No Such Thing
Chapter 2- Abandonment
For those of you who were waiting for all the action to commence, now is your chance. Throughout the entire chapter is filled with it, so don't miss out!
And just in case if you guys thought that I gave Ludwig a little too much attention in the last chapter, I do apologize. When this chapter is over, I'll give the other seven lots of attention to make up for it.
~KF
It was officially midnight in the Dark Lands, thus ending the supposed 'Bad Luck Day' of the year. One would think that the younger Koopalings will finally put the story to rest, since it was basically too silly for them to believe that the day actually exists, especially ones like Ludwig.
Some time after he received that medication Kamek had given him for his chest, one-by-one, the Koopalings who actually believed that there was a day full of bad luck entered the room to be updated on his status. He was dumbfounded, being slightly annoyed that they had yet to put it to rest. Then again, he would remember that times like that the children would never put a topic to rest, unless they were proven that they were wrong.
And thus, it was the reason why Morton Koopa Jr. was literally the only being awake at the time. Despite the fact that Friday the 13th was over, from what he heard from Roy was that things would go back to normal when the sun rises. As a result, the sixth Koopaling thought that he had to make sure that there was nothing unusual about Bowser's Castle, hence to why he had a flashlight in hand.
He was thinking about getting one of his older siblings to join them so that things wouldn't be as scary for him, though that would have ended in being as just as scared as well, him getting punched in the face, or simply being told to go back to sleep.
So Morton had no choice but to be on his own, now nearing his father's bedroom. "So far, so good..."
He might have been just getting started on his little mission, but at least he wasn't as terrified. Nothing different from the usual was seen as he peeked from every corner. Consequently, it managed to calm him down a bit. Nevertheless, he was still not going to get his hopes up. Last thing he thought of doing was to completely jinx everything by saying, 'What could possibly go wrong?'.
It actually became a good thing for Morton to not say those exact words, because the moment he turned the corner to enter the hallway, he could hear noises coming from his next destination. Almost immediately he stood still, increasingly becoming more fearful again.
"...D-Dad?"
He could hear the sound of moaning, as if he were in pain, combining with a bit of muffled yelling, as if another being was in his room. It was gradually becoming louder. Thus, the poor son began to fear the worst with his eyes widening.
"H-he does not sound well at all... Is he arguing with someone? ...Or is he arguing with himself? But, why would their be two voices talking at the same time? ...And there seems to be somewhat of a difference between the two voices... W-W-What do I do? What if things are about to go too far? ...I can't leave him like this..."
For his final solution, he chose to get his oldest brother. Lucky for him, his room was not far. If he were to get Roy, Iggy, or Lemmy, he worried that there wouldn't be enough time in case whoever was in the room besides Bowser would lead up into a brawl.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"LUDWIG, OPEN THE DOOR! HURRY UP!"
Ludwig Von Koopa's sleep had unfortunately came to a halt, as he was quickly awakened by his brother's knocking. Nonetheless, that didn't stop him from taking his time to get to the door. Upon opening it, he groaned from frustration.
"What do you want this early in the morning? You are going to awaken the whole castle if you keep knocking so loudly..."
"Ludwig, something's wrong with dad! He sounds like he's hurt, and I think someone's in his room!"
His last statement made Ludwig wonder with concern and confusion. "...Someone's in his room? How can that happen? I'm pretty sure his door is locked, isn't it? The only people that can get in his room if it's that way are us, since we have claws for a reason. As for the pain, I assume that those pills were not helping at all. Has it gotten worse? ...Wait a minute,... he hadn't told you, had he?"
"...Well whatever you're talking about, apparently it has! And for that, there's proof that Friday the 13th is real! We have to get to his room fast instead of sitting here talking!"
It didn't take long at all for the two sons of the king of Darklands to approach the door to his bedroom. Base on the noises alone, it was quite obvious that Morton was telling the truth. What got Ludwig the most was the fact that his father was indeed yelling at someone, and the other voice sounded like his own's, only way deeper.
Wanting to find out what was the trouble, he ordered Morton to stay put, subsequently using his claw to unlock the door. Rushing in, his eyes widened in horror as he saw his father on the floor with both hands on his chest, as if he was fighting for his life. Yet, there was mysteriously no one else in the bedroom.
Ignoring that, he rushed to his side and started to try his best to turn him over. "Father, are you okay? I'm gonna go get Kamek, and I'll get Morton so he can watch over you until I come back!"
Right at the end of his sentence, purple smoke began forming around him, causing the blue-haired Koopa to be more confounded. "...Father...? W-W... What's happening...?"
Finally opening his eyes, he managed to look over at his first born. "...L-Ludwig,... g-get your siblings and get out of here... N-Now..."
