Mosaic Adventures(Chapter One Year Away From Legal Adult)

[Mosaic]

So, I've been thinking and realized, since people here actually do seem to care about reading this story over here, I should contuine to post any new chapters written by me over here along with the other two spots that I already post them, share it with more people, and in return, get more opinions, so starting tonight, I'll give to you Chapter 7, expect the other couples chapters so far in a couple of days.

Consider this my Christmas Present to you all.

Chapter 7: Psyched: show

I: Night Signal

“After the group all partook in their night activities, they made their ways back to the places in which they dwelled to rest their bodies, and dreamed along with such. However, in the darkness, when the shining circle of light which they called the sun was invisible to sight, leaving nothing but darkness over the land, the Mosaic group specifically, though unaware, would receive a signal from one of their peers, a night signal one might call it.”


The time had been midnight, just earlier being when Striker and Elemental had their game against the Gnarly Garlics, winning as a result. After the rest of the group had gotten back from their movie night, when they got home, they had all gone straight to bed and while asleep, dreamed.

In the middle of Mosaic’s dream however, his phone suddenly began to ring, waking him up.

“Who’s calling me at a time like this?” Mosaic wondered, somewhat annoyed. However, regardless of such, he picked up the phone and answered it.

“Hello?” Mosaic asked.

“...Hello?” The person on the other end asked.

Mosaic upon hearing this recognized the voice immediately.

“...oh...hey there Link, I was sorta in the middle of a dream…”

“Oh, um...sorry, what was it about?”

“It’s kinda odd...I was like...in a courtroom, wearing a blue business suit with a red tie, like a lawyer or something. But anyway, what were you calling me about? Are you going to tell me you want me to go exploring with you? Like you always do?”

“Well...Yeah...I was...the reason is also well...I found something kinda intriguing that you’d maybe find interest in too. So I was thinking of talking with you about it in more detail at Vibrant Park perhaps?”

“Oh yeah...the two of us alone in a park at night...sounds like a great idea…”

“Well...if you don’t want to come alone, you could bring the group along,”

Letting out a sigh, Mosaic responded, “Eh, I’ll just come by myself I guess. Not a need to bother them right now…”

“Well, alright, see you when you arrive I suppose,” Link responded, then hanging up.

After their phone conversation had ended, Mosaic opened the closet, getting out a set of his regular clothing as he was wearing his pajamas at the moment and wanted to change into a more appropriate attire.

However, among all the ruckus, Hoops was woken up by all of the noise and noticed Mosaic changing.

“E-Er umm Mosaic…” Hoops asked, yawning while doing so. “Why are you up at this time? Are you trying to late night game again?”

Noticing him, Mosaic gave a response.

“Oh, sorry Hoops,” Mosaic stated. “Also, nah, for some reason Link asked me to meet with him at Vibrant Park.”

“Is he really asking you to meet with him right now?”

“Yep...he is...that’s why i’m changing clothes right now…”

“Know what? I’ll come with you, not only is it safer to do so, but, you know what they say,-”

“The more the merrier right?”

“Umm...yeah…also, I’ll hold the 3D glasses this time, ready to go?”

“Pretty much, let’s get out of here.”

On the two’s way down the hall and to the stairs to the bottom floor, Mosaic looked over to Rosy and Berry’s room, wondering if he should bring them along with them.

Only to decide after some thought against it in part due to their age.

When the two made it to the bottom of the stairs, they discussed things a bit more.

“So, what exactly is it that Link was wanting to talk with you about?” Hoops asked.

“Kinda odd, he simply told me he found something ‘intriguing’ and left it at that.”

“Huh, so he’s being vague…not really surprising as he is kinda a quiet person in general…”

“Yeah, but I imagine he’ll probably tell us whe-”

“Wait, I hear a noise, someone’s coming down the stairs.”

This exact someone that the two heard coming down the stairs was Rosy, whom was woken up from overhearing their discussion.

“Hey Hoops and Mosaic, what are you guys doing up at this time talking to each other?” She asked them.

“...don’t copy me, I just said that...”

“Well, basically, Link wants to see us in the park to show us something ‘intriguing’.”

“Huh, well, I somewhat am curious myself about what Link wants to show us at a time such as this, so I’ll come along too.”

“I’m...seeing a pattern here…” Mosaic commented.

Right after he said it in fact, someone else was coming down the stairs, this of course being Berry.

Berry then asked something in Yoshi.

“That’s exactly what me and Rosy asked…” Hoops replied, understanding him.

Speechless, Mosaic decided to just explain.

“Well Berry, as i’ve already told Hoops and Rosy about, we’re taking a trip to Vibrant Park since Link wants us to meet with him there for some reason.”

Berry then asked another thing.

“He asked if he could come along,” Rosy translated to Mosaic.

Mosaic thought about it for a while, and realized it was somewhat a lose lose situation at this point as it was either have a seven-year old up past midnight or leave them home alone, AT MIDNIGHT.

As such, he decided on what he considered the less of the two evils.

“Yeah, I suppose you can Berry.”

Berry in response gave an exciteful hop and waddled closer to them.

“Hmm, maybe since all four of us are going out to the park to meet with Link, I could ask Mario and Luigi if they want to come with us,” Mosaic had the idea of, then picking up the phone and dialing it.

At Mario & Luigi’s Pad…

The two brothers had been asleep, but then Mario heard the phone, saw it was Mosaic and picked it up.

“Hello? Mario?”

“Mosaic, I'm going to be-a blunt, I’m not-a interested in whatever you have to-a tell at this late of a time, and will remind-a you to not bother me about things past eleven,” Mario responded, then hanging up.

The noise then woke up Luigi.

“Brother? Who were you-a talking to?” he asked.

“Oh, umm, Mosaic...” Mario responded.

“Hmm, I had a feeling that was the-a case…”

Back at the Mosaic Group’s House…

“You know what...I’m going to just take that as a sign that we shouldn’t even bother Peach or Toad and just head to the park,” Mosaic stated.

“He wasn’t interested was he?” Hoops asked.

“Not a bit,” Mosaic replied. “Now, to the park we go,” Mosaic stated, then heading out the door with the rest of the group.

II: Link in Park

The Mosaic Group made it to Vibrant Park and began to scout the park looking for Link.

After looking around for a while, they see him sitting on a bench in the park, waving to them. Once they make eye contact with him, he signaled for them to come over, which they did so and began to make conversation.

“Hey there Mosaic, I see you ended up bringing the group…” Link began.

“Yeah, it ended up turning out that way,” Mosaic began. “So...what did you find?”

“Well, may as well get to that,” Link said, then digging into one of the pockets of his tunic and then taking it out. “What I found is a treasure map, and based on what it says, the treasure should be buried in Toadstool Valley.”

“Hmm, okay, I have two questions,” Mosaic began. “First off, where did you find this map? And second off, did you have to call us out here now? Why couldn’t this have been saved for morning?”

“Hey, I can answer the second question, he did it to annoy us,” Hoops sarcastically inputted.

“Not exactly…” Link answered. “To answer the first question, after I had finished my stroll, at that point, the place I’ve been staying was very far from where I was, so I figured it’d be better to just sleep on the branch of a tree,” Link began to explain. “But then just when I was about to go to sleep, some kind of scroll was thrown at me from afar, which woke me up.”

“And I'm assuming this was the map?” Mosaic asked.

“Correct.”

“Huh, so I’m guessing something about the map is something that you considered urgent?” Mosaic asked.

“The answer is...yes, and no…” Link responded. “Take a look,” he then said, handing it to the group.

The group examined the details on the map, on this map was a vague sketch of the Mushroom Plains and a vague path leading to Toadstool Valley. This wasn’t the most notable detail however, the most notable one was the message on it, which read, “Listen here, we’re going to this area tonight, right here right now, do it now, or we may miss our chance.”

Each of the Mosaic Group gave their thoughts on the map.

Berry gave an “ooo” in Yoshi.

“Interesting,” Mosaic inputted.

“Wonder why that’s written on the map…” Rosy thought aloud.

“Hmm, I have a really vague, faint idea as to why it’s written, but I doubt it’s the case, so don’t worry about it,” Hoops added.

“Well if that message was printed on there, I guess we don’t have much of a choice but to go find it, and as there’s safety in numbers with the five of us going there, we may as well,” Mosaic declared to the group.

“Well, the only issue is that we lack a light source,” Link pointed out.

“Well, if Beryl was around, we could set him on fi-”

“You made that joke the other day Hoops,” Rosy interrupted.

“I didn’t ask you, but eh…” Hoops responded.

“Speaking of fire, I feel all we’d probably need is a fire flower since Mario, Glow and Elemental aren’t around at the moment to make a fire for us, and on top of that, Striker, while capable of making one, isn’t able to really unless someone got him to a certain point,” Mosaic continued.

“And obviously we aren’t going to ask Bowser for help either,” Rosy added.

“You know Mosaic, if you knew someone that hung around you as much as me, Berry and...Rosy did that had fiery abilities naturally, without the need of a power-up or anything, situations like this would never be an issue, that’d be pretty cool wouldn’t it?” Hoops mentioned to Mosaic.

“It indeed would be cool if something like that were to happen, but I dunno...I think it could eventually…”

“So, my idea is that we search this park for a fire flower, see if we can find it here,” Link explained. “Mosaic, Hoops, you guys should look in the west half. Rosy, Berry, you guys look in the east half.” Link assigned. “I’ll start by shooting this question block right here above me,” Link said, then shooting the block.

To his surprise, this exact block had...a fire flower…

“...well...nevermind...there’s one…” Link said, kinda embarrassed that he said all of the elaborate stuff he did.

“That was easy…” Mosaic commented.

“Indeed it was,” Rosy commented afterwards.

“So the only question now is, who’s going to grab it?” Mosaic then questioned.

“Perhaps we should throw someone up to it, someone such as Hoops, Rosy or Berry I’d think?” Link suggested.

“Rosy has quills...sharp ones, throwing her isn’t really a good idea as we’d have to scoop her from the bottom and throw her carefully ontop of that, doesn’t really work,” Mosaic began. “I don’t think we’d want to throw Berry up there either, he’s not really used to using power-ups and I don’t feel comfortable with throwing him up there,” he continued.

“So I guess that leaves...Hoops As the best option...” Rosy deduced.

“Okay, sure thing, pick me up Mosaic, and on the count of three, throw,” Hoops inputted in acceptance.

As such, Mosaic picked Hoops up, and carefully aimed at the fire flower and got ready to throw.

“Alright, so again, on my count, throw,” Hoops stated.

“Okay…” Mosaic responded.

“Alright, one...two...and...throw!” Hoops counted, then shouted in which Mosaic then hurled him at the fire flower.

He went flying through the air towards the power-up, and would have gotten it, only for him to not...this being because of him crashing into none other than an...invisible note block...containing a springboard…

After hitting it, both himself and the springboard fell back to the ground, Hoops himself being dazed from the impact.

The rest of the group found embarrassment in the situation and all gave a collective facepalm.

“I’ll grab it…” Mosaic then informed, hopping on the springboard, bouncing off it and touching the fire flower.

Mosaic’s clothes as a result of it changed colors. rather than their normal green-gold appearance, they instead had shades of red and orange take their place. Why this happened to one’s clothing when they grabbed certain kinds of power-ups such as fire flowers, wasn’t exactly clear, but it was the case.

After grabbing the flower, Mosaic made his way off the springboard and over to the dazed insect to check that he was fine.

“Er, umm, you okay buddy?” he asked.

“Y-Yeah…” Hoops replied, still coming back to his senses.

“Well in that case,”-Mosaic stated as he started forming a fireball in his hand and keeping it lit- “Link, lead the way, where do we go from here?”

“From here...I’d say north…” Link responded. “So, away we go,” he then stated, heading north and the rest of the group following the way he led them.

III: Treasure Tracks

Later...

After Link led the Mosaic group for around an hour or two, they all eventually arrived at their destination, Toadstool Valley.

“So, are we getting close to the destination Link?” Hoops asked.

