Bowsette: A New Life
Chapter 37
Facing yourself
'Mario…' Bowsette put her hand over her heart as Mario and the creature that wore his form ran at each other. 'He shouldn't be out there fighting for us. It's the job of the strongest to do that! I'm the strongest here dammit!' She thought. Bowsette turned to Kamek and scowled. "Kamek, get THAT ready." She said. Kamek looked confused at his Queen for a moment before realizing what she was talking about. "Your majesty? But you can barely even stand up! We'll have to leave the cell and then you'll start transforming and…" Bowsette looked Kamek pointedly in the eye which made Kamek instantly shut up and said very quietly. "Are you questioning your Queen, Magikoopa?"
'Oh… shit…!' Kamek looked wide-eyed at Bowsette, wheeled his chair away slightly and finally turned and went to the door. "Guards! Open this up!" He yelled. He couldn't use his magic in here or he would just wave his wand and teleport them out. One of the guards came by and opened the cell. Bowsette strode out confidently as she could… and didn't start changing.
Bowsette wiped her forehead in relief. She had been banking on this. "Good. Don't know how long this will last so get to work!" Bowsette ordered. She had the guard open the cell next to hers and stepped inside. 'No time to get to the exits.' Bowsette thought. Kamek immediately summoned his wand and started to focus. He hadn't done this particular spell in a while and was a bit rusty. "Now… how did it go again?" Kamek mused. "KAMEK! Quit stalling!" Bowsette roared. That got the Magikoopa focused. "Yes! Yes my Queen! It was…"
"Koopa crescere... magnum et magnum!"
"Koopa crescere... Magna et in custodia!"
Kamek continued to chant. His wand gathered power, greater and greater it swelled…
"Koopa crescere... Magna et in custodia!" Kamek yelled and the magic went towards Bowsette in a wave.
***
Mario leaped into the air as he ran towards his doppelganger. The copy followed, it threw fireballs at Mario, so Mario took his hammer and spun in mid air, knocking them away. The doppelganger pulled out his own hammer and struck, which Mario blocked with his own. The two pushed each other away and landed before rushing at each other again. Like the knights of old the two parried each other's hammer blows, advancing, pulling or leaping back, and then going again.
Each hammer blow, each toss of a fireball, each punch or kick was mirrored by the other. Mario had faced his share of evil doppelgangers of himself over the years, but those were always only superficially him, being far less capable than Mario in some way that he would exploit to defeat them. Here, the two weren't just evenly matched, they were equal in form, equipment, skill, power… it was like each was actually fighting themselves. Each of them was unable to manage to even get in a hit that the other didn't predict, because it was what they would have done.
Neither backed down for even a moment, and the battle wore on for several minutes. Peach or the Turtle Dragon could easily interfere and tip the odds the way of the fake, but they didn't. Peach, the Turtle Dragon thing, and the evil Toads just stayed where they were and watched. Mario tried his best to find a hole in what was essentially his own defense, but every time his other would see it coming and stop him.
Finally, the two leaped away from each other and stared each other down again, not even a single strike had managed to get through on either of them. 'This will-a continue forever if it must. Give up-a and accept the truth.' It spoke in Mario's head again. "I won't-a ever stop fighting you. You hurt people!" Mario yelled back. 'People suffer in-a war, and make no mistake, this-a is a war for our survival.' It said. 'Don't pretend to-a be innocent. How many have you-a hurt or killed without a second thought in-a your countless adventures?' It shot back.
Mario knew that was the truth. "More than I can count, and I regret every single one! But I've never hurt anyone innocent!" However, Mario was undeterred by his evil self's words. He had long since made his peace with what he'd had to do to protect Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario was about to respond by resuming his attack, when he noticed that his doppelganger took a step back suddenly.
