The group made their way back towards the Africa section of the park as the day slowly moved into the afternoon. Mario looked at his watch (which had a picture of Link in it with his sword and shield as the minute and hour hands) to discover that it was already a little bit after three o' clock.
"Hmm…" Mario mused, "I think we better pick up the pace a bit. The Animal Kingdom Park closes earlier than the others because the animals need to rest."
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Luigi complimented, "What should we do next, then?"
"Let's see… Ah, ha! We'll do the Pangani Forest Expedition Trail…"
"Wait a second… Is that another stupid walking thing?" Wario asked.
"Um… Yeah…"
"Bah, count me out, then!" Wario grunted, walking away, "I think I'll go belch at those holler monkeys some more."
"Same here," Waluigi agreed, "Call us when you're done being nerds, okay?"
"Right…" Mario replied, rolling his eyes, "See you guys in a bit…"
As the dysfunctional duo ran off again, the rest of the group turned their attention back to the trail and walked in. As it turned out, the trail was just as interesting as the Asia one. Their first stop was a half-underground cave. From in here, one could look though a glass wall and see a pool full of hippos… from above and below the water!
"Hey, guys! Check this out!" Luigi called out, "One of the hippos is swimming right up against the glass!"
The gang walked over to where Luigi was standing and saw a hippo that had its nose pressed against the glass, staring intently at the guests on the other side.
"Hmm… Lovely…" Daisy murmured, "He doesn't think we're fish food, does he?"
"Naw," Mario denied, "he's probably just curious. We probably look as weird to him as he does to us."
"Sounds like the first time we met a yoshi, bro," Luigi recalled, "well… the first time since we were babies, I mean… I think we both just kinda stared at it while it stared back at us for a good five minutes, remember?"
"Ah, yes…" Mario replied, "And, if I recall correctly, it also tried to eat your hat!"
"Hey! It's not my fault if he thought it looked like a watermelon! And besides, didn't he think your hat was an apple?"
"Well, um… Let's not talk about that…"
Turning his attention back to the hippo tank, the green-clad plumber tapped on the glass, to which the hippo responded by slowly turning around and floating away.
"Hey! Wait! Come back!" Luigi pleaded, but the hippo was already gone, "Erm… I guess they're right when they say that animals don't like it when you tap on the glass, heh heh…"
The rest of the group just rolled their eyes and continued onward. Pretty soon, they reached the next section: an 'outdoor' (it was actually very discretely caged-in) aviary where exotic birds were allowed to fly freely through the air.
"Uh… Am I the only one who's got a bad feeling about this?" Luigi asked, reflexively covering his head, "I mean, we're in a room full of all sorts of things that are all flying around above our heads…"
"Nope, I've got it too…" Peach agreed, taking out her parasol and opening it up.
"Aw… Stop being such a worry-wart!" Daisy teased, looking upward, "You won't be able to see the birds as well if you have that thing out!"
"And I won't get covered in bird droppings, either!" Peach countered.
"So what if I get pooped on?" Daisy shrugged, "I can always go back on Kali River Rapids to wash it out…"
"Um… Sorry, Daisy, but I'm gonna have to side with Peach on this one," Mario interrupted, slowly shifting his position so that he was under Peach's umbrella, "I'd rather not waste the time going all the way back to Asia to ride that thing again just to wash off…"
Luigi also tried to get under the umbrella but alas, there was no more room. Nervously, he began to make his way towards the exit of the aviary before anything was 'bestowed upon' him. Looking around (and above), he was glad to discover that most of the birds seemed to be satisfied just to stay on the perches placed around the aviary rather than fly above the guests, making his escape a bit easier.
"Gulp… Yes, that's it…" Luigi muttered to the birds, "Stay where you are. Don't fly… Right… Above…"
Suddenly, a rather colorful looking bird swooped over his head. In a panic, Luigi immediately dived forward and 'belly-slid' about ten feet, right to the exit door. Observing this, Mario ran over to him and helped his brother up.
"Luigi! What are you, crazy!?" Mario joked, brushing all the dirt off the front of Luigi's clothes, "You practically grinded your face into the pavement!"
Luigi simply pointed to where he was moments before, where there was now a rather huge bird dropping on the ground.
"But he didn't get me!" Luigi defended.
Almost as if on cue, another bird flew over the brothers and sent down another 'payload'. This time, however, it landed square on Luigi's shoe. The younger plumber looked down at it distantly and attempted to shake it off with little success.
"Well… At least he only got my foot…"
Quickly glancing upward, he promptly walked out the door before irony could strike twice.
"So, this is the main attraction, huh? The gorillas?"
"Yep, Daisy," Peach answered, looking through the glass at the primate family on the other side, "this is an entire family of silverback gorillas. There's a mother, a father, and two children gorillas over there."
"Hmm…" Luigi mused, motioning towards a gorilla sleeping lazily against a tree, "I wonder which one's the dad…"
Meanwhile, Mario was standing a short distance off, appearing a little apprehensive towards the huge primates. Luigi was the first to notice this.
"You okay, bro?"
"Huh?... Oh, yeah, I'm fine…" Mario mumbled, "I'm sorry, it's just that whenever I'm near gorillas, I think---"
"They're gonna throw a barrel at you?" Luigi finished.
