Mario & Luigi

The Shaman of Shadows

Area 3: Windmill Ridge

3-3: Glitch, Twitch, Switch

Luigi took a deep breath and crouched. With a burst of power, he dashed. Instantly, Luigi came to the edge of the shrine and, with a strong jump, flew off into the sky. With arms outstretched, he smiled as he felt the wind on his face. He seemed at peace despite the chaos around him.

Quickly, he grew accustomed to the Cape Feather. He flew over the second of the three bridges. This one was, like the previous one, in terrible condition. This bridge had different contraptions. Sets of red and blue lights would alternate randomly but never be on or off simultaneously. Luigi flew overhead until he spotted a yellow wizard frantically trying to fiddle with a block. He quickly flew down to them.

Luigi landed and shook the bridge a little, which startled the wizard and gained his attention, "Hello?" Luigi said as he quickly approached.

"Wow, t-that was some landing!" said the wizard.

Luigi blushed, "Thank you," he said. He quickly changed the subject, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm an Electromancer. My name is Merlear, and I'm a maintenance worker for this bridge! As you can see, it's in terrible shape!" Merlear said with despair creeping into his voice.

Luigi inspected the wreckage, "There are sure a lot of ON/OFF Switches on this bridge!"

"Yes, they are an old technology mixed with magic!" Merlear began. "You seem familiar with them, though!"

"Yeah, my bro and I have encountered them a couple of times!" Luigi said with a chuckle.

"Oh, that's good, so you know what they do then?" Merlear asked rhetorically.

"Yes, but what are you trying to do with them out in this storm?" Luigi asked curiously.

Merlear scratched his cheek in thought, "Ah, I know now's a bad time to try and fix them, but I was trying to rig them up to keep them all 'On' at once."

"You were trying to keep them all 'On'?" Luigi asked, trying to understand.

"Yes, if they were all on, I could keep the Blue and Red Blocks solid so we could at least continue to use the bridge for its intended purpose," Merlear claimed. He scratched his cheek, thinking further, "However, I'm not quite sure how to make them do that as that is not how they are built. Keeping them all off is entirely possible, but I need to cut the power from the Windmill Fort up ahead. As you may have noticed, the power from the fort is being channeled to our Grand Windmill. Any excess power is being fed to these bridge contraptions. The wild surges of power are making them go haywire!"

Luigi showed more concern but was interrupted by Mario, "I know what you're trying to do here, fella...," Mario began.

Merlear was startled by Mario's sudden appearance, "Wowza! A ghost! There's been a lot since Merloom reappeared! Uh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you!"

Mario chuckled, "So sorry 'bout that! Anyway, I think it's best if you close the bridge until the storm passes! My bro and I are headed to the Windmill Fort to shut it down! We are stopping this Conductor and Merloom!"

Merlear was astonished, "Wait! You two are here to stop Merloom and his Conductor? I was wondering who you might be. I wasn't expecting anyone to come out here, let alone outsiders. If you two are who I think you are, I'll gladly help you cross!"

The brothers thanked him simultaneously.

"I'll try to regulate the power for these switches so they won't glitch out as often, but I can't promise you I'll make it happen every time! I'll watch you progress through my crystal ball!" Merlear claimed.

Mario vanished, and Luigi approached the On/Off Switch near the abyss below. He hit the block and turned it on. A broken trail of red blocks appeared before him. "Here I go!" Luigi shouted as he leaped to the blocks.

The wires tangled in the wreckage gave off a flash. However, Merlear managed to regulate the power and prevent the blocks from vanishing beneath Luigi's feet. "Good luck, Green Thunder!" he shouted.

Luigi thanked him with a wave, and he leaped to another wrecked part of the bridge. It swayed and shook in the wind, but this was nothing Luigi couldn't handle. As he moved forward, more electrically charged Ghosts and Peepa's ambushed him.

Luigi ducked under a Ghost that was trying to give him a swift right hook, only for it to hit a Peepa instead. The sparks that flew changed the nearby switches. The Poltergust quickly dispatched the two spirits, but more came in after. He was ready and managed to avoid their attacks. He hastily dispatched the gaggle of ghouls and hit the switch again to change the nearby blue line of blocks.

Luigi followed the blocks and had to take a route that led him under the bridge. The normal route was riddled with electrically charged wires that caused even stepping on it impossible without taking a severe shock.

Luigi made his way through the underside portion of the bridge, switching the blocks on and off to make it through and even finding a Hint Block. He recorded its message before the platform of red blocks vanished beneath him. He then wall-kicked up a blue wall and back to the top part of the bridge.

No breaks could be taken, though, as more ghostly enemies made their presence known. Luigi ducked and dodged like before, but they struck him multiple times. Their lightning-charged punches short-circuited the Poltergust, stunning it and causing it to light his cap on fire. He would quickly remove it to put the flame out and return to the fight with irritation. Luckily, the Peepas and other Ghosts were put to rest inside the Poltergust, and he rested. Thankfully, he had not taken enough damage to lose his cape.

Greaper appeared, "Good work, we're almost there! I can see the fort peeking out in the distance!"

Boo followed, "Maybe you can just run and fly the rest of the way there!"

Dry Bones rattled, "I dunno about that! If you fly into something, you'll nosedive into the ocean!"

