ZOMBIE HEARTBREAKER
Prologue: The big day
Amarioca, a continent named after its hero Mario, inhabited two powerful kingdoms and seven lands.
The mushroom kingdom, ruled by the human princess Peach Toadstool, was a wealthy and cultural place inhabited by toads. Toads were small humanoids with a mushroom shaped head albeit the head shape varied with every toad.
The Koopa Kingdom, ruled by King Bowser Koopa, was a proud force to be reckoned. All sort of koopas lived in his kingdom that excels in technological advances and military power. Those koopas were mostly turtle humanoids though their differences between each other seemed more significant than between toads.
Those two kingdoms were placed far away from each other separated by the seven lands.
The first land, Grassland, was ruled by the mighty Goomba King. The specie living here was a mushroom with feet that usually had fangs coming out of its mouth. It was said that it also had telekinesis powers to aid it in its daily routine. Grassland was found right to the east of the Mushroom Kingdom.
The second land, Sandland, was ruled by King Wart. Despite a frog ruling this land, its population consisted of shyguys. Those small humanoids always wore robes that almost covered the entirety of their body and concealed their face with a mask that showed a bland expression. Some others, wearing a gas mask, were called soldier guys while the ones with masks bearing a mischievous expression were thief guys. Sandland possessed the strongest land military besides the two kingdoms and was found north of Grassland.
The third land, Sealand, was not known to have a specific ruler. It instead worked with a council that took decisions by unanimity. Its people, the cheep cheeps, were big lipped fish capable of living in and out of water. Sealand had control of all the seas around Amarioca with its sea military and was right under Grassland.
The fourth land, Woodland, was ruled by Queen Flutter and inhabited the wigglers. These giant caterpillars had many pair of limbs that could shift into either hands or feet to fit their needs better. Woodland was one of the two lands in the middle of Amerioca, right next to Grassland, and was commonly used as a middle ground that welcomed both kingdoms during special events or diplomatic reunions.
The fifth land, Skyland, worked like Sealand politically. Unlike the other lands, this one did not have a huge ground territory. It instead rested on a giant mass of cloud that hovered near what little ground it had. Skyland was inhabited by lakitus: despite looking like koopas, they rode on living clouds and held a bond with them. Skyland was right north of Woodland and is the other land standing in the middle of the continent. Its aerial military was only outmatched by the two kingdoms.
The sixth land, Iceland, was ruled by Mother Penguin. As her name suggested, the land's population was made of penguins. Those majestic blue and white birds established a civilisation in those frozen lands to make it more hospitable and welcome guests and tourists. Iceland could be found northeast of Woodland and was one of the two lands adjacent to the Koopa Kingdom.
The seventh and last land, Pipeland, was ruled by Petey Piranha. Like the namesake, the people living here were piranha plants. Despite being plants, they could unstick from the ground and move freely. This maze of islands and pipes was the other land adjacent to the Koopa Kingdom right under Iceland.
Many years ago, when Bower ascended to the throne, he started a conflict with the Mushroom Kingdom and rallied the seven lands against it. However, Mario took the Mushroom Kingdom to a tight victory with the help of his brother Luigi. Bowser's motivation was unknown since he did not commit any casualties while kidnapping peach. All he wanted was the princess making the world suspect that he wanted both kingdoms to himself. A few years later and over the years, Princess Toadstool occasionally visited King Koopa for an unknown reason. More years passed and Bowser proposed a deal that seemed out of place for a person like him: a peace treaty. The only thing Peach said about it was that tears were dripping from his eyes and declared that he had given up on his dream. Many people tried to ask Bowser about this dream but he did not answer. He instead showed them his new son, Bowser Koopa Jr. Afterward, both rulers of kingdoms denied that they had an affair with each other. The treaty proved to be efficient as the two kingdoms continuously made deals with each other while lending a hand to the lands between them. It was crazy how years of peace coulc change people, especially…
Today, Many years later
It was a hot summer day right after the weekend. The bedroom had a closet, a small table with a clock on it and a bed with a mass of blankets. The blankets made slight expanding and shrinking movements. Someone was sleeping in them. However, the sleeper concealed his face with them for an unknown reason. As the clock started ringing, a yellow scaly arm emerged from the blankets, trying to turn the clock off but failing many times. Eventually, the mass of blankets fell on the ground, taking the sleeper with them.
