"What'cha doing Toad?" The youngest, at only four years old, of the seven Mushroom Retainers asked.
"I'm packing." Toad answered as he threw some supplies into a backpack.
"Are you taking all of this stuff?" The little one asked, as he looked at the items strewn across the bed in Toads chambers.
A knife, a rope, a grappling hook, some food stuffs, a pair of goggles, Luigi's actually, and some other less important things. One by one Toad loaded the items it the pack.
"Yes, I am taking all these things."
"Where are you going Toad?"
"I'm going on a dange...err...I'm going on a mission." He answered; he didn't want to upset the child by telling him this mission could be life threatening. "But you can't tell anyone ok? It's a secret mission."
"Wow, that's so cool, just like a secret agent?" The little boy asked excitedly.
"Yeah, just like a secret agent..." Toad chuckled slightly and smiled at the boy. He finished his packing then turned to the boy.
"Now you be good while I'm gone ok short stuff?"
"I'll be good I promise!" The little mushroom placed a hand over his heart.
"Ok then, remember you can't tell any one that you saw me leave." Toad said the boy nodded.
"Now come over here and give me a hug." Toad knelt down and the boy rushed over to him and gave him a squeeze.
"I'm going to miss you a lot." Toad said trying not to cry. He was not sure that he would ever see the boy again.
"I'm goanna miss you too." The boy hug Toad tighter
"What if mommy asks me where you are?"
"You can tell mom, but no one else."
"I gotta go" Toad stood up and walked towards the door.
"Bye, bye, I love you little brother..." Toad said as he walked out of his room leaving the small retainer-in-training behind.
Mario had been looking for Luigi for hours, he was surprised the bubble hadn't popped and he'd not fallen to his doom yet.
~Weege where are you? Could he be still back at the castle? Or could he be...~
Mario shook the thoughts from his head.
"He's fine wherever he is." Mario assured himself.
He looked over the landscape as the bubble passed over a town. Even from as high as he was Mario could still clearly see many busy mushroom people in quite a panic but he didn't see Luigi anywhere. ~I wonder what's going on down there? ~
Mario sat down, quite awkwardly, in the bubble. It wobbled a little, much to Mario's displeasure. He was tired of being in that bubble, tired of fearing it would pop, tired of worrying about Luigi...and the princess, and just plain tired in general. Sleep was not something he was getting in large quantities in this strange new place; he placed a hand on his stomach as it growled loudly, food either.
"I wish I could get out of this bubble..." Mario thought out loud.
...Wish granted...
The bubble popped. Mario let out a startled yelp of surprise as the, semi-solid, floor he was sitting on gave way, and he began to fall.
"Mama-miiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaa!" Mario screamed as he plummeted towards the earth.
His life passed before his eyes. The time he and Luigi ditched school to see Star Wars, his first kiss, meeting the princess, everything he'd done in his 21 years of life played in his head as if it were some kind of movie. Even moments that he had long since forgotten came back as vividly as if they had happened five minutes ago.
Mario was ready to meet his maker, or he would have been if fate hadn't intervened.
Mario fell faster and faster, then he stopped with a jerk and bobbed up and down slightly.
He opened his eyes, not realizing that he had shut them, he was dangling just a few feet from the ground. He looked up to see what had saved him from his, plumber pancake, fate. He saw a Koopa sitting on a cloud with a fishing pole in its hands. He was the catch of the day it seemed. The hook had gotten caught on Mario's shirt collar.
The Koopa wiggled the fishing pole a little bit and Mario fell off. A crowd of distraught Mushroomers made looked on.
"Oh...thank you, thank you, thank you! THANK YOU!" Mario said, a smile from ear to
ear spreading across his face.
"I really thought I was done for..." Mario started.
"And who says you're not?" Came a voice from behind him
Mario turned around to see...
"You" Mario said coldly
"Yes me, and I have a name. Kemak of the house of Koopa. Chief Magikoopa to the Koopa clan."
