Dusk was approaching in the jungle. The outcries of tropical birds ceased, snakes hid in their burrows and many Kremlings were back in their makeshift homes, enjoying roasted parrot over an open fire. There was still one swinging amongst the vines of the trees. Adorned with a red hat and a shirt of the same color, Diddy Kong was headed home after another day looking for bananas to add to the horde. He's been having a hard time lately; many of the banana trees had begun to mysteriously die off. Diddy wasn't sure what was causing it. The jungle received plenty of monsoon rains, in fact more so than usual. He was also on good terms with the Kremlings lately, so he was sure they weren't up to anything. Whatever it was, it disturbed him greatly.

Diddy jumped onto the deck of the Kong tree house that hid amongst the trees. Walking inside, he found that his father Donkey Kong was once again not home. He wondered where he had been going lately, as it was unlike him to travel anywhere after dusk. Not that it was a total bother: he had the kitchen to himself, as well as the shower for once. Diddy crawled to the kitchen and thought about making some banana puree topped with mango and coconut. Unfortunately, that was when he felt the rumble beneath his feet.

"Whaa!" he cried, knowing what that meant. He ran outside of the Kong hut and looked toward the nearby mountain range and saw his fears confirmed. A huge billowing volcanic cloud was seen rising into the air, with lava flowing down the highest peak. But it wasn't until he saw the rampaging animals heading in his direction that he saw the biggest danger.

"Whaaaa!" He bolted away from the bunkhouse as fast as he could, trying to outrun the pyroclastic flow. Many of the Kremlings he ran past were absolutely clueless as to their danger and wondered why so many animals were running before the immense cloud completely over-swept them. Diddy knew he would be safe if he could make it to Funky's Flights. But the flow was inching closer toward him and he also knew his legs couldn't keep up with it.

Thinking of a back up plan, he darted down a ravine to his right, swinging among the tree vines. But a blast of air at that moment made him overshoot his target and he flew into the air with a cry before the volcanic cloud over swept him.

"Aaaaaaaand...POWER UP, MAN! Three stars, you ain't beating that!"

"Fuck that." Kooper threw his cards at the table. "You have to be cheating, that's not possible!"

Funky Kong let out a large guffaw. "Once in a lifetime hand, I'm telling ya!"

The other players turned over their cards in dismay. Mona crossed her arms with a frown. "I had three fire flowers too."

"It's amazing, man! I've never had a hand so rad in my life!"

"Yeah, we got it." said a slightly annoyed Larry Koopa, tossing his hand into the discard pile.

"You get the honors this week." said Luigi, placing his cards on the table then leaning back with Daisy next to him. "We've had a lot of newcomers to the Galaxy lately."

"Haha, I already have my target." said Funky, leaning back. Several Toad's approached the group with bottles of Don Pinata branded rum. Each member of the group took one of each.

"I love this stuff." Kooper opened his and took a quick chug. "Koopie will go bonkers when she sees this. Anyway, who's your pick of the week, Funky?"

But Funky's eyes were glued to the TV on the far wall.

"Huh?" Kooper looked where Funky was staring at and was quite dismayed. On the television was a live report of what appeared to be a major catastrophe. "The pyroclastic flow just ended moments ago. We know that it swept down through the Japes Valley, where the main Kong residence was supposed to be located-"

"SHIT!" Funky immediately stood up and bolted out of the room, leaving a dazed and silent poker party behind.

"That was just a volcano." Mona muttered to herself. Kooper sighed and played around with his PDA.

"Volcano's can create firestorms." said Ashley, finally speaking up.

"That's true." said Luigi.

"Firestorms?" questioned Daisy. "You mean the kind where fire rains down from the sky and consumes everything?"

"In a way." said Luigi. "It also consumes all the air around it, making it very dangerous. Chances are, if someone is caught in the middle of a firestorm, they probably wouldn't live."

"Oh god, I hope that doesn't happen to me."

Luigi looked back at the television and saw that some of the jungle had already caught fire from the lava flows alone. "I think it would be wise to call it a night. I'll page all of you when the next one will be."

"Good idea." said Larry, looking over at Ashley who was somewhat drooping over. For a moment, he thought about asking to walk her back, but he had things to do at his pad. Besides, he still wasn't entirely sure about her.

