It had been one crazy night (as Lemmy said). It was now morning, but the two Koopalings were still asleep, as they were very tired from their little tangle with Tatanga. The sunlight shined through the cave entrance. As it shined over Larry, he woke up. “*yawn*… Morning, Lemmy,” he said.
Lemmy, feeling the heat from the sunlight, woke up. He sat up, looking straight into the light, and jumped. “Ahh! Heat wave!” he wailed. He jumped up and looked around. It was only the morning light. “Oh… Morning, Larry,” he said.
Larry was giggling at Lemmy’s reaction. Lemmy frowned and gave Larry a look that said “Not funny, Larry!”
“Sorry, Lemmy,” said Larry. “But it’s just that…you looked so funny!”
“Oh whatever! ... Come on, let’s go get something to eat.”
“What?! No way are you making me go back to that cafe!”
“Aww… Come on, that woman may’ve been a grouch, but she had some really good food.”
“No! I mean that cafe must be… like… ten miles away from here!”
“Oh… that’s true… But what are we supposed to eat, fruit and berries? ... Hmm… Come to think of it, berries and fruit doesn’t sound that bad.
“That’ll work…”
Larry and Lemmy walked to the cave entrance. They peered out and looked around just to be sure nothing was lurking. Fortunately, nothing was. The two walked out and began looking around for any trees with fruit.
“Hey Larry!” said Lemmy. “There’s an apple tree over here! But I can’t reach any of them, like that’s even a surprise…”
“Let me try…”
Larry walked over to the tree and tried to climb it. He slowly made his way up and began shaking the branches. Apples fell all around the tree.
“Wahoo!” cheered Lemmy. “Go Larry!”
Larry slid down the tree. When he landed, he began shaking his hands, as he had cut them a bit while sliding down the bark. After shaking his hands, he grabbed an apple and bit into it. “Mmm! Good!” he said.
“Uh… Larry?” Lemmy began.
“What?” said Larry.
“Um… I don’t think you should eat that…”
“Why not?”
Larry looked at the apple. There was a small hole in it, and out of the hole walked a tiny Wiggler.
“UUUUUUGGHHHHH!!!” Larry yelled. He threw the apple down. Lemmy laughed hard. Larry looked at him. “Not funny!” he snapped. “I could’ve eaten that worm!”
“I know, but it’s just that… you looked so funny!”
“… Copycat! That whole worm-in-the-apple thing is the oldest gag in the book.”
Afterwards, the two Koopalings began looking for berries. There were fewer berries bushes than fruit trees, but they managed to make the most out of what they could find. They gathered their fruit and began eating. Fortunately, no other apples had Wigglers in them. Later, they had finished. “That wasn’t too filling,” said Lemmy. “But it’s enough. Now, let’s get down to business. So… where do we go from here?”
“Let’s walk along the beach. Maybe we’ll reach the end of the forest.”
“Okay, but first, let’s pack some fruit so we won’t get hungry.”
“Good idea!”
Larry and Lemmy looked around for more fruit. After filling their shells with fruit and berries, they walked back to the beach and started along the coast. Later, they were still walking. The beach seemed endless, but to the Koopalings, it was better than an endless stretch of nothing but trees and underbrush. The two had been quiet the whole time, only hearing the roar of the ocean waves and the calls of the Goonie birds. Later, Lemmy stopped to check something. He took out his Freeze Gun to see if it would work this time. He aimed at a rock and pulled the trigger, but again, nothing happened. “Aww,” said Lemmy. “My gun’s still jammed. Larry, if we have to fight anymore, I don’t think we’ll be in such good shape… we’re both almost out of ammo.”
Larry turned around. “Well…,” he began, “I guess we’ll just have to try to fight as hard as we can when we meet the next attacker… but look on the bright side, we still have our wands.”
“True… but so far we’ve zapped nobody… They’ve all avoided our shots, and to add to that, none of our ammo has had any effect on anybody, and if we run out of ammo completely, your tennis racket will be useless, and to top it all off, my Freeze Gun won’t fire! Our only weapons are our bare hands. So far our bare hands have only defeated Wart, but there’s a whole bunch of others who are stronger than him, and if anyone else attacks us, we’ll be sitting Koopas!” Lemmy looked down in a discouraged way. Larry could tell Lemmy was nervous. He couldn’t really blame Lemmy, though. Larry decided to try to calm his brother down.
“Don’t worry, Lemmy. Whatever happens, I’m sure we can handle it even with the ammo we have.”
“How much ammo do we have anyway?”
“Let’s see…”
Lemmy took out all the grenades he had. His total: three. Larry took out all his shell bombs. His total: two. Larry and Lemmy looked at their ammo, then they looked at each other. “You were saying?” said Lemmy.
