So, after a long hiatus, I'm back. I may not finish my other Mario story; I'll be focusing on the (occasional) oneshot and short fanfic from now on. This story is based on the original Mario Party, with elements from other games added. I went off the Mario Party pamphlet for the character descriptions – and then exaggerated them like crazy.

Note: Mario et al and Mario Party are (c) Nintendo, ltd. The ONLY part of this story which I own is the plot, as well as some of the character names (which I wasn't sure of, and just made up).

Please read and review!

Without further ado…

On the farthest outskirts of the Mushroom City, there lies the tiny and idyllic Mushroom Village. Surrounded by woods and built along the bank of the Mushroom Stream, this tiny village is the most peaceful in all of Mario Land. The Mushroom Bank and Mushroom Shop reside on one bank; around a sharp curve in the stream from the latter, Mrs. Delia Frigate's Mini-Game House stands amid the most beautiful garden for miles around. Next door, a ramshackle hut on wobbly stilts towers over the town dump; in this hut lives a hermit by the name of DJ Frog, who fixes and sells sound systems. A bridge connects the two banks of the river; tied to the bridge, a raft bearing a red flag floats about lazily in the calm current of the Stream. And in the midst of this tiny town, on the opposite side of the stream, sits the brightest green Warp Pipe in the Mushroom Kingdom.

The village was not well known at first – partly because it was by far the smallest village in the Kingdom – but after the events of the summer of 1998, it became almost as popular a destination as Toad Town. It began like any other summer in the Mushroom Village – the townsfolk went about their daily business as the children played in a roped-off section of the river and on the raft. Then Mario and his friends arrived, and almost overnight, everything changed.

"Here we are, guys," Mario said after what seemed like hours of walking. "Mushroom Village. Been looking for this place for ages. It's too bad Waluigi couldn't come along – he knows the place better than any of us. He could've given us a tour." The stocky plumber removed his cap and scratched at the scalp under his messy brown hair; noticing a look of half-disgust, half-wonder about the Princess's face, he quickly replaced the cap. "Hey Wario, hurry it up!" he added, noticing the distance between the big buffoon and the rest of the group.

"I'M COMING!" came Wario's voice. "Jeez, DK, can't you move any faster?"

"I would, if you would lose some weight!" the big ape shouted. "Man, you're lazy!" He reached the group within about five minutes and set Wario down. "That's it, Wario – either you start using those legs of yours and walk, or I feed you to the Warp Pipe and ensure that it sends you straight to Bowser!"

"Okay, okay, I'll walk, but don't expect any kind of breakneck speed out of me."

The group continued into the town, passing several Toad mechanics and a bro ken car along the way. "Excuse me, kind sirs," Luigi began as they approached the mechan ics, "but I happen to have years of experience in this field. Perhaps I could—?"

"Now's not the time for confusing the townspeople with your college-professor vocabulary," Peach said, tugging the skinny man in green in the direction of town. "We have got to be at the town park to meet Toad in…" She glanced down at her watch. About twenty after ten. "…five minutes, and because of Wario we're already going to be late."

The six reached the park in record time, despite Wario's apparent lack of stamina and thus snail-speed. As predicted, a Toad awaited their arrival from his seat upon a park bench. Mario recognized the red polka-dot turban atop his head and the shiny yel low accents upon his blue vest. "Kinopio! How've you been? I haven't seen you since the first time I saved the Princess from Bowser!"

"Mario! Luigi! Princess! My God, it's been ages!" the Toad said. "Oh, and please – call me Toad."

"Sounds good," Luigi answered. "Now, a few weeks ago I received a message on my computer ordering us to locomote to this particular village. I understand it was of utmost urgency?"

But the Toad refused to answer; the only reply he gave was the dumbfounded look upon his face. Equally dumbfounded looks adorned Wario's and DK's faces.

"Uh…we received an urgent message a few weeks ago saying to come here," Yoshi translated. "Can you tell us what it was about?"

"Oh, so THAT's what he was talking about!" Wario chimed in, then broke into a fit of laughter.

"Aw, darn it, I thought it was about bananas!" DK managed before joining Wari o's festival of uncontrollable cackling.

"WILL ALL OF YOU PLEASE BE QUIET?" Toad screamed, and Wario and DK froze solid. Mario rocketed into the air and as Luigi began to wobble and threatened to faint Yoshi scooted next to him and Luigi ended up slumped over the green dinosaur's back rather than all over the ground. Peach spun around fast enough to give herself whiplash and nearly joined Luigi upon the ground.

"Anyway," Toad continued when everyone had calmed down and Luigi had re gained his consciousness, "the message I sent you was a party invitation for our mayor's birthday."

"Who is your mayor?" Mario asked.

"Hopefully he's not some fat, greedy scoundrel," Wario joked.

"There you go, talking about your fat, greedy self again," Luigi retorted, rolling his eyes and giving Wario a look of disgust which stopped him cold. "So whose party is it, Toad?"

"Yours truly," Toad said. "Now, this won't be your average party; rather, it will be a kind of…well, a kind of…" The little Mushroomer stopped to think for a moment as he struggled to come up with the right word. "Kind of…virtual party. Yeah, that's it – virtual. It will be a kind of virtual board game."

"You mean like that fancy-schmancy Virtual Monopoly game Peach just bought?" Wario half joked, half wanted to know. Almost instantly DK had his hand around the man's lips.

"Yes, sort of like that…" Toad thought for a moment, as if trying to think of a way to explain the rules without confusing Wario. "It would be easier to explain this game if you would just follow me into the Warp Pipe over there." With that he made a gesture toward the Warp Pipe, and all at once the group bolted toward it, leaving the little Mushroomer standing there half-dumbfounded, half-dazed. It took only a few seconds before the confusion and daze wore off, and he was off running after the group. "WAIT – I SAID FOLLOW ME!"