TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1: CALM BEFORE THE STORM
CHAPTER 2: OF METAL AND MAYHEM
CHAPTER 3: COUNTER-TERRORISM
CHAPTER 4: REPRIMANDS AND CELEBRATIONS
CHAPTER 5: INVASION
CHAPTER 6: MASTER OF PLANS
CHAPTER 7: CHAOS BEGINNING
CHAPTER 8: CODE RED
CHAPTER 9: FADE TO BLACK
CHAPTER 10: DIRE TIMES
CHAPTER 11: SHADOWS OF THE FUTURE
CHAPTER 12: WAR HAMMER
CHAPTER 13: GUARDIAN FROM THE HEAVENS
EPILOGUE
INTRODUCTION
Thanks for taking the time to read this story. Before you begin, there are a few notes I would like to point out. This story takes place a few years after Superstar Saga. Bowser has cut back a little on his attempts to kidnap Peach, mostly because he's finally starting to think that he will never succeed. Mario has finally married Peach, therefore becoming "Prince Mario", while Luigi is feeling even less important than before. Peace is currently reigning in the Mushroom Kingdom, mostly because Bowser is taking a break after his last attempt failed. However, a new powerful force is preparing to descend down to Plit with one thing in mind: kill everything that breathes. The result is a conflict that involves the invaders, Koopas, Marios, and one heavy metal band.
The characters James, Lars, Kirk, Rob, and Cliff are based off of the members (and ex-members) of the band Metallica.
PROLOGUE
Elias stormed out of his chamber of the inter-dimensional airship, the Chaos Emperor. It had been months since his master had commanded him to destroy the world of Plit with an army of explosive ghosts called Wraiths. He had expected it to be a trip of about two to three weeks, but luck really didn't like him at the time. Several problems with the ship had occurred, and more than once he had destroyed what he thought was Plit only to find out he was nowhere near his target. And now, the Emperor was being sucked into a lovely thing that we like to call "a black hole". lias wasn't happy.
He continued towards the bridge. When he finally reached the bridge, his anger had cooled down slightly. "How in Jiyin's name did this happen?!"
"I am sorry, sir. There seems to be an object with an extremely powerful gravitational pull attempti-"
Elias grabbed the moronic Wraith and shouted, "I KNOW THAT ALREADY! THE QUESTION WAS HOW THAT HAPPENED, NOT WHAT HAPPENED!"
"That would be the fault of WRA-231, sir. He noticed the object, identified as a black hole, and piloted the airship Chaos Emperor closer to examine the object."
Elias wasn't impressed in the least. He turned to the Wraith attempting to steer the airship away from the hole. "231! Get your butt down here right now!"
The Wraith immediately started hovering towards him. "Yes, sir. What do you want me t- ugg..."
The moment the Wraith got within reach, Elias hit him with the flat side of his weapon. He stormed over to the weapons systems operator (another Wraith) and shouted, "Power up the gravitational destabilizer and prepare to fire it at the dang black hole!"
The Wraith complied without saying a
word. Elias watched as energy began collecting at the front of the ship.
Moments later, a large, dark yellow blast fired at the black hole. The
light of the shot was sucked in by the hole, but the shot itself hit and
destroyed its target. Elias was trying to come up with a way to vent his
rage that didn't involve destroying the entire ship. Before he could do
anything, a Wraith's voice cut into his
angry thoughts. "Elias, we have succeeded
in locating Planet 5923, also known as Plit."
All of the anger that was in Elias evaporated as he heard the first good news of the trip. Grinning wickedly, he replied with, "Set course for Plit. I believe it is time to get this stupid mission over with."
Chapter 1: Calm Before the Storm
It was a normal day at Bowser's sixth
castle, located in the darkest part of Dark Land. Larry was upstairs
watering his plants while trying to
come up with better ways to spy on his siblings, as they were starting
to
catch him more often. Morton was wandering
around aimlessly, talking (to no one in particular) about a wide variety
of topics, from Bowser being stupid to the Apocalypse being stupid to the
Marios being stupid. Wendy was throwing a tantrum because Bowser wouldn't
buy her a diamond-studded platinum necklace that she could buy for herself,
with lots of money left over. Roy and Iggy were wrestling. No; actually
Roy was sitting on top of Iggy, crushing him to death with his tremendous
weight. Ludwig was trying to create some new type of plasma cannon and
have a shouting match with Karma at the same time, which resulted in the
cannon going "boom" and blasting Lemmy, who was on the other side of the
castle listening to the heavy metal band Koopalica while riding on his
ball, through the outside wall.