He then knew what the purple smoke was about. It was known to him that whenever that type of smoke escaped from Bowser he would turn into his skeletal form like he normally does when he tries to kill Mario with his blue flames at times. Except now, due to the arguing, it came to his hypothesis that the voice belonged to it. What struck him was why was he suddenly changing into Dry Bowser. Obviously, it seems that he was not intending to transform at that point. It sounded like the other voice was trying to take over, or whatever the case may be.
Not having the time to figure out, he stared down at his only parent, with the hesitation of leaving him like that. Their mother had already left years prior, and now he was the only parent he and his siblings had left. None of them thought of ever abandoning him like that.
But now, Ludwig was afraid he had no choice. Within a few steps, he turned around dashing off, resulting in a frightened and confounded Morton.
"What's wrong with him!? What do we do!"
"Morton, listen to me. We need to get the others and leave the castle immediately..."
His eyes grew large. "...What!?"
"Just do it! I don't think we have that much time!"
A few seconds of staring and looking back, he did what his brother told and dashed off. Ludwig on the other hand stayed put and glanced at the door. It took a couple moments for him to think before he closed it, running to his siblings' rooms in a split second.
As Morton was nearing the corner, the thought of his father suffering and Friday the 13th made tears form in the corner of his eyes.
"I knew it... I just knew it... This is the last thing we want to happen and we've just said so in Iggy's lab... So, I guess dad doesn't have that much time left. It's probably too late to save him... ...I... I knew it... Every last one of us is going to be murdered! ...And there is nothing we can do about it..."
"WHAT DO YOU WANT!?"
It was pretty rare for Morton not to be petrified by his stronger brother's shouting. Upon seeing his still scared look thanks to what was currently happening, Roy assumed that he was still scared of Friday the 13th.
Despite his facial expression, it never made any sense for him. First off, why would Morton come to Roy's room first, and not Ludwig's? He was simply the oldest of them all. Secondly, he was breathing rapidly, so he inferred that he was out of breath. He was just banging on the door, without him screaming as loud as he possibly could. And even if he did, Morton talked all the time. It was hard for him to run out of breath simply by speaking a million sentences. Was he running? And finally, he had tears running down his cheeks. The only reason why Morton would cry as of now is that Roy was pulling a prank on him because he would want to humor himself by terrifying him as he was some ghost or something because of Friday the 13th. The problem? Only Roy would do, and nobody else.
"...Huh?"
"Roy, Ludwig said that we have to get out of here immediately!"
By his tone of his voice combining with his upset look, he knew he wasn't lying. Something was wrong. "...What? What do you mean?"
"It's dad! Apparently, something has come over him! You see, I was looking around the castle trying to be a brave Koopa for once and make sure that there was nothing in the castle because it was midnight! Like you said, the most danger happens at midnight right after Friday the 13th! Then, I heard dad yelling and making noise in his room! So, I got Ludwig so that he could listen for himself! The next thing I knew, he dashed out and told me to get you all and head out! I don't know what has happened to dad, but-"
He was shoved out the way by his older sibling as he started off. "I'm gonna go find out myself..."
Morton promptly followed him holding a hand out. "Roy, wait! I don't think we can't go back there!"
"W-What do you mean something's wrong with dad!?" asked a now wide-awakened Larry. "Can you at least explain to me!?"
"Once we get out of the castle, I will explain everything!" Ludwig replied, pointing out the door. "I need to further thinkabout this myself, but I don't have enough time to do so!"
"B-But i-... if something was wrong with him, don't you think we should get Kamek or something-"
"Kamek won't fix it!" It did remind Ludwig about Kamek, however. "Speaking of... I wonder if we can still get Kamek in time, depending on how much time Bowser has... ...W-We need to get together quickly."
"He won't!?" Larry's eyes widen.
"N-No, Larry! He's in such of a bad condition, I... ...Look, just help me get the others we are out of here, unless we have enough time to find Kamek! Maybe we can even start rescuing some of Bowser's minions while we're at it! Just go, we're wasting time!"
"WENDY, WAKE UP! WE'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!"
After rapidly banging out the door, a series of loud stomps followed towards it, until it was eventually opened. It was then when Larry realized that all he had to do was to use his claw, instead of pulling off a Morton and just loudly knock and scream.
"LARRY, THIS'D BETTER BE GOOD! YOU KNOW HOW I HATE TO BE UP THIS EARLY IN THE MORNING, ESPECIALLY AT MIDNIGHT! YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS!"
