Chapter 4: Five Sides to the Story
Bowser Jr.'s eyes opened to find that he was in a dark room. He shuddered. He felt a presence nearby. Something was there with him.
"Papa?" he questioned nervously. He moved to get up, but he was pulled back. He looked down to his wrists and saw that he was in chains. He couldn't move more than two feet from his current position. His heart raced.
Then, from the darkness, a large mirror appeared. It floated in midair around Bowser Jr., who was sweating and almost crying in fear. It circled him twice before stopping in front of him. At that moment, he found himself immobilized. He suddenly couldn't move, turn or anything else. He was forced to stare at the mirror. At first, he saw only his reflection. Then, the mirror began to ripple. Suddenly, instead of his reflection, he saw the image of one of the shadowy creatures.
The creature jumped out of the mirror, followed by several others. They began to fill the room. Bowser Jr. tried to scream for help but he couldn't. His voice wasn't working. They began to pile on him. His voice broke out suddenly.
"PAPA!" he screamed. A blast of fire came from nowhere. Bowser suddenly appeared from behind Bowser Jr. and begin spewing fire everywhere. The shadowy creatures were thrown into chaos. Many returned to the mirror. But then they managed to get ahold of Bowser. Bowser Jr. desperately tried to run from his bonds, but he couldn't escape them. The shadowy creatures pulled Bowser towards the mirror. Bowser Jr. cried and tried to yell at them, but nothing was working. They pulled Bowser to the mirror and threw him in. He disappeared.
"PAPA!" Bowser Jr. screamed. The shadowy creatures slowly disappeared from the room and back into the mirror. As soon as the room was empty, Bowser Jr. sat on the ground and cried. Then, when he looked back at the mirror, which still floating there, he saw that a face had appeared, one with red eyes and a toothy mouth. It gave a loud cackle and then a vortex appeared. Bowser Jr.'s bonds disappeared and he began to be sucked into the vortex. He held onto the ground desperately, crying nonstop. Then he lost his grip. He screamed as he flew towards the mirror, that horrible cackle echoing through the room and in his head…
Junior woke up in a cold sweat. He shivered and hugged himself for comfort. That was a nightmare. He managed to shake it off and take a look around. He sat at the edge of a large lake that extended for nearly two miles to the west. A little ways down, he saw that his paintbrush was teetering on the bank. He ran over and grabbed it. He took a good long look at it, and after deciding that it was fine, sat down on the bank of the lake.
He looked into the water sadly. First his family had been kidnapped by those shadows and then he had been sucked into a vortex and had woken up in a strange place. He looked up to the night sky, where the moon was bright. He narrowed his eyes at the moon. Something wasn't right about that. He shook it off and looked back into the water.
Seeing his reflection, he adjusted his bib. Then, suddenly, the image of a shadowy creature appeared and he fell backwards. He got stuck on his shell. It took him a few seconds to roll over and turn back around, paintbrush in hand and ready to fight. When nothing happened, he walked back up to the bank and looked in again. He saw his own reflection again. He sighed. It was a flash to the nightmare. He would have that on his mind for quite a while.
He finally began to walk away from the lake. He didn't have a good sense of where he was going. He didn't even really know where he was in the first place. He just wanted to feel like he was getting somewhere.
Needless to say, it only took about five minutes for Junior to get himself lost. He had wandered into the woods nearby the lake and walked as far away from the lake as possible. He didn't want to be exposed to anything that could possibly display a reflection at this point; the dream had traumatized him. Unfortunately, the woods were thick and there was no path. Junior, realizing that he had no clue where he was, fell down on his bottom and began to cry again.
"Man, what did I do to deserve this?" Junior cried, "Is it because I'm so mean to those Mario Brothers? I only do it 'cause papa tells me so! They're meanies! I knew I shouldn't have trusted them! Now I'm lost and it's all their fault!"
"Whose fault?" a voice said behind him. Junior turned around, startled. He backed onto his feet and held his paintbrush at the speaker, who stepped back in surprise. Junior stared wide-eyed. The speaker took off his bib and let it hang around his neck, similar to Junior. However, his displayed a smiley face.
"It's okay," he said, "I'm not going to hurt you or anything. My name's Bowser Jr. You can just call me Junior." Our Junior took a step back, still not lowering his paintbrush.
"You… you like exactly like me," our Junior said in shock. The other Junior looked confused. Then he had an 'aha moment' face.
"Oh, I see," said the other Junior, "That's why you're so scared. Well you don't have to be. It's probably just some sort of a crazy coincidence. Are you lost?"
"Uh… yes?" our Junior said cautiously.
"Well I can take you to my papa!" the other Junior exclaimed, "He'll be able to help you; I'm sure of it!"
"Your… papa?" our Junior asked.
"Yeah!" said the other Junior, "He's the king of this land. And he's the best papa anyone could ask for." Our Junior was still a bit uncomfortable with this but he nodded nonetheless. This would probably yield more results than what he had been doing.
"Great!" said the other Junior, "Let's go! We can talk on the way!"
