(A/N: So that first chapter showed that Jr.'s plan backfired due to Mario doing something he hadn't expected, and he had no back-up plans ready in case this sort of thing occurred! What's going to happen now? I'll get this show on the road so you can find out!)
As he made his way back to the castle where he lived, Bowser Jr. was very upset about what had happened, and he had every right to be. He was sure that the plan was gonna work, but it didn't because he failed to take into account the fact that Mario learned from past mistakes!
"Ooh, I hate that stupid Mario! He makes me so angry! I said I was gonna tell Papa on him, but that doesn't sound good enough to make him sorry for ruining everything!" Jr. growled. He didn't want his father to know that he had failed to capture Peach, but he knew his father would know as soon as he saw that he was alone!
Jr. was so angry at Mario that he'd forgotten all about Lakithunder, who was still ducked down in his cloud, hovering over Peach's castle, wondering what was going on. He didn't know if Jr. managed to kidnap Peach because he was too far away from where Mario, Peach, and Jr. had been.
"Should I contact him, or wait for him to contact me?" Lakithunder thought, a little concerned as to what was going on. He decided to let Jr. contact him. If he had captured Peach, he may not be able to pull out his walkie-talkie and tell him that he could leave the castle.
As Jr. continued making his way back to the kingdom he called home, he thought back to when he'd been disguised as a shadowy-looking Mario on Isle Delfino. Most of the islanders had been easily fooled into thinking that the real Mario was the cause of the pollution that ruined their island and the disappearance of their guardians and source of power, the Shine Sprites.
Tricking the islanders had been easier than pie! When the real Mario showed up on the island, he got into big trouble for something he never did! Jr. made sure to cause plenty of trouble beforehand, to ensure that everyone who lived there hated Mario with a passion and blamed him for everything, ruining his chances of enjoying what he thought was going to be a nice, relaxing vacation with his girlfriend, Princess Peach.
Thinking about how well he'd ruined Mario's vacation in a tropical paradise before it even began was enough to give Jr. a wonderful, awful idea! He even made a Grinch smile in order to prove it!
"I got it! I know just what to do now!" Jr. said to himself as he stopped walking. He figured that if he could easily fool the people on Isle Delfino into thinking that Mario was a terrible person they were supposed to hate, then perhaps he could just as easily fool his papa into hating Mario even more than he already did! This could work better than his plan to capture Peach had!
So what did Bowser Jr. do next? After looking around to make sure no one was watching him, he started striking and scratching himself to make it look like he got hurt. He even rubbed dirt on himself and rumpled his bandana, trying to make it look like Mario totally kicked his butt. Then he slugged himself in the eye in an attempt to make it black, and it worked.
Jr.'s oh-so-terrific idea was to try make Bowser see that while Jr. had tried to get Peach, Mario unfortunately found out and beat him up before he could get too close to her. And when Bowser saw how badly beat-up his son looked, he would be sure to go out, look for the plumber, and let him have it! That would teach him for ruining his plan!
Once he finished beating himself up, Jr. walked to a nearby stream to have a look at his reflection. He looked pitiful, as though he'd just lost a fight with his older siblings, the Koopalings.
"And now I know exactly what I'm going to tell Papa! When he hears about this, Mario will be sorry that he didn't just hand over Mama Peach in the first place! He's going to pay the price for ruining my plan!" Jr. said to himself with a sneaky smile on his smug face as he started walking home with a fake limp. He knew that when his papa saw him like this, Mario would never hear the end of it.
When Jr. got to the castle, he limped his way into Bowser's throne room to see his father sitting on his throne, with an empty throne next to him. It was the throne for his queen to sit on, but he didn't have a queen at present. Bowser was hell-bent on having none other than Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom as his queen.
Bowser was currently reading a magazine called Badder Homes & Gardens. (A/N: In a "Powerpuff Girls" book I used to have, Mojo Jojo was reading a magazine that had the same name.) But then the king of the Koopas heard a small sound, which caused him look up from the magazine and look around the room for the source of the sound. He saw that the sound came from his son, Bowser Jr., slowly limping into the throne room, up to the throne upon which he sat.
