By Pteryx
2
The Refusal
The next day, there was a knock on the door of Lakitu's room. Unlike the other turtles, who were boarded two to a room, Lakitu had a room to himself. It was a bit smaller than the other rooms, but he effectively had more space. He had a bed, but he didn't use it. His cloud was much more comfortable than the cheap mattresses everyone had. Still, even with his soft cloud, Lakitu couldn't sleep all night. He was thinking about his past life, and feeling rather guilty about it. He was feeling so low, he didn't even want to answer the door.
"Come in," he said with a sigh.
The door opened to reveal King Koopa.
"Here are your orders for the raid. You are to throw some Spinies at the drawbridge on the inside to prevent escape, and then float into the Princess's room and take her. The Paratroopas will take care of Mario. The attack will take place in a week."
"Uhh...... yessir."
Now what do I do? thought Lakitu. I've been chosen as the main player in the kidnapping, and if I don't follow orders, Bowser's gonna kill me! (Lakitu always thought of King Koopa as Bowser, even though he preferred to be called King Koopa.) He started pouting again, when he suddenly, angrily thought, No! I won't do it! It's wrong! People will gethurt, I'll never be happy, and besdies, I'msick of following his orders! Bowser will probably put a hefty price on my head and I might have no one to turn to in the whole world who'll trust me, but that's a risk I'll have to take!
Lakitu then jumped out of his cloud and stormed down the hall after King Koopa. If he had had fur instead of a green and black striped shell on his back, it would have been bristeld. When he caught up to him, he angrily poked at his side (his shoulder was too high).
"Yeah, what is it?" asked King Koopa impatiently.
"NO!" Lakitu boldly said, his right hand on his hip.
"What?!" said King Koopa, somewhat confused but sensing trouble.
"No! I refust to kidnap the Princess! I'm sick of doing wrong, I'm sick of causing misery for others, and I'm really sick of having to put up with you! I'm leaving and on top of that, I'm fighting you!" He then threw a Spiny egg at King Koopa to emphasize his point.
That was too much for King Koopa. With his face redder than Mario's hat with rage, he charged after Lakitu, who was less than half his size. Lakitu's face was bleached with almost animalistic terror. Since he had left his cloud in his room, all he could do was run as only he could. As the chase continued, the Koopa kids began to join in. Then, suddenly, Lakitu was forced to screech to a halt at a dead end. Trapped between three walls and the gaining eight Koopa, he frantically searched for some way out, any form of escape. Snapping his view upwards, he spotted a block he could jump onto and leaped for it. Instead of landing on it, though, he smashed his head on it and went out cold. Fortunately for hi, the block he hit was the light switch. Everything went black for Lakitu, but everything went just as impossibly dark for the Koopas.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?!" asked Wendy.
"Hey, don't --" started Lemmy.
"-- look at us!" finished Iggy.
"Well, we can't trampled what we can't see," Ludwig pointed out. "Come on. Let's go."
When Lakitu came to, the halls were almost disturbingly quiet. Once his head stopped throbbing, he reasoned that the Koopas and the Troopas were probably having some sort of meeting about the attact on the castle -- or about him. He stumpled to his feet and went to his room to decide what to do.
"Well, now I'm in the lava up to my neck," he said to himself. "How can I warn the Marios about the air raid and have them believe me -- and how am I going to stay alive that long by myself?" Just then, there was a knock (more like a tap) at the door. It was the same timid, blue-shelled Troopa who had spoken up when the plan was conceived.
"Uh, Lakitu?" he whispered. "I... uh... I'm not sure about this plan. I'm, uh, afraid M-M-Mario's brother, what's-his-name, might spoil it." Then he quickly added, "I was just telling you cuz' I know you don't get mad about hearing their names. Seeyuh." He tried to scramble out the door, but Lakitu had grabbed him by the shell and lifted him an inch off the ground.
"If you don't want to go along with the plan, why don't you just say so?" The Troopa was teembling and was tempted to shrink into his shell. If he was a cartoon chameleon, he would have been white at that moment. "I'll tell you a secret right now," Lakitusaid, and then he told the Koopa in a hushed whisper, "I'm leaving."
"Leaving?" the Troopa whispered with awe. "For how long?"
"For good," said Lakitu.
"B-b-but why?" he asked.
"The reason's the same as the duration," he replied. The Koopa Troopa had to think a while to figure out that one. When he finally figured it out, he said:
"C-c-could I come, too? I, uh, don't like being bad anymore, either. I mean, it's not like I'mrevolting or anything..."
"That's okay," said Lakitu, "cuz' I'm defecting." The Troopa smiled a bit.
Lakitu climed into his cloud and helped the Troopa inside. They knew the best way out was through the big window in King Koopa's room, so the Troopa didn't inquire about where he was going. However, another Troopa in a green shell saw them and did.
"Hey! What are you doing? Why are you floating around in that thing?"
"Oh no! We've been spotted!" said the blue-shelled Troopa in a loud whisper. "Burn moisture!"
The green-shelled Troopa saw them speed up, remembered hearing rumors about Lakitu defying King Koopa, and shouted, "Help! Hammer Brothers!" Two large turtles with small shells for their size came bounding along, almost making the halls shake as theu raced after Lakitu and his Troopa friend. They had to get out, and fast!
"I'll concentrate on making sure we don't slam into any walls," said Lakitu hastily. "You throw the Spiny eggs."
"Throw Spiny eggs? Me??!" exclaimed the Troopa.
"Better their hammers eat Spiny eggs than us! Go on!" Lakitu insisted.
A second later, the Troopa saw a hammer heading right for him! Out of fear, he grabbed a Spiny egg and shielded himself with it. The egg was ruined, but the hammer had been, too! He paused in happy surprise, then threw an egg to the ground, which hatched into a Spiny in an instant. The Hammer Brothers knew better than to tangle with a Spiny, so they retreated. Shortly, Lakitu found Kind Koopa's room and they slipped out the window. Although they still had a long way to go, they were out!