While the Koopalings were busy "enjoying" themselves, Bowser was holed up in his room, consulting Kamek about why he always failed. Kamek listened to his story for the ten thousandth time and spoke up when he finished. "One problem that I see is that you relied too much on Roy's 'speed' to kidnap the princess and get of the castle with her. You know Roy's the slowest of the Koopalings! You should have had Larry do it. You also should have sent someone to try to deal with Mario, even though that someone would probably become a prisoner. But the number one problem was-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, sending one Koopaling to the castle to capture the princess and get out of there intact. But still, why couldn't Roy have gotten away? He is the strong-"
"He was too SLOW, Bowser! Don't ya get that already?"
The extremely repetitive conversation lasted for hours, ending only when Bowser grabbed Kamek and threw him as hard as he could out of the consultation room.
~~~
Life was great back in the Mushroom
Kingdom as well. All of the Mushroomers were excited because the popular
Koopa metal band, Koopalica, was going to play back-to-back concerts at
the Mushroom Theatre that night and the next. Mario had foiled yet another
one of Bowser's plans, though it was considered
his worst ever. All he had done was
send his son, Roy, to kidnap Peach and pray he got out of there in one
piece and with the princess. Go figure that it didn't even come close to
working. About two hours before the concert, they were going to have a
banquet dedicated to Mario's latest success, which was three months ago.
Mario had woken up later than usual. Two minutes later, he was heading out to check on the theatre. He wasn't too interested in Koopalica, mostly because he didn't really like metal, but also because they were Koopas, which he didn't trust in the least. For all he knew, this could just be part of Bowser's new plan, whatever it was. Still, the concert was part of the overdue celebration feast and he did want it to go smoothly.
~~~
"Get.off.of.*cough*.me.already," Iggy moaned as Roy continued to crush him.
"What? Ya hurt? Well too bad! This little bit of pain may help ya in the future," Roy replied in a nasty tone.
Karma muttered something that was more than likely angry and aimed at Roy. "WHAT WAS THAT, YA FREAK?!" Roy shouted, shifting his weight to glare at her, accidentally allowing Iggy to break free. He realized his mistake and turned to go chase him, only to trip over a loose brick. He roared incoherently at Iggy for a second before Ludwig barged carrying an unconscious Lemmy over his shoulder.
"SILENCE!" Ludwig shouted. Roy shut up immediately. "King Dad says he has thought of a foolproof plan to kidnap ze princess. He says to head to ze meeting room right avay."
Grumbling, the other Koopalings (plus Karma) got up and sauntered to the meeting room.
Chapter 2: Of Metal and Mayhem
"More-a lasagna please!" Luigi shouted out to a random Mushroomer who was currently helping himself to some spaghetti. He was just about to pass it when a standing crocodile swiped it clean out of his hands and passed it on to the Nimbian prince, Mallow. Luigi shouted, "Croco! Why d-"
"Shaddap!" Croco replied. "He asked for it first."
Before Luigi could pursue the topic, Mario called out, "Let-a him be, Luigi. There is more-a than just that-a."
Luigi looked at him for a second before turning to his twelve slices of pizza and plateful of spaghetti. "Stupid 'Prince' Mario. Where does he get-a off commanding other people around-a?" he muttered.
Just then, an airship was spotted with a logo on it that looked something like this:
~~~
"MWA HA HA! I have come up with my greatest plan ever!" Bowser crowed when the Koopalings had filed inside of the meeting room, Morton yapping all the way.
"Bowser, why don't you have the paper with-" Kamek began.
