File 01- Assistant

Mario, for the past three months now, wouldn't let Luigi adventure with him. Luigi begged me to do something, so I used my DNA splicer to make him a small bird to give to Mario to act as his guide, Mario not aware that it was his brother.

Problem- Though the splicer worked perfectly, the problem came in that Luigi was fully a bird, and thus, frail. This became a problem when Kamek caught him and Luigi almost met his end.

Solution- Luigi made it out alright, however had to keep his arms as wings in order for them to heal properly without changing them back doing more damage.

XxX

A giant crash rang out as Professor Elvin Gadd was organizing test tubes on a shelf and the front door blasted open, accompanied by a sobbing noise.

"Hey, Luigi, my lad," the professor greeted the distraught man, recognizing Luigi's sobs and not looking up from his work. "You're clearly here to tell me that something's wrong, so out with it please."

The professor had grown used to Luigi barging in on the verge of emotional meltdowns as of late and the two gained a rather "cut to the point" type of relationship when dealing with Luigi's problems so that they could be solved a bit quicker. Luigi also tended to be a bit more childish than usual in these moments, making the professor realize the best way to deal with and solve these issues was with a steady and flat attitude.

Luigi sniffled and wiped away his snot and tears with his sleeve before answering, doing his best to make his voice intelligible.

"M-Mario wouldn't let me come on an adventure with him again! This is the sixth time in a row that he refused to let me come with him! I really want to go and spend some quality time with my bro, even if it means beating up denizens of another kingdom!"

E. Gadd sighed. "Do you think perhaps that there is a logical reasoning behind him not letting you come?"

"Oh no," replied Luigi, shaking his head fervently, "I didn't do anything that ruined everything on the last adventure I was on with him, I haven't done anything to make him mad, and heck, I'm an adult and his twin no less! I have thought about this as I was running over here sobbing, and the only real thing this can all be lumped up to is Mario tending to be a bit of a glory hog! Is this all I am to him? Just an inconvenience!?" Luigi let a fresh bout of sobbing begin.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it then?" E. Gadd asked, shrugging as he finished arranging test tubes and turning to face Luigi, who was gushing a cartoonish amount of tears everywhere.

"Just please do something, anything, to make it so I can go with him!" Luigi choked out between sobs. "And please let the solution not involve traveling to another parallel dimension."

The professor shuddered remembering the last disaster that involved Luigi traveling to another dimension. It ended with Luigi running back out of the portal in nothing but his underwear, on fire, and being simultaneously mauled by 15 different penguins. Don't ask.

E. Gadd thought to himself as to how he was going to fix this. Since it appeared to be Luigi himself being a problem, a disguise had to be in order. But it had to be pretty convincing since anybody but Luigi tripping every ten yards when they walked would be suspicious. Maybe if it were something to give to Mario to help him on his journey to where Luigi would be indispensable...

"I got it!" the professor exclaimed as he snapped his fingers before pointing to an office chair. "Sit in that, my boy. I think I have a way that will allow you to journey with Mario and actually help!"

"Are you telling me all the other times I wasn't helpin-" Luigi froze as the professor grabbed a giant gun off a shelf and aimed it directly at him.

"Hold still and try not to tense up! I've been waiting for a chance to test this out!"

A sudden whirring whine filled the air as the gun began to fire up and bright blue energy danced at the tip. Luigi, knowing the virtues of following and dwelling on the professor's every word to avoid drastic consequences, did his best not to tense up as the beam at the end of the gun reached its full size and shot at Luigi.

As the beam hit him, a sudden itching sensation covered Luigi for a fraction of a second before dissapating as quickly as it came on. Luigi realized it was dark everywhere and that he was covered in something. Upon attempting to move, Luigi felt a weird and foreign sensation all over as if something attached to him was moving. Just what had the professor done?

Luigi tried to scream 'where are you? What did you do?', but all he could hear was a very loud "Peep!"

Luigi felt what was surrounding him shift as something giant and warm closed around him, being accompanied by a loud chuckle as light hit his face once again. Luigi looked around at his enviroment, which was the lab, but now giant and looking menacing to him. Below him was a pile of his clothes, vacant. Luigi tried to scream, but again all that could come out was a loud "Peep!"

"Relax, Luigi," E. Gadd's voice sounded loud as Luigi felt himself being placed on a table in front of a giant mirror. Looking back at Luigi from the mirror was a small and puffy looking green bird with blue dots for eyes and tiny spindly legs that could be very easily confused with twigs. Luigi moved what he thought were his arms and saw the wings in the reflection move. A single flap of them easily made his small body airborne.

