I have returned! (have I already used that one? I think so...) I am so sorry that there was no chapter last week. I guess I owe you guys an explanation, huh? Basically, my family and I have been in the process of moving for the past couple weeks, a between that and school, I've barely had time to work on this. In other words, I chose the literal worst possible time to try to give myself a schedule, lol.
But, I'm back now, and hopefully I'll have more time to work on this!
Thank you to NixsLovesAnime100 for following and favouriting this story, and thank you to StarlitDuck for following me!
Now, on with the chapter!
Chapter 7: Planning for Problems
It was midmorning when King Bowser Koopa sat in his meeting room, gazing out at the faces of those gathered with him. There were far less people than there were chairs that day. He had not been sure who he could trust with the issue at hand, the issue of Larry's disappearance.
It wasn't the fact that Larry had disappeared that caused such caution in the King's actions. No, if Larry had simply disappeared Bowser would have rounded up every single person in the Castle to help search. The problem was, Larry hadn't just disappeared; his call from a few hours ago suggested an outright betrayal. Bowser wasn't about to go tell the whole castle that his son had betrayed him, so he only felt comfortable calling in a few people he thought he could trust.
Bowser looked down the table. To his right sat Kamek, his top magician and closest advisor, who's advice he hardly ever utilized. To the right of Kamek sat Kammy(1), his other top magician; he rarely listened to her advice either. Farther down on the other side of the table sat the Army Hammer Bro.(2), or General Bro., as he was more commonly called these days. Bowser wouldn't really say that General Bro. was one of his most trusted allies, not by any means. However, out of the army commanders, Bowser supposed that the General was his best bet.
On the left side of the table were the seats where his children usually sat. Today though, only Ludwig's seat was occupied. Bowser had been turning it over in his head all night, but eventually he had decided to let Ludwig join the meeting. It wasn't like Ludwig didn't already know what was happening anyway. Bowser had decided to keep Jr. and the other Koopalings out of this though. As he had told Ludwig, he didn't need anymore panicking children on his hands.
Kamek had questioned this decision as well, but after Bowser had angrily barked out "I AM YOUR KING! YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME!" Kamek decided to keep his reservations to himself.
So, that was everyone who Bowser had gathered that day. There were only five of them there. He had considered asking a few others to join, such as one of the Minion Leaders or even the Elite Trio(3), but had ultimately decided against it. None of the Minion Leaders were nearby right now, and the Trio had a bad habit of defecting.
Bowser shook his head to clear his thoughts. This group was good enough.
"Alright, you all know the issue at hand" Bowser spoke up. "Larry Koopa has decided that it's good idea to go do his own evil schemes now. We don't know where he is, but we need to find him and bring him back! Kamek."
"Yes sir" Kamek said. "Me and Kammy have been working all night to try to pinpoint Larry's location."
"And how has that gone?" Bowser asked.
"Well…" Kamek trailed off.
Bowser groaned.
"So, what exactly happened with the kid again" General Bro. asked.
"He projected himself into my workshop and told us he was working on something" Kamek said.
"Something dangerous?" the General asked.
"Well how should we know, he didn't share that much" Kammy said.
"How would you even know what he said, you weren't there" Kamek said, rounding on Kammy.
"Well I would've been there if somebody had thought it a good idea to keep me in the loop on the important things that were happening."
Kamek stiffened arrogantly. "I was following direct orders from Lord Bowser. He didn't ask me to tell you, you old bat!"
"QUIET" Bowser suddenly shouted.
Everyone immediately stopped talking.
"So, here's our current plan" Bowser said. "Kamek and Kammy will continue to track down Larry with their combined magic, though they don't seem to be doing a good job of it right now."
"It really is quite bizarre, your doubtfulness, but we can't seem to find Larry anywhere" Kamek said. "It's as if Larry is being hidden from us."
"Though it probably doesn't help that Kamek is hogging all the magical instruments" Kammy snapped. "If he let me have them, I bet I could have found Larry already."
