Chapter 2 - The Search is Set

"You... what?" I said, baffled. "You... need my help?"

"Listen, I know you don't like me very much, and I don't like you, but I'm in a fix now." Waluigi said.

I noticed that my jaw was dropped, so I closed it.

"Your brother's coming." he said.

"Why?"

"Because I asked him to." Waluigi said threateningly, so I knew that this conversation was over.

"Hello?" Mario said, and stuck his head in the castle door. He glanced quickly at Daisy trying frantically to cram all of her spilled flowers back into their pots in hopes of saving them. I had almost forgotten she was there, lost in the shock of hearing Waluigi ask my assistance. This was certainly a sesquicentennial event... and I just turned 24.

"Hey," Mario said, clapping his hand on my shoulder. "What, are we having a party?"

I shook my head and looked at Waluigi, but didn't say anything. A few minutes of total silence went by.

"Ooookay," Mario said, scratching his head. "So... I came all the way to Sarasaland to see who wins a staring contest?" he paused. "Hey... why are you so white? Are you sick?" he added to Waluigi.

"No," Waluigi said, answering both of Mario's statements. He held out a note that had been clamped in his fist and I hadn't noticed. I slowly took it, uncrumpled it, and read it. It was very messily written, so I could hardly make out the letters.

"G-r-e-e-n-h-a-i-r-e-d-w-o-m-a-n-t-r-y-i-n-g-t-o-k-i-l-l-m-e. Green haired woman trying to kill me?" I read aloud, eyes narrowed. Daisy turned around.

"What?" she said, obviously startled.

"Reading a note," I said.

"Oh." she said and turned around and resumed her job of potting plants.

"Who wrote this?" Mario asked, eyeing the letter. The ink was dripping and smeared, and obviously written in quite a hurry. Considering that the message said someone was being murdered, this was believable.

"I think Wario did," Waluigi said quietly.

"You ...do?" Mario said, a little shocked. "It's not signed or anything... what makes you think so?"

"I do know my own brother's handwriting." Waluigi said in the normal "Gee, you're stupid" tone he has.

"Wait, wait, wait," Mario said quickly. "You... you and Wario are brothers?"

Waluigi scoffed. "Duh," he said. "We never really told you, but, I mean... look at us! We're like... identical!"

I stifled a laugh.

"Well, we're not twins, like you two. And also," Waluigi continued. "Why do you think that when we had our fifth party me and Wario signed up as the Wicked BROTHERS team?"

"He's got a point," I told Mario with raised eyebrows.

"How much older than you is Wario?" Mario asked. "And..." he paused. "How old are YOU?"

"Waluigi was in my tenth grade class," I said, frowning. "He's our age."

"Wario's 28." Waluigi said irritably. "Anyway, I was wondering if either of you characters has SEEN a green-haired woman. I'm starting a search for her tomorrow."

"Why tomorr-" I began, but then I felt the blood drain from my face. A green-haired woman...?

"Oh," Waluigi said, eyes widening. "You went pale, that means something."

"I...uh..."

"You've seen some girl with green hair?" Mario asked.

I nodded slowly. "She told me that she hopes I'm around to inherit this throne."

Waluigi's upper lip twitched, but he didn't say anything.

"I saw you talking to her," Daisy said. "Was she predicting that you'll be croaked before knighted?"

"Thanks, Daisy," I mumbled. "That really helps."

"Do you want us to help you look for him?" Mario said. He was very used to identifying pleas for rescue missions... obviously. Waluigi's face turned an ugly puce color.

"Well, uh... uh... yes." he said slowly.

"And... what makes you come to us?" I asked.

Waluigi frowned. "Like I said. I know you don't like me, and I don't like you, but..." he sighed. "You're the... the only ones that I know who had to live in fear of losing your only brother." he looked at his feet to avoid eye contact with me.

I had to bite my lip to keep from whimpering as Mario slowly turned his head and looked at me.

"I don't mind." I finally said. "I want to know what is up with this woman."

