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Jeshi: Well, on to the next chapter, and now for Larry to do the disclaimer because I've got nothing else to say at this time! ^-^

Larry: Jeshi doesn't own anything from Mario..

Jeshi: ^-^ Yes, exactly.
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The next day came around, and Melinda had come to see them again in the early morning. After the sleep had exited everyone finally, they began to move anything that Melinda had in possession into the castle. For the time being, she had a temporary bedroom of her own in the castle where she would sleep until after she and Bowser were married, of course.

She had boxes of many things. There were goofy looking shoes, many books and a few things of jewellery. One of which had been a little gold pendant that hung on a chain. Of course it would not really amaze the male koopalings, but you forget that there was Wendy there also. She had stared at this certain pendant for quite some time, never taking her eyes off of it. It was as though she was in some sort of trance, because no one could get her attention. It was not until Morton came and snatched it out of her hands that she actually paid attention to what was going on around her. They put the pendant back in the box that they had been snooping in, and hurried along, helping taking other boxes of different sizes down the one corridor to Melinda's temporary room.

After everything had been finally transferred, Melinda decided to spend time with the koopalings. She said she wanted to get to know them. She sat around with Bowser and watched them chase chain chomps around, steal troopa shells and kick them about, and purposely launch bullet bills at sumo brothers for the sheer hell of it.

They pushed goombas into lava pits and laughed hysterically. Melinda laughed too, then sighed watching them.

"I will try to be the best mother there is for your children, Bowser," she said to him.

"That is nice, I'm not always here so I never know what they are doing or anything. Usually I just have Kamek look out for them," he replied, watching Larry throw fishbones to the piranha plants. Morton then slowly approached Melinda and Bowser.

"Do you want to hear something I thought up?" he asked, supposedly "shy."

Bowser gave him a stern gaze and shook his head.

"Morton…NO…" he answered. Melinda held on to Bowser's arm and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Oh Bowser, just let him. I bet it will be darling," she said. Morton gave a sarcastically sweet smile, while Bowser widened his eyes slightly at Melinda.

"Are you serious?" he asked her. She nodded and then turned to Morton and said, "Go ahead, dear."

Morton's eyes brightened. They really wanted to listen?! He was so happy he was ready to jump around screaming. But there was no time for that, because they wanted to listen to the very important things that he had to say. ( a/n: Ain't that cute? Lol )

"Well, the topic I have picked for today is the sky. Why is it blue? Why not pink, or purple, or orange? Some say it is because it reflects from the ocean's colour of water, which is blue. But then you ask…why is the water in the ocean blue?! Why not pink or purple, or even orange? And then some say that it is because it is the ocean that reflects its colour from the sky. So why are either of them blue? Why not a pink, a purple or an orange? Do they reflect from each other, is it some kind of supernatural conspiracy? And when I say 'supernatural' I mean how is it really possible for us to make it blue? We don't have a giant crayon anywhere or anything. But then again, a marker might work, or a giant paint brush…" Morton started. ( a/n: Yes, that was him just STARTING his little… speech thingy.. Lol ) And then you all know what happened next …sorta, don't you? Well, if you guessed that it would start raining men, you are horribly horribly wrong. As for those who guessed that Morton kept talking… uh… you don't win anything. And why? Because the author is that mean. ( a/n: Thhhhaaat's ME! ^-^ Me me me!! Lol )

It was long into the night when they all decided to go to bed. Melinda followed each koopaling to their bedrooms and looked around inside them, to observe every unique room. She was very interested in them, and tried to memorize how every square inch of the rooms looked like, from top to bottom, left to right, ceiling, floor… everything. She had said goodnight to all the younger ones as she left their bedrooms, and then she ran into Ludwig, who was just creeping off to his room himself.

" Off to bed now, Ludwig?" she asked him sweetly. He silently nodded, and returned to walking towards the door to his bedroom.

" Tired?" she asked him again. He stopped and looked at her, staring at her with bored-looking eyes.

" No. And I'm not going to bed either, sorry to lie," he started, " I'm off to my room where I shall isolate myself as I always do in the darkness. The only light shall be my candles, shining barely enough light to see in my room, where I will be busily working on my creations."

Melinda blinked at Ludwig. She stuttered and laughed nervously. She stared more at the peculiar koopa boy, who just kept staring at her with that bored expression on his face. He smiled weakly and sarcastically, as if to lighten the mood in a joking manner. She laughed and then pet him on the head.

" Oh, isn't that cute.." she said, "you… are… such a charming young man, Ludwig. Indeed you are." She seemed to be having trouble finding words to say to him at that time, and Ludwig swore he felt her claws actually dig in his scalp. He was not sure if she was just nervous or not, but he was not going to worry about it at this time. She just needed to get used to the castle, it was only her first night there. Ludwig made the smile appear on his face more sincere.

