He races through the woods running on nothing except for determination. The creepy trees pass by rapidly as he makes his way up the spiraling path to the secluded, dark settlement of Twilight Town. He skids to a halt before reaching the town square, spotting two red shelled koopas talking in the square. Quickly he dodges behind a building and sneaks up closer to eavesdrop on the conversation. "Why are we stuck here on guard while everyone gets to search for the star," one of koopas asks vexed.
"Because we are not parakoopas or parabeetles or paragoombas! We're para-nothing, so how much help are we going to be when this thing is supposedly hovering in some floating house somewhere around here," the second koopa proposes.
"I guess not too much Barry," the first one admits.
"That's right Stew, not much. Besides think of it this way we are the first line of defense against," Barry stops, noticing something moving around the building, something red. The koopa moves closer, hoping it is not who he thinks it is then the red clad man jumps out in front of him. "Mario!"
"Night night," the plumber taunts as he jumps on the koopa reducing him to just a shell.
Stew comes around the corner, "Barry? Barry, where'd ya go?" Mario smirks as he kicks the shell sending it barreling toward the confused koopa. Stew turns seconds before the inevitable collision, "Uh oh." The shell crashes into him sending both koopas flying off to who knows where.
Mario claps his hands together triumphantly, That was way too easy. Now floating house why does that sound so familiar? Mario ponders, trying to recall any floating houses he had been in. There was the cloud house in that painting in Peach's castle, so hard to get to with all those freaking carpets to ride along the way. Mario shakes off the thought, Focus! Where else did I see a flying house? Wait I got it! Mario turns around and sprints off back toward the path. Twilight House, how could I forget! He recalls zooming around the eight rooms in his go-kart trying to pop all of his competitors balloons, little did he notice until now that Twilight Trail could be seen in the background. He finally reaches the woods and stops listening for any sign of Kamek or his troops. After hearing nothing, Mario slowly wonders through the woods shifting his focus between the sky and ground whilst listening for any enemies. He wonders around for five minutes when he hears Kamek's voice off to the east.
"What do you mean you haven't found it yet," the magikoopa asks enraged. Mario cuts through the brush and finds Kamek grilling a paragoomba. "We've been in this place for three hours, how is it that you have not been able to locate a flying house yet?"
"It is awfully dark sir and all the troops we have were pulled from the boundaries of Koopa Land; they see a lot of action sir and are very tired," the paragoomba tries to explain.
"Does it look like I care," Kamek spouts furiously, "Switch the shifts and keep looking!" The paragoomba flies off as Kamek mutters to himself, "Good help is so hard to find these days!" The koopa wizard leans against a tree, swinging his wand back and forth out of boredom. Mario sneaks up closer carefully, avoiding making any noises. As he draws closer, he notices Kamek's broomstick leaning against another tree, in perfect fireball range. Mario smirks to himself as a plan formulates in his mind. The plumber picks up a stick and snaps it in two sending a crack echoing in the air. Kamek immediately stands to attention squinting toward the area where Mario is hiding. The magikoopa slowly creeps up to the trail's edge and peers into the cluster of trees. Kamek's eyes widen as a bright red fireball comes toward him; he easily dodges and grins. "Taste my power, you filthy plumber!" Kamek waves his wand sending a ring of electricity into the woods. Mario quickly tumbles out on to the trail avoiding the ring, but becoming visible to the wizard. "Ha how pathetic, you're aim is much worse than the last time we met. You missed completely," Kamek gloats as he sends a wave of electric rings Mario's way.
"Did I," Mario asks smugly as he dodges the onslaught of rings.
Kamek raises an eyebrow, Of course he did, is he blind? He completely missed me! The magikoopa looks back and notices flames engulfing some wood, a stick of some sort. As he looks closer his jaw drops in horror, "My broomstick!" As Kamek stands gaping and dumbfounded by the preceding events, Mario takes the opportunity to tackle the magikoopa and snatch the wand from his claws. "My wand," Kamek exclaims as he tries to chase after the fleeing Mario. Mario waves the wand above his head causing little white wings to sprout from his hat then he jumps into the air taking flight. Kamek collapses hopelessly to the ground as he watches Mario fly off with his wand and angrily shouts, "Blasted plumber!"
