After dinner, the four Marios drove into Center City Flarch. It was around nine, and the night sky had fallen upon them. As the got closer to the center, they saw less row homes and bums. The buildings got taller and the metal and tinted glass became more shiny. After they came off of the road they were on, they turned onto Main Street. It was extremely wide and had open restaurants, towering offices, and City Hall toward the end of the street. But at the end of the street, about half a mile down, there was a huge complex. There were white pillars in front of the door, and the outer walls stretched far and wide. There was a set of large fountains across the wide and full parking lot to the side of the building. Wario pulled their old Honda up to the front door, and a man in a white shirt and red vest greeted him, and got behind the wheel and took it to the parking lot. The Marios were standing on the sidewalk, watching people go in and out with company, luggage, and many other high class essentials. Mario lifted his head to look at the huge sign that blinked in blue, yellow, and pink. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw where he was. There were three golden letters, arranged in a triangle. They were all Gs. Behind the Gs was the outline of a goomba wearing a top hat and bow tie. Under all this, the words flew into Mario and Luigi's eyes and across their minds. They were at Goomba's Greedy Gala.
Mario broke out of his smiling trance. "Wait, I thought this place was just a room in the Party Cube. Since when does Goomba actually have a casino?"
"Remember when the MagiCube technology got introduced to the public, and they started making money off of tickets for play time in the party rooms?" Wario asked Mario.
"…Yeah." Mario answered.
"Remember how most of the money went to Goomba's room since it was the most popular?"
"Yeah." answered Luigi.
"Well now," said Waluigi, "Goo fulfilled his dream, and built the casino. Goomba's Greedy Gala. Let's get inside. I need a drink."
There were long rows of slot machines, tables placed liberally throughout the large room, a huge bar at one end, and a comfy lounge at the other. All of this was in one spacious area with no walls. The only exception was the back wall, made of brown marble, that sported four elevator doors .
At the counter, Waluigi handed Wario a note for five hundred gold coins. Wario pulled one of his own out, and slapped them both down. "A thousand. In hundreds." he said to the worker. The man pulled out two stacks of black chips and pushed them both over to Wario. Five were in each stack. Wario grabbed two cups and threw one stack into each. He handed a cup to Waluigi.
Mario approached the counter. He pulled out ten gold coins and clanked them down. "Um… ten ones please." The man gave Mario a funny "You've got to be kidding me" type of look. After a brief pause, he pulled out ten red chips and handed them to Mario. He put them in his back pocket. Luigi repeated the same process, getting the same amount. The two turned around and saw that Wario and Waluigi had already ditched them. They walked down an aisle of slot machines, studying the gala. The walls were high, lined with balconies. The new carpet felt soft under their feet, and the sight of rich ladies and gentlemen walking about with drinks in their hands made them feel like they were wasting a fortune just standing there.
Wario and Waluigi hit the blackjack tables. The troopa in the red vest dealt them each two cards. Wario had sixteen, and Waluigi had seventeen.
"Cheap!" Wario slammed down the cards and left the table, knowing that any attempt at winning was futile.
"Hit me." Waluigi ordered, optimistically. He was hit with a five. 22. He yelled out, and slammed his cards down as well. They had each just lost a hundred coins. If Wario had stayed, he would have hit to 21.
Mario and Luigi went to the giant roulette table in the middle of the casino. All of the city of Flarch's high rollers were standing around the table. The dark suits and expensive dresses clashed with the red and green plumber outfits that had walked onto the scene. They looked around scared like two new kids in grade school. They saw large stacks of green and black chips, fifties and hundreds, being placed on squares as large as their own tool boxes. The table was so large that several uniformed troopas were walking around on the table placing chips for the patrons, because no one's arms could reach the center, or even the squares. At the end of the table, at the exact center of the room, was a large wheel. A silver ball fell onto it. It spun swiftly, and the ball landed on some number. A few cheered, most gave light moans. A goomba in a bright pink top hat and a pink bow tie was the one kicking the ball onto the wheel, doing the honors. He was the owner of the vast casino. He turned around and noticed the legendary brothers.
"Mario and Luigi." he smiled greeting them.
