Bow Before Your King

Chapter 2 - What's the Beef?

Just so that you all know, this story is in fact gonna end at some point. I just have to decide when. But luckily for you all, it's not gonna end anytime soon. Expect at least fifty chapters, and since I will try my best to update weekly on Mondays (should have stated this last chapter), prepared to see this story on the first page of the Super Smash Brothers category for a while. ;-)

Unlike last chapter, neither Dedede nor Ganondorf will be in. But, don't worry. We'll have Bowser interact with Ganondorf soon, and I promise Dedede will be brought into this (spoiler alert: chapter three where all three characters will get some spotlight, so next week). If you want a small snippet of Dedede, PM me! Speaking of which, I wanted to respond to any reviewers that I'm unable to reach via PM.

Lizzy-Berry: I kinda like Incineroar, too. He seems pretty cool! Just to get you excited, Incineroar is going to be a character that Bowser certainly has to deal with for now, since Koopa might consider him a threat due to him being the reason to why he was kicked out of ShineSpriteBucks. ;-)

Hope you all enjoy!

~KF

"Stupid manager..."

Bowser Koopa attempted at kicking the front door to the Smash Mansion open. Yet to his confusion, the door did not budge at all. Apparently, no one reminded him prior that not only the door happened to be locked, but there was also the fact that it was required to be pulled open, and not by a push, let alone a kick. With a roll of his eyes sighing in even more annoyance, he opened it the old-fashioned way with a key he pulled from his shell with almost no effort. Subsequently, the egotistical ruler headed inside to find R.O.B. standing within a couple inches in front of him. By the look of his eyes, it was clear that he was anything but pleased.

"You know, you should not try kicking the door like that." He warned. "Master Hand paid too much money for it, after all. May I remind you of the amount of money going down the tube because of us?"

"I could care less..." Bowser rolled his eyes moving past. "I'm too irritated to think about the door at the moment..."

"What troubles you?" Curious R.O.B. inquired, crooking his neck slightly to his right.

The next thing he knew, Koopa rotated his entire body back around to stare at his fellow Smasher at the face. "Is it your business? Go away and leave me alone!"

Rolling his eyes in response, he closed the door while Bowser began making his way to his room. Since the Brawl era, Master Hand decided that it would be a good move to divide the floors by the era of which the Smashers came from. For instance, Mario would be placed on the first floor, or 'the original floor' as some called it. Zelda lived on the 'Melee' floor, Diddy Kong was located on floor number three, and everyone else lived further up. The Assist Trophies were spread across the five floors as well as the Pokemon, with the newest ones being with the Ultimate newcomers.

Since King Koopa happened to be on floor number two, he had to get through two staircases. His level of irritation rose almost every time he traveled upwards in the mansion. He figured it would have been common knowledge for Master Hand to simply apply elevators for the interior. Even a few of the newbies complained at times. Regardless, Master Hand repeatedly told everyone that he had the desire to keep things 'traditional' for the mansion and simply use staircases. Not to mention, to him, and even to his brother Crazy Hand, it looked rather 'fancy'. However, some were not afraid to point out the Teleportation Room for Smash matches, which heavily relied on technology to transport them to a specific stage to fight. In his defense, however, he simply called it irrelevant and stuck by his word. With that being said, unfortunately for his fighters, they would have to move themselves up the stairs as long as Smash existed.

There was no apparent reason for him heading to his room in the first place. Maybe he simply wanted to blow off some steam? That would have been the most obvious answer. Yet that only lead to more questions he would have thought of. What was he going to do upon entering? Watch television in his room? Simply lay flat on his stomach and complain to himself? Finish the rest of his food? He had already done so on the way home, as well as finishing his coffee, so the latter completely fell out of his series of questions.

Unfortunately for Bowser, the thought of it happened to come upon entering his room, which was much too late. He sat on his bed after turning on the lamp sitting on his bedside table. Yes, it was almost nearing nine in the morning, yet it was growing cloudy. There was even a chance for heavy rain for that day.

As he simply sat, quite a few thoughts went through his head, going from how the situation at ShineSpriteBucks went down to him pondering on his plans for the rest of the day. It was Saturday, after all. Scheduled fights only occurred on the weekdays, meaning that any Smasher could enter the Teleportation Room as he or she pleased. Yet on Sunday, the room was typically off limits due to maintenance in order to make sure everything was running smoothly in regards to the teleportation process. Master had no intentions on having any more incidents involving the Teleportation Room. Diddy Kong would never forget the one time he was left on the Smashville stage for two and a half hours after winning a match against Lucario the brawl era. Yet that was only a 'minor' incident in comparison to anything else that happened back in the day.

