Prologue: A Fabulous Prize
Several months have past since the events of Yosie and the Game Over invasion. It all started when Yosie, the young leader of Game Over, kidnapped Wendy, Karma, Peach, and Toad, and then spirited them away in his flagship, the G. O. S. Starstruck. Bowser, Mario, Luigi, and the Koopalings gave chase, but only Mario, Ludwig, and Morton managed to find the base on the edge of the Mushroom Kingdom, hollowed out of a huge mountain called Mt. Majesty. The three were captured by Yosie, his second-in-command 666 the Fire Bro, and the four G. O. Commandos, Doopliss, Lord Crump, Bombette, and Susan B. Koopa. Nevertheless, all seven managed to escape, but Yosie took Karma and fled on the Starstruck, Ludwig and Mario close behind.
As the final battle ensued, Yosie tried to destroy Lugwig with the potent MegaCannon, but it was destroyed as Bowser finally intercepted the corrupt human’s doomship. Calling in a powerful Ztar, Yosie increased his attacks and transformed into two powerful forms, but Mario managed to save Karma and all four managed to defeat him. Immediately afterward, Yosie and his officers disappeared as the downed Starstruck, its engine blown out by a bolt of lightning, sunk into the Mushroom Sea. The four fighters managed to meet with the other hostages at the coast, courtesy of Lemmy and his hijack of a small enemy ship.
Since then, nothing more has been heard of Yosie or the Game Over. All the strange events that did happen during that time have already been written into Fun Fictions by other tourists… except for a certain few stories.
First of all, Kamek’s wand suddenly went missing one day without a trace. No one had seen it. However, it mysteriously turned up the next day, right where he'd left it. When an expert Koopa detective investigated the crime, he couldn’t find any clues nor concoct how it had gone missing.
Second, Bowser wanted to try to exploit the base, but since he didn’t know where it was, he couldn’t. Wendy, Morton, Ludwig, and Karma wouldn't tell him. Karma had persuaded the others to do so because she had seen what the 15-year-old was capable of: he had copied and modified Wendy’s wand, rerouted Bombshell Bills, and drastically weakened her Metbond with Ludwig. It was now so weak, they would feel a twinge of pain only if they were on opposite sides of the world.
She also thought Yosie had had it in for her in some way, besides wanting to kidnap her and make her part of his squad of third-in-commands, the G. O. Commandos. But what?
Little did she realize she’d have the answer for that a lot sooner then she thought…
***
There was a knock on the front door of Castle Koopa. Karma, who happened to be passing by, answered it.
Outside was a Lakitu. He wore sunglasses and a black shell, had a brown mess of hair on his head, and his cloud also had sunglasses.
“Are you Karma A. Koopa?” he asked, adjusting his shades.
“Yes.”
He pulled Karma outside.
“Then you, my lady, are the winner of a fabulous trip to a surprise location!”
“What?”
“I said…”
“I know what you said. What fabulous trip? And who are you anyway?”
“The name’s Scott Charles Tut the seventy-sixth. I’m from the Koopa Kingdom lottery, and you are today’s lucky winner!”
“And my prize?”
“A hot-air balloon trip to an island in the south, with light breezes, wide beaches, and plenty of great natural attractions.”
“Keelhaul Key?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
“You’ll see. Just come with me!”
And despite Karma’s remarks and struggling, Scott led Karma out the front gates, where a white hot-air balloon and another Lakitu were waiting.
“Karma, allow me to introduce you to my assistant, Douglas Gaston.”
“How are ya?” Douglas asked Karma.
“All right…” she replied, a little uneasy.
A small set of stairs led into the balloon’s basket.
“Come, come,” Scott said, taking Karma up the steps. “It looks like you need a break from this old place.”
“But Ludwig’ll be worried…”
“Tell you what; I’ll leave these Koopas a note. You just wait here.”
Scott re-entered the castle commons. Karma was about to get out of the basket when Douglas floated right above the top step, blocking her way out.
“Hey! What gives?”
“What, you wanna run off on your prize?”
A few moments later, Scott reappeared.
“I pinned a note to the front door. Don’t worry, they’ll see it. And with that, we’re off!”
Scott and Douglas got in the basket and began to start up the burner, and soon the balloon was off.
“Hey, even if I wanted to go, I didn’t pack!” Karma complained.
“It don’t matter,” Douglas said. “Where you’re going, you won’t need baggage.”
After Karma thought this over, she found a pro to this situation: at least she wouldn’t be near Bowser and the other Koopalings that ran for cover when she approached. Even Morton would practically staple his mouth in her proximity. But the phrase, “where you’re going,” sounded strangely familiar.
