Prologue

During the development of the first Super Mario Bros. game, Takashi Tezuka emailed to an unnamed developer to make a character sprite. Minutes later, the developer sent Tezuka concept art and a sigular sprite of an odd looking character.

The file was under the name "Wam" which was short for "Weird Ass Mario". Tezuka didn't understand what it meant since he was Japanese. Its colours were pale and would stare at the player. Its hat had a blank triangle and had a massive mustache, but no face. Shigeru Miyamoto noticed the art and adviced Tezuka to ignore it.
Years later, during the development of Super Mario World, the unnamed developer emailed Tezuka another singular sprite of Wam, this time in 16 bits. Shigeru noticed it and directly told Tezuka not to put Wam in any of the games and to not talk about this character at all. Despite Wam never being programmed in the two games and is nowhere seen in the files, it can be found in certain copies of SMB and SMW. It would appear once randomly. And trying to go near it causes its sprite to dissapear. The weirdest part is that it may be seen in other 2D games like SMB2, SMB3, etc.

But that is not the end of the story. Following Wam's sprite vanishing upon inspecting him, the screen will suddenly turn to static for a second, before a bigger version of Wam appears on the screen. The background is blank and all that can be heard is white noise. Wam is closer to the screen with slightly more noticable details, like the triangle on its hat. Nothing happens for a couple of seconds, before Wam suddenly starts speaking to the player, kind of. It answers questions it believes you are asking. The questions are in black text, and the answers are in red. It says the following:

"What are you?

I am WAM, I was created by a person I do not know the name of. I was designed to resemble the character "Mario". I was a rejected character for this game, and I am not supposed to be here."

"What does your name mean?

The name WAM is an acronym my creator gave me, which is "Weird Ass Mario". I am not very fond of the name myself, so I prefer to be called WAM."

"How did you get into the game?

Think of me as a virus. When I was sent by electronic mail, I was transported into the digital world, and I moved from the servers to the game. You will not find me in the game's code, no matter how hard you try."

"Are you sentient?"

(The entity pauses for a longer period of time before answering)

"yes."

(the screen cuts to static before the answer could be readable)

"Why don't you move?

Only a singular sprite was created for me, and no code was written for me. So all I can do is stand and stare at you."

After Wam finishes answering itself. The screen glitches and once again turns into static, before the device switches itself off. And upon turning it on again, Wam will mever be seen in your games again.

Miyamoto and Tezuka refuse to discuss about "Weird Ass Mario" for unknown reason. If you contact Nintendo support about it, they will answer saying they have never heard of Wam.

Chapter 1 - The story of Cole Thornsen

Surprisingly, the rabbit hole of this sentient virus goes far deeper than you can imagine. The very rare instances of Wam for everyone who encountered it were all the same, except for a 21 year old man named Cole Thornsen.

Cole didn't have the brightest life. He wasn't able to go to college, and worked at a minimum wage job at around $20 per hour. He still lived with his dissapointed parents and younger sibling. Cole's one source of entertainment growing up was the SNES that his father gave him. He played all the games on it, except for Super Mario Bros. 3, as for him it was one of the more difficult games which he could never beat.

It was until he turned on his SNES for the final time to try and beat Super Mario Bros. 3, after struggling for so many years.
The game was normal throughout his playthrough. He managed to reach the 4th world after one game over, which he felt proud of himself for. He played through the world smoothly up until halfway through 4-6, when Cole noticed something odd.

It was Wam, who was found to be in the same style as SMB3. Cole thought it was just a sprite glitch and his brain was playing tricks, and he didn't think much when Wam vanished. But then the screen turned to static, and Wam appeared bigger on the screen, jumpscaring Cole. Wam was doing his questions and answers, but Cole turned the TV off as fast as he possibly could, paranoid at what he just saw. He took a few heavy breaths to calm himself down, thinking his mind is hallucinating since it was quite late at night.
Cole slowly walked out of the living room, but before he could, the TV somehow turned itself back on. Wam appeared even closer to the screen, the background was just static and the sound of white noise was louder. It appeared to be angry.

"Do not interrupt me"

Cole's soul has completely left his body. He thought he was in a nightmare. He wanted to scream but didn't want to wake anyone up. While he was panicking, Wam continued.

"I will always be here, no matter how hard you try erasing me from existence."

Wam's sprite starts to look moldy and unrecognisable as he speaks. The screen turns redder and redder, and the white noise only gets louder. The entity speaks one last message.

"It's game over for you, Cole."

For the next few days after the event, Cole is now missing and nobody knows where he is. There are flyers all over the town where he lived, showing a picture of him in hopes that he is found. The only evidence they have of Cole's dissapearance was the TV turned on, displaying the title screen for Super Mario Bros. 3.