The Fearless Four walked along the path after defeating Wart in a wild battle that nearly resulted in Toad Town getting blown to bits. They had been walking for hours, and were growing tired (not to mention hungry). Larry and Lemmy were also a little short on ammo (grenades and shell bombs). Currently, they were walking through a huge forest (not Forest Land). Finally, Lemmy spoke up. “I’m… soooooo hungry,” he said.
“Yeah, me too,” said Mario.
“Ditto,” said Larry. “But where in this forest are we gonna find anything to eat?”
Luigi looked up and saw smoke shooting skyward. “Hey, look at that!”
The others looked up and saw the smoke. “Must be a chimney!” said Larry. “Which could mean… SOMETHING’S COOKING!!!”
The very thought made the four race away towards the source of the smoke. Indeed it was a chimney, attached to a small cafe, made entirely of wood. They ran up to the front door. Mario hastily knocked. No answer. Mario knocked again. “I’m comin’! I’m comin’!” said a deep, loud voice. “Keep yer shirt on!”
Larry shivered. “… Whoever th-th-that is,” stuttered Larry, “d-d-doesn’t sound t-too f-f-friendly…”
“Oh come on, Larry,” said Luigi. “Things don’t always appear the way they seem.”
The door opened, and there stood a female Koopa wearing an apron. She was huge and bulky, and had a small, sharp tooth sticking out of her beak. She stared down at the Marios and Koopalings with a mean look. Larry gave Luigi a look that said “You were saying?!” Luigi got an anime sweatdrop.
“So yer the famous Mario Brothers I’ve been hearin’ about!” she said.
“Um… Yes… Yes we are…” said Mario.
“An’ who are these two?!”
“Allow me to introduce ourselves,” said Lemmy. “I’m Lemmy Ko-” Larry covered Lemmy’s mouth. Lemmy forced Larry’s hand off. “What are you doing, Larry?!” he whispered.
“Just tell her our first names. She might get suspicious if she finds out we’re Koopalings.”
“Oh…”
“Well?!” the Koopa yelled. “Who are ya?! SPEAK UP!!!”
“A-a-as I was saying, I’m Lemmy and this is Larry.”
“Lemmy an’ Larry, huh? Sounds like them names of them Koopalin’s, an’ I hear them guys are bad news.” The Koopalings gulped.
“Whaddaya want?!” she bellowed.
“Um…” began Mario. “One table for four please?”
“Ya know,” said Larry. “All of a sudden I’m not really that hungry…”
“Oh… Make that one table for three.”
The Koopa motioned the Marios and Lemmy inside, while Larry waited outside. I really don’t like this, Larry thought. That woman scared the pants off me, not that I wear pants. Little did he know that he was being watched by two figures hiding in the underbrush surrounding the cafe. They peered through the bushes and saw Larry.
“Hey!” said one. “There’s that Larry Koopa! Let’s get ‘im!”
The first figure was about to jump out of the bushes, but the other one stopped him.
“No, you stupid idiot! Never use the direct approach! It never works! Let’s sneak up on ‘im.”
“Oh boy! Fawful will be pleased, and we’re gonna be in for some big money! HEHEHE!”
They slowly moved through the brush. Larry, however, heard the crackling in the bushes. “Who’s there?!” he called. No one answered. Something’s not right here, Larry thought.
***
Mario was stuffing his face with pasta (not literally), Luigi was slurping up a bowl of linguini, and Lemmy was chomping down on a frozen meat patty.
“Mphis gphis mphood!” Lemmy said with his mouth full.
“What did he say?” Luigi asked.
“He said ‘this is good'!” said Mario.
“Oh… I think I’ll go check on Larry,” said Luigi.
Luigi went outside, but Larry was nowhere to be seen. “Larry!” he called. No answer. Luigi ran back inside. “Guys! Larry’s gone!” he cried. Mario dropped his fork, and Lemmy spat out his freezing cold lemonade. They ran back outside, still no sign of Larry. “Where is he?!” Lemmy asked in a worried voice.
