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Boom.
Another explosion rocked the air as Cappy stumbled in his flight, dizzy with panic. He darted back and forth, trying to gather some semblance of his specific whereabouts to no avail. All around him were broken airships, damaged airships, hollow scraps of debris that probably used to be airships. The typical fog that surrounded Bonneton had thickened to a smothering degree, heavy with smog and smoke. Cappy could hear screams, but he was unable to discern how distant they were. Was Tiara’s voice among them? Was she even here?
Blinded with panic, Cappy was jolted out of his anxious thoughts with a slam face-first into an old airship mast. He shook his head, pausing momentarily. There was less people around than there was when the chaos had started, less noise- Cappy had to assume they’d fled, or taken cover. He didn’t want to think of the alternative. The ‘airship’ he’d crashed into appeared to be one that the owner had converted purely into stationary housing from the looks of it, sail set wrong and no propellers, visible engines or power-moon converter. Whoever the owner was, they weren’t here now, though their house seemed to be mostly intact. That was lucky for them. The invaders didn’t seem particularly merciful about which ships they were smashing. Perhaps they were only targeting airships that were actually capable of flight?
That made sense, and Cappy shuddered at the realisation that that included his airship, too. He’d been out at the local shop (the groceries he’d bought now discarded somewhere halfway across Bonneton in the panic of the explosions), and he was pretty sure Tiara had been home at the ship when he left. Alone, probably reading a book or playing video games. Unsuspecting, practically defenseless against the raiding parties of goombas, koopas and moon-rabbits. Bonneters had one self defence tactic- their capture ability- which, even if Tiara was remotely skilled at it, could be easily accounted for with fast enough reflexes or multiple foes who knew what they were doing. That was assuming they even gave her a fair fight and didn’t just fire a cannonball into the ship. Cappy had already seen once-sturdy airships reduced to little more than rubble. He felt faint with terror.
Picking himself back up, he set off at a frantic pace for the part of town he lived in. Incidentally, back in the general direction of some of the commotion. He wasn’t a particularly graceful flier, but there was enough urgency and adrenaline pumping through his ghost-like body that he could swear he was flying faster than he ever had in his life before. He passed a friend of his on the way, unable to stop or even acknowledge the other hat with a shout or a nod. He barrelled past the ice cream shop, then a building which used to hold a Crazy Cap store, then his neighbours’ houses, and finally stopped dead, panting breathlessly, at what used to be his home.
In the dim illumination of the few working streetlamps, he could see that the top of the airship had been roughly torn open, and the whole thing had pretty much collapsed in on itself. Some of the debris was clearly absent, and had presumably been knocked off over the railing and into the foggy depths below. Golden power-moon essence as thick as honey was spilled on the ground in pools, and the engine had been dragged right out of the heart of the ship and smashed into miniscule fragments. Cappy could see his microwave, his television, his sofa, and a variety of other appliances and pieces of furniture in various states of disrepair, either lying beside the broken ship or jutting through the hollow and lowered roof.
Tiara was nowhere to be seen.
Cappy took a sharp, trembling inhale, panicked tears beginning to swell in his eyes. This couldn’t be happening. They hadn’t done anything wrong. He’d not even been gone for an hour.
Desperately, he swivelled around, trying to look for any clues of Tiara’s escape. It wasn’t like there were any ominous remnants here anyways- just soot, moon essence and assorted debris, not even a drop of bonneter blood. Their airship was gone, sure, they’d find a new home eventually, but his sister had to be okay. She must have seen them coming and flown off in advance. Right?
He dodged around a lost-looking koopa soldier, narrowly avoiding their detection, and made a start for the first bonneter he saw. A stern looking stranger, middle aged at the very youngest, with the typical dark-grey top hat form most of Cappy’s neighbours took, who was watching the smoking wreckage with an expression of annoyed disapproval. Unsure of how to approach, Cappy rapidly tapped at him from behind, desperately trying to get his attention.
“‘Scuse me, sir, i-is there any chance you’ve seen my sister around here? She’s Tiara- I mean she is a tiara, as well, and er- she’s a teenage girl, about this tall, eyes like mine but a tad less red I suppose, and I-”
“Yes, yes, I know who you are.” The older bonneter snapped, whipping around with a look that made Cappy shrink backwards with fear. “You little weirdos stand out like Piantas in the Snow Kingdom, with your bizarre choices in physical forms. Honestly, kids these days with your fancy colours and textures and veils and shit. When I was a lad, you’d have been-”
“S- I’m sorry sir! Really, I’m sorry. Listen, didn’t mean to disturb you, but like, she’s MISSING and I don’t know if one of the koopas or rabbits took her, or if she’s lost, so I really need you to help me with-”
“Everyone’s bloody missing. I’m looking for my wife.” The stranger spat as his dark green eyes burned into Cappy’s. “Why don’t you shove off? Let go of my brim, you little shit, before I-”
Cappy yelped, held up his stubby hands in surrender, and backed off, quickly picking up a pace again as he zig-zagged his way through the ruined town.
