Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.
Bowser and I charged toward each other. He goes into shell and speeds up. I flip over him as he zooms past me. I shoot thunder at him as I flip. It bounces right off his shell. We recover from the exchange and stare each other down. I take a quick look at the mural on the ceiling before looking back at Bowser.
"Do you like it?" The Koopa King asks. "It's glass. Magma-proof glass, each section with different thickness that allows the orange magma to appear in different shades." The image is of The Koopa King, who appears looming over his kingdom. The kingdom itself looks like Obsidian. But the landscape resembles the Mushroom Kingdom. The Koopa King still had his eyes on the prize. We begin walking toward each other slowly.
"Same old Koopa King." I teased. "Still failing to beat the Mushroom Kingdom."
"Same old Luigi." He responded as we got closer. "Still a bitch." He goes for the low sweep. I jump clear, pulling out my hammer as I descend. He blocks my shot with his chest. His shell is still as strong as ever. I jump backwards. He charges as I jump and grabs me before I can land. He leaps into the air and holds me under him as he belly-flops. It smashes me into the floor. "Feel that?" He teases. "That's the weight of the Koopa Kingdom." He grabs me by the foot. I'm in too much pain to move at this point. He slings me across the room. I scrape the stone floors hard before rolling toward Peach and Mario. Bowser goes into his shell and zips right up to the three of us. He grabs me and holds me upside down by the foot once more. "What's the matter. Is the weight of the Koopa Kingdom too much?" He begins viciously punching and clawing me with his free hand. "Imagine carrying that weight on your own shoulders as the Koopa King!" The Koopa King always packed a punch. But the force of these blows felt like they'd been waiting underground for a long time, just for Mario and me to come back. "Day" He drives his fist into my gut. "After Day!" He claws at my neck. "AFTER DAY!" He hits me square in the face. Blood pours from it and hits the floor audibly. "But you don't care about that." He tosses me high in the air, my hat begins to fly off. I turn and grab it a I descend. Bowser jumps in the air and starts spinning in his shell. When we match altitudes his hand comes out and spikes me back down to the ground. A small crater forms around me. Bowser lands.
He looks down at me, then at Mario and Peach. He chuckles.
"Peach commands the Kingdom, even Mario commanded the Red Army. But you Luigi. You don't know what it's like to have something of your own creation. Your own passion. And have it constantly threatened. Or even, taken from you." He steps on my leg.
"GAAAHHH!" I scream. He is as heavy as he looks.
"Oh wait, that's right, you had a wife." He teased. "Didn't you? I suppose you figured, a life for a wife." He took his foot off my leg. "But the King doesn't play to get even." He picked me up by my shirt.
"Is that why you brought your son back?" I asked, spitting up blood.
"What did you just say?" He asked.
"You heard me." I said.
His smile left. His grip tightened.
"I'm glad your brother get's to watch you die, Luigi." He says. He opens his mouth and spawns fire. The fire is blood-red. I haven't seen him do this up close in a long time. Despite so many things, I know the Koopa King was never hell-bent on murder. That would be me. That would be my brother. My bother and I always fought him together. But fighting the Koopa King one on one is reminding me that he is quite the force to be reckoned with. And that he rarely fought to kill. Only to further his conquest.
"Fuck off, Bowser!" Said a voice from behind me. Mario rolls up to Bowser and clubs upward with his hammer, striking Bowser on the chin. Bowser drops me and stumbles backwards. He turns around and struggles to regain his equilibrium. He could just fall to the ground. But I can see his body, refusing to. Mario walks up to me and stretches out his hand. His clothes are still battered but he looks to be in much better shape. Good as new, even. I grab his hand and stand up.
"How?" I ask Mario.
"Turns out the bimbo in the pink dress is good for somethin." He points to Peach, who sits on the ground with her gloves removed, a lighter aura of colors courses through her veins now. "For Kamek, that magic was dangerous. But in the hands of the princess, it's a tool for us to finally kill the Koopa King."
