In this chapter, our heroes are going to pay the Koopa Bros Fortress a visit...as you know, the first Star Spirit is being held there. However, it's also being guarded by Koopa Troopas.
Chapter 9: Koopa Krash
Unsurprisingly, the citizens of Koopa Village were all very happy to get their shells back once Lincoln and his friends returned to the village. Now they wouldn't have to enlist in the Koopa Troopa. They weren't even fighters!
Well, Kolorado was an explorer so he could probably handle danger, but that was about it.
"Hip hip hooray!" exclaimed an exciting Koopa.
"We appreciate your help..." said one of the Koopas.
At that very moment, Koopa Koot left his house.
"What's all the racket outside? I would appreciate some peace and quiet..." noted Koopa Koot. Sometimes the Koopas in the village were restless, especially today.
Fortunately, it appeared that the Fuzzies didn't want his shell due to how old it was. Either that, or perhaps even they knew to respect their elders. Kamek and Kammy were some of Bowser's closest associates after all.
"Mario and his friends got us our shells back!" exclaimed the Koopas.
Immediately, the Koopas leapt into the air. Thank goodness Mario and Lincoln were around. Otherwise they would be in trouble.
"Oh. Well, good job then. I appreciate your help...so where are you heading now?" questioned the Koopa.
"We're heading to the Koopa Bros. Fortress..." explained Lincoln.
"The Koopa Bros? I heard of those kids...they used to be four ordinary Koopas that were looking for adventure..." informed the mayor. In other words, they were somewhat like Goombario or Kolorado.
"Oh really?" questioned Lincoln.
"Unfortunately Kammy Koopa took advantage of that and managed to persuade the Koopa Bros to join the Koopa Troop..." explained Koopa Koot.
"That's too bad..." noted Kooper. Well, they still had to fight them if they wanted to rescue the first Star Spirit.
"Take care now!" exclaimed the mayor.
As they made their way out of the village, they spotted a familiar face.
"It's you again!" shouted Lincoln.
As it turned out, it was Chuck Quizmo.
"Huh. I wonder what questions he's going to ask us this time." answered the boy.
They were about to find out.
"Wait, who is this guy?" asked Kooper.
"He's Chuck Quizmo...he's been asking people questions for years...if you answer them correctly...well, you'll earn a prize." explained Goombario.
"Sounds good! I guess I have nothing to lose!" exclaimed the Koopa.
"Yes, but you'll probably have a hard time finding him." noted the Goomba. He always seems to appear and disappear out of nowhere.
"First question...who is the oldest out of Lincoln's sisters?" questioned Chuck Quizmo.
Lisa buzzed in. Lincoln was not surprised.
"It's Lori." said Lisa.
"Correct." stated Chuck Quizmo. Judging from the glasses that Lisa was wearing, she was the smart one in her family. Of course, Clyde wore glasses as well and he had average intelligence.
Lisa received a calculator.
"This should help with my studies." noted Lisa.
Speaking of Lori, Lincoln wondered where she was. His sisters seemed to be in locations that matched their personalities.
"Now for the next question. Who is Kooper a big fan of?" asked the worm.
Kooper buzzed in.
"It's Kolorado!" exclaimed Kooper.
"Who's Kolorado?" questioned Lincoln.
"He's the greatest Koopa explorer in the history of ever! At least, that's my opinion." stated the Koopa.
"I see..." nodded Lincoln.
Goombario wondered if they were going to meet him during his adventures.
"Since you answered the question correctly, you get a Kolorado plushie. And yes, he has his own merchandise now. He thinks a lot of things belong in a museum...but he's willing to give out plushies of himself." explained Chuck Quizmo.
"You rock, Chuck Quizmo!" cheered Kooper.
"Now for the third question...how many residents does Goomba Village have, including Goombario?" asked the worm.
Naturally, Goombario knew the answer to that one. It was his hometown.
"Seven." answered Goombario.
"Wait, does that include Lily?" inquired Lincoln. That was where he found Lily, inside the Toad House in Goomba Village.
"Yes, it does. Sorry for any confusion." nodded Chuck Quizmo.
"Then make that eight!" exclaimed Goombario.
"Correct. You get a Mario plushie." stated the worm.
Goombario cheered. Much like Kooper was a hardcore fan of Kolorado, Goombario was a hardcore fan of Mario. Both of them had been fans of them almost as soon as they were born.
"Now for another question. Who is Clyde's dad?" questioned Chuck Quizmo.
"Wait, doesn't Clyde have two of them?" inquired Lincoln.
"Oh, right. I guess I forgot about that. Most contestants of the show have only one dad...but I suppose Clyde is an exception." nodded the worm.
