Chapter Text
After packing away the rest of my tools in Luigi’s trusty toolbox I look over my work at the pipes of the apartment my client lived in I smile and nod in satisfaction, I go and tell her that I’m finished but she didn’t hear as she was talking quite loudly on the phone I wave to try and get her attention but she looked at me, scoffed then turned around and continued on with her conversation. I didn’t particularly care about the attitude but she hadn’t paid me yet and I couldn’t afford to come out all the way to Queens for nothing. So I lightly tapped her on the shoulder and quietly asked for for the $30 I was owed, normally I charge $20 per hour however I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible and didn’t want to cause a fuss.
She put a hand over her phone turned and glowered at me but said nothing as she went and grabbed $30 from somewhere, I didn’t know where as I wasn’t paying attention and was just daydreaming about watching the clouds from my favourite place to relax in a nearby park but once she returned she just shoved it in my hand “Get lost!” Believe you me she didn’t have to tell me twice I grabbed Luigi’s toolbox and I was gone. Jumping up into the van I gripped onto the wheel and rested my head on my hands and let out a sigh of relief, thank goodness that was over, with a trembling hand I turn the key in the ignition and hastily drive towards Brooklyn, I had one last client that if I didn’t hurry to get to I would be late.
The drive over to this guys house was fairly uneventful. I drummed the fingers of my left hand onto the steering wheel and bobbed my head back and forth to the music on the radio, it helped calm my nerves. Pulling up in front of my last client’s home and getting out of the van I hesitated before knocking on his door, I really hope he isn’t as insufferable as my previous client, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath I knock on the guys door. I hear a distant “Sorry! Just a minute!” Coming from inside the house, well already he seemed to have nicer manners than she did. Whilst I was standing there I realised that I had forgotten the toolbox in the van, huffing I quickly turn to grab the toolbox from the van but as I was walking away he opened the door, great. Now I seem like a impatient jerk.
I swiftly turn on my heel and rub the back of my head apologetically and blurt out “Hey um, sorry about that I was just going to grab my toolbox, I’m Mario, the plumber you hired” the guy was breathing very heavily and looked like he had just gotten into a fight with a hose pipe and lost. He stared at me confused for a couple seconds then it seemed to have clicked and he gestured for me to wait a moment and went back inside, now it seemed like my turn to be confused as I wait for him to come back, but again I turn to go get the toolbox and of course as soon as I open the side door of the van I hear three pairs of footsteps. I stop what I’m doing and turn around to see the guy who answered the door come out with two other guys one who dressed in casual clothing and another who I was all too familiar with… Spike.
As soon as he spotted me he paused, but soon a massive grin grew on his face and he sauntered over towards me “Hey there little Mario, sorry bud. Looks like I beat ya here! These guys called me in an emergency.” Once he was done gloating he cracked his knuckles and continued speaking as he walked away “Looks like a REAL plumber is going to have to finish the job for you!” Staring at him in shock I almost couldn’t believe what just happened. What are the odds I would run into Spike on a already bad day! The guy who has been nothing but silent so far looked at me with sympathy and simply followed Spike back towards the house.
The last guy who was left reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked to be change “Sorry about the trouble little guy, here. For coming all this way” It was the guy who talked to me from inside the house, he handed me the spare change he had in his pocket and walked off with nothing but a bored expression on his face. Staring down at the ground I was in shock, seriously? First someone with a bad attitude and then after that I go ahead and see spike!? All of a sudden feeling emotionally drained and also knowing that bad things happens in three’s it was safe to say I was done working for the day and decided to head home, besides I missed Luigi. He feeling sick today so I told him that he had to stay home for a couple days and rest. I don’t think he was happy with it but I wasn’t giving him a choice.
With my mind made up I close the side door to the van and jump up into the drivers side and pull off, happy to be done with the place. However on the way home the radio music fuzzed out and cut to a live reporter, at first I was disappointed but then she started speaking ‘To the people of Brooklyn we have an announcement! There’s some serious flooding due to an unknown problem that’s causing traffic to slowly reverse away from the problem! We have some…’ at that point I stopped listening. A flood happening right in the middle of Brooklyn? This is it! An opportunity to save the city, maybe then people will finally start taking me seriously.
Having no time to waste waiting in traffic I reached into the back, grabbed Luigi’s toolbox and just hopped out the van and started booking it towards the centre of Brooklyn. Avoiding all the cars on the road the people on the paths I jumped up onto some scaffolding and jumped again onto the roof and from there leap from roof to roof, after a couple houses I spotted the flood and bounded from the roof back onto level ground. Observing the area I realised that the people who were trying to fix the problem were going at it the wrong way I quickly waded through the flood waters towards the manhole and opened it up with a crowbar from the toolbox, a lot of the water drained into it but that didn’t stop the high water pressured pipe from continuing to flood the city, so I held onto the toolbox tightly and jumped down into the sewers. After I managed to catch my bearings I trudged through the water for a short while until there was a sudden drop, across it was the valve to the breaking pipe I was looking for, unfortunately the only way over there was a separate pipe.
Preparing myself for what I’m about to do I adjust the toolbox on me so that whilst shimmering across the gap it would just hang below my back. When I was ready I started slowly making my way across that gap by underside crawling over there, once I got close enough I reached out to try and turn the valve to bring the water pressure down so the pipes wouldn’t burst anymore but the valve popped out the pipe “Uh oh…” all the surrounding pipes being unable to handle the pressure anymore burst, including the one I was holding onto. In a sudden heart dropping moment I fell even further down into the sewers than I ever wanted to be. After gaining my composure I sat up and looked around and noticed it was quite dark, searching around for Luigi’s toolbox I found it and it’s contents scattered, just grabbing the flashlight from the stuff on the floor I promised myself I would buy Luigi a brand new toolbox and tool’s but for now I leave it all there and travel further through the sewers in search of an exit.
Usually it’s Luigi that’s the brother who gets super frightened by stuff like this but even I had to admit that this place was unnerving but as I continued onward I found a place absolutely full of pipes that seemed to go down forever, curiosity getting the better of me I head down the ominous stairwell to seemingly nowhere. When I reached the bottom and nosed about for a while and finding… well, nothing I was going to head back up to keep looking for an exit however, something caught my eye, a large vivid green pipe very much out of place amongst all these small grey pipes so of course I went up close to it and looked down it. It seemed to go on forever and it also had a light but loud breeze going into it, almost like it was trying pull me in. I giggle to myself, that was a silly thought, it was just a strange looking pipe it wasn’t magic or anything. Yet, as soon as I thought that I felt the breeze turn stronger, into a powerful wind I held onto the rim of the pipe for support as it caught me off guard. Okay, enough weirdness it’s time to go home.
Walking at a fast pace apparently didn’t get far enough away from the pull of that pipe in time as all of a sudden my legs were ripped from the floor and into the air as it pulled me back faster than I could think to run, in my surprise I let go of the flashlight. I opened my eyes and saw that I was floating??? Through some kind of mystical see through tunnel. There were so many pretty clouds ranging in all sorts of bright colours, it had me awestruck “Woah! Did I pass out after that fall? This is one beautiful dream” Whilst I was distracted by the clouds I was quickly approaching a fork in the tunnels, one was a green pipe to a dark shrouded place with, lava? The other tunnel looked friendlier as it was just another one of those green pipes surrounded by the pinkish clouds that are everywhere. In a blur I registered that I was heading to the friendlier looking pipe, which is nice. Today’s been, rough… to say the least.