" Indeed, ma'am," he said politely. She nodded, with a smile on her face, but it looked as though she was forcing it to stay there. But maybe it was just Ludwig's imagination, right? ( a/n: O-O …wow… lol ) But then again, Ludwig never really used an 'imagination'.. he needed another word for it. Maybe he was hallucinating? Or maybe it was his imagination, but only more like an intellectual imagination. Not that imagination that the parents of preschooler children talk about, such as these 'imaginary friends' or so they were called. He had no need for them. No, his imagination was more like the 'futuristic vision' like the Science Fiction writers had. He had the imagination to think up such wonderful inventions, and with his complex mind he was able to create them.

Melinda took her hand off of him and waited for him to start moving again. But he didn't. He just stood there, staring up at her. She then raised an eyebrow.

" Aren't you going off to your room now, Ludwig?" she asked him. He stood there, and still stared at her.

" Yes, are you?" he asked her. She widened her eyes slightly at this comment. At the sight of this, Ludwig lowered his voice, " sorry, ma'am.. I'm just.. Not really comfortable with the fact that someone is in my bedroom and looking around. Though you mean nothing by it, even my own father is not allowed inside. Even if I was sick I would not allow anyone in there. I hope you are not offended." She continued to stare at him blankly, then smiled at him again with that forced looking smile.

" Yes… Yes, Ludwig I understand," she replied. She then turned and left down the hallway in a hurried manner. Ludwig watched her go. She seemed to be slightly… upset? Or mad? What had he done to get her mad? He had hoped that maybe she did not take that the wrong way in any way. And why should she have? He had even told her he had meant no offence by it. He then sighed and turned to the dark wooden door. He opened it up and entered his dark room, and closed it shut again, and shut it would stay all night long.

As for Melinda, she hurried down to her own new room for her first night there. She was so excited, she was going to get married, she loved Bowser, she loved this castle and everything about it. Her, as the wife of the king of the koopas, her, the queen of the koopas, by Bowser's side. She could hardly wait. She even liked the underlings that ran about the castle. She decided it would be beautiful to live here forever with him, and she smiled widely when she thought about it.

On her way down another hallway, she noticed that there were portraits on the walls. She found one of Bowser, quite a few of them actually. She smiled when she saw the portraits of him, and followed them, examining every one of them. She had even ran into one of someone named "Morton"… she had remembered a while ago, about Bowser speaking of someone named Morton before. It was not his son though. This koopa actually looked quite older, and as sinister looking as her beloved Bowser himself. She continued following the corridor of portraits and other odd paintings, still smiling.

But it was not long until her smile faded from her face, and the light and happy feeling inside of her fluttered away. She ran into another portrait.. A few actually. There was one of Wendy, another of Lemmy.. There was one for all seven of them. Her smile had fallen so much into a frown that she was surprised that her face did not sag to the floor. She pursed her lips tightly and continued following them. She reached the end of the great hallway where there was one last portrait, two of them. In the first was the seven koopalings together, the last was the seven of them with their father. Just the look of Bowser made her slightly happier again, but she narrowed her eyes after a few seconds longer of staring at the picture. Everything here was perfect for her, but she had only one problem..

Seven problems, actually..

The koopalings. They were the only things standing in her way. She loved Bowser dearly, but she just did not like his children. She did not like children at all actually. The only children she'd ever want would be her own, and these children were not her own, that and she did not even like children in general. She just wanted them out of the way for after they were married. But what was she to do? She really did not want to hurt Bowser, but if the children were gone, he might be upset. Should she send the children to a boarding school or something? But whatever she did, she didn't want them around. Unless…

Unless she had made it seem as though the children had mysteriously disappeared? Like an accident? If she could just get rid of them somehow, and keep Bowser's mind off of them, she would never have to worry about them. But there were seven of them. That was quite a bit to get rid of. And quite challenging too, she would have to think of a lot of excuses as to how each of them 'left' or 'disappeared' somehow.

She did not want to think about it anymore. She shrugged it off as much as she could, and ventured back to her own room. She crawled into bed and went to sleep, or at least tried to. She couldn't get these 'problems' off her mind. In the end, the thought of her having Bowser all to herself was enough to get her to finally fall asleep and get some rest.

