The birds began to sing as the morning sun sparkled through the curtains of Mario's bedroom window. One leg out of the bed and his head tucked firmly under the pillow, Mario groaned as his alarm clock went off as he needed to be up for work.
"Ugh, just a five more minutes" he whispered as he hit the snooze button and turned over.
Moments later, Luigi flew open the bedroom door making a huge bang against the wall and Mario nearly jumped out of his skin expecting to be facing a foe.
"Don't do that! You nearly scared me half to death" growled Mario throwing the pillow at his brother.
"Ah cheer up bro, it's nice out this morning! Your breakfast is on the table so get moving. We don't wanna to be late for this job" he said cheerfully while opening Mario's curtains in one swoop. Mario hissed as the light hit his blood shot eyes. Luigi laughed and threw the pillow back at him, then headed to the kitchen.
"I really hate morning people..." sighed Mario as he dragged himself sideways out of the bed nearly falling to the floor.
He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and shuffled himself through the hallway, into the kitchen where a plate of poached eggs on toast and a black coffee were waiting for him. In the centre of the kitchen table, some freshly cut yellow flowers with red spots were sat in a green marbled vase. Mario cleared his throat and scratched his head as he started to perk up.
"Weej, flowers... really?" he smirked as he slumped down at the table, pulling his chair in.
"I thought I'd try and cheer this place up a bit since you're miserable ass is here. Just eat your breakfast, it's getting cold" Luigi barked looking down at his eggs, prodding them with his fork.
"Where's the bacon? Hold on, are these eggs poached? " Mario said examining his plate.
"Would it really kill you to eat a healthy breakfast once in a while? You need to watch your cholesterol bro, you know that".
"Gimme a break, you sound just like mama!" he said, chomping reluctantly. By the time he'd finished he had actually quite enjoyed it but he was never going to admit this to Luigi or he'd never see bacon again.
After breakfast Mario took a shower, had a shave and got ready for the day ahead. He rummaged around looking for his hat and utility belt then headed to the door.
"All set?" he asked sounding a little more human now.
"Yep, lets a go" Luigi said quickly slurping up his second coffee and grabbing the keys.
They went out to their white work van that boldly said on the side 'Super Mario Bros Plumbing Ltd' in big red lettering.
"You drive, I had a few drinks last night" insisted Mario.
"Ok, sure... you dirty drunk" taunted Luigi, getting into the driver's side chuckling. Mario put his belt in the back of the van and got in the passenger's side.
"Hey, we weren't supposed to be working today remember? You took that call way out of working hours so don't blame me!"
"Yeah yeah… so where is the first job again?" asked Luigi rolling his eyes as he started the ignition.
"Poshley Heights on Banker Lane" Mario mumbled, leaning back, placing his hat over his eyes.
"Right, I'm on it" he said, pulling out of the drive carefully. Mario usually drove them to work as he knew the roads better but luckily he did know roughly where Banker Lane was… he hoped.
After a few minutes Mario wondered why he hadn't felt the van move in a few minutes.
"Are we there already?" he asked lifting his hat up, half asleep.
He soon realised they were stuck in a huge traffic jam and it wasn't budging an inch.
"There's no way we are gonna be on time for this job. Turn the radio on and see if there's a traffic report" sighed Luigi resting his head on the steering wheel.
"bzzzt hsss news hzzzt so…" the radio hissed as it was tuned. "…and so the main junction to Poshley Heights will be blocked off due to an unexplained warp pipe that has appeared in the road. Nobody knows why it's there or where it came from but investigations have begun".
"That's strange? I wonder what that's about". Said Luigi looking out of the window, trying to get a glimpse of anything suspicious. Luigi had been cautious and weary all his life. Not like his brother, who always appeared confident and brave in any given situation.
"I bet it has something to do with Koopa. He hasn't made an appearance in a while and that no good oversized turtle is always plotting something!" Mario snapped with one eye brow raised.
"If you think it might be Bowser, we'd better head to the castle and make sure everything is ok there". Luigi replied, indicating to change lanes.
"Yeah lets a go" answered Mario.
They headed over to the castle slowly but surely, failing to evade what seemed like endless karts and other vehicles. They could already see that Princess Peach was stood at the front door of the castle with Toadsworth looking out. The gate to the castle grounds was open so they drove up to the front bridge and got out of the van.
"Hey Princess, is everything ok? We heard there was a strange warp pipe sighted so we figured we'd better check everything was in order" Mario explained sounding concerned.
"Yes, I'm absolutely fine Mario, thank you. I knew you would come so I left the gate open. I just don't understand how this is at all possible though. I mean… all warp pipes here are mapped out but we just can't place this one." Peach said looking at the plumbers, urging them to help. After all, pipes were their speciality.
"Don't worry Princess, I'm sure there will be a reasonable explanation" assured Mario
"Quite right Master Mario. They have the pipe surrounded this very moment so I'm sure this will be dealt with swiftly" added Toadsworth being professional as ever.
"The pipe isn't the problem. It's what came out of the pipe that might be, and whatever it was, I bet it left before the pipe was even detected" warned Luigi looking more anxious by the minute.
"So you think there might be something lurking in the kingdom?" gasped Peach holding her hand to her mouth.
"It's definitely a possibility" he replied trying to keep his cool.
"Don't worry princess, we will get to the bottom of this and everything will be fine" soothed Mario, looking as confident as ever.
Mario's reassuring words and confidence always had a way of keeping people calm. Nothing ever seemed to faze him and this was no different. After all, he was the protector of The Mushroom Kingdom so they were safe from any threats that could come their way… right?