"You," Mario spat- The chilliness of the hero's tone would have sent a shiver down the spine of even King Koopa himself; but the figure approaching the group gave no mind to the plumber's icy reception.

"Allow me to introduce myself, Gadd, Professor, Elvin Gadd..." A hand extended in friendship was snorted at by the man in the red cap.

"Ah, professor," Princess Peach stepped forward trying to look as regal as one possibly can while covered in sludge and reeking of rotting fish.

"My good friend Luigi speaks very highly of you," a scoff came from Mario's direction though no one seemed to notice.

Care-

"I am--" the diminutive figure interrupted-

 "Milady, no introductions are needed on your part, everyone knows of the lovely Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom," it was quite a site to see, a neatly dressed man, albeit in a lab coat, bowing down to a girl who looked like she just stepped out of a painting... and still covered in paint no less!

"Princess--"  

"Yes, Mario?" Peach turned her head to look back at her dear friend.

"I seem to remember something being said about how only the Mushroom and Sarsaland princesses knew about Isle Delfino's location." Mario turned to face the overly annoying, at least in Mario's mind, scientist.

"Excuse me professor but you're too ugly to pass yourself off as Princess Daisy-"

"Mario," a hand flew to Peach's mouth as if she herself had uttered the insulting words; however she would have much rather her hand sailed into Mario's mouth... such cheek!

"Professor, I am terribly sorry for my friend's..." Idiocy, smart mouth, lack-of-thinking-before-speaking-

 "Coarseness, we've had a rough flight and... well he's a bit tired."

... Cranky

The little man adjusted the glasses on the end of his bulbous nose and spoke in a rather cheerful and down right polite tone. "Quite alright your highness, I saw our dear Mario's heroics from my Labs window. And I dare say I'm no prize when compared to the Sarsaland Princess, dear me no," he laughed at Mario's... joke?

Mario couldn't believe the stupidity of this guy... he just laughs when being insulted!

Mario folded his arms and 'Hmphed' in agitation

Peach resisted glairing at her friend for his rudeness, her royal smile never left her beautiful face. Instead she opted to steer the conversation in a lighter direction.

"Please call me Peach, highness sounds so stuck-up"

"Oh, but I couldn't, royalty such as yourself must be treated with the up most respect-" A hand was gently taken and given a reassuring pat, a kiss would have been the normal expectation but under the circumstances that wouldn't be kosher.

"Then you may call me Princess, which is my official title until I wed." The princess ushered politely.

The professor smiled, "and I'll bet you have suitors beating down the castle gates just for a little of your attention am I right?" Peach smirked as the image of Bowser braking into the castle only to get run off by Mario, came to mind. "Yes you could say that," she laughed.

Mario couldn't believe his eyes, was this guy putting the moves on his girlfriend?! He was old enough to be Mario's grandfather!

Okay so maybe Peach wasn't his official girlfriend, the fact of the matter was that they had never even been out on a date, but she was his friend... and a girl, so... gosh darn it this Casanova had no right to move in on Mario's claim!

"Ahem, you want to stop courting the princess and get on with the reason you're here?" Mario huffed

"... eh ahem," The tiny man looked taken aback by the comment but regained composure in a moment. "Oh yes quite right... I do have the tendency to ramble, why I remember when I was telling friend Luigi-- A very fine young lad by the way--  reminds me of myself when I was that age-- "

Peach smiled warmly at the tiny inventor "You sound very fond of Luigi"

"He's like the son I never had..."

Mario winced

"Today-" A sharp elbow stuck the plumber in his side, "ouch!"

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry Mario did I hit you?" Princess asked nonchalantly. She did that on purpose!!

"I'm here on business; I accompanied friend Luigi and the Sarsaland princess here about a month ago. Shortly after inventing FLUDD I figured that Isle Delfino could greatly benefit from the convenience of the unit. But I did not know of its location, I mentioned this to Luigi and he told his good friend Princess Daisy, the next thing I knew I was on a flight here in her royal jet."

"Oh this is wonderful, Luigi and Daisy are here?" Peach clasped her hands together and turned to Mario "isn't that great? We'll have so much fun once we catch up with them!"

Mario did look a lot happier

"Oh my dear princess, Daisy is no longer here, she was called back to Sarsaland on some urgent business about two days after we got here, she went home and friend Luigi stayed behind with me." a saddened look crossed every ones faces different reasons for each

"Oh dear, Daisy's no longer here? It has been quite sometime since I've seen her..." Peach said solemnly. Mario frowned he hated to see Peach unhappy but he couldn't quite find the words of comfort that he wanted, so as usual he remained silent.

"But... at least Luigi is here right?" Peach chirped brightly and smiled at Mario whom grinned right back at her.

"ahem, no... he's not." Mario's grin faded

"Luigi and I parted company about three weeks ago, I could clearly see that he was homesick and so I told him that if he should go home, it took quite a bit of prodding but finally I convinced him to go. "Why would Luigi want to stay with you rather than coming home?" Mario asked softly, Peach gave him a sympathetic look, she could tell that Mario felt rather hurt about his brother not really caring to come and visit him, he didn't seem to notice, as his shoes had suddenly become very interesting.

