Will, had left for the dark lands with the toad brigade and just upon arrival they received a message that all but Will and the purple toad (ochre) and upon questioning this they got nothing but, "there has been an accident." Ochre and will shrugged this of as they knew that they would have been held behind by the others who were less than component at stealth. Anyway, as they were going through the dark lands they stuck to the shadows of alleys and trees which was harder than it sounded due to the lava pools everywhere that meant that there were little shadow aswell as movement as they could hardly move through lava. Moving through the dark lands they noticed lots of koopa troopas but didn't stop to talk about it as not to expose there possision. They travelled at night due to the increased darkness and slept during the day so they basically became nocturnal. As the sun rose, will noticed a small cave and pointed to it making sure that the coast was clear and he got a nod from Ochra so they both kept low and dashed to the cave. To their superise, the cave was infested with piranha plants, as Ochra went to draw his dagger will tapped him on the shoulder shaking his head. Soon after will began to do hand movements which he developed for different fire magic, this one created snakes of fire which crawled up the piranha plants stalk essentially burning and strangling them in complete silence reducing them to dust. After setting up camp, will heat blasted the area they were in to clean it and any metallic substances in the rock were heated and insulated to keep the cave dimly lit and warm as they went deep in beyond the sun lights reach as not to risk detection. Now they knew they could talk they discussed there discoveries during the day,"did you see the amount of koopa troopas around the border", "yeah and they seemed well equipped" as will responded to Ochras observation. Will continued, "did you see the ships bowser had over the country, they seemed different somehow." Ochras face went from calm to scared as he saw a pair of eyes just over Wills shoulder, he nodded his head at will as if to warn him; will hesitated before reacting to tis by setting one of his hands on fire and punching the space behind him only to see the eyes to move in front of him and he turned ready to fight... "You could have killed me," he had turned to see Astraeus and smiled,"you would be undetectable if it wasn't for your shiny blue eyes." The star bunnies face seemed angry but it was hard to tell due to its cute looks until it grinned and put on a pair of blacked out sun glasses. "When did you get those" will asked him with a quizicle tone in his voice. I took them of a month mole I knocked out on the way down. Ochra was sat there very impressed until,"wait a secon', why would a mole need sunglasses they live underground and can't see." Astraeus looked back "and how the hell would I know that, do I look like a mole to you." "Would you two shut up we have to sleep" will murmured as he rolled over. As the sun set, as if by clock work, Will, Ochra and Astraeus got up and left, as they ran through what appeared to be a vibrant forest and was now a charred black wasteland that carried ash on the wind. Upon leaving the forest they saw a large structure in the distance but were unable to make out what it was until, BOOM. A nearby volcano which the dark lands were riddled with erupted sending volcanic bombs in the air which lit the night sky showing a castle covered in spikes and on the front was a carved portrayal of bowsers head with the eyes and mouth lit. Ochra looked at Will to grab his attention and with a tilt of his head they both bolted into a mountain pass which seemed to lead to the castle. As they ran, Astraeus stayed ahead as look-out as his dark fur, speed and size made him harder to detect, they were stopped by what appeared to be a small division of a larger army due to there formation; Will and orca decided to break their silence in order to decide on what to do, after nodding to each other in agreement Will spoke, "we should sneak past," Ochra contemplated this for a second before shaking his head,"there are too many moving around it will be to difficult." After hearing this will almost seemed sad until a small smirk appeared on his face,"what if I distract them," Ochra sighed," and just how are you planning on doing that;" with a few hand movements, will made a fire in the shape of a man and with a few more it took the shape of his father and when will snapped his fingers it ran out and started fighting. Whilst the koopa troopas attention was diverted, will quickly grabbed ocrhra and ran onto a wooden bridge which Astraeus had been waiting on as those koopa so weren't vigilant enough to see him at night. As they approached the castle they began to truly comprehend the size of the colossal structure and just how well guarded it was. As they plotted on how to get into the castle they came up short not being able to find a entrance other than the main gate which was connected to the land by a draw bridge over a moat of lava and the worst part was that the drawbridge was only open during the day. "Your lordship" two shy guys walked towards the shadowy figure in a large room stopping at a safe distance. A pair of large red eyes opened and two nearby torches lit to reveal the koopa king who was severely scarred on the right side of his face. "What do you want" he growled the two shy guys shuddered at the sound of his voice,"we have spotted two people on the other side of the moat, we don't know what they're doing there but, well, what should we do." Bowser had a look of shock on his face before he mumbled under his breath,"they got further than I thought."
