"So…what now?"
From the top bunk opposite Peach, where he sat with his long legs swinging off the edge, Luigi looked up in their direction.
It was night-time, and somehow they had lucked their way into a near-empty hostel for the night. Their only company was a drunken old man who was lying passed out on the bunk in a far corner from them, bottle hanging loose from his hand, his loud rumbling snores the only indication that he was actually still alive. When asked to produce some form of ID at the front desk, Mario had whipped out a learner's permit that Peach would bet a solid chunk of her family's money was not entirely real. As far as the receptionist knew, they were "two brothers and a couple of different cousins, on the road for a family reunion." It didn't seem all that convincing to Peach, considering aside from Mario and Luigi, none of them looked at all alike. But Luigi had reassured them that it was an approach that virtually never had any questions asked about it, particularly when they set Yoshi on the case to look up at her very eagerly and start babbling about how excited he was to see his Aunts and Uncles.
For such a sweet young kid, he was one hell of an actor.
She admittedly still didn't know why they were here. They didn't know where else to go when stranded in Boston, and the brothers had suggested they accompany them for the night until they figure it out. They seemed to know something that the girls didn't, if their long shared look before suggesting this was anything to go by. But whatever it was, they weren't in a rush to share.
Yoshi was sat on the slightly off-colour wooden floor playing with a toy dinosaur he'd pulled out of his backpack. He was only ten, according to the brothers, nearly eleven. They didn't explain why in the world a ten year old was hanging around a group of teenagers seemingly on the run, and Peach got the feeling the explanation wasn't coming any time soon. Toad was sat on the lower bunk beneath Luigi, casting sideways glances over at her and immediately looking away again every so often, cheeks pink. Daisy was on the bunk beneath her, and Rosalina was next to Peach on the bunk above what would be Yoshi's. Mario had a final bunk bed to himself and had elected to take the bottom one.
Mario…she still didn't know how to feel about him, but she got the feeling he certainly didn't like them very much. Luigi had at least tried to chat to them in a friendly manner on the way here, as had Toad, with Yoshi keeping up a constant stream of background babble as he skipped along beside them. But the oldest boy had barely said a word to them. He'd looked them all over, eyes flickering with clear distain over her bare legs and mini denim skirt, before turning and instructing them to follow. He had replied to the odd remark from one of the other boys, but otherwise seemed to mostly keep to himself in this situation. Even now, upon hearing her ask this question, he merely flickered his eyes over in their direction before letting his gaze fall back to staring at the bottomside of the top bunk.
"I mean," She elaborated, "What should we do now? If we can maybe ask to use the phone at the front desk, I can probably call my parents to get us a flight home and-"
"No," Mario cut in sharply, and she jumped slightly at the firmness of his tone. She frowned slightly as she heard Daisy shift beneath her, no doubt also turning to shoot him an upset look.
"What do you mean, no?" The resident redhead demanded, and Peach leaned over the edge slightly to see that she was indeed scowling at the other boy, "Why shouldn't we call our folks? It's not like any of us have our phones or credit cards on us."
That was true. Peach's phone and purse were in her bag, which she had set down when she had entered their apartment. Rosalina's phone had been in her hand and had fallen to the ground when they had been confronted. However, Daisy's had been crammed into her jeans pocket, and was now missing. They figured that whoever had taken them must have removed it from her person, lest they try and call for help.
"We have phones," Luigi confessed, pulling a slightly scratched phone that was probably several years old, based on the model, out of his pocket, "But, uh, Mario's right. You shouldn't call home yet. They might have bugged your family's line, if they found their addresses. They'll probably be watching them now they know you've escaped."
This was a lot of information to be receiving all of a sudden, and Daisy threw her hands out in a time out gesture.
"Woah, woah, hold everything. First off – who IS 'they'?"
"The ones who kidnapped you," Luigi explained, "They call themselves the Koopa gang. They're pretty widespread across the country."
"Okay, so why did they kidnap US?" Rosalina asked, small anxious frown twisting her lips. Yoshi had paused his play to listen to the conversation, looking oddly mournful for the first time today.
"Cause they're bad," He intoned simply, frowning at the dinosaur in his hands. He looked even smaller than he actually was all of a sudden, sat in that slightly baggy green dinosaur sweater, eyes downcast, cross-legged on the floor. She felt a sudden urge to hug him once again. Toad reached across to ruffle his hair lightly in what was clearly an attempt to cheer the boy up – though from what, again, Peach didn't know - and Luigi looked at him for a moment with saddened eyes before shaking his head to clear his mind and looking back over at the girls.
