Looking around the disgusting house yielded nothing of interest. William couldn't tell what had happened, but there were pieces of rotting goomba, dead toads with cleaning equipment and overall everything in the house was in disarray. Not a single drawer, chair, table or household object seemed to be close to its proper place, and the place looked like it had been searched thoroughly, like it already had all its secrets exposed. There was nothing to find here, except- What was that? He saw Mario's calendar on the ground and picked it up. There was nothing scheduled for today or tomorrow, but he did see something on the previous day: 'Kart Training w/ Captain Toad'. Perhaps Mario is staying with his friend Captain Toad, thought William. He still checked Luigi's house after he left since it was only a few houses down, but even though it was nearly 8pm at night, he saw that all the lights were off. He figured no one was in there but still broke in to check. It was indeed empty, aside from the goomba goo coating most surfaces. Figuring Captain Toad would know Mario's location, he set off to go find him.
o-o-o
It was well past midnight when Mario got back to Luigi's house. Driving all day had made him tired so he went to bed almost immediately, planning on talking to Captain Toad tomorrow. Trekking into Desert Land wouldn't be pleasant, but Mario had a strong feeling that Morton Koopa knew something that could help him. And even if he didn't, LTM were operating in the area but were also despised by the people who lived there. Someone would talk. Mario also wondered if his mixed team of toads and goombas could even work together, considering their turbulent history. He'd find out soon enough.
When he dreamed, Mario usually saw toads and goombas, coins and starmen. These were his typical dreams, and there was a certain comfort and familiarity to them. Tonight was different. Tonight, his usual dreams turned to strange nightmares that haunted him without cessation. Dead toads, dead goombas, torsos ripped in half, twisted and burned. Massive piles of coins and starmen crushed toads to death and all Mario could do was sit back and watch. And no matter what happened, he saw this shadowy figure in the background, a figure that looked like Bowser but with sinister edges and massive glowing, red eyes. As he looked at the towering, undefined silhouette, it looked back at him and he slowly started to make out its details. But then, suddenly, it drew it's head back. A mouth opened, hundreds of razor sharp teeth gleamed in the dim light. He saw, small at first, a spark of flame in the beast's mouth that grew bigger and bigger. When he realized it was a massive wall of fire headed straight for him, it was already too late. The fire filled his vision before it hit him, but right at that moment he awoke. Sitting in bed, drenched with sweat, it took him a moment to realize where he was. This wasn't his bedroom, it was Luigi's. The flame monster wasn't real. The dead toads and goombas weren't… no, that happened. Memories from the previous day flooded in. It was very early in the morning, but he couldn't wait any longer. He would go to see Captain Toad now so he could find LTM and stop them as soon as possible. Locking up Luigi's house and hopping in his kart, Mario drove in the direction of Captain Toad's house.
o-o-o
Arriving at Captain Toad's house just as the sky began to lighten from the rising sun, Mario hoped he wouldn't mind the early morning intrusion. Maybe once Captain understood how important the mission was, he would forgive Mario for being woken so early. Captain Toad's house was really quite large, as it was also the site of the Toad Brigade training facility. Walking through a courtyard littered with various obstacles and structures constructed from wood, rope and tires, he finally reached the front door, hesitating while he thought about what he would say. It was in that moment, however, that he heard a voice behind him.
"Mr. Mario. I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting yet." Mario turned towards the voice, a lone wiggler with a baseball cap and a mean look on his face. "William. William Wiggler." the wiggler continued.
"Who? What-a are you even doing here? We can-a talk later, I got important things to do." Mario turned back around to knock on the door, but suddenly a knife came whizzing past his head, sticking deep into the door.
"What-a the fuck?" yelled Mario, turning to face the wiggler again.
"Good, I have your attention now. I just wanted you to be looking at me when I killed you, so you'd know who did it." And with that, a flurry of knives came shooting out from the wiggler. Mario jumped to the side and barely missed them, hiding behind a small wooden barrier used by the toads for training. Peeking above the barrier triggered another wave of knives and one of them hit Mario's hat, flinging it off. In that brief second though, he saw the wiggler was closing in on him. He jumped and then rolled to get behind a larger wooden structure, some kind of makeshift shack. This elicited even more knives, one of which cut deeply into arm as it flew past. Putting his hands together, he prepared a fireball but knew he wouldn't have much time to aim it.
Suddenly, toads began pouring out of the house, ready to fight the warring wiggler. Many fell quickly to knives, but Mario used this chance to aim his fireball and hit the wiggler. He fell over, stunned but not really hurt. Mario started preparing another fireball, but felt someone tapping his shoulder, calling his name. It was Captain Toad.
"We need to go! You're fireballs won't kill it, the Toad Brigade can handle this!" Captain Toad had to yell over dozens of other toads, screaming at the top of their lungs. Mario looked around and saw that Captain was right, they did need to leave. Mario couldn't defeat the wiggler with stomps or fireballs, and he didn't have anything more powerful. The entire Toad Brigade was busy fighting William, though it was unclear if they could defeat him since Mario saw many fallen toads scattered about while the creature was still uninjured. This was no ordinary wiggler, he seemed to be highly trained and highly skilled, probably some kind of assassin but Mario couldn't be sure yet if he was from the mysterious LTM group. He doubted he'd get the chance to ask. Following Captain Toad out a secret side entrance through a brick fence that surrounded the courtyard, they reached a hidden shack with a four seat kart inside. Captain honked two times and two Toad Brigade members came running through the side entrance, hopping into the kart along with Mario and Captain Toad. Mario was driving, and he didn't take his eyes off the road for even a second as they sped off into the distance. He didn't want to look back.
o-o-o
They headed straight for 'The Dancing Goomba', figuring any delay would just give the wiggler a chance to catch up. With only 3 members of the Toad Brigade including the Captain himself, there was no way they could have traveled to Desert Land without the goombas' help. Mario had hoped to bring a dozen toads but now he only had 3, and they didn't even have supplies for the trip. Reaching the club early in the afternoon, Mario went in and sat at the bar with the remaining Brigade. It wasn't long before Gomar joined him, sitting on the adjacent stool.
"Must be some potent toads if ya only need three of 'em" Gomar could almost sense their misfortune, and seemed to revel in it.
"We-a, ran into a hitch. It-a was an assassin wiggler." Mario wondered if the goomba had ever heard of William Wiggler.
"Assassin wiggler? I'd think you was making that up if I hadn't seen even stranger these past few months. So we still goin'?"
"Of-a course. We-a gonna need some supplies though."
"Well, you're in luck. I got whatever ya need… for a price." and Gomar, ever the entrepreneur, started writing down all the items Mario requested.