Chapter eight at last! I'm sorry for the delay.
Oh, and I changed my mind about when I'm going to give away the plot.
I'm going to give it away in Chapter 11, instead of 8, 9 or 10.
I don't own anything. Thanks for the review, Vilmary (I was getting lonely).
Read on!
"Roy? Ludwig? Iggy?" Bowser asked loudly. He didn't seem angry, but he sure looked suspicious at how things were looking. "What's going on?"
None of them answered. Roy didn't answer because he felt that if he didn'ttalk, he would get into less trouble. Ludwig was trying to answer, but he couldn't get the words out. Iggy was also about to answer, but decided to pretend he didn't exist instead.
"Answer me," Bowser commanded while stomping his foot on the floor.
"Uh—uh—" Ludwig was completely stammering. He was so shocked by his father's surprise visit that he couldn't explain himself.
"Roy was—was—" Iggy began, but couldn't think of anything.
"Going to the bathroom!" Ludwig blurted out. "Yes, and we were unlocking the cage door for him so he could… you know."
"Quit toying with me, Ludwig," Bowser answered disgustedly. Ludwig's jaw flopped down lifelessly. He could not believe his father ever saying that to him.
"What—what do you mean?" Ludwig hesitated.
"I know all about your little games," he spat at his eldest son. Then, he turned to Roy. "And as for you, you can consider yourself busted."
Like Ludwig, Roy was completely astonished at this remark. However, Ludwig had already recovered, and was now indignant.
"Please don't tell me that you figured everything out all by yourself," Ludwig told his dad while crossing his arms.
"I—well, I—" Bowser had nothing to say. Ludwig had a triumphant smirk on his face. "All right, FINE! It wasn't me who figured all that out. I had some help."
"From who?" Roy snapped immediately.
"Larry," Bowser answered. "He spied on you all the way from the beginning. Of course, he never told me. I had a little talk with him, and he spilled the beans. And Ludwig, please turn off Roy's hologram, it's useless now."
Ludwig, although scornful with his father, pressed a button and shut off Roy's holographic clone obediently.
"Now, I've planned all this out," Bowser explained. "Although I would ground both of you for life, I've decided to give you two a chance to explain a little more about your adventures. In fact, we're going to have a bit of a Koopa-Court situation."
"Koopa-Court?" Roy asked him incredulously.
"Yes," Bowser replied. "I'm going to be judge and plaintiff and your brothers and sisters are going to be the jury. And Iggy, get out from behind Ludwig."
Iggy jumped at being addressed, because he had been hiding behind Ludwig in an attempt to make himself invisible.
"Is that clear?" Bowser growled. Ludwig nodded his head regretfully. Roy offered a mere grunt. "Good. I shall see you in the courtroom—the throne room—at eight o'clock sharp. For now, you may go to your rooms and stay there."
Roy crossed his arms, cursed under his breath, and stomped to his room. Ludwig sighed, shook his head, and ambled to his laboratory as well.
"What about you?" Bowser snapped at Iggy.
"Um—" Iggy gave him a blank look. "Am I in trouble?"
Bowser looked at him and shook his head. "No. But this is one strike against you. If I catch you doing something like this again, you're going to spend quite a while in the dungeons."
Iggy gulped.
"Now, go to the throne room with the others," Bowser ordered. Iggy nodded sheepishly and ran towards the throne room as quickly as his little legs could carry him.
Roy was furious. He kicked the wall, threw himself on the bed, and felt his face get red. He was absolutely angry. His stupid younger brother had messed up his plot to get away from the dungeons, even after all that. Surely, he was going to pound on him just as soon as he got the chance.
Roy kept thinking angry thoughts until he couldn't take it any more. He stood up, nabbed a pencil and paper and created a badly drawn picture of Larry. Roy taped it to his punching bag and repeatedly punched it with such force that in a matter of seconds, it was completely shred into pieces.
Ludwig sat on his bed and sighed thoughtfully. He wasn't sure what he was going to do now that he was discovered. Sure, he was likely going to go to the dungeon, but other than that, there wasn't much more to do. He wasn't planning to complete any inventions, and he definitely wasn't thinking of fixing the broken Energy Giving Gear.
Finally, Ludwig remembered. He bolted up from his bed and saw… the egg. He had completely forgotten about it, what with all the commotion. It had grown to roughly twice its size, and was glowing lime green. That was strange. Ludwig stared at the egg, thinking…
In the throne room, the other five siblings were waiting anxiously for the trial to finally start.
"Larry, why did you snitch?" Lemmy scolded his youngest brother. "That wasn't good at all!"
"I know, I know," Larry confessed. "But it wasn't my fault! Dad squeezed me for information!"
"They shouldn't have run away anyway," Wendy answered while arranging her bow. "It was partly their fault, too."
"I can't believe we're finally doing this I mean we've never had Koopa-Court in our entire lives I'm so happy we finally get to have a court simulation in this very house and I'm going to have a lot of fun although this is a serious situation I'm still going to have so much fun! I want Roy and Ludwig to stay out of trouble but I don't think they will because they ran away, escaped, fled, absconded, eloped and ran off! Don't worry about me though I'm a good juror though I may talk a lot and I'll be happy to assist any of you in anything that any of you may want!" Morton blurted out.
