Chapter 9. A Visit to Proff. Gadd

Luigi waited in the hallway along with Toad and Toadette while Mario showered and got dressed. He didn't want to be rude, but he had to wonder if Mario bathed in the past few days. There was a small foul odor that lingered around his brother. The two toads on the other hand had a sweet fragrance.

"How do you hear?" Toad asked after a minute of awkward silence.

"Toad," Toadette addressed the retainer in a sharp tone.

"Sorry," Toad shrugged. "I'm just curious." He pointed at his own minuscule ears. "We got these and you don't have any."

Luigi chuckled. "I was curious myself." He pointed to his head. "Like most reptiles I have ear holes."

"Are you warm-blooded or cold-blooded?" Toad asked another question.

"I'm not certain," Luigi shrugged. "I never noticed a change in temps. I mean I notice when it is sunny and warm, cool and dreary, and here with the ac running, but nothing different than before."

"Maybe they are warm-blooded," Toadette suggested. "Since they breath fire."

"We could be," Luigi approached the phone. "Gadd would know. He's a brilliant man."

"I thought he only knew stuff about ghosts," Toad said. "Who ya calling?"

"Wendy," Luigi dialed the number to the castle. "I need to let her know where I'm going."

"Wow, he's already whipped," Toad said and received a smack in the side of the head from Toadette.

"Greetings, you have reached the home of the future king," a child's voice greeted. "And the current king Bowser."

"Hello Junior," Luigi greeted. Wendy wasn't wrong when she said that Junior thought he was going to inherit the throne. "Where is Wendy?"

"Putting on make up," Junior responded in a snide tone. "You know that is going to take hours to make her look somewhat pretty." He laughed.

Luigi fought back the urge to growl. "I think your sister is beautiful," he ignored the gasp from Toad. "Now I would like to talk to her please."

"All right, all right," the other end became quite for several minutes. "She is on her-" muffled sounds of a minor scuffle were heard.

"Luigi?" Wendy greeted.

"Hello dear," Luigi greeted. "Sorry about leaving early."

"You don't have to apologize to me. Daddy is curious about where you are, but then again Larry is also missing."

"Wendy, we are about to see Gadd. We are going to see if he can change me back to a human, please don't be upset, even if he does succeed I want you to know I wont leave you."

"The spell is permanent," Wendy's voice grew soft.

"We haven't tried the science angle," Luigi swallowed. "I will return to you, I promise, even if you don't want me as a human."

"You were a cute human, actually a handsome human, but you are a sexy Koopa."

"Thank you," he felt himself blush. "I'll see you at the castle."

"Actually we'll meet you there. Bye my sweet husband." She hung up.

"What was that about?" Mario asked.

Luigi spun around. "How long have you been here?"

"For a few minutes," Mario was dressed in his usual attire of red shirt, overalls, white gloves, hat and shoes. His hair was still damp. He smelled clean, but there was a faint hint of that foul odor from before.

"Wendy said she was going to meet us at Gadd's," Luigi said. He left out the part where Wendy had said we.

"Wait," Mario held up his hands. "She is going to meet us there?"

"That is what I said," Luigi placed his hands on his hips. "She is not going to try anything."

The walk through the Boo forest was peaceful. There were several toads that watched the four of them in awe, but none tried to give Luigi a hard time. They respected Mario too much and must have heard how he had worked with friendly Troopas, Goombas, Bom-ombs, ghosts, and Cheap Cheaps in the past.

"Does Wendy know the way?" Toadette asked as they neared the mansion.

"I'm sure she-" Luigi was cut off by the sound of a helicopter.

They all looked up to see what was the shape of Bowser's clown car, except it was silver, its face resembled the frightening mug of a Boo and it had the whirling blades of a helicopter connected to a pole in the back and what looked like two short legs connected to two long feet on the bottom. The strange vehicle landed on the ground in front of the mansion.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man," Iggy Koopa jumped out of the helicopter. He was wearing his usual white lab coat and nothing else. "Okay, Iggy. Don't panic." He examined his reflection in the side of his helicopter. "Okay glasses are clean," he ran his hand through his colorful striped hair. "Hair is in place." He breathed onto his hand and sniffed it. "Breath is still good, okay I look good enough to meet him."

"Excuse him," Wendy stepped out. "He is experience a high case of geeker joy." She adjusted the large speckled bow on her head. "Hello Luigi."

"Wendy," Luigi hugged his wife. He closed his eyes and inhaled her sweet scent. "Sorry I didn't tell you this last night."