"SILENCE!" When he was sure that no one, not even Morton, was talking, he continued. "Alright, here is the plan. Ludwig, you will take the Amadeus tonight and hover about twenty feet above the stadium that Koopalica is performing in. Using your little electronics controller device thingy, you will cut off the sound and lights in the middle of the concert. You will then make two broadcasts. The first will be to the morons inside the- MORTON! SHUT UP!"
Morton, who had been talking about how stupid he thought electronics controller devices are, quickly became quiet. Lemmy, who had woken up by this time, grabbed an unlit Bob-omb from who-knows-where and stuck it in Morton's mouth. Sighing, Bowser started briefing them again. "Well, anyways, the first broadcast will be to the band and their fans, telling them they are now hostages. The second will be to Mushroom Castle, informing Peach that unless she surrenders herself to Ludwig, the stadium will be destroyed and everyone in it killed. It must also be noted that she should try to find the two Hammer Bros., which are the only troops you will have. Once you have her, restore power to the concert and fly back here. Anyquestions?"
Morton raised his hand. "Why did anyone besides Ludwig, the prince, the heir to the throne, the Yoshi-lover, the soon-to-be-ruler, have to come to this meeting room, this chamber of planning, this?"
Sticking another Bob-omb in Morton's mouth, Lemmy asked, "Why couldn't you have just summoned Ludwig?"
Bowser glared at both of them and replied, "So you would know what was going on! Any others?"
Ludwig slowly, as if he was afraid to, raised his claw. "You are joking, right?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, AM I JOKING?! WHY WOULD I JOKE ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THIS? NO! I'M NOT JOKING!"
Ludwig sat back up and said, "Alright, I get ze message. I vill go on zees mission (even though it is doomed to fail).
Bowser looked satisfied. "Good! You may all go about your business. Ludwig, your business will be to head off as soon as possible." He could have sworn he heard Ludwig mutter under his breath, "Dang it!"
~~~
James H. Koopa stood still on the pitch-black stage, microphone in hand and ready to begin his first concert outside of Koopa lands. He listened to the taped intro to his opening song while idly watching the shell-less Lars mess around with his drumsticks until, right on cue, he beat a few drums in rapid succession, at which point blasts of pyro went up, causing both the audience to scream with excitement and the lights to go on. Cliff, the melody guitarist, began playing his riff, while Rob jammed away on his bass. James began to walk around in an attempt to send the fans beyond excitement and into insanity. Finally, Kirk began his part of the riff, causing the loud noises from the crowd to grow even louder. Now there was only one thing missing. Wait for it... a few more seconds...
James, along with the crowd, began to sing, "Blackened is the end! Winter it will send! Throwing all you see! Into obscurity! Death of mother Plit! Never a rebirth! Evolution's end! Never will it mend! NEVER!"
~~~
Ludwig von Koopa stood on the deck of the Amadeus, holding the Electro-Regulator (as he called it) and mentally preparing himself for his punishment when he got back. This mission was doomed to fail, so why was he here? Why didn't he just turn back, tell Bowser that he had failed, and come up with some lie about what had happened. But no, Bowser would be suspicious, and he was a bad liar. It was too soon to turn back. Bored, he asked one of the two crewmen, "How much further until ve get zhere?"
"Either twenty miles or sixty miles. I can't entirely make out what it says."
Ludwig rolled his eyes and muttered, "Idiot."
"Prince von Koopa! We are approaching the kingdom right now!" came the voice of the other, much smarter Hammer Bro.
Ludwig ran up to the edge of the doomship, startled. Sure enough, the city was right in front of them. Grinning, he replied, "Good! Set course for the Mushroom Theatre!"
The first Bro's moronic voice ruined Ludwig's moment of glee. "Duh, what would happen if he ran into a hill or mountain?" he asked for about the twentieth time.
Ludwig replied with an annoyed, "Then ve vould all die."
~~~
James grinned at all of the wildly cheering
fans as Kirk finished up the closing solo. Bringing his microphone up to
his face, he addressed the crowd. "How was that?" The response was a huge
cheer. "Well I have a
feeling you guys are going to like
this one even more! Before the show, one fan managed to meet us and request
we play a song. The main reason he went out of his way to request it was
because we haven't played it live in ten or so years. For the third time
in Koopalica history," At that moment, a strange noise emitted from the
microphone and all of the amps, but James didn't notice, "TRAPPED! UNDER!
