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He just kept singing. He wouldn't stop singing. Or maybe I just kept hearing him sing. After what I've been through, there's sure to be an untreated concussion or two. I do find my ears ringing occasionally. Sometimes it rings with the words of my brother. More often than not, it rings with the same high-pitched squeal I first heard after my wife died. Hell, compared to those sounds, the echo of a fisherman who just won't stop singing is a fucking relief. Something was rising from the water and I was losing blood just floating there. I've blacked out too many times. Not just today, in my life. So much so that I feel it coming again. Fuck it. I always wake back up. I'll wake up this time, won't I?

Flashback. February 2016. It is during the Mushroom Kingdom's decline, before Luigi would cut contact with Mario and the royal family. Luigi does battle with the Axem rangers in their Warehouse on the East side of the Mushroom Kingdom. The Warehouse is dimlit as the five Axem Rangers search behind each cargo crate for the hiding Luigi, hoping to find him before he gets the drop on any of them. Luigi's earpiece used to communicate with E. Gadd vibrates slightly as the scientist attempts to communicate wit Luigi during his job.

"Luigi, you there? Listen I've got some warnings for you about those Axem Rangers." Elvin shouts like the earpiece isn't in my actual ear.

"Bit late for that Elvin." I said in response.

"WAY TOO LATE!" Axem Yellow says as I look up at him driving his ax toward my crouched position. I caught the blade before it hit my face and stood up opposing his strength. "I'VE GOT HIM!" He said as his team leaped in the air with their axes preparing to cut me down.

"Hah!" I shouted as I swung the weight of the ax, sending Axem Yellow upward toward his teammates. His bulky body throws them off their trajectory. I run clear of their predicted landing points. Axem Green avoids the air collisions and is falling toward me. I roll behind him at the last second and snatch his feet from beneath him, causing him to smash his head on the concrete floor. If he wasn't dead, he certainly wouldn't be moving anymore. As I finish with him, I hear footsteps running up behind me. When I turn around, I have to immediately dodge an incoming Axem Pink. She lands next to Axem Green's body.

"Don't worry partner, I'll fix your face!" She says to him.

"The hell you will!" I say as I pick Axem Yellow's axe up off the ground and charge at her. She blocks my chop by holding her ax sideways. I'm stronger than her so I begin pushing her into the ground. I can hear a strange sizzling behind me. When I turn my head to look, a score of bombs is heading my direction, fuses short. I planted both feet into Axem Pink's stomach and kicked off her to propel myself in to the air. The bombs landed on top of Pink and Green and exploded. I back-flipped toward Axem Black and charged at him with the ax. As I'm about to lay my finishing slice, I'm forced to draw back when Axem Red comes to his rescue and attempts a swipe at me. Before I know it, I'm dodging ax swipes left and right and using the stolen ax to block when I can. Thinking quickly, I pull out my hammer to dual-wield with the ax. When Axem Black swipes at me, it clangs against my ax. Axem Red takes a swifter swipe at me. I sidestep it and smash it with my hammer. The ax warps at the hard materiel it meets. The impact snatches it from Axem Red's hands. I reverse the hammer's direction and knock him clear of the fight. Axem Black then goes all out in a furry of swinging ax attacks. I block them all with my two weapons but he isn't leaving me an opening. I jump back, turn tail and flee for the moment. He pursues me heavily. I run through the space with high stacks of heavy duty cargo before having an ah-ha moment. I can tell Axem Black is gaining on me. When I feel him get too close for comfort, I blindy toss the ax backwards. I immediately stop feeling the wind of his chase. I turn around to see the ax sticking out of his head. At that precise moment a giant wooden cargo crate falls on top of me. It breaks as it hits me and the ground, but that just made it hurt more. I was flattened onto my back. Before I can open my eyes, Axem Red lands feet first onto my stomach, drawing blood from my mouth. It disappeared onto his clothes.

