The Summoning Revealed

-o-

Location: Bowser's Castle in the Darklands, Iggy's Lab

Four days before the assault of Star Haven, Ludwig, dressed in a clean lab coat, is in Iggy's lab, finishing an experiment. Iggy casually walks into his laboratory.

"Luddy, there you are! Don Albino said the Master wanted to speak to us…"

He sees that Ludwig is still immersed in his work. He looks to the left and finds two unconscious Goombas strapped to the wall, at the mercy of a fully charged laser gun pointed at them, ready to be fired at a press of a button. He looks right and finds a pile of Dry Bones' bones, littering the floor, another laser gun hovering over them. They didn't budge at all.

Suddenly, Iggy's right eye become twitchy, and he starts tapping his left foot rapidly. Without having to look, Ludwig pulls an ADHD pill from his lab coat pocket and flicks it into Iggy's throat. Iggy returns to his calmer self after a few seconds. He scratches his head and juts his mouth to the left after he clears his throat.

"Luddy, what exactly are you doing in my lab, when you got yours?"

Ludwig finished what he was doing, and calmly turns, holding a remote on his left hand. He grins as he replies boastfully, "It is fortunate that I possess you, an eccentric lunatic, for a sibling. Not only is this your laboratory better equipped and suited for rather unorthodox and unfathomable analyses and experiments, I can also realize my wildest dreams without risking the destruction of my treasured work and valuables. Under the oppression of our former leader, this transcending deed would have been all but left to rot in the 'if I care to do this later' list."

"So, what is this 'deed' you show off about?"

Ludwig turns back and chuckles; he looks back at his brother. "Oh, curious, are we? Come; I shall enlighten you."

As Iggy steps closer to his brother, Ludwig pressed a large red button on the remote, prompting a red beam of light to shoot at the Goombas, slowly fading them into the light. The other laser gun hovering over the pile of bones began shining a bright yellow hue. Ludwig pulls out a pair of welding goggles, sneering while pressing a green button located next to the red one. He wears them as the light reaches its climax.

A yellow light blasts the lifeless pile of Dry Bones' bones. The piles of bones slowly become red from the heat. Lots of static and smoke emit from the epicenter, and walls of air caused by this explosion of energy constantly pushes back at everything in the room. Iggy covers his face from the strong gusts and bright light, as Ludwig stares at his experiment with much pride.

The beam stops firing after a minute, and is steaming hot, evidenced by its red ember-like hue. The area where the Dry Bones rested became covered in smoke. When it clears, the pile of Dry Bones seemed to be unaffected except for a sizzling sound. Iggy disappointingly glares back at a content Ludwig, who is taking off his dark goggles.

"Wowie, a dud!" Iggy retorts sarcastically.

Ludwig furrows his brows, and slyly grins back at his skeptical brother. He lifted his left arm, lightning emitting from it.

"Summon a pair of Koopatrols, if you will."

Iggy shrugs and complies. While he takes out his wand and flails it to conjure a couple of creatures, Ludwig floats his electrified left hand over the bones. Strands of his lightning power lunged down at the pile, causing another disturbance, though not as strong as the first. As the air blows Ludwig's hair back, he slowly grins, gradually exposing more of his Koopa teeth.

Little by little, the bones float and pop themselves into their sockets, and after a while, the head rests itself on top of its shoulders, finally forming two complete Dry Bones. After they fully form, a dark blue light shines from their eye sockets. Ludwig adds his now electrified right hand.

As soon as Iggy summoned two Koopatrols by means of his scepter, Ludwig eagerly utters, preparing his Dry Bones puppets, "Stand aside, Iggy. You two, let us commence our sparring. En guardé!"

Both Koopatrols retract into their shells and perform a Shell Toss at the bony Koopa puppets. Ludwig thrusts his arms forward; the Dry Bones grow a pair of fossilized wings each and launch at the incoming spiky armored Koopas. They pull back their dry heads and head butt the Koopatrols.

