Of Glitz and Fury, Ch 1

Prologue
He shouldn't have been alive.

There was no way, not even in the fractured logic of the Mushroom Kingdom, where one could  be brought back from death's door with food items, should a being be able to survive as a few corrupted strands of DNA strewn within the bowels of a great monster.

But he had done it. Against all possible odds, he had done it.

Slowly, but surely, the surviving dark cells that remained of him congregated together, to form a blob of pure darkness. Not alive, but far, far from being dead.

And as these cells gathered, they began multiplying. To power this mitosis, they parasitically drew energy from the fleshy guts of their host, the mighty Koopa King, Bowser..

This threw Bowser's bodily system completely out of whack, leaving him susceptible to illness. His temperature rose, his muscles ached, and he felt like he was going vomit.

Finally, on a day when Bowser was feeling particularly nauseas, the massive Koopa did just that. And what came out was a foul, tar-like substance. Bowser flushed it down the toilet, thinking that was the end of that.

But he was wrong.

The dark matter traveled down the toilet, through the Castle's pipe network, and landed in the sewers, where it would lie, like a dead body.

But it wasn't dead. It grew, and grew, radiating a dark power that kept even the wild sewer Goombas away.

Then, after a month of developing, the massive hardened shell it had become cracked. This split instigated a series of other cracks, which spread like wildfire across the carapace.

Finally, with a great tremor, it shattered, and like a cocoon sheltering a butterfly, a small creature hopped out from the debris.

But it wasn't a butterfly. It was a person, fully clothed in a red cape, possessing dark green skin, and  bore a smile that was so cold, it could chill even the hardiest of souls.

This being stepped out from the fragments of the shell he had spent so much time re-developing in, ecstasy being his prime emotion.

But there was another feeling...a powerful hatred that coursed through his brain, making his spiral-tinged glasses flash with anger, as he thought about the two he hated most...Red...and Green...

And he threw back his head, and cried out his first words that he had spoken in this new body of his...expressing his hatred, which echoed throughout the dark sewers, frightening the damp creatures within.

These words, dripping with hate, would haunt the the dreams of those who heard it forever.

"I...have...FURY!"
--------------------
Chapter 1: Rebirth of the Fury
-----------------------
"My cape, it is soaked with the yuck of the sewers that I hate."

Fawful, ex-toady, dark lord, and one of the most dangerous villains after Bowser himself, was traversing through the massive sewer network of the Musrhoom Kingdom, quietly contemplating his newfound existence.

The last thing he remembered was lying in the pit of Bowser's innards, weakened, his body swallowed by darkness,  those filthy brothers and their 'staches.

And now here he was, somehow fully revived in an unknown part of the Mushroom Kingdom sewer network, damp, hungry, and above all, filthy.

And yet...he was strangely happy.

"I have chortles..." he muttered to himself "...for Fawful made the Mario Bros that he hates disappear, like a particularly scrumptious hot-dog in the hands of a man who knows no self control!" he began rubbing his hands with excitement. "Fawful had the exploding...killing the red and green that fog his head with hatred! No hatred...no fogging...and Fawful somehow managed the surviving!"

As he walked, the Beanish boy began noting familiar landmarks...certain pipe formations, pathways, even mold species...he was getting close to his destination...the sewers beneath Princess Peach's castle.

"Ah yes, Fawful is cheering with excitement...for when Fawful reaches his old shop, the plans will begin with newness!" Said Fawful. "Good thing I had the foresight to be leaving a fallback plan at my store! Once more, no baby's candy will be safe from my clutches! Soon, the foul stench of Fawful's ruling will wreak through the Mushroom Kingdom, like a..."

He was interrupted by the fact that the floor of the sewers was suddenly rushing at his face. It took a split second to realize that he was falling on his face. Another split second later, his bean-shaped head connected with the hard floor. Painfully.

"Ouchness!" He cried, as the horrifically painful jolt shot through his skull. "It is the floor!"

