Cascore's Note: I need to stop with the new stories... Anyway, here's another adventure story of mine, an idea that's been with me for a little while now. I don't really plan to focus on this much until I get some other projects done first (namely "Not Another Love Story") but I will work on it every now and again since I honestly think that this is a story that Nintendo could probably use for one of their games. And, if nothing else, the title's pretty cool, no? So I'll be quiet now and let you go ahead and read on. I hope you enjoy.
Prologue: "A Dreamy Idea"
The halls of Bowser's dim and dank castle were brimming with activity as usual. Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Paratroopas, Koopatrols, and Hammer, Fire, and Boomerang Bros loitered about the pathways all around the establishment, including the hallway just outside of Bowser's throne room, which apparently grew to be a popular hang out spot over time despite the fact that their king usually resided just beyond the double doors at the far end. They never had to worry though, for Bowser was usually milling about just as nonchalantly as his subjects were, thinking up schemes he knew would never work or talking about irrelevant topics with his aides Kamek and Kammy.
Right now, several of his subordinates were eavesdropping on a growling session taking place within their lord's throne room. Growing bored after going a full year without coming up with a decent scheme to nab his lady love of the Mushroom Kingdom yet again, Bowser decided it was time to sharpen his intimidating evil laugh, using his aides as judges to find out what worked best.
"BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!" Bowser boomed into the air as menacingly as he could, attempting to impress his judges. "How was that?" he soon asked, looking over at Kammy and Kamek. The two Magikoopas had a stack of large cards resting on the ground next to them containing the numbers "1" to "10" and they had to hold up whatever number they thought the laugh deserved.
After some consideration, Kamek lifted up a solid "9", prompting a cocky smile from Bowser, whereas Kammy put up a not-so-impressive "6", immediately wiping that smile from his face.
"What the heck, only a six?" Bowser grumbled, furrowing his eyebrows as if Kammy had just insulted him. Kammy slightly lowered the card and gave a small shrug.
"I dunno, that 'Bwa' part just seems a little...clichéd," she admitted, causing Kamek to give an invisible nod in agreement, though he personally liked the growl. "How about something like 'KYA-HA-HA-HA!!!'" Kammy cackled in an incredibly high pitched voice with surprisingly impressive gusto, managing to curdle the blood of Bowser and Kamek as well as several of the castle's dwellers listening in just outside the door. Kamek quickly held up his "10" card, but Bowser simply scoffed.
"That's an old hag laugh," he responded, folding his arms as he bowed his head and closed his eyes, appearing to concentrate. "I need a big, deep roar that'll strike fear into anyone that hears it. It has to complement my totally intimidating awesomeness."
"But you don't really need a laugh Lord Bowser," Kamek interjected, setting aside his large "10" card. "Just the sight of you conjures terror in the hearts of many."
"That's not good enough," Bowser retorted, lowering his arms and opening his eyes once more. "I want people to be scared out of their wits without even having to see me. I want to be able to roar with so much intimidation that they look around and call for their mommies without knowing what kind of a threat they're facing. THAT'S true fear right there."
"PAPA!!" a familiar high pitched voice rang out from the hallway just outside of the throne room. And immediately the color drained from the faces of Bowser's two aides, worn out by the sheer thought of having their king's son in the same vicinity as them. Countless were the times they were charged with babysitting Bowser Jr., and never once did he fail to cause some kind of mayhem, whether it was breaking Kammy's favorite vase or accidentally threatening to destroy the entire castle because he found his way into a restricted room in search of a cookie. The two shuddered as they wondered what he was up to now.
Looking at the two Magikoopas, Bowser gave out an irritated sigh. As Junior burst through the large double doors into the room, his father realized that his own son was better at frightening people than he was. That wasn't a very encouraging thought as the young, energetic Koopa prince bounded his way over to his father, waving a rolled up piece of parchment excitedly.
"I finally came up with a plan Papa!" Junior announced ecstatically, holding up the paper for his father to take. "I think it could really work!"
This is gonna be cute, Bowser thought as he accepted the plan and unfolded it slowly, beginning to give it a read as Junior looked between Kammy and Kamek excitedly, appearing to bounce on the spot as if to let out a lot of pent up energy. The Magikoopas looked at one another as this took place, worried that Junior's current state would spell some kind of trouble for them sometime soon. Thankfully, Bowser spoke up after several seconds, taking his son's beady eyes off the two nervous part-time babysitters.
