Chapter 5 Time to Go

Standing in front of Bowser while in human form was somehow the most nerve wracking thing that Ludwig had ever done. He made sure to keep his cloak tightly closed as the Koopalings' king and adopted father stared at all of them with a dropped jaw. That look from Bowser would've been bad enough, but there was another factor at play that made Ludwig shiver. That being, Kamek. He looked as shocked as could be while looking at his princes and princess. And considering that Kamek wasn't the type to display such emotions…

Yeah, Ludwig felt like he was going to sink into the ground at any minute.

"I can't believe this," Bowser said, his voice so soft that it was like it had been digitally altered.

"Me neither," Kamek said as he adjusted his glasses. "This is certainly not an event that I would've come to expect."

Ludwig exchanged a worried look with Lemmy, who stood right beside him. It seemed the worried mood was shared by every single one of the Koopalings. All of them, that is, except for Roy.

"I personally think it's pretty cool." He stood proud and tall, not even caring about the fact that he was naked before a king (seriously, what was wrong with him?). "Exciting too. How many times can one say this happened to them in a lifetime?"

Ludwig snorted. Well, for me the answer is… he counted off the number of times he had transformed in his life. Yeesh, one hundred and three? He paused upon having this thought. Damn, what kind of life am I living?

Iggy, surprisingly, walked toward Bowser with… a smile? "Extraordinary is what I would call it." Just as Ludwig was about to question the sanity of two of his brothers, Iggy's face fell. "Although, as true as that may be, I feel as though this is beyond worrisome." He actually shuddered upon saying that. It didn't take much thought for Ludwig to realize that Iggy was thinking about the theory the oldest had presented earlier.

"I'll say!" Bowser's eyes looked wider than the biggest star in the universe. "How did this even happen? Why would anyone do this; you guys haven't done anything wrong!" He paused. "Well, okay, there were the times where you aided me in kidnapping missions, but come on! That's like miniscule! Hardly an action that would condemn someone to hell!"

Ludwig snorted. He was just about to speak up and present his theory to his parental figures (as well as at least attempt to fish Bowser out of his massive delusions) when the door on the left hand wall opened. In walked Bowser Jr, capturing the attention of every single one of the Koopalings as he yawned. Ludwig didn't know whether he should be surprised to see the Crown Prince still in his koopa form.

"Good morning Dad," Junior said, rubbing his eyes as he walked up to the throne. "I want to do something fun today, what do you…" he stopped. He blinked several times upon seeing the Koopalings, the gears turning in his head not only visible, but noisy. He looked toward his father. "Dad, who are these humans and what are they doing in the castle?"

Bowser scratched his head. "Uh, well…" He hesitated long enough to prompt Kamek into speaking to the young prince.

"They are your siblings, Your Highness."

Junior's eyes grew wide. "MY SIBLINGS?" He looked at the Koopalings for a brief second before turning back to Kamek with the most incredulous look ever. "You're pulling my leg, aren't you?"

"Alas, dear brother, he is not," Iggy said as he took a step forward. "The lot of us woke up in this transformed state not too long ago."

Junior's eyes grew wider than before, with all signs of incredulity gone as he stared at Iggy. "N…no way!" He went up to the Koopalings, studying them like they were aliens that had landed in the castle. "How can this be you guys? Who did this to you?" Junior looked and sounded a little cautious as he asked this next question. "It wasn't Kamek, was it?"

"No, it wasn't Kamek," Iggy said.

"Which, makes all to much sense to me," Roy said as he walked over to Junior. "Kamek would never have enough taste to give me as handsome a human form as this."

"Watch it, you nude neanderthal," Kamek said, his voice having just a hint of a spicy hiss.

As if those were some sort of magic words, Junior's face turned red upon seeing his brother in all his glory. "Oh… oh…" he looked up at Roy. "Do you… do you mind putting on some clothes?"

