It has been three months since the destruction
of the Koopa Kingdom. The survivors of the incident were still trying to
pick up the shattered pieces of their lives, but everyone knew it wouldn’t
be an easy task.
Princess Toadstool and Bowser Koopa
both put money towards rebuilding the Koopa Kingdom and also to help with
supplies for the homeless camps. Now they were making the steady climb
back up the hill to a better future.
Everyday Mario and Luigi would go to the homeless camps and entertain the kids with jokes and games. Mario and Luigi stayed from dawn till dusk, seven days a week trying to keep up peoples' hopes. One day however…
“Get outta here! You’ve already had three servings of food!” a cook yelled grumpily.
Mario and Luigi, hearing the ruckus, ran into the room to see what the problem was. “What’s-a the matter?” Mario asked as the cook began to serve another Koopa.
“Never have I seen a Koopa eat so much pasta! It’s unbelievable! I thought Koopas hated the stuff!”
Mario and Luigi looked at each other, amazed. “Koopa eating-a pasta?” Mario asked as the cook nodded.
“Yeah that’s right! A Koopa eating pasta! He’s a new one. Found him the other day rescue did, with amnesia!” the cook said, concerned.
Mario and Luigi looked over to where the cook suddenly pointed. There over in a far corner was Corrupt Koopa.
“No one knows his name so we call him Ludwig Two! Looks just like him, eh?” laughed the cook.
“That’s-a no Ludwig! That’s-a Corrupt!” Mario shouted as everyone turned to look at him. Everyone stared at him but Corrupt didn’t even react to being discovered.
“That’s-a the saw breath slime wagon that started this whole-a mess!” Mario said as he advanced towards Corrupt.
Everyone in the room started whispering as Mario walked towards Corrupt.
“Ok, Corrupt! What’re you doing here?” Mario demanded as he slammed his fist down onto the table that Corrupt was sitting at. Corrupt jumped at the action.
“Wh-who’s Corrupt?” Corrupt asked innocently.
“Don’t-a play games with me, Corrupt! I know it’s you!” Mario yelled as the Koopa backed away. Mario grabbed the Koopa and shoved him into a sack. “I'm-a taking you to the princess and Bowser! I think they’d be-a delighted to see you,” Mario growled as they left the camp.
Mario and Luigi took Corrupt to Princess Toadstool's castle. They walked into the throne room and dropped Corrupt at Toadstool and Bowser's feet. Bowser sneered down at his son. “Corrupt! So glad you could drop in!” Bowser began to pace the room, muttering aloud.
“Corrupt, for your crimes against the Koopa Kingdom we shall cast you into the deepest darkest dungeon we can for the rest of your pathetic life.”
Corrupt shook his head in confusion. “Who is Corrupt?” Corrupt asked conjecturally.
“He’s been like this since we found him!” Mario explained as Ludwig walked through the door. “He-a always says it.”
“Maybe he doesn’t remember a thing,” Ludwig said as he studied his brother. “You see, that was a pretty fierce explosion and would have easily banged him around a lot. Enough to lose memory.”
Corrupt scratched his head. “Explosion?” Corrupt asked in wonder. Suddenly visions of the explosion went through his mind…
“Curse those retched Koopas! They foil my every plan!” Corrupt said as the impact from the laser rocked the airship. “Crank! What’s our status?” Corrupt enquired.
Crank ran over to the control panel. “Not good! Were lossssing power!” replied Crank. The airship shook a little, then began to lose altitude. Many explosions could be heard from the engine room. “There gossssssssse the core reactor! Were going down towardsssss Ssssssssoda Lake!” Crank yelled as Spector began the descent towards Soda Lake.
Corrupt shook Crank's hand. “It's been a pleasure working with you, Crank, but I must bid you farewell.”
Crank shook his head. “What do you mean?” Crank hissed in horror.
“Crank, here‘s some advice for your next life. Don’t trust a Koopa! Especially a superior one!” Corrupt ran to the emergency exit and started up his rocket pack.
“You can’t jusssst leave me!” Crank wailed.