"How are, you, Goomba? This is quite a place you've got here." Mario stammered at his success.
"Yeah," added Luigi, "it's like just yesterday you owned that cute little weapons store in Monstro."
"Now why don't you stop bothering him?" Wario and Waluigi were standing behind Mario. "And let him do his job."
"Oh, you guys are here too, cool." Goomba said, but with less enthusiasm. "Why don't you lay something on the table?"
Mario and Luigi looked at each other, and then pulled out the chips--five singles each. Wario and Waluigi just shook their heads.
"Okay… five then. Pick a number. You can either pick a full number or split it between two or four. You can also pick even or odds, red or bla-"
"We know how to play, Goomba." Mario cut him off. The table was huge, so there were more than the usual 36 numbers. This time, there were 72. Mario and Luigi each placed five coins in chips on number 37, in honor of their upcoming birthday. They handed their chips to the troopa, and he walked to the center of the table and placed their bets for them.
"Don't get your hopes up though, boys." Goomba told them, "These odds are pretty steep since you didn't split numbers. Your odds are 72 to 1."
"Yeah, you guys are toast. Call your mommy and tell her you just lost ten coins and you need a ride home." added Wario.
"Oh, will you shut up?" Mario snorted. Goomba pressed the spin button and kicked the ball. The wheel spun and the red and black mixed into a blur. It went for about ten seconds, and the ball rolled to a slow halt. Just when it was about to stop far from the 37, a Heavy Troopa who was hovering over the table fell backward, losing his balance. The obese turtle tried to stay up, but he hit the floor with a thud. The chips on the table bounced lightly, and the ball went up in the air about ten feet. It landed back on the wheel, bounced off several numbers, and rolled a bit. Goomba's eyes followed the ball. Rolled, rolled, rolled. It stopped. 37.
"37."
After the pause of silence, Mario and Luigi jumped up in the air. It was their first real casino win. People stared at them, but they didn't care. They yelled like little boys and hugged each other.
"Alright then, congratulations, you two. 360 for each of you." Goomba smiled.
Mario slammed one arm around his brother smiling. "Come on, let's hang in the lounge." They walked off toward the cashier. Wario, after watching them leave, looked back to see Waluigi staring at him.
"Well…" He hit him hard in the arm. "WHAT!?" He then stormed off to the slot machines.
The winners sat on a plump new red leather couch. A waitress brought over their juices that they had just ordered.
"So," Mario sipped his drink, "aren't you glad we came here now?"
"Yeah, Mario. I'll say it. You were right. I'm having a lot of fun. But remember. We're more vulnerable now that we have some money." Luigi warned.
"Yeah, that's true." Mario agreed. "So what are we gonna do about these flowers?" Mario was concered, and quickly hopping subjects. "Waluigi said that we're just going to Giant Land to mill around. So how are we going to solve any of this?"
"Well yeah, but don't worry too much toni-" Luigi stopped dead in his words. His jaw hung open.
Mario looked at Luigi, having noticed that he quickly stopped talking. His green eyes were fixed on something. Mario had no idea what, though. He also would never have guessed it hadn't Luigi eventually spit it out.
Luigi was looking at a site very bone chilling. It was something that had happened years ago, but the precise fear and experience stuck fresh in his head. The man he was looking at was wearing a loose black tuxedo suit and sunglasses. He was laughing with two women and holding a scotch in his hand. His face had gotten a bit more mature. He looked about fifty. His left cheek had a burn Luigi would have recognized anywhere. And he may as well have been recognizing it anywhere, since he was seeing this awful person at the largest hot spot in the grand city of Flarch. He had a strange accent. It was a mix of just about every European nationality anyone could think of. Luigi couldn't hear his words, but after focusing in just a little, he knew the creep's raspy and evil voice. He had large gray ears on top of his head, and a black nose on the tip of his face. Luigi was looking at an old henchman of both Bowser and Wart. Mouser was here.
"M-m-m…" juice ran from Luigi's mouth and fell onto the couch.
"Oh, come on, man!" Mario dodge some that almost fell onto his leg.
"MOUSER!" Luigi finally collected himself enough to shout the name. Mario finally caught Mouser in his view and almost leapt out of his skin.
