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   Mason adjusted his Bowser Shell backpack as he walked towards his dad’s car. As with most school days, today was rather uneventful and boring, resulting in the 15-year old just wanting to return home. Opening the door to the car, he was greeted by his dad who was still wearing a dress shirt and tie, presumably having gotten off work a half hour before.


   His dad, Harry, smiled, “Hey there champ! How was school?”


   Mason shrugged, “It was fine, I guess.”


   Harry started the car and drove off. Usually their rides were in intense silence, but the father had been trying to connect more with his son lately. This had mostly resulted in slightly awkward conversations.


   Mason stared out the window watching the world go by. Admittedly, a part of him was hoping his father would try and talk to him again today. Although their conversations felt somewhat awkward, Mason enjoyed being around his father and wanted to have a better father/son bond.


   The silence was broken by his father, “Once we get home we could play that fighting game you like.”


   Mason looked up from away from the window, “Super Smash Bros.?” He smiled, “That would be great, though you should really pick a new character.”


   His dad playfully rolled his eyes, “There’s nothing wrong with that small turtle thing, he has a good… whatchamacallit.”


   “Moveset?”


   “Yeah! And I could say the same for you since you always play the larger turtle thing.”


   Mason let out a small laugh, “His name is Bowser, and the small one is Bowser Jr.”


   The conversation went on for the rest of the ride home. For the first time in a while, neither side felt awkward as Mason talked about Mario games while his father indulged him by asking questions. It felt great! The boy was so preoccupied that he didn’t notice the straps of his backpack dissipated, while the backpack itself hardened and attached itself to his back.


   The two arrived home and got out of the car. Mason had begun to feel the sudden gain in weight on his back, but he assumed it was just because he was sitting for twenty minutes. That didn’t stop the feeling of unease rising in his chest though… or the sudden itching he had in his arms.


   Mason absentmindedly scratched his arms, feeling a strange leathery texture overtake the skin as he and his father walked inside the house.


   “I’m going to quickly start dinner, then we can play. Is that alright?” his father asked.


   Mason continued scratching his arm, “Uhhh, yeah…”


   His father left into the kitchen leaving Mason alone in the living room. The boy sat on the sofa as the itching intensified. He finally looked down at his arms to see yellow scales spreading across them. Along with that, his nails were beginning to sharpen. He also noticed that the straps to his backpack had disappeared. Inhaling sharply, he began to head to the kitchen to tell his dad.


   Each step grew heavier as his body felt like it was getting bulkier. His clothing was beginning to feel constricting, especially his shoes. Once he got into the kitchen, his stature had grown significantly while the scales had overtaken much of his body. His hair was also beginning to take a red tinge to it.


   His father was watching the oven when he came in. Mason cleared his throat, his voice having deepened substantially. “Dad, I think something’s wrong with me..”


   Harry looked over to his son to see a part-lizard part-human hybrid. His eyes widened in concern, “Oh my god, what happened?!”


   “I-I don’t know! When we came home I was itchy, and then I saw I had grown scales, and my backpack seems fused to my back…”


   Harry inspected his son, the boy seeming a lot taller than the father now. If his backpack is fused to his back, perhaps it was catalyst to all of this…


   “Turn around, I’m going to try and pull your backpack off.”


   “I don’t think that’s gonna work…”


   “We have to try!”


   Mason turned around and Harry gripped the edges of his shell. He pulled as hard as he could, but the damned thing wouldn’t budge. After minutes of failed attempts, Harry was attacked by a sudden wave of lightheadedness and lost balance, falling onto the ground.


   Mason turned around, “Dad! Are you okay??”


   Harry’s eyes began to itch, prompting him to take his glasses off and scratch them. “I think so… the shell won’t budge though!” Speaking of shells, a pressure built in the man’s back as lumps began to form under the back of his shirt. After a couple seconds a tear could be heard as a green, spiked shell erupted from his back. The itching in his eyes subsided, and the moment he stopped scratching them, his son noticed a change in them.


   “Dad, your eyes are smaller!”


   “What?”


   “They’re like small dots.”


   Harry walked over to the conveniently placed mirror over the sink, his eyes have indeed changed to a more simplistic dot form. “What the hell…”


   Mason on the other hand was beginning to no longer bear the constriction of his shirt. Tearing it off, he watched as the scales transitioned to a light yellow as they overtook his chest, barrelling it out into a form of soft shell muscle gut. Looking back at his arms, they had both bulked with strength and muscle, with his hands finishing up their changes by having a finger dissipate into both of them. His nails had morphed into sharp claws that no longer resembled a normal nail. Finally, spiked black bands formed around his wrists and shoulders.


   “I’m becoming Bowser…” he said in his now deep, rumbling voice.


   Harry, on the other hand, was just beginning his transformation. His body shrunk in size as yellow scales had encompassed his arms, shortening them to be more stubbier. He dropped his glasses on the ground as he watched his hands become smaller, a finger disappearing in each one as his nails sharpened into claws. Metal bands formed around both wrists.


   “Wait…” the father started, noticing his voice was becoming a bit more higher pitched, “...if you’re becoming Bowser does that mean I’m becoming Bowser Jr.??”


   The larger koopa nodded with unease.


   “Oh god…”


   Mason’s stance began to change as he felt a pressure building up in the base of his spine. His already ripped jeans tore apart as the scales overtook his legs, bulking and growing them into powerful stumps.  Alongside that, a large, spiked tail formed behind him. Soon, his shoes could no longer handle the pressure, bursting apart revealing three-toed, clawed feet. The former boy felt a pressure building in his already larger head, and he already knew what was about to happen.


