It was a quiet autumn day in the Dark Land Kingdom. Bowser's minions were outside the large castle helping with yard work in the cold weather. Goombas with colorful scarves and Koopa-Troopas with jackets on their shells. They raked up the regular red, orange, and brown leaves and Tanooki leaves that fell off the trees and began to stuff them in bags to either have extra power-ups to face off against the Mario Brothers or throw them away.
In the dark-bricked mansion, Bowser's eight children were playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate on the big screen TV. On a large sofa, Roy, Iggy, and Morton were playing as themselves, fighting against each other to knock out the other opponents off the stage. Lemmy, Larry, and Bowser Junior were either sitting or laying down on the carpet watching their brothers while eating chips and drinking soda. Wendy was sitting on one of the armchairs looking at her pink sparkly smartphone, browsing online for things she could buy for herself or her brothers. And finally, Ludwig was seated in the other armchair reading another one of his chapter books. He was having a hard time focusing due to his younger siblings' constant yelling and cheering at each other.
"Iggy! Stop cheating! You're making me lose!" Roy said while trying to control his avatar to hit Iggy and Morton off the arena.
"I'm not cheating. You're the one cheating. You keep getting the Pokeball item to do damage to me. Iggy said, while also trying to control his avatar to knock both his brothers off the arena.
"Yeah, cause you ain't playing it right, Pineapple boy!" Roy teased while attempting to obtain the Smash Ball from his brothers.
"Isn't that something a cheater would say?" Iggy asked, while annoyingly shifting his glassed eyes to his pink-shaded brother and successfully getting the Smash Ball.
As the two eye-geared brothers continued to bicker and fight against each other about who was cheating, Wendy the Bald Koopa looked at her phone gleefully. She immediately saw something that grabbed her attention. The pink polka-dotted bow Princess saw on her phone was a green-colored Autumn Dress with an adjustable waist strap. She widened her eyes as they sparkled like luma stars in the night sky with a gasp of amazement. From that noise forward, one of her brothers took notice of their only sister's enthusiasm.
"What sister Wendy looking at?" Morton asked, as he suddenly stopped playing and looked at his sister.
"It's this splendid dress I found on Sarasazon, Darling! I think I might get it." Said Wendy looking at her dark-scaly brother.
It also didn't take long for the other Koopa boys to notice Morton not paying attention to the game.
"Um, Morton, can you talk about the dress later? I'm in the middle of winning." Roy said while looking at Morton who was turned away from him and Iggy.
Morton, however, completely blocked off his brother's words and was only focused on the thumbnail dress on Wendy's phone.
"Can Morton see dress?" Morton asked, lowering his controller.
"Of course Darling!" Wendy said with a small smile on her pink-lipped face.
"Ok, let Morton pause game first." He said as he was about to hit the pause button to stop the game.
"Wait…pause the game?" Roy questioned, looking at Morton. Roy suddenly widened his eyes behind his pink shades in surprise, as he knew exactly what was going to happen. Each time someone paused the game on their controller, only the person who paused the game could resume it, leaving the game frozen. "WAIT! MORTON, NOT YET! I'M ABOUT TO-" Roy said in a hurried panic, as he was attempting to get the last two hits on Morton and Iggy's avatars, but it was already too late as Morton suddenly stopped the game.
"Wait?! What happened? I can't move my character anymore!" Iggy said in a panic as he noticed that the entire game had come to a complete stop.
"Morton," Roy said in an aggravated and annoyed tone as he attempted to get Morton's attention, who was now looking at Wendy's phone. But he was unsuccessful and was completely ignored by his chattering dark-scaled brother.
"Morton think dress pretty? Red pearls go pretty with Green dress! Morton think sister Wendy should get dress!" Morton said as he admired the dress on Wendy's phone.
"Morton! Roy is talking to you." Iggy said as one of his eyeballs twitched in irritation at Morton's constant talking, but Morton ignored him and kept talking.
"Does sister Wendy need money?" Morton can give sister Wendy money to buy dress. Sister Wendy should order dress now!" Morton continued, giving a smile to his older sister.
"Morton! Can you unpause the game already!? I wanna have a turn already!" Larry said, getting slightly irritated, as he was now sitting up straight from his original lying down on the carpet to get Morton's attention. However, he was also ignored by Morton's constant caveman talk.
"Morton want to see Sister in pretty dress! Morton wonder if dress to big for Sister! Does dress come in different sizes?" Morton continued as his 3 brothers were all now eagerly trying to get his attention and to get him to stop talking. But Morton kept blabbering, "Morton this" and "Morton that" sounding like an auctioneer selling a used truck. He just continued on and on making his brothers more irritated by his constant bickering, until someone had just about enough of it.
