Part 3: Prehistoric
Chapter 1: The New Game Plan.
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Mario woke up to the sound of rain falling outside. His head was nestled in the pancake like stack of pillows and part of the sheet was tangled around his leg. Just listening to the rain and considering where he was, he didn’t want to get out of bed.
A yawn next to him was followed by an arm draping across his midsection. “Morning general, did you sleep well?”
“Yes,” Mario sighed. He had hoped this one was going to be different than the others. She also like to play golf and she was a mechanic who works on cars and go-carts, but instead of addressing him by his name she called him general, like she had when they first met.
“I love a guy who can take charge,” Ashley sat up. She was a beautiful Koopa with a lavender head and glossy purple shell. Her white wavy hair fell past her shoulders. “I should make us some breakfast.”
“Sounds good,” Mario placed his hands behind his head. Three months ago he freed Peach from her cell while his king was busy fighting Maria and Pauline, and once again he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He forced himself back into the dating pool to try and get his mind off her, but no one clicked, except for Ashley and they have only dated a month.
“I don’t want to delay you for anything,” Ashley slid out of bed. “I know you have a busy day.”
“Busy day,” Mario rubbed his eyes. He had sent some scouts to Dinosaur Land to bring back notes and samples from the various places. “I’m not scheduled to meet with Bowser until this afternoon.”
“Do you think Dinosaur Land would make a good addition to Dark Land?” She slipped into her shell. “I have never been there, but I have been told it is full of actual dinosaurs.”
“More of our fellow reptiles.” Mario sat up. He couldn’t remember the last time she was this curious about his job. “Ashley, why did you start dating me?”
“Well you are smart and brave and handsome.”
“You think I’m handsome?” Mario raised his eyebrows.
“You have a great smile, and beautiful blue eyes and you have the cutest hairstyle and moustache.”
“Thank you,” not many complimented his moustache besides his mother. One of the girl heroes from another world, Pauline, said she loved his moustache. The only other person who thought it was adorable besides them was Peach. He could still see her reaching through the bars just to touch his moustache. He could hear her laugh when they were talking about interests and he could feel her kiss.
“Mario?” Ashley tried to get his attention. “Were you listening?”
“Sorry,” Mario grinned sheepishly. “I guess I’m still amazed that there are women who think I’m handsome.”
“Aww, don’t sell yourself short,” Ashley ran her claws through his hair. “I asked what attracted you to me?”
“Well you are smart and beautiful,” Mario started. “Plus you know a lot about cars and karts and you like to play tennis.”
“Great,” Ashley gave him a small kiss on the side of his head. “You go and get into your shell. I’ll make us some breakfast.”
“No eggs please,” Mario said.
“I’ll make sure there is no eggs.”
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Mario met with his soldiers an hour before he was to meet with Bowser. He was not going to let his mood get to it. All though breakfast Ashley had confirmed his suspicions. She went on about how her parents approved of her dating one of the best generals in the land and how her friends were jealous. If he was just an average Joe who had a job of selling TV’s, or fixing the plumbing would he still attract as many women.
“Sir, we have returned with some of the samples that you have requested, sir.” One of the new soldiers said. He was one of the groups of fighters called Charging Chucks. He was originally one of the members of the Dark Land Dragons football team.
“Good work,” Mario nodded. “Have you kept them fresh?” He still had no idea why Bowser would want to draft in football players, unless it was for Larry.
“I have a folder for you,” a Ninji handed Mario his folder. “It has all your notes, sir.”
“Thank you,” Mario flipped through the pages and looked at the pictures. In a way it was a little like Pipe Land, beautiful and the perfect place for a nice vacation. It was also a huge land, a little bit bigger than some of the seven kingdoms they had tried to take over before. “Go about your business until I request all of your presences.
“Yes general,” both soldiers saluted him before he left.
“Now lets see who is going to be waiting for me,” Mario opened the doors to the throne room.
Not everyone was there this time. Both mother and uncle Kammy were with Bowser, but Luigi wasn’t and there were only six out of the eight children. Mario had a feeling that the new plan was going to involve the koopalings and junior was still far too young to be involved. He had no idea where Luigi or Wendy was.
“Hello daddy,” Wendy skipped through the door. “I hope I’m not to late.”
“There is still a few more minutes till two,” Bowser said. “We still have to wait for Luigi.”
“Oh,” Wendy held up her mirror. “I didn’t have to rush through my beauty routine then.”
“Beauty routine?” Roy asked.
“I have to make sure my bow is on just right,” Wendy didn’t remove her gaze from the mirror, and the one on my tail is also on just right and I have to put on my mascara, and eye-shadow, and lipstick, and spray on just a little bit of perfume.”
“Just a little bit?” Roy curled up his mouth in disgust. “It smells like you took a whole freakin bath in that stuff.”
“Yeah Wendy,” Morton grabbed his nose and fanned the air. “Pee-yew. What do you call that stuff, Eau De human butthole? That stuff is worse than Ludwig’s chemicals. I’ll probably won’t be able to breath through my poor little nose ever again.”
