Chapter Text

Main Characters

Mario
The most popular hero of the Mushroom Kingdom! Mario is very talented, and while he can be pretty happy-go-lucky, when someone messes with his beloved friends, he knows he's gotta power up and save the day!

Cappy
Mario's hat and best best friend. Although a bit timid and introverted, he's determined at best and has a magical ability that allows Mario to "capture" anything that can help him out in any situation. Just... don't tell anyone he's his hat in disguise..!

Luigi
The younger twin brother of Mario who's always riding his coattails. Since his many adventures with his brother, Luigi's become less scared of what he faces. He even got a mansion out of it! Sorta...

Tiara
Cappy's younger sister whom he's very protective of. In spite of this, Tiara wishes she could be more like her big brother and Mario and take on dangers by herself. She... still needs to learn how to do exactly what Cappy does, though...

Princess Peach Toadstool
This princess has gotten used to getting kidnapped over and over again, and it's about time she fights off her adversaries for the sake of herself and everyone and everything she's ever cared about. Joining the Mario Brothers, she unleashes powers she was once stripped out of but since gotten back thanks to a little friend (and secret weapon) of hers.

Perry
Princess Peach's peppy parasol with a personal past. For years, he's been searching for his grandfather in the Vibe Island, but alas, to no avail. Saddened that he only has his princess as his closest companion, Perry once again joins forces with her and acts as her weapon... and even sometimes, her emotional comfort.

Princess Daisy
The princess of Sarassaland and Princess Peach's relative and rival. Daisy's been working out all her life (or so she claims) just to make sure that she never loses to someone else again, and she'll do something, anything, to get things her way. Thankfully, there is one person who calms her storm before it can even start: her love interest, Luigi.

F.L.U.D.D. 2030
Originally, this was an old tool Mario used to help him clear his name and save Delfino Island. Now, it's being reworked into a more modern model by a certain professor, though in order to give it its best enhancements, its original memories, most of which involved the red plumber, were unfortunately wiped. Not to worry, though, for the professor knows that it'll soon be served to the right hands... sometime soon...

Side-Characters

King Bowser Koopa
The ferocious king of his own kingdoms... the most tyrannical amongst rulers... the most powerful Koopa you can ever think of... except... no. Bowser has since given up trying to antagonize Mario and the others just to terrify them and only does it either for the fun of it or for the sake of bonding with the Koopalings and, the heir to his throne, Bowser Jr. When he's not doing a life of taking over kingdoms or kidnapping whoever, he's one of Mario's friendliest rivals and the two have fun going on events to see who can beat who at what.

Professor Elvis Gadd
Luigi's supposed boss and the professor of his own ghost research lab, located elsewhere in Boo's Woods. Gadd is a kooky yet strict man, having had this ghost-busting business since he was around twenty years old and going on for probably over sixty or seventy more! Now he relies on Luigi as his apprentice (or likely scapegoat? Hard to say...) to not only catch some evil ghosts, but to also take care of the rehabilitated ones as well!

The Ghostly Gang
Five rehabilitated ghosts that help Luigi and E. Gadd with their work. The group consists of Greenie, the leader and handyman who's great with important items and especially tools, Goob, the second-in-command who is scared of King Boo and his cronies, Slammer, the big guy who likes to prove how strong he is both in strength and in heart, Creeper, a fun-loving yet somewhat misunderstood ghost who likes hugs (and trying to eat new things), and Polterpup, a doglike ghost who is kept as a pet. They reside in Luigi's "mansion" so as to keep him some company when he needs it and almost act like a second family to him.

Toadsworth
An old Toad who was Princess Peach's former advisor. Though he had retired a long while ago, he had left for the princess Perry, the same parasol who accompanied her when she saved Mario. Even though Peach didn't completely remember him before, she always thought of him like he truly was her father.

Chapter Text

1. Runaway Hat

It was just a normal day at the Mushroom Kingdom. Toads and other residents were taking their time in the village, in the gardens, and in the castle... Princess Peach herself was taking her time getting ready for her royal deeds... and Mario was taking a nice walk from his home to meet up with her. Mario was especially excited to see her that he started going down the path he was taking with a hop, skip, and a jump.

"Oh boy!" he exclaimed to himself, "nothing like going to see Peach while doing what I do and what I was born to do. I hope she's okay. I don't want this to be another one of those days where Bowser- ooh, blocks!"

Mario got distracted by the many rows of blocks spread out around the area and then decided that instead of just jumping on a simple and boring trail, he could hop onto them for a quicker route and a greater challenge. And so he did. Boy, were there blocks everywhere! Mario managed to grab some power-ups - a Propeller Mushroom, a Penguin Suit, a Cape Feather, and a Fire Flower - as well as a lot of coins along the way, but just as he could jump down to the entrance of the Mushroom Kingdom's village...

"OOF!!!"

Suddenly, the plumber jumped right smack into something round, then fell back-first onto something hard and... somewhat bumpy ('That wasn't a giant flagpole, was it..?' he thought to himself). Mario sat up and recognized so many things at once. For one, when he tried to feel his forehead then tried to take off his hat to feel the rest of his head for any bumps, he discovered that he lost his powers and that HIS HAT IS GONE! Secondly, as he looked up, he noticed a glass orb filled with liquid... then a giant, golden balloon... and then he looked down and saw that what he landed on was red, but wasn't the material you'd normally see on rooftops, rather it was more metallic and shinier... and then he realized he was on Cappy's Odyssey!!!

Oh and thirdly he quickly remembered that HIS HAT IS GONE!!!!!!!!!!

Mario panicked. That hat was very special to him; it was hand-made by Peach to congratulate him on his journey, and it had since been his most prized possession! He had to get Cappy's attention and tell him that it had flown away and that they need to find it before it gets damaged. So, treading carefully, Mario reached to grab onto a rope attached to the Odyssey's balloon and navigate the hidden entrance. Once he found it, he stomped it as hard as he could before letting go of the rope and falling into the hole.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Inside were two ghostly hat-like creatures called Bonneters. The top-hat, Cappy, was just relaxing, sipping his tea and sinking into his velvet chair. Meanwhile, his little sister, a Bonneter named Tiara who looked like... well, a tiara, was excitedly looking out the windows and enjoying the sights of the Mushroom Kingdom. They had come to visit Mario and his other friends after so long; it had already been over 2 years since the events of Super Mario Odyssey unfolded. All of a sudden, both Bonneters were startled when the man himself fell from the ceiling of the ship and landed on the floor!

"OH GOSH!" Cappy cried, "a-are you alright, ma... ri... o..?"
As Mario stood up, Cappy almost immediately recognized him as his friend who had helped crashed Bowser's wedding between him and Peach and saved his sister. Mario hurriedly dusted his overalls before leaning towards him and fast-talking, "Cappy, my hat's gone missing! We have to find it!! I NEED your help!!!"

"W-wah?" Cappy asked, "o-okay, I guess, but... I have to land the Odyssey first so we can get off and see Peach to notify her that you won't be seeing her much today. You don't mind, right?"
Mario hesitated since they might need it to chase down the hat, but he eventually agreed, deciding that it's better than to argue with him for too long on the subject matter. Besides, they were about to hit the ground, so there's really no point on getting it to take off seconds later.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

The Odyssey landed on a barren area of grass and Mario, Cappy, and Tiara get out of the ship. Before going any further, however, Cappy transformed into Mario's red hat, comforting his friend, albeit not completely; he knew what their goal was after all. Then they all rushed to the castle.

"So tell me," Cappy spoke up, "is there any other reason why we're tracking down your hat? Y'know... aside from it being an important part of your outfit?"

"Well..." Mario replied briefly, "... let's just say that Peach made it for me... so..."

Before Cappy could contradict the last part his plumber buddy said, he realized that they were approaching onlookers and quickly shut his eyes so as to look more like the iconic red hat. As the trio ran past the village and the gardens, many of the residents they passed by saw a regularly hurrying Mario and Tiara, but not Cappy, and though they recognized the very latter as a hero, they never expected him to ever leave Tiara to be with only Mario. However, because they all knew that Mario got a new hat from Peach, no one suspected that Cappy was being his hat again and instead assumed Tiara just so happened to be found alone and that they were looking for him.

At last, they found themselves inside of Peach's castle. The princess herself opened the big doors and stepped down the staircase.

"Hi Mario!" She greeted, "are you ready for-"
Peach then stopped herself as soon as she immediately noticed Tiara floating beside him.

"Tiara..?" Peach questioned, "what are you doing here? And where's your brother?"

"Oh! Um..." Tiara fidgeted with her stubby "hands". Having heard about Mario's incentives, she didn't know what to say without revealing anything that would break his soulmate's heart. But then she got an idea...

"... w-we're looking for Cappy!" She lied, "yup! Heeeee's gone missing moments after we landed and now I'm with Mr Mario to find him!"

"Oh!" Peach bought the lie, "I see... I hope you don't get into trouble..!"

"Actually," Mario interjected, "hold that thought, I need to talk to Tiara in another room first..."
Then he tugged Tiara by her arm and led her to and opened a room by the side, closing it as soon as they entered it.

"Mario!" Tiara whisper-shouted, "what are you doing?!"

"Listen," the plumber explained, "I don't trust you coming with us. I know it's just a hat, but you know how these kinds of scenarios go, we can't lose you!"

"I agree... actually," Cappy seconded, his eyes opening as soon as he spoke, "you're always the one wandering off the moment I take my eyes off of you. Stay with Peach and everyone else in the castle, and don't... leave... on your own."
Tiara, almost sure that she's unable to convince the other two otherwise, finally responded with a begrudging, "... okay..." and sulked out of the room to find Peach. Cappy's eyes once again retreated to being shut and Mario exited out the room to run past Peach and tell her their talk.

"Bye Peach!" He yelled, "I'm off to find my h- Cappy, you take care of Tiara and call for any help!"
Then he ran out of the castle and off to search for his hat. Meanwhile, Peach, being understanding towards Mario, commanded to her servant Toads, "Fetch me a phone so I can call Luigi, please. And find Tiara and bring her to me... uhh... please. Thank you..!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

As Mario ran back outside with Cappy on top, they spotted something red flying through the air. It was the red plumber's red hat!

"There!" Mario cried, and he threw Cappy towards it as hard as he could. Cappy transformed back into his original self to attempt to grab it, but the cap was too slippery for him and in fact whacked him half out of commission.

"Cappy!" Mario ran to catch his friend, but he ended up on his noggin again to turn back into his hat's duplicate.

"Phew..." Cappy huffed, "got a little dizzy trying to catch it myself. I think it's going that way though..!"

Mario looked at the direction Cappy was gesturing himself to. It was heading towards World 1-1! Mario nodded, pinched Cappy's brim to twist him a little, then rushed to get to the level.

In World 1-1, he dashed past the Goombas, Koopas, and Piranha Plants waiting to defeat him. With the help of Cappy, he was able to dive to and jump on him to clear the level while leaving his enemies in awe and confusion. They zoomed through many other levels trying to look for the red hat, but eventually, Mario got exhausted from all the chasing.

"We... should've... taken... the Odyssey..." Mario said between his panting, "... this... was a... bad... idea..."

"Mario, I'd have to be a psychic steering the Odyssey to locate where the cap's gonna land," said Cappy, who had been riding on top of Mario's head for most of the entire time, "hmm... maybe you can use me to capture something so we could go faster?"
Mario looked up at his friend, then noticed a Bullet Bill above them.

'... Ah-ha,' Mario thought to himself, 'just what I needed!'
Mario threw Cappy at the Bill, captured it for a moment, then jumped out of its body right after and landed on top of it, his hat poser landing back on his head. The Bullet Bill, angered by this, sped up in its direction, which was passing by world after world. Mario and Cappy held on, thinking that they could catch the former's real hat... until, at World 8, they saw something red and fluent dancing wildly around them like a butterfly.

"My hat!" Mario exclaimed, but he couldn't grab it because he had to hold on to the Bullet Bill; its speed went so off-the-charts, it could break through many brick walls...

...and that it did.

As soon as it reached Bowser's castle, the Bullet Bill crashed through several of its walls before exploding at the second-to-last one that led to the Koopa King's room, sending the duo screaming and flying to the last. They groaned at the impact it left, but slowly but surely stood up just fine and together pushed the grand doors... only to see the hat flying through them just as they made a little crack between them.

"... oh," the two realized.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Back at another castle, Peach had already informed Luigi - as well as a few others - about Cappy's disappearance and was trying to call a certain distant relative of hers to help as well.