Isn't it funny how fate can pat you on the back with one hand; and slap you in the face with the other?
"Your name's goanna be Mud when I get done with you!" Mario lunged at Kemak, who didn't move one bit.
Mario felt his feet begin to lift off the ground.
"Thank you Lukitu" Kemak replied to the Koopa on the cloud that was holding Mario by the back straps of his overalls.
"What have you done with Princess Peach? Where is she?" Mario struggled to release himself from Lukitu's grasp to no avail.
"That is none of your concern...no I think you should be more concerned with the where a bouts of your brother."
Mario gasped they did do something to Luigi.
"Where is he? If you've harmed so much as one hair on his head so help me..." Mario struggled violently but Lukitu's grip held fast.
"You are in no position to be making threats, Human!" Mario was surprised that Kemak knew of people. The look on Mario's face said it all.
"Oh yes, I know all about the Human world...do you think that you and your sibling are the first ones to come to the Mushroom world? Well you'd be wrong, very wrong. You Humans are so pathetic..." Kemak turned his back to Mario.
"You Koopas go around snatching princesses from their beds and Humans are pathetic?" Mario uttered dryly.
"Don't take such a tone with me young one or..." Kemak started he didn't appreciate being disrespected by a lower form of life such as a Human.
"Or what four eyes?" Lukitu stifled a snicker Kemak stared at the Koopa instantly shutting it up. The Mushroomers wouldn't dare laugh, or even smile.
"I have had enough of your mouth!" Kemak raised his wand and chanted some forgotten Koopa language. Three multi colored lights shot from the wand and just as they where about to hit Mario, he unbuckled his overall straps, Lukitu lost its grip and Mario fell to the ground just barely being missed by the wands magic light. The Lukitu was not as lucky and got hit. It disappeared without a trace. All the Mushroom people trembled with fear at the power of a Magikoopa.
"You...What have you done?!" Kemak screeched
"You did it, and now your goanna get it!" Mario charged the Magikoopa.
"You are a fool..." Kemak chanted a phrase and Mario ran right through him. Mario landed on his face and skidded to a halt at the feet of a little mushroom girl. She screamed and ran behind her mother.
"You can not beat one such as I"
"Grrrr... Fight me you little sissy!" Mario shouted.
"Fight you? I will kill you for what you have done!"
Kemak chanted more ancient words and waved his wand. Mario was suddenly surrounded by water. Mario was in total shock. One minute he's fighting a Koopa the next he's 20,000 Leagues under the sea? He made a mad dash for the surface. Mario heard Kemak's voice in his mind
~If you make it I would be impressed, Human. You will not interfere again! And as punishment for your foolish actions... your brother will pay the price. ~
Mario broke the water's surface gasping for air. He looked around he'd been teleported again. This time to the pond that was in the center of town. Many mushroom people gathered around the pond. Many gasps and murmurs were heard. They were having a hard time believing that anybody could survive a fight with a dreaded Magikoopa, especially when that Magikoopa happened to be Kemak.
Mario looked skyward and shouted "I'm coming for you, you dirty rotten Koopa! And when I get my hands on you no amount of cheap parlor tricks are going to save you. You here me!" Mario shook an angry fist at the, light blue cloudless, sky.
A burly Mushroom man pushed his way through the crowd of the town's citizens making his way over to Mario, who stumbled out of the pond; he wrung out his cap.
"Thank you! You saved me!" The mushroom said enthusiastically. Mario just gave him a questioning look. He hadn't saved anyone intentionally.
"I'm the mayor of this here town, and you're the hero of this here town!"
"And what town might that be?" Mario asked very agitated, not with the mayor but with the situation.
"Why this is Toad Town of course!" The flabby figure pointed to a large sigh just to the left.
Toad Town. Pop.236 Mario stared at the sign ~Oh...my...Goood, I've landed in Green Acers~
"Come right this way m'boy" The mayor said leading Mario by the arm.
