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Shards of Love: REDUX!

Shard II: Revelations

Chapter XII

Conspiracies

Bowser and Peach hunker in their cells, dazed and confused about the earlier occurrence. Despite Bowser never being arrested in the Mushroom Kingdom, he appears used to the dingy dungeon. The Koopa King lounges on the floor, appearing more bored than frightened. He knows that no matter what happens, this situation won't destroy his reputation of being the biggest, baddest enemy of the Mushroom Kingdom. No matter how he plays his cards, he'll have the same outcome.

Peach's reputation rests on this event, however; at this point, she already lost trust from her people. She paces around in her cell, praying and hoping that the charges are bogus. She was not involved in her parents' disappearance; she's just as sick about their disappearance as the average mushroomer, if not sicker. She adores her parents; although she dislikes being babied by them, they'll still be her parents, and she'll never want to replace them—or get rid of them.

Not to mention: she wasn't even present to kidnap her parents! She stayed at Bowser's Castle the entire time! Plus, for the first time in years, she's able to vouch for Bowser too. Hopefully whoever decides her case will be fair, honest and understanding.

Peach breathes out a long sigh as she stops pacing and sits in the fetal position, not caring whether her dress becomes dirty. Seeing her stress, Bowser looks over at Peach and calls out to her.

"Man, Peach! You could've been free if you stayed in my castle!"

"Oh be quiet, Bowser Koopa. If it wasn't for you and those children of yours, we wouldn't even be in this mess!"

"'We'? I'd still be accused for this!" Bowser pointed out in a matter-of-fact manner. After several terrible things happen in the Mushroom Kingdom, especially by international forces, Dark Land's always the first government to get the blame. Peach's parents appear to be no exception in this case, although Peach being in trouble's a new thing in Bowser's book.

"Yeah? And whose fault was that?" Peach mentioned, rolling her eyes.

"Well, it wouldn't be mine since I didn't kidnap you!"

"Whatever, okay? Point is, we're in this position right now, and we're screwed."

"Yeah, that's true…"

Bowser and Peach both remain quiet, awaiting, yet dreading their upcoming fate. If only there were a way to get both of them out in order for Peach to have Mario straighten out the issue, then they'd take that opportunity.

But, alas, such actions cannot be achieved just yet.

Larry watches the guards shuffle around the entrance to Peach's castle. Considering the castle's almost never guarded at the entrance, he figured he'd make his way into the castle through those doors, but seeing the sudden security hike, the sneak knew that way's now unachievable.

If the mushroomer guards now are anything like how they used to be during sudden drills, only the ground floor will be guarded heavily, leaving the other floors near bare. Through these previous drills, Larry found a fancy "staircase" attachment at the back of Peach's Castle that, although there to give the Mushroom Kingdom Royalty's Castle a spark of architectural wonder, also acted as a double agent for enemy spies. With that sculpture attached, Larry's able to ascend to the upper floors and spy on royal cabinet meetings.

Figuring the back's unguarded (as Larry's always seen the back area lack guards), the stealthy koopaling decides to go up those "stairs". Careful to not make even a squeak or rustle to alert the guards, he sneaks towards the back of the castle through the bushes and reaches the castle's back. Grinning, he dashes towards the north wall of the castle and starts climbing the stairs in haste. The stairs come to an eventual end; from the far view below, Larry figures he's on the third floor. Either the third or the fourth floor contains the important meeting room that Mario could use to conspire against both Peach and the Koopa Kingdom, and Larry's determined to discover the specific room.

He peers into the first window: nothing; only boxes pack the room, but with the large table in the room, Larry can tell the room used to be one of the many meeting rooms. Pulling away, he gazes through the second window and spots some toad maids cleaning a guest bedroom.

At normal times, Larry would be curious over who's staying in the room, but for now, he has urgent, important information to pick up. His father, and heck, maybe even Peach, are both in danger, and he needs to prove them innocent, or at least know full well what's going on.