"She may still be in Sarassaland," she muttered to herself, "but... maybe Cappy was somehow thrown so far away he ended up there? I mean, I've once saw Mario throw him across the world and back..."

Meanwhile, Tiara was looking out at a window, sighing. She was stuck in the room with the princess for what felt like an hour and she was already getting bored. If only she could bust out and try to find something to do...

... then she noticed that the front door was still open since Mario and Cappy rushed out.

And then she had an idea.

But... she also remembered what Cappy had said to her before leaving: "Don't... leave... on your own."

Although... she can sneak out and be perfectly fine...

... or be met with an angry Cappy who'll never take her to the Mushroom Kingdom again...

... or maybe an impressed Cappy because she proved to him that she can find him on her own with no trouble? Even after he saved her, she's been trying to tell him that she can do things on her own and that she's not a baby anymore, and...

... wait, after he saved her? That means that she can't prove to him that she can be independent or-

"... AAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!" Tiara groaned. The princess and her servants heard the Bonneter's cry just as the former was about to finish dialing the number.

"Tiara?" She asked, "what's wrong?"

Tiara froze upon hearing her friend's voice. Or... wait... maybe this could be a better opportunity to go out and find Cappy..? She was told not to go out on her own, but if she has the princess by her side, then... wouldn't that... not... count as going out on her own..?

"... yeah, I'm bored," little Tiara said sheepishly, "can we go outside?"

Princess Peach paused for a moment, then looked at her phone. Then she shrugged it off and laughed, "alright, we can go to the gardens. I'm sure that the trees are in bloom today."

"Yaaaaaay!" Tiara cheered, then she dashed out the door and immediately sped... to... the... exact opposite direction Mario and Cappy went (gosh darn it, Tiara...). Soon, everything around her started to dim.

"Hmm," she wondered, "where did those two go..? Mario? Cappy? Pea..."

But when she turned around, she found that the princess wasn't behind her. Looking around, she also discovered that the trees were mangled, barren of leaves, dormant... dead. She realized that she must've stumbled into a haunted forest.

"No..." she whimpered.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

With Mario and Cappy, after successfully dodging all the fireballs that came their way (and seeing the hat fly around them as well surprisingly), they encounter Bowser who's sleeping on his throne, snoring. Before anyone made a move, Mario's eyes moved to face the cap floating through the smoke-filled air and fall on top of the king's head.

The red plumber didn't know how he could sleep so soundly when he would've heard the Bullet Bill's explosion from yards away or even the creaking of his doors from an even closer distance, but he dared not to inch any closer to him, so he silently gestured to Cappy to have him retrieve the hat for him, to which the Bonneter nodded his head and transformed into his original form to float up to the giant turtle slowly while his friend held his breath. He reached forwards, stretching his stubby arms to even grasp the redness that was the hat. Once he did, though, Cappy very gingerly lifted the cap off of Bowser's head, then floated backwards to Mario.

As soon as Cappy slowed to be in line with the plumber's head, they stared at Bowser for a moment, then at the hat, then back at Bowser, then at each other. The two then made big and cheerful expressions.

"YES!" They cried loudly as they raised their arms in victory. All of a sudden, they heard a bit of a snort. They quickly looked back at Bowser, whose eyes were slit open before slowly cracking open. He stretched his own arms as he straightened up and smacked his lips.

"... what are you doing here Mario," he growled groggily.

"... hoo boy..." Mario realized; he really felt like he was done for waking him up. Not wanting his hat to be burnt to a crisp, he grabbed Cappy by one of his arms, then made a run for it, the top-hat still holding onto the red cap as tight as he could. They then shut Bowser's doors as soon as they passed them, leaving a confused King Koopa behind.

"Guys, come back!" He exclaimed, "I thought you were waking me up because we were going golfing!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Meanwhile, Tiara was zooming left and right past the tree branches and ghosts that came her way. She never knew she would run into this part of the Mushroom Kingdom, let alone if it was even meant to be a part of the kingdom at all! As the frightened Bonneter kept passing by the spooky woods, she saw a silhouette running towards her. She tried to turn around, but it was too late; she crashed into it. Right into its face.

When they both came to and saw each other, Tiara screamed at the figure, and the figure screamed back at her as it fell back.

"AAH!"

"WAH!!"

"AAAH!!!"

"WAAH!!!!"

"AAAAH!!!!!"

"WAA-ah..?"

"... wait."

Tiara squinted at the figure before her, and saw it as... familiar. Overalls, pair of boots, all topped with a hat... but green, taller, and with a different mustache.

"Wait a minute..." she realized, "are you..."
She stared at the green man's face for a moment.

"Um... I-I-I'm sorry, I-I gotta go," he stammered, "Princess Peach told me-"

"Princess Peach?  Wait, I know her! She sent you to find uhh... my brother, right?"

"... hah?"

"M-my brother, Cappy!"

"... ohhhh, oh yeah, but I've been searching for him everywhere here in Boo's Woods, and nothing! Nothing but ghosts and trees and the cold, cold air... I really thought he'd be here considering... y'know... you two are little ghosties and all that..."

"We're not ghosts, actually; we're Bonneters. We're very much more alive than you think!"

"Ah..."

"... so can you help me find my way out?"

"Y-yeah, sure, sure... it's giving me the chills staying outside here for too long... literally, it's really cold here."

They walk out, the green man picking up a part of his backpack gadget thingy while standing back up.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Mario and Cappy rushed out the castle, the former once again panting from exhaustion. They managed to escape the claws of the notorious King Bowser Koopa.

"We did it..!" Cappy exclaimed, "we managed to outrun that monster... and hey, you've even got your hat back! Safe and souuuuundaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

As soon as the little Bonneter pulled out Mario's hat, he saw that it was burning in flames and started fanning it like crazy. Mario grabbed the hat from him and stomped on it repeatedly to put it out, but it was too late. Most of the hat was already burnt off, leaving only a small fragment of it with the "M" symbol on it. Mario picked up that remnant of his hat with his eyes widened in shock and upsettedness.

Cappy floated over to the plumber, feeling extremely guilty. He knew that he was the one holding the hat; it was sure to be his fault not knowing it'd be on fire.

"I..." he started, "... I'm sorry, Mario. I should've taken better care of it for you, I..."

His friend said nothing. All that came out of him was sounds of sobbing and tears of sadness. Cappy knew how important that hat was to him... but now there seemed to be nothing they can do.

"... let's... just go home..." Mario finally softly spoke as he walked to the path leading out the fiery lava pits, Cappy upsettingly following behind.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

It took them hours to get to World 4-2, but as Mario and Cappy went through it and crawled out of its pipes, they heard a faint jet-like sound getting closer and louder by the second. They looked up and saw the Odyssey floating above them. Coming out of it was Tiara, Luigi, and Princess Peach. As soon as they looked back at them, they started waving at the duo from above. Then they landed it right in front of the two.

"Mario!" Cried Peach as she stepped out first, "you found Cappy! But... oh no, what... what happened to your hat?"

"It uh..." Mario replied, "... it got burnt... a... little..."
Cappy looked at him from behind with a worried stare before looking down to hide his shame.

"... it was my fault it happened, Peach," the plumber continued, "I should've been more careful, but... I wasn't looking where I was going... and I had to chase it down and... and I had to lie to you all about it because I didn't know how you'd respond over me losing a... a-a gift you made for me out of love... and now it... I've ruined it... I've ruined your love..."

Cappy looked back up at him and his friends. Mario's taking the blame for this..? Mario looked back at him with tears about to roll off his eyes and smiled somberly as they did.

"It's not your fault, Cappy..." he reminisced.

"But..." Cappy protested, "... I-I bumped into you with my Odyssey! I was the one who held onto the hat when it burned! I-"

But he was interrupted with a tight hug from Mario. Cappy's eyes widened before slowly moving his arms up to hug him back.

"Thank you... for helping me find it," said Mario, "I couldn't have done it without you..."

Soon, someone else hugged them both. It was Peach.

"You don't need to wear your hat to prove our love for each other, Mario," she told him, "I love you with or without it all the same."

It wasn't long before Luigi and Tiara joined in the pile. Though they had little reason to, they still did it anyways because they too loved them as well. Everyone kept hugging each other, crying together, until they all collectively decided to let go of each other soon after.

"So..." Cappy spoke up, "... you guys wanna go back home?"

The rest of the gang agreed, so they all went inside the Odyssey. Cappy placed himself on the globe and inputted the location to the Mushroom Kingdom. The ship took flight, sailing off in the distance just as the sun was about to set, giving off a gradient orange-indigo hue and shining down on the giant flying hat.

Chapter Text

2. In Need of Company

The Odyssey flew above the Mushroom Kingdom's castle just as the stars started to appear. Mario and Cappy were on their chairs taking a nap from their latest adventure, Peach and Tiara were looking out the window with them talking about the kingdom's traditions and events, and Luigi was investigating the souvenirs his brother collected on his first odyssey with his hat friend ("Looks nice, bro," he said as he picked up the frog plushie and smiled at it). Soon after, they were back on the empty patch of grass that the Odyssey lands on when visiting the area. Princess Peach stepped out and waved good-bye to her companions.

"I believe that you and your sister will be going by tomorrow, Cappy?" she asked.

Cappy woke up from his slumber upon hearing this.

"H-huh..?" he snorted as he rubbed his eyes. "Oh... yeah, we are. We're just visiting, so..."
Cappy yawned; he didn't know why he's so exhausted when Mario did all the running... maybe it's because they've been flying in the Odyssey for a while...

"You seem tired though," the princess went back to her friends. "As much as I'd like to stay, however, it's getting late for me, and I think you'd be more interested in seeing Mario and Luigi's houses."

"Wait," Cappy stopped her, "Mario... Luigi... you guys don't live with the princess, let alone with each other..?"

Mario was... still sleeping, but Luigi still had enough energy to respond.

"It's... a little long of a story..." was all he could say, however.

"So where's your houses?" Tiara asked, putting everyone back on track.

Peach walked over to the globe - with the Bonneters floating out the ship to follow suit - and looked at the green, mushroom-like continent representing the Mushroom Kingdom. Then she pointed at a specific location in it.

"That's Mario's house..." she explained before moving her finger upwards to another point.

"And that's Luigi's," she added.

The Bonneters looked at her with curiosity. Cappy looked at the Mushroom Kingdom and studied the locations for a while before nodding. Peach smiled before turning away from her friends again and walking away. As soon as he couldn't see her anymore, the top-hat put himself on the globe as his sister went back inside, starting up the Odyssey and letting it take off.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

The Odyssey stopped right in front of Mario's house first, right on its pathway to the castle. Tiara and Luigi moved out, the latter stretching his entire body, but Cappy floated near his former partner with a worried face looking at him. Luigi turned to notice this.

"Don't worry Cappy," he assured him. "I'll carry Mario inside and cook him something. We get pretty hungry from so much activity... especially from today, Mamma Mia, things have happened..."

The green Mario lifted his older twin and put him on his back. Cappy then held onto Mario's, thankfully not adding any weight to the already struggling plumber. They and Tiara went up to the door and Luigi bent down to lift up the rug in front of them to reveal a key. He used the key to unlock the door, then the group came inside the house with Luigi locking the door behind them.

While inside, Luigi went upstairs to their bedroom, pulled off the sheets on Mario's bed, and set him on it just after Cappy got off. Mario, seemingly waking up from his long sleep upon this, pulled back the sheets to cover himself, then closed his eyes again. Luigi smirked out a slight laugh.

"Oh Mario," he said as he rolled his eyes. "I'mma go make spaghetti and meatballs. You can come down when it's finished."

He went downstairs with Cappy following him from behind and started working on making the spaghetti. Of course, as he did, he taught the siblings some tips on how to make it such as, "don't try to snap the spaghetti in half, but leave the noodles intact" and, "don't actually throw the spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks" as well as, "make sure the tomatoes aren't too ripe; their redness makes for a beautiful color, but they can hold too much water in them and can wear the sauce out thin". Once everything was done, Luigi put the noodles, the sauce, and the meatballs together, and...

"... there we go!" he exclaimed, revealing 4 prepared plates of deliciousness, as well as the rest still being in the pot. The aroma of the food wafted up the stairs and into Mario's nose, finally waking him up for real. He walked down to see Luigi and the Bonneter siblings eagerly waiting for him to eat spaghetti and meatballs with them and grinned.

