Warning: Slight horror part in this chapter, so I hope I don't scare anyone away...
Luigi was sweating heavily as he trudged up the trail to Rumblebump Volcano. As he wiped the sweat from his brow, Luigi sat down on a nearby shaded rock. He pulled a bottle of water from his backpack before turning to his guide, Blooey the Blooper.
"How much farther until we get to the area?" He asked before taking a few gulps of water.
The Blooper rolled its eyes as a tick mark appeared on its head.
"For the 4th time, we still have to find the secret grotto, otherwise we can't even THINK of going any further."
Luigi sighed, looking up at the blistering sun. A smile crossed his face as he remembered some of the adventures he had with Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom. Actually, the last time he was sweating this much, he had actually been in Dry Land. Back then, the power-ups he got were much different than Dinosaur Island. He looked up and noticed a small leaf falling towards him. He reached out to grab it, when suddenly, Blooey tackled him to the side.
"What was that for?" Luigi yelled at the blooper.
"Don't you know the legends? If you touch a falling leaf, you'll transform into a beast!" The Blooper said in fear.
"A beast? What kind? Cause I'm pretty sure I've seen worse..." Luigi said half-glaring at the blooper who nearly gave him a heart attack when he tackled him.
"A horrid beast with strange ears, and a tail! A tail that destroys everything in its path!" The Blooper shuddered as an image had apparently presented itself to him.
Luigi stared at the leaf oddly. That sounded an awful lot like the Magical Leaf from the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi shook his head.
"Whatever, so where to now?"
The Blooper, irritated at Luigi's ignorance, pointed to a nearby path. "While you were daydreaming, I found the path to the secret grotto."
Luigi's frown quickly flipped to a smile. "All right!"
The two followed the path to the sacred grotto, where a creature suddenly jumped out in front of them.
"Stop! This is the Sacred Grotto, where only the chosen hero may enter!" It squeaked out as its arms hung limply at the creature's sides.
Luigi started shaking. The mask the creature was wearing gave him chills. Like it wasn't from this world.
"Who...who are you?" Luigi asked hesitantly, noticing Blooey was suddenly behind him.
The creature danced around the two before jumping in front of them and going into an odd pose.
"I am Skull Kid, and this grotto is my playground!" It laughed, looking much like a puppet on strings would.
Luigi suddenly felt enraged.
"Your PLAYGROUND? Then why in the world can't WE come here! You yourself said that this was a sacred grotto only to be entered upon by the CHOSEN HERO!" Luigi twitched in rage. The little pest had given him a heart-attack for nothing!
The Skull Kid suddenly twitched, realizing it had been caught. He suddenly jumped away, landing on a rocky wall that had partially crumbled away before turning back to the two visitors and giggling.
"Wow mister, you sure are smart! But I wonder...are you strong too? Strong enough to beat my friend?"
The ground suddenly started shaking, making Luigi almost lose his balance. He gasped as he wondered if this was what his horrifying dreams were trying to warn him about. The ground in front of Luigi and Blooey suddenly exploded, sending the two flying backwards. When Luigi looked up, he saw an enormous stone golem standing in front of them before suddenly roaring and pulling back it's fist. Luigi would have been frozen senseless in fear if the golem hadn't looked alot like Bowser, but non-the-less he began to shiver slightly. Blooey, horrified of the sight, suddenly screamed and floated towards the exit of the grotto as fast as it could, giving Luigi enough time to get out of the way of the distracted golem's incoming fist. Luigi turned towards Blooey before hearing the golem roar and then run after his guide. Luigi suddenly heard laughing to his right and turned to see Skull Kid rolling around on the ground, clutching it's sides.
"HAHAHAHAA! I warned you fools! Now you get to die from my stone golem! HAHAHAHAHAA!"
Luigi turned to see Blooey cornered by the stone golem, and knew he had to do something. Mario wasn't here to help him this time, and now it was HIS turn to save someone.
"There's got to be something I can use...but what?" Luigi said to himself, looking around frantically for something to help him defeat the golem.
As if the god's had finally found favor in Luigi, a golden-brown leaf fell into his line of sight. Luigi hardened his glare onto the leaf, and ran for it, demonstrating his amazing speed. With a powerful jump, Luigi grabbed hold of the leaf before he was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. Blooey had already inked himself twice while the golem laughed at the terrified octopus. It raised it's stony hand before launching it at the creature. Blooey closed his eyes, too scared to see his demise. The silence that greeted Blooey's ears seemed odd and, hesitantly, he opened one of his eyes to see the strangest sight he had ever seen.
Luigi had Fuzzy Brown Ears! And a Tail! Even MORE shocking, Luigi was holding back the golem's arm!
"Lu...LUIGI!"
"Heh...who ELSE...would it be?" Luigi strained himself by talking, as he kept sliding back slightly, but felt it was necessary to say that.
The golemwas shocked, and stopped pushing its arm against Luigi, who took a deep breath before running at the golem. The golem, now afraid of Luigi, quickly began backing away while said plumber suddenly jumped and started flying after the golem. The golemgroaned in fear, turning around just in time to see Luigi fly to it's front and, with a mighty swing of his Raccoon tail, blast the golem into thousands of pieces. As pieces of rocks fell all around him, Luigi turned and gave a menacing glare to the Skull Kid. He slowly walked over to the horrified creature while it scrambled backwards until it's back hit the stony wall. Even then, it still tried to back away from the menacing man in front of him.