Scrambling to his feet, Fawful held his throbbing head. Looking down, he noticed what had caused him to trip.

It was an empty can of Chuckola Cola.

Any normal person would have written this off as mindless littering. Fawful, however, was far from normal.

"A can that once held soda is in the sewers that nobody of civilness inhabits?" The Beanish boy wondered, still hold his head. Looking around, Fawful noticed more cans, along with bags of chips, plastic wraps, and other pieces of litter strewn around the sewer floor.

Fawful was not alone here.

Fearing the worst, Fawful ran for his shop as fast as his little legs could carry him.
----------------------
As Fawful ran, he started recognizing his surroundings.

Those pipes...the brick layout...even that bit of mold shaped like the head of some famous celebrity.

He knew exactly where he was. Just below Peach's Castle.

Then, he finally reached it...the green pipe that lead to his old shop.

To his horror, he found that the grates separating the pipe from the sewer where broken off. Anything small enough to fit could have crawled in and wreaked havoc.

"Fawful is having worry." Fawful murmured to himself. "I am investigating this occurrence that is making me have worry!"

The Beanish boy fell on his hands and knees, and attempted to crawl into the pipe. He barely fit, having grown since he last entered it.

Grunting as he forced himself through the narrow pipe, Fawful heard voices coming from the other side of the pipe, in his Bean'n'Badge shop.

"Hey Vern, uh, whats this?"

"Looks like more worthless computer junk, Jim. Just throw it with the others."

Fawful was outraged that someone was in his store, messing with his things.

"Fawful will be making the faces of the intruders that he hates hurt with badness!" He grunted, struggling to unstick himself from a particularly narrow part of the pipe. "Once Fawful's rear is through the pipe of skinniness, he shall have punishment...for the inturders that he hates! Grr... must...have...unstuck..."

And with a great heave, the Beanish boy launched himself out of the pipe, like a bullet, and was suddenly sprawled on the damp floor of his store.

"Holy shrooms, what the heck is that, Vern?"

"Dunno, Jim. Looks like one of those "Beanish" guys."

Fawful jumped to his feet, and laughed.

"Ha ha, I scoff at the trespassers that I hate, who are being..." Looking  around his surroundings, he noticed that the voices came from two Goombas standing in the middle of the store. "...Goombas...and I am demanding to know what your stupid faces are doing in my shop, not buying badges of goodness with the beans of payment! I HAVE FURIOUS CURIOSITY!"

The two fungus creatures looked at each other with curiosity, then spoke to Fawful.

"Look, kid," the one on the left said. "...we're with Her Majesty Peach's new  program, "The Royal Castle Investigation Squad," and me and Jim here found this weird room down here. It's under Kingdom Investigation, no civilians allowed, so...move along."

"Yeah..." the other one, Jim, said. "...what he said."

Fawful clenched his fists.

"Fawful shall be leaving..." he muttered menacingly. "...he shall be leaving your teeth on the floor, and they shall be weeping with toothy sadness at being beaten by Fawful! I have the destroying of your faces!"

The two Goombas took a fighting stance. "Kid, we're authorized to use deadly force against threats. So if you would kindly back off..."

Cackling like a madman, Fawful lunged forward, intending to surprise the Goombas.

However, the fungus creatures where surprisingly fast, dodging out of his way at the last second.

Then, using uncharacteristic agility for Goombas, one swung around from behind, and knocked him flat on his face.

And before Fawful could so much as register the pain, the other Goomba launched itself in the air, and Headbonked Fawful right on his lower back, knocking the wind out of him.

Then he did it again. And again. And again, until Fawful started seeing rings of darkness creep on the edges of his eyes, due to the lack of oxygen reaching his brain.

Finally, the relentless Goomba stopped his vicious pounding, and turned to his partner with joyous surprise in his eyes.

"Vern...we did it! We actually BEAT somebody! Goombas!"

Vern jumped excitedly. "Holy shroomcake...we did!" He turned to the still-fallen Fawful, and kicked him in the side. "Pwned, you little freak!"

