Pawns Of Destiny: A Tale Of Two Heroes

By Jes :)

Chapter 1

Prologue

"I am tired of waiting!"

"Patients is a virtue, and as the saying goes good things come to those who wait."

"Spare me your idiocies, good things come to those who take them."

"When will you learn, brute force is not always the answer, perspective is the key, you must look at the big picture not one piece of it; have I taught you nothing?"

Silence...

"So... what is the big picture?" A sullen reply

"Total control,"

"keep you friends close and your enemies closer," "and I have been keeping a very close eye on these particular enemies of mine." Inaudible mutterings

More silence...

"Er... what are you talking about?"

"What, oh, er nothing, nothing just the ramblings of an old Koopa, yes... a very close eye indeed."

_______

It was a typical day in New York, the people were bustling. The traffic was terrible.

The pigeons were already shaking down the corner hotdog venders for spare bits of hotdog buns; and as usual Maria Mario was trying to get her lazy son Luigi out of the house in time for school.

"Get up, you're going to be late for school again." Maria Mario, gave an exasperated sigh as she shook her youngest son, Luigi, to wake him.

"Just five more minutes ma--" he slurred before falling once again into slumbers grasp.

"Get up you lazy bambino" She shook him a little harder only to have her hand swatted away for her effort.

"Well I never!" Drastic times call for drastic measures; Maria was all set to go into the bathroom and get a bucket of ice cold water for Luigi until a knock at the door distracted Maria from her lazy teenage son; and lucky for him she went to answer it.

"Mario," she exclaimed upon seeing her elder son standing at the doorway. He smiled politely at his mother as she invited him in.

"What are doing here so early dear," she kissed her son and took his thin jacket and hung it on a peg next to the door.

"I came to bring Luigi a pair of coveralls, I know you don't like him wearing his school cloths to unclog stopped up sinks and plumbing.

Mario's mother frowned in distaste, "certainly not, we're on a tight enough budget as it is without cleaning bills to get sewer scum out of polyester!"

"Aww come on Mama, that was only one time... and it wasn't that bad."

Maria scoffed, "Luigi had to sleep out on the porch the stench was so disgusting; and it wasn't that bad?"

Mario blushed- A funny sight to see, a grown man blush, "Well... uh, where's Weege, shouldn't he be leaving for school about now?"

Mario's slick way of changing the subject-

"He's still asleep," Maria sighed, "go see if you can get him up; I have to get ready for work or I'm going to be late!"

"Will do Mama," Mario marched off to his little brothers room; who was in for a rude awakening.

Luigi, half on the bed-on-the-floor, with covers wrapped over him in the most odd places mumbled something unintelligible. Happy little stars with eyes that almost seemed to dance on his bright blue pajamas-

Mario rolled his eyes, "When are you gonna grow up?" He muttered-

Grabbing the edge of the blanket and giving it a good hard yank Luigi ended up on the floor upside down and still half asleep. "Wha?" The boy slurred-

"Get up, you lazy good for nothing!" Luigi slinked back up to the bed and scratched his stomach.

"Geezus Mario, what's your problem, I was trying to sleep ya know?"

"You're going to be late for school... again,"

"Relax it's only," Luigi glanced at the hand me down digital clock that used to be in Mario's possession, "seven forty-five, I'm gonna be late, why didn't someone wake me up?!"

Luigi scurried out of bed to the closet and started throwing things around in an effort to find something that wasn't too dirty, smelly or wrinkled to wear to school.

"What to wear, what to wear?"

Mario sighed "You could always go naked," Mario pointed out only to receive an icy glare from his brother.

"Sorry brother I have no intention of trying to live out your fantasies," Luigi tossed a stained red shirt to the floor from his closet.

"Very funny smart ass," Mario uttered dryly as he picked up the shirt and tossed it into the dirty clothes bin near the door.

"Well you got one thing right," Luigi tossed a pair of blue jeans out onto the floor; as Mario once again put it into the clothes bin. "I am smart," the boy stated,

"and an ass;" Mario added before he was hit in the face with a pair of dirty green denim shorts.

"Hey-" Mario resisted the urge to throw the shorts back at his brother. Instead the shorts found their way into the bin like the rest of the dirty laundry. One of them had to be the mature one; and it surly wasn't going to be Luigi.

Of course Luigi was only sixteen so responsibility was something he would have to work on as he got older, but even for a teenager Marios' little brother was unnaturally immature. Of course Mario was always there to cover for Luigi's lack of responsibility with his own dependability. The pair were rarely apart so what Luigi lacked Mario made up for in spades. It all balanced out in the end

"Oh, sorry bro didn't see you there," Luigi gave his brother an innocent smile.

