#bouldergeist

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!

Luigi sighed and rubbed his eyes. 

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! 

Luigi groaned and shoved his face into the pillow. Mario…turn off the fucking alarm.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! 

Luigi grunted and got himself out of bed. He dragged his sorry ass to his brother’s alarm clock and stared at it. 

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP-

He slapped the top of it to snooze it, then flipped the switch to turn it off. 

…………….

Luigi sighed and looked at the bed. “Mario-” 

…but the bed was empty. Luigi tilted his head and looked around the bedroom. Where did he go? He can’t have woken up before his alarm…could he?

Luigi got dressed into his shirt and overalls, and put his green L hat on. He walked up to the bathroom, and grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste. Loading it onto the toothbrush, Luigi noticed Mario’s toothbrush was not in its usual place. He looked to the table, and quickly saw the toothbrush standing up, charging on the table. 

Mario’s been in here already…and brushed his teeth too. So Mario WAS up extra early. But that still doesn’t answer his other question: Where is he? 

Luigi finished with his teeth, and fixed up his hair a little bit. He walked out to the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. But when he picked up the coffee pot, he noticed it was used. He opened the trash can, and saw a filter of coffee in the garbage. Lastly, he noticed that Mario’s coffee mug had been used. Strange…Mario made coffee, and didn’t think to make some for Luigi? 

Luigi sighed and sipped some of Mario’s coffee. He put the coffee mug down on the counter, and pulled out his phone. He pulled up his brother’s contact, clicked his phone number and clicked the ‘call’ button. He put the phone to his ear and let it ring. 

*Riiiiing…….Riiiiiiiing……..Riiiiiing….Riiiiing…* “Hello! Itsa me, Mario! Sorry I’ma not at the phone right now-”

Luigi frowned and waited for the beep sound. 

*Beep!* 

“Hi Mario. It’s Luigi. Where are you? I can’t find you anywhere, and you didn’t leave a note. Call me back when you can, okay? Bye.” Luigi hung up. 

Luigi sighed and put his phone down. He let in a deep breath, before blowing out all the air. He took in another deep breath…and blew it all out. ‘Come on, Luigi. It’s gonna be okay.’ he thought. ‘Mario is likely closer than you think. There’s no way he would leave the house without saying goodbye first.’ Luigi told himself. 

Luigi looked at the time, and regretted it immediately. They were supposed to be leaving right now, and Mario was nowhere to be found. Luigi looked down, and fiddled with his hands a little bit. What was he supposed to do?! He can’t go to work without his brother! That wouldn’t be right! But he can’t back out of a customer either! It was too late to do that! 

Luigi quickly started looking around for the toolkit. But to his shock, the toolkit was also gone! Mario had taken the toolkit! And now he REALLY can’t work! Luigi growled and pulled out his phone again. He opened his calendar and looked at the first customer’s timeslot. 

[9:30am - CANCELLED] 

Luigi let out the happiest breath he possibly could. The 9:30 slot was free, meaning he had time to look for Mario. 

He looked at the next timeslot: 

[11:30am - Harris Family]

Luigi locked his phone and ran to his room. He had no time to lose. Mario is missing, and he needs to find him. Luigi grabbed a backpack and filled it with things. He put in a med kit, a couple water bottles, a blanket, a flashlight, a plunger, an old textbook from trades school, and a rope. He didn’t know what he would be getting himself into, but he needed to be ready for anything. And yes, that involved a plunger and a textbook. What is he gonna do with these things?! Who freaking knows. 

Luigi put his phone in his pocket, put on the backpack and ran out the door. He closed the door and jumped onto the blocks to the pipe. He hopped into the pipe and soared through it. He moved through the invisible part of the pipe, noting how pretty it is. He looked towards the exit area, and held onto his hat as he kept his eyes locked to the destination. 

But as he soared, he felt a gust of wind suck him into another area. “What the- WAAAH!” Luigi screeched as he felt his body flop into the other pipe connection. He yelped and tried to swim himself the other way, but with no luck. He breathed heavily as he soared through, and quickly widened his eyes when he saw the looming dark clouds and bright lava of the darklands getting closer. 

OH GOD NO. NOT AGAIN! 

