Thanks for the support and reviews everybody
Enjoy!
Chapter Forty-Eight
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Mario or its franchise; it belongs to
Nintendo and their affiliates. I just am really grateful to its creators for giving
me such a wonderful game and media series to write about!
I also don't own anything related to Harry Potter, all that belongs to J.K. Rowling,
but thanks go to her as well because, using her wonderful work, I can expand this
story to make it more interesting.
I also don't own anything related to Naruto if you see me throw a little of that in, too
Okay, I'm not gonna' lie. Not much surprises me—ex adventurer here—but when my troops and Daisy and I got to the palace in the Badlands and saw what lay there, man did I pull up short. It was burnt to the ground. Some parts of it were still standing, like patches of flooring and some of the foundation and support beams, but for the most part all that was left were charred hunks of brick and stone and ash. It'd been totally torched.
"Who did this?" I blurted, squinting at the remaining amount of smoke in the air.
There'd probably been more but only a thin screen of it remained. It was enough to make me cough and wave it out of my face as I looked over at Daisy.
She was smirking at the ruins with one of her looks, the one I didn't know what to make of. Yeah, it was pretty sexy but it was almost evil in how pleased it made her look because that was destruction she was smiling at and it creeped me out.
"Daisy?"
"Hm?"
"Who do you think did this?"
Daisy shrugged and the pleasure in her light eyes faded as a frown found its way onto her lovely face. She looked up at the half moon in the dark sky and took off her hat. Only after fanning herself for a couple seconds did she make a remark.
"I think the snake did it himself."
I blinked and asked, "Who, Bowser?"
She nodded and looked over at me, serious as ever.
I frowned and said, "That makes no sense. Why would he burn down his own palace?"
"Who knows." Daisy replied simply. "In case you haven't noticed, he's kind of a psychopath."
"But even so, he loved this place." I pointed out. "He wouldn't just destroy it."
"Maybe not. I don't know." Daisy rubbed her face. "It's not like it matters."
She sounded pissed and I knew it was because, unlike me, she was hoping to have encountered the Dark King tonight. She hopped from her horse and so did I, then I turned to my troops. They got down when they saw me do so and waited for instruction.
I told them, "Alright, spread out. Report to me if you find anything."
"What are we looking for Commander?" one of them asked.
I sighed and said, "I don't know. Anything interesting. I doubt there's any survivors but we can at least try and see if someone needs help."
They set off and I led them, stepping over the rubble and covering my mouth and nose with my hand. The stench was worse than the smoke. It smelled like something had died and I prayed it wasn't the servants.
Well unless they got turned to powder, it's not them, I thought hopefully when, after a few yards of perusal, no human bodies turned up. I didn't put it past the tyrant to have killed them, though. It made my stomach turn sour but it was a possibility.
"Commander, come see!"
That was Portia. She and Lise-Marie were standing over a cluster of corpses and I feared I'd spoken too soon. But as I got closer, I saw those weren't human corpses.
Lise-Marie had her hat pushed up to the lower half of her face like a mask and was eyeing the bodies with a hard sort of scrutiny. Portia didn't seem to mind the smell as she tilted her head and ran intense black eyes over the creatures. With her booted foot she nudged one of them and turned them over.
"What are they, Commander?" Lise asked me, her cool voice muffled.
I said with a growing amount of perplexity, "They're Koopas. Bowser's old lackeys." I looked behind me and called, "Daisy, come look at this!"
She was leaning against her horse with her arms folded and her eyes narrowed ahead.
The girl told me, "Unless the bastard's dead body is in that pile, I don't think I want to see, sweetie."
Troy came over to Portia and Lise and me and made a comical sickened face. He stopped a few feet before he got to us and glanced from the Koopas to me.
"Commander," He sounded like he was about to throw up, "It's too dark out to see anything, really." He swallowed and said, "I mean, it's really late and there's still some smoke and—"
"Yeah," I nodded. "Besides, if Bowser did do this he did one bang up job. There's nothing salvageable here."
I grimaced at the blackened Koopas. Some of them had their mouths gaped open while others had bits of meat and flesh sticking to their skeletons. It was nasty. I was starting to feel just as vomit ready as Troy.
"Come on everybody." I said, heading back towards Daisy.