"Why the hell did you even come here, Luigi? We got no problem with y-"

CRASH! Elvin and his chopper come crashing through the wall right next to us. Axem Red is forcibly bulldozed onto the artillery cannon of it.

"Looks like I'm right on time." Elvin says into my earpiece as he fires a missile. Because of his stuck position, Axem Red takes a ride on the rocket, through the other wall of the warehouse and onto the rocket's certain doom that would surely become his own. The chopper circles back around as I struggle to my feet. When it gets in range, I hop on as Elvin carries us clear of harms way. "D- . . . Did you just kill all of the Axem Rangers?" Elvin asked nervously.

"Well I just had an industrial storage crate dropped on me, but I think I'll heal, thanks for asking Elvin." I replied, a bit annoyed.

"Luigi" he said more sternly "did you just kill all the Axem Rangers?"

"Well if you wanna get technical, no. You just killed one. And he's the leader so-"

"Luigi I'm not sure we need to still be doing this."

"What, making a living?"

"Luigi, take this serious for one second will ya? If I hadn't shown up when I did, that Axem Ranger would have properly hacked your head clean off! And for what? Some payday?"

"Gadd, it's the Axem Rangers and we're in the middle of Civil War."

"But this wasn't a royal order to come here. We're essentially just mercenaries."

"No Gadd. I'm a mercenary, you're just helping out a friend. Now if you really don't want any of the guilt, you don't have to take any of the pay either." He fell silent. "Thought so. A significant power from across town claimed the Axem Rangers were stealing resources and hording them and they needed them to be stopped.

"Well I . . . guess that explains the warehouse."

"Exactly. Look Elvin I don't ever want you to think that we're the bad guys."

"But it doesn't feel like we're good guys either."

"Real life isn't always as simple as bad guys and good guys. If our will wasn't meant to be done, then you and I wouldn't have the one hundred percent success rate we do as a team. One hundred percent, Gadd. You know what that means?" He thought hard on it. He's a genius so I know it bothered him that he didn't know the answer. I eased his anxiety with the answer. "A one hundred percent success rate means that, regardless of what's good and what's bad, we're instruments of Karma. And Karma can't be stopped."

"But Luigi, so many close calls. And they've been even closer since, ya know . . ." He was afraid to finish that sentence. "All the times we've had to literally and figuratively yank each other out of the path of the Grim Reaper."

"Historically and statistically speaking, we're fine. You've always got what it takes to get us ready. But whenever it gets to the trenches of real life, I need youto know that I've got what it takes to keep us alive."

End of Flashback.

I was right. I always wake up. I could feel myself, waking up. But I couldn't open my eyes. Could just barely move. But I definitely couldn't open my eyes. Or rather, something instinctual was telling me not to. I steadied my heartbeat as I tried to regain control of my muscles. There's no telling where I am or how long I've been out. I remembered I was on the verge of drowning. That's it. I must have still been submerged. I tried to swim upward and felt my feet hit the floor. But it wasn't the ocean floor. I extended my arms and my hands hit an actual glass ceiling. I reached for my mouth and there was an oxygen tank hooked up to it. I checked to see if I was still clothed. I was. Not sure if that's a good sign. I was about to bust my way out when I heard a voice. It had a static sound to it. But it wasn't submerged like me. It was a familiar voice.

"Green's log. They don't recognize me anymore. Insoid or out. They say I've changed. Aye, but is a man to sty the same why for his whole loif? The same people who use my product every day are the ones claiming that Lieutenant Green is no longer one of the people. Sure King Koopa's the head of Obsidian. But these fuckers act loik I'm not the damn backbone! No matter. I don't do this for their approval. I do this because any member of the Koopa Troopa is loyal above all, and of service above all else! It was from King Koopa that Obsidian was born! But it's because of Green Enterprises that Obsidian lives!" The static ended with his voice. He sounded dreary and upset. I took it as my signal to get the hell out of where ever I was. I braved whatever environment I was in and opened my eyes. The substance, whatever it was, did not burn my eyes. I scouted my surroundings. I appeared to be in some sort of control station. I looked up to the ceiling. There was an inscription that looked to be crossed out in blood. Or possibly just red paint. It could honestly go either way at this point. The inscription read 'For Green of Green Enterprises'. The writing beneath the cross-out simply read 'Monster'. I looked around some more. There was red writing everywhere. One spot read 'Go away'. I heard the static voice again.

