A/N: …And here's another Bowser Jr. interlude, picking up where the Junior and Rosalina sections of August's one-year anniversary chapter left off. Hope you like it!

Interlude: Attack of the Comet Observatory

"So Kamek, did you manage to get any information out of them?" I asked as he entered my private room in one of the Fiery Flotilla's rear towers. "It's kind of hard to write a speech claiming Mario's teamed up with their greatest nemeses when I don't know who their greatest nemeses are."

"Not much on that front, sir," Kamek said. "Harley Quinn seems pretty outgoing, though. She's familiar with quite a few of the others visitors. I drew up a whole chart here chronicling my findings." He unrolled a large scroll and looked it over. "So…I'm pretty sure these visitors are from a whole bunch of different alternate universes. This is so exciting. I've theorized about the existence of the multiverse for years now, and here's the proof! Here's the proof!"

"Get to the useful stuff!" I snapped. Although, if he was right, that also meant the Murk was probably from another universe, which in turn likely meant it would be significantly harder to track him down.

"Right, right, sorry, sir," Kamek said. "So it seems like Batman and Wonder Woman are from the same universe, and there was a Harley Quinn in their universe, but that Harley Quinn was killed when some evil guy called Darkseid took over their home planet, so this Harley Quinn is apparently from another universe entirely.

"The other five visitors – Tom Cat, Shaggy Rogers, Bugs Bunny, Jake Dog, and Arya Stark – are all fictional characters in Harley's universe. Tom, Shaggy, and Bugs are from various cartoons made by some woman named Hannah Barbera. Jake is from some other cartoon called Adventure Time. And Arya is from a TV show called Game of Thrones, and also technically a book series called A Song of Ice and Fire, but Harley was able to tell that this Arya was specifically from the TV show. Also, don't get the show and books confused or Harley gets pissed off."

"Do any of them have any skills or equipment that can help us fight Mario?" I asked.

"Harley's got something called a 'Fun Gun,' but that just shoots stuff like glitter and beanbags. I suppose if she hit Mario in the crotch with a beanbag it would still hurt, but anyway…. Uh, Wonder Woman has a lasso like Wonder Toadette does, Batman has some batarangs like Battoad. I think Jake can turn into lots of different creatures or objects, so that could be useful. And Arya's pretty skilled with a sword."

"Well, as far as random people from across alternate universes go, I'd say we fared pretty well overall," I said. I tapped my pen on the desk. This speech was going nowhere. "Alright, screw the speech. I'm just gonna ad lib."

"Sir, are you sure ad libbing is a good idea? Last time you ad libbed, as I recall, was when you gave your elementary school graduation speech, and somehow you went off on a tangent claiming that the school's entire faculty was part of a devil-worshipping cult, and that all the children who got sent to the principal's office were used as human sacrifices in their rituals."

"Yeah, but that was a couple days after my tail spikes started coming in, so I was hyped up on painkillers then. Don't worry, I'll do fine."

I climbed up the stairs from my room onto the Flotilla's rear battlement. The eight visitors from other universes were still all on the stone platforms in the castle. Not that they could really go anywhere, even with the forcefields Kamek had initially trapped them in gone; the gate to enter the castle was shut, and I'd removed the Sling Star after they all arrived but before the forcefields were deactivated.

I cleared my throat, getting their attention. "Friends, cats, harlequins, lend me your ears! I have summoned you here today because I seek your help. All of your greatest foes have returned, and have allied with my greatest foe: the vile terrorist known as Mario Mario, whose crimes include but are not limited to vandalizing an entire island with graffiti, massacring several of his fellow competitors at last year's Winter Olympics, and…." What was another crime I could believably claim Mario committed? "…and killing my mother! Right in front of me and my other siblings." Something about that seemed to strike a nerve with Arya, so I guess I chose well.

"Now," I continued, "in the near future, Mario and his allies will be making their way to a hideout of mine, and I intend for all of us to be waiting for them there and put an end to their reign of terror once and for all. Who's with me?"

Most of them expressed some sort of approval for my speech – Batman punched his fist into his other hand, Harley brandished her Fun Gun, Arya drew her sword and raised it, stuff like that. Tom's mischievous grin indicated he liked the plan, but it seemed like he might not have been able to talk, so he couldn't outright confirm his support.

