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Hanuman and the two brothers burst forth onto the scene of thousands of monkeys hard at work near the shore of a beach. Looking out from the hill they stood on, the brothers could see leagues and leagues of ocean. The water was calm, with only a few ripples, but further out the waves grew and thrashed about. Off in the distance, at the horizon line, Rama was able to pick out the spires of a menacing castle.
"That tower off in the distance must be where Ravana is!" Rama exclaimed.
"But how will we get there?" Lakshmana asked. "The sea is violent off in the distance, and there certainly are dangerous creatures in the water."
"We could always swim the whole way, or take one of those fancy pipes?" Rama answered. But just as the brothers were about to debate ways to cross the water, a confused Hanuman pulled out a map and motioned for the pair to come look at it with him.
"I guess they haven't quite finished building this level yet," Hanuman mused. "No matter, I can find more information about our foe while my monkey brethren make this level feasible. I'll have to use this item first though!"
Without hesitation or explanation, Hanuman sprinted up the hill with the star cupcake in his possession.
"What are you doing?" Rama and Lakshmana shouted toward Hanuman.
"I'm going to jump the ocean and I need a running start!" Hanuman replied. "Now clear the way!"
As soon as Hanuman said this he sprinted a ways down the hill and launched himself with incredible power toward the ocean. As Hanuman lifted off toward the castle, he popped the cupcake into his mouth and the brothers observed from a distance that he had a rainbow glow about him. Suddenly, out of the water emerged a giant monster, with ink shooting in all directions! It was a giant white squid, and it wanted to confront Hanuman!
Hanuman confidently dispatched the squid the moment it came into contact with his rainbow aura. The brothers, still shore-side, were amazed by the ability of Hanuman, and his knowledge of the Monkey Kingdom.
Hanuman landed in Lanka and scoped out Ravana's castle. The castle was teeming with ghosts and skeletal koopa troopas. Hanuman got a quick glimpse through a window looking into Ravana's lair - Sita was bound, and locked away in a cage that was hanging over a red glowing lava pit. Having seen enough and not wanting to be captured by Ravana's demons, Hanuman leapt back across the ocean and rejoined Rama and Lakshmana.
"During my mission, I saw Sita locked up in Ravana's castle. She is in a cage that is dangling over a pool of hot lava. The only way we can save the princess is by battling Ravana and his minions. Ravana is really powerful, so before we go to the final level we will need to collect some coins and make sure we are each maxed out in ability," Hanuman explained.
For the next few days in this level, Hanuman, Rama, and Lakshmana collected many gold coins from the forest, and defeated common monsters like goombas and koopas in order to prepare for the battle ahead of them. Then, all of a sudden, the music got a lot faster.
"Wait, something just changed," Rama said. "Has there been music the whole time?"
"Yes, you tend to tune it out, but it is a part of our Kingdom," Hanuman said. "Now we don't have much time; we must finish this level and confront our foe."
By this point the monkeys had made substantial progress on their project. It was a giant bridge that spanned the oceanic gap between the mainland and Ravana's island. The brothers and Hanuman raced off down toward the bridge, with the monkey workers all clamoring behind them. The battle was about to begin!
Author's Note
In this story, I needed to bridge the gap between the first world, where Rama and Lakshmana learn the game, and the final level, where the major battle takes place. So what better story to use than The Bridge, from the PDE Ramayana? In that story the monkeys are building a bridge for Rama and Lakshmana to cross in order to get to Lanka. In my story, the bridge is incomplete - it is as if the monkeys are game developers who, having released a broken game, are rushing to fix it before players reach the bug.
However, the story continues because Hanuman can jump really far - I wanted to tell Hanuman's leap in order to give the monkey army time to build the bridge. I reference a Mario item commonly called an Invincible Star or a Super Star, which makes the user immune to the enemies they come in contact with. Additionally, in the Mario games, the star automatically defeats any enemy a player contacts while using it. I like making the items edible (because it makes sense that it would work that way), so I chose to make the Invincible Star into a cupcake. I then briefly introduce a Blooper, which is the squid thing that Hanuman defeats using the star. In my story, the Blooper represents the rakshasi that Hanuman easily defeats during his leap. I don't go into much detail about Hanuman's time in Lanka, because Mario levels are very self-contained. In general, all you know is that the princess has been imprisoned, so it wouldn't make sense to tell the whole story of Hanuman's adventure in Lanka. However, I did want to touch on some key enemies that are normally seen in a Mario castle (dry bones and Boo), and I wanted to set up the classic Mario situation where the princess is in a cage and hanging above lava.
Finally, I wanted to show some Mario game strategy that I would employ when I was younger and played Mario a lot more. Before a really difficult level (normally the final castle with Bowser in it) I would go to an easy level in order to boost all of Mario's stats; I would pick up items, and earn new lives through coin acquisition. So I wanted the team to go do that in the forest before they face the toughest challenge yet. I also refer to the music common to Mario levels - Mario levels are time limited, and if you move too slowly the music increases in tempo by a lot. So I didn't want the trio to just hang out in the forest; time is of the essence in Mario and the Ramayana, so the reference to the music here propels the characters forward to the Final Boss.
Bibliography
PDE Ramayana: Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition
Specifically, the stories of Hanuman's Leap by Nivedita, and The Bridge from Mackenzie
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