With Big Shells and Wings

Summary: Mario and the gang get into a gruesome fight with Sharktail, and Lemmy shows Kirzvolitken that he's not the bumbling idiot people think he is.

Desperate Struggle

There he was, standing still with a serrated knife pointed right at his throat. All Kirzvolitken needed to do was plunge a little deeper and sever the koopa's arteries. He'd bleed out all over the floor and die a quick death. It was that simple. Lemmy whimpered again as the blade broke the skin and blood began to roll down his neck. He could just stay still and let the shady koopa kill him. He wouldn't have to grieve over his dead brother anymore. He could join him in the afterlife and finally be at peace. Lemmy shut his eyes, prepared to let himself drift over into the next world. Suddenly, a brief image of Iggy popped up in the mischievous koopaling's head. He saw Iggy stare at him with a frown on his face. The image shook his head before suddenly muttering, "Not yet."

And that's when Lemmy found a sudden burst of energy he never felt before. A fire had been set off in his brain, ignited by the fury and pain over his dead brother. He wasn't gonna die, not here, not now. He was gonna fight. Lemmy shouted and jerked his head backwards, bashing it against the Eastern European koopa's face. Kirzy shouted and backed away, holding his nose. He lowered his knife in the process and accidentally freed Lemmy. Lemmy turned around and began to breathe heavily, staring at the koopa with anger in his eyes. Just as Kirzy shook his head and recovered, Lemmy charged towards him. The koopaling shouted ferociously as he slammed into the shady koopa head-first and slammed him against the wall. They both hit the wall with a huge slam, causing a large hole to appear thanks to the shady koopa's shell. Lemmy removed his head and started to punch Kirzy in his face left and right, not giving the shady koopa chance to retaliate. But Kirzy was a professional when it came to fighting; Lemmy wasn't. The shady koopa blocked one of the koopaling's punches and sidled out of the way. He swiped his knife at Lemmy, trying to slash his throat. Lemmy backed away or ducked over and over again, narrowly avoiding all the times the blade nearly touched his skin.

Lemmy crouched down and tripped Kirzy, causing him to drop his knife and grunt as he landed on his shell. But being a shady koopa, Kirzvolitken could still attack. He hid in his shell, spun around, then zoomed forward and hit Lemmy with full force. The koopaling shouted and fell flat on his stomach, just in time for Kirzy to get back on his feet. He hopped over Lemmy's shell and stomped on his head before cartwheeling and picking up his knife in the process. Lemmy shook his head and rolled away, just moments before Kirzy swiped at his head again. Lemmy quickly rolled onto his stomach and got back up. He grabbed Kirzy's hand with one hand and used the other to punch the shady koopa in the eye twice, breaking part of his glasses. Kirzy shook them off his face before biting Lemmy in the arm. The koopaling yowled and let go, and then swore vehemently when Kirzy slashed him across the right cheek. Lemmy backed away three times in order to dodge two knife swipes and a kick to the groin. The koopaling punched Kirzy in the throat before kicking him in-between the legs. The shady koopa shouted and fell to his knees, mere seconds before Lemmy kicked him in the jaw with a loud thwack.

Kirzvolitken groaned as he fell on his shell again. His chin was beginning to sting; Lemmy's toe-claws must've broken the skin. But Kirzy didn't let up. He hid in his shell and spun around again, launching himself towards Lemmy whilst still hiding in his protective chamber. Lemmy shouted and groaned when his chin slammed against the corner of a table. Kirzy quickly got back up and hauled Lemmy back to his feet so he could give him a personal beating. He punched Lemmy in the face five times before kicking him in the abdomen and slamming his shoe against Lemmy's face. Lemmy backed away, staggered. Kirzy charged towards him, but Lemmy quickly slid out of the way and tripped him. The Eastern European koopa didn't even have time to scream before his head smashed into a lamp, shattering it and giving him intense head trauma. The hitkoopa fell to the floor, groaning and grasping his bleeding head. Lemmy picked up the knife and rushed towards the fallen shady koopa, but he slipped in the puddle of nasty sludge and fell, landing on his stomach. Kirzvolitken yelped and spread his legs when the knife landed point-down near his crotch. A couple inches higher and Kirzy would've been spending the rest of his life peeing with much difficulty.

