Bowsette’s Princess Lessons - Chapter XVIII: Strange Fire

 Bowsette’s Princess Lessons

Chapter XVIII: Strange Fire

Bowser huffed as he hauled Princess Peach up onto his shoulder. “Alley oop! …Phew, you’ve really gotta lay off the cake. It all goes right to your–”

As Bowser turned, a snarling spectre leapt at his face out of nowhere and slapped him across his face. “Grreeaah!”

  

Bowser squealed like a girl and spun in a circle. “Aaaiieeek! Where did–”

Peach caught a quick glimpse and recognized the ghost: it was Lady Bow! Then Bowser finished turning on his heels to face this enemy, and saw Lady Bow flourish two ornate fans in her hands. “Boo!”

 Lady Bow waved her fans in front of her, and as she did, she vanished. Bowser felt a chill travel up his spine, and twisted. Lady Bow appeared at his side and struck him with her fan. “Olé!”

As Bowser reeled from the blow, Lady Bow appeared on his opposite side and struck again with her other fan. “Olé!”

Bowser released a quick blast of his fiery breath, covering a wide angle. Over his shoulder Peach squeaked as she felt the fire come dangerously close to burning the seat of her skirt. “Eek! Bowser! Cut it out!”

Bowser snapped his mouth shut with a snap. “Shoot! You okay, Peach-pumpkin? Wait, how do I fight her with–”

Bowser felt a little ghost hand under his chin, before Lady Boo appeared in his face and smacked his face multiple times in quick succession. “Olé Olé Olé Olé Olé Olé Olé Olé!”

Incidentally, Lady Bow was a huge fan of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Bowser tried to blast her away with fire breath, only to hesitate and swallow the red fire at the last possible moment. As he swung wildly for Lady Bow, she disappeared before his eyes. “Hey! No fair!”

Lady Bow appeared on Bowser’s opposite side, using the handle of her fan like a dagger to jab him in the gut. “Fair?”

Bowser swung a claw at her, and Lady Bow disappeared with a flourish of her fans, reappearing again to smack him across the back of his head, Lady Bow’s fan glancing of the crown as she swung with all her might. “You dare to speak of fair?” 

Lady Bow disappeared from behind Bowser, then appeared in front of him, striking with the fan again. “You toro! You unleashed that monster Tubba Blubba on my pueblo!”

Without thinking, Bowser swung his free arm and blasted a pink fireball at Lady Bow. Instead of disappearing, Lady Bow pirouetted out of the way, still visible. Spotting an opening, Bowser charged to land a wild haymaker. 

Charging a red fireball in his fist, Bowser’s punched a hole into the brick wall where Lady Bow had been a moment before, leaving scorch marks behind. “Aw! Gimme’ a break!”

As Bowser felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, he knew Lady Bow was about to sneak up on him and spun to blast another red ball of fire. Lady Bow shrieked and dropped one of her fans to shield her eyes. As Bowser shot the fireball, Lady Bow spun out of the way, so narrowly, that one of the ribbons of her red hair bows caught on fire. Sneering, Bowser aimed a knife hand strike at Lady Bow and his red fire cut through the air like a sickle. “He was way too good a minion to pass up.” 

Lady Bow rolled in midair to evade the cutting blade of red fire. Bowser lunged forward to snatch the ghost out of the air, but she spun to disappear from his grasp. Bowser’s smile widened to a full grin. “Cutting out your heart to achieve invincibility? Now that’s showing initiative! …Too bad it didn’t quite work, but still–”

Spinning to look behind him, Bowser spotted Lady Bow coming in for another strike with her fan, and blocked it. 

Bowser smacked Lady Bow to the ground with a flick of his wrist, red fire dancing on the palm of his hand. Lady Bow bounced once on the ground, and looked up, her face singed. “...He ate my neighbors alive!”

