Chapter Text
Once upon a time, Super Mario was a world renowned hero...
But then, he came down with a rare illness, known as Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome.
Professor Gerald Robotnik, feeling a great debt towards Mario for saving the lives of his family, decided to bring Mario aboard the Space Colony ARK, and attempt to find a way to cure him via his work on Project Shadow.
Luigi was hesitant about the idea, first not wanting Mario to go, then wanting to go with Mario... But Mario shot him down. The world needed a hero, and that hero couldn't be Mario in his state, so that only left Luigi.
Reluctantly, the brothers said their goodbyes, and Mario headed into space, full of hope that one day, he'd be cured, and get to go back down to Earth and see his brother again.
...But before he left... He grabbed something.
A Fire Flower. Just in case of an emergency.
Didn't hurt to be safe. He didn't know if Bowser would try to find him up there in space or not. So just in case, he came prepared.
Once he was up there, he wished he had brought more, but it was too late by that point. So he just settled into the ARK.
It was sterile. Cold. So unhomey.
He was fine with it all at first, but as the days past, and he realized he was gonna be there for the long hall... He had to do something.
So, he tried his best with what limited resources he had up there to make it better.
Flowers were a no go, and he wasn't gonna display his Fire Flower, so he focused on various small things he had brought from home.
He'd only really brought the essentials, expecting it to be more like a week long hotel vacation than... well, life.
But he still managed to get his room set up with some red blankets he found around the ARK, and a framed photo of him and Luigi (that he didn't remember packing...)
It was better than nothing. But he was pretty lonely up there.
He helped out the scientists in any way he could. That mostly involved fixing the plumbing which, was better than doing nothing he supposed. He was glad that he brought his hammer, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to do even that.
He wasn't sure what Gerald was up to, until one day... He saw Shadow the Hedgehog.
He was in a test tube, and looked nothing like anything Mario had ever seen before.
...and Gerald kept playing coy about his origins, only saying that he was the key to curing Mario's illness. Mario hoped that wasn't a bad sign.
But apparently it wasn't, as one day... Shadow was released from his test tube.
He was... a bit edgy. But he was good company. Someone who wasn't trying to run tests on him constantly.
The more time that they spent together, the closer that they got.
Shadow didn't know a lot of things, and Mario was more than happy to teach him about them.
He taught him about plants, like flowers and mushrooms...
He taught him about power ups, like Fire Flowers and Super Mushrooms, even showing him his emergency Fire Flower for example...
He taught him about a wide array of creatures, from pigs to Goombas...
He taught him about games, whether that be video games or board games... They didn't have much else to do up there, after all.
...And there was even a picture of them doing plumbing together, that Mario kept in his room, next to his photo of him and Luigi.
As time passed, Shadow started to find his footing. Started to test his abilities.
Mario watched with awe as he teleported, summoned spears, did some sort of homing attack, a spinning dash...
It was fascinating to watch.
...he was endlessly entertained by Shadow's insistence on mirroring his jumping mannerisms, though. The pose looked so goofy on an intimidating guy like Shadow, his fist raised up high...
Shadow had, of course, heard about Mario's heroic adventures, and wanted combat advice from Mario.
But, frankly, Mario had nothing to teach him, there. Shadow had far surpassed his own combat abilities.
...and, as much as Mario hated to admit it... He wasn't exactly feeling well enough to do any combat training those days.
He did show Shadow some basic stomps and punches and kicks though. But that was about as far as he could go. He wasn't going to use his Fire Flower, and his hammer was heavy, to the point where he couldn't even lift it on bad days...
...It felt horrible to not be able to lift something he had such an easy time with before. He always took some pride in how easily he handled that hammer.
Then, one day... Shadow asked him something.
"What was it like down on Earth?"
...Mario realized in that moment that it had been years since he was on Earth.
Where did the time go?...
"Green-a grass, blue-a skies, so many amazing creatures and plants and people and so many places to explore and adventure through!" He described it, joy lining his voice as he fondly remembered those days...
...he missed adventuring.
Shadow seemed to notice something was up with him, because he, perhaps uncharacteristically, placed a reassuring hand on Mario's shoulder.
"We'll go down there one day."
And despite everything he'd been through, despite the years that he'd been away from Earth, from his home, from his family...
He believed Shadow.