"I'm a great scientist if I do say-so myself...  but I am not a business man by any means. Luigi has been very helpful in the financial aspects of this trip.

Mario still sullenly looking at his shoes seemed to be somewhat satisfied with Gadd's answer. "Well Weege is pretty good with numbers; he always used to handle the books for the shop back in Brooklyn…"

"He said he was going to return home to the Mushroom Kingdom for a while, to visit with friends and family then he would be back to continue helping me with the business negotiations."  Gadd continued.

"ohhhhh, FLUDD does not feel well..." If the little contraption had arm is would have most certainly have them wrapped around its water tank still filled with quite a lot of sludge.

"My goodness I nearly forgot about F.L.U.D.D, what on earth happened to you?"

"FLUDD saved Mario, FLUDD used pollution to- to ohhhhhhh" the machine wailed in a high annoying techno voice.

"do you know what this thing is Professor?" The princess looked worriedly at the still ailing water machine.

"Yes, this is my newest invention to hit the market. The Flash Liquidizing Ultra Dousing Device, or F.L.U.D.D, for short. It was created to easily move large amounts of water from one area to another. but it was never designed to carry anything other than water"

the professor placed a gentle hand on the tank filled with goo "you see, this unit uses a most revolutionary power supply, it draws energy from the water in its tank. Water in the tank courses through the unit like blood, each system taking a little energy from the water to stay functioning, this was employed so that when the tank was low on water that all the most necessary functions were still available while other less important ones would be temporarily shut down until more water could supply energy.

now... the tank is full of a substance that the unit was never designed to handle, The FLUDD unit is doing what it was programmed to do, draw energy from what's in its tank but, of course sludge does not make a good power supply. so the pollution in its tank is causing it's systems to go haywire...

though if I had to put it in simpler terms, FLUDD suffers from a major tummy ach. ^-^!"

"Oh the poor thing" Peach looked simply mortified." But it acts as if it's in pain... but that can't possibly be... can it?"  Peach asked, Mario seemed to show a bit of concern, after all it did save his life, and he never liked to see anything suffer... even a smart mouthed FLUDD unit. "Well this is actually a very sophisticated and special FLUDD unit, the only one like it as a matter of fact, this is the original prototype, a bit more advanced than the ones that will be in the stores, it was programmed to voice any problems that it couldn't correct itself... it happens to voice it's problems in the same way that a person would... it complains.

"Well... are you just going to stand there and listen to FLUDD cry"

"FLUDD IS NOT CRYING (ouchie) ;_;" Mario cocked an amused eyebrow at the machines defensive outburst.

"Or are you going to help it"

"My boy you are too right, I should stop all this jabbering and get to work," Mario wondered what annoyed him the most, the fact that this person was a rambling old codger; or the fact that he admitted to being a rambling old codger?

From the folds of his lab coat the professor produced a small tool kit.

Gadd finally on track went strait to work, with an amazing quickness that some one so old wouldn't be thought to have. Disconnecting, hoses and wires; and mumbling questions to the FLUDD unit while doing so. The device answering between moans of technological illness.

"Water propulsion systems?"

"Clogged"

"Scan ware?"

"Malfunctioning"

"Voice recognition?"

"Repeat phrase."

"Oh my" 

"...FLUDD was lying voice recognition is fine (^_^!)"

"Stop being such a wise acre you...and run a full self diagnostic and list the bad sectors!"

"All of the following systems are malfunctioning," The contraption rattled off a long list of problems. 

"Goodness... me," Once again the little inventor got down to business working more quickly than a man half his age would be capable of. About ten minutes later he seemed to be satisfied and let the unit alone.Gadd rubbed his hands which had small spots of goop on the on his lab coat. "Well I do hope you're happy with yourself, Mario," The plumber jumped at the tone in which he was being addressed. It was a stern condescending tone, the kind that Mario would get from his Mamma when he was naughty as a child. 

"What are you--"

"You have most seriously damaged a very sensitive piece of equipment,"

"I didn't tell it to suck up that crap, it's one of your crackpot inventions, if it's broken it's your fault!"

"Now see here you, overfed-mustachioed-,melon-head, you can say what you will about me, but my inventions are of the up-most quality and I would think that you of all people would know that, seeing as how you're life would have ended abruptly twice now if it wasn't for one of my inventions!" Only the sounds of stunned silence and Gadd's heavy breathing were heard for a good minute

There is a saying 'you can't judge a book by its cover' and if this saying ever were to apply to a person it would have to be Professor Elvin Gadd! His diminutive stature was less than that of even Mario who was known throughout the greater parts of the Mushroom Kingdom as 'the little plumber that could.' Emphasis on the 'little' Yes even the five foot nothing hero of the Mushroom world seemed to tower over the small professor. Large round glasses sat on a tomato sized nose and one snaggle-tooth seemed to stick out from under his upper lip. One would assume that this man of big nose and small stature would be a wimp of the highest caliber, and for the most part, they'd be right. However, there is one thing you never ever tell a scientist. That anything they've created is a "crackpot invention" Gadd was not an exception to this rule.