Bowser shrugged. “Eh, you’re ghosts. I don’t think it counts as killing you if you’re already dead to begin with. Now, it’s been lovely doing the fandango with you, but I’m saving the last dance for my date. So if you’ll excuse me–”

“No! I will not allow it! If you plan to abduct Peach, you will have to step over my dead body!”

Bowser held up his free hand, palm pointing outwards. “Let’s test that theory.”

A steady stream of red flame poured out of Bowser’s palm. An instant before it engulfed Lady Bow, she shielded her face and turned semi-transparent. Peach slapped the back of Bowser’s turtle shell to get his attention. “Bowser! Don’t hurt her!”

Bowser craned his neck toward Peach as he kept shooting red flames to hold down Lady Bow. “Relax! She can’t move while I’m doing this. All right, Chica, as fun as it is to bully you nerds, I’m in a rush, so kindly–”

A pink bullet of fire shot out of Bowser’s open palm, ripping a hole through the thick, red flames. Bowser’s arm flailed in the air as he felt the recoil. Lady Bow held her breath as the pink flame passed right through her. Lady Bow felt no pain. After all, as long as she held still, Lady Bow was intangible, so the pink flame was supposed to go right through her. 

Then Lady Bow saw a small, burning hole had been cut in her fan, and felt a thin prick, like a sewing needle, pressing into her chest. And as Lady Bow looked down, she finally saw a thin tongue of pink flame, flickering from a wound in her breast. “What…sorcery…”

Lady Bow collapsed. Behind her, a small hole had been burned through the stone.

Bowser examined his palm. “Huh?”

Peach yelled. “What did you do?”

Bowser grinned sheepishly. “Uh, I’m sure she’s fine. Boos are hard to kill, even on purpose.”

As Bowser turned to progress down the chamber, Peach spotted Lady Bow as they left her behind. “Lady Bow! Oh, Bowser, what have you done to her?”

“It was self defense!”

“It’s not self defense if you start the fight!”

Bowser whined as he charged red flames from his feet, preparing to lift off. “But she started it! Why do you always have to root for the little guy?”

With a blast of flame, Bowser took off, flying over the lava pit, and toward the ledge that led to the final bridge, and their escape. “Can’t you see, I’m trying to save–”

A little baby Sparky burst out of the lava, her lollipop flying out of her mouth as she hollered a war cry in an adorable, childish lisp. “Pika-Pikaaaa!”

Watt the Sparky slammed against Bowser’s bottom, and unleashed a devastating electric shock that electrocuted both Bowser and Princess Peach. Sparky roared like thunder, releasing a shock wave.“Goro-goro!”

The blast sent Bowser flying forward, leaving a trail of steam behind him. Shielding Peach in his arms, Bowser came rolling to a halt on the steel and chain-link bridge that led to the exit.

Watt bounced forward, looking thoroughly proud of herself. “Gotcha! Mr. Mario told me to stop you, and I did it! Now, Mr. Bowser…stop being a bad guy!”

Bowser shivered as he saw Peach’s prone form in her arms, then rounded on Watt, his nostrils billowing smoke. “You lil’ brat! You hurt my Peach!”

Watt noticed Peach. “Huh? Ms. Peach, why are you with Bowser?”

Peach groaned. “I’m fine. Please, Bowser, just listen to–”

Flakes of ember flew from Bowser’s mouth like spit. “You HURT her! Rrraaawwwrrr!”

With a deep, low boom, a pillar of red fire shot from Bowser’s mouth. Watt tried to leap up and out of the way, but Bower angled the shot up and caught Watt with the full force of the attack. It slammed Watt into the ceiling with such force, it cracked the stones and left a glowing, white-hot crater behind. Watt fell limply from the ceiling, bounced on the floor, and came rolling to a halt against the wall.

Peach screamed, dashing forward to reach the baby Sparky. “Lil’ Watt!”

But Bowser caught her around her waist. “Let’s go, Peaches, I’ve gotta get you out of–”

Peach rounded on Bowser and struck him full across the face. “You beast! How could you hurt her?”