And so they started walking. The other Junior began to talk almost immediately.
"So who were you talking about back there?" he asked our Junior, "You seemed kind of upset." Our Junior hesitated to answer.
"You don't have to answer," the other Junior said, "If it's that personal I mean." Our Junior shook his head.
"No, it's fine," he said, "My papa got kidnapped by a bunch of shadowy creatures. I thought it was our enemy's fault, so I went straight to them to get my revenge. But they said they had been attacked as well. I trusted them. But the last thing I remember is diving into my shell and then gettin' sucked up by a vortex into a mirror on the wall. I think that they did that on purpose just to get rid of me…"
"That sounds horrible," said the other Junior, "Who are these enemies of yours? And what are these shadowy creatures you're talking about?"
"Well, my enemies… well, they're actually my papa's nemeses," said Junior, "They're named Mario and Luigi and they…"
"Oh man," said the other Junior, "When do they ever stop?"
"Huh?" our Junior asked.
"They're wanted for every crime in the book," said the other Junior, "My papa and older siblings have a ton of trouble keeping them in check. They work under an evil so-called princess who wants to take over the kingdom. I wonder..."
"Wait, wait, wait," said our Junior, "Slow down." They did in fact slow down: as a matter of fact, to a stop.
"You're sayin' that they're total criminals," said our Junior, "That doesn't sound right…"
"But it's true!" said the other Junior, "They even blew up an island of innocent people once!"
"This is so confusing…" said our Junior, "I never heard about this…"
"You didn't?" asked the other Junior, "But that was the biggest heist of last year! Okay, you've got to have heard about the time that they attempted to kidnap my papa and hold him for ransom! Or the time they set fire to a village for fun!" Our Junior shook his head.
"Those sound like things my papa would do," our Junior said, "See, he's part of a complex business. He's supposed to kidnap the princess by any means necessary and then Mario and Luigi are supposed to come save her. And that's supposed to make lots of money." The other Junior now looked confused.
"That makes it sound like you came straight out of a video game…" he said, "Or a movie. Or something. And that doesn't sound like the Mario and Luigi I know about… Wait. So are you good or bad? Or neutral?" Our Junior began to sweat at that question. Suddenly his mind was racing. He had no idea what to say. The conversation was overloading his brain.
"I don't know anymore!" our Junior cried, "It doesn't make any sense! I just want my papa back!" He sat down and started crying again. After a few moments of hesitation, the other Junior put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's alright," said the other Junior, "My papa will know what's going on and what to do. Now come on. It's just a little further through these woods and then we'll be in the capitol of the kingdom: Koopa Town." Our Junior nodded and the other Junior helped him up. They began to walk again. This time, neither of them spoke a word.
Mario and Luigi came across a lake shortly after leaving the village grounds.
"This looks like a good place to try," said Mario.
"I still don't think it'll work though," said Luigi, "After all, it wasn't even us who got us here in the first place."
"Well you know what mama always said," said Mario, "'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.'"
"I don't think mama ever said that," said Luigi.
"You know what I'm saying," said Mario, "Now help me here." He looked into the lake and tapped his reflection. Nothing happened. Luigi did the same thing in another location. Nothing. They got about a quarter of the way around the lake before Luigi tapped the water and the reflection started to ripple.
"That's it!" Mario exclaimed, "Good job Luigi!"
"Thank you," said Luigi proudly. One at a time, they jumped into the rippling water and disappeared, leaving the mirrored world behind.
Kendall watched from behind a tree as Mario and Luigi disappeared into the lake. He then acted quickly. He grabbed a few leaves and put them on the ground. He also grabbed some sticks of varying sizes and added them to the pile. He took a battery case with batteries in it out of his satchel and threw it as well onto the pile. He pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of his satchel as well. He hastily wrote a note which read:
"To whomever may find this: your world is possibly in danger. Two men in blue overalls and a red shirt and green shirt respectively are wandering your world. I suspect that they are the highly dangerous Mario Brothers. Be careful. They will not hesitate to hurt you. Sincerely, Officer Kendall T. Shellton."
He put the paper on the pile along with a nail. Then he shut his eyes and raised both hands over the materials. He focused. The materials began to glow. Suddenly, they floated into the air and began to mold together. Five seconds later, a fully functional wooden airplane gently floated to the ground. The paper, now folded, was nailed to the back of the plane. Kendall turned the leaf propeller of the plane, reinforced by small sticks, and it whirred to life. He threw it into the air and it flew around once or twice before flying into the still rippling water. Shortly afterwards, the water stopped rippling.
"Just as I expected," thought Kendall, "They created it and then closed it… whatever it was. It was smart to not go in myself; I might have gotten stuck in that world. I get the feeling that I'm onto something here… something that could help King Bowser to take down that insidious Princess Peach once and for all!"
