(A/N: Okay, now it's time for the sequel to Koopa Family Issues. This is gonna be good, y'all. I know how excited you guys are to find out what's going to happen, so I'll just start the first chapter right now!)
It was a quiet day in Bowser's Kingdom. Not much is going on, but Bowser's minions are on patrol, keeping a sharp eye out for unwanted visitors (like the Super Mario Bros.). And this looks rather boring, I know. But now I have a great idea. Maybe we should go right to Bowser's Castle and see if we can find something more fun to look at over there! There's usually something interesting enough going on at his castle, so what are we waiting for? Let's-a go!
At Bowser's Castle, Wendy O. Koopa was sitting in her bedroom, humming very softly under her breath as she held her pink smartphone and looked over the pictures she had taken during the family's latest visit to Smash Mansion. A lot more fighters had joined in the fun this time around, and some veterans who hadn't been around for a while were even invited back. There had been quite the happy reunion between a lot of the fighters, and it was great fun for everyone involved.
The lone female Koopaling smiled to herself as she looked at a picture she had taken of Mario while they were there. He was still really cute (in her opinion), but he also came pretty close to losing his life over there, which nearly tore Princess Peach's heart into pieces.
"Poor Mario, and Peach, too. They didn't deserve to have such bad things happen to them." Wendy said in a soft voice as she remembered the close calls Mario had this time around. She thought the World of Light was bad enough, but the worst part was when Sephiroth arrived at Smash Mansion. At first glance, it looked like he actually did kill Mario with that long sword of his, but he'd missed! He only had the plumber by the strap of his overalls!
After that moment, Mario and Peach were hardly ever seen apart. But Wendy could hardly blame them; Peach nearly lost the love of her life to the one-winged angel, and after nearly losing him multiple times to Bowser during a certain Odyssey... yeah, that had to be no fun for her. And the fact that Bowser had used Kamek's wand to make Wendy and her brothers happy about the impending marriage didn't make things any better for the princess.
"They've dealt with a lot of unbearable hardships during the course of their relationship. It's not fair that they've had to put up with so much crap. You'd think the universe doesn't want them to end up together." Wendy thought, feeling bad for the pair. But of course, she knew the main cause of their troubles, and she didn't like it one bit!
Wendy knew it was all because of her father. He just didn't know how to leave well enough alone. Princess Peach was at her happiest when she was with Mario; everyone with even half a brain could clearly see that they were in love with each other. And Bowser knew it, too, but he really didn't want Peach to be with Mario because he believed that a plumber was 'beneath her'.
"Sorry, Daddykins. I know that you want to be with Peach, but there's just no breaking her and Mario apart. Not after what happened to Mario at Smash Mansion." Wendy said to herself as she looked at a photo she had taken of Mario and Peach sharing a loving kiss in a Rest Area. They must've thought they were alone, but they weren't.
Wendy had gone to that same Rest Area to take a breather after some rigorous training with her brothers and father, but she was far from where Mario and Peach were, so they didn't see her. But she could see them, and she was watching them. However, she wasn't going to spoil their moment, and she inconspicuously took the picture with her smartphone.
The female Koopaling hadn't shown that romantic picture to anyone else, even though she knew that her brothers (except for Bowser Jr., of course) wouldn't mind seeing it. She knew that, like her, they no longer wished to have Peach as a member of their family. Not after a certain Mother's Day that prompted Bowser to lie to their little brother about who his mommy really was.
"What King Dad did then was unforgivable! I love him, but betraying Queen Mom's memory and tricking a whole bunch of people into hating someone innocent, just so he could get his claws on Princess Peach, was wrong! She didn't need that! She wanted to have fun, but King Dad and Jr. ruined it for her and Mario!" Wendy thought, feeling angry as she remembered the events that transpired after Bowser lied to Jr. about his mother.
And then Wendy suddenly realized something very important. She didn't seem to recall Bowser or Jr. saying anything about the islanders finding out the truth about Mario when they returned to the castle without Princess Peach. She had to wonder, did they ever find out that Mario was innocent, or were they left in the dark, even though their island was no longer in the dark?