Ordinarily, a slap from Peach wouldn’t even phase Bowser, but in his feminine form, he actually felt it. Bowser nearly lost his grip on Peach, before remembering to use both hands. “But that thing hurt you! It attacked me!”

“She’s a CHILD!!”

Peach tried to pull her wrist free away from Bowser, then turned to look for Watt. The Lil’ Sparky’s body was billowing, glowing white like hot molten glass. Watt rolled onto her side to look up at Peach. “Miss Peach…I don’t feel so good…”

Boser hooked Peach around her chest to pull her into a tight grapple. “...There, see? She’s fine. Lil’ Sparkys are built tough.”

Peach spun to face Bowser, grabbed the sash on his shredded dress, and slapped him three times. “Excuses! Excuses! Always excuses! You hurt people, and then you pretend it doesn’t matter!”

Bowser flinched as he felt the slaps, but kept his hold on Peach, picking her up and spinning to carry her toward the exit. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry! Shesh, I wasn’t trying to hurt her.”  

With the power of a red mushroom, Bowser was strong enough to carry Peach, even in his female form…but he wasn’t quite as strong as he used to be. Peach twisted her grip on Bowser’s sash to gain leverage, and strained to push away from Bowser, forcing him to release her as he stumbled forward. Peach leapt back to give herself distance, holding her hands up defensively. “Then stop hurting my friends!”

Bowser caught himself on the chain link that acted as the suspension for the rickety bridge. “Careful! We’re over lava!” 

“Careful? You broke the Super Mario Maker! You’ve put all my friend’s lives at risk!”

“How was I supposed to know? You’re the one who programmed it! You should have put in more safety features.”

“And you should have listened to me when I told you to stop! My friends are in danger! They need our help! But you only care about yourself!”

Bowser bared his fangs. “That’s not true! I care about you, Peach. I love you!”

“No you don’t! If you really loved me, you’d stop treating me this way! You’d let me live my life!”

Bowser rolled his eyes. “Oh, spare me, Peach. You’re telling me you want to sit in your palace all day? Eating cakes? Attending stuffy royal functions? I know you too well. You crave adventure! The thrills, the romance! I see that big, goofy smile on your face everytime Mario shows up to kidnap you from me! You love being kidnapped! That’s why you pretend to like that Mario guy: to make me jealous, so I enact a daring plan to rescue you from him.”

Peach faltered. Bowser was so wildly wrong, and yet so strangely observant, she nearly lost her train of thought. “I don’t–I don’t pretend to like Mario! He’s my friend!”

“Yeah, yeah, short, fat, funny-looking, low-class, low-income–pretty scrappy, I’ll give him that–but definitely not in your league. Ya know I used to feel threatened by him, but then I got to thinking, if you really loved Mario, you’d have just married the poor schmuck years ago. But you haven’t married Mario, because you don’t love him, because you’re waiting for a real man to show up, and sweep you off your feet! And that’s me, of course!”

Peach stammered. “But…But…”

She had started to say the same words she had said, time and again: “But I don’t love you, Bowser!” 

But she didn’t say those words. Instead, Peach said the first thing that came to mind. “But…but I do love Mario.” 

Bowser’s smile disappeared. A lock of hair fell out of place, shimmering as it caught the ambient red light. “What?”

A tremor traveled through the floor, sending the steel bridge swaying slightly. A bubble burst in the lava below. Bowser’s face turned suddenly pale. “There’s no time for arguments. Your life is more important than anything, Princess.”

Peach snarled, then raised her fists, remembering Princess Daisy’s boxing classes. “No! I refuse to be bullied! Bower, you…you bucket-head! Put up yer’ dukes!”

Before he could react, Bowser felt his mouth moving. “To what end? So that you can die here? And what of your kingdom? What of your people? Would you throw your life away, and leave them without a protector?”