"MOUSER!" Mario echoed Luigi. They knew Mouser was one mean and ruthless guy. Sure, he wasn't as scary as Bowser, but he wasn't one to be messed with. He especially hated Mario and Luigi. The burn was from when Luigi defeated him by throwing a bomb at him on his way to Wart's fortress. And from the look of things, he'd picked up some extra cash in the last ten years. Mouser quickly stopped what he was doing when he noticed that a hand truck was sitting outside the door to a storage room. A troopa in a casino uniform was leaning up against the wall next to it having a cigarette. Mouser stormed over to him and began screaming in his face. He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it in someone's drink. He pointed into the storage room and then to the front door. He ripped the name tag off the troopa. The startled employee pushed the hand truck into the storage room, and then left through the front door. He had just been fired. Mario noticed something about the hand truck. It struck his mind like a brick. There were small white boxes with gold leaf letters on them. Three G's. The troopa from the café was delivering one. Mario was about to get up to walk blindly into the storage room, but decided not to, as getting his neck snapped personally by Mouser wasn't on his to-do list that night. He knew they still had to get in there and find out what was going on. It was clear that Mouser was running something. And he wanted it to be secret. Luigi turned to see something out of the corner of his eye. It was a smoky table in the corner of the room. Three troopas were sitting at it, and they had one of the boxes in the middle of the table. One was slowly opening it and explaining something to the others. Without thinking or talking, Luigi shot off the couch and started to walk to the table. When he was halfway there, Mario grabbed his hand. He started to pull him away telling him that they had to leave as quickly as possible, but Luigi was close enough to see what was in the box.
"Black seeds. And black flowers." Luigi whispered. "That's what's in the boxes." Mario froze.
"Mouser and Goomba are behind this?" Suddenly, the casino didn't look so pleasant anymore. Winning more money was the least of Mario and Luigi's worries at this point. They saw several hammer soldiers already blocking the doors and eying the Mario brothers. Everything was happening very quickly and uncomfortably. The only gamble they were making now was which way to go to avoid having their arms and legs chopped off and the rest of them buried in holes in the desert. Goomba was an easy man to talk to, and they knew he'd explain what in the name of Yellow 5 was going on. They went to the roulette table and curtly tapped Goomba on the shoulder. He turned around.
"How can I help you boys, I'm a little busy?"
"Well, you can tell us why the hell you're producing vomit flowers in association with Mouser!" Mario barked at him. Goomba just closed his eyes and sighed. He tapped his foot twice and a panel opened up in front of him on the table. A large red button was in the middle. He stepped on it. Two muscular troopas in sunglasses apprehended them. This was a public casino, so Goomba didn't want to cause a ruckus. Neither did Mouser. Mouser knew they were there all along. It was the perfect and most unexpected opportunity to catch and destroy the Marios.
It had been quite a day so far. They had been pulled out of bed to investigate flowers, shipped off to their stupid cousins' place, and instantly won a mini fortune of 360 coins each. Now they were sitting in a small jail cell in the basement of Goomba's casino. Once the brothers regained consciousness, they noticed griping from on the other side of the wall. It was Wario. Mario stuck a hand out of his cell, and tried to push it as far as he could toward the cell next to him.
"Hey, you guys! We're in here! We need to get out quick!"
"Oh, thanks, fountain of knowledge!" Wario yelled. "These guys are gonna cut our freakin' heads off if we don't split soon!"
A metal door opened and a familiar man walked in. He had a troopa guard on each side. It was mouser. "So, you four thought you could foil it? You thought you could stop me?! Mouser?!" He looked angrily at Mario, then at Waluigi.
"Why are you doing this!" Mario shouted. "Stop it! Stop these plants right now!"
Mouser laughed and threw his hands in the air. Then he punched Mario sharply in the cheekbone. He was a strong man. Mario flew back against the wall. "Sure, I'll stop if you like! Hah! And I'll also tell you every detail of the plan! Heheheee!" Mouser puffed a cigarette. "Get them out. And kill them." Mouser left the room and left the work to the troopas. They drew machine guns and one of them started to unlock one of the cell doors. In the middle of unlocking the door, a red berry alarm started flashing, and a siren sounded. They looked at each other, and the troopa pulled out the key. He stuffed the key ring into his pocket and the two ran out of the room, cocking their guns.
