Chapter Five, coming your way!

This chapter will contain action, which is a nice change.

Note that the main plot has not been introduced quite yet. It will probably be introduced at around Chapters Eight – Ten, though it depends on several factors.

What is the plot?

I'm not telling you.

Heh.

But you'll see it soon enough.

Anyway, how to end this excruciatingly long intro... Ah, yes!

I do not own Mario or his pals or the Koopalings, etc. etc.

Read on!

Oh, wait, I almost forgot.

Since you don't really know what's going on at the castle (seeing how Ludwig and Roy are currently elsewhere), I'll be dividing this chapter into two parts, just so you know what's going on.

Okay, NOW read on.


Roy hiked along the bumpy grassland, still a bit angry about how Ludwig managed to get him to do what he wanted. Why was he going to get plumbing tools from Mario's house while Ludwig was going to bask in the spotlight by fixing the pipe and saving the day?

It made him want to crush Ludwig into a small pile of ash, but it was too late now. Growling in fury, he wasn't looking forward when—

"YOW!"

His head exploded with pain and he stumbled backwards. It took him a minute to regain his vision, and when he managed to see what had hit him, it made his eyes almost pop out of their sockets.

"A-ha! It's-a Roy Koopa!" exclaimed the voice of Luigi Mario.

"It is?" asked Mario. "I thought that was Iggy."

Roy recovered from the pain and was immediately angered by being confused for his nerdy, bespectacled younger brother.

"I ain't Iggy!" Roy roared at the red plumber. "And if ya don't get out of the way, you won't live to see tomorrow!"

"Ooh, scary," Mario scoffed. "Won't you-a ever give up?"

"Not when I'm dealing with a brainless chump like you!" Roy barked back. He clenched his fists.

"I wouldn't be talking," Mario retorted while clenching his fists as well.

"Look, Mario, he wasn't doing anything, let's just let-a him go," Luigi tried to break them apart.

"NO!" shrieked Mario and Roy instantly. Luigi backed away.

"If that's what you want," Luigi said, shrugging his shoulders.

And thus, the fight began.

Meanwhile, back the castle…

"Where could they have possibly gone?" Lemmy Koopa asked loudly as he searched Ludwig's room thoroughly. He, Wendy and Morton where looking for their two missing brothers.

"We've looked everywhere," Wendy said, groaning. "They're nowhere. And I'm getting hungry."

"Too bad Larry isn't here. He could have helped us find Ludwig and Roy with his amazing spying techniques," Morton told the others.

"Where's Iggy, anyway?" Wendy asked Lemmy as she looked under Ludwig's bed (she was getting quite desperate).

"He didn't come," Lemmy said simply. "He kinda wanted to let Roy disappear. It sure would make things a lot easier for him."

Morton took a deep breath.

"I don't really blame Iggy I mean Roy is pretty annoying sometimes like yesterday when he bopped me across the face—oh, and thanks for sticking up for me Wendy but I am not a nut, am I?—but there's no reason why he shouldn't look for him I mean Roy is our brother whether Iggy likes it or not so he has to live with it!" Morton finished. He inhaled deeply again.

"Are you done yet?" Wendy asked dully.

"Yep," Morton answered quickly.

"If only we had a clue to where they could've gone," Lemmy pondered out loud. "Is there anything even remotely suspicious in here?"

"How about that egg?" Wendy responded, pointing at the now-glowing egg in the corner. "I don't remember seeing it before Roy got grounded."

"Good work, Wendy!" Lemmy cried appreciatively. Wendy fluttered her eyelashes smugly. "I bet this has something to do with that egg."

"Yeah, well, I don't have any idea what an egg has to do with the disappearance. But it's strange that it came out of nowhere," Morton talked to them. He leaned on a big, red button. "I mean, it's just another—AAAH!"

Morton's talking was immediately cut off, as he disappeared into thin air. Lemmy and Wendy stood frozen in silence for a whole minute, and then looked at each other disbelievingly.

"Did Morton just vanish?" Wendy questioned Lemmy.

"It appears so," Lemmy replied.

They looked at each other for another minute, and then screamed out in shock.


Luigi chewed his fingernails nervously as Roy and Mario held their tightened fists up in the air, ready for battle.

Mario made the first move. He dashed forward at a high speed, then leaped into the air and headed directly at Roy.

Roy recognized this attack as Mario's Jump, so he easily dodged it by getting out of the way. Roy threw a fist at Mario's head, but Mario deflected it with a kick. This sent Roy stumbling backwards.

Mario saw this as an opportunity and dashed forward, kicking Roy into a tree.

"Graah!" Roy growled as he crashed into the large redwood.

"Had enough?" Mario said patronizingly.

"No way," Roy muttered. He got up and dashed towards the plumber at such a breakneck speed that Mario didn't see it coming. Roy slammed his fist so strongly that it sent Mario colliding with the ground harshly. Luigi squealed stupidly. The floor shook for a second.

