"Aaaaand… Yeah! That should be everyone!"

Two Snifits stood in the main lobby of Bowser's castle. One of them held up a clipboard, checking off the last entry of the list: the very place they were in!

"Everybody's either in the saferoom or evacuated via the airships! Great work!"
"Yeah… And corrallin' all those zombies into the treasury was no easy task…"
"... Why'd you put them in there?"
"I'unno. …Wait, do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"

The sound of a motor running could be heard around the corner. All of a sudden, a voice called out to the two Snifits.

"OUTTA THE WAAAAAY!"

The Snifits turned around to see Iggy driving straight towards them! They ducked for cover as the koopa sped into the lobby.

"BAHAHA! Nice dodge!"
"What IS that!?"
"Oh, this?"

Iggy drove donuts around the center of the room. "It's my latest invention! A car! BAHA!" The Clipboard Snifit hopped right back up, fuming. "HEY! You can't just go driving around the place while the kingdom's in danger! … W-With all due respect, sir!"

"That's exactly why I'm driving!" Iggy pointed to the vehicle. "We've had this broken zamboni in storage for YEARS! Sooooo I tinkered with it! Behold! The Super Sanitizer-Mobile; a tile and carpet cleaner slash air purifier! It does julienne fries too but it'll taste like floor dirt, so don't use it. I learned the hard way."

The other Snifit just tilted their head. "How… did you even get it to go that fast?" Iggy stopped the car, glazing over it for a moment. "I don't know! It was like this when I found it!"

"MOVE IT, CHUMPS!"

Iggy and the Snifits looked towards the entrance of the castle. It was Roy! And he sure was driving his car indoors. The Snifits jumped onto the Sanitizer-Mobile in fear, the three driving out of the warpath of Roy's hot pink automobile.

He drifted to a halt and hopped out of the car. "Man, it feels good to be back here! I don't gotta fight off fifty zombies to take a step forward!"

"Hi Roy!" Iggy waved at his brother, jumping off the zamboni with an unceremonious thud as he fell on his face. He gave a thumbs-up. "How's it goin'? I got infected but I'm okay now! BAHAHA!"

Roy picked Iggy up off the floor. "Just came from the arena downtown. You won't believe what I went through!"

"What'd you go through?"
"A lot."
"I'll bet! BAHA! Did you at least get to see the match in town?"
"Forget about watching the match, I was in the match!"
"Whoa! Did you win?!"
"More or less. It's complicated Larry-related stuff."

Roy finally addressed the elephant in the room. "Alright I'll ask the most pressing question here: WHAT IS THAT?"

"It's the Sanitizer-Slash-Julienne-Fry-Mobile! I made it myself! BAHAHA!"

"The huh? Why did you– You know what? I ain't even gonna ask," said Roy. Iggy just giggled.

"At least she got me home safe," Roy patted the side of his car. "If there's one thing that gets zombies AND normal people outta the way, it's a car goin' 60 miles per hour in the middle of the dang forest."

"You ran over people?!"
"I mean, wouldn't you?"
"I would! But that's not the point!"

Iggy thought for a minute. "Hey, Roy! Wanna help me clean?"
"No, I hate sweepin'," Roy said.
"Oh c'moooonnnnn! I'll let you drive the thingy!"
"Nope."
"Well you can ride in it then! I'll drive! BAHAHA! Hop on, Roy!" Roy shrugged, getting on the Sanitizer-Mobile and the koopas sped off to clean up the castle.

The two Snifits looked at each other.

"Why did we join this army again?"
"It was the only union job at the time."
"... Oh yeah."

• •

"HOMPH! Mmm!" Larry had just finished his fourth cheeseburger. Lovure looked at him with concern. "My, you must've been hungry!" he said. "That appetite of yours is incredible!" Larry and Lovure stopped by a burger joint for lunch. It was Larry's favorite place: Five Shy's. Now that the city was essentially zombie-free, Larry took the opportunity to grab a bite to eat. Well, it was more like five bites to eat.

"That match made me crave more than just one cheeseburger! I had to order a lot!" Larry ate some of his fries. "...You gonna finish that, dude?" Lovure had an untouched meal sitting right in front of him. "I…can't really eat this, you know…" he said.

"Why'd you order it, then?" asked Larry.

"Frankly, I have no idea."