Luigi took off his backpack and hugged it against his chest, squeezing his eyes shut as he braced for impact. He felt his body fly through the exit, and slide across the rubble-covered ground below. He felt intense pain in his arm as he felt himself skid to a halt against the ground, before completely stopping. Luigi kept his eyes closed for a few moments, refusing to let his eyes see the creepy world of Bowser’s kingdom.

But eventually…he opened one eye…looked around, and found no one around. He opened his other eye and moved himself around slightly to get himself out of the fetal position. He hissed and grunted in pain as he removed his left arm from the rubble. He sat himself up and put the backpack down. Then, he turned to his throbbing arm. He looked at his long sleeve and noticed some of it was missing. He rolled it up as best he could and widened his eyes when he saw the damage. 

His outer upper arm skin was scraped down a couple layers. It looked a lot like a grazed abrasion: bright red individual scraps that collected into a large red gash. Though it wasn’t all red. There were still pieces of rubble, dirt, even pieces of his shirt hidden within the bad scrape. And just the surrounding heat from the darklands made it throb with pain. 

Luigi sighed and unzipped his backpack. He pulled out the medkit he intended to use for Mario, and laid it out on the ground to use on himself instead. He took a moment to remove the bits of his shirt by pulling out a piece of cloth, and the water bottle. He poured a small bit of water onto the cloth, and put the lid back on. With the cloth wetted, Luigi folded it and prepared himself for the pain that was gonna come with removing the debris from his wound. The moment the cloth touched the scrap, it stung like hell. So instead, he took a moment to clean up the blood that was dripping down from the wound, before going for the wound itself. He placed the cloth onto the cut, and dusted off the debris as best he could before his body gave into his need to cry. 

Mario used to get scrapes and cuts like this as a kid all the time. Mario was a pro at dealing with this kind of pain. But Luigi…he rarely did anything that risked himself getting an injury like this. But he smiled a bit through the pain when he began imagining Mario applauding him for getting rough with the others. With that thought in his head, he felt ready to face the injury one more time. He still had to wrap the wound, after all. 

Luigi grabbed a roll of white bandage and wrapped it around his arm. He held onto the one side of the wrap with his teeth, while he wrapped up part of his arm. He let go halfway, and resumed wrapping it without holding onto the loose piece. After that, Luigi cut the wrap off the roll and tied the two loose pieces of the wrap together. It was already bleeding through a couple of the layers of wrap, but it would have to do for now. 

Luigi got up onto his feet and grabbed his flashlight from the backpack. He turned it on and zipped up his backpack zipper before throwing it onto his shoulders. He held up the flashlight, and looked at his surroundings. Here we go. 

He walked around the place, making sure he looked at every angle around him. Bits of the darklands were recognizable from his first time, like the spiky trees and the fog surrounding it. He looked out for the lava this time, making sure to jump from rubble to rubble so that he doesn’t get burned alive. Partway through, Luigi found Mario’s hat lying on the ground. He collected it and hugged it tightly. Mario’s been here! And with his luck, he might still be here! 

Luigi put the hat into his backpack and kept going with more confidence in his step. He wiped the sweat from his brow occasionally to get the dripping stress sweat off his forehead. He was growing really worried about his brother. He knew his brother was strong and a fighter, but he also knew Mario constantly got into bad situations he couldn’t climb back out of alone. That’s what Luigi’s here for. To save Mario from everything the human world, and the mushroom kingdom world threw at him. 

Luigi eventually found the toolkit hanging from a low branch. He picked it up and smiled. Further proof that Mario was likely still here. He moved it to his left hand and carried the toolkit with him. Sneaking away from some dry bones, Luigi headed towards the forest area near the castle. He shined his flashlight around the forest, before widening his eyes at the sounds of jiggling bones. Fearing the worst, Luigi hid behind a tree and looked around for any dry bones. But weirdly enough, he couldn’t find any of them. It was like he had an auditory hallucination. 

Luigi was about to keep searching, when he heard a familiar voice screeching and yelling in the distance. Luigi widened his eyes and took off running towards the location of the sound. “I’M-A COMING, MARIO!” Luigi shouted. 

