Chapter Text
"~Peace Keeping Campaign Successful!"
King Bowser was flying home from a meeting at Sky Land, nothing serious, just convincing them that he was done taking over the world with his hoards of minions and bombs and other deadly weaponry.. So he figured he'd update his blog on his Dark Land government website.
The sky was blue, weather was calm, and he was optimistic about the future. That was the last kingdom to make amendments to. He really was playing nice, whether they liked it or not! Now, as basically everyone suspected, a big motivator was impressing Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom. He wanted to be invited to parties and get-togethers, like the Mushroom Ball. Now that would really be something, heh heh heh. He certainly had some interesting things planned for that.
(Un)fortunately though, the kingdoms were dithering with him. It was as recent as a few weeks ago that he was being diabolical, so fair enough. Still, you catch more Fly Guys with Honey Syrup than a Thunder Rage.
"Citizen approval is rising from -40% to -30%," he continued to type. The airship jolted, he spilt his coffee, and he deleted all of those words with red lines under them by mistake.
"Hey!" Bowser called up front, towards the cabin. "My WPM is like, four, and that took twenty minutes! What the heck is going on?!"
Some alarm went BEEP BEEP BEEP, meaning something bad. Bowser wasn't a pilot, but he rushed into the cabin anyway.
His Bandit pilot continued to fly forward, captivated by the red glowing space abnormality. Bowser's jaw dropped. It was a black hole!
"Divert or somethin!" Bowser commanded.
The pilot blinked rapidly as he broke out of the daze. "Sir! A black hole, sir! We have to abandon, sir!" He pointed to some gauge, the air speed indicator, showing numbers that were undecipherable as far as Bowser knew.
"Huh?"
The ship violently shook. The pilots hand hovered over the eject button.
"Don't you dare," Bowser warned. "I got valuables on this ship. Why can't we reverse?"
"Because you forgot to put a reverse gear in, sir. Also you don't pay me enough for this."
"What?-"
Fwoosh!
The pilots seat sprung out of the ship. The wind created a whirlwind inside the cabin and Bowser grabbed a rail for support. What a dirty traitor he would have yelled if he could.
Bowser managed to plop down in the second chair. Ignoring his lightheadedness, he grabbed the controls pulled back. The cabin creaked and cracked under pressure. He was being sucked in no matter what he tried. His paws scrambled for the radio.
"Mayday! Uh.. S.O.S! Whatever- heeeeeeeelp!"
The portal ripped him right out of the cabin, flailing him in the air. He felt himself loosing consciousness as something akin to "PRESS START TO PLAY" droned from deep in the pit he was heading.
He guessed this was it. Bowser figured one of his own designs might kill him one day, some spikes or lava, not cosmic entities in the middle of nowhere. How would his family and minions react? Would they follow his lead or return to tyranny? Would Peach have to deal with them next or would something else fill the void and harass her? Would Mario move on to another rival? Would his special gift onboard reach it's recipient or get lost in the sea?
The magnificent Mushroom Castle was the principle landmark of Toad Town, situated on a private acre of land with a freshwater lake. This three storied building housed the Princess and her loyal servants. Lakitu was illegally filming around, hoping to capture something embarrassing that he could share on Facebook. It was deserted and eerily quiet all morning, at least until he heard a warp pipe appear. Lakitu hid behind a tree.
Bowser was forcefully ejected from a giant warp pipe, landing face first on sandy ground.
"Yow! What the-"
This was it! He could film Bowser embarrassing himself instead! His reputation was so.. serious. He needed it.
A message popped up in Bowser's face.
"Ciao! This is NOT Dimentio, but this is Peach's Castle. Your sorry self got here by a warp pipe, silly! Press these buttons to do stuff. Okay? See ya!"
"What buttons? What the heck is happening?!"
The text box disappear as Lakitu approached.
"Hey Bowser," he greeted. "We're, you know, the Lakitu Bros, making a documentary about the place and-"
"Hold it, hold it. How did I get to Peach's Place?"
"Uh, she baked you a cake," Lakitu lied. "Yeah, an invitation. So do you agree to have me follow you or not?"
"Follow me?"
"Yeah. I'll give you extra camera angles for free, but I must record every moment. You can press 'C' or go into the start menu toggle this by the way."
"There y'all go again with the buttons and menus and whatnot! Whatever, follow if you want. I'm going inside."
Bowser stomped to the front door. Right as he was entered the foyer, another message popped up.
"You are not welcome. Go home! No one is here. Gwa haha!" A deep laugh echoed.
Bowser's rage was starting to be replaced by another unsettling emotion. "It's like I've heard that before... Well... Probably a coincidence. Hey Princess! Uh, what's his name? Toad? Mario! Somebody has to be home."
A nearly transparent Toad standing near the left most door whimpered.
"Bout time. Thought I was in Twilight Town for a moment! What's up?"
"Am I glad to see you!" the Toad blurted out, "The Princess...and I...and, well, everybody...we're all trapped inside the castle walls. Bowser has stolen... wait. You are Bowser! What I mean is.. the Power Stars.. It went so horribly wrong. Soon, monsters will leave the paintings. You have to collect them back and stop this. Start in the one with the painting of Bob-omb inside-"
"Hold on. Are you a tour guide or something? Who is this other Bowser?"
"Don't fret over details. SAVE US!" The Toad vanished. Bowser had seen Peach's castle a million times before, but that sent a chill through him.
"...Sooooo, I suggest you enter the door with the star symbol," Lakitu whispered.
"Who told you to speak?"
"Hey, if I see a way to increase ratings, I'm gonna say my piece. Can't film you doing nothing. Besides, like Toad boy said, most doors have a weird lock on them. We're going to need stars to get anywhere."
Bowser complied with his cameraman's advice, while groaning of course. He was greeted to a oddly familiar painting of Bob-ombs marching.
"So she turned her house into an art gallery? Again?"
A boom mic lightly brushed him. "Hop inside already!"
"Alright. If I hafta do a stupid star scavenger hunt to get some answers, I will. I had better get a nice paycheck from that documentary too!" Bowser stepped back to get a running start. "Here goes nothing!"
Bowser made a dash into the painting as the evil laugh echoed again.
To be continued...