Chapter 4: Pandemonium in Pipe Land
"Come on, hurry!"
"Calm down." Lemmy was rolling behind. "You're not carrying your brother, are you?"
"He could be coming!" Wendy complained. "Besides, Iggy isn't that heavy."
"Would you like me to carry him?"
"No!" Wendy exclaimed. "Hey, we're in Pipe Land."
The siblings began traveling over pipes. For hours they jumped over vines under the beating sun. Their stomachs growled like monsters.
"I think we should rest." Lemmy sat down by a vine-bush. "We've been walking for hours."
Wendy didn't really want to rest, but she was still a little sore from her fall in Dark Land, so she gave in to her older brother's idea.
"I think you need to stop worrying," Lemmy said as Wendy sat down beside him. "We'll be okay."
"Tell that to Iggy!" Wendy argued. Iggy lay motionlessly on the other side of Lemmy.
"He'll be okay," Lemmy reassured. "Like you said, they only stun."
Wendy felt guilty. "But that… Koopa, said that," she confessed. "He could be lying."
"I don't think he was."
"What makes you say that" Wendy asked.
"Well just look at the way he talks. 'Are these your brothers', 'Very well'… I think he speaks like a proper Koopa, not a liar."
Wendy nodded.
* * *
The sun was beginning to set as the Koopas were halfway through Pipe Land.
"I'm tired." Wendy yawned.
"Me too," Lemmy agreed. "We haven't gotten any sleep since we left the castle. Well at least I haven't."
They found a bush, soft like a bed, besides a pipe. They lay down and began to rest. After a few minutes, Wendy was asleep…
She began to have a wonderful dream. She was walking through a field of flowers full of rabbits. She pet one or two, before things got bad. A Piranha Plant came and bit her leg. It pinned her to the ground and let another Piranha Plant come and start eating her.
"Good work," she heard a cold voice say. A hand grabbed her face and pulled her towards shining eyes...
Her eyes opened. She looked towards Lemmy and Iggy, both unconscious.
"Lemmy," Wendy shook him, "wake up."
Lemmy swatted her off. "What?" He looked around, "It's only twilight!"
"Would you rather sleep, or get killed?"
Lemmy stood up. "He's coming?"
"Yeah." She picked up Iggy. "Hurry!"
"Hurrying won't do you any good."
Wendy gasped and turned. The Koopa was standing there.
"How did you catch up to us?" Wendy asked.
"I have my resources," he said. "But if you really must know, I didn't take a nap every chance I got."
Lemmy looked guilty.
"Just come here," he glared into Wendy, as though looking into her soul, "and no one else will get hurt."
"No," she said firmly.
"Very well," he said. He charged towards Wendy, forgetting he had a Super Scope. Wendy jumped behind the pipe, and out popped a Piranha. It yelled and bit the Koopa's arm. "Ahhhhhhhhhh!" He fell back.
"That's what you get when you make noise right in front of my house!" the Piranha Plant said.
"Who are you?" Wendy asked.
"Paul Piranha," he said, "nice to meet you."
"I'm Wendy," she responded. "Did Bowser send you?"
"Bowser? I don't know a Bowser. This is my home."
The Koopa began to stand up. "Yes, very nice," he said.
"Run!" Lemmy yelled.
Paul whacked the Koopa with his head. The two Koopalings ran off, Iggy laying on Wendy's back. For the wimp of the family, he was heavy. She stopped by a warp pipe, panting.
"What's wrong?" Lemmy broke on his beach ball.
"Iggy's very heavy," she said, "I'm out of energy."
"Hey Wendy." Paul popped out of the warp pipe. "Down here."
Paul sank down, as Wendy and Lemmy followed into a secret passage.
"Good work," Wendy congratulated. It was dark in the underground passage, so the Koopa wouldn't be able to see them.
They walked through for an hour or so, then came to another pipe. They climbed up it and were back at the surface, facing a wall of vines.
"Up there is the pipe to Ice Land!" Paul exclaimed. "Hurry, I think he's coming!"
The two Koopalings approached the vine-wall. Lemmy threw his ball over, and Wendy tied Iggy to her back with a vine.
"I see him!" Paul yelled. "Hurry!"
The Koopa was running towards them as they began to climb up the wall. Wendy was scared to death. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She was halfway up the wall when the Koopa reached Paul.
"Stay back!" Paul said. "I'll eat you alive!"
"That's what you think." He raised his Super Scope like a bat, then swung with all his might.
A large crack thundered through the air. A terrifying scream was heard. Wendy's rapid heart stopped, her hand gripping tight on the vine she was holding.
"It's a shame the innocent must perish in affairs that don't concern them," the Koopa said. "But enough of that." He aimed his Super Scope at Wendy.
He fired.
Wendy regained sense. She moved to the left. The shot missed. She was getting tired from carrying Iggy on her back. The Koopa shot again. Wendy quickly pricked off a leaf from the vine she was hanging on. She threw it, and it flew like a shooting star. The leaf collided with the shot; and they blew up like a Bob-omb.
Wendy and Lemmy reached the top of the wall and the Koopa began climbing.
"There's the pipe!" Lemmy pointed out. The pipe looked electronic; Wendy didn't expect anything else from Ludwig.
Lemmy crouched down and started fiddling with a control panel. "I've set it so it shuts down after the next use, which will be ours."
"How do you know all this?" Wendy asked.
"Ludwig taught me," Lemmy said. "He wanted me to know how to run Pipe Land if anything ever happened to him."
"Okay," Wendy said, "let's go."
They went down the pipe. A buzzing was heard; the pipe deactivating. They were safe.
For now...