The 10 Gems: Prolouge

"The village was on fire."

"Whether it be the cottages of wood turning to piles of ashes, or the Mushroom Kingdom flag burnt and ruined, the village was on fire. The villagers ran for their lives, with their children in their arms, bruised and hurt.

"All running from one thing."

"The Virus."

"It laughed at the descruction it was causing. Laughed at the lives lost. Laughed at the hurt Toads who almost died. Laughed at the fire."

"Then..."

"It talked."

"CITIZENS OF THE TOADIKO VILLAGE. YOUR TIME IS UP. I AM THE VIRUS. NOTHING...WITHSTANDS...MY POWER!!!!!!!"

"Then, it let out two orange-ish whip-like beams from it's hands, grabbing some of the runaway Toads. He thrusted his arms, which tightened the grip on the Toads, slowly turning them into black rock-like statues. He then threw then into the Town Hall..."

"And watched the explosion."

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Dimentio never liked visting the BeanBean Kingdom.

For one, the people of the kingdom- Beanish, they're called? -are stuck up and snooty. Only to him, appearantly. He knew the plumbers came to kingdom once, and the Beanish worshipped them like gods. Here? Tough luck, because they'll trample all over you if you let them.

The second reason was the fact that the Gem Riddle was so hard to get.

When the D-Man said it was hidden in BeanBean Castle good, he meant GOOD. It's like the guards were MEANT to guard the secret tunnels underneath it.

Oh wait. They were.

Turned invisible? Advanced technology! Disguises? It's like they can see right through them. Directly attacking them? Well, he actually saw the flaw in that one.

But what they didn't except was a blast of magma shooting through the tunnels, straight for them, burning them. They also didn't except Dimentio skipping through the tunnel, whistling and pretending to listen to an imaginary Walkman. (Or, as the Mushroom Kingdom called it "Jumpman."

"Fire Flower, a light, and a cannon. Never fails to disappoint me.," Dimentio said to himself.

He saw the thin streak of light from behind the supposed "dead end." Seriously, what a crummy hidden door.

"And so I arrive, like a sudden windstorm at a kindergarten picnic!," he said, opening the door.

The room was huge. The floors, walls, and ceiling were made of platnium, and the stairs and pillars were made of gold. Painting were on the walls, showing the line of royalty of the BeanBean Kingdom, ending with Queen Bean and Prince Peasley.

And in the middle of the room was a piece of paper with a riddle on it.

One that could spell doom.

Dimentio floated over to the middle of the room, his smile wider than the body of Wario. Grabbing the paper greedily, he laughed as he knew that the kingdom's...no, the UNIVERSE'S doom was in his hands.

"Seeing you've got the riddle first makes me sick to my stomach."

TBC 2morrow