And then there was Shaggy, who said, "Like, zoinks. I think I'm in over my head here. I don't really have a 'greatest enemy' or anything, so, like, I think you got the wrong guy."

Time to add a half-truth to my pile of fibs. "You're right. I wasn't intending to bring you here. The spell I used to summon you misfired a bit, but I'll take what I can get. I'm sure you've got some useful skill."

"Well, like, I'm good at making sandwiches. And then eating those sandwiches."

Hmm. Maybe I was a bit hasty in my certainty that he'd somehow be useful. Well, hopefully Batman and Arya and some of the others would make up for that.

Suddenly, a loud vwarp came from overhead, like the sound of something arriving after teleporting across the universe. Kamek and I looked up to see…oh great. The Comet Observatory!

Actually, no, this was great. Time to see how my eight-member army could operate in battle.

I turned back to them. "Up there!" I pointed at the sky. "That's the Comet Observatory. It's the personal spaceship of…." Oh shoot, what the heck was her name? The space princess with the teal dress. The one all those dumb Lumas call "mama." "What's her name?" I whispered to Kamek. "I think it starts with an 'R'."

"Uh…Rachel?" Kamek suggested.

"No, her name's not Rachel."

"Rose? Ruby? Ruth? Riley? Reese?"

"Rhaella?" Arya called.

How the heck had she heard us?

"Wait, no, no," I said. "She's got the same name as that song. All he wants to do when he wakes up in the morning is see her eyes, all he wants to do in the middle of the evening is hold her tight…." I snapped my fingers. "Rosanna! That's it, that's her name! Rosanna!"

"I don't think that's her name, sir," Kamek unhelpfully said.

"Shut up!" I addressed the others again. "Mario's ally Rosanna is on that ship up there, and she's here to destroy us. We must get up there and capture her before she can do that. Then we'll use her as a bargaining chip to draw Mario out."

Suddenly, a giant projection of Rosanna appeared in the sky in front of the Comet Observatory. "Bowser Jr.," she said. "You have performed an incredibly dangerous act by opening a portal to another universe." I guess Kamek was right, then. "If anyone came through, send them back now. Do not trifle with powers you don't understand."

"Shut up, Rosanna!" I shouted. "Kamek, teleport us up there or something."

"Wait, wait," Jake said. "I've got another idea."

"Which is…?" I asked.

"Is it important that she survives so we can use her as a bargaining chip?"

Well, that was really just a marketing tactic to make my goal appear more noble to them; I figured "capture" would sound more appealing than "kill." But if he insisted…. "Whatever it is, go ahead."

"Alright, stand back," Jake said, gesturing for the others to back away from him. They did so, and Jake's yellow form started to change. His legs and tail retracted into his body, and his body extended. Like, a lot. Four protrusions sprouted from his back end, and his mustache-looking snout tapered to a point. When it was done, he was….

A missile.

Cool.

"Missile Jake time!" he shouted, and then lifted off, shooting towards the Comet Observatory.

Haha! That stupid spaceship was done for now! I turned back to the projection of Rosanna and taunted, "This is what you get for using the Comet Observatory like a battering ram to smash through half of Dad's airship fleet back in 2007!"

Rosanna rolled her eyes. "You asked for it." Her projection vanished as Missile Jake neared the Comet Observatory.

Not sure what the heck she was talking about; this was gonna be awesome. My only regret was that I didn't have my phone to record it, but oh well. I'd always have the memories of the day that ridiculous-looking Comet Observatory exploded in a spray of pyrotechnic glory across the skies above my Fiery Flotilla.

Missile Jake was about to hit the Comet Observa-

What the flip?

A blue forcefield appeared around the Comet Observatory, like the one that was around it during the aforementioned smashing of Dad's airship fleet.

And Missile Jake ricocheted back off the shield and headed towards the Fiery Flotilla.

And all of us.

"Oh crap," Kamek said.

"How the heck did the missile not explode when it hit the forcefield?" I cried. "Kamek, get us out of here, now!"

"Can't Jake just turn back into a dog?" Kamek asked.

"I don't know. He might not even know what's happened. His eyes moved to the sides of his head when he transformed, so he might be like a Bullet Bill: can't see what the heck is going on ahead of him, and just knows to keep traveling in a straight line." Except of course the homing types of Bullet Bills, which still aren't exactly "intelligent"; they're just programmed to home in on Mario's DNA.