"Will…You…Just…SHUT UP ALREADY!? Yelled a voice coming from the game room.
After that loud booming voice, the room suddenly fell silent. So silent, you can hear a pin drop from within the game room. All of the other Koopa children suddenly turned to look at their navy blue-haired brother Ludwig, who was shaking his body and was now tightly gripping his book, while trying not to throw it out of his hands, and his face was engulfed in the color red-like a ripe tomato and was now steaming like a vegetable.
"Ludwig? What's wrong? "Why are you steaming like that?" Bowser Jr asked, looking distraught at his angered older brother.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?! I'll tell you what's wrong! It's HIM!" Ludwig said, pointing at Morton angrily.
Most of the Koopalings including Morton were confused by Ludwig's remarks.
"Morton's the problem?" Lemmy replied with a cocked head.
"Yes, he's the problem! Do you ever stop?!" Ludwig asked Morton angrily.
"Stop what, Brother Ludwig?" Morton asked while looking at his brother with a mixture of confusion and concern at the same time.
"Talking!?" Ludwig shouted, lowering his brows in anger.
"You know he was just answering Wendy, guys," Lemmy said looking a bit aroused by his brother's complaining.
"Yeah, we know that dude. "But he could have just said "yes." Not an entire speech." Iggy agreed, understanding Ludwig for lashing out at their dark-scaled brother.
"Yeah, do you ever know when to be quiet?" Roy asked as he tilted his pink sunglasses down to look at his younger but bigger brother.
Wendy gasped in disgust at her brother's vile behavior about Morton's constant talking.
"Darling! How could you? Morton has the voice of an angel, and I appreciate his conversations. They're very heartwarming, and it's who he is!" Wendy said, now putting her phone down with an utterly displeased look on her face.
"Yeah, if an angel knew when to shut their trap for a few measly minutes," Roy stated, rolling his eyes.
"Come on guys. Morton talking a lot is basically who he is. His middle name isn't "Big Mouth" for nothing." The small rainbow-haired Prince said, crossing his arms to defend Morton.
"We know that, but still! Morton does not know when to just stop talking for once, let alone be quiet. We understand it's who he is, but it gets repetitive and annoying so many times…" Iggy exclaimed looking at the others.
"But…Morton don't talk that much." Morton said, lowering his eyebrows with a depressed look on his face.
"You kind of do, bro," Larry said with a displeased look on his face. "You talk so much that you could write a never-ending autobiography book that would last for years," Larry said, shrugging his hands. "Cause do you remember when you talked for about 10 minutes at the movie theater and we were all kicked out for disturbing the show?" Larry recalled, now looking at his siblings to remember the event.
"Darling. Morton was just trying to remember what the movie was about and you kept on ignoring him. We ALL got kicked out because one of you insisted on changing seats and began to block the screen." Wendy said, furrowing her brows with a less amused face.
"Or the time he couldn't keep his mouth shut when Dad was giving away his presentation about defeating those plumber brothers," Ludwig said, as he was still out of his seat.
"He just wanted Dad to repeat himself since he was far away from the table." Lemmy pointed out, rolling his eyes.
"And, let's not forget that one time, he talked for literally 30 minutes to the Shell Shop owner at Coconut Mall about nothing else but FOOD and not Shells!" Roy said, crossing his arms.
"We walked all day and didn't even have time for breakfast. So it was okay for Morton to talk that much to the owner. And she didn't even mind!" Bowser Jr said, with a concerned look on his one-fanged-toothed face.
"Yeah. But Morton, can't you just be quiet for a few solid minutes?" Iggy asked with a displeased look on his glasses face.
"Yeah. What the pineapple nerd said. Morton talks so much that I BET he couldn't talk for an hour." Roy said with a smug smile.
"I bet he couldn't talk for 3 days," Larry added.
"I bet he wouldn't go without talking for 5 days," Iggy said
"He probably wouldn't even last an entire week without saying as much as a peep," Ludwig said as he began to chuckle.
From those words, Morton's face, which was originally calm and reserved, was now burning with anger as he suddenly clenched his fist.
"Then maybe Morton CAN be quiet for 1 week," Morton said furrowing his brows in anger and looking at his brothers.
All of the other Koopalings looked at the black-scaled Prince with expressions of disbelief and distress.
"What did you say, Darling?" Wendy asked, putting her hand on her mouth in utter surprise.
"Morton said…Morton can be quiet for 1 week," Morton said, turning to his shocked sister.
"Wait? Are you betting that YOU can keep your mouth shut and not say a single word for 1 entire week? For 7 whole days?" Ludwig questioned with a smile of disbelief, getting ready to laugh at his brother's request.
"Yes. That's what Morton means." Morton said in a serious tone.
"Dude, there's no way you're gonna be able to do that," Roy said, as he began to shudder in doubt.
