Heroes vs Villains - Ponderosa

Chapter 5 - Juror 5

Well, Bowser is unfortunately not in the game anymore. Really sad to say, because I really did feel bad writing him off like that. He was the biggest character of his season when I first wrote Kodai Island, and it's all come to this.

But at least he had a grand exit, so perhaps his fellow jurors is gonna welcome him with open arms.

~KF

"'Sup? I'm Bowser, juror number five. And this is my Ponderosa. My time, baby!"

Night 31

It was not a shocker that he had to be extra when it came to him introducing himself for his Ponderosa video on SmashTube. But hey, he was being himself and it was his night. The man had it rough back there, so it was best to give him a break.

"Gotta go through this again..." Bowser Koopa was seen shaking his head grinning. "Deja vu."

All of a sudden, a raindrop fell on his nose. "Just my luck."

He needed to make it to Crazy Hand as soon as possible before mother nature came pouring down on him.

"Here I am. Voted out again. I just can't make it past nine, and this time it's not even because of me being perceived as a big threat in my alliance. They only saw me potentially working in secret with Wolf, and that's why I got voted off. And I suppose he didn't want any bad blood between him and I, so he decided to tell that I was getting the boot... I mean, I do appreciate it, but all this is a very hard pill for me to swallow. But,... I'll be fine. I'll just deal with it. I know part of me inside is grateful for surviving this long."

"Maybe I should look at the bright side. I've already established a name for myself in this thing. So this moment is only gonna put me out there even more. And Vector once told me that after this season is over, Ridley and I both would officially join his Reptile Runaways squad. Something tells me that we're all gonna have a lot of fun once this is over."

Hmm...

"Back in my first season, people sort of underestimated me. Because of all those fights with Mario and being snappy at other people, they just didn't take me seriously. They didn't even realize I had a legitimate chance of winning at one point. But, I know I did. And that is pretty much all it takes. If you believe in yourself a little bit, you can go places. Just imagine what it would have been like if I actually clawed my way to the finals, and everyone would have been like, 'What the _?'"

Hopefully his language was pardoned by the audience.

"Hahahaha! So coming back out here, people did take me more seriously. But coming into it, I know more people were going to see me as a threat, but I ended up going home due to different circumstances... You know what, it all plays a factor of me being a threat, anyway. And they got me out because they actually saw how potentially dangerous I could be. Props for them for playing hard and getting rid of who they felt they needed to get rid of. The only thing is, everybody already knows who I'm gonna vote for. Wolf brother, you better make it to the end."

"Crazy Hand!"

"Hi!" The hand turned around to see Bowser entering his tent for his post-game medical check up. "Welcome back. And just so you know, that's Doctor Crazy Hand to you. Hello, Bowser. How are you doing?"

"..."

Um, yeah... He... Ugh.

"Ooookay." Normally he was fairly talkative, but this time Bowser was just as speechless as the fans were. Now it was expected for Crazy to live up to his name, though even for his own standards he was rather... off.

Perhaps he just did not appreciate him not being properly addressed.

"Sit down, please."

"Sure, doc..." He sighed briefly before taking a seat in the black chair nearby.

"You ready to eat?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." The turtle's grin returned. "I have a lot of thinking to do, so I must get some kind of food in me. I'm tired of rationing the food with the tribe all the time, so it's gonna be good over there not having a limit of how much you can eat."

"One of the things I won't miss out here is the whole concept of rationing. I know back when I first played, I was complaining about the lack of food non-stop. It was just that the majority of the complaints I've made did not make the final cut for the show. Though I have grown more tolerable of it due to my experience, it doesn't make it better. You're starving all the time while running all kinds of situations in your head of how to deal with these people. It's not that difficult to lose your patience once in a while. But hell, if I can do it, anybody can do it!"

His clawed feet were now stepping on the scale.

"I don't know if I should even care what it says on this thing anymore..."

And his shell was removed for it, so he just shown wearing black shorts.

"Hmm... Well today you weigh in at 205.3, and you have started out with 228.6. That's 23.3 pounds you lost, Bowser."

It was more of a realistic weight for him. There was no need to even think about his ridiculous weight in Kodai Island. It was already the most flawed season anyway, but that was already established on multiple occasions. Though one of the few positives to say about it was that it was indeed the most important season because it was the first season.

"Eh... Not bad." He shrugged. "It was probably because of all those challenge wins with my team. Maybe I would have cared more if I actually weighed under two hundred. That would have been scary!"