"That, yeah, and also, well…it's a form of income for them," He confessed, "Kidnapping people and selling them on. It's usually younger kids-" (She did not miss how his eyes once again briefly flit over to Yoshi before redirecting) "-But if there's a good reason, they'll sometimes take older people."
"Good reason like being filthy rich," Mario added, "Or a pretty, defenceless blonde girl and her friends."
He now had three girls staring at him with varying degrees of distain.
"Who are you calling defenceless?" Challenged Daisy, "I'm a black belt, you know! I've beat guys like you on the playground since I was seven!"
Luigi, possibly sensing the troubling direction of this conversation, quickly took up talking again.
"Anybody would be defenceless against that gang, there's hundreds, thousands even, of members. And we don't know for sure why you were taken," He said, sending his brother a pointed look with a hint of exasperation, "So there's no use worrying about that right now."
"We do," Peach interjected, stomach suddenly heavy, "He's right. Those guards were talking about me, calling me a pretty little rich girl. That's why they took me. Rosie and Daisy were just…wrong place, wrong time."
She felt sick even saying the words. Never before had her money brought her this kind of trouble before. She would never, not ever, want to bring trouble to her friends like this. She loved Daisy and Rosalina as much as any family member. The thought of her being the cause of them getting kidnapped of all things…it was almost too much to bear. She felt the pressure of tears forming again, but blinked heavily to prevent them. No more crying. She wasn't going to be seen as this weak crybaby.
Rosalina seemed to sense the direction her thoughts were going in, and reached over to grasp her hand and give it a firm squeeze. This helped ground Peach, who exhaled slowly and shook her head.
"You know what? I'm gonna go shower. I just feel gross. Can we hold off on the questions for like…ten minutes? I just…okay? Okay."
She didn't quite give them the chance to respond. She simply snatched the slightly scraggly towel from her bed, slid down her ladder quickly and made her way purposefully over to the shower room, hoping and praying that the pounding water might clear her mind somewhat.
Rosalina watched Peach go with a small frown on her face.
The other blonde was clearly still slightly upset – not that she could blame her. This situation was overwhelming enough without adding guilt to the pile of emotions they were all feeling. Rosalina's head felt like it could honestly explode at any moment, to be frank. Her hands and knees were still stinging from the grazes on them, so she would frankly welcome a shower too. Her eyes landed on Daisy, who had also watched Peach go with a small frown.
"…She shouldn't blame herself," She muttered, "It's not her fault."
Rosalina hummed in agreement, mentally setting a reminder to reassure Peach of this much when she was back.
"She's quite right, I guess – if you want to shower and stuff, may as well get that out the way first. Talk can come after," Luigi remarked, removing his hat and running his hand through his hair with a slight sigh. This situation must be stressful for them too, she supposed. They were the ones helping them, after all. And they were almost certainly on that gang's hit list after doing so. Toad did not seem phased about this right now, however. He stretched his arms up with a yawn, kicking off his shoes.
"I could just use a sleep, personally," He confessed. He seemed a lot more ready to talk without Peach around to fluster him. It was quite amusing, watching the fifteen year old (as he was revealed to be) become a bright red, stammering mess at the mere sight of Peach. He looked down at the battered wristwatch he was wearing, and added, "Looks like it's past your bedtime too, Yosh."
"Aww!" The little boy whined. He still looked mildly bothered by whatever had upset him earlier, but seemed to have put that aside in order to protest the unfairness of bedtime, "Can't I have fifteen minutes more!"
"Nope."
"Ten?"
"Nuh-uh."
"Five?" He pleaded hopefully, blue eyes wide. Toad rolled his own darker eyes.
"If you can stretch moving from the floor to bed out five minutes, then sure."
As she watched Yoshi literally begin to move in slow motion to milk his dwindling moments of freedom, she couldn't help but feel amused about the fact that it was the younger teen who seemed to be mothering little Yoshi, and not the 19 or 20 year olds (a fact Lugi had disclosed to them on the walk over here). It seemed to be in his nature to look after people, as he had constantly hounded her on the walk about her minor injuries, but it was amusing nonetheless. Daisy had made a passing quip about her finding a kindred spirit, which she supposed was apt. She did like to look after other people too. That was why she felt so uncomfortable at the thought of Peach feeling so down for no reason. It was also probably why she felt a strong urge to look out for little Yoshi; the boy was so undeniably innocent and sweet-natured, it was hard to not adore him right off the bat.