"Oh, great, now we're still stuck in here." Mario threw his arms in the air.
"No, this is good. That bought us some time." Luigi encouraged.
"No, all this bought us is more time to stew in nausea over our coming death!"
From on the other side of the wall, Waluigi yelled at the two. "Why don't you quit whining and THINK! We need to find a way out of here, remember?!"
Mario rolled his eyes. "There's no way out. This is a jail cell!" In despair he leaned up against the door. It wasn't very good support. It swung out from under him very quickly, and he fell on his back with a thud. It was open.
"Good job." Wario said with a look of shock on his face. Luigi stepped over Mario's body and ran to the desk. He searched the top quickly, shuffling through papers, then scanned all the drawers. There were no keys.
"No keys. We'll have to come back for them later." Luigi helped Mario up and they ran out of the room.
After a short pause of looking at the door, after Mario and Luigi were long gone, Waluigi waved and said "Yeah, thanks guys! …Assholes."
Mario and Luigi ran down a dank hallway looking for an exit. Or a troopa with a master key. Whichever came first. They pushed a button at the end of the hallway, and a door split open. Mouser was right on the other side. He had two huge hammer troopas behind him. Mouser smiled a grin, and Mario and Luigi screamed like banshees. The took off down the hallway, and completely outran the tubby mouse and the heavy reptiles. They slammed the button at the end of the hallway repeatedly, and grabbed one of the small white boxes from the hand truck to take home as incriminating proof. It was evident that they were coming out of the same storage area Mouser had fired someone from.
"Do naught let zem have that!!!" Mouser screamed. Mario and Luigi darted across the floor, hopped up onto the roulette table and across it. Luigi, being the higher jumper was able to make it up onto a row of slot machines, carefully trotting down it, and Mario dodged a crowd of people like a little kid running through a mall. They almost made it to the door, but then they noticed the many guards standing there. They slid to a stop and ran the other direction toward the back wall. They had to go up into the maze-like hotel area. Luigi punched in a button and waited for the elevator to come. Agents and guards ran toward them, and as soon as the door opened, Mario and Luigi entered quickly. Luigi slammed a button close to the top to get the door to close. It did so just in time. The elevator started to rise quickly.
"Just what the heck is going on here?!" Mario screamed.
"And who tripped that alarm?" Luigi flailed. Suddenly, a hole opened up in the ceiling and a think green cloud started to pour in. They didn't know what it was, but it sure didn't look like the routine air freshener. "Hold your breath quick!" Luigi took a deep breath and cupped his hands over his mouth. Mario did the same. Floor 20. The green closed around them. Floor 30. Their heads started to hurt. Floor 40. Their chests started to pop in and out involuntarily. 50. Mario fidgeted on the floor while Luigi pounded on the door. 60, 61, 62. They piled out and fell into the hallway. Their faces were red, and they were gasping for air. A woman in a bathrobe screamed at the bizarre display, and when the Marios caught enough air in their lungs to move, the apologized and started to run down the hallway. The elevator next to the one they had just come out of opened. Six troopas came out. A man came out of the kitchen wheeling a metal cart with food on it. Mario and Luigi slipped into the elevator that was still open, and hit 70. The troopas did the last thing they could do. The grabbed the cart from the man's hand, and slammed it as hard as they could into the elevator in an attempt to knock the Marios unconscious. It sort of worked. It hit Luigi in the hip bone bruising him, and Mario in the solar plexes, a the most sensitive part of the midsection. They both collapsed onto the cart, and the elevator started to rise. They were so delirious and short of breath they couldn't see or speak. The doorbell dinged, and the door opened. They felt a light breeze on their heads. Mario's leg fell down, and knocked the wall. The leverage knocked them both out of the elevator and sent them rolling. The incline of the roof went downward a bit, and just enough to send them rolling toward the edge of the building. They hit a small bump and the jolt sent them flying off. In that instant, they regained consciousness, and saw the entire city of Flarch from 70 stories up. It was sort of like riding a bike hitting a piece of wood, and flying a bit through the air, knowing you were going to land and scrape yourself. Only about a thousand times worse. In this case, they were rolling out of the elevator on the roof of a casino/hotel half-beaten and on a food cart to fall 70 stories into some nasty traffic. They fell a few inches and felt something grip around their ankles. The two things pulled them up to safety.
