Super Mario Universe

8 | The Prankster

Mario got up after crashing into a field. "LUIGI!" he yelled. "How could you make a mistake as big as that?!"

Luigi stood up. "I'm sorry," he said. "I am be clumsy sometimes."

"No kidding!" Rosalina said. "Now it's gonna take us longer to reach the Mushroom Kingdom!"

Starlow laughed at the argument happening in front of her. "Chill out," she told them. "We just need to find the Golden Pipe here."

"It could be anywhere!" Mario said. He looked around at the surroundings. "There's this prairie for miles around! How will we find it?!"

"Why don't we start by thinking?" Starlow suggested. "That never hurts."

"She's right," Rosalina said. "And I just came up with an idea! Look at that sign post over there!"

Mario turned around and noticed something he didn't before. There was a lamppost with a sign on it. The sign was a cheap board plastered onto it that read This Way to the Crooked Sprixie Castle. Also there was an arrow pointing right.

"The Crooked Sprixie Castle?" Luigi said, confused. "That name Aldridge ring a bell."

"Well, we would be ringing bells if we were home already!!" Mario threw a shade at his brother.

"Stop fighting," Rosalina said. "Guys, let's go to the crooked castle-- or whatever it is."

The two girls took off in the direction of the castle. Mario and Luigi soon followed.

The walk across the prairie was SOOOO boring. There was absolutely nothing for the group to do but walk through the rolling hills, which by itself was actually pretty but walking across the plains for hours and hours and hours made Mario and the others miserable. No one said a word because there really wasn't a thing to say about, well, anything.

After a few more hours the sun had set, and of course it was so dark outside that they couldn't see much in front of them.

So Luigi was pretty surprised when he stepped on something that flew him up into the air. "Help!" he wailed. "I'm in a net!"

There came a laughter from the side, where it was dark. "Hee hee hee," it called.

"Who's there?" Mario asked.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Rosalina said.

"Hahaha! You guys were pranked WELL!!" the voice laughed.

"Who are you?" Starlow said.

Suddenly a light turned on. Well, it was a flashlight. "Hello," the voice said. "But the question is, who are you?"

Mario took a good look at the person with the light. It was a boy, a fairy boy. Well, a Sprixie. He had green hair, was very little (but a little bigger than tiny Starlow), wore a blue suit, and had little wings that flapped so many times per second.

"We asked first!" Luigi yelled from above.

"Alright," the Sprixie laughed. "My name is Sprix. Now tell me who you are!"

"My name is Mario," Mario said. "The person up there you've trapped is my younger brother, Luigi."

"Oh, sorry about that," Sprix giggled. "I just love doing pranks!"

Mario looked around. "Where are we?" he asked.

"Well...we're in the middle of nowhere. I like to call this my home," Sprix said.

"Don't you have a job?" Starlow asked. "A family, a career?"

"I used to have a job," Sprix sighed. "I was a magician at an amusement park, but one day a new manager came and decided it was best for me to leave."

"I'm sorry we brought that up," Mario said. "But my friends and I are really in a hurry. It's a long story."

Rosalina stepped forward. "I'll cut to the chase," she looked at Mario. "We are looking for a teleportation device called a Golden Pipe. Have you heard of this?"

Sprix's face lit up. "Yeah! I hear about that Golden Pipe everyday!! It's soooo famous!" he laughed.

Mario narrowed his eyes. "Seriously," he said. "Have you ever seen a Golden Pipe?"

"You're not gonna believe this," Sprix told them, "but yes, I have seen one. Back in that amusement park I used to work at...it did have a Golden Pipe on one of the rides. Like in the background."

"Really?" Mario asked in shock. "That's very odd. But we'll take it. Can you take is to this amusement park?"

"I don't know," Sprix said. "May I?"

"Yes, you may," Starlow said. "Don't you know who they are?"

Sprix looked at Mario and Luigi. "Yeah...you two are those guys from the Mushroom Kingdom, aren't you?"

"We are," Luigi whipped his hat. "And thank you. Want my autograph?"

"No time for autographs," Rosalina said. "We just need to get back to the Mushroom Kingdom as soon as possible with that Golden Pipe. So take us!"

"So..." Sprix sneered. "What do I get in return?"

Mario and the others looked in return. They didn't really have anything to offer, so maybe they couldn't find the Golden Pipe.

"You will take us," Mario stood tall, "because we said so."

Rosalina chimed in. "I'll give you a hundred dollars worth of Mushroom Money."

"Not a hundred," Sprix said. "A thousand."

"A hundred." Rosalina folded her arms.

"Thousand." Sprix said.

"Hundred," Rosalina pouted.

"Hundred," Sprix said.

"Thousand!" Rosalina said. "Wait, what--?"

"Deal!" Sprix laughed, shaking her hand before Rosalina could protest.

Mario and the others laughed. "So, let's go to this amusement park." he said.

"It's not called that. It's called Star-Crossed Skyway," Sprix said. "So get used to it."

Rosalina snickered, and followed the others to the nighttime hills again.