"A dream catcher?" Bowser asked, looking over at his overexcited son, who nodded feverishly in response.
"Yeah, I've been working on it forever so I could surprise you Papa," Junior admitted, coming to his father's side to look at the plan himself. "It's not just any dream catcher like the ones people put over their beds when they go to sleep," he explained, pointing at an illustration of what looked like an ordinary dream catcher. "This is a giant one that will only be seen in the Dreamscape once we fire it up."
"Dreamscape?" Bowser asked quizzically, giving voice to what Kammy and Kamek were thinking as they listened on. "I've never heard of this place before."
"Because a lot of people don't believe it exists," Junior responded, keeping up his excitement. "It's a reflection of the Mushroom World that can only be seen by people who manage to escape their dreams while they sleep. But since most people can't do that, they stay trapped in their own Dream Realms, which are just small segments of the world that only exist in the dreamer's mind."
Bowser's head was already spinning as he tried to comprehend what in the world his son was talking about, but before he could ask any questions, Junior began to clarify.
"See, when people go to sleep at night, their subconscious enters a small part of a larger alternate reality," Junior tried to explain. "When they go to this alternate reality, they're separated into their own realms so as not to intermingle with one another and possibly screw up someone else's dreams. And the only way to do that is by leaving their own dreams while they're still asleep and entering another's by traveling across the Dreamscape, which, like I said, is just like the Mushroom World, only it's usually empty of people walking around because almost nobody knows how to control their subconscious while they're asleep."
"...Okay, I think I get it," Bowser muttered after a few seconds of silently trying to figure out what his son was saying. "So, the Dreamscape is where dreams take place and Dream Realms are the individual bubbles or whatever where separate peoples' dreams actually play out." Junior nodded, happy that his father was getting the gist of what he was trying to say. "And according to your plan...every Dream Realm has a portal that leads in and out of the person's dream, right?"
"Yep!" Junior confirmed. "And if the portal is blocked, the subconscious can never escape the dream, which means the person will be stuck sleeping until the portal is opened up again and allows the dreamer to leave."
It was at this time that Bowser and his Magikoopa aides finally figured out where this idea seemed to be going. As he continued to scan the plan, Bowser's lips curled into a wicked smile, leading to a quiet chuckle.
"So your dream catcher...it can take us to and from the Dreamscape as we see fit?" Bowser asked, prompting another happy nod from his young, excited son.
"We can take everyone in the entire castle with us and we could all walk around the Dreamscape without having to be asleep to do so," Junior piped up energetically. "Aaand, once we fire up its dream catching function, it'll throw everyone in the entire regular world into a slumber and it'll seal off the portals of every one of their dreams. And there's no way the portal can be opened unless a subconscious gets through an entire dream, start to finish, without shifting dreams midway through, which I found out is near impossible since nobody's ever been recorded to have finished an entire dream before either shifting them or waking up."
"And once everyone's asleep, we can just come back from the Dreamscape, waltz right into Peach's castle, bring her back here, and the Mushroom Kingdom will be mine!" Bowser finished eagerly, finally growing excited about the plan himself. He quickly ruffled whatever little hair his son had and tapped the piece of paper with the back of his hand happily. "Junior, this is absolutely brilliant! This plan will make everything so simple! And best of all, Mario will be too busy sleeping to stop us! Perfect!"
However, while Bowser was already sold to the idea, Kammy and Kamek couldn't help but wonder about the plan's validity. Neither of them wanted to ask Junior a question though and they soon decided on a game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to decide who would have to speak up. And after belting out "Paper" against Kammy's "Scissors," Kamek sighed as he prepared to talk.
"But Your Rancidness," Kamek spoke up meekly, grabbing his superiors' attention right away. "How are we so sure any of this is true? It all sounds pretty mythical to me."
"Well I wouldn't come in here and talk about the plan without trying it out first, duh," Junior spat, showing his brattier side that he managed to hide rather well when he spoke to his father. "I tested all of this on some Goomba foot soldier using a smaller dream catcher prototype and it worked out perfectly. I managed to get into the Dreamscape and I was able to block the portal from his dream that allowed him to wake up..." Junior suddenly came to a pause as he looked upward, holding a hand to his chin. "...Whoops," he muttered, causing the old Magikoopas to exchange nervous glances.
