Doomship Disaster

By Rachelle

“Iggy?” Lemmy asked again, his jaw agape. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. “Is that really you?”

“Yeah,” Iggy grinned. “It’s really me. But what I want to know is-”

He never got the chance to finish, because Lemmy immediately tackled him. What was meant to be a bear hug took Iggy by surprise and sent the two of them tumbling, making it seem almost as if they were wrestling. Iggy, being the weaker of the two, was easily pinned underneath.

Wendy watched all of this in disbelief, partially because she was now staring at her supposedly dead brother, but mostly because the reunion seemed to have turned into a wrestling match.

“Can’t…. breathe…” gasped Iggy. Embarrassed, Lemmy released him and settled for a normal hug.

“Glad to know I was missed,” Iggy smiled as they stood up again.

“But…” Wendy searched for the right words. “We thought… thought you were…”

“Dead?” Iggy supplied. “Believe me, I thought pretty much the same about you two.”

“How did you get back here then?” Lemmy asked eagerly, his voice brimming with barely contained curiosity.

“It’s sort of a long story,” Iggy explained.

“We have all the time in the world,” Wendy assured him. “But, do you think maybe you could tell us over dinner?”

“Yeah!” agreed Lemmy, hungrily. “I’m starving!”

And with that, Wendy and Lemmy raced off to the kitchen, giggling like small human children on the last day of school. They were finally home, and their shock was soon replaced by the pure ecstasy of knowing that their immediate troubles were over. Iggy shook his head, then grinned to himself. Things would soon be back to normal.

***

“THAT’S your long story?” Lemmy laughed between large mouthfuls of Koopa fruit. Normally he hated Koopa fruit, but it was the first thing he saw and after days without that luxury, he couldn’t really care less. He and Wendy were seated around their kitchen table, shoving their faces while still trying to pay attention to Iggy’s tale.

“Hey, it took a lot longer to live it than it did to tell you guys!” Iggy pretended to be offended, sniffling loudly.

“Aww,” Wendy whined playfully. “We had to fight for our very survival for at least a week, and you’re telling me that all you had to do was crash? I would have stayed myself if it would have saved us the trouble.”

“It’s not as if it didn’t hurt!” Iggy indicated his bandaged tail, unnoticed at first by his two siblings. “It was pure luck that a bunch of Cobrat happened to be in the area! They came right over when they saw the doomship fall. If they hadn’t found me, I probably wouldn’t be here now!”

“More like dumb luck,” Lemmy laughed. Iggy scowled at him, but was distracted by Wendy.

“Oh poor you,” she teased. “Iggy gets a sprained tail, and we get lost in the middle of Yoshi's Island’s hottest desert for a week.”

“For your information, you were only gone for about four days!” pointed out Iggy.

Lemmy smiled to himself as he watched Wendy and Iggy arguing over who had the roughest time for the past couple of days. Four days, Iggy had said. Had it only been that long? It had seemed so much longer…

“Oh c’mon Wendy,” Lemmy interrupted. “Lay off Iggy. He had just as hard of a time as we did. Almost,” he added as an afterthought.

“Darn right I did!” Iggy exclaimed. “When I woke up, even I thought I was dead!"

“You were also lucky that they lent you money for a payphone,” Lemmy sniggered. The concept still seemed funny.

“Don’t laugh,” Iggy warned. “Payphones are everywhere. Even in the middle of the desert.” He meant this as a serious comment, but it only humored them more. Wendy and Lemmy stared at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

Suddenly, Ludwig burst in to the kitchen, closely followed by Roy.

“Iggy, your troubles are over!” he exclaimed, holding his newest invention. This machine was about twice the size of a standard TV remote, and closely resembled one as well. It contained a single button and what appeared to be an extremely tiny satellite dish.

“With a mere push of this button,” Ludwig began, “Lemmy and Wendy will be transported from their current position right to this spot!”

It was at this point, however, that Ludwig took the time to look around the room and at something other than Iggy.

“What?” He scratched his head in bewilderment “But I didn’t even press the button!”

“Well, would ya look what da cat dragged in,” Roy smirked.

Hearing the word “cat” mentioned, Playful Meow poked his head around the corner to see what all the commotion was about.

“Playful!” Wendy squealed with delight. She rushed over to her pet and scooped her up, hugging him. “Oooh, I missed you so much!”

“Mrow!” Playful exclaimed angrily, trying to escape Wendy’s grasp. “Fffft! Hissss!"

“See?” Wendy ignored Playful’s hissing and clung tighter to prevent her furry feline from leaving. “She missed me too.” At this, Playful’s face took on a look of resentment as he flicked his tail in annoyance.

