Chapter 4 - Tibs

"Well, so, what do we do now? We are stranded in the middle of nowhere." Lauren said. Nobody answered; I noticed that Mario was busy examining the little Shine Sprite charm tied in at his collar.

"What is wrong with it," I asked him, involuntarily fingering the little star one I had. But he didn't answer my question, he only said "I wonder what Pyrope wanted to show us so badly."

"I hoped she'd show us her boo-" Waluigi said, but Julie started laughing again. Waluigi went white as he noticed everyone staring at him.

"-ts!" he spurted. "Her dress was so long, you couldn't see what shoes she was wearing." I laughed.

"Okay," I said. "I'm sure you are very interested in her shoes." Mario snorted, trying to cover up a laugh, and Waluigi glared at me. I simply raised my eyebrows, and didn't say anything.

"So, then," Julie said, getting ahold of herself. "What's the plan?"

"Plan," I said blankly. "I think we ought to find out where we are first. Think we're still on Yoshi's island?" Mario closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath.

"What," Waluigi said to him as though Mario was the stupidest idiot on the face of the planet. "Meditating?"

"No," Mario said simply, his head still tilted slightly upward. I didn't know what he was doing, but what else were we going to do?

"No," he said finally. "No, we're not still on Yoshi's island. This looks nothing like it."

"How can you remember what it looks like?" Lauren asked, astonished. "Didn't you see it... like... 25 years ago?"

"Mmhmm," Mario said, obviously amazed at his own brilliance.

"Oh, I know how you can remember that," Julie said, as if she was a very intelligent scientist trying to culturize bacterial cells. "When you two came to the mushroom kingdom, you strongly regained memories of all the things that have to do with this place."

Mario and I exchanged glances. This girl knew more about us than we did. Julie just smiled at the looks on our faces.

"Do you remember what happened before you were seventeen?"

I glanced at a rock to my left. Come to think about it... other than the very brief memory I had seen with Cackletta last month, it was true... I couldn't remember a thing about my teenage years... or anything between when I was 8 months old to when I was 18 years old, for that matter.

"Look at that!" Lauren gasped, and pointed at something above the trees. We all looked up. What looked like a huge house was standing not too far away; its roof just visible over the tall trees.

"Should we.... visit?" Julie asked nobody in particular, shrugging.

"Why not," Ricky said. "What are the odds that someone evil is living there?"

Mario and I exchanged looks again. Thinking of all the adventures we've dealed with...

But it seemed that the kids had made the decision for us. All three of them were sprinting toward the castle.

"Follow the teenagers," Mario said with a smirk. "Is that such a bright idea?"

"Sure," Waluigi said. "None of them are dumb blondes..." (Mario said "armk") "lets go."

And so we followed the sound of their crunching footsteps through the thick forest, and it didn't take long to discover that the building really was an elaborate palace. It looked very recently built. Mario approached the large double-doors and grabbed the polished handle. He didn't need to knock, though, a large, middle-aged Yoshi opened the door. He gasped loudly at the sight of Mario.

"Hello," he said awkwardly, staring at the Yoshi's stunned face. "We're lost. Could you tell us where we are?"

But the Yoshi just stared at him. It was actually very cute, it was very overweight, and Yoshis are attractive when they're like that. "Gah-buh..." he stammered, staring upward at Mario, because he only stood to Mario's shoulders. "M..."

"Um... is this a bad time?" Julie asked. Lauren was smiling widely at the Yoshi; she obviously thought it as one of the most adorable things she's ever seen.

"M..." The Yoshi said. "Mario!??"

"Uh... yes...?" Mario said, leaning back a little. I was surprised at his confusion of a Yoshi knowing his name, he was one of the most famous people these creatures knew. But the Yoshi only beamed, squealed a little, and threw his stubby arms around Mario.

"Wow!" the Yoshi said. "Wow! Look at you!"

"Um... have we met?" Mario asked, through a fake grin.

"Of course we have!" Yoshi responded brightly. "You must not remember... no, of course you wouldn't remember..."

"Wait." Mario said, eyeing the little dinosaur. "Wait a second..." He put his finger to his mouth for a few seconds, then his eyes grew wide. "TIBS!"

"Oh, you remember!" Tibs the Yoshi squealed again. "You remember!" And Tibs threw his stubby arms around Mario again, only this time, Mario looked pleased to have this happen.