He peeks through the third window and spots a male toad sleeping on the bed without a blanket nor most of his clothes. Disgusted, Larry pulls away from the window and gags, still trying to remain quiet to prevent alerting the guards. As a spy, he's seen less appealing sights; although he handles them well, he still needs to improve on his initial reactions.

Reconstructing himself, Larry then peeks through the last window on the floor. He spots Luigi, Daisy, Mario and two armed toad guards. Bingo!

Lacking his spy equipment, the sneak attempts to crack open the window from the outside, but the task proves to be impossible. These windows, despite their new appearance, rusted over from their lack of use. Larry sighs as he leans as close to the window as he can manage without being spotted by one of the five. He hears their voices, but as an extra protocol, he decides to read their lips—another handy trick he picked up as a spy.

"I can't believe you guys given her the book! She wasn't supposed to know until after!" Mario scolded both his brother and Daisy. Both appear scared at Mario's discipline session, and in fear, they both bow to him.

"S-s-sorry, M-Mario," Luigi apologized.

"No big deal. She got locked up before anything can happen."

Daisy and Luigi both nod before the flower princess speaks up, "Just wondering, Mario… Why are we doing this?"

The red-clad plumber debates to himself whether to inform them, or to just tell them to stow it. In the end, the former option wins, and he begins to explain.

"Every night, I get these weird dreams, these visions, that Dark Land needs to be invaded."

Larry gasps at the news, though thankfully not loud enough for the conspirers to sense it. Why would he invade Dark Land? Mario never goes on the offensive! That's against his "good guy" image!

"We all know Peach would never support that. I, however…" Mario continues, going silent mid-sentence before adding a sigh, "I fear for the Kingdom. Things became quiet, but they've gotten worse social-wise. Peach is innocent and great, but invasion is best for the kingdom as a whole, and that's what she wants."

"But… It's just weird," Daisy responded, "Wouldn't it make sense to, y'know, just bring her into the plan?"

"It would but… She's been with Bowser lately," Mario shakes his head.

"Of course she was. She got kidnapped!" Daisy raises her voice before she realizes who she's speaking to, "Sorry Mario, it's just…"

"I get it, but it's good for the kingdom that she isn't involved. I don't want her involved any time soon, because not only was she at Bowser's Castle, but she didn't complain about being there, and both she and Bowser were spotted in the courtyard."

Daisy and Luigi both shrug before agreeing with Mario. Peach despises war in general, unless anyone commits a grave error towards her kingdom. There'd be no way Mario could bring her into the plan.

"Also, of the news of Bowser being kidnapped, I don't want the Koopa Troop coming to rescue both Bowser and Peach. Instead, I'll fly both of them off to Jewelry Land. We help out in the more deserted Dark Realm, so it's pretty much a territory to us. Plus, we can get Jewelry Land on our side and form a Mushroom Kingdom-Sarasaland-Jewelry Land alliance that won't ever fall!"

"Uhh, sounds good, Bro," Luigi voiced.

"Good. I want you two to tag long when we fly them to Jewelry Land. You'll be their guards there, as well as a few other troops. Now, I have to take care of some battle plans, so this meeting's dismissed."

On the other side of the window, Larry nods, as if involved in the conversation.

"Mario doesn't want the Koopa Troop to invade Jewelry Land?" Larry grins as he rubs his hands together, "Well, too late now, buddy!"

Day turns into night, with both Peach and Bowser stuck in the dungeon. After hours of silence, Peach decides to speak to her nemesis.

"You should've not had your kids kidnap me, then none of this wouldn't have happened," Peach sighed, repeating that sentence at least four times ever since the guards captured both of them.

Bowser glares at the princess, "I told you! It was my KIDS who decided themselves to kidnap you! Not me! And they went without me saying so!"

"Well, I still blame you. You taught them," Peach rebutted.

Bowser sighs, defeated. He did teach them, not only to kidnap the princess, but to be diligent at it and to not give up. Although great traits to have, perhaps the way he attempted to have them execute those traits could've been modified. Still, the kidnappings of Peach… Strangely united, yet divided, his family.