Bowser quickly closed the magazine and set it off to the side, starting to feel worried about his son. What happened to him?
"Oh my gosh! Jr., what in the world happened to you?! You're limping! And look at your eye! How did you get like this?!" Bowser asked, sounding genuinely concerned as he stood up and hurried to his child's side. Seeing his youngest son looking beat up like this really scared him.
"Oh, Papa... It was awful! Just awful!" Jr. said, fake tears forming in his eyes.
"I can see that! And where is Princess Peach? You told me that you and Lakithunder were going out to try and take her away from Mario! Didn't you find her?" Bowser asked as he picked up Jr. and held him in his arms. Bowser didn't sound mad, just very concerned. He was too worried about his youngest child's state of health to be mad about the absence of the princess.
Jr.'s eyes widened as he remembered Lakithunder. He'd forgotten all about him after he saw that Mario had obviously learned from the mistake of leaving Peach all by herself while dealing with problems. Had he left the castle, or was he still there, trying to attack the Toads? He didn't really know.
"We... we f-found her... but I... I-I couldn't... g-get close to Mama Peach..." Bowser Jr. sniffled.
"Why not?" Bowser asked.
"I-it was all that... M-M-Mario's fault! He wouldn't let me near my Mama!" Jr. exclaimed, and with that, then he began to cry crocodile tears. But Bowser had no idea that those tears were fake. He thought Jr. really was upset.
"Mario?! I should have known that idiot in red would find a way to ruin your plan! What did that stupid plumber do to you?! Tell me!" Bowser growled. He was really mad at Mario, which was just what Jr. wanted to hear.
"Well, Papa... he... he d-decided that M-Mama Peach... doesn't w-want me to be her ch-child... And then... th-then he... Look what he did to me!" Jr. sobbed.
Bowser looked at Jr. very carefully. He looked like he'd been beaten up, and he was all dirty with a rumpled bandana. Add to that the fact his son had limped into the throne room with a black eye. Had Mario really gone that far?!
On the outside, Jr. looked miserable and pathetic. But on the inside, he was laughing to himself, thinking, "Wow! I can't believe I'm actually fooling Papa into thinking that Mario is worse than he really is! This has got to be, without a doubt, my greatest idea ever!"
"Oh man! I always knew Mario was a terrible person, but now he's taken that cruelty to a new low level by beating up a child! My youngest child, no less! Where does he get off doing that?!" Bowser asked in anger.
"I... I d-don't know, Papa... I hurt all over..." Jr. whimpered, burying his small face in Bowser's chest. He sounded like he was weeping into his father's chest, but in truth he was snickering to himself. Bowser was falling for a big, fat lie!
"Did Peach see him do that to you?!" Bowser asked.
"No... sh-she didn't! Mario's stupid brother... took her away... and r-ran off to who-knows-where... before he did it!" Jr. wailed. His wail was totally fake, but Bowser didn't know it.
"What about Lakithunder?! Didn't he try to stop them and save you from Mario?" Bowser asked.
"He couldn't help because he was the one who had to help put my brilliant plan into play! There was nothing he could do without making everything worse!" Jr. said.
"Well, don't you worry, Jr. Your old papa's going to go find Lakithunder, and when I find him, we're gonna set that puny plumber totally straight! Then we'lI look for Princess Peach, and I'll tell her what Mario did to you. When she hears about it, I know that she's going to feel really bad for you, and she'll want to come with me to see you and make sure you're all right. She'll never want to be with a man like Mario; a man who beats up children with no regrets." Bowser assured his son.
"Th-thanks, Papa..." Bowser Jr. said between sniffles.
"No problem, my son." Bowser said.
"Oh, Papa... There is... one other thing..." Jr. said, recovering now.
"What is it?" Bowser asked.