"You know what the weird thing is? I actually feel like I have gotten stronger comparing to the time I played in Kodai Island. But for some reason, I kinda flopped in the challenges this time. Endurance challenges just weren't for thing, and I never even came too close to win individual immunity... Maybe if Survivor accepts three time players at some point, I'm gonna make sure I have my A game on if I do come back."

Well, if he was considering on working out some more, he needed to push the thought aside for the time being. By the way his eyes were scanning the menu, he was just too hungry. It was best to get some food in his system.

"I know Ridley has been talking about steak whenever he wasn't in a good mood. The lack of food at camp even got to him of all people and he was the main one talking about rationing all the time. You know it's bad when he starts complaining about it. ...I'll just order whatever he ordered."

His boat approached the dock as it was starting to drizzle.

Nonetheless, the other jurors (Golden and Vector in particular) came out of the cafe to greet him at the steps.

"Welcome aboard!"

"King Koopa himself! How ya doing man?"

"Eh... I'll live." Bowser friendly shook hands and embraced both of them. "And here's the thing. Before Wolf told me that I was gonna get voted out, me, Ryu, and DK, we were all expecting one of them to get the boot. We just had the loved ones visit, Ryu won the challenge and he had a moment with his master. And he and DK were both doing great at like every challenge. I thought it was gonna be one of them. But apparently Springtrap-"

"Okay hate to interrupt, but we don't wanna get too wet out here." Golden politely intervened, motioning the other two to follow him in. "Let's talk inside."

And besides, Shadow and Ridley were there as well. The two of them were not plainly ignoring the newest member at Ponderosa this time. Bowser was actually someone that genuinely interested the both of them. Shadow never had any issue with Bowser at all, and he was one of Ridley's closest allies.

"That was pretty rough for Bowser." Golden could not have imagined. "I got out at roughly the same spot due to my season only having eighteen players, but it was just unfortunate for Bowser. I actually thought that he was going to make at least a few spots more which would have been nice for hm. But the rug got snatched from beneath him last minute and it was just too late for him to do anything about it."

"You holding up in here okay man?" After the turtle shook Ridley's hand, he went in for the hug. Yet the space pirate stepped back cautiously. "Oh, not a hugger?"

"I... It's... I'm fine." He held out a hand in front of him. "I don't mean to offend you, but I don't know if I'm even close to that point yet. But,... I do appreciate the offer if that means anything to you. I'm just disappointed of the way you went out back there."

Vector and Goldie were both chuckling at the awkward, yet somewhat funny interaction.

"The jurors were all cool. Golden and Vec were the first one I saw here, Shadow was just hanging around, and Ridley and I are buds now. But I'm still forgetting that I need to kinda coach Ridley of how to deal with other folks when it comes to this stuff (even though it's over), and outside of Survivor. Meta Knight is not really here to help him out, so I'll gladly take his position in the meantime. It all seems right for me to help him out a little bit, because I know how he feels. I've been in his position before where you feel like you're surrounded by idiots,... only for it all to turn out that you were the idiot all along. I found that out about myself in Kodai Island, and I know Ridley made mistakes in Caribbean. I know there's only like two people in this universe he would actually listen to, and I hope I'm the other one on that short list besides Meta."

Really interesting confessional coming from Bowser. The fans could have only imagined what could have been if they both stayed in the actual game longer together.

"So, what's this about Springtrap? Was he behind all of it?" Shadow was just too curious of how it all happened.

"Oh, yeah!" The leader of the Dark Lands went back on topic. "So as it was saying, apparently Springtrap did not want Wolf and I to get too close together. I mean, I get where he was going with it, but we didn't even do that much strategy talk with each other lately. Golden, after you left, we didn't do too much."

"Then why did he want you out?" Vector blinked.

"He was only thinking about himself." Golden thought out loud. "Wolf and Bowser being together for too long was too threatening for his own game. He took out Bowser so that he could have Wolf to himself. The man just didn't want Wolf to have too much leeway. Now it's him that's in a better position."

"I mean, I never spent too much time with Springtrap in my season." said Ridley. "But something told me that he was a gamer. He is not a fool. Combining that with how outspoken he is, he'll blindside and take out pretty much anyone just so that he could get his way. He's going to be someone we should all look out for."

"He's gonna end up strategizing his way to the finals if no one does anything about it." Shadow predicted. "He already won a couple challenges including the one today."

"Springtrap does seem like quite the competitor. I never paid too much attention to him, since I didn't know him that well." The Mobian admitted. "But he might be the biggest threat to watch out for. He has the ability to convince and manipulate other people to get things done just for his own interest. If he actually gets to the end, I'll have a couple questions to ask. But I'd still be inclined to vote for him to win the money. He does seem to have a sharp mind for the game and how it's supposed to be played."

