Where's Jr.?
"GUYS!"
CRASH! Morton Jr. practically lunged inside, throwing the doors open with such force that they nearly snapped off their hinges. In his hurry, he ended up tripping and colliding with Lemmy's rubber ball, knocking his brother to the ground.
"Gah!" Lemmy rolled over and sat up, rubbing his head. "What was that for?"
"GUYS!" Morton cried again. "You absolutely won't believe what's happening! It's terrible! It's horrible! It's-"
"Taking you too long to get to ze point, as usual," Ludwig cut in. "Vhat are you going on about zis time, Morton?"
"KING DAD!"
Absolute silence.
The Koopalings exchanged astounded looks.
"He's…alive?" Wendy croaked at last.
They'd been worrying ever since they'd heard that Bowser had actually teamed up with the Mario Brothers and gone to a strange kingdom in pursuit of a witch. When they'd heard that the last seen of Bowser's Koopa Kruiser was a flaming hunk of debris hurtling through the sky, they'd been devastated.
But he was alive.
The silence lasted for about another second, and then there was a small stampede as they all tried to get into the corridor at once.
"King Dad! King Dad!"
"Hold on, we're coming!"
"We-"
"SHHHHH!" Morton tried to hold them back, kicking the door shut as he did. "Don't be so loud!" he whispered.
"You were screaming your head off a second ago," Iggy pointed out. "Why should we be quiet?"
Morton looked fearfully at the door and gulped. "So it doesn't find us."
"'It'?" Larry repeated. "What 'it'?"
Morton leaned over, looking even more nervous. "That…thing."
"Morton, ze vone time you stop being zuch a bigmouth, and right vhen ve vant details. Vhat are you talking about?" Ludwig hissed.
"It's…" He gulped again. "Not really King Dad out there."
"Whaddaya mean, not King Dad? Ya just said it was, stupid!" Roy snapped.
"It is," Morton replied slowly, "but it isn't."
They all glared at him.
"It's…King Dad's body…sort of…but it's not King Dad." Morton seemed to be having trouble explaining it. "Like…like…Uh, Ludwig, what was that stuff they were talkin' about in one of your books, when someone, like, goes inside someone else and controls them and stuff?"
"You mean vhen zey vere being pozzezzed?" He blinked, caught off guard, and then it dawned on him. "You mean…"
Morton nodded. "Something's taken over King Dad."
They could hear the sounds of fighting outside as they huddled in the dark corners of the playroom, trembling slightly.
"I hope Aunt Kammy's okay," Larry whimpered.
Morton looked grim. "I don't think she can fight whatever that thing is. She told me to try and hide you guys, but…"
Wendy took a deep, shaky breath. "What is that thing, Morton?"
"From what Aunt Kammy managed to tell me before it caught up to her, that's the witch from the Beanbean Kingdom that King Dad went after. The Mario Brothers beat her, but she managed to possess King Dad, and…" He paused, shaking his head. "Now I guess she…it…wants the castle."
"What about Uncle Kamek?" Jr. asked, afraid of the answer.
"He's not here yet; he was still in Beanbean when it happened. He said he's coming to help, but he's not sure he'll make it in time…" Morton trailed off.
Then Iggy posed the question that they'd all been asking silently in their heads. "What do we do?"
BANG!
Suddenly, a section of the wall blasted open.
The Koopalings jumped to their feet, coughing and gagging on the thick smoke.
A horrid cackle drifted through the air, and they all felt their hearts skip a beat.
The voice…was Bowser's…and yet not Bowser's. They could hear another voice, a hissing woman's voice, in that laugh.
"Eya ha ha! So, hag, is this where they are?"
The Koopalings kept quiet. Apparently, whatever-it-was that had possessed their father wasn't sure of their presence; in the mass of dark clouds, sight was practically impossible.
"HAG?! Who do you think you're talking to, you horrid witch?"
Wendy clapped her hands over her mouth. Bowser Jr. started to cry out, "Aunt Ka-", but Ludwig stopped him.
"Eya ha ha! You shouldn't talk to your ruler that way!"
