Mario Mario's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Mario crouched behind the low stone wall at the edge of his village and counted Koopa shells on the road. He counted twelve. An hour ago there had been four. His brother Luigi was locked inside one of the Koopa King's castles, and Mario did not know which, and every castle was on the other side of that road. He was a plumber. He had a wrench in his back pocket and no plan for twelve armored turtles. His red cap was pulled low. His red overalls were still dusty from the pipes he'd been fixing when the news came that the Koopa King had taken every castle in the Mushroom Kingdom. A patrol clanked past the wall. Mario pressed flat. He watched their spears scrape the dirt where he would have walked. If he stepped onto that road, he would be in a cell by sundown, and Luigi would stay wherever he was, waiting for a brother who never came. Mario crawled back through the weeds toward his house. He needed another way out of the village. He was trying to remember the drainage tunnel behind the well when something small and armored stepped out from behind the rain barrel and pointed a tiny sword at his nose. It was a rabbit. Barely up to his knee. Steel plate on the shoulders, a red scarf, one chipped front tooth showing under a grin that did not match the sword. "You're the plumber," the rabbit said. "Good. I've been looking for someone stupid enough." Mario pushed the sword tip aside with one finger. "Stupid enough for what." "To go under the road instead of on it." The rabbit jerked a thumb toward the well. "Your pipes run all the way to the first castle. I checked. The grate on the far end is rusted. I can't lift it. You can." Mario stared at him. "Who are you." "Spawny. Knight. Currently unemployed." The rabbit sheathed the sword. "Your brother's in the first castle or he isn't. Either way, that's where we start. Unless you'd rather wait here for the spears." Outside the wall, a Koopa horn blew. Boots hit the road in rhythm. More were coming. Mario looked at the well. He had laid half the pipe under this village himself. He knew every joint. He had never once thought of it as a way out. "Move," he said. They ran low across the yard. Mario hauled the well cover aside and dropped his legs over the rim. The rabbit landed on his shoulder before he could argue. Mario climbed down into the dark, one hand on the ladder, one hand on his wrench, the patrol's boots thudding above them. The road was closed to him. The pipe was open. He started down it toward the first castle.