Another morning on the Royal Auxiliary Isle came to be. The same old rustic buildings continued their reign on it. The elites of Skeleton Mafia, along with their skeletal henchmen, waited inside the bar. The lighting in it was provided by windows, which was more than enough to read a book properly. They discussed various topics as they brought in drinks that they already had on the boat. For a while, quite uneventful stuff, as they though.
Their lackluster peace came to an end when their boss, dressed like a bonafide captain, barged in as he stomped to them, shaking every single furniture with every step he took.
"Gentlemen, it's finally clear!" announced Bowser as he raised the book in the air, displaying it in front of everyone. "This island is ours!"
"Ya sure about that, Bowsy boy?" asked George, doubting that they would get a proper island so easily. Everyone, including Bowser himself (at least subconsciously) shared same doubts about it.
"YES, absolutely!" insisted Bowser "I have found out that not only has been this island completely abandoned, but also the British removed their ownership of it!"
"When do Britbongs ever leave their territory?" scoffed Mosseau as he did a motion that signified rolling with eyes, despite lacking eyeballs in the first place.
"Lemme get to that part. Gonna be a bit on short side, which is good for me!" Bowser opened the book as he searched for the specific paragraph. Once he found it, he read it out loud with his boisterous voice.
"The ownership of Royal Auxiliary Isle, after mass abandonment due circumstances, some deemed to be too cursed to speak of, has been removed. No one owns this island."
"Too cursed to speak of? Where did I hear this again?" Mad John scratched his crusty beard.
"Eh, Hzalazan was it behind it all, wasn't he?" immediately guessed Mosseau, sounding rather unamused by his own words.
"On one hand, probably yes, but on other...what makes you say that? That's not his island, isn't it?" questioned Bowser, even though he had plenty of experiences dealing with haunted locations, some of that he even owned in the world where he came from.
"If that higher bastard put an entire curse on the sea after his defeat, he ain't gonna stop at islands." elaborated Mosseau, implying that he had his own experiences regarding out of the ordinary life forms.
"True, but I made him kick the bucket, so he should be out of the picture." boasted Bowser.
"Aye am not so sure about that one, Bows. Ya know these supernatural shitters tend to love to cause shit after they're kaput." cautioned Mosseau before he took a sip of rakija bottle he held through out entire time.
"From my personal experience, I can attest to that, sadly….but now, now comes the important part of this meeting!" concurred Bowser before he snapped with his fingers. Two skeleton henchmen stepped inside, carrying a canvas stand. The boneheads placed it in front of the table occupied by the boss and the elites of Skeleton Mafia, so that everyone could take a good look at it.
"If you have any pranks, prepared, do them now." suggested George, leaning towards his Scottish colleague, just so he could have a laugh.
"Not today, laddeh. Ran out of the ideas." Mosseau shook with his head.
"Here it is!" Bowser presented them his own project regarding the island before he stepped next to the canvas, with a paper with a huge title that went as "Awesome Bowser Island Reconstruction Project!", accompanied with a drawing of him standing proudly over an island, letting out a laugh of pure malicious pride. "Today, we shall discuss my plan to reconstruct this island as I see fit!"
"Didn't we go through this already?" piqued George, crossing his arms as he lifted his chin, recalling the discussion partaken before the conquering of Rastplatz Island.
"Sorta! We only did the conquering part, but we barely mentioned how are we gonna rebuild it." correct Bowser, elaborating on differences of the presentation at that moment compared to one way before.
"Go on then." George, along with the rest of the group, allowed him to proceed.
"Alright, so be it! But first, we must address the elephant in the room: those pesky logistics!" Bowser started info dumping about their plan as he flipped a paper, displaying a drawing of him in a rather annoyed state and few skeletons carrying boxes of what it seemed to be food and weapons on the world map. "Do not worry though, because I have taken care of that. Just that it's a little bit different than you would imagine."
Bowser then flipped over another paper to show a drawing of him standing proudly and boastfully next to a warp pipe "My plan is very simple: I am going to connect this island with my kingdom!"
"Pardon me, mate, but is this why you called the wizard?" asked Mad John after he realized the need for the magician.
