Cascore's Note: Sorry it took me a bit longer than usual to get this up. This chapter started out with writer's block, followed by the site acting all wacked out for a few days, only to be rendered inaccessible when everything was fixed because my own Internet connection decided to wimp out on me. These past few days haven't been that great. But oh well. I managed to finish the chapter and I now present it to you. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 10: "Super Miscreant Brothers Act Two: Mischief in City Park"

As it turns out, Waluigi wasn't after the pie that day because he wanted it for himself. Wario wouldn't find out the real reason until he located the orphanage near the center of the town, but his new partner actually lost a bet the night before, and he promised a pie as the reward if he found himself to be on the losing end of the little game. Of course, he didn't expect the results to turn out exactly the way they did... Those stupid Nightmare Storms. They were in all the wrong places and Waluigi managed to hit every single one. Dreamland was a stupid game anyway. But at least he was able to find a free pie, even if part of it was already claimed by this biker wannabe.

"This the place?" Wario asked, slowing his scooter to a stop in front of a three-story white building that looked like a rather pleasant, very large house. A white, wooden sign resting in the grass of the front yard read, in clearly legibly carved words, "TOAD TOWN ORPHANAGE". Waluigi swung his street side leg over to the side of the scooter that faced the yard, standing carefully has he held the pie.

"Yeah," he answered bluntly before beginning his walk across the bright cement path leading to the stairway. Wario quickly shut off his scooter, hopped off the vehicle, grabbed his backpack from the foot rest area just above the front wheels, and walked off toward Waluigi.

"Orphanage huh?" Wario spoke up as he tucked away his key in a front pocket, observing the nearby sign.

"Yep," Waluigi responded, almost mumbling.

"What happened to your old folks?" Wario asked, taking a few running steps to catch up to Waluigi, who was now scaling the case of a dozen steps leading to the front door.

"Hell if I know," Waluigi answered, pressing a finger to a small, white button resting next to the door, triggering a doorbell to chime within the building. "Don't even remember them. I've spent my whole life here."

"Looks like a good place to hold yourself up," Wario commented with a snicker. Waluigi didn't say anything in response, beginning to wonder if agreeing to this whole partnership thing was such a good idea.

The door was soon answered by quite the attractive redhead; a human girl right about the age of fourteen opened up the white door, her blue eyes looking upon the pie in Waluigi's hands happily. Holding together a pink headband that wrapped around her long hair over the top of her head with a free hand, the girl stepped back to allow the boys in. She appeared to be in some kind of work uniform, for she sported a blue vest with a long sleeved white button up shirt underneath and a (surprisingly short) plain orange skirt. The only thing that really tipped off that she was indeed preparing for work was a white tag stitched into her vest that read "HELLO, my name is Mona," the name having been written in with a marker.

"Well it's about time, I was getting ready to leave for work," the girl informed, tying up her awaiting headband as Wario stepped in behind Waluigi, looking around the place as Mona closed the door behind them. She took notice of Wario's presence and decided that it would be in everyone's best interest if he was introduced to her. "Who's your friend?" she asked, giving Wario a smile as he absentmindedly scratched his posterior, paying more attention to the chandelier hanging in the next room over than the girl standing right behind him.

"Wario," Waluigi answered simply. "He's actually the one who gave me this pie," he continued on, holding the pie out to Mona as Wario turned to observe the conversation, hearing discussion of the pie. "He wants half of it though. That cool?"

"Oh, really?" Mona said, unable to hide a noticeable look of disappointed, for she really looked forward to having the whole of the treat. But, figuring that it was a gift from the new acquaintance, he was entitled to have as much as he wanted. "Sure, I'd be fine with just half."

"Huh?" Wario interjected, feeling slightly confused as he looked up at Waluigi. "I thought you wanted it."

"No...I lost a bet to Mona," Waluigi clarified, beginning to head for the kitchen. "I got it for her."