"Whoops?" Kamek responded, urging the prince to impart his mistake.
"Uh...that Goomba's been asleep for...about six months now..." Junior admitted, shocking Kammy and Kamek but bringing a happy smile to Bowser's face. "...Huh. I probably should have unblocked it when I was done experimenting... Oh well. At least we know it works."
"And that's all that matters," Bowser gladly confirmed, giving his son a pat on the back as the pair inched towards the double doors leading out of the room. "I have to say Junior, I'm proud of you. I wouldn't have thought of an idea like this in a million years."
"Thanks Papa!" Bowser Jr. responded happily.
"So we can unblock separate portals without doing the same for everyone right?" Bowser asked, making his son nod in response.
"If we want, we can take off the seal to just one portal," he responded. It was a function he carefully added once he knew just who Bowser would want to wake up after everything was all said and done. "So you, me, and Mama can finally be together, and nobody will get in the way!"
"Exactly Son, exactly," Bowser said as he and Bowser Jr. approached the large double doors to leave the room. "We'll be initiating this awesome plan immediately," he called back to Kammy and Kamek as they observed the pair walk out. "Let everybody know alright?"
"Yes Your Terribleness," Kammy responded with a slight nod. Moments later, the king and prince were out the door, leaving Kammy and Kamek in the room alone. "So how do you think this plan will turn out?" Without a word, Kamek lifted up a large "2" card in response.
"It gets an extra point for innovation," Kamek explained, for Kammy expected him to lift a "1", since all of Bowser's plans managed to fail in the end anyway. Of course, despite the almost-certainty of losing, Kammy and Kamek followed orders as usual. What else could they do? They were just Bowser's lackeys after all.
–
The world famous Mario brothers could be seen traversing the streets of Toad Town as the afternoon sky glowed over the lively city. Carrying several bags of groceries each, the older, shorter twin was listening to his younger, taller brother ramble on and on about an adventure that, evidently, nobody else ever even heard about before this moment in time. Which wasn't really all that rare when Luigi told his stories, for, somehow, unlike Mario's, Luigi's adventures always led to everyone involved in the journey suddenly obtaining amnesia via a bright flash of light or something that would mysteriously appear out of nowhere, leaving only Luigi able to recall the events. But the green man always swore on his own grave that everything he imparted was one hundred percent true. He just never had any evidence to prove it because "a mysterious sea monster appeared when I was taking a boat back home, and it ate my (insert important item that could be used as solid evidence here)."
Although Mario often felt exhausted after these highly questionable stories were over, he couldn't deny that his brother's tales never failed to entertain. From the quirky way he mentioned minute, unimportant details like an odd knoll in a tree that stuck in his mind to the convincing way he sold his stories by putting real, appropriate emotion behind every word, one would probably never tell that everything was likely made up if all the tales didn't end the same way. And although Mario had a justifiable reason not to believe anything about these stories, he always assured his little brother that he believed him. After all, that's what brothers were for.
"And then, everything went all black..." Luigi continued on, passing the time it took to walk home rather successfully. "Next thing I know, I'm in a boiling pot of water and there's tribal Shy Guys cutting up carrots and dropping the pieces in with me! They were cooking me alive bro! And I was all tied up! There was nothing I could do! But then..."
Mario tuned out whatever it was that Luigi was about to say next, for something caught his eye. Merlon was standing outside of his home, looking at the brothers intently. Mario knew that look and immediately figured that the Shaman had something to tell them. The old man never seemed to leave his house unless he wanted to talk to the brothers anyway, which was slightly understandable since he was constantly studying or meditating about something or other.
Politely interrupting his brother, Mario pointed out that Merlon was watching them and figured that he must want something. Luigi agreed to postpone his story until they discovered what it was that Merlon wanted to talk about and the pair headed over.
"Mario and Luigi, good to see you again," Merlon greeted as the brothers drew near. "Since I was standing outside of my house in broad daylight staring at you silently from a distance, I believe I had a premonition that I must inform the you two of..."
There was an awkward silence as the brothers stared at Merlon, who simply stared back. The pair then exchanged glances and Luigi shifted around uncomfortably.
"What would that premonition be?" Luigi asked.
"Hold on, I've had so many of them just in this past minute that I can't remember which one pertains to you two..." Merlon explained, causing Mario and Luigi to exchange glances yet again.
