Second Thoughts
On a dark night, even for the Valley of Bowser, Bowser, the King of the Koopa and his kids were putting together yet another scheme to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. This time, they were planning on using all their aerial forces to storm the castle and kidnap Princess Toadstool. Then, instead of simply imprisoning her, they would lower her into a lava pit. The Koopas were very pleased and satisfied with their scheme when a blue-shelled Koopa turle timidly stepped in and feebly lifted his hand.
“But what about Ma… the pl… well, you know.” He nervously looked to each side. “Him.”
Iggy pushed the Troopa aside. “He’s right. He always --”
“-- ruins all our plans,” Lemmy finished.
“Hmm… that’s true,” replied King Koopa. “But how do we stop him?”
“Well, we could kidnap him, too,” suggested Morton.
"Then we could finish him off with the Princess!" said Wendy excitedly.
"That's a great idea!" exclaimed King Koopa. "Glad I thought of it." The kids just looked of to the side, and the turle crept off without even looking upwards.
The word about the plan spread quickly through the castle, reaching every last person, especially the flying ones. The Paratroopas and the Paragoombas argued about who would do better. Grounded Troopas tried to think of ways to get off the ground and into the siege. All of the Troopas were excited about the raid... all of them, that is, but the cloud-riding one named Lakitu.
There was no doubt in anybody's mind that Lakitu was the best of the air-based Troopas, as well as being the cleverest Troopa of them all. He was also often called the most loyal, since he had faithfully served the Koopa clain for many, many years. He most often attacked with the red, hardened, spiked eggs of Spinies from his cloud, which only he knew how to fully operate, but sometimes also fished for Mario with his fishing pole, hid in pipes and threw the eggs, or threw green, comparatively soft eggs. He was indeed powerful, and was admired by many of the Troopas.
However, Lakitu wasn't the same as he had been before. Ever since he had had a taste of being helpful and peaceful at the race tracks across the Mushroom Kingdom and Dinosaur Land, he had been having second thoughts about bringing harm to people like he always had before. He hadn't been feeling totally happy about his job for the last couple years, but he couldn't place what it was that was bothering him. Now, he knew what he had been feeling was regret for all that he had done and sorrow for all the people he had hurt. He had felt good every time he had rescued go-karts from drowning, falling, and burning at the race tracks. He liked feeling respected and praised for what he did. Working to harm others was not what he wanted to do anymore.
But now, it seemed, he would have to go back to being hated and fought against once again, even though that was the last thing he wanted. Oh, how he yearned for a chance to leave all this behind and start life anew! If only he could find some way to leave his past behind, some way to make amends, some way...
Then, he got an idea. He would leave the Koopas and warn the Mario Brothers about the raid! The only trouble was, they weren't too likely to believe him...