No Such Thing

Chapter 1- Fact or Fake

(Note: The first 12 chapters of this fic were posted back in 2015, so obviously I found some faults in my writing for this almost three years later. If you find some issues in the writing, you will know why now that I'm informing you this. With that being said, these chapters will be re-written. It is up to you if you still want to read this out of curiosity.)

It's finally here, everyone! The first chapter of my first Mario story in a while. Think it was like two or three years ago. Yeah, it's been a while. It was all thanks to Super Smash Brothers where my attention focused most. (That doesn't mean that I'm going to abandon my Smash stories.) Maining Roy in Mario Kart 8 was what made me sprout some ideas for the Koopalings since all my (terrible) Mario fanfics fell off the face of the earth.

And now, it's time to make a comeback.

I feel that my best genre when it comes to the Koopalngs in Hurt/Comfort, with a slight touch of adventure, which gave the birth to this. However, everyone in Bowser's Castle is just staying themselves, since this is basically an introduction. Though, action will take place starting in chapter 2 most likely. Reason I said most likely is that I'm writing chapters in advance once again. (Or at least attempting to, depending on how things turn out. I am typing this up two days after Friday the 13th in March, which gave the main idea for this chapter and its title.) If I type enough chapters in advance, this will normally updated once a week.

Since I don't wanna make this too long, let's just dive in.

~KF

Bowser's Castle, Castle Koopa, or Home of the Dark Lands.

Whatever name you prefer, it was known to rival Princess Toadstool's castle in the Mushroom Kingdom, where the King of Koopas himself would go in attempt to take away the long-haired princess. Though to present day, he still wasn't able to get what he desired most, which angered him greatly almost every time he attempted to.

Although King Bowser Koopa seemed as if he was filled with gloom and doom all the way, even ones like him had a soft side. Occasionally, he would either fight alongside the savior of the Mushroom Land, or battle against each other, but only when he was not doing anything that tick off the italian plumber. For example, they would go go-kart racing and Smash tournaments. Mario respected him, and Bowser somewhat did the same.

It was yet to become known to his eight children that they would had been involved in a great opportunity: The chance to fight in the Super Smash Bros. world, where fighters from other worlds would come every year to fight against each other for the sake of fun and for tournaments. Although, they were only able to occasionally fill in for Bowser Jr. However, going go-kart racing would be enough to make it up.

Speaking of Bowser's children, they were currently eating supper together along with their vigorous father in the dining room at a large, dark brown table. Meatloaf, vegetables, and mashed potatoes was being served for the night. While some were devouring their last meal of the day without question, others would make sure that it fits their taste. Otherwise, they would find that the chefs were being disrespectful towards them by not getting the way they would like it.

For example, the third eldest son, Roy, was very fond of his meat being drowned in hot sauce. Whatever made him fond of eating food that were super spicy was beyond his family and the chefs, though a couple of his siblings thought that it had fit with his personality. Basically, he preferred brawn over brains. If things turned out wrong for him, he would threaten a punch to the face for anyone that cooked his meal, even though his behavior would usually be stopped by his father, and his eldest brother, Ludwig.

He found hot sauce tolerable, though it just wasn't his style when it came to taste. The first born preferred his food having at least two pieces of chocolate on the side of his plate, just in case he didn't like something. Most of his siblings would give him weird looks, but he would promptly respond by saying that they shouldn't just him. The younger brother Morton would joke occasionally that his beaver-like tooth was his one sweet tooth that always seemed to get the better of him.

One of the three Koopalings who also adored sugary sweets was prince Lawrence, or Larry for short. In spite of that, it was never requested with his meal. Even if he did, Bowser was scold him stating that he was simply too young to eat sweets like that. Nevertheless, if his food was at least edible for him, he'll devour it.

Same applied to his youngest older brother, the aforementioned Morton Jr., who was named after Bowser's father thanks to his dark skin tone. Larry might sneak candy, but Morton will secretly stomach any kind of food he could find, especially late at night. Some of his siblings would judge his weight because of it, but then he would bring up the fact that he worked out a lot with Roy, claiming that it was all just muscle.

Next to Morton was the only girl of the bunch, Gwendolyn, or Wendy. Her food was by far the most challenging to make, even more difficult than Roy. She believed that just because she's the only girl, meant almost everything had to go her way. And making sure that the food had to be perfect for her was no exception. For meatloaf, it had to be cooked at the perfect temperature, there had to be just the right amount of gravy on it, and the meat should not be too tough for her to chew.