The shady koopa grunted and flipped over, landing on his feet again. Lemmy panted hastily as he crawled over and snatched the knife off the floor. Once the koopaling stood up, Kirzy got behind him and started to choke him. Lemmy quickly bit the koopa on his arm, causing the shady koopa to shout in pain. Lemmy jerked his left arm out and tried to slice Kirzy. The pale-colored koopa grabbed his left arm before he ditched his choking plan. Using his right arm, he elbowed Lemmy in the face and simultaneously kicked him on the back of his left leg. As Lemmy began to fall, Kirzy snatched the knife out his hand and snarled as he tried to stab Lemmy while he was on his shell. Lemmy yelped and rolled to his right, and the knife grazed off his spiky shell. Kirzy tried to stab him again, but Lemmy rolled to his left, and the knife narrowly missed him a second time. Kirzy grabbed the knife with both hands and prepared to stab the koopaling right in his chest. Lemmy gritted his teeth, held up his legs, and kicked Kirzvolitken with both of his feet, launching his body against the wall. The koopaling rolled over and quickly got to his feet. He grabbed the closest thing he could off the table, which happened to be a measly sharpened pencil. Kirzy grinned devilishly and approached Lemmy. The koopaling kept a straight face, prepared to fight off the shady koopa with nothing but graphite.

Lemmy ducked and weaved, twisting his arms around and veering his head backwards in order to avoid the deadly blade. He could hear the knife slicing through the air with a swift, loud whoosh; there were a few times where the blade almost cut his corneas in half. Lemmy sidled around Kirzy and stabbed him in the arm, causing him to wince and back away. The koopaling spun around to avoid having his throat slit and wound up scraping the pointed end of the pencil against Kirzy's cheek. He dug so hard against the shady koopa's skin that Kirzy started to bleed. The shady koopa rubbed his cheek, surprised that a simple pencil could actually draw blood. He growled gutturally before he ran towards the koopaling again, ready to stab him this time. Lemmy avoided four swipes before he jerked his pencil horizontally at Kirzy's throat. At the same time, Kirzy also tried to stab Lemmy. Miraculously, Lemmy managed to stab Kirzy in-between his second and third knuckle. The shady koopa howled in pain and instantly dropped his knife. Lemmy jerked his pencil downward, causing it to snap in half. The Eastern European koopa swore vocally before he fell to his knees, panting and looking at his shaky right hand. Panting heavily, the koopa grabbed the chunk of graphite stuck in his hand and slowly pulled it out, ignoring all the blood.

"Get up," growled Lemmy.

Kirzvolitken snarled before he picked up his knife with his right hand. The two reptiles stared at each other before the pale koopa roared and ran towards Lemmy again.

Mario sprinted as he ran in a circle, a trail of flames following him. Sharktail was exhaling his fire breath and spinning around in a circle, trying to set all four heroes on fire. Geno ran underneath the dragon's hide and shot several stars at the reptile's throat. Sharktail immediately stopped and coughed up some smoke. While he was doing that, the heroes began to attack. Luigi and Mario grunted as they fired several fireballs out both hands. They weren't gonna underestimate Sharktail, especially after the fierce beating they got from his late cousin. The dragon snorted and shook his head, just moments before Kooper jumped up and kicked the dragon in his large snout. Sharktail roared and tried to chomp on Kooper's head, but Geno shoved him out the way just in time. Luigi continued to pelt the dragon with green fireballs while Mario decided to put his hammer to work. He bashed the dragon on his left front foot, causing Sharktail to shout and lift his foot in pain. Meanwhile, Geno instructed Kooper to hide in his shell. After he did, the doll picked up the reptile's shell and kicked him hard. Kooper was sent flying, and he hit Sharktail right in his left eye.

Sharktail wasn't gonna give up so easily. He was just as strong as his other cousins, and since the dragon knew both poison and fire breath, he had a better advantage. Sharktail gathered up a lot of poison breath deep within his body and lifted his head high. He opened his mouth and exhaled loudly. Everyone watched in horror as the dragon's nasty breath began to cover the entire ceiling. It got thicker and thicker, and was slowly beginning to descend towards the ground.

"Holy (censored). How are we supposed to block…"

Kooper stopped talking. He glanced over at the Mario Bros. and noticed they were wearing gasmasks. And since Geno didn't have a real nose, he had nothing to worry about. Kooper was gonna be the only one who suffered.

"AW, COME ON! WHERE THE (CENSORED) IS MY GAS…"

The blue-shelled koopa stopped talking when the gas finally reached the ground. The entire cave became cloudy, fogged with the black dragon's smelly, toxic breath. Kooper covered his eyes, but it was no use. The thick gas crept into his eyes, nose and mouth, causing him to fall to his hands and knees and cough. Kooper shook his head and grabbed his throat, trying to breathe properly in the hazy cave. But the poison breath was too strong.

"I hate you guys," he managed to say.