By the time Yoshi had made it to his bed, managing to drag out the four feet over an impressive three minutes 43 seconds, Peach had returned from the shower. She was still in the same clothes considering they didn't exactly have spare, but her skin now had its natural glow instead of being coated in days-old make up and her hair hung damp down her back.
"I can't believe I've had to put on two day old underwear again," She sighed ruefully, carrying her damp towel and socks which she must have worn in the shower – probably a wise decision in a hostel.
She and Daisy took their turns, with Daisy taking advantage of the small heater outside the bathroom to hang her jeans on so they were at last warm and cozy instead of cold and damp. By the time they had all finished washing, Yoshi was down for the count, little arm dangling limply off the edge of the bed and dinosaur curled against his chest with the other arm, soft snores escaping him. Toad looked slightly sleepy too, and was curled under the thin covers looking out at them as they all settled down.
"Okay, so…Koopa Gang. What's their deal?" Daisy asked. Luigi met her gaze, and cleared his throat.
"Well, they're a gang, obviously. Like we said, they, uh, are prone to kidnapping and selling on people. That's just one of the ways they get their money, though. We've had quite a few run ins with them, and we…well, uh, we like to try and help out the people they take if we can," Luigi began. Peach tilted her head.
"How come? It must get a little dangerous," She noted. Mario cleared his throat loudly and took over from his brother, bypassing the question entirely.
"But like we said again, there's a lot of 'em. And the people we save we tend to notice that they're pretty quick to start spying on the families, probably so they can snatch their people back if they try and make contact with 'em. Their workers might not be the smartest individually, but their boss is nothing to snort at, and a lot of the members are annoyingly smart sometimes."
It was the most Rosalina had heard him speak in one go thus far. But she focused more on the words themselves, and was the first to speak up.
"…So we could put our families in danger if we tried to call them?" She realised, heart clenching as she thought of her four year old sister Luma getting taken the way she had been. Luigi nodded, a pang of pity shooting across his face as he looked back at them.
"Maybe. It's not a chance I would take. You just need to lay low for a while, that's all. A couple months, then maybe move from where you live and just be on guard."
Be on guard. For the rest of their lives? Maybe. It sounded like a very depressing lifestyle. But Daisy spotted the more pressing issue.
"…Lay low how? We don't have somewhere to stay, don't have any money, don't have anything. What exactly are three moneyless teenagers supposed to do to survive?"
"We won't just abandon you," Luigi said earnestly. Mario shot him a quick look which he ignored, "We won't. We have safe places all over the country, too; places we lie low and hang out. We can help you. We want to help you. I promise."
She didn't have any reason to. But for some reason, she found herself convinced by these words. Trusting them. They'd made it this far. If this was all some scheme…well, it was very elaborate. It wasn't like they had a better idea, anyway. Peach seemed to realise this, if the dawning defeat on her face was anything to go by. Daisy didn't look entirely convinced, but Luigi paused before locking eyes with her and repeating, "I promise."
She held this gaze for several long seconds. He didn't seem entirely comfortable with this prolonged eye contact, faint red dusting over his cheeks, but he held it steadily anyway until she finally broke away.
"…Okay," She finally conceded, and a small but genuine smile split across Luigi's face at her acceptance.
"I'm not entirely okay with this," Peach admitted, "I mean, our college and jobs will kill us for being gone, but…"
"We were kidnapped!" Protested Daisy indignantly.
"But," Peach went on loudly, "I really don't want to risk my family…or my friends. So, what do we need to do?"
Luigi and Mario shared a pondering look. It lasted a long moment, and Rosalina couldn't help but notice that, while he wasn't entirely okay with holding eye contact with any of them, Luigi could hold it with his brother unfalteringly. Even to the extent where they seemed to be communicating through it. A mark of how close they were, she supposed ; she did note that Mario spoke to Luigi more often than anyone else, from her limited experience. At last, Mario nodded jerkily at him and spoke up.
"…There's a place on the outskirts of the city. It should only take us about an hour or so to walk it from here, belongs to a family we know pretty well. Well, a couple families actually, but point is, they're good people. They can give us supplies, and a place to lay low for a couple days while we figure out what to do."
"Oh great, more walking without shoes…that'll be great fun," Peach sighed. Mario shot her a sharp look.
"You got a better idea, Princess?" He challenged, and Peach frowned right back at him.