Luigi ran through the trees, dodging some of the branches and breaking some of the other branches as he ran through them. He took a right turn and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the scene: 

Mario was being held by a large creature made of rock. It was HUGE! It was 5 times his size! There was NO WAY he would be able to kill a monster like that! Luigi stared at the back of the creature for another 10 seconds, before shaking himself out of his thoughts and taking off the backpack. 

He pulled out the rope and pulled out the plunger with the textbook. He looked at his weapon options, and grabbed the plunger. He tied the rope to the plunger, and threw it at the rock-looking creature. When it stuck on its back, Luigi pulled on the rope.

But unfortunately, the rope wasn’t tied onto the plunger very well. And the plunger only had a wooden stick as its handle. So naturally, the rope slipped right off the plunger and made Luigi snapback and fall to the ground. Luigi groaned a slight bit and looked up at the bouldergeist. He looked down at the rope and sighed silently. That was a stupid decision. 

The bouldergeist roared in Mario’s face and reeled back its fist. 

Luigi, filled with fear and adrenaline, grabbed the rope and opened the rope before throwing it at the boulder’s arm. The rope wrapped around the Bouldergeist’s fist, and tightened to its wrist. The Bouldergeist turned around, and looked at Luigi. Luigi stared at the creature, before putting on a confident face and wrapping his part of the rope around his fingers. “eat it, moron.” Luigi said before pulling on the rope. 

The Bouldergeist’s arm, which was unattached, was pulled away from its head and body. So the Bouldergeist wasn’t really affected. The Bouldergeist observed Luigi’s surprise when he saw the monster was completely unaffected. In fact, seeing Luigi’s face along with the knowledge that he failed once again, only made the Bouldergeist laugh at him! How pathetic…A stupid human trying to save his little friend. 

But the Bouldergeist's laughter paused when he was thrown off guard by something hard hitting it, knocking it to the ground. The monster opened its eyes and saw its hand fall beside him. Its unattached hand had been flown back! and it smacked the bouldergeist right in the face! 

Luigi smirked and removed the boulder arm from the rope. “You just got Luigi’d.” Luigi said proudly. 

Mario hopped out of the tree and sprinted past. “Celebrate later, Luigi! We need to go!” Mario told him, grabbing the stuff and grabbing Luigi’s hand before pulling him towards the pipe. 

“What happened?!” Luigi asked. 

“I got sucked into the wrong pipe on my way to Brooklyn.” Mario explained. “Now I'll do you one better: how did you find me?!” Mario asked next. 

“I was going to look for you over at the van, when I fell into the wrong pipe too.” Luigi explained. “Now I’LL do YOU one better: Why did you leave me without writing me a note?! I was worried sick!” Luigi asked back. 

“I was trying to surprise you!” Mario jumped onto some rubble that floated on the lava river, before jumping to the next floating rubble piece. “I was gonna go to Brooklyn and bring us back McDonald’s. But the pipe to the darklands sucked me in on my way into Brooklyn. So no McDonald’s.” Mario told him. 

Luigi grabbed Mario’s hand and jumped to the rubble on the other side. “But I called you! Did you get my call?” Luigi asked. 

“No. I didn’t get any calls.” Mario told him. 

“Huh…” Luigi shook his head and stopped. “But you didn’t even leave a note.” Luigi told him. 

Mario tilted his head. “I tried sending you a text. You didn’t get a text from me?” Mario asked. 

Luigi shook his head. “I didn’t get anything from you.” Luigi pulled out his phone and showed his brother. 

Mario looked at the phone and scrolled down. Nothing. Nothing showed up on his phone. “Hm…” He pulled out his own phone and showed Luigi the texts he sent. 

Luigi read the texts from Mario’s phone and sighed. “It says your messages sent, so…Maybe my phone is broken.” Luigi told him, taking his phone back. 

Mario threw Lu’s backpack at his brother and wrapped the toolkit around his own body. When Luigi put the backpack onto his back, Mario noticed a slight issue with his arm. “What’s going on with your arm-” Mario asked, touching the bloodied sleeve. 

“OW-ow-ow-Mario don’t touch it!” Luigi yelled, grunting and walking forward with a frown. 

Mario widened his eyes and grabbed Luigi’s hand, stopping him. “Luigi…” He turned Luigi around and gently rolled up the sleeve. “Let me see.” Mario said. 