"Is Bowser up to something again?" Luigi inquired, hoping to spark the subject of the meeting. Thankfully, the mention of Bowser instantly reminded the Shaman just what it was that he had to impart.
"That's right," he mumbled. "During my meditation last night, I foresaw the Koopa king and his son initiating a plan involving the Dreamscape."
"Dreamscape?" Luigi wondered as Mario cocked his head a little to the side in confusion.
"Yes, the alternate reality where our dreams take place," Merlon explained. "It's basically the same as the Mushroom World we know and love, but it's impossible to traverse it without the ability to control your subconscious whilst you dream."
Mario and Luigi raised an eyebrow simultaneously.
"You'll learn in time," Merlon lazily ensured before digging around a pocket of his cloak. The twins looked on intently as the Shaman eventually located and displayed a pair of identical dream catchers. "Here, these will be of use to you."
Not having free hands with which to accept the items, Mario and Luigi simply stared at the two decorated circles for a while. Realizing that their hands were full, Merlon tucked the dream catchers into the front pockets of their overalls.
"Wait, what does Bowser plan to do anyway?" Luigi asked, appearing to only just register that Bowser was about to strike yet again. "It must be something good if it involves a whole alternate reality."
"Here, come inside," Merlon invited, leading the brothers into his gaudy purple home with a rotating roof. Nobody was quite sure why Merlon insisted that he have a spinning roof, but he seemed to like it. Whatever. One couldn't accuse the Shaman of making sense.
Once inside the abode, the brothers set down their groceries next to the door and stood on the nearest side of the crystal ball resting in the center of the room. Merlon occupied the far side, readying himself to summon the image of Bowser's castle. Hopefully visiting the room in which the large contraption that would be used for the plan would serve to shed some light on the situation.
However, as Merlon lifted his hands into the air and began to chant using the Ancient Toadish language to call forth the scene that would hopefully explain things a bit more clearly, Mario let out an exasperated yawn; one that was usually reserved for Luigi's long-winded stories or for instances where he simply stood still for too long at a time. Hyperactivity truly sucked for the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, but this time, something else seemed to be affecting him. Something that would make him sleepy only three seconds after ceasing to move.
"Come on bro, he hasn't even brought up the image..." Luigi now let out his own yawn, "...Yet." Soon, Merlon's chanting slowed to a drawl as he appeared to be struggling to keep his arms up. It wasn't long before he let out a rather fatigued yawn himself.
"My...I'm feeling...oddly sleepy..." he mumbled as he gave up on trying to bring out the power of the crystal ball.
"No kidding..." Luigi muttered as he witnessed his brother begin to waver on the spot, taking a few stuttered steps to keep himself from falling on the ground. "What's..." Yawn. "What's going on...?"
"The Koopa King...is starting his..." Yawn. "His plan... But...but no worries... Your dream catchers will..."
Without another word, Merlon fell flat on his back, unable to keep himself awake any longer. Shortly after, Mario succumbed to the overwhelming sensation and dropped to the floor as well, lying on his side as sleep overtook him. Luigi was now the only one in the room that hadn't fallen subject to the sudden temptation, though he wouldn't be able to keep himself up much longer.
"What's...Bowser up to this time...?"
With that, Luigi's world went black as well. The last thing he could remember was feeling the ground roughly connecting with his back.
–
All around the Mushroom World, people and animals alike were falling subject to the invisible threat of Bowser Jr.'s giant dream catcher mechanism (aptly named the "Koopa Dream Katcher" after several hours of debate on what to dub the device). Birds dropped right out of the sky as fish slowly came to a stall when they were jetting along at a rapid pace just moments before. Toads milling about in the streets either fell to the ground, sat against a wall, or even stood erect as they remained almost motionless, their steady breathing being the only indication that they were still alive. The audience witnessing the current brutal title match in the Glitz Pit between Rawk Hawk and Dash, the tough little Yoshi that could, shut off the excitement meter almost immediately as they drifted into slumber along with the battling participants and Jolene, who was shouting out every detail of the match just moments ago. And at her castle, resting in a chair on her balcony that overlooked the calm, beautiful Toad Town in the perfect afternoon light, Princess Peach Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom bowed her head in silence. Her crown slowly slid off the top of her head and clinked against the ground as its previous holder fell into sudden unconsciousness.
Bowser's new plan was working perfectly.