Chapter 10 - Mario's Plan

I let a small “Augh!” escape my lips and stumbled back. And with a flash, I was a king… nice thought. Cackletta hung in the air, smirking.

“You guys are so stupid,” she said. “You fell right into my trap! I was hoping you’d come here.”

Mario had his face buried in one hand. But he was laughing.

“Are you psycho?” were the thoughts that zipped through my mind.

“Don’t laugh,” Cackletta said in an almost offended tone. Actually, it’s no matter. I like you two-“ though she glanced at me… “Dead better than obvious.” She formed a sword, it was pretty long and dripping with what was obviously poison.

“Puh-leeze!” Mario said, in exasperation. “Is that the weapon that is so new?”

“Sure,” Cackletta said proudly. “Pure Boo Poison.”

“If you didn’t beat us last year, what makes you think that you’ll succeed this year?” Mario asked. He didn’t seem scared at all, but my heart was racing viciously.

“Oh, you’ll see.” She said. Her ghost started shining. She just floated there; he almost looked like a holographic statue… Mario tossed me the Beanstar and slowly approached her in order to investigate.

“Shouldn’t we be worried at all?” I asked, my grip on the Beanstar tightening.

“Nah,” Mario said. “She’s not so hard.” I got his idea immediately. Cackletta wanted us dead as revenge for last year, but she was quite stupid. (In my opinion.) Her sidekick, Fawful, was the brains of the group, and he was nowhere in sight. So, she’d have some faulty in her plan, and this was going to be easy! I was comforted by that thought. My pulse and breathing rate went down.

“Well,” he said, swishing at her. “I suppose this is one of her new moves…?” Cackletta turned into a cloud, and that cloud slammed and disappeared into Mario’s head, exactly on the spot where his Cackletta mark was. He let out a quick wail of pain, and collapsed.

“Mario!” I screamed, feeling my pulse pick back up.

But he only stayed down for a second. Apparently, all Cackletta had done was whack him in the head.

“Woah,” Mario said, putting his hand to his forehead. “You’re right, Mario. That did hurt.”

I stared at my older brother. His accent was gone, and he was talking to himself. He bent down slightly and poked at the back of his ankle.

“Wo-hoa,” he said, lightly laughing. “Feet. It’s been a while.” He picked his leg up, and then put it down with great interest. “Nice. Now, what was I doing… oh yeah!” And for the first time, I noticed that his eyes were blood red. They met up with mine, and Mario slowly approached me.

“I’ll just finish what I came here to do.” He lifted his hand and quickly pinned me by the neck to the wall.

“Mario!” I choked in panic. “What’s going on!” Mario bent down, still choking me, and picked up the sword that Cackletta had made. I froze in fear. He was going to kill me!

“Stop!” Mario shrieked, and with what seemed like a ton of effort, pulled his hand away from my neck. “Don’t you dare… Silence!” he yelled. Mario was arguing with himself?

“Don’t you dare touch him! No, foolish boy!” He was seemingly struggling against himself, raising his arm to choke me again, snapping it back, trying to step backwards, and approaching me again... was he dancing or something? “You aren’t going to use me like this! Oh, I am!” he kept yelling, his accent coming on and off.

For a second, I had forgotten about being scared. Right now, all I felt was confusion. Had Mario lost his mind? My eyes were narrowed, mouth agape.

“Mario, what are you doing?” I asked.

“Luigi, run! No! Stay put! Get out of here! Once I kill him, I’ll destroy the rest of your family, too! YOU CAN’T! I WON’T LET YOU! You can’t fight back! Don’t try!” Mario said.

I had no idea what to do! Should I leave him? He was going insane! Or, should I try to help? But how would I do that?

Then it hit me… Cackletta must have possessed him!

No way, I told myself. That kind of stuff only happened in biblical times! But that’s the only explanation I’ve got now…besides, she did it to Bowser...

“Boy,” I said aloud, “This story is getting more fictional by the second!”

“You can’t win!” Mario screamed, and then fell to a crawling position. All of a sudden, he stopped struggling. His eyes grew wide, and he slowly exhaled.

