The night came howling around a dark castle, baying like banshees upon a moonless sky as lightning struck against the grand royal windows.  Tattered red carpet, long destroyed by time, laid out across a black and white floor towards a darkened throne.  Fingers tapped softly throughout the hall amidst the violent thunder, which dared to strike through the windows themselves.  At the other end of the hallway, there lied a large set of doors, which soon opened up with a horrendous creak.
Solid footsteps clacked upon hard stone before shuffelling onto wretched carpet.  A few steps further caused the door to slam behind him.  A koopa, garbed with brown cloak and scarred belly, soon ran forwards towards the dark throne.  Every four steps he made, torches began to flicker on either side of him, their flames crackling softly amidst the dulling thunder from outside.
The strikes of lightning brought sudden flashes of light across the hall, barely illuminating a presence that sat upon the throne.  Soon the koopa was close enough, as the torches swiftly lit up towards the end of the hall.  A grand red curtain draped and hung across both ends of the resplendent lord's seat, glinting like fresh blood as the creature stood up.  The smallest creak of bones clacking together was made, as its black cloak gently ruffled with its movements before it spoke.
	"Ahhhh...you have come at last, Van Shellsing."
	"I am here to put an end to this cycle," said the koopa visitor, "and an end to your reign."
	"So I see.  A mortal by any other name would do just as well, but why you?"
	"Many have tried before me, but I shall avenge them when I destroy you."
	"So shall the next one say this to me when you fall beneath my shadow."
	"Booooring," said FG lowly.
	"SHH!" said Koopin, "this is my favourite part!"

Koopin barely took his eyes off the two opponents, the slightest flicker almost breaking the illusion of the fantasy unveiled before him as the lord of the castle revealed himself.  A skeletal koopa, imposingly tall by appearance due to his black cloak, lined with red on the inside while still sitting upon his throne.  The moment Van Shellsing spoke his next words, as he pulled out a rolled-up whip with a radiant aura, Koopin began to mouth the whole dialogue between them silently, gesturing dramatically with pointed fingers.
	"Die monster, you don't belong in this world."
	"It was not by my hand that I am once again given life...I was called here by mortals, who wished to pay me tribute."
	"Tribute?!  You steal their souls, and make them your slaves!"
	"Perhaps the same could be said of all wishes."
	"Your words are as empty as your soul!  The kingdom ill needs a saviour such as you!"
	"What is a life?!"
Cue the dramatic cut of a wine glass being cast aside, in order to smash briskly upon the stone floor.
	"A miserable little pile of secrets!  But enough talk, have at you!"
	"Finally," murmured FG quietly as Koopin sat back down.
The movie played out its true finale before them, as Koopin's TV barely flickered its dark gothic scenes proudly so, the battle between demon lord and demon slayer unveiling dramatically.  James began to lean in closer with fascination for what he had been waiting for, the final battle itself, something he had been sitting still for an hour and a half for.  Koopin was entranced, eyes wide like a child as violent cuts of the camera were made between the skeletal lord, and the heroic whip-wielding koopa.
	"This part is so COOL," squeaked Koopin as he braced himself.
	"Certainly makes up for all the rambling Drycula was doing, seriously I hate villains who keep going on and on."
	"But he's an ancient vampire lord who rises in his castle only once every hundred years!  He's old-school, he's dramatic and theatrical!"
	"Hehehe, I guess, would be worse if it was some modern jerk-ass businessman."
	"Heh, yeah.  OH OH, watch this!"
James quickly focused better on the screen in order to witness a grand attack from the villain, a blazing pillar of flames that roared across the entire hall, seething down upon Van Shellsing.  But the koopa hero had a trick up his sleeve, holding an amulet close to his heart and wishing with a great powerful surge inside of him, nullifying the flames with an almighty blinding light.
The brilliant glaring light was powerful enough to white out the screen, a roar coming from Drycula as Van Shellsing roared in turn with a triumphant outcry, charging forwards with his whip at the ready.  It struck the air itself, shattering the very fabric of reality with a crackle of light that struck hard at the demon's skull.
