The Missing Mushroom
Written by Phillip Sokolay

It was a sunny afternoon in the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi were at home, eating lasagna for lunch. They had just gotten back from repairing some broken pipelines in the Princess' Castle. Luigi wiped some meat sauce from his chin with a napkin. "It's a shame that Peach and Toad couldn't join us for lunch," said Luigi. "How are we going to eat this entire dish of lasagna by ourselves?" "Oh, I'm sure we can manage," replied Mario with his mouth full. He helped himself to another serving. "By the way, why couldn't Toad come anyway? I know that the princess had to attend a royal meeting with the chancellor, but I thought he had the day off from the castle."
Luigi scratched his chin. "Well, I got a call from him on the pizza phone a little while ago and he said he went to visit relatives over in the mushroom forest. Funny, though, I don't remember Toad having any family there." "He doesn't," said Mario. "Are you sure he said relatives? Maybe he just meant friends." He loaded another forkful of lasagna into his mouth. "No, I'm pretty sure he said relatives. I wonder what he's up to? I remember when he played that joke on us where he hid in those woods and made gurgling noises like a Piranha Plant when we came to look for him? Scared me half to death! I thought that plant would jump out and chomp us into bits, until that little mushroom popped out of the bushes."
"Yeah, he's pretty good with those pranks, isn't he?" laughed Mario. "Maybe he's at it again. Let's go up there and try to spook him before he gets us! I'll bring the rest of the lasagna along in case we get hungry again." Luigi chuckled. "Ha ha. I can just see the look on Toad's face when he finds out the joke's on him!" Meanwhile, in Bowser's castle...

Bowser flung open his front door, and walked into the entry hall of his castle, an evil smile on his face. Behind him entered a Koopa Troopa with a couple of Fire Flowers in a box. Next came a couple of Goombas carrying a chest of Raccoon Leaves. And last came two troopas escorting Toad with his hands tied behind his back. Bowser had broken into his house, forced him to call the Mario Bros. and tell them he went to visit his relatives, tied him up and taken him to his castle along with some of his precious items.
Toad struggled and bounced around. "Let me go, Koopa-Stupa! Mario and Luigi will come to look for me soon, so you'll be out of luck when they... whoa!!!" Toad slipped on a banana peel. He fell into the two troopas beside him, who also fell and crashed into the Goombas, which were catapulted into the air and landed on Bowser's head.
"Owwwww!" Bowser yelled. He rubbed the knot on his head. "You little fungus face!" He turned to the troopas lying dazed on the floor. "Lock that annoying little mushroom up in my dungeon before he causes any more trouble! I'm going to call the princess and tell her that if she wants her little servant back, she'll have to banish those Mario Brothers from her kingdom and marry me! That way I'll be the ruler of this land and not have to deal with those parmisan plumbers again!" He stomped into his study to make his call. The troopas threw Toad into the dungeon and locked the door. Over in the Mushroom Forest...

Mario and Luigi stopped to rest. They had gone about 50 yards into the forest, and no sign of Toad. "Boy, Toad must be really good at hiding." said Luigi. "Or maybe he isn't really playing a joke. Maybe he really does have some relatives here that we didn't know about." "Well," replied Mario, "Whatever the case, I'm hungry from all that walking. Let's have that lasagna." He pulled out his doggie bag. "Hey!", exclaimed Luigi when he looked in the box. "there's only a tiny bit left! I thought the box was full when we packed it." "It was." said Mario. "I ate some on the way." "You and your appetite," muttered Luigi. Just then, a shadowy figure slowly appeared from behind the bushes. It was getting dark, and it was hard to see. The figure moved closer.
"Momma-mia!" Luigi yelled. "Look behind you, Mario!" Mario was too focused on eating his lasagna. So Luigi grabbed him and twisted him around to face the figure, splattering tomato sauce all over Mario's coveralls. "Hey!" Mario protested, but when he saw the figure creeping towards him, he leaped back behind the log he was sitting on. "What is that?" he asked Luigi.
"How should I know? It's definitly not Toad, it's too big!"
"Look, it's coming closer!"
"Watch it! Watch it!"
"I am watching it!"
"Where's my lasagna?"
"Who cares?"
"Oh, no! I can see it now! It's big and green with a huge snout!"
"And it has huge, piercing eyes!"
"And... " Luigi looked closer. "Wait a minute, it's Yoshi!"
Sure enough, their old pal Yoshi came out of the shrubbery and into the clearing. Mario's lantern illuminated him clearly now, and he ran up to the Mario Bros. with a happy look on his face. "Yayyy, it's Mario and Luigi!" He exclaimed, and tried to lick them in the face with his long tongue. He knocked Mario over. Mario wiped the slobber off with his hat and got up on his feet. "Whoa, Yoshi. I'm glad to see you too. But what are you doing out here in the forest, away from your Island?" Yoshi laughed. "Well, I heard from Boshi that there's an apple tree in this forest with my favorite kind of apples on it. I've been looking for it all day, but I haven't found it. I was just about to give up looking when I saw you two making your way down the path." "You didn't happen to see Toad come by here, did you?" asked Luigi. "He said he came here to visit his family, but we're suspicious because he doesn't have any family here." Yoshi thought for a moment. "No, I haven't seen anybody come through here. Just a couple of Wigglers."
"Hmm, that's odd. There's something fishy about this," said Mario. "We ought to go back to Toad's house and see if he got back yet."
The trio made their way out of the forest and over to Toad's house. When they got there, they couldn't believe their eyes. Not only was Toad not there, his door was bashed in, his stuff was gone, his pizza phone was off the hook with the dial tone humming, and he was out of pasta. There were large footprints outside as well. "Oh, no!" Luigi exclaimed, "Koopa's got Toad!" Back in Bowser's Castle...

