A/N: This story is from Luigi's POV all the time except for Bowser's and the miscellaneous parts, its 3rd person there. You'll see an extra space showing those parts.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Mario characters that are in the games, so don't ask. The creatures you may not know are based on the ones you may know, but they are of my invention.
Prologue: Thunderstruck Part One
Mario and I both got back from Rogueport in the early morning. We were both tired from both our adventures; Mario's Crystal Star Journey, and my Waffle Kingdom one. Our mailbox was chocked full of mail. I flipped through the mail, half awake; bills, bills (you kinda think that we get a break from them since Mario saved the world tons of times), fan mail from my stories, more fan mail, some more bills, more bills. I stopped when I saw the last of the mail. It was fan mail, or at least it looked like one. Scrawled handwriting was all over it, obviously a Goomba wrote it or a cleft.
I could barely make it out, but one sentence was easy to make out even if a chain-chomp wrote it (if they can write): 'HELP!' I immediately rushed into the house, dropping the rest of the mail. I ran back stuffing the mail back into the mailbox, the last thing we needed is a littering fine. I stumbled back into the house, a note was on the table: "Luigi, I'm out for a walk in the woods. Mario."
'Great', I thought, 'he's going to be out there for hours!' I signed and laid down on the couch. I must of fell asleep because the time was 4:00 PM. I searched around for Mario in the house, he wasn't here. Nor was he outside on the lawn chairs. I started to get worried, he was never out for this long. I decided I had to look for him. As I was locking the door, Parrykarry showed up with a package in his pack.
"Hello Luigi," Parrykarry said when he landed, "Got a package for you." I took the square package and got an idea. I showed him the letter and asked who sent it, he said never saw it before, but he recognized the writing as a SilverWing Swooper.
"What on earth is that!" I said, a little too loud. He shushed me and looked around as if to see if anyone was paying attention. He made me unlock the door to my house, and asked if there's a secret place inside. I nodded and showed him my 'office', a room underneath the house that only I knew of. When I put the trapdoor down, he locked it. When I asked why he did that, he only shushed me again.
"Everything I say does not leave this room," Parrykarry said. I nodded and he began telling me the secret.
"The Wing Swooper is an endangered species here in the Mushroom Kingdom, they're only found in Forever Forest in a village that's path begins at the mansion the boos live in. They're job is to protect the secret path, that's why they dislike visitors that they don't know. Bowser's forces were secretly trying to find the path under the ruse of trying to defeat Mario."
"But why are the Swoopers so important?" I interrupted
"Because they are the wisest creatures of the land. And its Wing Swoopers, there's a difference."
"What is it?"
"They have 4 claws at the ends of their wings. Now stop interrupting. All Mail-Koopas (and regular Swoopers) know this and it's the most loyal that get to pickup and deliver their mail. I was one at a point, I spent a few days there myself. It was very interesting, they have a highly advanced civilization run by 5 clans. I'll get to that later...
"But the thing that sets them apart is that they have three subspecies, SilverWings, SunWings, and GrayWings. SilverWings blend into the dankness and are the most energetic. They also have photographic memory and are usually are the scouts. Mostly when they are very young, they read a book that has ALL KNOWN creatures in it. And they get an update of new creatures every week. In fact, after Mario beat the Shadow Queen and Bonetail, we delivered a new book that Swoop, also known as Sir Swoop, wrote.
"The SunWings are the warriors of the clans, they are trained in the way of their clan, each has a different fighting stile. Some learn all of them, those that do are usually the leaders of the tribe. They also follow Mario's adventures and sometimes the younger ones pretend they're him.
"The GrayWings are the most wisest of the tribe, they're the advisors, strategists, and inventors of the tribe. They're named GrayWings because the live to be 200 years old. But most live to be 120. They are the goal to the hunters of the Wing Swoopers. They hold a secret that only the oldest of the tribe know."
"With an exception of me!" The squeak voice startled us both. I, being the spineless one, jumped up and clung onto the ceiling. Where my shadow was a Swooper with claws on the ends of his wings. My guess, based on Parrykarry's info, it was a Silverwing Wing Swooper.
"That's 'SilverWing Swooper'," the Swooper said.
"How did he?" I said, my mouth gaping.