	"OOH!" cried out Koopin, "he used the Light Breaker!"
	"Hah, cool, so he's all charged up at last!"
	"Yeah!"

Around two minutes later came the final blow, a violent strike of the whip shattering through the very halls with a force that rivalled the very thunder itself.  The demon roared its wretched cry, as its body began to emit a terrible darkened aura, radiating across the hall.  Van Shellsing however guarded himself with his cloak, somehow repelling the mighty blast of infernal energy.
The thunder soon ceased, the windows stopped rattling with their power.  The demon lord was no more as the koopa hero walked slowly away, into the brightening light.  Dawn of a new day was breaking at last.  Little more could be said as the music swelled with triumphant joy, and soon the credits would roll.  James sat back with relief at seeing the conclusion, while Koopin turned off the VCR.
	"Soooo didya like it?" he asked expectantly.
	"Oh yeah yeah, was a great movie!  Not really into vampires though."
	"Vampire AND demon lord dude, weren't you paying attention?"
	"Uhhhh right, no no it was a great movie, loved the effects, those were awesome."
	"Oh yeah, totally!"
Putting away his movie in its proper case, within a small bookcase of movies next to his TV, he sat back on the couch beside James, asking:
	"Soooooo watcha wanna do now?"
	"Well I got nothing to do tomorrow...any ideas?"
	"Mmmmmm well, I just got my Toad-kwon-do class then...HEY, why not come by and see how I'm doing?!  Dontcha have one free day left to try, in case you wanna join in again?"
	"Heh...hmmmmm I dunno, martial arts I don't really NEED yanno."
	"Awww come on...I could show you my mooooves."
	"Well I DO like your sexy moves."
He pinched Koopin's tail softly to make him yelp, smirking cheekily at him.  Koopin in turn cuddled up to him, the two watching the TV now turned back on to its regular programming, a drama set in the town of Rogueport.  Eventually FG relented and shrugged.
	"Sure, why not use up another day, I got nothing else."
	"Great!"
	"How far are ya now?"
	"Well it's been about...three years now?  I got up to seventh rank, yellow and green!"
	"...aren't you yellow and green already?"
	"Hahaha nooo I mean the belt!"
	"Haha, I know I'm just teasing ya.  Seventh sounds good though!"
	"Yep!"
	"Ever think you'll get to rank one someday?  You'd look real good in a black belt."
	"Hehe naaaah, not unless I keep this up for way longer."
	"Well dontcha plan to?"
	"We'll see.  Just...don't get all upset if I get hit a lot okay?"
	"I won't, I know they're just training you in the dojo and they're always careful about it."
	"Alright."
With little else left for the night, the two headed off to bed, sleeping together.  James always took longer than Koopin did to sleep, staring up at the ceiling with arms behind his head.  Eventually, after enough rambling thoughts within his mind, he turned over towards Koopin and slept close to him.
The next day, Koopin headed off in the afternoon to the Toad Town Dojo.  James had only ever been to the dojo once, intrigued by how Koopin trained himself in the ways of self-defence.  But Koopin only ever did it for the sake of keeping fit, as well as wanting to learn a new craft, he had no intention of starting a fight.  The raptor was somewhat thankful to learn that his boyfriend was at least more competent than the average citizen in a fight, if only barely as far as he was concerned.

The dojo was situated in the proper entrance of Toad Town to the west.  It was merely a stone's throw from Russ. T, the scholar who had given FG his own map of the Mushroom Kingdom upon first arrival.  Spacious enough as it was, the interior was fully wooden with a language somewhat resembling Japanese inscribed onto a large scroll above the dojo wall.  Students had already arrived, from goombas to koopas to toads.
The master himself was an old toad, wearing red velvet garb that covered his fungus head and body, with an old white beard down his front.  Two others stood beside him, observing the students calmly.  One was a green Buzzy Beetle, a very squat-looking turtle-like creature the size of a goomba, with fierce eyebrows and a single black braided ponytail that laid across his shell.
