[Deleted]

"Bwahahahaha!"

The mad scientist stood tall and proud amongst the destroyed rubble around him.  This couldn't be too hard could it?  Too conquer a rust bucket like this?  Bah!  This scrap would be his starting point.  Taking everything he could and rebuilding his castle.  Better yet, build minions to do it for him.  Speaking of rebuilding, this place did not look rather well.  The ego balloon was deflated for some as he started to look about the area.  Sheesh, couldn't somebody clean this dumb up?  This park could use some work.  Slow steps were taken as he walked up to a shooting gallery.  The counter was a dark blue, adorned with small paintings of stars and spaceships.  A scowl crossed his face as he remember being younger and being told about places like this.  They would serve sweets and have games of all kinds for kids to play.  He never got to go to them.  His time was spent in school where he was constantly learning, fending for himself after losing everything.  So what do you know. Now he's here.

On the far end of the booth was a small figure that had a clear green body and fangs on the bottom.  He assumed that he was supposed to shoot the puny thing to win.  Looking all over the counter though, there appeared to be no guns.  He began to grow angry as his brow dug deep across his eyes until he realized he had one of his own.  His anger was alleviated as he pulled out his trusty zapper and aimed it at the toy on the other side.

Zap!

The toy didn't seem to move an inch.  He checked his gun again before firing another shot.

Zap!

Again, it didn't move.  His frustration returned as he took a step back and held his gun out firm, away from his body while his arm aimed straight ahead.

Za-pink!

Had it actually been hit it?  On the other side, the toy had a small black mark on it from where the bolt hit it.  With his head raised and a now curious look across his face, he fired another.  It didn't take long before he was firing at it with full force.

Za-pink!  Zap za-pink! Za-pink za-pink!

The scientist was now filled with glee as he continually blasted away at the toy.  It wobbled with every shot, teetering until it fell off the table.  "Ahahaha!"  He laughed as he tossed his hands up into the air and smiled a toothy grin.  He looked like a small child that had just been given keys to a candy store.  "Haha, haha, ha, ha... ha..."  His joy vanished as the spot where the toy rested was now empty.  The gun was placed back in it's holster and the scientist walked away from the booth with his hand now in his lab coat's pockets.

It would be best that he see his way out of here.  He would need to find somewhere more stable to begin his development. "There has got to be something around here," he thought as he fired up his jet-pack and took to the skies, flying around in hope in of finding something useful.

[TartoonHand94]

Down below, a tall thin man with a green hat, crossed the floor with some sort of  vacuum cleaner on his back.
He was blowing back dust off the floor in front of him and sucking in any little knick-knack or do-dad he managed to find in the dirt.
If he found something, he'd toss it in a little pouch wrapped around his waist.

This wasn't an ordinary place to find a guy like Luigi. The constant trembling in every step he took could tell you that. But he had a good reason to be here. Besides the opportunity to find materials to help fix the Li pipe situation, and extra little valuables here and there, Luigi had a connection to this place. A nostalgic one. He remembered coming here all the time after adventures to celebrate a job well done and blow off the steam of a scary experience. But now, this poor place, wrecked and ruined, a wasteland in its own right, Luigi felt such a pity for the place. It reminded him of his mansion. It might have been a rickety haunted house at one time, but then with a little love and care it became a beautiful and spacious home, a practical palace for a plumber like himself. And that gave Luigi hope that perhaps one day this place too could be fixed back up into the happy land it once was.

"This place used to be such beautiful..." Luigi sighed. "Now the 'Happiest-a Land in-a-the Li''s a down-right-a-Horror S-show!" Luigi cringed. "But-a still, a diamonds can be found in-a the dirt if you dig-a deep enough. " Luigi chimed, finding another stray coin.

[Deleted]

The constant expulsion of exhaust took up most of his hearing while he flew throughout the park. This place was wrecked more than he thought. Probably not much resources here to scavenge aside from damaged scrap metal and common material from the looks. He would need to get down upon his hands and knees if he wanted to find anything useful and frankly, he wasn't in the mood for that. That kind of situation would be taken care of by one of his many past machines. A simple scavenge bot with minimal AI except for deciphering usefulness would have done the trick but seeing as the current state, he did have the material, or better, place to make such thing. He thought more upon his past work as he made one last flight around the area to look for anything else.

"What's this?" he questioned as he saw something down below moving. Lowering his altitude, he began to inspect the person. A lanky fellow in green with some sort of machine on his back, what looked to be a vacuum cleaner. A vacuum cleaner? Really? Such a silly toy. The green man was using it in a rather smart way. The scientist lowered himself to the ground and wondered if he should talk to him. There was no telling what he would do but he was in need of some assistance. He could at least find out where he was and what's the worse the green man could do? Shoot some dust at him? Bah. The doctor grew a twisted grin as he thought about that.

"And who might you be?" The doctor asked as he approached the wanderer cautiously, narrowing his eyes upon him.

[TartoonHand94]

"OyHo!" Luigi yelped in surprise, turning and pointing his Poltergust's intake at Dr.Cortex as if it were a fire arm of some sort.
Seeing that it wasn't a ghost was enough of a relief for him to lower his weapon, if only slightly.
Still, the figure's head was as big and shiny as a boo, and his twisted grin didn't seem very trust worthy.
But hey he had a letter on his head just like Luigi did! Perhaps the least Luigi could do was introduce himself.

Easier said then done, for only now did Luigi realize he was shivering the whole time. Was it already going on for the creepiness of the environment? Did he just start out of nervousness of meeting someone new? Was he cold? Either way, it'd make speaking up just the harder.
Luigi cleared his throat.

"I-I'm-a Luigi" he said firmly, shaking knees withstanding.