"Green's log. It was me who put togetha the initial plans for the Obsidian sewers. Well sure we can all technically survoiv in magma due to what King Koopa, and unknowingly I, did to everyone's genes. But only the native magma dwellers like King Koopa have the eyes to see through the molten mess. The rest of us, without the dome to clear out all the liquid fire, would just be bloindly swimmin our why through the magma. But for the rest of us, the dome keeps us clean, and the sewers divert the magma. Now I once spent a full week down there training the sewer workers. Didn't get a lick of sleep. And when I come up, me woif and kids do a double-tyke. Like they've seen a ghost or somethin. This is a dream job, but it's cuttin into me family time something fierce." I continued looking about the station. The setup was starting to look more familiar. It looked more like a submarine. I saw more red writing that read 'Obsidian's Greatest Mistake.' I heard the static covered voice again. He sounds tired and sinister.

"Green's log. My superior, he always wanted to tyke everything for himself. Now he wants me loif. And it looks loik he might succeed. Ungrateful son of a bitch! No regod for all my work to the Koopa Krown. I've lost all me friends and family here in Obsidian. Things have changed so much they don't recognize me anymore. Hell, they don't even call me Green anymore. Maybe I've changed so much they don't know it's me. Maybe I've done so much I don't deserve that nime. He can strip me of me rank. But after all I've been through, I'm stronger than the word Lieutenant now. What the . . . Oh no. It's only a matter of time before I'm overtaken now. Whoever foinds these, please, try to only remember the good." That was about as much as I could take. I started punching the glass as hard as I could. Barely a scratch. I took a risk and charged up a thunderbolt and smacked it against the glass. It shattered. I crawled out. My clothes didn't hold any of the water. In fact, they were back to my usual blue and green attire. I stood up to examine myself. I heard a windy sound and immediately crouched clear of a flying object. It soared above me. I turned around to see what it was. It was a bulky spiked shell. It bounced off the wall and hit me square in the face. I flew across the room. Blood poured from my nose with no viscosity. I kipped back up. I couldn't stay down so early in a fight. I saw the shell coming my way again. I back-flip kicked it away. I watched as it quickly recovered in the air. Then limbs and a head came out of it. It was clearly too small to be Bowser, but in the midst of the flipping, it looked similar. Then the offender landed and I saw the face plain as day. I'll admit, it surprised me.