ICE!"
James looked back at Cliff a few seconds later and saw that although he was hitting the strings, no sound was being emitted. He then heard several fans asking what the song was. Taking a deep breath and a look at his bandmates' confused expressions, he shouted at the top of lungs (even though some people still wouldn't be able to hear), "WE SEEM TO BE HAVING SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES AT THE MOMENT!"
Rob replied with, "I think this could be trouble."
At that moment, a cruel, menacing voice sounded. "HOW IS ZEES FOR 'TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES'?!" MWA HA HA HA!"
Chapter 3: Counter-Terrorism
Elias grinned as the blue and green sphere came into view of the Chaos Emperor. He could finally taste victory. No, he would taste victory, unless something stupid happened.
"Sir Elias, we are running quite low on fuel to power the airship Chaos Emperor. We will fall 23 miles, 2,341 feet, 11 inches, 1.8 centimeters, and 0.8 millimeters short of Planet 5923, also known as Plit."
Elias glared at the nerdy Wraith. He just had to jinx himself. Taking the com in his hand, he shouted, "Prepare the reserve fuel supplies. NOW!"
~~~
"We are in trouble," Kirk mentioned semi-randomly.
"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed-" Lars began sarcastically
"SHUT UP!" James shouted, shutting everyone up. He began trying to see where the exits were so he could try to get everyone out of there.
Unfortunately, he couldn't see his own claw, let alone a door.
~~~
Peach and Mario listened in half shock and half horror as Ludwig finished his message. "I'm-a going after them," Mario announced, grabbing a Fire Flower and his old Masher.
"Be careful, Mario!" Peach called after him.
'How hard can two numbskull Hammer Bros
and a Koopaling be?' Mario thought. He ran straight towards Mushroom Plaza
and, sure enough, two moronic Hammer Bros. stood there, one hitting its
head on a building while making rather dumb noises. Mario pulled out his
Fire Flower and began frying the bored
Bro. His companion saw what was going
on and charged at Mario, throwing hammers rapidly. Mario fought fire with
literal fire, but to his amazement, the Koopa dodged. He decided that maybe
not all Koopas had the IQ of a garden snail.
~~~
Ludwig sat around on the deck of his doomship, once again trying to create a better plasma cannon. This, he decided, was the absolute most boring mission ever. He wondered what his punishment for this failure would be. Probably three days to a week in the dungeon, depending on how Bowser decided to feel at the time. He failed to notice, however, that his container of explosive liquid potassium had cracked and there was water right below it.
Boom!
~~~
Mario drew out the Masher as he charged the incoming Hammer Bro. He dodged the flying hammers and prepared to swing with all his- BONK! Mario looked around dazed and saw the first Hammer Bro. charging at him. He grabbed the Fire Flower again and began blasting the Bro again, while keeping an eye on the other Bro. The second one came within pounding range and swung downward as hard as he could, only to have Mario step back and leap into the air. Mario landed right on top of the Bro's head and bounced off to hit the other one twice before returning to his original target for three more bops. Both Bros fell to the ground, unconscious.
Mario removed the Koopas' shells and used them to pin the Bros to the ground, just in case. He looked around to see where the Amadeus had landed, which didn't take long, because it was in the sky. Without another moment's hesitation, Mario ran off toward the doomship.
~~~
"WHAT IS IT TAKING SO FREAKING LONG?" the reaper-esque Elias raged.
"We are sorry, sir. The transfer from the reserve fuel source of the airship Chaos Emperor to the main fuel source of the airship Chaos Emperor takes a rather long time. Why don't you sit back and have a cappuccino?" a Wraith answered.
A swift kick to the head in turn answered him. "Keep the transfer going. Plit will be destroyed," Elias growled.
~~~
Ludwig got up, dazed by the explosion of his latest weapon gone boom. "Vell, now I know vhy all of my veapons keep blowing up. I haf to move ze liquid potassium to anozer section of ze cannon."
His thoughts were interrupted by an all-too-familiar voice saying, "Let's-a go!"
