Chapter 7

I couldn't believe Bowser just happened to show up right when we crashed in! Then again, we did make a lot of noise and destroyed his front door... so, I guess we deserved it. However, I would've taken an empty hallway than a warm welcome from this evil Koopa.

Bowser burst into a hysterical fit of laughter. "You guys are hilarious! You know you're going to have to pay for that, right?" He pointed to the gaping hole we made when we crashed inside his castle.

"No way, Bowser! We'll repay you by kicking your ass!"

"Not to mention rescuing his friends!" Waluigi added.

"T-that too!"

"Good going, Luigi," Bowser said as he slow clapped. "Way to half remember why you came here... I'm sure Mario would love to hear this."

I growled. "You wouldn't..."

Another maniacal fit of laughter from Bowser. "Oh, I would. In fact, I'll go tell him right now." He turned around and passed through another large set of double red doors. Leaving us with a field of enemies to plow through.

"Wait!" I called out, knowing that he couldn't even hear me now.

"Welp, looks like we got some company to deal with," Waluigi said, pounding his fists together.

"The faster we deal with these guys, the faster I can rescue Mario."

"Don't forget your friends, too," Waluigi mocked.

I sighed. "Lets just get rid of these guys quickly, they're already starting to charge down the hallway."

"Sure, I love a good fight!" Waluigi rushed into the fray. Hammer Bros., Fire Bros., Boos, and Magikoopas stood in his way. Soon to be in my way too, since I followed after Waluigi shortly after. Fireballs were thrown at us every which way. Waluigi, being the slender, handsome man he is, dodged every one of them and continued his venture down the hall. As each fireball whizzed past me, I could feel the heat emanate from every one that nearly fried my body.

If fireballs weren't enough for us, a barrage of hammers were hurled as well. I was expecting Waluigi to dodge these too, but unfortunately, a few hammers smacked him right in the head. When I glanced over to check on Waluigi to see if he was alright, a hammer smacked me right in the chest. Although I didn't fall to the red carpet like Waluigi, I still had a slight amount of knockback. But I recovered and kept moving.

I hope that Waluigi can take care of himself at the moment, since these Magikoopas kept conjuring a dozen spells at me. These plus the hammers and fireballs provided a huge challenge for me. While I was occupied with dodging these projectiles, Waluigi sneaked his way along the wall towards the end of the hallway. I guess all the attacks were aimed at me; the enemies must've thought that Waluigi was down for the count.

Between playing dodgeball with the projectiles, I watched Waluigi near the end of the hallway where the enemies were pelting me with a bunch of attacks. He was about to tackle the Hammer Bros., but a Boo appeared in front of him, sticking its tongue out. Waluigi recoiled and held his mouth shut to prevent a scream. A sudden noise right now could reveal his location, and it could prevent us from getting the upperhand in this fight. The Boo retracted its tongue and furrowed its brow. It's probably confused due to Waluigi's courage.

A fireball burned the front of my overalls, and a hammer slammed into my throat. That's what I get for paying too much attention to Waluigi. Wish there was a positive to that. I knelt to the floor, clutching my throat and simultaneously patting the fire on my overalls. The projectiles stopped for some reason.

The fire died out, and air returned to my lungs. Now I could focus on the end of the hallway. I noticed that the enemies ditched the long range attacks and opted to just charge at us instead. Except they forgot one thing: Waluigi. He still had a face-off with the Boo. While the Hammer Bros., Fire Bros., and Magikoopas honed in on me, Waluigi whipped around the Boo and ran behind the enemies attacking me. When Waluigi prepared to strike, I used my green fireballs to stun the enemy about to be hit. That way, he could easily take it down. We took out the Fire Bros. and Hammer Bros. first. They didn't know what hit them, but the Magikoopas noticed their fallen comrades, and their faces exploded into red messes.

They growled and teleported away from Waluigi and I. Each one fired a different spell that caused various ailments. Such as, attack decrease, defense decrease, and so on. However, these spells were the same as the others, so we didn't have too much trouble dodging them. A Boo appeared behind me and let out a ear piercing shriek, which scared the hell out of me! Therefore, one of their spells blasted me straight to the carpet.

