(A/N: Don't you just love it when the truth finally comes out? I wish that the truth had come out to everyone else in the game, so they'd stop hating on Mario for good. Well, enough of that; I'll start this last chapter!)
Now that the truth had gotten out and everyone knew it, Mario was finally let off the hook, and his criminal record was revoked, much to his relief and happiness. As for Bowser Jr... the judge not only declared him guilty, he also shifted the responsibility of cleaning up the island to him and him alone. Mario and Princess Peach were also given permission to help the cops keep an eye on Bowser Jr. to make sure he did his job.
The couple followed the cops as they took Bowser Jr. to another polluted area of Delfino Plaza. When they arrived, the Chief said, "Well, here we are. Time for you to start cleaning up on your own, kiddo."
"I'm not doing it. You should make Mario do it." Jr. pouted.
"We can't, because Mario didn't make this mess. You did it, and you know it. The lie-detector and DNA results proved to all of us that you were lying right through your teeth, and you and Mario even shook hands on it when you two made that deal about Peach and the results of the tests. She's not your mother, so you have to do it." said the Chief.
"I don't care what those tests said, or what Mario and I did! I'm backing out of the deal he talked me into making with him! I'm not going to do it, and you can't make me!" said Jr.
"Oh, is that what you think?" asked the rookie.
"You think you can make me do what I don't want to do? Okay, then! Do your worst!" Jr. said.
The cops pulled out their guns and pointed them at Jr. The young Koopa's eyes were wide with fear when he saw the weapons. He didn't know if they'd actually follow through with shooting him, and he decided that it was best to not find that out and just do as the cops said.
(A/N: The cops weren't really going to shoot Bowser Jr., no matter how much you might wish they would. He's just a kid, after all. A dangerous kid, but still... It was just a scare tactic to make him do his job.)
"Okay, I'll clean up the mess by myself now. But where are my cleaning supplies? I'm going to need stuff to clean up the mess, you know." Jr. pointed out.
"You'll use this." said the rookie, putting away his gun and handing him a tool that looked like a toothbrush. In fact, that's exactly what the object was.
"A toothbrush?! What are you, crazy?! If I use this, it'll take forever for me to clean up this mess! Why can't I use the mop and rags like I used when Mario and I worked together? Or how about that thing Mario was using to clean up?! He cleaned up a whole lot more than I did with that thing!" Jr. whined.
"Because we forewarned you that you would be using something worse if you were lying. As for the tool that Mario was using, there's only the one, and you're not old enough to use it, so you'd just break it. And besides, you shouldn't be allowed to use tools like that." the rookie smiled.
Mario was glad to hear the rookie use Bowser Jr.'s words against him, despite the fact he hadn't been nearby when Jr. said them to him. Peach even remembered that moment, and like Mario, she couldn't help smiling.
Bowser Jr. went right to work, grumbling under his breath about the unfairness of it all. As he cleaned up the mess, he began wondering about the toothbrush he was using for the job. Was it Mario's? Surely the cops hadn't given Mario back all his things when he spent that first night on the island behind bars. Then again, he didn't really think to ask them if they had. Or maybe they'd say that the information was classified, meaning he wasn't allowed to know.
(A/N: After the first day of work, the police let Mario join his friends at Hotel Delfino, and he was given his luggage back, much to his happiness. Plus, they admitted that they searched his luggage and found nothing that could have helped him pollute the island. They should have known he was innocent when they did that.)
Upon closer inspection, Jr. almost fainted when he realized that the toothbrush he was using was not Mario's, or a new one, or even an old one, but his own! It was black, and there on the handle was his symbol in orange. (A/N: The cops found it among the Shine Sprites he'd filched.)
"Oh no! This cannot be! Why am I using my toothbrush to clean up this mess?!" Jr. yelled at the cops, who were sitting at a table nearby, sharing a baker's dozen of glazed donuts with Mario and Peach.
"Because you saw to it that the island got as dirty as your mouth. If that toothbrush can clean your filthy mouth, it can clean up your filthy mess!" said the Chief.
"Now get back to work!" the rookie said.
