Super Mario Bros. Fan Fiction ❯ Question Box ❯ Chapter 3
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Question Box: Stage III
Box 14: What You Can't Hear Can't Hurt You
As he made his escape in his clown-copter, Bowser took a moment to note just how loud Princess Peach Toadstool could be. Her constant screaming chant of 'help me Mario, help me Mario, help me Mario help me' being said as if it was one long word rather then three words, repeated over and over, was getting on his nerves. The screaming of the kidnapped princess didn't stop when they got to his castle and it was only after she was locked up in a sound proof room that he could rest from the noise, or at least from that specific noise. It wasn't the end of the unpleasant noises, for he was the father of seven very hyper and noisy children.
Ludwig thought he was a composer. Bowser didn't want to discourage the heir to the koopa throne so he pretended that he loved his oldest son's melodies. Then there was Lemmy rolling around the castle balanced on a ball. His balance was excellent, but just because he didn't fall off that ball didn't mean he didn't often knock things over. Random fragile objects shattered as they hit the floor. He could hear potted piranha plants being knocked over and crawling all over the castle looking for something to chew on, which hopefully would not turn out to be his slippers.
Iggy soon followed with some strange invention that was more likely to blow up than to work. Sometimes Ludwig teamed up with Iggy to invent things that blew up. It was important to exercise creativity, but he wondered if they would ever invent something that actually did what it was supposed to. All of their invasions blew up, except for that bomb they built once, that did everything except blowing up, which was what it was supposed to do. If not inventing with Ludwig, Iggy was found following Lemmy around on foot, while his brother rolled around on the ball. He made no effort to catch the items Lemmy knocked over.
Roy was known for being a bully and picking on his siblings. Ludwig sometimes tried to make his younger siblings get along, although most of the time he let them destroy the castle with their sibling fights as long as they didn't bother him. It was amazing how the koopalings could be fighting like they were mortal enemies one second and getting along like loving siblings the next. That was one of the mysteries of the koopa kids.
Morton was a special case, that boy never shut up. He could go on and on about just about anything and everything. The boy's constant ranting could drive anyone to insanity. Everyday he found something new to rant and speech about for hours. Wendy was a spoiled brat, as spoiled as they came. She was known for her long and loud temper tantrums and always getting her way. She was daddy's little girl and possibly daddy's biggest torturer. Finally, there was Larry, the youngest of the koopalings, the one who always got into trouble, well even more trouble than his siblings. That boy insisted on poking things that weren't meant to be poked, such as piranha plans and chain chops.
Bowser sighed and tried to prepare himself. He knew the silence after locking Peach in that sound proof room would not last. As if on cue, within ten seconds of such thoughts, the koopalings, all seven of them, ran to greet their father and complain about something or share a story of something that happened while he was away, or ask for something, or show him something, or just talk. As you may imagine, by the time the Mario brothers came and went after successfully completing their royal rescue mission, Bowser was left wit a huge headache. All that noise was just too much for him.
It was at the end of a busy day like that when Bowser made a desperate decision. "I want to stop hearing."
Kamek the magikoopa stood there for a moment, wondering of he had heard correctly. "You want me to make you deaf?"
"Temporarily yes, I need a rest from all this noise," Bowser clarified.
"What about my vacation?" Kamek had been bothering Bowser about giving him a vacation for months and when the time finally came, he didn't want to have to cancel it.
"You can still go on your vacation, just make me hear again when you come back. I don't think I'll miss all this noise," Bowser replied.
"Well alright, here goes." With a wave of his wand, Kamek made it so Bowser could no longer hear. "Can you hear me?"
"What?" Bowser asked.
"Can you hear me?" Kamek yelled.
"I can't hear you... I can't hear you, it worked! Finally, some peace and quiet!" Bowser cheered.
"I'm happy for you king Bowser, now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going on my vacation," Kamek left.
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The next day came and everything was the same, except for the lack of sound. Bowser got up late; he slept in because he didn't hear his alarm clock. He slept in so late that the koopaling were already up, causing chaos and disaster by the time he woke up. If not because Larry decided to use his bed as a trampoline and actually got his siblings to join him, he wouldn't have woken up at all. It was needless to say it was a bit annoying waking up to seven little koopas jumping on his bed, and on him, but at least everything was quiet so it wasn't too bad.
After a very quiet breakfast, filled with sibling arguments and food fights, there came the time to kidnap Princess Peach once again. The silence made it a lot easier to concentrate during the kidnapping and the trip back to the castle in the clown-copter was much more pleasant due to the sweet silence.
"Help me, Mario! Help me, Mario! Help me, Mario! Help me, Mario!" The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom screamed. She paused as she looked at Bowser who appeared unaffected by her screams for help. Taking a deep breath she decided to try again. "Help me, Mario!" She screamed loud enough to wake the dead, but Bowser continued on his way in a visibly good mood and didn't even look annoyed. Peach blinked in total confusing. Didn't all that screaming bother him at all? Maybe he was used to her loud chant for help and it didn't affect him anymore. She tried something different, a simple scream as loud as her lungs and throat allowed. She took in as much oxygen as she could and scream right next to him. "AH!" Still there was no effect. With elaborate heavy breathing due to all that screaming Peach tapped Bowser on the shoulder. "How come you're not annoyed by my screams today? Are you ignoring me?"
Bowser couldn't hear a word she said. He only smiled, it wasn't an evil smile, it was an 'I think you're funny' smile. That scared Peach more than an evil smile would. "Marry you? Of course, I'll marry you."
"No, that's not what I asked. I wanted to know why you're not annoyed by my screaming," Peach clarified.
"Tomorrow? Sure, tomorrow it will be," Bowser nooded.
"Are you deaf or are you just trying to annoy me? Because if you wanted to annoy, even more than being kidnapped annoys me, then you got it." Then Peach realized what she said. "Oh, no you really did go deaf, didn't you? That's why you don't understand anything that I'm saying."
Bowser landed the clown-copter in the Koopa Castle. "Yes, yes I like you too, now come this way to your room and wait until I beat the Mario brothers. I'll come back and give you the news update as soon as I win." With Peach locked up, Bowser quietly waited for the Mario brothers to show up. Since he couldn't hear, Bowser couldn't tell what his kids were destroying by sound, so he went to find out. To his surprise, they were sitting quietly watching TV, getting along just fine, unlike during breakfast when they were trying to kill each other. Kids, who understands them?
The day progressed normally, save for the lack of sound. Lunch was a war zone and during the early afternoon, the Mario brothers were able to rescue Princess Peach once again, as they always did. This time however, Bowser didn't have a headache afterwards.
After the Mario brothers and Peach were gone, the Koopa King sat on his throne, enjoying the silence. Princess Peach might have been rescued, but at least he didn't have a headache and the silence was calming, so he was still in a pretty good mood. "King dad, king dad!" Larry came running into the throne room. "I know you told me not to poke that piranha plant Lemmy and Iggy gave you for father's day, but I really want to poke it. Can I poke it?"
Normally, Bowser wouldn't allow Larry to poke that piranha plant and get eaten. Sure he was the bad guy of the story, but he wasn't evil enough to let his own son go and get eaten. Of course Bowser was very deaf at the moment and couldn't hear a word Larry said. "That's nice Larry, have fun."
"Yay!" Larry ran off to poke the ferocious piranha plant. Bowser didn't think too much of it. What could Larry possibly do that could cause more trouble than the koopalings normally caused on a daily basis?
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Meanwhile, Wendy looked at a pool of boiling lava while in deep thought. She had an idea, but she wasn't sure if it would work out. "Oh, it's worth a try."
"This will be so much fun!" Larry ran by. Wendy wondered what he was so excited about but decided not to ask about it. She had her own fun to plan. Larry quickly ran towards a certain piranha plant bigger than the others and happily started poking the sleeping beast. "Fun! Fun! Fun!" The piranha plant certainly wasn't having fun. It was quick to anger and even faster to swallow the little koopaling whole. Luckily koopa shells are very strong and Larry was saved by going into his shell, however he was still trapped in the mouth of the piranha plant that, despite the spikes in his shell and being unable to chew the hard shell, refused to let him go.
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Wendy had gone to see her father. "King dad, I have the greatest idea! Since it's summer and all and the temperature is pretty hot I thought we could get a pool to swim in. I thought it would be a good idea to turn that big pool of lava we have into a swimming pool of water for the summer. You know which one I mean, right? The really big one, we'll need to drain the lava out of it and prepare to fill it up with water, so we'll need a plumber. The Mario brothers are our enemies and all, but they're still the best plumbers in the land, so I thought we could hire them for the job. Are you okay with all of that, king dad?"