Then he turned to his fellow Goomba. "C'mon Jim...we better go get the Mario Bros to arrest this jerk."

So they hopped into the exit pipe, and walked off. Fawful heard one last piece of their conversation before they left.

"Okay Jim, wheres the map?"

"Inside a Chain Chomp."

"WHAT?!? You lost it!?! We could be stuck down here for hours!"

"Oh, lighten up, its an absolutely LOVELY day to be lost in...the sewers."

"I knew I should have used my paid vacation hours this week. I just knew it."

And they where gone.

Fawful decided to just lie there for a moment, absorbing the horrifying news he had just received.

"The...the...mustached Mario Bros that I hate...they have had the surviving...of Fawful's exploding attack of evil...Fawful must have the obtaining of money if he is to find a way to be destroying their faces with mustaches... "

Then with a mighty groan, he heaved himself up, and took a good look at his surroundings.

"Fawful's Bean'n'Badge...it has trash."

And so it did. The lights had long burned out, but it was still plain to see how wrecked the room had become. Litter was strewn across the floor, thanks to those wretched intruding Goombas Peach had sent, as well as various bits of worthless hardware unceremoniously thrown into a pile on the floor.

Speaking of the floor, it had completely lost it's warm, orange carpeting, being replaced by rank  mold that grew upon it. And not just the carpet, it had spread through the very few items that had not been looted by trespassers.

Then there was the smell, which before had only been a mild, easily dismissive odor, but was now all but unbearable.

Fawful was disappointed at the state of his shop, and he knew that this place would never again serve as his home.

"But..." he said, his smile returning to his bruised face. "...Fawful is not here for living. He is hear for his secret stash of badges for coin-making!"

Long ago, Fawful had sold badges here, trading them for beans found around the Mushroom Kingdom. He would then sell these beans to rouge groups of Beanbean fugitives, who where homesick for their former country, for a much greater price then if he had simply sold the badges directly for coins.

When Fawful was ready to make an attempt at conquering the Mushroom Kingdom, he had a secret safe created to store all his most valuable badges, just in the very small case that he might need them sometime in the future.

Grateful for this forward thinking, Fawful leaped over the counter, much to his bruised body's protest, and moved a fake plaster wall, revealing and iron door that bore a picture of Fawful's grinning face.

The Beanish boy took hold of the combination lock, and entered a few numbers, humming as he did so.

"6-8-7-8-2-7-3, is the combo that works for me!" He said as he entered the vault's combination.

The door clicked as the tumblers fell in their place, and, laughing with childish delight, he threw open the safe, eager to see his collection of shiny, money-making badges.

He was met with rows of empty shelves.

Every single badge he had saved, all that time and hard work gone into stealing them...gone.

"No...the happening of this is not having reality! T-there must be badges for Fawful, it is only right!"

He franticly felt around the shelves, desperate to find SOMETHING.

His fingers came across small metal object. Fawful grabbed it, and examined it.

It was a single badge, looked over by the looters that had managed the guess the vault's combination. It was a fairly rare badge, and was worth quite a bit, to be sure. But, at best, it would buy him a couple of nights at a rundown inn, IF he wasn't recognized by the people there.

Fawful saw, staring back at him on the badge's reflective surface, a failure. A total failure of a toady.

This single badge, a glimpse of what could have been, of the diabolical plans that it's counterparts could have funded, was the final straw for the poor Bean boy.

He fell on his knees, and cried.

"O great mistress Cackletta..." he murmured. "Fawful has failed in continuing the plans of yours. He is having failure...the bros have beaten him AND survived...the Bowser has eaten him...and now here he is, lying upon the filth with no means to have supporting of himself, like a filthy rat who has lost all his savings to greedy corporate schemes, knowing that his mistress looks down upon him with shame."

He fell on his back. "And now, Fawful shall be lying here, awaiting the mustard of doom to claim his failure of a soul. I am having sorry, O Great Cackletta that I miss."