I reached her and she pushed off the horse and of course she had the map in her hands.
"So what do you suggest, Princess?"
Daisy opened the device and said, "Well if the map is correct, he's still in the area."
Daisy tapped on the dot and the area around it shifted so that the particular part of the Badlands made up the whole of the map. I could see the dot glowing in the middle of the city, but it was raised, like the area was on a hill.
"See?" She asked. "He's not too far away. Probably only a few miles."
"Good." I responded. "Then it won't take us long to track him down in the morning."
Daisy glanced at me, her expression frustrated and confused.
Before she could argue I said, "It's dark out and we've been going all day. Something tells me he won't be gone by tomorrow, Daisy."
Daisy narrowed her eyes and when she saw I wasn't budging on this, she huffed and threw up her hands.
"Why are you delaying this?" She asked agitatedly.
I said, "I'm not. It just wouldn't be wise to go navigating through hostile territory at night," She rolled her eyes and I added, "Especially when we don't know what we'll find. It's best to be as prepared as possible."
True I was not eager to face Bowser tonight or any other time, but I was being honest in my reasoning. I didn't want to bust in on him and see that he had a ton of allies ready to do to us what he may have done to his palace. I mean if that's how he treated his Koopas, what he had in store for us couldn't be pretty. I'd definitely feel a lot more confident with my troops fully rested and ready to go.
Daisy dropped her arms and looked to the side, defeated. I gave the order to my troops to make camp in the area to the west of the palace, near the Black Forest. Then I turned to Daisy and guided her by a thumb under her chin so that she was facing me.
"Hey," I said softly, "I know this is important to you. Just one more night, alright?"
Daisy stared at me and I watched her features struggle to hold onto her annoyance for a bit longer. Then she closed her eyes, exhaled through her nose, and smiled wearily. She leaned forward and kissed me and took down her hair.
"Fine," she said, shaking her head and being all unintentionally alluring.
Combing her fingers through her locks, she shed her jacket and gave it to me. I draped it over my arm and watched her take the map from her hip. I waited for her to hand that over, too.
"I'm going for a walk." She stated, and before she could get too far I hooked an arm around her waist.
"Let me hold the map, then."
She looked at me as if wounded and asked, "What, you don't trust me?"
"I'd just sleep easier knowing you hadn't done something reckless." I admitted.
Daisy pressed her tongue in her cheek and looked up at me with a brow cocked. She slowly passed the map to me and when I reached for it, she jerked her hand back.
"Just so you know, I wasn't going to use it." She told me, giving me the leathery device.
"Right." I drawled, taking the thing and tucking it inside her jacket. "Don't stay out too late, please."
"Yeah, yeah." She called behind her, waving her hand and sending me a flippant smile over her shoulder.
I love that girl but I worry about her. We should take this seriously but how seriously is too seriously? When did it shift from being responsible to becoming obsessed?
After the initial excitement of having someone new in the palace wore off, Larry found himself just as bored as he was before. It was cool to see his supposedly long-lost father, and it was even fun having the two munchkins back around, but after a couple of days things grew dull once more. That was partly because, though curious at first, MJ stopped talking and speculating about who their father was and what he wanted. Once MJ stopped talking about him, Larry had no one to bounce ideas off of with, because talking to Lemmy and B-Jun just wasn't the same. Not only that, but Bowser himself wasn't as interesting as he first appeared, not when he spent most of his time eating or sleeping. For two days that was all he'd done. He hadn't even talked to them. That left Larry with little to do besides try and play games with his younger brothers or pester his older one. MJ was too much into thinking these days, though.
That's what he was doing now as he sat with his younger brothers at the table. Leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed and his head tilted back.
I wonder what's on his mind, Larry thought, tapping his foot and glancing from him to the boys on the floor.
Of them all, they seemed to be the most easily occupied. They didn't care about dirt or germs today as they went crawling around looking under the counters. They'd found one dead rat and were looking for more.
Ugh, this is the worst, Larry frowned, laying his head on the table. No, he didn't want to join the kids on the floor. He wanted to do something else but what? He missed Ludwig's training regimen. It was sometimes physically and mentally taxing but it was stimulating.
