As Luigi tensed, Mario watched in horror. The cloaked figure had teleported him and Mr. L into a hidden room to watch. Mr. L was wearing an expression of nonchalance, but Mario knew he was worried, if only because if Luigi died, he would die too. That was something the figure had told Mr. L to encourage him. The figure said if Mr. L did everything he asked and did it well, he would keep Mr. L alive. Mr. L told Mario after he bugged him to no end. Luigi was visibly shaking, blood and pus leaking out of his ears, yet he still stood. The cloaked figure quieted his voice to tell Luigi the rules of the battle.
"You will not use power ups. You will not use stars. You will not use healing items. This will be a skin to skin fight only." it said. It sounded insanely happy.
The music hurt Luigi. He could barely tell over all the other pain, but he could tell. "The music… It is hurting me… This is no fair fight…" Luigi slowly groaned.
The figure's mask morphed, so that it looked like a pouting face. "Aw, come on Luigi, you have more experience!" it whined.
"That is no excuse. Why do you keep bothering me anyway?!" Luigi yelled, hurting his own ears in the process.
"Oh, it's not just you, Luigi."
"Mario!" Luigi gasped.
"Yes, and another person. You'll be happy to hear I managed to rescue him from the fire."
"Mr. L…" Luigi groaned.
"Yes, and he's not too happy with you right now. How about you battle him instead? It would be fair and funny!" the cloaked figure said, laughing maniacally.
Luigi, realizing he might stand a chance if he battled Mr. L, nodded.
The cloaked figure snapped its fingers twice, and after the second snap, Mr. L was teleported to the arena.
Luigi raised his eyebrows in suspicion. "What was the first snap for?" he asked.
"Oh, just to enhance my powers so I could teleport him to here from far away, where he was!" the cloaked figure said hurriedly. Luigi rolled his eyes, and the figure teleported away.
Mr. L and Mario watched in rage. The figure had created a clone of Mr. L and made him super powerful with just two snaps of his fingers! Mr. L was very offended. The figure appeared in their room, laughing. Mr. L and Mario turned around and glared at it. The figure snapped its fingers and a chain appeared, locking around Mario and Mr. L's feet and hands.
The shadowy figure floated up to the one-way mirror and looked through, kicking Mario and Mr. L aside. The clone had grown gigantic, and Luigi was leaning backwards on one foot, pinwheeling his arms in terror. The clone punched his arm into the ground as hard as he could, and Luigi had to jump to avoid the shockwaves. He checked his pockets for items, but they were completely empty. Luigi ran up the clone's arm and found a part of a sleeve that he could hold on to. He held on, and the clone started hitting his own head in an effort to smash Luigi. He hit his head so hard that he was knocked out.
The clone's loss enraged the cloaked figure. It stopped floating for once and paced around the room, saying various curse words. It read the spell book again and discovered that when the spell is cast, to balance the increase in strength, the IQ of the victim is decreased proportionally.
"Oh, that explains it! I'm not that dumb!" Mr. L said happily.
"Damn it…" the figure said, "I guess I'll have to find something else to do." It snapped its fingers and it and Mr. L disappeared.
Mario didn't want to be alone. He really, really, REALLY didn't want to be alone. Being alone was his one greatest fear, his bane. Plus, there was nothing to do. Mario had a slight case of ADHD, so the blank room wasn't helping. Mario got up and started pacing. He started breathing faster and faster. "Am I going crazy? Oh god, I am! Why can't someone else be here with me? Anyone else! Oh my god! Luigi! Please… help me!" Mario started seeing things. He saw the cloaked figure so he ran at it and beat it up. Right as he was about to pull off the mask, it disappeared and Luigi appeared! "Luigi! You've come to rescue me! Please, save me!" Mario yelled.
"Why should I? You stole my credit, taken every game for yourself! There is even a toad group all about you! What am I to you?! What am I to anyone?! Nothing except the clumsy sidekick, the lousy 2nd player! No, I won't save you! I'll leave you here! Goodbye Mario!" Mario's vision of Luigi said.
Mario lunged at Luigi, trying to grab onto one of his legs, but Luigi disappeared. "No… Luigi, please…" Mario sobbed. He was a broken man.
When Luigi won, he had been teleported back into his house. He laid down in bed, but couldn't get to sleep. "Mario… You better be okay, big brother…" Luigi sobbed. He finally went to sleep, with visible tear lines on his faces.
Mario, in the fetal position in a corner, went to sleep, thinking of Luigi.
Sorry if it seemed rushed, but I have something important today so I had to type fast. I hope you still enjoyed it, and MUCH THANKS to the people who are still following this story! I am planning on posting 1 chapter every day at most and every other day at least, but I might get backtracked. I am not putting this story on hiatus though, so don't worry! See you soon and please review!