Bowser had no idea what his daughter just said, but he assumed she was asking to borrow his credit card to buy a new pair of shoes, or a ribbon, or jewelry, or something. Saying no was out of the question, because if he did, she would throw the temper tantrum of the century. Sure he couldn't hear her, but he could still see her throwing random items in a fury and closing his eyes wouldn't' solve that, because the items would still get thrown around and said items would still hit him, since he would be her target if she didn't get whatever she wanted. Ah, yes, daddy's little girl, spoiled and evil, just like her father. He was so proud of his koopalings. "Alright Wendy, just try not to spend too much."
"Really, daddy?" Wendy cheered. Convincing him to let the Mario brothers turn their biggest lava pool into a water swimming pool was a lot easier than she imagined. "This is going to be totally great!" She jumped on him to give him hug before running off to call the Mario brothers.
After Wendy left, Morton came by to give Bowser a speech about anything and everything. "King dad, can I talk to you?"
The king of Koopas couldn't hear what Morton said, but he knew he wanted to talk, he always wanted to talk. "Do you want to talk, Morton? I have some time so go ahead and tell me whatever you want. I'll just sit here and listen."
Morton's eyes lit up with happiness. His father was actually offering to listen to him. Oh, joy! It was the happiest day of his life. Morton hopped on his father's lap and sat there talking. "I'm so happy you agreed to listen to me, king dad. This will be so much fun! I'll tell you about my entire day from the second I woke up this morning up until now. I won't leave out any details! It all started this morning when I woke up and the first thing I did was open my eyes. That's the first thing I do every morning, I open my eyes." After an overly long description about how he brushed his teeth it had been fifteen minutes and Morton, talking at an amazing speed, wasn't even done narrating the events of the morning before breakfast. "Then Larry invited us to jump on your bed. That was fun! We jumped and bounced and jumped. It was so much fun!" Morton continued talking for a very, very, very long time.
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Elsewhere, Mario and Luigi received a call from Wendy. "Allo, Mario brothers-a plumbing service!" Mario answered the phone.
"Hello, I have a very important plumbing job for you, but it's a little unusual. Do you think you can handle it?" Wendy asked.
Mario wondered why the girl's voice sounded so familiar. "Of course madam, we can fix-a any leak."
"Well it's not exactly a leak. It's something related to a pool," Wendy explained.
"Mama mia! We've had-a plenty of-a pool related jobs this-a summer. You have a-nothing to worry about. Your-a pool is in good hands!" Mario assured.
"Great! When can you come by to take a look at the soon to be pool?" Wendy asked.
"We could-a come a-right away. What is-a your-a name and where-a do you live-a, madam?" This summer was going to make them rich. A hot summer and a sale on pool related materials was a plumber's dream.
"In the Koopa Castle, you already know who I am. When you get here, just tell the guards Wendy called you. Don't take too long!" Wendy cheered.
"Wendy Koopa!" Mario nearly yelled. The name got Luigi's attention. He had been gathering their tools in preparation to tackle another pool job when he heard Mario talking on the phone.
"Yes, Wendy Koopa, actually it's Wendy O. Koopa. You know how to spell that right? That's Koopa with two o's," Wendy explained.
Mario thought about the situation. It could be a trap, but somehow the unlikely possibility of it not being a trap was still, although unlikely, a possibility. "We'll-a be a-right there," sfter he hung up the phone, he looked at his brother.
Luigi's expression was both surprised and confused. "Did you just-a take-a job from-a Wendy Koopa?" The green hat plumber asked what he deep down knew and feared was true.
"It's-a Wendy O. Koopa and-a yes. Let's-a go before we're-a late," Mario grabed his tool belt, making sure his lucky wrench was in it.
Luigi shook his head. "Mama mia! I can't-a believe this!"
"Better investigate while we are-a given the chance-a. Besides, it could-a be a-true that we are-a only going for-a the plumbing service," Mario pointed out.
"We're-a walking into a trap-a, Mario. We're-a walking into a trap-a," Luigi worried.
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When the Mario brothers arrived at the Koopa Caste, they were surprised to find that the guards had already been informed of their arrival. "We're-a here-a to see-a Wendy," Mario told the koopa troopa at the entrance.
"Yes, she's expecting you about a pool job, right? Come this way." He nodded to his partner for him to continue standing guard while he escorted the two plumber brothers inside. Once inside the castle he spoke to a paratroopa. "Tell Princess Wendy that the plumbers she sent for have arrived."
"Right away!" The paratroopa flew off, soon returning with Wendy.
"Good, you're here already. The pool is this way, follow me." Shrugging, the two plumbers followed the Koopa Princess deeper into the familiar castle. They kept their guard up and stayed alert, but it didn't look like anyone had any intentions of attacking them at that time. "Here it is," Wendy announced as they arrived in a room with a large pool of boiling lava that the Mario brothers knew all too well. They had to cross that deadly hot inferno several times in the past when they were on their way to rescue Princess Peach.
"What-a do-a you-a want-a us to do?" Mario asked.
"I want to turn this lava pool into a swimming pool of refreshing water. The temperatures have been simply killer this summer and having a pool of boiling lava in the castle doesn't help. You'll have to find a way to install a plumbing system to drain the lava out of there and fill the pool with fresh, pure and crystalline water. Also although, you're officially plumbers, our paragoomba spies have informed us that you've had some experience in construction. I'm hiring you for the full job here. I already sent some of daddy's minions to fetch the necessary materials and pipes, so all you have to do is install them," Wendy instructed. "I expect this pool to be finished today."
"This-a is-a big-a job. We need-a more-a time," Mario voiced.
"I already took care of that little detail, Skyri!" Wendy called.
A female paratroopa with a light blue shell came flying, carrying a chest. "Right here, Princess Wendy, I got everything you asked for!"
"This will get the job done in no time," Wendy took the chest. She opened it and showed the Mario brothers its contents. The chest was filled with all kinds of power ups such as fire flowers, magic feathers, frog suits and a lot of stars. She gave them the chest down and one final order before leaving. "Get to work!"
"Yes-a madam!" The Mario brothers stood straight, saluting military style.
After Wendy, left Luigi asked. "Should-a we take-a the chest-a and run?"
"No, we're-a going to stay and-a finish the job-a," Mario answered. "It's-a best-a to cross a swimming pool filled with-a water, than to cross-a pool of boiling lava." His brother nodded in agreement, this would certainly make things easier next time they had to rescue Princess Peach.
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In the throne room, Morton continued to talk and Bowser was unaffected. In fact, the koopaling looked kind of funny moving his mouth without sound. Bowser just continued to smile and nod, as Morton happily ranted his life away.
While Morton continued talking to his temporarily deaf father and the Mario brothers were working at an inhuman speed to build Wendy's pool, Roy was chasing Lemmy and Iggy around the basement weapon arsenal. At some point, Lemmy hopped off his ball and ended up balancing himself on a bob-omb, rolling it all around the basement. He didn't notice until Iggy pointed it out to him. Lemmy immediately hopped off the bob-omb and it rolled away towards a giant bob-omb. It bumped into the large bob-omb and exploded.
The wind up piece of the larger bob-omb had been stuck but the explosion of the smaller one activated it and sent it spinning. The large bob-omb's fuse was lit and the count down began. "Oh no! That thing is big enough to blow a huge hole in the castle, if not blow up the entire castle!" Iggy panicked.
"What do we do? What do we do?" Lemmy ran around in circles. He saw his ball and hopped on it. "Hey look, I found my ball."
"Focus Lemmy, the bob-omb of doom is upon us!" Iggy urged.
"Oh yeah! What do we? What do we do?" Lemmy started to panic again, going around in circles, this time while rolling on the ball.
"I'm going to pound the two of you to the ground and then I'll think about what to do about the bob-omb!" Roy growled.
"Wait! This is a wind up bob-omb. If we can keep it wind up then it won't explode!" Iggy pointed out. He and Lemmy tried to stop the wind up piece from spinning but ended up spinning with it. "We could use your help, Roy. Don't forget you're in this too!"
"Fine, you weaklings get off that thing," Roy pushed his brothers aside as he tried to wind up the bomb again to buy more time. "I can't do this forever you know."
"Lemmy and I will try to think of a why to stop this," Iggy pondered. "Maybe Ludwig will have an idea."