Luigi looked down, feeling guilty. “I landed wrong.” He admitted. 

Mario looked at the really bad scrape that stretched from the shoulder to the elbow. He unwrapped the gauze slightly and winced at the abrasion. “Holy shi-” Mario tied it up again and bit his lip. “This…is the worst scrape I have ever seen.” Mario reacted with horror. “It’s huge!” 

Luigi looked at him. “I slid out of the pipe on my arm on the rubble.” Luigi further explained. 

Mario winced. “Yikes…” Mario unrolled his brother’s sleeve and put it back. “But on the plus side, I actually got my hands dirty for once.” Luigi said with a small smile. 

Mario couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face as he patted his back. “Welcome to boyhood, Luigi.” He declared proudly. 

Luigi laughed a bit and hugged his brother tightly. “Thank you, Mario.” Luigi told him. 

“Why are you thanking me? Didn’t you save me a few minutes ago?” Mario asked. 

“Well yeah…” Luigi replied. 

Mario poked and prodded at Luigi’s sides. “Super Lee-uigi.” he teased. 

Luigi squeaked and giggled, hiding his face in his brother’s shoulder as he tapped his feet in place. “HEhehehehe! Ihihi’m nohot ahaha heheheheroho!” Luigi told him. 

“You’re not…” Mario stopped poking and cupped his head. “But you’re MY hero.” Mario replied. 

Luigi blushed a little bit and giggled. “Mahario, what time is it?” Luigi asked. 

“Time for you to get a watch, fratellino.” Mario teased. 

“Shut up.” Luigi reacted with a giggle. “I’m serious. We have to be at the Harris’s at 11:30.” Luigi told him. 

Mario pulled out his phone and checked it. 

[10:52am] 

Mario smiled. “We still have time.” He told him. “Should we get a headstart?” he asked. 

Luigi shrugged his shoulders. “Sure.” He replied. 

Mario hopped into the pipe with the toolkit on his shoulder and flew through the pathway to Brooklyn. They hopped out of the pipe one at a time. Mario landed on his feet once again. And when Luigi came out of the pipe after him, Mario caught his brother bridal style and placed his feet on the ground. “I don’t want you to further injure yourself.” Mario told him, patting his back. 

Luigi smiled and walked to the van. “Does my sleeve look a little tattered?” He asked him, looking at his sleeve. “Not really, no.” Mario dusted off his sleeve slightly. “It just looks like you brushed up against some dirt while working.” Mario told him. 

Luigi winced slightly at the touch before opening the door and hopping into the van. When he closed the door, Luigi heard a familiar jingle in his pocket. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened it. 

M: [Good morning, Lu! I went…] 

Luigi chuckled. “I got your text.” Luigi told him. 

Mario looked at Luigi. “Seriously?! Now!?” He reacted. Then, Mario felt a vibration in his own pocket. He pulled out his phone and read the notification: 

[1 Missed Call] 

Mario showed Luigi, bringing his red phone closer to Luigi’s phone. 

They looked at their phones…looked at each other…and bursted out laughing. They now knew why nothing was going through! “Turns out Bowser’s kingdom doesn’t have cell service.” Luigi mentioned with a laugh. 

“We should probably tell Bowser about that.” Mario joked. “Hey King of the Koopa’s! I think more people would like you more if you had a little thing called Wi-Fi!” Mario told him. 

 Luigi cackled. “And have you ever heard of a television set?!” Luigi asked. “Every home has one.” 

“Or a VCR? Come on, he’s gotta have VHS tapes or something.” Mario said. “How else would the king keep himself busy?!” Mario asked. 

Luigi widened his eyes. “W-Wait…” Luigi looked at Mario with shock. “Does Bowser even know what a radio is?!” Luigi asked. 

Mario smirked slightly before partly covering his mouth and putting on an announcer voice. “And for some breaking news, the world-renowned ruler of the Darklands, King Bowser, doesn’t know what a radio is. Toad Security say that the dry bones were the first to crumble under such a cruel existence.” Mario declared. 

Luigi doubled over with laughter and slapped his knee. 

“For more information, call 929-55-MARIO, or go to mariobrosnewwebsite.com for more details.” Mario kept joking.