Peach’s fists trembled, her eyes suddenly doubtful. “I…I won’t–”

Bowser was no less surprised than Peach by his own argument. As he felt the words flow, he recognized them as his own thoughts, his own observations, but ones he could never articulate before this moment. “Your father is old, and feeble, and has failed to produce a male heir. The Mushroom Kingdom must always have a rightful king. Do you understand what that means? You will be Queen Toadstool, but only by right of primogeniture…Your first-born son will be the King of the Mushroom Kingdom. You have no choice!”

Peach felt her breath falter. “I…I’ve always wanted to be a mother, ever since I was a little girl. That is my choice!”

Bowser’s eyes shimmered like blue ice, in sharp contrast to the warm ambient that radiated from the lava below, holding up his/her hand, almost gently. “Then you must live, no matter the cost. Come with me, Crown Princess Toadstool.”

Peach saw the reflection of her own face on the golden surface of Bowser’s crown, and something about it frightened her, more than even Bowser himself. “...No…If you cross that line, it will be the death of the others…Those are my people! I will not let you!” 

With a flick of the wrist, Bowser created a quick flash of pink flame in his/her open palm. As Peach recoiled from the blinding light, Bowser charged to tackle her.

…

In the underwater chamber, Mario felt a stone obstacle blocking his path, then swam upwards. He tried to peek a glimpse of the warp pipe that was his only exit, and felt boiling water pressing against his eyes. No good. At least two more obstacles blocking his path. The protective power of the Fire Flower was overwhelmed. Mario used a freestyle stroke to propel forward, then switched to a kick stroke to aim downward at where he could only guess the pipe would be. The only thing keeping him from screaming was the knowledge that, as soon as he opened his mouth, boiling water would fill his lungs. Behind his closed eyelids, red and white stars filled Mario’s vision…

…

As Peach struggled to see past the blinding light, Bowser lifted her up in a bear hug and began to carry her, step by step, toward the finish line. Peach slammed her fist into Bowser’s face. 

Bowser flinched, holding Peach tighter against his/her breast. “There’s no point. You lack the strength to hurt me.”

But as Bowser tried to secure his/her grip, Peach used the momentum to kick up her heels and shove herself out of Bowser’s grip. Peach tumbled hard on her rear end and back, but managed to break her fall.

Bowser stumbled back, grabbing the chain link for balance, then thrust forward, snatching Peach’s wrist and pulling her up as she struggled to regain her footing. “Enough of this!”

Peach aimed an elbow strike at Bowser’s head, then tried to hook her arm around her foe’s neck, hoping to pull Bowser off balance. But instead Peach caught the Crown of Queen Toadstool in a tight grip. Without thinking, Peach wrenched at the Crown, slamming her other hand into Bowser’s jaw to secure her judo hold, but as long as Bowser had the power of both a Red Mushroom and a Fire Flower, it was as if Peach was hitting solid concrete.

As Peach twisted at the Crown, Bowser felt like he had sharp fangs digging into his skull, and reared to shake Peach loose. “Aauurgh! Get OFF my HEAD!!”

Bowser was overwhelmingly stronger than Peach. He was used to being ridiculously stronger than Peach. But without his old body, Bowser was just slightly weaker than he used to be, even with the magic power of the Red Mushroom. So when Bowser felt something hurting him, something he couldn’t shake off he panicked, and used his full strength. Bowser shoved Peach away, sending her flying back, almost slowly, towards the stone steps that led to the exit.

As Princess Peach crashed down backwards against the step, there was an ugly crack of bone against stone. Bowser froze, and even as the radiant heat of molten lava billowed around him, he felt only ice in his veins.

His hands shook as he reached for Peach. “Peaches?”

An older woman’s voice screamed in his ears. “Take her!”

Bowser stumbled as he sought the source of the voice, which seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, then spotted the great, gilded war axe that hung over his old throne room. On the surface of the axe blade, he saw his own reflection…but it was also Peach…and it also neither of them. “Quickly! To the exit! You’re her only hope! She is MY only hope!”