Perhaps it’s for the best, she thought.
Chapter 1: Deceived
Scott, Karma, and Douglas flew south in the hot-air balloon through the sun-bright air above a flawless blue sea.
“We should be arriving at our destination shortly,” Scott said.
Karma was enjoying the ride, but inside she was worried. There was no Koopa Kingdom lottery as far as she knew, and she had never heard of any Scott Charles Tut, first or seventy-sixth or anywhere in between.
“We’re here,” Douglas said. “Take a look.”
Karma peered over the edge of the basket and saw a welcome sight.
“That’s Dinosaur Land!” she cried.
“Exacti-cally!” Scott said. “We’ll drop you off at Cookie Mountain.”
Karma was delighted. Cookie Mountain was where her tribe lived… as well as her parents. She hadn’t seen them in a long time.
Scott and Douglas lowered the balloon level with the mountain’s flat top, where another Lakitu was waiting. This one had a green shell, shades, and a green Mohawk.
“Welcome to Cookie Mountain,” the Lakitu said, helping Karma. “The name’s Spike.”
“Hello, Spike,” Karma replied. Spike got in the basket with Scott and Douglas.
Karma peered over the plain before her. There were several rocks and scattered vegetation. She also saw a dot on the horizon, which could only be the Yoshi village.
“Say, thank-“ she said as she turned back toward the balloon, but stopped as she saw the basket, which had moved from the cliff and was hovering farther than she could jump. Inside the basket, the three Lakitus were snickering.
“Hey, I’m going to need that balloon to get back to the castle!” Karma cried to them.
“Well,” Scott said, “there’s one tiny itsy-bitsy little detail involved in this trip we forgot to mention.”
“What?”
Douglas gave an evil laugh before transforming into a very familiar figure.
“It only goes one way!” Doopliss cried.
“Doopliss!” Karma cried. “What are you doing here?”
“Have you forgotten already?” Doopliss teased. “I’m a Game Over Commando.”
“I know that! But where’s Yosie?”
“Right here!” Scott cried.
“But you’re a Lakitu! Yosie’s a human!”
“Not anymore, I’m not! Scott Charles Tut abbreviated is SCT. The real name: supercomputer2, and then the seventy-six to 76. In all… supercomputer276!”
Doopliss spoke next. “Douglas Gaston. D. G. Duplighost!”
“Then who are you?” Karma asked Spike.
“Nothing more then the fifth G. O. Commando!” Spike replied. “Real name’s Lakilester, but I like Spike. I joined the Game Over after I found its leader had decided to become a Lakitu.”
Karma tried to flaw the three’s reasoning. After all, one little detail made Yosie’s whole plan fall apart last time. “How could you become a Lakitu, Yosie? The only way a human can turn into a Koopa-“
“Is with Kamek’s wand. I know. I know. Why do you think it disappeared for a day?”
“What?!”
“It took that long for my computer to copy and transfer all that data from that wand to my own.” To further press his point, he pulled out the G. O. Wand. It was like any other wand, except its point was split into four colors: white, black, orange, and purple. “Once that was done, I returned it and used the data to alter my DNA into that of a Lakitu. I’ll admit, it was not a comfortable process. I also applied a few of my wand’s elemental energies to my cloud, which was a product of a split of Spike’s cloud. I just used a bit of magic and BAM! When I transformed, it became my cloud.”
“But… but that’s…”
“Improbable and illogical?” Yosie answered. “Yes, but you know what I’m capable of.”
Karma started to drop her head.
“Yes,” she slowly and sadly replied, “I do.”
“Now I bet your wondering what I’m doing here. I’ll admit it now.” He looked back and forth to make sure all four of them were alone. “I have a morbid fear of death.”
“Everyone has that.”
“Yeah, but not in my way. I became a Lakitu to lengthen my life span, but it’s not enough. I had to find a way to make myself live forever. As an unrecognized Lakitu, I leafed through several magic books in libraries all over the kingdom. Finally, I found the article I wanted: a combination of magical objects that could make a Koopa that bathed in it immortal, but it required too much electricity than a wand could make and thus was deemed impossible.”
I have a feeling I know what’s coming next, Karma thought.
“As you might expect,” Yosie continued, “I’ve developed a machine that will do the job just fine: take the items and use electricity to make the formula to eternity!”
“You’re insane!” Karma yelled.
“Thank you,” Yosie replied. “By the way and FYI, my offer as a Commando from last time still stands.”