Kamek turned. "How dare you to suggest-"
"Would you two just cut that out!" Bowser growled. Once Kamek and and Kammy had once again quit their arguing, Bowser continued. "After Kamek and Kammy eventually do their job correctly and find where Larry is," (He glared at the two magikoopa) "General Bro., due to a lack of any better options, will lead a small team out to get Larry back."
"The little snot is making me do a lot of chores" General Bro. muttered.
"Any questions" Bowser asked, choosing to ignore the General's complaints.
After a few moments of silence, Ludwig spoke up.
"Lord Bowser, Instead of General Bro., I could go after Larry" He said.
Bowser frowned. "Absolutely not."
"Sir, just hear me out" Ludwig continued. "Larry is my brozer. I might have a better chance of reasoning vith him zan zee General vould; he might listen to me more. And besides, Larry doesn't have zat many personal troops, ve don't need zee General to lead a large scale assault."
"The Kid's got a point" said General Bro., seemingly antsy to get out of going on trip that he considered to be "chores".
Bowser shot the General an angry look, and leaned back in his large chair. In truth, he knew Ludwig had a point. If Larry was acting up for some unknown reason, then he probably would be more willing to listen to his brother than a high ranking military official. Heck, no kid would want to listen to some drill sergeant giving them a lecture!
But there was more to it than that. Ludwig hadn't been the only one to think that Larry seemed weird in the projection, he had noticed it too… well, actually, he hadn't noticed, Kamek had, but that was basically the same thing. Kamek had told him that Larry had looked and sounded weird, and that was on top of the fact that projecting yourself with magic was an extremely weird way to talk to someone. And even he had managed to notice that Larry's manner of speech the previous day had been particularly odd.
Bowser had tried to brush off Kamek's concerns and ignore the old magikoopa, like he usually did, but something about this occasion seemed to prevent him from doing so. And, honestly, as much as he hated to admit this, that call with Larry the previous night had shaken him, badly. It had shaken him so much, that he didn't want any of his other kids to go after Larry until they knew what was going on. Sure, he was the great, tyrannical, powerful King of the Koopa's, but he was also a dad. A dad who wanted his children to be safe.
And yet, he still knew that Ludwig had a better plan than him. So, sighing loudly, he finally nodded his head.
Ludwig looked shocked, and then his face broke into a grin.
"Zank you" He said happily.
"Yeah yeah, what ever" Bowser grumbled. "Just do a good job out there, alright. Meeting dismissed."
Ludwig almost immediately left the table, faster than he normally would have been. He's probably worried I'm going to change my mind, Bowser thought. Across the table, General Bro. let out a breath of relief. Bowser smirked; he was probably worried that I was going to change my mind too.
"Lord Bowser, are you sure that sending Master Ludwig is the best idea" Kammy asked, concern etched on her features. Kamek had at least bothered to tell her about what had happened on Larry's call, and she too was unnerved by the incident.
"He'll be fine" Bowser said.
After all, Ludwig couldn't even leave until Kamek and Kammy pinpointed Larry's location. Besides, even when he did leave, he was only going on a mission to find his brother. And the brothers, despite all of their arguing, would never truly hurt each other… right?
"So, just so I'm absolutely, completely clear on what happened, the Mario Brothers and the Princess were here last night, and were beaten up by a wiggler, a goomba, a koopa, and some shadow thing" Yvan said sceptically, staring down the table at the red-shelled koopa who sat across from him.
Yvan, Wolley, and the red-shelled koopa, the same one who had talked to the Heroes the previous night, all sat at a table outside of a small diner. The toad brothers had arrived at the village earlier that morning, and were soon surprised to find that the heroes they had been following were not in the town. They had thought they might of gotten the wrong place, confused the directions on the way or something, but then, as they were asking around, they ran into the red-shelled koopa, who said he had seen the heroes the previous night. The toads and the koopa had grabbed lunch at the diner together, while the koopa explained his story.
Honestly, Yvan still wasn't entirely sure that they had the right place. In what world would the Mario Bros. lose a fight to a goomba?
"I know it sounds strange, believe me, I know" the Koopa was saying. "But I swear that it happened. They arrived in town to have a look around, and then BOOM! The shadows got them as well."
