Level 7 START

Bowser let himself fall of the railing seeing a little shock in Bobbery's eyes. Act's like he's never seen anyone jump ship before, Bowser thought with a quiet chuckle. The water was cold but it felt oddly refreshing. Bowser maneuvered himself to the back of the ship and set himself a drift towards the incoming ship. But as he just started to get a little ways away from Bobbery's ship he heard a loud splash of water.

"Oh crap," The water had made him forget that cannonballs were still being shot his way. He quickly dove to avoid any that could possibly hit him on the surface and made it a good halfway to the other ship before he surfaced. "I'll try not to forget that next time."

Bowser just let himself drift once again. He found the experience quite nice. Note to self, Bowser thought, install pool in the keep. The drifting rest quickly came to an end as the next time he looked up he saw that the pirate ship was almost on top of him. He swam to the side and grabbed a bit of the patching. He began to hoist himself up the side of the incredibly patched ship. "Wow, I thought it looked bad from far away."

Bowser made his way to the deck despite being very large. He popped his head up just enough to get a glimpse of the action on the deck. Small sharks were running around and they happened to be sparse. "I thought he had tons of these things," Bowser said quietly as he tried to remember his encounter with these pirates all those years ago. He pulled himself up onto the deck when the coast was clear. He made several steps before a small shark popped through a door and bounced off the koopa's large front.

"Ow, watch where you're going you big...," The pirate stopped his remark and looked up at who he bumped into. His sense came quickly back to him and he yelled, "Intruder!"

Bowser quickly socked the diminutive pirate in the face. It knocked him out which made Bowser feel better but the call had already been said. He heard many footfalls before he even turned. Once he did however he noticed the whole crew had seemed to assemble themselves in front of him. Surely this can't be his crew, there aren't enough of them. Bowser attempted to take a step forward. He was quickly met with the sharpest points of about 10 pikes and tridents.

"Now now boys," came a soft easy voice from over Bowser's head, "we treat our old acquaintances better than that."

No doubt about it now, Bowser thought. "How have things been Johnny?"

"Oh they've been good, plenty to plunder out on my sea. You know everyone thinks these waters are free, if only they knew the truth huh?" The shark came down off the stairs taking his sweet time. He had a wine glass in his right hand, filled with the best mushroom brandy from either the mushroom kingdom or it's surrounding provinces. He held a hand up to the smaller sharks and shooed them away.

"I see this bunch is still as friendly as they were," Bowser remarked

"Well you can never be too careful now that we're pirates again." Johnny answered apathetically. "Now what do I owe the presence of the great koopa king aboard my humble ship?"

Humble was right; Bowser thought to say but instead asked another question. "What happen to the rest of your crew?"

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't there used to be, oh I don't know, a ton of the bandana wearing guys around?"

"Oh," Johnny seemed a little embarrassed. "Well, they're uh, they're on vacation."

"Vacation?" Bowser couldn't believe what he just heard. "You give your minions vacation?"

Johnny shot him an incredulous look. "Of course, I'm not a slave driver. I'm their captain and they deserve a break every once in a while. Though I do wish that the reds wouldn't have taken off at the same time half my blues did. But what can I do, I'm just a big ol softy on the inside."

"I bet you are soft on the inside" Bowser remarked quietly.

Johnny took another swig of his brandy. "Now why did you decide to grace our presence with yours?"

"Well I just happened to be, uh, floating out in the middle of the ocean," Bowser sighed. "Alright stop staring like that; you know why I'm here."

"I can't say that I do," Johnny drained his glass and gave it to the nearest blue for a refill. "Why again?" Bowser only threw back his hand with a long claw pointing towards the ship a ways ahead of them. "Oh that. And?"

"I'm here to stop you from your pirating acts."

Johnny soaked in the words. He then swished his brandy a little and took another swig. "And?"

"And what? I thought I made it pretty clear." Bowser answered.

"What are you going to do if I refuse?" Johnny's voice had a certain something to it.

"I'm gonna ask again until you do it. What do you think I'm gonna do? I'm gonna bust this place up badder than an explosions anonymous meeting that has a hundred bomb-ombs in attendance."

Johnny started to laugh, a laugh that was followed by his light crew. He put his glass down on the closest hand rail and walk over to the large koopa. "Now Bowser you should know better than anyone not to make idle threats."

"Threats?" Bowser scoffed. "I don't make threats. I tell you what WILL happen if you cross me."

"And just how are you gonna go about, seeing through on those eventauls?"

"This is that busted ship you called your own way back when you were in possession of that star isn't it?"

"How could you tell?"

"I imagine this is what that ship would look like if it was patched up."

Johnny started to applaud. "Very nice Bowser. I didn't know you were a detective."

"I just happen to have a very good memory"

"And? How are you gonna bust this place up?"

"It's a patched ship, so I'll just destroy the patches. Simple."

"Well," Johnny turned to go back up the stairs. "I'm sure you haven't toughened up any so; boys!" The blues turned to regard their captain. "Toss this nuisance overboard and lets get that ship!" Johnny raised his glass and the crew cheered. The cheer brought with the raising of weapons as the captain went back to his deck to oversee the entertainment.

"You're gonna regret that Johnny." Bowser calmly said as he prepared for the fight to come

"I really doubt that." Johnny said with obvious smirk

As soon as the first blue jumped a smile could be seen on Bowser's face.

Level 7 COMPLETE