Chapter 2
While Kamek was taking care of things back at the castle, the real owners, Bowser's parents, Gorroh and Helga, were enjoying a vacation on their latest weapon, the Koopa Cruiser. It was a big ship done over in mostly green with their logo on the side, of course. Gorroh was in his personal room, which, of course, was particularily bigger and more fancy than the others. He was at his desk writing something.

"...'My liege! Please; take me away from these ingrates!!' Shmy Guy shouted. His 'queen' had but one thing to say to him..."

He paused to chew the top of his pen a little before writing the rest out.

King Gorroh Koopa; he was a massive reptile donned in a red shell with maroon-colored hair to go with. "Hmm..." he said out of contemplation. Just then, his wife, Helga, the queen, waltzed in.

"Dear," she said to him. "I'm back from the massage tables. You really should go there sometime."

"Really?" He looked up from his work to face her as she strode torwards him. "So, tell me: Is it mutual? Do they like getting those skilled hands of theirs punctured by your lovely spikes?" The two of them laughed at the comment. Helga was a shorter, thinner Koopa than him. Her shell was green and her hair was a blazing red.

"Oh, you..." she said simply. She leaned in closer to examine his activity. "How are the memoirs coming along?"

"Splendid. I may have written myself into a corner, though..."

"Let's have a look..." At that, she picked up the page he was just on and started reading at some point. "Hm, I see. I must say the part when the shadowy figure reverted back to its female human form was a nice touch. I'd say at this point they'll be needing another line from your villainess here; perhaps something like, 'and one of you has decided to switch sides'. You know, to wrap up the speech and get the other characters all fired up."

"That's brilliant!!" He then picked the pen back up and started scribbling. After a second or two he said, "Wow. This writes itself..." Then he put it down and got up. He made his way over to the table with the liquor. He poured two fancy-looking glasses. "You know, Helga, you've always had a knack for coming up with only the greatest of lies."

She meandered on over and took the glass he had held out for her. "'And that's why I married you'. Yes, Dear, I've heard the tale before." They laughed again and drank from their glasses. Once both were downed completely, they simultaneously turned to face eachother, threw their beverage containers aside, absentmindedly, complete with a few shattering noises as they hit the floor, then they slowly advanced towards one another. Soon the two of them united themselves once more in a passionate embracement through their hugs and kisses. This typical make-out scene continued on further until a knock ensued at their door.

"Come in," said the Koopa King. In walked a red Koopa Troopa.

"Sir, your son and the royal vizier have just arrived. They-"

"-WHAT?!? What on Plit would they be doing in a place like this?!" Gorroh and Helga unlocked themselves so he could make his way on over to the door, which the troopa was just in front of.

"They had a bit of trouble back at the castle and knew where to go."

"Well, that makes sense. But the point was NOTHING should have happened while we were away!!" He was out the door and onto the deck at that point with his wife trailing just behind him. She pushed right past the red messenger.

"Oh, excuse me," she uttered unto a slightly bewildered Koopa Troopa. On the deck, the Koopa tyrants were greeted by a good number of servants ranging from variously other-colored Terra Pins to Sailor Bros.. In the center of it all, indeed, was their most trusted vizier, the blue-garbed Kamek, and their son, Bowser, the prince. They pushed their ways through until they were in the middle of a few words that were being exchanged between the Magikoopa and a green Shelled Warrior.

"Yes, a Maple Syrup would do nicely. Ah! King Gorroh, my liege. Thank DAD you're here," he said once the other participant left to get the recovery items.

"Kamek! What happened?!" He was getting worked up since the base was left in the hands of Kamek, the man himself, while the others were away enjoying their vacation. Kamek was a trusted one, alright, but obviously the only reason why he would have returned would have been if it was an extra, extra emergency. While Kamek was explaining it to him, the mother, Helga, was minding her unconscious son through a manner of hysteria.

