(A/N: I knew this story was going to be a big one, so I really shouldn't be amazed that I took it to 4 chapters. But I know that you guys are more interested in reading what's going to happen! Here we go...)
On Friday night, Bowser waited until he knew the kids had turned in and were fast asleep before making his way to the lab where Iggy worked on new inventions. He knew that several months ago, Iggy had been making special bugs that would allow him to listen in on private conversations.
Bowser knew that he wanted to take one of those bugs to the Mushroom Kingdom and use it to listen in on Mario, Luigi, and Peach tomorrow. He had a feeling that they were going to talk about the possible vacation to the island again, and he needed to know what they were going to discuss if he planned to make it miserable for Mario.
"But which of these should I take?" Bowser asked himself as he looked over the many bugs that Iggy had made. They all looked like different insects, and he figured he should use a nice bug, not a bad one. He decided on the one that looked a little like a tiny butterfly. That one might work. He took the bug to his room and set it on his nightstand, along with the earbud that would help him hear what was being said.
The next morning, after a light breakfast, Bowser took the bug and the earbud and flew to the Mushroom Kingdom in the Koopa Clown Car, once again activating the cloaking device as Peach's Castle came into view. He was hoping the princess hadn't gone to the house warming party yet because he didn't know where the house was. He was sure that Peach had seen it already, so she'd know where it was. All he had to do was make sure she hadn't already left.
He didn't see the princess out in the courtyard, but he figured that was to be expected. So he looked in her bedroom window, and to his good fortune, there she was, sitting at her vanity table, applying her make-up.
"Okay, she's still home. Good. Now I can follow her when she leaves." Bowser said to himself with a sigh of relief. He watched as the princess finished making herself look pretty, then stood up, grabbed her pink satin purse, and left the room.
"Better go out to the front of the castle so I can see her." Bowser said. He flew over the entrance and waited for the princess to leave. A few minutes later, he saw her exiting the castle with several Toads at her side. It didn't thrill Bowser to see the Toads, but he figured that either Peach asked them to come along, or they wanted to go. Maybe they were invited. That was probably it, for they were holding wrapped boxes, and one usually takes presents to a house warming party.
"Now to follow them to the party." Bowser mumbled as he hovered over the princess and the Toads. He was confused when he realized that the princess wasn't holding a present, or even a cake. He was sure that the princess would bring those to a party that the Mario Bros. spoke of. Unless the Toads were carrying them for her. Yeah, that might be it.
"What is that woman up to?" Bowser asked, confused, as he watched Peach and the Toads walk to Toad Town. Why were they going there? Maybe one of them had to pick up something else for the party? That happened sometimes.
Bowser was even more confused when he saw Peach disappear into the flower shop. What was she doing in there? She emerged from the store a few minutes later with a nice bouquet of flowers, and then he thought they must be for the party.
"Perfect!" Bowser thought with a grin. He put on the earbud and sent the butterfly down to Peach's bouquet of flowers, and there it stayed. There were so many flowers, and the bug was so small, no one knew it was there. But it was able to pick up every word they were saying, and Bowser heard them loud and clear through the earbud.
Before long, Peach and the Toads arrived at a fancy-looking mansion.
(A/N: I know that Luigi appeared to have gotten the Rank D mansion, according to "Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon" (and the remastered version of the game), but I think he deserved much better after that long, terrifying night, so in my stories, he gets the Rank A mansion.)
"Whoa! Now that's a fancy-looking home!" Bowser thought.
"Wow, look at that place! It's so big!" said Red Toad as they looked up at the mansion before them.
"Mario and Luigi are really gonna live in there?" asked Blue Toad.
"Yes. They're getting ready to move in there and make it their home. And we're going to help make it more home-like by bringing them these nice house warming gifts." Peach said as she rang the bell.
A minute later, the door opened, and there stood Luigi, with Mario right by his side.
"Princess! It's-a so good to see you!" Luigi exclaimed, happy to see her.
"And some of the Toads as well." Mario added.
"Hi, Mario!" the Toads said, smiling up at the red-clad plumber.
"Come in!" Luigi said, ushering the princess inside.
"Are we the first to arrive?" Peach asked as she entered the foyer with the Toads right behind her.
"No, the professor was the first one to get here." Mario said.
"You're going to want to thank him, Peach. He's the one who helped me save Mario from all those stupido ghosts." Luigi replied as the door closed.
Bowser just sat quietly in his Koopa Clown Car and listened for any mention of Isle Delfino. He was able to hear quite a bit about it from Mario, Luigi, and Peach during the party.
"I've decided that we're heading out on the 10th of July." Peach said.
"Okie-dokie." said Mario.
"Peach, I think I'm going to stay here and finish up the process of getting us moved in." Luigi said.
"You don't want to go?" Peach asked.