"Kill the Koopa King." Bowser mocks as he walks back toward us, a small trail of blood running down his shell. "You think killing me will finally satisfy you? You think you could kill me if you fucking tried?"
"Get him." Mario says. And at that moment, we charged at the enemy as brothers for the first time in, forever. We leaped at him in unison. He grabs us both by the face and begins squeezing. Hard. I think my nose is breaking. Either way blood is dripping from my face.
"You two!" Bowser said holding us both, squeezing our heads. It was painfully humbling. "You two have done nothing but stand in my way of making the perfect Kingdom! You're not protectors, you're obstacles. Potholes on my road to glory! Every time I try to build, you two insert yourselves into the equation. Even at the risk of your own lives! Why?"
In his question, I heard the actual difference between The Koopa King and The Mario Brothers. Bowser lives for his conquest, not for the killing. The Mario Brothers, it would appear, live to kill Bowser and his family. This possible reality made me more uncomfortable than getting my skull crushed. I raised my hand and shot a blind shot of lightning at Bowser. Unable to block it, he takes it to the face and stumbles back, holding his face. He shouts louder in rage.
"I left you behind. I built Obsidian! I built a utopia in a place most would assume Hell lies. And yet you still had nothing better to do with your lives!" He had yet to look up from his hands while talking. My brother and I knew what that meant. We looked at each other, nodded, and leaped clear as Bowser shot fire from his mouth. This time, the fire was blue. The Koopa King was pissed.
We rolled to either side to surround him. We rushed him from both sides. He does a quick 180 and deflects me with his momentum. Mario dodges his deflection and jumps high to kick him in the face. I recover and return to attack. Mario and I begin exchanging blows from both sides in an effort to overwhelm King Koopa.
But the shots he didn't block had little to no effect on his thick shell. Yet every few shots he would graze or cut us with one of his claws. Catching each others glance, Mario and I crouched low and jumped up to attack Bowser's head. Mario attempts to grab it as I go for the kick.
Bowser tucks his head back into his shell. My kick lands dead center of Mario's face, sending him to the ground. Bowser's head pops back out. His horn grazes my extended leg and I fall helplessly to the ground. Bowser goes into his shell and zips across the room. His shell hits the stone wall hard. That area of the wall does a slight indent before retracting upward and revealing several TVs. My brother and I stand up to see. Bowser only looks at us, slightly gesturing to the screens behind him.
"I built a city where only me and my finest would have to worry about defending ourselves against outside threat!" Bowser says.
"What is this?" Mario says, panting. "You were spying on us?" The screens behind Bowser are showing different parts of Obsidian, in high definition. Some places we had been already. Some we didn't.
"Spying on you?" Bowser says, pausing to spit out small embers in disgust. "Why the fuck would the Koopa King move down here, and make plans to spy on the Mario Brothers? I keep these cameras around my city to ensure that everything is running smoothly and that my subjects are safe. To keep them happy before we strike our revenge. But you. Both of you. I knew you two would follow me, even if it meant plunging to the depths. You showed up on my cameras.
I watched Mario set fire to a grocery store. I watched Mario bomb an Obsidian City bus.
I watched Luigi interact with my sewer workers. He spared the life of my senior sewer worker, only to later watch Mario snap the neck of his wife. Serves her right, I suppose. Going to Opaque while the husband's at work.
I watched both of you go into the depths of Opaque. And even they were not safe! What were you afraid of, Luigi? The ladies of Opaque being better in bed than Daisy? Or were you afraid one of the koopas would make you their bitch?" He's just trying to get in my head. I won't let him.
"You." I said. "You knew we were here and exactly where we were. You could have saved some of your citizens Mario terrorized. You let them die."
"Collateral, necessary." The Koopa King replied. "Now because of your sibling rivalry, I have the people on my side for our rise to the surface. Whether they see it coming, or not." Both of these men are sick. I can't quite tell who's worse, but one thing is for sure. I do call one of them brother.