"I would have consulted with you on an earlier basis, Sire, but you two really were in need of some time off." As he was saying this, some of the other Magikoopas of the ship were busy picking up and carrying off the young tyrant, since they were the ones specializing in the medicinal arts. A blue Koopa Troopa was busy guiding Helga to their room. "One night, taking place not much long after the two of you left with some of the cruise minions, I had a dream. I was being guided through a temple of solid gold by a creature that looked like a towering, humanoid owl. Once we made it to the altar, he then showed me an orb of magic in the very fabric of the air just above that altar. It first showed the image of a stork flying through the air with two infants in his bill. Then there was the image of the same two babies, one of them wearing a red cap, the other, a green one, sitting on the front step of... Some greatly unrecognizable asylum. Then there was the image of two full-grown men, wearing the same hats, with plumber outfits to match, might I add, overthrowing a Koopa with a green shell and red hair. The last sequence showed the image of the stork, once more," at this point, there was less of a crowd polluting the space of Gorroh and Kamek. They had returned to their workstations. "I kid you not, Sire, it was far more than a dream; it was an omen. I couldn't let it happen to the Koopa Klan!! I left things in the hands of Kammeron and sped off on my broomstick to change the future. I used my magic to cross over to the Light World, and there they were!! With a definite 'THE BABIES ARE MINE!!' I snatched the two of them, leaving the stork to spin in midair. However, it wasn't until I had returned to my lair when I realized that I had only one of the twins on me: Luigi Mario."

At that point, Helga returned to rejoin her husband and the advisor. "It's just a few bumps and bruises. My apologies for missing out on the story. Would it be too much trouble to have it repeated?"

Gorroh sighed. "No, my dear. In fact, why don't we start this conversation over in our room?"

"Yes, that sounds fair." They turned to leave, but were soon interrupted by the same green Koopa Troopa from before.

"Your Maple Syrup, Sir," he said, handing the bottle to Kamek.

"Thank you," he said, and the three of them headed on back...

♠♣♥♦

Storko drew ever so much closer to his destination with each flap of the wings he made. Down below, he could see the four-part kingdom of Sarasa Land amongst the waters of the endless ocean. He swooped down to get a closer look so the specific location he was looking for would come into view. It was set atop the edge of a cliff. A dome-shaped observatory sat lying in wait for him with the lights on. Like before, the stork lowered his altitude and became level with the doorbell. He pushed it with his long beak, then stood on the front-step waiting for his master to open it up. "I'm coming!!" he heard the mad scientist say. Finally, he opened up the door. Doctor Kamenstein was what looked like a Magikoopa wearing a white lab-coat, hence forming what they would call a Madscikoopa. "Yes, how may I-" he stopped himself in mid-sentence upon realization. "Where were you?! Did the princes make it back safely?!" He was hysterical.

"Yes, Doctor, they did. How exactly that is true would be a long story," his stork responded.

"Well, then, don't waste anymore time, now, we can talk about it indoors. Besides: Your dinner's getting cold!!" With that, the mad scientist stepped aside for Storko to walk through while he held the door open. Once that was over with, he closed it and the two of them made their ways on over to the "kitchen". It was a rather metallic room, chrome like everything else was in his "house". It had all the necessities required in order for it to actually be called a kitchen, complete with the counter, the stools, the refridgerator, and the automatic food-making device, which was the bulk of the "kitchen". He made for himself a cup of coffee while Storko hopped back into his oversized cage in the corner where his birdseed laid in wait. As soon as he started pecking at his "cold dinner", the Madscikoopa got started once more. "So, tell me," he took a sip of his coffee, sitting down on one of the stools he pulled up to listen. "How come you're so late? You'd better have a good excuse."

Storko finished swallowing the first round of his dinner before responding. "Oh, I assure you, Doctor, I do have a good reason; it's as good as they get, if I do say so myself..."

"Well, go on then." He took another sip.

"Well, see, it's like this: On my way back to the vacationing spot of the King and the Queen, I was attacked by this blue thing that just rushed at me out of nowhere and practically knocked the wind out of me. Man, was I dizzy. Once I came out of my daze, I made only the worst of realizations: The babies were gone."

"Oh, dear."

"Yes, I was quite panicked. I tried looking for them, but I just didn't know where to begin. There was a rock here, an island there, a mountain in the other direction... After a little while, I thought it almost might as well have been best for me to just give up on the mission altogether and head on back to tell you the bad news."

"But they did make it back safely in time, correct?!" He tended to be a little tense at all times, being the mad scientist that he was.

"Yes, Doctor, and I'll get to that in a moment. As I was saying, just when I was about to give up, these... Hooded, red things with buckteeth and glasses-"

"-HEY!!"

"It meant nothing, Doctor, I assure you that."

"Well... Yes, quite. Just be a little more careful next time."

"Yes, Sir. They had these propellers on their heads to make them fly and they came up to me for some reason. I tried to go around, but the five of us were much more than merely a couple of parties coincidentally headed in the opposite directions of each other's ways. Boy, was I wrong! They started attacking me! I just didn't understand why! All I could do was take the hits while at the same time try to maintain my airborne-ness."

