Chapter 8

Loki the Mischief Maker

'The Green Thunder', Luigi liked it! He'd always wanted to use that name when he became a wider known super hero but because Luigi was mostly held back by Mario's own reputation he never had a chance to use it.

It had taken him a while but he'd finally come to the conclusion that this was not a dream at all. Everything he was doing, everything he remembered, it was all real, he was living his dream and it was all thanks to this funny wooden mask, he never wanted to take it off, he wanted to keep it on forever and remain as the Green Thunder.

Unfortunately Luigi knew or guessed that the Mask must only work at night, which explains why it didn't work earlier in the day when he tried to put it on. But this limitation meant he could be like Batman. By day he was lanky, weak, Luigi, by night he was the charismatic, charming, smooth, Green Thunder, okay forget the charming part, Green Thunder was loud and in your face and he liked it!

He'd zoomed outside the castle whirling around in his twister form and was halfway across the Dark Kingdom before he knew it. He still had the bag of coins secure on his back, the coins he'd just stole from Bowser for the orphanage and so you could guess his destination and soon he arrived there.

Luigi vaulted the roof of the small mushroom shaped house and landed on top of it. He then took the heavy sack and slammed it into the mouth of the chimney. "Santa's come early!" Luigi cried as, from his deep pockets, he produced a plunger and pumping hard he pushed the coin sack into the chimney until it was halfway down but jammed, but Luigi decided that was deep enough to claim he'd technically delivered them and decided he was going to leave.

He leapt off the roof and landed on the ground like a cat and prepared to swagger off back home, but suddenly he felt something tickle the back of his mind again. Wait a minute! He thought Those little brats were very rude to me yesterday! He remembered, he also remembered losing his temper but he didn't care about that. Yeah, they were rude, which means he didn't feel bad about doing what he did next.

Luigi disappeared into the house through the open front door, found the large room all the Toadtots were sleeping in, calmly snoozing like a bunch of cute little babies, but don't worry he was about to fix that.

Keeping the lights off he whistled so loud that all the Toadtots woke with a start, still in the pitch blackness Luigi said in a creepy echoing voice "Welcome back to the land of the living, you're about to regret coming back!"

One Toadtot reached out from his bed for the light switch and the moment the room was flooded with light Luigi morphed his head into the most disgusting, most monstrous face he could create. He couldn't see it himself but it must've been horrific because all the Toadtot screamed at the top of their lungs, some even pathetically called out "MUMMY!"

Before any of them could get a good look at him he'd zoomed out of the room, out of the orphanage and left the Toadtots to cope with their childhood trauma and all the while Luigi was laughing like a loon.


It took him a minute with the walking and then the talking but soon the possessed body of the Koopa slowly got up out of bed and looked around the room. He sat there for about an hour just staring into space while his mind caught up with what was happening.

The room was dank, dark and cold and this body was damaged and full of pain, which is why it was so ideal for him but now the injuries were just a hindrance. He need to repair it because somehow he knew that it wouldn't repair itself, not now.

Standing on his two feet pain shot up his spinal cord, he needed to be whole again. Slowly and with a stiff legged gate of someone who didn't know how to walk properly he limped towards the door, took the handle and opened it up.

He opened the door a crack and lost his balance but managed to stop himself collapsing by leaning against the door frame. He was hungry.

His aching eyes caught sight of someone coming down the corridor. It appeared to be a turtle like creature, a Koopa he remembered the name, but he was dressed in green robes and carried a long, gold wand in his hand. He also had thick glasses that magnified his eyes to twice their size.

"You!" the Koopa said in a ghostly whisper at the robed Koopa.

"What do you want?" the robed Koopa bit.

"You!" he repeated.

"I don't have time to talk to peasants, Kamek is expecting me and I don't waste my time on cannon fodder Koopa's like you."

"Come and have a look at this" the Koopa said in another ghostly whisper "It's very interesting."

"Kamek doesn't like me missing lessons and I don't like being told what to do!" the robed Koopa said and began arrogantly walking away.

Though his head hurt the limping Koopa suddenly realised how he could easily trick this one "Alright, don't look, you won't find it interesting, its far too good for your eyes."

The robed Koopa spun around "Not good enough for my eyes?" he asked arrogantly "Nothings too good for my eyes, move aside peasant!" he said and pushed passed him into the room. "What is it?" he asked impatiently looking around.

The injured Koopa closed and bolted the door, locking them both in. "Dinner time" he added.


Luigi arrived back at the Mario's house with the red roof with time to spare. He'd only been gone a few hours but despite that all the lights were out in the house so no doubt Mario was asleep, and Luigi very nearly walked through the front door still in his guise, but he stopped and considered.

