By Teela Yoshi
Earlier that day...
Roy discovered Nightmare’s weakness, without knowing it, or even knowing that he caused the shapeshifter serious injury. He was screaming— er, rather, singing— into his deoderant— microphone, in Roy’s mind— when Nightmare Dieheart entered his room through the ceiling.
He phased in and had been watching Roy for five minutes before the song finished.
Nightmare began to clap enthusiastically before carefully hovering to the ground. A broad smile stabbed his face. It was as out of place as a Gameboy Advance dressed in chocolate bar attire.
“Very, very good.”
“Who in the worlds is you?” Roy asked, crossing his arms and glaring.
“I,” he cleared his throat and bowed exaggeratedly, “am Nightmare Dieheart. And you’re through here.”
“Not befores mah encore, you freak of all duh freaks!” Roy was used to handling witty-tongued intruders… in fact, to an extent, he enjoyed it. Nightmare’s appearance hadn’t caught the Koopaling off-guard at all— he was an intruder, and therefore, must be dealt with. Simple as that, in Roy’s mind.
The next song came on. The lyrics weren’t discernable, as it sounded like a symphony of burning cats, and the guitar in the song made a sound that could only be described by saying it seemed like it was having the splinters beat out of it with a saxophone during the recording. Anyone who wasn’t a metalhead would be able to taste the nickel in that song.
Roy grinned.“‘Dis is mah theme. FEEL THE PAIN!” Roy yelled, lurching for Nightmare, who was momentarily caught off-guard…
…Because Nightmare had felt it; the hammer on the guitar strings, the cinder blocks on the drums— the very core emotion of the song had erupted through him. And it was a feeling that could only be likened to eruption, because the song had been borne from anger, from pain… It was so mottled, so heavy, that only a person with the capacity for such emotions could enjoy it.
His mind was stretched, like the strings, snapping—
He shot a palm blast at the stereo in the corner of the room. The noise stopped abruptly. Nightmare grabbed Roy’s face as the Koopaling came at him with his fists clenched, arms raised.
“Whadyah do dat fer?!” Roy asked, his voice muffled as Nightmare’s hand expanded to fit the boy’s face. He forced Roy to the floor, and was on top of him. Nightmare’s body seemed to expand, his black body engulfing Roy’s struggling bulk.
“You’re cute. I’ll deal with you later,” Nightmare whispered before melting into rainbow liquid.
The liquid eagerly, anxiously forced itself into Roy.
Nightmare phased through the wall, leaving the Koopaling to transform.
Roy had hurt Nightmare. That was an absolute no-no.
_
The Paratroopa had never been to Dark Land, despite being a Koopa… he had never, in fact, even left Mushroom Kingdom’s Toad Town. He may have been a Koopa, but he was a Koopa of self-preservation. He avoided other creatures at all cost, and was strictly a loner. He wasn’t likely to be disturbed in Toad Town. He was lazy, and didn’t like to deal with “making friends” and such.
How he had landed a job in Princess Peach’s Guard, some sort of army, he didn’t know. He had never been very good at remembering, and it was a miracle that he often woke up in his own house. It often seemed that the other soldiers knew more about him than he knew about himself…
Manacle D. Koopa was the first case of a WereKoopa, and didn’t know it. And he didn’t go by that “full moon” garbage either… it was entirely random. He didn’t know his condition either. But that’s another story.
Either way, Princess Peach had specifically requested he go. Whether or not she knew “the secret”— it seemed that everyone BUT Manacle knew— was a mystery. To Manacle it just seemed very unlucky… especially because it was his day off! (Perhaps the princess did know something…)
He really didn’t want to fly all the way out here. Halfway there he had “spaced out” again, so he didn’t even remember half the journey, but somehow he ended up at the Kastle Koopa door…
“I’m not a stinkin’ mailkoopa… anymore… Still don’t know why they fired me, racist Mushroom smoochers!” Manacle grouched as he rang the door bell. The floor opened below him— he was informed that this would happen, because everyone who was anyone knew about “Bowser’s Front Door Welcoming”— and he waited for an answer.
“I’m not a pizza delivery boy anymore, either… This is something that should only happen to one of them… They make yah stand outside for ten minutes before they finally answer the door, ‘astonished’ to see you… Still don’t know why they fired me either!” Manacle said. One of his hobbies was complaining to himself. It helped him think.
When no one answered, he tried the door himself. Then the door tried him…
The door tried to smash forward, like a Thwomp, then before it had a chance to get anymore lifelike and howl, a fast, hairy beast tore through it with his fang-filled jaws and began raging forward.
_
Teela hugged iJason halfway up the stairway, with a fierce appreciation in her exhausted but weak grasp.
“My first hug… Cool!” he remarked as he hesitantly put his arms around Teela too. “And now I am experiencing a joy of some sorts… I’m, yes, overjoyed to have saved you, Teela and Ludwig.”
Teela was too far away mentally to understand what he was saying. She was just grateful someone other than Nightmare was around, because anyone was a sight for sore eyes at this point.
“Please, excuse me…” he apologized to the half-conscious Teela as he placed her on the stone steps and turned to drag Ludwig beside Teela. When he had them both positioned sitting up, he turned back to the puddle of rainbow substance on the floor.