She rolls her blue eyes vexed as her father begins the introductions of the princes he selected for his little experiment as she likes to think of it. Chizer calls the first one up, "Prince Cashmire of the Tarpon Kingdom." The prince steps forward and bows to King Floral then takes Daisy's hand and kisses it finishing with a suggestive wink. Daisy barely glances at him before scoffing in disbelief; he is of average height with jet black spiky hair and is muscular like a professional weightlifter, wearing a gray tunic with a navy cape.
Who does he think he is, Mr. Universe? I'll take his pompous attitude down a couple of notches, she vows unimpressed by her father's first choice. Chizer then introduces Prince Peasley, who she met earlier; he bows to both of them then goes back to his spot in line, not wanting to make a big production of himself at all. He's nice, a little mysterious, but nice.
"Prince Toffee from the Saffron Kingdom," Chizer announces the red haired prince. He is average in both height and build wearing a red tunic and white pants. After shaking the hand of the king, he takes Daisy's and raises it above his head as he bows then returns to his spot along the line as Chizer announces the next candidate. "Prince Pine of Jewelry Land," Daisy studies him carefully as he is a friend of Princess Peach; average height and build with shaggy auburn hair wearing somewhat traditional prince garb: a green triangular hat with a white feather protruding from the rim, poofy blue shirt and pants, along with the white stockings. Daisy giggles in her head as he bows to both her and the king.
Okay Peach, interesting choice, but I'm not looking for a Robin Hood look alike. Daisy stares off into space as Chizer begins to introduce the last candidate.
"Duke Waluigi of Warioland," Chizer calmly calls. Daisy's head snaps toward the tall, lanky Wario brother. He smirks as he takes his hat off and bows toward Daisy and King Floral.
"It is an honor to be here," he notes trying to laugh at Daisy's shock.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa stop the music," Daisy interrupts. "Dad he's not royalty! There is no such place as Warioland and he's," she accusingly points at Waluigi, "not a duke!"
"He provided the proper documentation Daisy; now please sit down and stop making a scene," Thorne orders. The princess blinks in disbelief then begrudgingly sits back down. Waluigi takes his place back along the line of suitors as Thorne stands up to address them. "Noblemen, I welcome you to Sarsaraland, your journey was a long one so I will keep my speech brief. Although I am thankful that you all accepted my invitation, I warn you now that the task ahead will not be an easy one. Not only will my lovely daughter be judging your character, but I will be as well, along with my personal staff, and the former queen herself, Madame Hyacinth. Finally as to commence the occasion of your arrival and as a test of your manner in public there will be a ball held at the end of the month in this very room. I expect everyone brought their evening attire and will be more than ready to participate. Now if you all will follow Chizer he will show you to your quarters." On command, the goomba like servant pops up behind the courters and escorts them upstairs. Daisy rolls her eyes once again and gets up from her chair to head back toward her garden.
Great what a nightmare not only princes but a ball too, yippee, she thinks sarcastically as a scowl appears upon her face.
Vast green meadows pass by in a flash along with small villages and large towns as Luigi stares out the train window. I wonder how Mario's doing, probably better than me right now, Luigi grimaces as he recalls the trouble he had finding a train to take him to Diamond City. The trip would take him three hours and this is on the fast bullet train, not the normal train which would have taken twice as long. I just hope I can beat Kamek and his cronies to the star crystal piece and pry it away from Wario. That could be a challenge, he really likes his treasure, he wrinkles his nose up at the thought of wrestling with Wario to get the star crystal. His eyes wander from the window to the rest of the train cabin. A few goombas, bob-ombs, and koopas are scattered throughout the seats as well as some mousers, one in particular catches Luigi's eye. A couple of seats up and on the opposite side of the aisle sits a little white mouser with a pink mask and matching heels. Luigi scratches his head, I've never see a mouser with white fur before. His gaze drifts to the seat behind the mouser where a Toad couple sits together holding each other's hand. The male Toad clad in red shoes, vest, and hat with white polka dots while the female has light brown braids peeking out from underneath a white hat with pink polka dots that matcher her dress. Luigi sighs; I hope Princess Peach is doing alright. I know how she worries when Mario's gone. The female Toad glances back and locks eyes with Luigi for a brief second then she excitedly turns to the Toad in red.
