Chapter 1: Bowser State

The Mushroom Kingdom was once a place where many species coexisted in harmony. Under the rule of Princess Peach Toadstool, all of its inhabitants enjoyed from equal rights and services: Toads, Goombas, Yoshi, humans, among other species capable of abstract reasoning, introspection and language. Toadsworth once was Peach's steward, living inside the great walls of the Mushroom Castle that erected high in the kingdom's capital of Toad Town. But that wasn't his life anymore.

"I hungry," yelped his three-year-old granddaughter who was sitting on his lap, covered with a thin gray blanket that barely protected her from the cold felt inside the shack.

Toadsworth hurtfully decided to ignore her, as he knew that there was no food left. He merely hugged her tighter in his arms, and peered over the window beside the rugged old chair where he sat.

They were hiding in a small shack in the middle of nowhere, hiding from the menace that ambulated outside the old wooden doors in front of them. The Koopa Troop had taken over the entire kingdom. Now everyone was under the militaristic dictatorship of the evil King Koopa Bowser. It wasn't only them, though. The evil king had expanded his rule over other lands in the vicinity like a plague, and now places such as the Beanbean Kingdom and Sarasaland belonged to the newly formed Bowser State.

The nightmare had begun in the late February of that year, when the evil king finally managed to murder the Mushroom Kingdom's hero Mario Mario. The modest plumber had saved the kingdom from various invasion attempts from Bowser several times, but now that he was gone, there was no one left to protect the land. The fact that Princess Peach was romantically involved with him just made things worse when he died, as she fell in a depressed state and her defense strategies to protect the kingdom from the invasion that followed failed miserably.

On a cloudy day of April, Toadsworth was sitting on his favorite armchair in his room, reading a book to his beautiful granddaughter who was brought by his son and his wife to stay there for the weekend, as they were doing some traveling. Little Toadinette was starting to fall asleep when a tremendous sound of an explosion reached the old Toad's ears. His elderly body shook in surprise and almost dropped his granddaughter, but managed to grasp her firmly. A Toad came bustling into the room, a shocked expression clearly displayed on his face.

"Bowser… we… are getting… attacked!" cried the little mushroom as he gasped for breath.

Without hesitation, Toadsworth mustered some big effort to stand up from the armchair and walked as fast his old legs permitted him towards the bookshelf, which he perfectly knew had a secret passage that led outside the castle. Before entering the passage, he glanced back to invite the Toad to come along, but he saw no one in his room. The sound of approaching fast footsteps startled him, and he immediately closed the passage behind him.

That was the last time he would ever see his comfy spacious room in the castle. He read from a dirty newspaper found on the ground the next day that the Mushroom Castle had been completely destroyed. That was the way he had been catching up with the most recent news happening around the kingdom, every day risking his life to get in the possession of an abandoned newspaper near the village of Petalburg. A mile away from the once peaceful village was the shack in which they were hiding. His dad used to take him there when he was little, when beautiful green fields surrounded the shack. But that was ages ago, and now it was a deserted land. Luckily enough, he had found tons of canned Toad food inside the shack, but now their supplies had come to an end.

Toadsworth had spent his days taking care of his young granddaughter and reading thoroughly the newspapers he found. It seemed that Bowser had managed to transform the Mushroom Kingdom to his own will in such a short period of time. Now the race to which they belonged was a big determinant of their fate. Toads were the ones that were suffering the most. The life of a Toad had two paths only. If fit enough, Toads were sent to work as slaves. If they were very young or too old, Bowser regarded them as useless and they were killed in the instant. Toadsworth knew the destiny that awaited both, his granddaughter and him. And actually he preferred that way, as he rather die before serving the Koopas. But for his little granddaughter it was all so unfair. She was just starting her life, and it was going to be over so soon?

Koopa Troopas were the elite class of the newly formed state. Children, women and the old were allowed to live a life similar to the one they had before. Young adults had the obligation to serve in the Koopa Troop, but either way they were fed and treated right. Goombas, Boos, Bob-ombs, Shy Guys, Bloopers Magikoopas, Lakitus, among other races were recruited to serve the Koopa Troop in some way, with no exceptions. Goombas were Bowser's "sacrifice" lead in case a rebellion popped up against his government. Shy Guys worked mainly in the kitchens, serving food to the rest of the troop and the Toad slaves. Bob-ombs were Bowser's favorite method to destroy houses and buildings, same he used to bring down the Mushroom Castle. Lakitus were Bowser's aerial view, quite useful when persecuting Toads. Bloopers and Piranha Plants had a similar role, but one in the bodies of water and the other in the grasslands. Koopatrols were the evil king's strongest soldiers, and usually enjoyed from better services than those from common Koopa Troopas. Magikoopas were indispensable in Bowser's army. They had the power to brainwash the state's inhabitants, forcing them to remain loyal to Bowser and to spit any type of information that could be used to know the whereabouts of Toads. Sometimes even mind control wasn't necessary, as Boos, Bowser's main spies, exposed traitors who had any type of contact with a Toad, who ended up having a terrible fate.

The only two other species who suffered from a similar genocide to that one of the Toads were the Yoshi and the humans. However, their deaths were not as numerous as the Toads' because they were a minority of the Mushroom Kingdom's inhabitants. Yoshi's Village had now become a home exclusively to Koopa Troopas. However, it seemed that Yoshi still existed in Dinosaur Land, which Bowser hadn't managed to conquer yet.

Bowser's State was divided in eight regions or "Shells", one ruled by the evil king himself, and the other seven by his eldest children. The Shell that covered most of the once-named Mushroom Kingdom belonged to Bowser's fifth child, the spoiled brat Wendy O. Of course, Bowser had more power than any of his children and he regulated the legislation of all eight Shells.

The once-named Koopa Kingdom was now Bowser's Shell. In the heart of the Shell was the capital of the entire Bowser State, Flame City. Only the most influential and powerful Koopas were permitted to live there, aside from the servants that did jobs like cleaning the streets and the sewage. Bowser's Castle was also here, protected by an unimaginable defense system.

There wasn't a single page on the newspaper that didn't contain Bowser propaganda. In every corner here and there were messages that encouraged people to remain loyal to King Bowser and to turn in any Toad, human or Yoshi which they knew were still "free". Toadsworth wondered every day if the Koopa Troop had found his son, Princess Peach or Luigi, the famous hero's brother. He was almost certain that they hadn't found Princess Peach, as it would have already been on all the newspapers of the state.

Toadsworth continued to peer over the window, thinking that the next day he would have to attempt to steal some food for his granddaughter and him. Especially for his granddaughter. He was still submerged deep in his thoughts when he saw some figures moving in their direction not too far away from the shack. Toadsworth heart skipped a beat. It was all over.

"Grandpa, someone coming," said innocent Toadinette, a sudden smile of hope displayed on her small face, "Mum and dad."

Toadsworth couldn't help but let a small tear slide down his cheek as the footsteps coming in their direction were getting louder and louder. Suddenly the door was burst open, and light flooded the little shack. A few figures now stood at the open doors, but Toadsworth couldn't descry them because of the opposing sunlight. The old Toad embraced his granddaughter tighter and closed his eyes as he heard the sound of guns being loaded. Toadinette had started to cry, and Toadsworth caressed her small mushroom head with a shaky hand.

The sound of two gunshots filled the shack.