"Luigi!" Waluigi yelled, turning his head towards me out of concern.

"I'm okay..." I muttered, although that was further from the truth. My muscles ached and felt sore, I must've gotten hit by an attack decrease spell. I struggled to get back to my feet, and Waluigi averted his attention back to the Magikoopas. We had to deal with these guys fast, or else we'll be here all day. "Waluigi! I know how to deal with these guys all at once!" I shouted between each dodge of the spells being spammed at us.

"How?" Waluigi asked, still dodging the spells.

"Spin me around and I'll do the rest."

Waluigi nodded and ran over to me, picked up my feet, and began to spin me around. While the world around me whizzed by, I shot several green fireballs in any direction I could. Each fireball probably didn't make direct contact with some of the Magikoopas, but I could tell some of them did because of their agonizing cries. Waluigi moved me closer to them. Instead of my fireballs being the weapon, my body was the weapon. Waluigi whacked them with my body several times. The Magikoopas fell to the carpet unconscious.

After Waluigi stopped spinning me around, he let me rest on the carpet for a bit, since the whole world around me tilted around like I was in a washing machine. Once I felt better, the next room awaited us.

Inside the room, I noted that it had to be the main hub: it was shaped like a hexagon and had a high ceiling. A large stone maze stood before us as well.

"This looks tough. I've always hated mazes..." I whined.

"They aren't that bad, Luigi, you'll be fine." Waluigi patted my back, then began his trek towards the maze. I followed him inside, my legs trembling as I nibbled on my fingers.

Waluigi glanced at me and chuckled. "You afraid of mazes or somethin'?"

"N-no, I'm afraid that we'll get lost," I replied between teeth clatters.

"Don't worry about it, I'll get us through."

"I hope so," I said, calming down at Waluigi's reassurance. We passed through corridor after corridor, and each time ended up in a dead end. This maze was taller than Waluigi, so he couldn't look over and see if we were going the right way. My hope in Waluigi faltered after every dead end.

Time flew by inside the maze; we were in a hurry, but the maze decided to eat up our time by handing us more paths that didn't lead us anywhere.

Waluigi's fists clenched and he stomped his foot on the ground. "Dammit! To hell with this maze!"

So much for being so confident on getting us out of here, Waluigi. "Calm down, Waluigi, we won't get out if we lose our focus."

He turned away from the blocked path and faced me. "I know! Its just," Waluigi sighed, "this maze is so confusing!"

"I know, but look," I said, "Waluigi, why don't we use a marker of some sort to track the dead ends and where we've been before."

"Sure, sure," Waluigi flung his hands around, "lets use some nonexistent objects that we don't have to trace our tracks! That's perfect!" He began to laugh hysterically.

I tightened my hands into fists. "Don't play sarcastic with me! Listen, I'll use my fireballs to singe the stone wall just a little bit, so we can use that as a guide. Okay?"

Waluigi's laughter faded. "Oh," he said, calmer than before, "well then Mr. Smartypants! Let's use your idea then!" He lifted his arms in the air, then slammed them back down to his sides.

"Right, we'll just burn the wall here..." I lit my hand in green fire then threw a fireball at the wall about my eye level. "There! Let's continue onward, Wally!" I gave a him a giddy smile, trying to cheer him up as best I could.

He huffed and replied with a half smile, not even looking at me. Waluigi brushed by me and wrapped around a corner. I ran after him and followed him down a few more pathways; when we hit a random dead end, I burned a mark on the wall to keep track of where we've been already. We skimmed past a couple of my previous marks, and I could tell Waluigi didn't like knowing we were constantly running around in circles. He grumbled whenever we passed by a mark, stopping with an abrupt halt and glaring at it. Eventually, as I gave him new directions I thought we hadn't tried before, the marks began to appear in less frequent bursts, and I figured we had to be going in the right direction. After a while Waluigi and I saw the light at the end of the tunnel: the exit.

We ran through it panting like we just finished a 5k. Waluigi and I heaved heavy breaths as we grasped our knees, keeled over. A few short minutes passed.