Wendy’s face gradually turned red through Morton’s tirade. Her nostrils were fairing while her left eyelid twitched. “You can’t talk like that, Morty. I’ve walked past your room every day. You should talk about odors.”
“Ahem,” mother walked up to them and clapped her hands. “This is unacceptable behavior.” She grabbed Morton by the shoulder. “You will no insult your sister like that.” She grabbed one of the developing horn buds on Roy. “You too. I want the both of you to apologize.”
“Sorry sis,” Roy rubbed his head.
“I’m sorry,” Morton pouted. “Now will you make her apologize for insulting my room?”
“Sorry Morty,” Wendy said in her sweetest voice.
Bowser was silent through out the whole situation. “You know the reason why your youngest brother isn’t here. He is too young and couldn’t handle what we are about to do. I thought the rest of you would be old enough and mature. I may be wrong. Only two of you are paying attention.” He pointed to Ludwig and Iggy. Larry was reading a sports magazine and Lemmy was standing on one hand.
“Yo, sorry, King Dad,” Roy apologized and stood at full attention.
“The meeting hasn’t even started yet,” Lemmy said. “I thought we were going to wait for Luigi.”
“That’s right,” Wendy said. “We have to wait for Luigi.”
“You have to wait no longer,” Luigi entered, followed by a couple of Hammer bros with a cooler. “I have arrived.”
“With one minute to spare,” Kammy reminded him.
“Now that everyone is here we can start,” Bowser pointed to the back of the room. “Someone pull down that screen.”
“I got it,” Larry pulled down the white screen.
“All right,” Morton danced around. “We get to watch a movie.”
“Not a movie,” Ludwig plugged in the slide machine.
“Don’t tell me it is going to be a boring old slide show,” Morton winced.
“This isn’t boring,” Bowser pointed a claw at him. “This is about your future, young man. You need to shape up your attitude. We are going to be taking over a new world, adding it to the Koopa Empire.
“You mean like last time?” Morton asked. “I can still feel the heat from those fireballs on my feet.”
“This time is gonna be different,” Roy cracked his knuckles. “Now we know what we are up against. I’m gonna wail on those girls. They don’t know what they have coming if they try something on me.”
“Roy,” Bowser snarled. “While I do admire and respect your self confidence. I do not like the idea of you hitting girls.”
“Don’t worry king dad, I aint gonna touch them in the face. I was just gonna hit their arms and legs.”
“No,” Bowser shook his head.
Mario agreed with Bowser. Beating on Maria and Pauline with just their fists is far from right and not just because of their gender. He liked them. They were smart young women who were skilled fighters. He wished that the circumstances could be different and that they had fought on the same side.
“Roy you are right on one account,” Luigi turned on the slide projector with the remote. “It will be different because there are no kings, no human kings, no humans at all and no toads. It is inhabited by dinosaurs.”
“Let me get the light,” mother turned off the light. “Go on dear.”
“Creatures such as these,” Luigi clicked on the machine. An odd upright purple dinosaur with sharp teeth and claws and a spike on the snout appeared. “This is a rex, one of the inhabitants of this lovely land. Mario and I have already recruited this species to the Troop.”
“Good work,” Bowser grinned. “A creature like this appears to be pretty strong. I would love to have them on my side.”
“We also have these creatures,” Luigi pressed down on the remote again. The image changed to reveal odd four legged creatures that also had a spike on their noses. The smaller ones were able to reveal fire. “Some of the troops have decided to call these guys Dino Rhinos and the little ones we call Torches for obvious reasons.”
“Excellent,” Bowser grinned. “Go on.”
“We were not sure about these things,” Luigi clicked on to the next creature. It resembled a large snake like beast made out of lava.” These things were able to scare even me, but Mario managed to convince them to join us some how.”
Mario chuckled. He remembered speaking to the lava beasts. He had to convince them to join. He used the usual tactics of complimenting them, explaining the benefits. They asked to show them how powerful he was and he displayed his talents. They were impressed.
“The Boos had managed to get these guys to join,” the next image were of ghostly little dinosaur creatures. “They call themselves Eeries. I am not going to argue with that.”
“Are there any creatures that may prove to be an opposition?” Ludwig asked.
“Let me take over for this,” Mario said. “There are about three that refused.” He pressed down on the button. “These things call themselves Reznors.” He stared at the image of triceratops like creatures on the screen. “These brutes are strong, tough and very powerful, but they do not want to join our group. I don’t know why exactly. Maybe it is due to lack of faith in us, or maybe they are not at all impressed. I cannot imagine why they would get that idea. The problem is that we want them.”
“I can get around that problem,” Uncle Kamek chuckled. “Kammy and I are going to be sending in our best crop of Magikoopas. They will be very convincing.”
“Moving on,” Mario clicked on to the next slide. There were several blue dolphins leaping and swimming about.
