Villain Mario Au

The new Showgrounds were unusually still. Usually, at this hour, the air would be filled with the sound of explosions, Tari’s gaming frustrations, or Saiko’s heavy metal rehearsals. Instead, the reconstructed castle stood tall under the moonlight, bathed in a silence so thick it felt heavy.

Inside the main foyer, SMG4 paced a rhythmic circle into the polished floorboards. He kept checking his phone, scrolling through empty notifications. "It’s been six hours," he muttered, his voice echoing off the high ceilings. "He hasn't even texted me a picture of a noodle. That’s a new record for radio silence."

Meggy leaned against a marble pillar, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Her usual competitive spark was replaced by a visible, gnawing anxiety. "We checked the spaghetti factory, the trash cans behind the fast-food joints, and even that weird rift in the backyard. Nothing. Mario doesn't just... disappear without making a mess."

"Maybe he finally went on a diet?" Bob suggested, though even his metallic voice lacked its usual snarky bravado. "Or maybe he got kidnapped by a really incompetent ninja. It happens to the best of us."

"Not funny, Bob," Boopkins whimpered, clutching a Rocko plushie to his chest. "What if something really bad happened? What if he fell into a hole and can’t get out because he ate too much?"

Melony sat on a nearby bench, her eyes squeezed shut. As the Deity Mask wearer, she was more sensitive to the "vibes" of the castle than anyone else. She suddenly stiffened, her breath hitching in her throat. A cold shiver raced down her spine, one so violent it made her teeth chatter.

"Something’s coming," Melony whispered, her voice trembling. "It’s... it’s cold. So cold."

The temperature in the room plummeted. The vibrant, colorful lights of the castle dimmed, flickering like dying candles. A thick, ink-like fog began to roll across the floor, swallowing the furniture in shadow.

Then, they heard it.

"Wahoo."

The sound was familiar, yet horribly distorted. It lacked the high-pitched, joyful idiocy they had come to expect. Instead, it was a low, resonant drone that seemed to vibrate in their very bones.

At the top of the grand staircase, a figure stepped out of the darkness.

It was Mario, but the sight of him made SMG3 instinctively reach for his remote, his knuckles turning white. The red plumber was gone. In his place stood a monarch of the abyss. He wore a tattered, midnight-blue cloak that billowed behind him despite the lack of wind, trailing down the stairs like a river of ink.

Upon his head sat a crown of jagged, black obsidian. It didn't just sit there; it seemed to pulse with a sickly violet light, casting long, dancing shadows across his face. His eyes, usually wide and vacant, were now glowing with a steady, terrifying intelligence. A dark, flickering aura radiated from his body, warping the air around him like heat rising from asphalt.

"Mario?" SMG4 took a tentative step forward, his hand outstretched. "Buddy? Is that a new costume? Because, uh, it’s a bit much for a Tuesday."

The figure on the stairs didn't blink. He descended slowly, each footfall silent. When he reached the bottom, he stood a head taller than he usually did, his posture straight and regal.

"The Mario you knew was a jester in a kingdom of fools," the plumber said. His voice was a tectonic shift, deep and commanding. "He was a glutton, a pawn, a man who lived for the crumbs of your affection and the grease of a noodle."

Meggy stepped forward, her hand hovering near her holster. "Mario, stop it. You’re scaring everyone. Take off the crown and let’s go get some pizza, okay? My treat."

Mario turned his gaze toward her. The black aura flared, and Meggy felt a wave of pure, unadulterated dread wash over her. It wasn't just power; it was the weight of a thousand forgotten nightmares.

"Pizza," Mario repeated, the word tasting like ash. "A base desire for a base creature. I have tasted the void between worlds, Meggy Spletzer. I have seen the blueprints of our reality, and I found them... lacking."

"Okay, definitely not Mario," SMG3 hissed, stepping up beside SMG4. "He used a three-syllable word. We’re in deep trouble."

"What did you do to him?" Saiko demanded, summoning her hammer with a crack of pink energy. The head of the hammer glowed, but even its light seemed dampened by the darkness Mario radiated. "Give us our idiot back, or I’m going to flatten that crown into a pancake!"

Mario didn't even look at the hammer. He simply raised a gloved hand—now encased in a dark, metallic gauntlet—and the air in the room grew heavy. "You speak of 'giving back' as if he were a toy. I am not possessed. I am... ascended. The crown did not take me. It recognized me."

He paced slowly in front of the group, the hem of his cloak dissolving into shadows and reforming with every step.

"For years, I was the joke," Mario continued, his voice calm and terrifyingly melodic. "The one who fell off the cliff for a laugh. The one who was beaten, bruised, and humiliated for the sake of 'content.' Do you have any idea how much it hurts to be the universe’s punching bag?"

"Mario, we love you!" Boopkins cried out, tears streaming down his face. "We don't think you're a joke!"

"Don't you?" Mario stopped and looked at the small green spike. "You laugh when I set myself on fire. You groan when I speak. You treat me like a pet that occasionally learns a trick. But the Shadowed Kingdom... it does not laugh. It obeys."