"You... you need to hurt Mario worse... than ever before..." Jr. replied.
"Don't worry, son. I will hurt him really badly. I'm going to make him bleed." Bowser promised.
"No, I... I mean it... He said... well, he said something... really mean to me... when I told him... that I was going to... tell you what he did... and he would be sorry..." Jr. said.
"What did he say to you? Can you tell me?" Bowser asked, bracing himself because he knew that whatever Mario said to him wasn't going to be a good thing.
"Come closer..." Jr. pleaded, beckoning for his father to come real close.
Bowser knew that it had to be really bad if Jr. needed to whisper it to him. He got real close to his son, allowing Jr. to whisper the answer to him.
"Okay, Jr. Tell me what that mustached moron in red said to you." Bowser said in a soft voice, preparing himself for whatever Jr. had to say.
Jr. couldn't help smiling when his father called Mario a nasty name, but he kept it hidden before whispering, "He said, 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a... you-know-what...'"
When Bowser heard that, his eyes were as big as Jr. himself! He obviously wasn't prepared to hear that!
"He said WHAT?!" Bowser screamed.
"He said that... to me!" Jr. exclaimed.
"Is that so?! Well, that's it! I've heard more than enough! When I get my claws on that puny plumber, he is going to wish he had never been born!" Bowser swore, setting Jr. on his feet. But before he left the castle, he found Kamek walking around. That was one of the people he needed to see right now.
"Kamek, I've got to go out and take care of some business. While I'm gone, I want you to give Jr. a nice, warm bath and put him to bed." Bowser told him.
"Already, my king? But I thought Jr. isn't supposed to have his bath until nightfall, and it's not even past noon!" Kamek said in surprise.
"I know that! But when you see him, you'll see why he needs to have his bath now. He's had a really rough day so far." Bowser said.
"Yes, Master Bowser. I will do exactly as you say." Kamek replied with a bow, before asking, "By the way, where is Jr.?"
"He's in the throne room. He'll tell you what happened to him." Bowser replied.
"I'll go and take care of him right now." Kamek promised, rushing off to do as Bowser asked.
Bowser stomped out of the castle and made his way to the Mushroom Kingdom to look for Mario and Lakithunder. And he decided to start his search at the one place he figured Mario would be: Peach's Castle.
Sure enough, Mario was still at Peach's castle, doing his best to reassure the frightened Toads that everything was going to be just fine. Professor E. Gadd had shown up a few minutes ago with his Poltergust 3000, and he sucked up the storm cloud with it.
When Lakithunder felt his storm cloud was being sucked up by some unknown force, he began to feel really scared! This wasn't supposed to happen! He knew that he had to either abandon his cloud, or get sucked up with it! Knowing that he had no other choice, he quickly jumped down to the ground and started running back to Bowser's Kingdom.
Fortunately for Lakithunder, no one seemed to notice that he'd jumped out of that cloud. He was too far away for them to see, and he didn't feel like looking back to see if anyone had seen him jump. He also didn't want to see who or what was sucking up his cloud.
Lakithunder felt like a completely useless moron without his cloud. He didn't look as threatening without it. Why didn't Jr. warn him that something like this was happen?! Was he even paying attention to what was going on?!
While Lakithunder was running, he bumped into someone. He knew right away it wasn't a Toad because they were too small. Imagine his embarrassment when he looked up and saw Bowser staring at him.
"Oh Grambi, out of all the people in this world, he was the last one I wanted to see me like this..." Lakithunder thought, wanting nothing more than to find a big hole, crawl in it, and die.
"Huh?! Lakithunder! Where's your cloud?!" Bowser asked, noticing that the Lakitu's storm cloud was missing.
"I don't know! I felt it being sucked away from me somehow, so I had to make one of two choices; abandon my cloud, or risk getting turned inside-out! Since I knew that I really had no choice, I did the former!" Lakithunder yelled.
"Who took your cloud away?" Bowser asked.
"I don't know! Mario, maybe?!" Lakithunder said.