"'Airborne-ness' is not a word."

"No, it's not, but you catch my drift. They knocked me out and the next thing I knew, I was in a... Nursery of some sort. The plant-kind, not the baby-kind, mind you, although there was one right next to it, come to think of it..."

"Oh, oh, oh; speaking of 'nurseries', I- Oh, I'm sorry, go on."

"No, you can tell me, would it have anything to do with-"

"-Nevermind, nevermind. I'll tell you later. You just finish your story."

"Alright, then. Anyways, I spent a good deal of time hanging upside-down from that tree with one of the other two babies next to me, still swaddled up in his white bundle, and all. I could never tell if it was the red one or the green one because he was just always there. Except when they took him to do some other things, but anyway, he would always be there whenever he did anything bad, but I was a different case, so I was there, 24/7, with nothing to do besides plead with the guards, sing the 'bottles-of-beer' song, and/or think about questions that all started with the phrase, 'what if'."

"You poor things."

"Oh, it was horrible!! Well, at least they kept me fed. But the food was horrible, too. My assumption was that the baby wasn't really having it much better, and after such a long time came to pass, there was havoc everywhere!! They decided to keep the baby next to me until they got the chaos cleared up. Apparently, the castle was being invaded. It was kind of like a dream come true since I didn't know how else they were going to rescue me and the baby. The next thing I knew, the place started quaking and there was this gigantic Koopa Kid off in the distance. He demolished the place!! I could see eight Yoshies trying to fend off the monster. The green one had the other baby on his back!! Since it was the red one, I found out which one I had through deduction, of course; the Luigi one, to be more precise. Oh, man, that was one fierce battle. But once the green guy dealt him the final blow, the Koopa Kid exploded and this miniature version of him took his place. They said a few things, and then, finally, they came over to our rescue..."

♠♣♥♦

"So, lemme get this straight," said Gorroh once the three of them were back inside the big room, sitting down to talk matters over. "You had a vision that these two plumbers would eventually ruin the Koopa Klan, right?"

"Correct, Sir" chided the Magikoopa.

"So, your plan was to recruit them?"

"Yes, Sir. That was the plan. It was either that, killing them, or admitting defeat. As you can see, my preference was to upgrade our army even further through their recruitments."

"Even though they would have acted more like our other two sons rather than the latest new soldiers," said Helga.

"I suppose so, but that's about the gist of the story."

"Well, one way or another, we can't allow this to happen," said Gorroh. "Kamek, as soon as Bowser gets rested up, I want the two of you to go out there and look for those babies while I send a few of our crewmembers back to repair our castle. When that time comes, you'll find us in the Hidden Fortress of the Clattagin Woods. But, for now, I must have a word with the pilot of this ship. Is that all clear, Kamek?" He got up out of his seat.

"Well, number one: I don't understand why Bowser has to come with, and number two: I don't think they're called 'pilots'."

"He'll be coming with because it'll help him develop vengeance and fighting skills. Trust me, the experience will serve him well. It did for me..." He turned around and left the room leaving both Helga and Kamek behind. Kamek removed the cork of his Maple Syrup and took a quick swig of it...

♠♣♥♦

"Well, if you hadn't have done it, someone else would have. I really have been meaning to get rid of those wretched sunglasses. They were such a painful reminder..." said Dr. Kamenstein as he led his stork through the halls of his dome. They stopped just before a certain door. "'Storko', hm?" he said, turning to face the bird.

"Yes, Sir."

"Well, then. Wait until you lay eyes upon this and the names I gave them," said the Madscikoopa. Ever so carefully, he turned the knob and pushed it open as not to make any sound. Once he was in, he beckoned "Storko" forward so they could have a look. The room starred two cribs. One of them had a baby with a yellow cap while the other one had a blue cap. Both of them were sound asleep. "I call them 'Wario' and 'Waluigi'," he whispered.

"Oh, they're so precious," said Storko, about as quietly as the doctor had done. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why 'Wario' and 'Waluigi'?"

"Well," he moved out of the room with Storko following. Once he closed the door, they started walking again, this time, they took a different course. "You are familiar with that one book I have on me, correct?" he said, this time with his voice raised a little bit higher. "The one entitled 'Words of the Past'?"

"Yes, Doctor, I know that one."