"Are you two ready t go home yet?" Wario slapped Mario's half-dead face.
"Yeah, I've had just about enough." Waluigi flicked Luigi on the nose. "This is the last time we take you anywhere."
Mario broke out of his smiling trance. "Wait, I thought this place was just a room in the Party Cube. Since when does Goomba actually have a casino?"
"Remember when the MagiCube technology got introduced to the public, and they started making money off of tickets for play time in the party rooms?" Wario asked Mario.
"…Yeah." Mario answered.
"Remember how most of the money went to Goomba's room since it was the most popular?"
"Yeah." answered Luigi.
"Well now," said Waluigi, "Goo fulfilled his dream, and built the casino. Goomba's Greedy Gala. Let's get inside. I need a drink."
There were long rows of slot machines, tables placed liberally throughout the large room, a huge bar at one end, and a comfy lounge at the other. All of this was in one spacious area with no walls. The only exception was the back wall, made of brown marble, that sported four elevator doors .
At the counter, Waluigi handed Wario a note for five hundred gold coins. Wario pulled one of his own out, and slapped them both down. "A thousand. In hundreds." he said to the worker. The man pulled out two stacks of black chips and pushed them both over to Wario. Five were in each stack. Wario grabbed two cups and threw one stack into each. He handed a cup to Waluigi.
Mario approached the counter. He pulled out ten gold coins and clanked them down. "Um… ten ones please." The man gave Mario a funny "You've got to be kidding me" type of look. After a brief pause, he pulled out ten red chips and handed them to Mario. He put them in his back pocket. Luigi repeated the same process, getting the same amount. The two turned around and saw that Wario and Waluigi had already ditched them. They walked down an aisle of slot machines, studying the gala. The walls were high, lined with balconies. The new carpet felt soft under their feet, and the sight of rich ladies and gentlemen walking about with drinks in their hands made them feel like they were wasting a fortune just standing there.
Wario and Waluigi hit the blackjack tables. The troopa in the red vest dealt them each two cards. Wario had sixteen, and Waluigi had seventeen.
"Cheap!" Wario slammed down the cards and left the table, knowing that any attempt at winning was futile.
"Hit me." Waluigi ordered, optimistically. He was hit with a five. 22. He yelled out, and slammed his cards down as well. They had each just lost a hundred coins. If Wario had stayed, he would have hit to 21.
Mario and Luigi went to the giant roulette table in the middle of the casino. All of the city of Flarch's high rollers were standing around the table. The dark suits and expensive dresses clashed with the red and green plumber outfits that had walked onto the scene. They looked around scared like two new kids in grade school. They saw large stacks of green and black chips, fifties and hundreds, being placed on squares as large as their own tool boxes. The table was so large that several uniformed troopas were walking around on the table placing chips for the patrons, because no one's arms could reach the center, or even the squares. At the end of the table, at the exact center of the room, was a large wheel. A silver ball fell onto it. It spun swiftly, and the ball landed on some number. A few cheered, most gave light moans. A goomba in a bright pink top hat and a pink bow tie was the one kicking the ball onto the wheel, doing the honors. He was the owner of the vast casino. He turned around and noticed the legendary brothers.
"Mario and Luigi." he smiled greeting them.
"How are, you, Goomba? This is quite a place you've got here." Mario stammered at his success.
"Yeah," added Luigi, "it's like just yesterday you owned that cute little weapons store in Monstro."
"Now why don't you stop bothering him?" Wario and Waluigi were standing behind Mario. "And let him do his job."
"Oh, you guys are here too, cool." Goomba said, but with less enthusiasm. "Why don't you lay something on the table?"
Mario and Luigi looked at each other, and then pulled out the chips--five singles each. Wario and Waluigi just shook their heads.