While Roy didn't answer, Ludwig immediately took advantage of the opportunity. "You know what Junior? I think that's a fantastic idea!" He looked toward the magikoopa advisor. "In fact, why don't you do something about that Kamek? Your magic is more than strong enough to hide our newly acquired shame!"

Kamek snorted. "I do not believe this shame exists within the mind of Roy Allison Koopa." He took a step forward. "Nevertheless, I hear what you're saying and I will gladly (emphasis on GLADLY) oblige."

With that, he waved his wand. The effects of the spell were immediately felt by Ludwig, and oh boy, were they great. He smiled and pulled back the folds of his cloak. The outfit he wore looked significantly fashionable, with a light blue dress shirt, a dark blue suit coat, dark blue suit pants, and very appealing dress shoes. Ludwig suspected that Wendy would use the term "tres chic" to describe his appearance.

Speaking of his siblings, they all admired their new clothes with giddily glad and immensely relieved eyes. "Why, Kamek!" Iggy exclaimed as he admired his new outfit (a white shirt underneath a green and purple sweater vest with khaki pants and black shoes). "I never would've expected that you would have such good taste."

Kamek chuckled. "Thanks." He paused, sniffing as he did. "I think…"

Roy, in a display that was both unsurprising while paradoxically being the most surprising, studied his outfit (a black leather jacket with simple blue jeans and brown shoes) with a smidge of disappointment. "Ah, man! This is nowhere near as comfortable as before." He turned toward Kamek. "Can I take it off?"

"NO!" Everyone in the room said in unison.

Roy shrunk back. "Okay, fine; yeesh…"

Larry shook his head, studying his light blue tea short and red jeans with indifference. "Well, this does help me feel a little better. Or at least it would if I still wasn't in this ugly hunk of meat!" He turned to Kamek, anger and frustration showing through on his face. "If you could use your magic to give us new outfits, why don't you also use it to turn us all back into our original selves?"

Ludwig opened his mouth to say something, specifically that that might not be possible if his original theory was correct. However, before he could, Kamek nodded and stepped forward.

"For once, you made a sound suggestion, Lawrence." He raised his wand. "I believe I can do this in a way that is as painless as possible." He waved his wand and pointed at the Koopalings. "Disappearance Spellus!"

Nothing happened. While Ludwig himself wasn't necessarily surprised, he was still a little disappointed. The others seemed to be displaying the exact same emotion.

"Didn't work Kamek," Morton said as he fixed the collar of the otherwise causal white shirt that he wore.

Kamek pulled his wand back, studying it with a raised an eyebrow. "That's odd." He looked back at the Koopalings. "Let me try again." He cleared his throat. He put one foot back, now sporting a stance and posture that made him look powerful and (if Ludwig was being completely honest) menacing.

"DISAPPEARANCE SPELLUS!"

Still, nothing happened. The Koopalings exchanged looks with one another, and even Bowser Jr looked like he was panicking a little bit.

"Kamek, why isn't it working?" Junior asked.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Bowser. "I thought you were the most powerful magikoopa in the Kingdom! And yet, you can't remove a simple transformation spell like this?"

"Yeah, Kamek, what gives?" asked Larry.

Kamek pulled his wand away. Ludwig wasn't one hundred percent sure if it was just his imagination, but Kamek actually looked a bit worried. His hands shook as he looked at his wand, no doubt studying it for any imperfections that could be preventing him from casting such a simple removal spell. When he didn't find anything, he turned back to Bowser with wide eyes.

"I… I don't understand." He looked back at the Koopalings. There was now no question in Ludwig's mind about his emotional state; he looked more frightened than any of the Koopalings had ever seen him. "This should be simple to do! Why isn't it…" he shook his head. "I don't understand! I can't understand!"

Ludwig's insides squirmed. He reasoned that now would be the perfect time to present his theory, and the looks that all of his siblings gave him now perfectly supported the idea. So, he took a step forward.

"I think I know what's going on."

