ACT 4:
Whammy slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, and all he could see was a pair of red eyes with something dark and purple behind them. As his vision cleared up, he could see—
“A SHROOB?!”
“You’re coming with me, trespasser!” said the Shroob.
“Oh no I’m not!”
*BLAST* The Shroob fired an immobilizer gun at him!
“Yes you are!”
***
Tatanga had landed his ship in the docking bay of a huge fortress on the Shroob Planet. He was speaking with a tall, dark figure, with Lemmy standing next to him, his wrists tied together.
“And so you blew up the base on the other planet?” asked the figure.
Tatanga shrugged. “I had no choice… and it STILL didn’t stop them, but I took care of them, anyway. They’re floating in oblivion now! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
“I see… So, who is THIS guy with the oddly-colored hair?”
Lemmy opened his mouth to retort, but was shushed by Tatanga. “Say one thing and I’ll have you disintegrated!”
Lemmy closed his mouth.
“Anyway,” continued Tatanga, “I have plans to execute this fool! He’s given me a lot of trouble in the past, destroying TWO of my ships… Well, he had help on the second ship, but who cares?!”
“Well, what sort of execution did you have in mind?”
“I was considering introducing him to my new and improved Pagosu. I’m one hundred percent sure he can’t handle this one!” Tatanga gave Lemmy a glare that sent a chill up his spine.
The dark figure thought for a second, then turned back to Tatanga. “You know, I’m beginning to have plans of my own for your little troublemaker…”
“Like what?”
“Well, I’m always open for a new minion!” Lemmy gasped upon hearing this. He knew what the figure meant.
“So, you want to do something other than kill him?”
“That sums it up… I guess…”
“Now come on. I honestly think he deserves a messy—” He was interrupted when a Shroob burst into the room.
“HEY!” cried the figure. “Try knocking first!”
“Forgive me,” said the Shroob, “but two objects have just landed on the planet.”
“Describe them.”
“Well, one of them is—”
“Right here!” said a voice. A Shroob walked in, with Whammy suspended in the air by an immobilizing beam from his gun. Upon seeing this Tatanga became enraged.
“HIM?!” he bellowed. “DROP HIM!” The Shroob turned the gun off. Whammy fell onto the floor.
“Ugh…,” he groaned. “What just happened…?” He looked up at Tatanga. “YOU!!!”
“How could you survive?!” Tatanga yelled. “You were supposed to be space dust! If you managed to land here… then… the other one must be on the planet, too! WHERE IS HE?!”
Whammy refused to speak.
“SPEAK, YOU FOOL!!!”
“I ain’t speakin’ and that’s that!” Whammy hissed. Tatanga sighed.
“Very well,” he said. He turned to the dark figure.
“Well, what do you suppose we do with him?”
“Wait,” said the figure. “First of all, who is he?”
“An inhabitant of the planet we invaded. He and the brother of my prisoner here have been forcing their way through my division of your forces. They really should’ve been dead by now.”
The figure stared, then turned to Whammy. “Well, my little friend,” she said coldly, “I’ll have you know that we plan to takeover your pathetic little planet!”
“WHAT?!” Whammy cried. “YOU CAN’T!”
“Oh no,” said the figure, coldly. “We can, and we WILL!”
Whammy growled. “My pal WILL stop you! He’s not very strong, but he’ll do it! Just watch!”
“You know,” the figure said, “I hope he DOES try!”
“Yes!” agreed Tatanga. “We could use his shell as a lamp head or something! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
“You two!” The figure addressed the two Shroobs. “Take these two imbeciles to the dungeon until we decide what to do with them!” The Shroobs nodded and dragged Lemmy and Whammy away.
“Now then,” began Tatanga, “what shall we do about the Iggy problem?”
“… Iggy?”
“The brother of my captive!”
“Oh… Yes, I’ll send some of my troops to scout him out.”
“Why not at least half of them?”
“The others are loading the Death Shroob for when we REALLY attack planet Violet! Those pathetic Violetonians won’t stand a chance! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—”
“May I join you in your diabolical laugh?”
“Oh, be my guest!”
They both laughed manically.
