Mario decides to go for it. The Chain Chomp is the only thing between him and the fortress walls. He can't give up now. Mario decides to play a dangerous game with the snapping monster. If he can make it mad enough, maybe it will get careless and Mario will get through. The plumber waves his arms at the Chain Chomp. "Hey, Baldy!" he yells.

Clack! The Chain Chomp snaps at Mario. Its jagged teeth miss him by almost a foot. It lunges again. Mario flattens himself against the ground, and the Chain Chomp whizzes by. Now it's really mad! When it rears and growls, Mario ducks under its nose and races for the wall. "And awa-a-a-y we go!" he yells, as the Chain Chomp swings in for one last bite.

Snap! The Chain Chomp sinks its teeth into the tip of Mario's shoe. It rips away a small piece of leather, but Mario reaches the top of the wall and climbs to safety. He mops his forehead. Then he sits down and pulls off his shredded shoe. "One, two, three, four, five . . . everybody's still here," says Mario, counting the toes on his bare foot.

"Hraaar," growls the Chain Chomp as it settles down to munch on the tasty piece of shoe leather.

Mario walks along the top of the wall until he reaches the front of the fortress. On his way, he reaches up and knocks down a fistful of coins from an overhead ledge. Then he leaps onto a catwalk and crawls past the guard tower and into an open window.

"This must be Fort Koopa, all right," Mario says. He makes a face. "The windows are filthy." He walks slowly down the hall, peering into room after room, but he finds nothing. Other than the occasional pitter-patter of cockroach
feet, the entire wing of the building is silent.

The rooms contain only enormous piles of dust. "I guess no one's home," Mario says to himself as he rounds the next corner. Then he freezes in his tracks. He's standing in the throne room of King Bowser Koopa. The walls are covered with several hundred portraits of the evil turtle king. It's easy for Mario to tell that they're pictures of Bowser, because the real Bowser is standing there in person.

Mario has no time to back out of the room. Two massive green arms stretch out menacingly above his head. Bowser's mouth widens into a snaggletoothed grin.

"Uh-oh," whispers Mario.
*** Mario collects 12 coins. ***

---

Character Sheet:
Coins:15
Items: Hammer, Magnifying Glass

---

Turn to page 12.

Bowser steps forward, blocking the doorway. "I've been waiting here for your brother," he snarls. "I heard Luigi was captured and I was looking forward to chewing him into little pieces. He never showed up, but you'll do just fine." The giant turtle moves closer to Mario. "Any last requests?"

"Just one, your slime-ness," says Mario bravely. "I want to know where all these twins are coming from.''

Bowser cackles, breathing out a cloud of greenish smoke. "It's all happening right here in this fortress," he crows. "My kid Iggy—the brainy one—put together a machine that makes instant copies of anything it sees. That includes turtles, mushrooms, chickens .. . and even nosy plumbers!

"Anything the machine creates is under Koopa control," Bowser continues, gloating. He paces back and forth. "The way I see it, I'll be running most of the people in the Mushroom Kingdom by next Tuesday."

Mario inches toward the door. Suddenly, Bowser notices what Mario is doing. He scrambles to block the way.

"As I was saying," he growls. "On Tuesday, I'll call a vote and have myself elected Grand Imperial Boss. Then you'll see some changes!

I'll get rid of that crummy king and his fungus friends." He blurts out a sour green laugh. "I may keep copies of you and Luigi around, though, just for laughs." Mario looks around the room for another way out, but with no luck.

"Interesting. So where do you keep this machine?" he asks.

"I'm not telling you!" shouts Bowser.

Bowser reaches out a scaly fist to grab Mario. The agile plumber jumps back. Bowser swings a second time, but Mario dodges again. Then Bowser charges. Mario leaps over the turtle king's head and races out the door. "Ill get you, plumber!" Bowser yells, lumbering after him.

Mario dashes down the hall, searching frantically for clues. "That machine is here someplace," he pants. "But where?"

Ahead of him, a huge marble staircase sweeps up to the second floor of Fort Koopa. A sign on the wall seems to have directions on it—but it's written in Koopanese! "Swell," Mario mutters. "I left my Koopanese dictionary at home."

His only other choice is to head for the end of the hall. The squishing sound of Bowser's feet grows louder behind him. Bowser is gaining!

Which way should Mario go?

If you think Mario should go down the hall to look for the machine , turn to page 61.
If you think Mario should look for the machine upstairs, turn to page 18.

____________________

Mario decides the long, dingy hallway is the way to go. He races down to the end and darts around a corner. "I need someone who'll lead me to that machine," he says to himself.

Just then, Iggy Koopa waddles past. Bowser's homely, purple-haired son doesn't notice Mario, and continues on his way. "That's what I call service," murmurs Mario. He falls into step behind Iggy.

They wind through the filthy halls of Fort Koopa, past battle trophies, statues, paintings of ancient Koopa rulers, and bags of garbage that no one has bothered to throw out for centuries. The stench is incredible. But gradually Mario begins to relax. Clearly, Iggy has no idea that he's being followed.