"Um... you two have met?" I asked politely.

"Of course," Mario said. "This is the Yoshi that both of us owe our lives to."

"Oh!" I said, feeling a little stupid.

Tibs bowed to me, and then turned again to Mario. "Please!" he said. "Don't you all look fancy.... anyway, please, stay a while. I would love for you six to be my guests at my palace... built it just a few weeks ago... what do you thi-"

He didn't need to ask. Julie and Lauren burst in the door, squealing, and ran through a hallway. I could hear Lauren scream excitedly "Julie! GET IN HERE! They've got all this Harry Potter stuff!"

"We've lost the women," Ricky sighed.

"Good enough for me," Waluigi said, and went in too. Tibs was beaming. "How long do you have?" he asked.

"Well," Mario said, scratching his head, "We're sort of on a quest..."

"Wario can wait!" Waluigi yelled, sticking his head out from a room to our right. "This place rocks!"

"Talk about brotherly love," I told Mario, who scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Whatever floats his boat."

I took a few steps into the castle, and sure enough, it was as exquisite as my 100 million dollar mansion. There was a large chandelier in the middle, surrounded by two large staircases leading up to the second floor. A pair of double doors were between the staircases. Fancy, expensive-looking lights were hanging everywhere... a Yoshi built this?

"Wow," I said, shielding my eyes from the very bright lights. "Very nice, Tibs, I like it."

"Do you?" Tibs squealed. "I'm glad! Come, I'll give you a tour..."

"Ah, no thanks," Mario said. "I'll explore for myself."

"Okay," Tibs said brightly. "Make yourselves at home. Oh, it's so good to see you again..." and he went through the double doors on the first floor.

"I guess I'll go... get a bath," I told Mario, with a shrug, and left. Somehow, I knew my way to the bathroom, it was down the first floor hallway and to the left. I guess I knew my way instinctly around mansions, considering my horrible event in one a few years ago.

I entered the bathroom and strung a towel over my shoulder. I looked around... even the bathroom was nice. No, there weren't any chandeliers, but the entire room was made of marble. Funny... this bathroom was a little small and didn't have a toilet or anything... but that didn't really bother me. I turned on the hot water tap and watched the bath water fill up. The tub was very large, and it seemed to take forever to fill up. While I waited, I glanced around the room a little more. Paintings of rich people were hung everywhere. They looked a little familiar... but not really. One of them showed a picture of a ridiculously fat man, he looked only about a decade older than me, and I couldn't help but admire how beautiful this one woman was, she was wearing a sparkling recital gown and had to be my age with golden hair a little longer than Daisy's. I quickly thought of Daisy and told myself to stop looking at pictures of other women.

I glanced at the tub and noticed that it was practically full. I turned the water spout off, was a little surprised to see that I could remove the fancy tuxedo I was wearing, and slid in the water. It was very comforting; the water had to be 115 degrees. This seemed like the perfect time to take an evening nap. I closed my eyes and sank chin-deep into the soapy water.

But I didn't get to sleep long. I was startled awake and practically into cardiac arrest when a high, rusty voice said "Luigi, sir?"

I spat out the large amount of hot, soapy water I had accidentally swallowed and looked to my left. In horror, I realized that Toad was hanging over the side of the bathtub, his beady little eyes focused intently on my face.

"TOAD!" I roared, snatching a towel from off the floor next to me and dragging it across the top of the tub. "Do you MIND?"

"Sorry," he said plainly. "But I just wanted to let you know that... guess what!"

"What?" I panted, still astonished at how stupid and violating someone could be. I thought I had locked that door...

"I'm staying here tonight, too! This place rocks!" he piped.

"You... uh... couldn't have told me this through the door?" I asked, trying to hint that I wanted him to leave me in privacy.

"I guess I could have," Toad said, putting his finger to his chin thoughtfully. "That's all, okay, bye!" And he left the room, shutting the door rather hard as he left. I swallowed. Julie would be most unhappy about Toad staying at Tibs' castle tonight... now I can see why. I heard footsteps coming up the hall.

"Toad..." I heard Julie say. "W...what are you doing here?"

"Visiting!" Toad said brightly.

"Oh... okay..." Julie said, sounding very disappointed. "Well, anyway, is anyone using the bathroom now?"

"Oh, yes," Toad piped. "Luigi's in there."

