A couple of hammer brothers hop down a hallway as a single goomba follows suit.
An alarm is blaring someone in the distance as the castle shakes slightly and a few crumbs fall from the roof to the red carpet that lines the halls.
A door near to where the soldiers walk by begins to open as a single eye looks left and right to try and see if anything is nearby.
Once it sees that it is alone, the person behind the door slowly opens it and sneaks out.
The person....is Luigi!
Luigi: "Whew.....that was the third group I've seen! What is going on that's making them so disturbed?"
The castle shakes again as Luigi grabs a wall to steady himself.
Luigi: "Is someone attacking or something? Maybe I won't have to worry about them capturing Toad......"
Goomba: "Maybe not, but you still have to worry about us..."
Luigi: "Yeah, I guess I do, but you guys don't know I'm here."
Goomba: "Really? You REALLY think so?"
Luigi: "Yeah, of course I d-"
Luigi's eyes widen as he turns and sees four goombas, seven koopa troopers, a para trooper, and two hammer brothers.
Luigi blinks....and then takes off running.
Goomba: "GET HIM!"
Mario opens a door as he grits his teeth and slams it shut.
Mario: "NO!"
Mario does this again...and again....and again, and again, and again.
Mario: "RRRGH! WHERE ARE THOSE STUPID HOLDING CELLS? I JUST WANT TO FIND MY BROTHER AND GO BACK HOME! WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO.......hard...."
Mario stops speaking as he starts to hear a loud commotion a few halls down.
Mario: ".....Alright......either those are prisoner's voices....or I'm about to go to bat with my tail.......goodness, I hope it's prisoners....."
Mario's tanooki suit tail spins as he shoots into the air and flies down the hall.
Luigi dodges past a corner as the soldiers behind him slam into the wall at the end of the hall they were running in.
Luigi: "COME ON! JUST GIVE UP! THERE ARE OBVIOUSLY MORE IMPORTANT ISSUES AT HAND!"
Hammer Brothers: "NOT FOR US THERE ISN'T!"
Another flurry of hammers fly towards Luigi as he covers his head and speeds down the hall as the monsters all get up and take off after him.
Mario lands at a crossroads where four different halls intersect.
He places a finger on his chin and looks down each.
Mario: "Hmmm......"
Suddenly, down the hall behind where Mario is currently looking, something green dashes past.
Mario turns just as the Hammer Brothers stop and begin throwing another onslaught of hammers at Luigi. They close their eyes as they strain to overwork their muscles.
Mario: "Wha-?"
One of the Hammer Brothers opens his left eye and sees Mario.
Hammer Brothers: "ANOTHER ONE!"
They then both turn and begin throwing hammers at Mario.
Mario: "Woah!"
Mario runs towards them, dodging under the hammers, before jumping up and grabbing them both by the jaw, where he then lifts them up as he flies, and drops them both to the ground. He then performs an elbow drop on them.
Luigi: "Huh?"
Luigi turns to investigate what that loud UUF came from, only to see the soldiers still chasing him, but minus the Hammer Brothers.
He leans over a little and sees.....a human in a raccoon suit!
Luigi: "Another human! Hey! I need your help! Can you-"
Mario turns as his eyes and Luigi's lock. Luigi then gasps and yells.
Luigi: "BROTHER!"
Luigi instantly turns on his heel and sprints towards the soldiers. He then vaults over a goomba to avoid their grasp and to get to Mario.
Mario's eyes widen as tears begin to well up in them. His friend, his ally, his teammate, his pal, his coworker, his partner in crime, his best friend, his brother.......was safe!
Mario: "BROTHER!"
Mario soars over and catches Luigi mid air as the brothers embrace and both start crying rivers of tears as Mario floats there.
His whole journey, everything he saw and went through, every cut and bruise, scrape and scar were all worth it....for this one moment! He got him back! He got his brother back! He got kidnapped by a dinosaur, was harassed by a pretty lady at said pretty lady's kingdom, fought and destroyed a castle, journeyed across the land, insulted a sentient star, stole a ship, and fought through enemy territory to get to....here....and it was all worth it.
Now they just have to get home!
Mario floats down as he lets his brother go and the two of them chuckle while wiping the tears from their eyes.
Luigi then backs up and looks down at Mario's suit.
Luigi: "Mario? What in the world are you wearing?"
Mario: "What? It's a tanooki suit! You don't know what these things are?"
Luigi: "No way! Wait....unless......is it like a.....a uh.....a powerup?"
Mario: "You got it!"
Luigi: "Wow, so power ups can give you, like, costumes too?"