"Eh, we'll save it for later." Larry packed up Lovure's meal and put it away.

Larry took a sip of his soda. "So what's next, Heart Dude? We gotta go to space or somethin'?"

"We are not going to space, Larry," said Lovure sternly. "Remember, it's where your heart takes you! Trust your instinct."

"Okay but what if my instinct tells me to go to space?"

Lovure sighed. "That's very unlikely."

After a while of eating, the two exited the restaurant. Larry patted his tummy, satisfied with his meal. "That was yummy!" he said.

"Are you sure we should have wasted time like that?" asked Lovure.

"Eh, I don't regret it."

They started making their way towards the outskirts of the city. "How come I haven't met all of your siblings yet, Larry?" asked Lovure. "Well you met Iggy and Roy. There's four more you gotta meet! They like to do their own thing on days like this."

"I still can't fathom the fact that you have six other siblings!"

"Yeah, I can't either, dude. Believe me! Do you got any siblings?"

"Me? Not really, no."

Not watching where he was going, Larry stepped on something sharp. "YEOWCH!" He held his foot in pain and hopped around. "Larry! Are you alright?" Lovure asked. "What the heck! I stepped on something!" Larry looked around for the culprit. "What the…?" There was a dark red vein on the ground which was very out of place. Naturally, Larry followed the vein to see where it led. The thorny vein kept going and going and going. It was seemingly endless! Finally, the thorny vein led Larry to a courtyard behind one of the buildings. In the center of the courtyard was a heart-shaped glass structure.

Larry looked at the structure thinking it was an art installation of some sort. "Man! People will build anything these days!" He circled around it, observing it. Its strange aura made Larry a tad bit uneasy.

Lovure was cautious around the structure. "I don't think this is any ordinary art installation, Larry." Larry noticed something off about the structure. It looked like something was encased inside it. He studied the silhouette for a minute. It looked strangely familiar. Koopa-like with blue hair…

"Wait a minute… I know that hair anywhere! …IT'S LUDWIG!"

Ludwig was encapsulated in the translucent heart. Larry tried calling out to this brother… "Ludwig! LUDWIG! Dang, he can't hear me!"

"He appears to be unconscious and unresponsive! Not good!" Lovure said. "What should we do…?"

Larry grabbed his Heartbreaker. "Only one thing we can do! Bust him outta there!" He shot at the heart, causing it to crack a little.

"That worked! Keep at it, Larry…!" Lovure shouted. Suddenly, Ludwig opened his eyes, retaining a deadpan stare. The ground shook around the courtyard. "Uh oh…! W-what's happening?!" he said with panic. The veins came out of the ground around Larry! He dove out of the way to avoid getting hit by the stray crystalline veins. One of the veins was able to swipe at Larry, knocking him backward. "ACK!"

"Larry!" yelled Lovure.

"I-I'm okay! Lucky hit!"

"No, NOT lucky!"

Larry got up and faced the large crystalline structure. It now had tendrils surrounding it. "Ugh, great. Of course Ludwig wouldn't make this easy…" said Larry to himself. Another vein came at him. This time, he was able to dive out of the way just in time. Larry shot at the structure and some of the veins blocked the shots. They fizzled away from the Heartbreaker's bullets, only to sprout more out afterwards.

"Dang it! My shots won't go through! We need to get rid of those stinkin' veins!"

"But how…?"

"I don't know! Think of someth– AAH!"

Lovure watched as Larry continued to run from the veins, creeping and shooting out at the koopa. "Think, Lovure, there's gotta be something to help him…!" He shut his eyes and tried to focus his magical energy. All of a sudden, Lovure began to glow and float upwards. "C'mon…!"

"Uhhh, Heart Dude," Larry called out. "Now might not be the time to get all dramatic like that, bud!"

In a flash, Lovure turned into a second Heartbreaker! A charm with a smaller version of him dangled from the bottom.

"Whoa… YOU DID MITOSIS!"

"NO, I DID NOT!"

The new gun angrily landed in Larry's hands. "This should give you more firepower! Now, shoot! SHOOT!"

"Dual-wielding?! Aww yeah!"

Larry was fired up. He began shooting at the tendrils with the Heartbreakers. Some of the tendrils locked onto Larry and tried stabbing him, but Larry was quicker. He fired some shots at the incoming tendrils, shattering them in the air. After Larry shot the final vein, he turned his attention to the beryl containment unit.

