Bowser and the Koopalings: An Origin Story (UNDER HEAVY REWRITES)

One

Bowser sat up in his bed, back cracking randomly as he moved from
his stiff "sleeping" position.

Yeah, sleeping in quotes is right, he thought. His dreams, or nightmares, rather, had kept him up again. It had all started after his plans for taking over the Mushroom throne were thwarted by...some guy. Some random Joe off the street. Of course that bothered him for a while, but the Great and Terrible King of the Koopas doesn't stay defeated for long. Something else was bothering him, but he couldn't put his claw on it...

His dreams were too vague and symbolic for any straight answers, so all the King could do was toss and turn all night as he suffered through the nightmares.

Last night's had been particularly terrifying, he recalled. Bowser had been standing in a place that was so dark, walking felt like moving through molasses. He tried to feel around to gauge his surroundings, but his arms felt... so... heavy...

He tried igniting his fire breath for a light source, but the spark in his throat simply wouldn't catch. Bowser was left hahhhhing in the void helplessly attempting to produce a flame, horrified by the fact that he couldn't activate his own fire breath.

Last, he resorted to asking for help, the last thing he would want to do in a normal situation, which this one obviously wasn't. It eventually escalated into yelling for help. He bellowed and howled, not even bothering to say the word help anymore after a while. But it was no use. The void simply sucked up the sound. Bowser was disturbed. He began to feel a knot in his gut. There was no way out. He felt like he was drowning in the darkness...like he was sinking further...

and further...

and further...

...Until he woke up. In a pool of his own sweat. Occasionally, he'd wake up to see something charred and smoking in his room, a high, whining noise indicating that he'd apparently sleep-torched something.

Bowser had been having these dreams for two straight weeks since his defeat, each one more and more terrifying.

Hah, I wonder what kind of dreams that Mario guy and his brother are having right now. Nightmares, hopefully, the King wished.

He had to find the meaning of these dreams. He had to. He could suffer them no longer.

But first, he had to get out of bed. But the smoking hole in the floor was making that difficult.