Wario gave the girl a quick look as she smiled back at him, obviously slightly tickled by the situation. Wario wouldn't have guessed that Waluigi fought over that pie to repay some chick for a bet he lost. But soon, with a shrug and sudden urge to feel generous, Wario spoke up once again.

"Then just give it to her," he said, making Waluigi stop in his tracks and causing Mona to smile even brighter than she already was. "I don't care. She can have it."

"Oh...well okay then," Waluigi replied, though he continued on to the kitchen anyway. "I'll just wrap this up I guess."

Once Waluigi was completely gone, Wario began to look around once again, observing a nearby desk, kept nice and tidy for meeting with possible foster parents. However, despite this small business area of the building, Wario did notice one glaring property of the orphanage that was missing: actual orphans. Before he could wonder where all the parent-less kids were hiding though, Mona soon caught his attention once again.

"Hey, thanks Wario," she piped up happily. Wario looked at her over his shoulder, not feeling particularly interested in actually talking to her. However, other than the orphan question, there was one thing he wanted to know to determine whether or not giving that pie away was a bad idea.

"It's just a pie," he responded. "But you guys do have some grub around here right?" Despite the hint of rudeness in Wario's voice, Mona let out a small giggle, finding his behavior to be comical for whatever reason.

"Of course we do," she confirmed, looking off in the direction that Waluigi just disappeared into. "We've got all kinds of food in the kitchen. You're welcome to have some if you're hungry."

Wario immediately began to leave without another word, his stomach feeling as if it were threatening to cave in at any moment. However, before he could get very far, Mona spoke up once again, making him reluctantly come to a stop and grumble to himself quietly as he turned to face the red haired girl.

"Are you an orphan too?" Mona asked, making Wario raise an eyebrow in response. "I just noticed that you had a backpack," she added quickly, prompting Wario to take it off and look at it. For all Mona knew, he could have just gotten out of school for the day...even though it was ten in the morning. Well, maybe he just ditched. Yeah. That's something he would do if he were still attending school.

Although being an orphan was closer to the truth, Wario decided to go with the answer that he just skipped school for the day, preferring to ride around town on his..."motorcycle". And oddly enough, the answer actually served to impress Mona, and she believed every word he said.

She gave Wario a kind of look he'd never received before; a glance that detailed some form of fascination with him. Something about him sparked an interest in Mona's mind. Past his rather grotesque figure, Wario gave off the air of a soul that just didn't care about rules or routine. His clothes were edgy, he willingly skipped out on his classes, and he had a motorcycle (or at least he claimed to have one) on which he could just ride his days away. He gave off the impression of being wild and untamed, the complete opposite of what Mona herself was.

Mona was the daughter of the owners of the orphanage. She was home-schooled alongside the other children who resided there and never had much opportunity to meet other people outside of going to work. Her life was pretty much the same day in and day out. She would babysit the younger orphans while keeping an eye on the older ones, did so well in her schooling that it no longer provided any challenge for her whatsoever, and always got to work right on time, only to spend four to five and a half hours serving ice cream to elderly folks or parents with young children. Who else would go to an ice cream parlor in the middle of a weekday?

Life was boring. It was just the same thing every single day... Sometimes she wished she could climb onto a motorcycle and just ride away without a care in the world. And right there, standing before her, was someone who could...

"Here," Waluigi spoke up, reentering the room with the pie, which was now tightly wrapped with two layers of clingy plastic. It was obvious the act of wrapping the treat was difficult, for Waluigi was gone for quite a while and he wore a slight frown as he handed it over to Mona, who took it with a pleasant smile. "You better not drop this or something on your way to work. It sucked getting that freakin' plastic over it."

"Come on Waluigi, I'm not that clumsy," Mona defended herself as she began to head for the door. "Work's like, a ten minute walk from here. It's gonna be fine." She opened up the door, but paused just before slipping out and leaving the two boys behind. "Oh yeah, you probably figured it out already Waluigi, but my parents took all the kids out to a movie again. They should be back soon, but you know the deal."