   Harry walked over to his son, almost tripping on his larger clothing, “Everything’s going to be alright, pa- er- kiddo!” His voice was gaining a bit of a raspy, childish tone to it.


   Mason raised an eyebrow at his father’s slipup. Were they going to fully become the characters they were changing into?


   The father continued to shrink a bit more, forcing him to pull off his dress-shirt, although the tie stubbornly stayed around his neck. The man had shrunk into the stature of a small child. The scale growth on him was moving to his legs, already forcing his stance to change as a spiked tail grew out of his rear. Judging by his arms and legs, he had grown to have a bit of a chubby build. He watched as a couple toes on his feet merged, the feet becoming three-toed. The scales then overtook his chest, the hairs on it falling off as the light yellow soft shell overtook it. Finally, the tie that had stayed had bleached itself white, widening into a bandana with a crudely drawn monster face on it.


   Mason placed his hands on the sides of his head as his skull was drastically changing. It had already widened prior to his changes, but now his face was pushing out into an oddly shaped muzzle. His gums ached as his teeth sharpened. His skull structure continued to change as green scales overtook it, horns painfully erupting out of the sides of his skull and his ears disappearing as the transformation was coming to a close. His eyebrows bushed and lightened into a red, while his once brown hair styled into a red mohawk.


   Harry, on the other hand, experienced a less painful change in his skull. A simple pressure built up in his face as it pressured out into a muzzle, his facial hair drifting off and dissipating in the process. Much of his teeth retracted while a single canine sharpened, leaving a small visible tooth within his mouth. Lighter green scales covered the rest of his face as tiny horns formed on the side of his head.  Mirroring the older koopa’s changes, his eyebrows changed from dark brown to red and bushed out slightly. Finally, a small metal band appeared as what was left of his hair was tied up in it, also changing from brown to red.


   The once young boy shook his head and growled, “I think it’s over…”


   His former father inspected his own changed body, “Yeah…”


   Silence settled as the two were trying to grasp what had just happened. Unbeknownst to them, reality too was changing as they took everything in. In mere seconds the walls and floor were slowly becoming grey castle brick.


   Harry held his arm out and smiled, “This is great!”


   Mason looked over to his son- wait no that was still his father… “What??”


   Harry began bouncing in place, quickly getting into a child-like persona, “I’ve been wanting to be closer to you for a while!”


   The older koopa looked over at the boy, “I’ve been wanting that too, Junior- er, dad.”


   Junior tilted his head, “I think I’d prefer Junior! And I can call you papa now!”


   Mason looked around the kitchen and contemplated the proposition. He watched as reality warped itself, the kitchen becoming larger and grand as the volume increased. Judging by a couple large formations it’d appear the place was becoming a throne room…


   “Bwah! I think I’d like that too, Junior!”


   And so the two began to try and settle into their new lives. Surprisingly technology was a thing that existed within this universe and somehow Mason’s Switch was left unchanged allowing the two to follow up on their Smash Bros. game.


                                        

---

   Day after day passed without a problem. And with each day that passed the two fell further into their roles as Bowser and Bowser Junior.


   Mason had taken a little longer to adopt the name Bowser as his name, but once he did it kicked off a sort of domino effect. Parenting knowledge was quick to fill the former kid's brain as he took the role of being a father.


   His former humanity and boyhood sunk beneath the knowledge needed to become the fearsome ruler of the Koopa Kingdom. When he wasn't being a loving father he was doing the things needed to keep the kingdom afloat. And he had rather quickly found himself setting up plans to defeat that pest that was Mario. Although, weirdly enough, his hatred of the plumber wasn't as great as the games seemed to portray it.


   Junior on the other hand was taking his new youth with immeasurable joy! His mind seemed to have regressed rather drastically as he took greater enjoyment in video games and playing around than he did as an adult. And the perks of being the son of a royal was that he didn't even need to go to school! ...or atleast a public one. Kamek seemed to be the closest thing to a teacher the young koopa had.


   He also seemed to have gained a spoiled side and a chaotic side with both of which frequently going hand in hand. He delighted in bossing around the minions to do whatever menial task the prince desired. And he got large amounts of amusement from exploiting both his cuteness and him being Bowser's son. Especially when he got to use it on his papa!


   Days then turned into months as both of their human memories rapidly got buried into their new roles. Neither cared, though. The euphoria of experiencing the world of Mario was overpowering. And the fact that two bonded so much now made everything better! Bowser always would have time for Junior. And sometimes that time would involve the two enacting various evil plans that usually boiled down to doing something to beat Mario. It never went well for either of the father and son duo but they took defeat with pride. Junior tended to equate them to those villains in the cartoons he watched. Bowser could only vaguely recall some of them from his own childhood.


   When they weren't doing (rather unimpressive) schemes they would frequently find themselves hanging out with their 'mortal enemies'. Although hanging out usually involved high speed go-karting racing, in which Bowser now knew how being punted with a Blue Shell felt in reality and it was definitely more disorientating than the games made it out to be. And golfing was usually just as chaotic. The only thing that seemed remotely normal was the universe's equivalent to Mario Party which was just… a very complex board game. The actual video game was somehow better than that. And that's ignoring how Bowser's claws were always larger than the pieces! Junior laughing at his reactions always made his heart warm-up, though…


   The duo's roles may have reversed from their previous lives. However, both can safely say they enjoyed their new lives more. A wacky reality that they can find home. Enemies that doubled as great friends. And a happy life as a new father and son.


   It was more than everything the two could've ever asked for.


   It was perfect.