The next day, Melinda kept as close as possible to Bowser as she could. She didn't want to have his children near him, and if they were, she tried to get them to leave in some way or another. Whether she told them that she needed to talk to Bowser about something really important and that they had to leave, or she gave them something to do, such as chase bob-ombs around for no apparent reason. ( She was surprised that that excuse had even worked about three times that day )

No, that did not mean that she exactly had gotten away with it without anyone noticing, ( well, Bowser did not notice ) the koopalings had wondered what was going on with her. Iggy assumed that maybe they just wanted to be alone together to get ready for the wedding. Roy just mumbled and kicked anything in his way, and Wendy seemed to be in a much more cheerful mood than usual. But Lemmy had been the one to question as to what Melinda was really doing. Of course the other little siblings would not know what he was talking about, so he turned to the only other one who would listen and give him the most accurate answer possible. He turned to Ludwig of course.

Lemmy had found Ludwig searching through chests in a giant spare room somewhere. He was in the process of looking for something, apparently for another invention no doubt. He suddenly straightened up and turned around to face Lemmy when he heard him walk in through the doorway. Before Lemmy could say anything, Ludwig cut in on him.

" Do you happen to know what an electro-magnetic safely metallic-based corkscrew is?" Ludwig asked him.

Lemmy blinked at Ludwig. Ludwig sighed at him and said, "It is a special-like screw driver that is a phallic shape." Lemmy yet again, blinked, and tilted his confused head to the side. Ludwig looked down at the ground, sighed and shook his head.

"Let's put it into terms that you will understand…it looks like some sort of missile , or a Bullet Bill you could say?" he then said. Lemmy just stared at Ludwig, before yet again blinking. Ludwig stared at him, waiting for an answer. Lemmy stared back at him. The two of them stared at each other for a long time. After the two of them stared at each other long enough (so long that their eyes had actually gotten a super dry feeling ), Lemmy took a breath.

" Anyway," he said, changing the subject, " have you noticed something different about Melinda?" Ludwig continued staring at him, and then after another silent minute, he blinked.

" We only met the woman the other night, Lemmy," he answered, " you already expect us to notice a change in her behaviour?"

Lemmy shook his head, " No, but I mean, even for the short time that we've known her, she just seems to be acting… um.. Strange… " he said. Ludwig sighed.

" Well, indeed she might be acting strange for quite a while, Lemmy. Because getting married is not exactly a 'we will get this done and we are over with it, it is no big deal' kind of thing. Getting married means that you are going to respect, live with and love the other that you are planning on marrying. It is a very big issue indeed. That and she still must get used to living in here in the castle, especially with us, for she has no children of her own; and there are seven of us! And if you ask me, sometimes we are a handful ourselves, whether we realise it or not," Ludwig answered. Lemmy nodded to show that he understood.

" Is that all you wanted, Lemmy?" Ludwig asked him. Lemmy nodded again. Then Ludwig asked, " And have you seen an electro-magnetic safely metallic-based corkscrew?" Lemmy's eyes went wide when he heard this again.

" An electra-metal magnatic what?!" Lemmy stuttered, "what is that?! " A devilish grin crept on Ludwig's face.

" There is no such thing!" Ludwig said. Lemmy stared at him blankly and completely bewildered. Ludwig shook his head, still with the grin on his face.

" No, actually what I am really looking for is a screw driver. You see how gullible you all are though? I can just throw words together and you will never know what on Earth I am talking about!" he said. He then turned and started digging through the chests again. ( a/n: ^-^ …I won't say anything… O-O… too late.. Lol )

" What are you making this time? " Lemmy asked him. Ludwig stopped and glanced up at Lemmy and said, " I thought you were finished with your questions.." Lemmy rolled his eyes and asked him again what he was up to.

" It is a hypnotism reverse thing. It has not been given a proper name as of yet," Ludwig answered.

" Ohhh… so kind of like a.. um… un-hypnotism thingy?" Lemmy then asked. Ludwig nodded, and resumed his digging. Another second later, he had emerged from the chests with a screw driver in his hand. He rolled it around in his fingers, inspecting it.

" Hmmm… it's not exactly a flat-head that I was hoping for, but it shall do," he said, still looking it over.

" What do you need a de-hypno-thing-a-ma-bob for anyway?" Lemmy asked then, tilting his head to the side again. Ludwig looked back up at him when he was finally satisfied with the look of the tool in his hands.

" I always thought that… it might come to be useful some day.." he said as he strolled out of the room, twirling the screw driver with his fingers. But Lemmy still had his doubts.

" Hmph… I'll show you, Ludwig," Lemmy muttered to himself with a grin. Lemmy felt like he already had figured this out, even before his smarter older brother. And he was going to prove it too.