"You were exhausted," she kissed him and turned to Mario. "Hello Mario, brother."

"Hello Wendy," Mario swallowed. "And Iggy."

"You know, they are kind of cute together," Toadette smiled.

"Cute?" Toad asked.

"I can't be the one to knock," Iggy stood in front of the door with shaky hands. "I just can't. I still have to think of what to say when I meet him."

"Oh for the love of," Wendy rolled her eyes. "Luigi this was supposed to be your home or originally, you should be the one to knock."

"Or ring the door bell," Luigi pressed a talon against the button.

"You used to live here?" Iggy gasped. "Here at the home of one Professor Elvin Gadd? One of the greatest minds ever known and you used to live with him?"

"Actually I gave it to him," Luigi explained. "It was a little bit to big for just me, and still too roomy for both me and Mario."

"Not to mention the place is kinda spooky," Toad added. He was staring at the entrance of the mansion from behind Mario. "Even with the ghosts in the portraits."

The door opened and a rail thin ghost with a balding head greeted them. "Hello…" His eyes widened at the sight of Luigi and the Koopas. He screamed and floated back.

"Don't be afraid Shivers," Luigi said in a soothing voice. "It's me, Luigi."

"You're a Koopa," Shivers pointed at Luigi.

"Where is Gadd?" Mario stepped in between them.

"He's watching his cartoons," Shivers frowned at Mario. "You still haven't learned any matters."

"Excuse me?" Mario asked.

"He has a ghost for a servant," Iggy gasped. "He is one of the most amazing humans ever."

"I apologize for my brother's rudeness," Luigi said. "Can you please take us to see him?"

"Yes," Shivers nodded. "Right this way."

He led them down the long halls, and past several other portraits. Toadette, Wendy, and Iggy paused to read the inscription under each painting.

"No," Wendy shook her head when she stopped in front of Sue Pea's portrait. "She was only seven?"

"It is very tragic," Shivers nodded. He placed his translucent hands over his chest. "Even though my heart no longer beats it still hurts for her."

"She went to sleep and died?" Wendy's eyes teared up.

"That's awful," Toadette nodded. "That poor little girl."

Wendy wiped the corner of her eye. "How? I can understand if she was a very old woman, but she was just a child."

"It may have been sleep apnea," Iggy shrugged.

"The boys were even younger," Shivers added.

"Don't forget Chauncey." Luigi added. How could anyone forget that brat? It was bad enough that he threw his toys at Luigi, but he also shrank Luigi down. He was never going to forget looking up into the glowing yellow of eyes of the giant baby.

"Chauncey was born that way," Shivers said.

"How can someone be born a ghost?" Toad asked.

"Perhaps their mother was expecting when-" Mario clamped his hand over Iggys mouth before the Koopa genius could finish.

"You might not want to upset the ladies even further," Shivers said. "Come along now, it is not much further."

Shivers lead them to a living room, filled with plump couches and armchairs, and end tables carved out of fine oak. A large screen was displaying images of bright colored robots fighting against what appeared to be a large green pile of ooze.

"Professor," Shivers floated in front of the couch. "You have visitors."

"Visitors?" The professor exclaimed. "Oh good, I love to see visitors." There was the sound of someone vacating the sofa and a few seconds later a short elderly man, wearing thick glasses and had a swirl shaped wisp of white hair on the top of his head. "Oh it you Mr. Impulsive plumber." Gadd said once he placed his glasses back on his face

"Hello Gadd," Mario greeted.

"Where is your brother?"

"I'm right here," Luigi smiled at his friend.

"Oh," Gadd craned his head back. "Luigi?" He removed his glasses and cleaned them before he put them back on. "My goodness, lad, what have you gotten yourself into? What is a mutagenic serum that chemically altered your DNA into a Koopa, or was it an electronic ray that transmogrified your body into a different species."

"Actually it was magic," Luigi said.

"Ah magic," Gadd frowned as he rubbed the top of his head. "I keep forgetting sometimes it is simple potion or a wave of the wand, oh yes magic, makes things easier even when some of us go through years of research, spent hours toiling away-"

"To get the electrodes set up right, make sure all the calculations are accurate," Iggy continued. "Going through trial and error countless of times to see a project work."

"Ah someone who understands," Gadd smiled at him. "Are you also a scientist?"

"Yes," Iggy's voice grew weak as he held out his hand. "M-m-my N-n-nammme isss Ig-g-ggy."