"You must be tired after the fight. We will get you a nice hot meal and a big glass of goat milk..." The promise of any meal was enough to get Mario to go willingly, But goat milk? Yuck!
Mario made a face. ~Darling I love you; but give me 5th Av.~
Luigi lay on the, dusty but ultimately, comfortable bed in one of the rooms of the, luxuriously decomposing, house. He'd searched the entire house but hadn't found anything useful other than a backpack and a flashlight. (No, the backpack is NOT a Poltergust 3000*) He moved uneasily on the plush bed his injuries were really starting to hurt now. He laid, his head on his folded arms, staring out the window watching the rain drops hit the window pain.
He wondered how Mario was doing, Luigi recalled the day before when Mario and he had come to the Mushroom Kingdom. And how Mario hadn't moved for a whole half an hour after falling out of that warp pipe. Luigi had been sure that Mario had gone to that big plumbing shop in the sky.
Not that Luigi wasn't pleased that Mario was alive. It was just that he was half-dead one minute and totally fine then next. And what happened to that mushroom?
And how did Mario survive getting roasted? His clothes weren't even singed. Did it have something to do with that glowing yellow star?
Then there was Luigi himself. What was that strange tingly sensation that he'd felt while he was laying beneath all that rubble?
When Bowser tossed Luigi through the wall the first time it hurt worse than anything that Luigi had ever felt before. But the second time he felt nothing.
And why did that Koopa separate Mario and Luigi?
Could it be so they would spend more time looking for each other instead of Princess Peach? And if so, why would they be worried about two plumbers from Brooklyn?
Luigi sighed heavily, he didn't want to think about any of that, but he couldn't help it. He looked out side; the rain had let up considerably. He could probably leave now if he wanted but couldn't bring him self to get off of the comfy bed.
He closed his eye's and listened to the soft droplets of rain falling on window sill
Drip drop, drop...drip, drip, drip, drop. Drop, drip, drop...drop, drop, drip.
~Man, I gotta pee~
Luigi painfully drug himself out of bed and to the bathroom. He finished his business and started to wash his hands in the gray porcelain sink. He was surprised the water was still running in this house. Luigi was about to return to his, cozy dust bunny farm of a, bed when something caught his attention.
There was bright light shining through the hole filled curtains covering the window at the far end of the bathroom. Luigi went to see what was making that kind of light. He slowly walked over to the window, the only way he could walk since he was in so much pain, and pushed back the curtain. He couldn't help but smile at what he saw.
The sun was shinning very brightly the birds were singing there were butterflies and everything. He opened the window and stuck his hand out. The sun felt so warm and inviting, he just had to go outside.
"Wow, the whether is unpredictable here! Well I guess I can leave now, better get my stuff: Sigh: and say goodbye to that warm bed." Luigi walked back into the Master bedroom, or at least he assumed it was the Master bedroom, it was the only bedroom in the house that had a full bath. He nearly fell over when he looked out the window of the bedroom. It was pouring again.
"Whoa, unpredictable is right! I guess I cant leave..." He grinned at least he could get some more quality time in with his new friend the bed. He was about to lie down when he remembered he left the window in the bathroom open.
"It will get cold in here if I don't shut that" He said for no other purpose than to hear a human voice. That house was too quiet and it was creepy.
In the bathroom he lifted the curtain to get at the window. He let a surprised gasp escape him as he looked into the, sun soaked, land outside the window. He couldn't believe the weird-ness of the whether in this place. He ran his hand over the rotting wood of the windowsill. It was dry as a bone. But how could it be it was just raining cats and dogs? He shook his head, what did it matter really, he could now leave this house that was creeping him out more every minute. He shut the window and returned to the bedroom once again to collect his things. He did a double take at the sight of the outside world. Rain. rain, rain. and more rain.
"What the...?" He uttered scratching his head beneath his cap.
