A/N: Well, this story has become more popular than I thought! Thank you, Snodin, for your wonderful review. Your comments are greatly appreciated.
And now, on with the story!
CHAPTER 10: The Return
Luigi's eyes opened slightly, only slightly, and he looked around the room he was in. It was dark, with just one light on the table beside him, and the glare of machines whirring next to him. He was hooked up as much as a person could be; tubes on his nose, a small clamp on his right first finger, and cords hooking him up to machines. His mind raced. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was fighting his brother, and then his brother left the room they'd been in.
He remembered the vapor. The gas that had filled his lungs, made him choke, and his eyes burn with distaste. Timber, Mario, Peach, and Daisy… what had happened to them?
"Hello!" he cried out. "Is anyone there?" No one replied. He tried again. And again. After a long half-hour of calling and waiting, he decided to do another thing to get their (whoever they were) attention. He pulled the gray clamp off his finger, which connected to one of the machines. The heart-rate monitor line went flat. Immediately the door burst open with five toad doctors, all running up to Luigi, completely unaware of the fact that his eyes were open.
He sat up to get their attention even further. The first toad to look at him fainted, the second almost did, and the others were in ceaseless joy. "L-Luigi?" one asked, another helping up the toad who fainted, keeping his eyes on Luigi.
"Yeah," he said. "What happened? All I remember is… is being shot out of a cannon."
One of the toads nodded. "We never thought you'd wake up… Luigi, we have news for you that isn't very light."
"You… you've been in a coma for a year," another toad said.
"But now you're alive!"
"Our world is finally saved!"
"I knew it wasn't the end of the Mario Bros.!"
"Wait!" Luigi yelled. "A year? Really? That long? …Mama mia… What's happened?"
"When Bowser shot you out of the cannon, you received a lot of damage. You'd been heavily poisoned with, well, we weren't sure what, and your body couldn't take the stress of the cannon. You entered a coma."
Another toad spoke. "Toadsworth decided that your safety was most important, so he had us and a couple other people keep you in hiding and made sure that you didn't well…"
"We didn't want you to die. Once Bowser began rebuilding the castle, Toadsworth decided that we flee the Mushroom Kingdom with you and go to Fang Kingdom, since that seemed the safest place. They already had an underground system for us to go and live in, and well, that's where we are now."
"And? What about Mario and Timber and all the rest?"
"Mario and who?"
"Timber, you know, the wolf who went with me?"
The toads all shook their heads, except for one. "Well, there is one wolf I know named Timber. He's part of the nightwatch, who help make sure our place down here isn't found out. As for Mario…"
"Luigi, I think you should see it for yourself."
"They've taken over the world!"
"Most of it, at least."
"Do you feel alright? You haven't eaten since about noon. Right now its about twenty 'til midnight."
"I feel a little woozy. Food would be good." Luigi took the breathing tubes off of his nose as two toads began messing around with the machines. They took off two small circular things with wires connected from his head, and four from his chest. A toad patted his finger that had the clamp on it. "Better keep this on," he said, and then all five left the room, but not before looking back and saying cheerfully to Luigi, "We're so happy you're back!"
"This can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening," Luigi repeated to himself over and over again. He'd failed. For a year, he'd been asleep? And now the world was being run by the least capable and least kind-hearted people Luigi knew. King Boo, Bowser, and Dimentio… the world was sitting in each of their palms, each of them poking and prodding it their own way.
Luigi slipped his legs over the side of the bed and looked around the room some more. He realized it had been so dark because they were underground. The two fluorescent lights casted glares on the dresser on the far right wall, and his cap that sat on top of it. Six machines whirred and glared at him. These machines had kept him alive for a year.
One. Whole. Year.
How could he have missed so much? And Timber… Luigi wondered if he was the same wolf the toad doctor had talked about. Luigi hoped the little wolf cub was safe somewhere. And then his eyes widened. Princess Daisy and Princess Peach, what had become of them? And, if those three had really taken over the world, then what happened to all the other princesses and princes and kings and queens…
All five toads entered the room again, smiling, although only one of them was carrying a tray of steaming spaghetti and meatballs. Luigi's mouth watered as the scent rose to his nose. They placed the tray on his lap, and he took a sip of the shroom shake they'd brought, noticing that all five of the toads were staring at him in awe.
"Uh," Luigi said, not quite sure what to say. He began to twirl the spaghetti around his fork. "So, anything else I need to know?"
"Well," one toad said. "Everyone thinks that you're dead."
"But that's okay! Because Bowser, King Boo and Mario all think you're dead too! So now they won't be expecting you."
"Mario thinks I'm dead too?" Luigi asked, and the now smiling toads were now sad. "I mean, I know he's still in there… Once I see him he'll know I'm alive. Do you guys know what I'm talking about?"
"Merlon told everyone."
"Yeah, that guy is really smart!" another toad chimed in.
"But no one has really seen Mario."
"They don't even know what kingdom he's in."
"Well, region, now…"
"Oh, yeah, they renamed all the kingdoms into regions. Like Mushroom region, Beanbean region…"
"We're in Fang Region. It's the safest one there is right now."
"The wolves are really nice; they protected us the moment Bowser came into power."
"So, that's pretty much it?" Luigi asked.
"Pretty much! Oh, one more thing, Toadsworth is going to want to talk to you now that you're awake. He has some things to explain…"
"Enjoy your meal!" they all shouted, and then ran out the door.
Dressed and fed, Luigi turned the door knob. It felt weird for him to be on his feet, even though it had felt like only a night had passed since he was last awake. He opened the door and saw no toads, just a long straight and narrow hallway, with numerous doors on both sides. With no idea which door to go through, Luigi choose the one on the opposite end of the hall.
Opening the door slowly, Luigi's eyes widened at the sight. It was like a giant cavern, with steps leading up from the door he'd entered from, and what looked like a plaza in the center. But no one was around, except for one single toad, pacing besides a lit fountain.
"Excuse me," Luigi called out, walking up the stairs. The toad turned around, and Luigi recognized it as one of the doctors from earlier.
"Luigi! How'd you get in here?" the toad asked. "That door is supposed to be locked! One of the doctors must have left it unlocked…"
"What is this place?"
"It's the underground! This is our town center. See, how everything branches off from here?" Luigi stepped up next to the toad and looked around, and saw that at least twenty tunnels branched off from the town center. "We have everything down here. We have scientists growing plants and food, and then we have residential, commercial, and educational wings. But this is only one of the underground towns. There are other towns connected through other tunnels."
Luigi's heart ached. Was it really that bad to resort to living underground in hiding? "How did you build this underground system so quickly?" Luigi asked.
The toad's eyes widened. "Build? These tunnels have been here forever! In fact, we had engineers go around and make sure they were still safe. I'm guessing you never learned, having come from a different world… Well, toads have never really liked wolves that much… and there was a time when we had a royal family who hated the Fang Kingdom a lot. Even went so far as to call them inferior and incapable of ruling themselves. The Mushroom Army drove the wolves underground after a while… long story short, there's still tension between the kingdoms, despite the fact that it happened so long ago…"
Luigi never knew this. Having grown up in Brooklyn, the only history he and Mario had of the Mushroom Kingdom was the events they themselves had encountered.
"Hey, Toadsworth!"
Luigi looked up to see the toad doctor waving at Toadsworth, who had emerged from one of the tunnels. The old toad made his way over to them. "Evening, Luigi," Toadsworth greeted him. "We've been waiting for your return."