Some banging around indicated that the oldest member of the household was finally up this afternoon. Not much later he came sauntering into the kitchen. He was dressed in much the same way as MJ except where the teenager wore a white t-shirt Bowser wore none. Larry made a face.
That must be where Roy got that from, Larry figured, eying his father's yawning face. Bowser looked over at him and lifted a red brow.
"Daddy, you woke up!" Junior exclaimed, rising and dusting himself off.
He ran to his father and the older redhead brushed past him in search of food. Junior latched onto his father's pants leg and tugged on Bowser's dragging hand.
"Since you woke up now, you gonna' train me like you had promised?" Junior asked.
Bowser ignored him and rooted around in the magical cabinets for something to eat.
"Daddy, you heard me?"
The former king took down some fruit and walked around the island in the middle of the kitchen. Thinking himself clever, Junior walked the other way and blocked his father's path.
"Daddy, you—"
Bowser put his hand on Junior's head and walked around him. The boy frowned and stepped in front of his father again, this time putting his small hands on his sire's stomach to hold him back. That was like trying to stop a steamroller for the five-year-old.
"Daddy, wait!" Junior cried.
"What?" Bowser frowned down at the boy, just noticing him. He'd gotten a little too good at tuning the child out sometimes.
"You said you would train me today!" Junior reminded him.
Lemmy got up off the floor and at the table Larry perked. He got up and went over to Bowser and gazed up at him hopefully.
"I wanna' train with you," Larry stated.
Bowser looked from his little twin to his blue-haired son and then at Lemmy as he came over, too. He bit into the skin of the red fruit in his hand and chewed slowly, looking them over. He then looked at MJ who had his head back still and was in his own world.
It would be interesting to see what he's capable of, Bowser thought, staring at one of his older offspring.
MJ was solid, brawny, not too hefty but still strong and tall. He looked like he was a fairly able young man. Bowser called his name and he glanced over.
"Would you like to train, too?" Bowser asked him.
MJ shrugged.
"But you said you was gonna' train me!" Junior protested.
Lemmy touched his arm and said, "Your Daddy can train all of us. We just gotta take turns, okay?"
Junior still frowned and MJ rose from his seat and made Bowser smile when he joined the group. He still had some reservations regarding his estranged relative, but training sounded like a good idea. It would be nice to have something to do again.
Bowser led the boys out to the small courtyard outside the palace and stood in the middle of it. He told Larry, Junior, and Lemmy to go and sit or stand somewhere off to the side because he wanted to go against MJ first. Only Junior had a problem with this.
Jealously he remained between MJ and his father with his mouth pouted and his jade eyes narrowed.
"Junior, move." Bowser commanded.
Junior balled his fists and shook his head, his red hair whipping from side to side. Bowser frowned hard, his features clouding with irritation. Junior gazed up at him and got scared. He knew that look well. He then changed gears and stared at his father petulantly.
"But Daddy, you s'posed to be training me!" He whined. "You said you was gonna—"
"Junior get out of the way." Bowser ordered strictly and his tone made the boy's face crumble.
He stomped away and sat far off to the side. That wasn't good enough, though, because he got up and turned his back to his father and even that wasn't enough. He turned and stuck his tongue out at his father. Bowser gave him another warning look and Junior turned his head away, wrapping his arms tightly around his knees.
Such a child, Bowser thought, watching his boy's jealous display. He shook his head and knew that jealousy came from him. Still, it was irrational. It wasn't as if he'd be replacing the boy as his heir; he had many offspring but only one true heir.
He looked from his youngest to MJ and bowed his head a bit.
"You want me to go first?" MJ asked unsurely.
"Just show me what you can do." Bowser encouraged.
MJ glanced around, and then stretched his arms and took a few swings at his father. Bowser dodged them and stayed on the defensive as MJ tried harder and harder to land a hit on him.
At the same time, Larry stood off to the side watching them impatiently. He hated that his older brothers always got the most attention. Sometimes he wanted to act out and throw tantrums like Junior, but he knew that would only make everyone do the opposite of take him seriously.
Bowser continued to evade MJ while his heir dropped his head glumly into his hands. He didn't notice when Lemmy came and plopped down beside him.
"Junior," The boy said softly.
The redhead pouted and glowered grumpily at the ground, drumming his little fingers against his face. Lemmy dipped his head near Junior's and bumped his shoulder against the younger boy's.
