World 1 - 1: Prologue

Another day, another coin. The same routine day after day.

Wake up, brush your teeth, take a nice bath, clean the house, make some food, go to work, come back from work, watch some TV, and then hit the bed... It's pretty mundane stuff.

I mean, I have nothing to complain about. Working as a card dealer for a casino close to where my family lives is pretty cool, especially since plumber jobs are kind of short right now. Ever since I decided to move out of our house, they're been worried that I might feel... lonely and scared.

Moving out was tough, no doubt about that. But I needed that space and time just for myself, especially since I just... sigh. I wanna try to understand myself without their help. But for every family, there's always one person who ends up being concerned about someone... in this case, my family being my brother, and the protected one being me.

He's a great person, my bro. Heck, you could even call him perfect in every way, because everything he does, he does with perfection... And that ends up being the problem.

Being his brother means that I am being constantly compared to him in every single thing... Athletics, sports, driving, etc...

And it kinda gets onto your skin, you know? Thankfully, I had just the right place to go to.

A small house with a bigger, 2-story middle and two sides. My very own place, a fortress I can call "home", and this is good enough for me... for now.

I sit down on the rest chair located in the middle of the living room, and right in front of me the TV awaits my input to turn her on, as I hope to see something interesting in its channels.

As soon as I did that, my dog came barking and lay down on my lap, resting comfortably in my presence as I pet his head.

"[...] And once again the great hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, Super Mario, has once again rescued our dear princess Peach from the clutches of the evil Bowser! We will try to ask him if it is possible to grant us the pleasure of interviewing him! Stay tuned! [...]"

"Hehe... Way to go, bro." I said proudly with a big grin on my face.

My name is Luigi Mario, and I'm the younger brother of the greatest hero the Mushroom Kingdom has ever seen.

And my life is far from being normal... I mean, I got a ghost dog of all things.

After some time, the news crew appears again on the screen.

[...] Dear viewers, it seems that Master Mario wishes to grant us an exclusive interview with our crew! We shall arrange a location for it, so do not change channels! [...]

Wait, big bro was the one who wanted to do the interview? That's strange... He always told me that he didn't like being the center of attention... Even though he was always there, hehe.

But those Toads manage to get that interview... They have a lot of tenacity, I'll give them that.

Shortly after, the screen changed to a much better scenario, a nice looking room with a host chair and a sofa and a bunch of luxurious furniture and pottery, along with a Portrait of... Peach? Wait, are they in the castle right now?! And the Princess allowed them to just do it there?! That's even stranger!

[...] Today, on Toadies Dailies, your dear host, Toadiko, will have the honor to interview an unexpected guest. Give a round of applause to him, the greatest, the reddest, and the greatest stache of the Mushroom Kingdom, Super Mario! [...]

"Was that last statement really necessary? I also take good care of my stache..." I say it, with an annoyed pout.

The camera points out to Mario, who is walking slowly towards the sofa, waving his hand and doing his typical wahoos and small jumps. It then changes back to Toadiko.

[...] "Hello everyone, welcome to this edition of Toadies Dailies. Today we have a special guest willing to give a bit of his time for a few questions. Please introduce yourself." She speaks politely.

"It's-a me, Super Mario! Woohoo!" He says, his voice was full of energy and with his iconic smile.

"It's great to see you again, Master Mario, hehe."

"It's-a great to see you too, Toadiko. I haven't seen you since that incident with the time machine."[...] He replied.

Ah yes, the time machine incident... Those were some weird times. But I mean, who expected a freaking alien invasion from the past when E. Gadd made that thing?! And why can't we remember any of this happening in our time?

"It's because, my dear Luigi, we have something we call an... Multiverse theory here. What happened in another timeline may not have happened in our timeline. Our timeline was simply lucky to not have faced the wrath of the Shroobs while the babies' timeline wasn't so lucky." I still remember him telling me this after all that chaos.

Different timelines with different events happening at certain times... It's so weird but so interesting... But it begs the question... Are we just one more of the many timelines created by the main timeline or do we even have a main timeline? My head hurts just by thinking about it.

But hey, one thing that I got from that adventure is that I know that my heart is pure and that my big bro cares for me a lot, both him and his baby version. And it wasn't thanks to that star door at all.

Although... even if I have a pure heart, I can still feel all the negative energy swirling inside of me. All because of that incident with that... Dark heart. I don't wanna remember it at all!

Ugh, this makes me remember that stupid and arrogant personality that I adopted back in the day when Mario was traveling around the continent with a bunch of friends to save Peach from Bowser when he raised the castle to the starry sky and that time when I went to the kingdom of sweets and Mario went to the port of thieves. Sigh.

Trying to ignore my thoughts, I turned my head back to the TV screen, seeing that they were talking a bit about her situation for a while.