“Well, according to the way that the map is marked, I’d say we are,” Link informed in response. “and only have about...let’s say about sixity more meters to go before we make it to the exact spot.”

“Well, hopely…” Hoops stated, a tad bit pessimistic.

“I trust Link’s words personally as he’s always been good at investigating based on clues or guidance and following instructions, so I wouldn’t worry about it Hoops,” Rosy told him.

“True…” Hoops replied.

As the group continued, Mosaic spoke up.

“While we’re still on our way to the spot, why don’t we all chat for a bit?” Mosaic suggested.

“Sure, why not?” Hoops replied.

“No harm in conversation,” Link commented.

“Well, what should we talk about?” Rosy asked.

“As long as it’s not about your looks, I'm game,” Hoops answered.

“Well, in that case, why don’t we talk about-”

But at that moment, the group, who had been walking underneath an arch of stone and a lot of rocks both heard and felt the ground shake.

“I...don’t like that sudden shaking…” Hoops commented.

Berry, in reaction to the noise, got next to Rosy for comfort, of course, being scared by it as well.

“I think personally we should continue as we’re getting close to the destination as Link has already told us, correct Link?” Mosaic stated.

“Correct, I say we keep moving,” Link responded.

As the group continued however, they heard the ground tremor again.

“T-there it is again…” Hoops stated.

The group looked up, and noticed small crumbles falling from the arch above them.

“And...t-there’s crumbles coming from the arch above us on top of that…” Hoops continued.

“That is a bit worrisome…” Mosaic stated.

Link, in an attempt to ease the group’s worries, stated, “Well, as long as none of the rocks fall, we should have nothing to-”

Only to be interrupted when a large rock fell right in front of them.

“...Forget everything that I said, run!” he then exclaimed, with the group then rushing in a panic.

As they rushed, countless boulders rained from above all around them, with the group barely avoiding many of them.

“There’s too many of them! Maybe we can break them somehow?” Hoops suggested.

“Listen Hoops, you can’t break them, Rosy can’t break them, Mosaic’s fire nor iceballs will break them, and I know Berry can’t break them and there’s not enough time for me to risk getting a bomb out right now, all we can do is run and dodge theses rocks however we can.”

“...Oh no! Not a dead end!” Rosy said aloud, getting the group’s attention.

“I even had a feeling we should have gone the other path…” Mosaic stated.

The group looked up dreadfully at the approaching rocks, seeing a number of them right above them.

“Welp...it’s been a good life…” Hoops stated.

After Hoops made his statement, everyone closed their eyes and covered themselves with their arms, bracing themselves for the impact…

…

However, the impact never came...

“Huh? The rocks...they stopped…” Rosy noticed.

The rocks indeed had stopped and were veiled in some kind of blue aura of sorts. And shortly after Rosy’s statement, the rocks were all tossed aside, away from being any kind of danger to the group.

“Good, now I have you and the others’ attention...Link…” a voice then stated.

Hearing this, the group looks in the direction of the voice, seeing that it came from behind a bit above themselves, in which a being stood.

“It’s...It’s you…” Link commented.

The being in question was large and round, more of an oval shape in a way, they lacked limbs of any kind and had a gelatinous, squishy, sticky body, and finally, a pair of dually colored eyes, one green, and one pink. While their species usually had pearly white eyes as opposed to these and had a body that was blue in appearance, this member of the species’ body however was a much, much darker shade of blue, and on top of this, they bore a star-shaped birthmark on their forehead. The said being in question was a Boss Bot.

“Never thought I’d be able to do that at the pace that this story was going, and yeah Link, it is me,” The Boss Bot stated.

“Midnight, I have so many questions,” Link stated, calling him by his name. “But I’ll save asking you all of them and just ask, how did you know we were out here?”

“Well, what brought you out here? Was it a map?” Midnight asked him.

“Wha…” Link responded, being surprised at that being his first question. “Y-Yeah, it was…”

“Well that explains everything.”

“What do you mean Midnight?” Mosaic asked. “But uh yeah, long time no see as I never got the chance to greet you.”

“I’ll explain now,” Midnight responded.

IV: A...Trap?

“Basically, while I was at Moonlight Meadows, I found an interesting discovery, and I wanted Link to know about it,” Midnight explained.

“But how does that explain the ma-” Link began to ask.

“Dear Hylia you’re impatient, I’m getting to that,” Midnight responded. “Anyway, so that I was able to get Link into a place that we could meet, I made a fake map, wrote a compelling message on it and then gave it to Link.”

“Wait...WHAT!? T-that was you!? A-and that map...it...it was a fake?!” Link began to mouth off, shocked at this information.

“Yes and yes, and with how much I know you love exploring, I knew you couldn’t resist.”

“I guess that explains that,” Rosy inputted. “But why did you essentially ‘ask’ him to meet with you so late at night instead of asking about it earlier in the day, or even tomorrow instead?”

“You know of that ability I have Rosy.”

“Umm, I don’t know...or just don’t remember more accurately…”

“I believe that when Midnight has exposure to moonlight, it heals his injuries,” Link informed.

“Oh yeah, that ability. Makes sense,” Rosy responded.

“Another thing I realized is that considering Midnight’s size and mass,” Hoops began. “Midnight, was that you making the tremors earlier?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, then why’d you let those rocks fall on and almost crush us earlier?”

“To get your attention.”

“Hmm, fair.”

“So, if the map was fake and you talked about discovering something ‘interesting’, does this mean you know where the actual location is?” Link asked.

“Yes, and as I said, it’s in Moonlight Meadows,” Midnight answered.

“Well can you lead us to it?” Link asked.

“I would have done that anyway even if you hadn’t asked, but sure, whatever,” he responded. “So Mosaic, I guess you could say it’s time to...pass the torch,” he said, making a pun on him having a fire power-up.

“I mean, to be fair, the one leading the way was Link, not-”

“Hey, aren’t puns Beryl’s job?” Rosy interrupted.

“The cactus guy?” Midnight stated. “He’s not here right now, may as well do his job for him; Anyway, let’s get going.”

Rosy didn’t give much of a response, and along with the rest of the group, simply followed Midnight’s lead out of the valley and to the meadows.

V: Earthy Bites

As the group made their way to Moonlight Meadows, Rosy made conversation with Midnight.

“Hey Midnight...just wanted to say, thank you for showing up when you did, if you hadn’t, we’d probably would’ve been goners.”

“Eh, we obviously couldn’t have had that happen, you’re the main characters, and obviously the one guiding this story won’t kill you off.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s beyond what you’re aware of.”

“I don’t know...part of me has an idea of what you may be referring to, but i’m unsure on that side of it…”

“I see,” Midnight replied. “Anyway, we’re nearing the destination, shouldn’t be long now.”

As the group continued, Link began to whisper to Mosaic.

“Should Midnight really be the one leading our group?” Link asked.

“I think it’s fine, he’s shown on occasion that he can be a good leader like you or me can.”

“True, but still, his carelessness, like him almost letting us be crushed by those rocks earlier makes me weary of that, he lives in a cave with nothing blocking it for crying out loud,” Link explained. “Along with that, he acts kinda...I don’t know, odd, a lot, like, I’m not sure if he’s on our side or not half the time.”

“Well, to respond to your first statement, that is kinda careless of him. And to respond to your second one...well, I think the best thing to do there is just continue to keep an eye on him. And well, despite these two things, he has a pretty good sense of direction and also is the only one who knows where what we’re looking for is.”

“Huh, well I guess you have a point…”

“Hmm, what were you two discussing?” Midnight asked.

“Nothing…” Link responded.

“Mhmm…” Midnight responded sarcastically. “Regardless though, I think you guys will find interest in-”

“Wait, guys...I hear something…” Hoops told the group, putting his head toward the ground.

“Huh, considering where you’re hearing the noise from...I think I know what these are…” said Mosaic.

“The plant guys? You know, the ones with the teeth?” Rosy asked.

“Yep.”

“Considering the pipes around here as well, I don’t think you guys are wrong,” Link inputted.

And right the group was, plant creatures, which in appearance were Venus fly trap-like, had a leafy green stalk topped with a white-spotted red head, bisected by a white lip mouth with sharp teeth began to sprout up from the ground, surrounding the group on all sides, emerging from the surrounding pipes on top of that. These were Piranha Plants.

Berry then said something in his language, looking over to the side of the hill they stood on.

“‘Oh no’? Why do you say that Berry?” Rosy asked, then looking over to the side as well, seeing that he saw that Ptooies were making their way over to the hill.

They were really similar in appearance to Piranha Plants, with the only differences being that their full bodies could be seen and ended in two stubs that acted as legs, and they also lacked the leafy green “arms” that piranha plants had.

“Oh...that’s why…” Rosy replied.

“Why did these guys have to bother us specifically?” Mosaic questioned.

“Well, we did sorta walk into their territory to be fair…” Hoops answered.

“True…”

“I don’t see what you’re all complaining about, the more action the better, besides, it’s not like you’ve battled anything or anyone for awhile at this point,” Midnight stated.

“Eh…” Mosaic responded.

“You sure?” Link asked.

“Guys, the plant gang is surrounding us, I suggest we act now,” Rosy stated.

“You’re right Rosy,”-Mosaic stated as he formed a ball of fire in his hand-“I’ll start with this plant ri-”

Mosaic was cut off mid sentence however, this is because he was shot in the back with a spikeball from a ptooie, knocking out his firepower, denying him immediately.

“Know what? I’m not going to waste time talking and I'm just going to get to the point,” Mosaic said aloud. “Midnight, you deal with-”

Midnight however, with the use of his telekinesis had already picked up a rock and threw it at one of the piranha plants, knocking them out.

“What were you saying Mosaic?” Midnight questioned.

“Nevermind, just fight them off, all of you,” Mosaic instead ordered, somewhat unamused.

As of Mosaic’s statement, the group then began to fight the piranha plants off, all heading in different directions, other than Berry and Rosy who teamed up.

Mosaic mainly used his ice abilities to freeze fireballs that were incoming his way and then hurl them back when given the chance.

Hoops tricked and outwitted the plants in multiple different ways with the use of his speed and agility, getting them to accidentally aim for each other instead of them with how hard of a target he made himself out to be.

Rosy and Berry teamed up in fighting them, Berry looked to get ground pounds where he could while Rosy played a more offensive game with them, running into them with her quills, dashing into them in a ball, giving Berry opportunities to pound on them, etc.

Link did quite the number of things to fend off the fly traps, shooting them with sword beams, rolling on the ground to dodge them, blocking spike balls from the ptooies with his shield, being sure also to not be sniped by the fiery ones, and being sure hits got in where they counted.

And Midnight finally unlike the others who were taking it seriously, wasn’t really, and generally messed around with them. He grabbed their spike balls with his psychic powers and hurled them back at them, he grabbed some of the ptooies themselves and hurled them around, bashing them into each other, and at one point grabbed a ptooie, made a large leap into the air and slammed both himself and the ptooie into the ground head first, knocking it out.

In the middle of the battle however, the group hears something, which causes them to worry, as it sounds like another piranha plant, which it indeed was, it was a blue potted one, who thanks to the way they were rooted within the pot, was able to walk around freely in it.

“Oh no, is this their backup?” Mosaic stated worryingly.

What instead happened however suppressed the group’s expectations. The piranha plant saw the group, and it made conversation with the other piranha plants and ptooies.

As a result of this conversation, the horde of sharp toothed plant life stopped bothering the group and returned to where they resided previously, back into the soil, back in their pipes, back down the hill, etc.

“Wow, they...all just...left,” Mosaic stated.

“...I wonder why…” Link questioned.

Berry gave a similar opinion in his language as well.

“Maybe the blue guy realized we were too much to handle and decided they should all, almost quite literally, head for the hills,” Hoops boasted.

“Well, my guess personally is that that blue piranha plant must have been more docile and friendly than the others were, and realized we meant no harm, and probably communicated to the others to let us pass,” Rosy inputted.

“Guess that’s possible too…” Hoops replied.