"Is that who I think it is," she whispers ecstatically as she motions her head in Luigi's direction. The red Toad glances back then turns back to her.
"Yeah, this is so cool! Maybe we should say hi," the boy Toad is barely able to suggest before the girl is dragging him back toward the green clad plumber.
Oh boy, Luigi shakes his head waiting for the inevitable question.
"Hi! I know you probably get asked this a lot," the pink Toad blushes, "but are you the infamous brother of Mario?"
Yep, right on cue, he sighs in his head, but smiles at the girl's shyness. "Yes I am."
"Oh wow that's so cool," the red toad exclaims ecstatically. "So are you heading out to meet him to go on some important quest to save the world?"
"Not exactly," Luigi chuckles at the boy's enthusiasm, "more like trying to prevent the world from being taken over."
"Really," the red toad asks, "how are you doing that?"
"Well, I'm retrieving a valuable treasure with terrifying power," Luigi exaggerates for the sake of entertainment, "while my brother is retrieving another valuable relic in order to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands."
"Oooo," both Toads exclaim at the same time causing Luigi to smile, enjoying the attention.
"So," the red clad Toad continues, "where are you headed?"
"Diamond City, ever been there?"
"No."
"That makes two of us," Luigi sighs. "I have a bad feeling I'm going to get lost."
"Ah don't worry, you'll figure it out," the pink Toad reassures. "You are a Mario brother after all!" Luigi smiles appreciative of the compliment, "Well, bye it was nice meeting you!" The couple wanders back to their seat as Luigi begins to stare out the window once more.
"Excuse me," a feminine voice interrupts; he turns from the window to find the white mouser he spotted earlier standing in front of him. "I couldn't help but overhear my dear," she hops up into the empty seat next to him, "that you are headed to Diamond City."
"Uh well yeah," Luigi stammers. "Why do you live there?"
"Well no sweetie," she responds while playing with her heart shaped tail, "but I do have a map of the city on me. I'm in the information business you know." The train begins to slow down approaching the next stop.
"Really? Could I possibly borrow your map," he asks excitedly, relieved at the possibility of avoiding getting lost.
"Ah yes, but at a price," the pink clad mouser requires.
"Oh," Luigi responds dumbfounded, "well what do you want?"
"Got any badges or gems?"
He pats his pockets, Dang left all those badges I found in Beanbean Kingdom at home! He looks up at the mouser with a disappointed frown, "I'm sorry I don't have either of those things on me."
"That's all right, I'll give you the map anyway," she hands him a pamphlet.
"Wow, thanks," he exclaims, "I wish there was something I could do in return for your kindness."
"Oh I'll figure something out cutie don't you worry," the little mouser winks.
"Okay," he responds nervously while wondering about her choice of words and intentions. "So uh, have you been to Diamond City before," he asks as he opens the map and begins to study it.
"Only once or twice, I hate to be away from my shop for too long," she replies.
"I see," he mutters concentrating on the map.
"However, I have been dragged away before by a very handsome man," she notes dreamily. "He was so brave and charming with that cute mustache."
"Uh huh," Luigi unintentionally responds still focused on the map.
"Actually a mustache very similar to your own," she notes slyly as she scoots closer.
This place is huge, how am I ever going to find the WarioWare crew in this mess, he thinks panicked as he meticulously scans the map. Oh wait this arena sitting upon this plateau, it fits Merlon's description! A smile unfolds across Luigi's face and the tiny white mouser blushes.
"Although I prefer red and stout, I can do lean and green," she flirts as the train comes to a complete stop. "Consider your debt paid," she notes as she leans over.
"What," Luigi asks before the mouser clad in pink pecks him on the cheek. His mouth drops open in shock as she scurries out the open train doors just before they close again.
"Next stop: Diamond City," the conductor announces as the train's engine comes alive once more. Luigi quickly looks out the window to see the station platform. He locates her standing in front of the crowd, she spots him and winks while blowing a kiss then she becomes a blur as the train speeds off toward the next station.
He blinks a couple of times; trying to make sense of what just happened, How does Mario manage to handle all of this weird stuff?