As Mario and Peach sat eating donuts and watching Bowser Jr. work, Peach said to her boyfriend, "I'm glad you knew that he was lying from the start, Mario. Most men would become angry as heck with their girlfriend or wife if she was accused of being a mom to a child she never recalled birthing or adopting. I'm glad you didn't react like that when you heard it."
"I didn't have to read into it because I know you well enough to believe you, Peach. There is just no possible way you could have mothered a rotten brat like him. He's not your child in any way, shape, or form. And if anything like Bowser might have convinced him of actually had happened to you, I know for a fact that you would have told me about it right away." Mario said to her as he finished his donut.
"You're absolutely right, Mario. If anything really bad ever happened to me, I would have told you about it immediately because both of us know that hiding something as sinister as that is pretty much considered impossible!" said Peach.
"AHA! So THAT'S where you've been all this time!" said a familiar, evil voice from above; a voice that immediately sent unpleasant shivers down Peach's spine.
"No...!" Peach gasped in horror as she turned pale and her eyes got big. That voice was one Peach hadn't wanted to hear. Not when she was on a vacation with the man of her dreams.
"Don't be afraid, Peach. I'll protect you from him." Mario assured the princess, protectively wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close to him. Peach felt safe as long as she was in Mario's strong, loving arms. She knew he would never let anything bad happen to her.
Bowser Jr. perked up at the sound of the voice, and when he looked up to see where it had come from, he smiled and shouted, "Oh, sweet karma! I'm saved at last!"
The cops pulled out their guns again and watched as Bowser's Koopa Clown Car landed not far from where Bowser Jr. was cleaning up the mess.
"All right! Papa's here! He finally found me! Now all of you idiots are going to be sorry that you ever messed with me!" Bowser Jr. cheered as he saw his father get out of the Koopa Clown Car and storm over to the table where the cops were guarding Mario and Peach. The cops were also pointing their guns at Bowser, ready to shoot him if he tried to hurt anyone, especially Mario or Peach.
"Jr., I was wondering what has been keeping you from returning to me! I got worried about you, and when I began to feel sick with worry, I finally decided that it was time for me to go out and look for you; find out why you hadn't come back! Now that I've found you, would you care to explain what's going on here?" Bowser asked, turning and seeing his son standing next to a mess of goop.
"I would, but unfortunately, that is what I'd like to know, Papa! Mario started this whole thing, but now the stupid cops are blaming it all on me for no good reason!" Jr. said.
"Actually, sir, we have forensic evidence, AND a lie-detector test that say your son did it! And he admitted to doing so with that paintbrush, which we learned was stolen!" said the Chief to Bowser.
"And some guy with a silly name said that Peach isn't my mama!" Jr. whined.
"Because I'm not." Peach told Jr.
"She is his mother!" Bowser said.
"No, she's not!" Mario said.
"She is, too!" Bowser said.
"Prove it." said the rookie.
"Okay, then. If she's not his mother, I'd like you to explain these adoption papers! They seem to say otherwise!" Bowser said, pulling out some official-looking papers and handing them to the cops to look at.
The papers appeared to be legal adoption papers, and Princess Peach's signature was on them. The cops were about to realize that even though DNA said Peach wasn't the kid's mother, these papers were a game-changer... However...
"What in the world...?! I never signed any adoption papers! The lie-detector administrator asked me about those during the test, and I was telling the truth about not signing them!" Peach spoke up.
"Oh, come on, Peach! Don't play stupid! You did so sign these! You must have forgotten about that day!" said Bowser.
"She's not stupid, and for that matter, neither am I! Let me see those papers." Mario said.
The cops handed the papers to Mario, and he and Peach checked them out. To their horror, the papers were indeed legal adoption papers... But...
"Hold everything! That is not my signature!" Peach exclaimed as she looked at where she would sign her name.
"Oh, yes it is! Don't you know your own signature when you see it, woman?! Or are you just blind?!" Bowser asked, wishing that Peach would just shut, comply with his wishes, and not screw this up for him. These adoption papers were his ticket to getting her as his little wife AND a seat on the Mushroom throne, and he could not afford to let the princess ruin his desperate, last-ditch attempt to get what he wanted.
"Ohhhh, Peach is right, Bowser! That's not her signature! I've seen Peach's handwriting millions of times before, and this signature looks like chicken-scratch! Her handwriting is actually cursive and graceful, like Luigi's!" Mario said. (A/N: We can assume that Luigi's neatness even shows in his handwriting.)