"That's true… But there's one thing about them, and the Koopa Troop in general. That is, they never give up."

"Oh yeah?" Peach stands back up and stretches her legs, "Well I hope that's true, because we need that to get out of here!"

Bowser remains quiet while he stares at the metal bars in front of him. Earlier, he tried to melt the bars, but only ended up with piping hot metal and a burnt out Bowser. Whatever metal the Mushroomers use appears to be koopa-proof, and for good reason too. The walls also appear to be stronger than his shell, in which he found out the hard way. Beaten and discouraged, the Koopa King only resorts to sitting around for the past few hours.

"For once, I hope your troops come," Peach sighs once again, "Nobody probably knows we're trapped."

"They'll come," Bowser encouraged, although deep down he also has the same wishes and doubts, "And they'll know about our jailing in some way."

Kamek, Kammy and five koopalings all gather in a gym-like area on the castle's fourth floor to train their magic abilities. Every time the two magikoopas get control of the kids, they make them learn magic tricks for either fighting or for support roles. Iggy and Larry, whenever he's around, both love training magic, though Lemmy and Morton also have fun with it. Being fascinated more by science and knowledge, Ludwig's indifferent to the whole idea of magic, though the genius also doesn't mind it.

"Ugh! This is totally stupid!" Wendy complained. She and Roy can't stand casting magic spells. Wendy prefers peaceful settings where she can talk and gossip to fellow friends, while Roy prefers to show off power through his brute strength rather than with the use of magic. Neither have an ounce of willingness to learn, and thus tend to act rowdy during the sessions.

"Well, too bad!" Kammy barked, "We're in charge here! And what we're gonna do is magic! And I only see five of you! Which two of you brats are missing?!"

Kammy then notices large muddy footprints on the carpet before the footprints travel up the walls and on the ceiling. They prove quite the dead giveaway; only one koopa she knows figured out how to walk on walls, and only one's fascinated with activities involving mud. Scowling, she continues scanning the ceiling before she spots Roy lounging on one of the ruby-plated obsidian chandeliers. Seeing Kammy observing his tracks, Roy then attempts to hide from the witch's gaze within the chandelier.

"ROY! Get down here, now! King Bowser's tired of you constantly breaking his chandeliers!"

"Fine, old hag."

Roy lowers himself from the chandelier, grabbing it by his hands while his still-muddy feet dangle. He then jumps down, causing the floor to quake.

"Good. Now practice magic with us," Kammy ordered, "And don't call me old hag. That's King Bowser's nickname for me, and only he can use it."

"Look. I know you're still pissed dat a house fell on ya, witch, but I call ya what I wanna call ya, and I do what I want. Got a problem, punk?"

Kammy exhales before she pulls out her magic wand and shoots a light beam at Roy, who steps out of the beam's trajectory in time. Roy turns around and stares at the beam's target: a gaping hole intruding through the floor's plywood, in the area he stood on just seconds ago.

"Hey! Dat's a hole!" Roy shouted as he points to the scorched floor, resulting in the others facepalming.

"No... Really? Ya think?" Morton mused.

"She coulda killed me!"

"Too bad I didn't. Now, let's train!" Kammy smirks, causing Roy to mutter under his breath, 'Psychotic little old hag.'

Kammy hands Roy a black-tipped wand before showing the koopalings how to cast more powerful light-based spells. After about ten minutes of demonstrations, she summons a dummy for every koopaling to practice on.

"Feh, screw magic. Why can Larry ditch but I can't?" Roy complained as he casts triangle-shaped light beams at a dummy.

"Our youngest sibling can easily avoid zese trainings because he's vun of ze best at using magic out of us," Ludwig stated, "Perhaps if you didn't complain every second your grubby hand makes contact vith zat magic vand, Roy, you'd also progress."

"Shaddap, dork breath! I don't need no magic to save me!"

"Vell, too bad. Do vhat you vere told to do. Your elders know better zan you, especially Kamek. You know he's essentially our grandfather, correct?"