They plod onward, past Bowser's prized rotten vegetable collection. When Iggy turns the next corner, Mario bumps into a statue of Wendy Koopa. It wobbles for a few moments that seem like hours. Mario holds his breath. Will it fall? Won't it?

It falls. With a crash, it hits the floor and shatters into a thousand pieces.

"Eeep!" Iggy cries, as he whirls and spots Mario.

"Eeep," squeaks a mouse that used to live inside the statue. The mouse scurries down the hall and out of sight.
Never one to face a fair fight, Iggy dashes through a doorway by a sign that says "BASEMENT-IN CASE OF FLOOD, DO NOT ENTER."

"Not so fast, Ig!" Mario calls. He races after Iggy, down a flight of dimly lit stairs.

Mario rushes headlong down one, then another, then another flight of stairs. He hears Iggy squishing ahead of him the whole way down. But when he finally reaches the bottom, Iggy is nowhere in sight. The place is silent. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Mario sees someone move.

"Aha!" he shouts, as he spins around. But instead of Iggy, Mario finds himself face-to-face with a handsome plumber in red overalls. His first thought is, "This doubles thing has gone too far." Then suddenly, he realizes he's looking at his reflection in a mirror. "Gee," he says. "I need a shave." As he looks away from the familiar figure, he spots a glass door next to the mirror. Through it he can see a long glass hall lined with rows and rows of mirrors. He opens the door and enters. Behind him, the door swings shut with an ominous click.

Mario shrugs. "Oh well, I wasn't planning to turn back anyway," he says. He walks down the hall into the maze of mirrors.

Mario walks on, glancing left and right at his reflection. Distracted by the presence of so many good-looking plumbers, he slams facefirst into a wall of glass. "Ouch," he mutters, rubbing his nose. "I wish Luigi were here. Then I could make him lead the way."

The mirrored path bends to the left. Winking at the plumber on his right, he turns left and walks ahead for a few feet. Again, he runs headlong into a clear glass wall. "Whoever cleans this glass can do my shop windows anytime," he says to himself. Using his head as a compass, Mario moves through the maze for what seems like hours, but all he gets for his trouble is a colossal headache. At last he comes to a branch in the maze with two ways to go—left or right. The problem is, he isn't sure he hasn't been this way before.

If you think Mario should go right, turn to page 60.
If you think Mario should go left, turn to page 16.
Well, guys times to make the choice, left or--

If Mario has the hammer, turn to page 73.

---

Character Sheet:
Coins:15
Items: Hammer, Magnifying Glass

---

-- Or it's time to smash some glass?

Suddenly, Mario remembers that he's been carrying a hammer around with him all day long. "I guess those knocks on the head have dulled my memory," he thinks. He reaches into his overalls in search of the hammer. "Yes!" he shouts, taking the tool from a pocket. "I knew there was a reason I brought this along." He swings the hammer at the glass panel in front of him. "When in doubt, break something!"

The wall shatters. Mario leaps through the broken glass. "That was fun," he says, and begins to smash a trail through the maze of mirrors, panel by panel. Through the maze, Mario finds 5 coins.

---

Character Sheet:
+Coins:20
Items: Hammer, Magnifying Glass

---

After about twenty panels, he breaks into a strange, brightly lit room—Iggy Koopa's laboratory! On the walls are huge spools of wire.

Lightbulbs of every color and size flash on control panels. The floor is cluttered with test tubes, gears, and—of course—bags of old garbage. In the center of the room, facing Mario, is Iggy himself!

"Well look who's here," says Iggy. "I really didn't think you'd be able to get through my maze. But as long as you've decided to drop by, I'd like to introduce you to one of my creations."

He presses a button on a remote control device and a giant machine rolls slowly into the room.

GO TO PAGE 36

"This is my Giant Likeness Outputting Machine," Iggy says. He giggles. "I call it GLOM for short. It took months to build, but all the work was worth it. GLOM will finish you off and then get back to business—taking over the Mushroom Kingdom."

As Iggy twitters on, Mario has time to examine the machine. GLOM is truly frightening to look at, even for Mario, who has seen some pretty scary things inside drain pipes. More than ten feet tall, GLOM is covered with giant electronic eyeballs and hundreds of tiny television sets, each displaying a different 1960's monster movie. It crawls across the floor on a combination of wheels, feet, and tank treads that leave a slime trail behind them. GLOM stops for a moment and spits a pair of Koopa Troopas out of a funnel at its top. Then it rolls next to Iggy and comes to a halt.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" asks the turtle prince. He gestures to a bank of TV screens on one of the walls. "I've hidden cameras all over the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond," he explains. "With the information they send back, GLOM
can scoop up sand from our yard and make it into a perfect double of anyone. That's how I copied the king. I would have gotten the princess, Toad and Wooster too, if that finicky fungus hadn't ruined my plan by watering one of my cameras."

On one of the flickering screens, Mario sees Luigi bouncing cheerfully around their shop at home, tinkering with a stopped-up sink.

Iggy notices Luigi, too. "Hey!" the turtle shouts, stamping his lumpy green foot. "I put a double in your brother's place, but it can't be that guy. He's singing! Doubles don't sing. That's the real thing. Something went wrong." Mario laughs. "It looks like Luigi clobbered your clone."