It had stopped moving. It knew when it stood no chance… but he knew that the moment a lifeform came close enough…
iJason shuddered— and grinned as he did so; he’d shuddered again! Even more than the first time! How splendiferous! —and jumped past the puddle and onto a column of boxes.
Any minute now, he could feel it…
A door materialized in thin air, and Karma stepped through it. Had iJason not have caught her, she would have fallen face-first onto the boxes.
“Hello there, Karma! I have fulfilled your wishes in rescuing your friends! It’s a pleasure to see you… I mean… REALLY see you with my OWN eyes!” He grinned brightly.
Karma stared… gawked, really… it was all she could do. When one of your own creations comes to life, really, it’s hard to do much else.
“iJason…?” she ventured.
“Yeah… You don’t recognize me…?” iJason frowned.
“No, no! I do, it’s just… you’re… you just caught me. And I’m in… reality.”
“Yes! You caught a, well, I guess I could best describe it as a ‘Reality Cloud’, and it rather caught your thoughts. You couldn’t catch a reality cloud, but it caught your wish.”
“I wished for you to be real?”
“You sound like you don’t want me to be here… I mean, I could leave if… you… want…” He had never felt disappointed and let down at the same time… He was not happy to experience anything now. It didn’t seem worth it at all anymore. She had taken his inspiration, and now he felt, well, depressed! Terrible… It was such an empty feeling, like a void had been opened up in his heart. Were he not so depressed all of a sudden, however, he would have been appreciative to experience such things.
“No, not at all!” She threw her arms around him and gave him an embrace that Ludwig would have growled at. “Did you meet Teela yet?” She seemed to have completely forgotten what was occurring…
“Not properly, but yes, she’s right there.”
“Great; let’s see if we can wake ‘er up!” Karma became giddy and tried to push herself out of iJason’s grip, but he tightened.
“Wait; don’t move. I’ll let you down in a minute; hang on.” He held her in his arms and leapt back onto the stairs, setting her down gently. “There. At all costs, avoid that rainbow stuff.”
“All right, I understand. I can’t believe I wished my imaginary friend into reality!”
“No, you didn’t wish me… I’m sorry. I used the wrong phrase. That cloud caught your thoughts. You were in that void, and you had briefly thought about me. The cloud picked that up, and, well, here I am. Had you have thought of a spoon or a set of cutlery, sure enough it would have appeared.” iJason explained.
“Karma?” Ludwig asked, shaking his head, trying to force the spots out of his eyes. “Oh my DAD… What … happened?” He reached for his aching skull. By then the ropes were falling off of himself nd Teela, having been considerably loosened by iJason dragging them, and thus Ludwig swatted them off of himself, bracing his cranium.
“You all right Ludwig?” iJason asked, kneeling down to eye level.
“Who’re you?” the Koopaling asked.
“Ludwig, this is iJason. iJason, you know Ludwig already.” She glanced to iJason and pointed at him, signaling him to not explain anything to Ludwig.
“Hey, how does he know me?”
“Why, you’re Prince Ludwig! What Koopa doesn’t know you?” iJason smiled sincerely… It was part of the truth.
“Well, you’re a Yoshi.”
Ludwig tried to pull himself off the ground, but became lightheaded and sat again. He sprawled himself out on the stone steps and lay there, eyes closed, with his arms behind his head.
“No, I’m a hybrid.”
“That’s not supposed to be possible,” Ludwig grouched, shaking his head.
“Ludwig…” iJason tried to explain, because he knew he was right, but Karma waved a hand in front of his face and shook her head furiously. Don’t get an argument started now, she was saying. Ludwig was out of it.
iJason knelt down beside Teela and shook her gently. “Teela Yoshi?”
“Mmhm?” Teela mumbled something and turned away. iJason looked to Karma.
“Teela, get your bum up.” Karma stated, kicking the fanged Yoshi gently.
“A’ight, okay!” She sat up and surveyed everyone… her mind was hazy, but memories began returning to her immediately. “NARVACK…” She lurched forward, but iJason grabbed her arm.
“It’s not going to do anything to you now; it’s down there, and if we don’t get any closer, it won’t bother coming near us. There’s a certain distance it’ll just stop. It’s just waiting down there right now, a large puddle of it, so don’t go down there.”
“Okay, got it.” Teela nodded. Karma sighed as she crossed her arms and leaned against the wall.
“So, Nightmare is still here, I’m guessing?”
“Yeah, I can sense him,” iJason admitted sourly. “I don’t like him.”
“He’s the one who tied me an’ Ludwig up,” Teela added bitterly.
“And the one who was tormenting me, that Mushroom knocker,” Karma grouched. “By the way… what was that word you used? Nar… what?”
“Narvack.” Teela said. “I don’t know everything about it… I just know it’s not something you want around you.”
“I know everything about narvack… Shall I inform you?” iJason asked.
“Let’s wait until Ludwig comes around.” Karma insisted.
“Good idea.”
They sat. They didn’t have a plan. They didn’t know where Nightmare Dieheart was, or if he was on his way, or where everyone else was for that matter. They had no idea what the situation was.
But they had hope. And they had each other; the two vital things required to move forward. But they’d need more than just that to take Nightmare, and sometimes, the things you start with aren’t there in the end, and if they are, they’re altered beyond redemption… and sometimes not.