-o-

Moon Over the Jail Ruins

Location: Jail ruins in Desert Hill

…

The moon emits a melancholic glimmer, illuminating the result of vicious battle between Lemmy and Hitatsu the Fire Brother Koopa. Except for a few undamaged buildings, the entire penitentiary has been demolished. Surprisingly, it is devoid of bodies, as the warden had ordered that any one that was injured to be taken to one of the undamaged buildings and for anyone that wasn't accounted for to be rescued from under the rubble.

The doogan warden guards the undamaged buildings himself with his lightning powers from any stray attack launched from the heated battle between the bewitched Koopaling and the Fire Brother that had raged on before him for the 2 hours. Out of the blue, it quieted, and no further movements can be seen. Just as suddenly, a rugged Toad soldier appears next to him with the latest news.

"Warden Leroy, sir! We have everyone accounted for except for the vice warden and Koopses. We have checked everywhere we could, sir, but considering the safety of the injured we kept finding, we thought it would be too risky to postpone any treatment on those we already rescued."

Warden Leroy is taken aback. 'That fool! Where is he hiding now? He's never there when needed. And who the heck's Koopses? Must've been that fat, pharaoh-looking Koopa.' He gives the soldier stern glare. "Have you contacted the king yet?"

"Yes, sir! The royal guard is set to arrive in about ten to fifteen minutes."

"Excellent. You're dismissed. As for that Tanuki, I'll look for him myself."

Just as soon as the soldier leaves, a shadowy figure of a three headed serpent with wings lands near the petite Koopaling. The warden narrows his eyes at the three, and dashes towards the location of his foes.

…

Meanwhile at the demolished jail entrance, Lemmy flips Hitatsu over with his right foot and lightly steps on the beaten Fire Bro.'s chest. Parts of his rainbow Mohawk and shell are singed, and he also has light scratches and bruises, but overall, he is alright. Hitatsu, on the other hand, is shivering and is close to having hypothermia, his right eye is bruised, and one of his legs is injured enough that he can't run.

"We had a deal, didn't we?" inquired Lemmy. Just then, Slyklyde, the Tryklyde look-alike, arrives, also looking down at the injured Koopa. "All we asked for was a shark and a fruit, and in return, we'd give gold to heart's content. Yet, all we can account for is a bunch of excuses."

Hitatsu gasps amidst violent shivering, "I can assure you… There… were… these ninjas… who broke into the jail… they did it, dude! They broke out of the jail… with the shark pirate. I can even tell you… what kind of creatures… took him."

"Ixx that xxo?" asks Slyklyde.

"Yes, dude. The shorty dude may even recognize one of them; he was known as the Scourge of Desert Hill when he took over years ago. A dark skinned, humongous…" but he doesn't finish, as Lemmy kicks him his ribcage.

"That waxxx an interexxxting xxxtory," argues Slyklyde. "But I guexxxx we really have no time to waxxxte."

"You know, it's hard to understand you with those x's," interjects Lemmy, a bit annoyed. "Can't you speak normally?" He scoffs. "It doesn't matter, though. We're taking you with us, just like we originally intended. So you be a good Koopa, and come with us."

"I think not," says a gruff voice, catching both Slyklyde and Lemmy off guard. The Doogan warden has finally reached them and punches Slyklyde in his belly with a lightning punch, pushing him back about 3 meters. Just as quickly, he regurgitates the lardy Tootankoopa look-alike, who is unconscious, nearly naked, and covered in black tar. "Well, I found Koopses. Now, to take you both out…"

As soon as he finished talking, he charges at the Tryclyde palette swap with a fury of lightning punches, who then counters by sprouting his wings and taking flight, and later swoops in, spitting tar at the warden. The doogan warden's punches melt the tar away, yet he can not land any hits on Slyklyde.

"Where is Tanuki?" Leroy asks, only to be responded with more tar.

While their scuffle takes place, Hitatsu stands and musters all of his strength to make one final attack on Lemmy, lighting up his fist in blue flame. Lemmy scoffs again and summons a dodge ball with his scepter, flipping acrobatically and kicking it into the Fire Bros' face. Hitatsu falls on his back, completely powerless. The petite Koopaling flails his scepter and concentrates a lot of icy energy at its tip, but being one of the slowest amongst his siblings, it takes a while to build up.

"Don't worry, you need to be alive, so just lay there and relax; it may sting a bit."

"So, dude, we've been had from the get-go?"

Lemmy sneers. "Bingo! We just needed the right fool who'd do the dirty work for us. So thank you for choosing the Koopaling express."