"No. I can handle it, thanks." She replied irritably. Her arms folded as she met his look with her own challenging one.
"Good. We get up early then; sooner we're there, the better if you ask me."
"Don't worry," Chimed in Luigi, "I'm sure one of the Kong's will have a couple spare pairs of shoes. If not, we'll figure something out."
She wasn't sure if he was implying robbery, but she decided not to dwell on it too much.
"So we head for the Kong's tomorrow, and we can figure out more from there ; it's, uh, probably not too safe to talk too much here, anyway. Okay?"
They all murmured their assent before lights out, and Rosalina rolled over to face the wall, pulling her sheets tight around her and half praying that when she woke, this will all have been some terrible dream.
"I don't believe it!"
Everyone in the room jumped at the loud, piercing screech that echoed down the hallway. A light-blue haired boy looked up from the card pack he was shuffling and ran a hand through his mohawk, raising an eyebrow dryly.
"Geez. What crawled in her bed and died?" He asked, snorting. The younger green haired teen sitting opposite him, fiddling with some new little invention, snickered as he pushed his glasses up his nose.
"Like she ever needs a reason to be annoyed," He replied, grinning and sticking out an arm to pre-emptively catch the bouncy ball that the rainbow haired boy across the room sent flying his direction. Said multicoloured nightmare of a boy looked up as his twin sent the ball back in his direction, catching it with ease and stuffing it in his pocket.
"Yeah," He agreed, "It's her permanent mood."
He stood up and crossed the room to flop onto the sofa next to his brother, who made a noise of annoyance as this action jostled him.
"Watch it, Lemmy," He groused, pulling his arms closer to him as his hands flew across the metal, constructing an as of yet unknown gadget or gizmo.
"'Watch it, Lemmy,'" The boy parroted back in an exaggerated voice, snickering, "Don't be boring, Iggy. Tell him, Lar."
Larry, the blue mohawk clad boy, looked back at them and remarked, "No chance. Leave me out of this. Last time I took sides, the other one put friggin' worms in my bed."
Both of the twins burst into laughter at this memory, as at last the door to the room flew open and crashed against the wall. A female stood in the doorway, hands on her pink cargo pant-clad waist. She had a firm scowl on her lipstick coated lips, and the pink polka dot bow atop her blonde hair done nothing to remove from the intimidation of this look. She flounced into the room, bangles on her wrist jingling rhythmically with each step, and dropped onto the couch next to Larry. Her arms folded dramatically as she repeated, "I don't believe this."
"And what, oh sister dearest," Drawled Larry, "Do you not believe?"
His sibling turned her glower to him.
"How could you not know?" She demanded. He rolled his eyes, finally putting away his deck of cards.
"Know what?" He repeated. She scoffed.
"I'm not surprised you don't know ; do you ever do anything but play those stupid games?" She sneered.
"Hey, those 'stupid games' won me nearly $500 scamming randoms on the street last week. But whatever, fine, don't tell me. I'll go find out myself," He said, pushing himself to his feet. Just as he did, he heard the pounding of feet bolting down the hallway, and a small figure flung itself into the room.
"Dad's prisoners escaped!" Burst out the nine-year-old boy who had just appeared, reddish brown eyes blown wide. His three half brothers turned to look at him in surprise, as his half sister's scowl deepened.
"Is that true, Junior?" Asked Iggy, looking slightly wary, not that anyone could blame him. Their old man, the one parent that every one of the eight half siblings all shared, had a nasty temper when things didn't go his way. He looked over at the girl.
"Is that what you were on about, Wendy?"
She huffed and nodded while Junior approached them, arms waving.
"Why'd you ask her! Why didn't ya trust me!" He fumed, stomping his feet. The others in the room all rolled their eyes at his inevitable tantrum, something very in character of him.
"Can it, Junior," Larry said, ignoring the little boy's screech of anger at this, "What happened? Don't tell me…"
Wendy nodded, ugly expression on her face.
"It was them," She spat. Lemmy looked between them, confused.
"Who?" He asked obliviously.
"Who else? Those stupid brothers really need to get a life," Larry grumbled, dropping back onto the sofa. He made a noise of complaint as his youngest sibling pulled himself onto the couch, cramming himself into the very limited space between Larry and Wendy.
"Yeah, so dad's furious," Junior went on, seeming to have temporarily forgotten his temper tantrum, "'nd he say's that he's gonna definitely get those guys! He'll beat them up and put them in prison, just like in comics! He's the best!"