"Gwahahaha, smooth thinking, John! I'm gonna make Kamek create a warp pipe on this island with his wizardy." praised Bowser with a laugh before he felt that he needed to state one more thing that could make Kamek's arrival less trouble free than anticipated. "And before anything is said, Mosseau, you will NOT intervene with your guns, got it?"
"Fuck wizards, those bloody scammers!" simply, yet furiously stated Mosseau. He already prepared himself to pull up his Kalashnikov the moment the turtle wizard appeared on the island.
"You know this idea...is quite a curious one, I must admit." wondered Brane about the potential uses the link between Bowser's world and the one he found himself in could provide. Food was the first thing that popped in his head.
"….Carrying on, with this warp pipe, I will bring not only my troops and vehicles here, but also resources, such as iron and wood!" continued Bowser as he moved the paper to show a drawing of his own army, consisting of walking frowning mushrooms, various turtles, some holding hammers and walking cartoon bombs marching out of the pipe. Not a single colleague could stop themselves at snickering that a large draconic turtle lead an army of what it seemed to be "cannon fodder"-type bad guys from Saturday morning cartoons. Luckily for them, Bowser didn't hear their mocking of his army.
Until a certain individual spoke about it.
"Can't wait to see yer army, Bows." sassed Mosseau. The boss was just about to be excited that someone was at least looking forward to seeing his own military, but that thought was just present for a second because he realized that it was the Scottish skeleton that was yapping at that moment. The brief smile turned into an unsatisfied yet deadpan frown on his face.
"..So that you'll laugh at it?" squinted Bowser at him.
"Aye." bluntly confirmed Mosseau. George was almost impressed at how quickly he fired out his response at him. Bowser's only answer was a disappointed glare that was followed by him rubbing his eyes.
"Mosseau...you can be a real…" sighed Bowser before he intentionally gave a pause to his statement, causing others to become curious to what he was going to say to him.
"Say it, Bows!" motivated Mossau, anticipating a swear being uttered in Bowser's growling yet boastful voice.
"...jerk sometimes." Bowser finished his sentence, intentionally letting out a "softer" swear, just to provoke his Scottish colleague.
"...Bloody hell, just fucking swear already like a normal human-oh wait, yer ain't human-uh, reptile, Aye guess." fumed Mosseau as he slammed on the table with his one thousand year old skeletal fist.
"My code of conduct still applies!" insisted Bowser before he switched the topic with a single flip of a paper, showing a drawing of his troops carrying steaks and water barrels to the town. "Ah, got distracted again! So, after I transfer my own stuff from the kingdom, first, we shall restock the island with needs, such as food."
"Do you have any good meat in your kingdom, we could make some Balkan cuisine here, eh?" nudged Brane. Mad John raised his eyebrow and supported Brane's decision about making Balkan food out of material from other world.
"GWAHAHAHA, OF COURSE! Nothing is more tasty than a greatly prepared drumstick or čevapi!" approved Bowser with a laugh.
"Jače! Now we're talking!" Brane pumped his fist.
"It better be good." commented George, even though he knew that Brane's cooking was widely popular in Skeleton Mafia. He did wonder how was the taste of food from Bowser's world.
"Aye think we forgot to mention one important resource, lads." reminded Mosseau. Knowing him, everyone already knew what was he talking about.
"...It's beer, isn't it?" sighed Bowser, at that point losing any feeling from surprise that would come out of Mosseau.
"What did you expect, Bows?" sassed George.
"Aye, of course!" confirmed Mosseau as he triumphantly raised his bottle of Rakija in the air.
"...Fine, you'll get your stupid beer after I restart the production back there." reluctantly approved Bowser, but the tiny tidbit about Bowser's Kingdom's potential alcohol industry took everyone bar Mosseau by surprise. To them, Bowser didn't seem like he would consume alcohol, let alone produce it.
"Do not insult beverages, laddeh! Ye'll never know when ye'll need them!" cautioned Mosseau, pointing his index finger right at him while also insisting how civilizations supplied themselves with alcohol for various reasons of doubtful validity.
"What do you mean by restart the production?" asked Mad John as he wanted to know more about Bowser's domestic alcoholic beverages and maybe perhaps a tale about some drunkards in his kingdom.