“I don’t know,” said Mario. “But we’d better find him before something bad happens to him.”
“LARRY!” Lemmy called. “WHERE ARE YOU?!”
“Let’s split up and look for him! We’ll cover more ground!”
The trio did so.
***
Poor Larry had been kidnapped by Wario and Waluigi, the two figures who had been stalking him! He was tied to a tree and gagged. “Well,” said Waluigi, “what to we do with him?”
“Well,” Wario thought out loud, “we could just bring him to Fawful alive, but then he would struggle too much. So… why don’t we just kill him now and bring his ugly carcass to Fawful?”
“Hmm… I LIKE THAT IDEA!!!”
“MMMMMMMPPPPPPHHHHHHT!!!” screamed Larry.
“Say goodnight… Cheatsy!”
Wario backed up far away, preparing to charge headfirst into Larry! That’s it! he thought. It’s over! I’m a dead Koopa! Wario charged towards Larry at a tremendous rate. Larry shut his eyes, hoping for a miracle. Fortunately, he got one. Wario was about fifteen yards away from Larry when he was suddenly tackled by Mario, who had just run onto the scene. “Sorry,” said Mario, “but I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”
“Mario!” exclaimed Wario. “What are you doing here?! And why are you helping a Koopa?!”
“I’d rather save a Koopa’s life than allow my second worst rival to kill someone!”
“Unhand my brother this instant!” said a high-pitched voice.
“Who said that?!” asked Waluigi. “Who are you?!”
“Over here, you dimwit!” said the voice. Everyone looked towards the bushes, and out walked a very angry Lemmy Koopa, Freeze Gun in hand. “You heard me!” he yelled. “Let him go! NOW!!!”
“How ‘bout NOT?!” said Waluigi.
“In that case… FREEZE!!!” Lemmy shot Waluigi with his Freeze Gun, leaving Waluigi frozen solid, but still alive. Woah, though Lemmy. That was easy.
“WALUIGI!!!” Wario yelled. “That does it!” Wario forced Mario off and charged towards Lemmy. “I’LL BUST YOU IN HALF IF I HAVE TO!!!” Wario yelled. Just watching Wario run towards him made Lemmy feel cold. He watched as Wario became bigger and bigger as he got closer and closer. “I-I-I c-can’t move…” said Lemmy. He wanted to jump out of the way, but he was so cold. Just as Wario was about to slam head on into Lemmy, Luigi suddenly came out of nowhere and tackled Wario. Before Wario could do anything, Luigi punched him in the face several times. Wario kicked Luigi backwards and tried to charge into him, but was jump-kicked in the face by Mario. Immediately, Lemmy froze him solid.
“Pfft!” said Lemmy. “And these two are supposed to be your rivals?! They’re so stupid... not to mention greedy!”
“Wario’s always been that way,” said Mario. “Ever since I took my castle back from him, he’s always hated me.”
“How come you’ve never gone back to your castle anyway?”
“Because I always have to save Princess Peach from Bowser. Besides, the princess needs me… and so does Luigi.”
“Mario,” whispered Luigi. “What would I do without you?
A tear came to Lemmy’s eye. Mario and Luigi looked at him. “Okay! Okay!” said Lemmy. “I admit it… these happy moments get me too!”
“MMMMPPPPHHHT!” said Larry.
“Oh! Sorry Larry!”
Lemmy ran over and untied (and ungagged) his brother. “Whew,” said Larry. “I’m happy to be able to speak again!”
“If you were Morton,” said Lemmy, “I would’ve left the gag on.” They all laughed.
“Well,” said Luigi, “what do we do with these two?” He pointed to the frozen Wario and Waluigi.
“Oh… just leave them,” said Mario. “Someone’ll find them sooner or later…”
“Hopefully later!” added Larry.
“C’mon, guys,” said Lemmy. “Let’s get out of this forest.”
