Chapter 2: The Unexpected Guest

Bowser sat upon his throne in his dimly lit throne room. Two rivers of lava ran down either side of his throne, illuminating the room with its dim glow. The path towards his throne was covered with a fine, red carpet and black stone pillars lined the walkway; a torch set on each column.

Bowser leaned his head back against his throne, contemplating what he'd do when his "guest" arrived. He already had a plan in mind, and began running through it in his head. When the princess arrived, he'd show her around the castle for a bit, have dinner with her in the dining chamber of his recently constructed flagship, and then take her to his room for a more "private" conversation.

A smile crossed Bowser's face as he propped his head up on his closed right fist, eagerly eyeing the entrance to his throne room. All he had to do now was wait for word of Peach's arrival, and then his fun could begin.

Bowser snapped to attention when he saw the doors to his throne room open. Kamek came running into the throne room, collapsing on the ground completely out of breath.

This was not what Bowser had been expecting. "What's up with you Kamek? What's the big rush?"

Kamek stared up at his lord with worried eyes. "M-my lord, it's, it's-"

"It's What?! Out with it already!" He roared.

Kamek took a deep breath and calmed down. "Uh your nastiness… Mario's on his way to the castle."

Bowser would've fallen over in his own seat if it hadn't been attached to the floor. His jaw dropped, eyes nearly popping out of his head.

Realizing how absurd he must look, he shook his head and regained his composure. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. WHO is coming?!" he said, a hint of menace and worry in his voice.

Kamek got back up to his feet. "My lord, Mario's here at the castle. He just got through the front gate and is on his way here."

Bowser bolted up out of his seat. "What's he doing here? I haven't even kidnapped Peach… yet," muttering that last part under his breath.

Kamek was at a loss for an explanation. "I'm not sure, my lord. Perhaps… perhaps he found out about the potion."

Bowser cursed under his breath, "How, how'd he find out?"

"I'm not sure my lord. All I know is that he's coming here right now. Your men are trying to stop him, but I doubt they'll do more then buy us a few minutes to prepare."

Bowser narrowed his eyes. Leave it to Mario to foil even the simplest of his plans. "Fine, is the room ready? I'm not going to fight him here in the throne room."

"Um, no my lord. We've had no time to prepare."

A low hiss escaped Bowser's mouth as smoke erupted from his nostrils. "It'll have to do. Come on, shake a leg, you old coot," he said, running for the door. Kamek quickly followed behind him.

Bowser rushed out of his throne room and made his way to his own personal training room. If it was a fight Mario wanted, Bowser was going to give it to him ten fold.

Mario dodged yet another bullet bill as he ran down one of the many corridors in Bowser's Castle. Diving down one of the hallways to his right to avoid another bullet bill, Mario was greeted by a company of four hammer bros. Mario smiled, Bowser always knew how to give him a warm welcome.

One of the hammer bros threw his hammer into the sky at Mario. Mario jumped up into the air and grasped the handle of the hammer. Flipping in the air, he swung the hammer down on the hammer bros. head, knocking him out.

Another hammer bro took a swing at him. Mario ducked the attack, and swung his leg out at the hammer bro, tripping him and forcing him to fall flat on his shell, unable to get up.

Mario swung around and slammed the hammer he "borrowed" right into the belly of the hammer bro closest to him. The hammer bro doubled over, completely winded.

Noticing the other hammer bro trying to sneak in a cheap shot, Mario jumped into the air and landed on the Hammer bros head, forcing him to withdraw into his shell.

With his opponents defeated, Mario looked down the hallway. That's when he noticed a squadron of kopatrol was blocking his path. Deciding that charging them, hammer swinging, would be suicide he looked around at what he had available to work with. Spying the shell of the still withdrawn hammer bro, an idea began to form in Mario's head.

Putting one foot on the shell, Mario looked down the corridor at the assembled kopatrol. With a determined look crossing his face, Mario kicked off with his other foot and began skating towards the kopatrol, using the shell as a pseudo skateboard. As soon as he got closer to the squadron, he jumped into the air.

The shell collided with the koptarol blocking the hallway and mowed right through them. Spinning in the air, Mario managed to land right back on top of the shell as he continued his trek down the hall.

He wasn't out of danger yet, as he noticed two kopatrols heading right for him. Taking his hammer out, he ducked a blow from the first kopatrol he reached and swung his hammer at its legs, knocking the koopa's legs out from under him.

He turned his attention to the second Kopatrol and slammed his hammer on its head before it could react, knocking the poor creature out completely.

With the immediate threat behind him now, Mario continued towards the throne room where his target awaited.

