In the enormous and imposing castle was a pair of godarnedly bored rulers, both finding naught but utter disdain for their usual schemes. "King Boo, weren't you going to borrow some of my Dry-bones? Something about adding ambiance to your mansions..." Bowser and King Boo were seated at the long table, a selection of meats and beverages was spread between them to enjoy as they talked.
The huge mass of ectoplasm threw a piece of beef down past its gleaming set of chompers, letting out a sigh. "I should say the same, King Koopa. I noticed that all the Boos I lent you were returned to their previous haunts." The Koopa rubbed his brow, feeling a knit that wasn't fading, groaning in distaste. Time and time again that they planned something, there would be something to foil them, the plumber pair.
"Grawr... And there was my fiasco wedding..." Bowser slammed his fist on the table, rattling the cutlery and spilling some of the food. He felt humiliated then, and the worse part was that he actually felt sympathetic with his rival, Mario. "You know what, King Boo?" The Koopa was puffing fire and flexing his claws. "No more! No more running after that princess and getting my arse kicked by that midget!"
King Boo watched his ally get worked up with anger and frustration, having felt similarly since the last time he got sucked into a vacuum on steroids. "Yeah... But it surprised me that the princess never even considered that human as a suitor." Having knowledge on royal behavior, the ghostly ruler thought that Mario could be an attractive candidate to the human kingdoms. "Whatever. I'm not touching anything outside from my mansions and my minions."
The rulers griped about their past defeats, sharing the sentiment of annoyance at the brothers from the Mushroom Kingdom until they heard the pitter-patter of someone rushing to them. "Papa, papa!" The large Koopa looked back, seeing his little and peppy heir dash up to the table while holding a drawing, climbing on his father's lap before noticing the guest. "Oh, hello Uncle King Boo!" The apparition grinned at the cheery scamp, the kid reminded him of the younger Boos.
"Let me see what you got there." Bowser picked the paper, his fellow king peeking from behind. It was a drawing of father and son in the Clown Car, with volcanos and mountains as background. "Gahaha! My son is a great artist!" Bowser messed with Junior's mop, getting laughs from the kid. "Hey-a kiddo, may I request you for artwork? My mansion needs some new masterpieces." King Boo chimed in, making Junior puff out his chest with pride.
By now, the rulers had ditched their gripes, sharing lighthearted tales of silly or strange things their subordinates did. "You had to be there to believe it! One of my Boos had seen a lost Dry-Bones and decided to make an experiment." This specific Boo was once a Koopa, like the shambling skeleton, so it figured things would go well. Somehow, the two creatures had merged, giving 'flesh' to the skeleton, even if it was as transparent as any other Boo.
"I now think that it was a true chance encounter, they must have come from the same body, that's why he's the only one of his kind." Bowser was thoughtful, it made sense. "But how is that guy faring?" King Boo tried to recall the gossip from his minions. "The last I heard of him... It seems that he got into attempting to merge more Boos to Dry-Bones, dubbing his kind as Lich, but he hasn't succeeded until where I know."
In one of the research labs, Kamek was testing the newest bounty snatched by his gophers, a strange kind of mushroom that was nabbed from an area full of Toads. He was attempting to analyze the magic infusing this power-up, knowing that the other kingdom would use it against his own. The old turtle poked and prodded at the crown, trying to check the magic infusing it. "I feel nothing... but this is definitively a new item..."
"Mmm... Let's check for reactions..." Kamek pulled some vials of reagents that he usually used on Super Mushrooms and Fire Flowers, thinking that he might get to craft a new power-up potion. "Hum~ dum~" Sadly, the crown mushroom didn't react to the chemicals used, the products simply ran off into puddles. "Aw! Come on!" By now, the sorcerer was getting frustrated, his patience running short. "All the other items told me their secrets!"
It was not time to use sacri- test subjects, his king would fry him alive if he got caught wasting resources and troops. "If you're not handing out your secrets for good, then I'll do it by force!" Kamek pulled out his wand and sent a burst of magic at the crown, hoping to make the magic inside reveal itself. "... Did I do it?" He waited for the smoke to fade.
Nothing, zilch, zippo, nada. The crown was untouched, prim and pristine as if the turtle hadn't fired a bolt of energy at it. "Why you little-!" *Crick-!* "Uh... I have a bad feeling about this..." The old Magikoopa was sweating Bullet Bills as the item he had been tampering with began glowing and cracked, turning tail and ducking behind magical shields before it exploded.
There was an enormous detonation that wrecked the ceiling, going floor to floor upwards until it made a hole on the roof, letting a pink and golden mushroom cloud sprout from the new sun-roof. Kamek sweated King Bills, recalling that while most of the floors the explosion affected were currently empty and out of order, the royal dining room where his boss and guest were in was also in the wreck path.
He looked up at the hole... yep, it was large enough to make one see that the dining room was FUBAR. "My liege!" Kamek didn't look his age as he dashed up to the dining room to confirm his bad feeling. "Please, don't come true!" Sure as rain, there was no hide nor fang from his king, neither glare or cackle from King Boo. "This is a disaster! I must find them!" He rushed out to get the Koopalings. "Emergency meeting!"
Mario and Luigi were walking on a hill close to the Koopa Kingdom, looking at the mountain range where the castle stood. "You-a know, since the disaster wedding, Bowser seems to have-a totally lost his interest on-a the Mushroom Kingdom." The red plumber felt a bit bored, those kidnappings had given him a routine to follow. Besides, things were awkward with Princess Peach.
The green plumber nodded in agreement, as he was going through a similar situation. "Those mansions full-a of Boos may be scary... but I came to-a enjoy battling them..." For some mysterious reason, the entire Boo population under a certain king only chased people to scare in the last day of each month, keeping their actions to just shrieking and stalking, despite Professor E. Gadd telling Luigi that their king managed to escape the Vault.
What was King Boo planning? Luigi had even seen an article in the newspaper that told of a Boo raid on a shop for magical jewelry, knowing for a fact that it was where he sold King Boo's crown, the one claimed from Evershade Valley. "Mamma mia, I do hope that-a disaster isn't brewing anytime soon." Unlike his brother, Luigi wanted a longer break, his heart needed it.
The brothers began chatting about how they honestly missed the adrenaline that pumped them during the quests created by their rivals. "I'm-a this close to just kicking down the gates to that-a castle and asking Bowser for a good fight." Luigi nudged Mario on the shoulder, both laughing at the idea. "You sound like-a those couples in long distance relationships." Luigi instantly knew it was a bad idea.
The shorter one had a stony expression and pulled the ear of the taller one. "Says-a the one who managed to get-a maniac after himself. King Boo seems-a to be really fixated on you." The brothers kept ribbing at each other until they saw a mushroom cloud rise from the Koopa Castle's general area, there was a purple flash in the middle of the pink. What did Bowser or one of his minions do this time? "Want-a to check it?"
I'm hitching a ride on the Bowsette bandwagon, despite being late to the call~