"If he's behind this, then I really do need to teach him a lesson! Did you see what he did to Jr.?" Bowser asked.
"No, I didn't see that. And speaking of Jr., are you telling me he left the area?" Lakithunder asked.
"Yeah! He came running home to me!" Bowser said.
"Why didn't he tell me he was going home? I was waiting for him to tell me what to do next after I executed the plan." Lakithunder said.
"You didn't see him?" Bowser asked.
"No! We were too far away from each other to see each other, so we were keeping in contact with his walkie-talkies." Lakithunder said, showing Bowser the walkie-talkie Jr. gave him.
"Oh..." said Bowser.
"I didn't see what was going on because I was using lightning strikes to attack Peach's castle, and I had to duck down so no one would see me and beat me up. The plan was to send Mario running over to the castle so the princess would be Jr.'s for the kidnapping!" Lakithunder said.
"Really? That was the plan? Hmm, maybe I should've just asked you to destroy her home instead of just kidnapping her. A princess needs to live in a castle, and if hers was gone, she'd have no choice but to move into mine and learn that she wants to be with me for the rest of her life! That way, Mario will have no other alternative but to look for some other chick to fall for, since Peach wants to be with me and not him." Bowser said.
"I don't mean to be rude, but can we please worry about Mario's love-life later?! I AM MISSING MY CLOUD!" Lakithunder shouted.
"Okay, don't panic! All you have to do is go back to my castle and talk to Kamek or Kammy about the problem with your cloud. They know lots of magic, so they just might be able to give you a new cloud." Bowser suggested.
"All right. I guess I'll see you later." Lakithunder said as he continued to run back to Bowser's Kingdom, really unhappy about what had happened.
"Now it's time for me to go and teach that horrible plumber a little lesson about messing with my new minion, and my son!" Bowser said, and he continued making his way to Peach's castle.
"There! No more storm cloud. The castle should be safe now." said the professor with a big smile on his face.
"Grazie. Thanks, Professor." Mario smiled.
"Yeah, thank you, sir." said the Toads, feeling very relieved.
"No problem. I was happy to help out. But maybe I can even check out the inside of the castle to make sure that no damage was done in there?" the professor asked.
"Oh yeah. You probably should do that. Come on in!" said one of the Toads, and they all nodded in agreement and got ready to invite the professor inside.
Just then, they heard an almighty roar from nearby! Everyone looked in the direction the sound came from, and they saw... Bowser! And if that wasn't bad enough, he was coming that way! Not only that, he was moving really fast, like Sonic the Hedgehog!
Mario knew that Bowser Jr. hadn't been kidding when he said he was going to tell his father. But what he said must have really ticked him off, for Bowser never moved that quickly before!
"AAAAHHHH! Run away! It's Bowser!" the Toads screamed in horror as they grabbed the professor's hands and dragged him into the castle before slamming the doors shut and locking them tight! They didn't want Bowser coming in there and ruining everything for Peach while she was gone.
"What do you want, Bowser? You'd better not say that you're here for Peach, because she isn't here at present. She's out somewhere else." Mario said when he saw Bowser rapidly approaching the castle, looking angrier than he'd ever seen him. The plumber actually felt a little nervous when he saw just how angry Bowser was. He swore he could see Podoboos in the Koopa King's eyes.
"Listen here, Mario! You crossed the line this time, and you know what that means? You and me are gonna go 'round and 'round!" Bowser yelled at Mario, obviously very angry at the plumber.
"Gee, are you sure you really want to do that, Bowser? I thought you hated it, but if that's what you want us to do, then I say okie-dokie! Let's-a go!" Mario said, and he was ready to grab Bowser by the tail and swing him 'round and 'round. However, Bowser blocked Mario before the plumber could even reach his tail.
"That's not what I meant, and you know it, you dim-witted dodo! What I'm saying is, you're going to pay for what you did to my son!" Bowser shouted.