"Anyways, one of them is named Howard, right?" said Lincoln.
"That's right. Here is your badge." answered Chuck Quizmo.
Lincoln received an HP Up Badge.
"Alright then...the last question is...who is Mario's brother?" asked Quizmo.
He might have already asked that, but he wanted to see if they remembered.
Mario leapt up in the air.
"Yes, Mario?" asked the worm.
"Luigi!" exclaimed Mario.
Lincoln jumped in surprise. Mario could talk?
As a reward, Mario got lots of spaghetti.
"Yummy!" exclaimed Mario.
"Well then, I think it's for me to pack up. By the way, if you want to make your way inside Koopa Bros. Fortress, I suggest that you find a disguise." said the worm.
"Thanks." nodded Lincoln.
Immediately. Chuck Quizmo disappeared.
After that encounter, Lincoln, Mario, and their friends went to Koopa Bros. Fortress.
Since there was a switch just out of their reach, Mario decided to use Kooper.
"Here I go!" exclaimed Kooper.
As soon as they hit the switch, a bridge appeared.
However, there was another problem.
As they discovered, there was a big Koopa standing in front of the door. He was wearing glasses, so apparently he couldn't see too well.
His name was Kent C. Koopa.
"Should we fight?" asked Lincoln.
"I wouldn't recommend that, he looks pretty strong." answered Goombario.
"You make a good point." nodded the boy. Surely there had to be another way.
Lincoln decided to walk up to him.
"Yes, what do you want?" asked Kent C. Koopa.
"Can you let us in?" inquired Lincoln.
"I can't. I'm only allowed to let in members of the Koopa Troop. Unless you're a Koopa or a Goomba or some other sort of Bowser baddie, you're not getting in." answered the giant Koopa.
Lincoln sighed. Things were not going to be simple.
"What should we do?" asked Kooper.
"There's got to be a way in somehow." answered Goombario.
Suddenly, they noticed that there was a Koopa outside selling shells.
"Get your shells over here!" exclaimed the Koopa.
"Where did you get those?" asked Kooper.
"I sell these shells to Koopas who have lost theirs. Some Koopas prefer going fast instead of having these shells for protection." explained the Koopa salesman.
"That explains why Kamek and Kammy don't have shells." noted Lincoln.
Suddenly, Lisa had an idea.
"Do you have shells that match our size?" asked Lisa.
"Lisa, what are you doing?" asked the boy.
"Don't worry, I have an idea how to get in." answered the genius girl.
"Oh." nodded Lincoln. Perhaps Merlon's prophecy was going to come true.
"Here are your shells." said the Koopa salesman.
If they hadn't had a Koopa Troopa with them, he would have questioned their decision, but as it was, he didn't suspect they would be kicking them.
A few minutes later, Mario was wearing a red shell, Lincoln was wearing an orange shell, Lily was wearing a lavender shell, and Lisa was wearing a green shell.
They decided to visit Kent C. Koopa again.
"Huh? Are you members of the Koopa Troop? Go on ahead." said Kent C. Koopa.
Lincoln noted that Kent C. Koopa lived up to his name.
Immediately, they entered the fortress where they were spotted by Green Ninjakoopa.
He let out a gasp.
"Oh no! It's Mario and his buddy Lincoln! He must be here for the Star Spirit!" bellowed the astonished Ninjakoopa.
"Well, I guess we don't need these shells anymore." noted Lincoln.
Immediately, he put the shells in his bag.
Green Ninjakoopa whistled and a Spinia and two Koopa Troopas appeared.
"Get them!" exclaimed the Green Ninjakoopa.
Lincoln was a bit confused to see a Spinia, since they were in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door instead of Paper Mario.
And speaking of confusion...
The Spinia spun around Mario, making him feel confused.
When he attempted to attack, he simply fell on his face.
The Koopa Troopas laughed.
The Spinia attempted to do the same with Lisa.
However, nothing happened.
"What the-" exclaimed the Koopa Troopas.
"I guess Lisa can't be confused..." noted Lincoln. She comprehended a lot of things.
Lisa sighed in relief, though she wondered how she was going to fight back against the Koopa Troopas.
Suddenly, one of the Koopas began to float in the air.
"I'm flying! Wait, since when was I a Parakoopa?" questioned the Koopa Troopa. It took some time before a Koopa could get their wings.
Lisa wondered what was going on. Was this her doing?
She decided to try lifting the other Koopa as well.
"What happened to the gravity?" questioned the other Koopa.