"Well," once again, they were at another door. Dr. Kamenstein fumbled around with his pockets a little until he found what he was looking for. He flipped through his ring of keys a little until he found the proper one, which he used to unlock the door and open it. "I named them what I named them after an ancient term," they were inside and the room turned out to be some kind of miniature library, loaded with shelves of about a million books, not all of them in their respective places. Some were on the floor while others came in stacks. He then made his way over to a podium of some sort. He bent down, picked up one of the books, then set it atop the podium and started flipping through it. "This term... It came... From an ancient language spoken by the legendary Spritelings... Or was it the Ravens? Ah-HA! Here it is," he placed his finger on a particular paragraph. "'*, pronounced "wa", ancient word coming from the language of the Stars,' oh, yes. I see. 'Coming from the language of the Stars, meaning fixed, upgraded, recent, new and/or improved'." He snapped the book shut. "'Wario' and 'Waluigi': The new and improved versions of those babies you took care of a little while ago."

"You mean Mario and Luigi?"

"Precisely," the two of them got up and walked out of the room. Dr. Kamenstein locked it once more and stowed away his keys.

"Why must you always lock it?" asked the stork.

"You can never be too careful." They started walking down the halls once more. "Besides: It's not just you and me anymore, we've got the babies to worry about from now on. They are, after all, the ultimate treasure hunters." They came across another door for the Madscikoopa to fumble around with, what with his keys, and all. Again, he found the right one, unlocked the door, then stepped inside. "At least, that's what I want them to become..." They were then inside the mad scientist's lab. They made their ways on over to the table in the middle where a whole bunch of blue prints lied in wait.

"You mean they could be failures??"

"Let's hope not!" said the doctor. He picked up a few of the blue prints, then flattened themselves off on the table before them. They showed all kinds of pictures and diagrams decorated with various lines and words and numbers, all of them done in white. He was focused on the one that showed the front-views and side-views of two scary-looking men. One of them was short and fat while the other one was tall and scrawny. "Behold," he started up again. "Once those boys have reached the peaks of their evolution, this will be what they'll look like."

"Frightening."

"I know! Look at this: They've got everything!! Pointy ears for hearing things within a ten-mile radius, sharpened eyesight for even the darkest of evenings, prodigious, pink noses to sniff things out... Everything!!" He put down the blue prints. "Currently, they're looking pretty good. But you can see why I don't want them to be failures."

"Yes, Sir." Just then, they heard the doorbell ring. DING DONG! They also heard the sounds of two babies crying.

"I've got to get that thing fixed," said Dr. Kamenstein. "Storky, would you mind answering the door for me? I'll take care of this one..."

"Yes, Sir." As the mad scientist ran off, Storko then made his way over to the front-door where their next guest lied in wait. "Yes?" he said as he opened up the door. There, standing before him was this young woman and her two children, one male and slightly younger than his sister, the female one.

"I'm sorry if this seems rude in the least," said the woman, apparently the mother of the two children. "But we are in grave need of some shelter and we didn't know where else to turn."

"Oh, well then; come on in." Storko beckoned inside the three-some.

"Thank you, so much," she said. Once they were all seated, Storko got the conversation going.

"So, tell me: Who might you be, and what brought you here?"

"Well, my name is Marilyn Ice. These are my children, Tessa and William."

The two of them responded through a combination between a "Hello" and a "Hi". Storko replied through an "It's a pleasure to meet the three of you. I am called 'Storko'. This is where me and the doctor reside; Doctor Kamenstein."

"'Kamenstein'? I've heard of him!!" said the woman.

"He's a few rooms over, minding the babies."

"Babies?"

"Yes. He created them. It's a long story. Yours, please?"

"What? Oh, yes, of course. It's like this: We come from Gana Village. We were just finishing up the last bits of our chores when these evil clowns arrived. The villagers had little choice but to evacuate. My husband, Christopher, was one of the few they managed to capture."

Storko let out a "Hmm" when Dr. Kamenstein suddenly whipped himself out of nowhere from behind the corner over there. He spoke five words: "Did you say, 'Evil clowns'??"

♠♣♥♦

A yellow Koopa Troopa with a scar going across his left eye was the one steering the ship. Gorroh walked in to put the first few parts of his plan in motion. "Arris, head the ship towards the Clattagin Woods," he said.

"Yes, Sir," the Koopa Troopa, named Arris, said. From a distance, the ship's turning around to head its way off into another direction was noticeable. They were being watched by a mysterious someone who was seating herself on her broomstick.

"Ah, so that's where they're going. They can run, but they can't hide. Not from the most beautiful koopa in existance, they can!! Bleh heh heh heh heh heh heh..."