Mario slowly pushed himself up from the ground. He had a cut on his cheek.

"Not bad," he said stonily.

Mario dashed towards Roy in return, with a fist in the air. Roy did the same, and both of them collided at the same time. A cloud of dust flew in the air; then revealed Roy burrowed into the ground and Mario kneeling in pain.

Roy dug himself out; he had gotten the worse of the collision. He felt his face throbbing and stinging. Mario, though, had also taken quite a bit of damage from the blow.

"Eek!" chirped Luigi.

"I'm… not… letting… you… win… AGAIN!" Roy got up from the ground and raced towards Mario. However, the plumber was prepared. He kicked Roy away just before he made contact with him.

"I wouldn't get your-a hopes up," Mario taunted. Roy recovered from the kick and fired a roundhouse kick to Mario's stomach, but Mario dodged it, jumped in the air, and slammed his full body weight onto Roy's head.

"ARGH!" Roy grunted as his head nearly burst with pain. Mario jumped off of Roy's head nimbly and tripped him, causing Roy to collapse to the ground devastatingly.

When Mario tripped Roy and made him fall, Luigi couldn't contain his excitement. He decided to shout out a bad joke to vent his anxiety.

"Have a nice trip, Roy! See you next fall!" Luigi howled. "Hee, hee, I made a funny!"

Nobody had paid attention to him. Roy had recovered from Mario's Jump attack and had countered him with a heavy blow to the cheek. Mario's cheekbone ignited with pain; the cut grew even bigger.

Mario realized his weak spot. He defended his cheek against a few more of Roy's crippling punches, and, (un) luckily, managed to defend against all of them.

"Tired?" Roy cried out after dodging a blow from Mario.

"Don't-a count on it," Mario answered.

And so, the fight continued.


"We've got to find out where he went," Lemmy said, panicking. "Where was Morton before he mysteriously disappeared?"

"I don't know!" Wendy advised him, equally frantic. "I was looking at the egg!"

"Me too," Lemmy concurred. "We're going to have to think of something."

Wendy opened her mouth to answer, but she was interrupted.

"Kids! Lunch!" shouted their father from downstairs.

"Oh, lovely," Lemmy said sarcastically. "How are we going to explain to dad that Morton and Ludwig are missing?"

"I don't know," Wendy answered. "We'll have to improvise."

Wendy and Lemmy left Ludwig's room and sped down the stairs leading into the Koopa kitchen. Only Iggy was at the table. Bowser was serving the food.

"Where are the others?" he asked them.

Lemmy and Wendy sat down at the table nervously.

"S-somewhere," Lemmy answered.

"Where?" Bowser emphasized.

"Uh-uh—" Wendy stuttered. "They're contestants on an, uh, quiz show!"

"Really?" inquired Bowser, interested. "They never told me about it."

"Oh, that's because—because—it was supposed to be a secret!" Lemmy blurted out.

"Are they going to be on television?" Bowser questioned them curiously.

"Uh, nope," Wendy said quickly. "It's a secret quiz show."

"That's odd," Bowser told them.

"Yeah, and—" Lemmy thought for a second. "—Ludwig is a contestant, but—uh—Morton is actually the host, because, you know, he talks so much."

"Oh, that's pretty cool," Bowser said, fascinated. "When are they coming back?

"Eh—" Lemmy faltered.

"We don't know," Wendy chimed in. "They didn't tell."

"All right, enough talking, let's dig in!" Bowser said with a hint of hunger in his voice. Serving Wendy and Lemmy a ham-and-mushroom sandwich. Lemmy looked at Iggy. He knew that he didn't believe their whole 'quiz show' story, but Iggy kept quiet. That was good. Wendy and Lemmy began to chew on their sandwiches nervously.


The battle had continued for another twenty minutes. Both Mario and Roy were very tired by now. Roy had a lot of scratches on his face and arms, his shades were crippled and dirty, and he had a huge bruise on his left arm. Mario's cut under his cheek had expanded, and his legs were crumpled due to a lot of slashes from Roy's clawed feet. He could barely run, let alone stand. Luigi had been jumping around excitedly the whole time, but was largely ignored.

Roy threw a heavy blow towards Mario's stomach, but the plumber only got an indirect hit. Mario quickly recovered and slammed his fists into Roy's face, knocking him backwards a few feet. Roy couldn't recover fast enough to realize that Mario had then kicked him in the shin.

"URGH!" Roy cried painfully as Mario dealt heavy blows out to him.

Hearing Luigi shouting, "Finish him off!" in the background, Mario climbed up a tree and leaped into the air, and began rocketing down dangerously towards Roy. This was likely going to be the strongest jump attack he was ever going to exploit.

"Say goodbye, Roy Koopa!" Mario's shout rang in the air as he rushed towards the ground.


Cliffhanger!

Suspenseful music plays

Chapter Six will be up soon.