"Yeah yeah, I'll stay here until they get back," Waluigi ensured, urging Mona to go ahead and leave already. With a nod, Mona departed for work at Joe's Gelateria, and Waluigi gave out an exasperated sigh.

He didn't know why, but Mona just got on his nerves. Something about her just ticked him off beyond belief and he couldn't stand being around her for extended periods of time unless they were playing a game of some sort. There was no real plausible reason behind his negative feelings towards her though. She was infinitely nice to him, she was incredibly responsible and she loved every single one of the orphaned children as if they were her own family. She was like the perfect big sister, even though she was actually younger than Waluigi himself by a full year. In a word, she was ideal. She had looks, she had the right personality, and she had herself set on the right track by taking her education seriously and having a job at such a young age... Maybe that's what Waluigi hated so much about her.

Mona knew what she wanted out of life. Sure, it may not be the most exciting or risk-taking path ever, but at least she was doing something, which was much more than Waluigi could say for himself. The only notable things he'd accomplished so far were successfully nabbing a few coins worth of items from unsuspecting victims on the streets and living to see the age of fifteen. That was it. A rather pathetic list of successes to look back on at this stage in his life

Sure, he was being schooled as well, but, like Mona, everything was just too easy for him. So easy that he began not to care. Waluigi had all the smarts he could ever need, for he could see things from a logical standpoint just as well as he could utilize common sense to figure out how best to approach a situation whenever he needed to. All the brain power was there. He just didn't know what to do with it.

At the same time, he couldn't help but feel thoroughly unwanted in comparison to Mona. Waluigi's parents, whatever happened to them to cause him to become an orphan, left him with a life of loneliness and self doubt. Year after year, for as long as he could remember, foster parents looking for a child to adopt would always simply pass him over. They always wanted the cuter kid or the more friendly kid or, a more recent and larger obstacle, the younger kid.

Yes, Waluigi was the only orphan of the bunch to actually be older than Mona as well as the only one to be in the establishment for his entire life, never once even being considered by a single foster parent. Eventually, Mona's mother and father were kind enough to tell Waluigi that they considered him to be their own son, a comment that he couldn't really take seriously since every orphaned child was considered to be a part of the family anyway. Hearing them say such a thing felt more like pity than genuine truth, although, in some instances, Mona did seem to think Waluigi was her own brother, sometimes even calling him "bro". And Waluigi had to admit, he sometimes saw Mona as a sister. But that didn't mean that he wasn't ultimately envious of the acceptance she so easily received from society, her ability to take life with a grain of salt, and her aspirations in life that she could realistically meet someday. While she was shaping up to be the definition of a stand-up citizen, Waluigi, driven by his feeling of being outcast and devoid of any kind of love, decided to take whatever smarts he had and apply them to stealing from the very same community that he was so excluded from.

He didn't need to. He could have easily spent his time doing something else. Like building pointless 1:16 scale miniature sail boats or playing video games until his thumbs were as sore as his eyes or vice versa. Stealing was simply a hobby of his. A past-time that could apply his advanced ability to think logically while he practiced doing something that he actually found rather thrilling and enjoyable: sneaking around and lifting various valuables from people without them even noticing. It gave him a sense of power, for he was the one to decide who would soon be missing their wallet without ever knowing where it went. It felt satisfying to be able to steal an item that someone took for granted without being detected. It was comparable to taking back something in life that Waluigi missed out on by being an orphan, being without a true family that took him in and loved him for who he was.

But what did he do with everything that he managed to steal? He could go out and pawn them off or keep whatever straight cash he managed to nab for himself, using the money to buy whatever he liked. But he didn't.

Whenever he acquired a new item...he simply threw it away. Much like how he felt life threw him away. Material things could never fill the void in his heart that a feeling of love and acceptance would. But stealing was all Waluigi knew how to do, and he did it quite well. And now that he had Wario in tow, the gluttonous boy who was currently threatening to empty the entire fridge of its contents to satiate his massive hunger, at least he wouldn't have to do it alone.