Try as she might, Wendy couldn't recall her dad or little brother saying that the islanders learned that Mario hadn't done anything to their home. She must've forgotten. Or maybe they never said it. She wasn't entirely sure, so she decided to go and talk to her brothers about it. They might be able to remember.
So the female Koopaling made her way to the castle's entertainment room, thinking that maybe her brothers were in there right now. She hoped she would be able to find them, so they could help her out. They knew how important it was for them to help each other remember in case someone had forgotten something. Their late adoptive mother told them that, and after Bowser lied to Jr., they took her teachings to heart.
Before long, Wendy was standing outside of the entertainment room, and sure enough, she could hear something going on in there. She peeked in and saw Ludwig, Roy, Morton, Iggy, Lemmy, and Larry in the room. Good. They were all in there together. That's what she was hoping to find. But they all appeared to be busy doing stuff.
Ludwig was sitting on the couch, composing yet another Koopa symphony in his favorite notebook, and Lemmy was curled up close to him, taking a nap. The other four Koopalings were playing a video game that allowed 4 players at once. Wendy didn't see how Lemmy was able to sleep through their game, but there were times where even she had fallen asleep as her brothers played games.
"I sure hope they can help me." Wendy thought, before entering the room and saying aloud, "Guys, I'm sorry to interrupt your fun, but I need to ask you something very important."
The Koopalings looked up at the sound of their sister's voice, and Morton immediately paused the video game, a move that didn't really please Larry, because he said, "Hey, you can't pause the game now! I was going to win!"
"It doesn't matter if you're going to win. Wendy has a question for us, and we need to give her our full attention. We can't do that while we're playing a video game. So that's why I paused it." Morton said.
"Huh? What's going on? Does King Dad need to see us about something?" asked Lemmy, rubbing his eyes, having been awoken by Larry.
"No. Wendy asked us for help." said Ludwig, before turning his attention to his sister and asking, "What's wrong, sis?"
"Do you guys remember when King Dad and Jr. went to Isle Delfino to mess up the place and frame Mario so they could get their grubby paws on Princess Peach?" Wendy asked.
"Yes, but please don't bring up that time again. King Dad should've known that Peach would never buy the idea of being Jr.'s mom, and neither would Mario. They're not as stupid as he wished they were." said Iggy.
"I know that, Iggy, but I was actually wondering if any of you guys can recall this about that time: did King Dad or Jr. say anything about the islanders learning the real truth about Mario after all was said and done over there? I tried, but I just can't remember. Do you guys remember?" Wendy asked.
That made the Koopalings stop and think. They did recall when their dad and Jr. returned without Peach; that was the important thing. But now that they were thinking about it, they didn't really remember hearing Bowser or Jr. say that the islanders had learned the truth. And they knew for a fact that they didn't hear anything about it the night they watched the news to learn that the island was clean and everything was back to normal.
"You know what? I really hate to say this, but I don't remember hearing anything about the islanders learning the truth." Ludwig said.
"I don't remember, either, which isn't a good sign." said Roy.
"This is bad. Even I can't remember if we heard anything about that. So I don't think anyone over there knows the truth about Mario. That he didn't do anything to their home. This means they still hate him for no good reason." said Morton.
"You know what this means, don't you?" Iggy asked.
"We have to go to the island and find out for ourselves?" Lemmy asked.
"No way, Lemmy! That'll take too long. It means we have to ask King Dad or Jr. about it." Iggy said.
"I say we should ask Jr. about it. King Dad may not like to think about that time, since Peach was not so easily fooled by such an obvious lie." said Larry.
"Sounds like a plan to me. If we were to ask King Dad about that sort of thing, he might get mad and tell us to just drop it, which tells us nothing." said Ludwig.
"But first, I wanna finish the game! I'm gonna win!" said Larry.
"Game's already over." said Roy, getting up and turning off the console.
"Oh, come on! You know I was winning!" Larry whined.
"No, you were cheating." said Iggy.
"Okay, so I was cheating. But I had to." Larry said.
"No, you didn't. And if you keep up the whining and complaining, then you're asking me to give you a one-way ticket to Hurtville!" Roy threatened, showing Larry a clenched fist.
"Fine, then..." Larry muttered, folding his arms.
