Chapter 4 People Problems

Ludwig and Lemmy rushed out of the room, with Ludwig keeping a tight hold on his cloak. His heart pounded, and he had a hunch that Lemmy's was doing the same thing. They had just about made their way to Larry's room when the youngest came out, shaking and looking like he was about to start crying. Even though the two oldest had been expecting to see Larry in a new human form, they both still gawked at the sight of him.

"Larry?" Lemmy asked.

Larry nodded. His normally confident face had a whole heap load of fear, specifically in his eyes. Speaking of which, they were the same blue color as they were in his koopa form, albeit a little smaller. On top of that, he had blue hair covering his scalp now. Just like Lemmy, the iconic mohawk that he usually sported was now a cowlick, one that complemented his new hair without messing the whole look up. Larry still had his blue starbite, plastered on his cheek like some sort of tattoo. He also had peach skin the same color as Ludwig and Lemmy's, although his face had a pale hue that one normally associated with terror.

"Guys!" He looked at his brothers, gawking at them as he kept one hand on a blanket he had wrapped around his waist (thank the lumas). "You… you guys changed too?"

Ludwig nodded, biting his lip as he did. "We… yeah." He cleared his throat, holding his cloak even tighter. "Not exactly what I was expecting to wake up to this morning."

"Me neither!" Larry exclaimed. He looked down at his new human hand, which shook as his mouth hung agape. "How did… why did… how did this happen?"

"We're not sure," Lemmy said. "Ludwig does have a theory though."

"Well whatever it is, I would love to hear it!" Larry looked up at his brother, his eyes wider than the sun. "I don't want to be a smooth, meaty, scale-less fleshbag! I want to a koopa again! I want to…" he stopped, shivering as he did. "Oh man, cold breeze…" Ludwig noticed it too, and it caused him to shiver as well. "You… you know what? I'm gonna go find something else to wear; something that can keep me relatively warm…"

With that, he went back into his room. Ludwig exchanged a worried look with Lemmy, whose concern made it look like they were dealing with the potential end of the world.

"So I guess it's all of us," he said.

"I… yeah," Ludwig said. He bit his lip again, so hard in fact that it broke the skin. "This is definitely an interesting predicament." He sighed, shaking his head. "I just only hope that my Shadow Seeker theory isn't…"

"Hey guys!"

Lemmy and Ludwig blinked and turned. The sight they saw immediately caused them to shriek. There was none other than Roy, standing proud and tall with a big, goofy grin on his face. "Have you seen my new human form? I think it's pretty handsome, if I do say so myself!"

Ludwig's face grew warm as a volcano. He didn't know where to look, whether he should look at his younger brother or if he should turn away and/or close his eyes. For the most part, Roy appeared alright. He still wore his trademark shades, and a short, buzzcut-like pink hairstyle rested on top of his head. His new peach toned body was also pretty muscular. Sure, Ludwig's, Lemmy's, and Larry's weren't too terribly out of shape, but Roy? He looked so fit that he could probably beat anyone in any kind of sport that the Koopalings thought of.

However, that wasn't what was making Ludwig feel uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" Roy asked with a certain type of innocence in his demeanor. "Do you guys not like your human forms; is that it?"

Lemmy hesitated. "Uh, Roy? You're… you're not…"

"You're not clothed," Ludwig said, his tone absolutely exasperated.

Roy stood still for a second before shrugging. "So?"

Ludwig cringed, keeping his eyes on Roy's face as much as possible. "You don't feel the need to cover up?"

"Why would I?" Roy asked. "I don't normally wear clothes. What's wrong with me not wearing any right now?"

"You… you…" Ludwig tried his best to communicate this thoughts before giving up and sighing. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong…" Despite that sentiment, he still turned away from Roy. Lemmy did the same, his face so red it could be mistaken for the planet Mars. All the while, Ludwig questioned what in the world could have happened to make Roy's shame gland so nonexistent.

Creak.

All three present Koopalings blinked and turned toward the door at the end of the hallway. Out of it came Morton, wearing a Rainbow Mare costume that he had worn for Halloween the year before. "Hey guys."

