Author's Notes: hey there! here's the long awaited fifth chapter! we kind of chipped away at this for a while but just finished it! we want to thank all the people who took the time to read this story and genuinely enjoyed what we put out so far. we really didnt expect this much traffic. we are incredibly sorry for not uploading for such a long time, however, your patience is really appreciated. we dont write these stories daily, because we have other important things going on in our lives (we are game devs, i do freelance art, and my partner is a student) so we cant prioritize our time on these stories as much as we'd like, i hope you understand. however, we are still incredibly interested in working on these stories. its just, we arent machines (at least not yet. cant wait to get our cyber arms installed YEET), so please be patient. thank you!
-Dixie
Luddicus Jones here again. It was another dreary day in the office. Our agency certainly grew in numbers since the last time I monologued here. Things particularly started out the same as usual...except Ignatius had found himself a new...trinket: what appeared to be some kind of bell. He was rather engrossed by the soft chime it made everytime he rang it. It only moderately got on my nerves, but I suppose it be like that. I can't say, however, I've seen that bell anywhere before. Does it hold mysteries of its own? Only time will tell. I took a sip of my coffee, pondering the bell.
Iggy rang the bell several times. "Bahahahah! This thing is so cute, I could ring it all day!" he said, ringing it a few more times. He slowly stuck his hand onto the office door, jingling the bell as if to say "I'm here!".
"Hewwo?" Iggy jokingly called out. Ludwig put down his cup. "It's about time you got here, Ignatius! We need to go over this whole factory plan that Father's given us."
"Oh yeah!" Iggy said, gently placing the bell on the desk. "Boy, do I got a plan for you! It'll be a breeze! We take our submarine down to the cooling area of the factory, mess up the generators, grab a few big power-ups for ourselves, and then leave the way we came!" Iggy was standing on his chair in excitement. "It's PERFECT! BAHAHAHAAAAH!"
Ludwig's eyes perked up at the elaborate plan. "That's a... very impressive plan, Iggy. I've taught you well!" Ludwig praised.
"Thanks! ...Can I drive the Ludsub this time, pleeeeeease? I promise I'll be careful!" Iggy pleaded. "Okay, FINE. Don't scratch the paint, young man!" Ludwig handed Iggy a pair of keys. "YES!" Iggy swiped the keys, pushing a button on the little sub control. The Ludsub beeped as if it were a car.
The boys and a fleet of smaller backup submarines approached the Sprixie Kingdom HQ Factory. The factory was the main exporter of power-ups throughout, well, the whole world. The backup subs headed in first to take care of anything guarding the cooling room, but the entire area was surprisingly empty.
"Geez, I didn't think it'd be this easy." Iggy scratched his head. "They couldn't be ambushing us, right? This is like, their turf!"
The Ludsub peaked out from the watery base of the cooling room. Ludwig hopped out, making sure the coast was clear. He signaled Iggy to follow suit. Iggy performed a somersault out of the sub, landing almost perfectly. He made a slight thud, which startled Ludwig.
"Iggy! Be careful! We don't want to blow our cover, you know!" Ludwig whispered sharply. Just then, a Toad ran out screaming from the elevator. He stared at the boys awkwardly for a brief moment, and then continued his escape hollering the whole way.
"Does this mean we can scream too?" Iggy said, looking back at his brother. "Please don't." Ludwig replied.
The duo approached the large monitor controlling the coolant vats. It seemed to already be logged in, meaning someone had left it unattended.
"Oh! Luddy! Let me take a crack at that monitor! I think I can pump in some bad codes to get that coolant to stop!" Iggy said. He took a seat at the desk, typing away at the command prompt.
{
{coolant: false
}
INVALID COMMAND
{
{set coolant to no
}
INVALID COMMAND
{
{turn off that nasty thing
}
THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS
{
{turn off that nasty thing pretty please
}
THE POLITENESS IS APPRECIATED BUT NO
{
Iggy got up and shrugged. "No use, Ludsy! I can't hack it! I think someone already got to it before us! Dang it!"
The generators in the room were going at it. Like really going at it. More importantly, the source of the loudness sounded like it came from upstairs. Even during their actual jobs, the boys could not escape the grasp of mystery. So, they decided to check the room above them. The elevator to the next floor opened, and they were met with a rather odd surprise.
Bells. Everywhere.
The entire lounge floor seemed to be covered with the dang things. The brothers were baffled by it.
"Who the heck would just leave perfectly fine bells on the floor like this?" Iggy questioned. "I haven't a clue. Maybe these are factory defects…?" Ludwig answered.
Not watching where he was even going, Ludwig tripped on one of the bells, landing on another one. There were lights and a poof of smoke. "Ludwig, are you al-WHOA!" Iggy took in the sight of what his brother had become. Out from a sparkly fog was…Cat. Ludwig was the same only he had cat qualities now.
Ludwig took a look at his claws that were now paws. He took a pause before shrieking. Iggy couldn't take his eyes off of Ludwig. "...KITTY!" He ran over to inspect this beautiful cat-astrophe. "YOU'RE ALL POOFY NOW! SOFT! BAHAHA!" Iggy began petting his brother and poking at his newly acquired beans. Ludwig gave him a look.