"Don't be sad or mad, B-Jun." Lemmy encouraged gently. "You gonna' get your turn."
"No I'm not." Junior mumbled. "I think um, I think my Daddy don't even much like to do nothing with me no more. I think he only want to do things with you and your brothers."
"That's not true." Lemmy insisted. He patted his friend's shoulder and said, "Your daddy still likes you."
Junior shook his head and said, "He don't like me no more because I kept messing up."
"Everybody messes up, B-Jun." Lemmy pointed out.
Junior just slumped lower and dropped his head between his knees. He was inconsolable, at least for now. Lemmy sighed and just sat next to his buddy.
MJ managed to get in enough licks to semi-impress his father, so Bowser stopped fighting on the defensive and came at him much more intensely than the boy could've predicted. Bowser wasn't pulling his punches and immediately got the teen off his feet with a smooth sweep under his ankles.
MJ stumbled back onto his hands and then rolled clumsily out of the way. His body fell back on practiced protective moves as Bowser started shooting fire at him.
Holy, MJ couldn't even finish his thought before leaping out of the way and still getting burned on the leg. He hissed and ducked and all that scrambling to get out of the way left him open to getting kicked in the stomach and being launched back a few feet where he landed on his back.
MJ groaned and didn't have time to recover because Bowser was stalking towards him, no mercy. Thinking quickly, he brought his two legs down and the earth rumbled and split beneath his soles. The two jagged cracks stemming from his feet joined in the middle and dashed towards the Dark King. It made him lose his footing and nearly fall and it also made a huge grin spill onto his lips.
"Very good!" He praised, rising and sauntering over towards the panting teenager.
He gave MJ a hand and said, "I knew there was something special about you, son. I know we could use that kind of power building and defending our empire."
"Huh?" MJ frowned. "What do you mean?"
Bowser grinned and said, "You'll see." He then pointed to Larry and said, "Come on and let me see what you got."
After witnessing his father's brutality Larry faltered. He stood there, swallowed, then took baby steps towards Bowser. MJ held up a hand and stopped him. He didn't feel right about letting his little brother go through that.
He's worse than Ludwig, MJ thought with distaste.
Bowser asked, "What, you changed your mind?"
Larry nodded and seemed relieved for his brother's intervention.
Bowser shrugged and said, "Alright. That's fine. But if you want a place in my empire, you're gonna' have to earn it."
"What?" MJ furrowed his black brows. "I thought you said we were guaranteed a place…you know, because we're your sons?"
"Of course." Bowser told him. "But you can't expect to just be handed an inheritance. The world doesn't work that way. You've got to make some kind of a contribution to this movement, you've got to prove your worth." He looked at MJ and said, "You're tough, you're strong. You've got nothing to worry about. But I've gotta' test your little brother."
MJ scoffed and thought, I knew it, man I knew it was too good to be true. He came here preaching about family and acceptance and I almost got my hopes up but I knew there had to be a catch.
"Come on Larry." MJ called as he headed back in the house.
His younger brother followed but Junior and Lemmy remained on the court.
"What's the matter?" Larry asked his big brother. "How come you look so mad, MJ?"
Morton didn't even feel like explaining himself because he was tired of people not needing or wanting to be bothered with him unless they could get something out of him. He was frustrated and Larry was confused and neither was expecting their other brother to just appear out of nowhere in front of them. Larry's eyes widened and MJ's frown lessened in light of the surprise.
"Iggy?" Larry blinked, then grinned and hugged his taller, slimmer brother and said, "Iggs! Where have you been, man?!"
MJ was sweaty and worn out, and besides, he wasn't much of a hugger unless his little sister were involved. He opted for inclining his head towards his brother and smiling as much as his mood would allow. Iggy must have been in a mood, too, for his smile was forced and uptight as well.
He pushed Larry back very gently and dusted his pristine white cloak out of habit. Vigilantly he glanced around and frowned faintly.
"Where is Lemmy?"
"He's out on the court." Larry told him, then asked, "Where'd you come from?"
"Have you two seen the Dark King?" Iggy asked severely.
"Who?" Larry hooted.
MJ shook his head and reminded him, "Our so-called dad, remember?"
"Where is he?" Iggy asked, his viridian eyes narrowing. "Is he here?"