Wait a minute... it was a Saturday. Bowser's eyes began to perk up upon the memory. That meant for him that he could take his anger on any of his innocent Smash mates in a brawl whenever he wanted and how he wanted. How fun that would have been for the villainous ruler of the Dark Lands?

All he had to do was to find someone to represent his punching bag.

"Hmm..." The index finger was now beneath his chin. He could go for R.O.B., yet he was unsure of him still being on the bottom floor of the mansion. Of course, he was too lazy to search around the place for him. He did not even have his phone number, even though since the fifth era began, it became a requirement to have every fighter as his contact in case of 'emergencies' according to his master. It was already enough for him to get use to phones alone. Now he had to remember to keep in touch with over seventy people and counting? Not worth it.

What about the people that were with him in the coffee shop incident? Marth would have been a great choice. He even had his contact information with him thanks to the Hero King asking around. Sure, he was clearly not that fond of the bane of Mario's existence. However, being 'responsible' and 'listening to Master Hand' were two of his top priorities. Although, amusingly, but not surprisingly, he recalled him taking forever to not only understand the concept of mobile devices, but technology as a whole. Farther towards the end of the spectrum, nothing compared to the Zelda characters, especially the Hero of the Wild himself, since he was the slowest when it came to 'getting with the times'.

But that was beside the point. Marth would have been a good person to battle against, yet Lowell was a smart intellectual. Bowser figured the blue sword wielder would see right through him immediately and call him out for using him as a way to take out his frustrations on him after what happened prior. Judging by the fact that he was the first one to defend the Mii, it all made perfect sense. Lying would have only made everything worse, with Marth possibly calling it 'an insult to his intelligence'.

It was also a risk for Roy, who was the secondary target, with also being Marth's 'right hand man' from the Melee days. It was a game of chance if he had to rely on Marth not being anywhere near the red-head, which was near impossible since they were all in the exact same location, with Roy putting Bowser on blast right after the other Smash veteran.

...Maybe Incineroar? Possibly the best choice, since he knew he was the one that made Bowser's temper get out of hand costing him to be kicked out of the place. Yet, it was a similar case scenario with R.O.B. In fact, he even had trouble remembering his name within the first few days of the Ultimate era kicking off. And all Palutena did was simply rushing to the action to stand by Incineroar, just in case things got even more out of control. Once again, an option being scratched off his personal hit-list, even though Bowser would seemingly have no choice. Palutena even had the guts to send him her contact information, much to Pit's dismay.

Other than that, all Bowser could think of was to find a random, innocent Smasher in the hallway and manipulate them into being a victim of his upcoming victory, and he would be satisfied for the rest of the day.

"It's worth a shot."

Not turning off his lamp, he exited the room to look from left to right. He exchanged a quick glance with Mewtwo getting ready to head downstairs. No way the anthropomorphic turtle like him would be fighting Mewtwo of all Pokemon for reasons that were common knowledge for the inhabitants of the mansion. Facing Zelda was a death sentence, since he would have had to face possibly all three Links plus Sheik by the time word got around, since like Marth, Zelda was also a wise individual. The Triforce of Wisdom existed for a reason. There was also Assist Trophy Shovel Knight who happened to be visiting the floor, sharing a friendly conversation with Pit. Not anyone he particularly would have preferred to fight since it was literally impossible to do so.

But then, suddenly after seeing Pichu, who would have been a perfect choice, the thought of Pit re-entered his mind. He began to think.

"Hmm... Maybe Pit knows where Palutena and Incineroar are. Hopefully they have left ShineSpriteBucks by now."

Knowing Bowser, he chose to rather interrupt the conversation between the angel and the knight instead of simply being polite and wait for his turn.

"Hey Pit, do you know where Palutena and Incineroar are? They were in ShineSpriteBucks last time I saw 'em and I don't know if they're still there or not."

"...Oh, yeah!" Pit's somewhat confounded look turned into a smirk. "Palutena just texted me that you've been kicked out again. Something about you yelling at a Mii and arguing with Marth and Roy. What did you do this time?"

His patience was already wearing thin thanks to Pit not even answering his question. He made it very clear, too. "That's not what I'm asking. Where are they?"

"Alright, alright, sheesh! Didn't know someone peed in your cheerios today. Lemme see..." He pulled out his phone from hammerspace to begin texting, ignoring Bowser's dumbfound expression at his figure of speech.

Shovel Knight of all people knowing the amount of time it takes for two people to communicate with one another via text (probably thanks to his fellow Smash Mansion residents), chose to took the time to state his greetings. "So how are you today, Bowser?"

A shrug was his reaction. The spiked-shelled anthropomorphic character never thought too much of it, yet Shovel Knight was one of those people that simply chose to be respectful of others, no matter how much wrongdoing they might have made in their past. Besides, a little kindness would not have hurt, right?