"Okay… five then. Pick a number. You can either pick a full number or split it between two or four. You can also pick even or odds, red or bla-"
"We know how to play, Goomba." Mario cut him off. The table was huge, so there were more than the usual 36 numbers. This time, there were 72. Mario and Luigi each placed five coins in chips on number 37, in honor of their upcoming birthday. They handed their chips to the troopa, and he walked to the center of the table and placed their bets for them.
"Don't get your hopes up though, boys." Goomba told them, "These odds are pretty steep since you didn't split numbers. Your odds are 72 to 1."
"Yeah, you guys are toast. Call your mommy and tell her you just lost ten coins and you need a ride home." added Wario.
"Oh, will you shut up?" Mario snorted. Goomba pressed the spin button and kicked the ball. The wheel spun and the red and black mixed into a blur. It went for about ten seconds, and the ball rolled to a slow halt. Just when it was about to stop far from the 37, a Heavy Troopa who was hovering over the table fell backward, losing his balance. The obese turtle tried to stay up, but he hit the floor with a thud. The chips on the table bounced lightly, and the ball went up in the air about ten feet. It landed back on the wheel, bounced off several numbers, and rolled a bit. Goomba's eyes followed the ball. Rolled, rolled, rolled. It stopped. 37.
"37."
After the pause of silence, Mario and Luigi jumped up in the air. It was their first real casino win. People stared at them, but they didn't care. They yelled like little boys and hugged each other.
"Alright then, congratulations, you two. 360 for each of you." Goomba smiled.
Mario slammed one arm around his brother smiling. "Come on, let's hang in the lounge." They walked off toward the cashier. Wario, after watching them leave, looked back to see Waluigi staring at him.
"Well…" He hit him hard in the arm. "WHAT!?" He then stormed off to the slot machines.
The winners sat on a plump new red leather couch. A waitress brought over their juices that they had just ordered.
"So," Mario sipped his drink, "aren't you glad we came here now?"
"Yeah, Mario. I'll say it. You were right. I'm having a lot of fun. But remember. We're more vulnerable now that we have some money." Luigi warned.
"Yeah, that's true." Mario agreed. "So what are we gonna do about these flowers?" Mario was concered, and quickly hopping subjects. "Waluigi said that we're just going to Giant Land to mill around. So how are we going to solve any of this?"
"Well yeah, but don't worry too much toni-" Luigi stopped dead in his words. His jaw hung open.
Mario looked at Luigi, having noticed that he quickly stopped talking. His green eyes were fixed on something. Mario had no idea what, though. He also would never have guessed it hadn't Luigi eventually spit it out.
Luigi was looking at a site very bone chilling. It was something that had happened years ago, but the precise fear and experience stuck fresh in his head. The man he was looking at was wearing a loose black tuxedo suit and sunglasses. He was laughing with two women and holding a scotch in his hand. His face had gotten a bit more mature. He looked about fifty. His left cheek had a burn Luigi would have recognized anywhere. And he may as well have been recognizing it anywhere, since he was seeing this awful person at the largest hot spot in the grand city of Flarch. He had a strange accent. It was a mix of just about every European nationality anyone could think of. Luigi couldn't hear his words, but after focusing in just a little, he knew the creep's raspy and evil voice. He had large gray ears on top of his head, and a black nose on the tip of his face. Luigi was looking at an old henchman of both Bowser and Wart. Mouser was here.
"M-m-m…" juice ran from Luigi's mouth and fell onto the couch.
"Oh, come on, man!" Mario dodge some that almost fell onto his leg.
"MOUSER!" Luigi finally collected himself enough to shout the name. Mario finally caught Mouser in his view and almost leapt out of his skin.
