Super Princess Peach

Ch. 5, Pt. 1

A/N: The chapters of SPP are so long that I may have to start splitting them in half. Even the halves are long, so bear with me, please!

Bowser stomped back and forth across the floor of his dining room, hands clenched tightly behind his back. The dining room table sat not far away, stretching from one end of the stone chamber to the other. His seat sat at the very end, and before it a cold, forgotten plate of chicken 'n dumplings. Irritation now crowded his stomach, making his appetite for breakfast flee. 

"Idiots!" he snarled to himself. "Why am I the only one who employs all the idiots?" 

He thought back to a few minutes ago, when Captain Bro and one of his subordinates had come in with an alarming report: an aircraft had been spotted flying over Vibe Island's southernmost region. Recon photos, which were now spread out over Bowser's end of the dining room table, showed that the plane was a military-grade cargo craft from the Mushroom Kingdom. 

And for that stupid reason, Captain Bro had thought it best to shoot down the aircraft using the long-range Banzai Bill canons stationed on the outskirts of the Villa. 

Bowser had kindly showed Captain Bro and his subordinately exactly how much he'd liked that idea. Both Hammer Bros had been sent to the Villa medical infirmary shortly after, suffering from egg-sized welts growing off the top of their heads. 

"Idiots!" Bowser hissed again, slamming a fist on the dining room table. Come on! How stupid could his minions be? Shoot down a plane? From the Mushroom Kingdom? They'd send five more to investigate. In this case, they'd send ten more - they were probably already twitchy about Mario and Green 'Stache missing.  

That idiot Captain Bro had led the kingdom straight to them. Bowser made a note to demote the captain whenever he had the chance. He couldn't forgive this blunder, even if the guy had built him a castle. 

But besides demoting that moron, he now had to worry about Mushroom Kingdom retaliation - which he was certain was coming. Princess Peach wouldn't just sit around and drink tea while planes were getting shot down over the Atlantic. She'd retaliate, and then the kingdom would discover Bowser's whereabouts. Before long, Vibe Island would be swarming in Mushroom Kingdom's forces, and he and Mario would literally swap places.  

How to keep that from happening? It might not be a problem if he had brute force on his side, but today's little incident had already proven that his army consisted of more morons than soldiers. 

Then, an idea came to mind. 

Bowser summoned his Goomba battle specialists and met them in the Villa's meeting room. 

"We've got a problem," he told them all. "A little...incident earlier today may have revealed our location. We've got to raise our defenses before Peach swoops in and drags us out in handcuffs." He pointed to two Goombas in succession. "You and you. Spread your forces across every inch of Vibe Island. I wanna cover all the bases here." He pointed to another Goomba. "And you. Catch this word for word. This is a brunch invitation." 

"Invitation, sire?" the Goomba asked in surprise, getting out a pad and pen. 

"That's what I said, minion. You're to ride out and invite only the strongest bosses on this rock in for lunch. We've got some mutually beneficial stuff to discuss." 

"For lunch?!" the Goomba said. "Are you sure, King Bowser? That's awfully soon..." 

"It has to be soon," Bowser snapped. "We can't waste any time. GO!" 

The Goomba specialist rushed off, and Bowser retreated to his throne room. He got out a piece of paper and a quill and began writing a speech-a speech that would hopefully bring him help and power.