No Such Thing

Chapter 8- Investigation

I'm expecting this chapter to be at least as long as chapter 4 because of where the story is going with this. Everyone heading back to the scene where the entire incident took place. Who's ready?

Also, I can see that someone got the last question right from the last chapter. But, I'm not telling when he will appear in the story. It could be in the next chapter, half-way through, near the end, or in this very chapter.

Anyways, enjoy part 8 of "No Such Thing"!

~KF

Sunset.

If you were traveling through the clouds, you had the opportunity to get a better view of the sun setting for the day. Almost no one would not enjoy that sight. You might had taken a few pictures or just simply stopped whatever you were doing just to stare at it. It was all that was needed to fill your heart. For some, it was just enough to make their day, even if you had a hard day. The ones on Ludwig's airship should have felt grateful that they had left earlier than intended.

Unfortunately in this case, it wasn't enough to make up for what happened the night before for the Koopalings. They weren't thinking about the beautiful sunset, let alone watch it. In fact, most, if not all were extremely nervousness of where they were going in the first place. That happened to be that very scene where the catastrophe began, Bowser's Castle. Some preferred not to visit there because of that reason, while the rest wished Ludwig could drive faster so that they can arrive there as soon as possible. Mario requested that he could drive instead, though the blue-haired Koopaling declined.

When they were nearing the castle, the ship gradually became quiet as everyone on board halted their speaking one-by-one. If one was watching, he or she would infer that it was a sign that they were being stricken with different forms of fear. That was apparent to the ones that were on board, which was why they remained quiet.

"...Dang it, I almost forgot already... Since no one's saying anything right now, I think this will be a good time. We're in the Dark Lands now, anyway..." Mario suddenly said in his mind. He turned to the Koopa King's youngest child. "Junior, can I ask you something?"

Slightly startled by the first voice heard in some time. The look-alike of his father faced him. "...S-Sure..."

"Okay, this may be out of the blue," He began. "But, do you remember that battle me, you, and Bowser had some time ago? ...N-Not the first time when we were on vacation, but the other time..."

The memory actually took the kid a while to recall. "...Y-You mean when we were at the castle...? ...Kinda... Dad told me that I was four at the time... Why...?"

"...T-To be honest," He took some moments to stare at the floor of Ludwig's airship. "I'm not really sure... Me and the others were discussing back at the princess's castle... There's something about that battle that just gets to me... I-I don't know exactly, but it seems for some reason that battle... is standing out... like it wants to prove to me that something was odd about it... I just can't lay my finger on it... And I don't expect you to remember that much of it either, since you've said you were only four... Peach doesn't remember that time as much, either."

"...What do you mean, really? ...Was it about dad?" He was more confused than ever, yet he was starting to see the picture, though it was only as if it was blurry. Mario was right. He was too young to remember the whole thing. Bowser should be the one to remember the most and not him, Peach, nor Mario since he was the oldest out of all of them. But, if it was about him, he was for sure beginning to recall at least a tiny bit on what was Mario speaking of.

"I... think so..." He said in response.

"...Everyone... we're here..."

After all eyes were on Ludwig, they quickly became focused on the castle. More specifically, the castle that was burned to the ground. Some of the children pondered on looking at it or not, yet they continued eyeing the sight. Even if they were dying at old age, they would have remembered iy as if it was the night before.

It was a terrible sight, indeed. The infamous Bowser's Castle that represented the Dark Lands was destroyed, the fire made it collapsed as pieces of it were being ignited and burned down. As for the Mario crew, all had their mouths wide-opened. They couldn't believe their eyes as they saw how bad the damages were. The castle was on the news that morning, but not one of them actually seen it. Now, everyone was perceiving it in person.

"...O-Oh, dear... T-The castle... It's... d-demolished..." Toadette didn't even have the nerve to gasp. "...I-I didn't know it was this bad... This seems so surreal..."

"I can't even blink..." Her only sibling appended. "This castle surviving this long and now look at it... To it being suddenly destroyed, I'd speak for everyone when by saying that it's a lot to stomach in. And there's obviously more emotions for the Koopalings." He muttered the final sentence.