“Dolphins,” Wendy squealed. “They are so cute.”
“And they are amazing,” Lemmy said. “You can teach them so many tricks. They are one of the smartest breeds of animals in the world. That is what Iggy said.”
“It is true,” the young genius frowned. “considering their intelligence they may try to stop us.”
“They are water bound,” Mario pointed out. “Even if they could actually fly out of the water and try to attack us they wouldn’t be able to. They don’t have any fighting skills, no brute strength and no powers. I say that in their case we let them be.”
“What of the last type?” Bowser asked. “You mentioned there were three intelligent creatures.”
“The third kind is the problem,” Mario switched images. The screen was now filled with several odd dinosaurs with large heads, very large round noses and red spines down their backs. Many had their long tongues sticking out. “These are Yoshis. They eat anything and everything and use their long sticky tongue to get food. I’m not sure if they have genders, cause all of them can lay eggs, and it isn’t always a baby Yoshi in those eggs. They use them to store stuff and eat more enemies and store them in eggs.”
“They don’t look so tough,” Morton said.
“Trust me they are,” Kamek said though clenched teeth. “I had to deal with these creatures before. They are very resourceful. They tried to carry a threat to king Bowser to safety many years ago, but I stopped them.”
“What happened?” Larry asked.
“None of your concerns,” mother grabbed Kamek’s mouth. “We will use our armies of Magikoopas to deal with them. How would you kids like a treat?”
“What kind of treat?” Lemmy asked.
“The kind that you can eat.” Mario opened up the cooler. “Here you go two berries for everyone.” He handed the large berries out to the koopalngs. “I wouldn’t call these things berries though.”
“They do look more like fruit,” Iggy said before he took a bite from one. “But they taste like cherries.”
“Huh?” Roy asked. “Mine taste like raspberries.” He finished eating his.
“Mine taste like strawberries,” Wendy said.
“They don’t taste the same for everyone,” Luigi reached into the cooler and pulled out seven cookies. “Now here is some cookies.”
“Hey I like this,” Morton said when he received his cookie. “All of our meetings should end like this, with snacks to eat.”
“This is delicious,” Ludwig said after taking a bite. “I thought there was more to this meeting.”
“Oh,” Bowser nodded but there is. “You are just receiving some samples.”
“Samples of what?” Larry asked after he finished his cookie.
“We got these treats from Dinosaur Land,” Mario explained as he pulled out several donuts. “Who wants some donuts?”
“Me,” Morton ran up to them.
“And we have soda to drink,” Luigi handed them bottles that were filled with the fizzing drink from the lake.
“How is it that you were able to get these treats from the lands,” Iggy asked. “I think I can understand the fruit.”
“The fruit did come from Yoshi’s island and the Forest of Illusion,” Mario selected seven ice cream cones. There were was one cone left as was one cookie, one donut, and a couple of berries, and one bottle of soda. Those would be given to Junior when he wakes up from his nap. “The donuts are from the donut plains, the soda is from Lake Soda is full of carbonated water. Mom added some sugar and a little citrus juice to it. The cookies come from cookie mountain and the ice cream is from vanilla dome, and chocolate from Chocolate island.”
“I like this world,” Lemmy said when he received his ice cream. “I don’t think I ever want to leave.”
“Smart idea, king dad,” Roy said before he took a lick from his cone. “Didn’t you also say chocolate?”
“Right here,” Luigi brought out the seven pieces of chocolate. “Put the rest in the fridge.”
“The rest?” Morton raised his eyebrows. His mouth was covered in ice cream. “There is more?”
“Those are for Junior,” Bowser said. “Ludwig and Iggy, I know you have something to add.”
“I have completed the construction of both your clown copter and the flying platforms,” Ludwig said in between licks from his cone. “The copter is equipped with several weapons. I have made it into the perfect chariot for you father. The flying platforms are for the Hammer Brothers to ride around on.”
“Good,” Bowser nodded.” And Iggy?”
“Ow,” Iggy rubbed his head. “I went a little too fast.”
“Iggy?” Bowser raised an eyebrow.
“Right,” Iggy chuckled. “I finished building the army of Mecha Koopas. These small robots wind up with a key, but they last for quite a while. They are ready for your dispatch.”
“Have these things been tested?” Bowser asked.
“Repeatedly,” Ludwig assured them.
“Great,” Bowser rubbed his hands. “Pack your stuff kids we are going to take over this world in a about a week.”
“I have a feeling this time its going to work,” Luigi said as he pulled up the screen.
“What makes you so sure this is going to work?” Mario asked. He needed to wash his claws. The food samples had made them sticky.
“No one to contact Princess Peach,” Luigi smiled. “She won’t be able to contact Pauline and Maria and that means we won’t be stopped. Wendy and I will get a nice section of land to ourselves. By the way, I forgot to ask how did it go with Ashley?”
“It was great,” Mario lied. “We are going to meet for coffee tomorrow.” He had a bad feeling the coffee date was going to be one of the last.
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