"Bowser Junior?" I said in shock. He gave me a sadistic look before shooting out flames from his mouth. I leaped clear. He went into his shell as it spun and charged my way. As I prepared to intercept him, he did something I had never seen any koopa do before. The shell jerked and bounced directly into the air as he closed in. I had to duck. As he flew over me, he stuck out his hands and took me upward with him. With control of my body, he flipped several times in the air before slamming me with a sit-out powerbomb. I felt the wind leave me. I rolled over in pain. He simply stood up and watched me. "Wh-what. The fuck have you been eating, koopa steriods? I killed you. I felt your heart stop! How! How are you still alive?" I asked crawling away. He stepped on my spine. "Ah!" I winced in pain as I blindly shot a fireball backwards. I felt his foot leave my back and rolled over and kipped up. He was waiting. I dodged a punch as I landed. He clawed for my neck and I ducked under it. I lit my fist aflame as I prepared to uppercut him. "Hah!" I shouted as I leaped skyward. He sidestepped me and grabbed my foot. "Oh no!" I said as he slammed me back into the ground. Guess my same trick won't work twice. He grabbed me by the back of the neck and started dragging me across the floor. I looked up to see him dragging me toward a small cell fit for a pet. I begin to charge a thunderbolt in my hand. As he opens the cell to put me in, I turn on him and shoot the bolt his way. His head goes into his shell and my bolt destroys the sealed hatch behind him. Water starts flooding the sub. His head pops back out as he leaps backward from me. I struggled to my feet and hawked him down. I grab a spike on his shell as he swims out into the ocean. He's more built for the deep sea than I thought. He swims faster than a motor boat as I struggle to hold on. He attempts to kick me off of him. I latch on to another spike on his shell. His speed picks up. I stay my grip. It seemed like he was swimming forever. However long it took, he came to a sudden stop. I didn't stop with him and flew on ahead of him in the water. My grip is not strong enough to keep me near him, but I manage to tear off a spike from his shell. I can faintly hear him scream even in these depths. As I turn and tumble I can see a deep-sea cave ahead. There are two entrances. My body flies into the one on the left. Once in the cave, I felt something pulling the water down. Like a whirlpool. I continued holding my breath as I was sucked into it. It was getting hard to hold my breath. I needed to take my mind off this moment. I thought about my brother. The raged re-pumped my lungs. I thought about how much I wanted him dead. How I should have killed him when I had the chance. How I failed to kill him when I got another chance. I thought about how much more he was probably worth alive than dead. I negotiated in my head on if I should kill him or turn him over to the royals. That was a tough choice. I toyed with that one for what felt like forever. I drifted away in that thought.

When I found myself, I was washed up where I could see the skies were blue again. It was a relief. Turns out I still missed the skies as they were. I took a good look at the skies as they unblurred. They were actually too blue. *Smack*I was clubbed on the shoulder and yanked from the water. I was thrown on a tile floor. I must have been indoors. I looked up to see my attacker. He spoke to me with the most reverence I've heard in a voice since I began this adventure.

"I bet you've got questions?" The voice was deep and distinguished. And familiar. The last drops of water cleared from my vision and I saw him clearly.

"Toadsworth?" I said.

"The very same." He said as he turned his blind eye to me. In the bright lights of the room, his blind eye, with its missing hues, shined and glistened even more so than the good one. And he still pointed it at me. There's no way it could see me. It was more than turning a blind eye to me. He just pointed the grimmest part of his face toward me. The side of him that looked the most war-torn. "Unchained, unchanged, unsurprised, all the wise. The Mushroom Kingdom's most trusted advisor and servant." I got to my feet quickly and carefully. I was still dangerously close to the pool I was fished out of. I quickly scouted out the room. It looked to be the same room that contained the world where my brother first discovered his metal-head transformation. I must have been snatched from that same black pool. The Obsidian City Docks lead to here? None of this is making sense. Toadsworth stood on the opposite side of the pool from me. He placed his cane directly in front of him.

"What's going on Toadsworth?" I asked. "How did you find me, how did I get here?"

"You have many questions, don't you?" He simply replied.

"Yeah. Can I expect you to know any answers or am I wasting my breath?" I asked.

"You could look to me, Luigi." He said. "As always I have many answers. But as always, its up to you and your ego to decide if you want to listen."

"I don't have time for you shit Toadsworth! Where did you find me and why am I here?"

"The princess' ceremony is today. And you have not given the royal family what it asks of you. You, the best known man of your profession. Now, the soon-to-be Queen will surely not have time to tend to your mediocrity over and over again. In becoming the Queen, there are certain matters the crown must prove to the public." I took a ready stance.

"What are you saying Toadsworth?"

"You should always keep track of your associates, Luigi." He said as a spotlight lit up the darkness near the stairs behind him. In the spotlight, on an elevated stretcher, lay Elvin Gadd. His face is bloody and bruised.