"DAD'S IN TROUBLE! LUDWIG TOLD ME ABOUT IT, BUT HE COULDN'T EXPLAIN! TOLD ME TO GET EVERYONE ELSE AND HEAD OUT!" He exclaimed. The poor, young Koopaling was so scared, not only that he was greatly confused about the whole situation, he knew that it was a lot to take in. It was beginning to give him a headache as a consequence.
"TIME'S UP!" She began to think after acting. The only female of the bunch lowered her hand as she started to form a questionable and astonished expression on her face that was seen without her make-up. "W-What a minute... Daddy's... in trouble? What's wrong with him? Is he hurt?"
"I don't know, ask Ludwig! But, we need to get everyone else and get out of here as soon as possible!"
Receiving that amount of information, the Koopa nimbly walked to her dresser to grab her heels and bow. "Well, if we are gonna get out the castle, then give me at least ten seconds!"
That was just the minimum time Lawrence needed so that he could at least take a breath. "I want to at least see how he's doing. This is insane, us having to wake up like this... I-I hope we actually run into him. I still have so many questions to ask Ludwig..."
"Slow down, Roy! Don't do this!"
Morton still wasn't able to convince Roy to get away from the hallway that included Bowser's room. But of course, being older, stronger, and with the sense of curiosity, it gave him reasons to disobey Morton's command.
"Almost there... Morton was right... Wait, I hear another voice... What's going on? I don't know why Ludwig would just tell us to runaway from him like that. He is our father! Does he really expect to just ditch him!? He must be crazy!"
As he was only a few yards away, a very furious skeletal version of Bowser knocked down the door and leaped into the hallway, with a roar immediately following afterwards.
As for Roy, all he could do was to stop in his tracks and watch the event with his jaw dropped. "... ... ... ..."
It was as if time had slowed down. Morton had stopped where he was at as well. He was finally given the opportunity to take at least one moment to look at his now skinless parent, which was looking dead at his sibling.
The last time he saw his father was at dinner, and he seemed that nothing was bothering him one bit. He was just his normal self, thinking of ways to try and defeat his arch-nemesis and signing documents all day. Now it was only a few minutes past midnight. Seeing him at that moment, he not only took it to the heart, but he was so shocked by it, he didn't even think of the word 'dad'. The next thing he paid attention to was the look in his now fiery eyes, glaring down at the fifteen year old with his scrunched up eyebrows.
...Was he about to attack his own son?
Ludwig, Lemmy, and Iggy eventually joined their brothers to get a view of their skeletal dad, angrily glancing at the third child of the royal king and queen of Dark Lands. Lemmy and Iggy had no words escaping from their mouths as Lemmy stumbled while Iggy didn't even have the nerve to blink.
Their eldest brother had a similar reaction, only he had to be the one to command everyone. "...G-GUYS, W-WE HAVE TO LEAVE, N-NOW!"
Although the rest of them were hesitant, Dry Bowser took a deep breath slowly as he leaned his head back. Roy apparently never took the hint that he was preparing for his first attack. In spite of that, once he unleashed blue fire from his mouth, he finally got the message as he waited for the last opportunity to duck as said fire hit the ground, rather than he head.
He and his siblings didn't waste any more time as that ran as fast as their legs allowed them to, while the dry version of Bowser continued to exhale blue fire at the Koopalings.
Fortunately, the remaining children had met up with them so that they can observe their dumbfounded and terror-stricken faces. Feelings that had to be ignored.
"WE HAVE TO TAKE THE OTHER WAY AROUND AND GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!" yelled Ludwig.
Perhaps if they ran fast enough, Dry Bowser would lose the sight of him. Then again, Lemmy had short legs, and the youngest three could not match their older siblings' speed.
Ludwig remembering that fact grabbed Larry's hand and ran with him, since he was the nearest. Lemmy waited for the right moment to hop on Ludwig since he didn't want to slow his siblings down. Junior ended up being grabbed by Roy, and Morton just tried his best to keep up.
...Then there was Wendy.
She was wearing her heels and thus couldn't go her fastest. Ignatius was the first to notice that he saw that his only sister was already struggling to keep up with her brothers. "You guys are too fast! Don't forget about me!"
"DANG IT, JUST GRAB MY HAND!"
She didn't hesitate in doing so as she was now running with the plant-like, teenage scientist.
"ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"
The roar from the skeletal version of Bowser was so loud, almost all of his children had to cover their ears. Although, the thing was that the voice didn't sound far from them at all.
"...HE'S GAINING ON US!" Morton cried, not bothering to look behind. "I DON'T THINK WE CAN OUTRUN HIM!"
No one could argue with him. They couldn't just keep running throughout the entire castle without their father catching him. A Plan B was necessary. Iggy swiftly shifted his head from left to right. "Quick!" He pointed to a minor hallway. "Over there!"