Something came out of nowhere and wrapped around Mario from behind. Mario quickly realized it was the smooth, soft and massive fingers of a giant hand. "Okay, fuck this! This shitshow has gone on long enough." A booming voice so loud Mario instinctively clamped his hands on his ears said. It took Mario a moment to recognize the gruff, rude but feminine tone of the one who held him.
"Bowsette! Not so loud!" Mario yelled. "Yeah yeah Pasta Freak I'll try." The now humongous Queen of Koopas sighed. She gently placed Mario on her shoulder, and he grabbed onto her long reddish orange locks of hair to keep himself from falling off as she moved. "I'll handle this…" Bowsette said. Though inadvertently Mario looked down and saw her already normally large but now massive cleavage. "HEY!" Mario cringed as Bowsette roared. "I know what you're thinking about Plumber! It's not the time for that! Eyes up!" Bowsette said indignantly. Mario quickly snapped to attention, his face red with embarrassment.
-
Bowsette was about to turn her attention to the fake Mario when she felt something stinging her feet. and looked down to see the evil Toads trying to climb them and attack her fruitlessly. "Ugh! Insects! Get off!" She kicked off each one in turn, throwing them off before starting to stomp on them in irritation. The creatures tried relentlessly and foolishly to continue their "attack" but it only made it that much easier for Bowsette to crush them under her high heeled shoes.
"That'll teach you you…" Bowsette started to say as she was finished crushing them all. "ARG!" Bowsette shouted in pain as a Bullet Bill hit her directly in the eye. It was a superficial wound, but still Bowsette involuntarily grabbed said eye as it shed a small waterfall of blood. "YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!" Roaring like the giant lizard monster she was, Bowsette swatted at the Dark Bowser's Koopa Car like an irritating fly, forcing it to veer off. Bowsette turned toward the fake Mario, which had been slowly backing away at this point, and growled with flames shooting from her mouth. "This Queen has suffered MORE than enough pain at the likes of you! GO TO UNDERWHERE!" Bowsette blasted a massive stream of fire at the arch the fake Mario was standing on, making the stone it was composed of begin to melt.
"Look-a out!" Mario yelled. That's when the evil Peach tossed several Bob-ombs at Bowsette's face and they exploded on impact. "Ugh!" Mario held onto Bowsette's hair tightly to keep from being thrown off as she involuntarily staggered back. Bowsette's movements were slow and a bit clumsy as she worked to adjust to her new size, she hadn't been this big in a long time and she was Bowser back then. She looked around for the attacking Copter but couldn't find it, and so looked back at the fake Mario. It was retreating down the arch away from Bowsette. "Oh no you don't!" Bowsette raised a fist and swatted down at the fake with all her might. The fake Mario avoided it by leaping into the sky and the arch broke to bits from the Koopa Queen's strike.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" Bowsette grumbled as the Koopa Copter rose up from out of sight on one side of the arch and caught the fake Mario inside it. It flew up high and away from the giant Koopa woman out of her reach. "Oh no, you're not escaping me!" Mario noticed Bowsette was forming a fireball in her mouth and gasped. There's no way Bowsette couldn't spit the fireball and not engulf the whole Copter. "NO Bowsette! Don't do-a it!" Bowsette turned her head to look at Mario. "Ugh! Why not? They're gonna get away!" Bowsette growledwith flames still forming in her mouth. "Luigi is-a in there!" Bowsette scoffed indifferently, so Mario switched tactics. "And-a you'd kill Peach."
At that, Bowsette's flames died down. "You're right… Dammit…" Just moments before Bowsette felt all but invincible, but that feeling of helplessness shot through her again. Bowsette and Mario watched the Koopa Copter as it ascended higher into the sky, the Dark Bowser's expression as always only of rage. However, Peach looked down at Bowsette right in the eye and grinned menacingly. Mario and Bowsette could just see Peach waving goodbye at them mockingly as the Copter and it's occupants disappeared behind the storm clouds.
Author's Note: I couldn't help but think of I Face Myself Battle: Persona 4 as I wrote these last two chapters.