After exchanging goodbyes , Larry walked out of the bar and into the greater areas of the Galaxy. Eventually, he reached the central courtyard of the Galaxy where Larry saw Donkey Kong disembarking on one of his shuttles. He looked at his PDA and suddenly facepalmed, shaking his head. He turned around and boarded the shuttle again.

"Wow, it sucks to be the Kong's today." Larry muttered to himself. The disasters were slowly starting to ramp up. Unfortunately, it seemed as though most didn't care what was going on unless it personally affected themselves.

"It doesn't matter." Larry muttered to himself. He walked into the Koopa section of the Galaxy where he passed a bowling store. Being a fan of bowling, Larry couldn't help himself but enter it and see what he could get for himself. Passing by rows of random paraphernalia, he came to the balls and casually looked through the selection. He came across a size 14 ball that was colored in metallic gold and sported a bright blue flame. Thinking it fit with his collection, he picked it up and walked to the cashier.

"Hey, could you send this to my room?" Larry handed the ball to the koopa behind the counter. The Koopa placed it upon a platform which subequently lowered and the ball disappeared. Larry took out his PDA and ran it across a laser scanner, which beeped in response.

"Thank you Larry and have a good day!" said the cashier. Larry waved as he exited the store and headed in the general direction of his room. After a few minutes of walking, he got onto an elevator and pressed the coordinates to his room. Upon arriving, he walked off and stared at his door. He rubbed his eyes as he tried to remember the latest password that he coded into his door.

"Turkey."

"Rejected." chimed a mechanical voice. Red was seen on the display.

"Oh right."

"Rejected."

Larry snorted. He knew it was something special. After some thinking, he finally remembered.

"Black rose."

"Accepted." The door finally opened and Larry entered. Almost immediately upon entry, a giant red and white piranha plant popped out of a warp pipe to greet Larry with a hiss and two giant rows of sharp teeth.

"Hey Ted." said Larry, rubbing the piranha plant's head. Ted hung out its tongue, drooling saliva all over the carpet in anticipation of food.

Larry smirked. "Not yet Ted, I have to do some things first." Ted sulked in response and allowed Larry to pass into his living room, adorned with leather couches and various species of piranha plants lined against the wall, all artificially watered and fed inside their pipes. Off to the sides of the room were the kitchen set up to Larry's right where his bowling ball was sitting atop a platform. Taking it, he walked to the left side of his room where he had a personal bowling alley set up. Placing the ball on a rack, he thought about playing a quick game, but knew he needed to get some things done first.

He turned and walked to the back of the living room with the piranha's snapping at him as he past them. Walking up a few steps, he sat down in his leather seat in front of his massive computer set up, now made up of 12 monitors. Placing his thumb on a fingerprint reader, the system quickly booted up, showing graphs, instant messages and live camera's from various locations on the Mushroom World. The one he was most interested in was the screen on the middle far right, showing a dark stormy sky and a black monstrosity set upon a large mountain amidst a rocky wasteland. Towards the left was an ocean and a lighter sky, with the sun trying to find its way through. In the bottom left of the feed were the words "Eternal Fortress Genlic," Larry's survival shelter for the pole shift. He pressed something on the screen and a large hologram of the feed appeared next to him.

Genlic was truly something out of this world. Much of the fortress was constructed from either a reflective black stone of unknown composition and what could be called a black glass, with ascending tooth-like appendages rising from many of the tops of the walls. According to legend, it was one of the oldest structures on the face of the world. Constructed of an unknown and nearly unbreakable substance, it has stood the test of time over thousands of years and through hundreds of battles. Only a single tower was damaged, allegedly during the reign of Inauro Koopa whose alchemists had found a way to damage it. But that knowledge had since been lost and the impregnability of Genlic returned, its dark atmosphere and hostile lands a major threat to those who would dare to try to overtake the ancient Koopa fortress.

Rumor had reached Larry that the first Koopa of his family, only known as "King Koopa," was buried somewhere within the fortress. He wondered if it was true. But in any case, a Koopa worker stepped in front of the screen and saluted Larry. "Yes sir!"

"How much of the caravan got in today?" asked Larry.

The soldier looked behind him towards a long line of trucks and people heading into the main gate. 'We unloaded another 50 trucks today and about 100 more people were placed into the survival areas."

"Is the greenhouse at the 10,000 quota yet?"

"Yes, I was informed of that this morning. We should have the capacity to feed 50,000 within a few days, sir."

"Good. How about our defenses?"

"We still haven't been able to figure out how to activate them. The...controls simply wont budge."