"P-p-p-please don't kill me!" It retched in horror.
"Why not? You just tried to kill me and my friend, so why should I spare you?" Luigi growled as he felt a strange feeling welling up inside of him. He would never outright kill someone, he didn't have the heart to. He just wanted to scare the kid into not doing it any more.
He noticed that the Skull Kid seemed to have a more horrified look on it's face, before it frantically started searching for something.
"H-h-here! T-take my precious t-t-t-treasure!" It said holding something out to Luigi.
Luigi took the small shard, and looked at it for a moment before a flash of light suddenly blinded him.
Images flew by Luigi's eyes so fast that he could hardly make sense of them. A snake, a screaming girl, a giant boulder, a blazing fire. Then all of a sudden, Luigi was standing in a VERY familiar area.
The indigo-colored sky, the black leaf-less trees, and of course, the rumbling tremors. Luigi's eyes widened as he turned around and saw a VERY large silhouette behind him, sharp fangs barred at his small, thin little body. The giant lunged at him again, and Luigi was suddenly jerked to the ground.
"LUIGI!" Blooey called out to him.
Luigi shook his head before looking around. He was back in the grotto, but the ground was shaking heavily.
"Luigi! Rumblebump Volcano is erupting! We've got to get out of here!"
Luigi looked back in front of him, expecting to see Skull Kid, but instead saw an arm. A small, motionless arm sticking out from underneath a blazing rock. Blooey called out to Luigi again, who still couldn't hear him, telling him to get out of there. Luigi could only stare at the small, pale, lifeless hand while flaming rocks continued to rain down overhead.
'YOU MUST GET OUT OF THERE!'
Luigi snapped out of his trance-like state upon hearing an elegant voice. He looked around and found only Blooey begging him to hurry. Luigi quickly jumped up before rushing back to the town, Ravestown, with Blooey. The town where he had found Blooey was in a panicky frenzy. They were so terrified that they didn't even notice Luigi's current animalistic appearance. The raging fire that the blazing rocks had started was burning the entire town, and Blooey had a horrified look on his face.
"This is all your fault!" He yelled at Luigi.
"MY fault?" Luigi shouted, shocked.
"Yes! If you hadn't come here, none of this would have happened!" Blooey said breaking out into tears.
Luigi was furious that the Blooper was blaming him for the town's problem, but there was nothing he could do to change their minds otherwise, as the entire town started yelling at him for their problem.
"YOU JYNXED US YOU MONSTER!"
"YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL DEMON!"
Luigi felt sorrow worming its way into his heart, but refused to let this town be destroyed. So he flew to the tallest building in the town, startling everyone who hadn't yet noticed his appearance, before landing on a small platform. Luigi glared at the sky, before slamming his palms together and charging the energy the God's had told him he would one day need. That visit to Oho Island wasn't a coincidence, and he wouldn't take it for granted. He didn't then, and he didn't now. The town watched in awe as they noticed thunderclouds began forming over the town. A child suddenly shouted, "LOOK!" pointing to Luigi, who had suddenly gained an electrical aura over his body.
"No matter what people call me..." Luigi mumbled in a low voice, his body shaking slightly.
CRACK!
BOOM!
The storm raged overhead.
"No matter how poorly I'm always treated..."
CLAP!
A Lightning Bolt struck down, igniting a nearby house.
BZZT!
The Lightning coursed around overhead, ready for another strike.
"I REFUSE TO TAKE MY ANGER OUT ON INNOCENT PEOPLE!" Luigi yelled before an enormous lightning bolt struck Luigi, making the entire town gasp in shock.
"Great King Waffle!" An old Waffling shouted, "No way could he have survived a lightning strike with that much power!"
The screaming yell they heard corrected the Waffling, as Luigi slammed his fists together before raising his arms up and shouting, "THUNDERHAND SECRET TECHNIQUE: TWIN THUNDER WAVE!"
Luigi pulled his arms back before shoving his open palms towards the erupting volcano, launching an enormous blast of electrical energy into the top of the volcano. A great explosion lit the top of the volcano before it soon calmed down.
The silence that washed over the town was an uneasy one, before suddenly a gentle but endless rain poured down over the village, dousing the fires. The town was dumbstruck, when suddenly, they began cheering while saying 'WE MADE IT! WE'RE GONNA MAKE IT!'
Blooey, who was rejoicing as well, suddenly gasped.
"Luigi!"
Blooey floated up to the tower, only to find a charred ring where the Lightning bolt had struck. Other than that, there was no sign of Luigi anywhere. The town searched diligently for the green hero of lightning, but could not find him anywhere. They searched for 4 days and 4 nights, but still no results turned up. It was as if he disappeared from the face of the Waffle Kingdom itself. In the town of Ravestown, a statue of a hero stands in the town square. The statue shows a plumber with an 'L' on his hat, Raccoon ears and a Raccoon tail holding a Lightning Bolt in one hand and a Volcano in the other. There is a plaque below the statue that says,
'The Protector of Ravestown. Once thought a Monster, was truly a Hero.'
~12 miles outside of Plumpbelly Village~
An almost black Luigi coughed inside of the crater that was created after he landed, his raccoon appendages missing.
"Crap. I've got to learn how to deal with the recoil...that...really hurt..." Luigi coughed before passing out, another piece of the Marvelous Compass shining inside of the compass base.