[...] "But enough about me! Let's talk about you, Master Mario. Your latest adventure to save Princess Peach, tell me more about it." Toadika asks, curiosity completely stamped on her face.

"Well... As you guys already know, Bowser invaded Peach's Castle in his airship, demanding the princess to marry him or else for some-a reason and, since I was close by, I went to it to stop him... which-a ended up with me being launched to another kingdom, hehe."

"Another kingdom?!" Toadika exclaims, flabbergasted.

"Indeed!" He says.

"More specifically, I was launched onto one of the many cities of the Cap Kingdom, Bonneton. There, I found an incredible ally that helped me on my journey to stop Bowser. If you guys ever visit the city, tell Cappy that-a Mario sent regards to him and his sister." He asks of his viewers, winking for the camera.

"I see...! Tell me, Master Mario. How was your adventure overall?" She looks at him with glittering eyes, ready to take all the info he will give her.

"Hmmmm..." He puts his hand on his chin

"My adventure was an arduous one, with me and-a Cappy going from kingdom to kingdom looking for Bowser and Princess Peach, while he was going around causing chaos. As it turns out, Bowser was stealing the nation's most cherished artifacts to use on his forced wedding with the princess!"

"Heck, we had to go to the moon to stop him! That's-a the second time I had to go to the moon, ya know? Hahaha!" Mario says it out loud, trying to contain his laughter. [...]

...

I'm...

I'm so jealous!

Why is it that Mario gets to go to those amazing and beautiful places in his adventures and I'm stuck with dark and scary mansions to venture into?! Not fair!

I know that sometimes when we lived together, I didn't like leaving the house or ending up going against my will, but still! It wasn't that bad...

Sigh.

Who am I kidding? I... I just wanted to go on an amazing adventure of my own one day. Somewhere far away, where I can make a name for myself without being dependent on either being "Super Mario's younger sibling" or "The Green Mario".

[...] "Intriguing, Master Mario." Toadiko says, satisfied with the resume Mario gave her.

"Our time is almost over, so I'm going to ask you one last question. Is that alright for you?"

"Go ahead, I got time to spare!" Mario answers it with a smile on his face.

"What do you plan on doing now?"

"Well, before we came back to the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach asked me to take her sightseeing in some kingdoms and she decided one single thing..." Mario says with his eyes shut.

"Yes?" Toadiko looks at him, curious.

"That she wants-a to go on a vacation for a change." He says it, nonchalantly.

"A... vacation?" Toadiko asks, puzzled by that.

"Indeed-a. We are still planning as to where we should go, but I think a nice and cozy place to stay would be... perhaps-a the Sunshine Archipelago?" Snapping his finger, Mario confirms it to the audience.

"Ah yes, if I don't recall, you and your friends already went there to do some kart racing there before, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah! Some of our private beaches are located there, alongside the famous Coconut Mall and a beautiful island in the shape of a dolphin named Isle Delfino, which is filled with tourist attractions to visit! And most important of all... All the delicious seafood, hehe..." Although trying not to drool, Mario can't help but let his fantasies get the best out of him.

"I see! And unfortunately, this is all the time we have for tonight's Toadies Dailies... Master Mario, it was an honor having you here with us."

"No problemo! If you excuse-a me, I need to discuss the vacation plans with the princess right now." As Mario says that, he gets up and starts leaving, waving to the camera.

"And that was our superstar, everybody! Following our program schedule, the Strikers B League Finals, the Shell Shockers vs the Mush Mashers, will air after this commercial break so stay with us for more!" [...]

... An amazing adventure followed by a vacation on a tropical archipelago... Big Bro sure has his agenda filled with things to do.

Not being jealous right now would be impossible, seriously.

While I'm here at my little house, in the middle of the twilight, just waiting for the nightfall to come so that I can go to bed.

"Well, it's not like-a something would happen to me... But I can wish, hehe!" I say it out loud, in a joking manner.

But as I say that, the television starts to change from the normal program to static out of nowhere, flickering like crazy, making me feel a bit startled.

"Me and my big mouth..." I say it, stunned at my remark.

I jinxed it hard, didn't I?

Annoyed, I decided to get up from my comfy spot and turn off the TV as quietly and slowly as I could, to not wake up Polterpup, who was softly sleeping in my now empty chair. Very adorable, I may add.

As I reach for the electronic device, I raise my hand and slowly reach for the button... Slowly and steady...

... Wait a minute, why does this feel so familiar to me out of nowhere?

As my finger finally touches the button, a figure appears on the screen, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Luigi!" The figure says outright screaming his lungs out.

And of course, I being the scaredy-cat that I am, also screamed out loud while trying to get away from the device... and ended up hitting the back of my head on the chair my poor ghost pup was sleeping on, immediately waking him up and making him bark like crazy. Sigh.