Mario, Luigi and Geno continued the fight. Luigi used his super jumping skills to jump into the air and uppercut the dragon right in the jaw. Sharktail retaliated by lunging his head down and snapping at Luigi. Geno fired more stars at the winged reptile before Sharktail could open his mouth and breathe more fire breath on the subdued plumber. Mario approached Sharktail's backside, hammer in hand. He ran right underneath the dragon and looked up, noticing the base of Sharktail's tail. Mario jumped up and shouted as he swung his hammer and hit the dragon in a very sensitive area. Sharktail's eyes grew wide after getting hit in-between his hind legs, and he hopped into the air and roared in pain. The poison breath was slowly beginning to dissipate. Kooper was still having trouble breathing, but at least he could see well enough to attack. He sprinted towards the dragon before he jumped onto the dragon's nose and hid in his shell. The hurt dragon stared at the blue-shelled koopa and watched as he suddenly spun around and created a small tornado around his shell. Then Kooper zoomed forward and hit Gloomtail in-between the eyes. In addition to damaging the reptile, he also made the black dragon dizzy. Kooper got out of his shell and hopped off the reptile's large nose.

The normally belligerent dragon was now moaning as his eyes filled with swirls. The dragon staggered and swayed, lazily moving around the cave. He bumped into all of the walls, causing some of the stalactites to fall and land on his back. The heroes didn't bother giving Sharktail time to recover and continued to assault the poisonous dragon. Luigi used his super jumping skills to whack the dragon in his jaw again. Geno and Mario worked on assaulting the dragon's midriff; Geno slid underneath the beast and fired huge bullets from his shoulder at Sharktail's gut. Mario jumped up and slammed his hammer into the beast as well, hitting him just below the throat. As Sharktail howled in pain, Kooper got back into his shell and started to spin around quite fast. Everyone could see that his shell was igniting and the flames were getting higher and higher. Geno, Luigi and Mario all moved out the way as Kooper zoomed forward. His fiery shell singed the dragon's underbelly and practically set his left feet on fire. The dragon howled in pain and began to hop around comically. He actually rolled onto his back and started to blow on his poor feet, hoping that his breath would cool them off.

No longer dizzy, Sharktail snarled, rolled back over, and began to attack. Luigi and Mario rolled out the way when Sharktail stopped down on the ground hard, nearly pinning the two brothers to the ground. He snarled and jerked his tail to the right, hitting Kooper dead in his face. The koopa shouted as he went flying and his head smacked against a large boulder. Luigi, not paying attention to where he was running, tripped over a stalagmite and fell flat on his face. Before the skinny plumber could get back up, the dragon lifted his right front foot and pinned Luigi to the ground. Luigi shouted, eyes growing wide as he felt an overwhelming amount of pressure in his entire body. His face began to turn red as Sharktail slowly pressed down harder and harder, determined to break every bone in the plumber's body. Mario and Geno rushed over to him, but Sharktail was no fool. The minute he saw them sprinting towards him, Sharktail opened his mouth wide and blew a large stream of fire breath at the two heroes. Both of them were blasted backwards by the flames, their bodies singed with the fiery power. Knowing Kooper was still behind him, the dragon decided to use another secret power that he inadvertently learned from Bowser. Kooper shook his head and stood up, smacking his right hand against his head so small rocks would fall out his left earhole. He turned around and noticed Sharktail's tail was raised, and the dragon's gut was churning.

"You are not about to do that," said Kooper with disbelief.

But Sharktail merely grinned. Seconds later, the cave was filled with a juvenile sputtering sound as flames shout out the dragon's rear end. Kooper was blasted to the wall, buried in fire and flatulence. The farting stopped about five seconds later, but Kooper couldn't attack. The fire had damaged his shell and the smell was burning his eyes, making it hard for him to see again. He fell to his knees, coughing and hacking as he tried to get the smell out his olfaction. Luigi squealed when Sharktail pressed down even harder. The dragon laughed evilly and licked his lips before he lifted his foot. Luigi gasped when the dragon let him go, but screamed again when the dragon leaned down and chomped on his neck. He lifted the plumber off the ground, his head buried within Sharktail's mouth. The skinny plumber whimpered and thrashed around as he tried to get free. The dank, slobbery maw and the dragon's smelly breath were far too much for the plumber to handle. Luigi thought the dragon was about to clamp his mouth shut and take off his head, but Sharktail was doing something much more sinister. Luigi saw a faint reddish glow coming from the back of the winged reptile's throat. He was about to breathe fire, with Luigi's head still in his mouth.

"GUYS!"

