Chapter Thirty-Five:
To Bob's Carnival
'Squeak-squeak...'
Luigi chuckled as he sat down in the bath, playing with the yellow rubber ducky that had kept him company in the tub for many years. It had been some time since either he or Mario played with the bath toys, but such an occasion felt right. The timid Italian scrubbed the sewage out of his mustache and rinsed his hair, cleaning himself after that stressful sewer ordeal.
"Ah, that's-a pretty good." Luigi said happily. He pulled up some soap, then he lathered his armpits. The younger Mario brother had quite a good-looking body, especially since he had done plenty of working out in contrast to Mario. He was a little leaner, muscular even, and was half-ripped.
Darn, those overalls were good at concealing Luigi's muscular manliness. Reading those fitness magazines were quite helpful, always offering good fitness tips for a good work-out.
'Squeak-squeak.' The duck squeaked again.
"Yep, Weegee is okay." Luigi said to his duck, "Thanks-a, ducky."
"Come on down, b****es! It's the grand opening! Come one, come all! Bob's carnival is open to the public..."
Mario had just been blipping through the TV, looking for something to watch after the madness of being Wario's scam partner. And then, with nothing better to see, he'd blipped onto a commercial channel right as Bob Bobowski had popped up with some carnival-y background behind him. And hearing the announcement, the fat Italian was beyond elated to hear the news.
He loved games so much, and the carnival was one of the greatest of places in the world where people could have all the fun they wanted to have. Mario's eyes were lit up like Christmas tree lights, his heart beating with excitement. He was eager to go already, and didn't care about the rest of Bob's announcement.
"Wow!" Mario cried excitedly, talking over Bob, "Luigi?! Luigi! The carnival is in town! Let's-a go! Luigiiiiiiiiiiii!"
When he didn't hear his little brother reply, the fat Italian went right to the bathroom, and found Luigi in the bathtub. Mario's little brother yelped with surprise when he saw Mario come in, and a little bit of water flew everywhere as a startled Luigi jumped with a yelp.
"Mario, get out! I'm having a bath!" The little Italian brother protested, "I'm trying to clean myself after being in the sewer for hours!"
"Luigi! Carnival!" Mario told him.
BONK! The fat Italian staggered as he was hit by a bath toy thrown at him by Luigi. Frustrated, Mario decided to leave Luigi to his bath. "Fine, I'll go by myself!" The dim-witted hero said to himself, even though he wanted to directly tell his younger brother, he would go to the carnival and get a prize for himself.
With the decision made, Mario left the house, running off into the early night. He jumped down the Warp Pipe, and the ever-transcending warp of space-and-time swirled around the red Italian as he made his way to the carnival.
Meanwhile, at a house outside Mushroom City, a familiar blue-haired girl with a cybernetic arm was playing a Switch game when the radio blared to life and Bob's voice buzzed over the speakers; "Come on down, b****es! It's the grand opening, Bob's carnival is open to the public. Come one, come all, Bob's carnival is open to the public, we have the best games in the whole show..."
"Oooh." Tari commented, she loved games, and how could she even resist the temptation to go?
She saved her game, which was Dark Souls 2, and turned off the Switch. And then, the cyborg gamer girl departed the house and rushed off to Bob's carnival, which was being advertised on a nearby poster that had just been taped up to a wall an hour ago.
Tari laughed with glee, so full of eagerness to play some exciting carnival games, and she didn't forget to bring along a wallet full of money.
In Inkopolis, Meggy was just settling into her apartment after a day of training, and hanging out with people. She'd just tuned into Inkopolis News to see the latest reports from Callie and Marie when Bob's carnival advertisement popped up on the airwaves. You might say that the Garo's announcement was global.
"Carnival, huh?" Meggy quipped with an intrigued smile as she heard Bob's announcement, "And you're in charge, Bob? Given your, uh, shady history, I wonder what you got up that sleeve of yours in regards to how you're running it. I'll be right over, maybe someone should keep an eye on you, make sure you don't pull off any sneaky scams."
The beanie-wearing Inkling girl turned off the TV, left her apartment, and leaped down a sewer grate in her squid form. Meggy had attended many Splatfest festivals over the years, but she'd never tried out a carnival before.
Apparently, Inkopolis didn't host carnivals. And for crying out loud, she didn't even know about Christmas until Mario and the others showed her what it was about. Did Inkopolis enforce a law that banned Christmas?
Out of all the craziness the SMG4 universe had to offer, it wouldn't be too out of the question after taking into account that Inklings hated anime and Inkopolis did have an anti-human law.
In the Mushroom Kingdom, SMG4 was kicking back in the Secret Slide Room at Peach's Castle and watching a meme involving Link when Bob's carnival advertisement popped up on his phone before it cropped up on the meme man's YouTube feed, taking SMG4 by total surprise.
"Don't do something shady, Bob." SMG4 said with annoyance, then he brightened up and turned off the videos he'd been watching.
The meme man left the room, and ran through the castle foyer to the door, passing Princess Peach as she was in the middle of sweeping. Peach held out her hand, glaring at SMG4 with an annoyed expression.