“Wow, this is the first and foremost occasion in which one of my inventions has been such a success,” Ludwig stared at the controller in his hand. “And I didn’t even have to press the button!”

“When King Dad had to go and pick up Iggy, I knew ya wouldn’t be far behind,” Roy grinned. “Now I have another punching bag to practice with!”

“Well,” Lemmy gulped. “It’s uh, nice to know you guys missed us too.”

“It was significantly more silent without you two around,” Ludwig admitted.

“Me, miss you two?” Roy dawned a look of disgust. “Not on yer life!”

Suddenly, Wendy cocked her head it the direction of the door Ludwig and Roy has just come through.

“Do you hear that?” she listened intently. The others were all silent as they strained to hear. Sure enough, a voice could be heard. As it got louder they were able to understand more or less what was being said.

“All I’m saying is, if Iggy is right about this and what he says is true, then maybe we should be looking for them. Where do you think they would be or are now? Do you think they’re all right? What if something happened and they are hurt, injured, wounded, damaged or impaired? Or what if-”

“All right!” a second voice cut in. “Enough already! You’ve asked me that same, long question at least three times, and I gave you the same answer each time! I do not know where…”

The second voice, which turned out to be Larry, trailed off. For it was about then that he and Morton rounded the corner into the kitchen.

“Whoa,” he stated. “Did I miss something here?”

“Wow, Lemmy and Wendy are back!” Morton exclaimed. “That’s great, super, awesome, fantastic, wonderful, fabulous, funky-” He was forced to stop, because Larry put his hand over Morton’s mouth at that point.

“What on Plit?” Larry asked, his hand still over Morton’s mouth. “When did you two get back? And how?”

“Believe when I say it’s a long story…” Lemmy sighed.

“But I’m sure you’ll all want to hear it, won’t you?” Wendy batted her eyelashes.

“Rrrrrrowrrrrrr…” Playful growled, still pinned tightly to Wendy.

Lemmy and Wendy dove right into their adventure, explaining everything that had happened from the moment they first crashed. They took turns sharing each of their accounts, and included every little detail. From meeting Ossie in the desert to Lemmy tripping over the Koopa Troopa on the back road, nothing was left out. The other Koopalings all stared in rapt attention, gasping in all the right places and even laughing when Wendy retold how she fell off of her Goonie. Even Roy, who tried his best to remain uninterested, couldn’t help but be impressed. (“Just a little,” he said.)

Through all of it, Lemmy could hardly bring himself to believe it. Not only were he and Wendy home safely, but Iggy was all right too! He felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulders, as did Wendy.

***

Later that night, Wendy sighed contentedly. She was in her room, and Playful was sitting at the end of her bed. She had some comfortable slippers on, and was looking forward to a nice bubble bath. How nice it is to finally be home, she thought to herself.

“What was with that hug?” Playful had his pet translator switched on, and seemed ticked off. “Sure I missed you, but you could have warned me! I almost coughed up a hairball!”

“Aww, you did miss me.”

“Well, when you’re not around, no one cleans my litter box,” Playful pointed out. Wendy rolled her eyes, but laughed anyway.

“That wasn’t supposed to be funny!” said Playful indignantly. This only made Wendy laugh harder, however.

Down the hall, Lemmy was in his room getting ready for bed. He had an easier time getting around, because the first thing he made sure to do after he and Wendy told everyone their story was find a new circus ball. This wasn’t too difficult, because he usually kept a spare in his closet. No longer having to feel clumsy and awkward, he had happily rolled his ball up and down the spacious halls of the castle.

At the moment though, he busied himself with brushing his teeth. He was amazed at how such a simple thing could seem so nice after four days of deprivation from it.

Afterwards, he yawned as he crawled into bed. Although his shell made it almost impossible to lie flat on his back, he found it comfortable just to lie on his stomach.

Tonight, however, he sat on the edge on his bed, doing nothing but staring around at his room. Everything there was familiar and safe, and his “new” circus ball lay at the foot of his bed.

As he lay down, he found himself recalling the new friends he had met along the way. Ossie, that feather-brained Ostro with a knack for finding his way, and Rachelle, the blazing-white Birdo living in Yoshi's Island’s remote jungle. Would he ever see them again? Only time would tell, he supposed.

And with another yawn, he drifted off to sleep, the first peaceful slumber he’d had since the whole disaster had begun.

The End (and about time, too)

Author’s Note: At last, the end to my first official Lemmy’s Land Fun Fiction. It took a while to write, but I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. I don’t know weather or not anyone has even bothered to read this story, but if you have, I’d just like to say thank you. (Whoa, can we say “cheesy”?)