His siblings followed into said hallway and tried their best to hide as some of them began to grow tired already. Roy was quick to cover Morton's mouth in case he randomly started mouthing away.
Dry Bowser came way sooner than his kids had predicted. And it wasn't a smart move to just keep going in the same direction instead of looking around to make sure that they weren't hiding. Thus, the eight of them were lucky.
"...Okay..." Sweat was rolling down Ludwig's face. "...N-Now,... I think o-our b-best option we have is to distract him if we want to make it out of here alive, since our father has been..." He hung his head down emotionally.
Meanwhile, Roy was fuming the entire time. By now, he was just about to lose it. He removed his hand from Morton's mouth and growled. "THAT'S IT! THIS IS SO NOT HAPPENING!" He stormed to Ludwig. "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT WERE JUST GONNA LEAVE OUR OWN DAD LIKE THIS, KNOWING THAT HE'S ALL WE HAVE LEFT? I WAS A FOOL TO ACTUALLY START RUNNING FROM HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE! IF HE IS TO DIE, THEN I'M DYING WITH HIM!"
All eyes were not taken off the burly Koopa for even half of a second. Yes, it was another one of Roy's raging fits when something ticked him off to a point. Regardless, who can blame him? His last and only parent was basically betraying him in a way, even though it wasn't even his fault to begin with. No, his skeletal form has betrayed him, forcing the normal Bowser to no longer be in control. One can bet that the soul of the actual Koopa was regretting his every move for his children to be killed.
Larry was beginning to tear up. "He's right... He is all he have left, and things are turning up like this. Last thing we need is to fight our own father. I don't even wanna dream about it. Bowser is our pillar. If he falls, then it's over for the rest of us..."
After that was all said, the rest of the siblings stared from Larry to the floor in sadness...
...with the exception of Ludwig. "...We aren't finished yet..."
It was now his turn to gain all of the attention. "Listen up, Roy! If you care about father so much, you should find it in your heart to never give up on him! It is clearly not his fault for all of this! Are we just gonna stand here and watch this castle get burned and let our own father kill us all? YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR MIND! YOU SAY IF HE WAS TO DIE, THEN YOU WOULD DIE AS WELL! I WOULD PREFER TO NEVER LET HOPE DISAPPEAR LIKE THAT! IF THERE IS A WAY TO BRING HIM BACK, THEN I SEE NO REASON TO JUST ACCEPT IT AND LET HIM FINISH US LIKE THIS! IF I WERE YOU, I WOULD NOT JUST STAND HERE AND JUST SAY THAT I'M DONE AS I ALLOW MYSELF TO BE BURNED TO DEATH, EVEN IF HE WAS TO BE LIKE THIS FOREVER! WHEREVER HE GOES, THEN I WILL GO!"
Roy was so shocked in Ludwig's speech, one could think that he was as still as a statue. Ludwig had a point. If there was even only one way to get Bowser back, just giving up on him basically meant that they were okay with him being Dry Bowser being in control of their real father and just let him perish. They had to keep going no matter what. If there wasn't a way, if they were the choose between the world and Bowser, it would be the latter.
Throughout the entire trip out of the interior of the castle, they didn't run into Kamek or any of Bowser's minions. It would have cause the Koopalings to be bombshelled, but they didn't have the time to think about it. Maybe they were already out of the castle. Maybe they were already beginning to head their way out. However, worst case scenario was that Dry Bowser would have taken them down by his fiery breaths.
The trip seemed to last for hours, but they had the strength to make it to the outside. When they thought they were at a safe distance, they stopped to turn around...
...and have one last look at the castle.
Dry Bowser had probably breathed many more blue flames at different locations inside the castle, most likely in attempts to burn anyone who was trying to escape. Speaking of survivors, one or two of the group guessed that the only ones who had made it out were themselves. No one else was seen. Or they were still inside the castle, they escaped out the back door, or they have gone missing.
At that point, the blue flames were rapidly engulfing their home. Pieces of it were either being burned down or falling off. The Koopalings had to watch in horror and fear as they knew that there was no way to save it. The home they were born in was being destroyed by the king himself, their parent.
And just from that thought, it would haunt them for life.
...Well, I promised you all action, and there you have it. If there is one thing I hate, is to disappoint my fans, so I hope that I didn't! Any criticism needed? Favorite parts? Likes/dislikes?
Also, I have posted a oneshot called "The Family Tree" based on the first chapter for those of you who don't know!
Questions:
1. What would your reaction be if your parents suddenly turned on you, even though you've known them your whole life?
2. If they were to die, would you die with them or keep going with your life and remember them in your heart?
I encourage all Koopa fans to review.