"I'm sure," Mario glared at his little brother, "Just put something on, if Mama has to dress you, you're gonna be sorry."

Mario remembered the time he was made to wear the most putrid looking yellow sweater with purple pants to school for picture day. Maria wouldn't have Mario missing school pictures just because he couldn't find that 'cool' shirt with a komodo dragon on it.

He'd gotten into quite a few fights that day defending his honor from kids calling him 'miss-matched-Mario.'

"Those pant's would have looked so cool with that dragon shirt..." Mario Mumbled

"Huh?" Luigi replied he wasn't really paying attention to Mario anymore-

"Wha- oh, nothing... I brought you a pair of overalls you could wear those to school-"

"Are you insane? I get made fun of enough with out your help thank you very much!"

"You will wear the overalls, and here's a shirt for you as well." A shirt was tossed at Luigi and landed on his head, it smelled like Downy so it must have been freshly washed

"Mama, I-"

"Don't you 'Mama' me! Now get dressed and get yourself to school; because by God Luigi you're not too old for me to take you over my knee yet, now get moving!"

Maria swept out of the room her ranting, with a thick Italian accent ,could be heard as she stormed through the hallway.

Luigi just stood there for a moment looking quite baffled, usually Mama didn't get quite so mad. His chain of thought was broken by a small sound...

"*snork.*" Mario cleared his throat in a poor attempt to cover a laugh, "here little brother;" Mario said with a ridicules grin as he handed Luigi the coveralls that had been hanging on his shoulder. Luigi frowned as his brother left the room snickering closing the bedroom door behind him.

_______

"I'm not going" Luigi walked into the living room where Mario and Maria sat chatting quietly.

Maria looked up stopping almost in mid-sentence to correct her younger son.

"You most certainly are too going to school today, you're not sick-"

"But Mama, I look like Farmer John, no one where's overalls to school, people are going to make fun of me!" He complained.

"One" his mother prompted

"You look fine, don't be such a peacock," she brushed some imaginary lint from the boys coveralls.
"And two," she added satisfied that the non-existent fuzz was gone

"Anyone who will make fun of you for what you're wearing is not someone who's opinion you should care about in the first place."

Luigi rolled his eyes, "You just don't under-"

"I understand perfectly well, I was six-teen once two you know-"

"oh do tell-" Luigi added sarcastically only to be slapped for it.

"Don't be a smart mouth!"

"Yes mama..." :(

Mario no long trying to hide it openly laughed at his little brother.
"Mama, you should know, Luigi could care less what people think of him... unless they're female that is."

Mario grinned at his brother who shot him the dirtiest look in the history of dirty looks.

"Shut-up butt wipe" Luigi growled

"Luigi, Langauge!" He winced as his mother once again slapped him upside the back of the head

"Ow would you quite doing that please?!" Mario snickered again. Seeing how many times he could get Luigi in trouble with their mother was almost a sort of sport.

And yet again Luigi was smacked

"Don't talk back!"

"But you didn't say anything" the boy whined.

Maria gave her son a dark look, Luigi nervously chuckled,

"eh, heh, heh, I'd best be off for school now. Love you Mama." Luigi gave his mother a peck on the cheek and bolted for the door, "Later Mario"
"Remember three-" Mario shouted after his brother who was already out the door and in the hall way

"Yeah, yeah, I know three o'clock at the shop and 'don't be late!'" Luigi called back.

Mario sighed
"He's going to be late you know" Maria gave her son a warm smile

"I know," Mario said with a frown. "when is he gonna grow up?"

a sad expression crossed his mother's face, "when he realizes that life is not a game, and that the people that we come to depend on... will not always be there when we need them."

Mario remained silent for a moment knowing all too well what his mother was referring to.

"I wish..." Mario whispered

"That he never has to grow up." he looked up at his mother with a painful expression.

"Me too" She pulled her son into a hug, and Mario swore he heard a sniffle before the pair broke apart.

Mario cleared his throat. "I'd better go, I've got an appointment to keep at eight forty-five"

"Have a good day at work Mama."
"You too," Maria kissed her son on the cheek and once again embraced her elder son.

She whispered the last words that , mother and child would ever exchange, in his ear...

"Take care of your brother."

"Always, I promise."

Mario waved his mother goodbye as exited his former home, unaware that he would not be seeing either of them again soon.

This is my baby and I am determined not to give up on it till it's been seen all the way through! Can I get a "HELL YES?"

Most of FFN: "Whatever.."

-_-; *sigh* Fine be that way... Read, review, enjoy, flame if you have nothing better to do.

I have a far clearer vision of the plot; and this need to be rewritten to accommodate it. Look forward to more rewritten chapters as well as completely new chaps.

Liz a.k.a Jes:)