Chapter 20: Special Delivery

In Sarasaland, Daisy was once again considering calling Luigi.

"He should be home by now," she thought as she picked up the phone. "It's been almost a week."

As usual, the phone rang four times, only to be picked up by the answering machine.

"For crying out loud, Luigi! Are you still gone or are you ignoring me? If it's about last month, I didn't know you were allergic to those herbs I gave you, okay? Ugh. Whatever. Just call me back whenever you can. Bye."

Daisy sighed and hung up the phone. As she did so, she looked out the window and noticed that the mailman was at her mailbox.

"Hmm. It's a bit of a long shot, but I could try the old-fashioned method."

Outside, the mailman, a Paratroopa named Parakarry, was just about to leave when Daisy suddenly burst out of her front door with a letter in hand.

"Oh dear. Were you waiting for something in particular?" Parakarry asked.

"Actually, I have something to be delivered," Daisy said as she handed the letter to Parakarry. "It's to Luigi. I think he's somewhere on Yoshi's Island."

"Okay then. I'll get right on it as soon as I finish up with business here in Chai," The mailman tucks the letter into his bag and flew away.

Back over on Yoshi's Island, everyone had woke up and were awaiting orders from Luigi.

"It's prime time that we returned to the beach," the leader proclaimed. "I've had it with the zookeepers. We've got to take back our friends. You all with me?"

The yoshis cheered in agreement.

"Now let's get out of here and never come back."

The yoshis finished off the rest of the fruit for breakfast. Silverstone, however, helped himself to the sack of crystals that Wario got yesterday.

"Hey, you! Stop that! Those are mine!" Wario shouted angrily.

"Oh, dear," Silverstone said, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry. I thought you got those for me."

"Why I oughta-"

"Back off, Wario," Luigi stepped in. "I'll take the blame for this. I probably should've grabbed some for him for later."

Wario looked in the sack and saw that there were a handful of crystals left. He didn't say a word.

Luigi and the herd left the cave and began hiking downstream. They had just passed by the apple and orange trees when...

"Ouch My head!" Yellowy shouted when he was hit by what appeared to be a turtle shell with wings.

"Whoops. Terribly sorry," said the shell which turned out to be Parakarry. "I was in such a hurry, I guess I wasn't being careful. Have any of you seen Luigi at all?"

"Sure. Right over there," the yellow yoshi moaned.

"What brings you all the way here, Parakarry?" Luigi asked.

"I've got a couple of letters for you. Both to be delivered ASAP. Here you go," Parakarry handed two letters to Luigi.

"What do we have here?" the man in green said as he opened the first letter. "Let's see. 'Dear Son-of-a-gun, What's the big idea? I called your house three times and had to put up with your stupid answer machine.' Stupid is underlined. 'I've had it. Don't even bother coming home, you...' Eep. I'm not reading the rest of that out loud. 'P.S. I'll forgive you if you get me a Kirby for my birthday.'"

"A Kirby?" Waluigi shrugged. "Isn't that one of those annoying furry things with the beak and big ears and make no sense at all?"

"Oh, wow!" Mario laughed. "Is that from Daisy? Sounds like she's steamed at you!"

"Dude! Waluigi Whack!" Wario yelled as he scooped up Waluigi by the legs and swung him at Mario, seemingly knocking out both of them.

"Whoa! Where'd you learn how to do that?" said a wide-eyed Luigi.

"Just a little something I came up with the other day. Pretty neat, huh?"

"Yeah yeah. I'd better see what the other letter says now. 'Dear Luigi, This is Birdo and I have some bad news.' Hey, guys! It's from Birdo!"

"Really now? Read the rest of it," said Sushie.

Luigi cleared his throat and started over. "'Dear Luigi, this is Birdo and I have some bad news. I got caught by Vicky and Nicky and they stuck me on their ship. They also have Redy and a white yoshi called Whitey. She doesn't speak English, but Redy told me that she's Blacky's mate. Now I have some REALLY bad news...the zookeepers are going to leave the island tonight! To make sure that you don't try to save us, they've sent out a small cat-like creature to stop you. Hurry, Luigi! P.S. Redy and I told Whitey about you. Both of them have faith in you now. Don't let them down!'"

"Interesting. I suppose the ideas that we talked about last night were accurate," Silverstone mused.

"I guess I don't need to mention that Yoshi's Island is home to three-quarters of the world's yoshi population," the Cheep Cheep chuckled nervously. "And that one of the captured yoshis is most likely one from a different herd altogether."

Oddly, Luigi had a hopeful smile and tears in his eyes at the same time. "They have faith in me..."

"Oh no," Pinky sighed when see saw the tears. "You must be tired."

"I think he'll be fine, Pinky," Blacky assured her. "Those are tears of joy."

"Thanks for delivering that to me, Parakarry. This was written recently I hope?"

"It was given to me for delivery just this morning," the mailman confirmed.

"Great. Is there anything I can offer you along with my gratitude?"

"A spot on your team would be swell."

"That so?"

"I'm a little upset with those two myself. While I was getting the letter from Birdo, one of them tried to shoot me with darts. I must say, he's not a good shooter at all."

"Huh. Okay then. Done and done. Welcome aboard."

"Excuse me for butting in," Silverstone said politely. "But we have precious little time. We can't dawdle if we hope to rescue our friends."

"He's right, you know," Mario added. "We'd better get a move on."

"Hey! When did you wake up?" Wario growled.

"I bet you'd like to know," his rival said slyly. "As I was saying-"

"I heard you the first time," Luigi interrupted. "Do you really expect me to lead an army of yoshis to fight some zookeepers that are trying to catch then? I mean, what do you think this is? Pikmin?"

"Pick what?" Mario had no idea what his brother meant.

"Er, never mind that. I was just saying that it might be too dangerous to bring all of the yoshis to the beach at the same time. Perhaps I should put together a team or something."

"Yeah. Probably be a good idea."

"Let's see now," the hero pondered as he paced back and forth. "First, I'll take Sushie and Parakarry. Both of them have battled before. Oh, better take Silverstone too. Could you guys join me over here please?"

"Take me with you, Luigi!" Purpley shouted.

"I dunno. It could be dangerous," Luigi tried to protest.

"Oh, c'mon," the girl yoshi cooed as she rubbed against Luigi. "You might get lonely."

"Well...alright. I just can't say no to that cute face. Okay. One more should do it."

"Take Waluigi with you," Wario suggested.

"Are you kidding?" Waluigi sneered. "Why would he want me? I tried to help out before and blew it. Remember?"

"Just take him. He's gotta be good for something."

"Not gonna happen."

"Don't you want the honor of helping the Superstar of the Universe? Heh heh..."

"Oh, shut up," the tall man snapped. "I swear that game of Treadmill Grill was rigged!"

"Tell you what," Luigi said matter-of-factly. "If you don't want to help, just make snide remarks when the zookeepers do something stupid. Alrighty?"

"I can handle that."

"Good. A party of six should do the trick. Mario, you and everyone else hang back while we get down to the beach. Understood?"

"Understand completely," said Mario.

"Okay, gang. Onward!"