"Know what your thinking?" Parrykarry said, "The only SW I know of that can do that is..." Parrykarry's eyes filled with tears, "Zylo! How are you! How old were you when I saw you last?"
"I was a day old, PK," Zylo said.
"I still remember the first word you said was, and I quote "Pwarrwey-barrwey" and then "Pwee-Kay." They chatted back and forth, talking how they found out he was psychic, talking when 'PK' got moved elsewhere and how Zylo tried to fly after him and dragged 3 SunWings a half a mile. I just eased back into my chair, just glad it wasn't a Boo on revenge.
"Oh, Luigi," Parrykarry said, "This is Zylo of the Xaki clan, Zylo this is-"
"Luigi," Zylo said right on cue, "Did you get my letter?"
"So it was you that wrote it!" I exclaimed. Zylo and Parrykarry shushed me, again.
"I should of guessed," Parrykarry said, "but why are you out of the village? You're a prime target for the you-know-whats."
"You read the letter," Zylo stated.
"Did you read his mind again?" I asked.
"No, I saw him do it.," Zylo simply stated, "I was his shadow, that's why SW's are expert scouts."
"Oh," I muttered, "Well, what was in it?"
"The village was attacked by the you-know-whats. They captured everybody and, more importantly, they took IT!"
"No!" I gasped, "Umm, what is IT?" At this Zylo and Parrykarry fell in annoyance.
"IT," Zylo said getting up, "is a key to a different world, with the you-know-whats having it, nothing good will come out of it. We have to go and stop them from taking over the Elemental Kingdoms!"
"What are the you-know-whats?" I said after a few minutes of silence.
"They're our arch-enemies, they're the reason we're in hiding, they're the reason the Wing Swoopers are in endangerment!" Zylo said angrily, "And now that they have the key to the Elemental Kingdoms, they could take over the whole world! We to stop them!"
"Ummm," I started, "OK I'll help, but first I need to find Mario."
"They have him..."
"WHAT!"
"The Elemental Passage can only be open by a pure heart with the key. Mario is the second part to the key. They wanted to nab Peach and use her, but they didn't want Bowser on their tail and she was possessed by that demon under Rogueport and was marred by its evil."
"I knew he shouldn't go on that walk..."
"What walk? They got him when you were checking the mail!" My mouth felt like an anvil got shoved into it, I realized there wasn't anything INSIDE the bills, they were just diversions to keep my outside. And the handwriting on the note wasn't Mario's. They took advantage of my fatigue, I felt like a moron.
"Come on, Luigi!" Zylo was already unlocking the trap door, "We have to get there ASAP!" I climbed up and found it was dark outside, very dark. 'A new moon must out tonight,' I thought. I glanced at the clock, it was 6.
"Its not the moon, Luigi" Zylo said as I came outside, "It's the Passageway, the elements are spilling into this world. If we don't close it, this dimension will be changed forever!"
"Changed how?"
"Changed like PK." I looked at Parrykarry and gasped, he was emitting light like a lightbulb.
"What!" Parrykarry looked at himself, "Oh-no... not again."
"This happened before?" I said gaping again, I then knew this would be the start of strange things I'll see.
"When I was back in AmberRoost, that's the name of the village, this happened after year of making deliveries. I then learned that every mail carrier had strange effects after a year of working there. When I left, the glowing stopped. Bow explained to me that AmberRoost is exposed to the radiation behind the door of the Passage, and that if I'm exposed to this stuff again, I might stay this way." PK gulped and then said, "I'm no help to you like this, this mission requires stealth. I'll help everybody in Toad Town get to the emergency shelter." With that, he flew off, glowing like Watt.
"Come on Luigi," Zylo said flying up, "grab on to my talons." I grabbed on and flew the opposite way from Toad Town. I started to speak but he cut me off, "There's a pipe that leads directly to the mansion inside a hole in that tree, I don't like sewers." We landed and went through the gray pipe inside the tree.
The next thing I saw, was tragic, the mansion was completely destroyed, the Boos were all knocked out (if that's possible) and scattered throughout the wreckage. Zylo seemed unfazed, he just walked straight and fell down a hole, I tried to follow, but I couldn't get over the feeling of sorrow for the Boos. Oh, sure. I know what you're thinking, just because I sucked up a bunch I of them in my mansion incident doesn't mean I care for them.