The Fearless Four walked away. Though they marched (not literally), the forest seemed endless. They were exhausted. It was starting to get dark and the mosquitoes were beginning to come out. One flew on to Lemmy’s nose and started sucking. “UUUGHH!” said Lemmy. He swatted the bug off. Three hours later, they finally reached the end of the forest, but they saw nothing but water. They had reached the ocean.
“Greaaaaaaat…” said Larry sarcastically. “Where do we go from here?”
“I think we should sleep here,” said Mario. “We need it.”
“No kidding,” said Lemmy. “We’ve had to outbattle a ballistic frog and a couple of plumbers in purple… not that they were even a challenge... Oh well, I’m tired anyway.”
“Sleep?!” said Luigi. “On the sand?!”
“You have a better idea?”
“Well… no… Okay, we’ll sleep here.”
“I’ll go get some wood for a fire,” said Mario.
“FIRE!” screamed Lemmy. “Well then, I’ll just be over here…”
Lemmy walked about thirty feet away. Mario and Luigi looked at each other. Then they looked at Larry. “He likes the cold,” said Larry. “That’s why he owns Ice Land.”
“Oooooooooh…”
Mario walked away to get some wood, while Luigi and Larry collected stones and set them in a circle. “I still don’t see why we’re even making a fire,” Larry mused. “We don’t have any marshmallows.” Larry looked over and saw Lemmy lying on the sand. He was already fast asleep. That’s my little-big brother, Larry thought.
Later, Mario came back with some sticks. He dropped them in the rock circle and began rubbing two sticks together, but to no avail. “Wait a minute,” said Mario. “What am I doing?” Mario took out a Fire Flower and turned himself into Fiery Mario. Then he made fireballs and threw them onto the wood. Voila! He had made fire.
Well, thought Larry, I could’ve done that… if I was seventeen years old.
The three lay down on the sand. Mario and Luigi fell asleep almost instantly, as they were very tired. Larry was still awake. He lay there on his back, staring up into the night sky. I wonder how Dad’s doing, he thought. I hope something didn’t happen to him. Larry closed his eyes
He was just about to fall asleep when he heard a peculiar noise. Larry sat up and looked around. Then he saw a jet stream of foamy water coming toward him from the ocean. There’s something underwater, he thought. The object rose from the water. When Larry saw it, he shot up. It looked just like the sun-shaped submarine he used in Yoshi’s Safari! The figure piloting the huge mech was… Dun Dun DUUUUUUUUUUN... TATANGA!!!
“YOU!!!” Larry yelled. You stole my submarine, ya little thief!”
“Um… Actually, no,” said Tatanga. “I didn’t steal your pathetic little sub. I modified my ship to give it many more abilities. I even modified its appearance, and it just happens to look like your sub. So THERE! Shut up!”
“Whatever! What are you doing here?! Whaddaya want?!”
“I want you dead! You see, Fawful had Bowser kidnapped because he knew you guys were gonna be looking for him. Sadly, only two of you came. No matter, though! He’ll be so pleased when he finds out that I, Tatanga, have defeated two Koopas AND those cursed Mario Bros! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
“Don’t tell me you’re in on this too!”
“You must be Captain Obvious. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!”
“… Grrr!”
Mario, Luigi, and eventually Lemmy were awakened by Tatanga’s maniacal laughter. They looked up at Tatanga’s ship. “Hey!” said Luigi. “Larry, isn’t that your sub from Yoshi’s Safari?”
“Believe it or not, no…”
“TATANGA?!” yelled Mario.
“Well well well,” said Tatanga. “If it isn’t Super Moron! Long time no see!”
“Shut up!” snapped Mario.
“Oh c’mon! Where’s your sense of humor?”
“Who cares?! You’re going down!!!”
“Yeah!” agreed Lemmy.