"Then let's go ask Ludwig, hang in there Roy!" Lemmy called, as he and Iggy left. As much as they wanted to leave Roy to deal with the bob-omb, they had once again gone from mortal enemies to siblings in the span of a few seconds. After all, Roy not only picked on them, but also defended them.
"Ludwig! Ludwig!" Iggy ran into his older brother's room.
The oldest of the koopalings was in the middle of composing a symphony. "I cannot indulge in recreational activities at the moment. I am compelled to pour all my energy towards the competition of my melodious composition."
"The bob-omb is going to blow up!" Lemmy urged.
That caught Ludwig's attention. "Pray tell what disastrous actions have you endeavored upon this time?"
"It was Roy's fault!" Iggy and Lemmy accused in unison.
"Regardless of who is to be found guilty of this calamity, I must implore that you swiftly inform me of the location of the imminent catastrophe," Ludwig requested. "I am to presuppose that the bob-omb in question is not of habitual magnitude."
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His brothers immediately took Ludwig to the source of their worries. "It took you long enough to get back here!" Roy hissed. "I thought you were going to leave me with this thing."
"The circumstances are indeed perilous!" Ludwig examined the giant bob-omb. "I shall endeavor to disengage the volatile menace, you must notify father!"
"What?" Iggy asked confused.
"But he'll be mad," Lemmy complained.
"Yeah!" Iggy agreed.
"I persevere on my request," Ludwig insisted. "the impending adversity is superior to the hazard of instating father's wrath!"
Being grounded certainly sounded better than getting blow up, so Iggy and Lemmy left Ludwig and Roy to deal with the giant bob-omb, while they went to get their father to inform him of the consequences of their mischief, before it was too late.
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Morton had just about finished his speech after several hours of talking and by then the Mario brothers were nearly done with the pool. The day had gone by very quietly for Bowser. "And that's my entire day up until the point where I asked you if I could talk to you and you said I could!" Morton finished his story. His throat felt dry and he needed a glass of water. He wanted to ask his dad if his throat felt dry like that when he breathed fire, but first he needed that glass of water. "I need to drink some water so I'll go get some and come talk to you some more in a few minutes. This is so much fun, I'm so happy you're listening to me, king dad!" Morton jumped off his father's lap and run off to get a glass of water.
Bowser yawned, all that peaceful silence was making him sleepy. He never thought there would be silence with Morton around. The boy had been a chatterbox since before he learned to talk. Even then he insisted in constantly making baby noises that hardly resembled words. Feeling in the mood for a nap, Bowser went to his room and fell asleep.
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On his way back from the kitchen after having a big refreshing glass of water, Morton heard something. "Get me out of here!" He turned to look towards the direction the sound was coming from, but found nothing except that piranha plant Iggy and Lemmy gave Bowser for father's day.
"Are you talking to me?" Morton looked at the piranha plant.
"Yes, get me out of here!" Larry called from inside the plant. He was safely hidden in his shell, but he was still trapped.
"Wow you must get bored sitting in that corner all day, huh?" Morton thought it was the plant talking. The piranha plant wanted to eat Morton too, but it knew that if it opened its mouth the koopaling it had already captured would escape. "Don't you worry, I'll get you out of there! It must be boring living in a pot all the time. It's more fun to have legs and move around. But don't worry, I'll help you. I'll take you outside were the sun is shining. Plants like the sun, right? Okay, I'll take you outside!" Morton started to push the potted piranha plant outside, moving the pot little by little and talking non-stop all the way.
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Iggy and Lemmy had found their father napping in his room. "Okay, you can tell him now," Iggy encouraged.
"Why do I have to tell him? You tell him!" Lemmy insisted.
"You tell him!" Iggy argued.
"No, you tell him!" Lemmy countered.
"We're not getting anywhere like this," Iggy realized.
"Why don't we both tell him?" Lemmy suggested.
Iggy nodded, "Yes, let's do that." However, neither of them moved after they came to an agreement.
"Maybe we should do something nice for him and then tell him," Lemmy mused, it was a classic trick.
"What can we do?" Iggy asked.
"Let' make him dinner," Lemmy suggested.
"Okay, let's do that," Iggy agreed. So the two koopalings ran off to the kitchen to cook dinner for their dear father.
Their kitchen adventure turned into a huge disaster that left the kitchen looking like a war zone after they somehow blew up the oven.
"Now what?" Iggy pouted.
"We could ask Wendy to help us," Lemmy suggested.
"Do you think she will?" Iggy wondered.
"Maybe if we tell her it's an emergency," Lemmy nodded. The two koopalings ran off to find their sister.
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Meanwhile, the Mario brothers had finished installing the pool in record breaking time. They used a pipeline that led to Barrel Volcano, where they dumped all the lava that was in the pool space before. Another pipeline would bring water straight from the rain clouds of Nimbus Land.
"Good-a work-a brother," Mario admired the result.
"Same-a to you-a brother," Luigi agreed.
Wendy came to check on the pool's progress. "My pool is finished! This is great, now I'm glad we didn't destroy you two earlier. Well, here's your payment." She handed Mario a coin, only one coin. "King dad told me not to spend too much, so you can split that between you two and keep the change." Without giving the brothers a chance to protest, Wendy skipped off to get her water toys and try out her new pool.
"This-a is-a not-a fair!" Luigi complained, though Wendy was already gone.
"At-a least-a we-a don't-a have to worry about-a the lava," Mario consoled. Luigi nodded in agreement, he did have a point. Exhausted, the Mario brothers decided to leave the castle before Wendy came back and decided that since their job was done, they could be destroyed.
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"Wendy! Wendy!" Iggy and Lemmy called.
"What do you want?" Wendy was carrying a multitude of water toys as she made her way down the hall.
"What's with all the water toys?" Lemmy was easily distracted by his curiosity.
"I'm going to go play in the pool," Wendy replied.
Iggy and Lemmy looked at each other, then at Wendy. "We have a pool?" They asked at the same time.
"It's new, daddy gave me permission to have it built by the Mario brothers," Wendy chirped.
"Wow, she really can get anything she wants," Iggy concluded.
"Yeah," Lemmy concurred.
"What is it that you wanted to tell me?" Wendy inquired.
"Oh yeah, we need your help cooking dinner for king dad," Iggy revealed.
"Will you help us?" Lemmy requested.
Wendy thought about it for a moment. "Well, he did let me get that pool without complaint. I suppose I should do something nice for him. Alright, I'll help you make a really delicious dinner for king dad!"
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Since Iggy and Lemmy had destroyed the kitchen in their previous failed attempt to cook dinner, the three koopalings decided to borrow another kitchen. "Don't mind us; we're just here to use the kitchen!" Lemmy rolled on his ball around the Mushroom Castle scaring all the Toads in his way.
"Stop! You already kidnapped the princess today. We were getting ready for a nice quiet dinner. Please don't ruin it!" Toad called.
"Oh stop panicking. We're not on the attack, we're here to borrow the kitchen," Iggy informed.
Princess Peach heard the commotion and ran see what it was all about. "The koopalings, three of them! What do they want?"
"They said they wanted to use the kitchen," Toad answered. "Should I call the Mario brothers?"
"I tried calling them earlier and I got their answering machine saying they were out working on a plumbing job. They might be back by now, but if it's just the kitchen the koopalings want to borrow, I don't think there should be a problem with that," Peach decided. They were standing at the door to the kitchen, watching as Iggy and Lemmy followed Wendy's instructions on how to make dinner. "I have an idea, leave this to me Toad." Peach entered the kitchen. "That dinner you're making smells delicious. I see you're really good at cooking."
"I am," Wendy was proud. "I'm not sure about Iggy and Lemmy though. They totally destroy the kitchen back home trying to cook dinner. So they like asked for my help and we needed to use another kitchen until someone fixes ours."
"Well, it looks like you're all set up for a delicious dinner. Watching the three of you cook made me want to cook too. Why don't I make some dessert to go with the dinner? I could make some cake," Peach offered.
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Later, the koopalings were on their way back to the castle. "Let's not tell Ludwig and Roy about this," Iggy suggested.
"Right, let's not tell them," Lemmy agreed. They wouldn't be happy to find that while they were busy trying to stop that big bob-omb from blowing up, their siblings went all the way to the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Ludwig and Roy? Let's not tell Morton and Larry either," Wendy thought it was best to keep the credit to themselves; after all, the others didn't do anything.
"Agreed!" Iggy and Lemmy voiced.
