A/N: Another short chapter, but we're getting somewhere this time. On with the adventure!
Disclaimer: Don't own Mario. Don't own Sonic. Don't own anything that is property of Nintendo or Sega.
Chapter 32: Sink or Swim
No luck.
Just two simple words to describe the gang's current situation as they tried to find their green friend. Since he ran away from the rest of the group, Mario, Sonic, Tails, and Colombo have searched for an hour, but have not found any signs of Luigi. In the pilot's seat, Mario flipped on the autopilot and plopped his head on the U-shaped yoke in frustration, feeling tired and upset with this whole ordeal. (1)
Tails approached him as a chance to comfort him. He placed his hands on his shoulders from behind his seat.
"Sorry, Mario. We haven't found him yet. But we will soon."
Mario didn't respond, but he exhaled a small sigh. Tails frowned as he felt sympathetic. Just then, his communicator started buzzing on his wrist.
"Who's calling?" Sonic asked while staring at the window.
Tails clicked a few buttons and found the caller ID. "It's Professor E. Gadd. He's probably wondering why we're late to his lab."
"This wouldn't be happening if he didn't start hallucinating over whatever was going on."
Mario lifted his head up to glare at the hedgehog. "Don't start that crap with me. I told you, I don't know why he acted like that back at the castle, so could you lay off? At least you're not near Sparkling Waters yet."
"Oh, I don't plan on swimming, if that's what you're implying."
"Then why'd you bring your life jacket?"
"Just in case, sheesh!"
"Guys, stop arguing, please! Let me take this call. Meanwhile, keep searching for Luigi."
"Fine," they both said.
Tails walked to the back of the helicopter to talk in private. He accepted the call and apologized from the start.
"Hello, Professor? Sorry I didn't pick up immediately."
"No need to ask for forgiveness, Tails," he replied politely. "I was just wondering where you and the others are."
"Well you see, E. Gadd, something went wrong with Luigi. Mario explained that when he came to wake him up this morning, he seemed to have another nightmare. The problem is that he didn't tell what it was about. Then we met with the brothers to make our way to Boo Woods to pick up his Poltergust, but then… How do I say this calmly?"
"What happened?" E. Gadd curiously replied.
"Before we could even head off, he screamed. His face went pale like he'd seen a ghost."
"Well he has seen plenty of those, probably hundreds by now."
"But this is different. It was like he was in his own world, panicking over something that we couldn't see or understand. It all happened within his mind. Neither Mario, Sonic, or anyone else, including me, knew what the hell was going on. And before we know it, Luigi ran away in fear. To this moment, we're searching for him while the girls are busy shopping."
Silence was heard on the other line as the professor slowly took in Tails' speech. After a while, the old man nodded.
"I see…"
"Do you happen to know where Luigi is, Professor?"
"Actually, that's the reason why I called you, Tails," he scratched the back of his head.
"Wait. What?"
Mario happened to barely hear E. Gadd's response that he decided to eavesdrop on their conversation. The helicopter was still on autopilot, but he pretended to navigate the aircraft.
"You see, I exited my bunker to see where you guys were or, at the very least, see if you were coming my way. I stood outside for at least fifteen minutes and I didn't see anyone at all. That is until I saw some green sitting near a bare tree."
Tails' eyes widened. "Huh? You mean…"
"I found Luigi all alone in the woods. He seemed to be sleeping at the time. I also noticed how red his face was. Not to mention, I noticed some dried tears on his cheeks."
"Poor Luigi…" Tails thought.
"I had to ask Zephyr to help me carry him into my guest room. He's still out cold right now. But I suggest you tell the guys to reach Boo Woods. In the meantime, I'll try to make him feel better until he wakes up."
"Okay. I'll tell them soon. Thanks for letting me know."
"I'll see you youngsters then," the Professor ended the call.
Tails shut down his communicator and returned to the other three.
"So what did he say?" Sonic turned to him.
"He found Luigi. He's resting in his lab."
Colombo panted happily at the news knowing that the man in green was safe at least.
