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Chapter 1: A Perfect Plan
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Kamek smiled as he started putting the finishing touches on his potion. He had created the perfect plan to get rid of that rotten conniving Mario, and for once, things were going smoothly and perfectly. A sudden bang as the door to the laboratory swung open and hit the castle wall yanked Kamek from his thoughts. The newcomer was none other than King Bowser!
"Ludwig told me that you had come up with the perfect plan to get rid of that pesky plumber," Bowser stated flatly, though Kamek could almost pick up a note of disbelief in his voice. "So I've decided to come and see how the progress was coming."
After standing there silently for a moment, Kamek realized that Bowser wanted him to show him his work.
"W-w-well your surliness," stuttered Kamek as he shifted his papers containing his precious research around frantically. "The idea all started with this." Kamek held up a Super Leaf into the light for Bowser to see.
"Yes that's a Super Leaf. So what?" Bowser huffed. "What are you going to do, make me a pendant that allows me to use power-ups?"
"Now that's just plain stupid! Who would do that?" Kamek replied. "Now tell me my king, do you know how this specific power-up works?"
Bowser stood there for a second thinking it through before giving up and throwing up his hands into the air in defeat.
"No I don't. Tell me how they work," Bowser demanded. "And in English, too."
Kamek paused for a second, knowing that Bowser didn't want, nor would he understand the scientific rundown of his project.
Trying to phrase it the best he could, Kamek began to speak. "Well, when that nincompoop plumber uses one of these, Mario grows a tail and an extra set of ears due to a chemical compound called-" Kamek caught himself before he got into more complicated things that Bowser had no hope of understanding. Bowser noticed this and nodded his head as if to say 'go on'. "Umm… to put it simply, there's a thingy inside each super leaf that alters their bodies, but disappears whenever they get hurt, which causes their new appendages to disappear. This happens because the thingy that's inside each leaf is in a small dose, if you will. It's in very small doses and affects very little of that plumber and disappears after awhile, to reiterate. I believe if I make the leaves more powerf-"
"FOOL!" Bowser roared, cutting Kamek off. "We will get wiped off the face of this earth if that happens!"
Kamek started sweating bullets. He knew he only had one more chance to try to appeal to the King before he loses his trust and approval to go through with this.
"P-p-please let me finish, your grouchiness," stuttered Kamek nervously. "What I'm saying is that if we were to increase the amount of thingy significantly, the effects of it would be quite peculiar. I found that if the effects of the small amount of thingy in a leaf could cause that pesky plumber to grow a tail and extra set of ears, imagine what a significantly larger amount can do! I also found that an 'un-ripe' leaf has a good amount larger dose of the thingy in it and it's effect is somewhat different."
Kamek finished, hoping for his life, almost literally, that he got through to Bowser.
"I really don't get what you're saying here," said Bowser irritably.
"Well, to sum it all up…" Kamek paused for a moment and scanned Bowser's scowling face. He knew that he had to win him over with his next sentence in order for him to be able to perform his plan. Kamek prayed that this would work. "With the increased amount of thingy in my serum I'm making ingested by Mario… ummm, how do I put this? Let's just say a tiny little animal can't easily go around saving the princess for a number of reasons."
Understanding washed over Bowser's face like a wave at high tide, and his scowl morphed into a grin. "If this serum really does what you say it will, then you have my full support!" said Bowser joyously with a hearty guffaw. "Can you finish it tonight and put it into effect? I know that Mario is speaking at the Multi-Kingdom conference tonight and wouldn't it be humiliating for him to go down a few rungs on the evolutionary ladder in front of everybody?"
Kamek felt like bursting from joy. He had single handedly created the key to stopping Mario, as well as pleasing the King!
"Yes sir, I only need to add one more ingredient," said Kamek as he put in some sour looking fluid from a vial on the table into the concoction. "It's now finished and I'll leave immediately to put some into Mario's food and it'll take about four hours for it to take full effect. I found it will work best if ingested."
Kamek then picked up the flask containing the serum, put a cork into it, then ran over to his broom waiting for him in the corner and flew out a nearby window on it. The early afternoon sun shone down on the Darklands in its full glory, but what made it even sweeter was that an enemy to the Darklands was about to be eliminated. As the air flowed through his robe, Kamek was lost in his imagination about what great promotions he was to get for pulling this off.