Geno and Mario quickly recovered and rushed to go assist a fellow plumber in need. Geno stood beneath Sharktail's throat and cupped his hands together. Mario ran towards Geno and stepped on his hands; the doll subsequently used all his strength to lift Mario into the air. That's when Mario used his super jump punch, and hit the dragon dead in his throat. Sharktail opened his mouth and gagged, and Luigi promptly fell towards the ground, coughing and wiping saliva from his head. Sharktail's plan to roast Luigi alive backfired, and he wound up belching up a large cloud of smoke. The dragon swayed to and fro, coughing up more smoke as the black clouds spewed out his nostrils and mouth. Sharktail shook his head and coughed up the last bit of smoke, just in time for the four heroes to attack simultaneously. Kooper, furious he just got farted on, bit the dragon on his tail hard, almost causing him to bleed. Sharktail opened his mouth and yowled, just moments before Luigi and Mario assaulted the dragon with another barrage of fireballs. The dragon grunted and winced as the flames hit him in the nose, throat, feet, and stomach. Suddenly, Geno decided to try a special move other than his infamous "Geno Whirl."

"GENO BEAM!"

The reptile was still trying to recover from the other attacks when Geno stuck out his right arm that seemed to be in the shape of some kind of wand. His right arm began to flicker brightly with colors, and then next thing Sharktail knew, he was sent flying towards the cave's wall with a large bluish beam driving into his abdomen. The dragon roared with agony as the beam burned his scales, almost putting a hole in his chest. After growling and roaring for so long, the beam let up, and the dragon slid towards the ground, heavily wounded. The dragon groaned softly as he slowly got back to his feet. He opened his eyes and noticed that the heroes were charging straight towards him. Knowing he couldn't die without at least avenging his cousin's death, Sharktail found a new wave of energy within himself and growled. He opened his mouth quickly and exhaled for several seconds, releasing a huge, greenish-colored cloud of poison breath from his body. The Mario Bros. were running too fast and were too caught up in the moment to put on their gasmasks. All four heroes were blinded and caught up in the stench, and all but Geno wound up falling to their knees and coughing. The doll shielded his face as the poison breath slowly caused his body to slide backwards, but eventually the gas cleared. Geno began to run towards the dragon…who had his back turned and his tail raised.

"Oh, sh—"

Geno, as well as the other three heroes shouted and squealed as their bodies were hurled towards the wall by Sharktail's fiery fart. The dragon grunted fiercely, making sure he pushed out enough methane so his gaseous attack would severely hurt the heroes. Even after they hit the wall, they could feel the flames burning against their skin (or in Geno's case, his wooden body). The four heroes had to suffer for nearly ten seconds before Sharktail stopped, his cloaca burning from all the fiery flatulence he released. The dragon breathed heavily and shook his tail, trying to find some way to cool off his posterior. Sharktail turned around and approached the heroes. All of them were charred and coughing violently. Some of them were fanning a hand in front of their noses while others were simply wiping their eyes. Sharktail, being more closely related to Gloomtail than Hooktail, had learned his cousin's special, deadly move too. The dragon charged himself up, grunting and growling as he mustered more power and slowly became stronger and stronger. Then, he finally attacked.

"MEGABREATH!"

Everyone glanced up at the poisonous dragon with wide eyes. It was too late for either of them to do anything. The dragon veered his head backwards and released a huge cloud of yellowish gas onto the heroes. All of them screamed as the thick, poisonous gas slammed into their bodies. The heroes' eyes began to burn (with Geno being the only exception) and they all fell to the ground, coughing and retching as the toxic fumes made them completely disoriented. Before any of the heroes could recover, Sharktail lifted his head high, opened his mouth again, and exhaled loudly as he released a large cloud of green poison breath. The dragon's thick breath covered the entire ceiling, and it wasn't long before the gas slowly began to descend down onto the floor. Mario and Luigi, despite how much pain they were in, managed to dig into their overalls and put their gasmasks back on. Kooper had no other option, so he just hid in his shell. Geno, thankfully, came to everyone's rescue. He had several power-ups along with him, just enough to get his friends back to normal. Geno took out a yummy meal and shoved it into Kooper's shell. The koopa, although cramped, started to scarf the meal down inside his shell. At the same time, Geno handed the Mario Bros. a shroom steak each. They slid off their gasmasks for a few seconds so they could hastily eat their meals, and afterwards felt another burst of energy build up in their systems. The heroes stood up and began to attack Sharktail.