"I know dat, brainiac! All of us do!" Roy rebutted, causing Ludwig to roll his eyes to the point of almost seeing his brain.

"Zen listen to him. Fazzer's out on official duties, and Kamek's in charge. Give respect to your elders, Roy. You are failing ze very basics of etiquette ze past few days. Ve need to get you trained in a proper manner."

"And I say we cast magic! All of you will be launching absolutely evil spells soon! We'll be strong and feared!" Kamek cackled, "Now get on it and quit complaining!"

The koopalings each learn spells, such as buffing and weakening objects, healing minor wounds and turning rocks into fruits. For once, Roy's pleased with the fruit trick and insists on eating the fruits, much to the reluctance of Kammy. Kamek, however, allows the action; anything to shut his complaining up.

"WhereDOyou think Dad is?" Iggy questioned, turning another rock into a pineapple with his wand, "Peach's Castle is only about half an hour away with a doomship. Unless he got kidnapped too! Hahaha! Can you imagine, Dad kidnapped?!"

"I'm not sure myself, Ignatius," Kamek shrugged.

"Usually His Heinous comes in early, either in defeat or with his treasure Peach in hand," Kammy added, "So it's unlike him to be gone this long."

Kamek nods and adds in his final thought, "If he's not back by tomorrow, we will get more involved."

"Well, not sure if it relates, but I haven't seen Larry all day either," Morton pointed out, "Maybe Larry's with him and they're doing something! Spying and taking over the kingdom!"

The other koopas exchange looks with each other. Not only isn't Larry here, but none of them spotted Larry anywhere today. Did Bowser need Larry for some reason? However, one koopaling's eyes did widen at the mentioning of his youngest brother.

"Oh yeah! I saw him earlier!" Lemmy realized, receiving the mass attention from the others, "He was walking to the doomship hangar complaining about seeds or something. Not long after, King Dad ran in and drove the doomship out!"

"Vhat?! You should've told us sooner!" Ludwig gasped before looking at Kamek and Kammy, "Is it possible Fazzer took Lawrence by accident? Or even intentionally?"

"It's always possible, Your Geniusness," Kammy acknowledged, "But either way, I do hope both of them are safe, especially Master Lawrence if he's alone in that vile, cursed place."

Larry sneaks down the castle's outdoor "stairs". With nighttime approaching, the task proves to be easier this time around as the sneak doesn't need to worry about the guards. After getting back on the ground, Larry makes a full-fledged run to Bowser's doomship. The doomship's a far run from the castle, but the urgency of the situation keeps the youngest koopaling in full-force towards the ship. His family needs to know the news as soon as possible, and something needs to be done to stop this conspiracy Mario launched.

Those thoughts and others dash through Larry's mind as quick as he traverses towards the doomship, giving the koopaling no peace of mind. He snaps out of the developing theories as he approaches the ship and opens the hatch. Not bothering to compliment the luxurious style inside the doomship, he immediately makes his way towards the cockpit.

Larry needs to fly this home. But the only problem: he doesn't know how to pilot a doomship. Due to his age, Bowser hasn't taught him yet, although with Morton being taught more than a year ago, his time's overdue to learn by months.

The youngest koopaling surveys the doomship's control panel. Various switches, buttons and lightbulbs intimidate him, although a few have labels on them, such as the ignition. The koopaling pushes the ignition, knowing full well the ship needs to be started before it can soar the skies. The engines start up with their familiar roars, and with the roaring, several of the lightbulbs, as well as a digital screen showing strange readings, all light up.

"Uhh," Larry gives the screen a blank stare, unable to recall what to do next. He's acquainted with helicopters, having pillaged through some before as part of spy missions, and since the doomship has a fixed wheel rather than a throttle, it'll work more as a helicopter than an airplane. Shrugging, Larry looks at the screen; the doomship's in Hover mode, so that must be a good thing. He then pushes his foot on the right pedal, causing the doomship to have near vertical flight.

