As the group continued forward, Luigi couldn't help but feel a chill go down his spine and it seems something was watching over them.

They approached a large and decayed tree, that somewhat resembled a jack-o-lantern, blocking their path. Before they could even think of a way around it, its 'mouth' spewed out a flock of paper bats as the tree stump faded into a dark husk.

A group of boos emerged from the husk, surrounding their king, and Luigi's worst nightmare, King Boo. The bros jumped and Luigi bolted in the opposite direction, the way they had came from, and jumped once spikes shot from under the ground, thorn-coated roots curled around them.

Luigi fell over, clumsily tripping over his own feet to get back to Mario and his paper counterpart, but something was off. He turned back around to find both of them missing along with all the boos.

Luigi looked around for any sign of them before collapsing to the ground in tears

-

Not long after, he could hear the sound of rustling in a set of plants nearby. He stood up and began to cautiously approach the sound.

As he got closer, he saw the sound was originating from a yellow tulip emitting a glow. He inched closer to the plant as it stopped moving for a moment. Luigi, now rather curious, slowly reached his hand towards it.

Starlow, the Star Sprite, shot out from the plant, spitting out plant fragments that wound up inside her mouth. This sudden movement caused Luigi to enter a state of fear where he was frozen in place.

"Blech, I got grass clippings in my mouth!" She exclaimed to herself, spitting up the last remains. Noticing Luigi's presence, and fear, he turned to him. "Luigi! It's good to see your...safe," she hesitantly smiled to him, trying to get him to calm down.

This didn't work, as he was still frozen with shock. "Luigi!" Starlow shouted, snapping him out of his trance. "Look, I know you're scared, you're used to having two Marios around, but now you're alone, stranded in a forest full of ghosts--" she began, only to be interrupted by the sound of sniffling.

Starlows' 'pep talk' had only caused Luigi to cry, obviously not cheering him up. She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Right. I really need to work on my pep talks," she tells herself.

"Luigi, listen," she said, grabbing his attention once more. He wiped away a stream of tears and listened closely what Starlow was about to tell him.

"I know you can save both Marios" she smiled to him, "I mean, you're Luigi, man! You're tall, you've got a sweet moustache, you've had, like, a whole YEAR named after you, and well... Go Luigi!" She hesitated a bit, as she wasn't sure how to phrase that, but Luigi's smile showed that it seemed to work. "And besides, it's basically Luigi RPG right now," she added for the extra confidence.

Noticing his sudden confidence boost, Starlow let out a relieved sigh and asked, "That did it? Well... That's the spirit!"

Luigi began to walk, a confident smile on his face, but before he could take a step, another swarm of paper bats flee behind him, instilling fear back into him. Starlow would have facepalmed herself if she had arms if her own. Instead, she sighed and flew into Luigi's overhaul pocket.

-

Luigi explored the new area of forest that had been uncovered by the tree. The boos, that had seemingly populated the forest before, had seemingly disappeared. This place felt empty, but something did catch his attention.

A glimpse of red, amidst the dark green forest caught his eye. Hopeful, Luigi walked over to it. As he neared, the red began to take shape, an all too familiar shape. Was it Mario, he thought, it certainly looked that way.

Luigi cheered to himself as he thought he had found his long lost brother. 'Mario' just stood there, staring at the tree that stood in front of him. Luigi went in for a hug, but the closer he got, the more seemed off with this red-clad hero. It appeared he was a little less opaque than he remembered, like he could see straight through him.

Luigi fell to the ground, as not only could he see through his brother, he could go through him as well. Confused, he turned his head back to this transparent being, and it poofed into a boo and flew off with a laugh. Luigi jumped to his feet with a yelp. Now he was even more worried. What could these ghosts have done to, but only his brother, but his paper counterpart too.

As he continued through the forest, more and more 'Marios' seemed to appear, each one transparent, and each one doing its own thing. Standing, conversing, thinking, just... spinning in circles, it was very odd.

Luigi saw a group of 'Marios' staring up at a tree where another Mario, this one, not transparent like the others, was tied up in the tree. This one had to be Mario. The Mario.

As he approached them, their attention shifted from Mario, to Luigi. It was a rather unsettling, to say the least, about a dozen eyes, all the same recognizable hue of his brothers, were all settled on him.

Practically scared out of his mind, the first thing Luigi thought to do was to run through this group of 'Marios' to try 'scare' them away like a flock of birds. It worked, the imposters all transformed back into boos and faded away with an all too familiar laugh.

Luigi turned back to his brother, who was still tied in the tree, and jumped up to quickly untie him. He stood underneath Mario, watching him free himself.

Mario blinked, feeling the relief of the ropes that were wrapped around loosen. He used this to his advantage, freeing himself from the tree and landing onto the ground. The feeling of the ground beneath his shoes felt off, but before he could even question it, Starlow flew out from seemingly the ground beneath him.

"Mario! It's good to see you're okay!" Starlow exclaimed in relief. "It was touch and go with Luigi for a while..."

Hearing his name, Mario asked Starlow where his brother was.

"Where is Luigi, you ask?"

Starlow stopped for a second, glancing down to the floor and then back up to Mario. "Well, about that..." She spoke, "look down."

Mario looked down, noticing a familiar green-clad hero had been lying beneath his feet. He quickly stepped off, allowing them to stand.

The figure placed his hands to the ground beside him, pushing himself off the ground and onto his knees. He lightly pushed his hat away from his face to catch a glimpse of if his brother with a teary-eyed smile.

Luigi quickly stood up and embraced his brother in a hug, crying into his shoulder. Mario returned the hug with a smile, gently patting his brothers back to console him.

"Aww, you guys are so cute," Starlow commented, "Now we just need to find Paper Mario," She told them.