Ludwig studied his brother's new form, as did Lemmy and Roy. Interestingly, unlike the other Koopalings Ludwig had seen, Morton had a dark skin tone. It was kind of like his flesh had been crafted from the richest kind of dark chocolate. He was also completely bald, which struck Ludwig as odd more than anything else, and he was also somewhat chunky (similar to his koopa form, Ludwig noted).. However, what was most intriguing to Ludwig was that, like Larry, Morton's starbite remained intact. However, Morton's wasn't the same color that it usually was. No, it was peach colored, like the four other Koopalings' skin but unlike the rest of Morton's body. It kind of reminded Ludwig about a condition he read about a long time ago called "vitiligo." He had never seen anybody with that condition before, so seeing it now on his brother was interesting to say the least.

"Morton?" Roy asked. "Is that you?"

Morton nodded. "I woke up like this." He walked over to the others, and Ludwig took note of how Morty was keeping his eyes as far away from Roy as possible. "And I see that you guys transformed too."

"Yeah, we did," said Lemmy. He smoothed out his clown suit, shaking like he would in some severe earthquake.

"And I must say," Roy said. He smiled, put his hands on his hips, and puffed out his chest. "I think I'm the best looking guy out of all of us! Wouldn't you agree Morty?"

Morton hesitated. "Uh… sure." He snorted. "I'd probably be more willing to take in your beauty if you put on underwear though…"

Roy blinked at that. He opened his mouth, probably to say something along the lines of clothes being dumb and constricting or what not. However, before he could, the door on the side of the hallway opposite to Morton's door opened up. All four of them turned to see Iggy coming out of his lab. He adjusted his glasses on his new, peach colored face. As he walked closer, he also smoothed out his green mohawk (which, unlike with Lemmy and Larry, was pretty much the same size as it was in his koopa form. However, it was also accompanied by some lime green hair covering the rest of head). Also like his koopa form, he was lanky and quite tall. However, Ludwig wasn't really worried about all that. He was more so thankful to see Iggy wearing a lab coat. He was really all for that, especially seeing how Roy was standing right there while naked as a baby.

"This is certainly and odd predicament," Iggy mumbled to himself as he stared at his hand, turning it over so he could view the front and the palm. His eyes traveled upward, and he gasped when he saw his siblings. "Oh my word! So I'm not the only one who… GAAAH!" Iggy shrieked and held out his hand. "Roy! Your crotch is exposed!"

"So?" Roy smiled. "You embarrassed? I'm not."

Iggy cringed. "You… you…" he shook his head. "Oh, never mind." He walked up to the others. "So I see that this curse isn't just my burden to bear."

"No," Lemmy said. "No it is not."

Ludwig raised an eyebrow. "Your tone doesn't sound very burdened to me."

Iggy chuckled. "Well, I woke up earlier than you guys, so evidently I have had more time to get used to this." He studied his siblings, keeping his eyes far away from Roy. "I must say, I find this really intriguing. I never wondered what the seven of us would look like as humans before, so seeing this now is quite… fascinating.' He adjusted his glasses. "There is so much unexplored ground here! I could obtain a whole mountain of experiment topics out of this!"

Ludwig snorted. Leave it to Iggy to turn a confusing and even frightening situation into an excuse to go back to his lab and crank out the test tubes.

Right at that moment, Larry came back out of his room. Ludwig saw that he wore a rockstar costume, one that (like Morton) he had worn for Halloween the year before. Larry sighed to himself, adjusting his outfit and getting rid of even the tiniest speck of dust.

"Well, this will probably work for a while." He cringed. "Although, the fact that I'm still in this meaty fleshbag of a body is still…"

He stopped upon lifting his head. He looked between Roy and Morton, gawking at them, before his eyes fell on Iggy. When they did, oddly enough, his expression transitioned to an angry one.

"You!"

Iggy blinked. "Me?" he asked while pointing to himself.

Before anybody could really grasp what was going on, Larry lunged at Iggy. All the Koopalings gasped as Larry sat on top of him, beating his face into smithereens with his fists.

"I BET IT WAS YOU!" Larry exclaimed. "YOU DID THIS TO US AS SOME SORT OF EXPERIMENT, YOU SICKO, FOUR-EYED FREAK!"

