21

The four friends madly dashed through the back door of the two brothers' humble abode and were quick to lock the door behind them and close the blinds. Mario could feel his heart beating in his chest as he quickly dashed toward the front living room and closed the thick curtains. Luigi stood nearby, scared and clueless. The princesses were also deeply frightened, though to a much greater extent.

"Okay, I want you girls to hide in the basement while me and Luigi finish locking everything up." Mario said. "Can you do that?"

"Yes." said Peach. "Of course we can."

"Be sure to lock the door behind you." Mario said. "I can't risk any chance they'll find if they decide to break in!"

The two girls quickly ran downstairs and locked the door behind them while the two brothers stood in the dark living room with no sound present. The only things they could hear were their heavy breathing and their own heartbeats.

"This is very risky." Luigi said. "What if Bowser's troops discover the princesses?"

"They can't!" Mario said. "Every door in this house is locked, and I do believe that it is very unlikely that any of Bowser's so-called 'troops' would want to break into this house."

"I wouldn't count on it!" Luigi said. "They have their ways of causing havoc!"

The room fell silent.

"I still can't believe that you and Daisy did the wild thing." Mario said. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I…I don't know." Luigi said. "My mind went blank when it happened."

"Did you use a condom?"

"No."

Suddenly, in a flash of fury, Mario threw Luigi to the ground and towered over him with his glare of death. It was evident that the older brother was jealous of something the younger brother did.

"What was that for?" Luigi cried as he struggled to pull himself back up.

"That's for not being careful!" Mario said. "I've told you ever since adolescence that it's best to wait until you're married to do that kind of thing; but what did you do? You went off and did it anyway!"

"You aren't jealous, are you?" Luigi said. "Because I can sense the envy in your voice."

"The point is, Luigi, that…well…I guess you're not the only one guilty of that sort of thing." Mario said.

"What do you mean?" Luigi questioned.

"Me and Peach were about to do the same thing," Mario said, "but we were distracted by the invasion of the Koopas in the castle."

"See! I'm not the only one with a guilty conscious!" Luigi said. "As I have said to you before, great minds think alike!"

"Yes, but you actually did it…before your older brother!" Mario said. "Don't take that as a sign of jealousy!"

"Don't worry." Luigi said. "I will."

CRASSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!

A shower of glass rocked the living room as the back door exploded. Mario and Luigi gasped at the sight of two Koopas standing in the broken doorway.

"There they are!" one of them shouted.

"RUN!" Mario shouted before he had the time to get angry at Luigi's comment.

"WATCH OUT!" Luigi shouted as one of the Koopas came from behind him with a knife. Suddenly, he caught by the other Koopa, who had his arm wrapped around his neck. Luigi tried to escape, but the Koopa's grasp was too strong and he started choking to death.

"Luigi!" Mario said. "I'll save you!"

Mario quickly punched the Koopa that attacked him and round-house kicked the other Koopa to the point of unconsciousness. He then freed Luigi from his oxygen-deprived state of being.

CRASSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!

This time, the front windows were broken down, and in came three more Koopa Troops, ready to kill.

"Oh, shit!" Mario said. "What the hell do you people want?"

Mario was slapped to the ground by one of the Koopas.

"Where are the princesses?" said the Koopa.

"I don't know what you mean." Mario said.

"WHERE ARE THEY?" shouted another Koopa.

"I think you have the wrong house!" Mario said.

"I think we both know that what you said was an incorrect statement."

Bowser walked into house with furious glowing red eyes. The two brothers gasped.

"Bowser!" Luigi said.

Bowser suddenly grasped Luigi by the neck and held a razor-sharp blade next to his throat.

"Now tell me," he began, "where are the princesses?"

"Why do you care?" Mario asked. "Why do you need them so desperately?"

"I'll make this simple." Bowser said. "Either you tell me where they are hiding, or you and your brother die!"

He brought the knife closer to Luigi's neck.

"By the way, I do believe that we've already met before." Bowser said sneeringly, almost as if teasing Mario. "It was during my previous invasion wasn't it? Or was it before that?"

Mario became infuriated.

"How could I not forget? You're the one that killed our foster parents!"

"J…ust…tell…them." Luigi managed to utter under his weak voice.

"No, Luigi!" Mario said. "I can't risk them being killed."

"What…about…me?" Luigi said.

Bowser let out his evil laugh.

"You mean to tell me that you would sacrifice your own brother for two gorgeous women?" Bowser said. "Whatever happened to family first?"

He laughed again. Mario painfully watched as Bowser started to edge Luigi's neck.

"STOP IT!"

"Peach!" Mario shouted.

Peach and Daisy came out from their hiding place stormed toward Bowser to confront him.

"Leave these two brothers alone!" Daisy said.

"Oh, there you are!" Bowser said, dropping Luigi to the ground. He snatched the two princesses and started making his way out of the house.

"HELP US!" Peach called out in desperation.

"Peach! Daisy!" Mario called out.

"You guys aren't going anywhere!" said one of the Koopas as the brothers were taken to the kitchen and placed into a couple of chairs. They then took rope and tied their wrists to the chair arms to the point where circulation was almost cut off. They were stuck.

"Say hello to our little friend Bob-Omb!" said another Koopa. Mario and Luigi saw that it was a bomb with a fuse. "He'll be the one taking care of you when we leave. You won't even have to worry about it for very long…"

The Koopas laughed as they started leaving the house. Mario and Luigi were quick to realize that the bomb was not lit.

"Aren't they going to light it?" Luigi asked sarcastically.

But right then, the bomb started to tick, and the fuse lit automatically! The two brothers had unwittingly underestimated Bowser's power, and now they pretty much had no hope of surviving.