Chapter 2: Just Got Lucky

Upon stepping on the bus and closing Sara's umbrella, Luigi kept nervously checking his bus schedule. Being from the city, he had plenty of experience riding busses from place to place, but this time was different. Not only was he riding into an unfamiliar part of town, but he was also doing it alone. Normally Mario would accompany him when going out of the immediate area. Between the two brothers, they only had one vehicle, their father's hand-me-down truck, but Mario claimed ownership of it since he got his driver's license first. Besides, Mario was in no mood to give his brother a lift today.

Suddenly, Luigi felt a drop of water fall on him. "What the?" said Luigi looking upwards. He examined the roof closely, drawing the attention of a few other passengers towards him. When they started looking, more drops fell. But the strange this was that there were no leaks in the roof. Luigi's neatly combed hair suddenly drooped along with his mustache, frustrating him. But the drops would not let up.

Luigi searched feverishly for a seat but could not find an empty one. So, he stood by the exit doors, holding onto the bar for dear life. With his free hand, he pulled out a comb from his pants pocket and began combing his damp hair back into place. Thoughts began circling through Luigi's head.

Was that my stop? Is my watch accurate? When I get there, where do I enter? Was Mario right all along?

"NO!" Luigi shouted aloud in response to his last question. This caused a few more passengers to look his way, but this time Luigi did not sweat, rather he was invigorated. He looked towards the daisy in his jacket pocket and shouted aloud "Today is the day my luck changes! Today I am Lucky!" The doors swung open, and Luigi jumped out with fire in his eyes.

"Wait a minute…" Luigi looked up towards a nearby sign. "… this is the wrong stop."

Without much left to do, Luigi began pacing back and forth to ponder his next move. At this point, he would be late no matter what. Despite that, he could not help glancing repeatedly at his watch, hoping desperately that time would reverse itself. He pulled out the schedule again to check when the next bus would arrive.

"Thirty minutes? I don't have thirty stinkin' minutes!" Luigi's normally soft voice deteriorated into a nasty growl. His eyes began wandering, searching for the next way to go. The thunder continued to boom with each step he took. Naturally, he landed in many puddles on the way there before finding himself in front of an alley.

"What would Mario do here?" Luigi asked himself before dismissing the thought. "Mario does not find himself in these situations. He has all the luck." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the daisy. "I was a fool for believing my luck would change." Luigi released the flower from his grasp where it landed in a nearby puddle. Lightning struck at this exact moment, scaring Luigi and causing him to jump backwards into the same puddle, creating a loud splash.

"D'ya hear that?"

"Yeh."

"Dis one's mine."

"Yeh."

Two shadowy figures emerged from out of the alley. Luigi could not discern their faces but could make out the silhouettes: one stout and bloated, the other lanky and sickly. They both wore windbreakers that had seen better days. It was almost as if they got their clothes from the trash.

"You's got's a lotta noive, steppin' onto our turf like dat!" the short one bellowed.

"Yeh! Now scram 'fore we give's ya a proper thrashin'!" the tall one squealed, brandishing a knife.

"Hold it! Lookit dat suit! You's a long way from da stock exchange, pal!" the short one twirled his own weapon through his fat fingers.

Luigi could not help but employ his usual tactic of standing as still as a statue until the problem went away. His palms immediately drenched themselves with sweat as he impulsively gripped onto the sides of his legs.

"I… I…" Luigi's mouth was so dry that he could not muster any more than one syllable.

"Whatza matta, pussy? I know you's got money. You's willin' to share, right?" The short one began rapidly approaching Luigi while the tall one stood behind tossing his knife back and forth. The short thug breathed heavily as he was now directly in front of Luigi. "You's seem like a reasonable fella. Why don'tcha hand us some dough and you's can get outta here?" As he spoke, Luigi could not help but gag at the stench of the goon's garlicy breath. The thug noticed Luigi's reaction and held his knife up to Luigi's chin.