"Leave my beans-I mean paws alone! Stop that!"
"Aww, come ooooon! I can't heeeewp it! My big bwothew's a funny kitty-cat! AHAH! HAHAHAHAH!"
Iggy couldn't contain his laughter and tumbled backwards, landing in a pile of bells. And, like his brother, was now also Cat. Iggy looked over this new, fluffier form and Junior's words echoed from the back of his mind.
"Heheh. Dad turned into a cat once."
"OOOOOHHH!" Iggy slowly turned towards his brother.
"Hey Ludwig."
"What is it?!"
"... Ignyatius."
". . ."
"Bahahahah!"
". . ."
"Y'know? Like nya!"
"Why are you like this."
"Nya!"
"Stop."
"Would yours be Mew-dwig or does that depend on how people pronounce it?"
"Alright, that's enough out of you!"
Iggy stopped, eyeing Ludwig's wagging tail. He tried his best to control wanting to swat at it, but alas, his self control only lasted about three seconds. "Gonna getcha! BAHAHA!" Iggy pounced, swatting at his brother's tail.
"Iggy! What are you doing?" "I'm gonna catch me that tail!" Iggy replied, furiously whapping away. "Hmm… These cat suits seem to cause some strange behavior. Then again, I'm also wondering if that's just Iggy being, well... Iggy." Ludwig thought to himself, cleaning his paw.
The boys grew accustomed to their mew-ly found nyas. (Sorry.) However, there was no time for games, as they still had a mini-mystery to solve. More noises were coming from upstairs. The partners in crime scampered to the elevator, heading up to the next floor. As the elevator doors opened, it certainly was a sight for sore eyes.
Toads and Shy Guys! In cat suits! Everywhere! The whole floor was a screaming, panicking, hooting and hollering mess.
"AAAAAAHHH!"
"What happened!?"
"OH NO!"
"The generator's all funky!"
"WROW! My wife can't see me like this!"
"ONE OF THOSE BELLS SOCKED ME RIGHT IN THE EYE!"
"This isn't even what I imagined my fursona would be!"
The ceiling was pouring out more bells, almost flooding the floor with them. Some of the smaller generators were pumping like mad! "Looks like you were right, Ignatius." Ludwig inspected one of the generators. "Someone sabotaged these before we could!"
Ludwig could only dread what was happening on the third floor, but the fellas couldn't stop now. Someone else definitely was here, stomping all over their plans! Ludwig and Iggy scuttled to the elevator once more, however, to their dismay, the elevator doors seemed to be stuck.
"Rats. Well, at least there's the stairs!" They bolted towards the stairs on all fours, running up to the third floor. The door to the room was also jammed, but peering into the little window, they could see even more bells everywhere!
"It's like a bell family reunion in there!" Iggy said. They could hear the generators overworking and overheating. There was nothing they could do, but one thing's for sure, they were determined to find the person responsible for this.
Once more, they ran upstairs to the fourth floor of the factory. "Iggy, wait." Ludwig stopped his brother in his tracks and gestured to listen. There was disgusting cackling coming from the other side of the door. Suddenly, a voice spoke up.
"The generators are doing their overworkings and now it is the time for more laughing!"
The boys grimaced. It can't be. No way. Unfortunately for our boys, it was.
It was Fawful.
"Okay. He's the one behind this? Gross." Iggy said. He kicked the door open. Now they were definitely sure it was him. And they were definitely more disgusted. "Oh, it's even WORSE up close!" Ludwig spat. "Man, I hate it! I still get nightmares about that thing, y'know!" Iggy pointed to the bean man. "If that thing brings out any gas of any kind, I'm gonna sock it in the mouth. And that's a promise!"
Fawful just looked at the two brothers. "I AM HAVING OF A NAME, YOU KNOW!" he shouted.
"AaaaAAAHHH, GROSS! IT'S TALKING TO US NOW!" Iggy whined. They both turned towards him, each with a look of anger and discomfort on their faces. Ludwig looked as if he was about to punt this guy into orbit and Iggy refused to even make eye contact.
"Firstly, we thought you, you know, perished a long time ago. Why are you back? Yuck! Secondly, WHY ARE YOU GETTING YOUR GRIMY LITTLE MITTS ALL OVER OUR PLANS?! We called dibs on this place first!" Ludwig yelled. "Yeah! We were supposed to get OUR grimy little mitts on this! Go back to being dead!" Iggy shouted.
The awful little bean man just cackled, the only thing he knows how to do. "I am causing the most havoc upon this place. It is fun! You fink-cats are the ones here doing the plan-stomping!" Fawful yelled back. "I have FURY!"
"Ludwig, it's talking at us again! Make it stop…" Iggy whined again, tugging on his cat suit. Ludwig looked around for a solution to the ever-growing bean problem. There! He quickly nabbed one of the many bells off of the floor. "Ahem…howdy, I'm a CHUCKSTER!" he belted before chucking it straight at Fawful, hoping to knock some sense into him. And knock him unconscious. That too.