There were still quite a few reporters and citizens of the Dark Lands at the scene of the event, mostly with worried looks as the former continued on questioning the police on the matter and what were their intentions. And when the first one recognized the ones that were beginning to exit Ludwig's airship, there was no doubt that he left them alone, let alone promptly ask questions.

He was ignored by many, with the exception of Princess Peach and Mario who simply told him and his fellow reporters that they were not giving up on the royal family and that they knew what they were doing.

Lemuel and Lawrence Koopa eyed them, the latter whispering to his elder brother. "Here they go again... You know how much I hate people that watch our every move... Doesn't that get to you?"

He shook his head with a sigh. "It's fame, Larry... But, it shouldn't be that bad! Maybe we can just... scare them off...?"

"...What do we like? Monsters?"

"Stay focused, guys." Seventeen year-old Ludwig came up to them annoyed. "How can you talk about fame and monsters at a time like this? We're here for father, not to talk about the paparazzi."

"So, if there is a possibility that Bowser would be back to his normal self, how easy or how hard will that task be?"

That question was directed to the savior of the Mushroom Kingdom. Commencing to take a few steps towards the castle, he gave him his final sentences for the public to hear for the time being. "Worst case scenario, we need to pray to the Star Spirits and hope that a miracle will happen. Best case scenario, it'll more simple than we think."

With the reporters being out of the way, it was a signal for two male Koopa officers to wander up to the red-capped hero. The first one was slightly shorter than the other with a purple shell. "How long are you planning to be here?"

"Until we have enough, if any information that'll help us and the Koopalings in this situation."

"Then in that case, I'll give you roughly about an hour. We're intending to leave soon." He responded with a rather hostile look in his eyes. It was not hard to tell for Mario as he could infer that he was probably not good at keeping his emotions hidden, unless the look was meant to not be a secret.

Him walking away, the second police officer glanced back at him, the difference being a more concerned look. "You are allowed to have all the time you need. Just be careful."

"Thank you." Mario replied. "I appreciate your concern."

His voice was a little louder than he would normally talk. Toad and Toadette could infer that he wanted the first officer he spoken to to hear his words. The younger sibling had to question the older one on his behavior. "What's up with the attitude? He's an officer and should know better."

Toad sighed with a shake from his head. "That's the way it is, Toadette. Even though we are only wishing to help Bowser, inhabitants of the Dark Lands are quite angry about it. The smart ones would understand, as you can see what happened there..."

"... ..." Toadette had to face the facts and realize that her brother was correct. No matter how hard Mario would try and help the Koopa King, most of the citizens of the Dark Lands would still hold grudges against him. He expressed himself to be no villain at all, but basically the only real reason why they would be irritated was just because that he was 'disrespecting' King Koopa. It meant that every time Bowser kidnaps the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario would do anything to save her, and that included brawling with Bowser himself.

Mario simply chose to shook it off walking to the rest of the group. "Alright, let's start looking to see if we can find something. Something that'll help Bowser, or at least give us a hint so we can figure out where he currently is."

With mostly nods, it told him that they accepted the task and split up into different directions to start searching. Due to the castle's collapse, most of the things that they needed for clues were probably either crushed or buried. If they could find anything, luck would be on their side.

Thinking of that, Roy didn't know if he should get his hopes up. "I don't know if anything survive the fall, if the remains were lucky enough to survive the fire... I don't want to go back to the Mushroom Kingdom with nothing..."

"It'd be pointless if we just go back with nothing." Luigi agreed, lifting pieces of the castle walls. "You know what they say, go hard or go home..."

"Me and Junior could try to breathe fire to clear up some of this, but the last thing we need is to do any more damage to the castle. Plus, we don't want to actually burn down any information we may need. Which means we have no choice but to do this the hard way..."

For some reason, Mario couldn't get that battle he had with Junior and his father off of his mind. It was obviously trying to remind him of that special thing about it. The fights with Bowser may be different whenever Mario faces him, yet that one time stood out. He had to talk to the five year-old again.

It was when something crossed his mind. "Hmm... Junior,... was Bowser... Bowser, or something else during that battle..."

He and almost everyone else glanced at him with confusion. "...What do you mean...?"