Bowser hugged himself. “You were in my dream! This is just a dream! This isn’t happening!”

“This is your victory! There’s nothing left to stop you! But reach out your hand, and she is yours! Her Kingdom is yours! This is what you wanted! Kill Mario! Claim Peach as your prize!”

Bowser ran his fingers through his hair, his head swimming as his vivid, red-gold locks blurred his vision. “...Kill Mario? …Save Peach? No! Not like this! This isn’t my dream! I have to beat Mario, fair and square. Peach has to watch me win the fight, and tell me how cool I looked. I need them to know…I need to know…that I was always the bigger man!”

“...Then you leave me no choice.”

Bowser twisted to look away at the horrible reflection of his own face, and found himself standing in an infinite, black void. He was alone.

A blaring stage light activated, illuminating a single, white King-Koopa egg, resting on a nest.

Then, Bowser saw himself, outside of himself. Feeling small, Bowser looked up to find a much younger version of Bowser Koopa, in his good, old turtle form, resting a claw gently on the egg. “Well, congrats, Claudia, you got shared custody. We’ll be seeing an awful lot of each other for forever now.”

They were in Bowser and Morton’s childhood home, which Claudia had fought tooth and nail to claim for herself, despite having always hated the place. “I think I can stomach seeing you pick up Junior once a week…watching have to drop him off makes it all worth it!”

Bowser Koopa didn’t bother to look up as he meticulously fiddled with the incubator, and examined the manual. 

Claudia sniffed. “You know, Warty and I were going to spend the week together at Sirena Beach.”

Bowser Koopa scowled as he attached the egg-care manual to the refrigerator. “Well, too bad. It’s not my fault you didn’t bother to read the calendar.” 

Claudia crossed her arms. “You could have taken Junior for another week. Not like you had any plans.”

Bowser Koopa sneered, then pumped a fist. “As a matter of fact, I do! For months, my spies have been constructing a massive flying fortress underneath Princess Peach’s castle, so that I may carry her off on a romantic getaway through the heavens! Do you have any idea of the logistics involved? It’s a triumph of modern Koopa engineering.”

Claudia pulled a file from her purse to give her claws a manicure. “Oh, still chasing after that poisonous bimbo? You know what I like about Warty? He sets achievable goals, and then he meets them. He has actual ambition.”

Bowser Koopa gestured to the heavens as he entered into his villain-monologue mode. “To achieve my goals…I plan to assault the Star Haven, and seize the Star Rod for myself. With its all-mighty power, I shall become immortal and rule the world. All my wishes shall finally be granted!”

“Daddy?”

Bowser turned as he heard the childish voice, and as he did, Bowser looked at his pale hands, Bowser remembered that he was small and weak. He was not the same as the young Bowser Koopa that towered over him.

Little Larry “Cheatsy” Koopa appeared in the doorway, and Bowser saw he was at a height with the Koopaling. Larry roared with joy and ran through Bowser’s ghostly spirit to cling to the leg of the mighty Bowser Koopa. “Daddy! You’re finally home!”

Six more children darted into the room, with more cries of, “Daddy? Daddy! Daddy’s home!” Morton “Big Mouth” Koopa Jr. (no relation to Bowser’s twin Morton C. Koopa), clutched an American football. Wendy Koopa threw aside a glammy fashion magazine. Iggy “Hop” Koopa held up a toy race car made of N&B blocks (the favored alternative to Legos in the Mushroom Kingdom). Roy “Bully” Koopa accidentally knocked Larry aside as he vied for Bowser Koopa’s attention.

Lemmy “Hip” Koopa smiled, his lazy eye making his childish joy look almost comical. “Are you gonna’ stay forever?”

Ludwig Koopa shoved Lemmy aside, holding up blank sheet music covered in pencil marks. “Dad? Check it! I wrote a cool new theme song for you!”

Bowser Koopa stiffened. “Aw, crud! Claudia, why are your kids here? I thought you put them in boarding school?”