"He just now went in? Allright, I'll try back la-" I had to bite my lip to keep from snickering when Toad interrupted her.

"He's probably almost finished," Toad said. "He's been in there for about 30 minutes."

"But I just now saw you come out of there." Julie said, her voice an octave lower and strangely mature. "How could he have been in there so long when I just now saw you leave?" Julie paused. "You mean..." she continued, "you just walked in on him? Were you aware that he was in there?"

"Sure," Toad said. "That's how I knew to go in there to say hi."

I heard crackling of electricity and then clinking of kitchen utensils, and could only guess what had happened. My guess that Julie had just fried Toad to the bone with Thunderbrand and then staged the scene to look like Toad had electrocuted himself was confirmed when I heard Julie turn the other way, snickering victoriously and muttering "loser." She must have bumped into Ricky in the hall because she yelled in a panicked voice, "Oh, Ricky! There you are! Please, call 911! Toad accidentally electrocuted himself! He... he went crazy and stuck a fork into the socket!"

"Oh, sure, I'll do that now," Ricky said, and I heard his footsteps down the hall, running. Once he was out of earshot, I heard Julie screech with laughter and then mutter to herself, "I am so ridiculously brilliant..." Then she must have left, because everything became quiet. Julie shouldn't watch so many murder cases on Court TV, I thought.

Tibs showed me to my room on the second floor later that night. It wasn't as fancy and elaborate as the other rooms, in fact, it looked like a place you would find at a decent hotel. The bed was nice and large, and a lamp that was nearly as big as I was hung from the tall ceiling. A few dressers were here and there, and a couple of clown dolls were sitting on them. Tibs blushed as I noticed them.

"They're... uh... my niece’s." he said slowly. "If there's anything you need," Tibs said, "My room is just downstairs. Your brother's is in the other 2nd floor hallway, your pointy friend's is next door, (I groaned silently) your teenager with the big hair is just down the hall, the boy's is directly upstairs, and the other long-haired hyper teenager is downstairs, down another hall and to the left." he paused. "Your mushroom friend had to be rushed to the hospital. Apparently, he stuck a fork in an electric socket..." I saw Julie walk by the open door and grin evilly, and I thought, maybe it was my eyes playing mean jokes on me, for a second, Julie seemed to have fangs.

I looked away from Julie, who I heard snickering again, and turned back to Tibs. I don't know why he told me where everyone else was staying, but okay...

"Thanks," I said, and he left the room. I sat on the bed. It was very comfortable, made of some air-like material...

I glanced at the clock and was surprised to see that it was around 11:00 PM. I was exhausted. I clicked off the light, but all of a sudden, I was filled with a paralyzing terror. I don't know why... the room didn't look any different in the dark. But I couldn't shake this horrible feeling, and turned the light back on. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. My heart rate went down considerably now that the light was back on.

"What's wrong with me," I said aloud.

"You mean you just now realized that something was wrong with you?" I heard Waluigi call from next door. Dang... he's got good hearing.

But I didn't know what was scaring me. I'll admit that I'm afraid of a lot of things... but I'm not of the dark. I clicked the light off, and it was almost interesting to feel how my entire body got very tensed up again. I looked around, there was nothing in the room other than me and the furniture. But it felt like there was a bucket of ice in my stomach.

I turned around. Still nothing. What was I getting so tensed up about? I turned the light back on. I guess I have every right and reason to be nervous in a dark and unfamiliar mansion... but there was nothing here. Though I was robbed of my ability to see elemental ghosts, I could see any others, and there weren't any.

"Stop freaking out," I told myself, as sweat dripped down my face. "It's all in your mind. There's nothing wrong. This isn't your mansion." And I clicked the light off again. Once again, it felt as though an invisible fist was wrapping itself around my stomach, but I convinced myself that there was nothing wrong, and flopped down on the bed.

Without even bothering to change out of my fancy dress clothes that Pyrope had somehow changed me into, I fell asleep as soon as I pulled the covers up.

I got a horrible night's sleep. Every thirty minutes or so, I was jolted awake by some tiny sound, once it was a plant dropping one of its leaves, once it was a fly getting eaten by one of those miniature piranha plants. (Yes, Tibs had some too...) The third time this happened, it was a tiny drop of rain on my window.

I groaned under my breath and pulled the covers over my head. Every muscle I had was constricted.