"Woah!" The sleeper gasped.
The blankets unfolded themselves to reveal a strange looking koopa. Unlike other koopas, this one had a green head, a large feline muzzle with a mouth that constantly showed two fangs instead of having a beak, a more orange-ish skin tone and claws on its hands and feet. It also had long sky blue hairs that covered parts of its head. It was not wearing a shell though because sleeping with it or inside it proved to be uncomfortable to it. He instead wore underwear made up of a t-shirt and shorts, both colored like its hair.
The koopa slowly stood up groaning in pain for having fallen off his bed. The clock still ringing, he tapped it on the top and it went silent. His oval eyes where still shut but he stretched his arms, making him awake enough to open his eyes that were blue. With his long hairs covering his face, he moved them backward. A blue star was tattooed on the back of his head to the left. He stared at the room, remembering that he used to live there a few years ago. His room used to be filled with toys, sport accessories and trophies that he won at various competitions either local ones or international ones. The koopa smiled and sighed as he slowly left his room.
The koopa now found himself in a corridor with three doors in front of him with each having a face silhouette to represent the rooms' owner. Two other doors next to his also had a similar silhouette and even his door had its own. However, his showed him with towering hairs while the koopa's hairs were laid down and back. Two other doors were on each end of the corridor. The koopa went to the one on his left to enter a giant bathroom.
Steam invaded the room as sounds of rain could be heard. The koopa went into some vestiaries to remove his underwear and followed the sound of showers.
"Look! Lazybone Larry woke up."
A huge cloud of dense steam flooded the shower room that only showed the head of five other koopas that shared similar traits with Larry.
The first one had a white head with a giant black star birthmark that covered half of his face. Dark skinned arms stuck out of the steam cloud to wash the three hair strings he had. His small round eyes did not have a specific color other than black.
The second one was so tall that his upper body could be seen above the thick cloud of steam. He wore glasses that gave the illusion that he had big eyes but everyone knew that they were small. Much like Larry, he had blue eyes but four fangs came out of his mouth instead of two. His hairs were green.
The third one had a pink head and was completely bald. He wore shades which are unnatural to have them while taking a shower. Very few people knew what his eyes looked like under them since he rarely removed them.
The fourth one was so small that only his multicolored hairs could be seen outside of the steam cloud. He had to jump a few times to reveal his head that had no teeth coming out of his mouth and his big oval lazy eyes were only black. He also had lines tattooed on the side of his head. He also had a yellow ponytail.
The fifth and last one had blue hairs darker than Larry's. A single tooth came out in the middle of his mouth unlike the others where their teeth were at both ends of their mouth. His small round eyes were black.
"We all woke up at the same hour. I don't see why I'm the one to be called lazy."
"LARRY TOOK MORE TIME GET HERE! MORTON WENT STRAIGHT TO SHOWERS!"
"Ha ha! Morton's right. You always wake up slower than anyone else."
"Today's an important day, shrimp. That's the one day ya don't wanna wake up late."
"Yay! Big day!"
"I can't believe ve are actually doing zis."
All of Larry's friends spoke in different manners. He was one of the few people here that spoke normally. They spent their shower time washing and talking about the weekend they spent at the castle as well as the big day. The big day consisted of a worldwide meeting with an organisation called the Space Federation to negotiate trades and tourism. Once they were done showering, they all headed to the vestiaries where they wrapped themselves with towels. As they were about to hit the sinks for a final touch to their look, one last koopa similar to them slowly walked towards the showers wearing a towel that covered its body. This one however was a female with an orange head and pink lips instead of a muzzle. The male koopas stared at her before she vanished into the steam cloud.
"Phuh! Girls and their drama! Always have to wait that boys are done." The pink-headed koopa joked.
A bar of soap went flying from the showers toward him and hit him at a speed so high that it left a big red mark on his head.
"I heard that, Roy!" A female voice echoed.
Larry could not help to chuckle while the tall koopa burst out in laugher. Roy took the laughing koopa by the neck and raised one of his imposing fists, ready to punch him.