Larry hummed in thought. "Okay, thank you and keep up the good work."

The soldier saluted. "Sir!" Larry pressed the screen again and the hologram disappeared. Larry was definitely happy now after hearing he had met his quota's for the week. At this rate, Genlic could be a major site for a large number of people. But he still worried about not being able to activate the defensive system. Supposedly, something was required to activate it, but Larry did not know what.

Deciding he was tired, he got up and walked to the right through a set of double doors to his main bedroom, which looked somewhat similar to Iggy's room save the bed, which was round and covered with black and red covers. Stretching, he took off his shell and threw it into the corner. Iggy this and Iggy that took a lot out of him, not to mention the multiple drinks that he had at multiple locations. Groggily walking up to his bed, he allowed himself to lean forward and collapse upon it, happy to be lying down. Walking around the giant behemoth that was the Galaxy was beginning to be exhausting for him. He wondered if he should suggest to Ludwig some type of moving sidewalk like those found at the airports.

"We received another 300 from the southeastern Mushroom district."

A virtual holographic map was spread upon an icy table, surrounded by Koopas, Mushrooms and other species dressed in winter clothing. On the far end, seated upon a high chair was Lemmy Koopa, the 2nd heir to the throne. He appeared to be only half paying attention, fighting the dreadful spell of sleep. It was only the frigid temperatures of the frozen north that kept him awake. His frantic escape out of the Golden Koopa and his unintentional rescue of a few hundred people made him pretty tired and he'd been unable to gain a wink of sleep since then. While he didn't drink nearly as much as some of his other siblings, he couldn't deny the cravings for some at that moment or anything that could put him out for a while.

"Well, that new trade route should be able to feed them all." said a purple spotted mushroom with pigtails. To Lemmy, she seemed familiar.

"You're Toadette, right?" asked Lemmy.

"Y-yes." she said, looking a bit nervous. Lemmy remembered the disappearance of Toad at that moment. While it was suspected that he had been pulled close towards her highness Princess Peach, he had also completely disappeared from public view near where the new trade route was being set up. The thought made Lemmy remember Roy's message that he had received on his cell before the meeting.

"Alright, I'll let you take care of the logistics and all that stuff."

"Thank you!" said Toadette with a wide smile. Lemmy had guessed correctly.

"Excuse me sir," a Paratroopa flew up next to him. "There are some visitors here to see you at the balcony. They said you know the reason."

Lemmy frowned. He didn't think that he'd be spotted that quickly. He had hoped to at least make some preparations before he was to be nabbed by whatever mafia was controlling things behind the scenes. It made him wonder though. If he was getting nabbed now, then the rest of his siblings must be getting nabbed by now too. Lemmy wondered if this was a part of Roy's plan.

In any case, he turned back toward his people with a huff. "Looks like I have some unofficial business."

"Don't worry, dude." said a light blue Pianta. "We'll totally take care of things here."

"Okay." Lemmy jumped down from his seat and walked out towards the balcony before abruptly stopping. "Hey, you never said why you preferred the north pole verses the beach."

"Oh yeah! I sweat way too much dude, even for a Pianta like me. I still love the surf and the guava man, but I can't shake the squishy feeling, you follow me? I gotta come up here to cool it off."

"Cool." said Lemmy. "I just wouldn't surf these waves unless you like being an icicle. Because, it's kind of cold."

"I bet that feels so awesome..." said the Pianta. Lemmy shrugged and continued walking out to the balcony. He saw a floating vehicle surrounded by Toad's and Koopa's in black.

Lemmy was seen on one of the screens, seemingly being briefed by the Toad's about his situation. Next to it were many other screens, with the other Koopalings being shown in similar situations. Morton had an unreadable expression on his face. Wendy looked more than a little upset, yelling at her visitors before being forcefully dragged off by the suits.

"This is intolerable." Bowser said under his breath, arms crossed with an annoyed look. On the bottom of the council hall upon a seat was Roy Koopa mimicking the movements of his father, with his arms crossed and seemingly staring into nothingness. The council was still deliberating amongst themselves of this latest development and the hall were filled with the chatter of many conversations.

"It seems to be pretty obvious to me that he simply wanted to show this...unidentified object to his siblings." said Merlin.

"'Unidentified object,' huh?" said Prince Peasley with his trademark grin. "Sounds to me he was being a little irresponsible. With a position like 'Second-in-Command,' I'm sure he's familiar with not talking about things when he's not supposed to."