"I've been waiting ages to test out my DNA splicing gun and you were the perfect subject and it appears my machine worked flawlessly on you!"

Although he should have been more than used to all the weird garbage that happened to him on a regular basis, all Luigi could do was let out a shocked peep before tipping over onto his side.

XxX

"So why did you call me over again saying it was urgent?" Mario asked, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. "The princess could be getting horribly tortured right now for all I know and you wanted me to go out of my way to come here!"

E. Gadd gave a small smile, ignoring Mario's impatience, before handing a small box about the size of a baseball to Mario, ignoring the impatience. "This should help you on your journey a lot."

Luigi squirmed uncomfortably inside the box, hearing everything and hoping Mario would get on with it and open up the box before he choked on his own feathers. Getting over the shock of being removed from the human race so suddenly, Luigi quickly learned to fly and hop along the floor with an amount of mastery, impressing even the professor with his ability to master his new form so quickly. He was ready to join Mario and was promptly stuffed into a small box.

Luckily, Mario wasn't much of a speaker and opened the box. Mario stared down at what appeared to be a small green feather ball in confusion.

"How's this going to help me at all?" Mario asked quizically, poking the small ball before realizing it was a living thing a little bit too late as the thing made a cacophony of noises and it began flapping its wings in surprise.

Unfortunately, Luigi had managed to wiggle his way upside-down in the box and didn't realize it until Mario poked him in an area on his back that felt sensitive. Luigi didn't realize he had flapped his way out of the box until he saw the ground rush up to meet him.

Mario stared at the small thing on the ground feeling bad before scooping it up in one of his hands, the tiny little dots of blue eyes meeting his gaze evenly. Still slightly confused, Mario poked its chest with his index finger to be met with a small "Peep!"

Mario couldn't hold back a smile. "This thing is really adorable and all, but what is a small bird going to do for me?" Mario asked as he started stroking the small plume of feathers on the bird's head.

E. Gadd gently took the bird from Mario, carefully grabbing its wings and stretching them out. "Well, this fella here is rather small, but he's a strong flier and rather inconspicuous. He's also very smart, so what I was thinking is that you could take him with you and have him scout out areas ahead of you and tell you what to expect."

Luigi, feeling rather tired of the professor handling him, pulled his wing out of E. Gadd's grip before hopping off his palm and flapping his way to the top of Mario's hat and plopping down.

"Does he have a name?" Mario asked, removing the bird from his head and holding it in his palm, having an impromptu staring contest with it once more.

"No. You can name him right now if you want."

Mario stared at the small creature, poking it once more to be met with another absolutely adorable peep.

"I'll name you Peeper!" Mario exclaimed with a smile.

'That's a horrible name!' Luigi thought to himself before attempting to make angry peeping noises at Mario to have him change his mind. 'I know I'm supposedly only a little bird, but that name makes me sound like some sort of pervert!'

E. Gadd noticed Mario didn't seem to understand the look of disapproval on the birds face. But, since he could get away with it, might as well have some fun.

"I think all those peeps means he loves the name! Take good care of Peeper!"

Mario gave Luigi one more pat on the head with his index finger before removing his hat. "Do you want to sit under my hat until I need-"

Before Mario could finish the sentence, the bird jumped up from his hand and landed in his hair, squatting down and clearly making himself comfortable. "Then that's settled," said Mario, putting his hat back on. "Goodbye professor, and thanks for Peeper!"

Mario turned and started walking towards the early afternoon sun, hoping with the help of his not-so-new friend that Peach wouldn't have to wait as long.

XxX

Luigi huffed and puffed as he flew away frantically from a Paragoomba that decided to chase him, Luigi peeping as loudly and frantically as possible, speeding towards Mario like a tiny green bullet.

"Peeper!" Luigi heard Mario say before the a shadow passed overhead as Mario jumped on the Paragoomba, effectively saving Luigi. "So buddy, other than that Paragoomba, what else is out there?"

Luigi, still trying to get his breathing under control, landed near a small dusty spot on the ground. Promptly, Luigi began tracing a small map of the area with his pointy beak, drawing rather crude, yet distinguishable, doodles of enemies on the ground. There were only three regular Goomba's, one more Paragoomba, and five green-shelled Koopas.