Melony stood up, her eyes glowing with her own divine light. "The energy you're carrying... it’s wrong. It’s consuming the life around it. Mario, please, look at what you’re doing to the castle."

Mario looked around at the wilting plants and the graying walls. A small, sad smile touched his lips—the only part of the old Mario that remained. "A small price to pay for order. There will be no more chaos. No more nonsensical wars. No more 'arcs' that tear our lives apart for the sake of a narrative. Under my crown, there is only the silence of the dark."

"You're talking like a villain, Mario!" SMG4 shouted, his frustration finally boiling over. "This isn't you! I don't care if the universe is messy—it’s our mess! We’re a family!"

"Family," Mario spat the word. "A family that lets its 'brother' rot in a dungeon of his own stupidity. No more. I have built a new throne in the place where the sun never rises. I came back only to offer you a choice."

He extended his hand. A swirl of dark energy gathered in his palm, forming a small, pulsing sphere of black glass.

"Kneel," Mario commanded. "Accept the peace of the Shadowed Kingdom, and I will ensure you never suffer the whims of this cruel world again. Or... stay here and fade away in the chaos you love so dearly."

"We aren't kneeling to you," Meggy said, her voice steadying as she drew her Splattershot. "We’re bringing you home."

Mario’s glowing eyes dimmed for a moment, replaced by a cold, hard void. "I am home."

With a flick of his wrist, the sphere of black glass shattered. A wave of darkness exploded outward, knocking the crew off their feet. Tari shrieked as her cybernetic arm sparked, the dark aura interfering with her systems. Saiko swung her hammer, but the weapon passed through Mario as if he were made of smoke.

He reformed a few feet away, hovering slightly off the ground. The cloak billowed like the wings of a giant bat.

"You chose poorly," Mario said. "But then again, you always did."

"Wait!" SMG4 scrambled to his feet, holding out his hands in a gesture of peace. "Mario, think about the spaghetti! The spicy meatballs! The... the stupid memes! If you take over everything with this dark 'peace,' none of that will exist! It’ll just be... nothing!"

Mario paused. For a fleeting second, the dark aura flickered. His hand twitched toward his stomach, a ghost of a reflex. The crew held their breath, hoping against hope that the mention of his favorite food would break the spell.

But the crown pulsed a deep, violent crimson. Mario’s face contorted, his teeth gritting in pain before settling back into a mask of cold indifference.

"I am no longer hungry," Mario said, his voice echoing from every corner of the room at once. "The void is full."

He raised both hands, and the shadows on the floor rose up like spears. They didn't strike, but they formed a cage around the group, trapping them in a forest of solidified darkness.

"I will go now to prepare the world for its new dawn," Mario announced, turning his back on them. "Do not try to follow. The Mario you knew is dead. Long live the King."

"Mario! Come back here!" SMG4 slammed his fists against the shadow bars, but they were as hard as iron and cold as ice.

Mario didn't look back. He walked toward the main doors of the castle, which swung open on their own accord. Outside, the sky was no longer dark blue; it was a bruised purple, the stars being snuffed out one by one by an encroaching gloom.

As he stepped out into the night, he let out one last "Wahoo." It wasn't a cry of joy. It was a war cry.

The doors slammed shut, the sound echoing through the hollow halls of the castle.

Silence returned to the Showgrounds, but it wasn't the peaceful silence of earlier. It was the heavy, suffocating silence of a tomb.

Inside the cage, the crew stood in stunned horror. Melony dropped to her knees, her energy drained by the mere presence of the dark king.

"He’s gone," she whispered. "The Mario I could feel... the spark of him... it’s buried so deep I can’t find it."

Meggy gripped the bars of their prison, her knuckles bleeding from the cold. "He’s not gone. He’s just lost. And I don't care what kind of crown he’s wearing or what kind of 'kingdom' he’s built."

She looked at SMG4, her eyes burning with a new, fierce determination.

"We’re getting him back," she vowed. "Even if we have to tear the whole world down to do it."

SMG4 looked at the spot where his best friend had stood, then out at the darkening horizon. The "idiot" who had caused him so much grief, the man who had been the heart of every adventure, was now the greatest threat they had ever faced.

"Get ready, guys," SMG4 said, his voice low and dangerous. "We’ve dealt with gods, viruses, and lawyers. But this... this is Mario. This is going to be the hardest fight of our lives."

Outside, atop the highest spire of the castle, the dark king looked out over his new domain. The obsidian crown glowed, reflecting a world that was slowly losing its color. He didn't feel the hunger for spaghetti, nor the urge to do something stupid. He felt only the cold, steady pulse of power.

And yet, deep within the shadows of his mind, a tiny, red-clad figure sat in a pile of spilled noodles, wondering why the lights had gone out.

The Sovereign of the Shadowed Kingdom turned away from the horizon and began to march. The age of the idiot was over. The age of the King had begun.