"I mean... Was Bowser himself,... or was he in a different form...?"

Since it was easier for him and some others to comprehend, they began to think of where he was going. "...You mean before I... Hey, hold on a sec..."

Simultaneously, the older, yet shorter brother than Luigi snapped his fingers. "That's it! When I defeated Dry Bowser at that tower, you went ahead and changed him back from his dry status when I got to the castle!"

"..." He gasped in surprise. "Oh, yeah... I totally forgot that time..."

Those who weren't in the conversation before eyed each other with a mixture shocked and confounded faces.

"...Wait a minute..." It was Peach's turn to recall. "Mario, I remember you telling me what happened when you saved me from Koopa that time... And you did tell me what Junior done to him to make him his normal self again..."

The ones who were still dumbfounded were late bloomers, finally fully enlightened of what Mario, Junior, and now Peach were discussing.

"I did remember making that what-you-may-call-it back then..." Ignatius brought up with a thumb resting beneath his chin. "It was a time when dad told everyone but Jr. to remain at the castle..."

"And I remember seeing it myself because I wanted to be nosy..." Wendy reminded herself. "That's why you kicked me out of your lab..."

"So, that means..." It was Luigi's turn to speak. "If Bowser Junior can restore his father back then, then..."

"Then we can use Iggy's invention to change him back, now!" Mario and Ludwig said at the same time.

The tallest Koopa of the eight shook his head, lightly slapping himself in the face. "Why didn't I think of that in the first place?"

"But, it's the perfect idea, Iggy!" Lemmy walked up to him with a grin. "So, all we need to do is to just pull it out!"

"... ... ..."

"...What?"

"We can't just pull it out, Lemmy... Dad burned the castle down... And plus, I never thought we would use that invention again, years after that battle took place... So, I got rid of it... However, with some supplies I can get when we return to the Mushroom Kingdom I could build it again... I just need to remember exactly what I did..." He ended his statement with a sigh.

"Like Wendy," Ludwig re-entered the discussion. "I was curious at what were you doing that'll attempt to put a stop to Mario. I remember you putting the finishing touches on it... Wendy, how long were you in the lab befoer Iggy kicked you out."

"...Around three minutes?" She was unsure.

"Well, if you remember enough, maybe we can both help Iggy on re-creating his invention when we make our return to Peach's castle.

"That would work fine." Toadette nodded with agreement. "If we want to get Bowser back, Iggy must work on it immediately. And with that being said, we have more than enough information and we barely started looking."

"Still," Mario faced her. "there is probably more stuff that we need to find. We need all the information and clues we can find. We just figured out the big part of it..."

When Wendy glazed her eyes on some of the rubble. She couldn't believe her eyes on what she saw. "Oh, my goodness! I don't believe it!"

The girl rushed over to the area, and started moving some of said rubble out of the way until the apparent object was free. "My wand! It never got crushed!"

All of her siblings had mouths wide-opened as their only sister ran a certain distance to test it. A couple of rings being released when the pre-teen cast her spell. "It still works perfectly!"

Holding the same expression, Larry swiftly dashed to see the weapon up close. "...Y-Your wand didn't get destroyed... I... I... h-how...? I think you got lucky, there."

Pleased with her discovery she carefully placed the object in her pink shell. "If my wand made it, we can probably use this to help save..."

"..." At first the rest of the Koopalings were wondering why Gwendolyn would stop near the end of her sentence. Though, one-by-one, it hit them. A few of them just stared at the floor in the reaction.

"...What's wrong?" Toadette questioned with her head tilted to the side.

Toad was the first, other than the children themselves to find out the reason. "...They don't want to find their own father..."

"...Fight their own father?" Luigi was confounded.

"If Wendy found her wand, she thought of the possibility that she may have to fight Bowser in order to get him to Iggy's invention."

"Exactly." The only female of the bunch answered. "Unless we can just lure him to it... Iggy, what's the name of this invention, anyway? I am so sick of saying that word..."

"...Good question... I have never gave it a name... Didn't have enough time..."

"The point is, we have the solution to cure dad for the better." Roy butted in. "Let's keep looking to see if we can find anything else and head back to the Mushroom Kingdom."

