SOMEBODY processed a Gumba and a Koopa. The resulting Imps were a sight to behold and should be destroyed before they laid eggs. Well, that was Mario's opinion. The Imps didn't give much experience so he would have to destroy a lot of them to gain any levels... but it would be worth it. And if not for EXP, then at least to get rid of them.

Luckily they still had their weakness of a good jump to the head. It was easy to hop from Koomba-Imp to Koomba-Imp (Mario would never let Luigi name something ever again), leaving spoils and Gist flying around. Imps were easy, but Ogres... well, more then one of them could be a problem.

Mario jumped high and landed on a small platform overseeing a good stretch of the land before him, and drew his eyebrows close in concern.

The Land of Sun and Stars, his planet, was really breathtaking. There was a giant sun as a centre and countless star-shaped planets flying around. It reminded him a bit of his adventures in outer-space and his consorts looked a bit like Lumas too... but the monsters were a big problem. It wasn't possible to do anything around here without running into some of them.

Two golden Ogres were standing in front of him and Mario knew that he could always just take on one of them. In most cases this wouldn't have been a problem. Mario was fast enough to battle one and stay out of the other's attack-range. The problem HERE was that THESE Ogres had aspects of his brother's prototypes...

Which meant they were a part-ghost. And since they could make themselves intangible on will, his HAMMER OF MIGHT AND FIRE wouldn't to a lot damage to them. Even less if said hammer just passed right through them. It was not looking good for him. But he had to try.
A good jump upwards. A salto mid-air. A perfect landing on the big head of the Ogre and a mighty swing with his hammer. The HP of the Ogre dropped by a half, but now he turned intangible and Mario just felt through.

" WAAAAHHHH!"

And it was a steep fall from top of an Ogre to the ground. Well, if you want to call the fire of a sun 'ground'. Why by the stars did he had to get a planet that wasn't a planet at all?

" MARIO!"

Suddenly there was a hand that grabbed his and he was not falling but flying.

" Luigi?"

Mario blinked. He hadn't expected his brother to be around, but he was glad nevertheless. It was good to know that his twin and partner-in-adventuring had his back... and hand.

" Hi, bro. Sorry for being late but I couldn't find my second portal because of all the shade and..."

He was interrupted by the screeching Ogre. Luigi, flying on something that looked like a bean with wings (where had he seen a thing like this before?) and holding on to Marios hand had to steer quit a bit before they both where out of the attack-range of the monster.

"Nevermind, Weegie. You got an idea what to do with them?"

" Sure, bro." Luigi grinned. "Look!" Suddenly he had a kind of strange vacuumcleaner on his back. It did look a bit like the Polterduster 5000 and hat the iconic " "-Symbol on its back but it was green and glowed slightly in the orange light of the sun.

" You have a... Vacuumkind Strifespecibus?"

" It was the only thing that helps against ghosts, you know? And I did kind of prototype a Sneaker... these things always gave me the creeps. So I had to adjust."

How could Mario forget? Even though it had been the most terrifying night (more like nights after the thing with the Dark Moon) in his life, Mario always recalled fondly how Luigi had saved him, overcoming his fears and insecurity for him, with only the help of an old (but genial) professor and a vacuumcleaner.

" Yeah... I know... But... what is that?"

" Little experiment with the alchemizer. It's called the Buster-Duster 5000. Watch!" And with this words Luigi held the end of the vacuum towards the ghostly Ogre and pressed a green switch. A bright laser-like light came out and suddenly the HP of the Ogre dropped one by one. A little light at the side of the vacuumcleaner began to shine brighter and brighter.

" Mamma Mia! It's draining it?"

" Jep. Cool, isn't it, bro? The HP even are convertible into some kind of healing-potion. It's handy.", Luigi replied, gesticulating with one hand to a small display on the side of the vacuum. A blue-ish looking liquid was visible filling some kind of tank.

Mario wasn't sure whether it qualified as "cool". He had to admit it was handy but something about this... and about Luigi irked him. But this was no time to think about it. He readied his hammer.

" Luigi? Can you fly closer to the second Ogre?"

" Oki-doki, bro."

And with a swift swing, some vacuuming and a double-jump from the brothers, the Ogre came down heavy, exploding in Gist and all sorts of building material.

" Well, that was... intense.", said Mario and looked to his brother. "And it's good to see you, Weegie.", he said, a bit small smile at his lips and his voice soft around the old nickname for his brother.

" You too, bro. Wow, your planet is beautiful. Mine is just... dark."

" Land of Shade and Thunder was it?"

" Yeah... and the inhabitants look like Boos."

Mario couldn't help but chuckle a bit at his brothers discomfort. Well, Luigi seemed to have always a bad case of bad luck, even in reality-altering games that will create a new Multiverse.

" It's not funny, Mario."

" I know, I know, I'm sorry... it's just... well... okay, I kinda think it's funny. Just a bit."

Luigi just gave him a flat glare.

" Hey, don't look at me like that! Anyway, have you found out your aspect yet?"

" Yeah... apparently I'm the "Knight of Heart", whatever that is. The... The Boomies were a bit vague on that."

" Your consorts call themselves Boomies?"

" Like you are one to talk with "Lumarians"."

Mario had to laugh at that. So many people never saw what a dry sense of humour his brother had.

" Okay, okay. You have me... So... Knight of Heart, huh? Well, then we should find the Space-Player soon... you will need to work with him or her..."