To add onto her personality, she didn't play any games when it came to fashion. Half the time when they went on a family outing with her, she would put on too much mascara and red lipstick. And since she never grown hair, she had always wore a pink bow with white polka-dots on her head to use it as a cover up. It was pretty obvious that she was a complete girly-girl, yet she was around seven brothers, and four of them were older than her.

That didn't mean that all four of them were taller than the pre-teen, specifically Lemuel, whom was often called Lemmy. The only reason being so was that he was born prematurely. Roy guessed that was the reason to why he acted so playful. However, he knew when to be an older brother. A lot of times, he loved his food cold, which was absurd to everyone around him. Sickness would occur sometimes if he ate too much of it, which was why his father would force him to eat food at least room-temperatured. When he had something sweet like french toast for breakfast, King Koopa would make sure he didn't put too much syrup. If he does, it would result in a sugar rush.

The youngest child, who was chosen the name of his father, also looked almost exactlty like him when he was just a baby. He wasn't nearly as much trouble when it came to food like his other siblings. The only problem that affected his eating habits was that he was picky at times. It was really fortunate for Bowser since he knew that he had less to deal with.

Finally, there was Ignatius, or Iggy. He used to have rainbow-colored hair like his older brother Lemmy, yet thanks to one of his many outrageous experiments, his hair was now shaped like a tree for life. Nonetheless, the Koopa was actually fond with it after having mixed emotions for half a week.

As of now, he was one of those who was actually enjoying his dinner, who liked his food well cooked. He was one of the eight the chefs didn't have to worry about, and he would eat any meal with him any day...

...unlike Wendy, who only had the nerve to blink at her food. Slowly picking up her fork, she took a small poke at her meatloaf. Her brothers had noticed one-by-one and eyed her in reaction, consequently looking at their father, knowing what was going to come.

"...King Daddy!" she exclaimed, slamming her fork on the brown table. "My meatloaf isn't right! There's too much gravy on it, and it's too hot for me!"

"Wait for it to cool off..." Iggy suggested rolling his eyes.

"That doesn't change the amount of gravy on it, does it!?" She glared at the tallest out of the eight. "Exactly how long has it been they have been doing this!?"

Bowser decided to rest part of his face in his hand with a groan, not finding the time to deal with the behavior. "Wendy, for the umpteenth time, it does not have to be perfect all the-"

"Yes it does!" The thirteen year old cut off her own father. "We need to get new chefs for this castle because they don't know how to cook! They aren't doing their job, and they should know us by now!"

Not having the strength to deal with his sister's frustration, Larry sighed as he banged his head on the table.

"Just because we're part of the royal family doesn't mean that the chefs are perfect, Wendy!" Ludwig jumped in glaring. "Deal with it and-"

"No, it is not right, and disrespectful!"

Roy Jackson Koopa then chose to add fuel to the fire by tossing his plate to the wall, forcing a frightened Morton to duck out of the way in a last attempt. Said plate shattered to dozens of pieces. "It's not enough!"

He did not watch his older brother, Lemmy, blink with a blank stare. "How can his mouth tolerate that? It's impossible!" He thought to himself.

With a heaved sigh, Bowser chose to let his two offspring have the meal their way, yet again. "CHEFS, ROY AND WENDY NEED TWO NEW PIECES OF MEATLOAF!"

"And remove all these vegetables off my plate!" The former Koopaling called out. "What do I look like? A vegetarian?"

This explained the reason why the strong teenager hated salad with a burning passion, especially when his eyes stared disgusted at his siblings eating the leafy dish every Wednesday.

"...So anyway, " Junior changed the subject so that this wouldn't result in an arguement. "has anyone else forgotten that today's Friday the 13th?"

Most of his siblings paused almost immediately to nimbly shift their heads.

"...Oh, yeah!" Morton snapped his fingers escaping his confusion. "Thanks for reminding me, little bro. You know, to make it less forgettable, they should really made Friday the 13th a national holiday! But then again, why should they because it's considered to be full of bad luck, and I don't like bad luck. What if something really bad happens in our sleep- OW! Roy!?"

He ended up being slapped in the head. The dark-skinned, dragon-koopa was mainly known for his talkative habits. Sometimes when a new topic is brought up, Morton always made a big deal out of it by either going too far, discuss it way longer than necessary, or both. It was always either Roy or Ludwig that would physically force him to keep his mouth closed.

The blue-shelled son of Bowser knew that some of his brothers would be frightened because of the suppose day full of bad luck, so he chose to be a big brother so that they wouldn't have to worry. "Well, that day is basically a myth. Nothing normally bad happens on that day. And even is something were to happen today, it would simply be considered as a coincidence."

