I know it was done already by the other guy, but it seemed like such a cool idea that I couldn't help it. It's sort of a long block of text, but I think it's interesting enough. It's basically Mario in modern days, in a realistic setting. Anyway, this would be the introduction, if I actually were to write a story like this. Anyway- Let me know what you think... The gang wars in lower New York had spun out of control. Things were chaotic, and life was an uncertainty. Slowly, everyone found their lives affected by the chaos going on around them. Children were killed, daughters disappeared, and sons would join them. It was only a matter of time before Mario found himself affected by this turmoil. He had been a plumber his whole life, as his father had been before him. He was a first generation American, a pure blood Italian. He was a natural target. He wasn’t special, no one knew him, and for the most part, he minded kept to his own business. His mother had died during the birth of his brother, Luigi, and his father had raised them both until he died of a heart attack on Mario’s eighteenth birthday. From then on, it had only been the two of them. Luigi was a little wilder than Mario, but he too knew when to draw the line. They opened their own private plumbing service shortly after their father’s death, and it seemed to be going fairly well for a long time. When the gang wars started, customers became less trusting. They didn’t want to have strangers coming into their house. Things were slowing down. Normally, they spent most of their free time in Mario’s small three room apartment which they had nick named “the Castle” because of it’s size, with Mario’s girlfriend, Lisa. Lisa was raised in upper Manhattan, in a more prestigious area, with her somewhat well off father. When Mario had first met her, she was only a little girl with the word “Peach” printed largely on her shirt. Ever since then, that’s what Mario and his brother had called her, sometimes placing “Princess” before it because of the rich lifestyle she was used to, and that she spent so much time in Mario’s Castle. It was one of these very ordinary days that things took a turn for the worst. The woman named Peach was driving down to Harlem to meet Mario for an ordinary day in his castle. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for her. When her car was stopped at a red light, she suddenly heard the glass beside her break and felt it sting as shards found their way into her face. An arm reached in and unlocked the door. A force pulled her out of the car she felt the cold hard pavement against her body, as she noticed she seemed to be on the ground. Before being able to get a grip on what was going on, she felt a sharp pain on the back of her head, and then blacked out. That same day, a little bit of a disappointed Mario and his brother Luigi sat together watching TV. Mario had explained to his brother that Toad hadn’t showed up, and of course he gave him his sympathy. They settled on watching a bad soap opera that was being played on one of the only channels they could afford. Within seconds of them turning it on, came an interruption. A camera from a rooftop showed some men running up to a car and pulling out a young woman and throwing her in a van. The two plumbers both knew exactly who it was. For a moment, Mario was in panic. Luigi only stared blankly, as if trying to not believe what he had just seen. “Luigi,” Mario said, without looking at him, “It’s time for someone to end this.” [Edited by - Murcu on September 4, 2005 12:43:24 PM]