"Long story, pal. Anyway, we got distracted again, so...let me continue already!" Bowser shut down the question, instead flipping another paper to show a drawing of what seemed like a convoy of turretless wooden tanks driving out of the warp pipe. Everyone, even George, who only saw tanks up to midwar era of 20th century, was completely baffled by a concept of a wooden tank going into combat. The one that took it the hardest was Mosseau, who felt like his soul and knowledge of warfare just had a stroke. It was like a spit to all tanks he saw with his own eyes, especially those that were present in Southeastern Europe in the time of war. "Right, after we rebuild the island, I think it would be safe to start transferring my own vehicles here.
"...Is that fucking tank made out of wood?" scowled Mosseau at the sight of a drawn tank before he drank an entire bottle of Rakija out of instinct.
"No, it's made out of paper. Of course it is made out of wood!" retaliated Bowser with his own remark.
"Me god, who designed that shite?! Who the flying FUCK makes a tank out of wood?" exploded Mosseau as he started flailing his arms around.
"It's an older model, you living incarnation of a ragefit! I do have tanks made out of metal, if you care so much for it!" retorted Bowser. Somehow, Mosseau managed to calm down through it. At least metal made more sense than food to him.
However, Mosseau didn't stop at what Bowser said, addressing one issue with boss' reassurance: "That ain't enough, laddie."
"What do you mean that ain't enough?! Metal should be strong enough to endure any hit!" angrily perplexed Bowser as he got one of those "This world ain't like yours" moments that he had so often through out Skeleton Mafia's journey.
"You see, mate. Tanks are no longer made out of just metal anymore, at least here. Not sure how it's at your world, but it seems like, and I don't mean to be rude, but you mates have been consistently behind us." calmly and casually elaborated Mad John with a raised index finger.
"Then what are they made of, if metal isn't enough?" asked Bowser out of genuine curiosity.
"Composite armor, mate. Metal is a part of it, but it's not the only one. You get in other stuff as well." explained John. The boss of Skeleton Mafia wasn't sure of what response would he give to the received answer, considering they were talking about a material that was never even considered not only by his army, but any army in the Mushroom Kingdom. He wanted to hear more about it, especially on how to obtain it, but he wanted to prioritize the island reconstruction plan first, since not only it was more relevant but also feasible at that moment.
"Hmm….well, before any of my weapons see battle, we are gonna go through tests on some occupied islands that we will get in the future. That should be a good idea." Bowser
"Answers are already obvious, lad!" Mosseau wasted no time to rub the outcome in Bowser's face.
"….Yeah yeah, right, but I must mention this. There will be an additional warp pipe for ship specifically and it will be placed at the port." Bowser rolled with his eyes before he explained an additional step to his plan, which was accompanied by a galleon with Bowser's emblem on its large sail traversing out of the warp pipe placed near the port. Unlike before, no one really had complaints about the step initially, at least.
"Oh, that's actually pretty good." praised Mad John with a single clap.
"How many ships do we expect to bring in here?" questioned George.
"About as much as this port can take...which isn't a lot, judging from what I saw. We will bring more ships once we conquer more islands!" answered Bowser as the image of an entire fleet cruising dominantly through the Seven Seas came into his mind.
"How big is the chance that yer ships are gonna see battle?" Mosseau gave out his question, which Bowser already felt dread of any response Mosseau would throw at him back, since it usually ends up in the Scottish warrior dunking on anything that would come out of his world.
"Mwahaha, huge, of course! We are conquering after all!" boasted Bowser.
"And how's the chance that they're gonna encounter stuff like Burke? Because Aye can already tell the outcome." suddenly reminded Mosseau, causing Bowser to drop enthusiasm about carefree conquering in the world. It wasn't just a dunk, Mosseau brought up a point that Bowser constantly had to think about ever since the encounter with the destroyer. Even with his own armada at home, Bowser thought that no matter how many ships would he send against a much more modern opponent, it would bring an end to his conquest. It was even a question if his own vessels could even come remotely close to such adversaries. Only solace he had for himself was that he wasn't aware of what those vessels can be a part of.