Toad looked around his gloomy cell. Nothing but a bench and a tiny barred window. Mario and Luigi must be looking for me by now, he thought to himself. They'll fix Bowser when they get here. I just know it. Just then, the cell door opened and Mouser flung a plate of spinach towards Toad. Toad dodged it. "Hey, Mouser!" yelled Toad. "You better not let Bowser touch any of my Super Mushrooms! One of them is poisonous! You wouldn't want him to be poisoned, would you?"
"Don't be ridiculous." Mouser scoffed, adjusting his shades. "You're just trying to trick me!"
"No, I'm not!" Toad shot back. "One really is poisonous! It looks just like the others, too!"
"Well, if there really is one, then which is it?"
"I can't tell you! You'll have to bring them to me so I can point it out. Only I can tell by looking!"
Of, course, there weren't any poison mushrooms. Toad had a plan. Mouser went to get the chest of shrooms, and came back. "Okay, here they are, but you better not try anythi...oww!" Toad jumped down from a rafter in the ceiling and onto Mouser, knocking him out. "Yeeah! No one messes with the mushroom of might!" He grabbed the mushrooms and ran out of the cell.
Bowser was still in his study, talking to the Princess on the phone. "So, what's it gonna be, Peachie? If you agree to marry me, and tell the Marios to leave and go back to where they came from, then you can see your little fungus again." Peach was furious. "I'll never marry you, you slimy reptile! You set Toad free or else Mario will come and put an end to your scheme!" Bowser laughed wickedly. "He'll never come! He's probably searching the entire mushroom forest for that mangy mushroom! It'll take hours before he realizes he never went there in the first place!"
Toad tip-toed down the dimly-lit corridor towards Bowser's study. He could hear every word and was horrified at Bowser's nasty plans. He then realized... the only way towards the door was past the open doors of Bowser's study! He couldn't possibly get past there without being seen! Toad waited for Bowser to face towards the wall so that he could make a run for it... Meanwhile, back at Toad's House...