"Oh yeah!" he cried. "Let's eat!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

At the table, the two pairs of siblings ate everything off of their plates. Cappy and Tiara couldn't believe it... Luigi's cooking tasted so good! Everything was rich in flavor, noodles, meatballs, and all.

As they ate, the brothers talked about what happened today alongside their guests:

"So Luigi, how was today?"

"Oh Mario, you wouldn't believe it, Princess Peach called me to find Cappy, and I had to look everywhere in Boo's Woods just to find him... instead, I found his sister..."

Cappy turned to Tiara in what seemed like anger and/or concern.

"Tiara," said he.

"I'm sorry..." Tiara quickly replied.

"Oh don't be like that, Paisano," Luigi assured the top-hat. "Your sister was actually pretty brave and clever on our way out. She even knew how to steer that ship you've got there. And besides, she was still in good hands; it's not like I was gonna hurt her..."

Tiara's worried expression changed to a more smug look as she turned to look back at her big brother. Cappy shook his head and sighed a bit (whether those were more-so out of annoyance or relief was unknown) before everyone went back to just eating their spaghetti.

Within a few minutes, they managed to finish their plates clean, and, while cleaning themselves up, Luigi chuckled upon seeing the two hats' expressions after eating what seemed to be their first ever spaghetti and meatball dishes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Mario and Luigi had gone to the bathroom to shower themselves and brush their teeth. Before doing the latter, however, Luigi noticed a used green toothbrush still waiting to be used once more in a cup.

"Mario," he asked, "is that..?"

"Oh," Mario responded. "I guess I forgot to throw this away; this must've been here for a long while. I thought you took it with you when you first got your own mansion."

Luigi shrugged as he squirted a bit of toothpaste onto his current toothbrush.
"I'm a pretty forgetful guy," he chuckled. "I thought I had it with me too."

The two brothers laughed a little more before the older one sighed.

"Y'know..." he started, "I still miss you a whole lot, Luigi... it's been... I think 7 years since you got that job full-time, but... since then, you never seemed to even make plans to meet me again."
Luigi glanced at his twin, his smile shrinking into a small frown.

"I've been seeing you less and less," Mario continued, "and... I-I know! I know... I'm a target... to the ghosts and... King Boo, and dealing with them would be too much to handle... but... but still... I missed when we were like this more often... just... living under the same roof... going on adventures together... hanging out with the princess... but now I... I feel alone... living in this house..."

Mario squirted out his own dot of toothpaste on his brush and used it on his teeth. While he did, Luigi opened his mouth to retaliate, wanting to say something along the lines of "you have Peach and the Toads with you," but then held back, feeling that saying it out loud would've hurt them both more than it would help. Mario seemed to be genuine in what he said; his voice cracked when he said that he was feeling alone and his eyes had some sort of sadness in them that grew bleak the more Luigi glanced at them. It made him feel really guilty that he chose his work over him. After all, they're the Mario Brothers; they've been together through thick and thin all their life in the past.

But it was too late to go back to those days now. He got his own "mansion" to take care of, and the residents there need him. The Professor needs him. Rather than checking up on Mario more, he's been caring for the very thing he fears the most plus an old madman whom he questions whose side he's on sometimes. Luigi just shook his head, feeling too dumb to give out anything good to say, and went to brush his own teeth. However, as he did, he noticed two floating hats with eyes staring back at him through the open bathroom door. He stared back at them, curious about how much of the conversation they just heard.

"Luigi..?" Mario snapped him out of it; he was already done with getting ready for bed. Luigi turned his head to the mirror and brushed his teeth faster, trying to hide his somberness from him. The older brother still looked at him worried, but then sighed and walked out the room, passing the peeking Bonneters as he did.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

As soon as Luigi was done, he stepped out of the house with his toiletries and vacuum backpack and walked down the path. A couple steps in, though, he was stopped by a ghostly nub tapping his shoulder. He turned around and saw Cappy right in front of him with Tiara beside her brother. They looked at the green man with equally sad eyes.

"Guys..." Luigi started, a little annoyed by their presence... but he was interrupted by the Bonneter closer to him.

"Do you want a ride home..?" he asked, "I know where it is."

Luigi hesitated for a moment because he knew this would lead to a long talk about what they possibly could've heard in the bathroom. But... it is a little better than just walking alone...

"... okay," he sighed, and went back to the ship with the two siblings. Cappy started it up with the globe and off they went.

As Luigi looked out the window when the Odyssey was halfway to his house, he decided he felt confident enough to vent out his troubles to Mario's friends.

"So..." he said, "... how much did you two hear..?"

Cappy turned to Luigi in slight surprise.

"... sometime when Mario said... I think it was, 'years when you took that job full-time'..." the top-hat responded, "... why? What did he mean by that? And why were you two so sad?"

Luigi looked at the Bonneter before sighing and walking down to Mario's chair.

"Well," he explained, "ever since I saved Mario from this ghost named King Boo, I was asked by Professor E. Gadd if I could keep working for him. I accepted it and had since been interacting with ghosts, testing out new inventions, keeping that old man healthy... it was a bit scary at first, but I got used to it, and a lot of the ghosts actually seem nice when they're not under King Boo's evil influence."
He then sat on Mario's chair before speaking again.

"... that's not the only reason why I live apart from Mario, however," he continued. "Not only is work far away from home and the 'mansion' was much closer to it, I also wanted to put myself to good use... I didn't want anyone - not even myself - to see me as useless... I made a stupid promise to the Professor that I would take care of him and those ghosts, that I'd use my job as an advantage to not be afraid anymore..! And... well, back then, I thought Mario was gonna be fine without me... that he cared more about everyone else than me... but after that conversation we had in the bathroom, when he said that, I... I was even more unsure if I made the right decision to leave him... but there was no going back regardless..."

Cappy and Tiara looked at their friend, concerned with his situation. Luigi sighed, not knowing what else to add except,
"... I didn't think that he'd actually be that worried about me."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

As the Odyssey landed near the entrance to Boo's Woods, Luigi and the Bonneters walked outside. They went through the creepy forest with the man shining his flashlight in front of them shivering.

"M-M-Mamma Mia," he stuttered, "it's p-p-p-pretty c-c-cold in here..."

The siblings shivered as well, hugging Luigi from behind for more warmth. Surprisingly, it was working significantly and the three were shivering less as the hats moved to the front of the green plumber's torso.

Soon, they arrived at a house, one that seemed even bigger than Mario's. Light came from the inside, showing that the outside walls were colored a peachish-cream and everything else was a deep emerald green. Luigi once again lifted up the rug in front of the door to get a key, then unlocked it before placing the key back where it was.

Going inside, the Bonneters looked around the interior as Luigi shut the door behind them. Everything seemed similar to the outside, with the main exception being that the floor was made of a dark-colored wood. The hallway they entered in stretched out wide, leading to a couple of rooms here and there. The room closest to their right was what looked to be the living room, with a green rug in its center, a lamp in a corner, and a single recliner beside it, as well as a couch against a wall, a window on another, and a TV facing the rest of the furniture. Luigi led them to that room and told them to stay in there while he goes to find the other residents.

As Cappy and Tiara waited, the green-clad man walked out and called out weird words or names that they haven't heard of: "GOOB! GREENIE! SLAMMER! CREEPER! POLTERPUP!!"

As he spoke, 5 ghosts came into the living room, each surprising the guests more than the last. First, a slim, blue ghost floated through the entrance nervously. Then, a green ghost attacked it out of nowhere and brought them to the floor, pinning it down and causing it to scream nonstop. Thirdly, a bulky red ghost busted into the room with a shoulder bash, but since it was a ghost, it didn't really destroy the wall it came from. Then, an indigo-colored ghost puddle seeped from the floorboards before manifesting into a more anthropomorphic form and tackled the first two ghosts before giving them a tight hug. Finally, a silver-colored ghost that looked and behaved like a puppy jumped towards the red ghost and licked its cheek as soon as it was caught.

The two Bonneters, who had already been spooked half to death, stared at the ghosts with shock, while they looked back at them with confusion as soon as they noticed them.

"AH!" the blue ghost shrieked as it freed itself from its attackers' grasps. "GUESTS WHOM WE HAVE NO PRIOR INFORMATION ON!! G-GET AWAY FROM US!!!"

"Oh, calm down, Goob," the green ghost scoffed as it got up from the floor, "they could be fellow ghosts who're just possessing expensive-looking hats. No need to worry..."

"B-b-b-b-but..." Goob stammered, "w-w-what if they're also possessed by k-k-k-KING BOO?!?!"

"Umm... we're not actually possessed... or dead..." Tiara contradicted, albeit with a hint of fear in her tone. "We're Bonneters."

"What's a Bon-neh-turrrrr?" the red ghost asked.

"A Bonneter," Cappy explained while shoving his sister behind him, "may seem to be a ghost, but they are actually a living species that just so happens to have similar skills to a ghost; we place ourselves on top of someone or something, capture them, and then allow someone else to control what we've captured."

The ghosts looked at Cappy with even more confusion.

"... what?" they all said unanimously.

Just then, Luigi came into the room. He looked around the room to see if everyone he called for - plus Cappy and Tiara - were here.

"Oh, thank Mamma Mia," he sighed, "everyone's here."

He then decided to introduce the ghosts and the guests to each other.

"Okay, so Cappy, Tiara," he started, "meet the Ghostly Gang; they help me and E. Gadd out sometimes. "
He then introduced the ghosts from his left to his right.

"The green ghost is Greenie," Luigi continued, "he's pretty much the leader of the gang and the smartest. That's Goob, they go by they/them pronouns and they're scared of anything King Boo-ish. The big guy's Slammer, he likes to solve things with brute force, but he's a nice guy, trust me! And then the one on the floor's Creeper. I don't think he can speak in words, but he likes warm hugs. And finally, that ghost doggie Slammer's holding's called... well, actually, we haven't thought of an official name for him, so we just call him Polterpup."

Polterpup barked at Luigi before jumping out of Slammer's arms and into Luigi's, licking him all over his face until he was laughing.

"Um, pardon me, Master Luigi," Goob interrupted, "but why have you summoned us tonight?"

Luigi's laughter quieted down as he looked at the blue ghost with a blank face and gently put down the pup, which allowed for it to hop to where the rest of the ghosts side.

"Erm... well..." said the green-clad man nervously, but he was too scared to spit it out, so he looked at his other friends for help.

"It's okay, Luigi," Cappy encouraged him. "We'll say it if you can't."

Luigi looked back at the Ghostly Gang before taking a deep breath and explaining his situation:

"So... Mario... I've been working on this job for a long time, and... earlier today, I left my job early because the Princess called me to find Cappy, though I couldn't leave Boo's Woods before telling E. Gadd about it... I don't know if he heard, though, he's kinda old and can't hear well... so anyways... I went to make spaghetti for Mario, I got ready for bed with Mario, and before I left, we had this conversation in the bathroom... and he said something I wasn't expecting for him to say... that he... he felt alone. I never thought that Mario, the bravest hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, would say that so... sincerely towards me, his younger twin brother, a coward who had wet his pants amongst first seeing he's in a mansion with hardly anyone else to help him... usually, he seemed fine without me, going on his own little adventures - I mean, occasionally, he'd bring along a Toad or two - but still, I... I feel conflicted by all this, guys... should I keep doing my job so I can protect Mario but not actually see him as much like before... or should I just quit and lose everything we have here, including your safety... just for him?"

Everyone looked at Luigi worriedly. The Bonneters already heard most of the story, but they never knew just how much he'd risk just to see his brother more often again. As for the ghosts, they knew how important Mario was to him... but they also saw that he's right; if he stops doing his job, if he stops helping E. Gadd with whatever he's got brewing for him, if he stops looking after the ghosts in Boo's Woods in general... who would take his place?

Obviously, Mario is Luigi's brother, so having him around would undo what was supposed to be done. Meanwhile, the Toads they keep seeing from time to time also have been proven to not be eligible for the job as they kept getting captured by King Boo and his cronies. That would leave Gooigi, a replica of Luigi that E. Gadd created to help him out, except that he's much weaker and is vulnerable to water, which is bound to appear from time to time. For a minute, nobody knew what to say.

Suddenly, Cappy decided to give a shot at slipping in advice for his green friend.

"I think..." he started, "you can tell this E. Gadd guy that... you miss seeing your brother... that you feel like you're a rock in a hard place between him and your work... and maybe he'll do something about it."

Luigi looked at Cappy for a while, then looked nervously at the ghosts. Then, Greenie, being the leader that he was claimed to be, stepped - er, floated - up to argue with the idea.