Just as the heroes began to search for Sharktail in the thick cloud of poison gas, the dragon appeared and chomped on Geno, taking away another fraction of his health. The dragon suddenly disappeared in the giant cloud of gas and jumped into the air, unbeknown to the protagonists. Suddenly, he stomped on the ground and performed his earthquake move, injuring Mario and the gang with the strong tremors. The poison breath was slowly beginning to dissipate, so Kooper was able to attack once again. He launched himself at Sharktail's right foot before Luigi jumped onto the dragon's snout. The skinny plumber charged towards Sharktail's right eye and promptly tossed a fireball right into the cornea. The dragon roared ferociously and thrashed about, shaking the plumber from his face. Seemingly blind in one eye, the dragon didn't stop howling and roaring with pain. He was thrashing his body around so much that the cave was slowly beginning to collapse. The gang noticed that stalactites were falling and nearly hitting them. Sharktail wound up getting clocked on his big nose with two stalactites and several medium-sized rocks. The dragon realized what was going on and stopped thrashing so much. However, the gang was still attacking him with full force.

Mario slammed his huge hammer against Sharktail's left hind leg before running over and striking his right front leg. Something actually cracked, and the dragon found himself yowling again. Geno blasted more stars at the dragon, and Luigi instructed Kooper to hide in his shell. After he did, the plumber picked up Kooper and kicked him at Sharktail like he was a soccer ball. The blue shell smashed against Sharktail's head, leaving a noticeable red lump on his cranium. Sharktail was still in pain, but he ignored it. He growled gutturally and began to charge himself up, ready to use his megabreath attack.

"MEGA—ACK!"

Mario quickly shut up the dragon by launching a fireball into his mouth. The reptile, unprepared for such an abrupt attack, lost his focus. Instead of exhaling a giant yellow cloud of rank breath, he wound up burping and coughing up the yellow gases. Some of it was even coming out his snout; Mario and the other heroes could tell that his plan backfired horrendously. Seeing no other option, Sharktail slowly turned around (while still coughing out gas) and pointed his large rump at the gang. But by now everyone was smart enough to know what Sharktail's attacks were, and how to evade them.

"Hmph. I already know this routine," muttered Geno.

The star spirit trapped in a doll rushed over and fired bullets out of his elbow at Sharktail's posterior. Some of the bullets bounced off his behind, while a few others got plugged inside his hole. Everyone rolled out the way as Sharktail began to pass gas, but due to the bullets, the fire was plugged inside Sharktail's rectum. The four heroes grimaced when they saw Sharktail's bottom bulge outwards, but realized no fire was coming out. The gas and flames were still simmering in the dragon's anus, causing him a great deal of pain. The dragon's eyes grew wide and he roared in agony before finally pushing the bullets out. His gigantic fart soared all over the cave, but Mario and his friends were smart enough to stand far away from the dragon's rump. They all watched with plugged noses as the giant flames spread everywhere; they were just lucky nothing caught on fire. Sharktail whined and moaned as he felt smoke and steam rising out of his backside, not to mention more gas. Still, he was determined to take out Mario and the gang, and weakly continued his assault. He tried to chomp on Kooper twice, but the koopa rolled out of the way. He tried to swing his giant tail at Mario and Geno, but they managed to duck the tail swipe with ease.

The dragon turned around again and slowly began to open his burned eye. Suddenly, Kooper jumped onto the dragon's nose, hid in his shell, and promptly launched himself right at the eye, wounding it again. Sharktail had just enough time to yowl for a couple of seconds before several stalactites came plummeting down from the ceiling. All of the giant pointed rocks landed on the dragon's head and nose, causing him to grunt and groan as his head was slowly buried beneath the rubble. The four heroes waited, suspecting that the dragon wasn't dead just yet. The pile of rocks shook suddenly, and a few tiny boulders rolled down and cracked on the ground. Then Sharktail shouted with frustration and emerged from the rubble, panting heavily. The heroes noticed the giant lump on Sharktail's forehead had worsened and was bleeding. Blood was dripping from the dragon's mouth, and a thin trail of crimson was slithering down the side of the dragon's face. He took two steps towards the protagonists before he started to pant heavily, unable to continue. Sharktail's legs began to shake, and the reptile wound up groaning and collapsing onto his abdomen. He stared at the heroes as they approached him and growled. The dragon pathetically opened his mouth and burped at his opponents, surrounding them in a weak cloud of poison breath that dissipated in only a couple seconds.

"Wow, really? That's all ya got for us?" asked Kooper.

"Give it up, Sharktail. The sooner you stop fighting us, the sooner all your pain stops," advised Geno.

Sharktail snorted. "No…no…y-you don't get to live…with what you've done." The dragon stopped so he could cough up more blood. "I will avenge my cousin, even if it's the death of me!"

"What for? So you can spend the rest of your life locked away in this cave? So that monster you're working for can stab you in the back?" said Mario.

