pocket. Clearly, Toadsworth indicated a use for the pods inside, but how could he remove them without getting burned. What could they do with them, anyway? Were they supposed to...eat them?

He couldn't just reach in and gouge them out from the center of the flower, for fear of singing his hand. Instead, he turned it upside down and shook it by the stem, in the hopes that they would fall out on their own. Despite the effort, the pods still stayed put.

Suddenly, he had an idea. He grabbed the back of the flower's face where it met the top of the stem and pinched hard. Almost immediately, out popped the two black pods from their places nestled among the seeds. 

"How did you do that?"

Luigi looked up to find Mario standing on his toes and looking over his shoulder. "How did you get them out?" he asked.

He chuckled. "Oh, you pinch the back and they just fall out."

"Oh." The man in red looked at the pods suspiciously. "...Now what?"

"I think we eat them?"

"But isn't that where all the fire comes from?" The older brother shrugged his shoulders. "Okie dokie. If you say so, Toadsworth."

He reached into his pocket and grabbed his own fire flower when Luigi reached his hand out to stop him. "What?"

"We should just take the ones I have," Luigi offered. "We could space the flowers out longer that way."

Mario slowly placed the fire flower back in his pocket. "I never thought of that," he said as he plucked a pod from his brother's hand. "Well...here goes nothing."

"On the count of three. Uno..." Luigi raised his shaking hand closer to his mouth.

"Due..." Mario held his nose with his free hand as he did the same.

"Tre!"

Squeezing their eyes shut, they ate the pods. Almost immediately after they finished, their eyes widened as they felt a surge of blazing heat overpower their mouths, making their faces turn beet red. "MAMMA MIA!" Mario shrieked, doubling over as he started coughing violently.

"So...spicy..." Luigi fell to the ground, his knees giving out from the subsequent dizziness that came from eating the pod. "I'm getting nauseous..."

Both brothers were eventually on the floor, sweating profusely and writhing in pain. After beating his fist against the ground, flames erupted from the place where Mario's hand made impact. He scampered away almost immediately. "What was that?!"