Chapter Four has arrived! Wait, I forgot the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I don't own Mario or any of his pals. Or the Koopalings. Yeh.
Read on...
Roy couldn't see anything. He rubbed his eyes to rid himself of his sleepiness, and found himself still on Ludwig's bed. He looked around, and was surprised by what his eyes met. The room, which was a complete and total mess the day before, was now briskly clean.
What a neat freak that Kooky is, Roy thought to himself as he got off the bed. He didn't know what he was going to do now; he couldn't leave this room, Ludwig was nowhere to be seen, and his stomach was complaining of hunger.
As much as he tried to restrain it, a mischievous smile crossed Roy's face. He had this whole room to himself, or at least until Ludwig returned. These inventions seemed almost as tempting as an Iggy Punching Bag.
Roy looked around, and touched a strange, squirming blob of goop. A weird sensation coursed through Roy's veins, as if he had just dived headfirst into a puddle of icy water. These contraptions were just crying out, "Touch me!"
As if he wasn't tempted enough, the next thing that met Roy's eyes was a huge, shiny, sparkling red button. It was sending messages to Roy's brain. You must touch me! You must touch me!
No! Roy fought back. I'm not touching you.
The button continued to persuade him. Come on, it won't do any harm! Ludwig will never find out.
Roy was sweating.
Uh… no! No, I will not touch you! Not now, not ever!
Unfortunately, Roy was fighting a losing battle.
You won't regret it! The button tempted.
Uh… uh… FINE! FINE! Just one quick little click. Roy gave up trying to stay away from the crimson button. He extended one clawed finger, reached forward, and—
"What are you doing?" Ludwig shouted as soon as he entered the room and saw Roy almost pressing the button. "Don't touch that!"
But alas, the chocolate-loving philosopher was just a moment too late, for at that instant, Roy's finger slipped, slamming the button. Instantly, a trap door opened, throwing Roy down into the dark abyss.
"ROY!" Ludwig's furious scream echoed from above.
Roy was falling quickly; he felt his sunglasses slip off from the top of his head. He didn't know where he was going or why, and he didn't know what was going to happen next. Everything was totally dark as he flew down the deep tunnel. Finally, he collapsed from out of nowhere. He picked up his shades in confusion. Looking around him, he saw...
"Mario's Pad!" Roy pronounced. He was standing right in front of the building that had handed him and his siblings so much pain. This was the home of Mario and Luigi; it looked rickety and tasteless, but did seem to have a few renovations since he had last attempted to defeat them.
"Whoa... weird," Roy murmured to himself. "Why the heck did Ludwig make a tunnel here?" He searched around for a way out, and, luckily, found a sign. He read it.
To Mushroom Way"Mushroom Way, huh?" Roy contemplated. "I've never been there. Well, it's better than doing nothi—"
Before Roy could finish the sentence, he heard something from behind him. Anxious it would be the Mario Bros., he looked around.
Roy sighed. It was just Ludwig. He had also pressed the red button, and he had just appeared next to him.
"Roy! What have you done?" yelled Ludwig as he ran to him. "Why did you press that button? It teleports you to Mario's Pad!"
"No duh," Roy answered.
"I cannot believe that you would go to such extremes! Pressing a random button?" Ludwig growled. Roy was a bit taken aback.
"Gee, sorry Kooky," Roy apologized half-sarcastically, half-truly.
"And I keep telling you not to call me that!" Ludwig shouted angrily. Roy looked a bit stunned at Ludwig's sudden hysteria, but, as he had expected, Ludwig began to calm down again. Taking a deep breath to pacify his nerves, Ludwig added, "Let's get out of this place. We can take a shortcut through Mushroom Way and go to the castle. We must head due southeast in order to find a pipe that leads us there."
Roy only understood part of what Ludwig had just explained.
"Uh, sure," Roy said confusedly. He instead decided to follow Ludwig, because he had no idea how to get back to the castle.
And so, Ludwig led the way. They pushed past a few shrubs and bushes and entered a meadow known as Mushroom Way. They had to stray off the main path in order to find the pipe back to Bowser's Castle.