"Aww fuck!" The threat was suddenly stopped by the sound of the tall man screaming in pain. "I fuckin' cut myself! Lookit this!" The short man's head whipped around to look behind him. The tall man was now lying on the ground with his back resting on a wall, holding his left arm.

"Dammit Wally! I told you's not to toss dat knife around!" the short man shouted back at him.

"I thought it would look threatnin' like!" The tall man pointed towards a cut on his arm. "Aww fuck… It's all his fault!" The wounded thug used his injured arm to point towards Luigi, who was still a statue.

"Hey! You's in a lotta trouble now!" The short man's eyes darted back to Luigi as his little legs charged back towards him. "We don't even want your money anymore, you's is goin' down!"

"Aww shit! Knock 'im dead!" cheered the tall thug, still on the ground.

"Any last words, pussy?" Sweat and rain covered Luigi's entire body as a steely blade eyed his neck again.

"I… I am NOT a pussy!" Luigi finally mustered the courage to speak as he took Sara's umbrella that he carried in his right hand and held it in front of his chest. "En garde!" Luigi gripped the still-closed umbrella like a saber and with a quick slash, the thug's knife met the wet concrete.

"You's a crafty pussy then!" grunted the thug as he pulled out another switchblade from his pocket.

Luigi adopted a makeshift fencing stance and shuffled away from the thug, creating some distance. In response, the short thug closed one bloodshot eye and stuck out his stained tongue. Luigi noticed the thugs posture change as he simultaneously pulled his stumpy left leg forward and his swollen right arm backwards. The blade now flew towards Luigi at an alarming rate as the thug chucked it and laughed wickedly.

Luigi continued shuffling backwards, this time picking up his speed as the knife was homing in on him. Suddenly, as if right on cue, he had an idea. With a lightning-quick motion of his thumb, he sprung the umbrella's trigger. The blade now found itself stuck in Sara's umbrella. Luigi pulled the umbrella closer to him and removed the dagger, pointing it to the disarmed thug.

The short thug began gasping and wheezing as sweat formed on his brow. "I'm… outta here. Let's go Wally." He turned his back towards Luigi and waddled over to his cohort, who now stood up straight.

"But what about da—"

"Forget about da pussy! He just got lucky! Now I need to find annudder knife…" The short thug continued past his partner, who began following him deeper into the alley.

Luigi waited until their footsteps disappeared into the wind and stashed the now closed switchblade in his pocket. "HAHAHAHA!" Luigi could not help but laugh. "Lucky! I AM lucky! He said it himself!" His legs felt loose with joy as he did a victory dance. That is, until he noticed the daisy, miraculously untouched and still soaking in the puddle. "And I have you to thank for it!" cheered Luigi as he pressed the flower to his lips before placing it back in his pocket. Luigi began retracing his steps toward the bus stop with a huge smile on his face.

As Luigi began waiting again, his eyes widened, and his smile faded. "Oh crap… How am I going to explain this to Sara?"

Author's Commentary: Chapter 2

Originally Written: Tuesday, July 26th, 2022

This chapter ended up much differently than I was expecting, but that's ok because I think I made a much more exciting chapter than what was originally going to happen.

This chapter's title was originally Working Man as a reference to the Rush song, but I changed it to Just Got Lucky by Dokken. Besides, I don't want to reference the same band twice as a chapter title and there will be better opportunities for me to use a Rush song. I was also considering calling the chapter "Steely Knives" like the lyric from Hotel California but I'd prefer to just use song titles rather than lyrics.

If you haven't figured it out. The two thugs are this universe's equivalents to Wario and Waluigi. Of course, Wally is supposed to be Waluigi. I don't know what a good name for Wario's doppelgänger would be though. Let me know what you think! Why did I choose for Wario to challenge Luigi? I actually don't know, but I'll make it work so that the Luigi/Waluigi rivalry appears at some point.

I'm experimenting a little, so the next chapter will be entirely for Daisy's (Sara's) perspective!