By Pteryx
10
The Truth About Power Items
The next day, once they used the magic keyhole and its key to get across the gap to Chocolate Island, the three adventurers made their way to and through a ghost house that was quite similar to the one in the Vanilla Dome, only bigger and lacking trapped, long-dead members of the Wytortiel family. After getting through here, they decided to go to Tootsie Peak, the island's tallest mountain. It was tall enough so that one could see all of the island from its summit, but not so tall or so steep that it would be hard to climb for most people.
On the way to that high ground, they came to a gaping pit. Fortunately, there were platforms to jump across on. About three-quarters of the way across, though, Lakitu heard (literally this time) somebody moaning with pain. Lakitu was so taken by surprise that he almost didn't make the leap he was in the middle of.
"Something wrong, Lakitu?" Yoshi asked.
"Somebody's hurt!" Lakitu exclaimed. "Can't you hear him?" The others listened intently, and sure enough, they heard the painful wailing, too.
"Well, let's go see what's wrong," Luigi decided. The sounds were coming from the side of the pit they were going to anyway. Once they got to solid ground, they looked for the owner of the groaning voice. Turning his head, Yoshi saw a yellow, silver-winged Paratroopa with a splint on his wing.
"Here he is," Yoshi told the others. When the trio cautiously approached him, he saw them but didn't go after them, being in too much pain to care.
"What's the matter?" Luigi asked.
With agony in his voice, the Troopa explained, "King Koopa sent me out even though I'm hurt. I don't even have a decentsplint 'cuz he did it himself more to satisfy me than to heal me. I wasn't the only one that he sent out injured. That's too cruel forme to tolerate."
"Have you considered leaving like I did?" Lakitu inquired.
"I already thought of that. I planned to do ever since King Koopa plopper me out here with a splint that doesn't even serve itspurpose 'cuz the bone wasn't placed together so it could knit."
"I could fix that," offered Luigi. "I took a first aid course back in Brooklyn, and I still remember some of it. Let's take a look atthat wing of yours..." Soon, the wing was in a proper, carefully prepared splint.
"Thank you," the Troopa, who had introduced himself as Pettaru during the treatment, said. "I'd join your quest, but I do have to watch out for this thing."
After saying goodbye to their new friend and making their way to the top of Tootsie Peak, which was swarming with Dino-Rhinos and moles, the three adventurers found that from the mountaintop they could see some of the Forest of Illusion and even the gaping entrance to the underground Valley of Bowser sitting in the far-off Paradise Bay. Luigi then noticed something white and mostly opaque rising out of the mouthlike cave that led to the underground valley.
"Is that smoke coming out of there?" he wondered out loud. Lakitu stared at it for a long time, cocking his head and squinting a couple of times.
"No," he finally decided, "it's fog! Bowser must have used the Fog medallion to make it almost impossible to see in there." Suddenly, they saw a glowing yellow bolt streak towards the sky from somewhere nearby on the island. Then, clouds descended upon the island, covering everything but the chocolate-brown tops of the highest mountains.
"Let's be careful, guys," suggested Luigi. "King Koopa's gotta be nearby with the last medallion. Let's keep as good a lookout as we can in this fog."
After descending the mountain, the threesome found their way through the fog remarkably well, only tripping or bumping their heads three or four times. After about half an hour, the fog didn't seem as thick. A minute later, the trio walked into a space where there was no fog at all! The fog appeared to be staying out of a certain area, the center of which was the Fog medallion and King Koopa! All of his kids were with him, obviously saved to help him stop Lakitu and company.
"King Dad!" Lemmy shouted. "Look! There's --"
"Lakitu, Yoshi, and Luigi!" Iggy ended.
"I wanna get those three for blowing up my castle!" Ludwig growled furiously.
"Well, what are we waitin' for?" Roy asked, clutching his ready fist. "Let's do it!"
Luigi and Lakitu dodged Roy, who came charging towards them swinging his large fist, and began to bash some nearby blocks. Lakitu found a cloud, which he jumped into just as Wendy threw a stole at him intended to entangle him. Then Luigi found a feather inside a high block. He jumped again to grab the gently falling power item, but missed it. He leaped up to it again, but Larry snatched it a second before Luigi could, causing him to fall flat on his face in surprise.
Larry cackled madly until Wendy asked, "Hey, why didn't it work?" Morton then took the feather.
"Hey, it's not working for me, either! That's not fair! These thingsalways work for the plumbers!" he exclaimed. Luigi and Yoshi just looked at each other, confused.
Roy grabbed the feather, shook it, and wondered, "What gives with this thing?" King Koopa then took it and looked it over.
While he did this, Yoshi whispered to Luigi, "Have Luigi seen Lakitu?" Luigi just shrugged. Then, he saw Lakitu swoop down in his cloud and snatch the cape feather right out of King Koopa's hand!
"I'll take that!" Lakitu taunted. Suddenly, in a puff of smoke, the feather was gone and he was wearing a yellow cape! Luigi, Yoshi, and the Koopas all gasped at this amazing and unexpected sight. When Lakitu realized that they were all staring at him, he looked himself over and noticed the magic cape.
"It... it worked for m-m-me?" he managed to stutter. "I'm wearing... a cape?" He then jumped out of his cloud and floated back down into it. "I... can... fly? The feather worked?" Then, he snapped out of his awe and shouted, "Luigi! Help me take care of the Koopas while they're still in shock!" They all proceeded to stomp on each of the Koopa kids until they were all forced into their spike shells. After they finished doing that, though, the fog began to invade the clear area. King Koopa had gotten away totally clean.
"Now what do we do?" Yoshi asked.
"It appears that for now the only thing to do is go forward to Neon Castle and deal with Bowser there," Lakitu answered.
After a bit, Yoshi finally vocalized the question that was on all three of their minds: Why feather work for Lakitu and not Koopas?"
"I dunno, Yosh," Lakitu answered. "Maybe it's 'cuz I'm not a Koopa."
"It could be that it worked because you're on our side now," Luigi suggested.
"Maybe," Lakitu replied. "I never touched a feather before in my life."
As they continued towards the Valley of Bowser by the only path they knew of, King Koopa took a shortcut. About an hour after he arrived back at Neon Castle, Mario and the Princess overheard a couple of Koopa Troopas talking.
"Two and a half days seems a bit long to wait to see Mario gone for good," complained one.
"Haven't you heard?" questioned the other, sounding a little shocked at the first one's ignorance. "Our King moved the sacrifice up." Glancing at this watch and making some calculations, he said, "Since he's burning them at 8 P.M. tomorrow, they onlyhave about, uh, thirty hours left."
Mario gulped. "That's not much time!" he whispered to the Princess. "I hope they can rescue us that quickly." Mario assumed that she knew that the "they" referred to Lakitu, Yoshi, and Luigi, since they were the only ones who would save them.
"Don't worry," Princess Toadstool reassured him. "If Koopa felt he had to speed our deaths, they must be close."
"I hope so," Mario replied. "They'll beed our help once we're out. If they can't rescue us, they definetly won't be able to stopKoopa's invasion of the whole known Mushroom World all my themselves."