Well, well, well! All it takes is one decent review to get me rolling again! I hope you enjoy this chapter, cause it's all you're getting!


Chapter 35: Family Matters


Bowser snorted, glancing out the window at the sharp, piercing dusk, waiting for something, anything, to happen. The guards all moved about somewhat lazily through their shifts, even though the castle was to be more tightly guarded than before the incident not but. . . what was it now? Maybe a week ago. Bowser didn't care much for the time, as it wasn't all tactically necessary to know it. The strange group of mismatched travelers that should not exist, who went out for a few days only to bring back much more mismatched travelers that should exist even less than them, were not demanding of any luxury that Bowser would allow for himself. As a matter of fact, Bowser was not demanding of any luxury that Bowser would allow for himself.

That was the reason why the castle was locked down so tightly. The worlds were almost torn apart by the incident, as it was recently discovered by his scouts, and the southern and eastern border of Darkland, or more accurately, the southern and eastern provinces of Darkland, were entirely missing. The east was discovered to be more north, and there was a jungle that boomed into the place of where it was. The Mushroom Kingdom itself was still indeed on the other side, but the same could not be said of the rest of the Worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom.

As for the rest of the borders, the south was yet to be found, and was replaced by the area known as Kanto, which was ironic in that it meant 'East'. The west was there, but not much beyond it, as the forest that should have eventually given way to Land's End and Bean Valley, did not, in fact, end at all. A rocky coastline sprung up from nowhere, which led to no place in particular, but was indeed very disturbing as it was almost constantly overshadowed by a thick, dark, purple could. A little farther south was indeed still Sky World, or at least the sky of it.

It was mentioned by a scout that there was an odd phenomena out there; a circle of houses that seemed to indicate no logical bearing on why they were there in the first place. Everybody ignored the scout.

The north, on the other hand, was the real problem. The Koopa Army had their hands almost completely full when it was discovered that it took quite a bit of firepower to kill on of those. . . as Robert called them, Metriods. Some of the men did know what they were, for they had played the popular NES game before their console was confiscated by an act of King Bowser. Just the other day, Bowser repealed the act, by request and dire pleading of the dinosaur-like brat Charlie, who really didn't seem to mind doing anything for anyone.

Bowser looked out the north glassless window again, wondering. There was a small section of the north province missing, but it was very small and hardly worth mentioning. Except. . . Baby Bowser had been there for three days when everything begun. . .

"LORD BOWSER!" painfully shouted one of the foot soldiers who marched into the room.

"At ease! No need to shout. . ."

"Luigi has been spotted approaching from the east."

"Luigi. . ." Bowser's face fell into a very obvious look of shock, but wasn't apparent since he was facing the far window. "Do you know his intentions?"

"Only that the Elite Guard was sketching excruciating preparations out until they remembered that they were sided by the mysterious group who. . ."

"Get to the point."

"No, sir."

"Alright. Get the meeting preparations ready. All the bell and whistles."

"Sire?"

"Just do it!"

"Yes, sire." without another word, the trooper moved off out the gigantic double doors.


"Are you sure that this is Bowser's Keep?"

"Of course I'm sure, you nitwit plumber! Lord Bowser himself even now approaches!" The guards at the walls were especially annoyed with Luigi because not only was his memory as rusty as his hearing, but they couldn't kill him because Bowser was too intrigued.

"Just checking! You know where I can find a. . . uh. . ." Luigi looked at his slip of paper again. "J-" He was cut off by the blaring trumpets and was not heard.

"His Highness, King Bowser Koopa, approaches!" A symphony was struck up, playing Bowser's own theme music as he walked up to the banister of the balcony, as multi-colored streamers fluttered down from the heights and light flashed, some sort of smoke poured out of the balcony, and all the guards stood at attention. It was quite a sight to behold.

"Ah, Bowser! I was sent-"

"Silence, plumber." Bowser said flatly. "There's a few things I want to say, first. . ."


"Are they letting us out of the castle yet?" Charlie asked Ben, who was still waiting to go out and help rescue Kirby.

"No. . . security has only gotten tighter since we've been here as well." The pair were in a random huge corridor of the castle, somewhere in the east wing near the kitchens. How they got there was a mystery, as there was enough molten lava in various places all over the castle to cook them all alive in a heartbeat seven thousand times over.

"Bummer." Charlie was wearing the ash gray fleece jacket he had worn oh so long ago. Everyone seemed to be wearing the things they had been, as it was no problem because nobody seemed to develop body odor.

There seemed to be almost no point to the hallway, as it lead directly to a pit of lava on the other side, and back a ways were the kitchens. There was one flanking door, to some shower rooms. Jenna was in there, and no telling why she chose this wing of all of them to get her bathing done. Though there was obviously no such thing as body odor anymore, she insisted on showering at least three times a day. She was a real stickler for looking her best. For Skye, most likely, as Ben thought.

A shower cut off, and maybe a minute later, Jenna stepped out of the shower room. She still wore her sweat gear from when she got here, obviously, and her pokéball necklace. She most likely wore that thing in the shower with her, Ben reflected.

"There you are." Ben said to his friend. He only really knew her before all of this because she was Robert's brother, and even then he never liked her all that much, but he was courteous to her, as he tried to be with everyone, "Luigi appeared at the front gates about forty minutes ago."

"Really?" Jenna asked, "He's like, really here?"

"Yeah, and Bowser is giving him the beat down. . ."

"What on earth for?" Though she was an out and out Pokémon fanatic, she was still partial to the Mario game series because her brother played them all the time, "I'm pretty sure you heard what we said Ken said in the clearing a few days back. . . about Luigi living in solitude for the last who knows how long. . ."

