"Let's-a hurry, Daisy. We don't have much time!" Luigi exclaimed, as he stepped around the sea of dizzy and defeated Goombas. "I'm coming- It's hard to run in heels!" Daisy slowly but surely caught up and took Luigi by the hand. They ran down along the outskirts of Blubble Lake where a Magikoopa stood guard at the closed gate to Dimble Wood. "Halt! You are not permitted to enter under law of Lord Bowser. Turn around or be squashed!" Luigi took another step forward, his knobby knees knocking together in clear fear. "I'm-a gonna g-get my bro back..!" He quaked in his boots, but still stood before the magikoopa. "Then so be it." The magikoopa whistled for it's comrades- a Birdo, clothed with a blue hair bow, Boom-Boom and Pom-Pom all jumped out of the bushes surrounding the gate. "I am Wizenheimer, the leader of the Clan of Koopai, and you will not get past this gate!" Wizenheimer suddenly jumped into the air and cast a magic bomb spell. The bomb flew near Luigi, and exploded in a bright flash. Daisy tried to run up to help Luigi, but was stopped by three pink shuriken pierced into her dress, which kept her in place. "Hey, no fair!" She tugged at her dress, trying to loosen the ninja stars from her garment. Luigi pushed the Birdo into Pom-Pom while he ran for Wizenheimer, preparing to do a sliding kick. The magikoopa let loose a burst of magic- a haze of ice crystals began to form and incased the plumber in ice, immobilizing him. "I will never forget when you and your dratted brother defeated me on Yoshi's Island. However, he isn't here to protect you now..." Wizenheimer cackled. "Just wait until my good-for-nothing brother sees that I did his dirty work for him. Now you, and your girlfriend'll just be ice sculptures for Bowser's ski resort..!"
"No!" Luigi seemingly exploded in a blast of fire, but as the smoke settled, the group saw a flaming shadow of the slender green plumber. He leapt into the air and attempted to kick Boom-Boom, who caught Luigi midair and swung him around, tossing the plumber away from the group. "Who do you think you are, some sort of superhero?" The villains laughed mockingly. Luigi gave a chuckle of his own, fire in his eyes. "I'm-a Luigi, Number one!"
He sent two dragons of green flame towards Wizenheimer. At first, the minions looked terrified, but Wizenheimer, with a smirk, performed a twirl of his wand and reflected the flame back to Luigi. "Yow!" Luigi began to hightail it away from the fire, but it was too quick for him and eventually engulfed him in green flame. The fire plumes pushed Luigi back into the wall of the gate as he fell to the ground with a splat, but he attempted to stand back up. "You sure are a persistent little pipeworker, aren't ya'?" Luigi stood back up weakly, raising up his fists once again.
Pom-Pom stepped forward and beckoned Luigi to come at him. "Promise not to mess up my hair, and I'll defeat you quickly..." Luigi charged forward, going for a hook, but his punches were easily deflected. In an act of desperation, Luigi went low, trying for a sweeping kick. Pom-Pom hopped over Luigi's leg, bopping him with a spinning kick to the face. She then disappeared in a puff of smoke, dividing into several copies of herself. Luigi fought off the horde of Pom-Poms, punching through them as they disappated into thin air. "Getting warmer, Green-stache..." Pom-Pom teased as she slung another shuriken in his direction, just barely missing his nose. Luigi leapt into the air in the direction of the shruiken's origin spot and honed in on the true Pom-Pom among the imposters, and dove towards the pink koopa, seeing red. Pom-Pom, with a smirk, bowed down as Boom-Boom came up from behind, catching Luigi by the scruff of his neck, and giving a mighty punch directly to his gut.
Luigi sputtered out: "Mama mia...", as he fell onto his back in exhaustion- he was defeated. "You put up a good fight, cutie.~ Too bad we're just too good for ya'!" Pom-Pom aimed a shruiken at Luigi, giggling evilly.
Fighting tears, Daisy had looked away, expecting to hear a thud to the ground, but no such noise followed- only a soft ping, as if someone had deflected the shruiken. When Daisy looked back, she saw a figure, tall yet muscular, and his hair strawberry blonde, tipped with a magenta color. His magenta-colored attire was tattered, yet similar to the knightly attire the Toad guards wore before the Star Festival incident. Draped around his neck and over his left shoulder was a large magenta and gray scarf which covered part of his face and hid some of his chin and mouth. He had grabbed the shuriken with his hand, which the palm and knuckles were covered up with by gray hand wraps.
"Naughty, naughty... You can't hurt my new friend here- I need his help in taking back my kingdom!" Wizenheimer stared at the young man in front of him, sputtering out some sort of response. "You- you can't be him... You were banished! You were banished a long time ago!" The young man opened and closed his hand as if his hand was a person blabbing. "Bah, and here I thought you would have been more reserved in your old age, like your big brother. You're just the same level as annoying as you were back then, Wizzy. Man, I missed you though..." He threw the shuriken aside, and pulled up his fists. "Anyway, back to business." Pom-Pom began to throw a flurry of shuriken's toward the lad. He slid underneath, delivering a powerful staff kick directly to her stomach. As he did this, Boom-Boom began to charge at him. The young man turned at the last second, getting quarterback-style tackled into a wall. "Excuse me, you'll have to wait your turn!" He pushed Boom-Boom off, going low for a spin kick at the ankles. Boom-Boom grabbed the man's leg, and lifted it up over his head. However, Boom-Boom hadn't expected him to deliver a punch straight to the koopa's 'button', knocking him out near instantly. Boom-Boom groaned before falling onto his back, teetering wildly on his shell in pain. Wizenhiemer patted the Birdo on the back. "Ashley, do your thing!" She nodded, spitting out a bomb egg. "Hey 'King', bet you can't dodge this!" The young man looked back, grabbing a rather large tree limb from the side of the road. "Home Run!" He hit the bomb back at the two before diving down onto his stomach. "Uh oh!" Wizenhiemer yelped as the bomb landed directly at his feet. Him and Ashley began to run, but the egg exploded, sending a large shockwave that knocked everyone to the ground. "Well, that was a good one! You trained your lackeys well, Wizzy... Too bad they don't work together well... Oh well..." Lifting Wizenheimer up by the collar, the man whispered in the wizard's ear: "Tell your boss that I'm back..." He set him back onto the ground, giving his robe a swipe of the hand to clear the dust off and said, "Run along, now!" Wizenheimer, with a wounded look on his face, teleported himself and his comrades away.
The young man sighed, stretching out his back. "Man... Sometimes I feel old..." He stepped up to Daisy and bent over to pull out the shruikens from her dress. "Pardon my reach, m'lady." He then lifted the battered Luigi up to his feet, covered in scrapes and bruises from the fight before. "Hey buddy, get up! The baddies are gone." The lad chuckled as he patted Luigi on the back.
"Wh-Who are you?" Luigi asked, looking up at the lad. The young man smiled faintly. "Ah, you must be that 'Mario' guy I keep hearing about!" Luigi tilted his head in confusion. "Close... I'm-a his brother. But- why did you save us?"
"Well, an enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? I guess you deserve a better explanation than that, but for now though, let's get back to the castle. I'm quite hungry... How about you? I had to skip breakfast this morning." Luigi wiped his nose. "Y-yeah... We-a did too..." The young man beamed. "Well then, as a good friend of mine once said: 'Allonsy!'"
To Be Continued...