"Well, I've still got you. GLOM! Get the plumber!" Iggy shouts, pointing at Mario. The machine slowly grinds toward Mario.

Suddenly it reaches out one of its mechanical arms and tries to grab him. But Mario is too quick to be caught that way. He ducks as the metal claw swings over his head. He dashes behind GLOM and waits for it to turn around. The machine turns. Mario edges backward, trying to buy time and avoid sure destruction. He is so distracted by the machine that he loses track of Iggy. The sneaky turtle sticks out his foot and trips Mario. Our hero stumbles into a corner and falls down, hitting his head yet again.

GLOM closes in. "Crush him!" Iggy yells. Mario scrambles to his feet, but he's trapped. "I guess this is it," he mutters. He looks around the lab. To his left is Iggy, rubbing his wart-covered hands and cackling with glee. To his right, Mario can see the green doors that lead back into the maze of mirrors. Straight ahead, GLOM crawls steadily toward him.


This is it guys, boss time! Should Mario:
If you think Mario should go after Iggy Koopa, turn to page 92.
If you think Mario should attack GLOM, turn to page 6.
If you think Mario should run away, turn to page 22.


____________________

Mario takes his lucky penny out of his pocket and flings it at Iggy Koopa. "Heads I win, tails you lose," he shouts.
Ping! The coin knocks Iggy's glasses off his nose. "Hey! I can't see," squeals Iggy, fumbling for his spectacles. "No fair!"
Mario charges Iggy and gives him a hearty shove. Iggy skids across the floor, waving his arms helplessly until he crashes into a pile of books.

"One Koopa down," says Mario.

Mario slips between the now booked Iggy and GLOM and runs to the other side of the room. He grabs test tubes, books, chairs—anything he can find—and hurls them at the slowly advancing machine. None of it does any damage.

GLOM backs Mario up against the green double doors that lead back to the hall of mirrors, "Give it up, Mario. You're finished!" calls Iggy Koopa recovering from the attack.

Desperately, Mario dives through the doors and tries to hold them shut. "Can't... hold.. . them ... much .. . longer," he grunts as GLOM slowly forces the doors open. Then, a smile forms on Mario's lips. He lets go of the doors and stands to one side.

"We're open. Please come in!" he calls, as GLOM pushes its way into the corridor. The giant machine rolls into the mirrored hallway and begins to curie in search of Mario. As it turns, it catches a glimpse of its own bizarre reflection in one of the mirrors.

Slowly, the screens and light bulbs that pepper the sides of the hideous machine begin to flash, and a high-pitched whine fills the air.

There's a bright flash. When the smoke clears, Mario is pleased to see that GLOM has created an exact duplicate of itself!

The two machines begin to examine each other, sniffing each other's TV screens and buttons. A moment later, there's another small explosion. This time, when the dust settles, there are four duplicating machines. Mario crouches behind one of the double doors and watches as the number of GLOMs goes from 128, to 256, to 512. The machines have long since crowded out of the hallway. Now they fill the lab from wall to wall.

"Stop! Wait! You're ruining everything!" Iggy shrieks as the four-thousandth GLOM is coughed into existence. When there are about ten thousand of them, some of the machines begin to explode. "Time to make like a headache and start splitting!" says Mario, picking his way through channels of broken mirror frames. By the time he reaches the stairs, huge clusters of duplicating machines are starting to self-destruct. He races down the hallway and dives out the first open window he finds. He rolls to the bottom of the hill as Fort Koopa crumbles in an explosion of smoke, lightning and strange machine parts.

Later, when the dust begins to settle, Mario thinks he sees three large, rounded shapes scurry from the wreckage and slither away, but he can't be certain.

Turn to page 69.

Mario wanders through the wreckage of the once-mighty fortress, picking up great piles of coins scattered among the ruins. Tee-rrific," he says. "Now I can buy the princess that stainless steel surfboard she's been asking for."

When there are no more coins to be found, Mario brushes the dust from his overalls and bounces off to the palace. As he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom, he can tell that there are already fewer doubles than there were a few hours ago. A light breeze is blowing, and a great many piles of sand are scattered about the countryside.

Finally Mario reaches the palace. He makes his way up the stairs and is about to enter through the royal double doors when he notices the time on his waterproof plumber's wristwatch.

"What?! I've only been out of bed for fifteen minutes?" he asks in disbelief. Then he realizes that he's been awake for more than twenty-four hours.

"I'll tell the princess all about my adventure . . . tomorrow!" he says. He stumbles away from the palace to the kingdom's entrance, climbs the central pipe, and drags himself home. Finally he collapses into his favorite armchair for a three-day nap.

*** Mario collects 206 Coins. *** (Not a typo)
You win!
The kingdom has been saved!
GAME OVER!

Character Sheet Total:
+Coins:226
Items: Hammer, Magnifying Glass
RANK: Super Plumber In Training (Because you guys are awesome and picked the quickest way through. I think you guys deserve the super mario rank however, you never got a game over! )

So, that is one book over and nommed, anyone up for another one?

Also, this book has plenty of pictures, so here is a few of the more interesting ones:



____________________