"Main cannon, fire!" Morton shouted. The Koopa Tank fired at the heavy stone door that blocked the entrance to the ancient pyramid, and just a couple of shots later, it was reduced to rubble.
Morton grinned. "See, nothing can stop the power of a Koopa weapon."
Roy grumbled something.
"Yes, I do know that the tank is too big to take it along into the pyramid," Morton grumbled. "So what? Are you afraid of anything? We have more than enough to deal with anything." He snorted and climbed off the tank. "Besides, this building is as old as Kamek's dusty warts... I doubt there's anything in there waiting for us." He grinned. "Except for some nice treasure..."
"Sir, if I may, the troops are tired," a Boomerang Brother spoke up. "We are not used to this heat."
"What are you, wimps?" Morton shouted. "And you call yourselves members of the glorious Koopa army? Get a move on, you bunch of lazy slackers!"
"What a slave driver..." a couple of Koopas muttered as they followed their leaders into the pyramid.
Morton grinned. "See, it's even a bit cooler in here than outside. And believe me, the gold we are going to find in here will more than make up for all this trouble."
Roy snorted and looked at the hieroglyphs they were passing. He wasn't quite as optimistic as his brother. The strange, lion-like statues they were passing didn't look too encouraging...
They came to a crossway. "Left or right?" Morton wondered.
Roy shrugged and just walked left. Morton looked after him. Then he shrugged as well. "Okay, fine, we go left, why not?" He gestured to the troops to follow him. "C'mon, the sooner we find the treasure, the sooner we can get out of here."
Shortly afterwards, they reached the next junction.
"And now?" the Boomerang Brother asked.
Roy simply walked left again.
"Seems my brother is making the decisions for us," Morton sneered. "All right, everyone, head left!"
They followed the dark corridor for a while, until they reached another junction.
"Again?" Morton groaned. "This is getting repetitive..."
"I have a bad feeling about this, sir..." the Boomerang Brother muttered. "What if we are running in circles?"
"Of course we don't!" Morton huffed. "Or else we'd be dizzy by now. Keep going! And no, bro, this time, I decide where we go. We go right!"
An upbeat expression on his face, Morton walked right. He was confident that he would find the treasure room very soon.
As they headed deeper into the pyramid, it was becoming darker and darker.
"Should we really keep on going, sir?" the Boomerang Brother whined. "I can't see my own boomerang in this darkness..."
"You wuss! A real Koopa Troopa never lets himself be bothered by something trivial as darkness." He took a couple of wooden torches from his shell. "Fire Brothers, come forth!"
A couple of red-skinned turtles with the helmet of a Hammer Brother stepped forward and lit the torches with their fiery breaths. Afterwards, they walked ahead of the others, illuminating the way.
"I can smell it..." Morton sighed. "The smell of wealth... we're gonna be rich, bro!"
Roy tapped him on his shoulder.
"Stop that, it's irritating!" Morton snapped.
Roy tapped him again.
"I told you to stop that!"
Roy tapped him a third time, this time more urgently.
"Oh, what in the name of Mekoopalem is the matter with you?" Morton snarled and turned around.
Roy gestured back from where they had come from.
And in the darkness, they saw a couple of glowing eyes.
"Oh no! Wh-what's that?" a Koopa Troopa gasped.
"So it's some eyes, so what?" Morton grumbled. "Am I supposed to be scared of that? Hah! What might they do, stare me to death?"
His head nearly vanished into his shell when a plume of fire flew over his head.
"Okay, that might worry me a bit..." the brown-scaled son of Bowser muttered.
Out of the darkness, green snakes with wide mouths and gleaming eyes came crawling. Masses of them! Hissing threateningly, they approached the Koopa Troop.
"Sir, we are outnumbered!" the Boomerang Brother shouted.
"Is that some sort of joke? We are the Koopa Troop, we can't be defeated!" Morton shouted.
"Except by a couple of plumbers..." another soldier murmured.
The snakes continued to spit out fireballs at the Koopas, who were completely taken by surprise by this sneak attack.
"Fire Brothers, to the rear of the squad!" Morton commanded. "Show them what a real fire breath can do!"
"Um, we're trying, sir, but the other troops are in our way."
"Hey, stop shoving!"
"Hey, get off my shell!"
"Ouch, that was my tail..."
"Get a hold of yourselves!" Morton commanded. He was beginning to lose his patience. "When I tell you to attack, I want to see a proper attack. Get out there and fight!" Angrily, he stomped his feet on the ground.
