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

horrible thud and a crunch. Kamek rushed down, and so did Luigi. “NOOOOOOOO!” said Kamek’s ear-splitting scream. Just as Luigi and the magikoopa arrived at the bottom, a torrent of black ghostly Marios erupted forth and disappeared into thin air, leaving Mario’s damaged dead body lying there on the floor. Of course, there was no blood. But the body was twisted and contorted to a new level of disgusting that made Luigi feel like he wanted to throw up. What had Luigi done? He had just pushed his own brother off a tower and killed him. Murdered him. All because he had pleaded with him to do it. Had it even worked? All the cosmic clones were gone, but Mario was not okay — he was dead. Luigi fell to his knees and wept. How could he have done this to his only family left?
“Oh, shut up! Stop crying! You did it!” Kamek mumbled bitterly. Luigi paid him no mind. He had just caused the death of his family member. And it was the same one who, earlier that day, had wanted to kill himself. Mario had better have eaten a 1-up mushroom. What if Mario had still wanted to die, and he had just asked Luigi to do it instead? He felt even worse. He could have just sided with the evils of Mario’s depression. Mario had better have eaten a 1-up. Thankfully, he had.
Mario’s twisted limbs began to heal back into their actual places, making sickening snaps. Mario groaned in pain and rubbed his forehead; his head was still groggy. He rolled over onto his back, which had been restored to its normal shape. Luigi looked up with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
“Ahh… Fine day for a murder spree,” Mario said in a lower voice than usual. Luigi gasped. “Just kidding. I’m back,” Mario said with a smile. Luigi grumbled something inaudible. Mario gave a chuckle. He winced as he sat up. Mario licked his teeth; they were bitter from the 1-up he had eaten before entering the stronghold. “Well, that’s my second time dying today. Thank you, Luigi.” Luigi said nothing in reply. Mario looked around the base of the tower. “Where’s Kamek?” Luigi stood up and scanned the area. No Kamek.
“He was right there,” Luigi said, pointing to the base of the staircase. Mario stood to his feet, his knees almost buckling under him. He straightened himself.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. We still have to find the princess,” said Mario. “Is the door still locked?” Mario questioned. Luigi went over to it and tried to open it. After a few pushes, Luigi turned to Mario.
“Help me! I think we can get it open!” Mario walked up beside his brother, and both of them pushed as hard as they could. It still wouldn’t budge. Mario even kicked the door, but it yielded little results.
“I guess we can just find another way out,” said Mario. “We can go back up to the top and go along the wall. Maybe she’s in one of the towers.” Luigi agreed. The two brothers began their ascent back up the stairs to the top of the tower.
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Once they reached the top again, they proceeded along the castle wall to the tower across from them. There were just four towers, and they already knew she wasn’t in one of them. For the most part, the walls were devoid of anyone else. There were a few goombas wearing spike-topped helmets over on the far side, but they didn’t spot them and were no threat. Some watchmen they were.
The tower opposite to the one they had come from was filled with spinies, which were koopa creatures, similar to beetles, with red shells covered in spikes. The brothers had only peeked inside, leaving right away as to not alert the spinies. The princess was couldn’t be in there. As they were about to head over to the next tower, they heard a faint scream. It was coming from the tower they had refused to explore. They stopped and listened. The voice called out again. Yes, it was her. Mario and Luigi ran full-speed into the tower, not even caring about alerting the spiky creatures moving up and down the stairs.
“HALT! STOP WHERE YOU ARE!” a spiny demanded in a deep voice, deeper than he looked like he’d have. Mario and Luigi both ignored him. They sprinted down the stairs, bounding over the hordes of spinies.
They reached the bottom, but not without a large company of hostile spinies. They were harder to kill, too, being covered in spikes and all. But there was one good way. Mario reached down and picked up one of the spinies, being careful not to stab his hands on the spiky shell. He threw it towards the others, knocking most of them over.
“Quick! Through this door!” Luigi said, running to a closed door. The door was opposite to another open door that led to another lava-filled room. Peach would be in here for sure. Luigi entered first, then Mario.
“Prrrrresto!” Mario exclaimed, rolling the “r” far too long. He held his arms out on either side of him and closed the door on the remaining spinies with his foot.
“Mario? Is that you?” asked a female voice. Both of them turned to look. Princess Peach! They had found her! She was locked up inside a cage at the far wall. “Luigi too? Oh, thank the good Maker! Hurry! Get me out of here! The keys are on the wall by your head, Mario.” A key ring hung on a hook right next to Mario. He grabbed it and went to Peach’s cage.
