Bowsette: A New Life
Chapter 43
A Scouting Mission
"Alright, now that-a I'm here, what can I do?" Mario asked. Any of Bowsette's forces here that could attack at range or fly had to be entirely dedicated to holding off the enemy aerial forces. "That's a good question. Unless you brought a wing cap not that much Plumber. The enemy greatly outnumber our ground forces here and we're just barely holding off their aerial forces with that we have." Kammy noted. "The castle is holding off the enemy ground troops well enough, but we're stuck inside, and I doubt even you could take them all out even with us backing you up."
"What about your-a battleships? Where are they?" Mario asked. "We don't know Mister Mario." Bowser Junior replied. "We haven't been able to get any word from the shipyards over in 8-6 when this all started." Junior grumbled. "We tried sending out scouts, but almost none of them came back, and those that did came back as one of THEM." Kammy said. "Since then, nobody has wanted to risk leaving. The castle is completely cut off."
"What about those-a paint creations of yours Junior?" Mario asked. "They can't be infected by the enemy, but those things are way too stupid to be good as anything but cannon fodder. They couldn't scout their way out of an empty room." Junior said dismissively.
Mario thought for a moment. "Then I'll-a go check it out and report back." Junior nodded. "But how Mister Mario? The castle is surrounded, all the exits including some you might not know about are probably crawling with those things." Junior explained. "The Koopa Copters were some of the first casualties when this began. The magikoopas couldn't carry your fat Italian butt on their brooms including me even if we could spare them from the barrier so don't ask." Kammy snarked.
"There has to-a be some way! I'll do whatever it-a takes. I can probably get back in the-a same way I did this time, I just need to get far enough out from the-a castle safely." Mario crossed his arms and thought. "Can you-a teleport me out maybe?" Kammy shook her head. "Most of our troops can be teleported safely, but you humans don't react well to being teleported with Magikoopa magic. Plus, even if you did we need someone on the other side. You're usually lucky that's the case, that's why we don't just send a single Magikoopa over to teleport Peach out of her castle to ours instead of sending a whole invasion force." Kammy noted and growled in frustration. "We might as well just…" Kammy sounded like she was going to start ranting when she suddenly perked up.
"Young Master? May I have a private counsel with you for a moment?" Mario didn't like the smirk on Kammy's face. "Oh?" Junior recognized the mischievous tone of the female Magikoopa and leaned in. Mario only became more and more concerned as the two whispered to each other. Mario could swear that he could hear the two snickering. "Yeah! Let's do it! Mama is gonna LOVE this!" Junior laughed. Mario REALLY didn't like the cruel grins on their faces as they both looked at him. "Whatever it takes huh?" Kammy said wickedly.
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"I… uh… I don't-a think this such a good idea!" Mario yelled. "Oh come on, you said you'd do it and I doubt we've got a better option." Mario heard Kammy say from outside. Mario did agree to it, but only because he couldn't think of anything else. The impact cushioning didn't give Mario much confidence as they shut the hollow Bullet Bill he was inside. Kammy had formed one out of magic and got it ready, but it was a gamble since Bullet Bills were hardly ever used for this sort of thing. At least Kammy had assured Mario it wouldn't explode on impact. Mario felt the Bullet Bill shake as it was carried by some Koopa Troopas to insert inside one of the larger cannons.
This wasn't the first time Mario had been shot out of a cannon, but this was a much more powerful one than any he had been shot out of before. Mario could do little as he was loaded except imagine the look on Bowsette's face when she found out what her son had done. Bowsette probably laugh so hard she wouldn't be able to breathe and asphyxiate herself to death.
"Ready Mister Mario?" Mario just sighed as he heard the sound of a fuse being lit. "Ready as I'll-a ever be!" Mario was brave, but this was a bit much even for him. There was every chance he would be killed on impact and Mario knew it. "5… 4… 3…" Mario was forced against the back of the Bullet Bill as it was fired. "WAAAAAAAAAA!" Mario's screamed just as loudly as he had when he and Bowsette were stuck in that pipe with in the runaway Koopa Copter.
