3Bowser's castle, one year before the First Super Mario Bros.
Clawdia walked down the snaking corridors of Bowser's newly constructed castle in Central Darklands, followed by a Lakitu with a camera.
Deeming the palace in Dark City indefensible, her husband had spent the last two years building a massive steel, stone, and concrete fortress outside of the city limits on the second highest peak in Darklands after the neighboring Vista Hill, although, now with the keep—deliberately modeled on Crocodile Isle's Rulenstein Keep—Castle Hill dominated the skyline.
Over 15,000 Hammer Bros, Terrorpins, Koopa Troopas, Paratroopas, Lakitus, Spinies, Magikoopas, Goombas, Paragoombas, Shy Guys, Boos, Dry Bones, Hotheads, and Piranha Plants had aided in the construction, with the majority of them being in the Darklands military, and the rest being paid for by Bowser out of his own money.
The public largely supported this massive spending on the class because it served not just as the King's residence, but also as the strategic military headquarters of Darklands.
Anyone attempting to get to the King or generals or steal military intelligence would have to cross floor with rotating fire ball chains, lava moats with disappearing paths above them, narrow corridors where Chain Chomps or Thwomps could gnaw or crush someone respectively. Warp pipes connected various floors, but an outsider would never know if they contained a Piranha Plant or not. Some passageways were only accessible under water where the intruder would encounter Bowser's naval Cheep-Cheep and Blooper guards.
What had prompted this move? It had begun two years ago when Clawdia discovered she was with egg. She and Bowser had been trying to conceive for nearly a decade when their efforts had finally paid off.
Now Bowser and Clawdia had a child of their own, and while Bowser and Clawdia's intentions in conceiving the child had been born out of a desire for family, almost as soon as the egg was laid Kamek's thoughts began to turn to succession.
After seven bastards, Bowser finally had a legitimate heir. At Kamek's urging, the couple named the Koopaling "Bowser Jr."
Clawdia found surprising allies in Kamek and Kammy who had suggested that Bowser announce the hatching of his heir publicly.
Clawdia had sacrificed her career as a journalist on the condition that she be given control of the new state-run media whilst keeping her name and image in the shadows.
Bowser, only wanting to keep Clawdia safe, but knowing he would lose her if he didn't give her an investigatory outlet, agreed.
Now, Clawdia believed that as mother of the future king she could take a more active role in the spotlight. Meanwhile, the Magikoopa siblings believed that revealing the truth of his marriage and announcing the hatching of a legitimate heir would only make Bowser, Clawdia, and the baby safer.
Bowser still had concerns, given everything that Mushroom Kingdom had done to his family. He thought that announcing a queen and heir would only put Clawdia and Junior in danger from Mushroom assassins.
Finally, he relented after imposing one condition: he wanted a new castle, outside the city, of which he and he alone controlled all entrances and exits and was filled with booby traps.
The castle had been completed two weeks ago. The King, Queen, Prince, and staff had just moved in yesterday. Security was already there. Bowser was preparing to introduce Clawdia and Junior to the public today from their balcony over the red doored entrance.
The hidden queen was walking to an underground chamber to investigate reports of possible survivors of a bottom floor collapse that had left four Goomba workers missing. The collapse had been caused by an attempt to build a floor with a massive trap door gone horribly wrong.
Bowser had wanted to go himself but Clawdia, ever the reporter, insisted on checking. Assuaging Bowser that nothing would be prematurely unveiled if she introduced herself as a reporter.
Begrudgingly, he consented. If the reporter who brought the survivors news of their friends was revealed to be their Queen only a few hours later, it would increase their loyalty to her.
Clawdia and the Lakitu reached the massive room with the gaping hole to find a clown car waiting for the queen, attended to by two rescue workers: an orange-shelled Koopa Troopa, and an orange-robed Shy Guy. Two Goombas who had been working on this floor before the cave in were also present.
"I'll find your friends, dead or alive," she assured the Goombas.