"I'm ready to eat now." Bowser's stomach grumbled one too many times. "Ridley, whatever you ordered the first night you came here, I'm ordering the same thing."

"..." He blinked with a bit of glare. "For what reason?"

"'Cause I can."

And so he did. Steak dinner with diced potatoes! ...And asparagus.

Koopa decided to order some shrimp too, just in case the food was somehow not enough to fill him up.

Ridley still appeared rather confused to why he was being copied by him, though he eventually felt like it was not really that serious. "Fine. I suppose I'll just copy you back and order whatever you're ordering tonight."

"My man!"

"Don't make this any more awkward than it has to be..."

Now the only person that would have made the moment even more entertaining was the one and only Wolf O'Donnell. He was already going to be the topic of discussion. But if he actually joined and ate steak with Ridley and Bowser, it would have been definitely something to see. Maybe for all the Wolf haters, that was one benefit they would have gotten if he was going to be the one sent to the jury house next.

"So on the behalf of Springtrap, I do apologize." Golden spoke to Bowser. "You told us that you changed a little comparing yourself to your past season, and you really have shown that. You know Wolf feels terrible about this as well."

"Wolf'll be alright." The spiky-shelled turtle spoke between bites. "If he's good, then I'm good. Obviously this is gonna make the two of us grow even closer, and that's the beauty of it. As for Springtrap, if he makes it to the end, I'm gonna have a couple of things to say to him. But I gotta remember that I can't be too mad. Maybe in his eyes, this is his revenge because I got Foxy out."

"Oh, yeah!" Vector widened his eyes in realization. Golden already told the other jurors of what took place at that point. Yet for Vector in particular, he was already aware of how Bowser sent him home thanks to Yoshi telling him on the island. "You really did that?"

"Sure did."

"You are one badass, dude. I wish I was there when it happened. That's incredible. And you kinda saved my alliance too because Yoshi was the only one from my core group over there. Thanks, man."

"Meh. I would've gotten him out myself if he and I swapped places..." Ridley rolled his eyes, causing Bowser to put in his place.

"Don't be jealous. You played a part in Sheik going home and she was close to Foxy herself."

"Game wise, my overall plan was to come out here with a little bit more patience so that I can actually think things through of how I was going to approach different situations. If you wanna keep a level head out here, sometimes you gotta step back and think for a second before you make a rational decision. And if you act purely on emotion, it's only gonna make things worse. And that was my biggest mistake in Kodai Island. I didn't know how to think about what to say before I said it, and it harmed my game. Don't get me wrong. Everybody loses their patience sometimes. But it's all about how you handle it. And sometimes things still got too much for me this season, so I just took a second and walked off by myself so that I can complain in peace. ...But hey, you wouldn't have expected me to have an ounce of patience in my bones, wouldn't you? That all comes from raising eight kids all by yourself."

Yes, that was right. The kids. The kids again. It was all about the kids. All. The. Time.

"Well since you have grown, don't be surprised if you find yourself doing a bit of reflecting, Bowser." Golden warned him in advance. "Every time you feel like you've made progress with yourself regarding anything, that's just naturally what you do."

"Yeah, my whole Survivor is gonna come flashing at me when I hit the bed tonight..." He glanced off to the side in thought.

"But, it's cool. It's healthy. Acknowledging yourself in the past really shows how far you came. You can think of this as a Survivor blessing or something."

"Meh. I'll thank the Star Spirits."

"That works too. Thank whoever you want."

One enjoyable meal later, it was now starting to rain a bit harder as Bowser was on his way to his room.

"So I got roughly a week here. There usually isn't much to do around here, but at least I don't have to get constant headaches from the game anymore. So I get to relax for approximately seven days. Gonna make the most out of that, talk to people here, and have a much easier time in not starving to death."

He got into his bathroom where he finally took a glance at himself in the mirror. It did appear that he lost a bit of weight, but his hair definitely grew over the four and a half weeks prior to his elimination.

"Damn..." Bowser began to run his fingers right through it. "I know if I wanted to keep this, I would have ended up growing a mohawk like Larry."

Day 32

"You just get tired of all the social interacting you have to do, you know? For instance, say if I have to talk to... Vector all day long just so that I could see where his head is at in the game, that drains the absolute hell out of me."

It was the next morning and the jurors already had their breakfast, and that was already a job well done for Ridley and Bowser. Now there was no way at all either of them were going to starve to death... unlike the players that were actually still playing on that crappy island they called Darleem.

All shade aside, the two reptilians decided to stay at the table even after they were finished. They planned on talking a little more one on one, anyway. It was just a golden opportunity. Golden was relaxing in the hammock, Vector was surfing around in the water, and Shadow was simply thinking to himself on his lonesome.