The other was a Duplighost, a spirit with a royal purple robe and tufted yellow hair like a carrot's leaves.  His hands remained hidden beneath the robe, but his shoes peeked out, his eyes black with cyan pupils.  Koopin soon joined in the class, setting down his bag to one side and taking out his yellow belt, offset by green tape wrapped around either end of it.  He also took off his boots to replace them with leather pads that spread across the top of his feet, doing the same for his hands like everyone else was.
	"Good afternoon Koopin," said the duplighost, "is your friend observing or training with us today?"
	"Training actually," said Koopin, "he still has a free day left so I brought him along to try out again."
	"Good!  I'll get the spare equipment."
The ghost shuffled away before soon returning with training pads for James.  A little tight, as well as being the first kind of any footwear he had ever worn in his life, but not uncomfortable to wear truly.  The fourteen students talked among themselves for a few minutes before the Master clapped for attention.
	"Good afternoon everyone."
	"Good afternoon Master," said everyone.
	"Not a bad turnout we have today I must say.  Even-numbered too, that is good.  First we must perform our warm-ups.  Ready yourselves everyone."
The class started out with some warm-up exercises, mostly involving running laps around the dojo, leg-stretching and jumping exercises.  Seeing a class of toads, koopas and goombas all perform exercises was somewhat bizarre to James, but he kept up nevertheless, thankful that his body had not gone weak since his training with Glenn.
After a non-stop exercise session of 20 minutes, the Master had them stop, and soon went into the lesson itself with half-exhausted students, their limbs surging with vigour.

	"Now, last session we were going over the basics of counter-attacks, using the Bob-Omb Muscle technique.  I would like to see how much of it you all remember without any guidance.  Chan and Lee will be passing by to make sure you all are doing well.  Now line yourselves up into two rows."
James felt a little thrown into the situation, but he lined up nevertheless and found himself paired up with a koopa wearing a blue belt.  Koopin was paired up with a toad further down the line, the raptor asking: 
	"Hey, new here, what do we do?"
	"Just try and punch me," said the koopa helpfully, "I'll show ya how it all goes."
	"Right."
	"Guarding!"
At the master's command, they all stood apart, legs apart with arms spread out to their waists with clenched fists into an attentive stance.  James quickly followed up.
	"Respect."
	"Bless thee," said the class.
	"This side starts the attack, then the other side attacks, and we repeat.  Begin!"
All students soon began to come closer with readying punches, the koopa tutoring James through it.
	"Okay gimme a good slow punch so I can show ya."
James cautiously brought out his right hand and made a solid straight punch.  At that moment, the koopa swiftly turned halfway, slapping the back of his left hand upon James' wrist.  At the same time, he punched with his right hand straight into James' upper arm, beneath the shoulder.  A small spasm made his hand twitch, and he immediately understood.  He somewhat knew already this sort of move from his days with Glenn.
	"You got it now?"
	"Uhhh gimme it one more time to make sure," asked FG.
The koopa did it once again, the idea now cemented in his mind as he soon performed the same onto the blue-belt student.  The thought never occurred to him in how a goomba could possibly pull this off, until he had a chance to quickly spot a goomba perform a surprisingly acrobatic turning kick on his head, avoiding a kick by using both feet to smack it away.  After a while of practicing the Bob-Omb Muscle technique, the Master had them stop to move onto the next option.
The next lesson was a reiteration of a technique known as Bullet Bill Blast, a basic technique involving punching in four different directions, one after the other.  While not a practical move, it allowed the students to understand both balance and control.  Stepping forwards with one foot while punching hard, before pulling back into a closed stance with both feet tightly together in order to step into another direction, turning their body to do so.
They repeated this several times, facing all four directions with each turn before performing the same thing once again, but this time as a blocking motion known as Koopa Brothers' Guard.  The only difference was instead of a forward step and punch, it was a backwards step and block, slamming the hand down to prevent imaginary punches.  In the case of the goombas, punching was a forwards hopping kick, while guarding was a sideways bracing block using the hardest part of their heads.