"Alright, where should I take us?" Kamek asked.

I looked around. "There!" I pointed over the edge of the Mushroom Planet, where my Fearsome Fleet was visible against the light of the sun. "We're gonna be going there eventually anyway."

"On it," Kamek said. "Okay, everyone, get ready to teleport so we don't get hit by that giant missile."

"What the hell is a missile and why is everyone so concerned about it?" Arya asked.

"She's from medieval-ish times. They don't have modern technology," Harley said.

"It's a big thing that's gonna hit us and make us go BOOM!" I said.

"You know what happened to Stannis Baratheon's fleet at the Battle of Blackwater?" Harley said to Arya. "Basically that."

"Okay, we're all teleporting now," Kamek said. "Take us to Junior's Fearsome Fleet!" He flicked his scepter, and our surroundings vanished in a flash of purple light.

When we all reappeared, we were on the ring-shaped planet at the end of the Fearsome Fleet, the planet where Mario would have to battle my awesome robot Megahammer. "Head count," Kamek said. "One, two…four…seven…yep, all of us here except Jake. What are we gonna do about him?"

"I'm assuming once he explodes he'll turn back to a dog," I said. "At least I hope he does; otherwise we just wasted our most useful asset. But once he explodes, then try summoning him here and see what happens."

I looked at the Fiery Flotilla, barely visible out in the distance. That poor galaxy just couldn't catch a break. First the lava planet exploding, and now the whole thing exploding. Well, at the very least, hopefully it would wipe out a good chunk of the Mushroom Kingdom when its remains fell out of orbit and crashed to the ground. All I'm saying is if it lands in the middle of the ocean and we don't even get any decent tsunamis out of it, I'm gonna be pretty pissed. I saluted to the Fiery Flotilla. "Fare thee well, loyal galaxy of mine," I said. "You shall be missed."

Kamek started singing, "Should old acquaintance be forgot-"

"Stuff a sock in it," I ordered. "Has anyone ever told you you're terrible at singing?"

Kamek sighed. "All the time, sir."

Jake collided with the Fiery Flotilla, and it exploded in a blinding flash of light. Oh, and now Mario wouldn't be completing the Prankster Comet mission for the Fiery Flotilla either, so who knows, maybe not having that one star available would make him getting to Dad's Galaxy Generator a lot harder.

"Zoinks! So, like, that's where we just were?" Shaggy asked. "That place that just blew up?"

"It's times like these I'm glad my glasses are so thick," Kamek said. "Otherwise I'd probably have gone blind from looking at that light."

"That looks nothing like wildfire," Arya commented.

Harley shrugged. "I said 'basically,' didn't I?"

As the white light dissipated and the flaming wreckage of the Fiery Flotilla became visible, slowly drifting towards the Mushroom Planet, I said, "Okay Kamek, try getting Jake now."

Kamek twirled his scepter around. "Bring me Jake the Dog."

He flicked the scepter, and Jake appeared next to us, back in his dog form. "Ouch," he said. "I'm not doing that ever again."

"At least you're somehow alive," Kamek said. "Not gonna question the physics of it, I'm just gonna be glad it happened."

"So your whole castle place is gone now?" Wonder Woman asked.

"I'd hardly call that place a castle," Arya said.

"Yes, but this is good," I said. "Now Rosanna probably thinks we're all dead. She and Mario won't be expecting us to be waiting for them. We can pounce and take them by surprise."

"Too bad Fred isn't here," Shaggy said. "Like, he always thinks of the best sorts of traps to catch the bad guys in."

"We'll make do with what we've got," I said. "Okay, everyone, let's start making our plans."

A/N: In case you haven't read it, Junior's line about the Olympics is a reference to "Mario and SonicEXE at the 2014 Winter Olympics." Even if that's the case, though, I'm sure you could tell Junior was blatantly lying about what went down there. I'm hoping to have at least one more batch of chapters up before Christmas, so be on the lookout for that.

Next up: an attempt at "Silver Chomp Grudge Match," the next chapter of the Mario-Lubba War saga, and "A Glimmer of Bulb Berry"!

Happy Thanksgiving!