No Such Thing

Chapter 13 - Stealth

Okay, everyone. First time writing a chapter for anything in over two years. ...Well, technically I have been writing a lot for a major fic coming up for a different franchise, but it has yet to be posted. But the good thing is, now you know that I'm not dead. LOL

I'm still thinking about this fic as we speak, since this is going to be a big project and I hate to leave work unfinished, so this fic is officially back on. However, I will be re-editing the first twelve chapters since my writing was a little off considering that the chapters were posted almost three years ago, and I facepalmed at some of them. ;-)

Anyway, let's hope I can remember everything, since this fic is finally live again. (Hard to believe that this will be my very first chapter I've posted in over two years. I'm really excited of what this year will bring on Fan Fiction.)

~KF

Now that Mario, Roy, Iggy, Wendy, Morton, and Larry were on the Koopa King's airship, they knew that it was only a matter of time to confront Bowser before he caused anymore damage to anyplace.

Morton was the one that was thinking this through as he and everyone else began to make their way to Bowser. They haven't thought exactly what they were going to do once the group of six reached him, but he obviously needed to be stopped.

"...Hey guys?" He started. "I'm confused. Since we were already at Peach's castle, why is dad leaving the place even though he knows that we were there the whole time?"

"I really don't know, Morton..." Mario shook his head. "Maybe he was trying to multi-task with something... I'm not sure what his plans are, though."

"...He was actually trying to kill us, though." Wendy recalled. "Even back at our castle..."

"Maybe that was his intention at the time," Iggy thought out loud. "but as of now, I don't really think so. Maybe he wants us to somehow work for him?"

"It's a guessing game on what he's doing at this point." Mario replied. "Let's just focus on reaching him and then we'll go from there. ...I don't know how we're gonna pull it off, though."

As they approached a corner, the group almost immediately heard running in their direction.

"Get inside the room!" Iggy quietly shouted as he opened the door that was conveniently right behind them as each and every one of them made it inside. As soon as the volume of the running decreased by the second, they knew they were safe.

"...You know, Mario,..." Mario thought out loud. "you were right. Dad's minions are dumber than they look. We weren't even that quiet for crying out loud. How did they not hear us?"

"Speaking of the minions, I can't believe that they even thought about attacking us Koopalings. They were legit trying to kill us out there." Roy brought up. "I thought that if anything, they would... I don't know... pretend that they are fighting us, but no, they were actually trying to finish us off. No 'I'm sorry' or anything..."

"I think it may seem like that..." Iggy replied. "But what if they were just trying to knock us out or something? We already discussed the possibility of dad making us work with him or whatever..."

"Either way, they didn't show us any sympathy at all..." Morton continued. "We already have dad to deal with, now we gotta deal with every last koopa that lived in the castle?"

"We'll talk about the minions later." Wendy said. "Right now, we have an even bigger situation to deal with. We have to play stealth and sneak our way to the control room."

"But if the minions wanna fight us, then why can't we just fight back?" Roy asked punching the palm of his left hand. "If they're gonna do us dirty, we should do the same to them to show them how stupid they are."

"That's not a good idea." Mario shook his head in disagreement. "I'd rather prevent then to react. Plus, it'll take us more time if we fight. The sooner we get to Bowser, the sooner we take care of the situation."

And so, the six split up into two groups of three since there was more than one way to reach the control room of the Doomship. Roy, Wendy, and Morton were making quite a bit of progress, yet the struggled a little bit since the latter two Koopalings were trying their hardest to calm Roy down so that he could resist the urge to fight. Yet, they were surprised that he was keeping his composure.

"Anything?" Morton spoke.

"No..." Roy sighed shaking his head. "Nothing here. We've only seen two Hammer Bros and one Koopa for now. I think Mario's group is dealing with all the enemies, unless some started coming this way."

"But shouldn't we be dealing with them instead?" Morton questioned. "I mean, Mario, Iggy, and Larry are already looking for Luigi, so we could potentially buy them some time."

"They don't stand a chance against Mario." Wendy answered. "They never do. Why do you think that we were always unable to capture the princess and actually keep her in the castle?"

"Well either way, we'd better hurry up. For all we know, dad could put the Doomship on autopilot right now and the last thing we need is to run into him and then-"

"Morton, just stay focused. We just need to find dad before he finds us." Wendy said. "We're doing good for right now, so let's not spoil it!"

As they continued on occasionally sneaking past more of Bowser's minions, the three Koopalings heard banging on the door. The three quickly turned around to the door behind them.

"Oh there's the door dad keeps Peach in half the time when we kidnap her." Morton pointed. Knowing that it can't be opened from the inside, Morton opened it himself and out came Luigi.

"Whew." Luigi sighed in relief. "What'd I miss?"

"Not much. We decided to split up in different ways to reach the control room, hoping we find you in the process. But since we did first, we'd better get to the control room quick."

That was when Luigi raised an eyebrow him. "But what are we gonna do? Fight him?"

"...Uh..." Roy scratched the back of his head. "We're trying to figure that out..."

