A Reunion I'd Remember
Chapter 1
A Memory of Two Bowsers
(Uploaded on April 27, 2021)
Summary: In the caverns of Thwomp Volcano, two Koopa Kings from different times reunite.
Neither of them are amused by this.
Notes: This chapter is set during the events of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, with references to Yoshi's Island DS.
For the purposes of this fic, the latter game happened before the former (in both the past and the present).
December 8, 19XX (2005) – Afternoon
Thwomp Caverns
Third Layer – Depths
Thwomp Volcano was a very dangerous locale.
Even after its premature pacification, courtesy of the Professor E. Gadd of the future, it was still hot and heavy and filled to the brim with lava. Its depths were a maze-like gauntlet, teeming with enemies and hazards of all kinds.
In short, it was the perfect retreat for all aspiring villains.
And boy, did Bowser know it.
"Bwahahaha!" he laughed. "This place is a pit! It's hot, stinky, dangerous, and one humongous fire hazard! I LOVE IT!"
He turned to his long-victimized captive, Princess Peach, curiously cursed with a mushroom on her face.
"I could build another castle in here, and no one would notice a difference! Don't you agree with me, Peach?"
She stared at him rather blankly, as if she had never seen him before.
He furrowed his brow.
"Okay, what's with you?" he asked. "You haven't said a word since I came into the picture! No 'Mario will defeat you!', no 'You won't get away with this!'—what are you, sick or something? Did I kidnap you at a bad time?"
Still no reply.
It was actually getting kind of creepy now.
Now that he thought about it, she wasn't the only thing that was odd about today. In Peach's Castle, he could've sworn he saw those weird baby clones of Mario and Green 'Stache from last summer's baseball tournament. A hipper-looking Toadsworth tried to stop him, too, riding a stroller with a baby who reminded him a lot of Peach.
And then there was the weird portal he fell into…
He shook his head and threw his hands up in the air. "Bah, whatever! Play the silent game however long you'd like. It'll only make your reactions all the sweeter when I finally thrash Mario!"
Suddenly, a figure dropped in from the floors above.
He wore red hair in a ponytail and a small shell adorned with spikes. The horns on his head were short and stubby, but the expression on his face was nothing short of mischievous.
It was no accident that he looked a lot like Bowser.
Baby Bowser looked around, clearly impressed by his current surroundings.
"Gwahahaha!" he laughed. "This place is soooo nasty! Boiling hot, reeking, and just made for trouble! TALK ABOUT AWESOME! This is exactly where I should build a second castle!"
He turned around, ready to lay claim to this new realm—
—only to see a familiar face standing right in front of him.
A couple years ago… / A few months ago…
"Wait, wait, wait—lemme get this straight! Future me kidnapped me!?"
In the castle floating above Yoshi's Island, Baby Bowser was reacting with incredulity.
It was easy to see why, considering that he was currently face-to-face with his future self (and future Kamek, too).
"But… that doesn't make any sense!" he complained. "If I'm supposed to be you, then shouldn't we be working together or something!?"
Kamek rolled his eyes. "As if two of His Highness could ever get along…"
Having raised Bowser as if he was his own son, he could already tell where this was going to go.
"Sorry, but there's only room for one Bowser 'round here," the elder Bowser retorted—"and besides, since you're kid me, you're at pretty good odds at being one of the Star Children."
"Star Children? What the heck are those"
The future crown wizard took over for this one. "That's why we're here, actually. Long ago – well, a few years ago, for you – seven stars fell from the sky. These stars came to rest in the hearts of seven babies, giving them a tremendous amount of Miracle Magic. It is said that Miracle Magic has the power to shape destiny as we know it—"
"—and once I have those seven children in my hands, I'll be able to conquer the whole universe!" Bowser interrupted him. "Nothing will be able to stop me, then—not even Mario! GWAH HA HA HA HA HA!"
A sweatdrop went down Kamek's face.
"…sire, at least let me finish my explanation, first…"
"'Conquer the universe'…? Are you saying that even when I'm an old geezer, I'll still be trying to take over everything?" Baby Bowser cried, dismayed. "That's lame!"
A vein popped on Bowser's head. "Hey! Shut your trap, squirt! You don't know what kind of stuff I've been through here!"
"I don't need to!" his toddler self replied, crossing his arms. "If you haven't won yet, that just means you're totally weak!"
"Why you…! Somebody needs to teach you a lesson in manners!"
"And somebody needs to teach you how to be being a cool bad guy!"
…
It seems that both Bowser and his knee-high counterpart have forgotten which side they're supposed to be on.
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR…!"
"You sound like a huge big jerk, too!" Baby Bowser continued. "You might be bigger than me, but—"
By this point, though, the Koopa King had heard enough.
Infuriated, he blasted his younger self with the biggest fireball he could muster (which was very large indeed)—
—which, much to Kamek's dismay, ended up sending him right out the window.
"Don't think I'll ever forget this!" Baby Bowser bellowed, even as he fell through the sky. "I won't! Not for a million years!
"Not even when I'm an old geezer like YOU!"
…
…
…
Yep, that's about what I expected… the Magikoopa thought.
Back in the present (relatively speaking, anyway)…
For a few moments, the two continued to stare at each other silently.
And then…
"YOU!"
Two fingers went up, both pointing at the other.
"Not you again!" Baby Bowser exclaimed. "Don't you know how to go away already, gramps!?"
"Just my luck," Bowser groused—"I find the perfect new lair, and then you just had to ruin it! Go back home, you twerp!"
Baby Bowser stepped forward. "I didn't ruin it; you did! You're big, you're fat; you're nothing more than a copycat!"
Bowser stepped forward, too. "You're the copycat! You can walk like me and talk like me, but you ain't me yet—you're just a shrimpy brat!"