This continued for at least half an hour until the Master had them stop, preparing for the final part of the session.  The combat section, with students being swapped occasionally against various foes.  Koopin braced himself with as eager a face as he could, squaring up against another koopa.  James found himself facing against a goomba, which left him completely uncertain in how to fight at all.  But he knew it was just practice, and that he wasn't planning on coming back after this session.  As a result, he held back his punches and kicks, making them as easy as possible.
For those without a belt or on a lower rank of yellow and white, he eased up on his attacks, letting them have enough time to gauge his moves and strike appropriately.  The pads upon hands and feet easily cushioned any blows, as the goomba he faced against, while a rookie, was still competent enough to handle some of the attacks.  Whenever James was facing against a higher ranked opponent however, he was a little more eager to give them their money's worth.
Koopin for the most part was turning into quite a competent fighter.  He was especially better at dodging kicks or blocking punches, but was not as offensive as he wanted to be.  Something always slightly held him back, a punch that faltered at the end or a kick that bent just a little too much.  Sometimes he would make a good attack, punching out or kicking hard.  Other times he almost flinched, uncertain of himself regardless of the opponent.
At one point James found himself facing off against Koopin, which only made the two of them even more uncertain of fighting each other.  James made an easy half-hearted swing, which Koopin blocked with the Bob-Omb Muscle.  When James tried again with the left arm however, Koopin opted to duck underneath instead, tripping the raptor up with an old-fashioned leg sweep as he fell to the floor.
	"OW, h-hey!"
	"S-sorry, I just-"
	"Hahaha, come on don't fret, that was a good move."

Standing up fast, he tried to sweep at Koopin's leg in revenge, but the koopa had anticipated it and backed off quickly before readying for a turning kick.  But James was too skilled in recognising the way a body turned, seeing Koopin twist his hips to the side in preparation soon enough to dodge.  He faltered however when his immediate instinct to punch him in the back was blocked by the shell, so instead he opted to kick out the leg he was standing on, causing him to fall on his side.
	"OW!"
	"Hehehe, revenge!"
	"Y-yeah, haha."
Eventually the session was over, after perhaps a good 40 minutes of combat sparring with varying degrees of success.  The master had them bow.
	"Good training everyone.  I will see you all next session.  BUT, before you go, there are some new updates.  Firstly, Master Lee has been accepted into a scholarship at Goom University, so he will be here less often in future.  I think a round of congratulations is in order."
Polite applause came to the learned ghost, who bowed humbly.
	"Secondly, the tournament offers are still up should anyone wish to apply their skills in a more professional arena.  You have three more weeks to apply before the dead line.  Now, everyone, you may go.  Bless thee."
With that, they left.  Koopin took off his belt and pads before putting them in his bag, waving farewell to his fellow students before leaving with James.  The raptor rubbed his arms at feeling a soreness emerge from exercise, saying:
	"Thanks for not punching out my arm before."
	"S'alright," said Koopin, "I know you still got problems with your shoulder."
	"Though the proper way to fight woulda been to expose my weakness there."
	"Well...yeah but this was just sparring right?"
	"Right."
	"So...you said you'd done this kinda stuff before, right?  I mean, training and all."
	"Ah huh."
	"What was it like?"
	"...a lot tougher than back in the dojo.  For starters I LIVED with the guy for three years."
	"Wow."
	"Yep, and we did it almost every day of the year.  No matter the weather, rain or snow, I was lifting weights, running laps, strengthening my limbs and swinging swords.  Also the sticks."
	"Oh yeah, can't forget the sticks right?"
	"Right."
James patted his satchel that he always carried with him, its items including the two hammer sticks he had picked up back a year ago in Dusty Dunes.  A fine weapon for non-lethal encounters.  Koopin however was more focused on the raptor's arms, sliding an arm around one of them to pull him close.
	"And you got great muscles too."
	"Hahaha...you like 'em huh?"