"And a-you are? N..." Luigi answered Cortex's question with a question, trying to start his name.

It would have been so embarrassing if his name didn't start with an N at all...

[Deleted]

"Neo," he took a small bow, his twisted grin staying, "Dr. Neo Cortex." He wasn't quite sure why he had introduced himself to someone he did not know but the sudden after thought of using him as a pawn pushed the former aside. Not like anyone here, where ever that was, would know of him, right? He was shaking in his boots as a matter of fact. He couldn't help but laugh to himself. It shouldn't be too hard to mold him into a workable minion, should it? That would have to come later. Seeing his current standings, he didn't look too trusting and still scared out of his skin.



"I can assure you, I have nothing up my sleeves," he held his hands up to show Luigi that he had nothing planned at the moment, "Ahaha, or do I? I suppose that's where the fun of things come in." His ego was starting to get a hold of him, scaring the poor man out of his overalls.



His eyes looked upon the tool he was carrying upon his back. Not any ordinary cleaning tool from the looks. Definitely had some work put into it. "I must say," he pocketed his hands into his coat and lean forward a bit with curiosity, "What might that be? Surely you wouldn't be arming yourself out here with just a wee cleaning tool, now would you?"

[TartoonHand94]

Luigi's tensed nerves and stance finally loosened as he was now formally introduced to the guy who was formally at the end of his vaccuum's barrel.
"Dr. Neo Cortex huh?" said he echoed, scratching his head "Sounds like-a smart guyses name-a to me." he shrugged acceptingly, lowering his weapon.

"Oh-a this? This-a is-a no ordinary vacuum cleaner..." Luigi introduced, raising the intake again but this time without hostility "It's-a my handy-dandily Poultergust5000! Invented by-a none-another than Professor Elvin Gadd!" he presented proudly. "Say, any chance-a you know him?"

[Deleted]

"I can't say I have," Cortex responded in thought, trying to recall such a name. "He doesn't sound like any of the scientists I have come across in my days." Of course, all the other scientists he had came across ridiculed him over hit outlandish designs and experiments. Maybe it was best that the two hadn't met.

"Not too long ago I had found myself here... where ever that may be." He looked over his shoulder at the abandoned amusement park. All of his work. Gone. Turning his attention back to Luigi, he asked questioned him on their location. "Say, where are exactly? I don't recognize this place."

[TartoonHand94]

"Oh that's-a too bad. Maybe I'm-a can introduce you sometime!”

"Oh this-a place? It's-a” Luigi took a deep breath to say the it's name with jubilant emphasis, only to realize looking around, the dilapidated state the place was in. It was unrecognizable. he let his breath back out in a sigh. "Nintendo land. 'A fun and lively theme park filled with attractions based on popular Nintendo game worlds.' ” He quoted from a knocked over sign in the distance with in a somber tone ironic to what he was saying, even taking his hat off to mourn its loss.

[Deleted]

Cortex watched as his tone saddened while describing it to him. "Nintendo?" He remarked, "I'm far off from where I should be." That dimensional break must have been stronger than he anticipated. At least he wouldn't have to deal with anyone he had known before. There's no way those cursed mammals could have survived it. At the same time, he would be losing his own minions, leaving him with lack of workforce but it wasn't of much concern to him now.

He would have said something to Luigi in order to cheer him up but being kind wasn't in his resume. Instead, he looked down upon the ground at his feet quietly. "Don't beat yourself up over it, chap. If I've learned anything, you can always start anew." He responded, thinking back over his previous spaceships in attempt to bring himself to say something positive. Whether that worked or not, well...

"So!" Cortex raised his head up and clasped his hands together, making an audible clap as they connected, "Let us not dwell on such somber things. I suppose I wouldn't mind meeting another intellectual while I'm here. He must be quite something if he made that device for you. And I'm assuming it catches ghost too? I've never heard of such a thing. I'd like to see that in action sometime." A grin formed under his beard, playing along with his speech.  "But to in more of a dire concern, I'm looking to settle down somewhere and begin to plan up a new workstation.  Somewhere I could begin to continue my research.  I managed to save a few of my plans before I," he paused for a moment, "ending up here..."  Oh, the workload to come from such.  Without the help of N. Brio this was going to double up on him.  It could take months to get just a prototype of his Vortex working again.  And that's even if he could find the resources he would need.  This place didn't look like it would be providing anything but scrap metal.  "Oh, the work that will need to be done."  He groaned before ending with a sigh.

[TartoonHand94]

Luigi looked down at his vacuum cleaner and back up at the scenery around him.
“…Ey… You’ve got a point! We could clean this place up and start a new!” Luigi mused excitingly stroking his moustache.
“Suck away all the dirt, cobwebs and spooks, a bit of patch here a bit of welding there, it could look-a just like-a one of E.Gadd’s laboratories!”

“Oh trust-a me, you don’t-a want to see this in action. Ghost are-a scary.” Luigi insisted.
“But we can use it to clean up the place and look for more scrap metal if you like.” Luigi offered instead.

[Deleted]

Perhaps the green man had not heard the point of Cortex's speech. He grew silent for a moment.

"Well..." He took another glance upon the broken down amusement park, trying to push back his anticipation to begin new plans. No one seemed to know of him, at least the one before him, so there was a high possibility that he could do his work in peace without the interference without anyone. He hadn't felt that feeling in so long.

While the idea of collecting materials was nice, he much rather be working on his own things while having some worker-bots roam around and search for anything salvageable in this dump. But no. He must build upon this thing called a 'relationship'. Ugh, wouldn't it be easier to build an army of robots and have them do that for you?

"Let's see what we can find." He ultimately responded, sounding rather bare with it but following along with the notion.