Super Mario Odyssey (Fan Novelization)

Chapter 3: Our First Power Moons

A small ball of electricity darted across the sky, hanging onto a skinny wire. It raced from pole to pole, following the rusty metal string across the land. On closer inspection, the electricity appeared to have a familiar face, along with a red cap in tow.  

Said ball of electricity - Mario - dashed across the lines with a goal in mind. Perched atop his head, Cappy glanced forwards. "There it is!" The spark paid him no attention, for it was too busy enjoying the ride. 

Staring out into the distance, he caught a good view of the kingdom. A large waterfall - the kingdom's namesake - towered over the lower area of the kingdom, and the skull of a strange creature jutted out menacingly from one side. Strange, black orbs hopped about lazily - wait, what? Those had to be new. Cappy couldn't remember reading about any balls in the Kingdom.

Neither cap nor spark had time to finish their thoughts, however; the wires ahead had come to an abrupt end. As the spark reached the last pole, it went out, leaving a startled Mario to fall face-first into the dirt. Struggling to get up, he finally freed himself from the grass, coming eye-to-eye with the white Bonneter in his original form.

"Woo! Yeah! What a ride! And we made it to the Cascade Kingdom! Fossil Falls, to be exact!" he yelped, before slapping a stubby hand over his brim. "Sorry... still a bit amped from capturing a power line. Must collect myself." Cappy turned for a second. "Well, there should be an old airship somewhere around here. Let's see if we can't find it!"

Cappy then turned back to see absolutely nothing. Turning again, he saw the impulsive plumber already running off to Miyamoto knows where. 

"This is not going to end well..." he sighed as he gave chase. As luck would have it, he was there just in time to save his partner from some colorful, spiky-headed creatures. Swooping around, he knocked each one of them unconscious, until they were all gone.

"Oh, thanks for that," the young man chuckled, a bit sheepishly. "Jumping didn't seem to work on them."

Cappy sighed to himself. "Those Burrbos are spiked, my friend. Just use me inste-AH!"

One of the large, black orbs from earlier had caught the wandering duo by surprise. Hopping away just in time, Mario began running away from the spherical creature, as it slid... backwards? Letting out a fearsome growl, the beast was suddenly flung forward by the leverage from its chain, stopping only a few inches from his face. Mario could almost feel the hatred protruding from the ball.

"What was that?" moaned Cappy from atop his head. "I've never seen that... thing!"

"That was a Chain Chomp."

"That was a WHAT?"

"Chain Chomp. Member's of Bowser's... army..." A look of horror dawned on the plumber's face.

"If that's so... we've no time to waste," replied Cappy, flying off his head and landing on the Chain Chomp's. "Maybe this thing can help us break that rock over there."

The now-friendly Chomp slowly dragged itself over towards the rock, pulling to reach it with all its might, but found the peg it was chained to staying firm in the floor. Remembering the trick he saw the creature pull off, it slid over in the opposite direction and catapulted itself into the glowing chunk of stone.

As soon as the beast's steel body smashed into the crumbling rock, Cappy felt his capturing powers fade away. Moments later, he was once again perched on his partner's auburn hair as the human landed firmly on the ground.

Turning away from the Chomp, the man now faced the rock - or what used to be the rock. Floating in the center of the rubble was a glowing, yellow crescent. Slowly approaching the shining object, Mario reached out a hand and touched its warm surface.