"Thank you for the enlightenment, Morton," Lemmy said sarcastically.
"I'm scared," Iggy squealed.
"We know," chorused Wendy and Lemmy.
"Hey guys what time is it? I mean I have no idea what time it is do you guys know? Because I definitely have no idea—"
"It's 7:58, now shut up, Morton!" Wendy shrieked in frustration.
Roy was so angry; his head looked like a crimson tomato. He opened the window to get some air, but before he could, he heard yelling coming from downstairs.
"Roy! Ludwig! Get downstairs, it's judgment time!" he heard his father yell. Roy stamped out of the room, still enraged with Larry, and made his way to the throne room. When he arrived, Ludwig was already there. His five other siblings were lined up in the sidelines, and Bowser in his throne with a mallet in his hand.
"Order!" he shouted while stamping his mallet on a piece of cardboard. "The defendants have now arrived."
Roy and Ludwig sat down on chairs in front of the throne.
"Now, Roy Koopa, you have been accused of escaping from the dungeons despite my warnings," Bowser said while pointing his finger at Roy. Then, he turned to Ludwig. "And you, Ludwig Von Koopa, have been accused of helping him. How do you plead?"
"Guilty," Ludwig muttered.
"Innocent!" Roy blurted out. Ludwig gave him a weird look, but Roy whispered (without letting anyone else hear), "Dad can't be sure that we ran away just because Larry told him."
"Innocent, you say?" Bowser answered, a bit surprised by their claim. "Very well."
King Koopa turned to the jury.
"Do any of you know about their running away?" he asked them. They were all quiet, but they were giving each other looks. "Answer me!"
Morton scratched the back of his head.
"Morton?" Bowser called out.
Morton looked around hesitantly, but composed himself. "I know something, but I have vowed to Ludwig that I would not tell about it. I must keep my promise."
Bowser gave him an angry look. "YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW RIGHT NOW, MORTON KOOPA JR.!"
Morton jumped at this sudden shouting. He gave Ludwig a desperate look. "Um," he gulped.
"NOW!" Bowser emphasized.
"Okay, okay!" Morton gave in. "I saw them by Mario's house, injured and unconscious."
"WHAT?" Bowser exploded. He turned to Roy for an answer "What—how?"
"I accidentally pushed a button, and I ended up in Mario's Pad, so then Ludwig came, and we looked for the pipe to return here, but then we had to get plumbing tools to fix it, and then I fought Mario and at the last minute Ludwig saved the day, and then Morton came out of nowhere and slapped Ludwig back conscious and then we went to the pipe, fixed it, came back here, and went to the dungeons, and then you caught us and made us go back to our rooms, and then we had to go to court in this throne room, and here we are!" Roy blabbed out.
It took Bowser a fairly long time to grasp what he had just heard.
"So you ran away to Mario's house," Bowser said disbelievingly.
"Not exactly," Ludwig answered. "It's hard to explain."
"Silence!" he shouted at Ludwig. Then, he turned back to the jury. "Have any of you seen them with anything suspicious?"
Wendy raised her hand.
"Yes, Wendy?" Bowser asked his daughter.
"I saw an egg in Ludwig's room," she told them. Then, she began to jump up and down. "And the other day, there was an earthquake! And both of them were in Ludwig's room when it happened!"
Bowser's head snapped to Roy. "So you've been hiding out in Ludwig's room, have you?"
"Erm, yes," Roy coughed. It was impossible to deny that fact.
"And what's this about an earthquake?" Bowser asked Ludwig, knowing that he was usually the cause of earthquakes due to his dysfunctional inventions.
"One of my inventions went awry," Ludwig answered.
"Just as I thought!" shouted the Koopa King. Then, he turned back to the jury. "Do any of you have any reason why these two shouldn't go to the dungeon?"
Larry raised his hands.
"Yes?" Bowser asked.
"It's all my fault," Larry blurted out. "I shouldn't have told. You should put me in the dungeon."
"Be quiet, Larry," Bowser hissed. Larry sank into his chair sadly.
"Now, I shall ask the jury to vote for how long Roy should stay in the dungeon. I shall read the votes once you're all finished so nobody knows what anyone wrote," Bowser decided. The five jurors scribbled into pieces of paper and deposited them into Bowser's hand.
"Let me read out the votes," Bowser told them.
"One month. One week. Two weeks. One month. One month. The last vote says… one DAY?" Bowser said, surprised at the last vote.
Larry went cherry with embarrassment.
"It doesn't matter. Roy, you are going to the dungeon for a month," Bowser told him. Roy crossed his arms and went red.
"Now, I shall ask the jury to vote for how long Ludwig should stay in the dungeon. I shall read the votes once you're all finished so nobody knows what anyone wrote," Bowser repeated. Once again, the jury wrote their answers onto a piece of paper and deposited them into Bowser's hand.
"Let me read out the votes," Bowser repeated.
"One week. One week. Five days. One week. Two weeks. One week," Bowser read them. "Ludwig, you are going to the dungeon for one week."
Roy and Ludwig gave each other disgusted looks.
"Court adjourned." Bowser snapped his mallet on the cardboard.
That's it for Chapter Eight! Expect Chapter Nine up soon.
Later!