"Say that to Wario." said Captain Syrup, rolling her eyes.

"What was that, dumb bitch?"

"Shut up, all of you." said Bowser and the council hall immediately fell silent. "This is Koopa business and none of yours." He drank the entire contents of a mug in one gulp before clearing his throat. "Now, the fault here is obviously Ludwig's. I should have never let him make the decision in the first place. You can trust me that such a decision will never be allowed...or made again."

Ludwig Von Koopa said nothing, tapping his claw on the table. His anger was not completely hidden, however.

"Now then," Bowser continued, "Let us question Roy and figure out why he decided to threaten the very existence of the Galaxy itself."

"Being in the military, I'm supposed to know these kinds of things."

"You are not privileged to know, otherwise you would've known by now."

Roy raised an eyebrow as he looked at the many faces of the council. "Really?" he said, smiling. "Heh, you know ya could have pulled dis-info on me instead, right?"

"How dare you—huh?"

"Tell me the music I want to hear. Hell, that would've been better for you then sending me up here and showing me the works. But that's besides da point."

"What the hell is your point?" said an irritated Bowser.

Roy looked out one of the windows on the ceiling. "Everyone's useful. They should make up their own minds about dis. But I say we should stick together. United we stand, divided we fall, that sort of thing."

Bowser grumbled. It was a concept that he had hated for a long time, but he knew Roy had a point. People did have their uses.

"Then I have one more question for you." said Bowser. "Out of the Koopalings you sent the text to, why didn't Junior get one?"

Roy was silent for a moment. "We've been fightin' for a while. I thought it was pretty fair."

"Uh-huh."

"If its that big a deal, I can just text him now."

"No." said Bowser. "If he is anything like me, it would be best if he didn't know right now."

There was silence in the hall. Taking that as agreement, Bowser continued. "In any case, you are now a member of the Galaxy. Your other siblings probably will be too. But like everyone else, you need to be useful here, otherwise you'll be locked up and never see the light of day again."

"That's happened quite a bit." muttered Roy to himself.

"There will be a separate meeting here to address the appointment of a new Second-in Command, among other issues caused by my 'lieutenant.'" He glared at Ludwig, who did not meet his gaze, but continued to tap upon the table.

There was a door slam, followed by a heavy set of footsteps. A sweet classical tune played in the background, amid the sounds of rivers of lava as well as a large fountain that dominated much of the view. Along the far walls were pictures and ribbons of various achievements, as well as pedestals of various designs holding trophies, works of art, mechanical marvels among many other wonders. The floor was encrusted with beautiful lapis lazuli tile and the ceiling, 150 ft high and bent in the shape of a diamond, softly billowed various degrees of light below its majesty.

Upon reaching the top stair to his main level, Crown Prince Ludwig Von Koopa casually glanced at the many achievements he had procured over the years without much thought. He was too engrossed in his current plans, and too worried about his future. Things had taken their turn far earlier than he had expected. He was not sure if he had miscalculated Bowser's temper, or if something was happening between him and Junior. But it did not matter.

He turned toward the bar to his left, where he found one of his skimpy waitresses smiling at him. "Will it be the usual today, sir?"

"Please." he said, "As well as a chalice of Borgonne. Aged 50 years, and please take into account that it must be from a cask of Delway from that time. I do not know if it's the construction of the cask itself or if it's environmental conditioning, but the flavor that cask presents is very warm and difficult to shake off."

"Of course." She bowed and retreated into his kitchen. Rubbing his eyes, Ludwig sat himself on one of the many white sofa's that faced the far wall: a solid window itself, presenting a marvelous view of the universe. Ignoring it, Ludwig pressed a few buttons upon a large cylindrical device upon the floor above him. After a moment, a large hologram of the Mushroom World was brought into full view, complete with roads, cities rivers and mountains. Pressing another button showed every natural disaster that was currently occurring. There were at least 10 across the world at that moment, including significant earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and irregular weather phenomenon.

Ludwig leaned back in his sofa, unabated. While the disasters have stepped up a notch, they did little to interfere with his current plans. His secret project also went unhindered so far. Being walled up in an old mountainous region, he knew he was relatively safe until the last days. But his thoughts were interrupted by a call on his PDA. Grumbling on the fact that he forgot to turn it to silent mode, he pulled it out and saw it was a call from Luigi.

"Well, this is quite unexpected," said Ludwig, "That is unless you plan on coercing me into your poker mastermind once again."