"Mario, set a course to Boo Woods."
"Gotcha," he responded as he switched to the manual controls. He gripped the steering bars with a determined look on his face. "Hang on, Luigi. We're on our way."
Location: Boo Woods
Another twenty minutes elapsed by the time the Mushroom Copter landed outside the bunker. The quartet hopped out of the vehicle and walked up to the door. After knocking, Professor E. Gadd unlocked the entrance and they entered inside. They came to face to face with him and the Greenie who were anxiously waiting in the lab.
"Morning, everyone," E. Gadd greeted. Zephyr gave them a wave.
"Hello, Professor," Tails responded.
"Where's Luigi?" Mario asked desperately.
"Follow me to the guest room. He's resting there again."
They led the group down the hallway and entered the same room Luigi was in the night Edge interfered with the Pixelator's signal. There they saw him lying under the sheets with his head firm on top of the pillow as he recovered.
"How did you even find him?" Mario whispered.
"Like I told Tails, I simply saw him outside of the woods when I was waiting for you guys to arrive. I took him in when he seemed to be lost. Not as in lost by directions, but lost in his own thoughts. Even I was baffled to find him here."
"Is he getting better at least?"
He shook his head. "I cannot confirm his condition right now. If I was a doctor, I'd probably diagnose something quickly. Alas, I am only a scientist, an inventor, a ghost expert, anything but a skilled practitioner."
Zephyr exited the room for a minute and came back to offer some tea to the heroes, to which they all accepted. Colombo carefully jumped on the bed and sniffed the bedridden man. He whimpered sadly when his body didn't move. The others stood there waiting for their friend to recover, but one of them didn't have the patience.
"Can't we just wake him up already? This isn't the time to sit around and do nothing. Although, if it keeps me away from water, then I couldn't care less."
"Way to look on the bright side, Sonic," Mario muttered sardonically.
Tails was pacing around as he put a hand to his chin. Seconds later, he snapped his fingers as he came up with an idea.
"Professor E. Gadd, can you hand me the third Dark Moon piece Luigi retrieved?"
The guys looked at him wondering what the kitsune thought of, whereas the old man didn't bother to ask.
"Sure. I'll be right back."
As he left, Sonic walked up to his two-tailed brother. "Why do you need the Dark Moon piece, Tails?"
He ruffled through his appendages to take out the yellow gem. "Remember how the Chaos Emerald and the Dark Moon fragment somehow managed to combine their powers and heal Luigi?"
"Yeah, so?"
"The Emeralds have an unlimited source of power, both positive and negative energy emitting from within these artifacts. Maybe the positive energy has some connection with the Dark Moon fragments once they're cleaned off by E. Gadd's Energy Suppressor."
Mario joined the conversation with confusion written on his face. "But what kind of connection would it be if you have two different objects originating in separate dimensions? How can their energy simply merge into one? How does that make sense?"
"I was actually scrutinizing my emerald last night before I went to sleep. From my research, I couldn't detect anything extraordinary radiating from it. I even tried to concentrate and hold it tight in my hand. But it was pointless. There was no reaction whatsoever."
"And the fact it didn't heal you after that robot took you didn't make sense to me," Sonic shook his head as he put a fist on his hip.
"At least I'm not in those bandages anymore. I still feel fine."
"Unlike Luigi," Mario moped to himself.
"Nonetheless, I couldn't figure out how two foreign pieces have a tied relationship with each other. It's definitely a mystery, for sure. I just wish we had the answers to understand this dilemma."
E. Gadd returned to the group and took out the purple piece from his lab coat.
"Here you go."
"Thanks, Professor," said Tails.
He walked over to the side of the bed and held out both objects in front of Luigi. Sonic stood next to Tails while Mario, E. Gadd, and Zephyr occupied the other side. Colombo backed up away from Luigi to let him do… whatever he was doing. Tails concentrated deeply, and then something happened. The yellow gem and the moon piece emitted a glimmer of yellow and purple. The objects floated from his hands and spun around in the air. Soon after, their powers combined into one and an orb appeared. Immediately, it entered Luigi's body and the room shined brightly. As the emerald and fragment fell onto the bed, the group saw the green man's eyes flutter. They finally opened up and he groaned from his wake-up call.