"Maybe," he said, "but Professor E. Gadd is a strict man. There is a chance persuading him about it may not work..."

"But didn't you hear what Luigi said?" Cappy countered. "He managed to get out of work for today when telling E. Gadd about it. He managed to reunite Tiara with me and we spent our time on dinner and getting ready for bed!"

"But that didn't mean that he'd know that Luigi would leave his job early!" exclaimed the ghostly leader.

Luigi then glanced at Greenie. Then he looked back at Cappy. Then he looked down and walked over to the window and looked outside. He sighed once more. Silence once again grew.

"I'll..." Luigi finally decided, "... I'll see if E. Gadd's awake and ask if he can give me a day off for tomorrow... you guys will back me up, right..?"
He turned to the ghosts, hoping they'd support his decision. The ghosts looked at each other, and, with the exception of Greenie, murmured, "Okay... yeah... we might... alright then, I suppose..."

The green plumber smiled softly. Cappy smiled as well, knowing that Luigi had taken his advice. He floated back to the Odyssey with Tiara following him, though not before she looked back at Luigi talking to his ghostly friends and giggled a bit.

As soon as they reached the Odyssey, Tiara went inside it while Cappy placed himself on top of the globe to navigate to their next location. However, instead of going back to the Cap Kingdom, he decided to go back to Mario's house to give him a bit of company...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Once again, the Odyssey was parked in front of the house. Cappy and Tiara opened the ship's door and floated over to the house's, knocking at it every couple of seconds.

"Uhh, Cappy?" His sister questioned. "I thought we were going home..."

"Trust me on this," the top-hat replied, knocking on the wood repeatedly until the red plumber answered, rubbing his eyes as he opened the door.

"Cappy..? Tiara..?" He groaned. "I thought you two were going back home..."

"Well... y'see," Cappy explained, "that was the initial plan... but after realizing about your... situation... we thought, 'why don't we try to comfort you by sleeping with you?'"

Mario's eyes widened at the suggestion. Did they really want to sleep with him for the night? All because Luigi nor anyone else would? It made him... happy... somehow. He was used to sleeping alone, but... to have someone else sleep with him - even if it's for the night - somehow made him realize that he missed sleeping with his brother. He nodded and let the Bonneters in, shutting and locking the door behind him as they came inside the house.

In the bedroom, Mario laid down on his bed while Tiara jumped onto the green bed beside it face-down. Cappy noticed that the green bed had an "L" on the frontmost side.

"L... as in 'Luigi'?" he asked Mario. "So you two did used to be together..."

Mario tucked himself in and said, "Yeah... but now we don't... I don't... I don't think he left because he wanted to abandon me, though... he loves me so much, he wouldn't do that... I believe it's because... he wanted to protect me... just like I've been protecting him so many times before... I mean, I still do, no offense to him, but... I'm proud of him, y'know..? He's become big and strong just like me..."

As he got sleepier, Mario turned to face his friends, the moonlight shining behind him. All of it gave him comfort as his eyelids became heavier. Before they could completely fall asleep, he heard Cappy mumble to him as he settled into Luigi's old bed with his sister, "... do you wanna see if... Luigi's off... so we can travel around with the Odyssey..?"

All Mario could do was smile and nod in affirmation before everyone drifted off to a deep sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter Text

The next day, Mario woke up, got out of bed, stretched himself, then went downstairs to toast toast. As he got the butter for the toast, Cappy and Tiara flew down and noticed him in the kitchen following his routine.

"Are you okay, Mario?" Cappy asked him. "Can I... can I make you some tea for the day?"

Mario set the butter on the counter and lazily placed his head and arms in front of the toaster while waiting for his toast to be done.

"Yeah..." he muttered, "... I have tea... tea would be nice..."

The siblings looked at the red-clad man with worried faces before the older brother went in the kitchen to find the materials to make tea, asking his human friend where they were occasionally.

"You seem tired, Mario," he stated as he managed to find tea bags and a mug. "Have you gotten enough sleep..?"

Mario tilted his head to face the top-hat as the latter went to find something to boil water. He laughed, "Oh shut up, now you're sounding like my brother... oh and... the-the pots are down there..."

He pointed his right finger over to the bottom right-most cabinets, to which Cappy obliged in opening. He pulled out the smallest pot in there and filled it with water using the sink. Then he put it on the stove, cranked up the heat, and looked back at the cabinets to see if there was a lid to cover the water with. As he looked, the toaster dinged and the toast popped out... completely charred. Tiara looked at it in disgust.

"Really?" She cringed. "Burnt-up toast?"

"Eh," Mario shrugged, "I'm used to it. Why, don't you two wanna eat something? I'll let you make your own toast, I'm not gonna stop you..."

He took the toast out the toaster and then grabbed the bag of bread to place it in front of the machine for the hats to use. Meanwhile, the water was about to boil, so Cappy turned down the heat so it can reach the required temperature more easily without going over. Then, once it was done, he took the mug, which had a teabag inside, and then scooped up a cup of water from the pot. He also made tea for Tiara and for himself, all while his sister put in two slices of bread into the toaster and waited for them to cook to (what she preferred to be) the correct result.

Once breakfast was fully made, everyone sat down at the table to eat. They chatted for a bit - mainly about where they want to go for the trip and whether or not Luigi was going to be with them - and it was an innocent enough talk.

Afterwards, they got ready for the day (Mario putting on his outfit, brushing his teeth, combing his hair and mustache... all while Cappy just turned into Mario's hat once more), and off they went, into the Odyssey and out to meet up with their friends.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

They landed the Odyssey on the usual patch of grass it always lands on, then got out. From there, they saw Princess Peach and two of her servants standing by the fountain.

"Princess!" Mario and the Bonneters cried.

"Hello everyone!" the pink princess replied with a giggle. "I'm coming with you all too. I heard that instead of going home, you're taking us to visit the other kingdoms around the world, are you not?"

"How did you know?" Mario asked her.

"Oh," she answered, "because Luigi called me this morning and told me that Cappy and Tiara were staying here to pick us up for the trip! I asked if I could come too, of course."

"Luigi!" Cappy exclaimed. "He is coming with us! Isn't that great, Mario?!"

"Yup," a familiar voice came from behind Peach before revealing it belonged to the green man himself. "You guys ready to go?"

"Are we!" Mario went up to his baby brother to hook an arm around his neck and teasingly noogie him when he was brought down to his level.

Once he was done, the older brother let the younger one go, causing him to speak up once more, "I called E. Gadd earlier this morning about taking a day off to spend time with you guys, and while it did go on for a long while, I finally managed to convince him into letting me do it for today! Well... under the condition that I find myself a substitute afterwards..."

"That's great!" Mario exclaimed. "Oh, maybe you can let that Princess Daisy of yours take your job for you when you can, heh?" He proceeded to tease Luigi further by nudging him by the side with his elbow and making him blush at the mention of his girlfriend. Luigi shoved him back, laughing awkwardly and telling him to cut it out.

 "Alright everyone!" Cappy called out, interrupting the brothers' banter. "Into the Odyssey we go!!"

The gang waved goodbye to Princess Peach's servants as they ran to the ship. From there, Cappy inputted their first location on the globe and soon, let them soar away.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

They first went to the Cap Kingdom since it was the nearest to the Mushroom Kingdom (and also because Cappy wanted to explain the situation to his other friends). As they got off, Bonneters were already waiting for them and started greeting the gang, saying, "Welcome! We're so glad you're here! Are you willing to buy something from Crazy Cap? We missed you all!!"

But they especially welcomed Cappy, Tiara, and Mario, shaking hands with them and complimenting them on their courage during their journey. They even showed that they made a pair of statues based on them and Peach: one was of Cappy and Mario and the other Tiara and the princess, both statues depicting them in their wedding outfits. They looked to be made of quartz and were decorated with vines and a diverse selection of flowers from various other places. They stood in the empty-most area near Bonneton, greeting travelers on either side by the entrancing path to the town itself.

Everyone had varying reactions to this: Mario, Cappy, and Tiara awed at the sight of the statues standing much higher than they were, Peach looked away from hers, not wanting to experience that memory again, but not wanting to demand the people to take it down because of how much hard work they put into making those to commemorate her being here, and Luigi jealously gawked at the statues, scoffing to himself that he never got his own, but quickly just shook it off as his brother and friends earning their well-deserved recognition.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Tiara beamed at the sights of Cascade Kingdom. This one, next to Cap Kingdom, was her most favorite place to be in because she used to play with Cappy here when they were kids, and now they get to relive the experience all over again, this time with more friends. They captured Chain Chomps with Mario (well, Cappy did most of the capturing; Tiara wasn't as skillful as her brother in that, so she just rode on whatever they captured), swam in the water with Peach, and even went investigating some of the symbols with Luigi.

Everyone then went inside the pixel pipe to get to the top, which was something Luigi and Peach found uncanny because of the 2D forms they've taken shape of, but they just went with it since there was no other way. Once they reverted back to their 3D selves, they watched the kingdom from above, imagining themselves as its rulers... although Luigi tried to walk on the dinosaur bones on the edge to wow at the water down below and would've fallen into the waterfall had it not been for Mario grabbing him by the arm. The group felt a little uneasy after that stunt.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

The Sand Kingdom was as hot as ever, leaving everyone to go for a snow cone at the entrance of Tostarena Town. Once each of them got one, they headed off to just wander around wherever they want since the desert was barren and they'd be able to find each other almost easily.

Peach and Tiara went to explore the ruins' entrance to go see the sights of the kingdom's history, when the latter spotted two towers of Goombas trying to woo over a single Goomba with makeup and a hat. This one goomba, apparently dubbed "Goombette", was holding a desert flower in her mouth and looking at the towers carefully to see which one was the tallest. Tiara gushed at this.

"Peach," she whispered to her princessy friend, "you ever think that someday I'll find love in some way like this?"

Peach just looked at her companion and laughed a little while rolling her eyes away from her Bonneter companion. Tiara, despite not actually being a kid anymore, still seems to have a childish naivety to her, thinking about some things she'll never get a proper answer on. Just then, Goombette, after some time, had thrown the flower onto the taller goomba tower, and the goomba on top caught it onto its own mouth. The winning tower carefully bent down for their leader to land on Goombette's platform and nuzzle its head against hers. The girls felt their hearts melt at the cuteness of the scene.

Meanwhile, the Mario Bros and Cappy went above them at the pillars. Mario actually tried to get Cappy to let them and Luigi capture an electric powerline that led to the inverted pyramid, kind of like how they did it when they escaped from the moon with Bowser, Peach, and Tiara, and Cappy obliged, connecting the brothers to the electricity and letting them zap through to the top.

While looking down at the rest of the land, they spotted Peach and Tiara waving at them (somehow, they were able to recognize the plumbers and their hat friend from a great distance despite the sun supposedly being in their eyes). The two then ran to the nearest power-line and captured the electricity to get to the boys. After catching up, the group just continued staring off into the orange sands, feeling the rough yet somewhat soothing breeze consume them.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Being in the Lake Kingdom made the group feel like they're going through a wave of tranquility. Of course, they all needed to get their clothes wet just to reach the Water Plaza where most of the Lochladies were gathered (they really do like looking at the Lochlady Dress, huh...), but it still didn't really matter that much because at least they got a better look at Lake Lamode in a dry area.

It also seemed that Peach and Tiara were famous amongst the Lochladies, who swarmed around them asking if they - and, to an extent, even Mario and Cappy - would like to be fashion models for them so they can try on their finest outfits. Once again, Luigi felt left out, but the rest of the group was actually panicking, reaching out their hands to get his attention and pull them away from the crowd. Soon, the green man turned around, noticed that they were in danger, and managed to grab onto them and get them to a more spacious area, though the group of Lochladies then went for him and thought his figure was more majestic (much to Mario's disgruntlement). Luigi... wasn't too sure if he should be flattered or anxious himself.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Making their way to the Wooded Kingdom, the Bonneters and Peach gawked at the numerous amount of flowers that have been growing since they last visited. Now, not only is the green grass covered in white flowers, but there was more purple, more pink, more yellow, more color in general that it became like a garden that a rainbow smiled upon.

"We have been experimenting with other species of flowers," one of the Steam Gardeners explained when Peach and Tiara asked about it. "Someone came along and we allowed them to reprogram some of us to generate different flowers not native to this kingdom. Though they may not be here now, we are grateful for the idea they had in mind. Look how much more colorful the gardens are!"