Larry continues pressing on the pedal until he finds himself well off the ground. With nerves unraveled, the junior cadet presses a blue button he sees both his dad and his six siblings always press when they're hovering in mid-air. With the press, the doomship switches from Hover to Forward, and this time the doomship jets forward as he presses his foot to the pedal.

"Woo yeah! I'm flying a doomship, baby!" Larry sang, practicing his steering in-air to avoid flocks of birds. Looking down, he spots the familiar lavender field followed by the woods near the castle.

The flight only lasts a little over half an hour, but to Larry, the entire thrill of the flight made the trip seem only a few minutes at most. Peering down at the ground and noticing the transition from the woods to the castle grounds, he starts panicking again. Perhaps the toughest part of driving a doomship is parking it, and there's no way he'd be able to do anything more complex than just landing it.

Pressing the blue button again, Larry changes the gears from Forward to Hover again, but this time, presses on the left pedal, causing the doomship to fall towards the earth at an unsafe speed. In fear, Larry lets off the pedal and taps on the right pedal to lift the ship, repeating the process until the doomship lands.

"Well, uhh… At least I landed and didn't crash…"

Larry makes his way out of the doomship, surprised that he parked the ship closer to the castle than he anticipated. He'll make one of his siblings park it in the hangar later on or tomorrow, but for now, more important business looms on.

He needs to find Kamek.

By the time Larry arrives at the castle, the rest of the koopalings retired for the night, all tuckered out from repeating magic trick after magic trick. Only Kamek and Kammy remain awake in their laboratory, processing information about their toadies while doing paperwork to send some out to find Bowser.

"Well, today's been quite the interesting day," Kamek stated, "I'm too old to watch over six kids like that! Especially Roy and Wendy; they always act up during our sessions."

Kammy nods her head in acknowledgment, "Not to mention you raised King Bowser too. That's impressive. For them not being his kids, they have quite the personalities of his younger self."

"Yeah. Raising him, his younger siblings and Ludwig alone did quite the number on me. I'm just glad you're here to help out, Kammy. I honestly don't know what I'd do without you here."

"What?" Kammy questioned with a grin, "Did I just witness ol' rough-and-tough Kamek go soft? Aww, that's so cute!"

"It's not cute!" Kamek blushed, "It's very evil! We need two of us to spread the fear!"

"Uh huh."

"It's true!"

"Lies!"

"Truth!"

"You like being around me!"

"No! Only for the help!"

"Uh huh, excuses."

"N-"

Kamek gets interrupted when Larry barges into the laboratory, exhausted and gasping for breath as if he ran across the entirety of Plit. Embarrassed, both magikoopas turn to their computers once they notice him, pretending to work. Despite the many times the youngest koopaling would notice fishiness, he appears to be too focused on something to pick it out.

"Kamek…" Larry pants, "Dad…"

Most times, Kamek and Kammy will discipline people who burst into the area without knocking. However, Larry's appearance followed by his father's mentioning only cause Kamek and Kammy to exchange confused looks before giving Larry their full attention.

"Your father, Master Lawrence?" Kamek questioned, "You know what happened to him?"

"Yes! He, uhh," Larry stuttered, not knowing how to explain the predicament, "He, he got thrown into jail!"

"Jail, you say?" Kammy asked, still processing the information, "How'd this happen?"

Larry retells how he explored Bowser's doomship to find his seeds, and was taken to the Mushroom Kingdom by accident. He then recalls his point of view when both Bowser and Peach got arrested, earning gasps from both magikoopas. Larry then tells them about spying on Mario, and learning that Mario, Luigi and Daisy plan to ship both of them off to Jewelry Land first thing in the morning.

Kamek and Kammy both have thoughtful faces by the time Larry finishes his story. They couldn't believe it: not only did their king get captured, but the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom also fell victim! This must be the prophecy the many ancient Koopan sages prophesied long ago! They must do what it takes to protect their kingdom from Mario's potential attacks.

"Master Lawrence…" Kamek voiced after his bout with shock, "Go to bed… Now. First thing in the morning, we will have a meeting with all your siblings to plan on how to counteract Mario's reign."