... Ohhhh, now I remember that nostalgic feeling. There's only one person who would contact me through my TV of all places.

"Luigi? Are you there? It's me, Professor. E. Gadd!" The figure now revealed itself to be an... old acquaintance of mine.

"Ow... Yeah, I'm-a here, E. Gadd...!" I answer him, my head still hurting from the impact on the furniture.

Professor Elvin Gadd, founder of the very famous Gadd Science Inc., yearns to create new technology to further improve the lives of everybody in the kingdoms... Or so he says, but I know he just likes to make stuff up because of his insatiable curiosity towards the unknown... at least, that's what his Toad assistants told me before.

Ever since I met him during my not-so-happy visit to that Haunted Mansion located on Boo Woods, we're been in contact, mostly to just help each other out... By that I mean E. Gadd needs someone to test his inventions and I need a bit of a financial boost.

But I mean, he made me venture into not one, not two... But SIX haunted places! I swear to god if I end up venturing to another place filled with ghosts, like... I don't know, a haunted hotel? I'm gonna lose it!

"Luigi, sonny?! Are you listening?!" Ah, snap, I was lost in my thoughts again.

I nod as he looks at me with an annoyed stare, but sighs.

"Like I was saying, I need your help! It's an emergency!" He says it again, with a strong yet desperate tone.

This sounds way too familiar... Sigh. Here we go again...

"What you mean, you need me to visit another one of those haunted mansions or something?" I look at him, not surprised by his pleas.

"No, not this time, my boy." The professor says, dead serious.

Wait what? If it isn't a mansion venture, then why would E. Gadd contact me? I'm legit confused...

"T-then what is it? W-w-why is it an emergency?" I start to get a bit frightened since I don't have any idea as to what I'm gonna have to deal with.

"It's not a ghost that we will be dealing with..." He tells me, filling the conversation with an air of suspense.

"It's an apparition!" He yells while I look at him even more confused.

... But what's the difference between a ghost and an apparition though...?

"Anyway, no time to explain! I'm activating the Pixelator now!" He says in a hurry, clicking on a button on his desk.

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait I'm not readyGAH!" My begs for mercy were completely ignored as I was transported into the machine while my pup followed me to it.

The feeling of being sucked into a huge vacuum cleaner hits my body as my very essence gets absorbed. The only way I can describe this is... If I was electrocuted and burned at the same time... which is not a problem for me or the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom thanks to what we deal with daily.

Thank god my body got accustomed to that feeling, otherwise, I would cry every time I used that thing.

After a while, my body starts to put itself back to normal, hopefully with everything in its place... Hopefully.

Ah hey, my puppy is here too. Some reassurance and comfort are nice.

This place...? I think I know this place. Not just that, those machines around me... I know them, and I feel huge nostalgia for them. Although it looks like a huge warehouse with a bunch of gadgets, not just me but people I know have been here as well, but I can't put my finger on it.

"Luigi, sonny! The Pixelator didn't forget to bring anything, correct?" E. Gadd shows up from what seems to be a control room to the open warehouse area.

"I hope so..." I said in a worried manner.

"Aww, no worries. Anyway, welcome... to my esteemed garage." E. Gadd opens his arms as the light in the so-called garage turns on.

Ah yes! I recall everything now! It was during the 6th edition of our party games and E. Gadd told us that it was ok for us to play in his garage, as long as we could test some of his technology.

Wow, so many things that I remember using it, like that machine that makes ghosts into portraits, the Poltergust editions 1000, 3000, 3001, 4000, and 5000... what, the time machine is still intact? God, E. Gadd likes to keep his inventions safe and sound... Oh hey, the orbs that we used during our 4th to 7th editions of our party games! This place looks more like a museum than a garage at this point.

Man... I'm having a nostalgia attack right now. I can't help but smile profusely!

"Did you like the renovation I did to the place, my boy?" E. Gadd says with a huge smug on his face.

I hate to admit it, but the place looks amazing! I just simply nod while trying to see if I can remember something else in here... Oh hey, the Hydrogush 4000! That thing saved our lives so many times during the time machine incident, my goodness.

"Luigi? Had enough reminiscence, Sonny? We need to move, remember?" He says it, a bit annoyed towards me, but understands because of course his inventions are incredible.

Oh yeah. The so-called apparition. I simply nod.

"Good, then follow me, my boy. We gonna have to use a vehicle to get there first."

Wait, it's not here? Well, I guess it wouldn't be, this place is probably very ghostproof... most likely, knowing E. Gadd.

As I follow E. Gadd to the other side of the facility, we start seeing his cars and vans... My god, sometimes I forget that he is loaded thanks to his inventions. But still, it is a garage after all. He then climbs on a small gray van, like the ones in Toad Highway.

... I just hope this is a normal car, without any of his gadgets or inventions installed on it...