"Hey n-c-neighbor. Glad you could make it." He didn't appear strapped down. But he certainly couldn't get up. My fists lit aflame as I prepared to obliterate Toadsworth.

"I wouldn't, if I were you." Toadsworth said as two muscled Mushroom Kingdom guards approached Elvin and held him down. The one on his right side drew a large sword. "One move and there's no way he'll escape in one piece, Luigi."

"What is all this, Toadsworth? Are you royals getting impatient? You think saving your kingdom just falls out the damn sky? Because it doesn't! Now let the nerd go and give me some time to do my fucking job!" I said furiously.

"I'm not a patient man, Luigi." Toadsworth said. "Do you remember this black pool between us? It was at one point cursed to take the swimmer to an underground world plagued with disgusting creatures. Now, you must have gone severely off course to end up here. But, it's just as well. It gives us chance to catch up." He raised one hand hand snapped his fingers. The ground beneath gave a bit and cemented my feet into the tile. For the moment I couldn't move.

"What the hell?"

"Don't worry, it's just to make sure you pay attention. The Kingdom is losing precious resources for every moment you haven't brought your brother to us, Luigi. You've felt loss. Not the least of which was your wife. But let's say you lost ten wives. Or a thousand. Or a million. Let's say there was a mad man taking thousands of wives from you everyday. Leaving thousands of your children dead or slain in the streets. Let's say you had an insurance policy made to protect you from the mad man, and it failed you, miserably. Luigi, your loss is nothing compared to the losses the Mushroom Kingdom faces everyday. The one life you lost a year ago, is nothing compared to the countless ones Mario has taken. The wartime dollars spent. The businesses that cease to exist."

"Nothing?" I snapped. "You think my wife's death is nothing?" I struggled frantically to get out of the tile. But it wouldn't budge. He still spoke to me as I struggled to pull myself free.

"But when you did feel that loss, that one paltry loss, you became unstoppable. You became the most productive. You became the greatest resource in the Kingdom, if only for a moment. But even that fire is dying inside you."

"Free me, and I'll show you the fire is still alive and well." I said.

"Don't kid yourself kid." Toadsworth said. "You ain't got the balls to kill Mario. Not because you're afraid, but because a man like you is running out of loved ones. You kill him, you lose your brother. You bring him to us, we're likely to kill him anyway."

"Fuck do you even know about having a brother, Toadsworth?" I started shooting lighting near my feet to get free.

"So how then, how do we motivate you to do your fucking job? We find something else. Something else that can motivate you. Someone besides Mario that you're still close to. People you love can still be hurt, Luigi." He pointed to the guards holding down Elvin. With one swift chop, the guard sliced Elvin's arm clean off.

"GAAAHHHHH!" He shouted in agony. "GAAAAHHHHH! OH GOD! LUIGI, HELP ME!" He cried at the top of his lungs, as if my fists of flame could smelt his arm back to his body. In my anger, I yanked my left foot from the tile. I planted my free foot and hands as I tried to escape.

"I'll kill you, Toadsworth!" I said as I struggled. "Anything he feels now, you'll get ten times over. You hear me? What the fuck is your problem? I wanna talk to the princess!"

"Is my charming face not enough?" Toadsworth smirked on his scarred side.

"I never liked you Toadsworth. And you never like me. So what the hell makes now any different?" I could feel the tile move a bit.

"Hm." Toadsworth said. "Now, if you came here from Obsidian, that means you took a wrong turn down the deep sea cave. So I suggest you try that trip again. Once you have enough questions, enough loss. That's how we get the motivation. By making more loss. More questions."

"How'd you know about Obsidian?" I asked, still struggling, looking down at my trapped foot.

"Are your sure that's what you want to know?" Toadsworth asked, rather sarcastically. I looked up when I heard footsteps. They were light in nature. But heavy in sound. Then I saw her. I lost my mind, and my wind when I looked her in the eyes. I could barely whisper her name.

"Daisy?"

To be continued