"Damn you." Mario says, upset that he'd been made to a pawn. "Luigi, let's end this."
"Right". I say.
Bowser goes into his shell and zips toward us again. Mario and I pull out our hammers and send his shell toward the ceiling. Bowser comes out of his shell mid flight. He fixes himself and hip drops back to the ground in front of us. I hold out a hand and begin charging a thunder-ball. Mario leaps at Bowser with his hammer. I continue charging. Bowser deflects Mario back toward me. Mario lands and uses his hammer to launch my thunderbolt. The electricity rocks the Koopa King. He falls to his stomach.
"Let's finish it." Mario says, leaping over him. He grabs Bowser by the tail and starts spinning him. Every time Bowser's head passes me, I smack him with my hammer as hard as I can. The Koopa King's face gets bloody and fast. After while, Mario drops him. "You're finished Koopa King!"
Bowser groans, spits up bloody fire, and then slowly begins standing-to our amazement.
"The Koopa King, is never done." He says calmly before raising his head. A blue flame spawns in his mouth.
"Shit!" I exclaim. "Mario, Bounce Bros!"
"Right." My brother says. I jump in the air. He meets me in the air beneath my feet and tilts us toward toward Bowser. We both land on his head before he can turn his fire to us. He is dazed for a moment. We land on either side of his shoulders and grab a hold of his horns. We begin puling them apart.
"AAAAAHHH!" The Koopa King Screams in agony. "No matter what happens, you can't save that fucked up kingdom of yours! YOU HEAR ME?!" As we struggle with Bowser's head. We see a quick green flash go across the room.
"GKHT!" The princess makes a quick noise and is silenced by something. Our eyes follow the sound to where she is. She is still standing where we left her. But she has fallen to her knees.
"Are you okay?" Mario asked, still struggling with Bowser and me. The princess doesn't respond. She only coughs up blood before a spike-shelled figure grabs her head from behind. With a quick motion it snaps her neck. Her head and body fall awkwardly to the stone floor. I stay my grip and look over at Mario.
"Bro, are you okay? Keep pulling!" There was no telling how he'd react, but we couldn't face Bowser and whoever this newcomer was. Not at the same time. "Bro? Mario?" Mario is still holding tightly to Bowser's horn, but his face has lost intensity. He only stares at the princess' corpse.
"HUGH!" Mario shouts. And with a quick but painful motion, he jerks back and rips his half of Bowser's head clean off. Me and the rest of Bowser's body fall to the ground.
The Koopa King, is finally dead.
"Damn." Mario says, standing and holding his half of Bowser's head by the horn. "This is no good to mount on my wall. I should have thought this through." He looks over at the shadows near Peach's corpse. "Show yourself, or else." The strange figure begins stepping from the shadows, right next to Peach's corpse. The figure is much smaller than Bowser. But still looks familiar. Deathly familiar. I scramble to my feet as my vision clears. It was him. Even Mario was taken aback.
"You're . . ." Mario struggles to finish his statement. "You're, Bowser Junior. But. But you're dead. How . . ." Mario looks at me.
"I don't know." I say to him.
"Well." Mario says. "No reason we can't kill him again. Get him!" We charge at him. He makes no aggressive movement in response. I hop on Mario's shoulders and spread my arms. He responds by jumping and twisting his body. We contort into a helicopter motion and fly towards him. He smiles, as we get close. He sprouts wings and jumps above us. He grabs me by the head with his legs. He plucks me from my brothers shoulders and slings me across the room. Before we can process what's happening, he hip-drops toward the ground, crashing onto Mario. Mario is planted face down into the stone floor, reaching toward where I had landed. Bowser Junior hops off of Mario and walks toward me until he is equidistant between us.
"Since when does Bowser Junior do that?" Mario says, in pain.
"I don't fuckin know!" I shout back to him.
"He con't." Bowser Junior says, in an awkward voice. "He's dead."
"Then who the hell are you?" Mario asks, still unable to get up. A chill ran through me when he answered.