And I had reason to be tense. A few minutes later, I felt a cold hand grab my shoulder. I yelled and jumped out of bed with my eyes closed.

"See," A girl's pleasant voice said, "Told you he could jump high." I opened my eyes and realized that I was clinging desperately to the large lamp hanging from the ceiling. I looked down. Julie and Waluigi were standing there. Julie looked awed, and to my surprise, Waluigi looked mildly impressed; his hand outstretched to the exact place I had just been lying.

"Were you sleeping, or dead?" Waluigi called up to me.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I screamed at them and glanced at the clock. "It's four in the morning!" I wiped the cold sweat off my face and slipped off of the light, and I fell with a startled "Aaaah!" six feet to my bed below. Blinking stars out of my eyes, I stood up. "Well?"

"Sorry to wake you," Julie said very quickly, "But he said something's wrong with Tibs." She pointed at Waluigi.

"Tibs?" I said blankly. "What, what's wrong with him?"

"Only Mario would know," Waluigi said.

"S...so why'd you wake ME up?" I demanded.

"Misery loves company," Julie muttered, and then pointed at Waluigi and twisted her finger in a circle near her ear, signaling she was trying to imply "He's insane."

"Fine," I said. "Tibs told me where Mario was... come on." He was in the 2nd floor hallway... I think that's what Tibs said. But on the way out, I crashed into something. Igniting a spark on my finger, I saw Lauren and Ricky standing there, looking both confused and angry.

"Are we having a party, or something?" Lauren asked. "It's a bit early, you know..."

"We are going to go wake up Mario. Something's wrong with Tibs." Julie explained.

"Sure as heck something's wrong with him," Ricky said strangely loudly. "Maniac was muttering to himself earlier this evening, saying 'paaaaaaintings, paaaaaintings,' and walking out with a bunch of portraits under his arm."

"Well, let's go get Mario," I said. "I know which room he's in, follow me."

And again, I knew my way there. I'm not sure how. I think it was just that, since I had to find my way through a huge mansion before, I guess I've developed some skills like that.

It took a while of winding through hallways and staircases to get to the other part of the second floor. The only way up was to go down to the first floor and climb the main staircase to the other side. The bedroom was on the far side of the hall. I creaked the door open. Mario was, indeed, in here, he was curled into the fetal position he normally sleeps in and was mumbling something about a party. Julie snickered and said, in a very good impression of Peach, "Mario, let's dance the night away..."

"No..." Mario mumbled. "No, I'm a terrible dancer..." I had to clap my hand over my mouth to stop from laughing, and Lauren was starting to lose it already. She was going very red in trying to keep her mouth closed.

"Oh, that’s okay," Julie said in Peach's voice. "Let's go swimming, then. I'll put on the bathing suit that you bought me... you know, the transparent one." Now, even Waluigi was trying very hard not to snicker.

"Yes, do thaaaat," Mario mumbled. "Yes, I like that one."

"I'll wear it at our wedding," Julie said. Mario's mouth curled into an obvious smile, and I couldn't help it; I burst out laughing. Mario frowned and lazily opened his right eye.

"Hey," he said irritably, sitting up. "You had to come in HERE and inhale laughing gas?" he glanced at the clock. "Buh... It's 4:30 AM! What are you thinking?"

It took a while for me to stop laughing; I had briefly consoled myself, but lost it again when Mario said "Gee, I was having a good dream, too..."

"Anyway, Tibs has lost his mind," Ricky said quickly after I caught my breath. "Think you can figure out what's wrong?"

Mario simply blinked and planted his feet on the floor. "Fine," He sighed. "So early... but fine." He left the room, and we all followed him. "Where did he say he was, again?"

"I know," I said, "He said that he was directly downstairs from my room. I think I know where that was."

"Mmhmm," Mario said. "Fine. You lead."

So I did. The hallway was completely dark; cold sweat emerged on my face and my stomach plunged, but I lit a spark on the tip of my finger. This didn't curb my horrible feelings. The hair on my neck was still standing directly straight.

And I was right; I did find my way to Tibs's room without getting lost. Ricky opened the door, and what he said was right, Tibs was leaning over a portrait of a very buff bodybuilder and a couple who looked like dancers. He was muttering over and over again, "Paaaaiinnttiiinngssss..."