"Ugh, what happened?" Luigi twitched his neck.
"Luigi… You alright?"
The younger brother tilted his head towards Mario. He blinked twice before bulging his eyes wide open. However, he wasn't going through another breakdown or hallucination.
"M-Mario?" He looked around to see the others. "Professor? Sonic? Tails? Colombo? Zephyr? Where am I?"
"You're in my lab, sonny. I found you outside. Then Zeph and I took care of you afterwards."
His memory started to resurface. Once he remembered everything, Luigi immediately felt guilty. "Oh my god. Guys, I'm so sorry I panicked back at the castle. I was… I…" He sighed heavily. "I don't know what to say anymore."
Mario put a hand on his shoulder. "There's no need. I'm just glad you're okay and safe." He then pulled him in a tight embrace.
Luigi fidgeted his lips, feeling worse that he made his brother search for so long when he should've been out focusing on the task at hand. From there, he tried to keep his tears at bay from breaking down yet again. He's done it so many times in the past that he's embarrassed with himself. Eventually, he returned the gesture and held his hands around Mario's back.
"I'm sorry, bro," he whispered.
"Don't worry, Weege. What matters is that we found you," he rubbed his back.
The two released from their hug and a moment of silence roamed the room. E. Gadd broke the awkward moment.
"Do you feel better at least?"
"Honestly, I'm fine physically. Mentally, just a bit iffy."
"Well, I'm not going to pressure you to get up to work immediately. If you need some time, just relax here as you please."
Luigi shook his head. "No, I probably wasted too much time already. We need to stop Edge and get those Dark Moon pieces back as soon as possible."
E. Gadd looked at him like he was unsure of his decision.
"I'll be fine. I promise." He turned to his other friends. "Sonic, Tails, Mario, Colombo… Again, I'm sorry I made you all worry."
"It's okay, Luigi. We're just grateful nothing bad happened to you," Tails comforted him.
"Yeah. To be honest, I was getting a little restless when we couldn't find you," Sonic uttered. "I know I'm not eager to go to our next destination, but we had to get you back in action."
"Well, I feel much better now. So, let's head off to Sparkling Waters!"
"I'll go get the Poltergust for you. Meet me outside your helicopter," E. Gadd told him.
Luigi nodded and watched him leave with Zephyr floating behind. Colombo, Tails, and Sonic made their way to the Mushroom Copter. He was about to follow them once he got out of bed. But before he could leave the room, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
He turned around and saw his older brother. "What is it, Mario?"
"Can you at least answer me now? What was your nightmare about?"
Luigi felt uneasy when he asked that question again.
"I'm not trying to discourage you, Weegie. But I really care about you and I don't want you to run away from me like that again."
He sighed. "I'm sorry, bro. It won't happen again. But, I still don't feel comfortable talking about it yet. I promise I'll open up later."
Mario was disappointed that he's hiding in the shadows yet again to conceal his secret. But he was still hopeful.
"Promise?"
"Cross my heart, and hope to die." He crossed his middle and index fingers and placed it over his chest to indicate his trustworthiness.
The man in red closed his eyes and exhaled through his nostrils. He reopened to look at Luigi once more. "If you say so. Well, let's not keep the professor waiting. He's probably about to head out to the Copter soon."
"Right. Let's go."
Location: Sparkling Waters
The team boarded the helicopter after Luigi was equipped with his upgraded Poltergust 6000. E. Gadd mentioned that he upgraded the maximum amount of Shriek Shields to fifteen while he doubled the suction power to help reduce the ghosts' health points quicker than before. Once they left Boo Woods, Mario guided the aircraft across the Mushroom Kingdom for their next adventure. He landed the Copter at the three-way intersection between Sparkling Waters, Frosted Glacier, and Layer-Cake Desert. They exited the vehicle and locked up the doors as they headed south towards the tropical paradise. After climbing down a ladder, they approached the first area: Waterspout Beach.