“So stupid of me to think you would ever want to be here on purpose,” Mario said, trying out different keys.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” said Princess Peach. Mario found the right key and unlocked the cage.
“There you are, your royal highness,” said Mario. Peach stepped out of the cage and onto the floor in the most gorgeous and graceful way possible.
“Are you trying to be funny?” she questioned with a little smile.
“Maybe.” Mario returned Peach’s smile with another. Luigi spoke.
“So there are a bunch of spinies out there…” he said. “You wouldn’t happen to know of another way out, would you?” Peach turned away from Mario.
“There is, actually.” She pointed to an obscure door behind the cage she had occupied. “Over there. They were going to move me to another castle using it.”
“Let’s get out of here!” asserted Mario. The three left through the secret door right away, coming once again back into the cloud-covered light of the day. 8: The Story

Mario, Luigi, and Peach fled from the castle stronghold and made their way back to the pipe through World 4. Surprisingly enough, the horde of spinies gave up the chase after just a short while. Maybe it wasn’t too important that the three had escaped. After all, it wasn’t even Bowser’s idea to kidnap the princess this time. The storm had calmed down a bit once they had distanced themselves from the stronghold enough. The sun was just beginning to sink lower into the horizon. Mario was tired and hungry, but at least Peach was back. He did little more than hum to himself as the three went in the direction of the pipe. Luigi and Peach, however, talked for some time during the trip.
“So when I got there, Mario and Bowser were just standing there arguing with each other. They argued some more after I got there, and then Bowser just stormed off,” Luigi explained to Peach. “And he said that it wasn’t his idea to kidnap you. It was…someone else’s.”
“Someone? What someone?” the princess inquired, but she talked again before Luigi got to finish. “I just thought Bowser kidnapped me on the spot to be a bully. He’s got goons everywhere. He could have found out that Mario was having a rough time…and he’s just plain mean!” Peach huffed. “But who put him up to it?”
“Um, well…” Luigi stammered. “Kamek the magikoopa,” he said rapidly.
“Oh Make… Where have I heard that name before?” Peach thought aloud. She pondered it to herself for a few moments before saying, “Go on, Luigi.”
“Okay, so Kamek. Yeah, Bowser said he put him up to it, and then he left the room. So, Mario and I went to go look for you. Then…” Luigi shuddered. He was unable to finish as the three walked across a log over a double waterfall. Luigi opened his mouth to speak, but he was splashed with a sudden spray of water. Peach giggled, but Mario kept looking down at the ground, making his familiar yet unnamable tunes. After they had passed, Luigi continued. He cleared his throat. “As I was saying, we were looking for you. And then…we stumbled in through this door. It was a trap, and Kamek was in there. He, uh…used his magic to summon…evil stuff…and it took over Mario. He was so messed-up. He tried…to kill me. And then…”
“You killed me instead,” said Mario. “To make it stop.” Peach looked to Mario, then back to Luigi.
“You did?” she asked, surprised beyond explanation. “How could you ever kill someone? Let alone, your brother?” Luigi made no reply, but kept speaking.
“It was terrible. We were in one of the towers, and I, uh, pushed him down the stairs.” Luigi swallowed. The memory of his brother’s mangled body still haunted his mind, with gruesome accuracy in the details. He couldn’t bear to go on. “M…Mario, uh, will you tell the rest?” Mario looked to Luigi without saying a word. He took in a breath.
“I fell down the stairs and crashed onto the bottom floor, snapping and crushing several bones. It was horrific, but not as horrific as being possessed by the demons. I was conscious…the whole time,” Mario said softly. The three now walked across a white sand beach past a grove of palm trees, the ocean waves lapping at the shore. It would have been relaxing, but nothing relaxed Mario now. He went on. “Long story short, I revived again and we came and found you, Princess,” Mario said with an exhalation of air. The three were silent after that.
Mario couldn’t do anything to make himself speak any more of his thoughts. He had smiled and laughed before, but, by all means, he still felt awful about himself. Depression is like that: You can laugh and joke around and still be miserable. Mario had been troubled before about the idea of Peach being on the side of Bowser, and now he was troubled that he even had the idea. He tired of being sad. But, no matter what he tried to do, he was still stuck in the same pit of despair. He wanted to feel better so much…but he even felt sad at the prospect of his sadness! None of it made any sense, and he hated it! Singing would do nothing to help, yet he did it anyway. The sound of the wind and waves probably drowned him out, he reasoned. Soon