Lemmy had taken off to his own bedroom, where he remained in there for some hours, thinking of what to do. He was sure that something was not right. He had already noticed how she clung to their dad, and whenever they wanted to speak to him, she gave an excuse of some sort to make them leave. Why was she doing this? He was sure that it was not just because she wanted to spend time with him, because if that was true, she would have at least let them see their father every now and then even just to talk to him. He was not really sure, but he was bound to find out.

It was later that Lemmy emerged from his bedroom, with an idea finally. He climbed up a set of dark stoned stairs. He waited and checked to make sure that no one was around, then as soon as a koopa troopa walked by him, he shoved it down the stairs, and followed it close behind. With every thud he yelled, "Ow! Ow!!" Once the troopa had hit the landing, he quickly shoved him to the side, sat down and grabbed hold of his leg.

" AHHH!!" He yelled in 'pain'. The first ones to appear inside the room, answering his call was Morton and Iggy. Iggy's eyes went wide as soon as he saw Lemmy sitting there, holding onto his 'wounded' leg.

" Lemmy!!" He cried, "what happened to you?!" He ran towards him to see if he was okay.

" I fell down the stairs… and I can't move my leg," Lemmy answered, wincing. Morton ran a few circles around them.

" And he is DOWN again!! This guy must be super accident prone, he never seems to keep out of an injury, it really is AMAZING, ladies and gentlemen!!" he cried as he ran out of the room, " oh Daaaaaaddd!! Your poor dying son has yet again, another injury, I'm sorry he may not make it through the night, he has severe head trauma!"

Lemmy suddenly glared at Morton and yelled, "You idiot!! I'm not dying!!!" But Morton apparently had not heard. He kept running down the hall, yelling and screaming about how Lemmy had also mysteriously picked up Leukemia in a matter of thirty seconds.

Iggy sat with Lemmy, and after five minutes approximately of Lemmy pretending to be in pain, and saying "Ow ow ow" over and over again, the other siblings had peeked into the room. Wendy only peeked her head over the side of the wall with a cloth over her nose and mouth.

" Morton said you had the cold, Lemmy," she said. Roy ran into the room and dropped a plastic spider on Lemmy. Lemmy stared blankly at it, then looked up at Roy, who was ready to start laughing. Iggy looked confused also.

" Uhh… Roy? What are you doing?" He asked him. Roy suddenly stomped his foot in rage.

" Stupid Morton!! You said that Lemmy was Arachnophobic!!" he yelled. Lemmy shook his head.

" WHAT?! Why were you guys listening to Morton-" Lemmy started. But before he could carry on, Larry had come running into the room, panicked.

" Morton just said that Lemmy had Schizophrenia!!!" He yelled. Lemmy stared at Larry too.

" No, I-"

" What is this about Lemmy having Breast Cancer?" Ludwig raised an eyebrow as he stepped into the room. Before anyone could answer, they all heard the roaring voice of Bowser.

" WHAT?!? LEMMY HAD A HEART ATTACK!?!?!?" Everyone stood around, shocked. Bowser stormed in the room, and looked around at everyone, and down at the still alive and conscious Lemmy. They all stared at the shocked look on Bowser's face, he even had a vein that was visible on top of his forehead. His eye twitched when he saw Lemmy still alive and well though. He turned to Morton, who was now standing in the doorway, smiling nervously at everyone who was now giving him dirty looks.

" Morton… WHAT is this all about?" Bowser demanded. Melinda had walked up and put her hand on Bowser's shoulder.

" Um… well… bye! And he is off! He's gone, he's outta here!!" Morton answered, and took off running again. Roy stormed after him.

" GET BACK HERE, YA LITTLE FREAK!!" he screamed after him. After Roy and Morton were gone ( a/n: Run, Morton, run!! Lol ^-^ ) everyone had directed their attention back to Lemmy, who was now sitting quite comfortably with his hands on his leg. He quickly noticed that he was being watched, and went back to the whole 'ow ow' thing.

" So… what happened?" Bowser asked.

" I fell down the stairs, Dad," answered Lemmy. Iggy inspected Lemmy's leg, and said to Bowser, " And he says he can't move it.." Lemmy nodded, agreeing with Iggy. Bowser looked over at them gravely, then stepped forward and picked up Lemmy. He walked down the corridors and took him to his room where he laid him down on his bed.

While Bowser was carrying Lemmy, he looked over his dad's shoulder to see Melinda standing there watching them with a very stern look on her face. Almost as if she was mad at Lemmy. He did not show it physically, but mentally inside him, he had a big smile on his face. He had succeeded in annoying her, obviously. Bowser had checked his leg carefully, without saying anything. After he observed Lemmy's 'injured' leg, he looked up at him.

" There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it, Lemmy," he said, " you might have just sprained it, or it's just sore. But stay off it for a bit." He then turned and left the room.