“Well either way, in my opinion, they ruined the fun, I was so going to clobber those plants but then he had to come along and break it up…” Midnight ranted, disappointed.

“Umm Midnight, aren’t you going to lead us to that place you found?” Link asked, changing the subject.

“Oh...yeah, I was, follow me…” Midnight told the group, continuing to be their lead. Eventually soon enough, another tall hill stood before them...

VI: Blockade

“The spot that I want you all to see should be on top of this hill,” Midnight informed the group.

“Nice, we’re here,” Mosaic commented.

“So he hasn’t been misleading us…” Link said quietly.

“Well here it goes, ready Berry?” Rosy asked.

In which he replied he is.

“If you guys don’t mind, i’m going to run ahead and see what’s uptop,” Hoops said.

“Not even an issue, go right ahead,” Midnight responded.

“Yeah, that should be fine Hoops,” Mosaic replied.

The others gave similar opinions, but by that time, Hoops had begun making his way up anyway.

“Hey, Midnight, since we’re already almost there, could you tell us what the thing you want us to see is?” Link asked.

“Okay, fair enough, it’s something in a cave that I saw.”

“Huh, I see…”

“Do you mean this Midnight?” Hoops, who had already made it to the top of the hill asked. “I...don’t see an entrance…”

“What? Let me see, there should be a huge, gaping entrance right in front of it…” Midnight responded.

The rest of the group goes ahead of Midnight as well to see what Hoops was looking at, and indeed see a large formation of rocks on the hill, or so it looked like.

“Huh yeah, as Hoops has said, there doesn’t seem to be an entrance…” Mosaic added.

Link however gave a closer look and informed the others on what he’s noticed.

“It’s not that there isn’t an entrance, it seems more that it’s blocked off by something, and that something seems to be a bunch of rocks…” Link added.

Midnight had made his to the top of the hill right when Link had mentioned it being blocked off and stated his dissatisfaction with it.

“The entrance is blocked?! Son of a- Oww!”

Before Midnight could however, Rosy had thrown a rock at him.

“Hey! Language Midnight!” Rosy lectured.

“Oh yeah...of course...this is a K+ fic...can’t say that because of all the kiddies who’ll probably read this now can I?” he responded, unamused.

“Yeah...whatever you say…” Rosy responded, still somewhat confused.

“Aaannnnyway…” Mosaic said aloud, breaking it up. “We gotta figure out a way to get rid of the blockade, since what you wanted to show us is in there correct?” he asked Midnight.

“Yes…”

“Okay, let’s see, considering the formation, the entrance is probably elevated in a high spot…” Mosaic wondered. “Hmm, what if we had Link throw a bomb there?”

“Huh, might not be a bad idea, it often worked on cracked walls where me and Midnight are fr-” Link began.

“Then again maybe not...there’s the possibly that we throw the bomb up there, and it just makes things worse and causes more rubble to fall…and along with that, even if it got the rubble out of the way, it’s still too high up for any of us to really reach...” Mosaic then realized.

“Other than me or...Midnight I think?” Hoops commented.

“Yeah, other than you and Midnight,” Mosaic added. “Anyway, the idea I’ve figured out is that we get a springboard from a question block or something, use it to get up to the entrance, and then…-”

“Move the rocks by hand?” Link asked.

“Well...yeah...unfortunately…”

“Well, I guess if it can’t be helped, we should just get started, I, and i’m sure all of you guys really want to see what’s in there.”

“Agreed, and I think we should start by looking ‘here’,” Rosy stated, going over to a nearby lake along with Berry, then scouting it for a question block.

After looking a bit, Berry mentioned something.

“You see some? Where are they Berry?” Rosy asked.

Berry pointed over to the spot he saw them. Them being on a small spot of land surrounded by water.

Berry then, eager to get them, is about to dive into the water, but Rosy, noticing something about the water, stopped him.

“Wait Berry, stop...”

Berry asked why she stopped him, kind of upset.

As such, Rosy pointed out why she did.

The why was because, in the water, there were a bunch of fish, these fish were mostly red in color, other than the white, circular patches on their stomachs, had yellow tail fins, a mohawk-like dorsal fin and wing-like fins and finally, that had blue eyes and pink lips. These were cheep cheeps.

“Yeah, that’s why I stopped you Berry, if we swim in the lake, we’ll most likely be attacked by those cheep cheeps, and because of that, we’ll need to find another way around. The only question is how...”

“Hmm, I see you guys are having a problem, let me handle it,” Midnight stated, having now come over to the lake.

Midnight’s eyes then began to glow a lightish blue color as he faced the water, and soon enough, waves of some kind began to pulsate from them as well and over to the Cheep Cheeps. In which the Cheep Cheeps’ expressions changed to a blank, emotionless look and began to swim into a coordination that created a bridge over to the small spot of land the ? blocks were on.

“Huh...I guess that’ll work...come on Berry,” Rosy said, then going over the bridge of fish along with him to the spot where the blocks were.

They then opened all of the blocks...however none of them contained a springboard.

“This is a problem…” Rosy stated, then looking up. “Berry, could you throw me upward?” Rosy then asked.

Berry gave a yes in his language and picked her up. She spun around as he did so and then quickly hurled her up above the blocks, as to avoid hurting his hands.

Rosy’s hunch was correct. Above the blocks was an invisible note block, and this very note block contained exactly what they were looking for, a springboard.

After landing on the ground, Rosy noticed the springboard.

“Wow, I expected things to work out and for there to be something hidden there, but I didn’t realize it’d work out THAT well…” Rosy stated. “Anyway, Berry, help me out.”

As such, both of the two pick up the springboard, with Berry then carrying it as they headed back over to Midnight.

“Hmm, so you found a springboard after all,” Midnight stated. “How about we head back to the cliff now?”

“Let’s get Mosaic, Hoops and Link first,” Rosy responded. “Mosaic! Hoops! Link! We found a springboard!”

“Wow, that was faster than I thought it’d be,” Mosaic stated. “Guess we should go meet them there now.”

Which they indeed did and all made it back to the area in which the rocks resided.

“Alright, so to quickly review, me, Link, Rosy and Berry take the springboard up, Midnight and Hoops go up ahead, and all of us work on removing the rocks by hand, got it?”

Everyone gave either a nod or thumbs up in response, assuming they had hands that is.

“Alright, then let’s get to it.”

As such, Hoops began to climb up the rock walls while Midnight, preparing a huge jump, was able to make it up to the rocks. Mosaic, Rosy, Berry and Link then each got on the springboard and bounced up to a spot in which they could stand one by one and joined in by removing the rocks.

And soon enough, and in a short amount of time on top of that, the rocks were all removed, allowing them entry into the cavern, after some comments from each of them, wasting no more time, they all made their way in.

VII: Discovery

The group when they made it into the interior of the dark cavern took a look around.

“Midnight...I’m looking around...I can’t see what the thing you’re talking about is,” Mosaic expressed aloud.

“It should stick out like a thumb that’s been smashed with a hammer, keep looking,” Midnight responded.

“Okay, okay…” Mosaic replied.

“Guys, I think I found what Midnight is talking about,” Rosy informed the group. “It’s a warp pipe of some kind on the wall.”

“Okay, because that’s what Midnight clearly meant right?” Hoops responded sarcastically.

“I wouldn’t have brought it up if it weren’t for a detail about it, how about you guys take a look?”

“Sure thing, we’ll throw away five seconds of our lives to look at something we’ve seen a bunch of times,” Hoops responded as he made his way over with the others.

However, he was proven wrong when he and the others saw the warp pipe that Rosy made reference to.

This warp pipe was a different color than normal, it wasn’t green, it wasn’t red, infact, it wasn’t any single solid color at all, but was some kind of swirling mix of red, green, and blue, or something of that sort.

“O-Oh...T-that...actually...is kinda interesting…” Hoops admitted.

“What did I tell you?” Rosy responded.

“That is a strange looking warp pipe…” Mosaic commented.

In which Berry agreed as well.

“Agreed Mosaic,” Link added. “is this what you wanted us to see Midnight?”

“Mhmm, figured you’d find it on your own which is why I had let you take it from there, it really does stick out like a smashed thumb.”

“Doesn’t he mean sore th-”

“Whatever,” Midnight interrupted. “Anyway, cut the chatter, don’t you all want to see what’s through the pipe?”

“I was...planning to to begin with…” Mosaic responded.

The rest of the group along with Mosaic gave varying inputs, however overall similar answers.

“Then let’s get going, ladies first,” Midnight responded, then giving Rosy a signal.

“Surprisingly polite coming from you Midnight, but okay,” Rosy responded as she made her way into the pipe head first.

“Guess since I lead you guys here, I’ll go in next,” Midnight then said, somewhat squeezing through the pipe to make it through.

“I’ll head in next,” Link said, then crouching a bit to fit, making his way through the tunnel as well.

“I’ll go next, come on Berry,” Hoops told Berry.

In which Berry was fine with, and both then entered through the pipe.

“Well...guess that leaves me, let’s just follow them,” Mosaic said to himself, everyone else having entered the pipe other than him, which shortly after his statement, did so himself.

The six made their way through the dark enclosed tunnel for a good while, having a bit of chatter about different things like what they think is on the other side and other several random topics along the way.

After doing so for a good while, they eventually DID make it to the other side of the pipe. What they found on the other side was amazing, it was a land most of them had never seen before, a whole new world...

VIII: A Whole New World

The other side of the pipe had ended right on the top, unbeknownst to the group on the top of a large mountain, Rosy, having been the first to enter the pipe, was also the first to make it out of the pipe. When she made it out, she decided to see the view, seeing they were high up, and seemed to be astounded by it.

“Guys! Guys! Look at the view! It’s amazing!” she shouted to the others.

Hearing this, the others, who had still been within the pipe made their way through it quicker than normal.

Midnight got out of the pipe next, and hopped like he would over to where Rosy was instead of sliding like he normally did and as such was in short time able to see what Rosy was seeing.

“No...No...no way...we’ve...we’ve found it…”

Hearing Midnight say this, the remaining four in the pipe were more curious than ever now as Midnight generally never talked in that way to them. As such, Link hurried out of the pipe and took a look as well.

“I-…wh-what? I...I’m at a loss for words...I...I thought I’d...I’d never see this place again…b-but it really is...” he said, also taken aback by what he saw.

Hoops, Berry and Mosaic hustled quickly to get out of the pipe to figure out what the other three were gushing over.

Hoops got out, bringing Berry along, in which he rode on top of Hoops as the latter carried him and scuttled over to the cliff that the three looked over to see what they saw.

“...Woah…” was Hoops’ thoughts.

Berry also found amazement in it, saying “oooo” in his language.

“Wait guys, wait for me, I want to see what you’re all looking at too,” Mosaic stated.

Once he got out of the pipe, he made it over and looked for himself.

“O-Oh…W-Wow...” Mosaic stated.

What the group had been taken aback by was a lush, green, grassy open field with occasional trees here and there stretching out as far as the eye can see. It was under a fresh blue cloudy sky, and far off in the distance, they could see more mountains like the one they stood on.

“I-It’s beautiful…” Mosaic continued.

“Isn’t it?” Rosy responded. “I’d even almost call it...breathtaking…”

“It really is something isn’t it?” Midnight stated. “You know what this place is?”

“I don’t…” Mosaic responded.

“Nope,” Rosy answered.

“No idea…” Hoops told.

Berry gave a similar answer in his language.

“Well Link, how about you tell them?”

“Sure thing, this...is Hyrule.”

“W-Wait...What?! You...you mean this is…” Mosaic began.

“Yep, indeed it is, it is the world in which Midnight and I are from.”

“You guys live in this?” Hoops asked. “Needless to say, it looks like it’d be a cool place to be in all the time!”

“I wonder what Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad would say about this place if they were here,” Rosy thought aloud.

“Them? You know, I think they’d find it amazing, and...and…..and...” Link began, but then slowing down before stopping all together and looking down mid sentence, to the puzzlement of everyone.

“Link? What’s wrong?” Rosy asked, quickly taking notice of it.