"Don't make yaself regret this decision, nerd!" He yelled as Iggy was still laughing.
The others held Roy and things quickly went back to normal. Because Roy had no hairs, he immediately left the bathroom but not before wearing back his underwear which only included a pair of purple shorts. The others dried their hairs and combed them in their own style. Larry combed his in a towering way and backward. Afterward, they all changed back into their underwear and left for their room.
Once Larry entered back his room, he headed straight for the closet. He opened it and took out some fancy clothes and a spiky shell that shared the same color as his head. Deep blue rings were at the base of the spikes of the shell. He suited himself with it and added a shirt with the same color and some black pants. For the neck however, he was not sure if he wanted a bowtie or a regular tie. He went to his table and grabbed his wallet to take a coin from it.
(Head will be the bowtie; tail will be the regular tie.) He thought before tossing the coin in the air.
The coin started flipping and gained altitude until it practically froze in midair and fell down. Larry caught the coin with his right hand and slapped it on his left arm. Once he removed his hand, he saw that the coin landed on the tail side. He went back in the closet and took a tie then stood in front of the mirror inside the closet's door to adjust it around his neck.
(Looking sharp.) He complimented to himself in his head as he adjusted the tie around his neck.
He was ready for the big day but not before his stomach had its word to say. Larry left his room and took the door at the other end of the corridor. This door led to a small dining room where all the other koopas were already there, even the female one.
"You sure took little time for your make-up, Wendy." Larry jokingly said as he sat between her and Morton.
Wendy ignored his words. A chef koopa, a typical one, went seeing the strange koopas sitting around the table. He took their order and moved to the next client. The chef then arrived to Larry.
"What may I get for you, Sir Larry?" He asked.
"Just bring me the fruit basket and, please, just call me Larry." The punk koopa answered.
He used to like it when people referred to him with a title. However, as the years went by, he noticed that some people, especially Wendy and the other koopa with blue hair, took it a bit too literally as their ego reached points that they were either mocked or ignored. It also reminds him of a time where he had all the attention and he never understood why. The chef nodded and left the room. A few minutes later, many waiters entered the small dining room and brought everyone's breakfast. It was fascinating that no one took the same exact meal: A ham sandwich for Morton, French toasts for Wendy, cereals for the green haired koopa, eggs and bacon for Roy, pancakes for the smallest one, and oatmeal for the other blue-haired koopa. As everyone picked up their utensils, Larry started gobbing through the basket. Everyone surprisingly stared at him gobbing through the entire basket full of fruits. Some of them where even struggling to keep their eyes open fearing that they would miss all of it. They did not even touch their meal and Larry was already done. The punk koopa left the room.
Larry walked down a corridor that led to the throne room. This room was vast and only housed a throne near an end of the room with another corridor behind it. On the other side, there was a huge door that led outside. Many armored and armed koopas were holding position. Another one who was wearing a blue robe with a bonnet, round dense glasses and holding a wand headed toward him. He was also wearing round glasses. Larry noticed him and went toward him.
"Archmage Kamek." He saluted, bowing down to him.
"For someone like you, you're very early today. I was expecting to see you last." Kamek replied.
Larry could not like Kamek. In fact, he was very suspicious to this being that from a type of koopa referred as magikoopas. He spied on him many times speaking to King Bowser about unusual information. Kamek was also at the heart of a war declaration attempt during the peace treaty and, if Larry did not tell the king about it, things would not have been the way they were to this day. There were also rumors going around that this magikoopa lived many centuries. The other strange koopas arrived and all bowed down to Kamek.
"All koopalings are here. That's good. All of you are to head to Bowser's office. He will call you one by one to discuss about how things will go today."
The koopalings headed to a corridor behind the throne. Inside the corridor, they saw a small koopa that shared similarities with them except this one only had black dots as eyes, a single red ponytail emerged from its head with tiny horns on the sides and one small fang came out of the left side of its mouth. He was only wearing a bib with a fanged open mouth drawn on it. By the look, he probably drew it himself. He was slowly walking toward the throne room holding what seemed to be a portable video game console. He was staring at it which meant that was playing something. The koopalings ignored him, save…
"Hey, Junior!" Larry greeted, waving at him.
