The Superstar Squad: A Super Mario Story

Charlie woke up in a tree, covered in leaves bigger than his entire body. He began to panic for a moment, frantically shoving past all the foliage in order to make his escape. By the time he's able to see light again, he begins to fall towards the ground. Screaming fearfully before making impact with the Earth. He lets out a painful groan as he rubs the top of his head.

Charlie begins to take in his surroundings. This was definitely not his apartment. In fact, this didn't even look like a city! There was bright green grass, trees with a variety of colored leaves, strangely shaped hedges, and so much more he couldn't even describe! It felt like he had traveled back in time! But surely the past wasn't this colorful. Nor would there have been so many mushrooms everywhere! Or... maybe there was, not like Charlie knew.

"Where... am I?" Charlie asked as he took a step forward in order to explore. Suddenly, his anxiety spiked high above the clouds as he felt the ground beneath him begin to shake. Loud thumps and violent shakes causing him to bounce up and down uncontrollably. It wasn't what he thought it was, no... surely it wasn't.

"Please don't be a dinosaur... Please don't be a dinosaur..."

Charlie slowly turns around, gritting his teeth and shutting his eyes as he does so. Slowly opening his eyes as he looks up to see a giant, purple Brontosaurus munching on the tree he had just been sleeping in! To think that could've been him a moment ago...

Charlie breathes a sigh of relief, knowing that an herbivorous dinosaur likely had no interest in eating him. But the existence of one dinosaur species likely meant the existence of more. If that were true, then many may be carnivorous...

Once again, Charlie's anxiety began to spike. He didn't wanna be eaten by a T-Rex! He was easy pickings out here. He was scrawny, not very quick on his feet, and has practically no tools out here. There was no way he'd survive out here in the open. He had to find shelter, and quick!

After frantically looking around, Charlie found a cave out in the open. Big enough for him to fit, small enough to keep bigger predators out. But what if another predator took refuge in there? There weren't many options, It was either stay out in the open and be eaten by a dinosaur, or seek temporary shelter in that cave and risk the chance of getting eaten by a smaller dinosaur.

Charlie almost felt like crying, he felt so vulnerable and weak out here. But he couldn't, he refused to go out like this. After mentally preparing himself, he dashes towards the cave. His chances of survival both increasing and decreasing at the same time. But it didn't matter, this was his best chance, whether he liked it or not.

After finally making it inside, he leaned up against a rock. Taking a breather as he looks outside, relieved that he wasn't caught by any hungry carnivores. But unfortunately, just as Charlie had feared, he was not alone.

He felt yet another tremble of footsteps as he looked behind him, his heartrate increasing once more. He couldn't quite make out the beast. All he could see was a spiky tail, sharp teeth, and a horn on its big circular nose. It wasn't a huge dinosaur, In fact, it was only a few feet taller than Charlie. But it was still big and bulky enough to make him its lunch. Charlie let out a terrified scream as the beast charged towards him. But thankfully, it tripped on a nearby rock and fell right on its face. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Charlie began to frantically dash out of the cave. Panting and huffing as he looked back to see if the beast was following him.