Chapter 2-Radioactive

~Luigi's POV~

Leave it to Snake to be one of the most legendary and daring stealth soldier who walked this planet and several others, but still insist that he whip up a cup of tea that even I, who disliked tea, can enjoy heartily.

He saw my smile of content and grinned again. "You like it?" After I nodded, he added "Good. I got the method from Mei Ling."

I nodded at the mention of one of his good friends, Mei Ling, from his work with his team of... super stealth soldier people. Yeah, truth be told, I don't know much about his work, but I know some. About what every other smasher knows, and then a little bit.

"How are you settling in, David?" I asked, addressing Snake by his real name.

"Eh? Oh, yeah. Mute City. A bit fast for my tastes, but I think I could use a bit of excitement."

"You act like that's a foreign concept to you."

"Well, I haven't been to work in a year, and there doesn't seem to be much need for our assistance right now. I need something to do."

"Like, say, seeing if you can cross the street without getting run over? That's a gambling game right there."

Snake grinned again. "Haha, exactly! Anyway," he added as he set his cup of tea on his old cherry coffee table, "You said you needed my help with something, right? Let's hear it."

I set my own tea down after sipping the last traces of it and cleared my throat. "Well, you said you wanted some adventure just now, right?"

He looked around, for some reason, and then gave me a slight grin, eyebrow raised. "I'm all ears."

Yes. I got him. "Well, there's sort of an emergency in the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Bowser have both been kidnapped."

He looked at me intently, dubiously. "You serious?"

I nodded, with a gulp I couldn't keep down.

"Oh, okay." he said, lightening his gaze. "Wow. Mario... and Bowser. That's just a skullscrewer right there."

"What it means is that both our biggest hero and villain are kidnapped. There's either a greater good or evil out there and considering they kidnapped Mario, I'm going to say the latter."

"So, you want to fight a greater evil... than Bowser?" Snake asked me.

I nodded. "I'm not exactly easy about it either. And it's not exactly a 'want', either."

"Of course," he replied. "But, either way, I'm in."

"Great." I gave a thumbs up and a grin.

"No problem, dude." He replied. "Anyway, where are we heading?"

At that moment my hand dropped into my lap and my eyes bugged a little. Why in the bloody love of hell did I not even get that worked out?

"...I...I'm gonna ask Daisy." I replied, in a bit of a stutter. Snake just laughed his way into a sigh. I instantly got my phone out and dialed her number, wondering if I was going to get an answer that I should have asked the very first day.

About 2 seconds later, she picked up. Either she has ninja-like reflexes or her phone's always glued to her hand, because she answers her phone quicker than any human should. Before I can even take a breath, she starts with "Hey, Weeg, whatcha need?"

"Oh, hey, Daisy." I start. "Uh, I actually do have a question."

"All ears,"

"Okay, uhm... where the hell are we supposed to go again?"

Daisy started laughing hard, and I heard something drop in the background.

"...Dais?"

"Oh my god, Luigi, I'm so sorry about that!" she giggled. "I totally meant to tell you before I left. Peach actually hired a crew of Bandits to find their way to Bowser's castle and try to trace the kidnapper. They haven't seen him but they did find a mean-looking army that seemed to be heading towards Hazy Maze Cave. I can't give you a solid answer but that seems to be where they're heading."

"Alrighty, thanks Dais."

"No problem, Weeg. Good luck!" she finishes. "Oh, and tell Snake I said hi."

"Okay, I wi- wait, how'd you know I was here?" I asked, mouth slightly agape.

She laughs again and said "Oh, Weeg, you're so predicatble, that's how. I'll see you when you get back!"

"Alright, see you when I get back." I reply as I shut my flip-phone, and see Snake grinning at me for, what, the eighth time since I got here? I could tell he was wholly amused.

I sigh and say "She's crazy."

Snake chuckled and said "Anyway, where are we heading?"

"To the Hazy Maze Caves." I reply. "They're about 100 miles north of Bowser's Castle in his kingdom, about a thousand or so away from here."

"Okay, so when do we leave?" he asks. "I've gotta pack some stuff together to use to fight with, but other than that, I'd say we're good to go."

"Well, there's one other person I want to get." I add before he can go get started.

"Oh, really?" he asks me, slightly dubious. "Who'd you have in mind?"

"I want to get Meta-Knight on board." I respond.