“I just did.” With his final words, Corrupt flew off. “I do not tolerate failure, Crank!” Corrupt said to himself as he flew from the falling Spector. Suddenly Spector exploded and a giant wave of flame caught Corrupt's armor. Corrupt's rocket engine exploded and Corrupt hurtled towards the ground. Upon impact, his armor blew up in a mass of flames, sending Corrupt flying twenty feet from his blasted armor, and there he laid still…
Corrupt came out of his thoughts and looked around. Bowser was talking to Ludwig and the Mario Brothers were standing guard over him.
“So you say Corrupt's lost his memory?” Bowser asked Ludwig.
“Yes. And I believe it is possible to brainwash him into thinking he never started this whole ruckus and then we’ll be able to live together again!”
Bowser nodded. “But that would not change the fact that lives were lost and my kingdom destroyed.”
Corrupt looked around for an escape route but could not find one. Then he got an idea. “Where’s your bathroom?” Corrupt asked as the princess looked at him.
“Mario, Luigi, take Corrupt to the bathroom and keep the door covered.”
Mario and Luigi took Corrupt to the bathroom, where they stood guard outside. Corrupt looked around the room. 'Toilet, bath, shower, washbasin, but… no window!' thought Corrupt as he surveyed the room. Then Corrupt was hit by an idea. 'I know! I’ll use this memory loss thing to my advantage! I’ll find out a few things about the place, defense, and offense by pretending that I’ve still lost my memory!' Corrupt thought to himself. “Yes! It’s so cunning that you could brush your teeth with it!” Corrupt said to himself as he flushed the toilet.
Corrupt walked back to the throne room with the Mario brothers and sat by Ludwig. “What is my name?” Ludwig asked Corrupt as Bowser shook his head.
“I don’t know who you are mister!” Corrupt said slyly.
Ludwig turned to look at Bowser. “See? He can’t even remember me!” Ludwig said as Bowser sighed.
“Has it occurred to you that he may be having us on? I think we should torture him some.”
“No!” Ludwig said quickly. “I have a better idea.”
“And what’s that?” Bowser mumbled.
“We’ll have him wear a straitjacket!” A few seconds afterwards Ludwig had placed a straitjacket on Corrupt. “There! Now we know he can’t do anything wrong!” Ludwig said delightedly.
A few weeks passed and nothing bad happened. The Koopa Kingdom was slowly rebuilt and the Koopas moved back to their old home. One day Corrupt was out hanging around the lava pits as he usually did when Ludwig came along to see how he was doing.
“Out here again huh?” Ludwig asked sarcastically, trying to get a rise out of his brother.
“Yeah, no one seems to like me,” Corrupt replied, looking down into the red-hot volcanic emission. “It’s as if everyone wants me dead,” Corrupt continued.
“No, it’s not that, it’s just that everyone’s busy. There are still a lot of repairs to be done and it’s been hard for us all,” Ludwig kindly replied.
“Ludwig, what do you do most of the day?” Corrupt asked, looking into his brother’s eyes.
“I work in my lab. Follow me, I’ll show you,” Ludwig said as he and Corrupt walked off to his lab.
They had only been walking for a while when Roy came stomping down the hall. He stood in front of Ludwig and Corrupt and punched then both in the face. “What are you losers up to?” Roy growled as the two Koopalings stumbled backwards, wincing in pain.
“Ahh, beat it Roy, we’re going down to my lab!” Ludwig replied angrily as his mean brother passed by.
“Well if I see either of you two again, I’ll pound your face into the ground!” Roy said scornfully as he continued down the hall and into his room.
“What’s his problem?” Corrupt asked, shaking his head with dizziness.
“Oh nothing, let's just get to my lab before he comes back,” Ludwig replied, motioning Corrupt to follow.
They finally made their way down to Ludwig’s lab and Corrupt’s eye’s widened with excitement. “Oh wow! Look at all this neat stuff!” Corrupt said delightedly as Ludwig took him around to show him inventions he had started. Ludwig was thrilled to see his brother appreciating his many hours of hard work and decided to let Corrupt out of his straitjacket. Corrupt walked around and fiddled with a few of Ludwig’s, astonished with his brother’s genius.
“I want to be just like you Ludwig! I want to make great invention’s that’ll be useful in the world,” Corrupt said happily as he began to play with a few screws and bolts. “You wouldn’t mind if I tried to be like you, would you Ludwig?” Corrupt said slyly. Ludwig shook his head.
