Bowsette: A New Life
Chapter 38
A Colossal Issue
"Well fuck, now what?" Bowsette pouted. "Uh… don't you need-a to go back in your room soon?" Mario noted. "You mean that cell? Shit…" Bowsette wasn't looking forward to being stuck there, though Kamek had promised to expand the dampening wards. "Cover your ears. KAMEK!" Mario managed to do so before Bowsette yelled. "Reverse the spell… arg!" Bowsette grabbed her arm as it started spasming. "Hurry!" Kamek quickly cast the counter spell before Bowsette's spasms got too bad.
Slowly, Bowsette shrank back to her former height, which still dwarfed the plumber. Mario leaped off as Bowsette grew smaller, by the time she was back to her original size her spasms were getting much worse. Kamek teleported to her side in an instant. "The size shifting has likely only exacerbated the changes. Help me bring her back in." Kamek yelled. That's when Mario noticed that Bowsette… had taken out a wall of the prison, probably while in the process of growing large.
"Teleport us-a in and I'll drag her back. We need-a to hurry before she changes form again." Bowsette was already starting to shift as Kamek complied. With a POOF! the 3 of them were inside the prison halls again. Bowsette was growing, her shell appearing, her face contorting, her bones snapping and reshaping themselves. "Ugh… Guards! Help-a me!" Mario shouted and 3 of them assisted Mario in putting Bowsette in her Turtle Dragon form back in her cell before the transformation had finished.
As Bowsette entered the cell and continue shifting, Kamek joined her inside. Mario was about to enter when Kamek raised his hand. "She'll be fine for now. I must speak with her." He said. Mario of course didn't trust Kamek, he didn't really trust Bowsette either, despite how things had been between them lately, but he nodded. "I'll-a go find Toadsworth and make a plan of attack." He said. Kamek nodded back. "You do that. Give us a few minutes." Mario just shrugged as acknowledgement and left without a word.
***
Kamek approached cautiously, Bowsette, or rather Bowser was still roaring in pain, then the spasms finally stopped completely as the changes finished. "So… my Queen… or rather my King, this is you?" Kamek said diplomatically. From his perspective this form was new to him, but to Bowsette it had been how she, or he, had been for most of his life. "Yeah… King Bowser. The great Koopa King." Bowser picked himself up off the floor and just sat on the floor. "Ya know, I never thought I'd be like this again. Never really cared that much about going back if I could either." Bowser admits.
"Well, that's one good thing." Kamek said. "When I stabilize your form, you could probably stay like this." Kamek noted. Bowser took a minute to seriously consider it. "Nah. Being Bowsette is…" Bowser would've been mortified of the idea that the form would be anything but a disguise when this whole thing started, but he was still a bit hesitant to admit that he was starting to like being Bowsette. "just as good and besides, she's already got life here." Bowser decided. "My Qu… well, your Highness, the dampening wards won't stop the changes from happening. It's hard to tell without a proper analysis, but you shouldn't shift again for several hours." Bowser nodded. "Kamek, what the Underwhere is going on?" Bowser asked.
Kamek shrugged. "I have theories, but no hard proof. I'm not sure what happened since the battle on the 4-1 rooftop. Were you struck by a bolt of pink lightning perhaps?" Kamek asked. "Not from the sky. Those things can shoot the lightning out of their hands or whatever. That… fake plumber hit me with one down in the Toad Town Sewers and then, I started changing." Bowser explained. "I drove it off but then… everything got kinda fuzzy not long after that."
The last thing Bowser remembered between losing it and coming to his senses was Mario holding his hand in the infirmary, something he wasn't going to admit to anyone, not even Kamek. He was even less likely to admit the feeling of gratitude as Mario tried to help down in the sewers. 'He's as nice a guy as ever. That always used to piss me off but now… not so much.' Bowser privately admitted.
Kamek looked at Bowser lost in thought and decided not to interrupt for a minute. "Your highness? I think I can guess what happened." Kamek began and Bowser turned to pay attention. "I'm not entirely sure where those things came from or what they are, but I believe they are a consequence of our… accident with the Super Crown. The pink lightning is some sort of corrupted magic from the Super Crown."