Sharktail coughed. "Shut up! Trowzer was the one—"

"Trowzer says a lot of things. It's all a pile of koopa dung. He told you that one day we'd eventually show up in here, right? He told you to just sit here in this small cave and wait patiently?"

Sharktail nodded, and Mario scoffed.

"That's my point. Trowzer doesn't need you; he doesn't care about you. You said it yourself: even the readers forgot who you were. No dragon of your caliber should be treated that way, cast aside for only one reason."

"Don't you get it?" added Luigi. "Trowzer only needs you alive so you can kill us. After that he's either gonna kill you or keep you locked up in this small-ass cave. What's the point in killing us if you're gonna end up dead anyway?"

Sharktail lowered his head and growled deeply. The gang had a feeling the dragon would still kill them regardless just to settle the score, so Kooper chimed in.

"And who's to say Trowzer won't kill Hooktail, your other cousin?"

Sharktail's eyes grew wide. "What!"

The koopa nodded. "If you kill us, then Trowzer will congratulate you, make up some bull(censored) excuse saying you 'failed him' somehow, and then slit your throat. I've seen it for myself. And if that happens, who's gonna protect your dear old cousin, Hooktail?"

Sharktail stared at the heroes with horror, realizing that he was working for a guy who could very well be the death of his entire family. He already lost Gloomtail; he didn't know what'd happen if he lost Hooktail too.

"…What do we do then?"

"You team up with us," started Mario. "You can help us take down Trowzer; we'll do it together."

"And then what?"

Luigi shrugged. "You and your cousin fly away somewhere and stop threatening to eat koopas."

Sharktail pondered for a moment before he growled again and blinked. Then he slowly stepped towards Mario and lowered his head, his nose just a few inches away from the plumber. Mario was so close to the dragon's mouth that he could smell his fetid breath when he began to speak.

"Well…I suppose I could…"

Geno stared closely at the dragon. He stepped even closer to Mario and his left eye twinkled. The doll noticed a small grin showing on the dragon's face, and it slowly grew wider and wider. It was a trick.

"GENO WHIRL!"

Sharktail was just about to open his mouth when the spinning disk was launched at his body. The disk spun around and went right through the dragon's chest, coming out his back and leaving a giant hole someone could stand in. Sharktail immediately roared in pain and thrashed around, bleeding heavily from his wound. Everyone backed away as the dragon managed to stand on his hind legs, spluttering and coughing as he looked down at the heroes. He let out a low growl that sounded like a death rattle and promptly fell backwards. The entire cave shook as the dragon landed on his back, causing more rocks to fall. Mario, Luigi and Kooper panted when the rocks stopped falling and stared at the doll.

"What the hell, Geno? !" shouted Mario.

Geno blinked. "So you didn't see it."

"See what? ! He was about to help us on our quest to take down Trowzer!" said Luigi.

"I killed Sharktail for two reasons: the first is so the readers don't have to worry about another epic, but seemingly pointless subplot that centered on Sharktail that this fanfic doesn't need—"

"What readers? !" shouted Kooper.

Geno ignored him. "The second reason why I killed him was because he was about to kill you, Mario. Didn't you notice him walking close towards you?"

"So what if he was?"

"Didn't you also see that little twinkle in his eye? Didn't you see him grinning? He was about to bite you in half, Mario. Maybe you guys didn't see it, but I did."

Mario's eyes grew wide. "…Really?"

"You can't know that for sure! Even if—"

"Luigi, even if he didn't kill Mario here and now, he would've killed us the second we defeated Trowzer. Hell, if I were him, I'd kill all of us right now, and then try to take on Trowzer myself, thinking I don't need our help. Do you guys seriously think Sharktail would've let this go: us—sans Kooper—killing Gloomtail?"

Mario scratched the back of his head. "…I did wonder why he suddenly stepped so close to me…and I was pretty damn close to his mouth. I suppose you're right. Thanks, Geno."

The doll nodded. "Now, if we can just figure out a way to get out of—"

Suddenly, Sharktail's gut began to churn. The gang rushed over to the dragon's abdomen and noticed a large bulge rushing up his neck. The dragon's carcass twitched involuntarily, and his mouth opened. A small treasure chest spewed out of the dead dragon's maw. Luigi exhaled.

"Thank God. I thought it was gonna come out the back door again."

Everyone went over to the chest and promptly opened it. Not surprisingly, there was a key inside, one that would open the locked door that led into the cave.

"Now we can get out of here. With any luck, this is the last room in Trowzer's torture chamber," said Mario.

"I sure hope so," muttered Kooper.