“I still don’t want to join you! You said you never lost, and yet last time we met you did!”
“That was not a loss! Only a minor setback. Ok, major. I lost my flagship and some of my reputation, but since my computer-generated army had nowhere else to go, my offensive has not crippled in the slightest. I’ve been looking to add Yoshis to my squads because of their multiple attacks and high stamina, and guess who I want to lead them?”
“I have a guess… me.”
“Correct! Now, I’m offering you a job and I’ll show you just how good a boss I am.”
“How?” Karma asked in a sarcastic tone.
“Hey, I brought you to Dinosaur Land, right next to your tribe. And this is just the beginning, as my Commandos get bonuses year-round. You just didn’t see it because our previous engagement didn’t last more than a day.”
Karma was weighing the scales. While she knew these guys wanted to conquer the multiverse, Bowser and the Koopalings didn’t exactly let her have shore leave back home.
“Give me some time to think about it.” She said this with pure honesty.
“We’ll be back soon,” Yosie said, “and with that… BAM! We’re gone!” A wave of the G. O. Wand and the balloon and its passengers disappeared.
Karma turned around and ran toward the
dot on the horizon. To be perfectly honest, she was glad to be home.
Chapter 2: The Search for the Stars
Bowser and Morton walked down the castle hallway. Both were silent from anticipation. For the strangest of reasons, the Koopa family still hadn’t used their technique of talking the Mushroom Kingdom to sleep since they came up with it months ago. This was mostly due to the Game Over Invasion and the events mentioned in the Prologue, but finally, they were ready. Morton held the megaphone needed to project his voice across the enemy territory and rock everyone to dreamland.
However, it was doomed to be derailed once again. As they passed the front door, they saw a note pinned to it. It was folded in half.
“Morton, go see what that says,” Bowser said.
Morton made his way over and pulled the note off the door, unfolded it, and read it to himself.
Gack ack ack ack ack! it read. Soon, I shall be invincible, and there won’t be a thing you can do! Stay out of my affairs or your daughter-in-law will suffer the consequences! At the bottom was a crude but decent sketch of Karma and a stamp of a Poison Mushroom.
“D-D-DAD!” Morton stammered. Bowser hurried over, snatched the note, and quickly read it.
“YOSIE!” he growled loudly, crumpling the note in his claw.
“What’ll we do, King Dad? Karma’s been, has, just got swiped, kidnapped, abducted, spirited awa-“
“What will we do?” Bowser interrupted. “WHAT WILL WE DO? Absolutely nothing.”
“Wha-“
“Just what I said, we’ll do nothing. About time we got her out of the house.”
“But last time-“
“Was because I cared about Ludwig. Keep your big mouth shut about this, Big Mouth, or I’ll throw you in the dungeon for life.” Bowser left with the note, leaving Morton standing right in front of the door.
***
The balloon materialized in a fruited plain Mt. Majesty, the Game Over hideaway, looked over, in all its purple… well, majesty.
With expert skill, Spike landed the balloon, and he, Yosie, and Doopliss came out and hit the ground. At least, Doopliss did. Spike and Yosie floated.
“Well, I think that went rather well,” Yosie said.
“You still haven’t told us the bulk of your plan,” Doopliss said. “I know we need the kid for the GOM1, but are you still going to offer her third-in-command status considering what she’ll be when we’re done with her?”
“We can always find someone else, mind you.”
“For Commando?”
“No, for GOM1. Now let’s get back to base.”
They deflated the balloon, hid it in a safe spot, and made their way towards Mt. Majesty.
***
“Approximately…” Ludwig strained as he tightened a stubborn bolt on his newest creation, “at location… There! This device will check the status of my Metbond… I hope.”
He turned the machine on and it exploded.
“Oh, DAD, am I forever doomed to repeat this horrible disaster?” he cried.
He decided to have a talk with Karma. After all, they were starting to like each other a bit more since the events of the Game Over. However, as he left his room, he ran into Morton, who was just entering. BUMP! They fell on the floor.
“Sibling, what was the cause of you charging into my personal quarters like that?”
Morton was bug-eyed, freaked out, and heavily shaking. “W-W-W-Well…”
“What?”
“B-b-b-but Dad s-s-said n-not to t-t-t-tell anyone…”
“This is much unlike you. What is the cause? I have a right to know!”
“K-K-K-Karma…”
“What about Karma?”
“G-G-G-Game O-Over!”
“WHAT?!”
Morton couldn’t hold it in.
