"You have won… now, finish Count Bleck."
The chosen heroes paused at the fallen counts demands.
"Dispatch me and the Chaos Heart will disappear. The prophecy would be undone…"
"Why does it have to end like this…"
"Timpani… When you vanished, I searched long and hard for you. I never gave up looking… I searched and I searched… But I never found you. Without you, the world held no meaning or joy… So I used the forbidden prophecy of the Tribe of Ancients to end all worlds. I wanted to destroy everything that had taken you away from me.
"But I am here now… No one can keep us apart anymore… don't you see?"
"It is too late. Count Bleck has done so much evil… it must end. Just knowing that you are still alive… and know that the world you live in will still continue… it gives me peace. I do not have long to live. You must end my game before the void destroys all…"
Timpani staggered "But… we're finally together again…"
The couple lock eyes for a moment. Bleck's eyes couldn't stand the look in his lover's eyes and turned away. His assistant becomes alarmed by something and cries out to Bleck.
"Count, look out!"
But it was far too late, a blast hit her on the back of her head, falling unconscious as she shielded Bleck.
"Na-Nastasia!"
"Silly assistant! Absorbing my attack to protect him? What an adorably hopeless gesture."
Dimentio swept in, like a majestic eagle flying down to catch their utterly clueless snack. He rests above the Chaos heart as our heroes take a step back.
"I was about to give him the everlasting peace that he so desperately wants!"
"Dimentio?! You're… alive?"
The Mahican simply laughed at the pixie's stupid remark. "Of course. This is my moment. Even if the count dies, the chaos heart won't disappear if I continue to control it!"
He spins elegantly like a ballerina, before turning his eyes to the heroes. "But I needed the power of the pure hearts to beat him… I couldn't do that on my own. So I had all of you do the sweaty labor for me. And you even used you pure hearts to defeat Count Bleck! If they make greeting cards to thank people for helping with their evil plans, I owe you one."
"What are you saying?!"
"I'm saying that you no longer have any value to me, so I'm ending your games."
He points his fingers over to Lubgi and his arms suddenly start to flail around at speeds that rival Bowser's.
"They're all yours, Mr. L!"
Lubgi takes several steps forward
"Uh… oh. AAAAAACK! Why am I flapping my arms! Oh, this… This isn't good!"
Dimentio snaps his dangers once again as a sprout grows on top of Lubgi's head.
"I am Mr. L!"
"Wow, didn't see that one coming." Luigi said out loud as he was reading Super Paper Mario by Toadcraft. The story was really good, at least in his opinion. But he had some issues with it, like how they replaced him with this Lubgi guy. He was tempted to write a complaint directly, but he didn't want to misuse his own status as a rather popular author himself, and besides he and his bro were on a vaccination. He didn't need to stress him out over something as petty as that. He closed up the book and got up to check on Mario.
"Mario~?" He called out. There was no response.
"Mario?" He uttered again. He began to look around the house. The area itself was fairly clean, so Mario must have been cleaning earlier. He recalled that he forgot to buy extra bleach for the roof. He let out a sigh as he realized that he had to visit the store again. He went into the house, got his wallet, and took off into Toad town.
"Wow, the roads aren't looking so good today." Luigi comments to himself as he walks down the broken path. There were several cracks that seemed to give off unworldly light, unsettling the plumber a bit as he walked to the entrance.
"Holt!"
"YEEEEE-AAAHHHHHH!" Luigi screamed as a spear was lunged inches from his throat.
"Who are you?"
"I-I'm-a Luigi."
"…full name?"
"Luigi Mario? My brother's Mario Mario. We're the Mario brothers?"
"…Well, your name isn't listed here."
Luigi sighed once more as he pulled out his license. He wasn't exactly proud of how the photo turned out since he sneezed at the last second, but he could never find enough time for a retake.
"…hmmmm… alright. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news sir, but your still not on the list."
Luigi gave up and started walking back. Apparently he's so forgettable he was even-
"Wait, since when did Toad town have guards?"
