I upped the rating on this story to R, it's almost impossible to write a pg-13 war story.  Anyway, these characters aren't mine, but some locations are, I had to make up some places for the sake of battles, though the 4 kingdom names you will recognize from a past Mario game, and that's all I have to say! Ooo ya, and one author's note- for those who don't know, Tatanga is some Alien looking guy who kidnapped Daisy in an old school type of Mario game. He never kidnapped Peach, and Bowser never kidnapped Daisy, but for my own interest, I mixed up the allies a little, it should have some importance in future chapters.

Mario didn't know quite what was wrong with him. After peach's funeral he'd suddenly felt very dizzy and had this nauseating lurch in his stomach.

please… just go away… he had moaned to himself trying to ignore it.

It was late at dusk and the Toadstools had revised their attack plans. A handful of soldiers would keep watch, well hidden with invisibility caps, while the others rested up, and every few hours somebody would fill in so everybody got a shot at some sleep.

In the morning the Toadstools would attack the Muda Kingdom, Mario had his work cut out for him as he was expected to lead the men through, seeing as he had been through that kingdom once before when rescuing daisy years ago. The Chai Kingdom was the one Daisy resided in, home to the supreme rulers of Sarasaland, but the toadstools figured they had better cover more ground.

Mario had also been selected as one of the first group of watchmen, which didn't suit his liking at all. He just as well would have stood still with an apple on his head in the midst of thousands of armed Sarasa soldiers, if that would have entitled him to lie down for a little while. Every few minutes the world around him seemed to spin, and his stomach practically let out a wail of pain that caused him to violently fling himself to the ground.  He didn't think he'd make much of a watchman in his condition, but he didn't want to worry the Toadstools. It was probably just the stress of all the emotionally straining events.

He held a gun in his hand, and stood tall, using all the looks of courage and pride he could muster. He looked up at the stars, threw in a couple quick blinks to stop the scenery from flying by, and then tossed on his invisibility cap, soon vanishing into the night as all the other soldiers did.

Mario's eyes fluttered rapidly as he tried to keep them open.  He even leaned up against a tree trunk to keep his legs from giving out. A lot of good that did, it didn't even help him with his aching stomach, which now gave off the sensation of a fully thriving forest fire.

what is wrong with you? You're perfectly well! This Is all in your head! he told himself, standing up straight and ignoring the urge to let his legs cave in.

It was a good thing he was invisible and nobody could see him, as he probably looked quite drunk, which would have given even his fellow Toadstool soldiers a bit of a laugh.

He hadn't seen Frog in a little while, which was rather unfortunate, as he may have had some medication or at the very least a mild pain reliever on hand.

There was at least a small bright side- nothing was going on.  The entire surrounding area was silent, which gave Mario a little while to regain his stability.

He yawned and held his arm in front of himself to see if he was reappearing yet.  He had at least three more invisibility caps to go through and was told they should all be used up before his resting period.

It really was beautiful out there at night.  He could almost hear gentle violin music playing in the background, though it only existed in his imagination.  There was nothing but the quiet of evening….

He remembered that Peach used to sit by her window and sing late at night- when she thought no one could hear her.  He had often gone through warp pipes and taken walks during the midnight hour just to hear her croon, her voice full of emotion and feeling. Her voice was soft and gentle, even when she had spoken there was always a melody, so to hear it float as she serenaded the moon was surreal.  It was a beauty beyond what he had ever thought possible.

There was no singing, there was no Peach, there was just him, alone, staring at the silvery nightlight in the sky.

And he stood their now, another tear making its way out of his eye.  Would he never get over her? Was it so impossible to forget that look in her heavenly eyes?

His insides churned with sickness and despair, his aching body showing him no mercy.

He let his gun fall to the ground along with his lower body, his knees digging into the soil.  He could only rest his face in his palms, the gentle tears creating their own waterways through the lines on his glove-less hands.

He could remember a small part of this one particularly beautiful song he had once heard her sing……

"hearts of satin,

not of stone

when you wander at night

on your own

the stars etch the way

they will piece us together

you never had to doubt

I will love you forever"

As he chanted the words in his mind, he could almost hear them being sung from far away.  It was jolting, it sounded similar to Peach's voice, though not nearly as angelic.