Junior did not take his sight out of the console or say anything but he did wave back at him.
"See Vendy, even Junior has ze courtesy of replying ven someone speaks to him." The blue-haired koopaling joked.
"Shut up, Ludwig!" Wendy furiously replied.
Some koopaling subtly chuckled as they reached a door with seven chairs near it. They all took a seat while Kamek entered the room.
"Ludwig!"
The blue-haired koopa stood up and entered the room. A few minutes later, he got out frowning.
"If zere vas vone place it did not vant to go today, it vas Pipeland and it has to be me that goes zere."
Ludwig ran away fearing that he might arrive late. Despite being right next to the Koopa Kingdom, Pipeland was a pipe maze and the path to the Pipeland castle changed every day.
"Lemmy!"
The shortest koopaling entered the office. He left it a few minutes later screaming in joy.
"Yay! Iceland!" Lemmy screamed.
He immediately ran away. Unlike Ludwig, he wanted to save some time so he could play in the snow before the meeting.
"Roy!"
The pink-headed koopaling entered the room and returned in the corridors with a large grin.
"Oh yeah! I get to use an airship. Skyland, here I come!" Roy declared.
Roy walked away, humming a song to himself.
"Iggy!"
The tall koopaling entered the room. He got out but did not express anything at first but then burst out in laugher.
"Yes! Woodland is the pinnacle of technological advancement." He laughed as he hopped away.
"Wendy!"
The female koopa went in and came out smiling.
"Sealand, such a beautiful place for someone like me." She said while walking away.
"Morton!"
The dark skinned koopaling entered the room leaving Larry the only one sitting in the corridor. A few minutes passed and Morton left the room. Unlike the others, he did not express himself as much but Larry could tell that he was glad.
"SANDLAND!" Morton only said as he left.
This meant that Larry would get the last land and his favorite one: Grassland. He always loved playing on the plains when he was younger and loved to stand on the highest one to stare at the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Larry!"
Once he heard his name, the punk koopaling opened the door. Inside, he saw an imposing koopa like him sitting behind a desk. This one however had red hairs combed to the side, big curved horns on his head and was wearing glasses with a white suit. The giant koopa was reading papers.
"Please, take a seat." He said with his powerful voice.
Larry sat on the only chair that was available in the room.
"Let me explain how things will go. I sent the other koopalings as my representatives to the lands between our kingdom and Peach's kingdom. Today, we meet people from the Space Federation and we will discuss with them about possible trades and space exploration." He explained.
"So you want me to represent you in Grassland?" Larry asked.
"You guessed right, kid. However…" Bowser started.
"However?" Larry asked, starting to get a little worried.
"It was planned at the start that you would represent me in Grassland. However, you will not represent me this time."
Larry's usual smile vanished.
"What? Why?" Larry asked.
"I have received multiple reports from the Grassland inhabitants telling that they deemed you untrustworthy to represent me in Grasslend. You will instead act as an escort to my Grassland representative. He will waiting for you at the garage." The king declared.
The new devastated Larry.
"Can I change myself to some more casual clothing, King Bowser?" Larry asked.
"Do as you will, but do not waste his time." Bowser answered.
The punk koopaling could not believe it. He showed unmeasurable respect and loyalty to the koopa king but to hear such thing from him was unexpected. Although, he thought that it was for his own good. He returned to his room where he switched his fancy suit for a sky blue hoodie and a pair of spiked bracers he would always wear any other day. The new took away his motivation but he had to go.
He entered the garage where the only vehicles that were inside were a sport bike and a truck. Inside the truck, a koopa that resembled Roy was sitting at the driver's seat. The koopa had an orange head, no glasses revealing his black eyes and longer arms. He was also wearing a black tuxedo with a red tie Larry took the passenger seat and they both left the garage.
The road was mostly quiet at the beginning until the drive started speaking.
"It must really suck to not represent the king to land like the others." The driver said out of sympathy.
Larry ignored him. He was not in the mood to speak to anyone. He was staring outside with an uninterested expression.
"The king told me that you were deemed untrustworthy." He continued.
The punk koopaling started becoming angry. He already became impatient today. Who would not?