As for the brothers and Cappy, they've split off once again to look down at the abyss that was the Deep Woods.

"Hey Weegee," said Mario, who was sneering at his little brother alongside Cappy, "I bet you a hundred coins you can make it outta there alive."

"Weegee" was shaking in his shoes. The Deep Woods seemed... well... deep. They could barely see the top of the trees that might be the only things inhabiting the area. He was then proven wrong when he heard what sounded to be a cross between a roar and a screech, like that of a T-Rex. This not only made him quake even more, but it also caused Mario and Cappy to stop smiling, not being able to hide their own fears from that... thing... they later apologized to Luigi when they left the kingdom.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

The Cloud Kingdom was so... empty. So desolate. Yet the Bonneters insisted that they check it out because of how beautiful it can be. They flew the Odyssey around the kingdom a couple of times before landing it on a nice fluffy cloud. Although, the said cloud eventually drifted away minutes after the crew got off, so, of course, they had to chase after it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Finally, they made their way to the Lost Kingdom. Almost everyone liked the kingdom for very different reasons: Peach liked how colorful it was, Luigi liked the items being sold at its Crazy Cap, Tiara liked how much of a jungle it is, and Mario liked how there are so many secrets hidden around the place. However, Cappy, knowing exactly what happened to him the first time he took Mario in there, didn't find spending time in the kingdom to be... pleasant...

Sure, the only reason why he agreed that they'd land here was because Luigi was a part of the group and Mario wanted to share some time with him by showing him all the kingdoms they've been in, so really, this isn't about his preferences on where to go, but something still felt... off. He knew he had been captured by a bird at least... what, once? Twice? Thrice now?? And surely he'll get captured again. Or... what if his own sister gets captured??? Cappy shuddered at the thought and just stood as Mario's hat, barely interacting unless knowing when to do so.

Everyone went their own ways once again, but this time, they didn't go too far (it was small for a "kingdom" after all). Peach stayed near the purple pond looking at the strange inhabitants like the Trapeetles and the Tropical Wigglers, Mario and Cappy went up to the Crazy Cap to buy something special for Luigi, and Luigi and Tiara were playing on the stairs ground-pounding the ends back and forth, launching each other for fun, though Luigi was screaming and flailing his arms around at first and kept falling face-first into the platform.

Meanwhile, a certain vulture-like creature was watching high up in the sky, flapping its wings furiously. It scanned the entire kingdom for a treasure it can steal... and soon, it spotted something... familiar. A man wearing red and blue walked out with a Tropical Wiggler plushie in his arms. On top of him... was a red hat. There it was.

The bird's talons opened up like claws, and it made a screeching sound. Its target, the hat, heard, though, and opened its eyes in panic.

"MARIO!" Cappy cried. "LOOK OUT!!!"

The plumber looked up and saw Klepto - that thieving bird - and jumped off the cliff just before it got even its feet on the poor cap. They landed feet-first down to some stairs, shaking them both. Mario and Cappy got up and turned to see their little siblings at the bottom of the stairs surprised to see them up where they were.

"Mario?" Luigi questioned. "What's-"

But he was interrupted with a loud screech from the sky. Everyone looked up and spotted Klepto swooping down once again, and Mario quickly ground-pounded his side, sending him and his hat friend downwards and the other two upwards. Klepto flew up into the air again and decided to try once more, this time going after Luigi's green hat. It screeched one more time as Mario and Cappy hurried to the top of the stairs where Luigi and Tiara now stood.

"TAKE COVER!!!!" Mario screamed as he shoved both Luigi and Cappy out of the way before falling out himself. As they fell to the ground, they all groaned as they slowly stood up and dusted themselves off.

"Is everyone alright?" the red plumber asked.

"Yeah, but..." Cappy started before realizing, "... wait, where's Tiara???"

"HELP MEEEE!!!!" a familiar voice was heard yelling in the distance. The boys looked up and saw something shiny in Klepto's beak. It was Tiara!

Klepto flew around not touching the ground. It knew better than to land on some silly stairs; it had to stay airborne for as long as possible until it can store somewhere its treasure where they can't find her.

Peach ran up to the rest of the group shouting, "What happened?! I heard you all screaming, and the next thing I knew, that bird's got Tiara!"

"Well, we can't just stand here and do nothing!" Mario exclaimed back. "We gotta do something!!"

Cappy looked up and saw the ledge he and Mario fell from. As Mario followed suit, he squinted a bit more, a crazy idea popping in his head.

"Mario..." he realized, "... are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Mario looked to stare back at his friend's face before nodding while smiling wide. He grabbed Luigi's arm and pulled him to the large button that they use to get up to the ledge. Peach went after them, but Cappy stopped her before she could take another step.

"Mario, Luigi, and I are gonna go capture that bird," he explained to her. "You stay here to catch Tiara in case she comes down here!"

Peach, though she was willing to help them a bit more, hesitantly nodded and stepped back while Cappy floated away to catch up with the Mario Bros.

As they managed to make their way to the edge of the cliff, the boys waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.

"So what's the plan?" Luigi asked Mario.

"The plan?" Mario asked back. "When the birdie comes near, we both jump at the same time. But since you jump higher, I can use you as a boost to reach it more easily with Cappy."

"And if we miss?"

"We miss... and we try again."

And so, the brothers got back to waiting. Cappy was beside them waiting to give out the signal.

"Hold it..." he said, "hoooooold iiiiiiit..."

Just then, Klepto was flapping towards the trio. This was their chance!

"NOW!" Cappy shouted, transforming into Mario's cap.

Mario grabbed onto Cappy's brim as he and Luigi jumped. Luigi, despite jumping higher like Mario stated, managed to reach under the soles of his brother's shoes and lift him and the Bonneter higher into the sky. As Klepto screeched, it dropped Tiara for the sake of grabbing Cappy, but Mario slam-dunked him onto its head, securing the capture.

Klepto's eyes went blank. Cappy's own eyes looked at Mario with determination. And just like that... Mario went inside Klepto's head.

Meanwhile, Tiara was falling down to the ground (how this is happening and how Cappy knew this would happen, we'll never know). And she would've died too... had it not been for a certain princess catching her at the right time. As Peach cradled the crown in her arms, she noticed that her eyes were being closed from fear.

"Are you okay, Tiara?" she asked her.

Tiara groaned. She slowly opened her eyes and saw...

"... M... Mario?!" she gasped. "A-a-and Cappy?!?!"
Peach looked at the sky as well and gasped even louder.

Klepto looked... different. Not in the sense that it completely changed, but its face looked... different. It had blue eyes, a mustache on its beak, and a red hat on the top of its head. This wasn't Klepto... no, this was Mario and Cappy who've captured Klepto!

"Hi Peach!" Mario exclaimed. "It's-a-me!! Mario!!! WAH-HOO-HOOOO!!!!"

Mario, in his excitement, flew around in so many circles in so many angles, it almost made him and Cappy dizzy. Peach and Tiara, however, were astonished to see them capture something so... near impossible to capture. How were they able to capture a bird who steals hats?

Luigi, meanwhile, had landed back on the edge of the cliff after forcefully pushing his brother and his friend upwards. Pained from the impact with solid ground, he sat up and shook his head... only to see that they've managed to capture Klepto. 

"Hey Luigi!" Mario squawked. "Look, I'm a big birdie now!! Isn't this amazing?!"

Luigi was shocked to see his brother like this that he felt like fainting and laying back down. Before he could, however, Mario cawed and spun around more, exclaiming, "I've done it! We've done it! We captured a-"

And then Mario flew into a wall.

This caused Klepto to poof and disappear, meaning that Mario and Cappy weren't controlling it anymore. They screamed as they fell down, down, down to a tree, landing on its bouncy leaves. Peach and Tiara went over to them while Luigi came down from the cliff and limped to them as well.

"Mario!" Luigi exclaimed. "Are you alright?!"

Mario fell from his leaf and into the ground. All he could answer was with a thumbs-up before Cappy fell as well and into his face. Peach just sighed, both from relief and from exhaustion.

"I think..." the top-hat grunted as he got up from Mario's face, "... we need to head back now. It's getting kinda late..." Then he fainted again.

Everyone tiredly agreed and walked back to the Odyssey. Of course, while the Mario Brothers could still walk perfectly fine on their own, Peach still felt like she needed to help them and Cappy back up as she's the only one of the two members still intact (and Tiara doesn't seem to be strong enough to pull up grown human men on her own), so with one at a time, she helped up Mario, then Cappy, and then Luigi, into the ship while Tiara held it open. As they did, however, Peach noticed something that Luigi was holding while she walked him over to the hat-shaped vehicle. Once she got him seated, he dropped that thing to the floor and Peach placed it on his lap while Tiara started up the Odyssey so they can all go home.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Mario and the others relaxed themselves as the Odyssey flew in the peaceful sky, once again watching the sun set. The brothers were sitting on the two chairs surrounding the coffee table. Mario noticed a fuzzy and colorful plush sitting on Luigi's lap. It was the Tropical Wiggler plush that he and Cappy got for him.

"By the way," Mario started, "did you find my gift for you Luigi?"

"Oh," Luigi groaned, "that was from you? Yeah, Peach gave me it, it... it's cute. Thanks for the Wiggler, bro..."

"No problem..." Mario chuckled softly. "And uh... you're not... mad at me for what happened even before the whole... birdie... incident... are you..?"

"... huh..?"

"I remember you making those pouty faces before... in the Cap Kingdom... in the Lake Kingdom... well, initially before you got complimented by those Lochladies... but if this was about me getting the glory and not you, then... I just have to say... I'm sorry."

"... you're... sorry..? You... you're sorry you're getting all these positive things you deserved? That doesn't make any sense... if anything, I should be sorry I left you to live on your own. Y'know... just to take on a job I don't even like? Just to protect you..?"

"You don't need to be sorry for that, Luigi... you're doing the right thing... being a hero in your own way... sure it does feel lonely in my house, but... I still know that there'll be days like this when we're able to see each other again..."

"... wow... thanks... bro..."

Meanwhile, Tiara was tending to her brother's injuries, although he'd said he's fine; he didn't really have any wounds on him, but Tiara was still worried about the fact he literally fell to the ground... twice. The princess just stood on the side and smiled softly at the interactions. Sure, she likely doesn't truly know what it's like to have a sibling, but it felt heartwarming seeing these two pairs care for each other. She let out a slight giggle as the Odyssey slowly made its way to the landing place in the Mushroom Kingdom.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

As they made their way into the castle, the gang was already surrounded by Toads worried sick about their princess's safety. Peach assured them that she's fine and that she didn't run into serious trouble whatsoever.

"Thanks for letting us walk you home, Peach," the red plumber grinned. "You had no idea how bad I felt the last time you left."

"I'd like to thank you too for keeping me safe," Peach turned to the plumbers and their hat friends, "Our adventure, while it lasted of course, had been fun and I hope to try and go on an adventure with you all again."

She kissed her hero on the nose, causing him to blush and for everyone else in the main room to go "awww..." at the sight. Mario backed away, still blushing, before he waved goodbye erratically and ran back to the Odyssey, Luigi and the Bonneter siblings following suit. As the door shut behind them, a Toad called out to Princess Peach.

"Princess! There's an important note from your former advisor, Toadsworth! One of us found it while you were gone!!"

Peach turned to the speaking Toad in confusion.

"... Toadsworth..?" she questioned.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

While the siblings stayed in the ship for a while (Tiara said she didn't want to go see the scary ghosts again), the brothers worked their way around Boo's Woods and into Luigi's house where, upon opening the door and entering inside, they saw themselves face-to-face with a bunch of sad ghosts surrounding Professor Elvis Gadd who was making an expression not even Luigi had seen him make before. It looked a bit like he was angry or, somehow even worse, disappointed in him.

"Listen, Professor," Luigi threw his hands up, "I can explain-"

"Luigi..." the professor interrupted him, "I heard everything that happened."

His serious face cracked into a smirk as he added, "Your uh... your Gameboy Horror was still on call. Surprised it didn't explode on ya though, hehe... what a strong thing."

"Wait, my Gameboy..?" Luigi was interrupted once more, this time by himself searching his pockets. And there it was in his right behind's... still on... albeit fizzing out a little due to being too close to E. Gadd's.

"I-I didn't..?" the green-clad man sputtered and struggled to find a way to turn it off since just closing it didn't seem to work. Mario patted him on the back, then walked past him to speak to the professor.