He felt himself slipping away, sliding down on his back, his eyes shutting slowly… they had no intention to open for a while. He was falling into the calmest, most relaxing sleep he had experienced in a long time.

He awoke what felt like only moments later to someone shaking him.  "Quick!" a toadstool soldier cried! "they're emerging! Prepare yourself!"

Mario was stumbling all over the place as he grabbed his gun and tried to stand up straight.  He saw some Sarasa's approaching and immediately fired his gun, watching as the bodies hurled themselves to the ground and the blood oozed.  His invisibility had already worn off, but the rest of his caps were gone, that's when he felt a heavy blow on the back of his head, and couldn't maintain his balance.

He felt even dizzier now and could see nothing but patches of different colors- mostly black.  Something from behind continued to pound him, and he whirled around to see nothing but thick evening air.

His invisibility caps! Someone had stolen his invisibility caps!

Holding his throbbing head in one hand, his gun in the other, he simply used the gun as a type of stick, not wanting to waste the ammo on a target he couldn't see.

He felt around, trying to find some type of clothing to grip onto, to hold this bastard in place.  The best thing he could find was another hand, which he grabbed tight enough to cut off all circulation, and swing the person by ramming him into the tree he had been propped up against.

He then took his gun, as large as it was, and held it up to what he was certain was the person's head, and let off a couple of blasts.

He could hear groaning, and even feel blood collecting on his fingertips.  It began to show up on him, appearing as deep in shade as beet juice underneath the dark veil of night.

He dropped the limp body to the ground and clutched even tighter to his gun.  Who had those other two caps?

Ugh… the pounding in his head was getting harder and louder.  It just wouldn't cease. It was almost impossible to wander about searching for an invisible person with his head blinding him it hurt so badly.

He heard footsteps getting closer and closer. "Mario! LOOK OUT!" he heard Wario crying.

Mario whipped his head to the right, not even thinking straight, and left himself completely open as none other than Bowser, King of the koopas, trampled on top of him, heavy enough to break his stomach a part.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my pal Mario!" Bowser snickered, holding one of his arms up and showing of a toothy grin.

Mario aimed the gun at Bowser with his hand not even centimeters away from the trigger.

Much to his surprise Bowser snorted.  "You've grown a little weak haven't you?" And with that, the king slid the gun out of Mario's grasp as if it were slicked up with oil.  Mario tried with all his might to kick Bowser off, but did nothing but wear himself out.

Luckily Wario was just inches away, and he dove for Bowser, shoving him off of Wario and even getting him into a head lock.

Bowser grinned once more, and spun himself around, hiding himself inside his shell and pushing his spikes our even further, breaking Wario's skin and causing him to jump back in terror.

"Holy shit!"  Wario cried, looking in horror at the gashes on his arms.

Mario didn't even move, he felt too good on the ground, his eyelids only a hair a part. He almost wanted to raise his arms up as if he were embracing the sky and yell, "Come on Death! Take me away!"

It seemed as if things couldn't get any worse.  Even more sarasa's were looming from the shadows and dropping out of bushes.  They were a lot stronger than Mario had originally assumed.

That's when 100's of rockets suddenly flew at warp speed towards Bowser and the rest.  Following the fleet of rockets was tatanga in his war robot, sniggering menacingly and unleashing even more, larger rockets.

The Sarasa's fled, though even more rockets were let off and Tatanga followed them for miles to come.  It wasn't until they were well out of the Toadstool lands that Tatanga stopped and returned.

Mario and Wario were in awe, especially Mario who for the first time in moments wore an expression other than dazed.

"I certainly won't recommend you as watchman, Mario, sir." Tatanga replied.  "Now move over, I'll keep an eye on them the entire night."

Mario didn't even bother to defend his pride, or at least cause tatanga the slightest pain.  He was grateful that he wasn't wanted, and right now didn't need anything but sleep.

yes, I made up the song by myself, yes tatanga is real, yes the sarasa kingdoms I mentioned are really made by shigeru miyamato, and yes Tatanga actually does let off rockets! Now Review away!