Daisy made a low, "mmrrrk" noise.

"Don't worry," I laughed. "She seems to follow me around everywhere. I want to know what's the deal, is all."

"Okay," she said. "But... where will you start?"

I racked my mind, trying as hard as I could to remember last night's dream. It seemed foolish, but if this woman was real, maybe her world was too.

"Well, I guess she's somewhere that's barren."

"Yoshi's desert." Mario said immediately.

"What?" Waluigi, Daisy and I asked at the exact same time.

"Yoshi's desert," Mario repeated. "I remember being there..."

"You can remember what happened when you were 6 hours old?!" I shrieked.

"...when Yoshi was trying to get to Kamek's castle back then," Mario said, ignoring me completely. Come to think about it, it did seem like a desert, where I was fighting that lizard... a lizard that now I remembered resembled....

"Yoshies?" Waluigi asked. "This has to do with Yoshies?"

"Maybe not," Mario said, his pointer finger now at his mouth as though he were a brilliant scientist trying to crack a mystery. "But I suppose we ought to check up on the part of Yoshi's Island that's a desert."

There was a sickening crunch behind me; one of our new mini piranha plants that Daisy had set on the entrance table had six very long legs sticking out of its mouth, and a little dribble of green fluid was falling. The plant was chewing in a malicious way on what seemed to be a very large Daddy Long legs.

"Yuck," Mario said in alarm, but Daisy rushed over to the plant as it sucked in the last very long leg like spaghetti.

"Wow!" she said. "Look at 'im, eating so big... isn't he just adorable?" she scratched the flower under what would be its chin. Well-fed and fat, the flower bristled its leaves and lay still.

"Anyway," Waluigi said, turning around, "I'll be back tomorrow."

"Why wait until tomorrow?" Mario asked.

"I want to create dramatic tension," he said, and left the building. Mario clapped his hands together in an irritated way.

"That-" he said sarcastically. "That could absolutely NOT be done over the phone. No way, no how." he grumbled under his breath and left the castle, too, leaving me in an awkward state of silence.

Daisy crammed one of the Piranha plants into my hands.

"Can you go put this in the 2nd floor bathroom?" she said.

This vicious plant was not what I wanted to look at while I peed, but okay, that's how she wants it...

"Yeah, okay," I said, and turned around and walked to the second-floor bathroom.

But on the way up, something caught my glance. There was a huge window on the second floor, overlooking the scenic countryside of the subcon Chai.

"Woah," I said aloud, and set the plant on a little side table. I completely ignored its gruesome consuming of a spider that had been on the table.

I pressed my hands to the glass and peered down at the little scene on the grassland. There was Chompy, my pet Chain Chomp, sitting in the grass, sleeping... I think...

And sitting near him was a girl with very long, green hair, tan skin and was wearing something similar to a ninja suit.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes. Why was I seeing her everywhere I went?

She was still sitting there, next to Chompy.

"Luigi, what's taking you?" Daisy called from the first floor, knocking me out of my little trance.

"Oh... uh... just gazing." I said to her, quickly grabbing the piranha plant and sticking it on the bathroom counter. I couldn't believe it... characters you see in your semi-conscious mind while sleeping don't pop up everywhere all the time.

That night, it was rainy. I was pretty glad Waluigi didn't want us to go anywhere tonight; I didn't want to go out in this rain.

And a while after I fell asleep, I was startled awake by a loud crash from outside my bedroom. I sat up, still half-asleep, and clicked on the bedside lamp. Daisy wasn't in the room.

I glanced at the clock; it was 3:21 AM. With a slight groan, I got out of bed and opened the bedroom door to see what was going on.

All of the lights were off. Despite the large window letting in the moonlight, it was pitch-black. I could hear a struggle going on, though...

"Daisy?" I called out. No reply; but I could hear things rumbling around in some nearby room. Sounded like a fight. I turned on the hall light and looked around. The piranha plant on the side table was knocked down; it was gnawing on some bug that had been on the carpet.

I opened the door to the second floor closet. Clothes were lying around everywhere, but nobody was in here.