“We’re doomed…”
“HEY YOU!!!” someone yelled. The Koopalings turned around and there, running towards them, was their cousin— Nick. “Nick!” said Lemmy. “What are you doing here and how did you find us?”
“Who cares about what I’m doing here?! Anyway, I used this tracking device.”
“How does it track us?”
“Who cares?!”
“Where’d you get that?
“I know a guy…”
Larry and Lemmy looked at each other. “Why does everyone keep saying that?” whispered Lemmy.
“Let’s just get to the important stuff!” said Nick. “Anyway, I heard about what you and the Mario Bros. did to my dad.”
“Um… well…”
“Well nobody attacks MY dad!”
“No Nick!” said Larry. “You got it all wrong! Uncle Wart attacked us!”
“SHUT UP! I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! AND YOU’LL PAY FOR IT!!!”
“No you don’t know what happened! Besides, I thought you didn’t like Wart that much…”
“I SAID SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUP!!!” Nick had gone almost completely mad. He reached into his shell and took out a huge axe!
Larry and Lemmy stared in disbelief. “Geez!” said Lemmy. “Everybody wants to kill us so bad!”
Lemmy took out his Freeze Gun and, hoping it would work this time, pulled the trigger. Still nothing. “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” he yelled.
“LEMMY! LOOK OUT!!!”
Lemmy looked up to see Nick charging towards him with his axe held up high! Larry tackled Lemmy to get him out of the way. Nick charged towards them again. Larry and Lemmy jumped out of the way quickly, barely missing the blade. Nick tried again and again to strike them, but Larry and Lemmy were able to dodge. Nick swung his axe at Larry, but was jump-kicked from behind by Lemmy. Nick fell forward, but quickly got back up and again tried to strike his cousins. Larry was fed up. Larry took out his wand and began blasting at Nick, who managed to dodge the blasts. Lemmy also took his wand and blasted at Nick, but Nick dodged all the blasts. He charged at Larry and Lemmy again. This time, the end of the blade nipped Lemmy’s arm, making a long cut. “Ow!” Lemmy yelled. Lemmy fell over, holding his arm. He looked up and there stood Nick, holding the axe up.
Larry, shocked at this, took out a shell bomb. “I hate to do this, Nick,” he said, “but it’s for your own good… Lemmy! Move!” Lemmy rolled over out of the way just as Nick brought the axe down. Fortunately, the axe got stuck in the ground. Nick tried to pull the axe up but to no avail. Larry threw his bomb towards Nick. The bomb exploded right next to him. The force caused him to fly backwards into a tree! Larry helped Lemmy up. They both stared at Nick. He lay there unconscious. “Well…” began Lemmy. “What do we do with him?”
“Just leave ‘im,” Larry said. “Someone’ll find him, nurse him back to good heath, and he’ll go home. Besides, if we tried to help him, the first thing he’d do when we wakes up and sees us is try to chop our heads off.”
“That’s true. Oh well… Let’s go then…”
The two pressed on, leaving their unconscious cousin behind. They walked for quite a while. Later, they reached the part of the coast where the forest ended. Larry and Lemmy were a little tired. “Let’s rest here for now,” said Larry.
“Yes, let’s,” said Lemmy. “Besides, I’m a little hungry…” Lemmy sat down. He took out some berries and began chowing down. Larry also sat down, taking out two bananas. He was just about to bite down when a shadow suddenly passed over him and Lemmy. They both looked up, and there, hovering above them, was a huge ship. The ship had a huge blade on the front. “Hey!” said Lemmy. “That’s not one of our airships… is it?”
“Think, Lemmy,” said Larry. “Do any of our airships have a giant blade?”
“Well, sorry!”
They looked up again. There were five figures on the ship. Suddenly the figures disappeared. After a few seconds, they appeared on the ground near the Koopalings. They spoke threateningly.
“We fight for evil!”
“We live for disorder!”
“We like what we do!”
“We struggle for chaos!
“We are…
“THE AXEM RANGERS!”
“Oh no!” cried Lemmy. “Not more axes!”
“You’d better believe it,” said Axem Red.
“What do you want from us?!” asked Larry.
“Well,” began Axem Green, “Fawful sent for us to kill you!”
“What?! I thought you were part of the Smithy Gang!”
“And we STILL are!” snapped Axem Yellow. “But Fawful came to Master Smithy and asked to borrow us.”
“He needed all the help he could get,” said Axem Pink.
“We felt the need to kill someone and agreed to aid him in his plan,” said Axem Black. “And Smithy let us go.”
“But for you two,” Red said coldly, “it ends right here… right now!”