"...Hopefully zero, Mosseau. I think we have already established that we are NOT gonna have beef with countries, regardless if they are small or big. It could even be a NATO hooligan, which is even worse!" answered Bowser in, unusual for him, a rather quiet, if solemn tone.
"Basically, we could only traverse through international waters when we are on our conquest. Anywhere near coasts and we have to play friendly." suggested Mad John while also reminding them of how were they supposed to operate.
"Yes, exactly! Lets stick to that…" agreed Bowser before he noticed that he ran out of papers, therefore concluding with his presentation. "So, I think that should do it with my Awesome Bowser Island Reconstruction Project. What do you think, gentlemen?"
"How long until the wizard comes? Because any question is null if he isn't there." piqued George before any of them would say their final opinion on his plan, even though they have already expressed their thoughts through out the presentation when they needed to.
"...Still to be determined. Gah! I'll let him slide today, since the distance from that pipe in New York and here is….someone give me the map!" requested Bowser as he pointed at John. The Australian sniper immediately pulled out the world map out of his pocked as he placed it on the table. George pointed at the location of New York and Mad John pointed the approximate location of Royal Auxiliary Isle. "...Oh wow, that's pretty large."
"So what should we do now?" asked Brane, knowing that they couldn't do much aside from wandering around the island and entertaining themselves, killing boredom in the process.
"Poker, I guess? You know, the usual." suggested Bowser the first thing that popped in his mind before he remembered another thing: none of them have eaten yet! "Also, Brane...prepare the food!"
"Of course, momec!" Brane proudly pointed at himself before he dashed off to the nearest kitchen, which was located in the capital ship of Skeleton Mafia. As the Croatian chef went to make some delicious čevapi, George brought up a case with cards and trading chips, beginning their game of poker of that day.
"Now, where even is he?" wondered Bowser amid the preparations for their poker game. It wasn't uncommon among his army that their troops, be it grunts or higher ups, would be late to important meetings.
Meanwhile in Gibraltar, very much far away from Royal Auxiliary Isle, in a much more forgiving environment, resided a typical European port town. Anywhere one could go would see a giant monolithic limestone promontory reigning over the territory. Ships of various types, most prominent being cargo vessels, traversed nearby, following trade routes.
At one typical gas station, rather unoccupied at that time of day, the blue robed wizard turtle stood, taking a breath after a long time flying with his magic broom through the skies above the Atlantic.
"Huff….huff….can't believe I just flew over an entire ocean without eating or drinking beforehand. This was not a logical decision!" said Kamek to himself. "Then again, I was in rush or else Lord Bowser would throw a fit...as usual."
"I do really need a snack, though." contemplated Kamek before he noticed the gas station right behind him. "Ah, this looks like it."
Without hesitation, he walked right towards the gas station, entering it with a push on the glass doors. The gas stationed had all that it should, from food, drinks to miscellaneous stuff like magazines. In other words, nothing out of the ordinary, from Kamek's perspective.
The one who was behind a cash register thought quite differently when he saw a small turtle wizard just walking in: "What the fuck?"
Kamek just casually strolled down the store, looking for desired items to quench his thirst and hunger. Considering that the gas station, like every single other ones, was quite small, it didn't take him long to find a supplement, stored in a fridge to keep it cool even amid the hottest of days.
"Hmmm...just water would suffice." thought Kamek to himself as he grabbed a plastic bottle of water. He felt coldness in his hand, which satisfied him, knowing that his thirst would be eliminated after the transaction is complete. Upon his way to the cash register, he spotted a Frutabela yoghurt cereal bar with cherry filling. Since it looked cheap enough, he took it with him as well. "Ah, this would do as well."
The cash register man still couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Kamek place a plastic bottle of water and accompanied snack right in front of him, but he scanned items without a complaint. Not that he would complain about it, since it would drive away possible customers.
"That'd be...one pound, please." said cash register man in order to complete their transaction.
"Excuse me, but what is a pound?" asked Kamek, first time ever hearing that someone referred to money as a pound.
"You come here and you don't even know what pound is? Strange..." perplexed cash register man with a raised eyebrow, as if the presence of a turtle wizard wasn't odd enough for him already.
