World 1: Waluigi's Island
Bowser looked around as he arrived on Waluigi's Island. It was really a chain of islands, though perhaps they were one island at low tide. Nevertheless, there were bridges across the gaps between the islands, enabling travel between them even when the water was high.
"Graah, now where is that string bean?" Bowser asked the air. At least, he thought no one was around.
"Hey, wake up! The Koopa King is here!"
"Wha? Aah! Pass the word along! We need to be ready!"
"Why did we even end up involved in this? Mario and Waluigi never used to get along!"
"Because Mario bribed Master Waluigi, that's why."
Bowser listened to the Piranha Plants whispering to each other for a moment, until his patience ran out. "Enough! Are you going to tell me where your 'master' is, or do I need to burn it out of you?"
"Wah!" they shouted, disappearing back down the warp pipes.
"Eeeh? What kind of sentries are you?!? Get out there and stop him!" Bowser heard Waluigi's voice echo from loudspeakers, shouting at the Piranha Plants. Reluctantly they began sticking their heads back out of the pipes, firing off fireballs before disappearing again.
"Looks like we do this the hard way," Boswer mused as he began trekking across the island. The Piranhas weren't that hard to scare into submission, either, as he just needed to breathe fire in their direction to get them hiding again. Or a swing of his claws if he was close enough. Some of them were a touch more brave, which left them either nursing gashes from his claws, or diving away burning.
"Waaahaha! Stomp around all you want, Bowser, you won't find me!" Waluigi taunted over the loudspeaker. Bowser looked around and realized that he'd covered most of the surface of the island.
"Hra, there's not a building to be seen on this island…wait a minute….OF COURSE!" Bowser realized that he'd been just stomping past dozens of warp pipes in the past hour. "Now, to find the right one…" He remembered one area where the Piranha plants had been more tenacious than normal. "Yeah, I'll check there first."
None of the Piranha plants rose to challenge him this time, until he got back to the suspicious clearing. "All right, outta the way!" Bowser roared, breathing flames into the air. One of the Piranha plants got bold and fired a fireball at him in response. It hit him squarely, but Bowser just brushed it off. With another step forward, the Piranhas all ducked back into their pipes. "Now, which one is it…" he looked around at the pipes. At first, his eyes were drawn to a pipe that looked much like Waluigi himself, tall and skinny. But as he approached it, he noticed a broad, short pipe near it. "Wario'd have as hard a time squeezing into the small pipe as I was, and if the two of them are as close as they seem…" Nodding, Bowser jumped onto the short, fat pipe, and squeezed his way into it.
He emerged in an underground cave, with what looked to be a furnished cavern ahead of him. "Nooooo!" Waluigi yelled as he ran out of his 'home'. "You were supposed to use the other one! They stretch to let you in, after all…"
"It was too obvious," Bowser replied snidely. "Now, I could care less about any of this. I just want my kids back."
Waluigi laughed. "And what makes you think I know anything about that?"
Bowser roared, silencing Waluigi's laughter. "First, you're friendly with Wario and related to Mario and Luigi, who are the most likely culprits. And second, if you weren't up to something, you wouldn't have defended so much."
"Dad? Is that you?"
Bowser heard a faint call from the cave behind Waluigi. "And then there's that," Bowser said, growling.
"Waaaah!?! How'd that kid get the gag off?" Waluigi shouted, getting into a defensive crouch.
"Uh, hello, they are my kids. They can breathe fire, too," Bowser retorted.
Waluigi was trembling. "B-but, he shouldn't be able to yet! That ice flower we shoved down his throat was supposed to keep his flames off!" Waluigi thought for a moment. "Oh, crud! I didn't remember to give him another one! I was too worried about you!"
"As you should be," Bowser roared, swiping at Waluigi. He jumped, however, easily avoiding Bowser's claws. But he landed right on a blast of flames, lighting his pants on fire. He dropped to the ground and rolled to put the fire out, but by the time he had extinguished the flames, Bowser was standing directly over him, and put his foot on Waluigi's stomach, preventing him from moving. "Now, seeing as you're involved, that means Wario is too. And you, my slim friend, are going to get me into his factory." Waluigi nodded eagerly, not wanting to make the big lizard standing on him mad. "Larry! Are you alright?" Bowser called.
"Yeah, I'm okay, dad," came the reply as Larry stumbled through the doorway, burnt ropes in his hand. "Still a little cold from those ice flowers, though."
"Then let's get back to the ship and get you warmed up. Hand me one of those ropes." Larry gave his dad the biggest piece that he had, which he used to bind Waluigi's arms behind his back, with a leash to keep hold of him. The three of them then proceeded back across the island to the ship, and Bowser set sail for Wario's Factory.