Should he tell Mario about this Mask? It was powerful, very powerful, it could make Luigi a super hero, make him powerful, make him respected and feared. But then the penny dropped with a horrible clang. Mario would never let him keep this Mask, he'd never let him use it, he'd claim it was dangerous and that they should get rid of it, typical Mario always thinking of himself, always thinking of his own image, his own reputation as being the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom and Luigi wasn't going to stand for it.

The Mask was going to remain his secret, Mario didn't know a thing about it, or its powers so he wouldn't know any different after all. But either way he couldn't just walk into the house and go to bed like 'this' he had to be just plain Luigi.

Instinctively the plumber reached behind his head and knew exactly what to do. He grabbed at a fold in the rubber mask behind his head, he could feel it just under his unkempt, green hair and getting a grip on it he pulled. Both sides of the Mask parted and as he pulled on it harder and harder it began to peel off his face. The Mask fought back is if it was clinging to his face for dear life but that didn't stop him. Luigi felt the power start to leave him, he was surrounded by a whirl wind and flashes of bright light, the edges of his vision began to blur as the Mask started to pull away from his face. The rubber regained its wooden texture and hardened as it moved slowly further away from his face but still held onto his cheeks until it let him go and his cheeks snapped back into place and the Mask had hardened back into its inert form.

Luigi held up the Mask and noted from his sleeves that his 'Green Thunder' costume had turned back into his usual blue and green overalls. This Mask was a fantastic thing, he didn't even need to go hide in a phone booth and change he just needed to find a place out of the way and don this Mask and he'd become Green Thunder again. Excitement and possibilities raced through his head, he could don the Mask again now and go fight some crime, but then he remembered the last time he was out all night he woke up drained which just wouldn't do. No, he was going to sleep now but tomorrow was another night.

Hiding the Mask in his hat Luigi opened the front door of the house with his key and went inside.

"Mario?" he called gently just in case "Mario?" he asked again but no reply. He closed the door behind him and began ascending the stairs. That's when he heard it, a distinctive snoring coming from Mario's room.

Luigi giggled to himself, because while Luigi A.K.A. Green Thunder was out adventuring and questing Mario had been laying in bed back at the house sleeping.

Still lightly chuckling Luigi entered his own room, shut the door behind him and put the Mask on his bedside cabinet. He changed into his night things, crawled into bed and immediately fell asleep, wearing that Mask really takes it out of you. Luigi didn't notice as he snored in the land of nod that the Mask start to glow again, it just couldn't wait for the next time it would be worn.


Bowser was not happy, really not happy. All the coins he'd collected in his secret stash, those he stole from his father, the ones he stole from innocent people and those he stole back from Roy, all were gone. He'd been robbed and all his great army of Koopa's could do was party and get down with that green faced guy who called himself Green Thunder.

Bowser was venting his anger at the very Koopa's who had let him down. With fists clenched and baring his sharp teeth he screamed "HE GOT AWAY? HE PASSED BY ALL MY TRAPS, ALL MY SOLDIERS AND ESCAPED THE CASTLE?" he fumed "WHAT WERE YOU DOING? I PAY YOU ALL TO BE DESPICABLE AND CRUEL! NOT TO SING AND DANCE!"

The small group of Koopa's looked at each other for a few seconds confused. "We get paid?" one asked, "When?" asked another eagerly.

How can they think of coins at a time likes this? His coin stash had been stolen! "You get paid when Princess Peach is captured, Mario is defeated and the Mushroom Kingdom is mine!" Bowser snarled.

"That's our job?" Another Koopa asked "We might as well quit, the job description is an exercise in futility."

Bowser had had enough of this group of idiots "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT" he shouted so loud the castle itself shook and within seconds they had all scrambled away before Bowser made them into kebabs.

Bowser stamped as he walked fuming. Who was that guy, how was he able to do all those things? When he finds him he'll rip his head off. Bowser made a note to himself that he had a second nemesis now, Mario and the Green Thunder, the man who was arrogant enough to give King Bowser Koopa a wedgie, who turned his traps against him and made a mockery of his army. With his fists shaking in anger he punched the wall beside him and large cracks opened up in it.

"When I get a hold of that guy he's as dead as Mario!"

"King Bowser, sir?" said a throaty whisper of a voice that was almost snake like.

Bowsers massive bulk turned to a lone Koopa. A tall Koopa wearing the green robes and thick glasses of a magikoopa, which was a kind of wizard type koopa who could do magic.

"Baw, who are you want?"