"So what made you want to cook dinner today?" Wendy asked as they approached to the Koopa Castle.
"We wanted to do something nice for king dad so he wouldn't take the news too badly," Lemmy revealed too much information and Wendy looked suspicious.
Knowing it was of no use to hide it, Iggy continued. "Lemmy, Roy and I accidentally activated a really big bob-omb in the basement arsenal and we couldn't stop it, so Roy and Ludwig are trying to deactivate it or at least buy some time. They sent us to find king dad and tell him about it, because he'll know what to do, at least we hope so."
"And you wasted all that time?" Wendy scolded. "If not because I can see the castle from here, I would guess it already blew up!"
"If they kept the bob-omb from blowing up for this long, then maybe it won't blow up," Lemmy theorized.
"Go ask them while Wendy and I give king dad his dinner," Iggy suggested.
"No fair, I want to go give him dinner too!" Lemmy complained.
"You're the one who got that ball mixed up with a little bob-omb that blew up and activated the big one!" Iggy reminded.
"Just go ask them Lemmy," Wendy yelled as they entered the castle.
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Lemmy arrived at the basement to find that Ludwig had removed the bob-omb's covers to reveal a mess of red wires. He knew he had to cut the red wire, but which one? Roy was trying his best to keep winding up the bob-omb so that it wouldn't reach its end and explode. "Hang in there, king dad will be here soon," Lemmy encouraged.
"Do disclose the foundation for the postponement," Ludwig inquired.
"We had some minor difficulties, but don't worry, this shouldn't take much longer." Before his brothers could reply, Lemmy rolled away. It was amazing how he could go up and down stairs on that ball without falling.
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Lemmy hurried back to find Wendy and Iggy. He heard them calling their father upstairs and guessed they must be in his room. When he arrived he found his brother and sister screaming their heads off, while their father continued to sleep inside his shell.
"Is he really in there?" Wendy questioned.
Iggy tried to listen to the large green spiked shell. "Yup he's in there, I can hear him snoring. He must have really been tired."
"I guess we'll have to call him louder," Wendy proposed.
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Elsewhere, Morton had already taken the potted piranha plant outside and he sat in the yard talking to it. Larry had been bored to sleep long ago, while the plant was becoming dizzy. It came to a point where the piranha plant fell unconscious and spat Larry's shell out, with Larry still sleeping inside it. Morton, who found it quite strange, decided to tell his siblings about it.
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Morton followed the sound of his siblings' voices to their father's room. "Hey everyone, look what I found! A piranha plant had it. It looks just like Larry's shell!"
At that moment, Larry popped out of his shell. "I'm free! I'm free! I'm never going to poke that plant again!"
"I'm not sure what this is about, but Larry can tell us later," Wendy stressed the name; she didn't want Morton to go into an endless speech. "Right now we need help waking up king dad. He's fast asleep, won't wake up when we call him and his dinner is getting cold."
"I have an idea!" Morton declared.
"No!" Wendy, Iggy and Lemmy snapped. They really didn't have time to hear one of Morton's rants right now.
"Why don't we just jump on him?" Larry suggested. The other koopalings agreed. They turned Bowser's shell over so that they wouldn't jump on the spiky side and all together, the five koopalings jumped on him. Bowser's head, arms, legs and tail popped out of his shell like a jack in a box as soon as he felt Wendy's heel painfully stab into his stomach.
Without a moment to waste, the five koopalings dragged their very confused and deaf father down the stairs and made him sit at the dining table. Bowser wasn't sure what this was all about, but there was a dinner served, so maybe they wanted him to eat it. The koopalings appeared happy enough when he started to eat. Dinner looked and smelled good, but tasted odd. This wasn't Chef Torte's cooking, but he ate it anyway. On the other hand, dessert was absolutely delicious and well worth eating that torture of a dinner to have it.
After finishing his cake, Bowser felt very sleepy, Peach had decided she needed a vacation and put a sleeping potion on the cake. "I think I'll take a little nap now," Bowser retreated into his shell again and instantly falling asleep.
"King dad, the bob-omb!" Lemmy called.
"It's too late, he's sleeping again!" Iggy panicked.
"Great, now that we finally get a swimming pool, the castle is totally going to blow up because we can't like wake up king dad!" Wendy pouted.
"We have a pool?" Larry and Morton questioned simultaneously.
"Yes, we can like talk about it later. I mean, I will tell you about it later." Wendy quickly corrected herself, before Morton got the crazy idea that she was willing to listen to his endless chatter. "Right now we totally need to wake king dad."
"The castle will blow up?" Larry was confused.
"Not if king dad wakes up, he'll stop it somehow," Iggy assured.
The five koopalings tried everything from jumping on Bowser to throwing him rolling down the stairs, but nothing worked. Bowser stayed in his shell fast asleep.
xoxox xox xoxox
Later, Ludwig came, he was at the end of his patience. He had to leave his musical masterpiece unfinished to assist his siblings and they wouldn't hurry up to do their part. Finding their father and informing him of what was going on couldn't be that hard, so there was no excuse for taking so long. "I have the imperative necessity to inquire what you are attempting to accomplish."
"We're trying to make king dad wake up," Iggy explained while he, Lemmy, Wendy, Larry and Morton poked Bowser with sticks inside his shell.
Obviously, his siblings couldn't wake Bowser, so Ludwig decided to try. Bowser would probably be angry at him for it, but better angry than blown up. Ludwig used his fire breath, but it didn't work. Then in a moment of enlistment, Ludwig proposed a solution, "Let us transport the adversity to Mario."
"Why didn't you say that before?" Wendy, Lemmy, Iggy, Morton and Larry reproached, though they didn't think about it either. They rushed to the basement where Roy was still dealing with the bob-omb.
xoxox xox xoxox
The seven koopalings took the bob-omb to the Mario brother's house, left it there and escaped. The bob-omb blew up before the plumbers could do anything about it and with their home under heavy repairs, the Mario brothers moved to guest rooms at Peach's castle.
The koopalings returned to the Koopa Castle, took their father to his room and left him there to rest. He must really be very tired if nothing could wake him up. Then they went on their way to enjoy their new pool. However, Barrel Volcano overloaded due to the lava the Mario brothers dumped in it and sent the extra lava back into the pipes from where it came, destroying the water slide as it was dropped back into the pool. The room was left how it was before; the water evaporated in the extreme heat and the pool was filled with lava once again.
"There was a pool like right here, really!" Wendy was in disbelief.
"Are you sure you didn't imagine it?" Roy didn't believe her.
"It was here, those cheap plumbers! Who's up for the destruction of the Mario brothers?" Wendy plotted her revenge, despite the damage the bob-omb had already caused to the Mario brother's house.
"I am!" All her brothers cheered.
The seven koopalings went to bring doom and destruction to the Mushroom Kingdom. Without their dad, they didn't have a plan except for blowing things up. It continued until they realized one of their favorite shows would be on soon and so the koopalings retreated. Mario and Luigi, survived but they would have nightmares about that day for a long time.
xoxox xox xoxox
A week passed relatively uneventfully. Ludwig had put their worries to rest confirming that Bowser was in fact alive, he was just sleeping. They assumed he was simply exhausted and let him continue his super long nap. The Koopa kitchen was rebuilt and the Mushroom Kingdom also recovered over the course of the week.
At the end of the week, Kamek returned from his vacation, refreshed and ready for work. Oh who a I kidding, he returned from his vacation dragging his feet just like everyone else does when their vacation ends because they don't want to go back to work. The point is he returned to the Koopa Castle.
After sleeping for such a long time, Bowser finally woke up, almost completely recovered, but still in pain, yet he didn't know why. Kamek gave him back his hearing and informed him that it had been a week and not a day as Bowser initially thought. The magikoopa immediately regretted telling him, since he could have gotten away with a few more days of vacation.
Bowser decided that it was best to be able to hear; otherwise he would sleep his life away and not know it. The Koopa King was surprised to find that everything was normal in the castle, as the messed had already been cleaned up by his troops. He expected his castle to be in ruins after leaving his kids unsupervised for a week.
The seven koopalings were getting along the day when Bowser woke up and the Mushroom Kingdom was at peace, although a lot of houses, including the Mario brother's house and even Peach's castle, were being remodeled and Bowser didn't understand the sudden urge that have come over the people Mushroom Kingdom to remodel their living space. Over all, Bowser concluded it was best to listen than to miss out.
End of Stage III
Disclaimer, I don't own the Super Mario.