Of course, Roy enjoyed making them feel scared anyway just for his own amusement. "But, what if it's the only day of the year when something really, really bad happens to us and not for the rest of the year? That would be too much of a coincidence, would it? It may affect us for life..."

Ignoring Ludwig's facepalm, Lemmy and Iggy turned to the pink-headed boy with terrified expressions while Larry halted his eating time, his piece of brocolli on a fork with his mouth open. Blinking, his eyes were now focused on the talkers.

"W-W-What!?" Iggy suddenly screamed. "Oh no, no, no! We can't let that happen! There's no way I'm getting murdered in my sleep tonight!"

The plant-haired enemy of Mario retreated into his shell.

Lemmy began to panic. "T-then that means that we're all gonna die!? King Dad, you need to go get your minions so that they can block the door! We're too young to die! You know what happens when you don't lock the doors at night!"

With a gulp, Lawrence watched his two older brothers scream like crazy, the eldest one heading for the door, only to be stopped by the other blue-haired Koopaling.

"Look, nothing bad is going to happen to you,or any of us. If that was the case, we would all be six feet under. It comes every year, right? Well, how come every time this day comes, nothing unfortunate takes place!? What's so special about this year just because we brought it up? Iggy, get out of your shell! There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of!"

Roy groaned in annoyance. He hated it when someone ruined his fun, especially Ludwig. "Dang it, Ludwig..."

"I heard that." He folded his arms. "If you didn't want me to hear it, just say it in your mind and be done with it. Always look before you leap, brawn-over-brains..."

"..." It was his turn to cross his arms at that moment.

After their final course of the day was over with, Larry, Lemmy, Wendy, and Junior desired to head to Iggy's lab since they hadn't had anything better to do at the time. Larry had just completed one of his favorite video games of all time, none of Wendy's friends were available to talk to via phone, and Lemmy would mostly come to the lab, since the two were closer than twins. Though at times, Lemmy would never understand Iggy's insane nature, and Iggy would never understand Lemmy's ways of immaturity.

Acting as if the conversation in the dining room never happened, Iggy show a terrified expression on his face. "So, do you guys think Friday the 13th really exists?"

Larry gulped while Lemmy shared his feelings. "Yeah, what if Ludwig's wrong?" Lemmy questioned. "What if they are watching us this very moment?

He widened his eyes. "We have to do something if it is real! Last thing we need is to... to... to have King Dad... d-d-d-dy-"

"Now," Wendy was already growing tired of this subject and only wished that they would just let it go. "what makes you thing that King Daddy will be killed in his sleep? Or, any of us for that matter? May I remind you of what Ludwig said-"

"Ludwig doesn't know everything, Wendy!" Ignatius stared angrily at his only sister. "He might have been born before all of us, and he might almost as smart as me-"

"He is smarter than you." Junior butted in lifting a finger.

"No, he's not!" He turned to face Wendy once more. "But, that doesn't mean that he can predict the future saying that everything will be just fine when things are just going to be the opposite the second we hit the hay! ...Or when midnight arrives..."

It was when Larry finally decided to make a comment. "...I-I-I agree with Iggy on this one... Like Lemmy said, what if someone's watching our every move right now!?"

"You guys are taking this way too far!" Wendy shouted, "It doesn't make any sense!"

"Yes, it does!" Lemmy said.

"You guys are being a bunch of wimps." Junior stated, "We have guards here. They can't get inside the castle."

"B-but... what about... g-ghosts?"

That was what made him pause. If Friday the 13th was real, like Boos, random ghosts came literally go through the doors as if it was normal for them, which it was. "...Oh no..."

Wendy finally had enough as she chose to leave the room and head into her SmashBook account on her persoanl laptop.

Meanwhile, the father of the eight children was not signing papers or planning to defeat his arch-enemy for once. He was actually taking a look at his family photo album for a change entitled: 'The Royal Family' in golden capitalized letters.

Before taking a moment remember the events that happened on the first page, a knock was sounded on the other side of his door.

"It's open."

Almost a second later, the Koopaling named after Ludwig Von Beethoven strolled in his father's giant bedroom, finding him sitting on his king size bed glancing at the pictures in the family album.

"...Taking a glance at memories, huh?" The blue-haired son raised an eyebrow.

He nodded in return with a sigh. "I had nothing else to do for the day... I've finished signing all those documents, completed my sketch plan for Princess Peach's upcoming kidnapping, and had Kamek repair my lamp for the umpteenth time."

His eyes shifted towards said lamp, having a red velvet colored lampshade. "...And exactly how did you break it this time again?"