"That's okay," Luigi responded. "This cape is making my landings much safer!"

"Okie dokie, breaks over, let's hop to it!" Mario cheered.

Luigi hopped to it and made another leap to a line of red blocks. They quickly switched to blue, and the red ones vanished, but he made his jump and landed on a small set of blue blocks. Then, those blocks disappeared beneath him, and Luigi dropped down with a gasp. He slowed his descent with the cape and made it to a platform that acted like a scale when he stepped on. He had to act quickly to jump to the platform it was tethered to so he could make it to safety. After making it to the second scale platform, he then jumped to more of the safe cloud blocks.

The end was in sight now, the windmills' blades could be seen spinning among the little houses. However, more ghosts showed themselves only this time did they bring more of Merloom's cultists with them. Luigi put up his hands and began to rumble with the three cultists. This time, like their master, they attempted to freeze Luigi in place by capturing his shadow. When they were successful, Luigi could still move but sluggishly. The ghosts tried to line up punches when he was hindered, only to be met with Luigi's Thunderhand. After stunning the spirits, Luigi managed to break free from the cultists and do away with them. His Poltergust finished off the ghosts, and he was free to continue.

Luigi made a dash and took off into the air. He swooped and performed rolls in the air to avoid hazards, and thankfully, he made it to the islet. He slammed his fist onto the ground and shook the soil with a loud thud. With all the thunder, one might believe it was just another lightning strike.

Luigi approached the Windmill Fort, and this one was in better shape than the previous one. It was easy to see that there were no alternate entrances. He walked up to the door and entered.

Luigi inspected the inside of the windmill, and just as he expected, On/Off Switches were everywhere. They were malfunctioning so terribly that their magic leaked into some of the gears and shafts. When the gears vanished, the windmill would stall and lose power.

Mario appeared, "Forget Tick-Tock Clock this is way worse! Entire gear sets could go missing at any time! If you make a bad jump, you'll end up back down here!"

"That poor maintenance wizard sure has his work cut out for him, eh, Mario?" Luigi said with levity.

"You're not kiddin'!" Mario followed.

Luigi crossed the windmill and around to the back of the building. He came to a staircase that switched between dimensions. It did not change physically, though, not like the last windmill. When the switch was on, he leaped up the stairs and to an ordinary set of gears that were not bothered by the magic switches. The cackling of ghosts could be heard, but they were not seen.

Luigi was confused, "Where do I jump from here?" he mused out loud.

Mario appeared, "Hey Weeg, why not try poking around with that Dark Light of yours! Maybe some of the gears are 'missing'!"

"Good idea!" he said. Luigi poked around with the Dark Light, and an On/Off Switch was located. "Curse these ghosts! They hid the switch!"

Luigi punched the switch, and an entire set of blue gears and shafts appeared. He quickly crossed the spinning gears and reached another solid platform that led higher. It was unaffected by the switches, so he could take his time.

As he reached the top of this staircase, he made it to the second floor. The second floor had panels that were affected by the switches and some that were not. Just then, a group of ghosts appeared and laughed at Luigi as they possessed a switch block. It moved around the room and taunted Luigi.

"Get'em, Weeg!" Mario cheered.

"Okie dokie!" Luigi replied.

Luigi skipped across the floor as the ghosts tried to make him fall into the vanishing panels. He avoided their little game and their attacks. He was able to dispose of enough of the ghosts to finally get into a good position and shine his Dark Light on the Switch Block. The ghost was dealt with, and Luigi hit the block. He did so until he revealed the next set of stairs.

He ascended the stairs and arrived at the third and final floor. The platform spun like the last windmills, but like pie slices, these pieces would appear and vanish. Other panels would occasionally become electrified. Luigi stepped aboard a safe panel, and a Boo appeared.

The Boo laughed, "I'm Booyota, and I love mechanical contraptions!"

The Boo took the Switch Block on the floor and kept it with him. As Luigi tried to capture him, he would wildly change the On/Off Switch. Luckily, Luigi's cape made it super easy to decide which panel to land on, and this frustrated the Boo. Booyota tried to dive-bomb Luigi, but he countered and snagged him with the Poltergust. After Booyota was defeated, a Red Switch appeared but was only usable when the On/Off Switch was off. Luigi turned it off and pressed the kill switch. The windmills lost power instantly as the On/Off Switches became inert.

Luigi left the fort, and the weather seemed to improve. "Two down, one to go!" Greaper laughed.

"Great job, Weeg!" Mario said as he patted his brother on the shoulder.

"Boy, if that was the second one, I wonder what condition the third one is in!" Boo said worriedly.

"Yeah, those On/Off Switches started to make my head spin!" Dry Bones claimed as he comically spun his head.

They shared a brief laugh. Luigi then found his way to where the third bridge should be, but to his surprise, he found almost nothing intact.

"Mama Mia! Where's the bridge?! There's only cables left!" Luigi shouted.

Only a minor portion of the bridge remained. The rest was almost completely wiped away. "Well, Luigi, we might need to fly for this last one!" Mario claimed.

"Let's just hope that magical cape is up to the task...," Greaper sighed.

Luigi moaned, "Mama Mia..."

*End of Chapter*