Mario and the Koopa Conspiracy, Martin C. Featherworth [book recommendations .txt] 📗

in a rhetorical question.
“Why’d he give up right away?” Luigi quizzed.
“He says that he doesn’t need the princess right now. He says it was someone else’s idea.” Mario answered him.
“Who?”
“I think it’s a magikoopa named Kamek,” said Mario. “He was vague. Of course, why wouldn’t he be? He hates me.” Mario said the last part with a low chuckle.
“Kamek? Sounds familiar…” Luigi thought out loud.
“Yes, I don’t know where I remember the name from,” Mario added. “But I think it’s significant.” He scanned his surroundings. “We should go find the Princess before someone moves her to another castle.”
“I’m sorry, but the princess has been taken to another castle!” Luigi said, mocking a toad’s high-pitched, raspy voice. “Or whatever he always said,” Luigi said in his normal voice. Mario smiled and shook his head.
“We need to find her,” Mario insisted.
“Okay,” Luigi said in his usual, awkward little way.
“Let’s go,” Mario asserted with a raised fist. 7: “Sto Morendo…”

“I don’t think we should go through the same door as Bowser,” Mario reasoned aloud to his brother. “When I got here, Bowser was coming into this room. She’s probably hidden around here somewhere.” Mario hopped off of the brown circular platform and onto a rectangular purple one. “Look for a hidden entrance.” The two brothers scouted the inside of the lava-floored Bowser stronghold. There was sure to be a hidden exit somewhere.
“Hey Mario, what about that pipe?” Luigi called out. Mario turned to look. Luigi pointed to a lone green pipe in the middle of the lava. It was just a few feet in front of the platform Luigi occupied. Mario hopped his way over to Luigi.
“If that pipe has a crack in it, I will scream.”
“I bet it does. I bet it’s full of cracks. No, the entire pipe just is a crack,” Luigi joked. Mario looked at him with no expression — he was unamused. “I’ll jump over there,” Luigi offered.
“No, I will,” Mario said as he leapt off into the lava, landing right on top of the pipe. He held out his arms to steady himself. Mario peered down into it. “Doesn’t look useable. I think it’s sealed shut.” Indeed it was — the pipe led nowhere. Mario looked back over to Luigi, who stood on the edge of an oddly-shaped brick pathway into the lava. “Wonderful. The search continues.” Mario rejoined him and re-evaluated the area. He spied a darker niche near the corner of the wall on the far side of the room. “Look over there.” He pointed to it. “There could be a door over there.”
“Let’s check it out,” said Luigi. The two brothers hopped from a series of platforms, all varying in height and color, before landing on another walkway that wrapped around the side of the far wall. It led right to the niche. Mario was first to investigate it. Indeed, it was a door. “It doesn’t need a key, does…” Luigi began, stopping when Mario opened the door. It was dark inside the door, darker even than the large room with the lava floor, except for one lone beam of light that shone down in the center. The air inside was refreshing and cool.
“Hel-looo…” Mario called into the room. His voice echoed and reverberated off the walls. “Anyone here?” No answer came but his own voice. Mario took a few steps further into the room.
“Something’s off about this room,” Luigi said, following Mario. Mario went to the circular spotlight in the center and looked up. The walls of the room seemed to rise upward in a cylinder. They must have been in one of the stronghold’s towers.
“It’s not even a room. It’s a tower,” Mario said, still squinting up at the light. “But you’re right. Something does seem strange about it…” The sound of strong wind whipping against the tower was ever present. Mario listened to it for a few moments to evaluate it. Was it a tropical storm? A hurricane? It had been a bit cloudy and sunny overall before Mario had slipped into the lava room through the window. All of a sudden, the door slammed shut with a loud creak and a thunderous crash. Mario flinched and whisked around. Luigi ran over to his brother in the light beam, ducking behind him.
“What was that?” Luigi whimpered. Mario had no answer. A shrill cackle pierced through the distant sound of wind.
“It’s a trap!” exclaimed Mario. Both brothers rushed over to the door and tried to open it. It wouldn’t budge. Was there any other way out? There must be stairs up to the top. Mario turned around to scan the room for stairs, but by then it was too late. The brothers stood still, paralyzed by what they saw. Standing in the middle of the light beam was a magikoopa holding a golden magic staff with the typical red jewel on the top. Was it Kamek?
“Well, well, well!” mocked the magikoopa. “Look what we have here! Our two so-called ‘heroes’ have just wandered into my little trap!” The robe-wearing koopa swirled the magic staff over his head, sending out a shimmering array of geometric shapes. The magic caused small blue flames to ignite upon lanterns that spiraled around to the top of the tower, revealing a staircase. Mario stepped closer to the magikoopa.
“Kamek! Are you Kamek?” he demanded. The magikoopa gave him a slimy grin.
“Yes I am!” he shrieked with a hideous laugh. Mario returned his answer with an intense glare.