The more Luigi thought about this whole situation, the more things that just happened started to make less sense. In fact, the guard wasn't even a Toad.
"Hold on, shouldn't I be happy about this?"
Luigi went back to the guard and congratulated them.
"Congratulations on the job!"
"…Thank you…?"
"Say, haven't seen you around here before, where are you from?"
"Well… I'm from Hyrule…well, at least I used to be."
"Okay dokkie. Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable-"
"Nononono no. It's alright. Besides, you're looking a little out of loop with what's been going on anyways."
"Heh?" Luigi tilted his head for a second before the ground began to quake around them. Luigi jumped back at the beams of light shutting from the ground as he was blinded by a vibrant flash.
"May I have everyone's attention, please?" A loud, echoing voice boomed from the distance.
"Oh no… not him! Get down from there, green bean!" The guard cried out. Luigi looked down and realized he accidentally jumped to the roof. He shook his head at the soldiers and hesitantly tried to reassure him.
"It's okay! I-I'll g-go and c-check it out for yah!" Luigi responded.
"Well uh… don't say I didn't warn you if you regret this…" he shouted back. Luigi tried to block out his voice as he jumped from building to building.
What is gonna be there? Is Bowser doing another attack again? What if he brought ghosts? Mama Mia, what if he brought a billion ghosts?! Oh why am I always the victim of these types of things!?
"Now, I've noticed that all of you have adjusted well to the new faces around this town…"
Luigi knew he was getting closer to the source. In the distance, he started to see the silhouette of a giant glove.
Oh why was I stressing over this? See Luigi, it's just a big old hand. No harm is really going on here…
…unless that's what they want you to think?
Nah, that's ridiculous. This isn't some Trojan horse attack here…. I hope…
"So it is with great honor that I introduce to you a few more faces that you can all adjust to easily…"
The hand revealed a pack of small, round fellows that looked fairly innocent. Some of them noticeably had some features that disagoushed them such as glasses or black smith outfits. The most noticeable one, wielding a spear while rocking a sweet bandanna, quickly looked around as the hand gazed about.
"Ta-da! Introducing the Waddle Dee's!"
The Waddle Dee's cuddled each other, shaking at the sight of the hand with only one noticeable exception in the crowd, who pointed his spear around in a defensive manner. Luigi saw this from the distance and began picking up the momentum with long jumps and hops.
"W-Where are we?! Where's the majesty!?" Bandanna Dee quickly cried out in a panic.
"A-a-a~ don't threaten him just yet! I can assure you that you'll be reunited within the next few days!" Master Hand said with glee. The townsfolk gathered around to witness the arrival of the new visitors.
"Woah, check out these guys!" One Toad said.
"Oh great, more weirdo…" a Hylian procrastinated.
"I think they're cute!" A child proclaimed innocently.
"Now remember everyone, these people are new here, so let's be nice and try to give them some time to adjust-"
Master Hand's speech was cut off by Luigi who came at him with a flying kick, only to be paused and suspended in the air.
"Hold on for a moment." The hand said as he slowly turned to the green plumber. "You look familiar…"
Luigi shivered as he tried to move, only to discover that his body was hopelessly paralyzed by whatever was happening to him.
"QUITE!" Luigi froze.
"…Trying to remember your name here… what was it again? Lud- no. I think it was five letters…hmmmmmm…"
The hand stroked his fingers as he pondered, questioning himself for the name of this understudy.
"Hmmm… I GOT IT! Lubgi! The second Mario Brother!" Master Hand announced loudly as he summoned a board with the name in golden lights as fireworks went off.
"-Wait! No-no! It's Luigi. Darn it… must be having an off day…" the hand floated over to the board and crossed out the b for an I instead.
"Where are my manners? My apologies for all the commotion here, I haven't been feeling well since- well I assume you don't need to know what exactly hap- Hey!"
The hand floats over to Luigi, who's fallen unconscious in the sheer shock of the situation.
"How rude! I didn't say you could fall asleep around my presence. Come on, get up, pronto!" The Hand snapped his fingers and Luigi immediately returned to his senses.