It didn't take long before the others were on top of them, trying to pry Iggy and Larry apart. "Larry, stop!" Morton exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Roy said as he pulled the youngest away from his target. "This isn't cool, bro! Bros don't beat up their bros; it's part of the Bro Code!" He paused. "I think. I haven't read the latest version…"

"Besides!" Ludwig said as the youngest struggled against Roy's hold. "Iggy didn't do this!" He gestured to Iggy, who held his hand up to a very nasty shiner on his cheek. "Iggy's just as much a victim of this as the rest of us!"

Larry snorted. "Wow. You seriously said 'Iggy' and 'victim' in the same sentence unironically. Are you okay in the head, Ludwig!"

Ludwig glared at Larry. "Watch it, scamp."

"Yeah!" Lemmy took a step closer. "Look, Larry, we shouldn't be beating each other up. This situation is a serious one!" He looked at his brothers. "Right now, we all need to work together to figure out how this happened and reversed this."

"Indeed," Iggy said, still holding his hand to his bruised cheek. "This is bound to cause a few inconveniences." He cringed. "For example. I realized while in my lab that we don't have access to our hammerspaces anymore." Ludwig's face fell when he heard that. Yeah, that was definitely going to cause a few problems. "On top of that," Iggy continued, "human skin is very less durable and far more temperature sensitive than the skin of a koopa." He winced. "Something that Larry's gift of a blackeye is all too good at conveying."

Ludwig nodded. "Right." He looked at everyone else. "But that's just small potatoes in comparison to the real issue here." Everyone kept their eyes on him. "I think this whole thing was caused by…"

"AAAHH!"

All the Koopalings turned around. "Oh my gosh!" Lemmy exclaimed. "That was Wendy!"

"Oh shoot, I can't believe we forgot about her!" Roy rushed toward his sister's door. "We need to see if she's alright!"

Iggy cringed at that statement. "Yes, because entering your sister's room while naked is always a smart idea."

Ludwig shook his head, deciding to ignore that very massive and very creepy elephant in the room and just follow after Roy. The others did to, with them all crowding around while Roy opened the door.

"Wendy?" Roy asked. "Are you okay?"

Wendy stood in front of the mirror, thankfully with a blanket wrapped around her body (thank goodness, Ludwig did not need to see his sister exposed). She gawked, putting her hand up to her head, which now had a full, healthy crop of shiny, golden blonde hair.

"I… I'm beautiful!" she said, her tone filled with disbelief. "Guys, do you see…?"

She stopped, gawking at her brothers. All the while, Ludwig studied her appearance. Aside from the golden hair, she also had peach skin, as well as soft pink lips that were nowhere near as puffy or as heavily decorated as they were normally. Her crystal blue eyes were also in tact, and they complemented her new appearance in the most flattering way possible. Ludwig had to admit that yes, Wendy was beautiful now. At least, for a human (Ludwig preferred koopa girls six ways to Sunday).

"You… you…" Wendy stuttered. "You guys are humans too?"

"Yeah," Larry said, giving his new body the most disgusted of looks. "Isn't it awful?"

Wendy frowned at that. "Well… I think it's a vast improvement for me at least." She shook her head, giving her brothers a furrowed brow. "But how did this happen? Is this some kind of spell that Kamek put on us?"

Ludwig thought about that. "Possible, but unlikely." He stood up straight and tall. "However, I think this is more likely the work of the Shadow Seeker that I mentioned to you guys last night."

Everyone's jaws dropped when he said that. There was a stillness to the air, a chilliness that not even the most freezing of temperatures could easily or accurately replicate. Wendy swallowed a lump when she heard that. Iggy adjusted his glasses.

"If that's the case Ludwig, then we are in grave danger." His face looked grim. "If the demon could do something like this to all seven of us, over the course of just one night…" he frowned. "Well, there's no telling what other dastardly feats that monster is capable of."

Lemmy took a step forward. "I think we should go see Bowser about this," he said, his normally peppy voice so worry-ladened that it was like he was someone else entirely. "We need to find out how to approach this situation."

"Right," Ludwig said with a nod. He looked at everyone. "We should tell him and Kamek about this predicament as soon as possible."

"I agree," Wendy said. "But first…" everyone turned to see her blushing. "Is it okay if I get dress first? I want to at least be somewhat decent."

The male Koopalings exchanged looks before nodding. Ludwig closed the door, all the while pondering about their next course of action.