Chapter 6 Splitting the Personality

The first thing that fell upon Iggy's ears was a bird chirping. It sounded sweet, innocent. It sounded so serene that Iggy swore that it was part of his dream. That is until he opened his eyes. He stared out the window and saw a gorgeous white bird. It eyed him curiously until he he flipped his head to the side, then it flew away.

Iggy realized that the bird was a morning dove. As their name implied, morning doves only came out and sang when the sun was going to rise. Iggy took a glance at the clock on the mantle and saw that it was 6:30 am.

How long was I asleep? He wondered. He reasoned that it had been about eighteen hours, as his siblings had taken him to his room around noon time. He yawned and sat up. As he stretched, he gratefully noticed how awake he actually felt. Before, he had been so sleep deprived that his eyelids weighed him down, creating the illusion that he was underwater. It had not at all been a pleasant feeling, and what had made it worse was that Iggy now realized that it had affected his ability to think logically.

Iggy got up and slowly made his to the common room in the first floor hallway. He felt shame grip him as his reasoning was restored. He needed to thank the others. He needed to apologize to them too.

"Hey," he said to his siblings when he entered the common room. Roy, Larry, Wendy, Ludwig, and Lemmy all ceased with their activities and went up to their bespectacled brother. Each and everyone of them bore expressions of concern.

"How do you feel?" asked Wendy.

"Substantially better," Iggy replied. "What day is it, anyway?"

"The next," said Ludwig. Iggy chuckled.

"I knew it." He sighed, shame and guilt starting to suck away all other emotions on his face. "Guys, I am so sorry."

"It's okay, Iggy," said Lemmy. He smiled. "It was just a lapse of judgement. We all have them."

"Especially me," Roy said. "And your judgement calls weren't nearly as bad as some of mine, so you don't have to worry, Iggster."

Iggy didn't know how to respond, so he opted to hang his head. As he looked down at the ground, he could feel the gaze of his siblings boring into his skull.

"What's the matter, Iggster?" Larry said as he forced himself into Iggy's view.

"I just...I believe that you guys were right. My lack of sleep was causing my judgment and my reasoning to become cloudy. I think...I need to figure out a method which I can put the personality back together before I can use it on a koopa."

"That's a good idea," Ludwig said with a nod of approval. Then he adopted a curious expression. "By the way, how many times have you tested the device?"

Iggy chuckled sheepishly.

"Well...once."

The others opened their mouths. Assuming that they were going to criticize him, Iggy stopped them from speaking.

"Wait wait wait! Look, I know; it was stupid. But don't worry. I am going to perform more tests. I am also going to ask Morton's permission before I perform the procedure on him."

The faces of the other Koopalings began to soften.

"That's good, Iggy," Wendy said. "That will be able to keep Morton more safe."

Iggy smiled.

"Well, that is my ultimate goal."

…

It had been a month since Morton's siblings had barged into his room. Much to his relief, they hadn't expressed any more of their worries, at least not to his face. Unfortunately, because of this, he hadn't been able to express some of his own worries.

For example, he was worried about Wiggles being sick.

Wiggles had broken his way into Morton's snack bin. He had eaten everything, including the chocolate. Morton had been by his side as he was throwing up, but unfortunately, that was all he had been able to do over the past five hours.

Morton was crying as he looked at Wiggles. Wiggles weakly lifted his head, his eyes glimmering with love for his owner. Morton stroked him on the head.

"What can I do?" he asked.

Of course, he knew what he had to do; go to Iggy. While Iggy mainly worked with chemistry, he did know a thing or two about animals. But Morton couldn't go to Iggy. Morton's brother was one of the most intelligent koopas of all time, and Morton couldn't go to him.

"It's gonna be okay, Wiggles," Morton said. He chuckled. "Let this be a lesson to never eat my snacks."

The joke fell flat, as Morton knew it would. He was talking to a sick chain chomp puppy, after all. Morton gently picked up Wiggles and held him in an embrace. He was just about to start evaluating his possible options when his siblings entered the room.

"Guys!" Morton said as he put Wiggles back in his dog bed. He was too worried to put on his stoic face. "What are you…"

"Morton, we're here to help you," Iggy said as he approached Morton. He had a bag strapped over his left shoulder, and out of it he pulled the device he had been working on. Morton sighed.

"Iggy…"

"Just listen to me," Iggy interrupted. He displayed the device to Morton, who eyed it skeptically. "This device will allow me to split you up into the five core parts of your personality. This procedure is one hundred percent reversible and one hundred safe. If you allow me to do this, it will allow me to see the problem that you have and put me on the road to fixing it. So, what do you say?"

