Chapter 9 Electronic Mail
Once they left the angry internet critic in the dust forever, Wendy and Iggy started on the seemingly never-ending search for their brothers. They checked high and low; they checked more crazy sites than they originally thought to exist. They still did not find Larry. Or anyone else, for that matter.
"This is getting exhausting," said Wendy.
"I perceive what you are communicating," Iggy said. "I too am feeling a little lethargic from all of this searching."
Wendy shook her head. Iggy really did not understand what she was "communicating" at all.
"I don't mean I feel tired!" Wendy said. "I mean I feel frustrated. There has to be an easier way!"
Iggy stopped to consider this, but not before shooting his sister a quick glare. Thankfully, it did not take him long to come up with a solution (not that Wendy was expecting it to take long).
"You are absolutely right, Wendy!" Iggy exclaimed. "We have been going about this the wrong way the whole time! Obviously, it would take us forever to search the world wide web because...well, it's the world wide web. We need to be smart about this."
Iggy turned and started running in the direction from which they had come. Wendy followed him. At first, she was confused as to why Iggy was taking this path again. That is, until she followed him through a door. The site she found herself in reminded Wendy of a movie theater. It was completely dark here except for a humongous screen taking up three quarters of the wall in front of her. Right in front of the screen was a keyboard. Iggy was right in front of the keyboard, and he was smiling over at Wendy.
"I was baffled as to what this site was when we first came across it, as its structure did not cause me to recall any of the sites I was familiar with. After considering it though, I realized what exactly this site's function was."
Iggy pressed on a key, and an email template appeared on the screen.
"Oh, I see!" Wendy said. "This is an email provider!"
"Exactly!" Iggy said. He typed the names of Ludwig, Roy, Lemmy, and Morton into the recipient bar. Then he started to type the message.
Dear Siblings,
I am here with Wendy at an email provider. I am hoping that this email reaches you, as we are currently unaware of your current location.
Sincerely, Iggy.
"And...send!"
Iggy clicked on the send icon. Wendy watched in amazement as four envelopes with wings materialized and flew out of the room.
…
Roy and Ludwig were traversing through the code when Roy suddenly spotted something. It was too far away for him to tell what it was, though.
"Hey, Ludwig, what's that?"
Ludwig, who had been wallowing in frustration over the loss of his hair, looked upward. Roy could see that he couldn't tell what it was either.
"I'm not sure," he said.
"Well then, why don't you fly up and grab it!" Roy suggested.
Ludwig nodded and flew toward the object. He came back down with what appeared to be a pair of envelopes with wings.
"Woah," said Roy. "Where did those come from?"
"I don't know," Ludwig said. He looked at the front of one and handed it to Roy. "But it looks like this one is for you."
Roy looked at the envelope Ludwig handed to him suspiciously. He sniffed it before tearing it open. When he actually read it, he gasped.
"It's from Iggy!"
Ludwig looked surprised and opened the envelope that was addressed to him.
"Mine is from Iggy too," he said. He smiled. "Well, this makes our job so much easier."
"Yeah!" said Roy. "Now we actually know where to look!"
Ludwig nodded and grabbed hold of Roy's hand.
"Hang on," Ludwig said.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Roy asked.
Before he could get an answer, Ludwig zipped up into the air. Roy screamed like a little girl as the two of them flew through the code. Ludwig dodged the ones and zeros before he apparently spotted what he was looking for. He swooped down to the ground and landed right in front of a door. When he felt his feet touch the floor, Roy couldn't help but feel relieved.
"Never do that again!" he said. Ludwig snickered.
"What was that? I can't hear you; I've gone deaf from your screaming."
Roy cast him a glare. Ludwig pulled up the hood of his cloak before the two of them entered the door. When Roy saw what was on the other side, he gasped.
"Guys!"
Iggy, Wendy, Lemmy, and Morton were all standing in front of the big, bright screen. Roy ran up and wrapped each one of them in a hug.
"I was so worried about you guys!" he said.
"Well, we're here, Roy," said Lemmy. He smiled. "It's a good thing Morton and I weren't very far away from this site, otherwise it would have taken us forever to find this place."
Iggy smiled as he approached Roy.
"Lemmy and Morton have informed me that they have encountered a plethora of memes," he said. "What did you two run into?"
Roy snickered. Ludwig approached his siblings.
"Oh, not much," he said. "Only the worst people ever! I lost my hair because of them!"
Ludwig pulled back his hood. Wendy snickered when she saw him.
"How much; one strand?"
Roy was confused about what she meant before he turned toward Ludwig. He saw that Ludwig's hair had now completely grown back.
"Hey!" he said. "Herbert was right; your hair did grow back before the end of this story."
Ludwig adorned an interesting expression on his face, one that looked like a combination of a smile and a scowl. Then his eyes roamed over the group.
"So, I take it that you haven't found Larry yet?"
"I cannot say that we have," said Iggy. "And I have no idea how we are going to start with finding him."
Roy looked up at the screen of the email provider.
"Hey! I have an idea!" he said. "You sent us emails. Why don't you send one to Larry?"
Iggy considered this.
"Hmm. That actually sounds like a good idea!"
Roy beamed, for it wasn't often that he came up with good ideas. Iggy then started typing in an email for Larry. When he hit send, another envelope with wings magically appeared and flew out of the room. Roy didn't know how long it would take until Larry responded, so he was pleasantly surprised to see another envelope fly back into the room less than five minutes later.
"Look, Larry responded!" he said in excitement.
Iggy grabbed the letter, and the other Koopalings gathered around. Unfortunately, when they actually read it, all excitement they had been feeling was replaced with dread.
Dear Guys,
I am so glad that you guys found a way into the internet. But...see, getting to me isn't going to be easy. I may have gotten trapped in the dark web. Can you please help me get out?
Signed,
Larry