With a loud exhale, Waluigi pointed towards a stairwell just several feet ahead of us. "Lets keep going, we want to rescue your brother and your friends as fast as possible. Their lives are at stake."

"You're right," I said, recomposing myself and preparing for what lied ahead on the second floor.

Waluigi gestured for me to follow him as he ascended the stairway; it didn't take long for me to leave the maze behind as I trailed behind my tall, lanky boyfriend.

-Mario's POV-

The cell's stench reeked of four people not being able to shower for almost a week. I wished I had a clothespin to pinch my nose with. The others probably thought the same as I did. My stomach rumbled too; hunger seemed to keep me awake every second of the day. An ounce of sleep would be the only amount I could achieve due to my lack of food and water. Bowser had been kind enough to give us small meals and drinks here and there, but those were too far and between. My energy levels left me succumbed to the surface of the floor, it's like it had invisible arms that constricted me from moving. Everyone else felt the same: we've barely moved since we ran back into the cell out of our own fear. I seriously doubt Luigi will ever come save us. Maybe he's really dead, and Bowser somehow stripped him of his five lives.

Speaking of Bowser, the rotten Koopa King trudged towards our cell and boomed, "Guess who's here~!" He grasped the bars of the cell.

I lifted my eyes and glared at Bowser, my face still glued to the cold floor. "You?" I guessed.

"No..." Bowser replied, shaking his head, "somebody you know and love..."

It can't be...! If I could just get myself off the floor. My hands struggled to push my body away from the grip of the floor but failed, and I plopped back down again. "Luigi?..."

Bowser let out a low laugh. "Maybe..." He turned away from the cell and began a slow stroll down the hallway. His body partially hid behind every bar of the cell as he headed away. "Maybe... a certain plumber is treading my tower looking for a certain someone..." He let out a few more low laughs, these ones being more deranged than the last. The evil Koopa King disappeared out of sight, leaving us alone once more. I at least knew that Luigi was alive, and better yet, he was risking his life to save mine.

-Luigi's POV-

The second floor of the tower proved to be more treacherous than the maze back on the first floor. It looked like another hallway, a bit wider than the entrance hallway, but it had a dark blue carpet instead of red. The empty hallway had to have some kind of catch to it. There weren't any enemies or anything in sight. Just plain hallway for quite a long time.

"This looks boring," Waluigi said.

I nodded. "You're right, I'd say it looks a little too boring..." I stepped a little further down the hallway. All of a sudden, I heard a sound near the walls and looked to see three small hatches in a vertical line spring open and spit out three firebars. They zoomed after me, and I swiftly clambered backwards to avoid them.

Waluigi's eyebrows rose as he whistled out a fading monotonous sound. "That was close, looks like this hallway isn't boring after all."

"You don't say..." I said with my hands planted behind me, my butt placed on the floor. I got back up to my feet. "This isn't going to be fun..."

"Are you kidding?! That means I get to do this!" Waluigi ran ahead of me, screaming and shouting idiotic nonsense. He slid under the firebars and came face to face with two thwomps that dropped down from hatches in the ceiling. "Wah!" Waluigi skidded to a halt just in time not to get squashed. I ran up to his position, being careful not to burn myself under the firebars, and stood behind my reckless boyfriend.

I grasped his arms and turned him around. "What were you thinking?! I could've lost you! Do you know how devastated I would've been?!" I shook him up like he was a can of Mushroom Dew. In truth, I wanted to pop open his mouth to see if he would spew out a bunch of fizz. I didn't, of course, and kept scolding him instead as the Thwomps rose back to their hiding places.

"Don't do that! We go together and slowly, or else we won't be alive to rescue my brother and my friends! Got it?"

Waluigi nodded frantically.

"Good," I said, "now lets get a move on, I'm sure Mario's getting antsy."

"I bet, all the more reason to just rush it."

"Shut up..." I muttered and wedged in between the two hatches housing the Thwomps. Waluigi followed my actions and bumped into me when I stopped in my tracks.

"What? Are you waiting for the imaginary light to turn green or something? Lets go!" Waluigi yelled.