"Man, it's been so long so we traveled here after Bowser threw us out of Peach's Castle. I remember how beautiful this place was. Yet there are many obstacles and enemies. Huckit Crabs, Cheep Cheeps, Piranha Plants…"
"Not to mention, water," Sonic interrupted Mario as he buckled his life jacket.
"We'll take it nice and slow for you so you won't fall behind, Sonic."
"Yeah, well… As long as none of you try to push me into the ocean, that would be somewhat pleasant. Otherwise you'll wish you didn't mess with me."
"Sonic, I would never do that. I'm your best friend. The last thing I want to do to you is get you in deep trouble," Tails defended himself.
"Were you trying to make a pun about how deep the waters are? Tails, you're killing me here!"
"What? That wasn't intended!"
Luigi didn't want to interrupt their conversation, even though most of it was Sonic complaining about the trip. He decided to view the landscape. He didn't remember much of it since it's been years when he, Mario, and their Toad friends ventured through the water world. Within the distance, he saw the Haunted Shipwreck in the middle of the sea. Eggman, Orbot, Cubot, Knuckles, and Yoshi had to be imprisoned inside since it was the same ship he saw from the Dark Moon fragment. But it was a long way to go as they had to cross some levels before reaching the ghost vessel.
"It's either sink or swim from here, Sonic. But with your life jacket, it should negate the 'sink' part."
"Ha ha, very funny, Mario. Just warning you guys to not leave me out here to drown or fool around to make me get stuck in the middle of this death water."
"You'd have to go to Soda Jungle for death water. Because the purple 'soda' is anything but delicious."
"Pfft, let's just get to the stupid ship."
"Well, here we go again…" Luigi thought unenthusiastically.
Passing through Waterspout Beach, the five of them hopped from stone platforms to rising water geysers to cross the first zone. They dodged some rocks from the Huckits and avoided getting chomped by the Piranha Plants popping out of the pipes.
Colombo simply hopped onto the geysers as he led the group. Sonic did his best to avoid falling in the water below where a couple of Cheep Cheeps swam beneath the surface. Sometimes Tails offered to carry him over the large gaps, to which Sonic was thankful. Mario used some Ice Flowers to freeze a Huckit Crab and threw the ice block over a layer of geysers as it moved along the path. It knocked out some plants and a few fish, but at least it was easier to traverse. Luigi came face to face with some Greenies that came out of nowhere. Luckily, they weren't that big of a problem to fend off and he managed to suck them in the vacuum.
In a matter of minutes, they reached the end of the level and moved onto Tropical Refresher, a place where things were going to be tough for the Blue Blur.
"Oh, come on! We have to go underwater in this level?!"
"I'm afraid so," Mario answered.
"So much for not swimming. This is gonna suck so much…" he muttered.
"I'll stay close to you, big bro. I'm there for you," said Tails. It made Sonic feel a little better, but not much.
"Let's get this over with," Luigi stated.
One by one, they entered the horizontal pipe that led to a submerged course filled with tilted pipes, water currents, and several creatures including Cheep Cheeps, Bloopers, and Urchins. However, someone was watching them from beyond. His eyes were mainly focused on the man in green.
"I shall make you pay for trying to stop me, Luigi. I'll just give you some time before I deal out your punishment… And it will be gruesome."
END OF CHAPTER
And that marks the end of this chapter and the beginning to the heroes' journey in Sparkling Waters. Can Luigi claim the fourth Dark Moon piece? Will he ever explain his nightmare to Mario? And most of all, can Sonic overcome this hell that is swimming?
Please review, follow/favorite, and I'll see you guys in Ch. 33! This is TGN, signing off.
Post-Chapter Notes:
(1): I had to look up the name of that steering mechanism that is found in planes or aircrafts. What I found was the term 'yoke'. They can vary in shape in the form of a U, M, or W. Just a small little fun fact I learned from aeronautics.