[ScottyMcGee]

They figured they would first take care of the old widow Mrs. Hayes. She was a long time customer of the Mario Brothers Plumbing Service, never for once had she forgotten to call them for any problem regarding backed up toilets, clogged sinks, or sewage problems.
Mario grinned to himself remembering the crazy old lady, then started to remember his older jobs. When he first came to America it went from carpenter, to a cake factory worker, and now to a plumber. Every job so far had some sort of strange character or anecdote to it. He remembered how his boss was a real bad ass at the cake factory, the weird part was his boss was the same exact mirror image of Mario. Yet more of a sinister and notorious image, with a crooked mustache and a vile voluptuous physique. Some of the workers made fun of this and called the boss “Wario”, the opposite of Mario.
“Oh crap, I can't believe this,” Luigi muttered.
Mario snapped out of his small trip down memory lane and realized they were already at the house, which with no surprise looked liked every other house.
But the scene before him was different, a white and almost immaculate van was pulled over the side of Mrs. Hayes' home with a familiar logo that read “General Mills Appliances,”
He could not believe this, none of them could. Their best customer, for over fifteen years, and now this. The scene was intensely annoying to them, that one van was like a scratch on a brand new car, a fly in a soup, a thorn in a bush.
“Maybe.....they're doing someone else's house,” Luigi said slowly.
The two brothers gave a slow nervous glance for a moment, then sighed, got out of the van, and readied their supplies.
Luigi was the one who rang the doorbell, in no time a fragile and senile lady came to the door.
“Yes?”
“Hi, Mrs. Hayes? It's us...you know, the Mario Brothers,”
She suddenly seemed a bit flustered, not sure what to say.
“Oh...er...,”
“Well, well well, look who it is.”
Mario reached the door, set down the toolboxes, but once he looked up into the house he suddenly backed away.
“Oh God no.”
Speak of the devil, Mario had just been thinking of him a few minutes earlier in the van, and now he was inevitably here – Wario.
Wario did not seem to change at all one bit since they last met, he still had that gut more vile and obese than Mario, and his mustache still held crooked in some parts, giving one the impression of one of those classic bad guys in western movies. Wario's white uniform with the logo of General Mills tried to cover up his notorious looks, but it failed miserably.
“The Mario Brothers,” Wario said scornfully, “Grade A plumbing service eh?” he quickly put a thumbs down and blew a raspberry.
“Come check out this baby,” he then motioned them towards the bathroom.
Luigi shot a hurtful look towards Mrs. Hayes, his face practically read “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?”
She tried to explain while they all walked towards the bathroom but Wario's voice boomed in the way.
“This contraption does the toilet like what the atomic bomb did to Japan, pure disintegration.” he said with a smile
“Nice analogy Wario.” Luigi muttered.
The door opened and a large sucking noise instantly filled their ears. Along with a few whooshes and zooms here and there. The machines looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, it had buttons everywhere, with technical readouts, arms that were cranes and arms that were suction cups.
“Sucks up any foreign material first, then incinerates it inside, any grime that is left is easily scrubbed with dozens of flexible tubes and wiring. Marvelous contraption ain't it?”
Mario said nothing, neither did his brother.
The old lady had left and said something about making a snack for them, but the Brothers would not be there for long. It seemed like the 'Pump Master' had everything under control.
“So uh...what you two hooligans gonna do this time after plumbing eh? Fast food? Ice Cream Brothers? Eh?”
Mario was finally going to blurt out something when the Pump Master suddenly gave a long wail and smoke hissed out, then it came to a halt. A blue light kept flashing around silently at the top.
“Hm, that's odd,” Wario grunted, he opened the hatch and waved about the light smoke, then went headfirst in to see the problem.
“Oy, lookie here.” his voice echoed in the machine.
Luigi peered over his shoulder to see, Wario came out with his hands cupped up holding something.
“Machine must've scared the little bugger's daylights,” Wario grinned.
Mario saw that Wario held a shell blackened by the smoke, but luckily not cracked or totally incinerated. It took a few seconds for the small turtle to slowly peek its head out, as if checking to see if the coast was clear.
“Well...here,” Wario handed it to Mario, “Think of it as...a retirement present eh?” he then bellowed a haughty laugh. He then went out the door and through the hallway, ready to grub on some snacks.
“Don't worry Mario, I'll bet we'll have at least one faithful customer today.”
Mario said nothing, only stared at the innocent and calm expression the small turtle held.


The day had unfortunately been dull and vapid. The rest of the jobs were meaningless and petty work that ranked up money no more than two hundred and fifty dollars. Most of the appointments were canceled, just as Mario's worst nightmare had predicted, and instead they held an appointment for Wario's Pump Master.
Upon reaching the workplace, Luigi spoke while driving.
“You know...I think there's a good spot around economics.”
The last part of that sentence made Mario cringe. The awkward sense and feel of switching from a muscular dirty job to a small, claustrophobic cubicle and getting sunburn from a computer screen. The change would be disastrous, so far of all three jobs he seemed to like plumbing the best, sure it definitely was not a job to get rich and roll in dough but he wanted a job he enjoyed more than just doing one to get a bunch of green slips. And besides, someone had to do it, especially for people who were too old and senile to fix their own pipes, gas leaks and explosions could occur, it could really be a dependent job at times, which felt important. Sitting in front of a computer screen typing for some company and being indoors all the time just did not fit the bill for Mario. He just wanted a simple life, a slow and calm one. One that you can make just enough money to live and the rest for yourself and friends.
Luigi instantly felt his brother's resentment of the idea just by glancing at his expression, he knew his brother well enough already.
“What about construction?”
The thought lingered around in his mind when suddenly Luigi's cellphone rang.
“Ah, damn, could you take it for me? I'm driving.”
Mario reached over the dashboard and turned on the ancient late eighty's phone.
“Hello?”
A small, rather jittery voice started to mumble.
“H-hello? I—is this the M-Mario B-brother's P-p-p-”
“Plumbing service?”
“Yes, yes that 's it.”
“Yeah, it's us. Who is this?”
“Well I'm..s-sorta in a p-p-pred—predi--”
“Predicament?”
“Yes, right now. M-my sink has gone rather haywire and oh--”
The voice was cut off by a few noises in the background, there was a clash and the voice wailed “OH NO!” and then another clash followed by a splash.
Luigi made an inquiring face as to who was it, Mario just shrugged.
“I need you two to c-come now!” the voice pleaded.
“Alright, well it would help if we knew where you were.”
“Th-the Grey Mansion near Long Island. My na-name is E. Gadd, I'm a p-p-professor.”
The line suddenly went dead, Mario waited a few seconds to see if the professor would pick up again, but no.
“Who was that?”
“Either a prank or some old senile professor really needs our help.”
“What was his name?”
“E. Gadd I think.”
“Pht, it's a prank. Put the two together it's 'egad'--,”
“I know! Obviously.”
“So....where are we going?”
Mario thought for a moment, staring at the small turtle they had placed in a small container with water.
“Said something about 'Grey Mansion' in Long Island.”
Luigi gave a long whistle.
“What? You've heard of it?”
“Heard the place was run by some nut. Huge mansion, lots of money.”
“Well...head on anyways, prank or no prank.”
Luigi made a u-turn and they were off for their unexpected call.