The Town 2

It was close to midnight when Isabelle called the emergency meeting inside the Town Hall. She sat at the top of the table, finishing off her notes. To her left, Wario and Waluigi made stupid noises as they pulled faces at Luigi. Villager sat next to Luigi, a thin smile on his face as always.

"Okay," Isabelle said, putting the final full stop in her piece of work. "We are ready to begin." She turned over her notepad to a new page. "I will take minutes whilst we have this meeting. Now, we must quick—"

"Hold up a second, giraffe," Wario said. "Where are the refreshments?"

"You've taken enough advantage of this town's hospitality, you slob," Luigi said. "You've already drank the Roost Café dry."

"Bah! That was just a snack. I only had an americano… and two lattes… and six cappuccinos… and a dozen espressos, but still, if it wasn't for all that coffee, I wouldn't be able to stay awake and offer my expert advice for this boring meeting. Why have we been called here anyway?"

Isabelle looked around the room. "So, we are all the contenders?" She squeezed her forehead with her fingers. "Oh, the Mayor is not going to be happy."

"Meh." Wario put his hands behind his head and laid back, lifting his chair as he rested one leg on his lap. "Waht you're gonna do?"

The door opened. Luigi and Waluigi immediately sat up as Daisy sauntered across the room, her elegant yellow dress flowing behind her. She walked towards Luigi's side of the table. Waluigi pulled out a chair. "Come on, bah-bee. Why don't you come sit next to Waluigi?"

"No thanks," Daisy said. "I ought to file a restraining order against you after the photos you sent me." She pulled the chair out next to Luigi, smiling as she sat down next to him. Luigi blushed, murmuring as he glanced away. "There is the six of us here. Rosalina has taken a trip to Donkey Kong Island. Donkey Kong never answered Mario's invite. If she can recruit him and return by morning we will have eight. How many contestants do we need for the race?"

"The Mayor has requested ten," Isabelle said. "We'll still be short by two drivers."

"Relax, friend," Villager said. "Couldn't we just ask members of the town to make up the numbers? Tom Nook said he would consider it for the right price."

Isabelle shook her head. "Even if we found two volunteers, it would not be possible. Nobody in this town apart from you or me has received their kart driving licence. It would be illegal for them to take part in the race."

"Kart driving licence?" Waluigi mumbled, nudging Wario with his elbow. "Do you have one of those?" Wario did not respond as he was fast asleep.

"Is there nobody else we can invite?" Luigi asked.

"Yoshi couldn't make it as he was ill," Daisy said. "As for Cap…" She couldn't concentrate with Wario snoring in the background. She lobbed a turnip at his head. He wahed, rubbing his face as he ate the turnip. "As for Captain Toad and Mario, nobody has seen them since this morning."

"He-he-he," Wario laughed. "Mario probably ran off when he realised he couldn't beat my lap time."

"What about Princess Peach?" Isabelle asked, scribbling down notes as she talked.

Daisy shrugged. "Nobody has seen her since yesterday. It's like she disappeared into thin air." She rubbed her chin, thinking.

Luigi leant forward, accidently banging his fist on the table. "It was you!" He pointed at Wario. "You even said you were going to take her for yourself."

"If I had Peach, why would I be wasting my time staring at your ugly face?"

"Guys," Villager said, still smiling. "Can't we just all get along?"

"I bet you locked her up somewhere—and Mario and Captain Toad too," Luigi said, prodding his finger on the table as he glared at Wario. "You'd do anything to lower the competition. Even ruin the race for everybody else."

"I don't need to lock everybody up to ruin the race. I'll do that by easily winning it and ruining all your dreams."

Daisy snapped her fingers. "That's why nobody from the Koopa Kingdom accepted Mario's invitation. It all makes sense now."

"Of course they wouldn't come because of that," Wario said. "They knew they had no chance of beating me."

"Not that, you buffoon. Bowser must have devised a plan to kidnap Peach and Mario whilst we were all off our guard. That crafty monster! We have to stop him."

"I appreciate you're upset," Isabelle said. "But if this race does not go through, we are all going to have the wrath of the Mayor on our hands. He could not express anymore his need for this race to go ahead."

"Never mind the race. Our friends are in danger." Daisy pushed off her chair and ran off into the night.

Wario yawned. "Come on, Waluigi. We have a big race to prepare for tomorrow."

"Didn't you listen to anything that was just said?" Isabelle shouted, stress lines hanging over her head. "There won't be a race tomorrow if we don't have enough racers." Wario and Waluigi did not reply as they exited the Town Hall. Isabelle put her head on the table. "This meeting could not have gone any worse." Villager reached his hand across and patted her on the head. He scrunched his fingers through her fur.

Luigi carried his torch as he wandered around the trees under the twinkling starlight sky. He lifted rocks and searched inside bushes for rabbit holes his brother may have fallen down. He thought back to the morning. Mario had set off on his lap and had never returned. How could he have gone missing in such a short amount of time? It had to have been Wario and Waluigi. They must have set a trap for him during their lap because they knew they could not beat him.

"Luigi."

Luigi almost leapt out of his skin, turning around. He almost leapt out of his skin again. "Daisy? What are you doing?"

She smiled. "It's my Bloom Coach me and Peach used back in the team races." She touched the brown bonnet. "Do you like it?"

"You know there is a driving curfew here," Luigi said. "You're going to wake up the Town."

"Oh, Luigi. You are a worrier." She opened the door. "Here, get in."

"Wah? Where are we going?"

Daisy rolled her eyes. "Don't make that noise. You sound like one of them." She sighed. "We can't stay here. We have to look for Mario, Peach and Toad. Bowser isn't usually smart enough to come up with such a cunning plan. Maybe this time we should be more scared of him than usual."

Luigi scanned around with his torch. He nodded and took his place in the back of her car. Daisy put her foot down, and they left the village behind them. Out of an alleyway in Main Street, Waluigi pulled out on his motorbike. He watched the one he wanted taken away by that fool in green. He revved his engine and set off into the night.