Ludwig got up on his feet and turned to his opponent. Mario was still sporting the Masher and the Fire Flower, the latter being the first one used. Ludwig ducked into his shell and skidded forward, trying to ram his eternal foe. Mario jumped over the shell and taunted, "You-a have to-a do-a better than that-a. It's-a me, Mario!"
Ludwig popped out of his shell and jumped out the fat plumber. "You don't haf to say 'It's-a me, Mario' every time ve fight!"
Mario didn't reply verbally, but rather with his mallet. Ludwig tried to hide in his shell again but it was too late. After getting a face-full of Masher, he retaliated by blasting out fire from his mouth. Mario attempted to jump on him, but Ludwig jumped inside his shell at the last second, causing Mario to come down on top of a sharp spike, cutting his foot deeply.
Mario jumped off as well as he could, picked up the shell, and threw it overboard, unknowingly smashing the Electro-Regulator in the process.
~~~
James looked around as the lights returned and was surprised to see that most of the crowd had remained in the pit. He decided to check to see if his microphone was working. "Check 1! Check 2! Check, check!" It was working, alright. Grinning, he turned to the crowd again. "Sorry about the delay. Anyways, as I had said before the Koopas arrived, TRAPPED! UNDER! ICE!"
The response was deafening cheer.
~~~
The Amadeus landed smoothly in front of Castle Koopa. The pilot of the day, one Mario M. Mario, threw three tied up Koopas down to the front gate of the castle. He then ran to an escape vessel and flew back to the Mushroom Kingdom.
Ludwig looked up to see his father glaring at him. He put on a grin and said, "Hey D-dad, l-long time n-no s-see!"
Chapter 4: Reprimands And Celebrations
'Adrenaline starts to flow! You're thrashing all around! Acting like a maniac. WHIPLASH!" James finished the final song of the night, along with a maniacal crowd.
"THANK YOU! You've been great!" he shouted to the myriad of fans while Rob, Kirk, and Cliff threw extra guitar picks out to several lucky Mushroomers. Lars threw both of his sticks to the crowd a few seconds later. Finally, all five came together for a group bow, with James shouting, "See you tomorrow night, friends!"
James couldn't remember ever hearing so loud an audience.
~~~
All was not well back at Castle Koopa. Actually, it just wasn't well for Prince Ludwig von Koopa. He was in Bowser's courtroom, rattling off his story of how he failed the mission to Bowser, seated high up in the judge's seat, and his two Sledge Bro bodyguards. When he finished, Bowser just glared at him, more furious than Ludwig had ever seen him. Finally, he began to talk. "How, in DAD's name, did you not realize you should keep an eye on the Hammer Bros?" How did you get the idea that wasting tinkering with something that has always blown up in the past was going to help the mission?! HOW DID YOU NOT NOTICE WHAT MARIO WAS DOING?! AND WHY, WHY DID YOU ALLOW MARIO TO PILOT THE AMADEUS?! WHY?! A MONTH IN THE DUNGEON FOR YOU!"
Ludwig stared, shocked. A whole month in the dungeon for him, because he failed a doomed mission? He had to try something. "K-King D-Dad-"
"SILENCE! I HAVE SPOKEN! GUARDS, TAKE HIM AWAY!" Bowser banged his gavel, signaling that his decision was final.
Guffawing, the Sledge Bros moved towards Ludwig, grabbed him by the wrists, and started carrying him down to the dungeon while Bowser let out a huge blast of fire.
~~~
Mario grinned at the crowd below him as he returned from dropping Ludwig and the Amadeus off at Castle Koopa. Bowser was sure to punish Ludwig severely for that embarrassment, especially if the rumors of Bowser growing angrier by the day were true. Naturally, the citizens decided to have a party celebrating another victory. As he began to land the escape pod, he took another look at his foot. The cut from Ludwig's spike was deep enough to cause a scar, but otherwise, it should heal completely. When he landed, the very first people to approach him were a group of five Koopas, all with long, crazy hair. Mario recognized them as Koopalica. The lead one, sporting dirty blonde hair and a dark yellow shell, smiled and stepped forward. It looked like he was about to congratulate Mario when a mob of Mushroomers surrounded him, cutting off whatever the Koopa had to say.