"C'mon, Luigi! We have no time to lose! The apparition must still be at the latest location registered!" He tells me as he slams his hand on the door of the van, signaling me to enter, which I quickly do.

But before I close the door of it... Where's Polterpup? He was right beside me when I got here... Oh well, he can take care of himself, plus he knows E. Gadd so if anything, he will take care of him.

Upon entering the automobile by the passenger seat, I look behind me to see the size of it, but all I see is a bit of equipment in there.

Wait... those things? Aren't they a bit too much for a simple apparition check? What the heck is going on?

Probably because he saw me being weirded out by the sheer number of equipment right behind us, E. Gadd spoke.

"Don't worry too much about all the appliances back there, Luigi. Some of it is stuff that I'm still building or in the field-testing phase." He says calmly, to attempt to ease my increasing anxiety.

It doesn't work, but I appreciate him trying to make me feel better.

We didn't rush towards the location or anything of the sort, but of course, knowing this was an "Emergency" in his book, it only made me even more curious as to why we were going to slow to something increasingly dangerous or something.

"... So... An apparition, aye?" I started, trying to kill the silence.

"Yes, Sonny." He replies.

"Well... It is dangerous like-a the Boos from all the mansions we visited?"

"Not really, my boy."

Ok, that's good, in the least. The boos were a hassle to deal with back then... I just hope this thing doesn't try to hide away everywhere like those white puffballs of spook.

... Wait, what? What do you mean is not dangerous?! Then why is it an emergency?!

"I can tell by your confused face that you think this is an abomination of a mess, isn't it?" Ok, now E. Gadd is reading my mind, this is getting out of control!

"I'm sorry I can't explain anything about right now, Sonny... It's uh... Business, you see?"

Business?! What do you mean by business? Is there something more at play here? Something dark and evil that the Mushroom Kingdom decided to overlook kinda stuff?!

"E. Gadd, you're starting to legit scare-a me right now" I decided to be open about it because there was no way in heck that I was gonna go on some kind of secretive mission without knowing what was going on!

"Everything will be explained in due time, my boy." he says.

For the love of...!

...

I was going to confront him more about this... but then I saw his face.

This has to be the first time in a good while that I have seen E. Gadd so... focused and serious.

Not even with all the chaos that the mansions caused made him lose his goofy expression.

I think the only other event that made him like that was when King Boo was threatening the very fabric of space and time by using the Paranormal Portal and almost crashing both dimensions into one. That legit made him beg me to catch the ghosts before the paranormal meters reached high levels of energy.

"... Fine." Although I said that, I can't help but worry that I could end up facing something akin to a dimension-breaking anomaly. I can only hope for the best.

After some time passes, we finally reach the location, a small store-type building, with tables, chairs, and a... huge coffee machine in there or something. Is this a cafe?

The sign in the front of the store reads: "Starbeans Cafe: Mush Branch"

"E. Gadd, mind telling me how is it that Starbeans Cafe is on the Mushroom Kingdom?" I ask out of legitimate curiosity as I get out of the vehicle because I'm only learning about it right now.

"The economy went from 10:1 to 5:1 as times changed, so it became affordable to bring here, hehe" He smugly says it as he does the same.

"Anyway, my boy. I want you to pick up some of the equipment in the back of the car."

I nod as I open the backdoor of the van, showing both of us the equipment. Let's see...

There's a suitcase, for some reason. Luckily, I don't think it's a talkative one like that time.

There's the Poltergust, but it's none of the versions I used previously, most likely a newer version, because it has a weird green liquid on the tank on its back.

There's a Dual Screen as well, but this one has something on his right side, perhaps a new feature?

My trusty flashlight. I wonder if it has all the functions from before.

But those new things... This is what got me curious once I placed my eyes on them.

The first thing I looked at was a red and gray pistol-like gun, kinda like the ones from the people of the fighting tournaments.

The other one was a cannon that I have known ever since the 2nd edition of the fighting tournament started, I think the name of it is... Super Scope or something?

And the rest is strange... It's a yellow water pump and a giant paintbrush, I don't know what are those for.

"Luigi, the water pump and the paintbrush are some inventions I'm still working on! Don't mind them too much and just pick up the rest." He asks me to do it with a calm demeanor.

I nod as I grab all the equipment and put everything inside the suitcase, for better mobility.

"Now Luigi, the apparition is inside of my cafe. Are you ready?" She questions me.

"I... I think so?" I tried to be positive, but knowing that the so-called emergency was right inside this building, I couldn't help but get a bit nervous and frightened as we entered the cafe on this dark yet beautiful night.

But little did I know, my life would change drastically after passing through this door, and if it was for better or for worse, who knows? But one thing I know... A new adventure awaits me!

But... there won't be any ghosts there... right?