“I...I...I can’t stay here…”

“What!?” Everyone says in unison, shocked about his explanation.

“Wait? Link, why?” Rosy asked.

“Well...there’s a promise I made to the rest of Team S.M.B.X,” Link began to explain. “They...they need me, I promised them back when I first joined their group that I’d stick around with them.”

“Wait, you made that kind of agreement with them? Why?” Hoops asked.

“When I did it back then, I didn’t actually think we were going to well...discover a portal to our homeworld in some random tunnel.”

“I...see…” Hoops responded.

“The issue is...even though I’d love to stay here, I can’t just leave them behind on a whim.”

Hearing the conversation go on, Midnight intervened.

“Okay bud, listen here a second,” Midnight sternly said, using his psychokinesis to make Link keep eye contact with him. “Me and you have been looking for this place for months...MONTHS. And you’re really going to tell you’re going to abandon it again as soon as you find it just because of some agreement you made with your group almost a year ago?” Midnight continued, criticizing his decisions.

“W-well…-”

“I wasn’t done Link,” Midnight interuppted. “Another thing to consider is this, you could have the Mosaic Group inform them on where you went off to, i’m sure they’d understand if you did that.”

“W-Well Midnight, the thing is, It wouldn’t feel right to just abandon them like that without any kind of proper goodbye or warning of the sorts,” Link explained. “What if I leave them right when they need me most?”

“Well that’s simple, why don’t they get someone else to take your place on the team?” Midnight suggested. “Like...that green dinosaur I see you guys sometimes hanging around with.”

Berry then asked Midnight something in his language.

“Hmm?” Midnight responded.

“‘Are you referring to Yoshi?’ he asked,” Rosy translated for him.

“If that’s what the green dinosaur with the saddle is called, then yes.”

“Well here’s the problem with that Midnight,” Mosaic intervened into the conversation. “Yoshi would have a hard time filling the shoes of Link in multiple ways,” Mosaic began to explain.

“In the way of?” Midnight asked.

“Well for one, Yoshi doesn’t exactly know how to speak english like Link can,” Mosaic began to explain. “Second, Yoshi doesn’t have a sword nor bombs does he?”

“True…”

“He also, no offense to him, isn’t as good with directions as Link is,” Mosaic continued. “And finally on top of all of that, I lack confidence that he could bear that big of a responsibility on such short notice..”

“He makes a lot of good points…” Link added.

Midnight thought about what the two said and remained silent for a bit. Once he thought for a bit, he spoke up.

“You know what? Fine, go ahead and run back to them, I won’t stop you,” Midnight answered.

“Well...alright then Midnight. I guess this is where we and the group part ways.” Link responded.

“Yep...sure looks that way,” Midnight replied. “When you change your mind, you and the group know where the tunnel that lead you here is, so with that said, guess I’ll see you off.”

The Mosaic group as well as Link stood near the pipe that they entered from, ready to leave in the order of Link, Hoops, Berry, Mosaic and Rosy.

“I’m heading back, I’ll see you guys on the other side,” Link told the group, entering the pipe before them.

“Hey Midnight, though I didn’t know you for long, you were kinda interesting to be around, despite the...complications that came with it,” Hoops told Midnight.

“Don’t worry about it,” Midnight responded.

“Well, see ya, come on Berry,” Hoops then said, bringing Berry along with him to the pipe.

As the two left, Berry waved goodbye to Midnight, in which Midnight somewhat waves back by maneuvering a nearby rock back and forth with his psychic power.

“Well Midnight, I hope you enjoy being back home, we’ll always be at the Mushroom Plains if you ever want to go back there,” Mosaic gave Midnight as his parting words.

“Yeah, keyword, IF I ever want to go back there,” Midnight responded.

“Yeah...Okay…” Mosaic responded, then heading into the pipe.

Before leaving, Rosy went over to Midnight and talked with him a bit.

“I guess this is goodbye,” Rosy began.

“Well for now I would think.”

“I’ll simply tell you, watch how you use your mouth,-”

“What mouth?”

“You...know what I mean…anyway, try to stay out of trouble, and take care of yourself.”

After saying this, she gave Midnight a small hug. He didn’t think much of it, but understood Rosy’s words anyway.

Rosy made her way back to the pipe and before entering it waved goodbye.

“Farewell,” Rosy said.

“Yeah...farewell too I suppose,” Midnight responded.
And with that, Rosy entered the pipe, making her way back along with the others.

IX: We’ve Got Plans...Big Plans…

Rosy made her way to the other side of the pipe, where she saw that only Mosaic, Hoops and Berry were present. Rosy looked around curiously, and noticing the detail asked a question.

“Where’s Link?” Rosy asked.

“I’m not sure, I'm guessing he must have run off after he got through the pipe,” Mosaic answered.

“I imagine he really needed some time alone huh?”

“Well...what makes you say that?” Hoops asked.

“He looked really saddened to have made the decision he made, but it seems that he really considered it to be right in his mind so he still went through with it,” Rosy responded. “As such, I don’t think we should go trying to look for him and should just leave him be for now.”

“Hearing that, I guess I understand your perspective a bit more.”

“Regardless of where he has headed, we should really get home ourselves, it’s probably like five or six o'clock in the morning by now, and we gotta get back for multiple reasons.”

Hoops, Rosy and Berry, hearing Mosaic, are puzzled at his statement.

“Wait, what do you mean, ‘multiple reasons’?” Hoops asked. “Even though one of the obvious is that we have to, well”-he said as he rubbed an eye due to being tired-”sleep…”

“After we all get some rest, we’re going to prepare for something, pack up for it to be exact,” Mosaic explained. “There’s somewhere I want to go, not just for the sake of meeting someone new, but I feel we need a bit of time to get away as well.”

“I...I may know where you’re thinking of going and who you’re thinking of meeting,” Rosy responded.

“For now, I’ll let you guys get some rest first, after that, then I’ll give the details of what my plan is.”

“Okay…” Hoops responded.

“Yeah, that should work,” Rosy responded.

Berry didn’t give a response, he was already sleeping like the baby he was.

“Now, I think we should head back.”

“Home is...kinda far from here don’t you think?” Hoops pointed out.

“From what I recall, there should be a pipe somewhere in Moonlight Meadows that goes to Vibrant Park, and at that point, we can make our way to our neighborhood, get home, and get some rest.”

Yawning, Hoops then said, “Sounds like an idea, I’ll carry Berry, lead the way please.”

“Yeah…” Rosy said.

And as such, with Hoops carrying Berry on his back, the three made their way out of the cave to make their way to the pipe and of course, make their trip home.

“With their nightly adventures having cometh to a close, the Mosaic Group parted ways with their two otherworldly buddies, having also learned more about them and where their world of origin was from. And having been tired after going on another journey the night after the other and wanting to not just escape for a few days, but meet someone new, were already making plans to go on a vacation.

…

…

Little did they know however they picked quite the untimely...time to take a vacation, as would soon be revealed to them...in time.”

Next Time...Chapter 8: Pieces To The Puzzle

[King Mario]

Wow! Thanks Mosaic. What a surprise!

[Mosaic]

As I've promised, here's the next chapter, right here for you to read.

Chapter 8: Pieces The Puzzle: show

"As the tired out group had intended, they made it back to their place of residence, and slept through most of the day, given their lack of sleep the previous night beforehand. It wasn't until the day was over halfway through that the group were incited to get to their preparations for their trip, within a couple hours, they had their carriers, holders, and what have thee prepared, and to the spot in which the planes departed, they departed. They arrived at nightfall, their flight booked to leave soon."

I: Untimely Leave

"Okay, so i'm pretty sure that we've packed everything we need for this trip."

"Hundred percent?" Hoops asked. "You are a bit forgetful, maybe double check incase you forgot something?"

"Hmm, you could be right, maybe I should," Mosaic responded.

"Nah, I think you did a good enough search, Mosaic, we should be good," Rosy added.

"Easy for you to say Rosy…given how organized your bag usually is," Hoops replied.

Rosy stroked her fur in the bug's direction in acknowledgement, in which the crawler rolled his eyes.

"I'll check the cases again just in case," Mosaic ultimately responds.

As he's doing this, Berry begins to tell Rosy something.

"Oh? What's going on Berry?" she asked.

Berry continued, finishing his statement.

"Oh wow, you're right, I'll ask," Rosy said in response. "Mosaic, are you sure the plane's leaving at ten o'clock tonight?"

Looking up from his task, Mosaic responded.

"Yeah, I think so, that's what the ticket said anyway, here it is if you're curi-" He began to say, then being cut off by a sudden voice that flooded into the airport halls.

"Ten o' clock flight, plane number eighty-nine, booked for the destination, Sarasaland, will be leaving within five minutes. Repeat, Ten o' clock flight, plane number eighty-nine, booked for the destination, Sarasaland, will be leaving within five minutes." declared a worker on the speaker.

"Ah, I'd think that answers your question," Mosaic instead said. "Let's get going," he then said, getting his own packaging and the others getting theirs.

As the group made their way to the takeoff port, and eventually, the airline, a bit of discussion was had between them.

"Hey, Mosaic, I had actually been meaning to ask this," Rosy began.

"Eh? What happened?" Mosaic asked.

"Something i'm realizing is that, well...we kinda are going on this trip on a whim, we should really do something to inform Team S.M.B.X on where we are since we never really mentioned to them that we were going to go on this trip, I mean, you only told us you were planning on us going on this trip earlier today for crying out loud," Rosy explained.

"Oh," Mosaic responded. "I actually did think of that and decided that a good idea would be leaving them a note on the door that they can read that tells them where we went."

"Ah, I suppose that works."

It is around here that the group had made their way to their seats in the relatively crowded seating area, and the plane had taken off, oncourse to Sarasaland.

"I wonder what Sarasaland will be like, and what we'll see there and such…" Hoops thought allowed.

"Hmm, I'm not sure, but I imagine it'll be a beautiful place to see regardless," Rosy responded.

"...hmm, Mosaic, do you know anything about what Sarasaland is like?"

"Ah? No, not at all actually, all I know about it is that Daisy rules over it."

"Speaking of her, is she the one we're planning on seeing?" Rosy asked.

"Indeed it is, I figure we should at least try to get acquainted with her," Mosaic responds. "She seems to know Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad pretty well given how much we've heard them talk about her, but we have yet to meet her in person ourselves, so what I figure is, why not do it now?"

"Those are good reasons for us to go see her, but what else are we planning to do after that?" Rosy replied, then asked. "We shouldn't just stay there that one day and then go."

"I'm thinking after that we'll do a fair amount of sightseeing there, and if there's any other tourists attractions there, well, we may as well check them out."

"I suppose that is a good way to unwind, after having to deal with fighting off Bowser's troops and the 8-bits all the time, and then when we're not doing that, dealing with a number of other things too, to just not think about it in this case," Rosy stated. "What do you think about this Hoops?"

"Eh, it sounds like a decent plan regardless," he responded.

Berry then asked a question, when he had been silent this whole time.

"When will we get there? I think we could ask a flight usher about it," Rosy responded.

"Good idea, I'll do it now," Mosaic added in.

Mosaic signals down the flight usher, a Toad in the appropriate attire and asks the question.

"Ma'am, how long will this flight be before we reach Sarasaland?"

The Usher responded. "Oh, only nine hours."

"ONLY nine hours? It's going to be morning by the time we arrive!" Mosaic responded.

"Welp, this is gonna be a long flight…" Hoops shared.

"May as well try to make the best of it…" Rosy added.

Eventually however, each of the group fell asleep, feeling it was better to sleep on the plane, given they were all still sleep deprived from their activities the previous night. And as such, the group rested as the plane carried them to Sarasaland.

"It was in this moment however, that back at home, fate would arrive upon Team S.M.B.X in the form of a virtual carried voice. The Mosaic group had chosen a bad time to take an extended period of time off like they did…"

The Next Early Morning, at Mario's Pad...

Mario and Luigi were both sleeping silently in their respective bunks, like the two of them normally would.

The silence however was broken by a loud ringing noise.

