Mario and the Koopa Conspiracy, Martin C. Featherworth [book recommendations .txt] 📗

1-up mushrooms.
“Oh, umm… Warp zone,” Mario responded.
“Alright then. But not until I see you eat at least one 1-up,” Yoshi commanded. He pulled a green mushroom, larger than Mario’s fist, from a nearby cabinet. On the mushroom’s cap were five white spots, and on the stem were two black lines that resembled eyes. Yoshi walked over to Mario with the mushroom and held it out to him.
“I had some 1-ups today,” Mario said. Yoshi held out the mushroom still. Mario took it and crammed it whole into his mouth.
“Chew and swallow it, Mario.” Mario chewed the mushroom and gulped it down. The flavor of a 1-up mushroom didn’t quite taste like how you’d expect a mushroom to taste. It was mildly sweet and fruity, but it left a bitter aftertaste that Mario had come to enjoy over the thousands he had consumed.
“Goodbye,” Mario said.
“Bye Mario. Remember what I told you,” Yoshi said as Mario started off. 4: "Home"

“I believe there may be some cause for concern regarding Mario,” Yoshi announced. The green round-nosed dinosaur had left his home when Mario had departed. He had gone to tell Mario’s brother Luigi, who had been talking to Princess Peach about the same subject. The two had been talking in the garden outside the castle. Of course, Peach had made a cake. But she had also expected Mario to come. She knew that he had been feeling down lately, and Luigi’s report on Mario’s strange behavior had worried her.
“He acted like he was pretty mad,” Luigi had told her. “But I think he was actually pretty sad. I knew something was wrong when…uh…when he threatened me.” That was all Luigi was able to say before Yoshi had arrived.
“We were just talking about that. Come, sit down, Yoshi. Would you like some cake?” Peach said as she directed to an empty spot on the engraved stone picnic table they sat on.
“No, thank you. I just had cookies and tea at my house,” Yoshi replied, taking a seat.
“Ooh, were they those good ole’ square ones with the chocolate and vanilla?” Luigi inquired. Yoshi nodded.
“Yes, they were.” Yoshi looked to the princess. She wore her usual pink dress and her bejeweled crown, her golden hair styled with perfection. The only thing that may have not been beautiful about her flawless face was the worried look it occupied. “But I didn’t come here to speak of cookies, Princess. I came to talk about Mario’s mental health state.” Yoshi looked over to Luigi. “Do you know what he told me?” Both Luigi and Princess Peach shook their heads “no.” Yoshi turned back to Peach. “He said that he was thinking that you, Peach, were on Bowser’s side and planned all your kidnappings,” Yoshi said. Peach’s jaw dropped.
“What? Why would he think that?” Luigi asked demandingly.
“Why would he think that about me?” Peach questioned, a bit hurt. Yoshi shrugged.
“I don’t know, but I think it’s his stress that’s adding to it.” Yoshi paused as Luigi took a bite of cake. “Also, he said he was going to World 5 to go to a warp zone. What warp zones are in World 5? I think there’s at least one Inter-World Transit.” Peach turned to a nearby toad who was clipping a hedge.
“Good servant, do you by any chance know what warp zones are in World 5?” she asked him. The toad walked over to them.
“Why yes I do, your highness. There are three Inter-World Transit terminals, and a shortcut to World 8, I believe. I haven’t gone there much, though,” the toad servant answered.
“Thank you. You may be off now,” Peach bid him. The toad resumed his work on the hedge. Princess Peach turned to Yoshi and Luigi. “Inter-World Transit. Mario never uses those big commercial warp zones! Do you think he’s going to World 8?”
“May be. I made him eat a 1-up before leaving,” Yoshi said. Luigi’s face turned ghostly pale.
“Um…what if he’s…you know,” Luigi stammered.
“Not following you,” said Yoshi.
“What if he’s going to World 5 to use up 1-ups?” Peach uttered, not believing her own words.
“Oh no…” Yoshi gasped.
“Mamma mia!” exclaimed Luigi.
“We need to go! We need to go and find out if he’s okay!” Peach burst, standing up. “I don’t want him to hurt himself over nothing!”
“Let’s go, then!” Yoshi asserted. Luigi stood to his feet.
“Okay,” he said in his own dorky way. Peach looked at the cake, which was still sitting on the table. She turned back to the gardening toad.
“Servant, if you take this cake back to the kitchen, you may have a slice,” Peach said kindly. The toad dropped what he was doing and rushed over to them. He picked up the cake, beaming.
“Oh boy, thank you! You’re awfully kind!” the toad thanked her. Peach nodded, and the toad began to head back to the castle. “Your cakes are so delicious!”
“Secret recipe, hon,” Peach said. The toad hurried into the castle. Peach turned back to the others.
