Chapter 19 Aggressive Fighting

"Ludwig!"

Iggy saw Lemmy smile profoundly once their brother emerged from the cell in one piece. Lemmy ran up to Ludwig and gave him the mother of all hugs. He looked like he was so full of joy that he could burst with glee and happiness at any moment.

"I am so glad you're back together!" Lemmy gushed.

Ludwig laughed warmly.

"I can say the same for you, Lems."

Lemmy giggled at Ludwig as he wrapped his arms tighter around his midsection. While Iggy loved the sight of the reunion displayed, he also knew that they had some more pressing issues that they needed to attend to before they could celebrate. So, he cleared his throat, and everyone's eyes went over to him.

"I immensely dislike playing the role of a killjoy," Iggy said. "But I'm afraid that we have other pressing matters."

"Oh, right," Lemmy said as he let Ludwig go. "You and Wendy are still split up!"

Iggy nodded seriously, putting on an authoritative face.

"Yes," he said. "And I am afraid that the only way to put us back together is to retrieve the personality splitter from my dark side."

"How would that help?" Morton asked. "The only way that your traits can be put back together is if they find a way to coexist!"

Iggy grinned.

"That is true; that is one way that the personality can be restored. However, contrary to what you said, that is not the only way."

"Yeah," Ludwig said as he turned to Morton. "Iggy put an extra button onto the device while he was working on it. It resets everything that the splitter has done."

Morton's eyes flashed with understanding. He realized that was a good thing. After all, now that Dark Iggy was split from the original Iggy, it was very unlikely that he would want to go back. Unfortunately, since the personality splitter was in Dark Iggy's possession, that meant that they would have to face Dark Iggy and Aggression head on. When he voiced his concerns, he saw that Iggy nod. However, to Morton's surprise, the grin did not fall from his face.

"That will not be too much of an issue," he said. "After all, there are more of us than they are of them. Besides…" Iggy punched in the password to the power suppressor, allowing Ludwig to remove it… "we have all of the powerful fighters on our side."

…

Dark Iggy pet Dark Wiggles as he sat on the throne. Aggression was doing her nails, admiring their orange color underneath the glowing yellow lights of the throne room. Although he could not see her face, Dark Iggy could tell that she was starting to grow annoyed due to the fluctuation of her breathing pattern.

"What is troubling you, dear sister?" Dark Iggy asked as he crossed his legs.

"Rage and Brotherly Love are taking forever!" she whined. Dark Iggy nodded in agreement.

"Yes, they have been gone for a while," he said. He ran his hand down the spherical shape of Dark Wiggles' back. Aggression turned toward Dark Iggy with a question look.

"Do you think that something happened to them?"

"BAH!" Dark Iggy guffawed. "Don't make me laugh! There is nothing that could stand as any possible threat to that 'dynamic duo.'"

Dark Iggy chortled at his own joke. Aggression did not, instead she stared at Dark Iggy with incredulity steaming across her face.

"Oh come on!" Dark Iggy said once he saw the look Aggression was throwing his way. "Wendy, the only thing that could possibly do any damage to either of them is my light side!" Dark Iggy leaned back, a satisfied smile washing over his face as his body relaxed. "And I guarantee you, dear sister, that is not even a blip on the threat radar. At this point, Light Iggy poses just about as much threat as a common Drosophila melanogaster."

Aggression was just about to ask Dark Iggy what that was when the door burst wide open. The other Koopalings burst through the door, Iggy leading the pack. Dark Iggy gawked as Aggression looked at him smugly.

"You were saying?" she asked.

Iggy stepped forward, wearing a determined look.

"Dark Iggy," he said strongly and bravely, "we have come for the personality splitter."

"Yeah," Bravery said. She wore a confident grin on her face. "So you had better hand it over, you spinach green freak!"

Dark Iggy's shock melted away to boredom. He let out a yawn and nonchalantly turned to Aggression.

"Wendy, go take them out."

Aggression got into her fighting stance. Then, she removed one of her rings and flung it at Roy. He managed to dodge, both on the initial throw and when the ring came back toward Aggression. Bravery ran forward with her hands out, but Aggression had a counter attack. She grabbed hold of her fellow trait's hands, and together the two of them pushed against each other. Neither one of them won, so then they resorted to throwing punches and kicks at one another.

"Sweet! A girl fight!" Larry said with a grin.

Unfortunately, this comment was enough to throw Bravery off. One of Aggression's punches hit her right on the lip. When Bravery pulled back, Aggression kicked her in the chest, causing her to fall on her back.

It was then that Ludwig flew over toward Aggression. He tried to knock her over, but she dodged. Since Ludwig was going too fast to truly steer, he crashed into the wall. Plaster and spiders fell down from the ceiling upon impact, covering the special in debris. He turned around and, with his eyes glowing white with anger, fired a blast of fire in Aggression's direction. Aggression was flung back from the impact. Empathy gasped when she saw her fellow trait on the ground.

"Are you alright, Aggression?" she asked in concern. She reached out her hand to help Aggression up. For a second, it looked like Aggression was genuinely grateful for the help. That was until she stood up. When she stood up, she flung Empathy down to the ground. Empathy groaned as she laid on the royal carpet.

Aggression grinned smugly at the other Koopalings. She ran toward Morton and started to throw punches at him. Morton, unlikely Bravery, was strong enough and skilled enough to not only dodge, but counterattack. He threw an uppercut punch right on her jaw. Aggression put her hand to the problem area. But afterwards the smug grin returned to her face. She took off her bracelet and made it expand to about four times its regular size. She threw it at Creativity and Timidity, causing them to fly backwards into a wall. She then threw it at Morton, Roy, Larry, Iggy, and Lemmy. Iggy was quick enough to dodge, but unfortunately everybody else got knocked into the wall as well. Iggy could see that they had all been rendered unconscious.

Aggression faced Iggy, a sadistic smile dominating her lips and eyes. Iggy got into his shell and rammed into her, causing her to fall backwards. Once he got out of his shell, he could see that she had also been knocked out upon impact. He then turned toward Dark Iggy, who was starting to look frightened.

"Alright," Iggy said with his negotiation inflection in place. "Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way."

Dark Iggy got up from the throne. In a frightened scurry, he bolted from the throne room, the personality splitter clenched in his fist.

Iggy sighed. He took the hard way.