"My brother nearly 'abruptly lost his life twice' because of your invention," Mario having finally regained his senses after being put into a short of shock

Gadd's angered expression faded into one of sadness for a brief moment before he resigned himself.

"If you had stopped to listen to me instead of marching into that mansion your brother would have never had to go in after you! Frankly I don' know why he bothered--"

"Now you listen here you retarded little troll..."

"MARIO!!" Peach was ignored as Mario continued on his rant

"You sent MY little brother into a house full of the thing that he fears most in life armed with a vacuum cleaner and a flash light. He nearly died in that house! King Boo did a real number on him in their final battle. He had claw marks this long across his back" Mario gestured with his hands spacing them about 6 inches apart. "And he was scorched from head to toe. You did that to him, you sent him into that house. And he still, for reasons only the good Lord knows why, considers you a friend?"

"But Mario he's not so bad, he's my friend!" Mario mocked doing his best imitation of his little brother

"I can tell you this much Luigi doesn't need friends like you! And I find it a bit odd that Luigi comes to Isle Delfino with you and no one ever hears from him again! What did you send him off to do this time? Defeat the entire Koopa Army with a CD player and a key chain?"

The little inventor looked shocked and muttered something that Mario couldn't hear. He never made it back home...

"Mario…" he turned to the princess with an extremely saddened look he had no doubt embarrassed her with his outburst. Oddly though she did not look upset-

"That's enough," came her very soft reply in his ear, he tone was carried not even the slightest hint of anger… only understanding.

"Me, me, me, that's all you people think about is yourselves FLUDD IS THE ONE WHO IS Dying!!

"Die- …? You're not dieing you over grown squirt-gun!"

"FLUDD IS TOO DIEING AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT MARIO! Owwie…"

Mario rolled his eyes "You can't die you're not even alive."

"And you're not even a scientist so how would you know?"

"I'm afraid he's right FLUDD you can't die," Gadd gently patted the little contraption on its nozzle

"Oh… Well FLUDD does not feel well, Mario will help FLUDD?"

"Me?! What can I do, your cra-" Gadd shot the plumber a venomous look "er.. your inventor is standing right there? Talk to him"

"It's only fitting Mario; it's your fault that FLUDD is Malfunctioning, so you should be the one to fix it. Besides I have taken care of all the technical problems with the unit, all that's left now are plumbing problems, and if I'm not mistaken that is your area of expertise is it not?"

"Yes, but-"

"Oh I see FLUDD helped Mario, now Mario can't even help FLUDD?!... FINE, FLUDD does not need Mario's help!"  Mario fidgeted uncomfortably-

~Unbelievable, I actually feel bad! How can a Water tank know how to lay a guilt trip on someone??~

"Jerk- ¬.¬!" The little Unit uttered quietly,

"(o.o!)  Er… FLUDD,  I… I am sorry, what can I do to help you?"

"You can start by cleaning out FLUDD's tank" Gadd's tone was as sweet has honey but his glare just dared Mario to argue!

"Fine, how do I get this thing off?" Mario gently laid his hand on the glass tank filled with sludge.

"It unscrews, just turn it counter clockwise and it will come off"

"Co- Come off?"

"Yes that's right FLUDD, Mario is going to take your tank off and clean it out. you will be good as new in no time" Gadd explained to the unit as if it were a small child

"In front of all these people?"  The Princess, and chancellor were all standing about as well as the Royal Mushroom Pilots standing at attention as if they were solders of the Mushroom Kingdom Army.

"Well… yes?"

"Get away from FLUDD you 'technophile'!! FLUDD can not be seen with out its tank… FLUDD will be naked :("  Gadd scratched his head "Well now I've heard everything, FLUDD you can not stay as you are you have to let Mario clean your tank."

"FLUDD will only let Mario clean its tank if everyone turns around and closes their eyes!"

"o.O! Mama-mia, well I suppose that's reasonable… Princess…" How does one politely tell a Princess to go away?

"Say no more Mario…" the Princess took to walking down of the shore line running the length of the air strip with the chancellor and two pilots closely following behind her.

"Okay FLUDD they're gone and you're in Mario's hands now, I haven't met the drain I couldn't unclog or the pipe I couldn't patch!" Mario exclaimed cheerfully

"You're not going to be plumbing anything in Jail, Delfino penitentiary has perfect pipes!"

 the Plumber squinted as he looked up from his work and the gleaming of a bright gold badge caught his eye. 

"You sir, are under arrest!"

Yo I'm not dead! I simply have stuff to do ^_^ anyway here ya go a new chap, to sunshine.

Anyway not very good sorta rushed towards the end of the chap… but anyway enough of my ramblings… read review enjoy! For those of you who care I am writing the next pod chap. And I am currently looking for a certain chap of little brothers stink…. ( I swear to god I gotta clean up this pc I can't find anything -_-!) keep a bit of an eye out for other updates ~ Jes :)