Claudia shrugged. “I can’t keep up with all these new holidays.”

Larry grabbed at Bowser Koopa’s other ankle. “We missed you, Daddy! Stay with us!”

Bowser Koopa shook his head, and tried to step over the mob of children to reach the door. “No, no, no! Crud, this was only supposed to be a quick drop-off. Claudia, did you plan this?”

Claudia grinned as she examined her nails. “...Maybe!”

All the Koopalings howled with despair as they realized Bowser Koopa was leaving. 

Larry wailed. “No! Don’t leave!”

Morton back and forth looked from Bowser Koopa to his siblings. “What’s happening?”

Iggy tossed aside his toy block car. “Boarding school is awful!”

Ludwig dropped his sheet music. “It’s stifling my creativity!”

Roy fidgeted with his sunglasses. “Yeah, they even bully me there!”

Lemmy clung to Bowser Koopa’s leg. “It is ‘cuz we screwed up fighting Mario? We’ll get him next time, Daddy, I promise!”

Bowser Koopa looked back and forth at his adopted step-children, his eyes wide. “No, no, no, Daddy’s got important…I mean, you’ve got to stay with Mommy now, and Warty…uh, I mean, Mr. Mamū. Claudia, that incubator’s designed to be idiot proof. Just don’t screw with the thermometer, and everything will be fine.”

Bowser, the real Bowser, screamed, and dove to grab Bowser Koopa around the ankle. “No! Everything’s not gonna be fine! Don’t do it!”

Wendy started sobbing. “You…you said you’d be our Daddy forever!”

Bowser Koopa swallowed, and stomped toward the door. “Sorry, kid…but I’m not your real father. Now, I’m off to claim the Star Rod! Mwah, ha, ha, har!”

As the younger Bowser Koopa shook himself loose and hustled to the door, only the spirit Bowser himself managed to hold on tight enough to be dragged along. “No! Your kids need you! You know this is wrong! You need to be a man!”

 

As the younger Bowser Koopa dove out the door to escape the hoard of crying children, the real Bowser felt his face slammed against the door frame. Bowser howled and clutched his bleeding nose, and felt a fat lip.

As Bowser looked up, the room had vanished, along with all his children. A CRT-television flickered to life, silently blinking the message: “Alert! Alert!”

A door opened, and Bowser turned to find the younger Bowser Koopa holding aloft the Star Rod, with a big goofy grin on his face, with Kammy Koopa at his side. “Ah! What a perfect day! Can’t believe Peach was sneaking around after curfew, disguised as one of my own soldiers!”

Kammy shook her head. “We should discuss disciplinary measures for Princess Toadstool. If she could escape her room this whole time, who knows what kind of information she could pass on to Mario?”

Bowser Koopa shrugged. “Eh, well now that’s over, I can finally concentrate on finalizing the defensive measures for–”

Bowser Koopa spotted the blaring red alarm. “That’s odd, it’s not the Mario Bros. Emergency Alert System…Incubator security breach?”

This time, Bowser seemed to see the monitor through his own eyes. He was no longer watching the memory as a third-party spectator. He was himself again. Bowser scrambled to punch in Claudia Koopa’s number on the high-tech video phone. “Claudia? What’s going on?”

Claudia fumbled with her Koopa phone. “Oh, by Kuzenbo’s bald head, what is it this time?”

“Did you fiddle with the thermostat again?”

“Of course I did! The climate is warmer on Delfino Isle, so the thing blinked at me and I pressed the button.”

“Delfino Isle? What are you doing there? You’re supposed to be watching the incubator!”

“Do you think I’m completely irresponsible? I brought it with me, of course! Warty finally figured out we could strap it to the Koopa Clown Car with duct tape. He’s so handy!”

“You went flying around with our egg? Where is it? Show me!”

Claudia rolled her eyes, then pointed the phone camera so it showed the empty incubator. “God! This is like our bloody honeymoon all over again. It’s right here!”