"Wait," I said, holding out a hand to my side. "I'm trying to think what would be my best move right now..."

"Ah, screw it!" Waluigi shouted with a flick of his hand. He whizzed past me and into the unknown. A line of spikes rose from the floor in an instant, and Waluigi jumped, spun around a full 180 degrees, and nearly went into the splits to avoid getting poked with one foot on each side of the spikes.

I felt my cheeks puff up from the urge to laugh. However, I gulped it down and jumped over the spikes. My head turned to Waluigi, who lifted his leg over the set of spikes to be entirely on the other side.

I walked up to him and shoved him, not enough to push him off his feet, just enough to get his attention. "Are you going to listen to me or not?!"

"What?" His eyes widened, raising his arms high above his head. "We have to hurry! Our time can't be wasted on you being a pussy all the time!"

I crossed my arms. "Well, just so you know, being a pussy allows us to stay safe and keep our well deserved lives! Plus, if we're going to be reckless and lose 'em all, who's going to save Mario, huh?"

Waluigi lifted his index finger in front of me. "Don't forget about-"

"Shut. Up!" I yelled, stomping my foot down. "Don't give me that crap about my friends! I know I didn't mention them! You've barely helped out at all since we started going through this tower, you know that?"

Waluigi huffed and crossed his arms. "What are you talking about? Without me, you wouldn't have been able to take down all those enemies at the entry hallway!"

"True, but what about the first floor and this floor?! Look what you've done to help me now!" I put air quotes up around the word 'help' and saw Waluigi's eyes twitch.

"That's it! You obviously can't keep up with my quickened pace, so I'm going a different route!" Waluigi went ahead and stormed towards a ocean blue colored door to the left wall. It had a sign above it that followed the curve on the top of the door. It read, 'Alternate obstacle course here'. He turned the yellow doorknob plastered to the door and opened it. Before he stepped inside, he said, "Good luck with this obstacle course! I'm doing a different one! Far away from you!" The door slammed behind him, leaving me alone to complete this challenge by myself. A tear welled up in my eye; I can't believe what just happened.

"Shit... now I lost another person close to me..." I fell to the floor, and my legs curled up to my side. My will to complete this course faded off into the distance, it's as if it became a tangient being and floated all the way to the end of the hallway. A couple stray tears slid down my cheeks and plummeted to the dark blue carpet below.

I didn't know what to do, without Waluigi... I... can't be happy. My tears fell like rain drops: they drenched the carpet like I had an ominous grey cloud over my head. A couple sobbs escaped my mouth, I couldn't help it, I didn't have any control over anything anymore. Waluigi left me. Melody left me. Everyone is in danger because of me. I'm to blame for all of this shit, no matter how much I try to wiggle out of the spotlight, it just shimmers back onto me like I'm in a play or something.

I failed to help Mario when he was kidnapped by Bowser, not to mention everyone else, even though I wasn't present when their kidnappings occurred. Maybe I shouldn't keep going. There's no way I can do this without Waluigi, whether I like it or not, his way made some sense. I have to keep time in mind. We don't have that much to spare, yet, I still tend to waste it being too cautious.

Wait a minute, I'm wasting time right now! I sprang back up to my feet. I can't just keep wasting time moping around! I got to save Mario and my friends! Without hesitation, I ran ahead into the empty hallway, and a moment later, a couple horizontal firebars spun around in my path. They were planted in a zigzag pattern with four firebars on each side of the blocks, but that didn't matter to me. I jumped over each one: I even did a couple flips over a few. A flood of confidence and a sense of invincibility numbed my mind. It wasn't too long until I reached the end of the barrage of firebars. The stairwell at the end of the hallway stood in front of me, and I threw away all of my fear as I climbed up the stairway knowing just one thing.

Waluigi will be waiting for me.

AN: They had their first fight! O.o Looks like Luigi is on his own for a bit, at least Waluigi will be waiting for him at the third floor, or will he? Maybe he's still finishing his obstacle course? Who knows?! Until next time guys/girls! Reviews are appreciated as always :D