"Ah, is that the currency around here?" said Kamek.
"What kind of tourist are you, turtle wizard?" deadpanned Cash register while being nearly close to slapping his bald forehead with his hand.
"I'm no tourist, I just need something to eat and drink! I'm in a big rush right now!" grumbled Kamek before he decided to improvise with a coin "I don't have any pounds right now, but please take this coin."
"Whatever this is, it's not an acceptable currency here." cash register man immediately denied the transaction just upon seeing the coin. At first glance, he thought that the turtle wizard was taking a piss at him with such a fake looking money.
"How am I supposed to get pounds then?!" complained Kamek.
"Get a job or something, wizard!" retaliated cash register man, even though someone hiring Kamek at their place could potentially cause complications, especially on Kamek's own end. Kamek clenched his fists as he seethed, with his pride insulted.
Then, he got an idea that somehow didn't appear before: "Wait a minute….I work for bad guys...and I am a bad guy, so….why do I need to abide by law anyway?"
"I already have a thankless job already, so no thanks! Anyway, I gotta go now. See ya never!" retorted Kamek before he snatched both the bottle and the cereal bar and ran out of the story as quickly as his feet could take him. The cash register man flinched from the sudden snatch before he, out of pure frustration, decided to chase down the thief. It was a good thing that the traffic was low that day, or else the news about "Local worker at gas station chasing down a wizard thief" would be spread all over Gibraltar, if not the whole world wide web.
"Come back here, you shitty wizard!" fumed cash register man, but Kamek already took off with his broom. By the time cash register man reached the spot where the broom was, Kamek was already away from his sight.
"I can't believe this. Now I can't even call the police for it!" cash register man clenched his fist before he realized he was getting mad at items that were worth just one pound overall. "Oh well...it was just a Frutabella bar and a bottle of water. Nothing to lose a nerve for."
The cash register man, defeated and humiliated, returned back to his working position.
Kamek was flying on his broom again, taking quenches of water while munching on the cereal bar he obtained through not-so legal means.
"Ah, so refreshing! Exactly what I needed!" thought Kamek to himself, consuming his meal while rushing to his destination, Royal Auxiliary Isle, to provide help for his boss and his plan.
However, just like Bowser was planning to reconstruct an entire island in his own image, so were his adversaries plotting against him, in a much less forgiving country.
Al Dhafra Air Base, located about one hundred kilometers away from Dubai. The air base was operated by not only United Arab Emirates Air Force and Air Defence, but also by United States Air Force. American aircraft parked there waited for their time to conduct operations amid the scorching heat of the Persian Gulf. At that time, they were accompanied by few aircraft from United Arab Emirates Air Force's own aircraft, with Bombardier DHC-8 MPA-D8, a maritime patrol aircraft of the aforementioned nation, prepared on standby for its incoming mission. In the mean time, Sheikh and Kaneo Takarada observed the whole procedure.
"We got everything ready, G?" asked Kaneo Takarada while also taking opportunity to look around the air base, since it wasn't common for him to be at such places. From a distance, he saw a couple of E-3 Sentries, the quintessential airborne early warning & control aircraft of the USAF, accompanying KC-10 Extender tankers. Despite those types being larger aircraft, there was a squadron of much more imposing American aircraft parked nearby the UAE's maritime patrol turboprop plane.
"Prepared like it was said. The operation to track down your missing vessel starts today, just like it was promised." confirmed Sheikh with a nod, causing Takarada to focus his attention towards him
"Good stuff, man! That's what I like to hear!" praised Kaneo Takarada, adding a gesture with his hand to emphasize his satisfaction.
"You have said that your forces will arrive here as soon as tomorrow, is that correct?" piqued Sheikh.
"Bullseye, my G! If everything goes butter smooth, then it will all buckle up in a pretty short time." happily confirmed Kaneo Takarada as he flexed with his own money.
"Make sure that the flight path taken by your forces does not intrude air spaces of surrounding countries. This is something we have taken into consideration when planning out the mission. So far, Americans have provided us information about the current status of air space. We made sure that our aircraft will execute the mission without interference." suggested Sheikh out of consideration, even though information provided by United States Navy's E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning & control carrier capable aircraft assured that there were no potential disturbances above the airspace of United Arab Emirates and Oman. However, the concern about Iran's response remained.