Bowser grabbed the television, desperately trying to reach through the screen to the other side. “The incubator’s empty? Where’s the egg!”

“Huh? …Oh, the egg! Let’s see, I think I last saw it when we took off. The turbulence was awful! Hmm…I suppose we must have lost it along with the other luggage.”

Bowser slammed the control panel. “You dropped our egg out of a plane? Kammy! Get the Koopa Troopa Patrol out in full force!”

Kammy flailed her arms. “But…where do I send them?”

Bowser shook his fist at the image of Claudia on the screen. “Where did this happen? When did this happen?”

Claudia scowled. “You’re so pushy! …I suppose it must have been a week ago, somewhere over the Mushroom Kingdom.”

“A week? Our egg has been stranded in the wilderness for a week? Claudia, that is our child!”

Claudia smirked. “Oh, Bowzee, I don’t have to put up with your tantrums anymore. Anyway…it was just an egg.”

“No! That’s our–” Claudia hung up. Bowser stared at the blank, black screen, then slammed his fist through the spot where Claudia’s face had been a moment before. 

Bowser felt tears streaming down his face. “Rraaaaah! My child! My only child! My…my BABY!!!”

Bowser heard two voices speaking over one another, one like old Kammy Koopas, and another…one he didn’t know. “...Your heir.”

Rounding on Kammy Koopa, Bowser saw an image of a beautiful woman with golden hair, superimposed over the image of his old advisor. Bowser snatched the woman by the throat and slammed her into the wall. “You! I know you! What have you done to me?”

The woman in the mirror, Bowsette, clutched feebly at her throat. “I…can’t do anything to you! I serve you! I am you!”

“Liar! I know illusion magic when I see it! Release me from this prison!”

Bowsette gurgled. “Can’t…prison…is your own mind!”

Bowser tightened his grip. “Stop speaking in riddles!”

Bowsette twitched her hand, and on the unbroken screens, multiple videos began to play. Bowser saw Mario knocking him into a pit of lava with a fireball, saw Mario kicking Bowser out of the sky to send him crash-landing in his flying Clown Car, saw Mario knocking Chain-chomps off a chandelier to send Bowser plummeting to the floor below, saw Mario spinning him by the tail before throwing Bowser into a spiked bomb trap.

Bowsette rasped for breath. “I’m starting to think…you enjoy losing. But with my power–”

Bowser threw Bowsette into the control panel, smashing all but one of the televisions. “I don’t need your power! I can beat Mario with my own strength!”

Bowsette waved a trembling hand, and an image of Peach appeared on the final screen. They both lay prone, helpless, a mirror-image of one another. “...And what about Peach?”

Bowser was fixated on the final screen. Bowsette chuckled, but her laughter was strained, as if her ribs were broken. “Heh…so beautiful…but I can feel her heart fading…time moves…slowly, here…you still have time…”

“Time? Time to do what?”

“...Time to think….to make the right decision…just pick her up…carry her across the finish line…and Mario will be dead.”

The final screen flickered with static, and alarms blared on all sides. “Red Alert! This is not a drill! Mario has breached the perimeter! All units to your stations! Prepare for battle!”

An image of Mario appeared on the screen, surrounded by all seven of the Star Spirits, the ancient guardians of the Star Rod, and a gaggle of Mario’s pathetic little friends following close behind.

Bowser heard his past self roar. “Mario, again? Mario, Mario…It’s always Mario! I’ll KILL him!!!”

Bower remembered holding the Star Rod above his head, remembered having the power of the heavens course though him, remembered how he had charged out to face Mario himself, wielding the strength of a god…and he remembered losing.

Then Bowser saw the past version of himself charging out of the room, and looked down to find his hands were frail, with five fingers again.

The  image of Peach reappeared on the screen, reflecting on Bowser’s eyes as he reached toward her. “...kill…Mario?”

 

The entire television screen seemed to fill Bowser’s vision as he reached his pale hands through the screen, to grasp Peach.

[end of chapter]