"Let's see. We need to verify that the signature on the adoption papers is not yours, ma'am." said one of the cops, handing Peach a piece of paper.
"Gladly." said Peach as she produced a gold pen from her purse.
Peach wrote her signature on the paper, and sure enough, when the cops compared the signatures, they saw that Peach's handwriting did not match the signature on the adoption papers. Peach's handwriting was just like copper plate, a far cry from the sloppy writing on the adoption papers.
"Whose signature is that, really?" asked the Chief, realizing that the signature on the legal papers must be a forgery, which would land Bowser in more trouble than he'd ever been in.
"Oh! Well, you see, Peach was really nervous and excited when she signed the papers, so that's why her handwriting looks sloppy. It really is her signature." Bowser lied, sounding a little nervous and hoping the cops wouldn't notice. But they noticed. After being lied to, they paid closer attention to details.
"No, Bowser, that is where you are wrong. Being a princess, there are a lot of documents in the kingdom that require my signature on them, and I never, ever sign anything without thoroughly reading it first. And I most certainly wouldn't sign anything from you! Right now, I'd happily sign a restraining order that forces you and your son to stay the heck away from me!" Peach snapped.
"Admit it, Bowser! You know you're lying to the police, and so is your son! He's a dirty liar, too!" Mario added.
"I am not lying to my son!" Bowser lied.
"Papa never lies, and neither do I!" Jr. claimed.
"I hate to tell you this, Jr., but your father does lie. And he does it a lot. To everyone he meets. The worst part is that he even lies to himself and feels no remorse. And in doing so, he taught you how to lie as well." Peach told Bowser Jr.
"Admit it, Bowser. Peach is right. You are nothing more than a lying liar who lies, and you know it!" Mario said.
Bowser had no other options. He had to tell the truth, even though he had pretty much convinced himself that his lies were the truth.
"Okay, I admit it! The signature you see on the adoption papers is not Peach's! I'm the one who wrote her signature on the papers so that you would believe that she was really my son's mom no matter what she and Mario might try to do in order to convince you that she's not." Bowser said.
"Oh, so not only did you lie to us, you also committed forgery! Great! Now you can think about what you've done in prison!" said the Chief, and he and the rookie put their guns away. They were about to haul Bowser's sorry tail to the police station, but the Koopa King said, "WAIT!"
"What is it?" the rookie asked.
"I need to speak to my son first." Bowser said.
"You know he's not going to be let off the hook, either." the Chief warned.
"Oh, come on!" Jr. complained.
"I have to tell him something before you throw me in the slammer." Bowser said.
"Okay, but make it quick." the cops said.
Bowser lumbered over to his son and said, "Jr., I've got something...difficult...to tell you..."
"Do you?" Jr. asked.
"Yeah. You see... back when I told you... that Princess Peach was your mother... Well... I might have... bent the truth... a little..." Bowser began, sounding really nervous.
"Might have?" Peach asked, sounding angry.
"A little?" Mario asked, just as angry as Peach was.
"Okay, okay! I totally lied to Jr. about who his mommy is! There! I said it! Are you two happy now?!" Bowser asked them.
Mario and Peach noticed that Jr. didn't look too happy with the knowledge that his father had the gall to lie to him, his own flesh and blood.
"Yup." Mario replied, looking happier as he looked at Peach, who replied, "We sure are."
"I don't believe you..." Jr. muttered under his breath.
"Who don't you believe?" Bowser asked his son, hoping the answer would be Mario.
"YOU, PAPA!" Jr. yelled, pointing the accusing claw at Bowser, before asking, "Or should I even call you that?!"
"Oh, come on, Jr.! I am your dad, and you know it! We look so much alike! But you should know that I had to tell you something when you asked me about your mother!" Bowser said.
"Really? Well, the next time you know you have to tell me something, how about you just tell me the stinkin' truth?! I'm your kid, so I think I deserve to know who my real mama is!" Jr. yelled.
"That's true enough, but I couldn't bring myself to tell you the stinkin' truth! And do you know why? You couldn't handle the stinkin' truth!" Bowser yelled back.