"I can say that the vote against you was quite unexpected, too."

"Hm?"

"There was a special council meeting soon after Roy's initiation ceremony. Initially, it was to decide who the next Second-in-Command of the Koopa Empire would be. But neither you nor the other Koopalings were present. Did you get an invite from Bowser?"

"I did not." Ludwig had a bad feeling about this, despite the fact that he knew where it was going.

"That's not good. At first, I figured since it was some high level Koopa business, that only you and Bowser may be present. But it was only Bowser, Kamek and a select group of the council that were there and it was not many of us, 10, 15 at most. It was decided that you were unfit to retake your former position. Instead, the position was given over to Bowser Junior."

Ludwig frowned. "I'm not surprised. But tell me, was there only a singular vote during the process and did this vote come from a highly selfish and arrogant individual?"

"Yes, there was only one vote and it came from Bowser, how did you know?"

"Trust me, I am exceedingly superfluous at Koopa politics."

"I see. Well, unfortunately, that wasn't the bad news."

"Oh?"

"After the vote, how can I put this..." There was silence for a moment. "There's no real easy way of saying it. Bowser called into question your status of Crown Heir of the Empire."

"What?"

"He wanted to give the title to Junior, and so had a vote on that as well. It was unanimous, or so he says. But the whole thing was very rigged and unprofessional. It didn't matter what we said, it was like talking to a wall. And there were no elected officials there either, it was just the 10 of us or so. Anyway, Junior is apparently Crown Heir of the Empire now, starting immediately."

Ludwig was silent for a moment. Two waitresses appeared and brought out a table, and placed upon it a glass of whiskey, a golden chalice filled with a red wine as well as a plate of penne pasta mixed in a white sauce. Without looking at them, he nonchalantly waved his hand and the two quickly bowed and proceeded out of the room. There was silence as he downed more than half of his whiskey.

"Hey, are you still there?"

Ludwig put his glass on the table. "Quite."

"Well, I figured I should tell you. The whole thing seemed to be pretty unfair, after all. Then again, I don't know much about inner Koopa politics, despite being pulled into all of this."

"I will be honest with you, Luigi." said Ludwig. "The entire stunt was most definitely an illegal action."

"Illegal action?"

"Certain members of the senate as well as the higher members of the Magikoopa council must be present at such meetings, especially when deciding upon such a large position. Other members must be present as well, such as members of the family trust, the exchequer, 3 of the highest military generals, amongst others. To say that this is an usurp of power would be an understatement."

"Huh. Well, you don't sound too angry about it."

"Angry?" Ludwig entertained the thought. "I've been angry at the possibility of this occurring ever since the manifestation of Junior. The anger flows back into time for many years, but I will tell you this: that this situation was not a surprise to my person, in fact, I entirely expected this sort of event to transpire. It was only a matter of time. Everything is happening, more or less, in the manner I predicted. Reality will become an interesting place very soon, but I'm sure you're wise enough not to tell Bowser that upon seeing his ruthless corruption in play."

"Of course. Oh yes, there was something else I wanted to tell you."

"What, that there is now an assassination plot against me? That would be most entertaining."

"Well, it was supposed to be a surprise. But she's headed to your room now. Crap, I got to go, Daisy is nagging me."

"She?" But Luigi had already hung up. Ludwig was not sure just what Luigi had meant at first. He drank the rest of his glass and thought who it could be. It wasn't long before he remembered. "Wait...no, that's wishful thinking." He was forced to break it off due to circumstances beyond his control. But he had always hoped that-

The doorbell rang, interrupting his thoughts. Ludwig was about to ask one of his waitresses to answer the door until he heard the door slam far behind him. There was only one person he could think of that would enter someone's room unannounced in that fashion. Ludwig got up from his seat and looked at the hallway behind him. Sure enough, up the steps walked Kylie Koopa, with her trademark green hat and a big smile on her face.

"This," Ludwig stammered. "This is a complete surprise!"

"Aww, you never expected to see me again?" said Kylie. "You know, I can't just live with 'that's a secret you can never know.' Because that's not the way it works." She walked up to him and gave him a peck on the lips before giving him a hug. "I missed you so much."

"I'm surprised you went along with my Morton idea."

"Oh, and I'm going to so grill you for that, but not right now."

"Good, as I am experiencing as they term it, 'one hell of a day.'"

"I know. I overheard most of that council meeting."