Before he could, though, E. Gadd continued on first, "Now, I understand what's going on between you and Mario. You two are twin brothers, born and raised together since birth. And yet you decided to go your own way to keep your brother safe... even if..." (Luigi swore he saw a tear form from the professor's glasses during his pause) "... even if you hate working here. Truth be told... I... honestly used to hate my first years of ghost-busting and ghost-nursing too. I was a young lad when I had to say goodbye to the family I had before... going to investigate the paranormal just to protect them and many more that I loved so dearly."

He started to sniffle a bit, holding out his hand for a tissue which Greenie just so happened to give. He blew his nose on it before throwing it to the ground, allowing Creeper to devour it whole. Mario was grossed out by the scene a little, both because of the fact that... that... happened, and also because he didn't know if this was E. Gadd guilt-tripping him and Luigi just because the latter said he hated the job or if he was genuinely feeling sad about the story that unfolded, but it didn't stop him from forgetting what he wanted to say.

"Professor..." Mario asked, "I know that Luigi works... without me... just so he can help me lighten the load on things, but... is it possible that I and probably several others could help on occasion?"

E. Gadd looked at Mario with shock being spelled in his eyes.

"Gracious me, no, Mario," He scolded that man, "don't get me started on that. I know you and Luigi are close, but you're King Boo's main target! The statistics I have say that you'd easily be overpowered by him compared to your brother tenfold! How can I be sure that he doesn't lose you?"

Mario looked at the professor, then at Luigi still struggling to turn the Gameboy off, then back at the professor. He took a deep breath and replied back, "... what if you at least tried... y'know... running experiments on me in your lab instead..? Not for every day, obviously! That way, I'd be able to see Luigi again more often and... none of you... would... worry about King Boo... turning me into a painting..?"

There was a pause as everyone followed a short pattern of looking at each other, then at Mario. When it ended, E. Gadd pushed back his glasses a little and made his final decision...

"... once a month," he murmured.

"... really?" Mario answered back.

"Once a month you can come to my lab to check up on your brother," the professor spoke much more clearly. "And if Luigi can find himself someone proper who'll cover for him... he can have a day off once a month as well."

"Oh thank you, thank you, Professor!" Mario exclaimed as he shook his cleaner hand. "Let's do our best from here on out..!"

Mario bid adieu to Luigi and everyone else as he ran out of the house and back into Boo's Woods, making sure that no scary king kidnapped him on his way out.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Finally... finally, he was back home. Mario got ready for bed and just walked out of the bathroom with his pajamas on... when he saw two familiar floating hats staring back at him.

"Cappy?" He wondered. "Tiara? What are you two still doing here?"

"We wanted to keep giving you company," Cappy quickly answered. This widened Mario's eyes.

"But..." the plumber tried to speak, but once again was interrupted by his friends.

"We wanna be with you so you won't be alone in your house," Tiara spoke up. "You don't have Luigi with you, and you and Peach don't seem to be together here either, so Cappy talked to the other Bonneters and asked if they're okay if we stayed with you as your housemates and bestest friends... forever!"

Mario looked at the two Bonneters, his eyes glowing from reflecting off the moonlight and also from his internal joy. That joy soon spilled out when he grew a smile on his face. He never thought he'd be grateful to have at least one person, let alone two people, stay with him, but he never truly realized just how much in need of company he was whenever he goes home in the night.

"Alrighty!" said he. "You two can stay! Just... make sure you clean up after yourselves, cleaning pipes is bad enough for me."

The siblings hugged the red-clad man tightly in excitement, and he hugged them back. They were all so overjoyed that they were going to live with each other from here on out, Cappy and Tiara because now they get to experience more adventures with their favorite human, and Mario because now not even his house is when he's at his loneliest.

Once they stopped hugging, Tiara rushed upstairs to get some rest, and Mario was gonna go there too, but he stopped himself and turned to Cappy, who was still floating at his spot, anticipating to say something else.

"Mario..." he asked. "I really hope we got each other's backs. That you can keep Tiara and me safe... and we find a way to return the favor."

Mario looked back at the Bonneter boy before patting him on the top of his hat.

"You don't owe me anything," Mario replied softly. "You've already repaid me."

Then he walked upstairs, and Cappy went up with him, wondering if what he meant involved him and his sister wanting to stay with him as his housemates... though he felt like he shouldn't worry too much on such things and joined Tiara on Luigi's old bed and soon drifted off to sleep as soon as Mario slept as well.

Chapter Text

3. Something Old, Something New

As the door shut behind them, a Toad called out to Princess Peach.

"Princess! There's an important note from your former advisor, Toadsworth! One of us found it while you were gone!!"

Peach turned to the speaking Toad in confusion.

"... Toadsworth..?" she questioned.

((Cue the record scratch) Oh. Wait. That was just taken from the last chapter. B-but there's more to it, I promise!)

As she turned, Peach saw the Toad holding a folded-up piece of paper for her to take. She gingerly pulled out the letter from her servant's hands and opened it to read:

"Dear Princess,
It sure has been a while since we've last communicated. You must've grown up to be a fine young lady by now! Anyhoo, I am writing this letter to tell you about an old friend you've had. His name is Perry. I'm sure you remember him; his pastel blues and yellows are hard to miss, likely because that youngster's had a lot of spark to him, especially when you two worked together to save Mario that one time.

"When I retired, however, he became a regular resident of the Mushroom Kingdom. I know this because I remember that he told me so before I left; he called me an 'old man' and said he wanted to live with you and your servants in the castle. And, well, (as much as the old chap needs to learn his manners and respect his elders,) I told him that he might as well since he'd be one of the last remnants of me that I'm sure you'll keep around. I even wrote a note for him to hold onto then give to you should you find him, but I suppose where they are are for you to figure out.

"Now, you, young princess, might be wondering, 'Why else on Earth is Toadsworth writing to me about this?' The answer to that is quite similar to what I've stated before: we haven't interacted in a long time nor had you acknowledge anything to me about that poor lad, which made me sickly worried. It seems as though you didn't even notice he was still around. He'd be exquisitely eager to see you again, and yet he's most likely been alone since I left. I don't exactly know where he is now, but I do boldly assure you he likes living in the castle. Perhaps that's the first place you should search?

"Signed by your former advisor,
Toadsworth."

Princess Peach read the note thoroughly and realized something...

"Toadsworth..." she gasped. "That's right..! We haven't spoken in ages..!! I need to find Perry as fast as I can..."
... she yawned.

"Ugh... right after my beauty sleep..." Peach slumped over and walked upstairs to get ready for bed.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

The night sky faintly hit the sand dunes everywhere in the near-barren kingdom, yet it especially shone down on a castle surrounded with flowers like it was its spotlight. This was where the princess of Sarassaland lived. Inside, she walked in her pajamas down near empty rooms rubbing her eyes, not being able to sleep at the moment.

"I'd try and run around to see if that'd tucker me out," she grumbled to herself, "but somehow I'm too tired to do that and yet not tired enough to sleep. What kind of logic does that make..?"

She stopped by a balcony facing the moon and leaned towards the railings as she sighed. Maybe it's the moon's fault it's shining too bright and keeping her awake..? But no... it was more like she was sensing something... something that's... down by the entrance..?

The princess looked down and saw something... strange. She couldn't even begin to describe what it looked like, only its colors: brown, yellow, silver... is there a bit of blue in there..? Curiously, she reached out for it... and it looked up at her. Astonished (and seemingly gaining a bit more energy because of that), the princess decided to run downstairs to the outside to retrieve the thing and inspect it further.

Once she flung the giant doors open with whatever strength she had in the night, she looked at the strange thing and it looked back at her!

"P-p-power up c-omp-plete," it said. Its voice seemed... robotic, and its stuttering might be indicating that it had been damaged "Thank you for-for pur-chasing the Fl-ash Liquidi-di-di-zer Ult-t-t-ra Dou-sing Devic-e two thou-ou-sand thir-irty from Gadd-Gadd Scienc-es Inco-o-orpor...te-"

The machine glitched out before continuing, "Scanning customer inf-f-f-formation. Please be... still as best as p-p-possible-"

It scanned the princess's face as it continued to glitch out. The princess held her hands up as it did, not exactly knowing what to do.

"Identifying subject as... Mari..." the machine paused a little, but just as quickly, it shot out sparks as it jolted left and right, and then...

"... error detected. Powering down immediately."

... it shut down.

The princess let her arms droop down, sand dunes brushing past her and the funny little item. She just looked at said item like it was a crazy person. Then she gingerly picked it up and saw something inside it... water. Was that why this was sent to her? Just because her kingdom is a desert, doesn't mean there's hardly any water around; she can water her flowers just fine!

Still, she decided she'd look into it further tomorrow and see what was up with it. Regardless of whether it's spyware or just a toy or whatever, it's still broken, and someone she trusts is bound to make it less risky to have around. But who could she give it to?

She pondered for a moment before thinking of the very first person that came to mind: Luigi.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

The next day, Mario was back at it again at jumping on blocks and grabbing power-ups, this time with Cappy and Tiara. You'd think he'd learn his lesson from the first chapter, but nope! This is something he does when heading for the castle.

As Mario grabbed a Fire Flower and used it to transform into Fire Mario, the Bonneters were astounded.

"How interesting!" Cappy beamed. "So you can use anything that comes out of these blocks?"

"Pretty much!" answered an enthusiastic Mario. "You wanna give it a try?"

He punched out another Fire Flower for the siblings to use, which Cappy flew over and reached out for. The flower disappeared, a tongue of a flame in its place. It circled up and around the top-hat, changing his look as it, too, disappeared. All the blue that he had - from the aura in his abdomen to the tips of his hair - had now turned into shades of red. Tiara and Mario wowed at his transformation.

"You look amazing Cappy!" Tiara squealed. She had never seen her brother look this stunning before!

"Come on now, guys!" Mario cried. "Princess Peach is in her castle. We've got to see her as soon as we can!"

They jumped around more and more blocks until they were able to land on the bridge leading to the entrance of the castle (although Mario accidentally slipped and hit something that caused him to lose his powers). Suddenly, a Toad came out the door and sprinted over to them, catching his breath once he was standing right in front of the three.

"Phew... thank goodness... you're... here..." he panted. "The princess... is in th... the attic in her room... she wanted me to tell you that..."

"Are you okay?" Mario firmly placed his hand on the little guy's shoulder and shook it a little.

The Toad looked up at the plumber and his hat friends and croaked, "Huh? Oh yeah, it was... kind of a long run to get here."

"Really?" asked Cappy.

"You'd be surprised about my daily routine..." the mushroom-head wheezed again. "I sleep at the bottom-most floor... while she sleeps at the top... and trust me... it takes a while climbing up to get there... just to check on her and then back down... to go on with the rest of my day..."

"Seems like a lot of work!" Tiara gasped.

"It is..." the Toad agreed before he proceeded with what he actually wanted to say before he forgot, "Anyways, Mario, the princess wants you and those... hat things..."

"Bonneters!" the two siblings corrected him.

"... Bonneters..." Peach's servant repeated, "... to come to the attic with her. She and some of the other Toads are already up there... searching for something she forgot a long time ago..."

"A long time ago?" Mario questioned. He walked up to the door and went out of his way to get to Peach's room. Cappy and Tiara followed, but not before the former told the Toad, "Hope you'll be alright!" before bolting after his human pal.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Princess Daisy steered her kart all around Boo's Woods, never minding the coldness it brought upon her (she in fact preferred this over her scorching-hot kingdom anytime anyway). On the back of her kart was a funny little machine with a hose nozzle for a mouth and its belly filled with water. It was called "F.L.U.D.D.", an abbreviation of what it introduced itself as given by the sassy princess herself. She soon came to a stop as soon as she reached Luigi's "mansion". This was the place.

Daisy got the machine out of her kart as she tread through the path going to some creaky stairs. However, as she approached the door and knocked it three times, she got... no answer.

"... is he at work..?" the orange princess questioned herself. Suddenly, she was spooked by the rattling of the doorknob. It slowly turned... and out popped a certain cerulean ghost inspecting the outside. Then, they saw a confused princess close up at their face and they screamed.

"WAUGH!!!"

Goob fell to the floor and scrambled to make their escape. Princess Daisy chased after them through the long, long hallway, calling out, "Hey! Come back here! Do you know Luigi?! I need his help!!"