As soon as Mario got within sight of the doors to the throne room, he hopped of the shell and allowed it to crash down a flight of stairs near the door. Placing both hands on the massive doors, Mario pushed forward and opened the doors to the throne room.

Gazing inside he saw… nothing. The room was completely empty. Disappointed, Mario wondered just where Bowser could've gone. Racking his brain for an answer, Mario remembered a large room near here that served as Bowser's personal training room. Deciding that this was as good a guess as any, Mario ran off to the practice room.

Bowser and Kamek were busily preparing the training room for Mario's arrival. So far, he and Kamek had been pretty unsuccessful in getting much of anything prepared. As fate would have it, much of the equipment Bowser usually kept in here was in the other training room, and what little he did have wasn't going to be much use against Mario.

Bowser had just grabbed a hold of a hammer when he heard the door to the training room creak open. Dropping the hammer, and narrowly missing his toe, Bowser turned around to face the door. There, standing in the middle of the doorway was his number one archrival.

Bowser did not like this situation at all. He was completely unprepared to face Mario. Mario had effectively caught him with his pants down… well, if he wore any pants.

Bowser shook his head and got his game face on. He was unprepared, but he'd sooner die then let Mario know that he caught him off guard. "Mario!" he bellowed, stalking towards the stocky plumber. "What the hell are you doing here?! Peach isn't even with me! You've got some nerve barging into my castle like you own the place!" Taking his fist, he punched it into the palm of his other hand as he glared at Mario. "Why don't I show you the way out!"

Mario seemed none too concerned about Bowser's threat. "I'm not here because of Peach. I'm here because of you," he said, adding emphasis to the last word.

Bowser raised an eyebrow at that. Mario came all the way here just to fight him. Looking as far back as the Koopa King could, Mario's never been one to pick a fight with him unless he had a reason to.

Bowser shook the thoughts aside and stared down at the plumber. "If you came all this way to fight me, then I won't disappoint you," he said, getting into his fighting stance.

Mario smiled, "No, I don't mean that. I mean I'm here because you're here and wherever you are is where I want to be."

Bowser dropped his guard as he began processing what Mario just said. "You wanna what? Uh, run that by me again."

"What I mean is I want to be around you," he said, moving closer to Bowser. Mario reached out and took Bowser's hand in his. He looked at it as if seeing it for the first time. This same fist which had tried to kill him on countless occasions was now in his hands. Mario couldn't help but admire the sheer strength he could feel in just this one limb. Mario moved his hand up Bowser's hand to his arm, feeling the power coursing through the limb.

Bowser stared at Mario in awed shock. "What the hell are you doing?!" he yelled as he pulled his arm out of Mario's grip.

A playful smile crossed Mario's face. "Playing hard to get huh? Alright, I'm game," he said, as he advanced closer to Bowser.

"Playing hard to- what?! Mario… I didn't hit you too hard in the head the last time we fought did I?" He said, backing away from the advancing plumber.

"Not at all. I feel fine; it's just that I'm starting to see what an alluring figure you are," he said, moving one step closer to each one step Bowser took back.

Bowser was stunned beyond belief. Was Mario… hitting on him?

He continued backing away from the plumber until his shell touched the wall. Bowser frantically searched around for any route of escape. His eyes fell on Kamek; the old Magikoopa was just standing there regarding everything that was going on. Bowser cursed the old Koopa for ignoring his plight, and realizing he had nowhere else to run, Bowser tried getting back into his fighting stance.

Mario halted a few feet away from the Koopa King. "Look Bowser, as much as I enjoy fighting you why don't you and I try something different? I'm sure there's somewhere… private we could go to work out our differences," he said, with a sly smile.

Bowser was at a complete loss for words. If he didn't know any better he'd think Mario was asking him to… no, there was just no way. This was some kind of bad dream. Bowser prayed to the stars above for someone to save him from this predicament.

"Mario," called a voice in the room.

Mario and Bowser both turned to face Kamek. The old koopa trained his gaze on Mario. "Mario, did you, by chance, go to see the princess early this morning?"

Mario nodded his head, "Yeah, I went to see Peach."

"Did she have a flask with her? A flask that contained a green liquid?"

"Yes, she did."

"Did you, by chance," he gulped, "drink any of that liquid?"

Mario nodded, "Yeah, I drank the whole thing. Now, if you're done with your twenty questions, I think Bowser and I have some things to do," he said, turning his full attention on Bowser again.

Kamek held up a hand, "Actually, Mario, I need to speak with my lord for a minute. Can you wait for a bit?"