"Did you?" He smirked.

"Yeah. All I have to say that your dad is an asshole."

"That goes without saying." Ludwig broke the hug and sat back down in his former spot, with Kylie sitting next to him.

"To be anywhere within the higher echelons of the Koopa Empire, one must be some degree of an asshole."

"But your dad is a menace. He had no right to just strip you and place everything on his little clone of his."

"He has his right as a cruel and dominating despot. But that doesn't matter."

"Oh, is this part of your plan, too?"

"The one I briefly touched upon before I left, yes."

Ludwig made a motion with his arm and a waitress was back out next to him again. "Can I get you anything?" she asked.

"I see you've been having some fun while I was gone." said a suspicious Kylie, eying the waitresses skimpy maid uniform.

"One can make as many assumptions as they wish," said a smiling Ludwig, "But the fact of the matter is that there's simply no physical evidence."

"What are you talking about? You see that?" Kylie pointed at the Koopa's forehead. "She's sweating! There's only one reason for that."

"You're clearly making her nervous, Kylie." said Ludwig. "And I strongly doubt that her job description had the word 'fuck toy' anywhere within the inscription."

"Um..." The waitress looked extremely nervous.

"Of course it doesn't! Those jobs don't need an explanation."

"It is also true that you're giving her ideas of doing something other than her job description dictates."

Kylie folded her arms. "Yeah, whatever."

"Not that I wouldn't mind that of course, but I digress."

"Oh, so you do fuck her on a consistent basis?"

"I...um...I'm here to serve you, master!" said the waitress, bowing low. Ludwig almost laughed. He enjoying pissing off Kylie once in a while.

"Yes, I would like, ahem, a glass of the DeBourgeis."

"Give me a Bourbon."

"Yes sir!" The waitress finally walked back into the kitchen.

"Seriously, how many maids have you screwed since I was gone?" asked Kylie.

"Seriously, do you expect me to do nothing but masturbate furiously until your return? That's too petty for me."

Kylie sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm just worried that you just have a relationship with one of them, that's all."

Ludwig snorted. "Of course not. They are simply useful for tasty meals and an occasional quickie at my discretion. I've not had a relationship since that...most unfortunate encounter."

Kylie frowned and leaned her head on his shoulder. "But ours never ended, did it?"

Ludwig looked at her and knew she was right.

"You can't just go off saying I can't know something, and expect my love for you to end right there."

"It grieved me too. I had no choice in the matter."

"You could have just told me about all of this, I wouldn't have said a thing."

"And risk life imprisonment on the 8th dungeon level? Many other people needed me when I was building the Galaxy. I hated it, but it was a sacrifice I had to take."

"..."

"Besides, it worked out in the end for both of us. All of my siblings now know the truth and will be able to live in freedom instead of ignorance."

"Wait..." Kylie thought to herself. "You were the one that was sending those messages out?"

Ludwig smiled. "Sometimes I am impressed by my own brilliance. The message from Larry was genuine, but I did tell him to send such a thing. Roy's picture is his own, but I secretly sent him the satellite coordinates so he'd be able to see it for himself. You eventually saw my messages and figured things out on your own, just like I hoped you would. The rest has fallen into place."

Kylie smiled. "Nothing really changed then." And they kissed, not caring how much time they passed. Eventually they broke away, with Ludwig pressing a few buttons on his console. The globe was replaced with a model of what appeared to be some type of castle, yet it looked almost nothing like one.

"What's this?" asked Kylie.

"My top secret project. Bowser has no knowledge about this, Kamek has no knowledge about this, not even my siblings know about this. You are the first one to know, so to speak."

"Your pole shift shelter?"

"That's but one purpose it shall provide." Ludwig said, grinning widely. "I must increase the production speed and it should be completed within a week."

"Cool." Kylie got up. "Can I use your shower? I'm getting tired."

"It's that way." Ludwig pointed to a doorway on the right side of the room and Kylie walked off toward it. He was getting tired himself, but he knew he had to modify Ludwig Castle plus take care of some other things before retiring for the evening. Another button brought up a cam, showing a Koopa wearing a hard hat. "Yes sir!" it responded.

"How long until main construction phase is complete?" asked Ludwig.

"It will take about 2 weeks, maybe 3 due to those external temperature oscillators."

"I need the main phase to be completed within a week. Several unfortunate events came up and security is now top priority."

The Koopa nodded. "Understood. The main engines are done and most of the teleportation systems can be completed by that time."