Larry and Wendy shared a quick glance over Junior's head before looking over at Iggy, who nodded his silent agreement to say nothing. Less for Junior's sake, and more for his at times equally naïve twin brother's. Truthfully, their dad certainly did want to 'get those guys', but less to put them in a prison cell and more to put them in an unmarked grave. And they also didn't point out that, comparatively speaking, none of them would exactly be the heroes from comic books; they'd more likely be the ones they put in the cells.
But none of them would tell Junior, or even Lemmy, that just yet. It was hard to maintain any kind of innocence around here, and they all seemed to have some unspoken agreement that, annoying as they could be, their youngest brothers should get to stay that way for as long as possible. Junior absolutely idolised their dad – unsurprising, considering he looked most like him out of them all and was certainly their dad's favourite considering he had the fortune of being born from an actual relationship and not several one night stands with lower ranking gang members. That was where all his siblings came from. They all may have shared the same dad, but aside from the twins, none of them had the same mother. Junior didn't quite know all that either, but he knew he was in some way superior to his brothers and sister, and could certainly be a little brat about it at times. And Lemmy, well…Lemmy was Lemmy. He wasn't the most observant or intelligent of people at the best of times. Or, well, at any time. But he was their brother, and somehow none of them could bring themselves to point out the cruelties of the world around them, even though his twin brother was by now well aware of them.
Sidestepping that tricky part of the conversation with ease, Wendy spoke up again.
"What do you think daddy will do?"
"He'll send out people to get them back, probably," Iggy replied, "It was three pretty girls, wasn't it? He won't want to lose them."
"Yeah, dad was going on about one of them so much I was starting to wonder whether we were gonna end up with another sibling from her," Grumbled Larry, "Is that where Mort and Roy are? Out looking?"
"Roy 'nd Mort are working out," Junior interrupted, "They kicked me out when I tried to tell them. Morton said I was annoying."
"I wonder why," Wendy muttered, rolling her eyes for the umpteenth time, "What about the know-it-all? I'm surprised he's not burst in here to show off the miraculous tracking device he invented just to find them."
"Ludwig kicked me out. He's in his room, building some bs he didn't want me a part of," Chimed in Iggy, "I doubt he even knows yet."
"Why doesn't that surprise me," She said with a snort, "Cares more about his machines than his family, as per."
"Yeah, that's our Ludwig," Agreed Larry, "I guess we better go get ready. Dad'll be putting us all to work trying to find them. What a pain."
"It'll be worth it, to finally bring those brothers down," Said Wendy with a satisfied glint in her eye. Junior looked up hopefully.
"Can I come? I want to beat them up too!"
"No way, squirt. Grow a few more inches then ask again," Larry said, all four of the older siblings having stood up.
"You too, Lems. Keep him occupied, we got this bro," Iggy said, jabbing a thumb in Junior's direction. His brother shrugged and brightly replied, "Sure," pulling his ball back out and tossing it to the nine year old boy, who fumbled for it before looking up at them with a deep frown.
"I want to come," He repeated, "I wanna show them nobody messes with the Koopa family!"
"We'll show 'em for you, Junior. Promise," Larry replied, ruffling the little boy's dark red hair, messing up his already messy short ponytail. The little boy looked only marginally more happy when he said this, but reluctantly nodded.
"…Dad'd be angry if I tried to go, anyway," He mumbled, grasping the ball in both hands for a moment before stepping back to go play with Lemmy. Relieved to have avoided an inconvenient angry outburst, the three Koopa's stepped out of the room.
"I'll go fetch Roy and Morton; those boys will never stop if we don't make them. Larry, go talk to dad and ask what he wants us to do. Igs, see if you can pry Ludwig away from his precious machines," Wendy instructed, turning left outside the room and heading in the direction of the gym. Grumbling lowly, Iggy also left, heading in the opposite direction toward their oldest sibling's lab. Left alone in the hall, Larry pulled his cards back out his pocket and, quicker than lightning, shuffled them once more. He spread them in front of his face, a slow smirk finally forming on his lips. He wasn't looking forward to facing his angry dad – who was terrifying enough on a good day with his appearance alone - sure, but still. It would be worth it. It was time to show those brothers that nobody could mess with their dad, their family, and get away with it.
Time to catch them a pair of brothers.
Thanks for reading! Follow, favourite and review if you want me to update faster haha, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Not too much happened I know, but next chapter things will really start rolling I promise!