Box 14: What You Can't Hear Can't Hurt You
As he made his escape in his clown-copter, Bowser took a moment to note just how loud Princess Peach Toadstool could be. Her constant screaming chant of 'help me Mario, help me Mario, help me Mario help me' being said as if it was one long word rather then three words, repeated over and over, was getting on his nerves. The screaming of the kidnapped princess didn't stop when they got to his castle and it was only after she was locked up in a sound proof room that he could rest from the noise, or at least from that specific noise. It wasn't the end of the unpleasant noises, for he was the father of seven very hyper and noisy children.
Ludwig thought he was a composer. Bowser didn't want to discourage the heir to the koopa throne so he pretended that he loved his oldest son's melodies. Then there was Lemmy rolling around the castle balanced on a ball. His balance was excellent, but just because he didn't fall off that ball didn't mean he didn't often knock things over. Random fragile objects shattered as they hit the floor. He could hear potted piranha plants being knocked over and crawling all over the castle looking for something to chew on, which hopefully would not turn out to be his slippers.
Iggy soon followed with some strange invention that was more likely to blow up than to work. Sometimes Ludwig teamed up with Iggy to invent things that blew up. It was important to exercise creativity, but he wondered if they would ever invent something that actually did what it was supposed to. All of their invasions blew up, except for that bomb they built once, that did everything except blowing up, which was what it was supposed to do. If not inventing with Ludwig, Iggy was found following Lemmy around on foot, while his brother rolled around on the ball. He made no effort to catch the items Lemmy knocked over.
Roy was known for being a bully and picking on his siblings. Ludwig sometimes tried to make his younger siblings get along, although most of the time he let them destroy the castle with their sibling fights as long as they didn't bother him. It was amazing how the koopalings could be fighting like they were mortal enemies one second and getting along like loving siblings the next. That was one of the mysteries of the koopa kids.
Morton was a special case, that boy never shut up. He could go on and on about just about anything and everything. The boy's constant ranting could drive anyone to insanity. Everyday he found something new to rant and speech about for hours. Wendy was a spoiled brat, as spoiled as they came. She was known for her long and loud temper tantrums and always getting her way. She was daddy's little girl and possibly daddy's biggest torturer. Finally, there was Larry, the youngest of the koopalings, the one who always got into trouble, well even more trouble than his siblings. That boy insisted on poking things that weren't meant to be poked, such as piranha plans and chain chops.
Bowser sighed and tried to prepare himself. He knew the silence after locking Peach in that sound proof room would not last. As if on cue, within ten seconds of such thoughts, the koopalings, all seven of them, ran to greet their father and complain about something or share a story of something that happened while he was away, or ask for something, or show him something, or just talk. As you may imagine, by the time the Mario brothers came and went after successfully completing their royal rescue mission, Bowser was left wit a huge headache. All that noise was just too much for him.
It was at the end of a busy day like that when Bowser made a desperate decision. "I want to stop hearing."
Kamek the magikoopa stood there for a moment, wondering of he had heard correctly. "You want me to make you deaf?"
"Temporarily yes, I need a rest from all this noise," Bowser clarified.
"What about my vacation?" Kamek had been bothering Bowser about giving him a vacation for months and when the time finally came, he didn't want to have to cancel it.
"You can still go on your vacation, just make me hear again when you come back. I don't think I'll miss all this noise," Bowser replied.
"Well alright, here goes." With a wave of his wand, Kamek made it so Bowser could no longer hear. "Can you hear me?"
"What?" Bowser asked.
"Can you hear me?" Kamek yelled.
"I can't hear you... I can't hear you, it worked! Finally, some peace and quiet!" Bowser cheered.
"I'm happy for you king Bowser, now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going on my vacation," Kamek left.
xoxox xox xoxox
The next day came and everything was the same, except for the lack of sound. Bowser got up late; he slept in because he didn't hear his alarm clock. He slept in so late that the koopaling were already up, causing chaos and disaster by the time he woke up. If not because Larry decided to use his bed as a trampoline and actually got his siblings to join him, he wouldn't have woken up at all. It was needless to say it was a bit annoying waking up to seven little koopas jumping on his bed, and on him, but at least everything was quiet so it wasn't too bad.
After a very quiet breakfast, filled with sibling arguments and food fights, there came the time to kidnap Princess Peach once again. The silence made it a lot easier to concentrate during the kidnapping and the trip back to the castle in the clown-copter was much more pleasant due to the sweet silence.
"Help me, Mario! Help me, Mario! Help me, Mario! Help me, Mario!" The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom screamed. She paused as she looked at Bowser who appeared unaffected by her screams for help. Taking a deep breath she decided to try again. "Help me, Mario!" She screamed loud enough to wake the dead, but Bowser continued on his way in a visibly good mood and didn't even look annoyed. Peach blinked in total confusing. Didn't all that screaming bother him at all? Maybe he was used to her loud chant for help and it didn't affect him anymore. She tried something different, a simple scream as loud as her lungs and throat allowed. She took in as much oxygen as she could and scream right next to him. "AH!" Still there was no effect. With elaborate heavy breathing due to all that screaming Peach tapped Bowser on the shoulder. "How come you're not annoyed by my screams today? Are you ignoring me?"
Bowser couldn't hear a word she said. He only smiled, it wasn't an evil smile, it was an 'I think you're funny' smile. That scared Peach more than an evil smile would. "Marry you? Of course, I'll marry you."
"No, that's not what I asked. I wanted to know why you're not annoyed by my screaming," Peach clarified.
"Tomorrow? Sure, tomorrow it will be," Bowser nooded.
"Are you deaf or are you just trying to annoy me? Because if you wanted to annoy, even more than being kidnapped annoys me, then you got it." Then Peach realized what she said. "Oh, no you really did go deaf, didn't you? That's why you don't understand anything that I'm saying."
Bowser landed the clown-copter in the Koopa Castle. "Yes, yes I like you too, now come this way to your room and wait until I beat the Mario brothers. I'll come back and give you the news update as soon as I win." With Peach locked up, Bowser quietly waited for the Mario brothers to show up. Since he couldn't hear, Bowser couldn't tell what his kids were destroying by sound, so he went to find out. To his surprise, they were sitting quietly watching TV, getting along just fine, unlike during breakfast when they were trying to kill each other. Kids, who understands them?
The day progressed normally, save for the lack of sound. Lunch was a war zone and during the early afternoon, the Mario brothers were able to rescue Princess Peach once again, as they always did. This time however, Bowser didn't have a headache afterwards.
After the Mario brothers and Peach were gone, the Koopa King sat on his throne, enjoying the silence. Princess Peach might have been rescued, but at least he didn't have a headache and the silence was calming, so he was still in a pretty good mood. "King dad, king dad!" Larry came running into the throne room. "I know you told me not to poke that piranha plant Lemmy and Iggy gave you for father's day, but I really want to poke it. Can I poke it?"
Normally, Bowser wouldn't allow Larry to poke that piranha plant and get eaten. Sure he was the bad guy of the story, but he wasn't evil enough to let his own son go and get eaten. Of course Bowser was very deaf at the moment and couldn't hear a word Larry said. "That's nice Larry, have fun."
"Yay!" Larry ran off to poke the ferocious piranha plant. Bowser didn't think too much of it. What could Larry possibly do that could cause more trouble than the koopalings normally caused on a daily basis?
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile, Wendy looked at a pool of boiling lava while in deep thought. She had an idea, but she wasn't sure if it would work out. "Oh, it's worth a try."
"This will be so much fun!" Larry ran by. Wendy wondered what he was so excited about but decided not to ask about it. She had her own fun to plan. Larry quickly ran towards a certain piranha plant bigger than the others and happily started poking the sleeping beast. "Fun! Fun! Fun!" The piranha plant certainly wasn't having fun. It was quick to anger and even faster to swallow the little koopaling whole. Luckily koopa shells are very strong and Larry was saved by going into his shell, however he was still trapped in the mouth of the piranha plant that, despite the spikes in his shell and being unable to chew the hard shell, refused to let him go.
xoxox xox xoxox
Wendy had gone to see her father. "King dad, I have the greatest idea! Since it's summer and all and the temperature is pretty hot I thought we could get a pool to swim in. I thought it would be a good idea to turn that big pool of lava we have into a swimming pool of water for the summer. You know which one I mean, right? The really big one, we'll need to drain the lava out of it and prepare to fill it up with water, so we'll need a plumber. The Mario brothers are our enemies and all, but they're still the best plumbers in the land, so I thought we could hire them for the job. Are you okay with all of that, king dad?"
