Chapter 15 - Memories

I opened the door to the fortress. It was different, however... Cackletta seemed to be anticipating our arrival. The fortress was decorated with purple.

"Oww!" Mario screamed.

"What?" Julie and I said in unison.

"Something really bad just happened to Peach," Mario said, clutching his side.

"You mean you have sort of a mutual connection, and you get some kind of signal when she needs you?" Julie asked. "That's pretty cool…"

"Nah," Mario said, relaxing. "That sort of stuff only happens in really cheesy
love stories. I put a homing device on myself, right here-" and he pointed to
his left side, "so whenever something happens to her, I know to come help." he shrugged. "It happens so often that I figured I could use it."

I sighed. Deja vu...

Julie smirked. "Of course," she said. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"I think I ought to check on her," Mario said. "That surge really hurt."

"That's pretty cool how you can measure the intensity of her problem like that," I said.

Cackletta appeared behind Julie. She whipped around, screaming "Holy crap!"

"You can tell if Peach is in trouble?" she said.

"Sure... hey, you've been spying on us?" Mario snarled.

"Duh," Cackletta laughed. "Anyway, you're absolutely right."

"What did you do?" Mario said, forming a fire sword and pointing it at
Cackletta.

"Take it easy," she said. "I didn't kill the woman."

"Not another robot?" Mario snarled. Cackletta laughed.

"So, you figured it out!" she said. "You're a bit smarter than I thought."

"You should have learned it last year!" Julie barked. I was a little surprised,
Julie didn't seem like the defensive type. Cackletta frowned.

"You're right..." she said slyly. "I should have learned better... sending away
the ones that knew the most about the Beanbean Kingdom."

"Huh?" I asked. "What about the other four?"

"Still here," Cackletta said. "I was a bit stupid... I thought I could send away
the most powerful, but I suppose I was wrong."

"Most powerful?" Julie said, blushing slightly. "You mean that I'm more powerful
than Wario or Waluigi?"

"Sort of," Cackletta admitted. "You know the most about this kingdom."

"I suppose I do," Julie said in a modest way.

"Bring them here," Mario snarled. "Bring them here."

"How bout I take you to them?" she asked.

"I don't trust you," Mario said.

"Well, you'll have to." she laughed. Mario retreated his sword, but still stood
his ground.

"Hold this," she said, and formed a rope that was light blue.

"Grab on," she cackled. I resisted at first, but Mario raised his eyebrows at
me, and so I grabbed on. Julie did, too. Cackletta tugged upward on the rope, and I felt like I was flying up. I closed my eyes, but I could hear Julie
shrieking with excitement. Finally, when everything was silent and I felt my
feet planted firmly on the ground, I opened my eyes and looked around.

"What the..." I said. "Where'd everyone go?"

I poked my head into an empty room. This was the fifth floor.

"Hellooooo..." I called. "Mario? Julie?"

No answer.

I opened a door to a room that I hadn't seen earlier when I was looking for the Beanstar. Another little platform was in the middle of the room. This platform looked identical to the one that I had seen earlier when I spoke with my future self. He gave me tips on what to do... perhaps he could do it again.

I planted my foot in the middle of the platform. Again, a little screen said:
"Name: Luigi Mario, Height: 5'6, Weight: 135 lbs, Eye color: cerulean, Hair
color: D. Brown, Age: 76," and a long list of the letters A, T, C, and G.

There was a flash on the platform. I shielded my eyes, but the flash only lasted a second.

My future self stood there. I laughed loudly at what I looked like. My head was slumped forward, I was in a nightshirt and pajama bottoms.

"Hello?" I said, forcing myself not to laugh. My future self looked up
irritably.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" he asked. I glanced quickly at the fancy watch I was wearing.

"Three o'clock," I said.

"Oh. Well, what do you want? I'm trying to sleep."

"Where did Mario and Julie go?" I asked.

"Hmm... I can't remember, it's been nearly forty years. I forgot that I got to
talk to myself twice."

"Do you remember anything about today?"

"Cackletta's not who she seems." he answered blandly.

"What does that mean? I asked.

"You'll see," he said. "Now can I go back to bed?"

"Sure," I mumbled. And with a flash, he was gone. I sighed and left the room.

Cackletta was standing on the other side of the hall. She turned around and made eye contact with me.