"Good, just make sure that and life support systems are not to be cut from production times. Those are critical. That also includes the synthetic food generation systems."

"Roger that, sir!"

The com fizzled out, leaving Ludwig pondering to himself for a few moments. But at length, he decided to prepare himself for sleep as well. Now that Kylie had found her way back to him, there was no need to take advantage of his maids any longer.

After writing a few emails to a moving company and a few other recipients, he decided to retire for the evening. Ludwig got up from his comfortable position on the sofa and walked to his bedroom. The usual extravagant flair was also present in this room, albeit with a more artistic touch with curvy pillars and sleek walls casting various shadows across the room. Spotlights in the ceiling cast soft light here and there, illuminating some of the incense smoke from the corner of the room. In the same corner was a small stream of drinkable water, continuously flowing on a cyclic path.

Ludwig smelled a sweet steam coming from his bathroom. Thinking for a moment, he grabbed a glass and dipped it into his artificial stream. Drinking half of it, he placed it on the counter and quietly slipped out of his shell and boxers. Walking to the bathroom door, he silently opened it and saw the silhouette of Kylie washing herself behind the curtain. Grinning like a hunter eying his prey, he slowly approached and at the right moment, pushed his claw behind the curtain and gave her butt a good squeeze.

"Eeeeek!" She flinched before quickly turning around. "Bastard!"

Ludwig chuckled and reached into a cabinet next to him, pulling out a jar of what appeared to be tiny stars with eyes. "It has been a while since I've used any of these for my own...personal use."

"Use what?" She looked behind the curtain, but Ludwig was not there.

"These." She turned around and found him behind her in the shower, holding up a jar of little star beings that made high squealing noises. Kylie was about to say something, but Ludwig cut her off. "And as this shower is my personal property, using it is a privilege, not a right."

Kylie crossed her arms. "I guess that's what I get. But those star...things, they remind me of what Mario was talking about after he got back from one of his adventures."

"These are Lumas," said Ludwig, "Faithful servants to the Galaxy system. Everything here was built by them. They recognize the difficulty we must go through and are more than willing to submit themselves."

"You know I can read between the lines. You just collected a huge amount and put them inside a jar! I don't think they'd appreciate that."

"While true, they are still more than willing to give us more powerful beings a helping hand when required." He opened the jar and out flew a couple of them, flying overhead.

"Whew, thank you for letting us out!" said a yellow Luma. "It was getting cramped in there! We definitely could use some more flying space."

"Don't worry, we'll get you a playpen or something." said Kylie.

"If that's the case, then it is going inside of your room." said Ludwig.

"The room that doesn't exist?"

"Until now. Initiate Plan K." said Ludwig, smirking.

"Yes sir!" said the Luma. "Time to TRANSFORM!" It then flew out a window above and transformed somewhere on the other side of Ludwig's massive apartment.

"Um, so you just made me a room here?"

"Quite."

"Without knowing what I really wanted in it, right?"

"Oh, I know exactly what you want." He winked at the Luma, who promptly transformed into a launch star. "I would advise holding on."

"Are you Craaaaa-" screamed Kylie as the naked couple launched through the window and into space. They flew far from Ludwig's apartment and the many cargo ships were like little specks in the distance. After some time, they landed upon a small planetoid covered in white sand and pristine teal waters with a forest of palm trees. Colorful stars and galaxies danced overhead in many shades and hues. A small wind brushed by their faces as small waves broke across the beach. Kylie was stunned, forgetting her nakedness for a moment.

"This...this is-"

"Yes. I designed my dream paradise long ago and never imagined it could become a reality, until I met the Lumas. The Luma who made this was exceptionally intelligent for a creature of its kind. With the current environment, a personal retreat is almost a requirement. You're the first person to know the existence of this place." He walked to beach chair next to him, which was overshadowed by a shade and a table next to it. He grabbed a pina colada from the table cup holder, which immediately refilled itself with another. He took a sip and stared at the endless ocean along with Kylie, who seemed lost in thought.

"Well, is this what you wanted?" asked Ludwig.

"Yes, but..." She turned to face Ludwig and smiled. "...I want a something that's a little more..."

He caressed her then with a smile on his face. "Like this?" And they kissed under the gleaming stars, escaping the doom that hung over them, if only just for a moment. And the best thing about living amongst the stars was that no matter where you are, no one can hear you scream.

"Mmh..."