Bowser had no idea what his daughter just said, but he assumed she was asking to borrow his credit card to buy a new pair of shoes, or a ribbon, or jewelry, or something. Saying no was out of the question, because if he did, she would throw the temper tantrum of the century. Sure he couldn't hear her, but he could still see her throwing random items in a fury and closing his eyes wouldn't' solve that, because the items would still get thrown around and said items would still hit him, since he would be her target if she didn't get whatever she wanted. Ah, yes, daddy's little girl, spoiled and evil, just like her father. He was so proud of his koopalings. "Alright Wendy, just try not to spend too much."
"Really, daddy?" Wendy cheered. Convincing him to let the Mario brothers turn their biggest lava pool into a water swimming pool was a lot easier than she imagined. "This is going to be totally great!" She jumped on him to give him hug before running off to call the Mario brothers.
After Wendy left, Morton came by to give Bowser a speech about anything and everything. "King dad, can I talk to you?"
The king of Koopas couldn't hear what Morton said, but he knew he wanted to talk, he always wanted to talk. "Do you want to talk, Morton? I have some time so go ahead and tell me whatever you want. I'll just sit here and listen."
Morton's eyes lit up with happiness. His father was actually offering to listen to him. Oh, joy! It was the happiest day of his life. Morton hopped on his father's lap and sat there talking. "I'm so happy you agreed to listen to me, king dad. This will be so much fun! I'll tell you about my entire day from the second I woke up this morning up until now. I won't leave out any details! It all started this morning when I woke up and the first thing I did was open my eyes. That's the first thing I do every morning, I open my eyes." After an overly long description about how he brushed his teeth it had been fifteen minutes and Morton, talking at an amazing speed, wasn't even done narrating the events of the morning before breakfast. "Then Larry invited us to jump on your bed. That was fun! We jumped and bounced and jumped. It was so much fun!" Morton continued talking for a very, very, very long time.
xoxox xox xoxox
Elsewhere, Mario and Luigi received a call from Wendy. "Allo, Mario brothers-a plumbing service!" Mario answered the phone.
"Hello, I have a very important plumbing job for you, but it's a little unusual. Do you think you can handle it?" Wendy asked.
Mario wondered why the girl's voice sounded so familiar. "Of course madam, we can fix-a any leak."
"Well it's not exactly a leak. It's something related to a pool," Wendy explained.
"Mama mia! We've had-a plenty of-a pool related jobs this-a summer. You have a-nothing to worry about. Your-a pool is in good hands!" Mario assured.
"Great! When can you come by to take a look at the soon to be pool?" Wendy asked.
"We could-a come a-right away. What is-a your-a name and where-a do you live-a, madam?" This summer was going to make them rich. A hot summer and a sale on pool related materials was a plumber's dream.
"In the Koopa Castle, you already know who I am. When you get here, just tell the guards Wendy called you. Don't take too long!" Wendy cheered.
"Wendy Koopa!" Mario nearly yelled. The name got Luigi's attention. He had been gathering their tools in preparation to tackle another pool job when he heard Mario talking on the phone.
"Yes, Wendy Koopa, actually it's Wendy O. Koopa. You know how to spell that right? That's Koopa with two o's," Wendy explained.
Mario thought about the situation. It could be a trap, but somehow the unlikely possibility of it not being a trap was still, although unlikely, a possibility. "We'll-a be a-right there," sfter he hung up the phone, he looked at his brother.
Luigi's expression was both surprised and confused. "Did you just-a take-a job from-a Wendy Koopa?" The green hat plumber asked what he deep down knew and feared was true.
"It's-a Wendy O. Koopa and-a yes. Let's-a go before we're-a late," Mario grabed his tool belt, making sure his lucky wrench was in it.
Luigi shook his head. "Mama mia! I can't-a believe this!"
"Better investigate while we are-a given the chance-a. Besides, it could-a be a-true that we are-a only going for-a the plumbing service," Mario pointed out.
"We're-a walking into a trap-a, Mario. We're-a walking into a trap-a," Luigi worried.
xoxox xox xoxox
When the Mario brothers arrived at the Koopa Caste, they were surprised to find that the guards had already been informed of their arrival. "We're-a here-a to see-a Wendy," Mario told the koopa troopa at the entrance.
"Yes, she's expecting you about a pool job, right? Come this way." He nodded to his partner for him to continue standing guard while he escorted the two plumber brothers inside. Once inside the castle he spoke to a paratroopa. "Tell Princess Wendy that the plumbers she sent for have arrived."
"Right away!" The paratroopa flew off, soon returning with Wendy.
"Good, you're here already. The pool is this way, follow me." Shrugging, the two plumbers followed the Koopa Princess deeper into the familiar castle. They kept their guard up and stayed alert, but it didn't look like anyone had any intentions of attacking them at that time. "Here it is," Wendy announced as they arrived in a room with a large pool of boiling lava that the Mario brothers knew all too well. They had to cross that deadly hot inferno several times in the past when they were on their way to rescue Princess Peach.
"What-a do-a you-a want-a us to do?" Mario asked.
"I want to turn this lava pool into a swimming pool of refreshing water. The temperatures have been simply killer this summer and having a pool of boiling lava in the castle doesn't help. You'll have to find a way to install a plumbing system to drain the lava out of there and fill the pool with fresh, pure and crystalline water. Also although, you're officially plumbers, our paragoomba spies have informed us that you've had some experience in construction. I'm hiring you for the full job here. I already sent some of daddy's minions to fetch the necessary materials and pipes, so all you have to do is install them," Wendy instructed. "I expect this pool to be finished today."
"This-a is-a big-a job. We need-a more-a time," Mario voiced.
"I already took care of that little detail, Skyri!" Wendy called.
A female paratroopa with a light blue shell came flying, carrying a chest. "Right here, Princess Wendy, I got everything you asked for!"
"This will get the job done in no time," Wendy took the chest. She opened it and showed the Mario brothers its contents. The chest was filled with all kinds of power ups such as fire flowers, magic feathers, frog suits and a lot of stars. She gave them the chest down and one final order before leaving. "Get to work!"
"Yes-a madam!" The Mario brothers stood straight, saluting military style.
After Wendy, left Luigi asked. "Should-a we take-a the chest-a and run?"
"No, we're-a going to stay and-a finish the job-a," Mario answered. "It's-a best-a to cross a swimming pool filled with-a water, than to cross-a pool of boiling lava." His brother nodded in agreement, this would certainly make things easier next time they had to rescue Princess Peach.
xoxox xox xoxox
In the throne room, Morton continued to talk and Bowser was unaffected. In fact, the koopaling looked kind of funny moving his mouth without sound. Bowser just continued to smile and nod, as Morton happily ranted his life away.
While Morton continued talking to his temporarily deaf father and the Mario brothers were working at an inhuman speed to build Wendy's pool, Roy was chasing Lemmy and Iggy around the basement weapon arsenal. At some point, Lemmy hopped off his ball and ended up balancing himself on a bob-omb, rolling it all around the basement. He didn't notice until Iggy pointed it out to him. Lemmy immediately hopped off the bob-omb and it rolled away towards a giant bob-omb. It bumped into the large bob-omb and exploded.
The wind up piece of the larger bob-omb had been stuck but the explosion of the smaller one activated it and sent it spinning. The large bob-omb's fuse was lit and the count down began. "Oh no! That thing is big enough to blow a huge hole in the castle, if not blow up the entire castle!" Iggy panicked.
"What do we do? What do we do?" Lemmy ran around in circles. He saw his ball and hopped on it. "Hey look, I found my ball."
"Focus Lemmy, the bob-omb of doom is upon us!" Iggy urged.
"Oh yeah! What do we? What do we do?" Lemmy started to panic again, going around in circles, this time while rolling on the ball.
"I'm going to pound the two of you to the ground and then I'll think about what to do about the bob-omb!" Roy growled.
"Wait! This is a wind up bob-omb. If we can keep it wind up then it won't explode!" Iggy pointed out. He and Lemmy tried to stop the wind up piece from spinning but ended up spinning with it. "We could use your help, Roy. Don't forget you're in this too!"
"Fine, you weaklings get off that thing," Roy pushed his brothers aside as he tried to wind up the bomb again to buy more time. "I can't do this forever you know."
"Lemmy and I will try to think of a why to stop this," Iggy pondered. "Maybe Ludwig will have an idea."
