Chapter Twenty-Four:

Through the Dark Sewers

Falling, falling, falling…

Falling and flailing, flailing, flailing, flailing and falling...

Falling, flailing, and shrieking with fright. Luigi's heart pounded with immense intensity, his mind racing with millions of thoughts and they all connected to his situation, to what he'd gone through and what he was enduring.

He could feel the lava-looking Kool-Aid staining his overalls and he could feel some of it dripping into his face, all while he fell through the twisting, spiraling void of the Warp Pipe. He saw the blackness at the end of the tunnel and braced himself, feeling his body popping out of the pipe as if he were shot from a cannon like an artillery round.

A faint light filled his vision and Luigi uncovered his eyes, seeing that he was now in a dark tunnel with the sounds of rushing water filling his very ears. He screamed and clutched his hat, seeing the water coming to meet him and the flood of Kool-Aid that he'd just tasted a short while ago.

Luigi felt himself impacting the bottom, the water rising around him, and he bobbed up. His legs rocked back and forth, his arms moving left and right, his instincts taking over and he fought to stay afloat.

The young Mario brother blinked, seeing the walls and grates passing by. That masked entity had surely sent him to the sewer. And whatever was happening to Mario right now, Luigi was filled with dread. Whomever that lunatic was, he probably wasn't letting his big brother walk free and decided to subject him to more crazy "games".

Just incredible, this ordeal had started when Waluigi had sent them a party invitation, only for some masked weirdo to put the Mario Brothers through total heck. It was as if the party was a scam...

No, it couldn't be.

Unbelievable...

Unthinkable...

Inconceivable...

Those invitations had been a scam, a trap, and that wacko. Luigi didn't want to think about it further, but the pieces had already fallen into place. It was Waluigi, Waluigi had set him and Mario up, just to torment them and then separate the two brotherly heroes. And Wario wasn't even involved, but why would Waluigi disguise himself and how was Wario not involved with it?

'I wish my brother loved me...' The masked Waluigi had said, in that haunting, eerie voice.

And that voice, did Waluigi use some sort of modulator to change his voice or was it the mask or was it something else going on?

Then, there was that odd aura, Luigi had seen something like that before. He'd seen it when his lanky counterpart had undergone his... super transformation... all of those many, many days ago, when he was struggling to figure out how to get into Smash as a playable fighter.

Did Master Hand say "no" to him again, despite how incredible Waluigi's new power seemed to be?

Oh, it explained half of the situation. And never did Luigi think that it would lead to his current dilemma. He whimpered and looked around, trying to find a way out as the water carried him along and seeped into his overalls. He could feel himself getting wetter and heavier by each passing second. The Kool-Aid was dissipating now, fading into the sewer water until nothing remained of it.

Well, at least he'd gotten a taste of it before Waluigi sent him to the sewer. Perhaps he could have more Kool-Aid later, whenever he got out of here, if he made it out of this one.

Luigi drifted through the sewer, passing grates where more water was pouring out, creating ripples, and he continued to ride the current while a sickening smell filled his nostrils. This place was where all sorts of waste went. Luigi hoped he didn't end up in a sewer processing plant, that would be a nightmare.

And worst of all, Mario wouldn't be there to save him.

Dang, what a way to go, either drowning in the sewer or processed in a sewer plant. As if Luigi couldn't feel more humiliated and his heart was pounding intensely. He whimpered as he drifted onward, feeling himself hit a junction where he was taken to the left towards a waterfall.

He cried as he felt the drop, then the splash came and Luigi held his breath, feeling himself rise to the surface. All around him, he could see darkness, water and hints of garbage everywhere.

Just then, he heard a chittering noise and turned, spotting a gray-colored fish-like creature with a red mohawk on its head, watching him with large, buggy eyes. The creature chittered again, then it lunged at Luigi and bit into him. The timid Italian yelped and slapped at the fish, trying to get it off of his face. The Salmonid kept biting, trying to eat Luigi, until he managed to get it off.

However, the green Italian was beyond bewildered. Salmonids, in this area, what were they doing in the sewers of the Mushroom Kingdom?

In fact, how many more Salmonids like that one were lurking in the shadows?

Luigi groaned, feeling his nose aching from the bite. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be bleeding too badly. He spotted a plate of spaghetti floating in the water close by, laying there as it rotted away. The green-clad plumber felt sorrow in place of fear, thinking of his older brother. Someone must have not liked spaghetti that much, especially if they were throwing it out in a sewer.

The lean Italian looked up, staring into the shadows and glancing around, hoping to find something that he could use to get out of the water. And yet, all he saw was nothing, nothing but the wet, the stink and the darkness.

Defeated and alone, feeling sorrow and terror, he surrendered himself to his ride with the flow of the sewer's stream as he wondered where it would take him next and Luigi kept drifting on...

Drifting...

Drifting...

Drifting away into the darkness, to whatever else awaited in the tunnels.