Mario, Luigi and Yoshi were preparing to head off to Bowser's Castle. They went back to Mario's house and stocked up with some of his Super mushrooms and Fire Flowers. "I'll throw that Koopa out of the Mushroom Kingdom for this!" Mario ranted. "I've had about all I can take from that Crazy reptile. He's kidnapped the princess about a hundred times, but now Toad?" The three friends started out for the castle. But first, they decided to stop off at Peach's Castle to tell her the bad news. When they got there, they found her trying to call Mario on the phone. When Mario stepped in the room, she hung up. "You won't believe what Koopa's done this time!" They both said at once. Then they simultaneously said again, "Wait, how did you find out?" Peach told Mario about the ransom that Bowser is holding Toad for. And Mario told Peach about the mysterious pizza phone call, and Toad's ransacked house.
"So it's obvious, then," Mario concluded."Bowser kidnapped Toad to try to gain power of the kingdom, and tricked us into running around the woods for a couple hours so that he'd have time to convince you to kick us out before we could get to his castle and wreck his plans!" "Unfortunately, that seems to be the situation," Peach replied. "You'd better hurry over there and stop him before he does anything to Toad!" "Never fear, Princess!" said Mario, "we were just on our way! But if you send some of your wonderful spaghetti along, we'll get there even faster!" "Oh, alright. I'll heat some up in the royal microwave. There's no time to make a fresh batch!" "Well, okay," said Mario, "I guess I can settle for frozen. But make sure it has plenty of meatballs."
They headed towards Bowser's Castle, spaghetti in hand. Mario ate half of it before they got there. "Gosh, this castle always creeps me out. It's so dark and gloomy," said Luigi. "You can say that again," Yoshi added. "Aw, I'm used to it," bragged Mario, "After all, I've been here so many times to save the princess, it's starting to grow on me." They heard some voices coming from a window. The rescue party moved closer to listen. Bowser's voice was unmistakable, and there was another voice, probably a Koopa Troopa. They seemed to be having an argument.
"Arrggghhhh, this stew is disgusting! You lousy cook! It tastes like you put an old rotten boot in it! And there better not be any tomatoes in it, I'm allergic to tomatoes! Take it back and cook it the way I like it!" Bowser roared. "B-but, your royal badness," the frightened cook replied, "We made it exactly the way you told us. And there aren't any boots or tomatoes it it." There was a pause, and then a bowl of stew came flying out the window, nearly hitting Luigi's head. He dodged it. The voices resumed. "Don't talk back at me! Get back in that kitchen and make some real soup NOW! I'm starving!" "Yes, your royal nastiness." The Mario Bros. and Yoshi ran away from the window. "Whoa, that was close," gasped Luigi. "I almost got pegged with a soupbowl!"
"That reminds me," said Mario, "I still have some pasta left!"
"Not now, Mario! Our friend Toad is waiting to be rescued!"
"Oh, yeah, that's right."
They sneaked around the outside walls of the castle. They came to one of the little dungeon windows. Mario peered in and called, "Toad! Are you in there?" There was no reply. They tried the next one, and the next. But no sign of Toad! "Well, it's clear that he's not in any of the cells. So where is he?" Mario Pondered. Just then, they heard a "pssssst". They looked around, and heard it again. Mario looked up. There was Toad, leaning out of one of the upper windows. "Toad! How did you get up there? Are you alright?" Luigi yelled. "I'm fine, guys! I tricked Mouser into opening my cell door, and now I just have to get past... AAAAiiihhheeeeee!!!!"
"BOWSER!" said Bowser. He had grabbed Toad from behind. "Well, he's not gonna get past me now, you faucet freaks! Ha haha!!!" "You nasty reptile!" yelled Mario. "Let him go!"
"Make me, Pasta Breath!"
Suddenly, Mario had an idea. He took out the remainder of his spaghetti and flung the package up at Bowser. It splattered him with tomato sauce, and his hands became slippery, and he dropped Toad on the windowsill. "AAArrrrrggghghhh!" Bowser shouted, wiping tomato sauce off his face. "I'm allergic to tomatoes!" He couldn't see with tomato sauce in his eyes, and he frantically seached for a towel to get it off. Then Mario took out the Raccoon Leaf he brought along for an emergency, and powered up with it. He flew up to the window, grabbed Toad, and flew down again. "Yeah, way to go, Mario!" yelled Toad. "Let's get out of here!" "You'll never get away, you plumbers! I'll get you for this!" Bowser yelled after them, and he ran to his kitchen to wash off the tomato sauce.
"Wow, Mario, how did you think of using your spaghetti as a weapon?" asked Yoshi, while Luigi lifted Toad onto his saddle. "Well, remember Bowser saying he didn't want tomatoes in his soup earlier?" "You're right! Well, hopefully he's learned his lesson for awhile." "For awhile," echoed Luigi, "but certainly not for good."
And the happy group headed back to the princess' castle, where a fabulous celebration feast was held in the Mario Bros.' honor. The cook made a huge vat of pasta, and Peach awarded them with medals of bravery. She gave Toad a big hug until he squeaked, and kissed Mario as she always does when he finishes an adventure. Mario just smiled, and ate another forkfull of pasta. And back at Bowser's Castle...

"Get out of my way, you stupid troopa!" Bowser yelled as he pushed the poor cook out of the way to get to the sink. He dunked his swollen face underneath the water, and splashed it over himself. Then he looked up at the cook with rage. The cook ran out of the room. "I'll get those Marios if it's the last thing I do!" He shouted. Mouser regained his consciousness down in the dungeon, and ran up to the kitchen. "The mushroom got away, your royal nastiness!" He said. Bowser stared at him. "Really?" He said sarcastically. Then he took a head of lettuce from the pantry and chucked it at Mouser. "Owww!" Mouser exclaimed, and ran out of the room.

THE END