Morton looked back and forth between Iggy and the device. Then he held his gaze on Iggy. He noticed that his brother looked determined to use his invention.

"Iggy, I don't need your help," he said softly.

"Except that you do!" Iggy's expression shifted to one of concern. There was also a hint of fright and worry on his face as well. "Morton, you have been hiding your true feelings. I don't believe even you would deny that. If you continue doing this to yourself, you could very heavily damage your psyche. Please Morton; please let me help you!"

Morton looked into Iggy's eyes. He felt his own start to water, and he felt his heart break.

He's doing this for me," he thought. He's upset because of me. Morton sniffled and dried a tear from his eye.

"Okay," he said softly.

Iggy smiled.

"Thanks, Morton," he said. Iggy aimed the device at Morton and pressed the button with the number five engraved on it. A light shot out of the comet piece, and when it cleared there were five Mortons in the room. Each one had a different color starbite and shell.

"Woah!" Larry exclaimed.

"Cool!" Roy shouted excitedly. The Morton with a yellow starbite and shell came over to them.

"Hi guys! How are you today?"

"We're great!" said Roy as he slapped this Morton on the back happily. "How are you doing, buddy?"

"Great, superb, fantastic, AWESOME!" The yellow Morton exclaimed. "I feel free as a bird! I am on cloud nine! You know, I always wondered where Cloud Nine is. Is it in some sort of fantasy realm? And what happened to the other eight clouds? Did they get blown away by a wind? Did they turn to rain clouds? Did someone steal them?"

Roy snorted back a laugh.

"Iggy, I think we can call this one the chatty Morton," he said. Iggy nodded in agreement.

"That appears to be correct," he said. Morton's chattiness continued to yap away.

"Hey Ludwig, do you like dachshunds? Because I am thinking of getting one. Oh hey, Lemmy, when was the last time you saw a rainbow?"

"Okay, okay, that's enough." The Morton with a white starbite and shell went over to Chattiness. He had a stern expression on his face. "We don't want to overwhelm anybody."

Chattiness chuckled sheepishly. Lemmy looked toward Iggy.

"Which Morton do you think this is?" he asked.

"Hmm," he said. "I'm guessing...the ethical center?"

The white Morton nodded at Iggy.

"That is correct," he said. Then everyone turned to the orange Morton as he groaned in the bed.

"I don't want to get up," he said groggily. "It's too early."

"It's five pm!" said Wendy.

"Oh," said the orange Morton. Then he let out a yawn. "Well then I guess it's too late."

He leaned back and started snoring. As he did this, the purple shelled Morton came up to Iggy.

"I feel like making something for dinner tonight," he said. "I was think of maybe a tortellini dish? With some fresh pesto and mozzarella; you know, to give it character."

Iggy nodded in affirmation. Then he looked around the room at the five Morton's.

"Okay," he said. "Let's see if I got this down. Yellow is chattiness…"

"Correctamundo!" said Chattiness.

"White is the ethical center…"

The Ethical Center nodded. Iggy turned and looked at the orange Morton in the bed.

"Orange is laziness…"

Laziness let out another earth rattling snore. Ethical Center sighed in frustration and went over. He started shaking Laziness, trying to get him out of bed.

"Purple is love for food…" Iggy continued.

"Yes," the purple Morton said with a nod.. Iggy then turned to the one Morton he hadn't spoken to yet. This one had a blue shell, and he was leaning over Wiggles in a sad fashion.

"I'm so sorry, Wiggles," he said miserably. "This is all my fault."

Iggy stared at the blue Morton. This wasn't what he thought it was, was it?

"Who are you?" he asked. The blue Morton looked up at him.

"My name…" He hesitated then let out a sigh. "Oh, what's the point. You would probably forget my name, anyway. It's not like I'm important."

Iggy was shocked. The other Koopalings were just as taken aback.

"Woah," said Wendy.

"Looks like we found the problem," said Ludwig. Iggy himself was heartbroken.

"Morton...err uh, Depression," he said hesitantly. "Why are you…?"

"He's fine," said the Ethical Center. He went up and put his hand on Iggy's shoulder. "Iggy, you don't have to worry about him."

"But…"

"Iggy." The Ethical Center looked at Iggy lovingly as Depression pet his sick puppy. "I can handle this on my own."

Iggy looked between Morton's five traits. He didn't know what to do. But he did know that he had to help Morton. While he did find the problem, he knew his mission wasn't complete. He had to find the cause of Morton's depression; he had to find the root.