“Tiara! Tiara!” He paused to cough violently, his voice hoarse from the airship smoke. It was somehow reaching his mouth from underneath his brim, clogging his respiratory system and leaving him spluttering. His eyes were beginning to blur with grief as he scanned every single person he could spot along his way. He couldn’t spot one pink-hued bonneter among them, not one veil, couldn’t hear his sister’s voice among the discordant chatter of the scattered civilians. His coughs turned into a choking sob. What if they’d killed her and tossed her body over the railing? What if she was lying under some wreckage somewhere, and he wouldn’t find her until it was too late? He must have searched almost the entire town by now.
Suddenly, he was abruptly thrown out of his worries once again as a purple-clad rabbit barged into him as she stomped past. He followed her with his gaze, tearfully, as she marched past the crowd of frightened locals and towards a pair of huge boat-shaped airships that were docked next to the foggy abyss, seemingly ready to take off. There were a few smaller ships that were already setting off towards the horizon, having departed from the kingdom, probably carrying troops. Standing some distance away on the bridge that led up to the larger of the two ships was hands down the largest Koopa that Cappy had ever seen. He was physically absolutely formidable, bristling with spikes, and for some reason wearing a fancy white tuxedo.
“Alright boss, we’re ready to take off when you are! Not a single working hat ship for miles around, I can guarantee it. We’ll stick around near here for a while, and then come and finish off the plumber guy once you’re done with him. Didn’t really see anything wedding-worthy here though, so we’re gonna have to check in with the other kingdoms afterwards.” The rabbit chirped confidently, regarding the reptile with a cocky grin as she gave her report.
“We don’t need anything else from here. I’ve already got what I want with this sorry excuse for a kingdom.” The koopa snarled, and as Cappy peered up at him, he realised the turtle had something in his grasp.
His heart nearly stopped. It was Tiara.
She was in her hat-form, body tucked away, and her eyes were wide and frightened. The koopa tilted her slightly, listening to the clink of her form against his claws as he admired her like a trinket. Even though he wasn’t clinging to her that roughly, there was no way she could safely get away- his hand was bigger than her entire body, and his grip seemed firm. Cappy went rigid with fear and rage as he watched the huge koopa show his terrified sister to the rabbit.
“I want my wedding with Peach to be perfect,” the monster’s voice boomed, “and that means I want everything there to be perfect as well. And can you get a more special wedding tiara than one that’s alive? Look at it- this’ll go perfectly with that Lamodian dress I had my eye on.”
Tiara struggled, wriggling in his grasp slightly, but her voice sounded weak. “Let me go! I’m not going with you. Please just let me go home!”
The koopa’s rabbit underling squinted, morally unfazed but nevertheless perplexed by this decision, looking between her boss and the little bonneter, before just sighing. “Uhhh, yeah, sure, okay, whatever. Why not. Go pick up your bride, and we’ll catch you before the Sand Kingdom, alright Bowser?”
“Thanks for your help, Hariet. I’ll finish you guys’ payment after the wedding. Right now I’ve got a plumber to go stomp into a plate of spaghetti.” Bowser laughed briefly at his own nonsensical comment, then gestured for his minions to retract the bridge as he started his way up towards the main body of his airship, Tiara still in grasp.
Hariet’s shoulders slumped once her boss’ back was turned away from her and the whirr of the engines had started. “Ughhh. Perfect? He can’t even get his own son to attend it! What in the hell does he need a talking hat for?” She muttered to herself, before trudging off towards her own ship.
Squeezing his eyes shut and trying his very best to steel his nerves, Cappy set off with a burst of action, charging towards the ship as fast as he could. He swiftly reached the place where Bowser had been standing, but both airships were already above him, engines running as they set off. Cappy began to shout Tiara’s name as he frantically ascended towards the larger airship.
The churning of the propeller engine suddenly caught his attention with a jolt of fear, as he could feel it gradually trying to tug him towards it. He didn’t want the mental image of being sliced to ribbons by the spinning blades to become anywhere close to a reality. He dodged towards the side of the ship instead, trying to catch a glimpse of his sister from over the edge, but the koopa’s shell obstructed his view, and soon the ship was travelling too fast for him to keep up with. Too tired to even keep calling out her name, he slowly sunk downwards as he helplessly watched the vessel smoothly sail off into the fog.
***
“Nice birdie back there! Great job getting the ball in from the rough like that!”
