A chilly breeze brushed over Toad. He found himself lying in a bush upside down, a few scrapes, but overall, unharmed.
"Urghhhh, my mushroom hat. Hmm, where am I? What just happened?"
Toad climbed up out of the bush and brushed himself off.
"Oh yeah, I just triple jumped!" He looked around. Where's Peach? Wait, is this the forbidden woods!?" Just then, Toad recognized a familiar voice in the distance.
"Toooad! Are you OK?" Peach slowly descended from the sky, gliding in the air towards Toad. "I think I might have taught you a little too much at once!"
Toad looked up to watch Peach float down from the sky, landing next to him. She reached out and comfort him.
"Peach I did it though! You saw me, right!"
"Yeah, you did great Toad; you jumped much higher than I ever could." She smiled, "But we have to get out of here, it's danger…" Peach stopped mid-sentence. A loud voice echoed through the trees.
It grew louder, someone was walking past them, not too far away. They both listened silently, "…finally been found, don't you read the Koopa times?"
Another voice replied, "No, I canceled my subscription a few months ago, its all ads now anyway. If I wanted a shell that looked like Mario's head, I would have stayed in Dinosaur land!"
"Well anyway, they found the Tube Switch Point, Bowser is on his way right now to activate it. Once he does, the tubes to other worlds will open up, and Bowser will rule ALL the worlds, not just ours."
"Bowser doesn't even rule this one…not with Mario around anyway."
"Well yeah, I think the real reason is so that Bowser can find a new place to conquer, without Mario interfere..." there voice began to trail off, becoming inaudible as the pair walked out of ear shot.
Toad turned his head up towards Peach, "What do they mean 'new worlds.' Is Bowser really here!" Panic began to set in, as he uncontrollable began running around in circles.
"Toad, we have to follow them and find out what's going on. They talked about the Tube Switch Point. You remember how Mario activated the Yellow, Blue, Red, and Green switch points in Dinosaur land? Each time he activated one, those same colored blocks started to appear in our world? If this is a tube switch point, then new tubes will appear too! If Bowser is trying to get to another world, we have to stop him before he does!"
"Other worlds! I just want to go home!"
"Well you wanted to be part of an adventure," Peach started to follow the voices they just overheard, "this might be your chance."
Toad shrugged and started to follow.
Quietly, they rushed through the woods, catching up to the 2 mystery voices. They nestled into a large bush, and saw two koopa-troopas marching into a clearing. Both had stopped talking, but a cacophony of sound starting to pick up as they continued forward revealing an entire army of Bowser's minions gathering around a large dig site.
"This isn't good Princess, there must be hundreds of them! Are we really going to go closer?" Toad gasped.
The two koopas fed themselves into the crowd. Peach and Toad carefully moved forward, making sure to stay hidden. They saw a green button, a giant question mark and a pipe symbol etched into the side. Then they saw him, Bowser stepped forward, taking a spot right next to the button.
"Bwahahaha. Fellow Koopas, Through your hard work and determination…"
They heard one of the koopas in the back murmur to those around him, "yeah determination, if we didn't do it we'd be squashed." Some of the other agreed through nods. Most of the koopas held shovels in their hands with dirt covering their faces.
"…We finally managed to find the Tube Switch." He turned his gaze towards the Magikoopa who stood next to him. "Now Kamek, you said, if I switch on this Tube, then we'll be able to go to different worlds?"
Kamek replied, astutely, "Yes Sir, according to the ancient texts, once this switch is thrown, it should open up tubes to new worlds, but I would be weary, it will…"
"Ok then!" Bowser exclaimed clumsily. "Then here goes nothing!"
"But Sir!" Kamek could hardly get a word out before Bowser performed his patented Bowser Bomb attack. He landed on top of the switch pushing it downwards. A rush of air began to stream out, throwing Bowser off and head first into the dirt beside it. The air from the switch rushed out in a circle like an explosion, blowing over most of Bowsers army in the process.
Peach reacted quickly, taking cover behind a tree as she reached out for Toads hand. Just in time, she managed to grab hold of his hand, as the air from the switch lifted him off the ground. She held tight, as eerie sound echoed throughout the forest.
The wind began to give and Toad slowly fell back to the ground. They both peered around the tree to continue watching. A large pipe slowly crept out from where the switch previously stood.
"Bwahahaha, It worked!" Bowser stood up. "Now Kamek! Where will this pipe bring me?"
"Ahem, like I was saying Lord Bowser, I still haven't deciphered all the ancient texts, they are written in a language that isn't native to this world. But…the etching at the bottom had three triangles. Also …"
"Three triangles, Bwahaha, How puny, then I'm going in." Bowser roared, cutting off Kamek once again. Bowser jumped to the top of the tube. Without hesitation, he jumped inside. The minions look around, as if waiting for something to happen. Seconds later, a loud noise rang out from the pipe.
"Ahhhhhhh, hahaaa," Bowser yelled. His giant frame was flung out of the tube and onto the ground.
He clamored upright, furious, "This tube doesn't even work! Its broken!"
Kamek began shaking his head and let out a small sigh. "Bowser, if you would have let me finish…"
Bowser interrupted, "I did let you finish! You're finished whenever I start talking!" Kamek held back an eye roll.
Kamek continued, "Lord Bowser, this is just the switch. Just as Mario activated the block switches, the portals to new worlds should open up throughout this world. The Mushroom Kingdom is a gateway, the hub to all the other worlds around it."
"So you mean that EVERYONE will be able to use these portals? Including MARIO!"
"Yes, it would seem that way"
"ARGHHHHH! Ok Koopa-Troops, move out! Find all the new tubes before anyone else even knows what's going on. Once you find one, bring the news straight back to me." Bowser exclaimed as he stormed off. The troops look at each other, bewildered. "GOOOOOO!" he roared with his back to the troops.
Peach and Toad look at each other. They nodded, and ran back in the direction they came.
"Toad, we have to go inform the Chancellor about this!"
"Yeah, and Mario! But first, we have to get outta here, right?"
"Yeah, lets go!"