"Huh, huh, wha, what's-a that?" Mario said aloud, being woken up by the ringing.

With a quick turn to the left, the plumber quickly found the source of the noise, his phone. Seeing this, he quickly picked it up and answered.

"Whoever is-a calling, you better have a good reason for calling us this-a early," Mario stated, not a fan of being woken up so soon.

"Heh Heh Heh, so I guess that means you're there, correct?" the voice on the other end said.

"Wait...I recognize this-a voice…" Mario stated. "E. Gadd! Why are you-a calling me at-a five forty-five in the-a morning?"

"Funny thing there my whickersnapper," E Gadd began to explain.

"Whipper-asnapper?" Mario asked, correcting him.

"Potato, Po-tot-o," E. Gadd responded. "I actually tried to contact your buddy earlier, what was his name...Moscow?"

"...Mosaic?" Mario asked.

"Ah yes, Mosaic. I tried to call him a bit earlier, but he didn't pick up, didn't respond, nothing…"

"That's-a...odd," Mario replied. "But umm, why are you calling-a me then?"

"Heh, well, I'll save the details there, but I'd like you, green stache, and your other buddies to meet with me as soon as possible, I've found some intriguing stuff on that there thingy your friend gave me the other day."

This got Mario's attention, despite his semi-delayed reaction, and he responded "W-Will-a do I-a guess…"

"I'll be waiting, toodles!" the professor responded, then hanging up.

After putting the phone back up, Mario lied back down, covering himself in his blankets, closing his eyes again.

At about fifteen minutes past six was when Mario had woken up and decided it was the time to make his move, waking up Luigi and passing E. Gadd's info to him.

"We're...going-a back to that scary forest again?" Luigi asked.

"Just to talk with-a E. Gadd I-a guess…" Mario answered.

"Oh...O-akay…" Luigi responded.

The two bros after grabbing a quick breakfast made their way out of the pad, and through the warp pipe, this very pipe leading them to the direct outskirts of Toad Town.

Though Mario knew where the pipe was, Luigi was a bit confused on where it was that his brother was going to lead him.

"Hmm, something tells me Toad is-a over in Toad Town in the main square right-a now," Mario stated. "Let's go get him real quick."

"Okie dokie…" Luigi said, just going along with it.

When the two made their way into the town square, they indeed saw Toad there like they figured they would, in which he seemed to be staring at the water in a fountain, lost in thought.

"Hey-a Toad!" Mario shouted.

This immediately caught Toad's attention, causing him to look up and over at the source.

"Oh! Umm, hey Mario! Hey Luigi! So, what's up?" Toad asked.

"We just-a got a call this morning from him."

"Who Mario?" Toad asked.

"Umm, Professor E-a Gadd," Luigi answered for him.

"Oh, him, what about?"

"He wants us to-a meet him at the place he met with us the other-a day," Mario informed.

"Huh, that nerve racking place again?" Toad thought aloud. "Well, okay…"

"Think we should-a ask Princess Peach to come along too?" Luigi asked.

"Ah umm...don't worry about it, she seems to be too busy too at this given moment."

"Oh...I guess we-a tell her later what's going on?"

"I'd suppose so, it's not like we can't."

With this said, the three made their way out of Toad Town the way that they came in, and continued on the way to Colorful Hills to find the pipe from the other day, when they weren't too far from the hills, they passed by a tree and noticed someone laying back on it, hands behind their head.

This someone was none other than Link, who also had his eyes closed, seemingly thinking through a number of things.

"Huh, what's Link doing here?" Toad asked aloud, somewhat asking the others as well.

Luigi gave a shrug, not knowing what to say.

"I don't-a know…" Mario inputted. "Hey-a Link!"

Hearing this, Link opened up his eyes, seeing Mario on the ground.

"Oh...hey Mario…" Link responded.

"What are you doing in that-a tree?" Mario asked.

"Just thinking…"

"...Do you...want to-a tell us what?" Mario questioned.

"...I'm good…"

"Alright then…" Mario replied. "Well, do you want to tag along with the three of us?"

"Where are you headed?"

"To see-a E. Gadd, you know, that scientist-a guy," Mario informed.

"Oh...that guy...I suppose," Link replied, then jumping down the tree and following with the group.

As the group continued on their way to the Colorful Hills, it not being far by now, a thought crossed Toad's mind and he decided to ask Mario about it.

"Hey, Mario, wouldn't bringing Yoshi along be a good idea?"

"Oh umm, to be completely-a honest, I actually don't know where he ran off to."

"...You don't?"

"Yeah...ever since we saw him at the-a game the other day, he kinda just-a slipped away somewhere once it-a ended."

"I see…"

"If I had to guess, I'd think he's-a on some kind of extended date with his girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? Do you mean…?"

"Yeah, I mean-a her."

Meanwhile...at Yoshi's whereabouts...

As was Team S.M.B.X's suspicion, Yoshi had indeed taken a ferry booked for Chocolate Valley, Dinosaur Land, and he'd had brought a date with him, this date being none other than the pink...dinosaur like creature, Birdo, having a name the same as her species for an unclear reason.

Yoshi started the conversation by asking Birdo a question.

"Oh? Umm...umm...what did I want to talk to you about?" Birdo responded to Yoshi's question, able to understand him.

Yoshi affirmed this being his question in response.

"Well...I'll...I'll try to put it into words as best I can, okay?"

Yoshi responded that whatever she needed to say, it's alright, she can say it.

"Well here it is," Birdo began. "Did I ever tell you that...well…" Birdo tried to say, not sure if she wanted to say. She eventually then turned to the nearby railing on the ship and leaned on it, looking at the sea.

Yoshi was puzzled at this and asked what the issue was.

"Well...I...I feel...lonely…"

Yoshi was surprised to hear this and asked why, and for how long she's felt like this for.

"For...for years…" Birdo slowly responded.

Yoshi has concern about this, given this is something Birdo never really said.

"Why I feel like this, it's well...I don't really have anyone I truly connect with…other than you..."

Yoshi found a lot of surprise in this, and asked about some individuals, seeing if this was entirely true.

"Mario? Luigi? Them? They and their other buddies I only ever really saw as acquaintances, not really friends…"

Yoshi understood, staying quiet to let Birdo continue.

"And well...there is someone I know, and…"

Yoshi asked who it was.

"Well...they're...like...kinda my friend but...not really?"

Yoshi wasn't sure how to respond to this hearing it.

Starting to tear up a bit, Birdo continued. "And well, it feels like...no one else cares for me...like they find me weird or something, and want nothing to do with me…"

Yoshi then began to have a sympathetic look on his face, showing concern.

"And sometimes, it feels like you're the only one I have," Birdo continued. "Like...I...honestly don't know what I'd do without you…" Birdo said, then letting herself go as she went from shedding several tears to straight up crying.

Seeing this, after a bit, Yoshi decided he shouldn't leave her like this, and said some words of encouragement in his language and walked next to her, and began to stroke her in the back a bit, comforting her.

"...Oh…" Birdo spoke, only now noticing. "T-thank you Yoshi…"

Yoshi then told Birdo that she'll be okay, as he's there for her.

II: The Puzzle Frame

Back To Team S.M.B.X's perspective...

By now, the four guys had made it to the front door of the temporary lab of Professor E. Gadd, Mario giving him a knock.

"Ho ho ho, no need for that my fellow Mario, the door's open."

"Oh…" Mario responded, he and the other three letting themselves in.

"Alrighty Professor E.-a Gadd," Mario began. "What do you have to-a show us? Is this connected to that frame Mosaic gave-a you a bit ago?"

"Oh ho ho, indeed it is Mario," E. Gadd began. "But umm, where's Princess Toadstool?"

"She's busy…" Toad responded.

"...Yeah…" Mario added, a thought lingering in his mind.

"Well okay then, still, it's time to spill the beans, so listen up you four."

The four did exactly that, all putting a hand to their ears.

"To start off, this artifact that your buddy gave me...it's a frame for a certain guiding object…"

"Wait…it guides you...it's round…" Link began. "Is it…"

"Right you are elf boy, it's the frame to some kind of ancient compass."

"A compass huh? That's...a bit arbitrary…" Toad added.

"Well...what's the-a catch?" Mario asked. "This can't just be any-a ordinary old compass right?"

"Heh, And you're indeed right there fella."

"O..." Mario replied, intrigued to hear this.

"For one thing, take a look at the sides," E. Gadd asked of the group, then showing the sides of the compass, exposing tiny holes of some kind.

"Huh, there's holes on it...like something goes there…" Toad analyzed. "Do you know what goes there?"

"I...didn't find anything to suggest what might," E. Gadd embarrassingly answered.

"Oh…I see…" Toad replied.

"Okay, and what-a else?" Mario asked.

"I'll tell you now, ho ho."

"Let's-a hear it."

"...This compass, from what i've researched, is bestowed with many strong, probably magical powers."

"Wow, no way…" Toad responded.

"Mama mia..that sounds like-a something…" Luigi stated.

"...that's what they found?" Link stated, thinking aloud.

"What are these-a powers exactly?" Mario asked.

"I...I don't know, hahaha."

"Oh…" the four all stated simultaneously, disappointed.

"From what I've read in this ancient book I have though, it bears some kind of powerful magic in it."

"But...but...didn't you just-a say…-" Luigi began.

"The only issue there," Prof. E Gadd continued, ignoring Luigi. "Is well, as you can see my dear youngsters...this compass is empty! The pieces are all gone!"

"I...can-a see that…" Mario replied.

"Me-a too…" Luigi added.

"Yeah...it is…" Toad commented.

"...Yeah...that's clear…meaning?" Link asked.

"What this means is, no pieces, no powers. No magic, zilch, nada, nothing!"

"Oh...makes sense…" Link responded.

"So umm, where do we-a start to find the pieces to the-a compass?" Mario asked.

"Hoo hoo hoo, I thought you'd ask that," E. Gadd replied. "The needle should point you to where the nearest shard is."

"That's-a very helpful…" Mario said. "Are there-a any places you recommend for us to start-a searching?"

"Oh indeed there is my fair Mario fellow," E. Gadd answered. "During my research I found that there's two places worth checking out. A mountain and a pyramid."

"Oh? Sounds interesting...what about them?" Toad asked.

"From what I know mushroom, both have some kind of connection to this compass that the group found, and by visiting these two places, maybe you guys could learn a thing or two on that thing, heh."

"Well, where-a is this mountain and-a pyramid exactly anyway?"

"The mountain is actually...the Dino Mountain over in...that place where all those dino people gather."

"...Dinosaur-a Land?" Luigi asked.

"Ah yes, that's the name, thank you my fella Luigi."

"And the pyramid?" Toad asked.

"Hmm...the pyramid should be...somewhere in Desert Land I think."

"Somewhere? So you don't-a know where it-a is?" Luigi asked, a bit frightened by this.

"Well, not exactly, my dear fellow, though I was able to get a hold of these two maps, one for the mountain and one for where that pyramid may be, heh."

"Okie-dokie…" Luigi replied.

"You-a did? That sounds-a handy!" Mario stated.

"Well, they're also a bit aged and worn, so, they may be a bit less handy for that reason...just like me…"

"Oh…" Link commented. "Well...I personally think we should take the maps, helped me out many times where I'm from."

Given this, the inventor handed Mario the maps.

"And with that said my plucky group, I'll also lend this thingamajig to you all," the inventor then said, also handing the compass frame to Mario.

"thank-a you," Mario formally replied.

"And well...be sure to hold on to those things, you don't want to lose them. Otherwise, you're most definitely not finding those pieces."

"Plus, don't we kinda not want the frame to fall into the wrong hands?" Toad pointed out. "Imagine if Bowser got a hold of this thing…"

"You're...You're-a right Toad," Mario acknowledged. "...maybe we should have someone hold it that the Koopa Troop wouldn't expect to?"

"Link?" Toad brought up.

"...I'd prefer to not…" Link answered.

"How about-a you Toad?" Mario asked.