Clawdia and the rescuers boarded the clown car and descended into the artificial cavern, the Lakitu following just over her head.
The cavern was actually not that artificial. All that had been removed was a section of the roof. Upon descending past the castle's support structures, the walls and tunnels were all made of natural rock.
Reaching the bottom of the cave, Clawdia and the others dismounted the clown car after the Koopa Troopa rescuer deactivated the vehicle.
"Turn the camera on," she told the Lakitu, who handed her a mic out of his cloud.
She faced the camera, "This is Clawdia Koopa coming to you from beneath the new center of government, where only a few hours ago the construction of a trap floor accidentally resulted in the imprisonment of four workers within the mountain. With me are two rescuers trained in emergency rescue procedures."
"You're too late," a voice called out from the darkness, causing the Queen, rescuers, and camera-Koopa to freeze in their tracks.
They expected to see a Goomba step into the light. Instead, it was two Toads...two very familiar Toads.
The black suits, the sunglasses, one with a pink mushroom on his head, the other with a blue one...These were the Toads from the security files...
"Where are the workers?!" Clawdia demanded.
"We killed them in the cave-in, just as we are now going to kill you, Queen Clawdia" The blue-headed Toad said as he and his companion pulled what looked like dark-grey blowpipes out of their coats.
The two rescuers were too stunned by the revelation that Clawdia was in fact their queen to act as a dart went into each side of her neck.
Clawdia collapsed immediately.
The rescuers and Lakitu rushed to her but froze again when the Toads shot paralyzing darts at them.
"We used a fatal poison on her," the blue-headed Toad said. "You are only paralyzed temporarily. When you can move again, you will give Bowser this message: Nowhere you go, no fortress you build, is beyond the Mushroom Kingdom's reach."
The Toads retreated into the darkness.
When the three could move again, the Koopa Troopa felt Clawdia's pulse.
They were too late to save her, but the Lakitu had captured her last moments and her killers on film.
Bowser's Throne Room
"Why in the Stars' names didn't you stop them the moment they stepped out of the shadows?!" Bowser yelled at the survivors of the Toad agent attack as they cowered before him.
Neither Kammy, who was beginning to know Bowser better, nor Kamek who had known him since childhood had ever seen him this angry at any of his own subordinates.
"Sire, when they called her 'Queen Clawdia,' we were shocked?"
Bowser, who normally bent over backwards to help his minions own his various near-impossible tasks, simply roared and unleashed his fiery breath on the Shy Guy who immediately tried to drop and roll.
As the burning minion fell, Bowser snaped "Stand!"
The Shy Guy, still on fire, got to his feet.
Bowser glared at him narrowing his eyes.
Kamek approached from Bowser's right, "Majesty, maybe we should let him—"
Bowser jabbed his knuckles into Kamek's beak, making him fall.
Kammy gasped—one of the few times she had ever shown concern for her brother, and the only time she had ever seen Bowser abuse him.
"We should let him do what?" Bowser said angrily, eyes fixed on the burning Shy Guy. "Get medical attention? He should have got some for my wife!"
Kammy then did the unthinkable, rushing behind the throne to aid her much hated brother and, if necessary, protect him from the foster son whose love for him had been unquestionable—until he spoke up for one of three who'd accompanied Clawdia to her doom.
"Sire, we couldn't—"The Koopa Troopa rescuer started to say when Bowser roasted him as well.
"I want no more excuses! You were all supposed to protect her!" the King bellowed.
On the inside Bowser wanted to cry, but that is not what Clawdia would want—she'd want revenge...or so he told himself. He knew he wanted it. This was the third time the Mushroom Kingdom had taken his family.
There would not be a fourth.
War had to begin immediately, and these three were useless.
"Get out of my sight, you useless failures!" Bowser commanded. Only a day before Bowser would have never treated his minions with such disrespect, Kamek and Kammy noted.
The still burning Shy Guy and Koopa Troopa rushed out of the room with the Lakitu behind them.