The scared little ghost then phased through a wall from the end of the hallway to another room, leaving the princess to crash into that same wall and fall to the floor herself. Thankfully, her impact didn't severely damage what she was holding any further, though it still looked noticeably worse as its head was drooping much more. Daisy checked to see if she didn't completely break it, not noticing the other four ghostly residents of the "mansion" behind her until she felt a chill down her spine.

The flowery princess slowly turned to see Greenie and the other remaining members of the Ghostly Gang staring down at her and trying to intimidate her.

"So, someone who ain't me's tryna out-scare Goob away, huh?" the green ghost scowled.

"Dude," Daisy scoffed, "I was let in."

"I don't think them opening the door to get a closer look at you and then leaving the door open as they fled meant you were allowed to come in," Slammer argued. "You should've closed the door after they ran away from you... y'know, like a not-bad person?"

"Well, how was I supposed to know all that?!" the princess countered.

The ghosts were just about ready to spook her out of the house, when a voice suddenly called out from the distance.

"Guys?! Who are you all arguing with, Daisy?!?!"

All of a sudden, everyone's heads turned to the wall that Goob passed through as it started shaking, and soon it rotated to the other side to reveal Luigi falling face-flat on the floor! (What, why are there already three people falling to the floor in, like, 2 minutes of this chapter? I don't know!) Luigi then got up and dusted himself off to spot his co-workers surrounding his girlfriend, who was holding a weird thing in her arms.

"... wow, I wasn't expecting to be right," he mumbled to himself.

Daisy struggled on what to say, but still pulled through and held up F.L.U.D.D. to say, "Uhhh... hey sweetie! I got something for ya!"

"Wait, that?" Luigi pointed to the machine Diasy was holding. She held it out for him to take and take it he did. He then gawked at it for a good while, eyes widening as he discovered something, then looked back up to silently gesture everyone to follow him to the secret door. They headed over there and Luigi pressed a button on a fire-block, which triggered the door to shake and swing to the other side. On that side was a flight of spiraling stairs leading to darkness.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Daisy objected. "Where are we going???"

"To Professor E. Gadd's Lab," Luigi specified as he and the ghosts went down. "He might know a thing or two about this."

"Because it's a machine?" Daisy asked again, tagging along.

"That," Luigi answered, "and because of something else I saw on it..."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

"Priiiiiiiiiiinceeeeeeeeeeeeeess!!!" Mario shouted as he and the Bonneters entered Peach's giant room. Everything looked just about the same as the last time he visited it; bed in center-front... night stand on its left... ladder sticking out from the ceiling... ladder sticking out from the ceiling?

"That must be leading to the attic," Mario walked over to it and checked it out. It was pretty long, and the entrance was way high up. Mario grabbed onto the first step he could reach and climbed up with Cappy and Tiara floating up behind him, making sure the cap impersonator didn't burn anything as he still had the Fire Flowers' powers on him.

Once they reached the top, they started inspecting what was going on. The attic was huge, not that it had much height, but it was much wider than the princess's bedroom that it could've expanded to other rooms. It was also dark and crowded too; the place was filled with old stuff and lots and lots of boxes, the Toads lifting them up and rearranging them left and right with lanterns as their light sources. Even Princess Peach herself was getting her dress dirty frantically trying to look for her gift with her own dimly lit lamp.

"Princess..!" Cappy exclaimed. "Princess, are you alright?"

Peach turned to notice her lower friends and smiled a bit.

"Oh, hello Mario! Hello Cappy and Tiar... ah... ah... ah-CHOO!!" she covered her nose and mouth as she sneezed from all the dust being brushed up onto her.

"Bless you," said several of the people in the attic. A Toad walked over to her and gave her a pink handkerchief.

"Thank you," the princess in pink replied, taking the handkerchief and using it to clean her nose and hands. "I'm looking for Perry. He's a magic parasol who can talk and... well, hop (I wouldn't say 'walk'), and Toadsworth said in a letter that he lives in this kingdom nowadays. Have you seen him?"

Mario, Cappy, and Tiara looked at each other in confusion, then looked back at their friend and shook their heads signifying that they haven't. Peach's face contorted in disappointment.

"It's alright, princess," one of the Toads assured her. "I'm sure he'll turn up sometime."

"Yeah!" Mario agreed. "We'll help you find him! He is an important friend to you after all!"

"I mean, Cappy and I don't know who you're talking about, but I bet he really is that important..!" Tiara chimed in. Cappy, of course, gave her the stink-eye.

Peach looked at her subjects and smiled a bit as she sighed. Such generouspeople they are, especially Mario, often willing to help out her and their friends.

Mario, Cappy, and Tiara went to the opposite side of the attic, using Cappy to bring much more light to the place while searching through boxes upon boxes of old antiques and other fancy things. Everyone else went back to work on looking for Perry as well.

Suddenly, at one point while in a corner, Cappy heard a little groan coming from behind him, giving him a bit of a scare. He turned around to see how close it was only to stumble upon something cylindrical. Sitting in it was a single yellow and blue parasol faintly glowing, almost like it had some sort of magic power in it. At that moment, Cappy remembered what Peach said... that he was a magic parasol. Could this... be Perry..? Very carefully, the little hat approached the umbrella, wondering if this was what Peach was looking for. He reached out for it... lifted it out of the umbrella holder with all his strength... grabbed it by the shaft... then slowly slid its runner up...

"WHOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" The parasol hollered! The scared Bonneter screamed and fell back, dropping Perry and alerting his friends' attention. They and the Toads scrambled over to get to him, but as they did, they noticed the parasol on the floor with him.

"Perry..?" Peach finally spoke.

"Princess?" he spoke back.

Then, he leaped over to the princess's arms as he laughed. As Cappy got up, he was dumbfounded at what was going on, but everyone else - including Mario and even Tiara - was cheering and clapping at their reunion.

"Alright, now where's that old man who stabbed me in the butt?!?!" Perry demanded, his sudden anger silencing the commotion.

"Your butt?" Peach's eyes widened significantly. Perry just reminded her: Toadsworth gave him a note for him to keep until she found him. She quickly rotated her parasol around on his back, then found the little paper stuck onto him with a pin. Very carefully, she removed them both from his... butt -

"OW!" cried Perry.

"Sorry," the princess apologized...

- and read the note out loud:

"Dear Princess Peach, Congratulations! You've found Perry! This lad's been dying to meet you for a while ever since you've saved Mario and the rest of our people. Upon inspecting you two more when you've left for that adventure, I'd realized that Perry is more than a gung-ho parasol; he might be the reason why your strong emotions have had their... let's just say... side-effects... before you separated. I figured that if you'd reunite, you would be able to protect yourself and accompany Mario without the worry of being kidnapped. I still must warn you, though, to use those powers sparingly and to control your emotions when Perry is near you. I'm not exactly sure how strong you youngsters are when you're together, but considering that you've managed to defeat Bowser, your powers could be dangerous. "Signed, Toadsworth."

For that moment, everyone was silent. Not a Toad, not a Bonneter, and not even Mario, stirred to make a sound. Then, Cappy, being one to ask questions, spoke up first.

"Mario..." he started, "... had to be saved by you..?"

"Well," Peach explained, "one time long ago, Mario, Luigi, and the Toads got captured by Bowser and his minions. When we found out, I felt enraged. I could not believe he would kidnap my heroes! So, to repay them for all those times they've rescued me, I've decided to rescue them. That's when Toadsworth gave me Perry-"

"That's me!" Perry chimed in.

"-and we set off to the Vibe Island to save the Mario Brothers and my people," Peach continued. "Of course, like Toadsworth said in this note, when we're together, we were able to have powers that were triggered when my emotions got strong."

"We even beat up that Bowser guy using those powers!" the parasol interrupted once more.

"And I'm surprised you've lived for so long, Perry," the princess then turned to face her accompanying umbrella, "let alone be this energetic after all this time."

"Oh yeah," Perry sheepishly grinned. "I uhh... might've snuck in and out eating fruits from those trees you got out there. They're kinda nutritious! Speaking of which, can we go outside? I've been living in this dark and dusty attic for so long that I've got soot and cinders to brush off and I wanna bask in the sun more!"

"Let's go then!" Mario chirped, not wanting to stand still in one place anymore. Being the nearest to the ladder, he quickly jumped and climbed down, and the others clamored as they raced after him to get out before they get sick of the place.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

"WHAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!" Princess Daisy's scream of shock went off so loudly it was heard from the entire lab. Goob shushed her before she could yell again, as they were afraid of any unfriendly ghosts hearing them. Standing beside them were Luigi and the rest of the Ghostly Gang, as well as Professor E. Gadd and F.L.U.D.D. sitting right in front of them. 

"It seems as though you don't get it, do you," the professor tilted his head a little. "Very well. Allow me to explain: put simply... I don't remember making this."

The couple stared at the little man in confusion.

"But..." Luigi protested, "... that thing has your icon - your face - on it! There's no way it could've-"

"I meant I don't remember working on this version specifically," E. Gadd corrected his apprentice. "I worked on the first version, but considering it called itself 'F.L.U.D.D. 2030'... I don't think I made this, let alone consented to the existence of a F.L.U.D.D. 2030. Perhaps someone else from the incorporation made it? It is mostly a family-run business full of scientists and mechanics..."

"So let me get this straight," the princess reiterated, "there was an older version of this thing... but someone else from your... company I think... made a newer version of it."

"Not just that," the professor explained further as he adjusted his glasses, "but according to my inspection on this model of F.L.U.D.D., it's obviously borrowing many elements from its predecessor. But said predecessor should've been the only iteration of F.L.U.D.D. as I never made any other products even based on this; it was merely a test subject that citizens of Isle Delfino could use. So in my theory... this could be the same F.L.U.D.D. Mario used from before, just modified!"

"Wait," Daisy stopped him. "How did you know that Mario used this?"

"I'll... explain later..." he brushed off her question. "For now, I need to fix up on this thing and remove any other bugs it has. Seems to be really beaten up by now."

He turned his chair around and started working on repairing the invention. Daisy and Luigi watched him do his thing for a while, but it was only about 30 minutes later when the latter decided to grab onto the former's hand and lead her to his professor's gallery. He didn't want to have her stare at just one thing - given her supposed background - and knew that she liked exploring other places and learning about new things she hadn't learnt before.

Inside, Daisy finds portraits of many different ghosts that Luigi had captured throughout his years under E. Gadd's wing. There were so many in there! A husband and wife, a couple who seemed to like dancing, a beautiful-looking young lady, there were even a few ghost kids in pictures!

"This is the gallery where the portrait ghosts are," Luigi explained. "They were from this mansion that disappeared mysteriously before my house replaced it. And almost all these ghosts... weren't exactly 100% fond of me... heh..."

He went to look at another painting, one that contained a strange, veiled woman sitting on a chair.

"Though..." he continued, "... I somewhat regret capturing this one... Madame Clairvoya... she seemed to be the nicest. I don't know why we had to keep her in a painting alongside all the others."

Daisy walked around and looked at what was surrounding her. All these ghosts... they had a glint of something... dark... going on in their eyes. The more she stared into them, the more noticeable the glint became. She then turned around as she noticed Luigi walk to another room adjacent to the gallery and followed after him, turning her head back one last time to glance at the portraits, almost as if she was either entranced by them or she could feel them just staring behind her, just before she entered the next room.

In this one were two rows of rooms with large windows sandwiching the hallway that the lovers walked in. They were filled with different kinds of ghosts; most looked like the ghosts she first encountered, some were dressed up in outfits from different time periods and other categories, some had something painted on them to make them look like vegetables or patches of flowers, and some just had some strange effects on them.

"And this is the rehabilitation area where we help comfort the ghosts who were affected by King Boo's powers," Luigi went on. "Unlike the portrait ghosts, they were meant to be nicer until they got stricken under his influence. Now that Boo's not really bothering us, we've put them all in these rooms to make sure they don't turn bad again. It's not the best defense, but everyone agreed that they preferred this over being stuck in containers day and night."

Daisy gazed at the nearest rooms in front of her and her boyfriend. On their left was a group of ghosts gathered around one single ghost who was telling them... ghost stories, perhaps? However, some of them were instead paying attention to the show on Daisy and Luigi's right, consisting of a trio of ghost ladies in hats and tuxedos working on a magic show with a blanket. Each time they pulled it down, they revealed a different surprise; first appeared a cheery yellow ghost with a single tooth and a pink bow on her head, then she was replaced with a slim and tall turquoise ghost wearing a pink hat, sneaking in a blowed-out kiss and a seductive wave to her audience before the fabric closed in again, then in her place was a humongous pink ghost with a green sun-hat who was admiring her reflection in a handheld mirror. When the magicians pulled up the curtain and back down once more, the pink ghost was still there smiling and facing the viewers, but then the turquoise ghost and the yellow ghost appeared behind her, surprising her and giggling at her reaction. The ghosts from the other side clapped, cheered, whistled at the sight, and Luigi followed suit. Daisy just smiled at their performance and walked forwards to peer into more of the rooms, curious as to what they've been up to.