"Well, what if he can? You guys gonna bet on it?" Lemmy asked, with an angry face.
"YEAH! Why don't you bet on Morton being quiet? "He can do it!" Bowser Jr exclaimed, getting up from the carpet with his fists in the air with confidence.
"So you're saying that you can be quiet for precisely 7 whole days, Morton?" Iggy asked, shifting his eyes with a smirk on his face.
"Morton brothers afraid they might lose?" Morton asked with a determined look.
"Lose? You're the only Koopa who's gonna lose. You wouldn't even last an entire day!" Roy said, giving a small laugh at Morton's comment.
"But Morton can try!" Morton quickly said.
"Well then, I guess we do have a bet!" Iggy said with a smug smile and got off the sofa. "Morton Big Mouth Koopa Jr, starting at midnight, you are not allowed to talk for 1 WHOLE WEEK! Iggy said. "If you win, you will receive 50% of our allowance, do all of your chores for 6 whole months, and we will never complain about your constant talking." However, if you lose. Roy, Larry, Ludwig, and I will get 50% of your allowance. You will do all of our chores together for 6 whole months. In addition, you are also not allowed to talk unless you are told to by us whenever we are in public. We have a presentation, even when we are battling the Mario Brothers," Iggy exclaimed. "You also cannot write down what you have to say, because that would be cheating and against the rules," Iggy added. "So Morton, do we have a deal?" Iggy said, putting his hand out for Morton to shake to accept the bet.
Morton gazed at Iggy's hand, then turned to look at his other siblings, telling him not to accept it. Morton didn't wanna do it, but he knew he had to show them that he could be quiet for that long, even longer if he tried. He looked back at Iggy, Ludwig, Roy, and Larry who couldn't hold in their laughter that he couldn't muster the courage to face the challenge. He then gazed at Iggy's hand, and did the unthinkable…
"Deal!"Morton confidently said, grabbing Iggy's hand and shaking it.
In this scene, Wendy, Lemmy, and Bowser Jr quietly gasped at what Morton had just done. Morton could only look at his hand still on Iggy's hand as he set the bet in motion.
"Ok. Morton. Starting at midnight. You are not allowed to talk for the entire week. Good luck," Ludwig said with a menacing grin on his face.
Morton then furrowed his face like he was about to cry as his eyes were watering, but he tried his hardest to hide his feelings from the others.
"Morton will win!" Morton quietly said with his eyes closed as he began to leave the game room.
As he slammed the door behind him, all the other four boys looked on at how easy this bet was going to be.
"How long do you think he'll last?" Larry asked with a chuckle.
"I'd say…3 minutes." Iggy jokingly said as he and the other boys began to laugh about how they were able to win the bet fast.
The 3 other Koopa children began to follow Morton who was stomping into his room with a mixture of confidence and anger.
"Morton! Darling! You don't need to do this! The boys are just being extremely rude to you." Wendy said with a worried face.
"Yeah. I know you talk a lot, but you know you're gonna lose," said Lemmy with a sorrowful face.
"But you have to beat this Morton! You have to! You gotta show them and yourself that you can do this by winning!" Junior said holding Morton's hand.
Morton gave a small smile to his siblings, appreciating that they cared about his concern, but Morton had to teach his other brothers a lesson. As he turned to pat Junior on the head, something very unusual happened while he was talking.
"It ok Morton siblings, it may be hard for Morton, but Morton will think of-" Morton said while something suddenly cut him off from his sentence.
*Cough Cough*
Covering his large mouth, Morton coughed a bit while trying to talk to his siblings. It didn't take long for the others to notice something was off with Morton.
"Morton. Are you alright?" Wendy asked, tilting her head.
"Yeah. Morton just had something in Morton's-" Morton tried to finish his sentence again, but was once again interrupted by a now raspy and rough-sounding cough.
*Cough Cough Cough*
As Morton tried to talk again, he began to tightly grip his throat and continued to cough. He coughed like his lungs were filled with black smoke, which worried his other siblings.
As the coughing got more severe, the young Koopa children heard the sound of gentle footsteps coming from the end of the hall. In the distance, they all saw their grandfather, Kamek, with his Red Scepter, coming out of his room to investigate the raspy noise.
"What's that coughing noise?" Kamek asked, coming to his younger adopted grandchildren's side.
"It's coming from Morton, Grandpa. He just made a bet with the others about him talking so much. Then he began to cough a lot," Bowser Junior said, pointing at Morton, who was still holding his throat. His eyes looked like they were watering from coughing so much.
"Really? Let me take a look at your throat, Morton." Kamek said with concern.
As their grandfather checked his throat, the other boys in the game room continued to ask and joke about how they were gonna win the bet. But little did they know, Morton might actually win his bet.