"This has nothing to do with the history I have with him in Caribbean." Ridley went on. "I have no real issue with him, but it's like you and Mario are all over again. The two of us are never gonna have anything going in between us, and I feel like Vector has to, I don't know... get choked by water or something in order for him to understand."

Easy, Ridley...

"I get it. I completely get it." Bowser knew this all too well. "No wonder Banjo called you Bowser 2.0."

Oh, so that actually remained on his mind. Hmm.

Ridley gave him a confounded look. "What do you mean? We don't exactly play the same way, in case you haven't noticed."

"We don't, but I'm talking about ourselves in general. Other people out there tend to get on our nerves. What you went through in Caribbean reminds me of what I went through in Kodai Island. You feel like nobody around you has any brain cells."

"My thoughts exactly." Ridley was so glad at least one soul understood where he was coming from. "In my mind I'm going, 'What are these people thinking?' or 'What are they on?'"

What were they on? Like, of course it was easy to get the joke, but... what sort of intoxicated substances did they have on planet Zebes?

Anyway... "See? That's what I'm saying. We're more similar than you think, Ridley. I feel like I'm having a conversation with myself, to be honest. And you know, it actually helps me just as much as it helps you. Mario and I aren't ever gonna be the best of friends. But the way I look at your situation, Vector's just trying to be friendly. That's all. He'd be a fool at this point to think you and him have the same potential as you and Meta."

"..." He sighed after seeing things from that point of view. "Fair point. At worst, he's annoying. But I suppose he never really had any bad intentions. He voted me off twice, but he's not really an asshole. ...And I really have been trying my hardest to be more tolerable around others. Although, I never even expected myself to be some sort of adviser for Shadow."

They both took a glance at the direction the steps were where he was sitting. But they were never able to get a good view of him, so a cameraman held it down instead with his face completely zoomed in. For extra detail, Bowser and Ridley's faces were both fuzzed out in the distance.

But the camera shifted right back over to them.

"You think he's changing at least a little bit?"

"He is aware of some things, but something tells me that he's still trying to process it all. He might take the longest time to reflect out of all of us." Ridley predicted. "But due to me feeling similar to him at points, I'm not gonna judge him for not self-reflecting fast enough. I believe it's best to let him move at his own pace."

"Yeah. Just let him be whenever you get the vibe that he wants to be alone."

"I do think fondly of Bowser." Well that was one thing the Metroid villain was not afraid to admit. "It is quite rare for me to relate to somebody else. I think what made me see Meta in a different light in my old season was when I realized that he was someone I actually related to. He admitted to me that he was just like me in his past and that we both knew what it's like to lead entire groups of people. And once we actually saw us both coming from the same cloth, it really registered with me of how unfairly I treated him. ...He gave me a different outlook on life because he learned from his own mistakes."

"So with Bowser, I'd say though we aren't completely the same with our personalities, we are still somewhat similar. He is simply more loud-mouthed and more outgoing with it. But we both have come to know that in both of our seasons, we were the common denominator in the game due to our lack of social games. But honestly, if he didn't express any growth with him, I wouldn't be taking him seriously. Though he is no fool, so I did not mind him coaching me when I need it."

"You are the first person since Meta that I'm coming to for advice." Yeah. He was definitely being more open about some things now. "I'm sort of in disbelief, honestly. Who would have thought that just opening up to others that you can trust a little could go a long way?"

"Well, it's not as you are being asked to open up to the entire world." True. And that was because not everybody liked everybody. Bowser was just told by Ridley that he and Vector were never really going to get along on a friend kind of level. At most, they were simply acquaintances and there was nothing wrong for that. It was all about personal tastes and different interests. "Everybody has their own person to relate to. If you can find common ground with some people, you'll fell less alone and more understood. I actually, um... listened to my folks at home after I back from Kodai Island. And with the edit and me thinking everything over, I... kinda looked like a moron out there."

Ridley's eyes enlarged after hearing those words. "All this is coming across as quite mature coming from you. I've watched you on Kodai Island myself. There were a few moments where you were rather flawed, but I'm getting the impression that you really learned from your mistakes."

"Hey, you saw the error your ways during the duration of your season. It took me until after the fact to start seeing things."

"I think Ridley and I are gonna be pretty cool. Not only we told each other our stories about personal growth, we both are big figures in our respective worlds. We know about the pressures of what we have to deal with, and maybe it kinda hardened the both of us. I remember what Mario told me once after we had a conversation following the Kodai Island reunion show. Before we parted ways, he just told me to stay humble... Sounds simple enough, but maybe his words do hold some truth to them, now that I've seen someone who is cut from the same cloth as me."