"I am."
Said king had come in shortly after MJ and Larry left the court, much to Junior's further disappointment. Lemmy saw his older brother and beamed, then ran right for him. Iggy stumbled back a little bit and didn't appreciate the touching but patted his brother's head nonetheless. Junior pouted more because here was yet another contender for his father's attention.
Iggy glared at the oldest redhead and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Just chillin'." Bowser smirked. "Like a villain."
"That's a good word for you." Iggy remarked, then stated, "I don't want you around my family."
Bowser frowned as if he didn't understand the boy's anger and said, "But I am your family. We're all family here."
"You may have fathered me but we are not family." Iggy spat vehemently. "You need to leave us alone."
MJ was surprised at his brother's vicious tone and so was Larry. He, like he usually did in the face of conflict, slunk to the background and watched this play out.
Bowser rolled his eyes and said, "I mean you no harm."
"Just like you meant my mother no harm, right?" Iggy challenged, his eyes flashing angrily and his voice rising. He said, "She told me all about you!"
"Oh, she did?" Bowser smirked. "And you believed her?"
"I looked into her mind," Iggy shot back. "I saw what you did to her."
"You do realize where she was, where she's been for years, don't you?" Bowser asked lazily, folding his arms. "Those memories may be hallucinated or altogether fabricated for all you know."
Iggy balled his fists and said, "They weren't fabricated, you tortured her! You're the one that drove her to go there in the first place because you were killing them!" He looked to MJ and said scathingly, "He murdered your mother, you know, and he would've done mine in, too if she hadn't escaped."
Bowser rolled his jade eyes and said, "If you believe that you're just as delusional as she is. I got what I needed from that crazy bitch and that was the end of it."
Iggy acted without thinking and shot his hand out at his father. Bowser grunted and clutched his stomach where he'd been hit and all MJ could think was, good, now he knows how I feel. Iggy was irate and Bowser was getting there as he narrowed his eyes dangerously at his brilliant son. Iggy showed no fear as he glared up at the man and a bit of color filled his alabaster skin as he grew mad on his mother's behalf.
"Don't you ever speak of her that way," He warned his father. "And don't you ever come near us again."
Bowser stared the boy down and thought, oh wonderful, another thorn in my side. I knew this kid was gonna' be as bad as his brother, him and Ludwig have that troublesome vibe about them. Should've just sent the boy on a false trail…
He knew he'd have to appease the boy in some way or else he'd never be rid of him, so he smoothed his features, rubbed his healing stomach, and stared at the adolescent coolly.
"So you want me to leave?" He asked Iggy but he glanced at the others for confirmation.
MJ was standing there just in awe of his brother, wondering when quiet little Brainiac had decided grow a backbone while Larry was completely on the fence about everything. He was just a spectator. His ultimate lead was MJ; whatever his big brother decided, he'd follow. And Lemmy was holding Junior's hand and trying not to get noticed because he didn't understand why Iggy was mad and, for all he knew, that anger might turn towards him.
Bowser took Iggy's opinion as the consensus and said calmly, "Alright. Alright, cool. I'll leave." He smirked and said, "But first, I'd like to visit my other son. The one in Arid City."
Iggy immediately appeared averse to that idea and asked, "How do you even know about him?"
MJ rubbed the back of his head and looked guiltily down at his scratched and cut feet.
"You told him about Roy?"
MJ shrugged and Iggy wanted to smack him upside the head as he thought, great going, Bigmouth.
"You kids know how to teleport, right?" Bowser asked.
That earned MJ another glare from Iggy but he looked pointedly at Larry on that one. Iggy was so frustrated.
He told Bowser, "We're not taking you anywhere."
"That's fine." Bowser replied. "I'll find some other way to get all the way across the desert at such short notice." He looked off to the side and tacked on, "Until I do, of course, I guess I'll be staying here—"
"No!" Iggy protested, loathing his father's manipulations. He said, "You can't just bully people to get your way!"
"And I can't pull a ride out of my ass either so I guess I'll be here a while."
"Why don't you go on and do all the terrorizing you want and just leave us out of it?" Iggy asked in frustration. "Stop trying to recruit us into your tyrant army!"
Bowser said, "I don't know what kind of monster your mama's painted me out to be but I swear I'm not the low-down bastard you think I am."
