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Part One

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Silence settled over the courtroom with the exception of a few high-pitched coos from Mario. Though he wasn't exactly physically able to be a witness, his very presence was enough to partly remind everyone of why this trial was taking place. But who were the unlucky on trial. It was none other than the famous thieves/ treasure hunters Wario and Waluigi. In their latest attempt to steal something, presumably to add to their collection, Mario got mixed up in it at the wrong time.

Mario had confronted the treasure hunters at Bean Bean castle, but got forced into drinking some water from the Fountain of Youth that the thieves had in their supplies. After that, Mario had been rendered an infant of about six months to a little under a year. At the moment, he sat in Peach's arms sucking on a pacifier contentedly.

Luigi, of course, was with Mario too and even suffered his fate, but the princess didn't really focus on him as much as Mario. Instead he sat on the ground silently, wearing green footie pajamas as he shook a rattle forlornly. Nobody payed him any attention.

But what were the crimes of Wario and Waluigi that nearly all of the Mushroom Kingdom was crammed into this single courtroom to see the outcome of?

"All rise for the cases of Wario Galelei and Waluigi Orlando," said the judge, an older Toad with grey spots, pounding the gavel onto the desk in order too bring the chatter and gossip filling the room under control.

After a moment of perfect silence, a cooing noise accompanied by pit patting against the floor caught everyone's attention. Crawling across the floor slowly was none other than Luigi. Nobody said a word or tried to stop him as he drew closer to where the defendants sat.

Wario and Waluigi sat with sullen glares upon their faces, staring straight ahead at the giant judge desk in front of them.

Wario leaned over to Waluigi. "You think that maybe that giant and tall desk is compensa-" Wario was cut short by a tugging sensation upon his pant leg, looking down to find the infantile Luigi staring up at him with piercing blue eyes.

"What do you want, squirt?" Wario snarled at the child, but to no avail as the infant stayed put.

"U-u... uhp!" said Luigi in an adorable voice that the court couldn't help but aww at, even if Luigi was the second banana.

"No, I'm not picking you up, brat!"

Luigi started to whimper, but got another response before he could cry. "Crying won't make me pick you up either."

Luigi, understanding his first two tactics weren't working to get himself some attention, scooted himself closer to Wario. Wario, ignoring the infant and hoping he'd go away, stared straight ahead before suddenly feeling something moist clamp onto his pant-leg. Luigi was busy chewing on Wario's overalls with his smooth gums.

"OKAY, FINE, I'LL HOLD YOU!" Wario snapped as he picked up Luigi, too busy making happy noises to be scared of Wario.

"Weeshie!" sounded a voice from the other side of the room, belonging to Mario as he sat up and assessed where his brother was.

"Mawo!" shouted Luigi back before happily, flapping his arms in a type of greeting before snuggling up in the fat man's arms.

"I'm surprised he even got near you after eating so much garlic," whispered Waluigi.

Wario glared at Waluigi before staring ahead at the judge that was getting ready to speak.

"I will read you your charges and you will either plead guilty or not guilty. Understand?"

Wario and Waluigi, both rolling their eyes, nodded.

"Your charges are theft, assault, and the maiming of Mario Puzo Mario and Luigi Galvani Mario-"

"Excuse me, but this isn't harming at all!" Wario exclaimed as he held up Luigi, who shook his rattle a few times for good measure before making cooing noises.

"I think Mario needs a change," said Princess Peach suddenly as she stood up from her seat, clearly scrunching her nose up at a bad smell before turning to Wario, a rare type of anger displayed on her face. "This is harm. Mario used to be babbling and trying to talk again, but it appears he's given up on trying to act like an adult now. This is your fault."

Wario replied with a snort. "You know, we only did this to them to get them out of our way without hurting them. Fountain of Youth water is pretty benign in effects compared to other things we could have done to them. Besides, how did I hurt Mario? Did I hurt his widdle feelings?"

Mario began to sob loudly, presumably in response to Wario's comment, kicking his feet in a full blown hissy fit. Peach could only walk out of the courtroom, glaring with venom in her eyes at Wario and Waluigi. Waluigi simply snickered in response, leaning his chair back and putting his feet up on the table before getting a glare from the judge and deciding better.

"I will choose to ignore that outburst, Mr. Galilei and Orlando. How do you plead to these charges?"

A tiny toad, the court appointed defense attorney with the name of Griffin Wrong, stood up slowly, his almost non-existent knees clacking together. "In accordance to the plea bargaining, they plead guil-"

"Not guilty!" shouted Waluigi suddenly, standing up.

