11th installment of the VGNU.
It's common in the Mario family to make bad deals, but this time it might just tear the brothers apart for good.
Sometimes, there are worse evils than magic turtles and space dragons. For example, corporate greed.
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The Mushroom Kingdom looked a lot different from what he'd remembered. It'd been months since the last time he was here. After their great adventure had been turned into a family friendly stage play, it just didn't feel right to come back... or, maybe he just didn't want to remember it all.
Toads walked through the streets of the now flourishing Toad Town, and the castle standing beyond the city was as grand and magnificent as always. And as Luigi made his way up the steps to that castle he took solace in knowing that at least it was looking better than when they found it. The little Toads ran along side him, laughing, playing or otherwise going about their day. For a brief moment, he almost saw in this place what Mario might've seen. But it was always overlaid by the bad memories...
Though, before he could reach the front door of the castle, he was stopped. "Ah! Sir Luigi! Nice of you to come back after so long!"
Luigi looked up to the balcony above him to see Toadsworth leaning over the low rail. Luigi tipped his hat to him. "Are Mario an th' Princess here?"
"Oh?" Toadsworth chuckled. "Not at all! They left not too long ago, urgent business I think!"
Luigi felt like he got the wind knocked out of him. "Seriously...?" He shook his head, turning back. "Aiight, well, thanks anyway."
"Not exactly," Luigi sighed. "Just thought I could'a caught him before he left is all."
"I see," Toadsworth nodded. "Still, come on inside young sir! It's a long walk here and a long walk back! You should take a moment to--"
"I'll be fine," Luigi answered, forcing a laugh. "It's not that far."
"Hmmm," Toadsworth narrowed his eyes. "If you have the energy, then perhaps you wouldn't mind helping me with an errand or two?"
Luigi stopped. "What kind of errand?"
"Well, when you defeated the evil King, his dark magic that had slowly been turning the Kingdom into a wasteland was quickly righted by our own fair Princess's magic." Toadsworth looked out at the Kingdom, and saw how nothing was like those dark days. "But before King Koopa used his dark magics, we still had troubles fighting off the invading armies. It seems that putting things back the way they were had a few unintended side effects."
"The Koopas are back?" Luigi asked, crossing his arms.
"No," Toadsworth admitted. "But the Piranha Plants are growing in numbers, and some of our old war-machines seemed to have turned against us, malfunctioning. I was wondering if you would assist in doing something about that."
Luigi faced the city, wondering if he should just call it quits for today. It'd already been a long day of plumbing around Brooklyn... but for some reason, hearing that Mario wasn't here made him angry. It was frustrating, the whole thing.