"Hmm, it appears that thanks to my advanced mind...and the fact that I'm inside a video game, I've developed telekinesis. Interesting...maybe I can experiment with this." noted Lisa.
"Maybe you can try slamming the two Koopas into each other." suggested Goombario.
"Not a bad idea..." nodded the bespectacled girl.
Immediately, she did just that, knocking the two Koopas together.
They were both knocked down.
"Well, that went well." remarked Lisa.
Suddenly, the Spinia spun right towards her.
"Huh?" asked the girl.
Fortunately, Lily intervened and splashed the Spinia with milk.
Much like the Koopa Troopas earlier, this impeded the Spinia's spinning and it fell down.
At that very moment, Mario snapped out of confusion.
He then whacked the Spinia with a hammer, finishing the job.
Unfortunately, it appeared that they had lost the element of surprise, as Green Ninjakoopa had run away to alert the others.
It looked like they were going to have to get ready for a fight.
Meanwhile, on the top of the fortress, Red Ninjakoopa had already informed Larry Koopa the bad news.
"Mario and Lincoln broke into our fortress!" exclaimed Red Ninjakoopa.
"It appears that the Fuzzies weren't up to the task of keeping them out like I thought..." remarked Larry Koopa.
"He must be here for the first Star Spirit!" realized Red Ninjakoopa. Fortunately for Bowser, Mario was not aware of where the other Star Spirits were being held at the moment, though it was still bad news that he knew where one of them was regardless.
"Yes, which is why we have to make sure that Mario and Lincoln don't get their hands on it. Fortunately, it appears that Mario hasn't rescued any Star Spirits yet, so things are looking good for us." noted Larry. The more Star Spirits he obtained, the more power that they would grant him.
"We're still not taking any chances. I'm deploying the Bob-Ombs!" bellowed the leader of the Ninjakoopas.
"Try not to blow up the whole fortress!" warned Larry Koopa.
Speaking of Bob-Ombs, he had noticed that several of them were inside the dungeon. What was going on there? There were also two different girls who inexplicably resembled each other.
Below, Mario, Lincoln, and company discovered Yellow Ninjakoopa.
He noticed their presence as well, and he had brought some friends of his.
"Get them!" exclaimed Yellow Ninjakoopa.
Immediately, he sent out his Parakoopa minions. Goombario noted the similarities between them and Paragoombas.
"You know, I wonder what it would be like to have wings." remarked Kooper.
"Don't you already have a shell?" questioned Goombario. Kooper probably wouldn't have decent defense without it.
"True." nodded the Koopa with a blue shell. The incident with Fuzzies made it rather apparent that they couldn't take their shells for granted. Maybe that Koopa selling shells outside had the right idea.
Suddenly, one of the Parakoopas crashed into the other.
"Ow!" exclaimed the Parakoopa.
"Have you forgotten your training already?" questioned Yellow Ninjakoopa. He thought his loyal Koopa minions were more competent than that.
"I couldn't help it! It felt like someone was grabbing onto me!" exclaimed the Parakoopa.
Undoubtedly, the Parakoopas were falling victim to Lisa's telekinesis.
Kooper tried hitting the Parakoopas, but unfortunately they flew right over his shell.
"Aww..." complained Kooper. Now he REALLY wished that he had wings.
"I guess you better leave hitting flying enemies to me." suggested Goombario.
Fortunately for Lincoln, hitting flying enemies was not a problem at all, since he was capable of flying himself.
Immediately, he karate chopped the two Parakoopas from midair.
They lost their wings and ended up landing on their backs so that they couldn't get back up.
"Don't you hate it when that happens?" questioned Kooper.
Mario shrugged. He didn't have a shell.
Fortunately for Kooper, this gave him a good opportunity to strike.
Wasting no time, Kooper rammed into both Koopas with his shell.
As a reward, they got Star Points.
With both of his Parakoopas now unconscious on the floor, Yellow Ninjakoopa decided to change tactics.
"There goes my loyal minions, well, their sacrifice won't be in vain." noted the Koopa who wore a yellow bandana.
Immediately, he pulled out a key and tossed it on the other side of a jail cell.
"You'll never get it back now! Good luck unlocking the door without this!" exclaimed Yellow Ninjakoopa.
Nearby, there was a locked door.
However, just because Lisa couldn't reach the key didn't mean she couldn't grab it.
Immediately, she used her psychic powers to grab onto it.
It flew directly towards her hand.
"What the-how did you do it? Dang it! You must have telekinesis or something!" exclaimed the Koopa Troopa.
Quickly, he ran away.
"Looks like he's not going to stick around for a fight...at least not yet." noted Goombario.