The bell hit Fawful directly on the noggin. "OW! What is the reasoning behind the chucking!?" Ludwig put his hands on his hips, proud of himself, as usual. "That'll teach you to mess with our plans!" he shouted. Iggy laughed in excitement. "I want a turn! I want a turn! BAHAHA!" Iggy grabbed another bell, also taking aim at Fawful, this time hitting him in the stomach. Iggy threw his hands up in glee. "Yeah! I got him!" The boys looked at each other in understanding, grabbing a hold of many of the bells on the floor. They prepared for the chucking of a lifetime.
The boys then turned to Fawful, as if to say "any last words?" "Oh fink…" was the only thing Fawful could even muster before he was pelted with bells left and right. Bell after bell after bell was thrown at the awful bean man. The koopa brothers cackled in amusement until Fawful was covered in a pile of them.
At this point they were in stitches, laughing at the little man's unusual demise. Iggy, not watching where he was going, carelessly stumbled backwards, elbowing a huge red button. Without warning, the bell-covered Fawful was flung into the air by a spring-powered floor tile. All the laughing stopped as they looked through the hole in the roof.
"...Huh." Iggy said dryly. "Wonder why they had that kinda feature installed… Oh well, that takes care of the Bean problem!"
The boys let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. That little fiend got blasted into deep space...probably.
After the moment of brief relaxing, it was time to get back to the matter at hand: the bell generators. They had completely forgotten those were still running endlessly.
"Nyaaaa-I mean, gyaaaah! The generators are still going!" Ludwig yelled. The generators were working at maximum power. Bells were spilling out by the thousands. At this point, there was just a wave of brass. Ludwig scampered over to the control panel, typing away at the keyboard. "I just need to find a way into the mainframe and shut off those bell generators! But how?!"
Iggy was trying his hardest not to get pelted by the wave of bells. He carefully maneuvered his way around on all fours, but caught a glimpse of a plug in a wall.
Ludwig was getting restless. "It's no use! I can't seem to stop it! We need to-eh?!" All of a sudden, the bell generator stopped generating bells and came to a halt. All the ringing in the room died down and things were much quieter. Iggy calmly walked over to Ludwig. "Ignatius! Are you okay? I think I stopped the generator, gwehehe…!" Iggy shook his head. "Nah, I just unplugged it. Yoinked the cord right out of the wall!"
Ludwig furrowed his brows at his brother in confusion. "What do you mean 'unplugged it'?" he asked. Iggy gestured to the wall outlet. There lie the generator cord on the floor next to the wall. "Ah. So you did unplug it. What idiot powers a generator through a plug in the wall?! Know what? I don't even want to know. What's done is done."
The yelling from the lower floors began to die down. The boys were about to head back down the stairs when one of the Toads entered the room.
"Did you two fix the generator?" The worker shouted, running up to the duo. "Thanks a bunch! Some creep barged in this morning and went wild on the whole factory! He even stole all the sandwiches from the staff lounge! What did he even need those for!?"
"Were those the monte cristo sandwiches that bulletin board said was for lunch? I hear those are all the rage these days!" Iggy said. The toad worker took a brief moment to get a good look at the two morons in cat suits and shrieked. "Wait-you two…! You're Bowser's cronies, aren't you?! Wh-what are you doing here?!" he shouted. He hid behind some fallen pipes. Ludwig and Iggy looked at each other.
"Why are we-OH! That's right! Gwehehe! As a matter of fact, we were sent here to steal these powerups! Quick, Iggy! Grab, like, 20 of those bells! We're outta here!" Ludwig yelled before they scrambled for the bells and bolted on out of the factory.
(...)
Back at their office, Iggy and Ludwig were finally relieved of their cat suits, and replaced the bells in the pile of bells they made off with. "Well, I can say this without hesitation, I was not expecting that. Fawful in the same place as us? Again? How dreadful…" Ludwig said. Iggy sat in his usual spot, on top of the desk. He was fiddling with the paperweight. "Beeeeeeats me! I think the authors just needed a villain for this chapter."
The boys paused and looked at each other before bursting in laughs. Iggy put the paperweight back on the desk and searched for the bell from before. "Uh oh. Uh, Ludsy? There was a bell on this desk, right? Ya seen it anywhere?"
"Hm?" Ludwig pulled away from the coffee he was drinking and looked on the desk for the bell. "Are you sure you didn't take it with you?" The boys looked around the room for a short moment before they were interrupted by a Certain Kooky Laughter. A pair of glowing eyes peered down from on top of the large file cabinet behind them. It was far worse than what they had expected. The little cretin had gotten a hold of a cat suit.
"NYAHUAHUA!" Kooky belted before scampering around the office and out the door. Ludwig sighed before getting up. "I suppose our work is never doneGET BACK HERE!" he shouted before going after the little rapscallion.
"Hey Ludsy!" Iggy yelled while following after Ludwig. "You could say this whole day's been a CAT-astrophie! BAHAHA! A real NYA-sty day! Mewd-wig, wait! Come back! I got a bunch of cat puns! Paw-lease?!"
- - CASE 5: COMPLETE - -