"So hey,..." Bowser all of a sudden turned around where the water was. "-since we're talking about Vector here, he wants us to... try a little something."

His face had a mixture of annoyance, confusion, and general curiosity. "What...?"

"Okay, so K. Rool, Yoshi, Charizard, and Banjo aren't here to oversee this, but I am." What in the world was on the croc's mind? "And I say the Reptile Runaways can officially welcome both Ridley and Bowser with open arms. Figured it would be best for us to do some serious business here and you know, grow our brand a little bit. ...But really, all I was really trying to do here was to have a little fun with them today. It's friggin Ponderosa for crying out loud. Why take stuff too seriously?"

Golden and Shadow were both sitting at the table, with some of the local Ponderosa staff observing what was happening in front of their eyes. The bear already appeared to be entertained, while the hedgehog on the other hand had a face that literally wanted to ask 'What the hell is going on right now?'

What were the three of them doing?

One member at a time, Vector, Bowser, and Ridley all emerged into view. The trio of reptilians all wore black shades with unbuttoned white shirts (and of course two of them had to be as big as possible for the larger reptiles) with tiki necklaces on their necks.

Golden clapped his hands. "There they go! Reptile Runaways!"

#ReptileRunaways

Oh, this again...

"I, Vector the Crocodile, am so proud to announce the two latest addition to our squad, the Reptile Runaways." He spoke loudly, slapping a hand on each of their shoulders. "Meet Bowser Koopa and Ridley Zebesian from the Dark Lands and Planet Zebes!"

The crowd cheered and clapped for them joining in on the fun, Shadow shaking his head sighing. It was just too much for him to handle, suddenly feeling like he was out of place.

"Yeah, baby!" Bowser pumped a fist in the air, Vector kicking Ridley's leg as a cue for him to say something.

Though for him, that was where he set the boundary. "No. No way. That's all you two."

"Haha, alright then!" Vec did not let that Bowser him. Besides, he still had to be professional in front of the audience and the cameras. "As always, we were open to accept new members at any times. We like to thank you for your continued support. Be sure to tune in for the Survivor - Heroes vs Villains reunion show. Thank you!"

The Mobian then whispered out loud to his two fellow castaways. "Turn around and walk."

Following the round of applause, they both did as they were told.

"Good job, boys. We'll be wearing these at the next tribal."

"Aw, come on!" Come on, Ridley. It was best to not be a party pooper.

"Other than me and Ridley naming ourselves RR2.0 as an alliance, I am a little late to the Reptile Runaways thing in general. But I'm all over it. I never really had too many opportunities to talk to K. Rool, because by the time I realized he existed, I was just getting ready to be on this season. But his world ain't too far from mine, so it's gonna be awesome when all this plays out."

Following that little performance, Bowser found himself walking along the shore with Shadow.

"Just look at it this way. You come from a different walk of life, gone through some personal struggles, felt like you were misunderstood by everyone. So it should come as no surprise that you're a little rough around the edges. You take as much time as you need to process everything. And when you're finished, hopefully you can start looking at things from a different perspective."

"I get it. I do. You're like the fifth person who has told me that." Well Shadow, he was only trying to help. Give him a break.

"Then that means somebody's thinking about you. Look, you don't have to change who you are to 'be a better person'. If you feel a certain way about things, that's you. No one can ever take that away. But you really gotta deal with all types of people out here. The best you can do is just go with the flow. Even I need to tell that to myself sometimes, and so does Ridley."

"Okay..." Now that was something even he could think about. "I suppose if I don't care or agree about something, I'll either just be like, 'I hear you' or not say anything at all. Because they always say that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. Right?

"Uh... If it works for you, it works for you I guess."

"My Survivor experience has both some highs and lows, but you really do learn about yourself a lot out here. And if you have the blessing of the Star Spirits of playing this multiple times, you learn about yourself more than ever before. There's always room to grow, there are all sort of things out there and people who you can come across. And,... it really does humble you. It really does..."

He stared off to the ocean in thought. "Hopefully my children are really proud of their dad by letting myself go through all this. They're proud of me. I know they are. And I'm proud of them, too..."

Alright, so Bowser's really just an outgoing family man who just has no filter sometimes. But the man ain't stupid. Far from that. He may have looked like a complete clown from Kodai Island, but he's definitely gotten more emotionally intelligent since.

My poll is still open if you do like Bowser. Give him your support so that he has an increased chance of being the fan favorite of the season.

Tune in next time for the continuation of the main story. We're down to eight players left!