"Hey, Bowser, I know that you really don't like hearing this, but I had to do it! Your son practically begged me to do that to him 'cause he wouldn't stop shooting his mouth off!" Mario said.
"Are you crazy?! Nobody asks for a beating like the one you gave him!" Bowser yelled.
"I'm sorry; what did you just say?" Mario asked. He wasn't really sure if he'd heard his enemy correctly, and he needed to make sure he didn't hear that wrong. Did Bowser just say that Mario gave Jr. a beating?!
"I said, 'Nobody asks for a beating like the one you gave him'!" Bowser repeated.
"A beating?! Bowser, are you implying that I actually beat up your son?!" Mario asked, surprise evident in his voice. He didn't beat up Jr.; he just socked him in the kisser. One punch in the mouth could hardly be considered a beating.
"Don't play stupid with me, plumber boy! Jr. came home in tears, all dirty and beat-up with a black eye! He even walked with a limp! And he told me that you did that to him!" Bowser yelled, lunging towards the plumber.
"What?! That is not true! I didn't beat him up! All I did was sock him in the kisser because I wasn't going to just stand there and listen to him disrespecting Peach, even if she really was his mama!" Mario said, jumping in order to get out of harm's way.
"Uh-huh! Sure you did!" Bowser said sarcastically, still not believing Mario, angry that he missed and getting ready to try and hit Mario again.
"Bowser, I'm being serious! I didn't do anything other than punch him in the mouth! That's all I did to your son! I swear it!" Mario said, quickly dodging to the side to avoid Bowser punching the daylights out of him.
"Who are you trying to kid, you puny pain-in-my-tail?! Wait until I tell Princess Peach what you did to him! When she finds out that you seem to enjoy beating up little kids, she's going to change her mind about you and decide that she wants kids with someone else! Someone like me!" Bowser said, wishing Mario wasn't quick enough to dodge his attacks.
"In your dreams, Bowser! Peach isn't stupid! I think she wouldn't be the least bit disappointed if she found out what I did to Jr.! The way he constantly adds her name to the 'Mama' title he gave her is proof enough that she's clearly annoyed with him!" Mario said.
"She'll be furious with you when she finds out just how upset Jr. was! He was bawling his eyes out when he came to me!" Bowser said.
"Gee, was he really that upset over a punch in the mouth?" Mario asked.
"NO! Were you not listening to me, Mario?! My son was walking with a limp when he got back to my castle, he was all dirty and beat-up, and he even had a black eye to prove that he had been pounded by a jerk like YOU!" Bowser yelled.
Mario's eyes were as big as dinner plates when he heard Bowser say that. He knew for a fact that he didn't beat up Jr., especially not like that! While it was true that he hated the little runt, he would never go that far with him! Mario didn't really have it in him to give Jr. a beating like the ones his father and other villains deserved. And all he ever really did to the Koopalings when he battled them was jump on their heads or hit them with fireballs in his fire form.
"Huh... That's a pretty funny story, Bowser, because I honestly don't recall doing anything else to your son to make him look that bad." Mario said.
"Oh, but that's not all, Mario! He even told me that when he warned you that you would be sorry, you didn't really seem to care! You said something awful to him!" Bowser said.
"That's not true. I didn't say a word to him when he said I'd be sorry." Mario said honestly.
"Yes, you did! He said that you told him, 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a-'" Bowser began, but he was cut off by Mario saying, "Mama-mia! Hold the phone! I never said that line from "Gone With The Wind" to your son!"
"Well, he says you said it to him! And I sure as heck didn't teach him that line!" Bowser yelled.
"You can't say I did it, either, because I didn't say it to him! It's-a something you might want to say to a woman, and in that case, I'd only say it to a woman who deserved to hear it, like Cackletta, the Shadow Queen, or even the awful Shroob Princesses! I wouldn't say it to your kid not just because he's a kid, but also because he's a boy!" Mario claimed.