Hack! HACK! Kamek coughed and continued. "Normally if a Toad were to use the Super Crown the changes would be instantaneous and painless, but something about my alternation changed how the transformation functions, thus the painful changes. If I am right, I believe the reason you did not change back upon the Super Crown's destruction was that your body internalized the Super Crown magic. The corrupted Super Crown magic the beings shot must be interacting with the magic already in your body, causing the rapid changes." Kamek said.
Bowser shrugged. "Makes sense, but what can be done about it? I'm not sticking in this cell forever." Bowser grumbled. "It's hard to say your highness. In order to stabilize the magic within you I would need a sample of the original uncorrupted magic. The problem is, even another Super Crown wouldn't do the job. The accident resulted in a mass wave that would have altered any Super Crowns in the vicinity of the blast enough to be useless, and even if they weren't I'd need to modify them in the exact same manner I did the first time which is nearly impossible to do." Kamek lamented. 'Even with my notes I couldn't modify a Super Crown that precisely. No Super Crowns would be useable, and the last time there was a Super Crown that was uncorrupted was…" Kamek's eyes widened. "Of course! That might work!" Kamek said excitedly.
"Kamek? What're you thinking?" Kamek rushed to the cell door. "I'll explain later your Highness! I need to find your plumber boyfriend." Kamek said as he left the cell and shut it behind him. "HEY! He's not my boyfriend! Kamek!" Bowser roared, but Kamek had already teleported out of the prison as soon as he left the cell.
***
Mario, Toadsworth, and the Chancellor were in the meeting room trying to discuss what to do. Daisy wasn't there, she had to head back to Sarsaland and prepare the defenses for her own kingdom while Bowsette was out of it. "We've just been-a playing defense on this." Mario said. "We need to-a get ahead of these things somehow and go on the offensive." Toadsworth nodded. "I concur Master Mario, but how? I say, we know nothing of these creatures, and their attacks are growing more and more frequent. And now they have taken the Princess again and we'll have to search for her. Where do we even begin?" Toadworth asked. "We first need to stop the attacks, then we can worry about the rest." The chancellor said. "But how?"
POOF! Kamek teleported right next to the meeting room table. "So…" He said casually, like people teleporting out of nowhere was common which for him it was. "What stupid plan have you idiots thought up?" Kamek grumbled. "Idiots!? Why you…" The chancellor began. "Never mind that, we could probably use his help anyway." Toadsworth cut off the chancellor. "Maybe, but I can-a see where Bowsette gets her rudeness." Mario grumbled.
"I raised the Queen to be a perfectly refined and polite young lady if you must know Plumber!" Kamek snapped. For the other Bowsette that might be the case but for the current one… "Never mind. I've got some things to help with our situation, and in return you will help Her Majesty." Kamek said. He looked around at the group and dared anyone to argue.
"You-a know I'd always help someone just because I-a could." Mario said. "What do you-a need?" He asked. "I have some materials in my laboratory back at the castle I need to stabilize the Queen. Plus, I need to warn the Young Master and the slackers back home." Kamek waved his wand and paper with an envelope appeared in his hands. Another wave, and the letter was written and sealed in seconds. "This has the details. Take this back to my Queen's castle and wear that diplomatic badge you were given."
Mario takes the letter and nods. "Alright, and-a now it's your turn." Kamek nodded. "I always keep my word Plumber, if it's to my allies and like it or not that's what we are right now." Kamek sounded disgusted to admit that. "Get all of the pitiful excuses for mages this kingdom has on hand. You've still got the list of supplies?" Kamek asked and Mario nodded. "Good." Kamek turned to Toadsworth and the Chancellor. "Give it to them. We need as much of those supplies as we can get."
Mario did so as Kamek continued. "We're going to make more magic dampener wards. Starting with around the castle and going outward from there to all of Toad Town." Kamek explained. "It won't destroy the shades if they enter it, or stop them from just walking inside, but that pink lightning won't be able to form more of them inside the wards and they won't be able to… change people inside them." Kamek explained. "We can form an actual defense then."
Toadsworth and the Chancellor looked at each other. "Unless you have a better idea?" Kamek challenged. "No Kamek, I say that we don't." Toadsworth admitted. "Then let's get to it. Those storms are becoming more and more frequent and each time they form those creatures will attack again." Kamek turns to Mario. "What are you still doing here? Hop to it slowpoke!" Kamek grumbled.
Mario was annoyed at the Magikoopa, but did as he said.