Birdies are the Bomb!
Location: Outside Goomba Village, Goomba Path
Goombario is rushing down the path toward Toad Town while munching on a slice of Nutty Cake, carrying his belongings in a backpack. His family, along with the Dojo Master of Toad Town and his acolytes, gave Goombario a farewell party; he had been accepted into the Olympic Division of the University of Goom. He lost track of time, and upon seeing the clock in his house, he dashed out the door without saying goodbye. The blue-capped Goomba is breaking out in sweat, almost swearing between gasps as the sun is setting.
'Kooper's gonna friggin' kill me! I don't wanna get him kicked outta the archaeology department because of me. And we can't keep Parakarry waiting either; he was gonna fly us there with help of his stupid mailman Paraklutz.'
Upon remembering the clumsy Paratroopa, he face palms… Err… I mean, if he had arms, he would. Anyways, he is still lost in thought. 'Ugh! He broke my special Mario action figure my dad bought me from the internet.'
He ponders on this and soon arrives at the ruins of King Goomba's fort. He looks ahead and shudders.
'I hate that bridge! It's so high up and walking on it makes my stomach turn.' He sighs. 'Oh, well. I have to cross it someday. Here go… huh?'
Before he walks onto the bridge, a childish commotion from across the bridge brings him back to reality. The sun has finally set, and the moon is shining at its fullest. Still, Goombario has difficulty discerning shapes from shadows from his stand point. He squints and tries to see what is happening on the other side.
'What's going on here?'
The little Goomba presses forward, and finally crosses the bridge, and walks toward the noise. At this point, he somewhat laments that, as a Goomba, he doesn't have arms to cover his ears. He can't understand the yelling clearly yet, but he sees a badminton net set up, and a pair of rackets appropriate for the sport littering the grassy ground.
As he gets closer, he clearly sees Larry throwing a temper tantrum and yelling at a pair of evil Goombas. He waves a badminton racket angrily, and the Goombas seem frustrated. The screaming from the blue haired Koopaling is now perfectly clear.
"Stupid walking turds! I said don't swing hard. I only got two birdies left!"
One replies exasperatedly, "What do you expect? We don't have arms, and our jaws can't hold it…!"
"I want my birdies back NOW!"
"Calm down, boy. We'll go." One says as they left, "Who spit in his Koopa flakes?"
Larry crossed his arms and drops onto the grass. He looks around and spots Goombario, who silently stares back. Larry grumpily stands and walks over.
"Can you help me?" he asks annoyed, "I am looking for a Goomba about this high." He stretches his arm span at about Goombario's height. "He wears a blue hat, and is a big tattle tale. Nobody here doesn't know him."
Goombario thinks about how to correct the double negative, but then angrily retorts, "I'M NOT A TATTLE…" He clears his throat. "That would be me."
Larry's face beams up, and he goes behind Goombario, pushing him toward the net. "Yay, I found you! Can you play with me? Please, please, plesase…?"
Goombario thought it was weird to be playing alone in the dangerous Goomba Path at night, but then again, he liked playing sports, and whenever he was in the mood for a quick game, he forgot about his responsibilities, especially being in Toad Town on time.
They both take their places, Goombario grabbing one of the rackets between his teeth. Larry takes out two birdies and is ready to serve.
"Wanna play with two birdies?"
"Bween gut nn (Bring it on)!" replies Goombario with the racket in his mouth.
Larry smiles as he throws both birdies up. The Koopaling retracts into his sky blue shell and spins rapidly. As the birdies begin to fall, Larry comes out in a timely manner and jumps, swinging and hitting both birdies simultaneously, making both birdies twirl and zip past Goomabario into a bush behind him. Goombario drops the racket and turns to find the birdies.
"I'll get 'em!"
He scurries to the bush where birdies have lodged, shaking the leafy bush here and there, but they are nowhere to be found. As the good Goomba walks to the other side of the bush, he remembers what he's supposed to do, but shakes it off, immediately pondering for a bit as he walks about slowly.
'Kooper and Parakarry can go ahead without me. I mean, it's not like they are going to knock me out or something. For real though, I'm already late; I'll catch up later.'