Mario sighed, and leaned up against the wall with his back. "Fine," he shot a glance at Bowser, "but don't keep me waiting too long, alright?" he said with a smile.

Thankful for the timely intervention, Bowser wasted no time in moving over towards Kamek. As soon as he got with speaking range, he lowered his head to Kamek's level.

"What is going on here? Is Mario touched in the head or something?" he whispered, so that Mario wouldn't overhear.

"No, my lord, he's not. I'm afraid that… well… it seems that… Mario drank the love potion."

Bowser's eyes flared up as this news sank in. "HE WHAT?!"

Kamek flinched away from his lord's voice, and covered his ears. "Please, your loudness, try to speaker softer. We don't want him hearing us."

Bowser nodded and lowered his voice again. "You mean to tell me that I sent a potion to catch a princess and I caught a plumber instead?"

"I know it seems bad, my lord."

Bowser narrowed his eyes, "Bad doesn't even begin to describe it. This is a disaster," pointing at Kamek, "You better have a cure for this!"

Kamek glanced down at his feet. "Well, no, I didn't think to make one." Noticing that his lord was about to lose it again, he quickly added, "But the effects of the potion are temporary, your evilness."

As this news sank in, Bowser calmed down. "How long?"

"A few days" Kamek stated matter of factly.

Noticing his lord's temper flare up again, Kamek quickly tried to calm him. "Well, it'll only be for a few days, sire. How bad can it be?"

"That's easy for you to say. You don't have a short, pudgy, mustachioed, love struck plumber lusting after you," he growled.

"Touché, my lord. Well, I suppose you could always kill him."

Bowser considered this, but ultimately rejected it. "No, when I kill him, it'll be because I'm better then him, not because of some potion."

Kamek's eyes lit up as an idea began forming in his mind. "I've got it, my lord. While Mario's under the influence of the potion, I'm sure he'd be willing to reveal anything to you if you asked. For instance, his weaknesses, or perhaps how to reach Peach's heart."

Bowser closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. It was a chance to find out his archrival's weaknesses and a sure fire way to find out how to win over Peach. A smile crossed his face as he slowly opened his eyes and looked over at Mario.

He was still leaning against the wall with his head tilted towards the ground. As if he knew he was being watched, he looked up and stared directly at Bowser. A smile crossed his face as he waved in greeting at the Lizard Tyrant.

The smile left Bowser's face as he turned back to face Kamek. "I don't know if I can do this."

Kamek smiled, "You can your nastiness. The prize will be well worth it. Just play along, and in the meantime I'll go make another potion, and this one is sure to reach its target."

Bowser sighed and nodded, "Alright, but I have a feeling I'm not going to like this," he said, as he moved away from Kamek.

Seeing Bowser approach him, Mario stood back up. "So, you two done?"

Bowser nodded, "Yeah, so… uh… why don't I show you around the castle."

Mario raised an eyebrow. "Bowser, I've been to this place more times then I can count. I doubt you'd be able to show me something I haven't already seen."

"You'd be surprised. Now are you coming or not?" he asked, turning towards the door.

Mario shrugged, "Why not, I guess as long as you're with me it'll be fun," he said, walking beside the burly Koopa King.

Bowser looked down at him, "yeah… fun."

He cast a glance over his shoulder at Kamek. The old koopa just smiled and nodded his head. Bowser sighed and turned his attention back to Mario.

'This is going to be a long day,' he thought, as he and Mario walked out of the training room.

Peach paced around her room. It had been thirty minutes since she sent her royal servant looking for Mario, and he still hadn't returned. Peach sighed as she looked out at her balcony. A perfect day… ruined.

Suddenly, she heard someone knocking at her door.

Without even waiting for a response, she rushed to the door and opened it. The sight that greeted her was not what she had hoped. Her lone toad sentry stood there at attention.

"You're highness, I'm sorry, I could find no trace of Mario anywhere in the palace."

Peach's hands fell to her side as she let out a worried sigh. It's just as she feared, Mario was nowhere in the palace. If he wasn't in the palace, then where was he? Closing her eyes, she began thinking of what to do next.

After a few seconds of careful contemplation, she opened her eyes and looked down at her toad sentry. "Order the guards to search the town. Send messages throughout the kingdom. Have everyone on the lookout for Mario."

The guard saluted, "Yes princess." He dashed off, without another word, to perform his duties.

Once the guard was out of sight, Peach walked out of her room, a look of stern conviction on her face as she walked towards the exit to the castle. She wasn't going to sit back and have the guards do all the work. She was going to help find Mario, and she decided to start by going to see the one person who might know where he went.