Lemmy groaned as he was kicked over the table. He landed on the floor with a loud thud and moaned as he rolled over. Kirzvolitken panted as he rushed over to the koopaling and kicked him in the mouth, busting his lips. The koopaling quickly rolled over again before getting to his feet and staggering. The Eastern European koopa lunged at him again, only to miss when Lemmy side-stepped him and bit him on the hand. The shady koopa shouted and dropped the knife. Lemmy elbowed the koopa in the mouth and threw himself at the knife. Kirzy snarled as he charged towards the koopaling, then shouted and jerked his body to the left when Lemmy threw the knife at him, almost hitting him just below the right eye. Kirzy ignored his near-death experience and tackled Lemmy like a football player, sending him to the floor. Still pinning him down, the shady koopa growled and grunted as he slammed his fist into Lemmy's face over and over again. He gave Lemmy a black-eye, a bloody nose, and busted up his lip even further. After being punched well over ten times, Lemmy finally grabbed one of Kirzy's fists and blocked it. Then he jabbed the pale-skinned koopa in the jaw and rolled over. Now he was on top of the shady koopa.

Lemmy did exactly what Kirzy just did, only the koopaling punched the shady koopa with much more force. Kirzy's face was already a mess ever since the fight started; now Lemmy was just making everything worse. The koopaling stopped hitting his opponent after he noticed his knuckles were red and nearly bleeding. Kirzy used the brief moment of hesitation to grab a few shards of glass and chuck them at Lemmy's face. The koopaling yowled and covered his face, just moments before Kirzvolitken kicked him off. Panting, the shady koopa headed over to the wall the knife was stuck in. Lemmy rolled around on the floor in pain before he slowly opened his eyes and saw where the shady koopa was headed. Grabbing the nearest thing he could find—a thick hard-cover book—Lemmy shouted and assaulted the koopa. He bashed him over the head with the heavy book, sending him toppling to the floor. Moments later, the koopa rolled over and grabbed a brass candlestick. He swung the weapon at Lemmy twice before the koopaling used his book to slap the weapon out of Kirzy's hand. Then he promptly stomped on the Eastern European shady koopa's foot, making him yowl for a brief moment. Lemmy snarled and pressed the book horizontally at the shady koopa's throat before pinning him to the wall.

Lemmy jerked the book back and slammed it into Kirzy's throat twice. The shady koopa heard something crack and let out a strangled cough. Lemmy discarded the book and punched the shady koopa across the face twice, sending him to the floor. Kirzvolitken, no longer taking any chances, coughed and got back up. He ran straight for the knife and took it out the wall. He was sure his windpipe had been damaged; it was a miracle he wasn't already dead. Any longer, and the wound would worsen. Kirzy decided to end this here and now. He lunged at Lemmy with the knife, and the koopaling quickly grabbed the shady koopa's arm. Lemmy struggled as he tried to draw the knife away from his throat. The shady koopa gritted his teeth and grunted as he tried to stab the koopaling in the face. Both of them were pushed against the wall, and the shady koopa and koopaling were staring each other dead in the eyes. Lemmy realized the blade point was getting closer to his throat. He was gonna die unless he did something, and fast. Thinking quickly, Lemmy used one of his hands to damage Kirzy's left eye. The mischievous koopaling inserted his thumb deep into Kirzy's eye socket and began to push.

Lemmy didn't have to push hard. It wasn't long before Kirzy found himself shouting and screaming in pain. His grip on the knife loosened, and it slowly began to drop. Lemmy quickly caught the knife and removed his thumb. Kirzvolitken could see what had just happened and shouted with desperation. He tried to snatch the knife from Lemmy's hands, but the koopaling was quicker. He planted the knife deep into Kirzy's throat, rupturing the Adam's apple and windpipe. Kirzy's eyes grew wide as he stared at his opponent. Lemmy panted heavily as he stared back at Kirzy before he roared furiously and pinned him against the wall on the other side of the room. Lemmy planted the knife deeper into his throat and watched as Kirzy coughed up blood in his face. He didn't care. He just stood and watched as the Eastern European clutched the knife in some pathetic attempt to try and remove it. Kirzvolitken spluttered and coughed as he slowly slid towards the floor, a puddle of blood sitting at his feet. Lemmy let go of the bloody knife and watched as the shady koopa slouched over and let out a gurgled groan. He spent a few more seconds gurgling on his own blood before he suddenly sighed peacefully and went silent. Just to be sure he didn't get back up, Lemmy stared at the corpse for another minute before he realized that he was dead.

