Birds chirped overhead as Mario and Luigi walked through the dense forest, heading to Bowser's castle to once again to rescue Peach.

"Come on Luigi, walk a little faster," Mario yelled back to Luigi, who was watching the fish swim around in the small pond.

Startled, Luigi looked up and sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry bro," Luigi replied running to catch up with his brother, taking in deep breaths when he stopped.

"Do you know how much farther away we are from the castle?" Luigi asked as he was fairly tired from all the walking that they had done today.

In response, Mario pulled a map out of his pocket and unfolded it, tracing the route they were talking with his fingers to show Luigi exactly where they were.

"About another hour or two bro, then all we have to do is get the Princess and get out, which won't be hard at all. Bowser doesn't have the toughest guards," Mario said to him chuckling slightly.

Yes, it was true. The guards posed little to no challenge for the brothers, and if they worked together it took even less time.

Putting the map back in his pocket, Mario continued on, motioning for Luigi to continue to follow him.

Finally after climbing the gigantic hill, they reached the castle, and the thought of taking a very long rest after this gave them energy to keep going.

The drawbridge was down, and a few koopa troopa minions guarded the entrance, ready to pull it up at the moment's notice they saw the brothers or any other threat.

They quickly threw themselves behind two tress next to each other. Mario looked over at Luigi and held up his hand, beginning to count down from 5, and Luigi braced himself.

Right after he reached, they both sprinted towards the guards, who in response pulled the lever to bring the bridge up.

It was more than enough time though for the brothers to easily run across it and jump off the heads of a few koopa guards, who curled into their shells to avoid any more injury.

Sirens ran through the air in the castle as they nodded to each other and split down different hallways, the one that they knew led to the wanted destinations.

Mario ran through the hallways, dancing around a few enemies that had nothing to use but their bare hands and some measly spears.

Mario felt uneasy. Normally, enemies littered the halls of Bowser's castle, but now, only a few seemed to try to stop him. Foolishly, he blew his feelings off and continued to his destination.

After running down the hallway for some time, he came to stand in front of large red doors with golden ring pulls. Pulling the ring back he opened the door to stand face to face with a giant Koopa, the leader of them all, Bowser. Bowser smirked at Mario, it would be different this time.

On the other end, Luigi raced through the hallways (which were too filled with just as little enemies), and jumped down the stairs that led him to the basement.

He yelped as he saw a mouse run past him. He could handle being attacked with weapons, but at the sight of such a small thing as a mouse, he freaked out.

"Luigi," He heard someone shout sweetly, "Over here!"

Following the voice he eventually came to a cell in the dark, damp basement, which held no one other than princess Peach herself.

"Oh I was beginning to think something had happened to you two," She said her blue eyes shining brightly as Luigi looked for the key to her cell.

"Ah, you know we'd never leave you here princess, now we'd be the monster if we did that."

They both chuckled at the remark as Luigi unlocked the door and Peach stepped out of the cell, brushing off her pink dress and huffing at all the dirt that was on it.

"Ugh, simply horrible. Why he think anything between our two kingdoms will get better when he does things like this befuddle me to no end."

"Well we both know he's not that bright," The green clad brother said to her, a warm smile on his face.

She smiled back to him, and they started to walk out of the dungeon, with rarely any enemy coming in his path.

Quickly, he led Peach outside (putting the draw bridge down in order to get out) and walked her into the forest to the point Mario and he had decided to rendezvous at.

Silence met them as they waited for Mario to come back from teaching Bowser a lesson.

For some time they stood around waiting for Mario, then Luigi narrowed his eyes in worry.

"Wait here," He told her, "I'm going to go and see what's going on."

After a brief nod from Peach, Luigi ran out of the lush forest and back into the castle as nobody had pulled the bridge up again.

He didn't know the route to Bowser as well as Mario did, but he managed to find his way around, and eventually he got closer, he heard a scream that sounded familiarly like his brother's.

This made Luigi run even faster as he followed the screams, hoping that he wasn't going to be met with a horrible sight, but when was luck on his side.

Not ever, especially not today it seemed.

As he came to Bowser's throne room he saw Mario curled into himself, his arms over his head to protect himself as minions pelted him with their spears (most of them were semi-blunt, but the ones that weren't tore into his brother) and Bowser easily kicking and hitting him around.

Luigi saw red and adrenaline pumped through him as he hit minions away and swopped down to pick up Mario, who whimpered and Luigi's shirt turned dark with blood.

"Well, well, well," Bowser said chuckling, "Look who we have here." Bowser glared down at him and Luigi clutched Mario tighter to him, and blocked out the whimpering that he made in response.

Bower's minions laughed and made faces at him, mocking him. "Do you need to be taught a lesson too?" Bowser asked and the noise increased at the thought of repeating the process to the little brother of Mario.

"He wasn't that hard to get down, all my minions against one. But that's what he gets for picking on them all the time." Bowser chuckled.

Although Luigi had stayed silent until then a thought struck him. The lack of minions made all too much sense now, and his eyes showed this new realization.

"Yes, I see you know now what happened. All's fair though in war."

Luigi slowly backed up, and as he moved his realized his shirt was soaked in blood.

Cursing under his breath, he quickly turned around and ran. He wanted to settle his problem with Bowser, but getting the dying bundle in his hands attention was more important.

Minions began to chase after him, but Bowser bared his sharp blinding white teeth and growled at them.

"No, let them leave," He said smirking, "We've had our fun, and we'll have just as much fun when he comes back."

Bowser's laugh echoed throughout the castle and Luigi's ears.