Iggy's expression was deadpan and disbelieving.
Bowser looked to MJ and asked, "Have I lied to you?"
"…How should I know?"
Frowning, Bowser then asked, "Have I forced you to do anything against your will?"
MJ hunched his shoulders and said noncommittally, "Not really."
Bowser raised his arms as if that proved something and glanced pointedly at Iggy. This did nothing to change the adolescent's mind so Bowser dropped his arms and said flatly, "Look, kid, if I was really so evil, I wouldn't be asking so nicely for you to please take me to visit my flesh and blood son, now would I?"
Iggy scowled and shook his head at his father, too disgusted for words but if he had to pick a few he'd probably choose something along the lines of, 'you are so full of shit'.
MJ said, "Come on, Igg. Let's just take him." Iggy looked at him carefully but the older boy said, "It'll be fast. Just there and back. And besides, I gotta talk to Roy about something."
Iggy did not want to do this and he didn't like the way Bowser was smirking all pleasantly like he knew he was about to get what he wanted. Larry was glad for this new twist of events, happy that the boring day was definitely turning around. When he and MJ and Iggy joined hands, he had to be the one to connect with his father because neither of his brothers were going to.
"I wanna' go!" Lemmy said.
Iggy shook his head and said, "You stay."
"But—"
The party vanished before he could get his complaints out.
I thought Daisy would be back sooner than I got my tent set up because it always gave me a hard time. But I must be getting the hang of it because I got it straight and was laying on top of my sleeping mat and blanket and she still hadn't returned.
"May I come in, Commander?"
Troy was outside my tent. The moon was so bright I could see his silhouette against the flaps. He was shifting from foot to foot like he had to pee.
"Come in," I told him, sitting up.
He did and dropped to his knees. He was free of his armor and jacket and shield and also a thin veneer of his courage. He looked nervous and was rubbing his arm unsurely.
"What is it?" I asked him, concerned.
He settled amber eyes on me and asked, "Do you think we're going to face the Dark King and die?"
"…What?" I frowned, then said, "No. I mean, we're going to face him yes, that's what we're out here for. And there's a high chance we might die," Troy paled and I assured him, "Hey. That's what I'm here. I'm gonna' try as hard as I can to make sure we all make it out of this alive. No promises though."
Troy swallowed and nodded. He was sweating.
I told him carefully, "You know what you signed up for, don't you?"
He nodded.
"Troy," I told him, "You can still go back to Sarasaland if you're having second thoughts. I wouldn't think any less of you."
"But I would!" Portia sang as she invited herself into my tent. She smirked at Troy and stroked his cheek as a mother would, asking, "Is shit getting too real for you, sweetie? You gonna' bail on us?"
Troy pushed her hand away and said, "I'm not going anywhere."
"Right," Portia rolled her eyes and said, "I bet you'll take one look at the Dark King and piss your pants."
"Portia," I warned.
"I mean did you see him earlier?" She grinned, "I was sure he was gonna' hurl out there. It's like you've never seen a dead body before."
Troy grimaced and stood, ducking under the flap of my tent. I gave Portia a stern look and she blinked innocently.
"What?" She asked.
"You shouldn't treat him like that." I told her.
"I was just playing with him." She insisted.
"You're too cruel." I said. "But considering who your father is I guess it's no surprise."
"Please don't mention him." She closed her eyes in annoyance and frowned. When she opened them again she was grinning eagerly. Standing, she said, "I for one can't wait to see the big bad Dark King."
"You say that now," I trailed.
She shrugged and said, "We're gonna' kick his ass. I just know it. I mean, we might lose a few people." Glancing backwards she said, "I think you know who."
"Portia," I sighed, "He feels bad enough as it is. You don't have to go making it worse."
"I'm just trying to make him stronger," she stated as if she had the purest intentions.
I shook my head and said, "You are definitely Zair's daughter."
Another of her faces showed me how little she appreciated that.
A/N: Thanks for reading people! I appreciate it.
Do you agree with Ludwig about his brothers being in jeopardy? He certainly doesn't put much faith in Roy.
Stay tuned because more is coming everybody! I'll try my best to get another chapter out in a relatively quick manner.
Until next time…
~DymondGold~