"Well, well." she said. "Funny I'd find you here."

"What happened to the rest of the group!" I demanded. But Cackletta ignored me. "Do you even remember what you're doing here," she said in an unusually serious voice, "What you're doing in the Mushroom Kingdom or Sarasaland?"

"What do you mean," I asked.

"How you got there," she said. All of a sudden, my head started hurting. It was true... I couldn't really remember where I was before the age of seventeen.

"I remember waking up in a hospital..." I said.

"Hmm, yes," Cackletta said as my headache got worse. "Want me to show you?"

I didn't know what she meant.

She lifted her hand, a now familiar gesture, and a funny pressure pulled at the top of my head. I closed my eyes briefly, and then opened them. Only, I wasn't standing in Cackletta's fortress anymore. It was warm and sunny, and I was standing on the porch of a middle-class house in an obviously large city.

I looked around. The garden was nicely kept, it looked like something Daisy
would do. There was a hammock on the side yard of the house. A teenager was snoozing in it.

Something burst in my memory. The picture of the teenager was the same picture that was in our photo album... the one that Mario found and showed me. I reached out to try and wake the boy up, the boy that was me... but my hand went right through him.

"Kid," I said aloud. He didn't stir, only made a slight snorting noise.

"Luigi," another seventeen year old said. I turned around. Mario, as a teenager, bounded up to my sleeping self and shook the hammock violently.

"Woah!" he said, jerking awake. I noticed that my past self had vibrant emerald eyes. Wait a second... my eyes aren't green! "Mario, do you mind?"

"Sorry," Mario said. "But I found the neatest thing! Come on!"

Mario grabbed the teenage me by the shoulder and dragged me down the street a few blocks. I followed them.

"What is so cool that you want to sho... woah," I had said.

Mario had his hand outstretched to a large green pipe, one that was so common in the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Neat," I had said. "What is it?"

"Looks like a pipe," Mario said.

"It is," I said, but forgot briefly that I sort of... didn't exist as a 24 year
old.

"It looks big enough to fit through," Mario said. "Wanna see what's at the other side?"

"No way." I had said. "I think we oughta check with dad." I had leaned my elbow on the pipe as Mario was already fingering it. The sky turned a navy blue.

"Did you do that?" Mario asked. I shook my head.

"Luigi, move!" Mario shrieked, pointing behind me. I had turned around and made eye contact with a holographic Bowser and King Boo.

"I thought we'd never meet," King Boo said.

"Who are you?" I had asked in amazement.

"You don't remember me?" Bowser asked. He looked so funny as a teenager!

Mario shook his head. "I don't know any of the teenage mutant ninja turtles." he laughed heartily.

Bowser grumbled under his breath. It sounded strongly like he said "stupid."

"What's going on...?" I had asked.

"We want you guys gone," King Boo said. "But let's check something first..."
King Boo lifted his stubby arm, and both me and Mario's hands caught fire. Mine, was of course, green.

"Woah!" Mario exclaimed, staring at them. "This doesn't hurt!" he looked up at me.

"Woah," he said again. "Your eyes... they're blue."

I supposed that when we were first able to use our abilities, our eyes changed color. That was the only explanation I've got...

"You idiot!" Bowser snarled at King Boo. "You let them know that they've got
fire abilities?"

"We've got what?" I had asked.

"Fire abilities?" Mario asked. "You mean, we can shoot it out of our hands?"

"Nice going," Bowser mumbled.

"Yes," King Boo said. A huge crack ran down the side of the street.

"No!" I had screamed.

I blinked a few times. I was back in Cackletta's fortress. She was smiling
evilly at me.

"You were born on Yoshi's Island," she said. "but you grew up in America."

"America..." I repeated. Yes, Brooklyn, New York. "Why couldn't I remember?"

"I erased your memory, I helped bring you here." she said.

"No, you didn't," I said irritably. "It was King Boo and Bowser. And you didn't
even let me see the whole thing!"

"Close enough." Cackletta said. "And yes, I was there."

"I didn't see you," I said.

"Au Contraire, since you won't get out of here alive, I'll tell you a little
secret of my own... my real weapon." The gem on Cackletta's forehead shone with a blinding light. I shielded my eyes, but not enough to not be able to see Cackletta. Her figure was twisting and changing...

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