"The nime's Green." He says, confidently. "Heir apparent to the Koopa Troopa. And we're about ta go for a roide." He points directly above him. Mario and I look up at the mural above. The murals colors are being replaced by the night sky. "They siy in Obsidian, ya con't tell noit from diy. Not until you've been here a while." Green says.
The night sky looks just like the one over the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach's castle must be giving way to this one. The moonlight shines through the windows in the throne room. As we stand up, Mario and I can see magma and debris flying everywhere across the Kingdom. People are running, dying, dissolving in the lava. But the citizens of Obsidian, they are only slightly disoriented, but largely unscathed. Faintly, we can hear the screams of Mushroom Kingdom's subjects. Rock, magma, and pieces of Peach's castle are rolling down the volcano from which we're sprouting. Green continues talking.
"The Obsidian skoys are always the color of the magma. It's the sime color as the sunset. That's the sime color as the sunroys. But on tonight, the Mushroom Kingdom has seen its last sunset. And Obsidian will see her greatest sunroys!"
"I've heard enough." Mario says. "Luigi, let's take out this fruitcake."
"Good fuckin luck!" Green replies. He goes into his shell and shoots toward Mario. Mario pulls out his hammer in response.
"Mario, no!" I shout. "Get clear"
Mario didn't listen. He attempts to smash the shell to bits when it approaches him. I dash toward them in anticipation. Before I can get there, Green stops on a dime and hops on top of Mario's hammer. He breathes fire into Mario. His is more impactful than Bowser's. It sends Mario flying backward. That's when I finally got to him. He turns around and grabs my palms and begins muscling me backwards.
"Wh-what happened to you?" I asked, struggling.
"Everyone turned against me." He spreads his wings and uses them to push me back faster. "People believe what they want to believe when it comes from the mouth of the Koopa King. Hell, guess I did the sime for most of me career." He lifts me off the ground and drives me through a window. I'm hanging out of it now, dazed. He catches a piece of broken glass and holds it toward my neck. "I bet you can think of someone ya wish ya hadn't followed."
Just then, Mario grabbed his tail from behind and slung him the opposite direction. He catches himself in the air with his wings.
"Big mistike." He says before flying toward us. He knocks Mario and me out of the window. We are sent rolling down the volcano. We eventually catch ourselves to run down it. Green catches up with us. "Everyone trusted the King, and what did it get em?" He snags us from the ground and throws us skyward. In this position, we can't control if we'll land in the lava or not. As we reach our apex, Elvin's chopper swoops by and catches us in it's cockpit
"Elvin?" I question.
"That's right partner." I hear his voice in the cockpit, though he is no here. "Get ready to swoop in hard, I'm in a bit of a jam." When he says this, the chopper makes a swooping dive. As we get closer to the ground, I can see Toadsworth. He is about to chop Elvin's head off with a blade coming from his cane. I dive from the chopper before Toadsworth can finish his swing and tackle him. The chopper swoops back into the air.
"You're finished, Toadsworth." I say as I have him pinned.
"On the contrary." He says before stabbing me in the side with his blade. I get up and stumble around in pain. As I'm doing so, I see Elvin pulling himself from the rubble with his robotic arm.
"Watch out Luigi!"Elvin says, rushing up to me and knocking me aside to block Toadsworth's attack with his metal arm.
"Fool." Toadsworth says as they struggle. Toadsworth sweeps Elvin's feet from under him. Toadsworth attempts to drive his blade into Elvin's throat. But Elvin pounds Toadsworth's foot with his metal hand. Toadsworth stumbles away from him. Elvin gets to his feet.
"Since when do you get your hands dirty in the field." Elvin asks him.
"I could ask you the same." Toadsworth answers. "For me it was watching that man kill family. I knew I had to learn to fight through my disability to stand up for myself, and not simply rely on the royal guard alone. I couldn't rely on the guard. Nor the crown. Nor the Mario brothers. I knew it was better to have them on my side. But I had to be prepared, for when I didn't. In that way, we are the same, Professor. We think. We prepare. We adapt. That is why I wanted to employ you, Professor. Not simply for the good of the crown, but because we understand each other."