"Umm...n-no...I...I couldn't handle it…" Toad replied. "I'd...I'd probably lose it, you know? Screw it up...like I do alot…"

"I...I-a see…. Well I can't-a a hold on to it for obvious reasons. So umm..." Mario began, looking in the direction of Luigi, who had his back turned, pretending to whistle. "Luigi, how about you hold-a on to it?"

Luigi heard this, and began to object. "What! B-Brother, w-w-why-a me?"

"Well, you're the best option here I-a feel," Mario answered. "Link and Toad don't feel responsible about holding on the compass frame, i'm too obvious of a person to keep something important like-a that on, and plus, given that you're...you know…"

"A coward?" Luigi asked.

"Umm...y….yeah, a-a coward…" Mario, though hesitant to, affirmed. "I doubt that the-a Koopa Troop would expect you to be holding on to-a something this important."

"...True…" Luigi responded.

"So come on-a brother, please this one time, take one for the-a team," Mario tried to convince.

After some brief thought, Luigi gave the answer. "I...I'll-a do it…"

"Yeah, that's the-a spirit Luigi!" Mario congratulated Luigi on, giving him five.

"So it's settled between you four correct? Green pistachio is holding the important mcguffin, and you're all going to go off and search for the pieces I presume?"

"As soon as we get-a word to Princess-a Peach and the Mosaic Group, that's the-a idea."

"...I...I-a guess so…" Luigi filled in.

"Probably so…" Toad added.

"...I guess we're overdue for another adventure," Link said. "Atleast...these three…"

"Heh, well my humble group, I hope the best of odds go to you on your conquest."

"O-a...kay E, we'll be seeing you off-a now," Mario responded.

"Toodles to you too!" E. Gadd replied.

"Goodbye," Toad said.

"...See ya…" Luigi added.

Link just gave a nod as the group made their way out of E. Gadd's lab, back into the woods, and soon enough, back to the familiar lush, green fields of Mushroom Plains.

"Well about time something different came along…" Toad said. "I was wondering when E. Gadd would get back to us on what that thing was."

"Going to be-a honest, I was wondering the same-a thing," Mario said.

"Maybe we should-a call Mosaic and his buddies about-a this?" Luigi asked.

"Hmm, E. Gadd mentioned he had trouble contacting him, and I was going to wait until later to contact him for that reason, but I guess it-a doesn't hurt to try again," Mario replied, then pulling out his phone and dialing Mosaic's number.

Back at the Mosaic Group's flight...

The plane by now had completed the nine-hour flight to Sarasaland and landed, in which the Mosaic group departed from the plane as well as the airport, making their way directly outside and surveying the scenery.

In all directions, they saw repeating scenery, there was alot of sand, rocks, cactuses and pyramids as far as could be seen, and by looking close enough, it even looked like there was some distinctly question mark marked blocks here as well, some opened, others not. In a number of ways, the landscape resembled Desert Land back over in the Mushroom Kingdom, this however wasn't Desert Land, but was a part of Sarasaland.

"So here we are it seems, Sarasaland, it's...something from what I can see to start off," Mosaic commented.

"I think what we should start with is figuring out what part of, or to be more accurate, which kingdom of Sarasaland it is that we're in," Rosy stated.

"Kingdom? Does this imply…" Mosaic began.

"From the quick research I did on the place while we were on the plane, yeah, Sarasaland consists of four or so different kingdoms, and each of them seem to be known for a different thing."

Berry gives his opinion hearing this briefly.

"I agree that it's an intriguing fact, I was somewhat intrigued to hear this myself," Rosy replied to Berry's input. "But anyway, considering the desert-like geography of this place, I believe that the plane landed in the Birabuto Kingdom."

"Birabuto Kingdom huh? What genius thought that exotic name would attract tourists?" Hoops opinionated.

"It was enough to bring us here in all fairness…" Rosy answered.

Hoops just remained silent in response.

"Well, anyway, what I wanted to ask about Sarasaland consists of four...kingdoms. Does this imply that Sarasaland is bigger than the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"I wouldn't say so, based on the articles I've read on it, they're all much smaller than the Mushroom Kingdom is."

"Ah, makes sense."

"However, if you were to combine the four size wise, it's probably about the size of the Mushroom Kingdom, or a bit bigger."

"Sounds about righ-" Mosaic began, before he was interrupted by a continuous ringing sound. "...Oh boy, my phone's ringing, would make sense that it rings right when we arrive…" Mosaic ranted a bit, but checked who it was anyway. "Mario huh? What's this about…" Mosaic stated, accepting the call. "Hey Mario, so, what's up?"

"Hey! You-a answered!" Mario enthusiastically declared. "I wanted to call you-a to tell you something."

"Oh? What exactly?" Mosaic asked.

Mosaic then remained silent as Mario filled him in.

"Wow...so...that thing we found in the pyramid…that's what it was? A magical compass?"

"...What…" Hoops said, interested in the discussion.

"Yeah, very-a crazy right?"

"Well...We'd love to help you guys out, but the issue is that, well, we're on vacation."

"Vacation? Where'd you guys-a go? Don't tell me you guys went to-a Isle Defino…"

"Oh, no no no, we went to Sarasaland," Mosaic responded.

"Good-a move Mosaic, good-a move…"

"What makes you sa-wait a minute..."

"Yeah...I have-a history with that-a place…"

"You do…"

"...yeah...any-away, Sarasaland is a nice-a choice, somewhat varied landscape, and maybe you'll meet-a Daisy there."

"We actually plan to."

"Oh? Well hopefully that goes-a over we'll. I'll catch you-a later."

"You too, see ya." Mosaic replied before hanging up.

Back to Team SMBX...

"So Mosaic answered I'm assuming?" Toad asked.

"Yeah, and I now know where him and his-a buddies went off to," Mario answered.

"Did they go to-a Sarasaland?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, they-a needed the vacation I suppose," Mario informed Luigi. "and they probably aren't going to be-a-back for at least a couple of-a days."

"So we're-a going it alone…" Luigi stated.

"Sure looks that-a way," Mario answered. "Anyway, let's-a go tell the Princess about this now."

As such the group of four began to make their way to Mushroom Castle. As they made their ways there, they discussed a bit with one another.

"Um, Mario, I had a question if you don't mind," Link asked quietly.

"Hmm? About-a what exactly?" Mario responded.

"I don't mean offense to him but...why is Luigi such a coward?"

"Oh…" Mario replied.

"Like...I notice with doing almost anything, even the slightest bit brave, it seems to freak him out, and he never wants to do it…"

"Yeah…"

"Well, is there a reason for that?" Link asked.

"To be honest, I don't-a remember why or when he got how he-a did, but he wasn't-a always this way," Mario replied.

"He wasn't?" Link responded.

"Yeah, awhile back, he was-a of the more moderate, and there wasn't too much that got him too scared, atleast too-a much."

"Do you think we could try to get him to work back towards that? It's something I'd want to see myself to be honest."

"Not gonna lie, I want to-a see him get-a back to that point myself but...it's something he's-a struggled with for a very good while at this-a point, atleast over like...nine years by now if i'm counting that right…"

"That's rough, getting out of a bubble like that can be tough, but I feel it can be done...if you just push yourself."

"Huh? Link...you-a talk like you've been in a position similar to-a Luigi's before…"

"...I am?" Link asked.

"Huh? What are you guys talking about?" Toad asked the two, inserting himself in the discussion.

"Oh, we were discussing-a...an-a subject…"

"Were...you talking about me?"

"Oh, no, of course-a not."

"Okay, well regardless of what you guys were discussing, I don't think I mind too much if-"

It was at this exact moment, that Toad's speech was interrupted. For, at a distance, some kind of loud thundering billowed in the distance.

"W-What is-a that?" Luigi frantically stated.

"What is-a what Luigi?" Mario asked.

"I...heard a sound...it sounded like an-a….booming of some-a kind…" Luigi answered.

"I don't hear any-" Toad began, before he was cut off by another distant booming.

"Wait a minute, I heard it too!" Toad then said. "It sounds like it came from...Mushroom Castle…"

"No...No-a way...we're...we're-a not…" Mario began. "To the-a castle!" Mario then commanded the group, in which they all then rushed in the direction of the loud sounds, praying that the noise wasn't what he thought it was.

III: Again?

The group of four all rushed their way into the town, over the bridge, to the castle, and see smoke coming from the castle, and a crowd of Toads standing outside, looking at the castle with distress.

"...Someone bombed the castle?" Link stated. "That's awful!"

"...You'll get used to it…" Toad replied.

"Well...maybe we should-a ask a Toad what happened?" Luigi brought about.

"Don't-a see why not, let's ask this Toad right-a here." Mario answered, then tapping the Toad to get their attention.

"Hey so-a, buddy, what happened?"

"...guess…" The toad answered.

"Hmm, let's-a see, so...the castle was attacked…" Mario began to analyze.

"Yes…"

"And you guys are all out-a here because...Oh-a no...no-"

"Umm, where's Peach? Wouldn't she have told us about what happened to the castle and who attacked by now?" Link asked, not being used to this.

"Welp, there's your answer right there, the Princess has been...Kidnapped again by-"

"MAMA-MIA!" Mario exclaimed, this being the billionth time he's heard this, then fainted.

"Brother...are you-a okay?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, come on bud, it's not the worst thing to happen," Toad said to the passed out Mario.

Mario quickly woke up from his unconscious state, in which the Toad figured he could finish now.

"By...the Koopa Troop..."

"...What-a way did the airship go…" Mario nonchalantly asked.

"That way…" the Toad replied, pointing west.

"Towards-a Dark Land huh? Well...let's save her again I guess...come on-a gang…" Mario told the group, leading them to the outskirts of Mushroom Plains, where they discussed their plans.

"Okay, so here's the-a plan," Mario began. "I think that we should-a split up."

"...Split up?" Link asked.

"W-W-What?" Luigi replied.

"I gotta ask the same thing, why split up?" Toad added.

"My idea is-a basically well, someone has to go rescue the princess, but at the same time, I don't think we should-a completely drop Egadd's discovery either and should look into the places he asked us to go to."

"But isn't Peach being held hostage something that we seriously sho-" Link began to ask in a serious manner.

"Eh...don't worry about it Link..." Toad asked, in which Link mainly felt confusion in regards to.

"What i'm-a thinking is that me and-a Luigi go after the airship to rescue Peach, while you two go check out the two-a spots Egadd pointed out to us," Mario said toward Toad and Link.

"Huh…" Link commented.

"Hmm, doesn't sound like a bad deal, i'm for it," Toad inputted.

"Glad I dont-a have to go to one of those places alone atleast…" Luigi stated.

"Yeah...you wouldn't have-a wanted to knowing-a you, which is why the two of us are-a staying together…"

"...Suppose there's nothing wrong with doing it this way," Link eventually inputted.

"Guess it's an-a deal," Mario then said, handing the two maps to Link and Toad. "You-a two discuss how you'll go about that," Mario told the two. "We shouldn't-a spend too much more time here, the airship-a getting away! Come on-a bro!" Mario then shouted frantically, rushing in the direction of the airship, giving Luigi a sign to catch up, in which he did, though hesitant in doing so.

As a result, the objective had been made clear among the group, despite their initial plans of sticking together, they split the tasks, and went on their respective ways.

To Be Continued...

[Mosaic]

Perhaps this would have been handy to add earlier, but may aswell add this now, it's all in the title, vote on the rating that you'd give this story so far(after catching up ofc) and explain why in replies, helps with improving.

[FireyPaperMario]

To be honest with you, Mosaic, I'll give you a 8/10, since it's about the same tier as mah SMBX community based story (Lethal Labyrinth). You should add some SMBX members* in the story in later chapters. ^-^"

---

*Anyone would do, expect for me!

[Mosaic]

A few days later than I intended to post this(busy with stuff), but here it is now.

Chapter 9: Pieces To The Puzzle PART 2: show

I: Old Tricks, New Toy

It was within the interior of the aircraft, it’s destination set for Dark Land, where the fruit-named monarch was currently held hostage, chained down to a chair.

