CHAPTER I: SEPARATED
New York City. The most populated city in the world. With nearly 8 million people in the city, it's tough to make a difference. Between the smog, tourists, and pizza shops, some might just give up on their big ideas. However, one Italian looking for fame becomes caught up in something much bigger than himself. It all started in July, down in Brooklyn...
"Mario, wake up!" A yell echoes from downstairs. "Your brother's already headed out to the gig, now get out there!" Mario gets up from his crimson red sheets, seeing his brother's green blanket a mess. Mario groans as he gets up from his creaking bed and goes to the closet. He grabs his red button-up and blue denim overalls and changes, before running downstairs. He grabs toast just as they pop out of the toaster, and he puts on his brown loafers.
"Mario, sweetie," says Mrs. Mario as she kisses him on the cheek. "Your brother Luigi already is in the van, and he has a sweet surprise for ya!"
"Okay, okay Ma," Mario says, opening the door outside. "When Lu and I get home, we'll make sure to help you out for dinner, alright?"
Mrs. Mario responds, "Okay sweetie." Mario rushes out to the van and finds that Luigi has painted their logo on the van. Though a bit messy, it's the thought that counts in the end. Luigi waves Mario over as he beckons him in the vehicle.
"Wow, Lu, you really went all out," says an enthusiastic Mario. "I'm proud of you, bro." Mario leans over and gives Luigi a strong hug before turning the car on. "So, Luigi, any calls come in for a job? With this design there should be calls out the wazoo!"
"That's the best news of all!" replies Luigi. "Y'know that fancy lookin' apartment down by Bruno's Subs? Well, their whole building has an issue, and we're getting paid big money to fix it all up! Forget slots, we already hit the jackpot, bro!"
"Wahoo!" Mario yells with excitement. He steps on the gas and they start making their way to the apartment. They skid up the roads and fly down a hill. They pull up to the apartment and start unloading their equipment. "Okay, Lu. You're gonna have to take the top half with all those stairs, I'll take the bottom half. Let's go." Mario starts to run in but stops and looks at Luigi with a kind smile. "Brothers forever." Mario says.
"Brothers forever." Luigi smiles back. They both run in. Mario runs into the first leaking apartment, letting Luigi head up the stairs.
After a few minutes of running, Luigi makes it up to the second half of floors. "Oh my, *wheeze* that's a lot of, *wheeze* stairs..." The hallway is dark, and there's only the faintest glow of a light under the door of apartment 91385. "I knew this place was big, but man!" Suddenly, Luigi's phone rings. It's the apartment manager, Daisy.
"Hey Luigi, thanks again for taking this job," says a gracious Daisy. "I know you're taking floor 13 right now, but the power went out last night. You brought a flashlight, right?"
Luigi responds, "Yeah? I figured it'd be important for checking the pipes."
"Okay, great," she replies. "I think I know why the power went out. That apartment, 985, had an unusual power surge last night, shutting down the whole top half's electricity." Daisy pauses, sighing. "Luigi, I know we're close, and that's why I wanted you to take this job. I like Mario and all, but he's very upfront. He's on a wild goose chase looking for non-existent plumbing issues, but I need you to check out that apartment. It's left unlocked. Just check it out. For me." She hangs up.
Luigi walks over to the room, and slowly creaks open the door. The room looks fairly average. In the main living room, in fact, nothing is out of the ordinary. He checks the bedroom next. The covers are a mess, and there seems to be scratches on the wall. That could just be from a pet, thinks Luigi. He looks over and sees a bright green glow emanating from the bathroom door. As he walks to the door, thuds of footsteps are heard from the hall. Luigi quietly shrieks and walks back out the apartment.
"M-m-Mario?" Luigi stammers, pointing his flashlight to pierce the darkness. Luigi sees the shadow of some otherworldly creature, before it drops something. It runs into a room, and Luigi can hear the door click as it locks. He walks over to the item and sees it is a green turtle shell. "What is this? Doesn't look like any normal turtle..." Luigi decides to put it in his bag and reenter the room.
He finally opens the bathroom door, and inside sits a glowing neon green pipe. Luigi pans his flashlight around the pipe but can't see an end. He takes a few steps in and looks further to see... nothing. Just green pipe as far as the eye can see. Luigi decides to call up Daisy.
"Hey, Daisy," Luigi says once she answers the call. "I don't know what you've got going on here, but there's just some massive pipe here. Neon green, kinda got a glow to it. Ring a bell?"
Daisy, confused, says, "No, I've never heard of that. I mean, the girl who had that apartment was kind of strange. She'd leave her apartment but never come back, and when I went up to check she'd be there. I assume I must've missed something, but it was just… odd."
Luigi's curiosity was getting the best of him. "I'm gonna k-keep looking. Talk to you later." Luigi hangs up.
He kept walking for a few minutes, but it never seemed to end. After quite a while, though, he came across a large drop with no end in sight. Out of fear, he backs up and decides it's not worth it. However, while he was distracted, the shell he picked up seemed to be moving towards him. Faster. Then even faster. Though he tried to dodge it, Luigi was hit and began sliding back, and then shrieked as he fell down the drop in the pipe. Before he could even reach the bottom, he fainted in mid-air.