“Who are you, and why did you make Bowser kidnap Peach?” Mario stepped even closer to the magikoopa. He was so focused on Kamek that he didn’t even see the multitude of dark figures prancing down the staircase.
“You should know who I am, lil’ baby Mario.” Mario was stricken with realization. Kamek was indeed significant. Quite significant. Kamek may have even altered the overall course of Mario’s life.
“Mario! Look out behind you!” Luigi warned his brother. But it was for nothing. The minute Mario turned around, dozens of black spirits leapt inside his body. Kamek had conjured them when he had waved his staff. The spirits looked just like Mario, except for being black all over and vaporous with yellow eyes. These were known as cosmic clones, and they were demons that mimicked the person they possessed. Cosmic clones could be summoned to bring out a person’s worst qualities and magnify them to an out-of-control level.
This was not the first time Mario had been possessed by them. He had been pursued by them while trying to obtain power stars in the deep outer reaches of space. All of those times, however, the spirits would just kill him. Mario had never been taken over by this many at once, and he had never lived through a possession to feel the effects. He fell to his knees, gasping for breath and clawing at the stone brick floor.
“Luigi,” Mario moaned helplessly. But Luigi was too terror-stricken to move. Mario fell over onto the floor and grabbed his head. He wailed in drawn-out screams. Darkness covered his face.
“Aw, what’s the matter?” Kamek taunted him. “You got a little headache?”
“Mario!” Luigi cried, rushing over to his demon-tormented brother. Mario was unable to open his eyes.
“Sto…morendo,” he murmured. Kamek chuckled.
“You’re wrong, sonny! It’s even better than dying!” the blue-robed koopa replied to the mustached man writhing on the floor in agony. Luigi was speechless. Nobody, not one in the Mushroom Kingdom spoke or understood Italian except the Mario brothers — Italy didn’t exist here. Italian was a language of Earth, and most who heard Mario and Luigi speak it referred to it as an “Earth language.” How did this magikoopa know that Mario had said “I’m dying?”
Just as Mario looked as if he were going to pass out, a toothy grin spread across his face. He opened his eyes. They were as black as the spirits had been. Luigi backed away as Mario stood to his feet. Mario and Kamek laughed simultaneously. Luigi was shaking with fright. He held his arms out in front of him. His heart rate had increased to the point where he thought Kamek and Mario would hear it.
“M… Mario?” Luigi said, just above a whisper.
“It’s me, Mario! Ha ha!” the black-eyed grinning shell of Mario said. This was not the real Mario, Luigi’s brother. “It’s time to kill!”
“Yes, my beautiful creation! Destroy!” Kamek said. “Destroy him!” Mario’s demon-possessed body started walking towards Luigi. Then it ran. Luigi dashed around to the other side of Kamek, where the spiral stairs up the tower began. Mario’s shell went after him. As he was sprinting up past the blue lanterns, Luigi tripped and fell. The body of his brother gained on him. Luigi got back up and continued the race up the tower.
“Why are you running away? It’s me, your brother!” the shell called out in a voice that was not Mario’s. Kamek hovered up with them on a broom.
“Luigi, you fraidy-cat! Running away from your own brother!” Kamek teased. Luigi flew up the stairs. After a while, they ended with an opening to the top of the tower. The sky was dark and stormy, clouds blocking out the sunshine. Gusts of wind blew on Luigi, almost causing him to lose his hat. He had just a few short moments until the possessed body of Mario and the vile magikoopa Kamek emerged to join him.
“Hel-loooooooo!” Mario’s soulless shell exclaimed jovially. Luigi’s stomach was in knots. The shell ran straight at Luigi and leapt into the air, stomping down on Luigi’s head. Before he could move, It smashed down onto him again when he was down. Luigi scuttled away on his hands and knees before he was squashed a third time. Kamek roared with laughter as Mario’s body chased after him.
“Help me,” Mario said quietly, bounding toward his brother like a madman. Luigi looked up at him.
“What?” The body of Mario made a series of jumps toward Luigi to land on his head, but Luigi moved out of the way.
“Kill me,” Mario begged, his eyes turning white again. “Please.” Mario attempted to kick Luigi in the knees. “I can’t stop. Please… Kill me.”
Kamek screamed angrily, “What? No! You kill him!” Mario’s eyes went back to black and the awful grimace returned upon his face. The soulless Mario tried to hit Luigi, but Luigi ducked out of the way. He returned the attack with a stomp to the head. Mario’s shell let out an inhuman shriek and one of the cosmic clones left from it. “No!” shouted Kamek. Thunder rumbled in the distant sky. Luigi got an idea. He hightailed it around the evil Mario and began to descend back down the stairs. The possessed body and the magikoopa followed, of course. The shell of Mario found no Luigi anywhere on the stairs. But Luigi was there indeed. He stood right behind the corrupted body. With no warning, Luigi ran right into Mario’s body, knocking it off the stairs and sending it smacking down onto the bottom of the tower with a