Shell-shocked

Battle at the castle

The two's lips barely brushed together in a whisper of a kiss, but before it could fully be formed..

Luigi's phone began to ring with Mario's ringtone. Luigi's eyes widened just as he was about to close them. Bowser paused, retracted his steps and awkwardly stood to the side as Luigi reluctantly answered the phone.

"MY PRINCIPESSA!!!!" Mario wailed. "MYPRINCIPESSAISMISSINGITHASTOBEBOWSERIMEANWHOELSECOULDITBE?????HEISALWAYSKIDNAPPINGMYPRINCIPESSAWEHAVETOGOSAVEHERFROMTHATEVILSCUMOFTHEEARTHBOWSER!!!!!!!!!" 

Mario was yelling so loudly Luigi had to hold the phone away from his ear with a startled expression. Bowser obviously heard everything, looking both angry and amused. "Uuuh...Luigi don't-a think Bowser took-a the principessa." Luigi said awkwardly once Mario stopped yelling. Once again Mario began yelling in incoherent Italian.

"You should go take care of that, and I'll have to get home before your brother raises hell and destroys my castle. Again." Bowser sighed. Luigi nodded.

"Sorry for the inconvenience." He apologized. 

"It's fine, really. I had a great time, we should do this again soon." Bowser said, Luigi eagerly nodded and the two parted to go deal with the issue. 

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As they headed towards Bowser's castle, Luigi tried to convince Mario that Peach was most likely just going to hang out with some friends. "Of course not, Bowser has kidnapped my principessa. She has no friends." Mario insisted. Luigi paused. Mario needed help.

Since he wasn't able to deter the angry plumber, they soon arrived at the castle. Mario kicked the doors open with a "Let's-a-go baby!" before rushing inside. Luigi just had to follow after. They found Bowser just as he was telling Junior to be quite and stay safe before closing the door to one of the rooms. Mario gravely misunderstood and thought Bowser was speaking to Peach. "Did you trap my principessa in there perchance?" Mario accused. 

"What? No. I don't even know where she is." Bowser replied. 

"Of course you do! You're always kidnapping my principessa!!!!" Mario yelled as he began running towards the door. Bowser quickly slapped Mario away with his tail.

"Stay out of there!" He snapped. This seemed to only make Mario more determined to get into the room, making the battle get heated a lot faster. Luigi didn't want to get involved in the fight and was able to easily slip away, he was used to this since it was the usual course of action anyway. He went to check the usual places that Peach was at whenever she got kidnapped to see if he could expedite things. 

Peach was in one of the rooms happily chatting with Daisy. "Hiya." Luigi greeted.

"Oh hi! How did the date go?" Peach cheerfully asked. 

"It wasn't a date." Luigi replied, blushing deeply. Peach giggled.

"Alright, how was the 'hang out' then?"

"It went great, up until Mario called about Bowser kidnapping you." Luigi said, his tone apologetic. Peach sighed.

"I had just wanted to go out to see some friends, without Mario being around. I did come here though, I heard Daisy was around." The fact that she said she came to see Daisy and not Bowser stuck out in Luigi's mind. Did it matter that much to him? A bit.

"Oh yea, she was-a watching Bowser Junior." 

"We were having a great time too, then Bowser came and told us what happened. Sorry your 'not date' was cut short." Daisy apologized. 

Just like the 'not date' the conversation was cut short, this time from a loud explosion coming from across the castle. "What was that?" All three exclaimed in unison. They quickly ran to see what was going on, seeing Bowser and Mario fighting in the courtyard. Fire was everywhere as Bowser tried to scorch his enemy. 

"We need to go make sure Junior is okay." Luigi quickly said.

"Where is he?" Peach asked. Luigi led them to where Junior was supposed to be hiding, fortunately the child was still there and unharmed. 

"Dad's getting real mad...." He said.

"We'll have to break up the fight before anyone gets to hurt.." Daisy spoke. The others agreed and quickly put together a plan to try and break down the fight. They first took Junior to a safe spot, then headed back down to the courtyard. 

"Mario, I found-a the princesses!" Luigi yelled, trying to make himself heard over the roaring. It took several tries for the trio to even be noticed. Bowser, being the more observant out of him and Mario had noticed them first. He began to try and calm down the fight to keep further damages from happening, but Mario kept going. 

He had somehow pulled out a powerup and had grown in size to continue fighting Bowser. In a more desperate attempt, Bowser let out a bit of a reckless burst of fire. Mario took advantage of the slight distraction Mario jumped up and kicked Bowser in the head, throwing him off balance. Bowser allowed himself to fall to have the battle end, finally allowing Luigi to get Mario's attention. "Wahoo!" Mario yelled as he happily jumped over to Luigi and the princesses. Mario happily told them how he had defeated Bowser and save them once again. 

Now that he was more on the other side of things, Luigi was able to pick up the irritation on the girl's face. As they were heading out, Daisy whispered to Luigi that he'd be able to go back and check on Bowser without being noticed. He thanked her and quickly walked away while the girls suddenly became very interested in Mario's rendition of the event.