Luigi and Mario made a great team with Luigi in his current state, come to find out. Though Mario still had no idea it was him, Luigi still couldn't help but feel elated whenever Mario gave him praise for warning him of an ambush so they could find an alternate route. This bird thing was working out great! The only downsides were that Luigi couldn't fight back for rather obvious reasons, and he had to eat worms and bugs, but he'd rather forget about that and never speak of it again. They were already only about a mile away from Bowser's Castle!

Mario stared at the small doodle on the ground, scratching his chin. "Alright, this is nothing we can't handle. We can just charge on through to the front gates, though there will probably be more troops on the inside to make up for the lack of them out here. Either that, or Bowser has something planned, but Bowser's kind of a tool, so I doubt there's anything extra tricky going on here. Great job, Peeper!"

Luigi puffed his chest up with pride and made a regal sounding peep before retiring back to under Mario's hat once more. The sunset illuminated the Darklands as Mario continued his trek onwards, ready to get the princess back with ease, or so he thought. Unfortunately, Mario was unaware of a certain Magikoopa watching his every move.

XxX

Mario moved through one empty corridor after another, thoroughly confused. Though he was tempted to send out Peeper to scout, something told him to someone else was expecting him to do that, making it a bad idea. Things were eerily empty, and that indicated something bad was about to happen. A sudden loud roar confirmed these suspicions as loud and heavy footsteps started moving towards Mario, making the man shudder, though he knew it was only Bowser, the same rather oafish egotistical tyrant he had defeated time and time again.

"Mario!" Bowser's loud roar echoed through the empty halls, accompanied by a feminine shriek and the squealing of iron. As per usual, Bowser had Peach right with him.

Mario assumed a fighting position before realizing that it felt like something was missing... Peeper was gone! Mario shoved his hand up into his hair to confirm his worst fears.

The sudden tinkle of teleportation magic accompanied by a bunch of frantic peeps sent a shiver down Mario's spine. This could only mean one thing.

"Well, well," stated Kamek as he floated into Mario's view and joined Bowser, "How do you feel now that I have your little pet? Considering he was so small, it was quite simple to use magic to snatch him from under your hat."

"You give him back!" Mario screamed, infuriated further by the bird's helpless peeps.

Kamek gave a small chuckle before turning the bird around in his hands and stretching out its wings, making sure not to let it escape. "I must say," Kamek said as he prodded the thing more despite protests, "this is quite ingenious, but I really thought you would think higher of your little brother."

Confusion flooded Mario. "What are you talking about? Peeper has literally nothing to do with Luigi!"

Mario had completely forgotten about Bowser, but luckily he only stood by, amused by this small confrontation.

Kamek looked at Mario over the top of his glasses. "Wait... you didn't know? I mean it is kind of obvious. A small green animal with piercing blue eyes, which is an eye color that typically is exclusive to the human race gene pool of this planet-are you with me here?"

Mario gave a blank look and shook his head.

Kamek sighed. "Okay, let's make this a bit more obvious."

Kamek took out his magic wand and poked Luigi with it, causing Luigi to be engulfed in a small bright flash. After that, Kamek brought Luigi closer to his bespectacled face. "I will destroy your brother and kill everyone you love."

"No!" Shouted Luigi, not even realizing that he was speaking English in his human voice. "You will never defeat my big bro! He will destroy you before you can even lift a finger!"

Mario stared at the small bird, shocked at what could be nothing other than his brother. How did Luigi get reduced to a small bird?

"L-Luigi?" Mario asked, his voice wobbling with uncertainty. "Is that you?"

Luigi adjusted himself in Kamek's grip to where he was facing Mario. "I'm sorry, big bro, I only wanted to hel-" Luigi's voice cut out and only peeping could be heard.

Mario felt his red hot fury return tenfold. "You let Luigi go!"

"Oh I don't think I will. In fact, I'm just going to end the problem right here and now" With a malicious grin on his face, Kamek tightened his grip on Luigi. In what seemed like a flash, Kamek had squeezed Luigi too hard, making him go limp. Kamek dropped Luigi to the floor.

Kamek had officialy taken it too far by a long shot. The fire burned within the pit of his turning stomach, rising up his small, tense body. His heartbeat intensifying, making his chest rise and fall with some speed, resulting in his pudgy nose flickering up and down quickly. His whole body rose in temperature, like he had a fever, his skin darkened to the red on his shirt.

"...how could they...how could he?! My only family! My little, sweet...BROTHER! They tried to hurt him! ...YOU JERKS!...You'll pay... YOU'LL ALL PAY!"