***
The two Shroobs carelessly dragged Lemmy and Whammy to an open dungeon cell and tossed them in. One Shroob punched in a code on a dial next to the cell (this code is also a secret), causing lasers to appear as bars.
“Let’s see you get out of THAT!” said one Shroob. “Hehehe!”
The Shroobs walked away. Whammy sat down on the cold, metal floor of the cell. Great! he thought. The Shroobs are about to attack Violet, and I can’t do a thing about it! I can only hope Iggy is all right… Whammy then looked over to see Lemmy, sitting with his face buried in his hands and sobbing. Whammy stared at him. He didn’t know what Lemmy was upset about, but whatever it was, Whammy felt for him. He went over to Lemmy and squatted down next to him.
“Hey… What’s wrong?” he asked. Lemmy hesitantly turned to him.
“… Why do you… wanna know?” Lemmy asked.
“I’m just curious.”
Lemmy sighed. “Well… it’s like this… You see, Iggy and I had a little disagreement, and… ah, okay, it was a big disagreement, over some very small things. The reason I’m so upset is because I can’t believe he and I let something like this ruin our friendship, and to add to that, it seems like everything’s trying to prevent us from making back up. To make matters worse, a whole army is now after him.” A small tear came out of Lemmy’s eye. Whammy understood.
“Look,” he said to Lemmy, “I’m sure Iggy can do it, and once it’s all over, you two can pretend your feud never happened.”
“Are you sure? Iggy isn’t exactly the strongest in my family. You said so yourself.”
“Not to worry. He’ll manage. Trust me.”
“I hope you’re right…”
***
Iggy woke up. He looked all around at the bare, ominous-looking terrain. Iggy then realized where he was.
“So THIS is what the Shroob Planet looks like up close…” he said. Suddenly, he realized that Whammy was nowhere to be seen.
“Whammy…? Whammy?” he called. He got up and looked around, but still saw no sign of Whammy. “HEY!!! WHERE THE KOOP ARE YOU?!” Iggy thought for a second. I suppose he and I got separated when we entered the atmosphere. Where could he be…? Where could Lemmy be…? Wait… Shroobs… Tatanga… I don’t see the connection here… Why is Tatanga working with the Shroobs? Ah… I guess I’ll find the answers to those questions soon enough…
Suddenly, he heard a strange, humming noise. He turned and gasped at the sight of—
“A LAKITUFO!!!”
Indeed it WAS a Lakitufo! It swooped towards Iggy on his UFO. Iggy retreated into his shell. He came back out when he was sure the Lakitufo had passed. He turned to see the Lakitufo swooping at him from the other direction! Iggy hid in his shell again. He came back out to see the Lakitufo flying in circles just above him. Iggy watched nervously. The Lakitufo stopped. It then beamed down four Spiny Shroopas! They hopped towards Iggy!
“Oh boy…” Iggy said to himself. “If I remember right from Partners in Time, these guys are poisonous…”
Iggy retreated into his shell and darted into the Shroopas. Iggy came back out. The Lakitufo swooped at Iggy again, throwing eight Shroopa Eggs. Iggy ducked, as an Egg nearly caught his hair.
The Shroopa Eggs hatched into Shroopas that began walking towards Iggy. He slowly backed up as he watched the Lakitufo beaming down four more Shroopas, then another group of four, and another, and another, and yet another! Soon Iggy found himself surrounded by a gigantic group of thirty Shroopas! He also noticed that the four Shroopas he had already hit were not even scratched! Iggy continued to fall back as the Shroopas and Lakitufo slowly moved towards him!
One touch from the Shroopas would poison him. He thought for a second. Maybe the poison wouldn’t affect him if he defeated them by spinning…
Why not…?
Iggy began spinning wildly, knocking away every Shroopa. The Lakitufo tossed eggs at Iggy, hitting him four times while he spun. It swooped at Iggy, striking him several times and knocking Iggy out of his spin. Iggy fell over, a bit dizzy. He recovered, only for the Lakitufo to swoop into him again! Iggy flew backwards. The Lakitufo swooped into him again, and again, and again! Iggy was now lying on his shell, dazed. He recovered to see the Lakitufo hovering just above him, preparing to drop a Shroopa Egg on him!
Iggy became desperate. The Lakitufo released the Shroopa Egg!
…
*BONK*