"Nice to meet you Iggy," Gadd shook his hand. "I see we wear the same prescription."

"We have the same prescription," Iggy repeated and turned to Wendy. "Did you hear that? We have the same prescription."

"I heard," Wendy rolled her eyes. "Let me apologize for my brother. He is a bit of a fan of yours."

"A bit of a fan?" Iggy blinked. "Does a bit of a fan read all twelve of the books written by Gadd at least twenty times, clip every article in every newspaper, and magazine that is written by him, record every television appearance, does that sound like a bit of a fan."

"It sounds almost like a stalker," Toad whispered to Toadette.

"I have a fan," Gadd brushed his elbow against Mario's arm. "You see that dear boy? I have a fan."

"I saw," Mario grumbled, he was clearly not impressed. "Do you have any of that mutant syrup or transform ray, that might change my brother back into a human?"

"No I haven't," Gadd shook his head. "But I'll see what I can do, first you have to come with me to my examination room."

The examination room was similar to most examination rooms Luigi had been in when he went to his doctor, the walls were painted a pail green. There were cold sterile metal tables and counters and a leather bed in the center. Instead of pamphlets of different medicine and supplement names, and information various virus that have been mention in the recent news, there was a corkboard, with several news articles pinned in to it.

Wendy walked over to it. She seemed to be drawn to one article. "Dr Phillip refuses to leave hospital, feels the cure is just around the corner."

"Oh that was tragic," Gadd's face became crestfallen. "He was willing to do everything for his little girl. Sank his entire savings into making sure one section of the hospital had enough power and supplies."

"What happened to his daughter?" Wendy continued to read the article. "It doesn't say."

Gadd shrugged. "There are some to say she was cured, some said she died. He was a brilliant man, that Dr Phillip. I met him a few times when his daughter was still healthy. She was one of the sweetest little things, always offering to share her little bag of jellybeans with everyone. I gave her a lollipop in return. I wish I did know what really happened to her."

"Did you not receive any news?" Toadette asked. She was also reading the article.

"Nothing came through, nothing but rumors and stories, along with other stories, things nightmares are made of, even more frightening than ghosts."

"Even more frightening than King Boo?" Luigi asked.

The elderly man nodded. "One story that was proven true was the fate of my old friend." He placed a hand on his chest. "He was murdered by a colleague."

"I think that is enough on that subject," Mario said. "What about my brother?"

The professor nodded. "You don't need to hop on that bed. I just need to take a blood sample from you, Luigi." He rummaged through one of the drawers and pulled out a syringe.

"Okay," Luigi closed his eyes. He felt a cool damp cloth rub on his arm.

"Just try not to think about it," Gadd said.

"I won't," he didn't cringe, not even when he felt the prick of the needle in his arm.

"Okay, that wasn't so bad." Gadd placed the needle aside. "Now I just need one from Mario."

"Wait," Mario shook his head. "I am not going to get poked by a needle."

"I need your blood, help with the transformation process." He removed a new needle from its plastic seal.

"Why not take some of yours?" Mario asked. "If you need blood from a human."

"Well it would help if it I had yours since you are his brother, and his twin."

"Are you absolutely certain?" Mario was stepping away towards the door, only to find out both Toad and Toadette blocked it.

"Are you afraid of needles, Mario?" Toadette asked.

"Yes he is," Luigi said.

"No," Mario frowned. "I just don't like em."

"I see," Gadd nodded. "I won't take a sample now, but if I do need it I will give you a call.

Tempo Town

Larry felt his heart pounding. He held his salt-rock rocket launcher to his chest with sweaty hands. The Corpsfinder 3000 was beeping madly and there was no surprise with the five zombies that surrounded both him and Kamron.

"Gotcha," the young Magikoopa waved his wand, creating the bright flash that froze all of the zombies in place. "I can't keep up this flare forever."

"I'm on it," Larry aimed his launder at the first one and fired. The rocket made out of salt rock struck the frozen corpse in the head, causing the figure to fall apart into various limbs, chunks of flesh, bone splinters, worms and black goo. Larry fired at two more before the light started to weaken.

"Hurry," Kamron gasped. His curl of orange hair was stuck to his forehead from sweat.

"I got it," Larry aimed at the fourth zombie and pulled the trigger. The click made him pause. "Oh hell no. Don't jam on me now."

The flare faded, leaving a gasping Kamron and two mobile zombies. Larry struggled with his weapon, he wasn't aware someone was behind him until they were close enough to smell their scent, and he knew that was too close for comfort.