"Don't run in my hall while I'm sweeping." The princess told him sternly.
Not wanting to irk Peach, SMG4 walked slowly through the somewhat dusty hall until he reached the main door. He breathed in the night air as he stepped out of the castle, then the Mario-looking meme man ran through the countryside, eager to play exciting games at Bob's carnival, and get an exciting prize.
Wario had some experience with adventuring, but never had he done a ton of traveling to far-off lands, let alone vacations.
And yet, after struggling to compose himself after shedding so much tears, the greedy anti-Mario had gathered whatever essentials he had into a travel bag, which he tied to a stick, and stared up to the sky as he prepared to set out on a new journey.
He didn't think it would come to this, but there was no other choice. His brother had been missing for ages, and now, it was no good to sit around, waiting for something to happen. Wario hoped Waluigi was alive, and that he hadn't done something terrible to himself.
Whatever had become of him, Wario would find out when he found Waluigi, wherever he was. It would take months, maybe years, but it was time to seek out a lost family.
"I'm going to bring you home, brother." Wario said, 'We're a family, a family is forever, and we're brothers to the end. I'm not resting until you are safe, until we're back together like old times. Let's-a go.'
Feeling determined, just as he often was during his scams, Wario left his trash-dump of a home, ready for an adventure. He would search high-and-low for his lost brother, no matter how long it took, and he would make things right. His scam business was on hold, let other shady folks fill that void for now, until Wario and Waluigi had reconnected at last.
And Wario never knew that his brother was observing from the shadows, from far away, plotting the final stages of a terrifying event that would engulf the world.
-Some time earlier-
A dark figure rose from behind a pile of trash bags, then he walked towards the sign that read; 'Wario Bros' House.' The figure lowered his hood, sneering with an eerie blue gleam in his eyes, and Waluigi looked around. And then, he turned invisible and crouched behind a pile of bags just as Wario came by, fuming with anger.
Waluigi concentrated his power, remaining in the area, even as he became present in many different areas around the world, while remaining invisible. He watched Wario take the chicken bucket, preparing to eat, before the greedy Italian remarked about how selfish he would be.
And somewhere in his heart, Waluigi still cared for Wario, but he couldn't see that love in him. Moving quietly, the powerful Wah-man took his hat and placed it on the sidewalk, just many feet away from Wario, before warping away to his hideout right as Wario ranted about how he didn't need Waluigi and kicked the bucket, which rolled to the spot where Waluigi had just placed his hat.
Inside his lair, with his all-observing powers active, Waluigi listened to Wario's brief rant and a tear rolled down his cheek while the sting of Wario's declared disdain, and unneed of Waluigi fueled the not-so lanky Wah-man's power, increasing his strength by tenfold...
-Way later, after Wario's departure-
Mario was mesmerized by the scenery of the carnival from the moment he stepped through the gates. Journeying here had been hard, no thanks to the Warp Pipe spitting him out at a Boo-infested carnival park. Luckily, Mario managed to find a Warp Star, usually found in Dream Land, and the star had granted the fat Italian his wish to see Bob's carnival and warped him there with no trouble.
He walked past a carousel that was spinning, and heard the incredible jingle of the carnival music playing over a speaker. Mario was quite happy, not just because the carnival looked fun, but because Bob must have had a taste in making things clean and inviting despite being a shady sucker.
And speaking of the Garo, Mario didn't take long to find Bob at a prize booth, advertising all of the prizes that were on display with one catching Mario's attention quickly, that being an Eggman Football.
"Look at all of the amazing gifts you can earn at Bob's carnival!" Bob proclaimed, "It'll knock your socks off." He then saw Mario approaching, "Oh, hey, Mario. What do you think of my carnival so far?"
"WHAT THE CRAP?!" Mario exclaimed as he saw a price sign near the Eggman Football, "WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO EXPENSIVE?! MAMAF***ER!"
Bob noticed that Mario had seen the prize he had on display and sale. "Ah, I see you've laid your eyes on the mystical football artifact." The Garo remarked with a chuckle, "As you can see, its one of the rarest items we have to offer at Bob's carnival."
"So, how does Mario get tickets?!" Mario demanded, pulling out a bag of money, "All that I have is Princess Peach's crappy savings. Mario just wants to play with that crappy football..."
"Don't worry…" Bob whispered, staring at Mario's money, "Soon you will all be mine."
"Uh, what did you just say?" Mario questioned.
"Nothing." Bob snapped back into his carnival owner act, "So, you want the prize, eh? That's easy, Bob's carnival has all sorts of crazy games that you can play, just look at all of the ri… I mean, fun attractions! If you're lucky enough, you can get some Bob tickets."
Mario was excited. "Wow! So, Mario has to play games and win prizes?!" He exclaimed, "That's-a so easy! Let's-a goooooooooo…"
The fat Italian ran off to play a game and Bob waved after him. "Don't forget to spend all your money!" He encouraged, "Now its time to restock…" He dove into a dumpster and pulled out a couple items, including a familiar-looking sinister mask, "These will make great prizes! The scamming business has been so easy since Waluigi went crazy and Wario fell off."