There was a chatter amongst the golfers as they congratulated each other, a toad scurrying off presumably to grab the trophy in commemoration of Mayor Pauline’s tournament victory. It was a wonderfully pleasant day on the Bonny Green course, birds chirping in the distance and sunlight gently filtering through a few scattered clouds. A distance away from where the players were gathered, a small crowd stood, still in polite applause but beginning to slowly disperse. A certain bonneter was among them.
Cappy wasn’t quite sure of the rules of golf, and had struggled to pay attention through the game. Kamek, an older magikoopa he’d met at a few of these events so far had chided him on that. “If you want to be picked for one of these someday, you should really read up on the rules, you know. It’s the best way to cement your relevance, in the long run. Look at what’s happened to Lady Rosalina compared to that big purple luma she hangs around with. Sports like this are the difference, I’m telling you. Well, for you young people anyways.”
Cappy would like to object in response to Kamek’s advice- to admit to him how he’s no good at sports anyways, that Kamek doesn’t really participate in the tournaments much himself either, that Lubba also seems perfectly happy as a spectator- but he’s distracted, and he’s been struggling to put his sentences together all day. He’s particularly focused on a certain golfer in the group.
“Looks like I came-a second!” he could hear Mario cheering, “and- ah! You’ve placed third again, Bowser. Congratulations!”
The huge koopa accepted the trophy from one of the toads as he looked at Mario,scratching the back of his neck. “Uh, thanks.” His voice rumbled awkwardly. Cappy felt a twinge of anger bristle through him as his eyes followed the huge reptile’s movements closely. It had been several years, but the terror from the attack on Bonneton was as clear in his mind as yesterday.
Beside him, Kamek clapped. “That’s my boy! ...Erm, that’s Lord Bowser!” He leaned into Cappy, like he was whispering a secret. “He can do better than third place, though. Needs to work on his gentler swings, I think. There’s strategy to this game. Nevertheless, he seems pleased with himself, hm?”
“Mmm.” Cappy didn’t want to be rude to the magikoopa, and for a second his discomfort faltered. After all, maybe he was being petty. Nobody else at the event seemed to hold anything against Bowser. Even Peach and Mario- far longer time victims of the koopa’s actions- were laughing and celebrating with him like a close friend. He was their friend, wasn’t he? Despite everything, somehow? Tiara, currently safe back home in Bonneton, also seemed to have let things go and gotten over it. Bowser hadn’t truly hurt her, after all.
But Cappy couldn’t look at the reptile without looking at the desolate state of the town he’d always called home. He could still smell the exhaust from the ruined engines, hear the desperate wailing of his friends and neighbours, almost drowning out his own cries for his sister. How small and fragile she’d looked trapped in his monstrous claws. How the injured human plumber he’d found shortly after the airship had flown off had also lost someone at Bowser’s hands. The scent of rabbit fur; the uncomfortable wire ride to Fossil Falls; the snap of a hungry piranha plant’s jaws around his entire body; the unshakeable clutches of a Klepto he’d been so sure was going to tear him to shreds for nesting material; the mechanical screeching of the Mechawiggler; the oppressively ice-cold temperatures in Shiveria; the terrifying wall-climb to reach Bowser’s castle; the distant threatening chime of the lunar wedding bells. Cappy could have died several dozen times over on the journey to save his sister, and he’d barely crawled out the other end fighting, and now what? There was Bowser, playing golf. Holding a shitty bronze trophy and trying to calm down his son, who was shouting and dancing around his feet. Charming, awkward, fatherly, surprisingly gentle.
Safe. Happy. Welcomed.
Cappy realised that Kamek had stopped talking to him and was walking away, and flinched, nervously. Had he been staring at Bowser that hard? Or was Kamek just off to do something else? Cappy had never seen the magikoopa during the wedding fiasco. He supposed there was a chance he’d never been involved with it in the first place. He had to know though, right? How do you miss your foster-son’s wedding, exactly?
Luigi knew. Pauline knew. Toadette knew. Mario and Peach both obviously knew. Cappy didn’t have fingers and he still wasn’t sure he could count the clueless people here on one hand.
Slowly, Bowser looked up from his trophy, and met Cappy’s eyes from across the field. The hat almost jumped in surprise, and held his gaze fearfully, expecting some kind of confusion or anger on the koopa’s part. He’d been pretty much glaring at him all game after all, had he noticed? Ohhh gosh, what if he told Mario? That’d add a whole new level of awkwardness to these sports tournaments.
However, to Cappy’s surprise, Bowser’s expression was gentle, and he gave a small smile and a nod of acknowledgement. Cappy held his breath as he suddenly realised there was an understanding in the villain’s expression, soft and… regretful. Bowser just looked at him sadly for few moments, sighed quietly to himself, and turned back to his overexcited son.
The king’s apology was unspoken, and entirely too late anyways, but it still took the bonneter completely off guard. Cappy blinked, hovering there for a few seconds, before turning and beginning his slow flight off in the opposite direction.