"Then let's go ask Ludwig, hang in there Roy!" Lemmy called, as he and Iggy left. As much as they wanted to leave Roy to deal with the bob-omb, they had once again gone from mortal enemies to siblings in the span of a few seconds. After all, Roy not only picked on them, but also defended them.
"Ludwig! Ludwig!" Iggy ran into his older brother's room.
The oldest of the koopalings was in the middle of composing a symphony. "I cannot indulge in recreational activities at the moment. I am compelled to pour all my energy towards the competition of my melodious composition."
"The bob-omb is going to blow up!" Lemmy urged.
That caught Ludwig's attention. "Pray tell what disastrous actions have you endeavored upon this time?"
"It was Roy's fault!" Iggy and Lemmy accused in unison.
"Regardless of who is to be found guilty of this calamity, I must implore that you swiftly inform me of the location of the imminent catastrophe," Ludwig requested. "I am to presuppose that the bob-omb in question is not of habitual magnitude."
xoxox xox xoxox
His brothers immediately took Ludwig to the source of their worries. "It took you long enough to get back here!" Roy hissed. "I thought you were going to leave me with this thing."
"The circumstances are indeed perilous!" Ludwig examined the giant bob-omb. "I shall endeavor to disengage the volatile menace, you must notify father!"
"What?" Iggy asked confused.
"But he'll be mad," Lemmy complained.
"Yeah!" Iggy agreed.
"I persevere on my request," Ludwig insisted. "the impending adversity is superior to the hazard of instating father's wrath!"
Being grounded certainly sounded better than getting blow up, so Iggy and Lemmy left Ludwig and Roy to deal with the giant bob-omb, while they went to get their father to inform him of the consequences of their mischief, before it was too late.
xoxox xox xoxox
Morton had just about finished his speech after several hours of talking and by then the Mario brothers were nearly done with the pool. The day had gone by very quietly for Bowser. "And that's my entire day up until the point where I asked you if I could talk to you and you said I could!" Morton finished his story. His throat felt dry and he needed a glass of water. He wanted to ask his dad if his throat felt dry like that when he breathed fire, but first he needed that glass of water. "I need to drink some water so I'll go get some and come talk to you some more in a few minutes. This is so much fun, I'm so happy you're listening to me, king dad!" Morton jumped off his father's lap and run off to get a glass of water.
Bowser yawned, all that peaceful silence was making him sleepy. He never thought there would be silence with Morton around. The boy had been a chatterbox since before he learned to talk. Even then he insisted in constantly making baby noises that hardly resembled words. Feeling in the mood for a nap, Bowser went to his room and fell asleep.
xoxox xox xoxox
On his way back from the kitchen after having a big refreshing glass of water, Morton heard something. "Get me out of here!" He turned to look towards the direction the sound was coming from, but found nothing except that piranha plant Iggy and Lemmy gave Bowser for father's day.
"Are you talking to me?" Morton looked at the piranha plant.
"Yes, get me out of here!" Larry called from inside the plant. He was safely hidden in his shell, but he was still trapped.
"Wow you must get bored sitting in that corner all day, huh?" Morton thought it was the plant talking. The piranha plant wanted to eat Morton too, but it knew that if it opened its mouth the koopaling it had already captured would escape. "Don't you worry, I'll get you out of there! It must be boring living in a pot all the time. It's more fun to have legs and move around. But don't worry, I'll help you. I'll take you outside were the sun is shining. Plants like the sun, right? Okay, I'll take you outside!" Morton started to push the potted piranha plant outside, moving the pot little by little and talking non-stop all the way.
xoxox xox xoxox
Iggy and Lemmy had found their father napping in his room. "Okay, you can tell him now," Iggy encouraged.
"Why do I have to tell him? You tell him!" Lemmy insisted.
"You tell him!" Iggy argued.
"No, you tell him!" Lemmy countered.
"We're not getting anywhere like this," Iggy realized.
"Why don't we both tell him?" Lemmy suggested.
Iggy nodded, "Yes, let's do that." However, neither of them moved after they came to an agreement.
"Maybe we should do something nice for him and then tell him," Lemmy mused, it was a classic trick.
"What can we do?" Iggy asked.
"Let' make him dinner," Lemmy suggested.
"Okay, let's do that," Iggy agreed. So the two koopalings ran off to the kitchen to cook dinner for their dear father.
Their kitchen adventure turned into a huge disaster that left the kitchen looking like a war zone after they somehow blew up the oven.
"Now what?" Iggy pouted.
"We could ask Wendy to help us," Lemmy suggested.
"Do you think she will?" Iggy wondered.
"Maybe if we tell her it's an emergency," Lemmy nodded. The two koopalings ran off to find their sister.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile, the Mario brothers had finished installing the pool in record breaking time. They used a pipeline that led to Barrel Volcano, where they dumped all the lava that was in the pool space before. Another pipeline would bring water straight from the rain clouds of Nimbus Land.
"Good-a work-a brother," Mario admired the result.
"Same-a to you-a brother," Luigi agreed.
Wendy came to check on the pool's progress. "My pool is finished! This is great, now I'm glad we didn't destroy you two earlier. Well, here's your payment." She handed Mario a coin, only one coin. "King dad told me not to spend too much, so you can split that between you two and keep the change." Without giving the brothers a chance to protest, Wendy skipped off to get her water toys and try out her new pool.
"This-a is-a not-a fair!" Luigi complained, though Wendy was already gone.
"At-a least-a we-a don't-a have to worry about-a the lava," Mario consoled. Luigi nodded in agreement, he did have a point. Exhausted, the Mario brothers decided to leave the castle before Wendy came back and decided that since their job was done, they could be destroyed.
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"Wendy! Wendy!" Iggy and Lemmy called.
"What do you want?" Wendy was carrying a multitude of water toys as she made her way down the hall.
"What's with all the water toys?" Lemmy was easily distracted by his curiosity.
"I'm going to go play in the pool," Wendy replied.
Iggy and Lemmy looked at each other, then at Wendy. "We have a pool?" They asked at the same time.
"It's new, daddy gave me permission to have it built by the Mario brothers," Wendy chirped.
"Wow, she really can get anything she wants," Iggy concluded.
"Yeah," Lemmy concurred.
"What is it that you wanted to tell me?" Wendy inquired.
"Oh yeah, we need your help cooking dinner for king dad," Iggy revealed.
"Will you help us?" Lemmy requested.
Wendy thought about it for a moment. "Well, he did let me get that pool without complaint. I suppose I should do something nice for him. Alright, I'll help you make a really delicious dinner for king dad!"
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Since Iggy and Lemmy had destroyed the kitchen in their previous failed attempt to cook dinner, the three koopalings decided to borrow another kitchen. "Don't mind us; we're just here to use the kitchen!" Lemmy rolled on his ball around the Mushroom Castle scaring all the Toads in his way.
"Stop! You already kidnapped the princess today. We were getting ready for a nice quiet dinner. Please don't ruin it!" Toad called.
"Oh stop panicking. We're not on the attack, we're here to borrow the kitchen," Iggy informed.
Princess Peach heard the commotion and ran see what it was all about. "The koopalings, three of them! What do they want?"
"They said they wanted to use the kitchen," Toad answered. "Should I call the Mario brothers?"
"I tried calling them earlier and I got their answering machine saying they were out working on a plumbing job. They might be back by now, but if it's just the kitchen the koopalings want to borrow, I don't think there should be a problem with that," Peach decided. They were standing at the door to the kitchen, watching as Iggy and Lemmy followed Wendy's instructions on how to make dinner. "I have an idea, leave this to me Toad." Peach entered the kitchen. "That dinner you're making smells delicious. I see you're really good at cooking."
"I am," Wendy was proud. "I'm not sure about Iggy and Lemmy though. They totally destroy the kitchen back home trying to cook dinner. So they like asked for my help and we needed to use another kitchen until someone fixes ours."
"Well, it looks like you're all set up for a delicious dinner. Watching the three of you cook made me want to cook too. Why don't I make some dessert to go with the dinner? I could make some cake," Peach offered.
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Later, the koopalings were on their way back to the castle. "Let's not tell Ludwig and Roy about this," Iggy suggested.
"Right, let's not tell them," Lemmy agreed. They wouldn't be happy to find that while they were busy trying to stop that big bob-omb from blowing up, their siblings went all the way to the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Ludwig and Roy? Let's not tell Morton and Larry either," Wendy thought it was best to keep the credit to themselves; after all, the others didn't do anything.