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"You really think he's going to make it?" Junior asked. "Meh, 50-50." Kammy chuckled. She needed the laugh, being invaded wasn't fun. "If you'll excuse me Young Master, I should make sure the wards are being set properly." Kammy said and Junior nodded. 'Does Mario like Mama now? Mama did say she'd try to… uh… make them work I think she said one time.' Junior pondered for a moment before getting back to running the defenses.
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"AARRGH… ugh ack yuk!" Mario yelled and grunted as he impacted the ground roughly a mile away from Koopa Keep. "Well… I'm-a… ugh… I'm alive." Mario notes as he finally comes to a stop. Opening the Bullet Bill slightly from inside, he looks around. "None of them around right-a now." Mario noted. Mario hops out of the Bullet Bill and looks back at the castle for a moment before continuing on.
Mario had been to Bowsette's shipyards once, though it has been quite a while since then. Since it was past the castle from the Mushroom Kingdom Mario hadn't really had a reason to go to 8-6. During one particular kidnapping of Peach Mario had been just behind as they kidnapped her. Mario managed to climb into one of the battleships as it was leaving and ended up in the shipyards when the ship stopped. He snuck out from there to go raid Bowsette's castle like always, and that had been the shortest time Bowsette ever had Peach in her possession.
As Mario headed back the other way this time, he spotted dozens of the creatures making their way towards Bowsette's Castle. Deciding to avoid them as best he could rather than fighting them, he pressed on to World 8-5, a place he'd rarely had any occasion to go to. He found himself following a river heading toward the ocean harbor where Bowsette's airships docked whenever they weren't flying.
The enemy was becoming thicker and harder to avoid, so Mario dove into the river and decided to swim the rest of the way. Luckily there was no sign of the creatures underwater and the only threat in the river was Cheep Cheeps which Mario easily avoided or killed with fireballs. Between his strokes and the current Mario made almost as good time swimming as he would have on foot.
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About an hour later Mario made it to the ocean, just a stone's throw away from the shipyard where Bowsette's battleships were moored. Staying close to shore but staying underwater, Mario swam over to the shipyard and cautiously stuck his head out from underwater. Mario surfaced out near the ships furthest out and decided to climb the nearest one.
As soon as Mario reached the top deck, he sighed in disappointment. The ship had several dozen of the shades and a few of Bowser's changed army, probably former crew. Mario did his best to avoid being seen as he climbed up to the crow's nest to take a look at the shipyard at large. Luckily there was a small telescope up here, so Mario looked around the whole shipyard as best he could.
Unfortunately, it was mostly the same story elsewhere. The enemy had taken most of Bowsette's ships, though they seemed to just wander around aimlessly as Mario saw no sign they were trying to use the ships themselves. Mario turned his view over to the harbor and saw many of the creatures clustering around the warehouses, they looked like they were trying to get inside but from all indications they couldn't. Luckily there were no Bob-ombs among them, though that could change.
With a sigh of relief, Mario noticed the clouds were clearing. Though that might not help much, the intervals between clear skies and clouds with pink lightning were getting shorter and shorter. By his count Mario might have 3 to 5 hours to clear out the place if he was lucky before the next storm began. Although… it looks like the storm was mostly just moving to somehow gather around Koopa Keep from what Mario could see from here.
Mario shook his head and thought about how he was going to play this. There weren't anywhere near as many of them as there were around Bowsette's castle, but it was still a sizable force. Mario could just report back, but it's unlikely the castle would be able to send a force out here for a good while, and there would be more of them by then. Mario had dealt with forces of this size before more than once. However, if he was going to attack Mario had to make sure to be noticed by as few of them as possible as he was taking them out. If Mario got surrounded, he could easily be overwhelmed, but worse he didn't want to get hit by one of those pink lightning bolts. Seeing what happened with Peach Mario couldn't even imagine the kind of devastation he could cause if he were to be infected.
Mario decided he should check the warehouses first. The enemy was very focused around there and so there might be survivors inside. Mario simply dived off the crow's nest and into the water from there and started to swim over to the dock. As he got to shore, he could hear the sounds of screaming and yelling from that direction and knew he made the right decision.
Author's Note: I'm not going to be available next week, so I've decided to release a chapter a bit early.