Mushroom World, Crocodile Isle, immediately following the events of The Rise of Bowser: Creating a Tyrant
K. Rool sat slumped on his throne on Crocodile Isle thinking about all the years of hard work he had invested in the Koopa King, wasted.
True, he'd turned Bowser into a tyrant, but now everyone thought that Bowser was the most evil being in the Mushroom World, a title that K. Rool wanted for himself.
K. Rool had been his father K. Rool I's minister of propaganda because he loved acting and storytelling, and he had come to notice that there was power in the ability to craft stories, and that the most memorable characters were almost always the villains.
Thus, for K. Rool, "Greatest Villain in Mushroom History" was the role he had hatched to play.
But now Bowser was trying to usurp that.
And how did Bowser gain this title? By trying to force a Princess to marry him after holding her hostage in extremely comfortable conditions for a year.
K. Rool was sure Peach—who had not been born in the Mushroom World—would have eventually said "Yes," just to bring the mess to an end if she had not been rescued.
She had two rescuers: mustachioed plumbing brothers from Brooklyn on Earth. They had happened to stumble on an interdimensional portal in the New York sewers on Earth that led to the Toad Town Sewers in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Bowser must have been shocked to for people from another dimension to arrive on his doorstep, but K. Rool had long known other worlds existed—how else could you explain Peach?
Once upon a dark and stormy night thirty years ago, K. Rool had an encounter that changed his life forever.
He had only recently inherited the throne and was listening to his before bed symphony when it happened.
A white furred Kong in a white lab coat atop some kind of metal box appeared in streak of white light. The box had knobs, levers, and two gauges of some, both with spinning needles and rising and falling fluids.
At least, K. Rool thought it was a Kong at first. His confusion at K. Rool's yelling quickly dispelled that notion.
The simian scientist could not speak Kremling or any other of Mushroom World's major languages. However, he had some device on his wrist resembling a bracelet to which he kept gesturing. He pointed to the bracelet and his mouth, gesturing for K, Rool to speak.
Soon, the bracelet, which must have been a translator, enabled them to understand each other.
The monkey was apparently an alien from another solar system, who had come here to gather knowledge.
K. Rool had a hard time believing it, but extramushroomial life was staring him in the face.
Having accepted the unlikely as true K. Rool asked the visitor if his intentions were peaceful. K. Rool may have despised his fellow sapients, but any threat to his world was inherently a threat to him.
The monkey assured him he had no political or military agenda—not that K. Rool accepted on faith—and K. Rool played along.
All the monkey wanted was knowledge of the universe outside his solar system.
K. Rool learned that the scientist came from the planet Corneria in the Lylat System, apparently located within K. Rool's own Mushroom Galaxy.
Never fully, trusting his new friend, K. Rool had offered a deal: give him a translator bracelet, bring him to Corneria, let him get the lay of the Lylat System, and he would tell the monkey anything the latter desired to know about the Mushroom World.
The visitor agreed, and K. Rool was soon able to learn first-hand that Corneria was a peaceful planet with no desire for conquest, but he still quivered in terror knowing Corneria could easily conquer the Mushroom World if they so wanted.
In return he proceeded to tell and show his guest about the various nations of the Mushroom World, always putting the best spin on the People's Republic of Greater Kremia.
What K. Rool kicked himself for not expecting his new friend to travel to other worlds as well, and his friend's demeanor changed after visiting one.
About fifteen years ago, this scientist had been exiled from his Corneria because his research had caused a massive explosion in a Cornerian city. However, he was convinced that he and he alone could save all the galaxy from a race of cybernetic insectoids called Aparoids.
K. Rool would have questioned the genius's sanity if he had not seen the impossible during that time himself. What he didn't need experience with the paranormal to recognize was the scientist's growing desperation.
The scientist had attracted a cult-like following among the more militant Cornerians. They followed him in his exile to the planet Venom where he now reigned as emperor. His name was Andross.
Upon learning that Corneria was not an active threat, K. Rool's fears of interstellar conquest by an alien power abated. It resurfaced upon seeing Andross's visceral reaction to the mere existence of the Aparoid Hivemind.
Corneria may be no threat, but Venom certainly was.
Venom could also be a key ally to K. Rool's becoming the greatest villain in the galaxy. This was a goal that the Kremling King had never even dreamt of before meeting Andross.
Andross was a genius scientist with knowledge centuries ahead of K. Rool in all the natural sciences. He was also concerned with protecting those he had come to care for whether they wanted it or not.
While Andross had been honest about seeking knowledge, he had always had an eye open to potential threats.
To K. Rool, this mindset was a double-edged sword: Andross was easy to coax, but dangerous to cross.
During the entire time K. Rool and Andross had known each other, Andross was not interested only in learning about the rest of the galaxy, but other universes as well.
He had often brought K. Rool with him on these excursions.
All of this knowledge of the wider multiverse only enflamed K. Rool's ambition to be not only the greatest villain in the galaxy, but to acquire the necessary power to be come a god of evil for the entire multiverse.
