Stolen Hope - A Super Mario Bros Fanfic

Prologue

Night had rendered the Mushroom Kingdom in serene darkness, yet an ominous feeling still loomed amidst the dense trees. The sound of rushing footsteps could be heard in the distance. Two men, clad in red and green were consumed in a chase, the latter running from the other. They looked quite similar to each other, each wearing their respective shirt and dark blue overalls, each also donning a cap of their respective colours. Each wore identical brown boots, white gloves and similar moustaches.

The man in green had an anxious look plastered upon his face, tears beginning to roll down his face while the other, worriedly, continued pursuit upon him. They continued this for sometime, neither reaching success in either catching up or losing the other amongst the trees.

After a long while of running through the dense forest, the man in the lead tripped over a fallen branch and lost his balance, causing him to topple over. This gave the other a chance to catch up to him as he recovered from the fall. Both met eye contact, neither knowing what to say, they stood facing each other, their silence only being disturbed by a rustle from a nearby tree. Without any speech, the two then got into a fighting stance, back to back, ready to take on whatever may be lurking near. Both of the two stood in silence, awaiting any sound or movement that would inform them on the location of whoever may be watching. Listening. Waiting...

With little to no extra warning, hoards of small brown, mushroom-shaped beings with small, round feet poured out of the undergrowth in dozens, pouring out from almost every direction. Their large, thick eyebrows expressed their searing anger as they raced towards the duo. "Goombas! Hordes of them at that!" the man in red exclaimed in shock.

"Th...that's not a..all," the man clad in green stuttered, his voice shaky with fear. "L..look! Koopas! Boos! Bullets!!" he pointed towards the backlines, revealing the presence of bipedal yellow turtles with varying shell colours, alongside a crowd of white spherical ghosts, each with massive bright pink tongues poking out of their sharp-toothed mouths. At the very back there were large, jet black bullet-like beings soaring into the fray.

"We can take them! We've taken on worse before and still came out on-a top! After all we are the Supe-" The man in red was cut off by a goomba striking him across the face with a powerful leap, flinching him, but not knocking him down. He responded by grabbing one of its feet mid-fall, rearing back, and ditching in straight at the hoard, knocking over multiple goombas and others alike down or into the air as if they were mere bowling pins. The fight had officially begun.

They fought off the army time and time again, always using their familiar punches, kicks and jumps, but this time, something was... off. No matter how many they took down, more and more streamed in, old ones recovering too. But more importantly, exhaustion was becoming imminent for the duo. They had both sustained many hits too, each having scratches and bruises across their bodies, while each of them were becoming weaker by the second.

"We c..can't keep this-a up forever! W...what do we do?!" the man in green stuttered, fear starting to override his cognitive thinking. The man in red was trying his best to stay calm under the immense pressure, he needed to come up with a plan; and fast. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead as he thought of an idea.

"I'll hold them off, you run to the castle and bring backup," he whispered quietly enough that the approaching koopas couldn't hear. He quickly stomped on the closest one, causing it to retract into its shell, then kicking it forcefully into the crowd.

"You can't take them on by yourself! That's crazy!"

"Well we can't just bring them with us! What if they release a full force attack on the kingdom?!"

"But I can't leave you here! You're far too important to the kingdom to lose, and far too important for me  to los-"

The man in red turned around to face him, putting his hands on the other's shoulders.

"I'll be fine. You won't lose me, I promise bro" He said, embracing his brother briefly. His brother returned the gesture. "Now go, bring help back, I believe in you," he pushed his brother back, his signal to run. The man in green turned hesitantly and ran straight into a crowd of koopas, jumping at the last second and bouncing on koopa after koopa towards his destination.

One of the lead koopas shouted in a commanding tone "Send a platoon after him! Don't let him escape!"

The words sent a chill down the red clad hero's spine.

They aren't here for the kingdom...

They are here for us...

The man in green ran as if his life depended on it, sprinting in large, bounding strides. Little did he know, the forest was swarming with more foes, cutting him off at each bend and turn to a point where he was completely lost. Eventually, he came to a halt; a dead end. In front of him was a cliff face, directly below, a plummet to certain demise. He turned swiftly to escape, but was met with but the only exit being completely swarmed by the army directly behind him. He was stuck. He took a step back, gulping as the army drew nearer and nearer, and without realising it, he edged closer and closer to the edge, before losing his balance and being pelted by a goomba in the stomach, sending a figure plummeting down. A scream and a heavy object could be heard landing at the bottom of the ravine, followed swiftly by the cheers and roars of victory from the crowd. A ragged piece of green fabric was blown upwards by the wind, landing on the cliff face..

Just a little note, thanks for reading this far! ^-^ (assuming at least someone has read this) I don't know how long the other chapters will be from here on, but I hope this isn't too much to digest in one chapter. I might edit this in the future seeing I'm not 100% happy with it, but I don't think its too bad.