Within an instant, the fire burning inside him exposed itself as his hands clenched into fists, burning hot fire surrounding them. The flames passionately and drastically burned furiously in his eyes. Only seeing red, the bull charged forward into battle.

Mario took a step, causing the floor to rumble, Peach squealing in fear. It was all over in a flash, seemingly as Mario rushed up to Bowser and punched him harder than possible for any mere human man. Bowser flew back, wincing at the pain the short and chubby man had inflicted. Before he could as much as retaliate, Bowser got kicked in the face before receiving another punch full of fire to the face. Mario's eyes were a burning red, reflecting only revenge and hate towards the ones who hurt his little brother; uncharacteristic for a usually happy and calmer man.

One more kick sent Bowser into the lava, but Mario wasn't done yet. Mario turned to the Magikoopa that had done this. He was going to pay most of all. In a final flash of red that even berserk Mario couldn't comprehend what happened in, Mario destroyed Kamek. He must have since all Mario had were Kamek's crushed spectacles and a crimson red suspicious pool of liquid on the ground.

When Mario became fully aware again Peach was sitting on the ground in shock. But that wasn't what Mario was concerned about.

Mario quickly moved to the small body on the ground, still and limp with seemingly no signs of life.

"Oh, Luigi," Mario whimpered as tears started flowing out of his eyes.

Mario picked up the miniscule and limp form of his little brother. Mario gently rubbed the bird with his index finger, promising him it would be alright, though knowing that a promise like that while Luigi may very well be dead was futile.

XxX

Luigi heard beeping first. It was at first a very slow, but constant beep. As Luigi started listening to it more it began to speed up. That was when the soreness hit him, making him moan in pain.

Suddenly it felt as if a freight train hit him full on in the chest.

"Luigi!" A tear-filled cry of joy came from the thing that had tackled him.

Luigi slowly creaked open his eyes, almost blinded by the light at first but getting his bearings. Sitting on his lap was Mario, looking overjoyed, but his eyes were also puffy and red as if he had been crying for awhile.

"I-I-I thought I had lost you..." Mario said in a rare moment of pure sadness.

It all came flooding back... a seemingly perfect adventure, Kamek...

"I'm so sorry, bro," said Luigi as he moved his arm up to embrace Mario before freezing. Instead of a regular arm in his view, there was a giant limb covered entirely with thick green feathers. Luigi brought the limb, which he confirmed was his by being able to move it, up to his face and felt extremely soft and glossy feathers tickling his nose. "Mamma Mia, what happened to me?"

Mario very gently took Luigi's wing and moved it back down to his side. "Kamek almost killed you by crushing you, but luckily failed. However, he had about obliterated your wing bones and when I managed to get you back here, the professor and I agreed that it would be best to let the wings heal as they are now so mutating your wings back into arms didn't permanently ruin anything. We just slowly started mutating you back and stopped when your arms started changing. You're still part bird right now."

Luigi looked down and noticed he was wearing an old green pair of his overalls without a shirt. Where a small patch of chest hair used to be growing was now a small plume of green feathers. Upon catching his reflection on a nearby moniter that was recording his vital signs (which Luigi realized was also making the beeping noise in sync with his heart-rate), Luigi also saw that throughout his dark brown hair was also a bunch of green feathers throughout, growing along with his hair.

"Meh, I've been through worse," Luigi mumbled to himself.

Mario stared at his brother, smiling to himself that Luigi was accepting this and the fact that he was merely still alive. About a month before, Mario had his fortune told by Merlon, Merlon fortelling of Luigi's life being in danger. Mario, scared to lose his brother, had taken the most straightforward action he could and didn't let Luigi come with him to rescue the princess. Unfortunately, it became clear that by trying to avoid Luigi's so called "destiny" that Mario had only pushed him closer to it.

The professor had explained everything to Mario as he brought Luigi in, barely alive. Luigi only wanted to spend time with him and Mario had pushed him further away.

Not knowing what else to do, Mario started to appologize. "I'm so sorry for not letting you come on adventures with me, Luigi. I was scared of you getting hurt and I didn't want to lose you. I was so selfish. I'm sorry."

Luigi gave Mario a small smile before raising his wings, which were covered in splints along the bones, and embraced Mario. "I forgive you," Luigi whispered, pulling Mario closer in a hug he wasn't letting go of anytime soon.

XxX

Please leave a review of what you thought of this small story. Constructive criticism is welcome so I can learn to improve. Also feel free to submit a story file! A very special thanks to Dani on DA for writing a small chunk of this!

Until next time, Norm out.