“You’re right,” he whispered, chest heaving. “I can’t. You’re stronger than I am. Thaaaat’s a good boy. Now go ahead… kill him, or we can do this all night.” Mario formed a sword with his Fire powers, almost identical to mine; only it was red-orange and surging with flames rather than electricity.

I froze in horror. Mario was stronger than I was. And infused with Cackletta…?

You’re doomed, Luigi, I told myself. I’ve got to run for it! But my legs wouldn’t move. Mario had to be joking.

Mario shakily raised the sword in my direction.

“I have no choice but to do this, Luigi,” he said in a very solemn tone. “Excellent! Now with him out of the way, I’ll just go ahead and get rid of Princess Peach, and Princess Daisy, and …ooh! Yoshi too! They can’t resist you, can they? This will be fun, won’t it?”

“Mario, you can’t…” I whispered, shaking my head slightly, and backed up against the corner.

“I already told you,” he said hopelessly in his normal-accented voice, so I knew it was really Mario saying that, not Cackletta. “I have no choice.” He raised the sword and held it at my chest level. There was no escape…

“Love ya, Bro,” he said quietly, smiling through a few small tears in his eyes.

I was stunned with horror. I couldn’t breathe, blink or anything. He lifted the sword slowly, with a kind smile on his face, a smile that was not made by Cackletta. And to my horror…

…He stabbed the sword through his own chest.

I let out a horrified, strangled scream. Cackletta did as well, and escaped from Mario’s head in a puff of light.

Mario fell backwards, and his sword clattered on the floor a few feet away from him.

My hands rushed to cover my mouth involuntarily. I couldn’t feel my legs; I was frozen in the spot where I stood.

“Noo…” was all I could muster to say. “No!” a single tear dripped down my face. The room was so quiet that I actually heard it give a tiny “splat” on the floor.

My hands and knees were shaky. I tried to keep ahold of the Beanstar, but my fingers were trembling too badly and I dropped it. My vision started to cloud and head started spinning. I half-expected myself to faint. I finally got feeling of my legs as I slowly made my way, the agonizing ten feet walk, to Mario’s crumpled figure. His face wasn’t white; he looked normal, and he was smiling as if satisfied. Another tear dropped off of my face and landed on his sword, which sparked and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

In one swift move, his eyes opened and he sat up.

“Is she gone?” Mario asked. But I couldn’t answer. I was surprised into shock. Mario laughed at the horrified expression on my face.

“Am I a good actor, or what!” he exclaimed and stood up.

“Bu- you-“ I began, still in a state of shock. Mario was smiling, all teeth showing, at the ceiling.

“Loser!” he cried, still laughing. “You fell for it, Cackletta!”

I noticed that my mouth had dropped open, but didn’t bother to close it.

“You want to know what just happened?” he asked, reading my mind. I nodded as much as I could (which was not a lot.) He smirked.

“I made Cackletta think I was going to kill myself. If I’d have done that, she would have been forced to depart to the afterlife, and… well… never come back.” he snickered. “I’m, of course, immune to my own powers, so that sword didn’t hurt me one bit.”

“I can’t believe you!” I shrieked, shaking with relief. “You scared me so badly!”

“Oh,” He said sarcastically, crossing his arms. “Since when is that hard to do?” He smiled and patted my shoulder. “I’m completely allright,” he said.

And immediately, the wall exploded open, and Wario and Waluigi rushed in.

“What took you guys?” Waluigi asked. “Come on! Did you find the Beanstar?”

“Yeah,” I said, still a little breathless. “I’ve got it.” I held up the star.

“Good,” Wario said. “Now, let’s get out of here. I’m hungry.”

“We still need to get rid of Cackletta,” Mario said. “But I think we’ll leave that for later.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well,” Mario said, leaving the room, “We’re not in our home countries, right?”

“Yeah…”

“And usually, when you leave your home country, it’s because you’re on vacation?”

“I suppose…”

“Then let’s not make that statement a lie,” he said. “After all, I didn’t pack sunglasses to eat!”

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