As soon as he was sure that his dad was gone, he sat up and laughed.

It had not been very long after he sat up, that his door opened a crack, and inside stepped Ludwig. Lemmy stopped laughing abruptly and stared at Ludwig as he crept into the room, and silently shut the door.

" Hmph. I knew you must have been faking it," Ludwig said with a smug look on his face, " and you seemed to have gotten Melinda pretty angry." Lemmy smiled.

" Yeah, well. She has been trying to keep us away from Dad all day, and I thought that she was maybe up to something. I told you," Lemmy answered. Ludwig turned and headed for the door.

" I never did say that I doubted you, did I, Lemmy?" he said as he exited the room, shutting the door gently behind him. Lemmy flopped backwards on his bed, let out a laugh, and then decided to sleep away the rest of the day.

As for Melinda, she was pissed. Bowser was still worrying slightly about Lemmy and the accident he had. He had not even noticed that she was standing there, he had not even acknowledged her. She could not believe that after she had spent the whole day with him, and sending the children off to do other things, she had him to herself all day, but yet in the end, the children got him to pay attention to them, rather than her. It had been enough to drive her nuts.

She was now at the point that she'd do anything just to have Bowser, do anything just to get rid of the koopalings. But how would she do it? She stomped around the castle for almost most of the day. It was later in the night and she was still marching about, talking to herself.

" Those little brats," she said to herself, " what am I going to do about them?!"

Just to find the words to describe it all, she could not find them. A thought then crossed her mind… what if she just killed them somehow? It was a little drastic, dastardly at that, and she seemed to like it.

" I have to get rid of those horrible children," she spoke aloud again. She stopped and stared up at the ceiling, then walked down her own hallway, only to find the portraits again. She found the one with Bowser and all seven of the koopalings.

She hated it. The more she looked at that particular portrait, she could feel a deep hatred inside her. Why? She never knew. She did not like it, but she did not like the idea of having any children around when she got married either. She then decided then and there, no matter what, she was going to do what ever she could to get rid of them. If it hurt Bowser then let it, because she was a good liar, she could play along, and then direct his attention to something else instead of his children. By the time she was finished, he will have forgotten that he even had children in the first place.

" I WILL get rid of them," she said, smiling. She then turned on her heels and began another walk in the castle, a little sort of spring in her step.

" I do not care what I will have to do to do it, but I will be rid of them.." That is right, it would just be Bowser and her, the king and almost queen of the koopas, only them. No children, not now… not ever.

" Ha, no more children, never! I will get rid of the little brats, and no one will ever know-" she said as she turned the corner, and there, standing in front of her by his bedroom door was none other than Ludwig.

She froze when she saw him. Had he been listening?! Had he heard what she had just said? She stood there, staring, completely shocked and not knowing what to do or what to say to him. He stood there also, staring back at her, with those boring eyes of his. They seemed to be digging their way into her own eyes, as if he was reading her mind or something.

There was an eerie silence between the two of them. Melinda looked absolutely stunned, while Ludwig looked bored. Either way, they continued just staring, as if they were waiting for the other to start moving somehow. Eventually, Ludwig just nodded his head to hers lightly, completely expression-less and entered his room for the night. Melinda stood there for a few minutes, not sure what to do. Even now that he was gone, she was not sure. Had he really heard? What if he knew?

The chances are that he probably knew. The boy was smart. Very smart, a little TOO smart. At least, that is what she thought. He was a little too smart for his own good.

She finally grinned widely. He DID know, didn't he? He knew, in other words, he knew too much. She shook her head, thinking on how dreadful it was to waste such a brain. If only he had not been there at the time he was. And why?

Melinda decided that Ludwig would be the first to go.

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Jeshi: Yay!! Chapter 2 is finished!! And yet again, it took me almost a week to write! Lol

Larry: O_O Wow..your chapters are long..lol

Jeshi: ^-^ Yeppers, *glares at Kaira-chan* _ And quit lying, Kaira-chan, it was NOT because of you that my chapters are long. I just want to make my story long, it's a GOAL, unlike YOU, who never MAKES any!! =P Well, at least meaningful ones…lol XD Oooh, who's been burned? LOL!!

Larry: O_O…You told me that you wanted to make your chapters long a long time ago..

Jeshi: ^-^ Yeppers, I wanted to write longer chapters, because mine were always like…1000 words long… maybe even less…I wanted to write longer a LONG time ago!! Lol
Larry: @_@ And now you are..

Jeshi: ^-^ Yeppers, anyways…reviews people, I SO hope to have the 3rd chapter up sooooooon! Lol
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