"Ah. There we go. You know? I was originally going to put you on the roster. But since I'm already dealing with enough bad press, you can have your rest."
"Heh?"
"I'm talking about the tournament."
"What tournament?"
"The one that's been going on for the last few days."
"Hm. Most of got lost in that book I was reading."
The Hand went dead silent. Luigi went tumbling down to the ground as the hand just floated there.
"Can I get one of those entry things that the guard out there wanted?"
"O-oh. Yeah. Sure." The Hand summoned a piece of paper and signed it. It fell gently into Luigi's hands.
"You're going to need a quick photo too."
Luigi nodded his head as the hand made a makeshift photo booth. Luigi got up and smiled for the camera. As he sat there, a rogue butterfly flew on top of his nose. The butterfly gave off an odd scent that reminded Luigi of ash. Luigi let out a loud sneeze, getting his head sharply to the left as a camera flash went off.
"And there we go." Master Hand gave Luigi the full ID. Luigi frowned at the image as he looked back at the hand. He was ready to move on with his day until something in the back of his mind resurfaced.
"Hey, have you seen my bro around here? I was looking around earlier and he didn't really show up…"
"Oh yeah…. I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit before you see him again."
"Heh? What are you talking about?"
"You're brother is our first star contender in the tournament silly! Apologies for the late news my ill informed friend!"
Luigi's jaw dropped at the casualness of the Hands' voice.
"B-but my bro- we were supposed to be on vacation!"
"Well consider your snooze break on hold, for THIS!" The hand gave off a shockwave as he pronounced the situation. "-Is what takes priority above all else!"
"My bro deals with enough of this stuff all the time! You don't need to drag him into… whatever this is!" Luigi demands as he leapt at the hand, only to be suspended once again as the hand dragged him over to the crowd.
"Luigi Luigi Luigi… it seems that I can't talk to you with your uneased mind…." The hand says with a sigh as he lifts the plumber higher. "So if you have any further complaints with the handling of my tournament…"
"Then MAIL THEM to my post office!" The hand shouts as he sends the plumber flying out into the distance.
It didn't take long for the Green Thunder to make an impact with the ground. He crashed head first into a hilltop as critiers fled the vicinity. It wasn't the worst crash he had. It didn't even make the top 20 if he were to give it some thought. But Luigi had other concerns at the moment.
He pulled himself out of the hole and pondered the situation. His brother was kidnapped on vacation, a giant hand is hosting some kind of tournament, and he has no clue on his brother's whereabouts.
Luigi let out a huff as he realized that this was going to be another harsh journey. He mentally prepared himself for the possibility of the dangers that could lie ahead. (many of which were failing)
Okay Luigi, deep breaths! This is just like your heroic battle against the Chestnut King! Only this time, the kingdom will be throwing flowers and bouquets instead of chairs and bottles! Either that or it will be more like the last vacation we took- hey wait a minute!
Luigi's mind knew immediately who exactly to turn to in a time like this. He ran home as quickly as he could to hopefully get in contact with E. Gadd.
Where am I anyways?
After a couple hours of hopping around the kingdom, Luigi found his address and began to look through bundles of shelves for something to call him with.
"No…. No…. No…. Hey, 3 coins! No… no…"
This process went on for a solid few minutes. Hey checked the time and saw that it was noon. His stomach growled, reminding him of his forgotten meals during the excitement of the day. He supposed that it would be harder to save his bro on an empty stomach, so he got out some pasta rolls and cooked himself a fine meal for the time being. He placed his food down on the table, gave a silent prayer for what happens here on out, and began chowing down.
"…So Mario… today's been a wacky day…" He mentions in between bites.
"I fought a Giant Hand earlier today. It wasn't a long fight, got it done nice and quick…" The house's size left a slight echo to his words, but he continued out of habit.
"I know that you don't have a whole lot of time with the Princess and all of that… but if you ever want to take a break, you can always count on me to be there for you bro." The sun began to settle down, drowning the table in shadow as Luigi nodded to himself. He looked at the empty chair in front of him and sighed as he pushed his chair in.