"Sir" the shy guys looked up at bowser waiting for a response, "send the bullet bills" bowser responded. Astraeus was hovering by the window in his star child form prepared to dash for the others only to be stopped by the shatter of glass and a hand grabbing him, "you think you could get away that easy, bwahahaha" growled a grinding voice before Astraeus blacked out. will had been waiting for hours,"I am worried about Astraeus, he may be fast but he doesn't have a change to defend himself, what if he has been caught... Or worse." Ochra hadn't heard a word as he was in deep thought imagining the sub-area under the surface as he knocked on the ground listening for a hollow sound, Klink,Klink. Ochra blew away the dirt to find the entrance to a sewer,"see I knew there would be a sewage pipe" he looked up to see Wills worried face and he released a sigh,"FOCUS, even if they did catch him which I highly doubt he wouldn't fight so they wouldn't have a reason to kill him but they can keep him alive to use him as leverage and if we get caught who's gonna help him." Wills eyes widened and he looked up to see Ochra prying the sewer open,"thanks" he muttered, beep, beep, beep, target sighted. Both will and Ochra looked up to see three bullet bills flying dead on target towards them so will and Ochra jumped in the sewer and heard the bullet bills exploding above there heads as all three tried to fly into the sewer at the same time. After about two hours of sewer crawling in the dimly lit tunnel, they passed the occasional koopa troopa which they dispatched quickly and quietly, they came out of a small sewer grate on the main island which was located right in the middle of some barracks filled with sleeping koopas. The two slowly and cautiously crawled out the grate re-placing the slab and leaving the room, after they got out of the barracks Will melted the lock with a fire ball so there would be less trouble later if they had to make a quick and loud escape. As they infiltrated the castle they found themselves in a maze of corridors and Ochra whispered to Will, "it is just one thing after another isn't it", as will laughed they heard something approaching from down the corridor, roof roof, a chain chomp flew past them as fast as a train them as they tucked themselves into a supply closet until it was out of sight. And they continued until they came to a corridor that was much bigger than the rest and had a red carpeted rather large width wise stair case going up to a very large door and there was a narrow stair case which was much darker than the other and was made of stone and appeared to spiral down. Will examined the two stair cases and decided that the one that lead up was to the throne room and the other must have been the dungeon. Will looked at Ochra, "well they've either put him in the dungeon or in the throne room, which one should we take." After a quick thought, Ochra took out a small note pad and drew this corridor on what appeared a map he had created on the way through and after looking over it a few times he looked back up at Will and said in a sort of stuck up tone that showed he had already decided," we should split up, you go into the dungeon your fire will help you see in the corridors but please put on this camera, I plan on updating the map based on what you see." Will took the camera before looking at Ochra as he realised, "you are going to the throne room," Ochra looked up at him and nodded, well my father would never forgive me if I handed the prince to bowser on a silver platter." Will seemed insulte,"but..." Ochra interrupted, "let's go before he darted up the red staircase to which Will shrugged and turned towards the stone staircase heating his palladium gauntlets to a faint glow to light his way. Ochra had arrived at the top of the staircase which seemed to take forever to get to the top as it seemed so long and stood in front of him was a gargantuan door which was padded a dark camo green with a spiked rim and spikes on the door. As he stood there questioning how he would open the humongous door, he took a step forward and it opened its self, his reaction to this was to hide in the edge of the door frame. As he glanced into the room, it was completely pitched and he smirked,"and I thought will needed light." As he walked into the room nothing seemed astray until he saw a cage hanging from the ceiling with Astraeus in it. He pulled out a rope and threw it upto the cage and climbed up. He whispered to Astraeus to check his condition,"are you ok, I am getting you out of here," the star child regained conscious and nodded as Ochra took out a set of lock pics and started to unlock the cage, click, the door swung open and Astraeus and Ochra defended to the ground before the two ginormous doors slammed, THUD, and from behind the door appeared two rather large figures, a witch clad in purple and wore thick glasses and purple lipstick and carried a wand which was hollow ended so there was obviously supposed to be something in there. From behind the other door walked a giant turtle like creature with yellow scaly skin and a white snout and a tuft of red hair and a pair of red eye brows and a pair of red horns, he has a large green shell covered in spines, clawed on his hands and feet and spiky cuffs on his biceps, triceps and neck, this was bowser. They both approached Ochra and Astraeus and grabbed them. Will was walking through the dungeon when he heard a echo through the corridors which he had all but explored the dungeon that came from the entrance but as he turned round he was greeted by hoardes of boos that had been following him through the dungeon. Startled by this sight, he thought back to the various lessons Rosalina taught him and ,lightbulb, he remembered a lesson luigi taught about ghost hunting about different types and how to catch them, he remembered a specific sentence, "if it isn't a boo blind it to expose its heart but if it is a boo try to contain it in a solid container." With this will began looking for a container until he saw a cell which had Mario written besides it and thought " if bowsers going to create a secure room it will be to hold my father." With that thought he began to spin around as fast as he could while conjuring flames, the vortex had suction as it is but with the fire that was sucking up oxygen the boos got pulled towards him and when they were all near him he finished his spin with a sweep to the right to throw the boos into the cell which he slammed shut in order to prevent them escaping.
After he had dispatched the boos he continued to run towards the sound with no further interruptions, bowser obviously underestimated him, he snarled at the thought of bowser not seeing him as a worthy opponent. When he reached the hallway the door Ochra had went through was closed and instantly suspicious so he ran up and the door opened automatically just as before. As he entered he saw bowser and kamila, the once empty wand kamila wielded now contained Astraeus and bowser was trying to catch Ochra but his lack of mobility rendered it futile as Ochra landed strike after strike with what appeared to be a stick of bamboo but the hardly made bowser flinch so upon seeing will Ochra went for the gold by sliding under bowser smacking him on the back of bot his legs which made him stumble and Ochra finished by hitting bowser on the back knocking him to the ground. After rendering bowser immobile he threw the note pad at will and threw the stick of bamboo that he was fighting with at kamilas wrist making her yelp in pain and throw the wand out of shock which cracked on the ground next to will essentially cracking and freeing Astraeus. Will was stood their with a note pad and Astraeus at his feet and he heard Ochras voice shout in terror, "RUN!" Will watched for a moment as Ochra was backed against the wall against the recovered kamila and bowser before he grabbed the note pad and Astraeus and ran.