"MOUSER!" Mario echoed Luigi. They knew Mouser was one mean and ruthless guy. Sure, he wasn't as scary as Bowser, but he wasn't one to be messed with. He especially hated Mario and Luigi. The burn was from when Luigi defeated him by throwing a bomb at him on his way to Wart's fortress. And from the look of things, he'd picked up some extra cash in the last ten years. Mouser quickly stopped what he was doing when he noticed that a hand truck was sitting outside the door to a storage room. A troopa in a casino uniform was leaning up against the wall next to it having a cigarette. Mouser stormed over to him and began screaming in his face. He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it in someone's drink. He pointed into the storage room and then to the front door. He ripped the name tag off the troopa. The startled employee pushed the hand truck into the storage room, and then left through the front door. He had just been fired. Mario noticed something about the hand truck. It struck his mind like a brick. There were small white boxes with gold leaf letters on them. Three G's. The troopa from the café was delivering one. Mario was about to get up to walk blindly into the storage room, but decided not to, as getting his neck snapped personally by Mouser wasn't on his to-do list that night. He knew they still had to get in there and find out what was going on. It was clear that Mouser was running something. And he wanted it to be secret. Luigi turned to see something out of the corner of his eye. It was a smoky table in the corner of the room. Three troopas were sitting at it, and they had one of the boxes in the middle of the table. One was slowly opening it and explaining something to the others. Without thinking or talking, Luigi shot off the couch and started to walk to the table. When he was halfway there, Mario grabbed his hand. He started to pull him away telling him that they had to leave as quickly as possible, but Luigi was close enough to see what was in the box.
"Black seeds. And black flowers." Luigi whispered. "That's what's in the boxes." Mario froze.
"Mouser and Goomba are behind this?" Suddenly, the casino didn't look so pleasant anymore. Winning more money was the least of Mario and Luigi's worries at this point. They saw several hammer soldiers already blocking the doors and eying the Mario brothers. Everything was happening very quickly and uncomfortably. The only gamble they were making now was which way to go to avoid having their arms and legs chopped off and the rest of them buried in holes in the desert. Goomba was an easy man to talk to, and they knew he'd explain what in the name of Yellow 5 was going on. They went to the roulette table and curtly tapped Goomba on the shoulder. He turned around.
"How can I help you boys, I'm a little busy?"
"Well, you can tell us why the hell you're producing vomit flowers in association with Mouser!" Mario barked at him. Goomba just closed his eyes and sighed. He tapped his foot twice and a panel opened up in front of him on the table. A large red button was in the middle. He stepped on it. Two muscular troopas in sunglasses apprehended them. This was a public casino, so Goomba didn't want to cause a ruckus. Neither did Mouser. Mouser knew they were there all along. It was the perfect and most unexpected opportunity to catch and destroy the Marios.
It had been quite a day so far. They had been pulled out of bed to investigate flowers, shipped off to their stupid cousins' place, and instantly won a mini fortune of 360 coins each. Now they were sitting in a small jail cell in the basement of Goomba's casino. Once the brothers regained consciousness, they noticed griping from on the other side of the wall. It was Wario. Mario stuck a hand out of his cell, and tried to push it as far as he could toward the cell next to him.
"Hey, you guys! We're in here! We need to get out quick!"
"Oh, thanks, fountain of knowledge!" Wario yelled. "These guys are gonna cut our freakin' heads off if we don't split soon!"
A metal door opened and a familiar man walked in. He had a troopa guard on each side. It was mouser. "So, you four thought you could foil it? You thought you could stop me?! Mouser?!" He looked angrily at Mario, then at Waluigi.
"Why are you doing this!" Mario shouted. "Stop it! Stop these plants right now!"
Mouser laughed and threw his hands in the air. Then he punched Mario sharply in the cheekbone. He was a strong man. Mario flew back against the wall. "Sure, I'll stop if you like! Hah! And I'll also tell you every detail of the plan! Heheheee!" Mouser puffed a cigarette. "Get them out. And kill them." Mouser left the room and left the work to the troopas. They drew machine guns and one of them started to unlock one of the cell doors. In the middle of unlocking the door, a red berry alarm started flashing, and a siren sounded. They looked at each other, and the troopa pulled out the key. He stuffed the key ring into his pocket and the two ran out of the room, cocking their guns.
"Oh, great, now we're still stuck in here." Mario threw his arms in the air.
"No, this is good. That bought us some time." Luigi encouraged.
"No, all this bought us is more time to stew in nausea over our coming death!"
From on the other side of the wall, Waluigi yelled at the two. "Why don't you quit whining and THINK! We need to find a way out of here, remember?!"