Back and forth from bath to bed he went trying to figure out what in the blue hell was going on. The same results every time, sunny in the bathroom, rainy in the bedroom, and freaky as hell everywhere else. Finally fed up he tore the curtains off the window in the bathroom and positioned himself at the doorway to the bath so he could see both windows at once.
He would have jumped out of his shoes if they hadn't been tied. It was raining on one side of the house and sunny on the other?
"That's it I'm out of this funny farm! Rain or no rain!" He picked up his backpack and shoved the flashlight inside. He started for the door when a sinister voice called to him.
~Leaving so soon? Don't you like our house? ~ The ominous voice asked. Luigi whipped around.
"W...w...who's th...there?" He answered meekly looking around in every possibly direction. The voice seemed to be coming from everywhere but at the same time from nowhere at all. Needless to say Luigi was not a happy camper.
~Yes, you must like our house, you came in without being invited...~ The voice said with a momentous tone.
"I...I...I'm s...s..sorr-rry I w...was l...lost and--"
~SILENCE! ~ The voice boomed. Luigi's hand's shot upward to his ears.
He would have run but was frozen in place, too frightened to move. Frozen would be a fitting choice of words since the room temperature that had been a comfy 70 degrees had now dropped to 30 and kept going down.
~Since you like our house so much you can stay here with us...FOREVER! ~
Luigi didn't like the sound of staying in that house for another five minutes let a lone forever. He made a brake for the door, but was slammed shut by some unseen force just as he got there. He franticly tugged at the doorknob but that door was shut tight he turned around and came face to face with a giant floating ball of white something.
Luigi backed up against the door looking at the white mass of air. He stared into the two protruding black eyes of the object of his fears. The blackest eyes Luigi had ever seen. Like a dolls eyes. Lifeless, unfeeling.
"Y...You're a g...g...gg ghosssss-tt" Luigi blurted out with a considerable amount of effort to make himself understood.
The specter just floated there silently then bowed it's head, which was it's whole body really, as if to say yes. Just then several more of them appeared out of nowhere, ten of them in total. But none of the other ghosts where as big as the one that was right in Luigi's face. They were little about the size of basketballs. Luigi looked around horrified. He was trapped in a room full of ghosts. It was a good thing he'd already went to the bathroom or he would have wet his pants. He still might. Luigi couldn't stand it anymore so he took action.
"I'm n...not a...affff-raid, g...gghosss-sts arrr-ent r...real!" He closed his eyes and covered his ears and repeated the phrase over and over again. He continued like that for nearly ten minutes. He finally worked up enough nerve to see if the ghosts were still there. He cautiously opened one eye still mumbling the phrase all the while.
They were gone. He opened his other eye and looked around the room. Nobody there but him. He pealed himself from the door and waked to the center of the room. Nothing.
He breathed a sigh of relief; but it quickly turned into a gasp when someone or something tapped him on the back. He slowly turned around
~BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!~
Luigi was consciously gone long before his body hit the old wooden floor.
Somewhere in the farthest corner of the mushroom world a figure sits shivering in a snowy tundra. That figure is none-other than Lukitu.
"Masss-ttter K..K...Kemak?"
To be continued...
Next chapter: Untitled as of yet: Mario finds out what the Koopas wanted with the mayor of Toad Town and poor Luigi has some more fun in the ghost house. But you readers get to decide how he escapes. Check out my author notes below to find out how.
Well ok that was kind of miss leading what I really want your opinion on is weather I should let Luigi off easy by having him kicked out in a humorous way? Or make him fight his way out? if I don't get reviews I'll have to pick one but it might not be the one you wanted so let me know.
I got stingy on the descriptions for Mario & Toad's parts of the chapter sorry about that. Those were written yesterday. I had a little case of writer's block. But I don't think it hurts the chapter too much since their parts are mostly dialogue anyway. Thanks for reading next chapter should be up by 2/7/02 -Jes ^_^