Within the holding room were also three of the seven koopalings, Larry, Iggy and Wendy, Kamek, and the Koopa King himself, Bowser.

Eventually, the turtle monster decided to taunt the princess.

“Heh heh, this time my little Toadstool, I have the upper hand,” Bowser told Peach.

Not taking him seriously, Peach responded. “Okay Mr. King stupa Koopa, what makes you come to that conclusion?”

“You haven’t seen it have you?” Bowser questioned. “Well here you go you ignorant little girl,” In this, Bowser pointed to his neck, having a pendant wrapped around it. Decorating this pendent was some kind of crooked shard, glowing with a yellow tint.

“Old tricks, new toy huh…” Peach commented. “Because yes, that’s obviously worked when you tried to use the Grand Star...and the vibe specter...and the star rod Bowser.”

Putting a claw underneath the princess’ neck, the Koopa King menacing responded. “We’ll have no more of those comments here...capeach?”

“...not funny…” Peach responded anyway.

There wasn’t much conversation beyond this as the ship continued on it’s path to the dark volcanic badlands.

II: Split Quarter Ways

Back on the ground, the Mario Bros were wasting no time, making pursuit of the mobile ship on foot, chasing it towards a group of hills, these very hills being known as the Sunset Hills.

As the two hustled, Luigi brought about some discussion, stopping in his tracks.

“Hey, M-Mario.”

“Huh? What’s the-a problem Luigi?”

“I...I-a honestly dunno if I want to-a come along now…”

“Wha…”

“Well, I just-a kinda have a bad feeling about me coming along this-a time, and well...because you’re often used to going on-a journeys like this for this kind of-a reason alone, I was wondering if I could...you know...like-”

“Brother…may I-a ask you an-a question?”

“Sure, anything Mario.”

“Well...what i’m wanting to ask is...why are you-a so inconsistent?”

“Huh? What? what do you-a mean?”

“Like, you’ve had alot of-a times where you’ve tried to opt out of going on-a quests with me and the group.”

“Y-Yeah…”

“And I know-a why. But what I find a bit-a weird too is well, you seem to get upset or...jealous, I don’t-a know? When you’re left behind.”

“Oh…”

“Like, I think I-a recall a time where I went to Peach’s castle just for cake, but it ended up evolving into another rescue mission, I actually had been thinking of bringing you along, but you decided to stay behind that time.”

“How...how did you-a know?” Luigi asked, looking away nervously.

“Well...I have an-a confession to-a make regarding that…”

“...which?”

“Which is well...I’ve...kinda looked inside your-a diary that you keep in that room under our-a bedroom a bit…”

“Y-Y-You looked in-a there!?”

“It...was mainly by-a chance, but yeah…”

“Well...I-a guess I don’t have a choice...to...to answer you’re-a question...well…well...well...”

“Are you having-a trouble saying it?”

“I...I don’t-a know how to respond…”

“Oh...I-a see...I guess we should just-a…-wait…”

“Huh?”

“THE-A AIRSHIP! We can’t let it get any-a further, come on Luigi!” Mario exclaimed, quickly hustling in the direction of where it flew, practically leaving Luigi behind.

Seeing this, and that Mario didn’t seem to be making him come along, he looked around for a bit, and nearby, he saw a blue pipe nearby, colored differently from most other pipes in the areas, green to be specific. Realizing what the blue pipe entailed, he decided this is what he’d use as a bailout.

In his haste, Mario momentarily slowed down and looked behind him, realizing his brother was nowhere to be seen.

“Mama-mia…” he thought to himself before continuing on without him.

Toad and Link meanwhile had returned to the main town area of Toad Town, and discussed with one another how they were going to do things.

“Okay, so for starters, do you know how to get to Dinosaur Land and Desert Land?” Toad asked.

“...not really...don’t know the place too well…”

“Oh, well between Dinosaur Land and Desert Land, which one would you say you know slightly more about? Even if only by a tiny bit?”

“...Desert Land…”

“Huh…”

“...something wrong?”

“Not really, but umm Link, I’ve noticed this for a fair amount of time since you showed up but...you don’t talk much do you?”

“...was never really the talkative kind where i’m from…”

“I see…”

“...and well...combine that with the fact that i’ve only been living in this place for about...a year or so, it’s not easy to adjust, making lifestyle changes in so many ways…”

“Oh...I see…umm...”

There was a short period of silence before Toad eventually broke it, continuing their previous discussion topic.

“...Well, to get back to the point, if you feel a bit more comfortable with tackling the pyramid in Desert Land, I can go to the mountain in Dinosaur Land,” Toad offered.

“I suppose that should work…” Link accepted. “But to ask my earlier question again...how are we going to get to these two places?”

“In regards to Desert Land...I think there should be an easy way there through a warp pipe in the Mosaic Group’s neighborhood, keep note that it’s yellow in color.”

“Oh, thanks...how about you though?”

“I know a shortcut to Dinosaur Land outside of Toad Town that way.”

“Okay...given I was at Vibrant Park the other day, finding the pipe shouldn’t be hard...”

“You sure?”

“...Yeah, pretty sure I can find where it is…”

“Well alright then,” Toad said, handing Link the Desert Land Pyramid Map, “hopefully we both find something interesting at these spots, see you later.”

“...See ya…”

The two after giving their parting words went their separate ways, Link heading south and Toad heading east of the town to the pipe he knew of.

Toad of course had no issue tracking down the pipe, and once he did, quickly dove in, not wasting any time.

Link on the other hand had a bit more difficulty tracking it down, having to traverse through a large amount of grassy pastures, question blocks, pipes and such scattered about.

Other than this however, there wasn’t much else that stood in the way. He made his way to the Vibrant Park, and after a bit more searching and memory jogging in where he saw the Mosaic Group meet with him the other day, he found their neighborhood.

After some further searching, as well as even finding the Mosaic Group’s house at one point as well as the note they put up, he eventually found a yellow pipe, this being the one Toad had told him about before.

“Well, let’s do this…” Link thought to himself, and not putting it off any longer, jumped in.

III: Road Split Brothers

Back where Luigi was, he had made it the other side of the pipe he escaped through, upon emerging on the other side after a steady landing, he began to walk through it, somewhat aimlessly.

As he wandered however, thought began to run through his mind.

“...I...I-don’t-a want to go…”

“I don’t-a want to go back…”

“I...I really don’t-a want to go back and...fight the Koopa Troop…”

“But...but…”

“As...as-a brother said...if I don’t...I’d miss out on the adventure...the-a travel…”

“And...if I-a don’t…I could-a miss out something meaningful with him...”

“I...I don't-a want that…”

“And...I shouldn’t-a force Mario to go on-a journeys like-a this on his own...if I can-a help it…”

“He’s handled things himself bef-”

“No, that’s no-a reason…” Luigi interrupted his other thoughts. “I really shouldn’t make him do-a that if I can make an-a difference…”

“...I’ve….I’ve been-a this-a way for a long-a time…”

“Deep down...I know it...I want to change...and well...I-a can...even if it’s-a hard.”

“That’s...That’s what I should-a do...go help an-a a brother out...I mean...it must-a mean something that he gave me this, right?” Luigi then spoke aloud, then pulling out the compass frame he was given and staring at it.

As he stared however, he noticed something interesting about the frame…

The needle started to twitch.

“Mama-Mia!...did...did it-a find something?” Luigi reacted.

Testing the compass a bit by pacing about in different directions in the cave corridor he was in, he eventually realized that whatever it was that the compass was reacting to, it had to be located within the cave.

As such, he decided instead to follow the compass within the cave and see where exactly it was that it’d lead him.

IV: Stalling Conflict

Back where Mario was, he was still pursuing the airship, having just made it to the edge of the Sunset Hills, and in fact, had pretty much caught up with the airship, being directly below it, infact, he saw that the anchor that the Koopa Troop always tended to leave hanging off, probably that one underpaid, overworked troop that forgot, not too far off from him.

“Okay, i’m not-a too far off from it now, looks like this could-a be a hasty rescue this time around.”

As he said this, looking up at the ship however, he saw something, or more accurately, someone, kinda big and yellow falling to the ground, in a way that looked to be intentional.

Seeing they were falling very close to him, the plumber jumped aside, avoiding being squashed.

Getting a closer look at the creature that fell, after seeing their details; wielding a bullet bill cannon, pink shelled, wearing a pair shades...he quickly identified them. Roy Koopa.

“Hey! Mario! What you think you’re doing?” the Koopaling snapped at Mario.

“I think it’s-a pretty obvious, i’m trying to save the-a princess that you’re-a dad loves kidnapping so-a much,” Mario snarkingly answered. “Now move aside Roy, you’re in the-a way.”

“You linguini loser,” Roy insulted. “I’m here specifically TO get in the way!”

“Is that-a so? Not the-a first time I’ve heard that...” Mario responded. “Well don’t-a mind if I-a do,” Mario responded, drawing his hammer.

“Put 'em up, fatso,” Roy responded, kicking off the fight with a blast from his cannon.

As the flying bullet flew Mario’s way, he quickly deflected it with his hammer back at Roy, which the koopa quickly dodged.

“That’s how you’re gonna be huh? Guess I’ll just mix up strategies,” Roy responded, then making a large jump into the air.

Seeing his intent, Mario dodged once again, then forming a flame in his hand.

He gave the flaming ball a short toss and then swung it at Roy with the use of his hammer.

Roy blocked the shot with the bulk of his cannon, and shot back with two more of the large bullets, in which Mario easily dodged.

Wanting to change up strategies a bit, Mario began to infuse both hands with fire and unleashed a barrage on Roy.

Roy blocked a number of the shots once again with his cannon, however, a decent number of the shots made it through, knocking him back a bit.

“Landed the first strike I see, don’t mind that…” Roy said as he prepared to shoot the cannon again, firing three more bullets at Mario.

Mario dodged the first bullet as it approached. He then ducked under the second one. And finally deflected the third with his hammer once again, this time hitting Roy on point with the deflected projectile, it blowing up and sending the turtle flying on impact and crashing back into a wall.

Roy recovered, at a relatively slow pace, preparing to fire the cannon once again, aiming it as they prepared to resume and continue their battle.

Back down below, within the depths of the Jewel Caverns, Luigi had still been following the guidance of the compass, but even after all this time, his hunt was fruitless.

“Mama-mia...is this thing ever going to-a-”

Luigi began to utter to himself before he looked up and saw a distinctive figure up ahead.

Based on what he could work out from the silhouette...this looked to be a Rex.

Intrigued by this, Luigi walked closer to get a better look at them.

On closer inspection, he saw more details of the Rex, namely that this Rex had a dark green body, something that while some rexes, like Striker had, not all Rexes were like this. But on top of this, this specific rex had also been wearing a green robe, this robe covering everywhere but his tail and feet, the latter of which, to Luigi’s shock, were completely bare, exposing the pointed features on it, kind of like that of a Birdo.

Remembering his earlier advice, Luigi quickly stuffed the compass frame into his pocket before making his way closer to the Rex to greet himself.

Before he did so however, the Rex noticed him first.

“Huh, hello there aimless wanderer, what might you be doing here?” The Rex asked Luigi.

“Oh...you know, just-a….wandering around…” Luigi responded, trying to play it off while being somewhat humorous.

The Rex looked at Luigi’s clothing for a bit, analyzing it and then asking a question.

“Huh, are you some kind of electrician?”

“No, no, not at-a all, what makes you-a say that?”

“Well, given your outfit, I thought that might have been a profession you partook in, something of that sort…”

“My overalls…” Luigi contemplated, then looking at them himself.

“I guess I kinda do look-a bit like one…”

“What would you say you are then?”

“What would a say I-a am? Would coward suffice as an-a answer?”

“You consider yourself one? You were brave enough to wander here on your own I can see.”

“I...see…”

“Hey come on, that’s not what I meant, I was asking about your profession, like...what do you do to provide for yourself?”

“Oh, I'm an-a plumber…”

“A plumber? I don’t know what that is….”

“Well, a plumber is-”

“Sounds like some kind of tacky job.”