When something underneath his foot clicked, he had the bad feeling that something bad was about to happen.
That's when the whole troop felt how the ground beneath their feet began to give away.
"Oh sh..." Morton grimaced.
With loud yells of panic, the Koopa Troop fell down into the darkness, even deeper into the depths of the Birabuto Pyramid... the domain of King Totomesu.
"You did a good job out there, Akane, I'm-a impressed," Mario said as he stood up. "I couldn't-a have done this better."
"Yeah, looks like you can use something else than your mallet," Ranma grinned.
Akane fought down the impulse of pounding Ranma into the ground. "I'm glad you are both okay," she said instead. And she meant it, even for her big-mouthed fiance...
"I still don't get it, though," Ranma said. "If those were viruses, how come they became as big as that?"
"Well, that's-a the question..." Mario muttered and stroked his beard.
Polari came floating. "I have analyzed the bottle the viruses were in and found tiny mushroom bits inside. And give the situation, I can only think of one type of mushroom that could have caused the growth of the viruses."
"A Super Mushroom," Mario said. "Of course! But... that means someone must have put it in there."
"But who?" Akane wondered. "Who would want those poor little Lumas to fall ill?"
"Well," Polari pointed out. "It's just a guess, but what if that certain someone really wanted to get rid of the three of you?
Ranma grumbled. "Whoever did that has no honor at all. Using such dirty tricks to put us out of commission... too bad he's not here anymore. I'd have liked to show him how a true martial artist fights."
Just then, Rosalina came into the room. "My friends," she smiled. "I have wonderful news: We are approaching the Star Road!"
"Already?" Mario asked. "Now that's-a good timing... I wonder if Geno knows we're coming, though..."
"Yes, I've send a few of my Lumas to inform him," Rosalina nodded. "I have finally remembered from where I know him, I just did not realize you were speaking of him, since I only knew him by his true name, which is unpronouncable for normal humans... And since the kind of stars his race belongs to doesn't speak the normal mushroom tongue, I've prepared a way of communication."
"What do you mean?" Akane asked. "Some sort of translation device?"
"Something like that," Rosalina smirked. "But why don't you come and see?"
They followed her onto the big terrace of the observatory, where a couple of Lumas were placing something that looked vaguely human-shaped.
Mario scratched his head. "Y'know, that looks familiar..."
"I hoped it would, Mario," Rosalina smiled. "The last time we met, our friend told me of the adventures he had when he visited the Mushroom World, and I couldn't help myself but to prepare this in case he wanted to return for a visit."
The Lumas floated aside, and now they all could see the wooden doll that was sitting in front of them, limp as a marionette without any threads.
Ranma scratched his head. "So what? It's just a wooden doll, isn't it? wait a minute... you're not going to use some scary voodoo stuff, are you? I mean, Gosunkugi has used some weird dolls like that..."
"That were straw dolls," Akane groaned. "And does that look like a voodoo doll to you?"
"Voodoo?" Rosalina wondered. "What's that?"
"Well, how should I explain...?" Akane began.
"Beg my pardon... what was the word?" Polari asked. "Voodoo?"
A couple of Lumas looked at each other. "Who do?"
"YOU DO!" Ranma shouted and chuckled to himself.
Akane facefaulted. "Ranma, that wasn't very funny..." she groaned.
But before Ranma could reply, an amazing view became visible for them: A shining, serpentine path that was made of billions of little stars, each one sparkling brighter than the other.
"Wow..." Akane muttered. "What is that?"
Mario smiled. "That... is the Star Road!"
Suddenly, a bright, sparkling light came flying from the Star Road. It turned out to be a small star, slightly bigger than the Lumas, but much brighter and without any facial features.
A small jingling sound was heard when the star slowly descended upon the Cosmic Obersatory.
Rosalina smiled. "Yes, it has been too long. Welcome back, my friend!"
Mario stared at the star with awe. "Is that..." he murmured.
And then, the star floated over to the motionless, wooden doll, touched it... and then it disappeared.
The doll then slowly turned its head around. In front of everyone's eyes, it stood up from the ground and turned around to face them.
Even though the wooden face could not really show any emotion, a smile seemed to be on the doll's face when it began to speak: "Mario... I am happy to see you again, after so many years..."
"Geno!" Mario shouted with joy. "It's you! Oh, it's-a great to see you again!"
Author's Note:
The fire snakes are from Super Mario Land and are called 'Nyololin'. And yes, I know they actually appear in Chai, and not in Birabuto.