But why did Wario steal in the first place? Sure, looking at him, he probably didn't need a reason to do it more than wanting things that he didn't already have, but Waluigi decided to ask anyway. It would serve as a learning experience to figure out at least a little something about his partner that he'd be spending a fair amount of his time with.

"My old man kicked me out of the house," Wario answered between bites of cold turkey and mashed potatoes. "Don't have a job or nothin', so I have to do somethin' to stay alive ya know."

At least Wario had a reason. He stole to survive. And he obviously didn't have the education or the dedication to hold down any kind of actual job. It was a better excuse to resort to crime than Waluigi could honestly come up with.

So that was that. If Waluigi was to do one thing with his life, it was to continue doing what he did best to help out this individual that most likely could not survive without a partner to aid him.

Wario was not a boon whatsoever as far as actually stealing though. With his build and his slightly clumsy nature, he couldn't sneak up to someone and lift an item off them worth crap. He was much more suited to be the getaway artist and sheer muscle just in case things went wrong. And that was his only role after Waluigi finally came to the realization that Wario was completely useless on the field.

Time and time again, Waluigi would have to signal for Wario to pick him up with his trusty scooter in case he made a wrong move and was being pursued by angry not-so-hapless targets. And, on more rare occasions, Wario would have to step in himself and prove his worth as the muscle of the team. Thankfully, Wario did manage to pull his weight when he needed to, earning the rewards from the thefts that he immediately either used to purchase food or horded away, saving money for that prized motorcycle that he aimed to someday own.

This day though, as the boys pulled up to the city park and kept sharp eyes out for their royal target, Wario began to wonder if this would be the heist to make his dream come true. Would this be the day he could trade in this stupid scooter and get a real man's vehicle? Would the loot they nabbed that day amount to such a grand amount of money that Wario would have the ability to walk up to his dad and rub his face in the mass of coinage he managed to obtain? Well, they would see soon enough, for Peach and Daisy were spotted entering the park, and, thankfully, Peach carried her purse with her.

"Alright, I'm goin' in," Waluigi informed, grabbing an ordinary yellow walkie-talkie, resembling a toy that young children would use to play silly outdoors games. Because it was. Waluigi simply took the walkie-talkies from the play room of the orphanage, and, surprisingly, they worked quite well and covered a pretty decent field of reception. The pair used them for all of their operations and never once did the handhelds let them down.

Waluigi hopped off the scooter and casually walked into the park as Wario discreetly scooted away, parking himself out of sight nearby where he would simply sit and wait for a signal if things went wrong.

Of course, things went smoothly for the first few minutes, for Waluigi was a master at appearing to be completely normal in a crowd. It wasn't difficult at all to stalk the girls as they made their way through the park and approached the tennis courts surrounded by a chain link fence, immediately greeted by a pair of boys who looked to be brothers and right around the same age.

The group appeared to chat about something Waluigi didn't care about as they made their way onto the nearest court, grabbing racquets from a pile on a nearby bench, as well as several lime colored fuzzy tennis balls. Just before they stepped on the playing field though, Peach set aside her purse right next to the entrance just inside the fence, completely alone and unguarded, susceptible and open for stealing.

Rookie mistake Princess. Rookie mistake.

Waluigi gave the group a few minutes of play time to allow them to let their guards down and focus on the game completely. Of all four of the participants, Waluigi only found the brunette girl to be any good at the game. The blond one seemed uncomfortable just holding a racquet in the first place, the boy in green was so uncoordinated that he would frequently launch the ball out of bounds, and the one in red seemed so distracted trying to go easy on the girls that he was ruining his own game altogether.

With all the needless laughing about the overly horrendous performances by most of the group, Waluigi found it simple to discreetly slide his way into the fenced area and position himself next to the purse. Keeping a sharp eye on the teenagers, he observed that none of them were paying him any mind at all, for the boy in red was preparing to serve the ball.