Toadsworth nervously tapped his cane on the ground as he waited for the princess to finish addressing the Toads taking refuge in the castle. She had taken the time to write a whole speech so as to comfort these Toads who had not been kidnapped in the attack. Toadsworth checked his watch. She had been talking for nearly twenty minutes. It had been nearly twelve hours since the Mario Bros and Bowser Jr. had disappeared through the mirror. Toadsworth was getting antsier by the second.
Just then, there was a knock at the castle door. Toadsworth immediately ran to greet whomever it was. Perhaps it was Toadbert with some sort of findings on the shadowy creatures. By the time he arrived at the front door of the castle, the guards had already opened it. In had stepped a female Koopa with a pink shell and a green reporter's cap. She had on a backpack and held a notebook and pencil in her hand.
"Hello there sir!" she said cheerfully, walking up and shaking Toadsworth's hand automatically, "The name is Kayla Koopa! Ace reporter! I'm here to get some information on this… incident."
"Hold on, hold on," said Toadsworth, tearing his hand away from hers, "We hardly know anything about this incident at the moment! The Mario Brothers are still out investigating! And who sent you anyways?"
"The reporting service of course," said Kayla as if the fact should have been obvious, "So here I am! Following in my mother's footsteps as an ace reporter! Now I'm sure someone around here can answer a few questions for me until the Mario Brothers can get back with more elaborate information right? You know, survivors of the attack… guards… maybe the princess?"
"Why did we not receive word that you were coming?" Toadsworth asked, almost furiously, "The reporting service usually sends us a message ahead of time to let us know that they're sending someone to gather information."
"It was short notice," said Kayla, "You know how things are in the reporting business."
"No I do not," said Toadsworth angrily, "And there wasn't even a short notice. There was no notice at all!"
"Come on, just a coupla questions?" she asked, batting her eyes, "Please?"
"Toadsworth," Princess Peach said entering the room, "What's going on?"
"Ah, princess!" Toadsworth exclaimed, "This impudent girl thought she could just barge in here without notifying us and ask questions about the incident. You must order her to leave at once."
"Toadsworth, what harm will it do to answer a few questions?" asked Peach, "It's not like the knowledge of the attack isn't going to spread throughout the kingdom."
"But princess… we know almost nothing!" Toadsworth argued, "You wouldn't want the rest of the kingdom looking at you like a liar would you? We still have no idea what those shadowy creatures were!"
"Ooh, shadowy creatures?" Kayla questioned, getting her notebook ready, "There's a start. What about them?"
"Please come into the dining hall for some tea and we'll tell you all about what we know," said Peach.
"Thanks," said Kayla, "I'd really appreciate it your majesty." She bowed to the princess.
"There's no need for that," said Peach with a smile, "Now come."
"Yes ma'am!" Kayla exclaimed. Toadsworth was a little stunned, but he shook it off.
"Oh, I hope she realizes the risks she takes…" he said mournfully, "That girl is such a handful…" As he walked after them, his mind went back to Toadbert. He wondered if the boy had found anything out…
Toadbert had moved on to the town library after he had found nothing in his own on the shadowy creatures and the mirrors. He was on row three out of nearly a hundred. The library was deserted except for him; all of the other Toads were taking refuge in the castle. He shelved another book, almost angrily. He was over the fact that this library didn't list their books alphabetically, by author or title. His OCD was killing him, so much that he began to consider organizing the entire library himself. If he did that, he would certainly get to looking at all of the books and would definitely find something on the shadowy creatures and such. So he set to work doing just that.
He was at it for about an hour when he found a book written in a completely different language. This language was made up of strange symbols that made no sense to him.
"By boogity," he said excitedly, "It's something I don't know!" He proceeded to change his objective entirely and forgot about organizing the library as he began trying to decipher the book. Eventually, after an hour or two of that, he got tired of it. He did manage to figure out what the title was and organized it accordingly. He would definitely be coming back to that one later. From what he was able to decipher, it was about the epic adventure of a hero as he travelled through time. That was a kind of story he liked. Of course, he loved books, so he kind of liked most all stories.
He was organizing for another four hours before he found something else of interest: a cookbook containing the recipes of some of the famous dishes of Sarasaland. This was a rare find. Sarasaland's cuisine was a delicacy in the Mushroom Kingdom for the most part. He read that for another three hours and memorized a few recipes before putting it down and continuing his organization.
Finally, about forty-five minutes later, he came across something that was important to the plot of this story and not meant to drag on this chapter for humor purposes. He found a book titled The Shadows and the Mirrors: A Prophecy Foretold by Merlon the Wizard. At first he just squinted at it through his glasses and then put it on the stack of 'S' books. However, he immediately realized that the book was exactly what he was looking for. As such, he turned around to grab it again. Unfortunately, he tripped from the sudden turn and knocked over the pile of books that he had placed it on top of. That set off a chain reaction that knocked over the other piles of books he had painstakingly organized, all the way up to the 'L' pile.
"Darn it all!" he yelled aloud. He looked for the book, but he could not find it on the enormous pile of books that he had just created.
"This is going to take a while…" he said wearily, "Boogity…" And that was what Toadbert had accomplished in the time that Mario and Luigi had been gone.