"You are not Lord Bowser! Let me go!"
"Just tell me where the Koopalings are, and I can promise no more pain will come to you. Why, just submit to me now, and this will all be much easier." The voice hardened. "Or we can continue to do things the hard way."
A long pause.
And then…
"He he he he he!"
A chilling, high-pitched burst of laughter erupted right in Jr.'s ear. Frightened as he already was, he couldn't stop himself from jumping and screaming.
The smoke was beginning to clear, blasted away by a pair of rocket jets. Those rocket jets were attached to a strange helmet. And wearing that helmet was a maniacally-grinning Bean in a ragged red cloak.
"Here you are being!" he cried. A toothy, mouth-like protrusion extended from the helmet and fired a green blast at them. The Koopalings scattered, stumbling on fragments of the blasted wall, and landed in a tangled heap on the floor.
"Well done, Fawful…What have we here?"
The Koopalings looked up, into the eyes of what had once been their beloved King Dad.
For the most part, it looked like the Koopa King: the spiked shell, the flaming red hair, the tough yellow scales. However, the body had undergone a few feminine changes, and the face was almost completely different: sinister pink eyes, a truly creepy smile, and a pair of odd bulbs in place of his horns.
In one claw it held Kammy Koopa. She was in a horrible state; beaten, singed, barely able to stay conscious. She bit her lip as she looked at them, and then glared fiercely at the creature.
"What do you want with them?" she cried.
"Why, what I want with the rest of Bowser's castle and army, of course," the creature replied. "To be part of my master plan, and my new kingdom!"
"WHAT?!" Roy roared, outraged. "Ain't no way we're workin' for a freaky hag like you!"
"Yeah!" the others agreed, slightly emboldened.
"Eya ha ha! You shrimps actually think you can stand against the Great Bowletta?"
Iggy opened his mouth, and then paused. "Bow…letta?"
The Bean in the helmet laughed again. "Yes! I, Fawful, the loyal toady of the Great Cackletta, had the pouring of her energy into the Koopa who is King! Now the Great Bowletta will have the ruling over you, fink-rats! Any resistance is having much futility!"
After making sense of Fawful's broken English, the Koopalings turned back to Bowletta.
"You won't get away with this! Leave King Dad alone and get out of our castle!" Wendy screeched.
"Eya ha ha! Why should I do that? Soon I will have this castle, these soldiers, and the destruction of the Mario Brothers!"
"And soon," Fawful added, "the world will be Cackletta's snack cake!"
They would've laughed long and hard at this, had Kammy not recovered enough to zap Bowletta in the face with a spell.
Bowletta dropped the Magikoopa, clawing at her eyes and roaring in fury. Fawful, with a shout of, "Fink-rats! You will have the paying for that!" began to spray the entire room in bright green energy bolts.
It was chaos. The Koopalings were once again lost in a cloud of smoke, and barely managed to dodge the spells and blasts whizzing overhead.
"AUNT KAMMY!" Lemmy wailed.
"Kids!" They could just hear her voice over the racket. "Get out of here!"
"But-"
"NOW! Before-"
"ENOUGH OF THIS!"
And with that, the playroom was doused in fire.
They almost didn't get out in time. Singed and dazed, the Koopalings dashed down the hallway with Bowletta's shrieks ringing in their ears.
"You can't escape me, Koopalings!"
"What do we do if she sends that weirdo guy after us?" Iggy realized. Fawful's jets were much faster than they were, and they stood little to no chance of outrunning him.
"Over here!" Ludwig hissed, diving into an adjacent hall. The others followed, and, in silence, they waited…
And waited…
Nothing.
Finally, Roy broke the frightened stillness. "I…'tink we got away…"
One by one, they stood, looking around nervously.
"What now?" Lemmy whispered, half to himself. "With that kind of power, it won't be long until Ca- Bowletta takes over King Dad's castle."
"G-guys…?"
The note of sheer terror in Larry's voice caused them all to stop and look at him. The second-youngest Koopaling had tears in his eyes, and the color had drained from his face.
"…Where's Jr.?"
"EYA HA HA HA HA!"