“Let’s go find Mario, shall we?” she said, walking down the path out of the castle grounds. Yoshi and Luigi followed her.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The three friends had found their way into an Inter-World Transit Pipelines terminal. In the main area where they had entered, there was a large front desk with the Pipeline’s logo: a winged piranha plant in a pipe on a rectangular background. Natural light shone in through the domed window roof. The rounded desk was crowded with lines all around, lines made up of all kinds of species from all over the Mushroom Kingdom. There were koopas, goombas, Yoshis, toads, human beings, penguins, shy guys, a few piranha plants, some bob-ombs (red as well as black ones), and even a few piantas from the islands of Piantalia. There certainly were more creatures than these, however. Since Peach was the princess, they were able to skip the line and go right to the front desk to get their tickets.
“Hello, and welcome to Inter-World Transit Pipelines! Where are you…” a friendly female toad with glasses and eye makeup began to say. “Oh my, you’re the princess! What can I do for you, your highness?” she asked her.
“We need a one-way to World 5,” she answered.
“Okay. Oh…Luigi? And…Yoshi?” The two of them waved as the toad at the front desk said their names. Others stared at them, murmuring amongst themselves. “Shouldn’t you have body guards? You know, with Bowser and all…” she whispered.
“I have Luigi and Yoshi. I’ll be fine,” Peach replied. Luigi jokingly puffed up his chest with pride.
“I feel so important,” he said. Yoshi put his hand over his eyes.
“Well,” the toad said, clearing her throat. “I can get you on our most luxurious pipe car. First class…”
“Oh no, we don’t want to ride one of those,” Yoshi said.
“We just want to use one-person pipes. It’s not necessary,” Peach told the toad.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” the three said unanimously. The toad nodded.
“Three one-ways to World 5, standard single pipe. That will be sixty coins each.” Before Luigi and Yoshi could object, Peach produced a brown block made of bricks. It was about a two foot wide cube, but almost everyone had one to carry their coins; they almost disappeared when put away. The Princess placed the block out in front of her, and it hovered there. The hit it gently with her fist from underneath, and the top opened, revealing a pile of golden coins. Blocks were some of the strangest objects in this realm. She placed stacks of coins on the table, and the toad accepted them. Peach put her coin block away.
“Alright. The World 5 wing is to your left. You’ll be using pipe number four,” she said, handing them the tickets.
“Thank you,” said Peach.
“No problem, your highness! Have a nice day, and thank you for choosing Inter-World Transit Pipelines!” said the toad as the three left the front desk. They pushed through swarms of toads, other Yoshis, koopas and goombas, and even a few humans as they stopped to admire them of take a picture.
“Still don’t know why we went Inter-World Transit,” Luigi whispered to Yoshi.
“It’s the only warp zone that you can go directly from World 1 to World 5,” Yoshi explained. “The other warp zone, the non-commercial one, only has pipes from World 3, World 6, and World 8, of course, World 8 being the only two-way pipe. Of course, there’s a possibility that there is another warp pipe hidden somewhere, but we have no time to try and find it,” Yoshi had looked at information while they were going to the terminal. He turned and looked at Luigi scrutinizingly. “You should know about stuff like this; you’re a plumber!”
“Ya, but I fix sinks! I don’t deal with pipe travel!” Luigi said. “Mario does that,” he mumbled bitterly. Indeed, he did. Mario had become fascinated by the subject of pipe travel. So fascinated that he had become a master at it. Now, he also offered travel pipe installation as a part of his job. Of course, Mario wasn’t doing any of that now. The two humans and dinosaur didn’t know for sure what he was doing, but it couldn’t be good.
The three made their way into the World 5 wing, which was consequently filled with piranha plants. Most of them were friendly enough…until you did something to upset one. The World 5 wing contained about eight one-person pipes and two pipe cars, which were currently boarding. Yoshi, Peach, and Luigi walked past piranha plant tourists and almost got ran into by a young goomba boy who had lost his favorite toy. They made their way to a red pipe marked with a big orange “4” on the wall above it; it was they pipe they were to use.
Since the three were not getting into a vehicle, the entry process was far less involved. All one had to do was go through the security, slip tickets into an automated machine, and show the one who manned the ticket machine a proof of residence form. You didn’t even need any sort of a passport for inter-world travel; all the Worlds were within the same kingdom. Sort of like the United States of America…but not all that much.
The two humans and dinosaur proceeded through the security and turned in their tickets, but not without a lot of unnecessary attention drawn to them. Patrons gasped and heads turned as the three moved closer to the pipe.
“See, this is why we never go to these places,” Luigi mumbled. Yoshi and the princess paid no mind when people and creatures shouted things at them, things like: “Oh Make! You’re Princess Peach!” or, “Hey, tell me about your adventures! What were they like?” and even, “Roar, I’m Bowser!” and followed by a maniacal torrent of laughter. Being a Worldwide celebrity certainly had many downfalls.
After forever, they had reached the actual entrance point to the World 5 pipe. It was built low into the floor as to be easily accessible to everyone;