“I CONFESS, ADMIT, GIVE UP! KARMA HAS BEEN ABDUCTED, STOLEN, KIDNAPPED FROM OUR CASTLE, KEEP, HOME BY SUPERCOMPUTER276!”
He fainted from lack of breath.
Worried, Ludwig left Morton gasping on the floor and began searching the entire castle, finding no trace of Karma.
Bowser, however, had heard Morton, and found the big-mouthed Koopa in Ludwig’s front door.
“MORTON, YOU MORON!” he roared. “NOW LUDWIG WILL INSIST WE DO SOMETHING!”
“Glad I got it off my chest, however,” Morton gasped.
At that moment, Ludwig rounded the corner.
“King Dad, Karma is not on the premises! We must take action!”
“We’ll take no action whatsoever! It’s about time that piece of filth got out of my house.”
“FATHER!”
“She’s half-Yoshi, for DAD’s sake!”
“I don’t care!” Once again, Ludwig’s anger surpassed his desire to use long, complicated, hard-to-spell words.
“All right. All right!” Bowser yielded. “We’ll try to find her.”
“Bravo!” Ludwig cried. “We shall commence this investigation by reviewing the footage taken by the observation units.”
“Wait, don’t tell me… we’ll start with the security cameras.”
“That’s what I said!”
“Come on, Morton.” Bowser picked the out-of-breath Koopaling off the floor and put him on his feet. “You’re coming along.”
“Why me?”
“’Cause I still want this to be a secret. Now let’s go!”
***
The trio of terror arrived at Mt. Majesty through the ground level tunnel.
Yosie pulled a megaphone out of his cloud. “G. O. Commandos!” he called through it, “SOUND OFF!”
Doopliss and Spike got in line with five more figures that arrived. As Yosie floated by, they gave roll call.
“Doopliss!”
“Spike!”
“Susan!”
“Bombette!”
“Lord Crump!”
“General Guy!”
“Dicer!”
Dicer was a Boomerang Bro. with a gray shell. He was very special since he was different from the other Commandos: he was the only one made by Yosie via computer code, like most of the army.
“Commandos, which of youse know about my plan?”
All seven raised their hand or made an affirmative gesture.
“In full?”
They all put their hands down and stopped the gestures.
“I thought not.”
“Come on, boss,” Dicer said with a slight British accent. “What’s the job?”
Yosie turned around.
“Fine. I’ll tell you. You all know about the GOM1?”
They all nodded.
“Code name?”
“The Life Drainer!” they said in unison.
“Right.”
“We know we need life for it to work,” Bombette said, “but you never told us what else.”
“Well, I am now.” Yosie passed out lists to all of the Commandos. They all read the same thing.
Star Rod
Seven Star Spirits (in card form)
Seven Crystal Stars
Seven Magic Wands
Seven Young Souls*
Blood of an Immortal
Chunk of a Dark Spirit
*Young souls shall be:
Goombella
Koopie Koo
Petuni
Eve
Ms. Mowz
Vivian
Karma Koopa
“Finished reading?”
The Commandos pocketed the lists and nodded.
“Right. Get the G. O. S. Volcano prepped and as many fighters as you can. We’re storming Star Haven!”
***
Ludwig ran through the security footage in the castle’s system. It followed Karma from her room to the front door when she stopped. She opened the door and outside was a Lakitu. He couldn’t tell much due to the black and white tape, but he could tell that for some reason, the Lakitu had a full head of hair. The Lakitu in question pulled Karma outside.
A few minutes passed, the Lakitu reentered the house. He pulled a pencil and a piece of paper out of his cloud, wrote something on it, pulled out a stamp, and stamped the bottom of the paper. He put the stamp and pencil away and pinned the paper, now folded in half, to the door before passing through the portal himself.
“We’d better observe the courtyard recording,” he said to Morton and Bowser, who were in the room with him.
Ludwig started to rewind the tape and then he synchronized the timeline of it with that of the one over the front courtyard. By “synchronized”, I mean that when the two tapes played, they showed exactly the same moment.
When the Lakitu pulled Karma out, they had a conversation before the Lakitu started to drag Karma off the grounds, out of the camera’s viewing range. Ludwig was slightly relieved to see Karma had put up a decent fight. A few moments passed after they left before the Lakitu reappeared and reentered the castle. He wrote the note, left, and once again exited the grounds.
“I have a bad feeling about that Lakitu…” Bowser said. “Ludwig, you’re on your own.” He started to leave.
“FATHER!”
“I’d said I’d try. I couldn’t care less about her anyway.” The Koopa King left.