"Alright, big bro. I'm bustin' ya outta there!" Larry shot at the heart several times. It cracked on all sides, pieces of crystal falling to the ground. "Almost there, Ludsy…!" Finally after some time, the heart shattered and Ludwig was finally free.

Ludwig fell to the ground with a thud. "Ludwig!" Larry ran to his brother to make sure he was okay. "Ludwig, speak to me!" Ludwig slowly regained his consciousness. "Ah…what happened…?" Ludwig checked his surroundings and caught sight of Larry and Lovure. "Larry…? What are you doing here…?"

"You were trapped! But I saved you! No need to thank me!" said Larry. "You were stuck in a giant heart…thing! Are you okay?"

Ludwig sat up and exhaled. "I feel kind of tired to be honest with you."

Ludwig finally was able to think straight. He took a good look at the floating heart fellow.

"Larry, who is this?" asked Ludwig.

"I'm called Lovure. It's a pleasure."

"I'm Ludwig. I assume you already know that."

Ludwig got up off the ground. He turned around to see the mess that was left after the fight. "She won't get away with this," he said.

"Hey, Ludwig? How'd you end up in that thing? I thought it was some freaky art installation," said Larry. Ludwig sighed. "It's a long story… This is what happened…"

• •

When I received your text, I was already in the middle of doing recon with my troop. The mention of zombies in the castle had me curious if there were any around my immediate area.

"Initiate a scan of the area. We want to make sure this place is secure."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

I'll admit, at first I didn't believe you, but you sounded very serious in the text, so I did what I did. What happened next proved that you might have been telling the truth…

I heard laughter coming from the distance so I decided to investigate by myself. As I made my way towards the sound, I saw someone. She appeared to be some type of ghost clad in a deep red dress and crown.

I hadn't seen anybody like her before and she seemed oddly suspicious, so I confronted her. I wasn't sure what she was doing, but I was curious.

She immediately noticed me.

"Hm? And who are you supposed to be, my blue friend?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm making the world a better place! Can't you see?"

As she moved out of the way, I saw them: zombified minions!

"What do you think you're doing with our troops?! Answer quickly!"

"Your troops? Ha! Not anymore. They're my darling zombies now!"

They definitely weren't acting like themselves. So, I did what any Koopaling did best: knock some sense into them. I pulled out my wand and blasted the zombified minions.

...Unfortunately, my efforts proved to be futile.

"Huh?!"

"Haha! You think you can do anything with that simple wand of yours?"

"Well, yes!"

"Don't bother. These commonfolk are already too far gone!"

"?!"

"Seize him!"

The zombified minions were under her control and approached me. But I was smarter. I leapt into the air and tried once more to blast the zombies. I shot a volley of fire at the minions. It did some damage and was able to slow them down a tad bit, but again, my efforts were futile…

The ghost came rushing towards me but I split myself into three to try to trip her up. My clones and I blasted her and were able to stall her.

"ACK! Why you little…!"

She rushed at one of my clones and I charged at her using a mid-air attack but she was able to dodge out of the way.

Suddenly, she unleashed what appeared to be strange thorny tendrils of some sort. My other clone and I were able to move out of the way of her attack for a short while but alas, she caught me off guard and apprehended me. I struggled to try to get out of her grasp but I couldn't break free. Next thing I know, she encased me in a strange crystal-like structure.

"Let's see how you like this, my blue friend; put on display for all to see! You're mine now."

The last thing I saw was her snapping her finger and after that, who knows what happened…

• •

"Whoa... That's nuts!" said Larry. "So you don't know what happened after you were trapped?" asked Lovure. "Well, we found you and you attacked us!" "Yeah! It was crazy! You were doing all sorts of moves that I haven't seen from you before!" Larry vaguely mimed some attacks, which just looked like a bunch of punches.

"Really now?" Ludwig asked.

"I wonder if that heart was siphoning your powers from you…" Lovure pondered.

"Anyway, I know now that you were definitely telling the truth, Larry. What happened while I was away?" asked Ludwig.

"It's…a long story. Basically I broke a thing and unleashed unspeakable forces into the world…heh." Larry looked away in embarrassment. Ludwig furrowed his brows. "Of course. Why would you do that?!"