"Really?" he said, now completely dubious. "Why him? I'm not even sure if he's a villain, a hero, or someone who gives a damn."

"Well, it's a gamble, but he completely dominated us in the tournaments." I point out.

"Hey, I did good in the tournaments, too." he grumbles. "I came in second, didn't I?"

"Yeah, sure, but let's not fool ourselves, none of us had a chance against him." I argue. It's true, too. None of the other top 5 could hold a candle to the small, mysterious warrior. (Much to Falco's eternal jealousy and disdain.)

"I'll admit that much is true." Snake replies.

"He's also very skilled with a sword," I add, "and he's got a ship."

Snake broke out into another grin, I'm starting to lose count, and said "You, sir, had me at ship."

"Well, that settles that, then." I say. "I reckon we should head over to where he lives."

"Where does he live, again?"

"Last I heard from Kirby, he lives in the Halberd right outside of Kanto City in the Pokemon's Province." I reply.

"That's strange," Snake notes, "Why does he live there?"

"Do you expect me to know?" I answer his question with a question. "We don't even know what that guy's face looks like."

He nods in reply. "Good point. I'm going to go pack up now."

"You do that," I reply as I stand up and walk towards the kitchen, aiming to get a glass of water. I slump against the sink. Good god, I'm already weary of this quest, and it hasn't even started yet. I take the glass, and my eyes start to droop a bit. Annoyed, I throw the glass of water at my face to wake me up. It works somewhat, and also succeeds in soaking Snake's counter and hand towels.

While I'm shaking water out of my hair, that's when I hear it. The first notes of a harp, playing an all-too-familiar tune. Acting by my first instincts, I start to fill up another glass of water, but decide that instead, I was going to act.

I bolted towards the door, only stopping to grab the scarf, and I run outside. I run around the house, putting my training in Parkour to good use. All 3 weeks of it. I looked around the entirety of the roof, but no one was there. Agh. This harpist is the real skullscrewer.

I continued to follow the sound around the house until, suddenly, it stopped. And the next thing I heard was a thud. The next thing I saw was a figure, the same figure, bolting away. I made a quick attempt to get a good look. All I noticed is that this figure was rather tall, wore a sort of jumpsuit, and had ashy blond hair. And from what I could tell, definitely female.

Suddenly, Snake appears behind me, and I jump so high I nearly hit my head on clouds. Or at least it feels like this. I've a reputation for being a notoriously high climber; much more so than my brother Mario "Jumpman" Segali. Ironic how life turns out, isn't it?

"Well, did you enjoy your little run?" he asks, amused. I seem to amuse him too much.

"Yeah, sure." I say with a weary sigh.

"Well, I'm packed." he says nonchalantly, referring to his bag...

...in which he has 5 grenades, a grenade launcher, a large gun I couldn't identify, some C4 explosives and a little camera type thing that looked like a parachute; how the hell Snake managed to fit his entire special moveset into a bag of any size, I have no clue.

"One normal gun wouldn't do just fine?" I asked incredulously.

"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, Luigi." he says as he lifts it up. "So, to the train?"

"Yeah, to the train." I said.

"Well, forget that, cause I got us a ride." Snake grinned, again.

"Oh, good-wait. Oh... hell no... hell no... just... no."

Author's Corner

Hello all! I decided that I'm going to keep author notes at the bottom of the chapter to avoid a huge wall of text that people ignore to get to the chapter. This chapter was rather short, but with good reason-I planned to make Chapters 2 and 3 only chapter 2, but it became a huge wall of text that took up 5,000 words. Almost as long as Words and Action. So you get chapters 2 and 3 both today! :)

Anyway, I wanted to let you guys know something that may contribute to any mistakes in my story. I'm sorry to admit that I am not very versed in video games, at all really. Mario and Super Smash Brothers pretty much made up my whole repertoire of game knowledge through my life. (I also went 6 years without Nintendo because my dad got into Xbox racing games.) So since I'm involving other dimensional characters, I may slip up despite Wiki research. I have a Gamecube now so when budget allows I plan on getting Metroid Prime, and then a Zelda Game as a start.

Also, a bit of extra trivia, every chapter name is named after a song I love, and may branch out to lines from a song. If you can guess what they are, you get a cookie. If you love that song, you get a cake. Which is not a lie-I am a very honest person.

Enjoy chapter 3, my friends!

MoD