With that, he explained. He told Bowser and Kamek about the Shadow Seeker he encountered, and how he believed it to be the true culprit. Bowser and Kamek's eyes grew wide (as did the eyes of the previously ignorant Junior). The fright that they showed when Ludwig described the demon was on a level that neither one of them had shown before. In fact, it was so unusual that Ludwig felt like he was in significant danger. He felt as though he was teetering on the edge of a great problem, a horrible scenario that NO one, not even the powerful Koopa Kingdom royal family, had the possibility of making it out of alive.

When he finished, Bowser and Kamek exchanged a look. Ludwig also saw that the other Koopalings looked mightily uncomfortable, with Lemmy fidgeting with his orange tee-shirt and Wendy doing the same things with the folds of her hot pink dress. Ludwig didn't blame them; the more he thought about the monster, the more he shook. It was possible he shook harder than anybody else in the room, especially seeing how he was the only one present who had seen the Shadow Seeker firsthand.

"Well," Bowser said after a couple of minutes of unbearable silence. "If that's the case, then we are all in grave danger." His face looked more solemn and grim than Ludwig had ever seen from him. "Nobody, not even me with all my might, is capable of beating a demon wit powers such as these."

Lemmy whimpered, and Ludwig immediately why. The fact that Bowser… BOWSER, King of the Koopas, was saying something that bleak and true was… terrifying.

"Then what do we do?" Lemmy asked.

"Are we stuck like this forever?" asked Larry.

"Where do we go from here?" asked Wendy. She even displayed some tears in her eyes as she looked at Bowser. "I don't want anything bad to happen to any of us! Least of all you, Bowser."

Despite himself, Bowser smiled at the warm words of his daughter. "I appreciate that, sweetie. I don't want anything bad to happen to you guys either." He took a deep breath. "Which is why I need to send all of you away."

Silence. Silence strong enough to hear a pin dropping dominated the room. Sweat rolled down Ludwig's back as he took a step forward.

"And where would that be, exactly?"

Bowser exchanged a look with Kamek before clearing his throat. "I'm going to send you to the Mushroom Kingdom." Ludwig blinked, surprise striking his heart before Bowser continued. "Specifically, I'm going to send you to Peach's Castle so that Peach, Mario, and all of their buddies can protect you and keep you safe." He looked down at his biological son. "This includes all eight of you."

Junior let out a gasp. "Wait! You mean I'll get to see Mama Peach!" He jumped into the air. "YES! That's awesome!"

Iggy, by contrast, gave Bowser a quizzical look. "Are you sure that it possible?"

"Yes," Bowser responded. "Remember, we set up a peace treaty between the two Kingdoms. Peach should be willing to do this favor for me because of that."

Lemmy took a step forward. "But what about you and Kamek?"

Bowser let out a big, shaky breath. "The two of us are going to stay here."

"Yes," Kamek said, noticeably gripping his wand tightly. "As much as this situation endangers all of us, Bowser and I are needed to protect the entire Kingdom. It is our duty to stay here."

Ludwig's heart sank when he heard that, and there were no doubts in his mind that his siblings felt the same way. This theory was only proven when Wendy went up and wrapped Bowser in a hug.

"Be safe, Bowser."

Junior joined in right alongside her. "Beat that demon good, okay Dad?" The other joined in not long after, with Ludwig feeling a sort of sobriety in the air. He wasn't going so far as to say that this would be the last time he would ever see Bowser, but… well, he was still worried.

"Thank you, kiddos," Bowser said. He pulled himself out of the hug. "Now, go get ready. I want us all in the airship within the next hour."

With that, the Koopalings dispersed. As Ludwig went up to his room to gather his things, he thought about the danger in this scenario. He was in danger. His siblings were in danger. His family and kingdom and girlfriend… all were in danger.

Oh goodness, his girlfriend! Oh, he could only hope that nothing bad was happening to Aria right now…