"Uh, Luigi," Zylo's head popped up the hole, "What are you thinking about? And can you hurry up, please." I jumped down, and almost fell into a spike pit if Zylo didn't catch me with his talons and threw me up onto the path.
"What was that!" I panted, shivers ran through my body.
"That was the second line of defense against intruders," Zylo said, taking to the skies and grabbing me, "There's more ahead, we'll go much faster this way." We soared quickly over the path, I saw what he was talking about, there was traps all over the place that you can only see from up in the air. Pitfalls, springboards that launched you into a tube that leads somewhere else, and others I couldn't make heads-or-tails of.
And then came a maze. I moaned, I absolutely hated mazes. Zylo chuckled and flew straight into a wall. I braced myself for pain, but I felt nothing. I looked back and saw the wall fizzle, then return to normal.
"It's a hologram," Zylo said flying through several more walls. Then slammed into one. Luckily, we where close to the ground so we weren't hurt that much.
"I always forget the last one was solid," Zylo said rubbing his head, "at least we weren't higher. Then we will be in trouble." I wanted to ask him why, but from the look on his face I figured it out, spike trap.
"Well," I said, "What now?" He motioned to follow him, I did, we walked around a bend and saw AmberRoost. Or what was left of it. AmberRoost was completely demolished, everything was razed except for a gigantic arch with some blue swirling stuff inside it . The place was deserted, that was good and bad. Good because there were no guards, bad by the same reason. I looked around and found a HUGE footprint that looked unnervingly familiar.
"Bowser," I said flatly, "What's he doing here? Is he one of them, Zylo? Zylo?" I turned around and saw him looking at the floor.
"According to this," he said, "he isn't." I looked at what he meant, there was a burnt robot with a circle of black around it.
"OK, so we know he's not with them now. But how do we know he betrayed them?"
"Simple, the you-know-whats hate all groundlings, they want to destroy all of them. That's why they want the weapon in the Elemental Kingdoms." I was a little shocked by what Zylo just said. Even more shocked of what I heard next.
"So there IS a weapon in those Kingdoms!" The voice came from my shadow. I slammed my hammer on it... then realized I didn't have my hammer. Frustrated I just grabbed a nearby board and hit it with that. A strange, large Paragloomba with no feet and black wings slammed against the ruins. It recovered fairly quickly and bolted to the arc.
"The dude in charge will love this info. Buh-huh-huh-huh!" He took out a device, pressed a button and began murmuring into the thing. While he was busy Zylo crept to one of the ruins and came back with a hammer. He winked and I got what he was thinking. We crept up behind the strange Paragloomba and I hammered it into the ground. Zylo picked up the device.
"I'm sorry," he said into the thing, "Crump has been 'grounded,' I'll have to put you on hold." He slammed the thing on the ground and starting stomping it.
"Woh, hold!" I said, "THAT'S Crump! Is this what X-nauts look like?"
"No, he was a spy for the enemy," Zylo said still stomping on the thing, "Their scientists built him a robot suit to fit in. He WANTED to get beaten by Mario, his mission was to make sure the X-nauts are destroyed so they won't have any resistance. Um, could you hit this thing?" He stopped pounding it and I slammed it with my hammer, it finally broke.
"That hammer is as strong as they say," Zylo murmured. He then started picking through the broken thing, and pulled out some microchips. He then pulled out a similar device, opened it and put the microchips in it, closed it, and turned it on. "Yeah!" Zylo exclaimed, "I'm a genus. I now know how to close the door!" He looked at me after putting it away, "Hey Luigi, what's that in your pocket?"
I remembered the square package that I put in there, took it out and opened it. Inside was a DS Mailbox with two unread messages. Zylo started drooling at the sight of it while I looked at my mail. One was from Princess Eclair, thanking me for my efforts to 'rescue' her.
The second one was anonymous. All it said was to use this well in my adventure in the Elemental Kingdoms and that this device isn't just a mailbox, and I needed to find all the secrets of it to complete my adventure. I put the DS mailbox away and asked Zylo, "So how do we close that thing?"