"We're nothing alike." Elvin says. "You're a killer."
"Who in these walls isn't?" Toadsworth says, staring at me. Elvin squares himself and points his metal fist at Toadsworth, arm straight like a cannon.
"Surrender now!" Elvin says. "Or you won't survive this rocket punch."
"Imbecile! I'm fucking Toadsworth! I survived the King's bombing death. I survived the Mushroom Kingdom Civil War. And even now, as the Kingdom falls at the hands of Obsidian, I AM STILL HERE! And if you launch that appendage, you will taste the power of my resilience!" Just then, Elvin's arm begins to speak.
"ENEMY ON-BOARD CHOPPER. ENEMY PRESENCE DETECTED ON CHOPPER."
"Shit!" Elvin exclaims. "Luigi, get to the chopper!" I turn to the sky to look for the chopper. Further up the volcano that has now largely replaced Peach's castle, propping Bowser's castle up on a pedestal, Elvin's chopper hovers. In it, I can see Green tossing my brother from the chopper. My chase instincts activate and I dash up the mountain. Mario is not that far but falling fast. I charge up some lightning and blast it behind me to propel me forward. My body torpedoes toward Mario, meeting him in the air and catching him before he lands. We both still hit the ground pretty hard. We graze some cascading lava on the way down and burn ourselves. Mario's legs are scorched, but he doesn't flinch or even open his eyes. My back is scorched. I have a stab wound in my side. And I felt everything. When Mario and I stopped rolling, I stood to my feet and held my brother up, his arm over my shoulder. Green swoops in front of us. But he is not facing us. Instead he hovers slightly above ground, his arms crossed, over looking the kingdom and all the carnage. But his large wings obscure most of my view of it. He sounds calm when he speaks.
"You con't possibly save your brother and yourself from me. You know that. You've got to choose between yourself, or your brother, or the professor. As impossible as choosing between yourself, your king, or the city that you mide great.
I received the fust dosage of King Koopa's replikited genetic code. The heaviest one. I guess the King figured betta sife than sorry for his most valued Lieutenant. Sure it stotted out with the normal soid effects with spikes on me shell and such. But ova toim, I just kept changing. Morphing even.
I awoke one morning to foind that I was the spitting image of Bowser Junior. I found it a soyentific marvel. But the King found it disgusting. Guess for him it was loik seein a ghost of his own flesh and blood. I was on his bad soid by then.
But I still had the genetic code to the King and all his minions. I even managed to get a little of yours, though there's some blanks to fill in. I couldn't fix meself, but I could make meself, better. Now I can shoot fire like the King could. Floy loik the King couldn't, and so much more.
But I think the last straw for the King was when I found out his plans for Obsidian to roys to the surface. Obsidian was already thriving and perfect. But he still wasn't over conquering the Mushroom Kingdom, by any means. When I refused to help him finish this project, he made me wuk in secret until one diy he came onto me sub, and made a bloody attempt on me loif. I could have killed him, but I was holding back, because I was loyal. Instead, I let him think he left me there for dead. I took me sub off radar, and lurked.
In me absence, the King spread rumors about me through the media. Turned me own city against me. And I had no choice but to except it. And as I thought, my absence ultimately led to his downfall. But I must say, even now, thinking about the thousands of good men that died in the name of the Koopa Troopa before we built Obsidian, this is a beautiful sight to see. Watching the Mushroom Kingdom burn. So this, this I can watch in the Koopa King's memory."
"But why did you save me before? Why did you put me on board your ship and then try to kill me?" I asked him. These were my last moments after all. Why die with questions?