"No worries, my man! We have already planned out the path without snooping in Iran's air space!" promised Kaneo Takarada before he took a glance at the parked squadron to take a better look at what type of aircraft were those present.
The squadron itself consisted of F-15E Strike Eagles, just serenely waiting for their mission to come. Yet even Takarada felt slight amount of dread just looking at them. Their presence alone sent the message to anyone opposing the omnipresence of United States of America and what would happen to adversaries, current and future alike.
"...Say, I was thinking about involving Americans into this. That should deter that bastard." suggested Takarada to his colleague, although even he hesitated about the idea.
"Although I am sure that, if the militia proves to be a threat to my nation, it will sort it out by itself. United States of America already has their own interests in the region, I doubt that they would be interested in neutralizing what seemed to be a minuscule armed group. Terrorists that not only they, but we deal with tend to be in thousands." reasoned Sheikh, recalling that the superpower ally of his nation was already quite active around the Persian Gulf, providing support to its allies while also engaging in a fight against insurgent groups and proxies of hostile nations. Kaneo Takarada thought for some time whether or not to involve the superpower itself into the conflict. On one hand, Bowser would have been, without a single doubt, absolutely devastated militarily wise. However, any mistake could lead to escalation in the region that would turn the already present hostilities between United States and its regional allies and adversaries to such degree that it would be a full blown regional war that the world was not prepared for. There was also a fear of politicians of either side mishandling the situation, which was quite common through out history of the Gulf. Kaneo Takarada couldn't afford to set the entire region ablaze over a single yacht.
"Yeah, that's probably for the best. Shit could escalate hard if they flew over Iran's air space, accidental or not." decided Kaneo Takarada, with Sheikh agreeing that it was probably a better option, since United States had their own business there already. The Tycoon from Osaka noted that it was about time to conduct the very mission he anticipated for some time. "Anyway, it's time to rev this baby up!"
The serene, but ominous tranquility of the air base came to an end with the start up of Bombardier DHC-8 MPA-D8's turboprop engines. It introduced itself with a shrill noise of turboprop as the propeller of the left engine started to rotate. Gradually, the propeller itself reached enough rotation speed that it replaced the shrill noise with the notoriously loud slashing of air done by blades themselves. When the left engine had its start up complete, so did the right engine follow. After the same procedure was done, the noise that dominated the airbase was the booming growl of the Bombardier.
"Aw yeah, dude!" cheered Kaneo Takarada as the aforementioned maritime patrol aircraft started taxiing to one of two runways present in Al Dhafra. When it went past them, the thrust caused by engines caused the wind to blow right in their faces.
"We will report to you the moment when we found location of your stolen vessel!" shouted Sheikh, just so Takarada could hear him. Otherwise, Sheikh has never raised his voice, unless there was a disturbance, such as the growling Bombardier.
Both of them observed as the olive drab Bombardier followed the yellow lines to reach the runway. The procedure took some time, but the aircraft reached the runway after carefully listening through instructions of the air traffic controller. The pilot set flaps to take off position as it waited on the runway.
When the time was right, they only needed to hear only one statement from the ATC:
"Overseer 1-1, you are cleared for take off."
The Bombardier started rolling down the runway, replacing the growl with its turboprop engines roaring as it gained lift. Once enough speed was gained, the maritime patrol aircraft lifted itself off the ground, retracting its landing gear amid the process. Kaneo Takarada couldn't help but feel pure excitement after witnessing the take off, while Sheikh sternly observed to see if everything went as planned. As the Bombardier reached the coasts of United Arab Emirates, it became all clear to them.
"Let's see how you like this, reptilian fuckhead!" smirked Kaneo Takarada to himself, knowing that it was all going as planned. It was only a matter of time when the Bombardier of United Arab Emirates Air Force was going to reach Royal Auxiliary Isle, but when the time will come, it will dawn on the conqueror that his conquest encounter severe setbacks.
United Arab Emirates was more than prepared to monitor his activities around the Persian Gulf and Arabian sea combined.