"Okay, let's go look for Jr." said Wendy.
The Koopalings wondered where they might find Jr. at this time. Perhaps the youngster was in his room. He always had something to do in there. And when they checked his room, the door was slightly ajar, and they peeked inside to see that he was in there, drawing something. The kid always liked making art, especially after learning that he inherited his late mother's artistic ability.
"I'll handle this." Ludwig said. He knocked on the door, and Jr. called out, "Who is there?"
"Your big brothers and sister. May we come in?" Ludwig asked.
"Sure. Come on in." Jr. said.
The door opened a little wider, and in walked Ludwig, Roy, Morton, Wendy, Iggy, Lemmy, and Larry.
"What's up, guys?" Jr. asked, looking up from his drawing.
"Jr., we have something very important to ask you. Do you think you can give us a straight answer to our question?" Lemmy asked.
"I guess so. What's the question?" Jr. asked.
"Well, first we have to make sure of something." said Ludwig.
"What?" Jr. asked.
"Do you remember the time that you and King Dad went to Isle Delfino to muck up Mario and Peach's vacation?" Morton came right out and asked the question before anyone else could say it.
"Of course I remember. I know that Papa lied to me about Peach, but I'm not lying when I say that watching the islanders treat Mario like a criminal was actually pretty fun." Jr. replied.
"No, it wasn't! He didn't deserve to be treated that way and you know it!" Wendy wanted to scream at him, but she didn't dare say a word. She remained quiet, screaming the words in her mind, where she knew she was safe.
"All right. Now here's the real question we wanted to ask: did the islanders ever find out that Mario was framed? Did they learn the real truth; that you were the one responsible for the vandalism?" asked Iggy in a serious voice.
"Oh, that? Nope! They never found out that I did it!" Jr. happily replied.
The Koopalings exchanged unhappy looks with one another. They were all thinking the same thing, and they had been afraid that they were gonna hate what Jr. was going to tell them.
"Then you need to go over there and tell them what they deserve to know." Larry said.
"What?! No way! I don't want them to think good of Mario!" Jr. said.
"Tough. If you were framed, wouldn't you want the person who was really responsible for doing so to confess their guilt and get you out of the hot water you were in?" Roy asked.
"Yeah, but why do I have to help Mario out of the hot water?" Jr. asked.
"Because you owe Princess Peach for ruining her vacation." said Wendy.
"No, I don't." Jr. said.
"Yes, you do." said Ludwig.
"No, I don't." Jr. insisted.
"Yes, you do." said Lemmy.
"No, I don't..." Jr. replied in a sing-song voice.
"You do, too!" Larry told him.
"No, I don't..." Jr. replied in the same sing-song voice, only the tune sounded a little different.
"Yes, you do!" Iggy yelled.
"No no no!" Jr. yelled.
"Yes yes yes!" Morton yelled.
(A/N: I got that little disagreement from an episode of "Rocko's Modern Life". I could totally picture the Koopalings and Jr. doing something like this!)
"Never! You guys know as well as I do that Mario deserves to be taken down a few hundred pegs, so I think it's a good thing if the islanders hate his guts forever!" Jr. said.
"So what you're saying is that all the bad things that happened to Mario at Smash Mansion weren't enough to make you feel happy?" Ludwig asked.
"I was happy to see him getting what was coming to him, but he still needs to learn his lesson." Jr. said.
"That's not fair to him, or Princess Peach!" said Wendy.
"So what? If Mario had just left Peach alone from the start, she would have learned to be happy with our family after Mama died." said Jr.
"Jr., she wasn't happy here, and you were only teaching her to hate you before she even knew you. But she might actually like you a little better if you were to take responsibility for your actions and admit to the islanders that you did the crime, and why you had done it. Think about that." Lemmy said.
For a moment, Jr. looked like he was going to follow through with their wishes, but then he shook his head and replied, "No. It's for the best that they continue hating Mario for the rest of his life."
The Koopalings groaned. Why did their little brother have to be so stubborn? Why couldn't he see that what he did was wrong and needed to be fixed?
And that's where Chapter 1 is going to end. If you want to see more of this fanfic, then you know the drill: stay tuned!