" So, you are not the space-player?"

" No... I'm the Heir of Time. No clue what that means."

" Well, the professor said something about that every session of the game needs a Time and a Space player to be winable... So... you are the Time-Player... Have you found this... Thing already? You know, on your planet?"

Mario shook his head. Well, it was a bit complicated to find something if you had only a very vague impression of what you were searching.

" No... and no time-travel for me at this moment either... but I think with the material from the Ogres I can alchemize something later."

" Oh... cool, bro."

" And you? Any new powers yet?"

" Well..."

A cascade of emotions washed over Luigi's face. Gone was the slight humour in Luigi's eyes or the seriousness that he had when he talked about a job. Mario wondered what this meant... there was excitement but also fear and... shame? What by the stars had Luigi discovered?

" I... I did find something out... and how to reach God Tier... but... but it's scary and I don't know if I want to..."

Mario just was confused. They had learned early in the game that reaching God Tier Level was really important to beat the Dark King and win the game. What could scare his brother so much?

" Luigi... what do we have to do?"

" ... we... we have to die."

Death? No... no, it's Game Over. When someone dies... that means their Game is Over. They go to the Underwhere or to Overthere. Right?

They aren't... they don't just leave. You can find them if you look hard enough.

To reach God Tier they had to find their Quest Beds and meet some other requirements. And they quickly learned that the game itself was a complicated mess of RPG-elements all over the map. There were so many Quests and Sidequests, so many things to do...

Unfortunately many things had to be done on their own. Mario didn't like it that he had to be separated from his brother just after they had found each other. If past experiences taught him one thing then that they were stronger and could do anything if they were together. But noooo, this game just liked to be a big plug in a pipe.

So Mario had to go on a quest to discover his powers as the Hero of Time, while Luigi had to go on on his quest of the way of Heart... whatever that meant. They stayed in touch via Gameboy Horror DS (something Luigi still had always on his person. A copy was easily made for Mario) but it just wasn't the same.

Mario DID see him at some point, though.

Some quest required travelling to other planets and getting some things from there. Mario had to make some trips to Luigi's planet, often to get Ectoplasma (blue stuff that glows in the dark that exists like water on LoSaT) or Pulsars (violet Crystals that were the stand-in for flora on Luigis planet). He was just getting a few more bottles full and thought about how to transport some of the larger Crystals as he heard a loud crashing in the distance. Unable to resists his curiosity, he run to where the sound came from.

And so he found Luigi and was seriously a bit stunned.

Mario just watched his brother hammering some Imps away, a small smile on his face. It wasn't often that he could watch Luigi fight, they often fought at the same time watching each other's backs, but there was never time to just OBSERVE.

He was good. Very good. Mario was a bit confused that Luigi used Hammerkind, when he clearly had only Vacuumkind in the past and the game allowed only one Strifespecibus per person... well, maybe the game made exceptions? Or Luigi had found a way to switch?

He didn't ponder to long about it, he just watched his brother fighting, a sense of pride swelling in his chest. Luigi had come a long way and he was so proud of him. He remembered the beginnings, their childhood, how Luigi had never been a fighter and unbelievable clumsy. He would trip or injure himself instead of hitting somebody else.

Aside from that, Luigi just wasn't the kind of person who would use non-verbal methods of solving problems. Mario kind of knew that that was a better approach but a Gumba just wouldn't listen to the finer points of problem-management that Luigi cultivated. But that was how they were: Mario was more the hands-on type and Luigi preferred a more non-violent method.

But now? Now his fightingstyle was beautiful. His body was lean, muscle and flexibility perfectly balanced and he seemed to have everything under control. He flipped trough the air, muscles working precisely and every movement felt like it was intended and well calculated. It looked like a dance, like a beautiful homage to everything a human body could do with grace and Mario was proud and a bit stunned by the display of competence.

And his hammer was beautiful. Made out of what appeared to be green glass from the distance but was powerful and unbreakable. The imps never stood a chance.

Unfortunately Mario had no time to speak with his brother. (He didn't even have time to watch him actually, but he couldn't help himself.) He had to go on his next mission on his quest and the ectoplasma would spoil after a short time. So he gave Luigi one last look, decided that he had everything handled and leaped through the next portal back to his planet.

He didn't see his brother for three days. He told himself that Luigi could look out for himself, that he would call him if he needed help, that he was strong and didn't need his brother to be constantly looking out for him.
It didn't change the clenching feeling in his hearth.

(Three Days, 5 Hours, 24 Minutes, 12 Seconds... 13...14...15...)

" Do you remember when we were kids? The other children made fun of your accent so you wouldn't speak for weeks."

" Yeah... how did they call me? "The silent Mario"? Did I ever thank you for being my voice at that time? It was pretty dumb from me, but..."

" I understand, bro... and I did understand as a child. But it's strange how things have changed, huh? Now nobody will ever make fun of the accent."

" Yeah... but why did you bring this up?"

" Huh? Oh... well... do you remember... how we got it? I... don't remember Mum or Dad talking our language... or the Yoshis. Or anybody else we knew for a fact... The professor asked me a few days ago and... I honestly don't know."

" I... hmm... well... I don't remember... maybe it's like the thing with our baby-selves. We didn't remember that too, did we?"

" No... I think you are right."

… but... why did we forgot so much about ourselves?