"If neither of us taught him that line, then where the heck did he learn it? More importantly, why did Jr. tell me that you said it?!" Bowser asked.
Mario had to stop and think about everything Bowser had told him before giving him his final answer. Bowser would normally take that opportunity to attack, but something told him to just sit quietly and let Mario think about the answer he was gonna give.
After a few minutes of very awkward silence, Mario was ready to reply. He slowly asked, "Bowser, did it ever occur to you that your son may have been lying to you?"
"What are you saying? My son isn't a lying liar who lies." Bowser said.
"Oh, yes he is! Don't you remember that time when we were all on Isle Delfino?" Mario asked.
"What does our being on Isle Delfino have to do with my son being a liar?" Bowser asked, confused. He wasn't really thinking about that time.
"Are you saying that you don't remember what your son did while he was on Isle Delfino?" Mario asked.
"Refresh my memory." Bowser told him.
"You and your son obviously found out that Peach and I were going there, and so you took Jr. there ahead of time and allowed him to wreak havoc as a fake version of me. It worked well because by the time we got there, Jr. had tricked almost everyone on the island into hating my guts because they all believed that I was a bad guy, even though I hadn't been to the island before!" Mario said.
"Oh yeah! I remember that time now! Jr. made me so proud when he captured Princess Peach with the greatest of ease and made everyone think you were nothing more than a criminal, which is exactly what you are to the royal Koopa line. And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the people on that island are still stupid enough to think of you as a bad guy." Bowser said with fatherly pride in his voice. But then...
"Wait a second, Mario! Are you implying that when Jr.'s plan to capture Peach failed, he decided that he could try and trick me into wanting you dead, the way he tricked all the people on Isle Delfino into thinking you were evil?!" Bowser asked, angered.
"Oh yeah! I wouldn't put it past him." said Mario, rapidly nodding his head.
"Are you sure that all you did to him was punch him in the mouth? You never slugged him in the eye or injured his leg?" Bowser asked. He hated to think of Mario hurting his son, but he had to make sure Mario never did anything other than what he said he did.
"I'd never do that, Bowser. All I did was hit him in the mouth. I never did anything to hurt him before or after that. I tried to warn him to stop talking, but he paid no heed to my warnings." Mario said.
"And when he told you that you were gonna be sorry, you didn't reply that you don't give a... you know...?" Bowser asked, looking a little uncomfortable about saying the word in front of his enemy.
"Of course I didn't say it to him! He's not a woman! I really don't know where he learned that phrase from, if not from you, because I told you that I would never say it to him! Not to a kid! And that line only works on women... bad women!" Mario replied.
"I guess you're right about that. But I really don't want to hear anything about you saying something like that to Wendy! She's my only daughter, and if you say that to her... then you'll really be sorry you ever learned how to talk..." Bowser swore.
"Don't you worry, Bowser. I wouldn't dream of saying it to your daughter. Just to the evil women that I mentioned earlier on." Mario replied.
"Okay...So, I guess... I'll just head on back to my castle... and find out just how much of what you told me... is the actual truth..." Bowser said, feeling pretty sheepish. He was kind of hoping that Mario was somehow wrong about Jr. being a liar. But Mario was looking directly into his eyes when he spoke to him. It was true that Jr. also looked him in the eyes, but after talking with Mario, he could only wonder which of them was the lying liar who lies...
"All right. I guess I'll see you later..." Mario said.
"Yeah. You win. For now..." Bowser muttered, before leaving.
"Mama-mia... I can't believe this! I didn't even have to lay a finger on Bowser this time! All I had to do was simply dodge his attacks before I got him to stop and listen to me. Luigi and Peach will never believe this!" Mario said to himself as he watched the retreating figure of the Koopa King.
Then, thinking about Peach, Mario added, "But first, I've got to check on things inside the castle. I can't bring Peach back here if her home looks like a hurricane has gone through it." And he walked into the castle without further ado.
There's going to be another chapter after this one, so you might want to stay tuned to see what happens when Bowser gets home!