"Is that so? Well, let me tell you, if you had just told it to me from the beginning, we wouldn't be in this mess right now, and it's a sure bet we wouldn't end up having to go to stinkin' prison! MAN!" Jr. hollered, clearly angry.
The cops looked at each other and knew that the mess on the island never would have happened in the first place if Bowser hadn't lied. Mario never would have been in trouble if Bowser had had the guts to tell his son the truth.
"Isn't there something else you should tell him, Bowser?" Peach asked.
"What are you talking about, Peach? I already did it!" Bowser said.
"No, you have to tell him how you really found out that I was coming here!" Peach reminded him.
"Oh yeah. That." Bowser mumbled.
"Yeah! Ma... I mean, Peach says she never told you that she was coming here! You said she did! So who told me the truth?!" Jr. asked, knowing he was going to hate the answer.
"Well..." Bowser began, rubbing the back of his head.
"Oh, for crying outside!" Jr. complained, realizing that Mario and Peach were right about his father, after all. Now Jr. was going to have trust issues!
"She didn't tell me that she was going on a vacation. I was telling the truth about being in the Mushroom Kingdom, but Peach never told me that she was coming here. Here's what happened that day: I was hovering over the courtyard of her castle in the Koopa Clown Car, and I just happened to see her out there with Mario. I overheard them talking about a tropical vacation they were going to take, so I decided to listen in and take notes." Bowser explained.
"So you lied to me again when you told me that Peach told you that she was coming here. She never saw you, so she never told you about this! For shame, Papa!" Jr. scolded.
"Mario, I think that we're going to be having all of our discussions indoors from now on." Peach whispered to Mario.
"No argument there, Peach. We want to be on the safe side." Mario agreed. He sure didn't want Bowser to overhear their vacation plans anymore.
"So now you can admit what you heard about the princess today was true." the Chief said to Jr.
"I know, she's not really my Mama..." Jr. said with a heavy sigh. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew that there was no escaping from the truth.
Mario and Peach smiled with grim satisfaction as they watched the scene, but their arms were still folded across their chests.
Bowser looked kinda sad, like maybe he felt bad for causing all this trouble for him and Jr. Perhaps he was hoping that Jr. would be able to forgive him for lying like he did.
"Okay, that's enough of this!" said the rookie, starting to lead Bowser away from his son.
"But don't you worry, big guy! You and your son won't be apart for too long. You and him get to share a prison cell, because that's where he's going to sleep every night!" the Chief assured him.
Bowser and his son felt a lot happier when they heard that. At least they would still be together every night.
"As for the clean-up of Isle Delfino, your kid is still on his own! You can't give him any help with that! He made this mess without any help; he can clean it up without any help." the rookie said.
Bowser and Jr. groaned. Of course, there was still that problem.
That night, in the prison cell they were allowed to share, Jr. whispered to his father, "Someday, when I'm bigger... I wanna fight that Mario again!"
"That's my boy! Well put, son! The royal Koopa line is as strong as ever!" Bowser replied, cheered up now. It seemed that his son had forgiven him for being a lying liar who lies.
Jr. did clean up the entire island, and he did a very good job. The only problem, though, was that he wasn't really able to use his toothbrush to clean his teeth every morning and night, so Bowser made a mental note to get his son a brand new toothbrush as soon as the island was cleaned up and they were allowed to get out of prison.
The problems that didn't involve stuff needing to be cleaned up were things Mario took care of, with a little help from F.L.U.D.D., and it was so much easier when he heard Peach and the Toads cheering him on as he did it. Better yet, he also received lots of praise from the Piantas for doing it, much to the happiness of the Toads. The rest of the vacation was smooth-sailing for the group.
Professor E. Gadd did get his paintbrush back by the beginning of the following week, and he was extremely grateful. He even tested it to make sure it could work the way he planned. It needed improvements, so that it would never work for bad guys, not after what it was being used for. Plus, he built a high-tech security system in his lab so nothing like this could ever happen again.
In the end, Mario was proven innocent, Bowser and his son were in prison, the island was cleaned up, and everyone lived happily ever after.
The End
Well, Bowser almost turned things around for his son, but he still ended up failing in the end. I hope you all enjoyed reading how the game could have ended very differently.