"Uh.... Tibs?" I said shakily, and flipped the light switch. No light turned on. A very large rock fell into my stomach. I felt more nervous than ever.

"Tibs, helloooooo," Mario said, and lit a spark at the end of his finger and waved it in Tibs's face. He didn't move.

"Are you possessed or something?" Waluigi asked Tibs. Another rock plunged into my stomach.

"Tibsss," I plead. "Come on, this is nonsensical..." Tibs finally looked up, made a noise that sounded very much like "Bwaaaah," and the door behind us shut. Lauren tried to open it, but it was soon covered by very sharp vines.

"Ohmygod," Lauren gasped quickly, and turned around. I noticed that my hands were shaking terribly, but didn't bother to try and stop them from doing so. Tibs stood up. A flash of cold ripped across my side. Something was happening that only my unconscious mind knew about.

"Good you all came to visit," he said cheerfully. I was relieved, if he was being controlled by someone... or something... else, he would have a slightly different voice. "Can you remember your past at all?" Tibs asked me and Mario. Was he in a trance? Why would he ask this?

"Uh... well..." I started, but didn't know what else to say. No, of course I didn't remember my past at all. Mario was white.

"Answer a few questions about your past," Tibs said casually, and I'll let you go.

Another rock plunged into my stomach. Why...

"Question one," Tibs said. "Luigi...how old were you when you first met Princess Daisy, and how old was she at the time?"

I sighed in relief. This was part of my past that I still remembered. But there had to be a catch, it couldn't be this easy...

Julie's hand shot up into the air. She whispered "oooooh!! ooooh!!" and was standing on her toes, very badly wanting to get Tibs's attention. Tibs looked at her.

"You know?" he asked. Julie nodded vigorously. "Fine... go ahead. If they don't know, you don't either." Tibs said. But I DID know...

"Luigi met Daisy when he was six months old and when Daisy was 25 years old," Julie said professionally. I looked at Mario in horror. What would happen to us because she got the answer wrong? Mario looked even more pale. What was going to happen...

Tibs pursed his lips. "Right," he whispered. Julie looked very smug. My jaw dropped, Julie's answer was impossible, Daisy's only a year and a half older than me, but I wasn't going to argue when Tibs said that she was right.

"Next question," Tibs said. "Mario... what was your first Damsel in Distress mission, and who did you save her from?"

Julie's hand shot into the air again. Only this time, she said "oooooh!" even louder.

"You again?" Tibs asked her. "Fine, try."

"Mario saved Pauline from Donkey Kong just before he came to the Mushroom Kingdom!" Julie piped proudly. Tibs looked astonished.

"Right again," he said. Mario's eyes widened. "I did?" I heard him whisper. Waluigi looked at him strangely.

"Last question," Tibs said. "Get this right, and you can go." Julie smiled, the last thing I wanted to do now.

"Okaaay..." Tibs said. "How old were the both of you when you won your first trophies?"

"OOOOOH!!!" Julie squealed, standing on her toes again, her hand raised in the air as high as it would go.

"What?" Tibs demanded. "When!"

"Mario was four months old when he won his in 1999 and Luigi was six months old when he won his in 2003!" she said confidentially. Tibs bit his lip.

"Right." he whispered. "Go ahead."

And, the shining vines disappeared off the door. I was amazed at how Julie knew more about me and Mario than we did. Mario's jaw was dropped, as well, and he was staring at me in confusion.

"Julie," I asked slowly, once we were out of the room, "How was the first and third questions you answered possible?" Julie grinned.

"Well, for the first one, remember your Double Dash racing tournament?" she asked. I nodded. "Well, the baby you came from the past, right?" I nodded again. "And the baby you saw Daisy, right?"

"I guess... yeah," I said, I still didn't understand what Julie was trying to imply. Julie continued.

"So when you went back in time to the year you were really 6 months old in, you took your memory of Daisy with you. In 1981, you knew Daisy existed, right?"

"Makes sense," I said, with a shrug.

"So you simply saw her again a few years ago, you just didn't remember, because your memory had been erased. And as for question three, Mario came forward in time to 1999 when he was four months old and he won a junior tennis trophy at that age. Your first trophy was in 2003 when you visited the Double Dash Tournament for winning the Star Cup on 50CC."

I hardly had time to marvel at how much Julie paid attention to her video games, when Mario, frozen in place in front of me, held out his arm to keep me from moving forward.

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