Chapter 5: Invasion
"ARGH! YA LITTLE- OW!" Roy yelled at
his wakeup call. Wendy ran off with a giant grin on her face. Roy removed
the Piranha Plant from his side and got out of bed. Instead of cleaning
up first, he charged straight
down to the kitchen to grab some food
and hopefully get a chance to beat up on Wendy.
When he got there, he was surprised to see no one at the table. He took a look at the clock. Yes, it was time for breakfast. He was just about to go help himself to some sausages when a small Koopa with long blue hair dropped down and tackled him. The chubby Koopaling turned around and slugged his assailant, knocking Larry to the floor. A blast of flame from behind fried him. Snarling, Roy ducked into his shell and skidded towards Iggy. Just before he hit, however, he felt someone lift him up. He popped out of his shell and saw Karma and Morton preparing to throw him into a small group of spikes. Angrily, he blasted both of them with fire, and then charged Iggy once more. A blue beam was fired in front of him, causing ice to form on the floor. Roy slipped and fell on the ice, sliding all the way to the wall. He turned to see the others waiting expectantly.
A few seconds later, a slightly dazed Larry asked, "W-where's Ludwig?"
Lemmy, who was still holding his Freeze Gun, said, "Yeah, he was supposed to body slam Roy so we could toss him into the dungeon for breakfast."
Bowser's voice boomed from behind the Koopalings (and hybrid), "Ludwig will not be joining us for breakfast today. In fact, he will not be joining us for anything for the next month!"
~~~
"Sir Elias, we have both fully transferred the reserve fuel into the main fuel supply of the airship Emperor Chaos and come within assault range of Planet 5923, also known as Plit. Shall we begin launching ourselves at the nearest landmass?" a Wraith asked.
Finally. After several months, the end of the mission was in sight, at least according to Elias. Grinning, he replied, "Yes. Send Squad Zeta to scout the nearest island or continent. It's about time we finished this."
~~~
"LUDWIG HAS TO SPEND A MONTH IN THE DUNGEON FOR WHAT?!" Karma shouted, keeping one eye on Bowser's guards, which were two Sledge Bros.
"Ah, so you do like him, huh? Huh? HUH?" Roy taunted.
"Shut up, Roy. Ludwig's been sent to the dungeon for a month for failing a mission that any one of you could have succeeded in easily," Bowser said, telling them for the second time about Ludwig's fate. Just then, Kamek rushed into the room.
"Ok, Your Highness, your simple, obviously desperate plan has failed. Now do you think we can try my plan?"
~~~
"Sir, the main lifeforms of Planet 5923, also known as Plit, seem to be a strange form of fungi with near-human characteristics and a form of standing turtles, about half with spikes on their shells. Overall, we have exactly an 82.638% chance of destroying Planet 5923, also known as Plit, as it seems Planet 5923, also known as Plit, is technologically underdeveloped. WRA-722 out", the Wraith on Elias's monitor briefed. Elias grinned evilly.
"Good. Clear a flat space about 100 feet in radius. We're preparing to land."
Chapter 6: Master Of Plans
Kamek waited patiently as the royal family (minus Ludwig) came into the meeting room. He waited for all of them to get seated and for someone to shut Morton up before he began.
"Alright, I guess you all know how badly
Bowser's plan failed. Now, we get to try my plan. Morton, shut up. Anyways,
I think you're going to like this a little bit more. Larry, Wendy, and
Morton, who needs to shut up, will take their doomships to the northern
outskirts of Mushroom Kingdom and begin bombarding them. This will more
than likely cause the Marios and any other heroic friends to come towards
them. They will contact Iggy, Lemmy, and Roy when the Marios have - Morton,
shut up - reached them. Roy and the twins will
fly towards Mushroom Castle from the
south and release a small force to kidnap Peach. Once they have her, they
will tell the other Koopalings and all six doomships will fly off. Of course,
the kidnapping group will take a small detour towards Rose Town and fire
at it for a few minutes before heading back here. Any questions? Morton,
you seem to have one."