Draco suddenly pops out of the rubble and stands next to his partner with the warp ocarina. He is shaking in fear, and his right arm seems injured. Regardless, he places the instrument to his beak.

"One toot to this, and we'll disappear into the wind…"

Lemmy flips over to the Fire Bro and does an acrobatic stunt, kicking the ocarina from his hands. "You talk too much," he retorts. The Koopaling jabs his wand into Draco's belly. "This was meant for your partner, but I do enjoy fireworks. Von voyage!"

Lemmy ice blasts Draco into the distance, swiftly disappearing into a twinkle. Hitatsu stops shaking from the cold, and begins feeling warm as his vision tunnels. Although he's not dying, he begins having regrets about this ordeal.

'Damn, dude… That useless Draco screwed the Poochie big time. I'll get those blorb-filled Koopaling dudes for backstabbing me. This cold… It doesn't bother me anyway…"

Lemmy aims a well placed ice blast at Warden Leroy's hands and yells at Slyklyde, "Party's over. Time to dip!"

The coral snake-colored, winged, triple headed snake flies over to Lemmy, grabbing both the Koopaling and the unconscious Fire Brother before making his escape. Leroy glares angrily at the fleeing criminal as he breaks his hands free from the ice, but when he's about to walk away towards the undamaged jail buildings, a glimmer from the warp ocarina catches his eye. Right when he picks it up, the Royal Guard from Desert Hill arrives. One of them, a Toad guard, jumps off the vehicle as it comes to a full stop and runs toward the doogan warden with a moustache.

"Warden Leroy, sir!"

"Take me to the king A.S.A.P.! I need to report to him myself. Besides that…" He eyes the warp ocarina once more. "I have a serious proposal to make."

…

As Slyklyde makes his way to Bowser's Keep, Lemmy climbs on his partner's back and calls the Master. Iggy replies, while in the background, the whirring of a machine and Wendy's sniffling are heard.

"Kiss me, I'm Irish…"

"Get me the Master, quickly."

"He can hear you. You're on speaker."

Lemmy clears his throat, and continues in his uncharacteristic low voice. "Master, we failed our mission. Jonathan Jones was apparently rescued by a group of ninjas, and these incompetent Fire Bros we hired couldn't find Boo Didley squat about the Bubble fruit."

"I suspect you at least have some good news…" hissed the Master.

"We do; we have one of the Fire Bros."

"Good," replies the Master, "The fruit can wait; we'll have another go at it soon." He chuckles. "Our plans are getting done quicker than expected. The Beanish peasant is almost done for, and with the Fire Brother captured, Phase One is almost complete."

…

Location: Bowser's Castle, in Iggy's laboratory…

Prince Peasley is strapped to the wall in from of a death ray, and is almost absorbed into the Bowser puppet. Only Iggy, Wendy, and one of the Master's minions are in the room along with the Master. Wendy sulks on the floor depressed while Iggy calmly waits for the Beanish prince to completely disintegrate.

"Is my one true love Peasley going to die?" the female Koopaling asks, a tear rolling from her right cheek.

Iggy looks down at his sister. "To put it simply, no. Luddy, however, knows for certain. He did create this system, after all."

When Ludwig is mentioned, Lemmy snaps throw the speaker. "That foolish Goombah! If we must blame our failure on someone, it's him. He left as soon as we blew up the front door!"

The Master ponders silently. "That's rather strange; didn't think he would outright disobey me after swearing complete loyalty. Perhaps I was wrong in giving him too much freedom. Do you know where he went?"

Just then, Iggy receives another call; it's from Ludwig himself. He merges the call right when the whirring of the death ray ceases, and the Beanish prince is finally absorbed into the steaming and lifeless Bowser marionette.

"Kiss me, I'm…"

"Cease your exasperating quip. I need to converse with the Master."

"I'm right here, Ludwig. I need lots of explanation from you. While I appreciate the speed and efforts from all of your work, this mission has been the most disappointing."

"On the contrary, I'd rather say that it was quite successful."

Everyone is silent as the Master continues. "If what Lemmy said is true, there is now a group threatening the success of our plans. This group has the shark, but at least we did capture one of the Fire Brothers."

"As you can see, Lemmy would have been more than capable of dealing with the jail fiasco by himself, despite the inconvenience of having another group interferes with our plans. As for me, I was involved in another aspect of our plan for when we must travel south."

Everyone begins listening closely as Ludwig lies about part of his personal mission.