"No, sorry, not this time." Luigi said.
"Well, I'll go with you, Peach. I could really go for some fun, and I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time with you in a place that looks like tropical paradise." Mario smiled.
"All right, Mario. I'll make the reservations at Hotel Delfino when I get home." Peach promised him.
"Okay, so it's just Mario accompanying the princess to the island, without his brother. That's all well and good, but now it's important that I come up with a way to ruin the vacation for him so I can help Jr. rescue his mom." Bowser grumbled, but he wrote down what he heard.
Bowser also picked up on other conversations, like a rather interesting talk the Mario Bros. were having with Professor E. Gadd.
"You know, I have been working on inventions other than the ones that have to do with ghosts." the professor said.
"Oh really? Like what?" Mario asked.
"Well, there's a multipurpose water pack called the Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device." the professor began.
"Whoa! That's quite a mouthful." Mario said.
"I know. That's why you can call it F.L.U.D.D. for short." E. Gadd said.
"Anything else?" Luigi asked.
"Yes. There is a paintbrush. I call it the Gadd Industries Paintbrush. I built the prototype, but I have yet to test it." the professor said.
"What does it do?" Mario asked.
"Well, I'm planning on it creating items and acting as portals between locations." E. Gadd explained.
"Wow! It already sounds like a really fascinating invention, Professor." said Luigi.
"It is, and I'm planning on it being just that. If it can be done, that'll be great. But I'll have to see if I can really do it." the professor said.
"I'm sure you can. After all, I had no idea that you could actually capture ghosts and put them into paintings until Mario and Luigi told me about it." Peach said.
"Or that the machine that turns ghosts into paintings works in reverse as well. Some people might think that having it work in reverse was stupid, but it saved Mario from having to spend the rest of his life as a painting, so it wasn't entirely bad." said Yellow Toad.
"Thanks for reminding me. I did tell Luigi that I have to work on another invention that will make helping people escape from paintings a little less painful. Mario suffered greatly going through the Ghost Portrificationizer in reverse." E. Gadd said.
"Poor thing..." Peach said, giving Mario a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Hmm... That paintbrush sounds like a rather interesting object. I think maybe Jr. would enjoy having something like that to play with." Bowser thought. He knew that Jr., like most children his age, had an interest in making art. He had a good mind to take that paintbrush and give it to his son. But first, he had to find out where the professor lived so he'd know where to go, and where to look.
"I can wait." Bowser said to himself. He knew that this would probably take hours, but he decided that he could handle it. He waited until Peach left the mansion (and he had the butterfly follow her out and fly back to him, but no one saw it). He waited until the sun began to go down. He waited until the stars came out, and then he finally saw the professor leaving the mansion.
"Great! Now it's time for me to follow this guy." Bowser said, and he flew after E. Gadd, looking to see where he was going. He was making his way to Boo Woods, which Bowser liked. He wasn't afraid of no Boo ghosts. The Boos were more afraid of him than anything else.
After several minutes of following the old man as he walked through the dark woods with only a flashlight to keep the Boos at bay, Bowser watched as E. Gadd finally happened upon a small building that apparently housed his lab. He unlocked the door, opened it, and walked inside before closing the door and locking it again.
Bowser made sure that he would remember the location, for he grabbed his map of Boo Woods and drew an 'X' where E. Gadd's lab was. He was planning to stop by there a few nights later and nab that brush for his kid.
When Bowser got home, it was late, and everyone in his castle was asleep. He returned the bug and earbud to Iggy's lab, then went to his room to turn in for the night, but the moonlight coming in from his bedroom window showed him that he wouldn't be sleeping alone, for he discovered Jr. sleeping quietly on one side of the bed. The side Bowser didn't sleep on, allowing one of the kids to sleep next to him if they felt the need to be with him.
"Jr., what are you doing in here? Why aren't you in your own room, in your own bed?" Bowser asked his son, turning on the lamp and waking him up.
"Papa, you're finally home. I was worried about you because you were gone all day. Where were you? What were you doing?" Jr. asked as he sat up and looked at his father.
"I was... out running errands, and they... took much longer... than I anticipated." Bowser lied.
"Okay. Well, because I was worried about you, I asked Kamek if I could sleep in your room tonight, and he said that I could if I wanted to because he didn't think you'd mind it, so here I am." Jr. explained. Then he asked, "You're not going to kick me out now that you're home, are you?"
"Well, if Kamek said you could sleep in here tonight, then I guess it's okay with me. You can stay in here with me if you really want to." Bowser said.
"I was hoping you might say that." Jr. said. Then Bowser got into bed, and Jr. snuggled close to his father, who put an arm around him to keep him safe, and to let him know that he wasn't going to be going anywhere else that night.