He is so distracted, that he bumps into a branch protruding from the bush, stopping in place. The birdies land at his feet, but Goombario sees, upon further inspection, that they are tiny canisters disguised as birdies, the feathery part seemingly twisted off due to the extra twirl from Larry's spinning move. An odorless poison gas from the tiny container is already in the air.
Goombario is slowly losing consciousness, and just as slowly, the poison was sapping him of his strength. Once the gas disperses completely, Larry skips over to him and pulls out his wand and smiles without remorse. Goombario glares back as Larry waves his wand around, coughing and hacking sickly purple ooze. He says in a weak, soft voice, "Cheater…," and passes out.
Larry points his wand at Goombario, who slowly shrinks to half his size. The other two Goombas pop out from behind a rock and reveal their true nature by sprouting their wings, and proceed to carry both Larry and the fallen Goomba.
"About time, Larry. I was getting a cramp from holding them in!"
Larry hops with glee. "I winned! I winned! And I didn't have to do nothing. Big bro Ludwig is gonna be happy."
"Um, you know, Larry, that gas is very dangerous," interjects the other Paragoomba, "This little fellow could die on the way, and Ludwig will be more than upset if that happens."
"Oh, Luddy knowed I used that gas, but he gave me this," replies the Koopaling, as he pulled a sealed syringe from his shell, and promptly gives it to that other Paragoomba. "If you give him that, he will be well, but weak. At least, that's what Luddy said…"
Larry rambles on while one of the Paragoombas administers the antidote; they fly toward Shooting Star Summit.
…
Location: Star Haven
While Iggy, Roy, and Larry fought their respective battles; the other 3 Koopalings, Bowser Jr., and the three unknown beings have already reached Star Haven. While Bowser Jr. gets a Final Smash ball from somewhere and transforms into a Giga form. As he wrecks havoc outside, Lemmy summons a bomb at the entrance of the sanctuary, and blasts it open; the six barge in.
One of the cloaked characters with a mobster accent, shouts at the other two cloaked creatures and Lemmy, "You two! Lemmy! Find the Star Cruiser!" He looks back toward Ludwig. "Wiseguy, you ready yet?"
He gets no answer, as Ludwig gets attacked by the calmest of the seven star spirits Kalmar, who is using Up and Away. Ludwig and Wendy both counter the sonar-like attack with their respective wand attacks. Skolar uses Star Storm and knocked off the Toad-like cape from the mobster's body. Lemmy summons a smoke bomb and launches it at the mobsterish creature, exploding in time to keep his identity secret.
"Not bad, not bad at all, pops. But defend yourself from this!"
He raises his two small, white hands above the smoke; a rumble is heard outside. Skolar attacks again with Star Storm, just as a giant Ztar breaks into the palace. Ludwig looks back and sees the two attacks collide, and leaves Wendy holds Kalmar back.
'Don Albino, attacking with Dark Star already, huh? Then I must follow suit.'
Ludwig flails his scepter as the collision of attacks grows in intensity, eventually engulfing the Star Rod. The intensity is so great that both attacks explode along with the Star Rod, earning a shocked gasp from the star spirits. The explosion also damaged the pedestal where the Rod was floating on, revealing the Star Cruiser inside. The smoke from Lemmy's smoke bomb has also cleared, revealing Don Albino in his disguise again.
Lemmy smiles. "Don Albino! The Star Cruiser was inside the Rod's pedestal. We can now go higher to Star Road."
He and the two other creatures in cloaks dash to the Cruiser and ignite to motor, and when they were about to leave, Don Albino rushes over there and jumps in as well. They all then fly away toward the legendary Star Road, leaving behind Ludwig, Wendy, and Bowser Jr.
Muskular and Klevar were about to chase Don Albino's group, when a bolt zips past them. They look back at Ludwig pointing his smallest claw at them. All of the star spirits are horrified to see a large shadow lingering behind Ludwig and under his control by lightning strings attatched to the tips of his Koopa claws.
Ludwig's ominous gaze meets up with the appalled star spirits. He cackles. "Why go after them, when you have us to worry about? Pursuing our allies? Quite wily, but… you'll soon find out why is neither cunning nor wise. Behold! My newest toy…"
-o-
Who's this Don Albino? Next chapter finalizes the current battling blitz. Until next time!