"At least I haven't lost a thousand times, tubby!"
"At least I actually amounted to something, Goomba-breath!"
The two got up in each other's faces, growling all the while.
"GRRRRRRRRR…!"
"GRRRRRRRRR…!"
They said their next line in unison:
"You jerk… You're just like Mario!"
…
They blinked in surprise.
"Wait, you're still fighting Mario?"
"Wait, you've run into Mario?"
Baby Bowser harumphed. "Of course! Those Super Diaper Bros. keep showing up at Peach's Castle and getting in my way! They ate my cookies, they stole my treasure—and there's even four of them, now! That's no fair!"
Bowser put the pieces together in record time.
"Well, that's no surprise," he said. "He's always getting in the way of something of ours. It's been that way for over twenty years, at this point!"
He's even multiplying, too! One Mario was bad enough—two of them, even one as a baby, is just… ugh!
"Seriously!?" the 'lil toddler said, pouting. "You haven't gotten rid of him yet!? It's no wonder you keep losing, then!"
"Hey! I'll have you know he's not that easy to defeat! Even when I manage to, he just gets back up and challenges me again!" Beneath his breath, he added, "And it doesn't help that Peach is always cheering for him…"
A scoff. "Still makes you look like a loser!"
"It does not!"
"It does, too!"
"I'm the loser you're going to grow into!"
"Then that means I just have to learn to be the opposite!"
…
It seems that, no matter how much time passes, both Bowser and his knee-high counterpart can't ever stop bickering.
"ARGH! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" the raging regent yelled, putting his foot down. "Mario's gonna be here any minute! I can't waste my time on this!"
"What!? Those crummy four are coming!?" Baby Bowser cried. "Lemme at them, lemme at them! I want revenge on 'em, too!"
Bowser was about to retort again, but then he stopped.
A light bulb went off in his brain.
Say…
Right now, Mario's teaming up with his baby self. Green 'Stache too, I guess.
If they get to do that…
…then why can't I?
"…you really want revenge on them?" the adult Koopa King asked. "All four of them?"
"Of course I do!" the puny prince replied. "What kind of person do you take me for!?"
"In that case… I've got a plan. A plan so cool, it'll rock the socks off of both Marios!"
"Really? You've got a plan?" Baby Bowser raised an eyebrow. "Why should I listen to an old geezer like you!?"
"Hear me out! We can't beat them by ourselves…"
Bowser smirked, giving pause to his younger self.
"…so why don't we fight fire with fire? Two Marios… and two Bowsers!"
Mario should've known this rescue operation wouldn't be as smooth as he'd like.
He, Luigi, and their baby selves had finally reached the depths of Thwomp Volcano—
—but upon their arrival, they'd run into an unfortunate surprise.
"Gwahahaha!"
"B-Baby Bowser!?" Luigi reeled.
"Oh, come on!" Mario said. "You're here, too!?"
Baby Bowser grinned. "Don't think I got punted off Yoshi's Island like some scrub!" he told them. "No way! I left! On my terms! And now I'm here getting ready to launch the revenge scheme to end all revenge schemes!"
The red plumber grit his teeth.
"Be that as it may… we didn't come here to fight you. We've got a princess to rescue, so—step out of the way!"
"Y-Yeah!" his ever-nervous partner agreed. "Th-There's only one of you, and four of us!"
"Oh, really?"
The two brothers tried to rush past him—only to end up knocked back by a large and spiny shell, appearing from the ground.
The Koopa shell came to a stop, and out from its crevices emerged the foe the quartet had been seeking.
"Bwahahaha!"
Bowser laughed, alongside his younger self.
"You should've known this would've happen eventually!" he said. "Me and this little firebrand haven't always gotten along before – but if there's one thing we both hate, it's the sight of you losers' faces!"
"Yeah! That's why we're gonna take you down together! Bowser and Bowser vs. Mario and Mario! …and also Greenie, I guess!"
Luigi looked pained.
He could at least try to remember my name…! he internally complained. I don't want to be a 'Green 'Stache' forever!
Don't let him get to you, Luigi, Mario replied. We're in for a tough fight yet!
Aloud, he told the Bowsers, "So you decided to take a page from our book. Big deal!" He clenched his fists, in unison with Baby Mario pulling out his hammer. "We've taken both of you before, and we can sure as heck do it again!"
"Bring it, then!" Bowser dared him. "After we're done thrashing you, we'll give you front seats to the taking over of past and present!"
"This is the real deal!" the young prince declared. "Winner takes all!"
Mario and Luigi glared, as did their opponents.
Following a second's hesitation, both sides dashed toward the other—
And so, a mid-game climax commenced.
The Mario & Luigi series has always had some pretty strong continuity.
Original characters show up more than once, events from past games are occasionally referenced—heck, you even get to see Beanbean civilians vacationing on Pi'illo Island. It's great! It's all great!
My only quibble is that, sometimes, the reunions don't come off as strongly as I'd like them to be. Fawful, Popple, Kylie; they don't have much of a reaction to seeing the Bros. again—and the impact of Yoshi's Island isn't really touched upon in Partners in Time, either.
So, this short-ish fic is my attempt to fix that.
Normally, I do my best to stick to release date schedule when accounting for the Mario series' timeline. But I since I wanted to give this scene its proper impact, I'm making an exception: Yoshi's Island DS happened before PiT, and that's that. Better that than dealing with even more time travel headaches. (And PiT has enough of those as it is.)
It helps me account for the differences between Bowser and Baby Bowser's dynamics in both games, too. They recognize each other and bicker in one; they're oblivious and team up in the other—it's seriously wild, even accounting for this franchise's relative lack of continuity.
Well, that's all for now! Next time: Yoshi, circa Partners in Time. See you then!