"Nobody, sir" the Koopa said.

"Nobody? That's a weird name. What do you want?" Bowser paused before saying "Don't you dare ask me for a raise, I've just been robbed!"

"Oh no, you misunderstand me" the Koopa said coolly and almost creepily and sinisterly, Bowser liked this guy already he had style, plus he wasn't asking for a raise that was always good in his books. "I think I have information you might be interested in..." The Koopa suddenly turned his head left and right stretching muscles and Bowser thought he could hear some bones click. "It's about that man, the green one who robbed you."

There was something weird about this guy, he constantly twitched and moved like he didn't really know how to operate his body.

"You know where to find him?" and Bowser roared a cheer "Excellent, you'll get a promotion for this! Where is he?"

"I don't know where he is" the Koopa added

"Forget the promotion!" Bowser hissed but Nobody ignored him.

"But he did remind me of something, something you might want to look at" he said. Nobody took something from inside his robes, a large book, a book that Bowser was sure was slightly too large to fit under his robes. He handed it to Bowser who looked at it like a child would look at a dictionary.

"What's this?" Bowser asked as he strained to read the title "'Ancient Myths and mythology'?" the Koopa king thought for a long moment before saying "He reminded you to return an overdue library book?"

"No" Nobody said "Turn to page 64 and read from there, it'll be worth your while."

"I don't have time to read books" Bowser snarled.

"It's about who that guy is" Nobody said.

"Well, why didn't you say so?" and the Koopa king almost ripped the book open and turned to page 64. There was a lot of writing and words in this, he hated books with a lot of words in, he hated books full stop. At the top of the page was the title of the chapter and Bowser read it out loud.

"Loki?" he questioned, it was written in tall, green letters "Who or what is Loki?"

"Read the book, King Koopa, it'll be well worth it" Nobody urged. If this was some trick to get him to be educated then he's gonna fry this little Koopa but Bowser read the passage.

"Loki was a god of the Norsemen, the god of fire capable of altering his physical appearance and producing curiosities to confuse and confudel those around him blah, blah, blah. His relationships with the gods was often sketchy because of his ability to blah, blah, blah, became know as a trickster god and famously became the god of mischief. Bored, bored, bored. Tricked one god into murdering another, yap, yap, yap. Was banished from the godly world of Valhala to the real world, imprisoned forever." Bowser yawned "What does this have to do with the guy who stole my coins?"

"Are you actually reading it?" Nobody sighed "Doesn't the guy in the book sound familiar to you?"

Bowser continued to read on this time straining his brain to take in all the words this time, not just the edited highlights.

Loki was the Norse god of fire, though more popularly he is known as one of the night gods and famously the evil Lord of Mischief because of his impulse to cause trouble and create chaos, though at times he aided the gods most of the time he hindered them. Eventually he went too far when he tricked the blind god Hod into killing his twin brother god Balder by using a tainted arrow provided by Loki himself, the arrow was tipped with poison and was cursed to always find any target the curse was aimed at.

Odin, god of war however was not fooled. He knew Hod was not responsible for Balders death, and immediately knew Loki to be the cause of it. For this cruel trick Odin forever banished Loki from the Godly world of Valhalla to the mortal realm, he was sentenced to be buried deep under an eternal mountain, tided down to an unbreakable stone by the gutted intestines of his two ill-fated children. Some however feared this was just not enough and that one day Loki the mischief maker would escape so...

Bowser looked at the opposite page but that appeared to be the end of the chapter on Loki and started going on about some guy called Thor, he did think it was funny that it would just abruptly end but his mind was on more important matters.

"Well?" Nobody asked. Bowser closed the book and paused long and hard before saying. "I still don't get what this has to do with my coins."

Nobody sighed heavily, "Oh for Odin's sake look at the illustration!" and the Koopa pointed to a picture of Loki in the bottom corner. It showed a face that was divided down the middle in terms of expression, one half was smiling and had the look of mischief about it, the half was frowning with an annoyed expression on his face. But what Bowser noted about this picture of Loki was that it had a green face, and red eyes! Just like that guy he saw rob his coin stash.

"You mean you think that guy I saw, the one who called himself Green Thunder is this Loki character?" Bowser asked at last and Nobody replied "You may not be fast but you get there in the end"


To Be Continued...


Authors notes: A short chapter mostly to finish introducing the new bad guy, 'Nobody' as Bowser is calling him. And to give a bit of background info on Loki

I've decided to make Luigi keep the Mask a secret from Mario, because let's face it if Mario found out about the Mask then the story would end pretty quickly.

Hope you've all enjoyed the new chapter

-Cheers