Mario & Luigi

Prologue Pt. 1: Duty Calls...Even When You Don't Want It To

Luigi and Mario jumped effortlessly from one fluffy cloud to the next to reach the top of a green striped mountain. The peak was so clear and sunny past all of the clouds down below.

"Oh yeah! We did it, bro!" Luigi gave his brother a congratulatory high-five for their combined efforts. This was some of the most fun that the two ever had.

"Ha ha! You bet! Best brother ever, or BEST brother ever?" Mario pointed at Luigi with both fingers and winked. "Now, let's go kick some Birdo butt!" A red door with a lion-shaped knocker suddenly appeared in a puff of smoke in front of the brothers and they entered into it immediately. When they stepped in, all their feet met was empty air and they started falling fast towards the grassy hills below.

"Brace yourself!" Mario yelled to his brother, they both braced themselves and closed their eyes for impact. Suddenly, they had stopped falling. When they opened their eyes again, they saw that each of them had spawned little raccoon tails and ears that allowed them to fly.

"Woah! This is awesome!" Luigi started practicing his impression of a flying superhero with his newfound powers. He flew around in circles and loop-de-loops, then flew off toward the fields of pink flamingos, giant green cacti and little red-hooded townsfolk. Everything down below was frolicking along to a happy, playful tune in the background. Even Luigi started whistling to the music as he flew through the air without a care in the world. All seemed right with the world until a strange cloud appeared before Luigi. It slowly took the form of Mario, but angry and carrying a plunger like a sword.

"BLAH BLAH BLAH Job to do! BLAH BLAH Slacking off! BLAH BLAH BLAH No good brother!" The cloud mirage yelled at Luigi, but he flew right through it. Then, another cloud appeared, this one of his father with his iconic red cap on.

"No hard feelings Luigi, but your brother was always my favorite. El-oh-el." Luigi flew even faster through that cloud mirage. Then another one appeared after that one and took the form of a giant dragon head with horns and a red mane. The dragon opened its mouth to breathe fire down on poor Luigi, but instead it made an oddly familiar sound...

*BRRRING BRRRING*

---

The 7:00 alarm blared in Luigi's ear. Luigi lifted his disheveled face up from his pillow and barely glanced at the time before pounding the snooze button and drifting right back off to sleep. Nothing was getting in the way of him and sleeping in on a Saturday morning. Last night was a wild night of video games and junk food after a whole week of hard work. If hard work was letting Mario do most of the heavy lifting like finding the leak, fixing the leak, unscrewing the pipe, replacing the pipe and everything else, then Luigi must have done so much work while doing nothing at all. No wonder Luigi needed so much rest.

A few minutes later, Luigi's door flung open as his brother Mario stomped through already wearing his red work overalls and yanked Luigi's head back up. There went his peaceful morning sleep.

"Yo! Rise and shine!" Mario shook Luigi awake as he yelled.

"Aww really?..C'mon, just five more minutes-maybe ten-and I'll be up-"

"Sorry, sport. Can't do that. We got a pretty important call comin' in."

"Mario, it's Saturday! This ain't right, man..." Luigi slurred while his eyes slowly shut. Then Mario slapped him across the face.

"Apparently we got an emergency on our hands! C'mon, up and at 'em." Mario was forcing his brother out of the covers.

Luigi finally gave into the pressure and reached for his shoes under his bed. "Ok, ok lemme just get my stuff on." He reached too far, however, as he accidentally rolled out of the bed and on the hard wood floor. "It's way too early for this crap." He moaned.

"I'll get the van ready outside. Be there fast!" Mario ran out of the bedroom, down the old wood stairs and out the front door of the apartment complex to the bright red Chevy parked out in the front. It was old Mario senior's van back when he was still a carpenter in the golden days. It was a bit of a fixer-upper but it got the job done which was really all that mattered.

Mario felt his phone vibrating in his overalls pocket, took it out, looked at the caller I.D. and saw that his girlfriend Daniella Verducci was calling. Looked like the ladyfriend was giving her favorite plumber a good old wake-up call. He smiled and answered cheerfully. "Mario Brothers' Plumbing! No leak to small. How may I service you, bambina?"

"Hey Mario, I need to tell you something. " Daniella answered, somewhat distressed.

"What's up?" He asked as he was watching Luigi through the slightly opened window scrambling to find his overalls in the closet.

"I'll have to cancel our dinner date tonight at seven. My mom needs help moving from Philly to here."

"Why didn't you tell me before now?" Mario answered, frustrated.

"My brother was going to go today but he just called me saying he's called in sick and that he's afraid to drive."

"The one thing I've been looking forward to today..." Mario sighed. "C'mon babe. We can work this out."

"Fine, then you can come and do that for me." Daniella started to rant. "Because I have to drive three hours there and back with my mom's furniture and then help unpack everything!"

"But I've got work too, and my brother's just getting his pants on." Mario said as he watched Luigi buttoning up his overalls as he exited the front door, opened the car door and sat in the front seat next to him. Luigi motioned to Mario to step on the gas, but Mario shushed him and pointed to his phone.

Daniella yelled. "Well MAYBE you can cancel just one day of work to do something nice for your girlfriend!"

"Well MAYBE the fate of the city depends on it!" Mario yelled back.

"Well MAYBE the city can wait for a day!"

"Well MAYBE I can't!" Mario hung up the phone in frustration and started the van. Luigi quietly stared at him, concerned. "I hate to say it, but you're kind of lucky you don't have...Yeah." Mario left it at that and started out on the road.