Mario: "Uh-huh! But the costume isn't what's important here!"
Luigi: "It isn't?"
Mario: "No! What is important....is the tail! It gives me the ability to fly!"
Luigi: "What? Mario, that's ridiculous!"
Mario: "No, no, I'm serious, it-HEY! LAY OFF MY BROTHER!"
Mario punches a goomba who was going to bite Luigi as it falls down and struggles to get back up.
Mario and Luigi then look around to see that the Hammer Brothers are getting back up and the others that were still chasing Luigi are currently snarling at them.
Luigi: "Hey u-uh.....bro? Do you have any more of those.....p-p-power ups on ya?"
Mario: "You know it! Take your pick!"
Mario holds out a mushroom, a fire flower, a super leaf, and a ice flower.
Luigi: "Oooo, uh.....I only know about the mushroom one, really..."
Mario: "Oh....then try this! It's pretty similar, but you can also shoot fire balls!"
Mario hands Luigi the fire flower as he stares at it and then turns back.
Luigi: "I have to eat it....right?"
Mario: "Yup! And you better do it fast! We have company!"
Luigi turns and sees the ones on his side approaching. He then eats the fire flower in one gulp and grows taller while his clothes change.
Luigi: "Woah! You weren't kidding about the clothes thing!"
Mario: "Am I ever?"
Mario and Luigi both nod to each other and get back to back.
Seeing that both have power ups, the soldiers then pull out power ups of their owns.
All seven of the koopa troopers become fire troopers, the para trooper gets out an ice flower, and the hammer brothers get tanooki suits!
Mario and Luigi stare at their adversaries for a moment.
Mario: "Alright Luigi, don't worry! I think I can get us out of this by-WOAH!"
Before anyone can react, Luigi runs towards the four goombas with his arms flailing as he accidentally knocks each one out. Once they're all down, the fire troopers begin to shoot fire at Luigi, to which he dodges the fire and simply shoots his own back, knocking three of them out of their powered up forms.
Mario: "Huh, good on you Lui-WATCH OUT!"
Mario jumps up and flies at the para trooper above Luigi, knocking the snow ball out of his hand before then punching him in the face and getting rid of his power up. The two Tanooki brothers then slam into the two of them as they all four hit the ground, getting rid of Mario's suit but also sending the para trooper out of his shell with a POP.
The para trooper starts to stand up but is knocked over when Mario throws the shell into him and then flips the two tanooki brothers over. The shell bonks one on the head, getting rid of his power up, before then ricocheting off the wall and hitting the other right after Mario punches him, causing him to lose his power up and then get knocked out.
The remaining Hammer brother kicks Mario off of him. They both spring onto their feet and punch each other once, Mario giving a knock punch and the hammer brother....falling like it's nothing.
Mario then looks at his fist.
Mario: "Man, these koopas are way easier to deal with then I thought they would be....I wonder why the kongs had such trouble with them.....Hey Luig-OH!"
Mario turns to see the goombas are currently jumping on Luigi's head as the last standing koopa pulls on his hair. Luigi reaches out a hand.
Luigi: "Mario!"
Mario quickly eats an ice flower and makes short work of the rest of them as he tosses snow ball after snow ball.....
He then runs over and helps Luigi up.
Mario: "Ah, they're great in numbers....."
Luigi: "Hey! I took care of most of them...."
Mario: "Yeah, but not all of them, brother! You still have a lot to learn!"
Luigi shakes his head.
Luigi: "Oh yeah? I think I've learned more here then you have bro! What have you learned, huh?"
Mario: "Well, for starters, how to infiltrate a castle! So, uh, beat that little bro!"
Luigi stares at him before his eyes widen out of shock.
Luigi: "WAIT A MINUTE, MARIO?!?"
Mario: "Yeah?"
Luigi: "HOW DID YOU GET HERE? WHY DID YOU COME HERE?!? DON'T YOU KNOW THAT THIS IS BOWSER'S FORTRESS! LIKE THE BOWSER THAT CAUSED DONKEY KONG TO COME TO OUR WORLD?!?"
Mario: "Yeah! I know Luigi! I wouldn't come onto this flying island without knowing about him!"
Luigi: "So how did you get here? And why are you here? Is it because of me?!?"
Mario: "Of course little bro! You really think I would just leave you in this world?!? We're the Mario Brothers, not the Mario.....and that's it!"
Luigi: "Eheh....still don't know about that name...... So, how did you get here?"
Mario: "Oh, me and Peach stole an airship and flew it here!"
