Chapter 3: The Enemy of My Enemy... You Get the Idea.

"I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones."

-Oscar Wilde

Logan, that night, had been taken to a guest room on the ground floor of the castle, so that no unfortunate Toads would be flattened in a vain attempt to push our hero up the stairs.

Mortimer stayed up in the night to study spells and such, much to the dismay of his master, Logan. "Boy, you really should get some sleep." Logan mumbled as he shut his eyes. "I'm used to it. It's been a long day your Tiredness, you need the sleep more than I do."

After finally realizing that sleeping on his shell wouldn't work, he got into bed on his stomach, and went to sleep, despite tossing and turning at certains points throughout the evening.

At one point, though, Logan began having a nightmare, in which he sat atop the ruins of Bowser's Castle, grinning as the landscape before him burned brightly. In his nightmare, Logan looked almost as evil, if nor more-so, than the monster he was trying to bring down.

He awoke the next morning in a sweat, and washed off soon after. He then attended the meeting, and Toadsworth opened the discussion as such:

"50 Toads. All the supplies you'll need. Take it or leave it."

Logan had but one small problem.

The Koopa barked at the elderly Toad sitting across the table from his with tongues of fire coming off his breath. "FIFTY TOADS!? ARE YOU SERIOUS YOU LOONY OLD MAN!? IF I EVER HOPE TO TAKE ON BOWSER WITH AN ARMY FIFTY TOADS ARE NOT GOING TO GET THE JOB DONE!"

"I SAY YOU SCALY MONGROL, FIFTY TOADS ARE ALL YOU'RE GOING TO GET! MASTERS MARIO AND LUIGI CAN NEVER FULLY VANQUISH THE TYRANT, WHY SHOULD YOU BE ABLE TO!?"

"MAYBE BECAUSE I CAN LIFT MORE THAN A TON? MAYBE BECAUSE I WEIGHT ABOUT 800 LBS? MY SHELL IS VIRTUALLY INDESTRUTIBLE YOU KNOW, PROBABLY LIKE YOUR SKU-"

"ENOUGH!" Princess Peach shouted, banging her gavel against the table to silence the two quarreling sides of the argument.

"Logan, we'll supply you with ANYTHING you need for your endeavors, but we can only give you fifty men in case Bowser catches onto our actions. If we even so much as drop a HINT the Mushroom Kingdom is involved, you could be killed."

"I'm willing to go to the ends of the universe if that's what it takes to beat Bowser." Logan said, leaning back in his seat.

"Mario and Luigi will also join you on your adventure. I hope you don't mind, do you, boys?" The Princess ask, to which both plumbers nodded, although Luigi's was a bit half-hearted.

"Well, if I got the Mario Bros. on my side, I can't possibly lose." Logan said with a bit of a light-hearted laugh.

"I'm afraid not. Since our last battle against Bowser, his forces have grown to a copious amount, almost to the point where even one battle could do us in if the odds were tipped out of our favor. This is why we're going to give you a little more help." Princess Peach pressed a button on the table, which caused the table to flip and reveal a map, with various locatiosn marked off.

"Your first stop is Yoshi's Island. You'll have to prove to the Yoshis you're not hostile, mainly due to your... appearance." The monarch commented, not trying to offend her newest ally.

"No offense taken, Princess." Logan said, and got up out of his seat. "I take it you have a boat that can take us here? Or are we using air travel?"

"Actually, we have arranged for you to get their in a stealthy way." Toadsworth said, tapping against his cane.

"...Stealth boat? I like it." Logan, scratching his Koopa-like facial hair.

"Not exactly."

*Two hours later*

Logan was furious as he, the fifty toads, Mario, Luigi, and Mortimer sat in the mouth of the Whale that enjoyed hanging around the waters of Toad Town Harbour. "I don't believe it! I mean sure, this gets us there, but if this guy breathes out his mouth, we're all screwed!" he exclaimed.

"Relax-a, Logan! Whale travel is the best kind of sea-travel!" Mario said, leaning up against one of the ribs that came down into the whale's stomach. "Plus, this guy is-a reliable. There are some-a sea captain who would've overcharged us."

"You're right, I guess..." the Koopa said, and suddenly, a voice boomed from the outside, or at least what it sounded like.

"LAND HO! YOSHI'S ISLAND AT TWELVE O'CLOCK!" The whale bellowed, and before long, the small army had set up an outpost on the beach. Logan was sleeping, when all of a sudden, a "pop" noise was heard more than a couple feet away, and when he looked up, a Toad had been knocked unconscious. "BATTLE STATIONS!" the Koopa shouted, rallying his troops into position.

Logan, Mario, Morty, and Luigi were stationed inside the whale's mouth, while the Toads were stationed by some nearby rocks for cover, and the injured Toad was being tended to by Morty. "Minor trauma... He should be fine."

"What did it?" Logan asked, scratching his small goatee.

"...An egg, by the shells that were recovered from where it happend. I suspect-" Mortimer began to say, but suddenly the whale jettisoned the quartet out of its mouth, and infront of a group of Yoshis. The Toads were fighting for their lives against the Dinosaurs, but were slowly losing.

"Tell your men to stand down, Koopa." A larger black Yoshi wearing a black feather in his headband said, a stern look on his face.

Logan got up and raised his hands. "ALL MEN STAND DOWN, I REPEAT, STAND DOWN!" He said, and he growled. "We come asking for assisstance... We mean no harm."

"Hah, surely you find me ignorant, Bowser." The Yoshi's leader said, slightly laughing at his attempts to tell him that he wasn't really the King of Koopas. "Next thing you know, you'll tell me your Magikoopa friend here hasn't brainwashed Mario and Luigi, along with all these Toads."

"...I didn't. My name is Logan. Bowser turned me into a Koopa after he came to my world..." The Koopa tried to argue, putting his hands to his face.

"Nonsense, Bowser will never figure out a way to do such things!" The leader shouted, with all of the other Yoshis backing him up by cheering.

"Really? Because I led a normal life, until Bowser came and just about SCREWED THAT ALL UP!" He shouted back, his other three companions at his side. "I USED TO HAVE A NORMAL HUMAN LIFE, UNTIL THAT MONSTER SCREWED IT UP!" Now, Logan had fire coming off of his breath.

"We shall see where your true intentions lie then if you are so adamant that you are not a minion under the dark one. Come, and we shall test your valor." The leader of the Yoshis said, and walked off with his tribe. Logan gave a sign for the Toads to stay on the beach and tend to their wounded, while Mario, Luigi, and Mortimer followed Logan into the jungle of Yoshi's Island.

After a few minutes of traveling, they came to a clearing in which the Yoshis had apparently set up a series of trials for Logan and his companions.

In the clearing, a larger green Yoshi wearing a white feather in his band, and he waved over the group. Logan kneeled as a sign of respect, while everyone else did the same.

The true Tribal leader listened to the words of the Black Yoshi, who told him what had transpired on the beach.

"My child tells me that ye are Bowser.. Yet your hair is not red, you bear a goatee, and you have the heroes Mario and Luigi with you. My son also claims they are hypnotized. But I know well that Bowser's minions lack that skill." The Leader said with a smile, which left the Black Yoshi feeling rather stupid.

"Forgive my son's ignorance, Koopa. I wish to your name and how I can repay you."

"My name is Logan. I wish only that you lend me a small portion of the island's Yoshi's who can battle against Bowser's tyranny."

*END OF CHAPTER*