"It closes when I go through," Zylo said with a tinge of fear in his voice, "I'm the last Wing Swooper in this world, and the door closes as soon as a Wing Swooper goes in willingly. The others were dragged through," He turned to look at the Passage, "We have to save them!"
I nodded and stepped up. "You two aren't going anywhere!" Crump flew down and narrowly missed me, "Now that I'm out of that stinky suit I'll get my revenge on you!"
"Hate to brake it to you," I yelled back at him, "but I'm LUIGI!"
"Oh, that's right. But I can't let you pass!" He tried to ram me again, but I jumped out of the way and tried pouncing him; he just shook it off.
"That won't work!" Zylo cried to me, "He has a defense of 1 like all gloombas! And his wings won't fall off if it did! Try something else!" Crump then started twirling sideways, his wings like a saw blade, straight into us. Zylo, who read his mind, flew out of the way and tried to counter but missed. I missed my chance and got hit in the stomach hard and got launched back.
"Ugh..." I moaned, I got up and ran back into battle, "I'm all right!" I winked to Zylo and nodded. After a moment he launched himself at Crump and did something similar to Crump to what he did to us. My plan worked, Crump was knocked down from where he was enough for me to hit him with my new hammer. I sprinted forward, stopped and slammed my hammer on him; or at least where he was. I looked around and saw him just in front of me, I gulped and kicked me back near Zylo.
"Did you really think that will work?" Crump taunted, "We are not as stupid as the other enemies you have faced. We counter and dodge, just as you do. You'll better get creative in order to hit us! Crud! I wasn't suppose to say that!"
"Thanks for the hint," I grumbled getting up, this guy teasing my nerves. 'If I couldn't hit him directly,' I thought, 'then I'm doomed. Wait, maybe not... Zylo get him near the ground again after he makes his move.' Zylo nodded and prepared for the attack. Crump finally decided he was going to do something and appealed to a nonexistent crowd. Zylo and I crash on the ground in disbelief. We both got up again and Zylo attacked... and missed; Crump dodged and bonked him.
I gulped, most of my plan was relying on Zylo to get him near the ground. Then I would run forward, fake a jump and slam him. I then got another idea, I ran forward and jumped. Crump laughed and stayed still, just as I planed. I bounced off of him and took out my hammer. Crump chuckled nervously as I came back down. I hit him on the side, sending him straight at Zylo. Zylo got my idea and hit him back, and I did also. This went on for about three minutes and then I hit Crump into a wall.
"My mashlter wilsh pulish goo forsh interfair-wing," Crump managed to get that out while hovering about like a drunk, sometimes falling to the ground. After a few minutes of dizziness, he snapped out of it and hovered in front of me. I slammed him on the side with my hammer again before he could say anything. He flew through the Arch, then a rumbling came causing a cave-in.
"Come on Luigi!" Zylo yelled, running to the Arch, "We have to go NOW!" I ran up and we jumped in the arch together...
Earlier... Bowser impatiently trampled back and forth in his throne room...
'Figures...' Bowser thought, 'Kammy's always late to my plot-to rule-the-Mushroom-Kingdom meetings. I mean, come on! Its 3:00!' The doors slammed and Kammy crept into the room and took a seat next to Wendy and Iggy. The seven Koopalings plus Bowser Jr shot up from sleeping to playing a GBA SP. Morton, BJ (Bowser Jr) and Lemmy hid some chips and a pack of cards. Larry put a pair of earmuffs on to dampen Bowser yelling that was sure to follow.
"WHY ARE YOU SOOOO LATE!" Bowser squalled, "THE MEETING WAS SUPPOSED TO START AT 2!" Kammy and the Koopalings shrunk back. Larry took off his 'muffs since they didn't do any good. Once again the door slammed, and a Koopatrol came in with a mixed look on his face. He walked up to Kammy whispered something in her ear and ran out.
"OH MY LORD!" Kammy screeched, "AMBERROOST HAS BEEN FOUND!"
"WHAT!" Bowser roared, "BY WHO?" All the Koopalings and BJ was interested in this meeting now, a first.