After a while, Pit widened his eyes a little at the sudden text bubble that popped up on his mobile device. "Ooh, she said she was coming right back here to talk to Peach about some tea party she wanted to do."

King Koopa rolled his eyes at the latter statement. Princess Peach was well-known for throwing tea parties in her room every now and then ever since she first debuted as a fighter. Although he found it to be for little girls, nobody seemed to have a problem with it, with the exception of those who decided that it was either boring or 'not manly' for them. Since it was Bowser of all Smashers, it was the latter.

"...And they're on their way right now." Pit finally glanced from his 'xPhone U2'. Why do you ask?"

"I wanna fight Incineroar." The pounding of the fist to his right hand added more to his straightforward answer. "That bozzo made me get kicked of that dumb place and now I want payback!"

Shovel Knight blinked behind his helmet. "...What did you exactly do to get kicked out of ShineSpriteBucks? How do you even get removed from there, anyway? All you simply do is sit at a table and drink coffee..."

"Easy for someone like you to say." Bowser glared at the blue warrior. "You're not a target there unlike myself; they take an eternity to make food and they had the nerve to say that it was my fault! Incineroar for some reason didn't wanna mind his own business and tried to make himself the hero of the day in front of everybody! He made me mad, and that's how I got banned until... tomorrow basically. I had to come to him of all people to ask the whereabouts of Palutena because most likely, Incineroar is still with her, which he is due to recent information."

The 'him' referring to Pit, the servant of the Goddess of Light gave him a weird look. "So,... what exactly did Incineroar say to you?"

"He told me that I should set an example for newcomers like him so that I wouldn't embarrass Master Hand." He performed an eye roll at the memory. "Yeah, as if I even care..."

"Well,..." Shovel Knight added in his two cents. "come to think of it, the guy does have a point. You have been here since Melee, right?"

"No!"

"You weren't from Melee? Brawl perhaps?"

"No!" Bowser shook his head in frustration. "I have been here since Melee! You've seen me on this floor a couple times already and my room is less then ten seconds away! I was talking about how Incineroar does not have a point because the whole thing had nothing to do with him at all! He needs to learn to mind his own business and deserves to be taught a lesson."

"...Wouldn't that be rather... childish?" Shovel Knight asked.

"He's Bowser, Shovel Knight." Pit explained briefly.

"Stop it!" Mario's arch-nemesis demanded to the both of them. "I will not be taken lightly here! He's getting too comfortable in the mansion just because he's part of the Brotherhood, and I will do whatever it takes to put him down! Three stock, eight minutes, Battlefield! ...Maybe even Final Destination if he really wants a challenge! ...And no items! When Incineroar comes, tell him to find me. You know what, Pit, you can text Palutena that I'm looking for him. If you want to see the fight yourself, head into the auditorium so you both can watch me kick his tail! And hopefully I'll kick it so hard he wouldn't be able to wag it for a while!"

"...Okay... I do not even have a tail, Bowser, yet even I can imagine his pain..." Shovel Knight already began to feel sorry for the cat-like Pokemon with his sympathetic facial reaction underneath his helmet.

"It's a figure of speech!"

The knight in blue and the white-winged angel took the moment to gaze their eyes at one another as Bowser chose to retreat to his room, slamming the door upon opening it.

Unlike the door to ShineSpriteBucks, he actually succeeded.

You know, not a lot of Smash stories have the Assist Trophies appear. I'm sort of guilty of this issue myself since we tend to not think of them since they're obviously not the main focus of Smash, so I decided to include Shovel Knight. After all, I did actually play his game. (It's the bomb, by the way! Go play it! The final campaign will be released on April 9!)

Pit was a good character to include in this chapter because I honestly think he has one of the best personalities of all the Smashers. He's funny, yet smart. He's friendly, heroic, and a great fighter. The total package. Besides, it was logical to have him involved anyway due to Palutena playing a role in the first chapter. So, what do you guys think of this?

(Side note: If you guys want more content from me and can't wait for chapter three, my main fic is "Survivor - Kodai Island" at the moment and the three kings are three of twenty main characters! Sure, the writing is not AS developed compared to now at least for the first couple dozen chapters, but I'd still call it decent enough to read, so if you're interested, go right on ahead!)

Questions:

1. If you really weren't feeling it last chapter, are you all starting to think that Incineroar's involvement in what happened at ShineSpriteBucks is going to bite him in the butt later on? ...Or will it bite Bowser in the rear end?

2. How do you think Incineroar will react when he hears of this?

I encourage everyone to review and I will see you all next Monday! Next time, all three characters will earn some of the spotlight and we're most likely seeing a confrontation between Incineroar and Bowser!