He closed his eyes, waiting for his game to end.

Darkness seeped in his mind.

Slowly, he felt his limbs go numb with tiredness.

He felt sleep coming...it touched his soul, and he the peace of slumber slowly drift in his brain...

Then he heard a piece of paper fluttering.

Fawful opened his eyes. "Are Fawful's ears deceiving him? There is not being a breeze to be moving papers down in the sewers of muck, where Fawful's game shall be ending."

Curiosity getting the better of him he sat up, and scanned his shop.

Damp and muck over there.

Dirt and filth there.

Wet, smell, and a poster over there...wait!

Fawful leaped over the counter, for he saw what looked like a flier posted against the wall.

It was covered in fantastic, eye-catching splashes of color. It stood out against the dark sewer muck so much, Fawful was amazed that he hadn't seen it before. It was as if it hadn't been there a moment before...

Forgetting, for the moment, about his plan to die, Fawful looked over the poster in curiosity. It had had a picture of a smiling Chain Chomp on it.

"ARE YOU DOWN ON YOUR LUCK?" The first line screamed.

Fawful blinked. "I say to you, yes."

"DO YOU NEED COINS TO SPEND?"

"It is being correct!

"OR, ARE YOU SIMPLY HAVING FURY THAT NEEDS AN OUTLET?"

Fawful grinned. "I have lots of fury!"

"THEN COME..." the poster read. "...TO THE ONE...THE ONLY....GLITZ PIT! LOCATED IN THE SCENIC FLYING CITY OF GLITZVILLE, YOU CAN COME AND SIGN UP FOR THE ULTIMATE FIGHT OF YOUR LIFE!

GET THE THE CHANCE TO MEET THE FERAL NUCLEAR REACTOR, RAWK HAWK!  AND EARN $$$!"

Fawful stared at this line, an idea popping in his brain. "Where might Fawful be finding this flying city that has Glitz?"

"GO TO THE TOWN OF ROUGEPORT, FIND THE CHEEP-CHEEP BLIMP, WHERE YOU SHALL BE WHISKED TO A WORLD OF SWEATY GLORY! NOW...LETS BRAWL!"

Fawful held the bright poster in his hands, quivering with excitement.

"Fawful shall go to this Glitz Pit, and fight with much fierceness, to earn the coins of money! Then, with my new richness, I will be funding a new, even better plan of Mushroom conquering! I have brilliance! The enchilada of intelligence has given Fawful much cheese!"

Then a thought occurred to him. Without the aid of technology, or dark magic, he wasn't in any shape to take on so much as a Goomba, as a recent encounter had taught him.

Then something caught his eye. A pile of seemingly worthless hardware...seemingly. Fawful saw what looked a vacum pump, which would require only a minimal amount of tinkering to fix, and perhaps there was even a salvageable lazer to be found.

"Fawful shall have fighting edge...with weapons!"

He grabbed a moldy curtain, laid it flat on the floor, grabbed whatever pieces of junk that he thought could be useful, and threw it on upon the curtain. He tied that to the end of a stick, which he slung behind his back.

Looking very much like a runaway child expecting to have the adventure of his life, Fawful gazed into the shiny surface of his sole badge.

He saw, staring back at him, a hopeful, loyal servant of the greatest villain of all time, ready to truly avenge his late mistress.

"O great Cackletta..." he muttered. "Now Fawful shall be earning your respect once of more, and he shall have the ruling of all Kingdom that irritates him like a cold of much sneezing bugs! You shall have seeing."

And with that, the Beanish boy stuffed the badge into his pocket, and was off.

Well, first he to crawl through the tight sewer pipe to exit his shop, made all the more awkward with his lumpy package of metal items.

But once he was out, he gave a great chortle of joy, and with the town of Rougeport in his sights, he was off.

He never saw the pair of beady eyes staring at him through the darkness, glinting with malice, and a cruel smile etched beneath them.