Mario, after searching for a long while, gives up and begins to walk back to the lobby.
"Man, this place is depressing," Mario says to himself. "$3200 a month for a mini apartment? No wonder they're paying us good." He checks his phone but has no notifications. "I better call Lu, tell him I'm done and see what's goin' on." He tries to dial up Luigi multiple times but it's never answered.
"It's not like him to ignore a call," Mario thinks. He moves a bit faster so he can get to the lobby sooner. When he gets there, he sees Daisy at the front and confronts her.
"Have you heard from Luigi in a bit?" Mario asks.
"No, last I knew he was checking things out upstairs." Daisy replies. "Haven't heard from him since."
Mario's panic continues to rise and, without asking which apartments Luigi searched, he goes floor by floor yelling his name out.
"Luigi!" he yells. "Luigi?! You out there, bro? We got a gig to finish! We can't be playing hide and seek, we aren't kids anymore!" He continues searching. Room by room, hallway by hallway, floor by floor, not a peep. Eventually, Mario opens the door to apartment 985.
"Nothin' to see here." Mario walks past.
A blaze of heat overcomes Luigi as he begins to wake. The sun is a blinding yellow, seeming almost angry at the unbearable temperature of the dunes. Despite the light of the daytime, Luigi opens his eyes as they adjust. With his vision clear, he sees nothing but desert surrounding him. The air is still, no breeze to cool it down, and not a single oasis in sight. The whole region seems… foreign. Not "Sahara Desert" foreign, though, but almost otherworldly.
In this distance, Luigi spots a cactus. 'Maybe I can get some refreshment from this…' Luigi thinks. As he approaches, it no longer seems to be a cactus, but rather four small cacti stacked atop one another. The cactus becomes a creature, as it turns to reveal a wide, void-like smile and eyes to match.
"WOAHOHOH-" Luigi yells as he falls backwards across the dunes of sand. He lands on his face, his mustache now caked in the coarse, rough, and near irritating sand. Luigi gets up and moves across the desert. It feels endless. Sandhill after sandhill and no greenery to be seen.
Hours pass and the heat exhaustion has begun to get to Luigi.
"M-M-Mario…" he mutters before collapsing at sunset.
"I've searched this place up and down, left and right, and for what?" Mario rants to Daisy. "My brother is gone, poof, without a trace! He's probably scared out his wits. I knew I shoulda gone with him, this place is a deathtrap." He paces the floor, his face about as red as the cap on his head.
"I don't know what happened, Mario," Daisy says nervously. "To be honest with you, I sent him up to 985, that's where everything went wrong last night. All the strange power readings came from that room."
"And you sent him there ALONE?!" Mario yells.
"I'm sorry, I am! I figured it was something he could fix, I had faith in him! But now he's gone, and the blood's on my hands! Well, there's no blood since he's not dead-"
"How can you be so sure?" Mario blurts out in frustration. The room goes silent. An expression of dread and guilt spreads across Daisy's face, and Mario looks to the ground in shame. "My bad. I'm overwhelmed and… I don't know. I just don't. I got no clue where to start, or what's going on, or anything remotely close to that! I'm supposed to be there for him, Ma told me at a young age to protect Lu. And I couldn't even do that." Mario begins to walk out of the apartment building. "Sorry Daisy. I gotta talk to someone else. Someone who can help." Mario exits the complex. Daisy watches as he goes, unable to speak up for herself."
"Someone who can help…" Daisy repeats to herself. "You have to be joking. I can help too." Daisy goes to the elevator and hits the button to go to floor 9.
Luigi felt the ground where he lay, but this was no longer sand reflecting the harsh heat onto his skin, rather a quite comfortable rug. The sun was no longer a blinding first sight, but rather only a sliver coming through the window of a door. How he ended up here, Luigi didn't know, but it was a comfortable far cry from the violent sun. As he opened his eyes, he felt quite well rested and drank from a canteen of water placed next to the rug. Wondering where this stroke of luck came from, Luigi opened the front door.
Though the sun was still blinding, his eyes adjusted far quicker, seeing a thriving village before him. Market stands sold fruit, bread, and water, and each building was carefully constructed from sand. Strange, stubby guys in white masks roamed, but Luigi couldn't help but admire them. They clearly worked hard to create a thriving community, so who was he to disturb it. However, he knew that he would need answers sooner or later.
"Hello there!" Luigi says to one of the masked folk. "Could you tell me where I am?" The short guy simply looks at Luigi, then back towards a sign. It makes a short noise and continues walking. "Oh, that sign can tell me? Thank you… sir?" Luigi runs to the sign. Though the words are poorly etched into the wood, it seems to read 'SHY GUY SAND STATION.'
"Oh, so these things must be Shy Guys," Luigi says to himself. "Good to know. Guess I'll stay here for a bit until…" he pauses. "Until what? I don't know what's going on. What is going on? Shy Guys? Freaky cacti? Pipes and shells? Was that apartment laced? Must be." Luigi goes back to his new temporary home. "Mario will find me. He always does…"