After taking a quick sweep of the rest of his surroundings, Waluigi subtly knelt to the side and picked up the purse by the straps. Just as he turned to leave though, a commotion rang out from the court.

"Mama-Mia!" one of the boy's voices yelled.

"Look out!" the other's warned.

"Wha?" Waluigi turned to see what was going on and was quickly met with the fuzzy lime green ball smacking him right in the eye, ricocheting off his face as it flew high into the air and over the fence.

Waluigi grabbed his eye and screamed painfully at the top of his lungs, attracting attention to himself from all around. And, before long, Peach noticed just what Waluigi was carrying in his hand...

"Hey, he has my purse!" she called out, causing several people to observe the pink purse that Waluigi was attempting to slide out with undetected. Keeping his good eye open, Waluigi looked over at the group of friends, and, observing that the two boys and the brunette girl were beginning to run after him, he turned tail and fled out of the court immediately.

Whipping out his walkie-talkie, Waluigi pressed a button on the side and quickly shouted, "Get ready, they're chasing after-" Before he could finish his sentence, the ball that previously assaulted him smacked him in the back of his head, making him lose his balance, stumble over his own feet, and fall onto the end of a table resting next to a grill at which a Toad was happily flipping burgers.

The table's far end lifted up into the air as Waluigi brought his end down to the ground, and a hideously misplaced can of liquid propane flipped into the air, defying the laws of physics as it poured quite an excessive amount of gas into the grill directly next to it. This caused flames to erupt dangerously high into the air, startling the Toad cooking next to it enough to make him jump backwards and run away frantically, in turn making other park patrons begin to panic as well.

Trying to regain his bearings, Waluigi stood up and shook his head slowly, just in time for Luigi to trip over the root of a tree and bump into the lanky boy rather harshly. Waluigi was propelled forward just enough to slam against the table with enough force to make it jut forward and barely bump into the nearby fireball of a grill. And, of course, the small bump was enough to make the grill slowly tip over, bang against the ground, and ignite the grass below it into flames.

As people witnessed these events going on, they began to scream, panic, instruct others to get to safety, and whip out cell phones to call the fire department. The teenagers seemed to completely forget about Peach's purse as more gasoline was fed into the now-grounded fire thanks to the can of propane lying on its side and leaking its contents nearby. The flames grew so high that they struck a twig in a nearby tree, which started a whole new slew of dancing fire to occupy the canopies above.

Erupting from the ground nearby, Mister Monty made his appearance on the scene, having heard the screams from a fair distance away. "What's going on over here?" he muttered shortly before observing that the area resting before him was slowly becoming engulfed in flames. The only ones on the site were Mario, Luigi, Daisy, Waluigi, and Peach, who just arrived on the scene and was shocked to see the damage that was being caused so suddenly.

"Get out of here children!" Mister Monty commanding, waddling over to the group hurriedly. Luigi didn't think twice about the request, jolting away from the scene immediately. Daisy took a few steps back as well, until she was near Peach, who was still standing a fair distance away. Mario and Waluigi stood firm though, Mario's eyes fixated on Waluigi as Waluigi himself looked between Mario, the flames, and the path leading out of the park rapidly.

"He was trying to get away with my friend's purse," Mario informed the Mole without taking his gaze off Waluigi. The tall boy began to sweat, partially thanks to the flames behind him and partially due to the fact that he was caught red handed. Mario didn't look like much though. He was short. Kinda pudgy. Waluigi could probably take him on...

Before he could even think about defending himself though, a stray lick of flame sparked out of the main body resting behind him and clung itself to his hat. Waluigi threw Peach's purse high into the air as his attention immediately turned to his now-burning scalp, clamoring to put out the flames as he ran back and forth on the spot, attempting to pat the fire out with his gloved hands.

Keeping his eyes on the purse, Mario zipped past Waluigi and gave a small hop onto the table behind him, risking setting himself aflame as he slowly stepped backwards and held up his arm to receive the falling purse. Thankfully, it was sealed closed, allowing the contents within to remain safe as it descended to the earth upside down.