The silence was interrupted by the sound of ringing and buzzing coming from Luigi's overalls. He reached for his pockets and internally facepalmed at the sight of The GameBoy Horror. He opened it up and revived the call.
"Luigi! This is an emergency! Where have you been?!"
Luigi opened his mouth for an answer, only for the scientist to shoot him down before he could say anything.
"Never mind that for now. Let's get back to the lab, pronto!"
Luigi raised his hands up defensively "W-Wait! You don't have to do this right-" but it was too late. The plumber screamed as his molecules were sucked into the device, instantaneously transporting him to the lab.
E. Gadd sat idly in the chair as Luigi materialized right next to him.
"Ah! Perfect timing Luigi!"
Luigi rubbed his head as the professor offered a cup of coffee which Luigi politely declined.
"I take it your behind on all of this madness that is happening around us, correct?"
"W-well…. I know that a giant hand kidnapped Mario."
"Oh, it is far worse than that Luigi…" the doctor spins around and shows Luigi multiple screens and headlines.
"This Master Hand character has completely disrupted the space time continuum! He's single handedly dragged 3 different universes into ours! He even threatens to bring in more!"
"That doesn't sound so bad…"
E. Gadd rolls over to Luigi. "This. Is. Serious. Luigi."
He turns over to screens once more. "Master Hand's reckless fusion of universes could disconnect them from their time streams…. If he continues to break them off like this then all of our universes will begin to break off, quickly destroying the laws of our universes and fussing into a new one! One that is too chaotic to keep under control! Our lives, our cultures, our histories, completely thrown away in days!"
E. Gadd turns the screens over to news coverage of several events.
"This just in… there has been another sudden earthquake caused by Master Hand that has brought over these new creatures called 'Waddle Dee's' that has become quite a problem here in Toad Town, which over the course of a few days has had their popular increase over 4 times their original size, leaving many residents no choice but to house these strangers into their home's for the time being."
"Recently there has been a trend of new monsters that have been going about and causing disarray with sources calling them Bokoblins. So far these monsters have managed to cause 200,000coinsworthofdamage to multiple towns with 33residents reported as being captured by these strange beasties."
"Panic has erupted over at a local village with the recent sighting of what appears to be a wizard, casting meteors around the area! Me and my cameramen have been trying to spread the message- GET DOWN!" The video was cut off by the sound of falling debris. E. Gadd once again turns over to Luigi, who was breaking out into a nervous sweet.
"We cannot let him get away with this. The longer this goes on, the more universes he'll bring in, and with every universe there will come disaster that will make the Shroobs look like a batch of puppies…"
Luigi just stood there in silence as he shivered about.
"It's okay my boy! To be honest, even I'm a bit frightened by the prospect. But I won't deny that I'm a tad curious about the situation as a whole…" E. Gadd sighs as he sits in his chair.
"S-soooo… how are we going to stop this?"
E. Gadd simply laughed at Luigi's simple response. "No worry's Luigi, I already have a plan in mind…"
E. Gadd and Luigi began walking out into a mountain canyon that emitted a massive pillar of light. Luigi looked down into it as he saw something that looked similar to static at the very bottom.
"Welp. This is our stopt."
Luigi was confused by E. Gadd's phrasing.
"B-but there's nothing here…"
The scientist balanced his glasses as he kept his eyes on Luigi. "I can assure you that this is where we are supposed to be."
"Um-y-you still haven't given me a whole lot of details about this plan of yours… so-"
"You see Luigi, I've been theorizing about the methods behind Master Hands madness here and Yesterday my hypothesis was officially confirmed!"
"H-how so?"
"Master Hand has proven to have a finite amount of stamina after the take over by The Ancient Minister. In fact, his appearance answered many things for me. Thanks to him, I've concluded that the hand is fusing the universes by connecting them with a pocket dimension. Which is why we are here."
Luigi looked nervously at the doctor as he held his breath.
"I…. Don't s-see how that's supposed to-"
Luigi was shoved off into the canyon as E. Gadd chuckled. "Good luck Luigi!"