"Daisy, where are you?" I yelled again. I peered over the little walkthrough overlooking the first floor foyer, and couldn't stop myself from screaming.

There was that green-haired woman, her hand closed very tightly around Daisy's neck. Noticing me, she looked up and grinned.

"I was hoping I'd see you," she said, letting go of Daisy. She crumpled to the ground. "After all, I've got your alacritic, fat buddy, now your princess, you're my next stop!"

"Nooooooo!"

"Luigi!!"

I blinked a few times and realized that I was lying flat on the floor of my room, the sheets wrapped around my right leg and waist. Daisy was leaning over the side of the bed, staring at me. She was okay...

"What..." I began, but Daisy cut me off. She looked horrified.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "You screamed and fell off the bed... are you... sick or something?"

"N...no..." I said, standing up and pulling the sheet from around my waist. "I'm okay, just a nightmare..." I said.

"Something's wrong," she said nervously. "You normally sleep like a corpse."

"Must have been something I ate," I lied. "I'm going to go on the balcony. I... I need some fresh air." there was a lot of sweat on my face, and my heart was racing wildly.

"Luigi, it's three AM," Daisy said.

"I won't take long," I said and left the room. The entrance to the small 2nd floor balcony was right next to the bedroom door. I slid open the glass door and walked through it.

I leaned over the stone rail of the balcony. This was so weird; all of those dreams seemed so realistic.

It was a slightly breezy night, and the moon was full and hung heavy in the sky.

"It's nice," a voice behind me said. I turned around.

"Daisy," I said wearily. She approached me and gently put her arms around me.

I sighed, head on her shoulder. “You seem upset and tense,” Daisy said, softly rubbing my back. “Is something serious wrong?”

“I… I don’t know,” I admitted. “Ever since that woman talked to me, I’ve worried about it… and I just had a horrible nightmare about her murdering you…”

Daisy let go of me, and to my surprise, she chuckled.

“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I assure you that I am tougher than that wimpy little girl.”

I smiled. “Yes, I trust that you could whip her easily. You know me- I’m the worrywart, right?”

“Absolutely!” Daisy said. I felt a little better. Maybe I was just being a worrywart.

The next morning was usual. But everytime I thought about how my dreams were coming to life... I was wondering more and more if they really were dreams. But I had no other explanations for it.

Waluigi and Mario showed up at the castle early the next morning. Waluigi was in his normal nasty mood, but Mario seemed excited, almost. I was surprised; you'd think how many rescue adventures he went on, it would become like a way of life now.

"Should we go?" he asked as I made my way down the final stair of the large staircase.

"Sure." I said. "We've got a pipeline right outside; one of them must lead to Yoshi's island."

"Uh..." Waluigi began; he was obviously about to say something very difficult. "Than-"

"Don't say it, please," I said, grinning, and turned around. "That would be so much of a shock I'd probably go into cardiac arrest."

"Have fun," Daisy said. "Don't get killed."

As we were blasted to the barren, lonely desert of Yoshi's island, I noticed that something was, in fact, very wrong. There was a low sibilance in the middle of this place and I wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Who's doing that?" Mario demanded, wiping sweat off his face. It was very hot. I took off my hat, considering myself stupid for wearing so much clothing.

"Now what," I said. "Where do we start?"

"Over here," Waluigi said, leaning over a footprint that was so huge I could have slept in it.

I know what made that, I thought, but didn't think I should mouth it. I brushed the bottom of it with my palm, and a little dust flew up, but nothing else happened.

"This is getting us nowhere," Mario complained.

And out of nowhere, it felt like something hard, like a rock or something, hit me squarely on the back of the head. Blinking stars out of my eyes, I turned around to yell at whoever did that.

I looked around, confused. This wasn't the desert anymore. In fact, it looked a little like Daisy's idea of heaven. Flowers were everywhere, the sky was blue and beautiful, the temperature was a nice 75 degrees... from Mario's description, I recognized this to be Flower Fields.

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