Chapter 15 Ready to Fight

The two Koopalings trained together long into the night. As it got closer to sunrise, Ludwig felt himself grow prouder and prouder of Lemmy. Lemmy noticed this, which helped increase his own confidence. By the time that they decided to stop, Lemmy had pretty much mastered Ludwig's telekinesis and flying powers.

"I'm proud of you, Lems," Ludwig said as they sat under the stars, exhausted from all the hard work. Lemmy grinned.

"Thanks, Ludwig. You were a really good teacher."

Ludwig gave a smile and a sigh.

"I've gotta say, I never thought I'd be teaching this stuff to anyone."

"Yeah," Lemmy said. "Considering the electricity based powers you have, I guess that is a real 'shock.'"

Ludwig stared at Lemmy for a second. He closed his eyes in what appeared to be frustration. Then a tiny grin appeared on his face and a tiny snort of a laugh escaped from his mouth. This caused Lemmy to gasp.

"You laughed!"

"What? No I didn't."

"Yes you did! I saw you!"

"Oh come on!" Ludwig said with a smile. "That had nothing to do with me; it's probably a reflex that you have."

"Ludwig!" Lemmy said. His eyes were twinkling and his voice came out in a squeak. "You actually found my pun funny!"

"Alright, fine, I did," Ludwig said with a mischievous grin. "Just don't tell anyone, alright?"

Lemmy nodded. Ludwig directed his attention up toward the sky.

"The moon is beautiful tonight."

Lemmy looked up as well. He smiled almost as brightly as the moon was shining.

"The stars are nice too. Have you ever gone stargazing before?"

"Not really. However, Iggy and I did get interested in astronomy a few years back." He pointed toward a cluster of stars. "That one right there is the Big Dipper. That is the Golden Lioness. And that...is the Silver Tanooki."

Lemmy squinted at the clusters. He never understood constellations. They were more or less connect the dots, but what made them confusing was that the dots did not form the pictures they were named after once they were connected.

"Hey, do you wanna know something cool?" Ludwig asked, drawing Lemmy back down to Earth. Lemmy nodded and Ludwig smiled. "You know how my powers are caused by galaxium in my blood?"

"Sure."

"Well, galaxium is also found in the stars and other celestial bodies, like prankster comets and planets."

Lemmy's eyes grew wide. That sounded so cool!

"What about starbits?" he asked.

"Yeah, it is found in starbits too," said Ludwig. "That is why magikoopa use them as the gemstones for their wands."

Lemmy smiled. Then he noticed a glow on the eastern side of the sky.

"Ludwig, the sun is starting to rise!"

Ludwig looked at the light that was starting to flood the horizon.

"So it is! I guess that means we had better head to bed."

With that, they made their way back up to their room. It wasn't until Lemmy saw his cozy bed that he realized how tired he was. He let out a yawn.

"I am so tired!" he said. Ludwig smirked.

"Me too. I gu ess that means we need more coffee." He looked into the mirror and chuckled. "Oh man; I look ridiculous!"

"Hey!" Lemmy exclaimed. "Don't make fun of me!"

"Who said anything about you?" Ludwig asked. "I could have been talking about my regular appearance, not my current one."

Lemmy smiled mischievously before he stepped in front of the mirror.

"Hmm. You're right; you do look ridiculous."

"Hey!" Ludwig said sillily.

"But that's okay," Lemmy said with a laugh. "Because so do I!"

Ludwig smiled at him. It was a very warm smile, a loving one. Then he yawned.

"Well, that's my cue," Ludwig said once he had finished yawning. He crawled into his bed. "Good night, Lemmy."

"Good night, Ludwig." Lemmy crawled into his own bed and wrapped himself in the polka dotted comforter. His eyes didn't stay shut for long though, for immediately after he closed he heard a knock on the door. He sat up and exchanged, a curious, confused look with Ludwig.

"Who is it?" Ludwig asked.

"It's us," came Larry's voice. "Can you guys let us in?"

The tone of Larry's voice sounded eager, excited, urgent. Lemmy got up and opened the door, allowing their four siblings to enter.

"You guys are never gonna believe this," Wendy said.

"Considering our current circumstances, I sincerely doubt that," said Ludwig. The smile on Wendy's face just grew wider.

"We just got a call from Iggy!"

"You did?" Lemmy asked excitedly. Ludwig bolted out of bed.

"What did he say?"

Now all four of their siblings were grinning.

"He found it!" Larry said.

"He found the duplighost!" Roy said. Lemmy felt so happy he felt like he would implode.

"That's awesome!" he said as he started to jump up and down. While Ludwig was excited too, he didn't express it nearly as intensely. He took a step closer toward his siblings.

"Where is it?"

"It's in Toad Harbor; in the Mushroom Kingdom," said Morton. "We were thinking about taking Bowser's Koopa Clown Car."

"We might need to fight the duplighost as well," said Wendy. "Would that be alright, Ludwig?"

"Do you even need to aske me that? Yes! Yes, by all means; I wanna get out of this body!"

Wendy chuckled.

"Okay then." She turned to Lemmy. "What about you, Lems?"

Lemmy hesitated. All of his previous excitement had been extinguished at the mention of a fight.

"Uh, well..."

"It'll be fine,"Ludwig said reassuringly. "I taught him how to use my powers last night. He isn't perfect, but he does have an idea of what he is doing."

Wendy smiled.

"Okay. Then let's get going!"

...

The Koopa Clown Car rose into the air. Lemmy and Ludwig's siblings noticed that they looked more comfortable and more happy than they have since they got swapped. Larry and Roy moved so they were sitting right next time.

"You guys excited?" asked Roy.

"Oh yeah," said Ludwig. "The next time I enter the castle, I'll be doing it as Ludwig!"

Larry giggled impishly.

"Ludwig? Don't you mean...Ludwig Vanessa?"

Roy and Larry giggled. All of the excitement on Ludwig's face was replaced by annoyance.

"It's not funny!"

"We're not saying it is," Larry said with a smile that implied the opposite. "We're just saying that your birth certificate says Ludwig Vanessa."

"Well, your birth certificate says Lawrence Octavia. Which, coincidentally, is also the name that'll appear on your death certificate if you don't let it go."

That wiped the grin right off of Larry's face. He and Roy scooted over so they were closer to the front of the car. Ludwig looked at Lemmy.

"You nervous?"

"You can tell?" Lemmy responded.

"Of course."

Lemmy sighed.

"I don't know about this," he said. "What if I can't do it?"

"That's not gonna happen," said Ludwig. "You know why? Cause you're me. And the fights that I care about are the fights that I win."

"Really?" Lemmy asked. "What about the kidnapping missions?"

"Hey, I said the fights that I care about!" Ludwig laughed. "No, I think you'll do fine, Lems. You've already master half of my powers. If all goes well, we might not even need the emotion based ones."

"I guess," Lemmy said half heartedly. Then his face lit up. "Hey, do you have any advice on how to get angry?"

Ludwig looked embarrassed.

"Well, there is one thought that I have. But...it's not gonna help you.".

"You don't know that; tell me what it is!"

Ludwig took a deep breath.

"Okay. Well, when I'm in a fight and I need to get angry...every once in a while I'll...think of you."

"Me?" Lemmy asked in surprise. "Oh."

There was a moment of silence. The two were refusing to make eye contact.

"Am I...doing anything in particular?" Lemmy asked.

"No, you're just...kinda there."

Lemmy felt his heart sink.

"Okay."