Since Yellow Ninjakoopa had retreated, Lisa decided to unlock the door.
On the other side was Black Ninjakoopa and some Bob-Ombs.
"Take one step and you'll be sorry, Mario and Lincoln!" exclaimed Black Ninjakoopa.
"Careful! Bob-Ombs are explosive!" warned Goombario.
Immediately, the Bob-Ombs lit their fuses.
Lisa attempted to lift one of the Bob-Ombs...but it exploded and she lost her concentration.
"Darn it! I can't focus with all these explosions!" bellowed Lisa.
A Bob-Omb went up to Mario and exploded in his face, causing him to be covered with smoke.
Fortunately, he was alright, though admittedly the Bob-Ombs packed a punch.
"There's got to be something we can do about those fuses..." noted Lincoln. If the Bob-Ombs kept up those explosions, there was no way they were getting through.
And they couldn't simply use Lisa to use her telekinesis to knock the Bob-Ombs away, since they exploded loudly. Basically they had a problem.
Fortunately, Lily had a solution to that.
Immediatrly, she used her milk bottle to put out the Bob-Omb's fuses.
The Bob-Ombs gasped in shock. How were they going to explode now?
Black Ninjakoopa looked surprised as well.
Seizing their opportunity, Mario jumped on top of the Bob-Ombs.
They immediately retreated, giving up Star Points.
This time, Lisa leveled up.
As a reward for leveling, she could now use another one of her inventions for fighting.
It was an old Duck Hunt zapper gun.
It seemed appropriate since Duck Hunt had been packaged with Suoer Mario Brothers in the very distant past.
Immediately, she used it to shoot electricity at Black Ninjakoopa.
Black Ninjakoopa gasped and decided to retreat.
"I'm off to the top of the fortress!" exclaimed Black Ninjakoopa.
"You sure like electricity, don't you?" asked Goombario.
"As a matter of fact, I do." nodded Lisa.
Afterwards, they continued their way towards the roof. Apparently the Koopa Bros had stored the Star Spirit somewhere around there.
However, Red Ninjakoopa had come up with a way to keep Mario and Lincoln out.
"Ready for some barbecue, Mario and Lincoln?" asked Red Ninjakoopa.
Unfortunately, there were some Firebars up ahead. They all looked rather hot. At least they could make some delicious marshmallows.
"Careful Mario and Lincoln. I don't want any of us getting burned by those." noted Goombario.
Lily pulled out her milk bottle.
"Then again, maybe we don't have to." remarked Kooper.
Immediately, she used it to put out the Firebars.
Red Ninjakoopa's eyes widened in shock.
"Why aren't our defenses working? I'm going to the roof!" exclaimed Red Ninjakoopa.
Quickly, the leader of the Koopa Bros. retreated.
However, on the way there, he encountered Larry Koopa.
"What's the matter?" asked Larry Koopa.
"It's Mario and Lincoln! Mario's partners and Lincoln's sisters are wrecking our defenses!" exclaimed Red Ninjakoopa.
"Relax. I have a plan that will solve everything." explained the Koopaling.
Immediately, he used his wand to create a question block above an innocent-looking platform.
"How will that help?" asked Red Ninjakoopa.
"Just wait until Mario and Lincoln show up..." answered Larry.
At that very moment, Mario and Lincoln (along with Mario's partners and Lincoln's sisters) came in through the door.
Red Ninjakoopa and Larry Koopa quickly hid.
As soon as they noticed the question block, Mario hit it.
Much to his surprise, nothing came out.
At that very moment, the floor collapsed, sending Mario, his partners, Lincoln, and his sisters falling down.
"Aah!" exclaimed Lincoln.
"Wah!" cried Lily.
"I wish that I had wings more than ever!" bellowed Kooper.
"I wish I were a Paragoomba!" exclaimed Goombario.
Immediately, they landed inside a jail cell.
The four Ninjakoopas and Larry showed up to taunt them.
"Enjoy your stay in prison!" exclaimed Larry.
"You'll never get the Star Spirit now!" taunted Red Ninjakoopa.
"In your face!" sneered Green Ninjakoopa.
"Let's go read some comic books, shall we?" asked Yellow Ninjakoopa.
"Sounds good to me!" exclaimed Black Ninjakoopa.
The five Koopas left, laughing all the while.
"How are we going to get out of here?" asked Lincoln, grabbing the bars.
Well, this seemed like a good stopping point. I figured I would end it on a cliffhanger.
In the next chapter, Mario is going to get a new ally and Lincoln is going to find two more of his sisters. That makes four. After that, it's off to visit the Koopa Bros themselves!