Chapter 9 Tense Walk
Transportation to Sparksville turned out to be a serious hurdle. Since Morton was out of phase, the Koopalings could not access their Koopa Clown Cars. Considering that it would normally take a Koopa two days to get to Sparksville on foot, this provided a serious problem.
All Iggy could really say is thank goodness for warp pipes. Thanks to a little warp pipe found just outside of Stonebrim, the Koopalings managed to get about two miles away from Sparksville in no time flat. Unfortunately, this meant they had to deal with the walk that these two extra miles provided for them.
The sun was beating down on Iggy's head. The lanky scientist panted and heaved, his tongue out like it was hanging on by a thread. On top of that, his hair was acting up. The little green monster was grunting in pain. At one point, it tried to lick Iggy's face, but thankfully, Iggy batted it away.
"No no no!" Iggy cried. He slapped his hair in the face. "Bad mohawk!" The little green monster whimpered and shrunk back, much to Iggy's relief. He faced ahead, hoping that Sparksville would appear in the distance sometime soon. Up above, he heard Larry laugh.
"Man, Iggy. If you don't take care of it properly, your hair is gonna eat you!"
Iggy groaned and looked upward. Larry was currently floating on the end of a string like a helium balloon. The string itself was attached to Iggy's left wrist, so that meant Larry wouldn't fly away. Iggy squinted his eyes as he stared at his youngest brother.
"Yes, Lawrence, I am aware of that. Thanks so much for pointing it out."
Larry just laughed. "I bet now would be a good time to try out those new shampoos you've been rallying against, don't you think?"
Iggy glared up at Larry. The fact that his hair whimpered when the word "shampoo" was mentioned didn't do much to help matters. He was about to say something to dismiss Larry's statement, but then he saw something that really made him start to worry.
Wendy was running around, sniffing the ground and wagging her tail. Roy was wrapped around her neck, acting as a sort of leash, and Lemmy was holding onto Roy's tail. Wendy dragged Lemmy and Roy along with her as she went bounding to and fro, as Lemmy wasn't strong enough to really pull back on her.
Roy grunted in pain as Lemmy pulled on his tail. "Oh yeah! This is...great! I'm not even feeling it guys!"
"Uhhh!" Lemmy screamed. "Endy, low down!"
Wendy didn't slow down. She spotted a little black bird standing right next to a small patch of grass and wagged her tail even harder.
"Bark bark bark!"
She went running after the bird. Lemmy and Roy were pulled after her like streamers in the wind. Iggy couldn't help but feel a strong sense of unease tighten his throat. The only thing that brought him some form of comfort was the sight of the grass patch. That had to mean that Sparksville was getting closer.
"Lemmy, Roy! Control our sister!"
"M rying, ggy!" Lemmy cried.
Roy just laughed. "I think I'm getting a major workout! I'm gonna develop some scaly snake abs!"
Iggy rolled his eyes and turned toward Ludwig. The special was following after Iggy and Larry with a grumpy expression on his face. His eyebrows were scrunched lower than the south pole, his mouth was in such an intense frown that it actually looked kind of painful. He shot a glance down toward his pink cloak and sighed.
"Can this get any worse?" he asked.
Right at that moment, Iggy heard whispers coming from behind him. Both him and Ludwig turned to see two koopa troopas. They stared at Ludwig like he was on display at a circus. They whispered back and forth to each other, then they burst into laughter. Ludwig growled as they walked away. He pulled up his hood and clung to it as he started to pick up the pace.
"I hate this, I hate this, I hate this, I hate this," he muttered to himself.
Iggy sighed. He couldn't help but agree. These curses were going to provide them with a major problem. How in the Mushroom World would they be able to combat an entire army of Shroobs like this?
"What are we going to do?" Iggy asked himself out loud as he directed his eyes toward the ground.
Just as he said that, Iggy heard a strange noise. It sounded like a growling stomach. He turned and saw Morton walking slowly. He had his hands on his stomach and a pathetic expression on his face. Iggy backed up a little so that he was standing right beside his out-of-phase brother.
"Are you experiencing hunger, dear younger brother?" he asked.
Morton nodded. "I haven't eaten anything since this morning." He whimpered. "And the worst part is, with this curse, I can't even pick up the stuff that I want to eat."
Surprisingly, Iggy heard his hair let out a moan. He looked up and saw the creature's eyes droop. In fact, its entire body was sagging a little.
"It would appear that my hair sympathizes with your plight, Morty." Iggy snickered. "Which is funny, considering that I never would have expected that a plethora of dead skin cells would know what the sensation of hunger is like."
Iggy's hair glared down at it and started to growl and yap like an excited puppy. Iggy just rolled his eyes.
"What? It's true."
With that, the Koopalings continued the rest of the walk to Sparksville in silence. Iggy noticed that, thanks to a slap from Lemmy, Wendy was able to get back on track and follow after everyone. Ludwig's eyes kept darting back and forth in worry. Larry just floated along on his string, not really caring about one thing or another.
Finally, they got to Sparksville. The east side of the town was surprisingly quiet. Nobody was bustling down the streets like they normally did. Iggy hypothesized that, with the alien invasion, civilians were ordered to shelter in place until further notice. At least, he hoped that was the case.
The Koopalings didn't experience anything that could truly be described as discordant until they got to the town's western border with the Mushroom Kingdom. Alien ships were zipping through the air at incredible speeds. Countless shroobs were running amok, breaking into houses and shops. Civilians were screaming, gripping the sides of their faces in terror and fright. The Shroobs themselves were going full throttle, and there was nothing that could stop them.
When Lemmy saw the sight, he let go of Roy and started jumping down. "Ook uys! Liens!"
"That's right, Lems," Ludwig said as he surveyed the sight in front of them. "Lots and lots of liens."