Chapter 6, Forest of the Dead
"In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself in a dark wood where the straight way was lost."- Dante Allegheri, The Divine Comedy
Logan and his troops soon found themselves within the blackened branches of the Forever Forest, along with the possibilty of enemy attack at nearly any turn. The Koopa Commander himself was expecting a Boo ambush at any point, but after a couple of minutes of simply marching forward, Mortimer came to a conclusion: "Your Confusedness, we're simply going in the same path over and over again!"
Unfortunately, the Magikoopa-in-training was right. Logan was leading his forces through the thick black of the night without a clue as to where his hands were in relation to his face. A few whisps of fire lit his face occasionally. and Mortimer had made torches for the Toads to lead the rest of the small army. The rest of the forest was pitch black, with the exception of a few beady red eyes that would pierce the darkness. As for noise, the footsteps of the entire group could be heard with the crunch of every try twig.
"...There has to be a way to the mansion. We can't set up camp in here, considering-" He said, and suddenly, something bashed itself against the shell of the mighty Logan. He looked on the ground, and a something quickly shot a look back at him.
"MWEE HEE HEE, WE'LL SUCK OUT YOUR SOUUUUUUULSSSSSSSSS!" A high, shirll voice said from the night. Suddenly, a swarm of Green Fuzzies jumped from the branches and began to try and leech off of Koopa and his forces. The Yoshis simply ate the bloodsuckers, but the Toads had a hard time fending them off with torches and spears.
Mortimer, Mario, Luigi and Noshi had no problems, however Lgoan was getting aggervated. They kept biting the Koopa until he ducked into his shell and began to spin rapidly, fast enough to the point where an actual whirring noise could be heard, and the Fuzzies that would try to drop down on the spinning turtle were flung in various directions. Of course, the fun wasn't over just yet.
After Logan was done spinning, he re-emerged from his shell, and quickly noticed that his entire troop, save for Mortimer and Luigi, was gone. "...Anyone mind explaining what the hell just happened here?" He said in a panicky tone. Luigi sighed. "The Boos took-a mah brother and Noshi! We have to go find 'em!" Logan facepalmed himself, and shouted, "SCREW IT, WE'RE DOING THIS MY WAY!" He said, and spewed out flames at the trees ahead, which cut a quick path to the mansion which the army was searching for this whole time. However, before Luigi could even take a step forward, a new, undead tree sprung up in its place, almost like magic.
"...I give up, we have to do it... their way." He muttered, and began trudging along, Mortimer and Luigi quickly following. They had no idea what was in store, or what was about to happen, but they knew it was going to be a long day before they found their way around this haunted forest.
A couple of hours later, Logan had led them to a clearing of sorts... However, it wasn't the kind of clearing they were hoping for. It was more like a rest area before the boss, a calm before the proverbial storm... Like something bad was about to happen. Of course, the collosal commander marched boldly ahead, in what appeared to be... an arena. Once Mortimer and Luigi stepped in next to him, a gate shut behind them, and the "cage" they were in suddenly shot into the air! They appeared in the ""Good-Two Shoe" corner, while their opponent was in the "Awesome Guy" corner. Before any of the Koopa Army could speak up, their allies were behind held in cages below them, and a ghastly wail filled the air:
"LET'S GET READY TO RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMBLE! IN THIS CORNER, WEIGHING IN AT A MEASLY 800 OR SO POUNDS, THE SCAREDY CAT LOGAN!" It was a Boo's voice, but it wasn't easily discerned amongst the cackling around them. In the other corner appeared... A gigantic boo, with ghastly light blue eyes. "IN THIS CORNER, WEIGHING IN AT AN AWESOME... WHATEVER WEIGHT HE WANTS TO BE, THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE MIGHT BOOLUSSUS!" The announcer said before disappearing. Luigi and Mortimer grew quiet, and a supernatural boxing match began.
To start off the event, Boolussus threw a haymaker into Logan's jaw, which he met with a quick couple of jabs into his spectral midsection. The first round was a simple quick trading of blows, and didn't seem to stop until Logan was forced onto one knee. After a couple of seconds, he regained his composure, and the fight took on a new life. Before Logan could even get close, Boolussus divided himself into 10 Boos, each of which began circling around the Koopa, and were closing in fast. Logan got crafty, and popped into his shell himself, and began spewing fire. Not only this, he began spinning his shell around, which created a massive, fiery vortex, which sent the Boos running back into their original form. Now that they were Boolussus again, play-time was over.
The boxing event began again, with the second round looking bad for Logan. The fiery vortex had left him dizzy and confused a bit, and Boolussus hit the Koopa with a supernatural haymaker that left him hanging onto the edge of the cage they were in to regain his balance. He fell onto his stomach, and a countdown began. "10... 9... 8..."
Logan began to get up as fast as he could, and got up before they said 7. He decided to end this, and used the strength he gained from the exiled Koopa on Yoshi's Island. He blasted Boolussus out of the cage and deep, deep into the forest.
"...I guess this means our winner is... LOGAN THE KOOPA! CONGRATS TURTLE BOY, YOU EARNED IT!" He said, and the cages disappeared, and the three found themself on the forest floor again. A straight path to what appearned to be a mansion was ahead, and a ghostly butler appeared behind the group. "Boo." He said, and Logan almost threw a punch before Luigi realized who it was. "...You know, Master Logan, throwing punches at people trying to help you isn't the safest and most surefire way to earn their trust."
The Butler boo calmly introduced himself. "Lady Bow wishes to speak with the lot of you in Gusty Gulch.. Something about a group of ruffians taking over the mansion. I say though, I've been out shopping all day, so I simply left the care of the mansion to my master... But alas, she has proven yet again herself unable to run the wretched place by herself." He went on, before Logan chimed in.
"...And how can we help?" Logan said, crossing his arms and waiting for a reply.
"Well, you can talk to Ms. Bow at Gusty Gulch, get some Boos together, AND GET BACK THE MANSION!" He said, and disappeared. "Oh, and it's guarded heavily, and your friends are inside. Tah-tah!" He said, and disappeared. "Come on, I see another clearing.." Luigi said, leading the trio onward. "Hopefully there'll-a be no more boxing matches."
-END OF CHAPTER-