Such were the Kremling King's ambitions. However, it had all came to nought now that his Koopa ex-apprentice had upstaged him in becoming the greatest evil on Mushroom World.
K. Rool never drowned his woes in alcohol. That would make him loose control and kill brain cells. He was fond of occasionally sipping a half glass of red wine, but that was not for tonight.
No, tonight K. Rool paced back and forth in front of his throne thinking how badly he'd miscalculated with Bowser.
Their was a wine glass on the right armrest of the throne, but K. Rool had never filled it. Instead, he picked it up and hurled it against the wall.
If only Bowser's body could shatter so easily...
However, as soon as the glass hit the wall, a white light flashed in the room.
This could mean only one thing.
The pilotless spacetime box appeared.
Since becoming Emperor of Venom, Andross rarely visited in person anymore.
The communications device on the box chimed and K. Rool activated it.
Knowing how big a threat Andross could be if K. Rool got on his bad side, the king of the nation-state adopted a subservient tone and posture before the emperor of the planet.
The video transmission did not come through, but K. Rool knew Andross always had full audio.
"How may I serve thee, my Emperor?" K. Rool said, bowing to get into character.
"Friend Krusha," Andross's accented voice crackled over the transmission. He was one of the few to address K. Rool by his full first name, and of those who did so, the only one to truly outrank him.
"Is Mushroom Planet secure?" Andross inquired.
"Unfortunately, my apprentice in Darklands betrayed us and has declared his own independence," K. Rool said. He had to spin recent events in the most Venom-centric way possible to Andross's ear.
"All my work for Your Majesty on this planet...wasted," K. Rool exhaled.
"Fortunately, we need not worry now. I have more important work for you now," Andross rasped.
Inwardly, K. Rool was crushed. He did not want to perpetually be Andross's errand boy.
Outwardly, the consummate actor let nothing affect his performance.
"How may I serve my Emperor?"
"I have just witnessed the entire history of the Hylian dimension. There is one critical being in its timeline who can help us protect the multiverse. He desires order just as we do. Stopping him required his enemies splitting the timeline into three branches."
That sparked K. Rool's own inner ambition. If it took splitting the timeline in three to stop this being, he must be powerful.
"Impressive!" K. Rool could not help but blurt out. Perhaps Bowser had been the wrong ally...
"How did he come by such power, my Emperor?"
"He inherited it by the curse of an ancient Demon King."
K. Rool had never believed in the supernatural...until he had seen a Krazoa spirit inhabit the body of a Ceratopian on planet Sauria.
K. Rool had seen unimaginable things on his travels with Andross...
To be honest, K. Rool still did not believe in the supernatural, relegating the Krazoa to the status of advanced energy-based aliens. It was probably the same thing with this Demon King in Hyrule.
Still, power was power, no matter where it came from. This inheritor of the "Demon King's" power would obviously make a powerful ally. Certainly, he garnered an unprecedented level of personal interest from Andross.
"I want you to recruit Ganondorf Dragmire to the cause of Venom, Friend Krusha," Andross said.
"I shall do my best, my Emperor," K. Rool said trying to maintain the fanatical loyalty Andross had come to demand. However, K. Rool was uneasy. "But what if this Ganondorf has plans of his own?"
"You shall succeed or perish!" Andross snapped in one of his ever more frequent displays of rage. "I accept no failure! Not from anyone. Not for any reason."
K. Rool heard his heart pounding in his chest and reflexively bowed, though he knew full well that Andross could not see him.
"Do you think I wouldn't take all things into account?!" Andross shouted at his minion.
"You will arrive in Hyrule in the few moments between Ganondorf's defeat and the split of what I call the 'Adult' and 'Child' timelines. Ganondorf will be imprisoned in a plane called the Sacred Realm and you will use Venom's technology to rescue him. He will be indebted to us."
K. Rool felt his genuine worry melt away and he slipped back into character.
"My Emperor is wise in all things!"
"That is why I must rule this multiverse!" His voice taking on a hint of desperation. "Only I have seen all timelines. Only I can keep all of reality and its inhabitants safe." He began panting. "I must do it, Friend Krusha...for them...for you...for all reality..." The voice that was so powerful earlier, now sounded so weary. "I must..."
"And you will, my friend," K. Rool changed his character to approach the former scientist—which Dr. Andross Cornelius Zaius was in the beginning. He couldn't approach the scientist as a subject...only as a friend...albeit a fake one.
"Yes, Krusha," Andross said, his strength returning. "I can always count on you," he said warmly before turning hard again.
"The history of Hyrule is recorded in your script in the computer's data files. I suggest you familiarize yourself with it at once if you want to appeal to Ganondorf."
"I shall, my Emperor," K. Rool said, playing the vasal again. While vasal K. Rool the character did his homework, King K. Rool the actor would do his to find anything he could use to manipulate Ganondorf, the heroes, or anyone else in Hyrule.
"You had best not fail!" Andross shouted as a threat before terminating the link.
Oh, I won't fail you senile old ape, K. Rool thought. I'll use you, Ganondorf, and whoever else steps in my path to become the ultimate evil in all reality!
K. Rool laughed maniacally.