A bone breaking crack echoes in the lab… Iggy became wide-mouthed…

Both armored Koopas spin back defeated and bruised, unconscious from the sparring. Their hard armor was pulverized by the Dry Bones' heads, and their shells meet the same fate. Ludwig arrogantly sneers and shows off his Dry Bone puppets without even a hint of a scratch on their skulls.

"Ah, yes! A far more superior outcome that anticipated!"

Iggy quickly recovers from his mute astonishment. He stammers as he shakes his head, "Uh-uh-uh… Luddy! Th-that was incredible!"

"Naturally," replies the older Koopaling, still controlling his puppets, "With this atomizer ray, I… disintegrated, if you will, out little, shall we call them, guinea pigs. And, at the cost of using up the entirety of the test subjects' corpus, I funneled the headbonking powers of Goombas into the Dry Bones' delicate craniums with my infuser ray, forging a stronger, but mindless warrior."

Ludwig crosses his arms and closes his eyes. Lightning stops flowing from his hands, causing the Dry Bones to fall and clack on the floor, revealing their lifeless state once more. Ludwig cocks his head to the side, and looks at his tall sibling.

"You said the Master wanted a word with us. He can surely wait. I must endeavor this on a fallen dragon, one defeated long ago by Mario, at Barrel Volcano. Once I can repeat my results on an even more formidable creature, not even that Albino dog will a word to tell me, and the Master will be pleased that I, Ludwig von Koopa, have furthered his cause upon this wretched world."

He chuckles, but doesn't exaggerate like a madman. Iggy smiles as well, and rubs his chin.

"I love that mischievous look, Iggy. But that must also wait. Bring Larry over and have him shrink the apparatus, and both of you, depart with me." He maliciously grins. "Let us voyage to Barrel Volcano."

…

Back in current time, at Star Haven...

Ludwig is standing on top of Zombone, the zombie remains of the Czar Dragon of Barrel Volcano. He holds onto the lifeless dragon with the lightning strands from his fingertips, and just about finished his Boulder attack. The seven star spirits lay across the destroyed sanctuary defeated. The ceiling had completely collapsed and there no longer was any trace the central pedestal. Wendy stood afar, flailing her scepter, while Bowser Jr. walked in, shrinking from his Giga form back to normal. As soon as he shinks back to normal, Bowser Jr. collapses next to Wendy.

"And here I contemplated a real challenge," Ludwig pompously boasted, "And everyone says they wish upon the stars. You can't even save yourselves!"

He motions to both Wendy and Bowser Jr. to make their moves. Wendy looks down at Bowser Jr., and nudges him with her foot. He lazily gets up, pulls out his paintbrush and runs toward the star spirits, Wendy launches a barrage of golden rings at all seven spirits. The rings pinned down the star spirits by their star waists. Bowser Jr. soon after paints a rectangular design on top of all the spirits. Just then, Lemmy, Don Albino and the other two returned from their mission.

"I sssee you've done sssuc-cccesssfully," one said.

"Zombone, huh? Now that is some impressive piece of work you've done, Wiseguy," adds Don Albino.

Ludwig looks at them and nonchalantly replies, "I surmise you demolished the entirety of Star Road and appropriated the seven pieces."

"Of course, Ludwig," interjects Lemmy with his deep voice. He looks toward the charred and painted star spirits, his eyes completely veiled by a blue light. "I see. I'll seal them off like Kammy did a while back."

Lemmy, with his wand on his right hand, flicks his right wrist. A fine dust pours over the fallen star spirits, turning the paint into a card, sealing them all.

When that finished, Iggy's crazy cackling is heard at the distance, along Larry's childish ranting; they arrive simultaneously. The four-winged Roy arrives next, and stomp lands while admiring the destruction approvingly. He tosses Kooper onto the rubble, Larry following suit with Goombario. Bahamutt holds onto Parakarry as Iggy continues to laugh manically.

"With this," Lemmy continues, "Wishes won't get in our Master's way. And Ludwig, your test subjects are already here. Can't wait to see what you'll do next."

However they could, they all fly back to Bowser's castle.

-o-

The assault to Star Haven and Star Road ends. Next time: Yoshi in Sarasaland.