Meanwhile, Mario, Iggy, and Larry were getting closer to the control room by the minute. Up until that point, it took them quite a while to get to where they were at the time, since there were a lot of minions in the beginning. However, they worked together quite well to sneak past them without one even noticing. It was a good thing that Iggy and Larry had Mario with them. Otherwise, it would have been much more difficult since they were not the ones who had to fight them a billion times like Mario did in the past.

"We're almost there..." Iggy stated. "I hope Ludwig, Lemmy, and Jr. aren't thinking that we're taking too long..."

"Well, it's not like it's gonna get done within five minutes!" Larry stated.

"I know, but still. They're gonna get concerned, and then Ludwig will send Lemmy and Jr. up here and that will make everything worse..."

"Shhhh!" Mario shushed the both of them looking around slowly and carefully. "Someone is coming..."

As the three hid behind a corner, two Sledge Bros. were heard conversing with each other.

"Rumor has it that intruders are on here." One of them stated. "We have to perform a major search."

"Agreed." The other one nodded. "It's likely those Koopalings again. ...Does the king know?"

"I'm not really sure at all." He shrugged. "If things get worse we have to let him know immediately. Better strike first, you know?"

"Right."

When the two were then heard walking in the opposite direction where the plumber and the two Koopalings came from, Larry's eyes were already widened. "We're in big trouble, now..."

"Larry's right." Mario nodded in agreement. "Let's hope that your brothers somehow found Luigi, because right now we need to move."

"Speaking of Luigi, normally the two of you can handle dad's henchmen just like that." Ignatius snapped a finger. "Yet obviously, they really took advantage of Luigi..."

"They sure did..." Mario scratched the back of his head. "I was just thinking about that when we were on Ludwig's airship... They're definitely more vicious this time, which is rare..."

"I can say that myself." Larry responded. "They're actually being smart for once... First they act like they don't know us and our siblings anymore, now all of sudden they actually know how to fight."

"Even I can say that they are acting very abnormal." Mario agreed. "Looks like they really want to be taken seriously..."

"Boss?"

A red Para Troopa was in the control room with Dry Bowser as he groaned in frustration knowing that he had just been interrupted.

"What!?"

"...Word has been going around that there are intruders on the airship."

"...WHAT!?" Dry Bowser was obviously very alarmed. He put the sip on autopilot as he finally turned around to face his minion. "Where are they!?"

"I'm unaware of their locations." The Para Troopa shook his head. "And like I said, it's just a rumor. We need to handle this with caution."

"Caution?" He stared at him as if he had no brain cells. "We don't have time to be careful! If someone is on our ship we need to take advantage of the situation. We could search the whole doomship if we-..."

He stopped explaining once he, and eventually his henchman turned around to face Mario, Iggy, and Larry were suddenly in the room.

Growling loudly, Dry Bowser had the sharpest glare in his eyes. "I told this plumber that this is none of his business. Just leave the ship and be on your way! I have better things to worry about then someone who does not matter to me right now."

"Dad, we aren't leaving. We're going to save you!" Iggy glared back, before suddenly leaning towards Mario. "We're trapping him in the dungeon, right?"

"Right..." He whispered back. "I'm gonna distract-"

"Enough of your whispering!" Dry Bowser was already losing his impatience. "Take these two somewhere and kick Mario out of the Doomship! Just drop him anywhere!"

Without even thinking, Larry promptly ran away, leaving Iggy and Mario no choice but to follow right behind him before the atmosphere quickly came chaotic. One of the minions ending up slamming the red button setting off an alarm. Within seconds, dozens of minions were after the trio, so they knew that had to evacuate the Doomship fast.

Narrowly dodging the hands of Bowser's henchmen, they almost ran right into Morton, Wendy, Roy, and Luigi.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Iggy shouted.

"Uh oh... Looks like they're in trouble..."

Lemmy only blinked as he, Bowser Jr., and Ludwig watched as a large red light can be seen from the Doomship. The three of them had been on board that ship so many times so they knew when something was not right, and this was simply one of those times.

Ludwig slammed his head on the steering wheel. "Oh, dang it..." Lifting his head back up, he turned to his brothers. "Okay, we have to do something. Lemmy, watch Junior. I'll be right...!"

The rest of his siblings plus the Mario Brothers could be seen desperately trying to escape Bowser's airship while avoiding the wrath of his crew. Taking quick action, Ludwig flew his own ship closer and one-by-one, he helped everyone get on. Once Luigi was the last person that got on, the ship nimbly turned around and headed into another direction. Luckily, the ship was much smaller, so it had its chances of escaping.

...Even when the Doomship started firing again.

*Sigh* Yet another cliffhanger...

Well, at least you guys are finally seeing my writing again, even though to this day I am slowly improving since I strive for it. I hope you all enjoyed, and this is definitely not the last time you guys will be hearing from me!

Question(s):

1. It is questionable on the way Mario and the Koopalings tried to handle the situation in the airship, yet it is possible that they simply didn't have enough time to think. With that being said, if you were Mario, what would you have done differently, if anything?

I encourage everyone to review.