She talked to a man known as Dr. Potter and how he tended his plants, she chatted with some chatty ghosts known as Poltergeists about some boring but lesser-known facts about things, and she listened to a ghost named Amadeus Wolfgeist play some admittedly good music on his piano... his lively... sentient... piano. Before long, she bade farewell to the rehabilitation area as she once again followed the man in green back to the gallery.

"So if those are where all those other ghosts are," Daisy asked, "why did I see a few of them out and about?"

"Oh, that's the Ghostly Gang," Luigi replied. "They're a group of ghosts who volunteered to help test out certain inventions that are supposed to help further maintain the goodness in all the other ghosties. They're also a tightly-knit group. Even Goob's getting along, even though they're still getting used to the rest of their surroundings ever since the hotel incident."

Soon, they ended up back at the professor's lab, where the 5 ghostly members surrounded him and watched as he was finishing up on the repair.

"Just a few more touches, and..." he held on, "... done! Okay, Daisy, Luigi... may I present to you... F.L.U.D.D.!"

The Ghostly Gang moved out of the way for Luigi and Daisy to see the new-and-improved F.L.U.D.D. It had wires attached to the professor's computer, but other than that, it had its head fixed and straightened up and it started talking more fluently and without fail.

"Power-up complete," it started. "Thank you for purchasing the Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device two-thousand thirty from Gadd Sciences Incorporated."

Its voice was quite different from the one that you, dear readers, may remember, as it sounded like a ghost from the lab voiced it. E. Gadd pushed a confused Daisy in front of him and gestured everyone else to move back while he got out of the way as well. Daisy took her supposed prize off the desk and stared at it once again.

"Scanning customer information. Please be still as best as possible during this process and do not have more than one face surrounding you," it said as it looked up and down at the princess's face. Suddenly F.L.U.D.D. straightened up.

"Error: your information does not match the information of the customer who purchased this product," the device said. "The purchaser's information is: Mario, resident of the Mushroom Kingdom. Would you like to erase the purchaser's data and replace it with the recently scanned information? Say 'yes' to confirm. Say 'no' to keep Mario's information."

"And the proof is in the pudding," the professor exclaimed. "This was the same F.L.U.D.D. that Mario used on Isle Delfino!" He paused to look up at his apprentice standing beside him. Luigi raised his shoulders as if urging him to say something to his princess.

"So..." Daisy interrupted before either of them could speak, "... now that it's fixed... can I take this to Mario and ask him about it?"

Luigi blankly looked back at his princess, with E. Gadd and then the Ghostly Gang following suit.

"I mean, look, I appreciate the fact that you've worked so hard to fix F.L.U.D.D. and you've shown me some great stuff around the lab," she continued as she stepped towards the two as she gestured to E. Gadd and then Luigi respectively, "but... I don't need this. I have a watering can to nourish my flowers, for petals' sake!"

Luigi's face sagged into a sad frown. Daisy, despite usually being brash and loud and such, suspected that she's said something wrong, looked back at her lover and his friends and simply sighed before setting F.L.U.D.D. back to where it last was and taking him by the cheek with a gloved hand.

"Aww Luigi," she cooed, "don't give me that look. I just... I'm sorry, I just... can't accept this. I have to go to Mario to ask him about F.L.U.D.D., okay? I'll come back if need be."

Still holding the device, she started to walk out the door and closed it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

"... and then I bonked 'em in the head, hahaha!" Perry laughed. Mario, Peach, Cappy, and Tiara laughed along with him. They were sitting on the Tanooki tree not far from Peach's castle. Their snacks were the fruits picked from the trees the little umbrella mentioned earlier.

"Wow you're certainly an interesting one!" said Cappy.

"Yeah, yeah," Perry smirked, "I'm pretty cool and strong aren't I?"

Then he sighed and continued on with his story, "But that dream I kept having... every time the princess and I traveled to another section of Vibe Island... it kept expanding more and more... until it was more like... a memory. Y'see, I wasn't always an umbrella, I used to be a human boy. Well... mostly a human boy, I think..."

"What happened?" asked Mario.

"Apparently," the parasol explained, "I lived on top of a mountain until an old man came to me. He wanted to take care of a child, I wanted to have some company by my side, and so I was adopted by him and I viewed him as my Grandpa."

He opened his mouth wide to command for someone to give out a fruit for him to bite on, to which Peach obliged by holding one in front of his face. Perry took one big chomp on a large part of his snack and chewed and swallowed before continuing with his explanation.

"We had a good time, walking, doing chores, napping, all that," he went on, "until one day, two bad guys came to us because they knew I had powers! Somehow. We tried to fend them off as best as possible, but then... I got turned into this... I got picked up, dropped off, left behind, then I was sold to Peach's old man by a merchant."

His voice trailed off towards the end, quieting into what almost sounded like a whisper, though everyone around him could still hear him. They all looked at Perry with awe and sympathy, Peach especially. Though they've only shared one adventure together, Perry's story seemed intriguing to her.

"So..." she questioned, "... are you still willing to find your Grandpa again?"

Perry looked up at his old buddy and sighed, "Yeah I guess... but sticking around with your other friends could also be fun. I mean, I can be of use and all--"

"MAAAAAARIOOOOO!!!"

The heartfelt moment was interrupted when Daisy showed up, stopping her kart while having F.L.U.D.D. wrapped around her arm with her other arm still on the steering wheel. Everyone's eyes widened a bit before she got off of the vehicle and held F.L.U.D.D. in both of her arms as she walked towards them.

"My my," Perry said a little too out loud, "what a gal! Is she single?"

"Hey, I'd never choose a sentient umbrella over a man in green," the gal in question retorted as she stopped where she wanted to be. "Anyways, Mario, I came here to give you something."

Mario got off of the tree branch and walked over to Daisy seeing as he knew what she was gonna give him. It was F.L.U.D.D., of course, and it looked... brand-new.

"Would you like to erase the purchaser's data and replace it with the recently scanned information?" it once again asked. "Say 'yes' to confirm. Say 'no' to keep Mario's information."

Mario looked at F.L.U.D.D., then at Daisy, then back at F.L.U.D.D., then back at Daisy.

"I..." she started, "... kinda had it scan my face, and then Luigi and that weird old man said that you were the one who used it before. So... I decided to give it to you."

Mario, though clearly touched by that brief explanation, cleared his throat and simply said to the machine,

"... no."

Daisy's face gave off a slightly shocked look and looked down at the device. Didn't it belong to... him?

"Deleting the purchaser's data. Please wait."

Daisy looked back up at Mario again as he spoke once more, "I don't really need F.L.U.D.D., at least not right now, so I gave it to Luigi at a birthday gift exchange since... E. Gadd would've helped him fix it, but I guess considering that you and him were dating, I assumed that he gave it to you. Do you... really not want it?"

Daisy looked down to the ground. It's true that she didn't want it, but now that Mario explained the final part of what might actually be going on, she realized she was turning down a gift from Luigi. Still, it's not like she likes it that much, yet all she could give at the moment was a long sigh.

"So this whole time," Daisy muttered, "Luigi went through all the trouble to give me something I don't even like..."

Mario, overhearing this, said, "Well... maybe... he meant to use F.L.U.D.D. to grab your attention and ask you if you'd like to help him with his work."

Daisy perked up a little upon hearing this. Luigi wanted her to help him with his job? Her?

Mario continued, "The professor did mention that if Luigi could find someone who'd work with him, he'd be able to spend some time with me for a while. And I'll admit: we do tend to miss each other a lot while we're at work... Luigi taking care of ghosts and me taking care of... almost everything else... sometimes even other kingdoms... but we've talked to the professor about this and he agreed to help arrange Luigi's schedule so we'd be able to be together as brothers again and not miss each other as much. All he needed were more workers."

Suddenly, F.L.U.D.D. proclaimed, "Deletion successful." It has completed its deletion of its memories of Mario. Then it started asking a series of questions in a quick fashion, "What is the new owner's name? What is their gender? How old are they?"

As it continued, Daisy frantically rotated the device around trying to shut it off... until the red plumber pressed his finger on a button at its bottom.

"Shutting down." F.L.U.D.D.'s neck limped down as it powered off.

"Huh," said Mario. "So that's what that button does."

Daisy nodded, turned around, and walked back to her kart, F.L.U.D.D. still in her arms. As she went back, however, Peach and the others had gotten off the tree to join Mario in watching her go.

"Daisy," Peach asked her cousin, "where are you going?"

Daisy stopped for a moment to turn her head to her friends and reply with a smile, "I'm going back to Luigi's to see if I can ask that E. Gadd professor guy about our scheduling, then I'm gonna go to my father about it too. I know Luigi loves me a whole lot, but... he loves Mario even more, so I'll help him out in any way I can!"

With that, she turned back to get to her kart and drive off. All the others could do was watch.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 𐚁

Peach actually managed to come over to Mario's house for dinner with Perry, albeit on the condition that they had to bring in several more guests to guard them and make sure Bowser doesn't kidnap anyone ("The more, the merrier!" was all Mario could say to the Toads). They ate pasta and talked a lot about their other friends and their families, and in the end when everyone left and were walking back to the castle, Perry had one burning question towards Peach...

"You two... are still dating, right..?" Asked he as he was being carried by her.

"Mario and me?" The princess answered, "Hmm... I don't think we are... no, we most definitely aren't. Ever since I've been flown through many kingdoms and up to the moon by Bowser and Mario had to rescue me there, I was so overwhelmed by everything that happened before that that I just... told them off and said that I needed a break from all the romance and whatnot."

Perry felt a bit stunned by the news. But he was intent on listening on what his friend had to say after that.

"But who knows?" She continued, "Maybe one day, I'll find love... maybe with Mario, maybe with someone else. Only time will tell."

"So does that mean that I'm an option?" Perry sneered.

"Don't push it," Peach laughed as they were almost there to their home.

Chapter Text

One night, Mario was just about to go to sleep with his hat pals, Cappy and Tiara. It had been a while since those last few adventures had been dealt with, and it was really tuckering him out. He got on his own bed and the siblings on Luigi's, the moon's beams shining on them all as they laid down and the wind making the window's curtains dance. Then Tiara asked the plumber, "Mario? Can you sing a lullaby for me?"

Mario, though a bit tired, obliged to the request, yawning, "Okay, Tiara... I suppose I'll be singing... a classic..."

That's when he began to sing:

"When the moon hits your eye
Like a big pizza pie,
that's amore...

"When an eel lunges out -
And he takes a bite out of your snout! -
that's a moray..!"

"Get it? A moray eel?" Mario chuckled to himself a bit, but then noticed Tiara giving him a bit of a frightened look in her eyes.

"Mario..." Cappy scolded at him.

"Sorry Cappy," Mario apologized, "it's the first one that came out the top of my head."

"Well, try not to scare Tiara like that even if you meant that as a joke," the top hat sighed as his eyelids started to close, "I don't want her screaming her crown off only for nothing serious to have happened..."

Mario nodded and was about to go to sleep when minutes later...

"... huh..? Why isn't the moon shining on us anymore..?" Tiara groaned.

Mario opened his eyes as much as he could to turn to look at the window, noticing two men - one short and fat, the other tall and skinny - sneering at the Bonneters. Everyone in the house gasped.

Suddenly, purple vines started growing from the window as the duo outside cackled. Panicking yet thinking quickly, Cappy transformed into his red cap form and knocked the thin man off the window, causing the vines to pull his partner out as well. Mario then hurried to close the window shut and lock it.

"Geez, Mario," said an anxious Cappy, "that was close, but... who were those two?"

"Just two greedy men I know," Mario replied as he turned his back against his friends to sleep, "but I'm sure that I can talk to them about it... tomorrow... if we ever meet again..."

"Talk to them?" Cappy repeated. "What do you..."

He was so restless after the spook, but seeing as Mario just wanted to rest for the night, the little top hat decided to not ask anything else and trusted that things would go smoothly to the red guy's plan. He tried to lull his sister to sleep, then rested for a while until his eyelids draped over his sight in tiredness.