In seven years, I'll meet my match,
I'll know the turns, how to get back.
In seven years I'll figure this out,
I'll know what I originally sought.
I'll know the people, the places, the times,
And what to do if I hear the bell chime.
And most importantly, greatest of all,
I'll know what I know now, so I can't fall.
In seven years.
"Hey, what're you doing?"
Gadd fastened goggles to his face and pulled on rubber gloves. He fired up some sort of Poltergeist 3000, then faced Luigi. "I'm gonna destroy the time machine."
"Oh. Makes sense." He eyed the mechanism in his hands. "What's that?"
"This, my friend, is a little something I call the Poltergeist 4000. Only shoots fire. Cool, huh?"
"How do you get the fire in?"
"...Um, good point. You still have the Poltergeist 3000?" he asked, placing the Poltergeist 4000 safely in a drawer.
"Sure, it's at my house."
"Bring it over soon, would you?" he asked. "That thing is a time bomb waiting to happen. Yet so intriguing."
"Where is it, anyway?"
"Out back. In the shed, so nobody'll get any ideas. Do you mind clogging the exhaust vent for me so when I burn it the smoke doesn't go everywhere?" He handed him a roll of duct tape.
"Sure, but are you sure duct tape will finish the job?" Luigi inquired.
"Duct tape can fix anything. Trust me," Gadd assured.
"...Alright. I'll be back in a minute."
Luigi eyed the silver time machine as he looked for the exhaust vent. He covered half the vent, thinking still of the prospect of time.
His curiosity got the better of him, and he dropped the tape, and hopped in the driver's seat.
"The future..." he muttered, setting the time forward 7 years.
He revved the engine twice. "Alright," he mumbled. "Let's see what this baby can do."
Time was gone. Minutes where hours, hours where years, and months where something else. Everything was spinning. Finally, it stopped. Luigi had lost consciousness.
When he woke up, he was on fire.
He yelled and flailed around, until he realized the pain wasn't fire, just the shock of traveling through time.
He straightened up in the car. He drove slowly, careful not to trigger the time machine inside the car.
Finally, he arrived at the Mushroom Kingdom.
But it wasn't what he remembered.
There where no flying cars, futuristic buildings, pedestrian tubes like he'd seen of Futurama, nothing. Just ruins. No pedestrians, no people. The buildings where crumbling.
He walked slowly to the warp pipe that took him to his house. Taking a deep breath, he jumped in.
His house was no different. The roof was slightly caved in, and the west side was covered in moss and vines. The lawn was overgrown and weedy.
He resisted the urge to get a pair of hedge clippers and trim his once beautiful yard as panic took over. He ran into the doorway of his house.
"M-Mario? You here?"
"What the hell are you doing in my house?!"
Someone jumped out at him, wielding a gun. Luigi jumped back.
This person looked like Mario, but... Who knew. His hair was streaked with gray, no hat to hide it. He wore a torn red shirt and jeans with no shoes. His expression was wild, and he looked deprived of... something...
"Mario?"
"And?"
"Um, it's me. Your brother?"
"Hm? I don't have a brother."
"... Yes you do. You don't see any resemblance?" Luigi asked, shrugging.
He pressed the button on the top. "Get the hell out of here."
"Wait! What's something only someone close to you would know?!"
"One thing. My worst fear. But nobody knows that except for-"
"Hights," Luigi interrupted.
"-Luigi?" He dropped the gun. "B-but- y-you're-" He took a few steps back and held his head in his hands. "I'm sorry. Gadd didn't destroy the time machine, did he?"
"No... well... not in my time."
"...Oh. How're you doin'?" Mario asked.
"...How am I doing?" Luigi repeated in disbelief. "You shouldn't be forcing small talk, you should be explaining why the future is a crumbling wasteland!"
Mario stood there for a second. Then, without speaking, he walked out the door. Luigi followed.
"Where're you going?"
"You need to see something."
They finally arrived at the castle. Or at least, what used to be the castle. It was almost completely collapsed, plants grown over it. He discovered with horror that skulls where littered in the corners of what used to be walls. It made Luigi sad to see a sight like this.
Mario kept walking on, not glancing on either side of him, to the back of the castle. Luigi automatically expected there to be a vast field, Shooting Star Summit and Koopa Kastle in the distance, but shook this thought from his head. It had to be different.
It was.
As far as Desert Land in the distance, there where rows and rows of tombstones, gray and unforgiving. The grass had died. Shooting Star Summit was still there, but it had somehow lost its charm.
"Woah, what happened?"
"Hold on." He stopped at a tombstone. Luigi was almost scared to read it, but managed to anyway.
Luigi Mario
1970-2007
Stabbed in the chest during the Gruesome
"...." Luigi stared vacantly at his own resting place, immediately stepping off the ground that probably covered what remained of him. "...Wh...Wha..." His words came out in syllables. He couldn't speak fully.
"...Yeah. That should explain what happened here."
"W-what's the G-Gruesome?"
Mario sighed, like he didn't want to relive what happened. "Sit down. It's a long story."
A story that will be heard some other time. Soon, though. Feel free to hold your breath.
Hm, a sequal. I felt like the other story needed a little something. Maybe a little WEEDGIE.
Welp, seeya.