“Bring it... not like you’ll even survive! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Tatanga began firing lasers at the Fearless Four. They all dodged them. Lemmy took out his wand and blasted at Tatanga. However, the beam from the wand just bounced off the ship. “What?!” said Lemmy.
“Pathetic!” said Tatanga. “I’ve modified this ship enough to make it immune to blasts from your pathetic little wands!”
Tatanga continued firing at them. Mario and Luigi threw fireballs at Tatanga’s ship, but to no avail. Larry volleyed shell bombs at the ship with his tennis racket, also to no avail. Lemmy hurled grenades, one again, to no avail. “MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” laughed Tatanga. “Not only is my ship immune to wand beams, bombs, fireballs, and grenades, it’s immune to almost everything! MWHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
“This is crazy!” said Lemmy. “We didn’t even scratch him!”
“What now?!” asked Luigi.
“Wait a second!” said Lemmy. “I know! I fact, I don’t know why I didn’t do this before!” Lemmy pulled out his Freeze Gun. “FREEZE!!!” he yelled. Lemmy pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. He tried again and again, but the gun wouldn’t fire. “WHAT?!” he screamed. “MY GUN JAMMED!!!”
“Again, pathetic!” said Tatanga. “And now, YOU freeze!”
Tatanga fired at them. The group jumped out of the way and started running along the beach. Unfortunately, Luigi tripped over a rock and landed badly on his foot. “Ow!” he said as he hit the ground. Luigi felt a sharp pain in his foot. He had rolled his ankle! He looked back to see Tatanga hovering above him. “MARIO!!!” he yelled.
As soon as Mario heard the yell, he turned around and ran back to help his fallen brother. Larry looked back. “Mario!” he yelled. “Where are you going?!”
Mario helped Luigi up, but when he saw Tatanga, all he could say was, “Mamamia!” Tatanga fired at the Marios, stunning them. Then he hovered directly over them and a neon green light shined on the Marios. Larry and Lemmy watched in terror as the Marios were lifted up into the ship! Tatanga turned his attention to the two Koopalings. “You’re next!” he said coldly. “MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
“RUN!” Lemmy yelled. They ran along the beach, wildly swerving to avoid Tatanga’s shots. They ran back into the forest. Tatanga blasted away the trees. The Koopalings were running for dear life.
“Look!” said Larry. They looked ahead. There was a huge rock with a small cave in it. “In there!” said Larry. The Koopalings ran into the cave and covered their heads, hoping Tatanga wouldn’t blow up the rock.
Tatanga looked all around the area, but saw no sign of the Koopalings. He could see the big rock, but fortunately he couldn’t see the small entrance to the cave the Koopalings were in. Dang! he thought. They got away! No matter. Wait until Fawful sees who I have here! With that, Tatanga flew away.
***
Larry and Lemmy peered out of the cave to see Tatanga flying away. “Whew,” said Lemmy. “This has been one crazy night!”
“I can’t believe this!” said Larry. “The Mario Bros. were just defeated by, of all enemies, Tatanga! And now we’re back to just being two Koopalings against the world.”
“*sigh* Well …I guess we might as well just sleep here and *yawn* see what we can do tomorrow.”
“Okay… though this cave floor's not all that comfortable… It’s so cold… Lemmy… Lemmy?” Larry looked over to see that Lemmy had fallen asleep. Yep, Larry thought. That’s my little-big brother.
Larry lay down and closed his eyes. He thought of Wendy. He thought of Bowser. Strangely, he thought of the Mario Bros. And he thought of his plants. My plants! Larry shot back up. Are they okay?! Are they safe from Roy?! Okay, Larry! Calm yourself! They’ll be okay. They’ll be okay. Larry layback down and closed his eyes. Eventually, he fell asleep.
Would they be able to get Wendy back? Would they be able to get Bowser back? Would they be able to get the Marios back? … WOAH! That was a weird question. Would they even come close to defeating Tatanga? Oh well. They would just have to think about that in the morning. In the meantime, sleep tight, boys…