About a quarter of an hour elapsed. If one had a watch, he or she could tell that it was nearing 8:30, it was beginning to get too dark to look, explaining why Mario brought flashlights.

While Morton Jr. was using his after some time, finding nothing was what made him quit with a sigh. "I give up... Everything else is probably trapped, crushed, or charred by the fire... That's a shame... We've spent almost an hour here and what did we find? Nothing... I need this was too good to be true. I know we've figured out how to cure dad, but we could have easily done it back at the castle. The only item we've found was Wendy's wand, and the rest of ours are history... If Kamek was here, he would remake them, but is he here, now? No! No one knows where the heck he is and-"

"MORTON!" A very irritated Roy growled.

"...Sorry..."

With one last shine, the light caught a rather strange brown book with letters decorated in yellow. It appeared as if someone wrote on the cover with permanent marker saying 'Journal'. "...Huh?"

Scoooping it up with his free hand, many pairs of eyes were focused on the apparently unharmed book which many of the Koopalings presumed that it was from the castle library. However, upon Morton opening it to see the contents, he observed the fact that it was not typed, it was handwritten.

"...If it's someone's handwriting, then it must not be from the library." Lemmy came to conclusions. "But in that case, where exactly did it came from? ...Unless this is Kamek's journal..."

"...Kamek has a journal?" Toad raised an invisible eyebrow.

"...But, this is not Kamek's handwriting..." Larry disagreed with a shook from his head. "...That's weird... He is the only one we know who has a journal in the castle..."

"...Hmm..." Ludwig thought out loud. "...If it doesn't belong to Kamek, perhaps this may belong to one of the many minions in the castle?"

"...Really?"

"I don't think Kammy, nor father has a journal, either. So, it comes to my hypothesis that this may belong to one of the minions. It doesn't matter which one, but if we read this, we may figure out what happened to all of the minions the night father had no control of his skeletal form."

Exchanging glances, Morton skipped many pages in attempt to find the most recent one. Whoever owns that journal might have written what was going on the night of the event. Yet, it might not be possible at the same time because of the castle burning down. Thus, he may not have had enough time to find his writing utensil, let alone inscribe about it.

The new question was answered when the third youngest son of the well-known king started to read. "November 5, 2014... (That's the night of the incident... He did write about it after all...) Something awful has happened to King Bowser Koopa, and none of us can at least find one of the children... Not even... Dry Bowser himself could find them... Unfortunately, not one of us minions were able to escape him in time, and has now ordered us to follow his orders, or else we will all perish by his now blue, fiery flames...

As of now, he has decided where to start searching for the Koopalings since they have apparently already left, which is good for them... But the real bad news is now that Dry Bowser is desiring to find them so that they can be destroyed. He is so desperate he is going to other lands in attempt to find them... It's a good thing he never said anything about the Mushroom Kingdom. Still, he will plan an attack on..."

"And that's it..." Morton finished with amazement. "He stopped right there... So, that's what happened to all of Bowser's minions... I feel so sorry for them..."

"As do we all..." Ludwig agreed. "But, we were right about him going to other lands to search for us. What we can infer is that the Mushroom Kingdom is going to be the last place he will attack. From what Morton has read, we don't even know is father has even set his mind on it, or not."

"Still," spoke Luigi. "we need to act fast and prepare ourselves. I think we've done more than enough for today. Who's with me when I say let's head back?"

"I am." Toad turned off his light source. "I guess we can have Iggy making the inventions as Peach can prepare her Toads for Bowser, whenever he comes to the Mushroom Kingdom."

"I think we're all agreeing, here." Mario had his arms folded. "Let's move. The sooner we start, the sooner we finish."

Well, this is the longest chapter in a while. Turned out longer than expected. To be honest, some of this chapter I've thought of on the way. If it weren't for that, this chapter would be a bit shorter.

Questions:

1. For those of you who haven't guessed, what world is Bowser attacking? It's main hero was the character from the first scene in chapter seven, so that should give you a hint.

2. The part when one of the officers got annoyed at Mario and when Toad answered Toadette's question, would you be the smart one, or would you go against everything the 'enemy' does, even if it's friendly? I know that there's an obvious answer, but still.

See you all next time!