	"Oh yes...they're not too big so they don't look crazy over-muscled, but...you got such a lean handsome figure you know."
	"Mmmmmm do I now?"
The raptor stopped with Koopin as he turned, bending down slightly to kiss him softly upon the beak, causing Koopin to blush.
	"Maybe I should show you more of my muscles when we get back?"
	"Mmmmm?"
	"Maybe..."
He whispered the next words into the koopa's ear.
	"Show you a few other muscles I have."
	"H-hoh, I...u-um...maybe, I think I might be a li'l too tired for that."
	"Oh don't worry...you don't have to do anything at all...you can just...lie back..."
A teasing grope of the koopa's rear accompanied his next words.
	"And take it."
	"A-ah!  You...glad you didn't do that when we were in town."
	"Hahaha, naaaah...it's much more fun to grope you in the open wilds, along the paths...who knows what might happen."
	"Mmmm who knows indeed."
Koopin teased him with a little wink, taunting James further to carry through with his inclination.  Suffice to say, he certainly did when they got home to bed that night.

Exhaustion was only physical to Koopin, as he slumped out onto his bed where James would assist him in sliding off his shell, revealing the cute white tank top and Rawk Hawk-themed boxer shorts he had underneath.  He did not take them off just yet however, as he slided up alongside the koopa after stripping down to his own boxers, covered in hearts, pulling him close to his body and kissing the beak deeply.  His snout locked against Koopin's mouth as their tongues pulled each other in, moans rising from each other.  Koopin whimpered sweetly, whilst James groaned breathlessly.
Their mouths would soon part, the smallest thread of saliva between them as they panted hard onto each other, the raptor sliding one clawed hand to behind Koopa's head, the other rubbing down his back.  Koopin did the same to his love, gazing up into his eyes as his panting turned softer, the raptor soon kissing along his throat and neck slowly.  He gasped at such warmth, as well as the fact that James' hand was now upon his smooth rear, teasing around the wiggly little koopa tail.
	"What do you want tonight?" murmured James, his snout inches away from Koopin.
	"J-just...hhhhoh...n-not that...I don't think I can take it tonight."
	"Hmhmhm...I know what'll work."
James slowly pulled down Koopin's boxers, revealing the cute stubby 6 yellow inches that he had, above an equally cute pair of balls.  Koopin let him continue, wondering where he was going with it before James pulled down his own boxers, revealing his larger red 7 inches.  He pushed his hand at Koopin's rear, making his hips come forwards to grind his cock hard against him.  Koopin shivered, knowing what he wanted with a pleading look.
James gently wrapped his hand around both their cocks, rubbing them off together as they started to moan, tails waving back and forth behind each other as they kissed once more.  The tank top of the koopa rustled against the raptor's naked brown chest, as he stroked them off harder and harder.  Koopin moaned, holding onto James tightly as he begged with soft whimpers inbetween hot fleeting kisses, eyes barely open.
	"H-hoh, James...J-james..."
	"Shh...mmmm...good boy..."
The blushing only intensified from Koopin as he grinded hard with his hips, bucking by instinct as both of them turned wet below.  Precum spooled in James' hand, lashing off his claws as their kisses turned hungrier with love, the koopa crying out a little louder with each stroke that was made.  Eventually he could last no longer, climaxing a little sooner than James did, a double spurt of hot seed onto both of their bellies, as well as the bed.
	"A-AH!"
	"NNNGH!"
Their bodies twitched together into little spasms of lust, calming down immediately after as the rush began to settle, the weakness in their limbs soon returning more noticeably.  James gave a few last teasing rubs, his cock twitching as it almost kissed against Koopin's member, the raptor panting hotly onto his face.
	"Hhhh...hhhh...god I love you."
	"Hhhah...ohhh...I love you too."
The softest voice from Koopin made James smile with a blush, pulling him close as they soon pulled the covers over them, hugging each other close for the remainder of the night.  Exhaustion soon took them fully, the raptor kissing his boyfriend upon the head before he soon dropped off.