Luigi: "YOU STOLE AN AIRS-wait, whose Peach?"
Mario: "She's the Princess of The Mushroom Kingdom! Ever heard of it?"
Luigi: "Yeah! Yeah I have! My friend is actually from there!.......Oh no, Toad!"
Mario: "Toad? Wait, which Toad?"
Luigi: ".........Uh, I dunno how to describe him exactly....He's small, has no nose, has red dots on his....is it a helmet or apart of their heads?"
Mario: "Honestly, I don't know! So what's so special about this Toad?"
Luigi: "He helped me make it through The Dark Lands and now he's in trouble!"
Mario: "You were IN THE DARK LANDS?!?"
Luigi: "Mario! My friend is in trouble because of me! We need to get him and.....WAIT, THE PRINCESS AND YOU STOLE A SHIP TO GET HERE! IS SHE HERE?!?"
Mario: "Yeah!"
Luigi: "Well, then that's great! She's here to break everyone out, right?"
Mario: "Break everyone out?"
Luigi: "Yeah! Yes! There's a group of creatures stuck in cages here and they are DEPRESSED! We need to get them out of here! So where's the rest of the army? Where's the task force? What's the mission?"
Mario: "M-mission? Luigi, you don't even know those creatures! How do you know they won't fry and eat you or something? And what's going to happen if we do break them out? Bowser and his army are just going to let them go?"
Luigi: "Mario, I've seen how Bowser acts. To see a group of Toads so miserable is....disheartening! I just want to help them get out of here! And maybe....they can help us as well! Maybe we can all work together with Peach's army to break out! We can fight against Bowser's army!"
Mario: "Pfft, Luigi, I just came here to get you out! We aren't also going to-......"
Mario suddenly remembers Peach's plan and starts to sweat profusely.
Luigi: "Uh....Mario? Are you okay?"
Mario: "Yeah, yeah, I'm good........look, we can't fight Bowser's forces, okay? There's just....too many of them and we don't have enough power ups!"
Luigi: "What? But you all fought your way in here! There's not too many of them to deal with! Even without power ups! I mean, Toad and I were able to take on an entire army of Shy Guys, alone! If we play our cards right, then we can take out all the soldiers in the castle!"
Mario: "Okay! But what about when we get outside?!?"
Luigi: "We can use the air ship to get out of here!"
Mario: "The air ship's gone!"
Luigi: "What?!?"
Mario: "It crashed when we got here! It's just me and Peach! We're the only ones!"
Luigi: "WHAT?!? WHY?!?"
Mario: "BECAUSE BOWSER'S ARMY IS SO MASSIVE AND STRONG THAT WE COULDN'T BRING ANYONE ELSE BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL EITHER TOO SCARED TO COME, WERE CAPTURED, OR WERE TOO WEAK!"
Luigi backs away from Mario as he sighs.
Mario: "Luigi.....I came here with Peach because.....because we both came to get you and get out of here! Peach is a human too and wants to.....to go to Brooklyn!"
Luigi narrows his eyes.
Luigi: "....She's a Princess........why would she abandon her people?"
Mario: "Because.....she isssss VERY STRESSED BY THEM! She gets incredibly stressed!"
Luigi crosses his arms.
Mario: "Luigi, please, trust me! We can't fight this! We are outnumbered! We are outgunned! The Kongs lost to the koopas and they are twice most of these turtle's sizes! They are conquerors.....we can't win this....."
Luigi sighs.
Luigi: "Maybe so Mario......but I want to try!"
Mario: "WHAT?!?"
Luigi: "Because of us being here, Bowser now knows that there's a way to other humans! It's only a matter of time before he finds a way to them! By the way, the pipe still is intact, right?"
Mario: "Last I saw it, yeah."
Luigi: "Good. Plus, what other choice do we have? To just run and abandon people like Toad who didn't do anything and don't deserve this?!?"
Mario: "Brother, you're acting crazy here!"
Luigi: "No Mario! You're acting crazy! We have a chance to break the others free and save everyone and you just want to turn away from it! Well I won't!"
Luigi turns away and begins walking.
Luigi: "There's an army here and if the Princess is here too then maybe she can talk some sense into them so that we all can AT LEAST escape unscathed! Now I'm going to go find her and-"
Luigi freezes over as a tear drops from Mario's eye. His hand is still held up as he drops to the ground and covers his face.
Mario: "I-I-I-I'm sorry Luigi.......I was so scared you were dead for so long......I can't lose you for real this time......I can't........now...."
Mario grabs the block and begins pushing it along.
Mario: ".....Lets go save the Princess....."