“No, I wouldn’t mind at all,” Ludwig replied as he started to walk out of the lab. “Just don’t go anywhere else.” Corrupt nodded in agreement and Ludwig left the room.
It had been a while since Ludwig thought he could trust his brother again, but it was well worth the wait. He and Corrupt could get on fine now, although he wished nothing had ever happened between them, and it was pretty hard to ignore the past. Ludwig went to the throne room where Bowser was still trying to work out the total cost of repairs for the castle. “Do you think Corrupt will ever remember who he is?” Ludwig asked Bowser as he sat next to his father.
“Who’d care if he did?” snapped Bowser. “As long as he's around we’re not truly safe,” Bowser continued.
“You’re not being honest with yourself, are you, King Dad?” Ludwig asked innocently as Bowser looked at his son.
“Well I do care, Ludwig, but who knows if Corrupt will ever remember again or not? It’s all up to chance in the end, I guess,” admitted Bowser. “Although it would be nice if he were to remember and we all actually got on together,” Bowser continued. “Well it’s getting late, so I’m off to bed,” Bowser said softly as he left the room, leaving Ludwig by himself.
“Yes… it would be nice…” Ludwig quietly said to himself as he made his way back to the lab. When he got there, he saw that Corrupt had already made seven little knickknacks and was now on his eighth.
“Well? What do you think?” Corrupt asked Ludwig excitedly. “They're good, aren’t they?” Corrupt asked, placing the tools he was using on a workbench.
“Yes, they're very good! Nice work!” Ludwig complimented, grinning from ear to ear. “Although it’s time to go to bed now,” Ludwig continued.
“Can I stay up the night and work some more?” Corrupt asked Ludwig, ambition shining through his eyes.
“Ok then, but I expect some good stuff in the morning!” Ludwig laughed as he left the lab. As soon as Ludwig left Corrupt let out an evil laugh. He had been waiting for ages for a chance to get revenge against the Koopas and that chance had finally came. He grabbed one of the inventions he had made while Ludwig was out and started fiddling around with it.
“All is going to plan! I shall have my revenge on you, brother, I shall have my revenge on the whole lot of you!” Corrupt cackled evilly as he walked out of the lab door. “Good ol’ Ludwig is always trusting me! Tsk tsk!” Corrupt hurried upstairs and towards Roy’s room, where Roy had been sitting on his bed listening to the stereo booming. Corrupt walked through the door and towards Roy with a sadistic grin crossing his features. Roy tried shouting to the others but the stereo was too loud.
Roy got up and ran towards Corrupt, tackling him to the ground. He began slogging Corrupt in the face. Suddenly Corrupt lashed out and punched Roy in the face, knocking him out cold. Corrupt then activated a small button on his invention, bringing out a small needle. He then jabbed it into Roy’s arm and took some of his blood. He then sat Roy in his bed and turned the stereo off.
The next morning, the Koopalings got to the table at breakfast and Roy came down rubbing his arm. “Man, I had the worst dream ever! I was listening to my stereo and Corrupt came and punched me in the face! And to top it all off my arm is numb!” Roy whined as he took a seat at the table.
“Everyone’s got numb arms!” Wendy, said looking up from her makeup catalogue. “It’s strange, really, that we… Roy! You’ve got a black eye!” Wendy screamed, pointing at Roy’s eye. Wendy tossed Roy one of her makeup mirrors and Roy gazed into it.
“My eye! That little… Where is he Ludwig?” Roy demanded.
“He’s in my lab. I took the straitjacket off and he’s stayed there making things… Oh no! Roy, come with me quickly!” Ludwig said hastily.
Ludwig and Roy ran to the lab to confront the Koopaling, Ludwig just hoped that it was all a misunderstanding. Ludwig and Roy entered the lab to see Corrupt hard at work making more inventions. Corrupt looked up and smiled slyly.
“Hey Ludwig, what’s up?” Corrupt said cunningly.
“Corrupt, please tell Roy where you were last night!” Ludwig asked as Corrupt reached down to get something.
“Why need I tell when he already knows?” Corrupt laughed as he placed seven glass bottles on the bench.