"Apparently Bowser didn't." Charlie butted in, "I heard him up there a while ago, and I really don't know what he was talking about. It was all boring. Luigi kept trying to say something. . ."

"I'll need to go see. . ." Jenna said, "Just to satisfy my curiosity. . ." She acted distant, as though she knew something, or was eager to see one of her favorite heroes in person or otherwise.

Charlie and Ben watched her walk off. "Ben," Charlie asked him, "I have a question."

"Shoot."

"Why isn't Jenna wet?"

Suddenly, Skye walked out of the shower room. "Oh. . . how long have you two been standing there?" He asked a bit too defensively.

Charlie and Ben just stared at him.

"What?"

Stare.

"Did Jenna come by here? You saw her. . ."

Stare.

"No. No no no no no. . . You don't. . . I mean. . . You don't think. . . do you?"

Stare.

"Nothing happened. N-nothing. Stop staring at me."

Stare.

"Stop it! I mean it! Nothing happened! What do you want from me?"

STARE.

"You're scaring me! Go away!" Skye reeled back, then took off down the hall in a random direction.


Jenna slowly approached the balcony of the third floor, where Bowser was making his speech, as it was told to her by several of the guardsmen who just passed by.

"This block is closed off." One said at an area quite close to the boundary.

"Can I watch from anywhere else?"

"Anywhere but this block, I suppose."

"Yeah," The other guard said, "And try not to interrupt. Bowser gets carried away with these kinds of things. He's been going at it for more than an hour now."

Jenna, meanwhile, drifted away a bit, then climbed the stairs that were on her immediate left, all the way up the gate tower. The ascent was uneventful, but when she reached the top, no one was there, so she stucke her head out the window to see what was, in fact, going on.

". . . you realize, plumber, that you are still trespassing on my territory, don't you?" Bowser said, as though he was still ready to argue the slightest point and be done, and order his guard to kill Luigi at his command, but he didn't.

"I just had a message from this bow with a sword. . ."

"Are you listening to me?!"

Boy with a sword. . . PHIL! Jenna yelled in her head. She earnestly wanted to talk with Luigi now, about everything, how he met Phil, what he was doing, if he missed her at all. . . But she didn't want to anger Bowser.

"Forget Bowser. . ." she whispered to herself, "I need to talk with Luigi even if it kills me. . ." Jenna quickly scanned the room for something to amplify her voice. A very convenient megaphone hung on a rack right by the door. . .


"I grow tired of you, Luigi. Do you have anything worthwhile to say?" Bowser boomed as he was possibly and finally drawing his speech to a close.

"Well, I was trying to tell you that I'm. . ."

"Silence!" Bowser boomed, but was overshadowed by an even louder echo.

"LUIGI!" Jenna yelled from the top of the castle with all her might into the megaphone. "I'm Phil's girlfriend! What did he want? Is he alright? Did he hurt you?"

"Shut up!" Bowser tried to yell at her, "This is my speech!"

"Screw it, Bowser!" Jenna yelled defiantly down to him, and then suddenly jumped the six stories down to his balcony without so much as flinching at the bottom, "Let him in!"

"May I remind you, rat girl, this is my castle, and what I say, goes!"

"You need us, remember?" Jenna backed up a few steps toward the edge, "You want everything to go back to normal, don't you?" She leaped onto the rail with the greatest sheer balance ever witnesses by most of the guardsmen, even outdoing Mario. Jenna stood up straight and spread her arms out. "I'd rather die than never hear from Phil again."

"You wouldn't jump. I've been watching you. You're too wrapped up in that 'Skye' kid to ever think about leaving him. You're bluffing."

Jenna stood there with a look of grim determination on her face.

"Leave my sister's personal life out of this." Robert suddenly appeared behind Bowser. "I very much believe her. If she falls, you die."

"Ha! You, kill me? You may be strong for a koopa, but you still couldn't stand against me in one on one, Robert. Now shall I demote you first for defying me openly or for invading in on my speech?"

"Touch my children and face me." Trent came up from out of the shadows, "Jenna, come down. Robert, step back. I can do this."

"Get'em, Dad. . ." Robert said, backing up slowly.

"Be careful!" Jenna said, climbing off the rail and edging around the balcony.

"What's this?" Bowser remarked, "So you're fighting me. You honestly think you can stand up to the great King Koopa?"

"Unlike you. . ." Trent quickly knocked him flat in a half second by delivering a powerful flying kick to his chest, also chunking a huge hole in the floor of the balcony, with shards of shrapnel flying everywhere, "I have someone to fight for." He rose his claws to Bowser's throat. "Let Luigi in the gates. Open them!"

"I can call my guards to shoot you now." Bowser tried to move his arms, but he was completely pinned by Trent.

"You think you can scare me?" Trent screamed at his opponent, "Those are my kids and I'M NOT LOSING THEM AGAIN!"

Bowser was terrified. This man looked as though he would fight off his entire army single-handedly, and could.

"Alright. . ." Bowser choked as Trent's claws got closer to his throat. "Open the gates!"

The guards, who were almost mystified by how the strange creature could defeat their leader so easily, lowered their spears and bows from the fight stance. The gates clanged open.

"Thanks, Daddy!" Jenna said as she embraced her father, who just got off of Bowser, "You're the greatest!"

"It's nothing, honey." Trent hugged back, "Now go see Luigi. You wanted to talk to him, after all."

Jenna kissed her dad on the cheek, and then ran off. Trent followed her, but much more slowly, and smiled to his son who was standing on the side.

Bowser was still amazed by what just happened. That was why his mouth was hanging limply open, or it was the severe concussion to his head. He remained in the hospital ward for the next forty eight hours.



Did you enjoy it? Of course you did! If you didn't like this story, you wouldn't have bothered to read this far, unless you were planning on MSTing it, which I highly doubt.