Wario stood up from his seat also, cradling a napping Luigi in his arms as he spoke. "We're pretty open about how we're thieves and really wouldn't hesitate to jump you if we were to meet in an alley somewhere, but believe us just this once. We were trying to protect you this time. While some of those charges are more or less true, they were for very good specific reasons!"

The judge gave a laugh before leaning over the top of the desk towards the two treasure hunters. "And what were those reasons?"

"It's a very long story."

"We have some time."

"Fine," stated Wario as he began. "This all started when that little miss perfection Lady Ambrossia came into town..."

The courtroom nodded, remembering the arrival of the benevolent Lady Ambrossia into the Mushroom Kingdom seemingly out of nowhere. However, she seemed too nice for anyone to say anything slanderous about her. She had a heart of gold.

"... Waluigi and I instantly knew we didn't like her one bit. Something about that smile was ominous and both of us could feel it. However, it was when Waluigi saw something that confirmed our suspicions that something was amiss."

A sudden cacophony of protests filled the court.

"But she's really nice!" screamed one.

"She made me cookies!" belted out another.

"ORDER, ORDER!" yelled the judge, pounding his gavel on the desk rapidly until all complaints. "We are going to let these men finish their stories." The judge focused on Wario once again. "And just what did Waluigi see?" asked the prosecuting attorney, who had gotten up from his seat and began pacing once Wario began to tell his tale.

"Well," Waluigi started, "I was lurking around the alleyway to see if anyone needed their wallet lightened for them, when I saw Ambrosia enter the alley. I hid, not really wanting to deal with her. But then suddenly, a purple light surrounded her and when it cleared, a shining bat like creature was in her place. It spoke something I couldn't remember, but it was in her voice, proving it was Lady Ambrosia, before merging into the shadows and disapearing."

"And just what did-" the prosecuting attorney started to ask before getting cut off by Wario.

"Hold your applause til' the end of the story please!" butted in Wario, who stuck a finger from his free hand up his nose. "Though this all happened a week ago, I remember it like it was yesterday..."

XxX

"So you're sure this is the train that the key half is on?" asked Wario, as he sat in his tacky overcoat that couldn't really hide his identity from anyone who had heard of him before.

The two men, friends that were commonly mistaken for twin brothers, currently sat in the bustle of the Toad Town depot, waiting to get their hands on the treasure that was supposed to help them. They sat on a bench, both wearing incredibly cheap looking trench coats, though it was the middle of summer. To complete the look, they were both reading free comic books that they had gotten from a booth when the fair was in town. Newspapers were too expensive for the thieve's tastes.

"I'm absolutely sure. I did the proper research. The museum currators will be escorting the crate of the train without too much fanfare. So just look for anybody who is getting off the train behind us that looks suspicious."

A toad with dark grey spots and sunglasses hopped off the train, looking back and forth before suddenly dashing off with a briefcase in tow.

"-but not too suspicious," Waluigi added.

Wario scanned the crowd, noting how majority of the people were moving quickly except for a koopa with wire-rim glasses, struggling with a crate.

"That's our guy," Wario nudged Waluigi pointing to the koopa. Both men nodded at each other before putting down their comic books and getting up.

XxX

"OBJECTION!" a man from the crowd with spiky black hair yelled, causing everyone in the room to turn and glare at him.

"What, I'm an attorney on vacation. I need to stay in practice if I want to beat Edgeworth one day."

Everyone gave one final glare before turning to the judge.

"And please remind me the significance of this thing you stole?"

Waluigi sighed. "What it wah-s was a half of a key intended to open a portal to the dream world. If this Ambrosia lady was the bat creature Antasma, which matches up to my research as the bat who haunts the dream world, then there was only one antithesis to destroy him: the dreamstone's spirit."

"Didn't Mario and Luigi destroy this creature?"

"They say they did, but it appears to us now as if they were wrong and maybe a part of him survived and came back to get revenge. The dreamstone alone has the power to stop him, but since the one on our side of the dreams is destroyed, we have to get the soul from the dream world!"

"Okay, and what did you do, Mr. Galilei, after getting this first key half?"

XxX To Be Continued XxX

Though this isn't as good as what i usually release, I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. My brother and I were always reading the free comic books from the fair when we were kids. Let me tell you, Aqua Duck was lit! Though it actually wasn't, I like to pretend it was to fend off the numb feeling from within...ANYWHO, that's all I really have to say other than leave a review and tune in next week to see the exciting conclusion of this story. Norm out! And remember that the dreams of the nineties are still alive in Portland!