A Nutcracker and the Beast

Chapter 28: The Rat King New Plan

"Let us go!" Yelled some Koopas as they shook the bars on their cage. One minute, they were going home to rest before their next shift, and the next, they were being dragged away by ghosts. They didn't get an answer from the Boos or the ghosts; they just threw them in a cage and left there, only coming to bring them food. They couldn't tell what time it was or how many days had passed, but they wanted out now.

"What are we going to do?" asks one Koopa in a red shell, looking to see if he can spot a different way out.

"Nothing. It must be days now, and we still haven't gotten out of here. All we can do now is wait." said a blue shell Koopa as she sat on the floor.

"How can you be so calm about this?! My wife and son must be worried sick about me! I have to get out of here!" said the green shell, shaking the bars again even though he knew that wouldn't work.

"Well too bad! You don't think that my papa isn't worried sick about me either?" said the blue shell Koopa, "We just need to wait till the next set of Boos to come to get out of here."

"Yeah right, that could take-" the red shell started but stopped when he heard a door echo open. The ghosts don't use the door in this place from what they got from being here, so how could they have just opened it? They heard no footsteps but heard talking and giggles, meaning a ghost had just come down to speak to them. They wonder who could have come to see them this time. When the ghost stopped in front of their cell, they didn't expect a Boo.

"Ah," King Boo said, looking at the three Koopas as the Clockwork Soldiers stood behind him.

"What do you want from us?" Ask the Red Shell Koopa. King Boo's smile just grew as he watched them get more naves.

"Nothing much, All I need is your body," King Boo explained, but the Koopas didn't know what he meant by that.

"W-what do you mean by that?" One of them asked.

"When I say, I need your body. I mean, I'm going to possess you and use your body as puppets." King Boo said as the Clockwork Soldiers started to float toward the Green Shell Koopa.

"As if we'll let you do that!" Said a Blue Shell Koopa, standing in between the Soldiers and her fellow Koopa. King Boo laughed at her foolish bravery.

"Hahaha! I wasn't asking, I was warning you." King Boo said, getting his crown to glow. He started to float the Blue and Red shell Koopas in the air before slamming them against the back wall and keeping them there. The green shell Koopa tried to run and help, but the soldiers grabbed him and pinned him to the ground. He struggled, not noticing that King Boo was pulling out a bottle filled with a dark purple liquid, almost black and thick as sludge. The Green Clockwork Soldier grabbed the Koopa's mouth and focused it open, Letting King Boo float over the poor Koopa as he started to empty the bottle. "It shouldn't hurt so much."

The Koopa gags as the liquid burns his throat, not letting him breathe properly as he tears up from his pain and fear. The sludge burned his body and sent slight, sharp, needle-like pain from his throat to his toes. Once all the sludge was in his body, they shut his mouth to keep him from coughing it up. His friends tried to escape the magic that kept them pinned, but it was too late. They started to hear the muffled screams as his body began shaking violently like he was having a seizure. All of a sudden, he just stopped. He was lifeless on the floor, the two soldiers letting him go but the green one. The green one went into his mouth.

The next moment, his body was making a cracking sound as if his bones were being broken, slowly getting up as if it were a broken puppet on strings. His eyes were pure white, as if he had rolled his eyes behind his head. King Boo claps as he watches the Clockwork soldier move the Koopa's body as if it was its own. With a few falls here and an undesirable sound that came from its mouth as it tried to figure out his vocal, it sent shivers down the remaining two Koopa, and it didn't help when King Boo turned to them.