The koopaling wasn't sure how he felt; he had never killed anyone in such a violent fashion before. Sadness, anger, shock, fear—all these emotions were clouding the koopaling's mind. He sat down beside a broken table and began to shake. He didn't say anything or try to patch his wounds. He just didn't know what to do. At least, not until Trowzer kicked open the locked door. Lemmy quickly got to his feet and stared at his half-uncle, and the dark koopa standing at his side. With all the noise Lemmy and Kirzy were making, it was only a matter of time before someone came barging in. Trowzer was noticeably shocked at the state Lemmy and his room was in. When he stepped inside, he glanced over towards the wall and saw Kirzvolitken's corpse. He growled gutturally and glanced back over at Lemmy, expecting an explanation.

"I-I-I-I was…" Lemmy was still in shock. He couldn't find the right words.

"You were what?" growled Trowzer.

The only way he could get out this situation alive was if he told the truth. All he had to do was leave out the part where he discovered Trowzer's files.

"I was…I was gonna play a prank on you, Uncle Trowzer. But…it backfired—that's why there's a bucket on the floor, and all that slop. I was…thinking of another way to get back at you, frustrated that I keep failing. Suddenly, that-that dead guy…over there—uh, he-he snuck into your room and tried to kill me…"

Lemmy noticed his voice was cracking and tears were forming in his eyes. He stopped talking and quickly blinked them away.

"Um…he put a knife to my throat, but I fought him off. …Guess I don't need to tell you who won."

Trowzer stared at the shaky koopaling for a moment, trying to see if he was lying. But Lemmy was shaking and stuttering from shock, not because he was scared of what Trowzer would do if he told a lie. The burly koopa slowly walked over to Lemmy and looked down at him. Surprisingly, he wound up wrapping his large arms around the koopaling. He hugged the short reptile tight, pretending to act like he cared about his safety. Lemmy couldn't hug Trowzer back. He wound up letting out a tiny sob, gritting his teeth as tears finally rolled down his cheek. After everything he just went through, Trowzer was standing there acting like he really gave a damn.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Lemmy."

Lemmy didn't say anything back. He let out another sob, but he didn't dare cry out loud in his half-uncle's arms, nor did he hug him back. After the "tender" moment, Trowzer let Lemmy go. He smiled and wiped his nephew's tears away before he started talking again.

"…This is my fault. We, uh…lately we've been having some suspicions about some of the people in our league. I was beginning to suspect Kirzvolitken was planning to betray me, perhaps even harm my half-brother or one of his children. Guess I finally got my answer."

Now Lemmy was pissed. He didn't even try to hide it. The koopaling shoved Trowzer away; his half-uncle's lies never stopped.

"Why the hell didn't you tell anyone then? !"

Trowzer looked embarrassed. "We didn't have any proof. And, let's face it…if I had told your father, he wouldn't have helped me. He would've just gloated about how stupid I am for not noticing that one of my own men became a turncoat. …I was embarrassed."

Lemmy was still angry, but he bottled it all inside. Lemmy knew this was all a rather convincing lie, but he didn't want to accidentally inform Trowzer that he knew about the koopa's dastardly deeds. The koopaling kept his mouth shut. Trowzer suddenly chuckled.

"But it looks like you took care of him, so you guys got nothing to worry about now. I would, however, appreciate it if you didn't mention this to your father. …Let's keep this between us, shall we? Shannon and I and some of my guards will clean up this mess."

Lemmy nodded slowly. "Whatever you say, Uncle Trowzer."

Trowzer smiled widely and patted Lemmy on the head. "Good! Now go get yourself cleaned up."

The koopaling nodded again before he brushed past Trowzer and started to walk out the room.

"Oh, Lemmy? Have you seen Ludwig lately?"

Lemmy slowly turned around and shook his head. "No."

Trowzer scratched his chin and stepped towards Lemmy. "That's strange. I could've sworn I saw him the other day. He's been gone for quite a while. I sure do hope nothing's happened to him."

There it was. That was the Trowzer he knew and "loved." As the giant koopa finished his sentence, Lemmy saw a sly grin appear on the koopa's face. It was subtle, but Lemmy could definitely see it. Lemmy growled in his throat, too furious to open his mouth. He knew he'd end up saying the wrong thing.

"Wouldn't want anything bad to happen to him too, now would we?"

The grin spread even wider; Trowzer wasn't hiding it now. Lemmy struggled not to open his mouth and simply shook his head. Trowzer patted Lemmy on the head again and chuckled.

"Anyway, go get yourself patched up. I'll take care of this mess."

Lemmy practically sprinted away from Trowzer; he was so angry. Lemmy didn't even care about patching up his wounds anymore. Ludwig was in danger, possibly already dead. His whole family was in jeopardy of that madkoopa. Lemmy needed to stop this. He needed to find Ludwig, protect his family and figure out a way to stop his half-uncle.

Somehow, someway, this madness needed to end.