"Agreed!" Iggy and Lemmy voiced.
"So what made you want to cook dinner today?" Wendy asked as they approached to the Koopa Castle.
"We wanted to do something nice for king dad so he wouldn't take the news too badly," Lemmy revealed too much information and Wendy looked suspicious.
Knowing it was of no use to hide it, Iggy continued. "Lemmy, Roy and I accidentally activated a really big bob-omb in the basement arsenal and we couldn't stop it, so Roy and Ludwig are trying to deactivate it or at least buy some time. They sent us to find king dad and tell him about it, because he'll know what to do, at least we hope so."
"And you wasted all that time?" Wendy scolded. "If not because I can see the castle from here, I would guess it already blew up!"
"If they kept the bob-omb from blowing up for this long, then maybe it won't blow up," Lemmy theorized.
"Go ask them while Wendy and I give king dad his dinner," Iggy suggested.
"No fair, I want to go give him dinner too!" Lemmy complained.
"You're the one who got that ball mixed up with a little bob-omb that blew up and activated the big one!" Iggy reminded.
"Just go ask them Lemmy," Wendy yelled as they entered the castle.
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Lemmy arrived at the basement to find that Ludwig had removed the bob-omb's covers to reveal a mess of red wires. He knew he had to cut the red wire, but which one? Roy was trying his best to keep winding up the bob-omb so that it wouldn't reach its end and explode. "Hang in there, king dad will be here soon," Lemmy encouraged.
"Do disclose the foundation for the postponement," Ludwig inquired.
"We had some minor difficulties, but don't worry, this shouldn't take much longer." Before his brothers could reply, Lemmy rolled away. It was amazing how he could go up and down stairs on that ball without falling.
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Lemmy hurried back to find Wendy and Iggy. He heard them calling their father upstairs and guessed they must be in his room. When he arrived he found his brother and sister screaming their heads off, while their father continued to sleep inside his shell.
"Is he really in there?" Wendy questioned.
Iggy tried to listen to the large green spiked shell. "Yup he's in there, I can hear him snoring. He must have really been tired."
"I guess we'll have to call him louder," Wendy proposed.
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Elsewhere, Morton had already taken the potted piranha plant outside and he sat in the yard talking to it. Larry had been bored to sleep long ago, while the plant was becoming dizzy. It came to a point where the piranha plant fell unconscious and spat Larry's shell out, with Larry still sleeping inside it. Morton, who found it quite strange, decided to tell his siblings about it.
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Morton followed the sound of his siblings' voices to their father's room. "Hey everyone, look what I found! A piranha plant had it. It looks just like Larry's shell!"
At that moment, Larry popped out of his shell. "I'm free! I'm free! I'm never going to poke that plant again!"
"I'm not sure what this is about, but Larry can tell us later," Wendy stressed the name; she didn't want Morton to go into an endless speech. "Right now we need help waking up king dad. He's fast asleep, won't wake up when we call him and his dinner is getting cold."
"I have an idea!" Morton declared.
"No!" Wendy, Iggy and Lemmy snapped. They really didn't have time to hear one of Morton's rants right now.
"Why don't we just jump on him?" Larry suggested. The other koopalings agreed. They turned Bowser's shell over so that they wouldn't jump on the spiky side and all together, the five koopalings jumped on him. Bowser's head, arms, legs and tail popped out of his shell like a jack in a box as soon as he felt Wendy's heel painfully stab into his stomach.
Without a moment to waste, the five koopalings dragged their very confused and deaf father down the stairs and made him sit at the dining table. Bowser wasn't sure what this was all about, but there was a dinner served, so maybe they wanted him to eat it. The koopalings appeared happy enough when he started to eat. Dinner looked and smelled good, but tasted odd. This wasn't Chef Torte's cooking, but he ate it anyway. On the other hand, dessert was absolutely delicious and well worth eating that torture of a dinner to have it.
After finishing his cake, Bowser felt very sleepy, Peach had decided she needed a vacation and put a sleeping potion on the cake. "I think I'll take a little nap now," Bowser retreated into his shell again and instantly falling asleep.
"King dad, the bob-omb!" Lemmy called.
"It's too late, he's sleeping again!" Iggy panicked.
"Great, now that we finally get a swimming pool, the castle is totally going to blow up because we can't like wake up king dad!" Wendy pouted.
"We have a pool?" Larry and Morton questioned simultaneously.
"Yes, we can like talk about it later. I mean, I will tell you about it later." Wendy quickly corrected herself, before Morton got the crazy idea that she was willing to listen to his endless chatter. "Right now we totally need to wake king dad."
"The castle will blow up?" Larry was confused.
"Not if king dad wakes up, he'll stop it somehow," Iggy assured.
The five koopalings tried everything from jumping on Bowser to throwing him rolling down the stairs, but nothing worked. Bowser stayed in his shell fast asleep.
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Later, Ludwig came, he was at the end of his patience. He had to leave his musical masterpiece unfinished to assist his siblings and they wouldn't hurry up to do their part. Finding their father and informing him of what was going on couldn't be that hard, so there was no excuse for taking so long. "I have the imperative necessity to inquire what you are attempting to accomplish."
"We're trying to make king dad wake up," Iggy explained while he, Lemmy, Wendy, Larry and Morton poked Bowser with sticks inside his shell.
Obviously, his siblings couldn't wake Bowser, so Ludwig decided to try. Bowser would probably be angry at him for it, but better angry than blown up. Ludwig used his fire breath, but it didn't work. Then in a moment of enlistment, Ludwig proposed a solution, "Let us transport the adversity to Mario."
"Why didn't you say that before?" Wendy, Lemmy, Iggy, Morton and Larry reproached, though they didn't think about it either. They rushed to the basement where Roy was still dealing with the bob-omb.
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The seven koopalings took the bob-omb to the Mario brother's house, left it there and escaped. The bob-omb blew up before the plumbers could do anything about it and with their home under heavy repairs, the Mario brothers moved to guest rooms at Peach's castle.
The koopalings returned to the Koopa Castle, took their father to his room and left him there to rest. He must really be very tired if nothing could wake him up. Then they went on their way to enjoy their new pool. However, Barrel Volcano overloaded due to the lava the Mario brothers dumped in it and sent the extra lava back into the pipes from where it came, destroying the water slide as it was dropped back into the pool. The room was left how it was before; the water evaporated in the extreme heat and the pool was filled with lava once again.
"There was a pool like right here, really!" Wendy was in disbelief.
"Are you sure you didn't imagine it?" Roy didn't believe her.
"It was here, those cheap plumbers! Who's up for the destruction of the Mario brothers?" Wendy plotted her revenge, despite the damage the bob-omb had already caused to the Mario brother's house.
"I am!" All her brothers cheered.
The seven koopalings went to bring doom and destruction to the Mushroom Kingdom. Without their dad, they didn't have a plan except for blowing things up. It continued until they realized one of their favorite shows would be on soon and so the koopalings retreated. Mario and Luigi, survived but they would have nightmares about that day for a long time.
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A week passed relatively uneventfully. Ludwig had put their worries to rest confirming that Bowser was in fact alive, he was just sleeping. They assumed he was simply exhausted and let him continue his super long nap. The Koopa kitchen was rebuilt and the Mushroom Kingdom also recovered over the course of the week.
At the end of the week, Kamek returned from his vacation, refreshed and ready for work. Oh who a I kidding, he returned from his vacation dragging his feet just like everyone else does when their vacation ends because they don't want to go back to work. The point is he returned to the Koopa Castle.
After sleeping for such a long time, Bowser finally woke up, almost completely recovered, but still in pain, yet he didn't know why. Kamek gave him back his hearing and informed him that it had been a week and not a day as Bowser initially thought. The magikoopa immediately regretted telling him, since he could have gotten away with a few more days of vacation.
Bowser decided that it was best to be able to hear; otherwise he would sleep his life away and not know it. The Koopa King was surprised to find that everything was normal in the castle, as the messed had already been cleaned up by his troops. He expected his castle to be in ruins after leaving his kids unsupervised for a week.
The seven koopalings were getting along the day when Bowser woke up and the Mushroom Kingdom was at peace, although a lot of houses, including the Mario brother's house and even Peach's castle, were being remodeled and Bowser didn't understand the sudden urge that have come over the people Mushroom Kingdom to remodel their living space. Over all, Bowser concluded it was best to listen than to miss out.
End of Stage III
Disclaimer, I don't own the Super Mario.