Ludwig watched for a moment before printing out a shot of the security footage with most of the strange cloud-rider’s body in view.
“Come on, Morton. It will do better for the case if the two of us question the castle sentries.”
“We ask the guards about the Lakitu?”
“Exactly!” They left the security booth.
Chapter 3: Star Haven Storm
Eldstar gazed around the chamber. The remaining Star Spirits were at their posts, the Star Rod in the center of the rounded chamber, and everything more peaceful than a Bowser-free summer in Toad Town.
Boy, was it getting boring. The only things that broke the never-ending silence were stars coming into the Star Sanctuary with the wishes of Pilt’s residents below. The only other organic life form in the building was a Star Kid named Twink, who had been an apprentice Star Spirit since the fiasco with Bowser and the Star Rod. His post was a crystal half the size of the regular ones, in between Eldstar and the one on his left, Mamar.
Boy, Eldstar’s bored mind thought, I wish something would happen…
Suddenly, the entire building began to quake. Everyone noticed.
I was thinking along the lines of something positive…
Without warning, a Bombshell Bill burst through the ceiling and hit the floor. No one was hurt, but more Bombshells were appearing, and the “hole” effect started to eat up the roof.
“Honorable Star Spirit!” Twink asked as he flew over. “What’s going on?!”
The roof gave way and crashed to the floor around the Star Rod, revealing a lava red doomship in the dark sky above.
“Is this Bowser’s doing again?” Misstar thought out loud.
A voice pierced the night air in response.
“Bowser? Oh no. It’s something much worse…”
Bombshell Bill Blasters were mounted on the sides of the doomship, and they continued to rain the gold bullets through the ceiling, caving in smaller parts of the roof.
“G. O. Commandos!” the voice said. “ATTACK!”
G. O. Commandos? Eldstar thought. The Game Over must be attacking again! One of Peach’s recent wishes was that this wouldn’t happen. Another G. O. invasion, of course. She had never really thought of the Star Sanctuary’s roof caving in.
A rope extended from the bottom of the ship and Doopliss, Susan, Bombette, Lord Crump, General Guy, and Dicer began to slide down. Yosie and Spike used their clouds to float down.
The Commandos took their positions surrounding the pedestal that held the Star Rod while Yosie investigated it.
“That was almost too easy! Getting the next set of objects will be a piece of cake.”
“It’ll be stale cake if you don’t tell us what business you have here!” Twink sassed.
“Twink, keep your temper…” Eldstar warned.
“Aww, look,” Yosie teased, “the old man is lecturing the baby. Now I will take what I require and be on my way.”
He moved his cloud into position approximately ten feet from the Star Rod.
Breathe in, breathe in, breathe in… he willed.
Lakitus have a psychic connection with their cloud, so the cloud began to pull in air.
Breathe fire out, breathe fire out, breathe fire out…
Suddenly, the cloud exhaled a huge jet of burning blue flames. The only damage was the top of Crump’s, Doopliss’s, and Spike’s head got singed; Bombette’s fuse was lit and she exploded; and the crystal cover surrounding the Star Rod melted away. It was the last of these three effects that Yosie had been targeting.
“The Star Rod!” Twink gasped as Yosie snatched it up.
“Gack ack!” Yosie laughed. “Now what did Bowser do? Oh yeah. He did this!"
He waved the Star Rod and sent out a wave of yellow. However, the Star Sprits remained pretty much unaffected.
“Apparently that’s not it… perhaps it’s this!”
Another wave of yellow, but nothing.
“Boss, hurry it up…” Dicer warned. “They’re looking angry…”
“GOT IT! This is the Star Rod, so I’ve got to wish for it!” He thought hard about the Star Spirits trapped in cards. “And with that… BAM! It’s done!”
Another wave of yellow, and this time it got the job done. The Spirits spun for a bit before being captured in cards and drifting to the floor.
“Third time’s the charm.” Yosie stuffed the Star Rod in his cloud and pulled out the G. O. Wand. “Magical Magnet!” he cried. The seven Spirit cards flew into his outstretched hand.
“Seven Spirit Stud,” he joked as he made sure they were all there. “Let’s blow this joint.” The rope descended from the G. O. S. Volcano. Yosie and Spike flew up while the rest climbed from the almost deserted chamber.
I say “almost” because Twink had been hidden behind his crystal perch since a few seconds before the firing of the first wave. He emerged as soon as the Volcano was out of sight.
“The honorable Star Spirits!” he gasped. “I’ve got to tell someone! Mario! Peach! Maybe Luigi even!”
He quickly flew away.