Morton, who had blabbing about how stupid he thought Rose Town was, looked around confused. "Why did you, Kamek, the head of the Magikoopas think, figure, believe that I, Morton Koopa Jr., the second Koopaling, had a question, an inquiry, and an interrogation when I didn't say, mention."
"Morton, just shut up already!" Iggy interrupted. "As for questions, I have one. Why do we have to make a detour towards Rose Town?"
Kamek grinned and replied, "The detour serves two purposes. One, it will ensure the defenders of the kingdom won't get there before Peach does. Also, the plumbers will probably see that the doomships are heading that way and try to follow them, getting them off our backs for a little while, especially if they follow us all the way to Rose Town. Any more?"
Bowser said, "No, I think that's all." He put on a wicked grin and mentioned, "That's genius, Kamek!"
"That's why you didn't use it, huh? Whoops."
Bowser responded to that last comment with a blazing missile.
~~~
Elias smirked at the devastation. The
Wraiths may be nerdy, intelligence-deprived slugs, but their destructive
force was about the greatest he had ever seen. Within ten minutes, they
had fully destroyed the
largest village on one of the larger
continents, identified as Dino Land. Elias felt a dark aura form around
his body as his insane glee rose to astronomical levels.
~~~
Deep down inside of Castle Koopa, Ludwig
sat around bored inside his cell. His whole body ached from the beating
he sustained from Mario, and he had nothing to keep him occupied. He had
asked the food-bringing guard, a Boomerang Bro, if there was any possible
chance that he could be brought some of his lab equipment. The guard had
asked Bowser but got fried in the process, which pretty much gave Ludwig
the answer to his question. Even though he thought that was all idiotic,
Ludwig could see why Bowser was so
angry- he hadn't even kidnapped Peach
with any of his plans for the last year or so, causing him to grow desperate.
His last few plans had mirrored that, but the whole idea of holding hostages
was just... stupid, especially since the only semi-important ones were
Koopas. There was also the fact that the hostages seemed to be chosen randomly.
The guard interrupted his thoughts by bringing him some food. Ludwig wordlessly
took the plate and began chomping down, hoping that the food would ease
the bad feeling in his stomach...
Chapter 7: Chaos Beginning
"Hot Rod, Crusher, and Jester cleared for take off," came the voice of the Rocky Wrench who was currently enjoying the honor of being in charge of the airfield, which would last until he got fired or assassinated the next day. Iggy grinned maniacally as the Hot Rod slowly rose into the night sky. In about four hours, he and his siblings would be finally bringing about a victory for the Koopa clan, and there was nothing that the overweight pipe-fixer would be able to do about it.
"Hey, Iggy? Don't you think you should have your ship rise up faster so Roy won't crash straight into you? Just a thought," his clownish brother's voicecame.
Iggy scowled before speaking to the Wrench controlling the Hot Rod. "Go faster!"
He immediately felt the doomship rise even faster, which helped him get over the interruption of his thoughts. About thirty seconds later, the ship leveled off at an altitude of around 2,000 feet and began moving into to position behind and to the right of the Jester. He turned and saw the Crusher also come in behind Lemmy, except it went to the left. Once they were in a delta formation, Lemmy issued the first true command of the mission. "All doomships, head south southeast at a rate of 200 kph (Koopameters per hour). We will reach the Kingdom in around four and a half hours."
~~~
Larry grinned from the bridge of his Espio, paying only half attention to the battle folding out below him. The other half of his thoughts was on the rewards of this certain victory. In fact, that was all he had been thinking about since he launched four hours ago. Wendy's voice broke into his thoughts. "LARRY! MORTON! THE MARIOS ARE COMING! SIGNAL THE OTHERS!"
Larry replied with a brief, "Okay," while a tape-mouthed Morton tried to give a whole speech, which just came out as, "Mph!"
Larry keyed in for the signal for the Jester and said, "Alright, move in! The Marios are coming after us!"
He waited for a few seconds. Lemmy replied, "Roger that. Jester, Hot Rod, and Crusher moving in."
Larry shut off the com and grinned down at the plumbers. After so many years of losing, they were finally about to win one.