"That's the problem, WE DON"T KNOW! All that our spies saw was shadows sneaking up to the Boo Mansion, setting some things on the ground, and sneak away. And then... THE MANSION BLEW UP!" A period of silence came that lasted a few seconds, then Kammy continued, "Lots more shadows came along with a few spunia-like things barely visible flying through the air somehow. When our spies thought the cost was clear, then went into the mansion and found the Boos all knocked out. They then found the secret path to AmberRoost, but then they got ambushed and only one got out alive... Oh yeah, Mario has been captured by them, also."
"WHAT!" Bowser screamed "I'M the one that supposed to cream Mario! We got to save him so I can clobber him!" A minutes passed and only a cricket was herd. But that was just Ludwig with a SF badge on tapping his foot.
"So..." BJ spoke up, "Where is the survivor?" Morton and Lemmy covered his mouth and pushed him back into the seat.
"He's in the infirmary," Kammy said walking out the door, "Follow me and I'll bring you to him..." They all went to the infirmary, and on one of the cots laid a Shady ParaKoopa with gray wings. The Seven Koopalings and BJ gasped, they all knew him, his name was Graywind.
"GW?" Lemmy said, "What happened?" Graywind coughed up a little blood and everybody flinched.
"We got ambushed" Graywind sputtered, "we put up a fight, but there were too many and we didn't see them. My fellows got picked off one by one, and when I was left, a large paragloomba with no feet came up to me. He said that if I join them to look for a weapon in someplace called 'The Elemental Kingdoms' he'll forget about my 'skirmish' and let me join the ranks." Graywing coughed up some more blood and tried to relax himself. After a few minutes of waiting, he continued, "I declined the offer and kicked him hard in the face. The rest was a blur... but I remember that a strange Swooper rescued me and flew me to a hospital somewhere."
"SO THERE IS A WEAPON!" Bowser yelled joyfully and everybody shushed him, "But why did they try to bribe you from MY forces!" Bowser's statement was more anger than question. He then snuck away when no-on was looking.
"I don't know, sir," Graywing sputtered, "But for some odd reason they attacked my wings more than my chest... maybe my wings have to do something with it..."
"Wait," Larry said in his thinking tone, "What were your comrades species?
"One was a regular Shady Koopa, one a spiked hyper Goomba, and the rest regular Goombas..." Larry's eye's got bright.
"You were the only airborne one there, right?" Graywing nodded, "Then that's why. Maybe they only like flying creatures..."
"Maybe," Kammy muttered, "My lord, what do you think? Bowser?" Bowser wasn't around. Suddenly the Koopa Clown Car burst through the wall.
"ALL ABOARD FOR THE ELEMENTAL KINGDOMS!" Bowser laughed, no-body bothered shushing him because he was in a joyful mood for once. The Koopalings and BJ climbed in to the surprisingly large helicopter. The Koopa Clown Car went back through the hole and flew to the Forever Forest.
And somehow they made it to the ruins of AmberRoost without falling for a trap and spending a half an hour in the maze, which they found that it only had dead-ends and blasted through a wall. BJ was the first one to the entrance of AmberRoost and would of been the first one fried by a laser if Wendy didn't pull him back. He thanked her and the other six threw out a few coins and the lasers went for them. Everybody then rushed out and fried the laser cannons.
"This is too easy!" Bowser gloated, "Now everybody through that archway and into the Elemental Kingdoms!" They all went through and disappeared...
In the Mushroom Castle Shelter... Peach has called an Emergency Meeting with Queen bean and Prince Peasly...
"Toadsworth," Peasly said, "where is Peach? Is she ill?"
"No," Toadsworth replied, "She's up to this meeting." Suddenly a bright light came into the room near the ceiling.
"Very funny Toadsworth" Peach said. Parrykarry landed on the ground, reveling Peach on the ceiling.
"Peach!" Queen Bean stammered, "W-w-what happened, dear?"
"Parrykarry, if you will," Peach said, Parrykarry explained what was going on. Then she continued, "It's the radiation that made Parrykarry basically a lightbulb and making me walk on the ceiling."
"Well we noticed some changes in our kingdom too," Queen Bean pondered.
"Well nothing's wrong with my shine!"
"NOOOOO!" Everybody shouted, but it was too late, Peasly did his shine thing and an explosion shook the globe. Causing a small cave-in at AmberRoost.
A/N: HA! Its done! R&R!