Bowser eyed the Lakitu. That one at least had some use. With his video recording Bowser would declare war on the Mushroom Kingdom today and no one would question him.
Then he could avenge Clawdia.
Kamek stood with Kammy's help. So much reminded Kamek of the night Bowser learned of his mother's murder. He knew the anger was only a mask. Inside Bowser was hurting.
"Your Majesty, is there anything—" Bowser raised a hand to silence Kamek.
"Leave me," the King commanded.
Reluctantly, Kamek nodded and gestured for Kammy to follow.
They could not help him now.
Roolenstein Keep, Crocodile Isle, a few hours later
K. Rool had been nervous ever since receiving the call from Kloak and Kackle that Clawdia Koopa had been eliminated.
It had taken over a decade, during which time K. Rool had waited with dread for Bowser's wife to begin an investigatory search into the tragedies surrounding Bowser's family. K. Rool had been careful not to overtly link himself to the tragedies, but he knew that no efforts could be perfect. Some oversight on his part might come to Clawdia's attention.
Now Clawdia was dead, with the Mushroom Kingdom squarely to blame—or so he hoped Bowser would believe.
Doubt gnawed at him that Clawdia had discovered the truth before her death and passed it own to Bowser.
He'd had to make himself an herbal tea to calm his nerves. He had been sipping on it a few hours earlier when he'd checked the news for an announcement out of Darklands. His nervousness only increased when he learned Bowser would be making a speech.
Soon, he would know for sure if his ruse had worked or if Bowser and the Mushroom Kingdom would join forces to attack him.
He had not left the room for several hours, eyes glued to the television which had a direct feed to Darklands News Network.
Now, in a breaking news update, the Goomba commentator announced that King Bowser was addressing the Senate.
K. Rool stared nervously at the Koopa King on television as he stood at the "presidential" podium in the senate with a TV next to him. His eyes blazed like fiery coals and his grimace radiated pure hatred.
"My loyal subjects," Bowser began, "the Mushroom Kingdom has long sought to divide us, and the political radicalism they spawned and fueled claimed the life of my mother and brother."
K. Rool smiled, bearing his fangs as Bowser continued. The idiot still blames the Mushroom Kingdom, K. Rool realized as he licked his fangs in happiness.
"But under my leadership, we came together and made Darklands great again," Bowser continued on the TV:
"We now have the safest and most powerful nation in the entire Mushroom world!"
The senators started cheering until Bowser roared and exhaled fire, silencing them.
"That should have scared the Mushroom Kingdom, but I knew you can't fix crazy. That's why, when I got married, I kept it a secret."
Gasps came from all the senators and, K. Rool assumed, all Darklands.
Bowser's face softened and his eyes began to water.
"Most of you knew Clawdia Koopstorm as a reporter. I knew her as my wife."
Bowser dried his eyes, and his face turned livid as said "Earlier today, in an effort to help workers at cave-in site at my new castle, Toad agents killed her!"
Bowser turned to the television next to him, placing his finger on the "Play DVD" button. Placing another finger on the power button, he commanded, "Watch this!"
The camera feed switched so that the footage filled the entire feed.
When the footage was over, Bowser slammed his clenched fist on the podium.
"As the Supreme Ruler of Darklands, I command this body of delegates to declare war on the Mushroom Kingdom!"
The senate erupted in cheers on the television, as K. Rool felt a weight lift from his shoulders.
After twenty years, his plans had finally come to fruition. Bowser had set a precedent for seizing power and declaring war against a peaceful neighbor. Soon, it would be K. Rool's turn to openly play the tyrant—the part he was hatched to play!
But first, he had to play the ally. He had promised Bowser his navy, and it would give his forces good combat experience.
Putting on his pirate costume, he said, "Arrgh! Now be the hour! The Age of Tyrants be come at last! By the gods of sea and sky, make way for the Mushroom Kingdom!"
K. Rool cackled maniacally like a pirate captain who had just found treasure. It had taken twenty years, but he had completed his most audacious plan yet.