Mario rolled his eyes. "There's no way out. This is a jail cell!" In despair he leaned up against the door. It wasn't very good support. It swung out from under him very quickly, and he fell on his back with a thud. It was open.
"Good job." Wario said with a look of shock on his face. Luigi stepped over Mario's body and ran to the desk. He searched the top quickly, shuffling through papers, then scanned all the drawers. There were no keys.
"No keys. We'll have to come back for them later." Luigi helped Mario up and they ran out of the room.
After a short pause of looking at the door, after Mario and Luigi were long gone, Waluigi waved and said "Yeah, thanks guys! …Assholes."
Mario and Luigi ran down a dank hallway looking for an exit. Or a troopa with a master key. Whichever came first. They pushed a button at the end of the hallway, and a door split open. Mouser was right on the other side. He had two huge hammer troopas behind him. Mouser smiled a grin, and Mario and Luigi screamed like banshees. The took off down the hallway, and completely outran the tubby mouse and the heavy reptiles. They slammed the button at the end of the hallway repeatedly, and grabbed one of the small white boxes from the hand truck to take home as incriminating proof. It was evident that they were coming out of the same storage area Mouser had fired someone from.
"Do naught let zem have that!!!" Mouser screamed. Mario and Luigi darted across the floor, hopped up onto the roulette table and across it. Luigi, being the higher jumper was able to make it up onto a row of slot machines, carefully trotting down it, and Mario dodged a crowd of people like a little kid running through a mall. They almost made it to the door, but then they noticed the many guards standing there. They slid to a stop and ran the other direction toward the back wall. They had to go up into the maze-like hotel area. Luigi punched in a button and waited for the elevator to come. Agents and guards ran toward them, and as soon as the door opened, Mario and Luigi entered quickly. Luigi slammed a button close to the top to get the door to close. It did so just in time. The elevator started to rise quickly.
"Just what the heck is going on here?!" Mario screamed.
"And who tripped that alarm?" Luigi flailed. Suddenly, a hole opened up in the ceiling and a think green cloud started to pour in. They didn't know what it was, but it sure didn't look like the routine air freshener. "Hold your breath quick!" Luigi took a deep breath and cupped his hands over his mouth. Mario did the same. Floor 20. The green closed around them. Floor 30. Their heads started to hurt. Floor 40. Their chests started to pop in and out involuntarily. 50. Mario fidgeted on the floor while Luigi pounded on the door. 60, 61, 62. They piled out and fell into the hallway. Their faces were red, and they were gasping for air. A woman in a bathrobe screamed at the bizarre display, and when the Marios caught enough air in their lungs to move, the apologized and started to run down the hallway. The elevator next to the one they had just come out of opened. Six troopas came out. A man came out of the kitchen wheeling a metal cart with food on it. Mario and Luigi slipped into the elevator that was still open, and hit 70. The troopas did the last thing they could do. The grabbed the cart from the man's hand, and slammed it as hard as they could into the elevator in an attempt to knock the Marios unconscious. It sort of worked. It hit Luigi in the hip bone bruising him, and Mario in the solar plexes, a the most sensitive part of the midsection. They both collapsed onto the cart, and the elevator started to rise. They were so delirious and short of breath they couldn't see or speak. The doorbell dinged, and the door opened. They felt a light breeze on their heads. Mario's leg fell down, and knocked the wall. The leverage knocked them both out of the elevator and sent them rolling. The incline of the roof went downward a bit, and just enough to send them rolling toward the edge of the building. They hit a small bump and the jolt sent them flying off. In that instant, they regained consciousness, and saw the entire city of Flarch from 70 stories up. It was sort of like riding a bike hitting a piece of wood, and flying a bit through the air, knowing you were going to land and scrape yourself. Only about a thousand times worse. In this case, they were rolling out of the elevator on the roof of a casino/hotel half-beaten and on a food cart to fall 70 stories into some nasty traffic. They fell a few inches and felt something grip around their ankles. The two things pulled them up to safety.
"Are you two ready t go home yet?" Wario slapped Mario's half-dead face.
"Yeah, I've had just about enough." Waluigi flicked Luigi on the nose. "This is the last time we take you anywhere."