The following morning, Jr. was up bright and early, and he said, "Wake up, Papa! It's morning! Time to get up!" He began jumping on the bed, trying to wake Bowser.
"No, I don't wanna get up yet! Gimme five more minutes!" Bowser said, not wanting to wake up.
"No way! You've gotta get up now!" Jr. said as he stopped jumping, landing in a sitting position.
"Jr., I didn't get home until late last night. You know that. I need more sleep. I'll get out of bed when I'm good and ready." Bowser said.
"Okay, then. I guess I'll go downstairs and see what's for breakfast." Jr. said as he got off the bed and left the room. After he left, Bowser closed his eyes and allowed himself to go back to sleep.
Several minutes later, Kamek showed up in Bowser's room with a breakfast tray, saying in a loud voice, "Up and at 'em, Sire!" And it woke Bowser, who was looking very disappointed.
"Oh, man! Why did you have to come in and wake me up?! I was having the greatest dream ever! Princess Peach finally realized that I'm the guy for her! She was leaving Mario, and I was just about to stake my claim! I was going to get a kiss from her!" Bowser exclaimed.
"Too bad that isn't happening for real, Sire. Now sit up and eat your breakfast!" Kamek said, and Bowser noticed the breakfast tray his parental figure was holding, and he smelled the food. That was when he heard his stomach growl very loudly. He realized that he was starving, since he didn't bring any food with him when he flew to the Mushroom Kingdom, and he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast the previous day. The sight of the food made him ravenous at once.
"All right, I'm up." Bowser said as he sat up right away.
"Good. Eat up." Kamek said as he stood there and watched Bowser eat every bite of his meal and drink his juice. When he finished, the meal had been enough to help him wake up some more and get out of bed. Kamek took the empty tray back downstairs. He didn't ask Bowser what he was up to the previous day because he knew it even before Jr. told everyone what he was told.
Later that day, Bowser was in the throne room, watching as Jr. lay on the floor in front of him, drawing a picture. It amazed him to see how much his son appreciated art. Then he remembered what he overheard the other day and asked, "Hey, Jr. While I was gone yesterday, I happened to hear about this paintbrush that can create neat things. Would you like to have something like that?"
"Would I ever! Hey, maybe I could use it to create something to ruin Mario's life so I can get Mama Peach back from him!" Jr. said.
"Hey, there's an idea!" Bowser said, wondering why he hadn't thought of that himself. But then he thought about what Jr. had called the princess, and he asked, "You really wanna call your mother 'Mama Peach'?"
"She's my mama, so I should be able to call her whatever I want, as long as I keep the word 'Mama' in the title, right?" Jr. said.
Bowser couldn't argue with that logic. He said, "You're right. I think she'll appreciate that."
A few nights later, when it was late, Bowser snuck out of the castle in his Koopa Clown Car and flew to Boo Woods. It was very dark out, so he didn't think he needed to activate the cloaking device on his vehicle.
When he found E. Gadd's lab, he parked outside and quietly snuck around the building, carefully checking for any signs of a high-tech security system on the outside. He was sure that this place would have one, but it didn't seem to. Well, actually, the only security he had was that it was Boo-proof on the outside. The Boos who lived in these woods just couldn't get past his anti-ghost shield.
"The old fogy probably figured that because he lives so out-of-the-way, in a place where Boos are the only thing to worry about, he didn't really need to worry about anyone coming here. Good thing he wasn't expecting me, or I'd have a problem." Bowser muttered to himself as he walked inside and used his flashlight to look for a security system inside the building. He didn't find that, but he did find the paintbrush the professor spoke of a few days ago.
The object in question was sitting on a shelf that was labeled 'prototypes'. Bowser smiled proudly as he grabbed up the paintbrush and got out of the lab, almost laughing at how easy this had been.
The next day, after breakfast, Bowser presented the paintbrush to Jr.
"You got it!" Jr. exclaimed in surprise as he took the object into his hands. But he knew that he was going to need some paint to make it work. Since this paintbrush was supposed to do cool stuff, ordinary paint was going to be out of the question. That was when Bowser found a reject batch of some stuff that Iggy was trying to create. It looked like paint, but it really wasn't.
"Let's try this." Bowser suggested.
"Okay." said Jr. as he dipped the paintbrush into the 'paint'. He was painting something big outside of the castle, and it didn't take long before some enemies started to come out of the stuff.
"Whoa..." Bowser said, impressed with what the 'paint' had caused.
"It just created monsters..." Jr. said.
"That's interesting..." Bowser said.
A few days later, Jr. learned how to use the paintbrush to do something even more interesting than make big messes that could spawn monsters. He was able to turn himself into a translucent blue version of Mario. When he looked at his reflection in the mirror, he decided to use this disguise to have some fun with his dad. So he went looking for Bowser, who was in the throne room, and he began taunting him by dancing like a moron.