"Simple." Green responds, his back still to me. "I found you nearly drowned to death. I had been meaning to kill you for the longest. I guess in a wiy, I ultimately blime you for our retreat to Obsidian, for what happened to me. So when I came across you, floating, I had to kill you. But fust, I needed you concious-so that I could mike you suffa. I made a mistike then, not wanting to damage me own ship, I let you get away. A shime Mario couldn't be so lucky."
I looked at Mario's limp body. I know we can't defeat Green. I know I can't outrun him. I'm actually fearful that this is the end. And without turning away from the carnage, Green knows it. As I wait for Green to turn around and finish the job, I see Elvin dragging himself up the mountain. The hot soot is beginning to singe him. But he uses his metal arm to pull himself toward us.
"You could have saved him, ya know?" Green says. "You doived from a moving chopper to help the professor, leaving your brother in an air-borne chopper at my mercy. Just as I left Bowser at the mercy of the Mario Brothers. And look what's become of them." I looked over at my brother, hanging unresponsively from my shoulder. My vision became uncomfortably watery.
"If you're gonna kill me" I said "you'd best do it now. Or live to regret your stalling." He just sat there, still hovering. "FACE ME!"
"Luigi!" Elvin cries out from down the mountain, still unable to stand. "Run. Just r-GKHPH!" His sentence is interrupted as he spits up blood. His body collapses downward to reveal Toadsworth lying on his back, pulling out his blade from Elvin's torso. Toadsworth then rolls off to the side in exhaustion.
"ELVIN!" I shout past Green. Green then turns his attention to me. Elvin does not verbally respond, but reaches his metal hand toward me. He clinches it tightly. As Green moves in toward me, Elvin's chopper swoops up me and my brother and hits the afterburner for the skies. The doors seal shut as the chopper makes a B-line for a way out of the kingdom. Out of the new Obsidian.
I lay my brother down and start shaking him vigorously. I feel his neck. I can't find a pulse. But that doesn't mean Elvin can't save him. Elvin can do anything, right? I've gotta go get him. I gotta go get Elvin.
I get up and race toward the controls to turn the chopper around. But when I sit in the chair and grab the stick, it locks on me.
"Come on, damn it, work! Work, work, work!" I rage at the controls. Elvin talks to me through the chopper radio from the communicator on his arm.
"The chopper's not turning around, partner." His voice says calmly.
"Elvin?!"
"Whenever this chopper lands, wherever it lands, don't you come back here. The Mushroom Kingdom doesn't own us. And we owe it nothing. We did everything we could, Luigi. Green isn't our enemy, and Toadsworth is no longer a threat. Sometimes you get what you want, and still can't be happy. Green has no more interest in you. If you never come back you can still have a nice life. And think about it, if you get to your house soon enough, you can live out that dream of watching the Mushroom Kingdom burn on your flat screen. *cough* *cough* You don't need me for that." Water was escaping from my eyes for the first time in as long as I can remember, save for when I mourned Daisy of course. "Maybe you didn't get your money. But you'll find other work. But you got rid of Bowser, and you got the crown off your back, for good."
"Elvin, unlock the damn controls! Now." I shout in rage.
"You've probably figured out by now that I can't hear you. One-way transmitter. But it works. I think our conversations are nicer when it's just me talking. So let me just say my peace. I know Daisy was your wife and Mario is your brother. There's no replacing that. But I suppose you were the best family, and hell, the closest friend I had. Thanks for that, neighbor. I can't guarantee my last moments will sound peaceful. So I'm turning of the transmitter now. Goodbye Luigi. Professor E. Gadd, over and out."
I turned around to look at Mario's lifeless body. I had admitted to myself. I then got up to look at the Mushroom Kingdom as it burned and reshaped. This was it. Everyone from my old life in the Kingdom was gone. And as the chopper flew further away, to wherever it was that it would land me I knew that there was no going back to the old Kingdom. There was no Mushroom Kingdom.
This was inspired by my brother and I. This was the brainchild of the Koopa King. The vision of Lieutenant Green. This was crystal clear and plain to see. This was Obsidian.