“Larry,” said Lemmy, “we have little ammo, almost useless wands, and a jammed Freeze Gun. Do you think we can beat these guys?”
“Well…” said Larry, “I’m not sure we can… but let’s just give it all we’ve got and hope for the best…”
The Koopalings took a deep breath. This was probably going to be the battle of a lifetime. Red and Green suddenly charged towards them with their axes held high. Larry and Lemmy dodged. Red and Green turned around and charged at them again. Larry retreated into his shell and slid towards Red and Green, who both jumped to avoid the speeding shell. Larry popped up and blasted at the Rangers with his wand. The Rangers deflected the wand blasts with their axes. I guess Lemmy was right about our wands, Larry thought. He looked ahead to see Black running towards him with his axe. Lemmy jumped in front of him and slide-kicked him, tripping Black.
Unbeknownst to Larry, Pink appeared right behind him and raised her axe up, preparing to bring it down on Larry’s head! Lemmy looked back. “LARRY!!! DUCK!!!” he yelled. He chucked a grenade towards Larry and Pink. Larry ducked in fright, allowing the grenade to sail right into Pink’s face, exploding instantly! She flew backwards and landed on her back, motionless.
“LEMMY!!!” Larry yelled. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! YOU ALMOST BLEW MY HEAD OFF!!!”
“For your information,” Lemmy acknowledged indignantly, “I was saving your life!”
Larry turned around and saw Pink lying on the ground, dead. Larry’s eyes widened. “… Woah,” he said.
“AAAAAAAH!” cried Yellow. “YOU KILLED PINK!!! YOU’LL PAY DEARLY FOR THAT!!!”
Yellow and Red charged towards Lemmy, waving their axes. As they got closer, Larry retreated into his shell in a flash and darted towards the Rangers. Yellow and Red had no time to react and were both slammed by Larry, who knocked them both unconscious. Black and Green then disappeared. Larry and Lemmy looked around, but saw no sign of them, though they knew they were around. Larry looked upwards, and there was Green, falling towards him, axe-first! Larry jumped out of the way, and Green landed hard on the ground. His axe was stuck in the ground. Green struggled to pull it out, but to no avail. Green turned around, and there was Lemmy, his wand pointed directly at him!
“Say goodnight, Greenie!” said Lemmy.
Green froze. “Goodnight, Greenie,” he said. Lemmy blasted Green, who flew backwards onto the ground, dead.
Larry and Lemmy still looked all around them, wondering where Black was. He finally appeared behind Lemmy. “LEMMY!!!” yelled Larry. “BEHIND YOU!!!” Lemmy turned around. Black swung his axe. Larry covered his eyes. After a few seconds, he opened them again. There was Lemmy, minus one head!
“LEMMY!!!” cried Larry. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
“MHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” laughed Black. Tears came into Larry’s eyes. It seemed like his favorite brother was just beheaded, but then came a surprise. Just when Black thought he had it won, Lemmy’s head emerged from the shell. Black stared in disbelief, while Larry fainted. Lemmy held up a grenade, and all Black could say was “Uh oh…” Lemmy jumped backwards and chucked the grenade into Black’s face. The grenade exploded, and Black flew backwards and landed on the ground. He was completely motionless.
***
Larry finally woke up. He looked around to see three dead Axem Rangers and two unconscious ones. Then he looked at Lemmy. “Y-y-you’re alive?!” he asked.
“Yep!” said Lemmy. “He just barely missed me.”
Nearby, Axem Red woke up. Larry noticed this. Before Red could get a hold on his axe, Larry grabbed him. “Before we move on,” said Larry, “answer me this one question… Where is Fawful?”
“Way over there…” Red pointed to some mountains in the distance.
“Thanks!” said Larry. “Now go back to sleep!” Larry took out his wand and hit Red in the face with it, knocking him out again. Larry and Lemmy laughed at the joke.
Later, they resumed their snack while looking at the beautiful sunset. “Do you think we can beat Fawful? I mean, after all, you used your last bomb on Nick, and I’m down to my last grenade.”
“I hope so,” answered Larry. “We did a pretty good job here, so we can probably do the same to Fawful… Oh, don’t look now, but Yellow’s waking up.” Lemmy turned around and saw Yellow getting up. He hurled an apple at Yellow, hitting him in the face. Yellow fell unconscious again. The Koopalings laughed.
Afterwards, they set off for the mountains. They didn’t know how they were going to manage with their shortage of weapons. They didn’t know if Bowser would be all right. They, of course, still didn’t know who kidnapped him in the first place. All they knew was that they were nearing the end of their quest. Would they be able to revive their sister? We’ll see. Good luck, guys…