Chapter 1 Soap Opera

Man. I am aware of the fact that they are completely ludicrous and don't make a lick of sense, but despite that, I find myself being eerily drawn to these soap operas.

Granted, if somebody were to come and ask Iggy Koopa if he had been watching a soap opera, he would have denied it tooth and nail. Despite the fact that he was a koopa, he did have a moral compass and realized that being a soap opera fan fell into the "morally fuzzy" category. Or was he getting that confused with being a serial killer? Either way, he still didn't want people to uncover his secret.

"Derek," the female protagonist, Bunny, said to the gruff, eye patched guy who acted as her co-star. "I feel like...I don't know. I mean, how can I love someone who has drowned my favorite pet fish?"

"I had no other option," Derek said as he wrapped his arms around Bunny. "The pet store owners were coming for him; it was only a matter of time."

Iggy leaned closer to the TV screen. Giddy, uncontrollable chortles rose up from his throat.

"Come on, Bunny," he said as he started cramming caramel corn into his mouth. "Plant that kiss on him! You know you want to!"

Bunny looked at Derek with this overwhelming attraction toward him in her eyes. She looked like the very idea of living without him terrified her, and Iggy was eating up every minute of this cheese-dipped scene.

"Derek."

"Bunny."

The two kissed, and Iggy started jumping up and down in excitement.

"Yes! I knew she would do it! They've been building up to this moment ever since Aunt Matilda was kidnapped by the secret service!"

"Uh, Iggy?"

Iggy almost had a heart attack at the sound of Larry's voice. He tried to turn around in the most nonchalant way possible, but it is kind of hard to do that when you've just been given a bucketful of embarrassment. The look that Larry gave him was one of curiosity and amazement.

"What are you watching?"

Iggy's mind was racing at a million miles a minute. If it weren't such a mortifying scenario for him, he probably would have considered it to be humorous. He had been dreading one of his siblings finding out so much that he actually forgot to anticipate for what he would do if he ever was caught.

"I...I…"

Out of the corner of his eye, the green-shelled Koopaling spotted the TV remote. He hastily picked it up and switched off the show.

"Nothing, uh, I wasn't watching anything!" He almost kicked himself. He didn't sound confident at all; he stumbled over his words like they had made him dizzy. Even the actors in the soap opera would have shunned him for his acting. "Why...why are you here, Larry?"

"Oh, no reason," the youngest Koopaling responded. "I just wanted to see what kind of cool project you are working on now."

Iggy was a scientist; one of the best out there. He took great pride in his work and had won numerous accolades. However, he knew that Larry didn't share his enthusiasm. Some of the other Koopalings did, but Larry was definitely not one of them.

"You've never cared about my projects," Iggy stated as he raised his eyebrow. Larry responded to this with a nervous laugh.

"What? That's not true! I love your projects! I think they're great; awesome even! In fact, I think...that they are cool!"

Iggy's previous attempt at acting might have been atrocious, but compared to his brother he appeared to be Oscar worthy. His eyebrow rose, and Larry sighed in defeat.

"Alright fine, I want to use your TV. Mine broke."

Iggy hesitated for just a second. He could say no, just to be mean. But then again, he was not that kind of person. He was a Koopa with integrity.

"Knock yourself out."

Larry grinned and plopped himself down on Iggy's bed. He layed back as he began to channel surf. Iggy was just about to leave the room when Larry directed a question towards him.

"I suppose there is no harm in asking, since I did bring it up. Do you have any other ideas for projects?"

Iggy stopped in the doorway and reflected on this. In truth, he hadn't really considered going for a new project. In the past few months, he had built at least fifteen robots for the Koopa Troop army. While that was fun, it did leave him a little burned out. However, that wasn't to say that he didn't want to get something else started. The frustration that burn out brought was a tough enemy to face, but it didn't hamper the sheer joy at getting to work on something new.

"Not presently, I must admit. I've kind of been taking it slow."

"Cool," Larry said. Then, his face lit up and he sat up in bed, his attention now directed at the TV screen. "Oh sweet, I love this show!"

Iggy moved a little closer so that he could see what Larry was watching. The show's title sequence was currently playing. Iggy didn't know what the World Eight the show was, but he had to admit that it had a catchy theme song.

"Do you mind informing me about the facts pertaining to this show?"

"Oh, this is pretty awesome," Larry said. "It's called 'Meeting Myself.' It's about this kid who inherited this time machine from his scientist father. What he doesn't know is that these crooks want to steal the time machine, so he has to recruit his past selves in order to stop them…"

As Larry went into detail in a way that only the most dedicated of fans could, Iggy was staring at the television screen. He saw this goomba boy talking to who Iggy was assuming was his beanish friend. After the two characters wrapped up their conversation, the goomba lead the beanish boy over to a silver machine. It resembled a virus that was magnified under a microscope.

"Is that there time machine?" Iggy asked as he pointed to the scene.

"Yep," Larry said. "Isn't that cool? Oh watch this, the time traveling sequence is pretty legit."

Iggy stared. The two characters entered the machine, and the beanish boy pressed a button on the main control panel. The camera then shifted so that it was focused outside the capsule. A collection of colors twirled around the machine as it began to rotate. Faster and faster and faster it spun until...POOF! It was gone.

"Woah," Iggy said in amazement.

"I KNOW!" Larry exclaimed. "And this is just the first season! It looks even better after season three because that is when they got a higher animation budget."

An idea was starting to form in Iggy's mind. It was a little crazy. Some might even call it insane. However, if Iggy could do it...if he could actually pull it off…

"Are you okay, Iggster?" Larry asked once he noticed Iggy's faroff look. Iggy glanced at his brother, his eyes sparkling.

"I've just figured out what my next project is."

"Really? What?"

Iggy's grin got even brighter.

"I'm gonna build a time machine."