Following Ludwig behind, Roy felt the deep rumbles of his stomach once again distract him.
"Uh, Kook—err—Ludwig?" Roy asked. "Do ya know where to find food?"
Ludwig made a stern face.
"I was about to give you some breakfast, but you decided to push a button and get transported far away," Ludwig said reprovingly.
"Yeah, about that," Roy told him uncertainly. "I'm really sorry."
Ludwig couldn't help but open his mouth in surprise.
"You are?" Ludwig asked him strangely. Then, he felt Roy's head. "Are you feeling all right, Roy?"
"Yeah..." Roy murmured, trailing off. Then, suddenly, he snapped back into position. "Of course I'm feeling fine, you nerd!"
Ludwig had a mixture of anger and confusion in his head.
"Fine," Ludwig answered. He continued leading him deeper into the grassy, tree-filled fields of Mushroom Way, pondering what was making Roy act so strange all of a sudden. He was wondering if Roy would ever turn this way again, but apparently, he probably wasn't going to.
"Hurry up!" Roy complained.
"That's what I'm trying to do," Ludwig retorted while pushing a tree out of his way. Suddenly, they both froze in terror. Two plumbers, one in red and one in green, were walking along the forest, a few feet away from them. Instinctively, Ludwig dived into a bush, pulling Roy along with him.
Mario and Luigi walked along a path, talking about spaghetti and the lint inside of Luigi's bellybutton.
"It's-a such a cool piece of lint," Luigi told him. "Whenever I-a rub-a my tummy, it does a little dance."
Roy bit his lip in order to keep himself from laughing.
"I'm-a glad I don't have lint in my bellybutton," Mario replied, "because-a sometimes I can't even-a find my bellybutton."
"How can-a you lose a bellybutton?" Luigi asked, confused.
Roy giggled silently, and he heard Ludwig mutter something about "blithering idiots".
Once the Lint Brothers finally were out of sight, Ludwig continued to drag Roy along the path towards the pipe.
"How much longer?" Roy growled in hunger.
"Not much," Ludwig answered while gnashing his teeth.
The walk to the pipe was probably no more than five minutes, but it had felt like five hours to both Ludwig and Roy.
As they reached it, Ludwig noticed a sign. It took him seconds to read it, and as soon as he finished reading it, he went red with anger.
"Out of order: mechanical dysfunction."
"GRARGH!" Roy exploded. "What do they mean, 'out of order'? Was that pipe put there just to make me miserable?"
"Calm down!" Ludwig snarled, though it was obvious that he was outraged as well. "We have to think of another way out of here."
"We?" Roy asked incredulously. "I'm not going to waste my time thinking about something else. Why don't we just fix it? You can fix it, can't you?"
Ludwig nodded. "Yes, I could. However: I have no tools, nails or appliances. I don't have blueprints on what is broken. For all I know, I'm not even sure that this pipe is still properly functional, with or without the mechanical dysfunction!"
"Well, we could work all that out," Roy answered, though he didn't really mean it.
"Is that so?" Ludwig answered, raising an eyebrow. "Where can you find plumbing tools?"
However, Roy didn't need to answer Ludwig's question. Both of them knew what it was. Ludwig eyed him roguishly.
"I think you better get going," he said, smirking.
"What?" Roy said loudly. "I have to go that Mario's house to pick up plumbing tools? Are you kidding me?" Even the mere thought of it made Roy feel disgusted.
"No, Roy, I am not kidding," Ludwig told him. "And I suggest you get going right now. Those persistently irritating engineers will probably be on their way home now. It may be risky, but it's the only chance we've got."
"You can't make me!" Roy didn't give up.
"Well, I guess we can stay here and starve," Ludwig said carelessly.
Roy was fuming. He hated when he didn't get his way.
"You know what? FINE! I'll do it! You happy?" Roy barked gruffly and stormed off. Ludwig chuckled playfully to himself.
And that's it for the fourth chapter! Chapter Five will be coming your way soon!
Oh, and by the way, don't forget to read and review.