…

Location: The bright side of the moon…

Ludwig is sitting on top of a defeated Raphael. His left eye is bruised and closed shut, his body is banged up, and streaks of dry blood running from the sides of his mouth. Many of his undead puppets are scattered as far as the eye could see on the moon. Nevertheless, he looks satisfied and is flailing his wand about. He continues to talk communicate with the Master while he conjures a spell on the defeated black bird…

"I arrived to the Isle of Lavalava. I had to deal with drunken Yoshis, but all is well now. I just need to get the jade gem, and I'll be over there in two or three hours. And once we absorb the Fire Bro into the puppet, we can begin mobilizing everyone as per your wishes."

"Ah, I see," replies the Master through the loudspeaker. "Thinking ahead, as always."

"It's precisely why I had to trek on my own to get the Jade Raven, Master. It will only advance your cause on this world. As for the new menace, I'm sure we'll get acquainted soon, and when we do, rest assured they'll get quashed."

Lightning strands leave his hands and connect to the defeated Raphael, who slowly and unconsciously rises in flight. He flails his wand once more and somehow puts his puppet collection away. With that, he flies back down to the Mushroom World, as he goes about to gather the gem.

…

Location: Oasis on the edge of San (III) Lake

It's almost been 2 hours since escaping; our heroes huddle around a campfire set up by Geno. Johnny snores loudly while sleeping near the fire, some bubbles leaving his widely open maw. Yoshi sits on a rotting palm log next to the shark pirate, staring pensively at the fire, Stuffwell 2.0 open at his side. Daisy has climbed up a palm tree behind Yoshi, gathering some desert coconuts.

As Geno inspects their wooden cart won by Yoshi at the costume festival, while the ostros that pulled said cart chase Morton Jr., pecking and kicking at him. The Koopaling made so much noise as he was attacked, that Geno worried it would attract unwanted attention. He quickly herds the four ostros chasing Morton, and stuffs them expertly along with the wooden cart into Stuffwell, closing it shut.

As Daisy descends, she accidentally drops a coconut, landing inside Johnny's mouth. The shark pirate suddenly wakes up, having lost a few teeth from the sudden assail as his jaws instinctively shut, crushing the coconut and spiting out the milk and meaty shell pieces. His tooth gaps are filled in by new teeth. The shark pirate sits up, as the Morton plops next to him, tired from getting chased. Daisy jumps off of the tree, and since the palm tree was bent from Daisy's weight, it rebounds and smacks Yoshi on the head. Yoshi, while rubbing his head, begins the ensuing conversation.

"Daisy, you klutz! Be careful!" His head is red and throbbing and hurt with even the lightest touch.

"Oopsies! Sorry, Yosh. It kinda slipped."

She hands him a coconut. "Here, Yosh." He angrily pouts back as he snatches it from her.

Jonathan Jones spits a few more teeth out. As more teeth fill in the gaps, he looks at everyone. "Arr, harr, harr, mateys. Thank ye for savin' ol' cap'n Johnny."

"Glad we could help," replies Daisy.

"No sweat, Johnny," says Yoshi, "Thankfully we weren't caught too."

"Well, that we all made it out alive is what counts," adds Geno.

"This be a reas'n t' celebrat', mateys. Fetch som' mighty tasty currant juice!"

Geno chuckles nervously. "We're still not out of dodge yet, Johnny. I don't want to jinx it, but even if we had any, it's too early to cry victory."

"Arr, harr, harr! Ye be worryin' t' much, mate! The ol' cap'n will keelhaul any landlubber that try to ransack me mates," Johnny suddenly falls over unconscious; a loud gasp ensues.

"Oh no! Johnny!" exclaims Daisy. "Will he be okay?"

Geno runs over and kneels at the shark's side. "I hope so. If only he was in better condition!"

"What are we supposed to tell Toadsworth, now?" asks Yoshi.

"Just say you ran into a hairy situation," a familiar gruff voice interjects.

Right then, a chill descends upon the heroes on that cold, desert night, as all four look towards the source of the voice. Paralyzed by fear, they see a tan colored doogan in the desert regiment's uniform and a silver crucifix hanging from his neck. A camouflage backpack hangs from his left shoulder.

"Found you," breathes Tanuki the Vice warden as he sneers, revealing his sharp teeth.

-o-

I know! It's a warp whistle, but ocarina sounded better. Also, I know I just named the corpulent Tootankoopa clone. Sue me. :P Anyways, we're almost out of the desert and now into the frying pan. Let's see what happens next.

The title was inspired from the traditional Japanese song, Kojo no Tsuki (translated to Moon over the ruined castle).