When Bowser saw him, he thought that Mario was here and trying to pull some kind of dumb trick on him by covering himself in blue dye to like some sort of shadow. He was not amused at the sight of this guy, and he said, "Mario! How did you...? You're not supposed to be here! Get out of my castle!" Then he began to chase 'Mario' around the castle, trying to get him out, but 'Mario' didn't seem to want to go that way. He seemed to like the idea of being chased around the castle.
And as usual, Mario was moving much faster than Bowser because he was so small. But this time, this guy was doing things that Mario didn't normally do. He was laughing at Bowser and making fun of him, in the most annoying voice you ever heard in your life, saying things like, "You're just a big slowpoke! You can't catch me! You'll never catch me!"
Those insults encouraged Bowser to move faster, and he did. In fact, it didn't take long for the Koopa King to finally corner his enemy, and when he did, he said, "Boy, were you ever wrong! I've caught you now, you little moron! And now you're going to pay for showing up, annoying me, and taking away Princess Peach! You know that she belongs to me!"
Jr. was terrified, since Bowser really believed that this was Mario that he was yelling at. He hadn't planned on his dad thinking that he was actually dealing with Mario. Perhaps he'd better tell him the truth, and now was as good a time as any to do so, for he could see that his dad was getting ready to breathe fire at him!
"WHOA! Papa, stop! Please don't kill me!" Jr. yelled, scared out of his mind.
At the sound of that voice, Bowser ran to the window and stuck his head out so he could breathe the fire outside. Then he ran back to his frightened quarry, who was too scared to move, before asking him in surprise, "What the-?! You're not Mario?!"
"N-no..." replied the frightened person, who was trembling like a Super Leaf.
"Who are you, really?! Tell me the truth!" Bowser demanded.
Jr. slowly revealed himself and said, "I-it's just... me, P-Papa."
"Jr.?! I was chasing after you?! You were disguised as Mario?!" Bowser asked in anger. When Jr. slowly nodded his head, Bowser asked him, "What in the world were you thinking?! I thought you were Mario, only you were acting much more annoying than the real deal!"
"I-I learned how to use the p-paintbrush to make myself look like M-Mario. I was just f-funning you, and I thought you'd get that. B-but I didn't think you were actually going to try and d-do me in!" Jr. said, still shaken.
"If you didn't warn me as quickly as you had, you would've been dead by now! I was ready to destroy you, and I would have killed you! I'd never forgive myself for killing my own child!" Bowser said.
"No... don't b-blame yourself, Papa. The whole thing would've been my f-fault, since I looked like Mario and didn't tell you until the last p-possible minute." Jr. said.
Bowser was just about to say that he was the one who should've known better when he was being taunted, since Mario was above that sort of thing, but then he got a big smile on his face and said, "Wait a second here! I actually thought you were Mario!"
"I know, Papa." Jr. said.
"And that paintbrush, with its 'special' paint, produces disgusting slime and monsters." Bowser said.
"That's the best part about this thing." Jr. smiled.
"I've got the greatest idea ever! You see, Jr., you gotta try to outsmart Mario, and this is how we're gonna do it! The week before he leaves for Isle Delfino, we're going to beat him there, and you're going to use that disgusting paint to muck up the whooooole place. Not only that, but you're going to do it in that stupid Mario disguise." Bowser said.
"So they'll think that Mario is responsible for the crime! They'll pin the blame Mario, and then they'll hate his guts! They might even send him to prison for it! And if Mario's locked up like a common criminal, then I can get Mama Peach back from him with no problems! He can't stop me when he's in prison." Jr. smirked.
"That's my boy!" Bowser said, ruffling Jr.'s top-ponytail, which always made Jr. giggle like the child he was.
"We're gonna get him real good!" Jr. said. Then he asked, "Did you find out when Mario's going to leave on this vacation of his?"
"I sure did. Your mom suggested that they leave the week of the 10th." Bowser replied.
"Great! I'll mess everything up so bad, Mario will be known as 'Public Enemy No. 1' over there! I can assure you that he's going to suffer greatly for taking Mama Peach away from us!" Jr. promised his father.
"All right. Let's go over this plan together for the next few days, and we'll also get this castle ready for your mama to live in when we get her back!" Bowser said.
"Papa, I was thinking... could we please spend some more time on the island and have fun with Mama Peach when I get her back from Mario?" Jr. asked.
"That sounds like a fun idea! You know, I really think she would enjoy the tropical paradise even more if she was able to be in it with her real family, us." Bowser replied.
So Bowser and Jr. spent the next few days working on their plan, and Jr. was painting lots of stuff that would make the island a dirty eyesore that was not fun or safe for anybody!
But I'm afraid that won't happen until the next chapter! If you wish to see what'll happen, then you might wanna stay tuned!