"Um… Yeah… It's stupid, I know, and I shoulda gotten over that about twenty years ago, but it's kinda hard to shake something like that from your mind. It's a gut reaction for me now."
"Hey, don't worry about Mario! Heh, heh… I mean, what I wouldn't give to only be a little wary of monkeys."
"Thanks… Tell ya what, I'm gonna go out and find those Wario Bros. while you finish up here. I'll meet you back up at the front gate, okay?"
"Sure thing, Mario!" Peach agreed, "See you there!"
Mario made his way back out into the park, where he suddenly faced a huge dilemma: where could the Wario Bros. have gone? He ran back to the howler monkeys exhibit, but they weren't there!
"Uh oh… Now what? They said they were going back here…"
Unable to think of where they could be, he reached into his pocket, pulled out his cell phone, and dialed Wario's cell. Unfortunately, all he got was an answering machine.
"Yo, loser! Do ya think you were worthy of calling the great WARIO!? Don't make me laugh! Chances are, I'm busy doing something a lot more important than talking to you right now (or maybe I just hate you), but if ya desperate, you can leave a message and a number after that tone thingy goes off and I might call ya back… Unless you wear a red cap and go by the name 'Mario' in which case… SCREW YOU!!! WAH HA HA!!!"
Mario promptly hung up before the tone even sounded. That certainly had gotten him nowhere. With nothing better to think of, he feared he had to resort to running across the whole park to look for them! Thankfully, he didn't have to travel nearly as far as he dreaded. In fact, he only had to walk a few more yards to Kali River Rapids to find the dubious duo. It appeared that Waluigi had returned to extract revenge on the people who drenched him during their ride: he and Wario were now standing on the bridge over the attraction, furiously pounding the button to send a continuous spray of water on the rafters below them.
"See that? Yeah, how do YOU like it when someone gets YOU!?" Waluigi demanded as another raft floated by.
"You got that right!" Wario continued, "No one messes with the Wario Bros. and gets away with it! Wah ha ha!"
"There you are!" Mario called out, approaching the pair, clearly peeved, "You said you were going to be by the howler monkeys again! I thought I had to look all over the park to find you!"
"Um… It was his fault!" Wario protested, pointing a finger at Waluigi, "He wanted to get back at the people who soaked us while we were on that raft ride! I'm just a slightly innocent bystander!"
"Slightly innocent!?" Waluigi objected, "Bullshroom! You were going along with me the entire time and you enjoyed every dang minute of it!"
"Look, you two, I think we're all about finished up with the Animal Kingdom," Mario interjected, "so it's time to stop drenching those raft riders even more and come with us."
"Aw, no fair…" the purple-clad plumber whined, "I wanted to get the kids who drenched me in the first place!"
"Oh yeah, and what would the odds of them commin' back, huh?" Wario grumbled, "One in a million?"
"Well, I still have a chance then! And I'm not leaving until… HEY! LET GO!!!"
Wario grabbed Waluigi by the back of the neck and hauled him away from the sprinkler button.
"Wow…" Mario gasped, "Are you actually listening to me for once!?"
"I'm not doin' this for you, stupid," Wario grunted as he dragged Waluigi along, "I just wanna see this nitwit suffer."
"Oh, gee, thanks a lot!" Waluigi grumbled sarcastically, "I feel so honored!"
"You should be! You're being held by the great Wario! I know people who would pay good money just to be held by me!"
"You call this being held! You got me in a freakin' choke-hold!"
"Ugh…" Mario sighed, "Let's just go…"
Pretty soon, the entire group of vacationers was back at the front entrance to the Animal Kingdom.
"So, now what?" Luigi asked, "We still have a lot of time left in the day, but there's no more parks to go to! We've done them all!"
"Well, there's more to Disney World than just the parks, Luigi," Peach explained, "right, Mario?"
"Right!" the red-capped plumber agreed, "In fact, I think I've got a great idea on where to go next!"
"Oh really now? Great…" Wario mumbled, "You already bored us outta our minds with that stupid golf game back near the hotel! What brilliant 'beyond the park' plan do you have now?"
"Simple," Mario responded, turning to Wario, "you like video games, right?"
"Huh? Of course! I own a video game company, for crying out loud! What kinda stupid question is that!?"
"Just checking, 'cuz I think you'll like our next destination:" Mario replied, showing Wario a brochure he picked up at the hotel, "DisneyQuest."
Author's Note: ARGH!!! (Smashes forhead against the keyboard) The updates... They're killing me!!! Okay, okay... I'm calm... I'm cool, I'm collected... ARGH!!! (Smashes forhead against the keyboard some more) I am SO flippin' sorry that I've taken so long to update. Things have been really crazy at my house, and anything that could be considered "normal" (such as taking down Christmas decorations before February...) has pretty much gone out the window, and that includes updating my fanfictions. Of course, all those sessions of WarioWare: Smooth Moves and Elite Beat Agents might have had something to do with it as well... Anyway, please rest assured that I have absolutely no intention of giving up on this thing. I WILL finish it! I'm done with all the parks, so it has to be all downhill from here, right? (Crickets chirp) Um... Real assuring, guys. At any rate, this is one story I ain't gonna let die! I promise!