"And this was the same as the shadows that attacked your town the previous night" Wolley asked.
"The very same" said the koopa.
Yvan sighed. "And you're one hundred percent sure that this was who you thought it was, right? It couldn't of just been some other plumbing brothers and a girl in a pink dress?"
Wolley and the Koopa both turned to stare at Yvan.
"Excuse me" the koopa said. "But I think that I can recognize our national heroes when I see them. And our princess as well. They weren't just a bunch of cosplayers if that's what you're suggesting…"
Yvan sat back in his seat, suddenly starting to feel nervous. Maybe he had been a little too spot on when he had said that the shadows sounded dangerous. Wolley too, felt worried. He hadn't really taken the time to actually think about how dangerous this mission could turn out to be. He had mostly just been caught up in the feelings of excitement that came with a fresh new adventure.
Wolley stood up, picking up his and his brothers empty food trays and dumping the scraps into the garbage. Yvan followed after him. If there really was danger, they knew they needed to find the Mario Bros. and the Princess quickly.
"Any chance you might have seen where the shadows ran off too" Wolley asked, turning back to the koopa.
"The shadow just disappeared" the koopa frowned. "But I think the others ran that way."
The koopa pointed out of the canyon, towards the path that lead down to Soda Jungle(4).
The Toad Brothers nodded.
"Thanks for your help" Wolley called to the koopa as they left.
"If we hurry, we might be able to catch up to the kidnappers before they get to the pipe(5)" Yvan said.
The toads took off in a run, hopped up the canyon wall as quickly as they could, and turned back the way they came, towards Soda Jungle.
It was hours later when they finally reached the base of Rock Candy Mines, and the late afternoon sun shone brightly in the sky. Ahead of them a ladder lead down into Soda Jungle, but they were more concerned with what was off to the side. The large, green warp pipe that connected the nearby lands was set firmly into the rocky ground next to them.
"Darn it, no one's here" Yvan groaned.
Wolley, painting slightly from the long run they had just taken, leaned back against the pipe.
"Do you think they went into the jungle, or do you think they took the pipe?" He asked.
Yvan thought for a moment.
"Let's try the pipe first" he said. "That way, we'll get to each land quickly, and we can ask the locals if they saw anyone leave the pipe earlier, or walk by in general."
"And if we do need to come back here, it will be a quick trip" Wolley agreed.
The toads walked over and peered into the pipe. Wolley began adjusting the launch trajectory.
"Okay, where to first" he asked.
"World 1 first, obviously" Yvan said.
"This isn't a video game, Yvan" Wolley laughed.
Never the less, he set the pipe for Acorn Plains(6). The toad brothers hopped in, and were fired out towards the plains.
(1): Kammy Koopa is a magikoopa and a high ranking member of the Koopa Troop, who appeared in Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. For the most part I go by what Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam says, and I, for basically every other example except for this, consider most of the Paper characters as just in the Paper Dimension. For some reason, though, I've always just sort of envisioned Kammy existing in both worlds, so, here we are.\_(ツ)_/
(2): Army Hammer Bros. is a major antagonist in Super Princess Peach. According to the glossary in the game, he is "The Hammer Bros. leader". This is why I decided to shorten his name to General Bro., because typing Army Hammer Bro. every time was a bit of a hassle.
(3): By one of the minion leaders, I am referring to any of the characters who are some sort of king or ruler among the minion characters (e.g. Goomboss, Whomp King,). The Elite Trio is a group of characters in the Mario & Luigi series, composed of Corporal Paraplonk, Sergeant Guy, and Private Goomp.
(4): Soda Jungle is the fifth world in New Super Mario Bros. U.
(5): The pipe that is unlocked after beating New Super Mario Bros. U. It allows you to launch yourself from one world to another for fast travel.
(6): Acorn Plains is the first world in New Super Mario Bros. U.
Alright, that is that. I can't honestly guarantee any specific dates for the next chapters, but I can say that Chapter 8 and 9 will be coming out this month. I am also planing on doing a Mario story for Halloween. I don't know when exactly that will come out, but it is happening.
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next time!