"I was looking for my tennis racket, okay?!"

Suddenly, groaning caught the group by surprise. They turned around to find the minions from before all approaching them. The minions from Ludwig's troop were also a part of the group of zombies.

"She got to my troop, too?! Blast it!" Ludwig said. "Be careful, Larry. They're stronger than they look…"

"Don't worry. I got this!" Larry pulled out his Heartbreaker. Ludwig glanced at the shiny gun. "What is that, Larry? I've never seen anything like it."

"It's called the Heartbreaker! See those hearts on their chests? That's their weak spot! Only the Heartbreaker can break those hearts!" said Larry.

"I see…" said Ludwig.

"Watch this!" yelled Larry. "Hey, idiots! Over here!" The group of zombies turned their attention to Larry and approached him. Larry flourished the Heartbreaker and shot at the zombified minions, shooting each of them in the heart nodules. Larry tumbled forward and fired more shots at the heart nodules.

Larry fought with the zombified minions for a while, curing them all from their lovesickness. Larry took the opportunity to show off for Ludwig. After a long tussle, Larry saved all the minions.

The group of minions all returned to normal, dazed and confused. "And that's how it's done!" said Larry. "Great work, Larry!" said Lovure.

"What happened?" asked one Shy Guy.

"I-I don't know," said another.

"That was one heck of a dream!" replied a third Shy Guy. The group of minions all murmured in confusion.

"Well, well. Color me impressed…!" Ludwig called over the minions to him. "Hey! Over here!" The minions wasted no time and made their way to Ludwig.

"Yes, sir?" said one Shy Guy.

"I need the lot of you to report back to Bowser's castle on the double. I'll meet you there."

"Sir, yes sir!"

Ludwig watched as the minions went on their way. "I should probably follow them. We need to gather the rest of the Koopalings and think of a game plan. Something sinister is brewing and I don't like it…"

"Where is everyone else?" asked Larry. "Only Koopalings I know that're at the castle are Roy and Iggy."

"Not to worry. I'll make sure to message everyone in the group chat. You just worry about cleaning up this little mess you started. I'll see you later."

Ludwig went on his way.

"Well, that's Ludwig. What'd you think of him, Heart Dude?" asked Larry. "He seems to have a good head on his shoulders," said Lovure.

"Yeah, he's the real deal. A real weirdo." Larry chuckled. "Anywho, let's get moving."

The two continued on their way towards the outskirts of the city. They ended up in another, much smaller forest area, almost like the forest from before.

"Man, I forgot the city was surrounded with trees!" Larry said. As the sun was setting, fog began to roll in, much to Larry's chagrin. "UGH. What's with this fog? I can't see where I'm going!" The fog got heavier and heavier as he continued onward. "I don't believe we've run into this problem in the previous forest!" said Lovure. "This is very strange!"

Suddenly, a whisper called out, as if it were right beside Larry.

"Come here, prince…! I have a surprise for you…!"

A chill ran through Larry's body. "AAAAHH, WHAT WAS THAT!?" The sound of giggling surrounded Larry, making him a bit wary. Larry pulled out his Heartbreaker, aiming it in different directions. "One of the Beryllites found us!" Said Lovure, scanning the immediate area. A wisp of purple swirled around the two before speeding off. "They're getting away!"

More giggling soon followed and the duo followed the sound.

Larry's brooch was beating. He could feel the heartbeats in his chest but this didn't really help his cause considering his own heart was racing from fear!

As the two followed the path, their surroundings started to twist and warp. The signs pointing them forward were misshapen and their text began to blur.

"H-Hey, Lovure? T-They didn't put anything weird in those burgers earlier did they?"

"I thought the addition of onion rings in them was odd, but I think the burgers were fine… because I'm seeing all of this too!"

"How do you know that? You didn't even eat yours!"

"Yes! But I SAW them in it!"

The laughter from earlier returned, echoing as Larry and Lovure were engulfed in darkness.

"Whoa! Who turned out the lights!?" As Larry tried to look for Lovure, he was suddenly face-to-face with the Beryllite who had been stalking them!

"Surprise!"

With one hand she pushed Larry backwards, sending him down a large hole in the ground. "AAAAAHHHHHH!"

The Beryllite giggled. "Oopsie!"