"...I... uh..." His mind was searching for the right words. "... ...You know how you get when you get so angry, you act without thinking by taking your anger out on something... that is very... valuable..."

"...Pathetic..."

"Leave me alone..."

"Let's not forget that from time to time you have the nerve to act without thinking." Ludwig recalled and folded his arms. "So, what really happened?"

"...Wendy's high heels never came in the mail. From what she said, they're suppose to come today, but they have yet to arrive..."

The eldest of the Koopalings chuckled. "Wonder why she never thought of taking a quick trip to the mall?"

The ruler of the Dark Lands sighed once again. "Wendy does what Wendy wants to do..."

"And part of that reason because she is spoiled. She gets what she wants, when she wants, and how she wants it." He finished. "You know it."

"...Well, I'm pretty sure I don't spoil her, now..." Ignoring him rolling his eyes, he decided to get back on topic. "Anyways, out of all things I had in mind, I chose to open this photo album of our family after never doing so since your mom's birthday..."

Silence took over Ludwig, hence he was too busy staring at a picture of his late mother hugging a five year old Larry. Believe it or not, despite being only seven years old at the time, he still remembered it very well. The week after the photo was taken, she announced that she was pregnant with the final child, Junior.

To this day, he still felt bad for him not being able to see his own mother alive since he was still in his egg when she passed away after hatching it. Even though, when her birthday came around after she died, he felt so upset he blamed the entire event on the young brother himself. At one point, he even attempted to kill the youngest son of Bowser due to him almost drinking bleach that Ludwig gave him. Although, out of out people, Roy prevented him from doing so, resulted in the blue-haired boy getting punched in the face. In spite of him being violent, the scene exposed Roy's soft side, hidden beneath his 'tough-guy' personality.

Although that took place years ago, he still shuddered at the thought of the fact that he would have been with his mother today so that he could finally see the face of her in person.

"...I know you don't remember it at all, I am still sorry..." He thought.

Bowser noticed the expression on his face. "...Is something the matter?"

"Nothing!" He promptly answered with a raised head, "...It's ...it's just a thing of the past..."

"Your mother?"

"No... after that..."

"... ... ..." It was his turn to stay quite for a few moments. In fact, when Bowser heard of said incident, he partially blamed himself. He thought that he should have been a better parent and kept an eye on Junior. The koopa had left him with Ludwig for a bit since he asked for him. Little did he know that he was secretly hiding something. But then again, he was not in the best of moods anyway, since his wife was on his mind 24/7. "...D-don't worry about it, anymore... It was all my stupidity..."

His son would have argued back, though he knew it would have been pointless. So he focused his mind back to his deceased mother. "...When she was gone,... I... I thought to myself that this family would never be the same, like we're missing the last piece of the puzzle... And then when you realize that it's lost, you'd be upset, especially if that puzzle contained many pieces that you've worked so hard on..."

"I feel that way too, son... When she was gone, I've felt like I have nothing to live for... But obviously, there's you and your siblings..."

Ludwig smiled for a quick moment, before returning to his original facial expression.

"...Sometimes I would wonder why they heck did I have so many children? ...But then, I would learn that having a big family can be a good thing, even when you get your hands full..."

The eldest of the Koopalings just stared at him in reaction. Unlike his last statement, he was sure he had never heard him saying something like that before. Nevertheless, he was right. Having a big family wouldn't hurt. Like he previously stated, there might be just one piece missing from a huge puzzle. Regardless, it took a lot of hard work putting it together, just like Bowser and Queen Clawdia Koopa did when they were building this family.

That being said, sometimes bigger can be better.

His only parent could have extended the conversation even further, had he not been interrupted by a sudden pain in his chest. It wasn't too sharp, but it still felt strange and weird to him. The fact that it came out of nowhere was beyond him. "Ow.." He covered the spot where it hurt the most.

There was no reason why Ludwig shouldn't have been concerned. He raised an eyebrow. "You're okay?"

"I'm fine..." He stared at the covered spot at his chest. "...My chest just hurts all of a sudden... Go find Kamek..."

As he ordered, the blue-shelled teen stood up once more and began headed his way out the door. While he was nearing it, he turned for a brief moment to give a slight smile at Bowser. It might have not been the same on the outside, but he still knew how to take care of his large family no matter what happened and how many mistakes they made.

I've decided to end things off here. Sorry for no action happening, but I just wanted to get things started. So, what do you think? Did you think I gave Ludwig too much attention? I encourage everyone to review!

Questions:

1. Do you believe in Friday the 13th, or you think it's just childish altogether?

2. Who's your favorite Koopaling?

3. If Friday the 13th is real, what would you be doing?