~~~
Mario frowned in grim determination as he and Luigi charged towards the three ships, with several Mushroomers watching them while cheering madly. In any ordinary case, he would have felt confident enough to at least smile to them. But when there were three doomships attacking at once, not even he felt confident. Sure, he had taken these things down before, but never more than one at a time. But he had, of course, no choice.
Finally, Mario reached the first one and began climbing the anchor. When he reached the top, he was greeted by several Bullet Bills being fired at him. He jumped them and decided this must be Morton's ship- it was the one with the most Bill Blasters, at least last time he checked. He continued towards the captain's quarters, expecting to find a big-mouthed Morton waiting for him. Instead, he found a gagged Morton waiting there. The young Koopa tried to give a speech, even with his mouth closed tightly, but Mario just blasted him with a Fire Orb and followed up with a powerful punch to the stomach, knocking Morton through a wall.
Morton stood up, realized that the tape had burnt away, and began talking (go figure). "That was quite a weak, pathetic, pitiful and not strong punch, blow, and hit you delivered, us- OOF!" Mario had jumped in front of the talkative kid and struck him in the stomach again, this time with his Masher.
Morton rolled to one side and got up,
angry. He had his shell to the castle, which was under attack by three
other doomships. Mario stared open-mouthed
for a second before shouting, "MAMA MIA!"
He heard Luigi's voice calling him from below the Rambler. "MARIO! LET'S-A GO!"
Mario didn't need to be told twice. He ran towards the edge of the ship and jumped off, getting shot by a Bill in the process.
~~~
Roy waited impatiently as his force of Koopatrols and Fire Bros. searched the castle for Peach. They had been in there for a few minutes, so they would probably come back out in a matter of minutes. No sooner had the thought passed his mind than the group came back out, holding a kicking, screaming Peach and a crying Toad.
"Prince, we have her. We brought the Mushroomer because-"
"I don't care! Just get on da ship, all of ya!" Roy shouted. The mission was complete, except for the easy Rose Town part. As soon as they were all aboard, he called out to Lemmy. "Alright, we got 'er."
"Alright, guys. Prepare to head to Rose Town. Oh yeah, and Iggy? Inform the Espio, Rambler, and Imperial Belle that they can head back now."
"Copy, brother," came Iggy's semi-maniacal voice. Lemmy grinned in the direction of Rose Town. It seemed as if they had finally won.
~~~
"WHERE DID THE DOOMSHIPS GO?!" Mario shouted at the Chancellor, who had just informed him of what had just happened.
"The l-leader of t-the squad had said something about g-going to R-rose Town," the shaken Mushroomer replied, a scared look in his face.
"Come-a on, Mario! We have-a to get-a over to-a Rose Town!" Luigi said, a strange type of determination on his face.
Mario tried to sound cheerful as he said, "Lets-a go!" But instead, his worry was heard.
~~~
As soon as they were far way from the kingdom, Lemmy, Iggy, and Roy let out a huge laugh. They had actually tasted victory for once! No being sent to the dungeon for a few months, no angry reprimands that involved being blasted by fire. They had captured Peach without being stopped by the Marios. Iggy decided to wreck their moment of glee, however.
"Uh, guys? I think we could have some trouble coming up." Lemmy resisted the urge to shout at his twin to go look at what he meant.
The urge died when he saw it- a huge purplish cloud heading straight for them. Grabbing the com, he signaled to the other two ships. "All doomships, prepare your cannons. We may have trouble."
~~~
Wendy and her siblings landed their doomships and jumped out happily. They figured that nothing could go wrong now. Kamek thought differently. "Get back into your ships and head full speed towards your brothers! Lemmy just sent us a distress signal, saying that they were under attack!"
~~~
"Fire! Fire! Destroy all of them!" Iggy shouted to his cannoneers, watching as several of the black creatures blew up. They were everywhere, reeking havoc on all three doomships with self-destructions that resulted in huge purple blasts. To his left, his siblings were also shouting out to their crew. He could tell because they were loud enough for him to hear.
In the midst of all the violet explosions, a bright red and orange one erupted from the hull of the Crusher. Moments later, Roy sent off a message to them. "Guys, the Crusher's finished. We're going down!"