Mario's Christmas Carol chapter 5

For a few minutes, Bowser blindly wandered through the fog. It then cleared up as he started coughing a bit before grabbing something to hold himself up. However, the king koopa yelped a bit and backed away when he realized it was a tombstone.

"Wha-? Where di-?"

Upon turning around, Bowser gasped in fear before taking two steps backward. He felt his heart pounding from fear so hard in his chest, it was almost like it would jump right out of his chest if it wanted to. Finally finding the courage to talk, the dragon-like monster finally spoke with a shaky voice.

"Wh- Who are you?"

Standing right next to him was a large figure about his size. Whoever it was, the being was clad in a long blood red coat with six brass buttons, gray gloves and black boots. Around its neck was a long blue scarf while a hood covered his head. The only thing that Bowser could make out of the figure's face shadowed by its hood were a pair of sinister-looking eyes. It clutched a smoking pipe in its right hand.

After he coughed from a puff of smoke blown by the figure, Bowser asked him nervously, "Are... are you the Ghost of Christmas Future?" The figure replied with a slow and simple nod.

Before the Ghost of Christmas Future smoked another puff of his pipe, Bowser spoke up.

"Please. There's one thing I need to know..." The koopa begged him, "... What's going to happen to Mario's kid, Timmy?"

Again, the Spirit said nothing, but slowly pointed off into the distance. Bowser followed his gesture and saw none other than Mario, Peach and their kids and pets by a tombstone under a tree. However, he noticed that Timmy was not with them and Mario was holding a familiar crutch. The family looked devastated as they stood before the tombstone.

Tearfully, Nani scooped up a sobbing Lilo and carried her off as Peach followed soon after as she led Peter, Marc, Stitch and Angel away to give Mario a moment alone. The red-clad employee of Bowser's looked to his family members before looking back as he held onto the crutch as if it were the last thing keeping him together. Tears ran down his cheeks before propping the crutch against the tombstone before he walked away, quietly sobbing.

Seeing his former enemy in such pain would normally fill Bowser with sadistic glee. However, he had none at the moment. Instead, all the king koopa could feel was the breaking of his own heart for Mario's sake. Even he felt tears of his own fall from his red eyes as he watched the heartbreaking scene.

"No... No!" Bowser cried in horror on witnessing the whole scene. He turned to the Spirit as he said sadly, "Spirit, I never wanted this to happen! Please tell me these events haven't happened and there's still time to change them!"

Just then, cruel laughter was heard, getting Bowser's attention and snapping him out of his grief. He saw three mean-looking Pokemon filling an open grave in the distance, laughing cruelly as they focused on their task. The first was a dark purple bipedal-looking ghost with a round body, pointy ears, red eyes and multiple spikes on its back. His most noticeable feature was the Cheshire Cat-like smile on his face. The second Pokemon was a violet snake with yellow eyes that matched his underbelly, stripe and rattle in color. The last one, like the first, was bipedal but humanoid and resembled a yoga practitioner. She had a gray body with three bulb-like extensions on her red headpiece. She also had red rounded lips and wore puffy, red pants that had a large yellow spot on each knee and yellow bands next to the hips.

This mean-looking trio was known by one particular title. Team Meanies, and their names individually were Shade the Gengar, Fang the Ekans and Violet the Medicham. As they filled up the grave, Fang spoke up.

"I've never seen a funeral like this one!" Fang remarked with a grin.

"Yeah. No mourners, no friends or family to say goodbye." Violet chimed in.

"You'd think his only nephew would stop by to say their farewells." Shade remarked, his sinister and everlasting grin practically plastered onto his face, "Then again, he probably would have if the two didn't have that fight."

His snake-like friend looked to the Gengar. "Oh, yeah. What did they fight about again that caused his nephew to never talk to him again?"

"I dunno. Somethin' about badmouthing his wife, Starlight Twinkle or something." Shade replied, shrugging as he looked like he didn't really care, "All I know is that he got so mad at his uncle that he said that when he died, he'd have nothing and nobody."

Hearing what Shade said, Bowser was starting to get a feeling who the open grave belonged to. Even the name he mentioned sounded a bit similar to someone else's name he knew beforehand. Looking back to the trio, the king koopa noticed Violet checking a pocket watch she was holding.

"Oh, well. Whaddya say we take a quick lunch break before filling the rest in." The gray and red Pokemon suggested.

Fang rubbed his growling stomach. "Yeah. I haven't eaten since breakfast."

"Yeah, not like he's goin' anywhere anyways!" Shade remarked with a cruel grin as he walked off with his companions following.

With that, the trio laughed cruelly as they left. As soon as the three Pokemon were gone, Bowser slowly walked over to the open grave with the Ghost of Christmas Future following close. As he approached it, the dragon-like monster peered into the open hole.

"... Okay, I think I have an idea who's in there, but..." Bowser spoke to the spirit, "Whose lonely grave is this?"

Again, the Spirit said nothing in reply. He just struck a match against the front of the tombstone, lighting the match's flame to literally shed light on the subject. When he heard the sound of a match being struck, Bowser turned to see the now illuminated words that were carved on the tombstone. Just as he did, however, the king koopa gasped in horror at the words he saw.

'R.I.P. Bowser Koopa'

"NO! That's... It's...!" Bowser stuttered in fear.

The Spirit then brought the lit match to its pipe and lit the tobacco inside. As it did, the figure's hood fell back to reveal their face. He was a man with white hair, a red and round nose and he word a gray hat with a yellow feather in it. Smoking his pipe, the spirit, known by many as the Coachman, gave off a grin more sinister than Shade's as he finally spoke.

"Why, yours, Bowser!" The Coachman said to the frightened koopa king in a cockney accent, and then, he shouted evilly as he smacked the koopa king, making him fall into the grave, "The richest bloke in the cemetery!!!"

Bowser yelled out as he fell down into the hole. Luckily, for him, he grabbed a root that stuck out of the wall in the hole. Dangling from his only saving grace, the turtle-like beast looked up to see the Coachman laughing wickedly as he leaned on the tombstone.

"Please, Spirit!" Bowser pleaded fearfully as he held on for dear life.

Just then, he felt heat against the bottom of his scaly feet. Fearfully, Bowser looked down to see the casket at the bottom of the hole slowly opening up before the lid was thrown open. Emerging from the open casket was smoke, fire and the smell of brimstone.

"NO, NO! NO! NO!" Bowser cried fearfully before he started trying desperately to climb out for safety as the fire roared from the casket.

As he looked up from his spot, the red-haired dragon saw something that scared him senseless. The more the Coachman laughed on, the more sinister and demonic he and his smile became as he was shrouded in smoke. What was worse was that the root he was holding onto was starting to break from its foundation.

"Spirit, please!" He begged as he struggled.

The Coachman kept on laughing so much, his face started to change. As his skin was turned red, his smile stretched from ear to ear, his green eyes grew wider, and his white hair and ears went up to a point like devil horns. Seeing this terrifying face scared Bowser out of his wits.

"Please! I'll change!" He begged, voice filled with terror as the root began breaking even more.

SNAP!!! In an instant, the root Bowser was climbing onto was no longer holding him up, making him fall down to the fiery casket below.

"I'LL CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGE!!!!!!!!!"

And then, everything went black...