"Listen, if it can raise your morale at least a little bit, I don't find you untrustworthy at all. Every day, I hear stories of your exploit and how every guard in the castle want to be under your lead." The driver comforted.
"You're just telling nonsense." Larry said back.
"I'm serious. It's especially the ones that follow Ludwig. That's the kind of person that I'd find untrustworthy instead of you. And besides, aren't you THE leader of the koopalings? You wouldn't keep such title if no one could trust you, right?"
"You're right. I wouldn't if I was really untrustworthy. Thanks, Boom Boom." Larry smiled looking back at him.
Despite being only a rank higher than the typical soldier, Boom Boom was quite close to the koopalings especially Larry since he was the most reliable one of the group. Larry appreciated that someone thought otherwise of the king's words. The rest of the road trip ended up with both the driver and the passenger speaking about various things they did. Maybe being an escort was not so bad after all. Though, it made him question why Bowser did not want him to represent him in Grassland.
They arrived at the Grassland castle which was a small fortress compared to the Koopa castle. They parked the truck and got out. They headed inside where many goombas were standing.
"Well. Since you're the one representing, I'll let you be. I'm going to my business in town so I won't be that far if you're looking for me. You know my number." Larry said.
The bald koopa nodded and they both walked their separate way. Before he could leave the building… a powerful voice emerged from nowhere.
"Not so fast, young boy!" A powerful voice spoke.
The koopaling turned around and saw a giant goombas walking toward him. This one had red piercing and lazy eyes making Larry unsure if he was speaking to him. His white hair brows and whiskers on the side of the face made it obvious that this goomba was getting quite old. His body was made of red and white stripes and he wore a crown. It was the king of Grassland. A letter was hovering near him and he lent Larry the letter.
"What's this?" The punk koopa asked while opening the letter.
He took out the letter and realized it was an arrest request signed by King Bowser.
"Oh come on! First, I can't represent him here and, now, he's throwing me in jail!" Larry complained.
"These are your king's orders. I don't make them but I'll follow them. Guards! Take him to the dungeon." The goombas king ordered.
Larry remained calm but his mood quickly shifted to bitter after the dire new. He was escorted to a prison cell where he had to stay for the duration of the meeting. One goomba stayed behind to keep an eye on him. Did the koopa king really question his best general? Larry had no idea why his highness would put him behind the bars. He became sad that he had to waste an entire day doing absolutely nothing. He sat down on the bed in the corner of his cell and curled up. He then slowly closed his eyes.
"I remember… I remember a time where I was all alone and that everyone would pick on me because I was unable to speak at my age… The orphanage." He whispered.
"Come on, baby boy! You have to say the word to get your stupid toy back. Ha ha!"
Larry found himself in one of his past memories, the kind that he wanted to forget. Despite being a sunny day, it was not a happy day for him. He was surrounded by the other koopalings and they were bullying him by stealing his favorite toy: a goomba plush. Roy currently had it in his hand and he was teasing Larry to speak. However, the punk koopaling could not talk despite his age. He instead used sign language but no one bothered to understand him. The other koopalings tossed the toy to each other until it landed in Morton's hands who threw it far away. Larry chased after his toy but Roy caught it. The latter moved out of the way and the young koopaling then tripped on a rock and fell into a mud pool. The others laughed at him until…
"Children! Stop it Right now! The six of you will go to detention now." A voice scolded them.
An adult koopa took the goomba from Roy's hands and led the six troublemakers inside a building while holding Larry's hand. She did not give him back his toy yet because mud would get on it. She put the troublemakers in a detention room and took the dirty child to a bathroom where she washed him. She then gave him back his toy.
"Poor kid. I wish the others would treat him nicely." She whispered as she kissed Larry on the cheek.
She brought him in a room with many beds and put Larry down on a bed in a faraway corner of the room.
"You will stay in your room while I ground those troublemakers." The adult said before leaving the room.
Larry looked as the adult vanished behind the door frame. He looked back as his toy and put it on a table next to his bed. He lied sideway on the way and curled up. He cried. It was nightmare for him to have to be with the other children, especially the ones that looked like him. He was always the victim of all sorts of pranks and an adult always had to intervene to stop them. He had enough of being saved by the others. One say, he would be the one saving them.