Mario found his heel hanging off the very edge of the table, mere inches from the flames roaring behind him, as the purse came into his possession. Giving a brief fight to maintain his balance after the catch, Mario jumped off the side of the table, landing safely on a plot of unburned grass, purse in hand.

"Stop, drop, and roll!" Mister Monty called out with a panicked voice as Waluigi's hair began to catch fire underneath his nearly gone hat. Without thinking, Waluigi fell flat on his face immediately, an action he would soon regret, for his long nose was left to make fierce contact with the ground, only adding another ailment to his current state.

Mario quickly made his way over to the two girls as Mister Monty worried over the half-blind, burning, broken-nosed boy who was currently writhing in pain on the ground. The trio hastily evacuated the scene as a grotesquely overweight boy appeared to see what was going on. However, upon observing Waluigi and Mister Monty panicking near a rather massive fire that was coursing its way through the section of the park while the sirens of a fire truck blared in the background, Wario slowly backed away, turned back around, and walked off, pretending not to have seen a thing.

–

As he observed the team of Pianta firemen successfully dousing the flames nearby, Luigi began to wonder if his bad luck really did pay off for the better in the end. Well, sure, his clumsiness did play a part in starting that fire in the first place...but hey, if he wasn't so terrible at aiming a tennis ball, Waluigi probably would have gotten away with Peach's purse. So, in a way, every negative thing that resulted from his misfortunate luck lately always had a positive lining in the long run...

If anything though, this was Mario's moment. Even though Waluigi managed to escape (with quite the burned scalp), Luigi's older brother did pretty much risk his own health to ensure that Peach's purse didn't fall victim to the once-blazing inferno. And, as it turns out, Peach was in fact carrying several items of superior value that would have snagged Wario and Waluigi quite the amount of coins. Thank goodness Mario, the brave young man he was, snagged the purse just in time. Peach couldn't have been more grateful if she'd tried.

As Mario insisted that the act of selfless chivalry was nothing, Daisy silently sidled up to Luigi, who was leaning sideways against a tree, gazing on the burned, wet scenery before him upon where the firemen were preparing to wrap up and leave. The blackened grass and charred trees looked completely out of place when nestled amongst such rich, vibrant greenery. He hoped the damage wasn't too severe; he'd feel terrible if Sports Day was postponed because of this one incident. Before he could think too much about it though, he could feel an elbow nudging him against his side.

"Come on Luigi, don't worry about that," Daisy spoke up with a smile as Luigi glanced over at her. "It's not that bad. And hey, you stopped that kid from running off with Peach's purse. You're kinda like a hero."

"I didn't really do anything though," Luigi muttered, looking ahead at the scene once again. The people who previously occupied the area began to trickle back, evaluating the damage with mixed reactions. "If it wasn't for my clumsiness, none of this would have even happened. That kid probably would have gotten away and that fire probably wouldn't have ever happened."

"Well, we can just call it dumb luck," Daisy suggested, keeping her warm smile. Luigi looked over at Daisy once again, and, looking into her eyes for a few seconds, he gave off a smile of his own.

Daisy was right. These past few days, Luigi's unluckiness could have just as easily been called dumb luck. Three times he'd assaulted people while playing some kind of sport. And all three times, in the grand scheme of things, the effects of his clumsiness were positive. He really had to wonder if it was actually so bad to be the klutz that he was.

"Come on you guys, we've barely played any tennis," Mario called over to Luigi and Daisy, causing them both to turn and face him and Peach. Mario waved the pair over just before turning to head back to the court alongside Peach. Giving Luigi a quickly pat on the shoulder, Daisy jogged back over to the court herself, shortly followed by Luigi.

It was noticed that the four friends were split up into different teams this time around. Before the episode concerning the thieving Waluigi, it was brothers versus secret princesses. But now older brother was facing younger brother and blond princess was against brunette. The teams mixed with a silent organization, and nobody said a word about the arrangement. They seemed perfectly fine just the way they were.