Chapter 10 The Darkness Within

"Is he going to be okay?" Morton asked.

Iggy, Morton, and WIggles were in the lab, and Wiggles was lying back down on one of the exam tables. Iggy had a stethoscope in his ears and was listening to Wiggles' tummy.

"He will be," Iggy said as he took the stethoscope out of his ears. He ducked into the storage area in the back of the room. About two minute later, he came out with a bottle of blue pills in hand. "As soon as we give him one of these."

"What are those?" Morton asked.

"They are a pill of my invention," Iggy said as he uncapped the bottle. "Their formula will be able to help Wiggles recover from his food borne illness."

Iggy held out the pill to Wiggles. The chain chomp puppy weakly sniffed it before taking it. He swallowed it in one gulp, much to Iggy's relief. He had interacted with a plethora of chomps who had belligerently refused to take the pill. Morton stared at his puppy, a hint of concern leaking from his eyes.

"How long until it kicks in?" he asked.

"It should take a few minutes," Iggy said. "Now, I advise you to be cautious around him. Make sure that he consumes plenty of water, as he will experience dehydration pretty quickly on this medication. Once it kicks in, he will also undergo hyperactivity."

Morton nodded.

"I promise that I will be extra careful," he said. He gave Iggy a smile. Considering that he hadn't smiled in a long time, the expression looked rather forced. Fortunately, it was a step in the right direction. Iggy smiled back.

"I know you will."

There was a brief moment of awkward silence as Morton hesitated over what to do next. Then Morton put his hand on Iggy's shoulder, patting it lovingly.

"Thanks for your help, Iggster."

"Anytime, bud," Iggy replied. Morton made his way to the staircase that would take him out of the lab. It wasn't until he was halfway up that he noticed that Iggy had his personality splitter in his hand. Morton went back down with interest and concern.

"You okay, Iggy?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh yeah," Iggy said. He placed the device on the table. "Just lost in thought, that's all."

Morton snickered. Iggy looked at him in confusion.

"What component of my statement did you find to be comedic?"

Morton shook his head with a smile.

"Nothing." He then set Wiggles down on the lab floor and picked up the device. "I've gotta say, this thing is really cool."

Iggy beamed with pleasure and pride.

"Thank you," he said. He took the device away from Morton and started to examine it. "I put a lot of time into it."

"You really care about me that much, huh?" Morton asked.

Iggy nodded.

"I do." Then he sighed. "I have got to admit, I was not anticipating it to work. But now that it does…"

Iggy's voice trailed off. Morton looked at him with curiosity.

"What is it?"

"It's nothing," Iggy said with a chuckle. Morton raised an eyebrow.

"Iggy, you said you want me to be more open about my feelings, right? Well, why can't you do the same?"

Iggy looked into Morton's eyes, noticing the glaring look that they were portraying.

"Okay," Iggy finally said. "I was just thinking about how much power that rests within this device." Iggy picked his invention off of the table and started stroking the silver surface of the handle. "With this much power, who knows what I could be capable of?"

Morton could hear a sense of greed enter into Iggy's tone, making his skin crawl.

"Iggy…"

"Imagine what could happen if I could isolate the best traits of everyone else," he said, completely disregarding Morton's presence now. "Imagine how much stronger we would be."

"Iggy!"

Iggy seemed to snap out of his trance. He stared at Morton, his face covered in embarrassment.

"I apologize," he said quietly. "I didn't mean to freak you out; it was just a thought I had."

"It's fine, Iggy," morton said. Iggy still looked a little unsure.

"You know I would never do that, right? I mean, it's not at all ethical in the slightest; taking advantage of someone like that."

Morton nodded in agreement.

"You're right. You're absolutely right."

Iggy looked back down at the device.

"Maybe I should just put this away," he said nervously.

With that, Iggy started to make his way to the storage closet again. He didn't get very far though, as he heard a bark escape from Wiggles' mouth. Iggy stared at the chain chomp as he started to bounce up and down.

"What's going on?" Morton asked.

"It appears that the pills have finally kicked in," Iggy said He took a step forward, and Morton put his hand on Wiggles' head.

"Okay buddy, try to calm down,' Morton said to WIggles with a gentle inflection.

Morton picked the chomp up and held him in his arms. For a second, Wiggles remained perfectly still. Then he started wiggle and squirm, and with a series of excited barks he jumped out of Morton's arms. He started to racing around the lab at top speed.

"Wiggles, sit!" Morton said.

Wiggles didn't listen, he just continued with his merry romp. He was going so fast that when he made his way over to Iggy, Iggy did not have nearly enough time to move out of the way. Wiggles bumped into him, causing Iggy to drop the personality splitter. It landed on the button engraved with the number two, and when it did a light shot out in Iggy's direction. Iggy screamed as the light overtook him.

"IGGY!" Morton cried once the light cleared. He saw ran over to his elder brother, who was groaning on the floor. "Are you alright?"

"I...I think so," Iggy said as he rubbed his head. He started to stand up, and when he did he gasped. He looked absolutely terrified.

"What is it, Iggy? What's the matter?" Morton asked.

Iggy pointed across the room.

"That's me!" he cried.

Morton looked over where Iggy was pointing and gasped. There was another Iggy standing on the other side of the room. Unlike the real Iggy, this one had an emerald green mohawk and shell. He grinned evilly at the two Koopalings.

"Oh man," he said, "it feels so nice to be free." He sneered at the real Iggy. "Now I can finally do whatever I want with that device!" Iggy gawked.

"Oh my developer. That must be my dark side!"

Dark Iggy ran forward and snatched the device off the floor. He cackled maniacally as he aimed it at Wiggles. He pressed the button, and suddenly there were two Wiggles in the room. One of them had a red sheen and red eyes, and he was growling at Morton and Iggy. Dark Iggy grinned.

"Just what I need," he said. He grabbed dark Wiggles by the chain and started making his way out of the lab.

"Wait!" Iggy called. He ran forward, and was just about to ram into his dark self when Dark Iggy turned to him. He pulled out a hospital mask and a little tear shaped pod from his hammerspace.

"This is for your own good, Iggy."

He dropped the pod after putting on the mask. A dark blue mist filled the room; a sleeping draft. Iggy and Morton could only watch Dark Iggy leave the room as their sleepiness overtook them.

…

Iggy woke up with a start. He looked to his side and saw Morton and Wiggles.

"Morton!" he got up and shook his brother awake.

"Wha..what happened?" Morton groaned.

"My dark side got away," Iggy said. He noticed that sunlight was starting to filter in through the window. "And it's morning!"

Morton's eyes grew wide.

"Oh no! Your dark side is probably going to use the machine on everyone else!"

Iggy nodded in worry.

"We have to stop him!"