“Please tell me you didn’t punch Roy!” Ludwig asked, his fists trembling at his sides.
“Well, what was I going to do? Let him cream me and foil my whole operation?” Corrupt laughed menacingly. He grabbed each of the glass bottles and put them in a sack gently. “Although I enjoyed my stay I feel I’ve worn out my welcome!”
“What- You had us on the whole time!” Ludwig yelled angrily. “It was nothing but a façade! I thought I could trust you, and yet you betrayed my trust and kept this pointless conflict going! I hate you!” Ludwig screamed in anger, his face crumpling in pain as tears streamed down his face.
“Brother… I already knew that. And that is why I keep fighting! I fight, for I see the future and it doesn’t have you!” Corrupt said mockingly, taking advantage of Ludwig’s feelings. “It’s just too bad that you were blind enough not to see it!”
Corrupt’s words tore Ludwig’s soul in two and Ludwig lunged at Corrupt in fury. Corrupt quickly pressed a button and there was a loud clanging noise. Ludwig and Roy looked around to see a giant robot, Corrupt then pushed another button and it opened up to reveal a cockpit. Corrupt jumped in and closed the hatch on the cockpit behind him. “Hey Ludwig, this is one of my more greater inventions that I forgot to show you!”
Corrupt advanced slowly upon Ludwig and Roy and prepared to shoot them with a laser cannon attached to the arm. Ludwig and Roy turned around and ran for the door in dire fear, Corrupt turning around and chasing after them. They ran through the door and thought they were a little safer when Corrupt came crashing through the wall.
“I shall kill you meddlesome fools for foiling all my plans!” Corrupt laughed wickedly as he chased the Koopas up the stairs and down the main hall, crushing everything in the way, stone pillars crumbling as Corrupt's robot scraped the sides of the walls. Ludwig and Roy were hard out of breath but kept pushing themselves in fear, sweat trickling down their faces and dripping off their chins. They both ran outside towards the lava pits and stopped dead in their tracks.
Ludwig and Roy had taken a wrong turn and it was too late to turn around for Corrupt came crashing out of the door. Ludwig and Roy drew their wands and prepared to fight. As Corrupt stormed closer Ludwig dived through the robot's legs and sent out a wave of magic towards one of the legs. The leg went berserk, although only for a few seconds.
“That’s his weakness, Roy! Aim for the legs!” Ludwig yelled to Roy as Corrupt regained control of the robot.
“Resistance is futile, Ludwig, you’ll never win!” Corrupt laughed as he tried to stomp on Ludwig, when suddenly a fireball hit the robot's leg and Corrupt once again lost control. It was Bowser, standing in the door, bold as brass.
“Corrupt, you’re mine!” Bowser said, motioning Ludwig and Roy to get out of the way. Corrupt charged at Bowser; Bowser jumped into the air and launched another fireball, hitting the top of the robot and sending it flying head over heals. Bowser then landed on top of the robot, sending a jolt throughout the whole cockpit.
“Bah! Think you're so good, Dad? Try this then!” Corrupt yelled out as half the armor on the robot snapped off and a giant cannon came out. Corrupt got up off the ground and ran at Bowser with blinding speed. Without the armor it became much more of a challenge. Corrupt then began to shoot aimlessly with the cannon, blowing many holes in the castle wall. Bowser then launched another fireball at Corrupt, hitting the robot in the leg again. The leg began to buzz as blue electric waves surrounded the leg completely. The robot then went berserk and started to walk towards the edge of the lava pits.
“No, don’t go there!” Corrupt screamed as the robot walked over the edge and fell towards the red-hot volcanic emission. The Koopas watched as the robot fell closer to the lava. Suddenly the cockpit detached and flew from the falling robot. The cockpit was an escape shuttle in disguise, and flew off with unbelievable speed; Corrupt had gotten away. The Koopas let out a long hard sigh and collapsed on the ground, warn out. It had been a hard battle, and the Koopas realized that Corrupt would never give up until he ceased to breathe.
Ludwig stared into the sky, breathing slowly and deeply, his rage settling down. “You won this one, Corrupt, but next time you lose, big time,” Ludwig said to himself as he walked to his room.
The End
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