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Kamek finally arrived at the borders of Toad Town and after a few toads in the suburbs ran off screaming, Kamek realized he forgot to make himself invisible. After that was said and done, he flew over to the house of the infamous Mario, even marked with Mario's name with large letters over the door.
'Well isn't he quite humble,' thought Kamek with a slight sneer on his face, 'but now, how will I get in?'
Kamek didn't have to wonder long as he found himself drawn to the scent of pasta being cooked flowing out an open window.
'Wow,' thought Kamek, 'If we weren't mortal enemies, I'd totally ask him for his recipe!'
As Kamek flew into the window undetected, he found the chubby (possibly overweight?) 24 year old man working over the hot stove. Kamek watched as Mario set up the table for one and set out a cup of water and a plate heaping full of pasta onto the table. As he turned away, Kamek took his chance and quietly uncorked the flask and added it to the water. It was not a moment too soon either, because as Kamek backed away from the drink Mario added… a note? Kamek started feeling flashes of heat as he realized just how much he messed up. got as close as he could to the note as he could without risking detection and read it:
Luigi,I made you dinner because I know how much you like my pasta. I can't wait to see you at the meeting tonight, because even with all my fame and everyone worshipping me rather mindlessly, it's still nice to see a familiar face like your's in the crowd. You've always been more important to me than anything else and despite everyone saying you're a scaredy cat, I know the truth. Those scars that cover you from the time you saved me shows who the true bravest hero is. You're more important to me than you'll ever know. Here's to the true unsung hero.~Mario
Kamek almost sneered in disgust at the letter. Not only did he fail his mission and get the wrong man, but he also gets to deal with this sappy garbage? And above it all, he was confounded that the stupid green human embodiment of a shadow was getting the serum he slaved over. Kamek was aroused from his thoughts as he heard the front door open and Mario yelling as he was exiting.
"Little bro, I made you dinner. It's on the table. I've got things to attend to. See you tonight!"
Kamek suddenly heard a thumping sound as somebody started coming down the stairs. Not knowing why, he grabbed the note at the last possible second and hid it in his robe. Something told him it would be better for his purposes if Luigi didn't read that. As soon as Kamek was hovering near the ceiling again, the taller of the two twin brothers strolled in the room and spotted the pasta and water on the table. Kamek could read that there was a certain degree of sadness on the green man's face and this was confirmed as Luigi started talking to himself, unaware that there was an unwelcome presence in the room listening too.
"It's not fair. I know you mean well, but you always get all the credit. I'm just the worthless shadow of a great hero. I don't know why I exist," Luigi lamented. "But I know you'll always be my loving older brother and you've deserved your fame. Here's to you, big bro."
And with that he picked up the tainted water and drank it all down. After finishing Luigi looked down at his cup, puzzled. "Wow, that was some good tea," noted Luigi, no longer as sad looking. "I always knew he was a good cook, but I didn't know he could also kill it at making tea."
Luigi set down the cup and started putting the pasta in the fridge. "I'm just not that hungry right now Mario, I'm sorry," said Luigi as he exited the room. "Now I just need to take a shower and get ready for the event."
Kamek, who watched this entire weird exchange that Luigi had with himself, was still angry from the fact that he had messed up, but he stopped fuming as soon as something strange had caught his eye. Kamek watched on in strange fascination as he noticed a medium-sized patch of hair on the back of Luigi's head start to change color as he was walking out of the room towards the bathroom. The dark ebony brown started to lighten up and very quickly changed color completely to a more blonde color.
Kamek smiled a little to himself 'maybe this wasn't a total loss,' he thought. 'I could collect a blood sample from him after the transformation completes and I could attempt to improve the serum so that I could use an even better formula on Mario! But even so, I need to go off to tell Bowser what happened…'
And with that, Kamek flew out the open window... but only after he grabbed the pasta recipe that he saw sitting on the counter, of course.
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Again, please leave a review and mind the "construction" on the story. Thank you for reading!-Norm