“Er…”

“Dunno, would have liked it better if you were an electrician, nice clothes though, see that you like to sport green as well.”

“Well...I only have electrical powers to be-a honest...and...thanks?”

“Huh, we seem to have more in common than I thought…”

“Hmm?”

“Anyway, now to ask, why are you really down here?”

Realizing this implied the Rex didn’t believe his earlier question, he decided to answer, not giving him all the details.

“Well...I was-a trying to get out of helping my-a brother Mario rescue Princess Peach from the King-a Koopa…”

“Mario? Princess? King? Who might these individuals be?”

“Huh?” Luigi thought to himself, finding this Rex not hearing of them somewhat odd. “Everyone in both the-a Mushroom Kingdom and Dinosaur Land knows who they-a are…” further thoughts came.

“You never heard of them? Everyone in the-a Mushroom Kingdom and Dinosaur Land has heard of-a them…” Luigi said to the Rex aloud.

“Well...no one ever told me about them.”

“I see…”

After a brief moment of silence, the Rex continued the discussion.

“Oh wow...we spent all this time intermingling and we never got one another’s names…”

“We...We-a didn’t did we?” Luigi acknowledged. “I guess I can-a start by introducing myself...i’m-a Luigi…”

“Well hello there, Luigi, nice name, I’m Meredith,” the Rex finally revealed.

“Meredith huh? Interesting-a name…”

“Thanks for your compliment,” Meredith responded. “Based on what you’ve told me earlier, you consider yourself a coward?”

“Yes...And everyone else that-a is around me does as well...and I don’t know if that’ll ever-a change…”

“Well...what I’ll tell you there is what you should do there is get out of your comfort zone, work towards changing yourself in the way you consider best.”

“Huh…”

“With some of the changes, or some of the decisions that you may make, you may get criticized by those around you, there’ll be people who won’t like changes that may come about, they may even persecute you in fact…”

“That’s...an-a strange way of wording it…”

“What i’m basically telling you is the truth fella, don’t be discouraged, if you think you can, and you think you must, then do what you must.”

“I-I’ll-a try…”

“Exactly, now, as for what you should do no-”

At this moment, at a distant spot in the cave, something, most likely a rock or stalatchie fell on the ground, making a sound, this being loud enough for both Luigi and Meredith to hear.

“That reminds me...I don’t why I wasted so much time…” Meredith thought aloud.

“Wha?”

“I don’t have time for pep talk, need to return to my mission, I’ll be seeing you off now man in green.”

Hearing his words, Luigi tried to get one last question in as he left.

“Wait, what do you-a mean by your-a…” Luigi began, but seeing how the robed dragon had gone off already, realized he wasn’t going to answer most likely. “...He can’t-a hear me back here…. One-a things clear from-a that...I should return to my-a own mission and help Mario out…” Luigi told himself. “Don’t-a worry brother! I’m-a coming!” Luigi then said, turning the opposite way, rushing out the cave in the direction he came, having his new found determination to help his brother out in his predicaments.

Back above the ground, Mario was still in battle with Roy, they exchanged several more blows here and there, then eventually backing off from one another for a moment.

“Heh heh,” Roy snickered.

“What’s so-a funny?” Mario questioned.

“Oh nothing, it’s just that I find it kinda silly. You spent all this time messing with me that you forgot what you considered your objective.”

Gasping in response, Mario then looked around in the sky, seeing the airship was nowhere in sight.

“That being said, I may have been smacked down quite a bit by you tubby pasta man, but my work here is done,” Roy taunted. “And looks like my ride's here too!” Roy said, spotting a Lakitu, who after drifting down to Roy’s level, dropped down a fishing line with a hoop at the end of it.

After the Koopaling grabbed the ring, the Latiku shiftly carried him off, despite the notable bit of difficulty in doing so, heading back in the direction of the airship.

“So long lasagna loving lump!” Roy said to Mario as he was carried off.

It was at this moment that Luigi had seen from a distance where Mario had been standing, and he quickly made his way over to him.

V: Rethinking

“Brother! Brother! I’m-a sorry for-a running of earlier like I-a did, but i’m here to-a help!” Luigi stated apologetically.

“Oh! Hey there-a brother, well, basically what happened is well...I-”

Before he could finish however, he was suddenly hit with one last surprise bullet bill from Roy, knocking him over into a nearby pit, this pit seemingly being connected to the Jewel Caverns.

“That’s for yesterday on the flagship!” Roy shouted from afar as the Latiku carried him further away.

“Mama-mia...right when I-a get here…”

“You-a said it brother...now...could you throw me an-a vine or rope or something?

“Umm...sure, I’ll try to-a look…” Luigi responded, then scouting the surrounding area, mainly putting focus on the question blocks, hoping there’d be something in them.

As Luigi searched, Mario looked around in the pit that he was knocked into, seeing that he was in a small pocket of the cave, with a warp pipe leading deeper in, and most notably, several question blocks, five to be exact.

As such he decided that while Luigi looked for something to get him out, to unopen these and see what was in them.

Upon opening the first block, he found only coins.

He then opened the second one and found a familiar red-petaled, green steamed flower within, a fire flower.

Instead of absorbing it right away, Mario instead decided to pocket it, and got back to opening the other blocks.

The other three were much higher up than the first two, and as such, he needed something to reach them with.

Originally he thought of throwing his hammer at them, but decided to use another method.

He looked around the room a bit and saw several blue blocks stacked atop one another, grab blocks…exactly three.

“Okay...let’s-a do this right…” he thought to himself.

Grabbing the first block, he went underneath one of the floating blocks and threw the block in his own hands at the one above.

There were only coins in it.

Though a bit disappointed, he repeated the process again for the second block, once again, only coins.

“Okay, here we go...third times’ the-a charm?” he then thought as he prepared the third block.

He then threw it.

Out of the final block...emerged another flower with the same look as the earlier one, this one however being light blue instead. An ice flower.

The flower fell out of the block and onto the ground.

“Nice…” Mario thought to himself, then picking up and pocketing the ice flower as well.

It is after this that Mario then headed back over to the opening to the surface and shouted up it.

“Brother! Have you-a found anything yet?”

“...Yeah...I found a springboard.”

“Well let’s-a send it down!”

As such, Luigi did just that and threw the bounce pad down to Mario, which Mario, upon seeing it’s landing quickly bounced onto it, the force being enough to quite literally, “spring” him out of the cave, and back onto land.

“Figured you weren’t really going to sit this-a one out, now were you brother?” Mario then said, starting a conversation.

“Really? What makes you say-a that?” Luigi asked.

“Hmm, I don’t know, something just-a told me you’d be back,” Mario then started.

“I see...but...where’s the-a airship? I saw you fighting Roy, and we saw the airship earlier, so...I assumed that-a, well...you know…”

“Yeah...that wretched reptile…” Mario began to explain. “They-a knew that I was trying to catch up with the-a airship so we could retrieve the princess, who’s probably already being transported to Dark Land by now...and so Roy apparently jumped ship, specifically with the sole-a purpose of stalling for time…”

“Oh-a no…So...we’re not going to catch the-a airship?”

“Yeah...and I should have-a known...known that thinking we could catch a moving aircraft on foot was an-a idea...but eh, I guess that’s a me...impulsive…”

“Do you think...maybe we should-a head back to Toad Town and regroup?”

“...Yeah...that’s what I'm-a thinking, we don’t need to-a be in any sort of a hurry I’d think, I mean, what’s the-a worst Bowser has ever done to Peach while she’s held hostage?”

“...make attempts at a forced-a marriage? Twice?” Luigi pointed out.

“...True…” Mario realized. “...But...it’s not-a like she is being tortured there or anything…”

“Or-a worse…”

“Luigi...that’s-a...nevermind,” Mario began, then cutting himself off. “let’s-a head back to Mushroom Town, take a rest, recuperate, and-a figure out what we’re going to do,”

“Sounds like an idea…”

And with that, the Mario bros began to go opposite of the way they came, back through the sunset hills, back to the civilization of Toad Town, to work towards what their next step would be.

“Between the varying circumstances in occurrence, to the Mosaic Group’s leave of absence, to the discovery made of the wacky scientist, E.Gadd, to the recurring of what was clearly a cliche with the princess, as well as the mysterious green-clothed reptilian that a green-clothed hero meet, there was certainly a lot that had now come our heroes’ ways, how would this all unfold? The answers will come...in time…”

To Be Continued...

[Mosaic]

So we've finally reached a double digit chapter count...

Pieces To The Puzzle Part 3: show

“Our tale continues...”

I: Map Pinpoints

Link, having just emerged from the other side of the warp pipe, arrived at his destination, Desert Land. After scouting the surrounding area a bit, seeing only sand, question blocks, cactus, etc. Two things were clear from this, for one, it was clear he was in Desert Land, and second...he was clueless on where he should go from here.

“No notable landmarks are really around here I’m starting to remember…at least from what I’d know...” Link thought to himself.

“How am I going to find the place...maybe the map?”

Link, after consulting the old map he was given, saw some details on it. He saw that on the map was a large structure, this most definitely being the pyramid, and that it was surrounded by what looked to be a forest of palm trees and a lake of water...an oasis.

“That scientist person was right...this thing really isn’t that useful…”

He then folded the map and put it back in his pocket.

“At least I know that it’s in an oasis…not many other details though...”

“But where...only have been in this world for about...a bit over a year by now, don’t really know it as well as the hyrule field or anywhere like that…”

After contemplating what to do for a bit longer, it quickly ticked.

“...maybe I should just get directions from the locals if they know the specific pyramid i’m looking for?” Link eventually concluded.

As such, after looking around a bit more, he saw from afar what looked to be a desert town, and as such headed towards it.

He saw several different buildings around too, mostly made of sandstone and the like, with what looked to be stone and wooden doors plastered on them, after further inspection of the buildings, one having a sign stuck out on the side, a fire flower imprinted in color. one having a sign of a blue bed on it, most likely an inn or something of the sort. But by looking around long enough, realized he wasn’t really finding anything around to help.

“There’s really no guides in town huh? No directory...No regional map...not even a fortune teller as far as I can tell…”

After further thought and seeing the civilians around, it quickly clicked what the next logical step was.

“Guess I should talk to the townspeople given there doesn’t seem to be a specific place set up from what I can see…has helped out many times in the past.”

After asking several different people in town about the pyramid and oasis he was looking for, he got very vague answers from pretty much all of them, none really helpful.

“...so no one seems to know what it is that I’m looking for huh...how am I going to do this…”

“Hmm, maybe I should just take a rest at the inn and think about this later...sleeping on the tree wasn’t really what I’d call ‘quality sleep’, and besides…-”

“Psst, hey you…” a voice called out to Link.

“Someone calling me?”

“Yes, you in the tunic, back here,” The voice called again, Link turned to the source to see who it was.

It was a Koopa Troopa wrapped in a cloak, covering their face and body all the way down to their shoes.

Link found the fact that this Koopa was present somewhat odd, but given he was desperate, decided to give them a chance and walked over to them.

“So...who are you?” Link asked.

“Not important, but what is important is that I overheard you talking about wanting to look for a pyramid within an oasis, correct?”

“Um, yeah...why?”

“You’re in luck,” The koopa responded, then pulling out what seemed to be a map. A map of Desert Land to be exact, with a trail of red lines on it leading somewhere.

“What’s the illustration meant to entail?” Link asked.

“Should be obvious, it’ll give you at least some form of guidance on what may be the place you’re trying to find…”

“What’s your price?” Link asked.

“Anything worth something currency wise…” the Koopa responded.

“Okay...would this do?” Link asked, then pulling out of his pocket a familiar, green, six-sided crystal-like gem, a Rupee, presenting it to the koopa.

The koopa was left speechless among seeing Link pull this out, being very unfamiliar with Link’s form of currency, but eventually was able to utter a response.

“Y-You keep the map! I’ll take it!” The koopa responded, quickly snatching the gemstone and practically throwing the map into Link's hand.

“Thanks for the map,” Link expressed.

“Don’t mention it, thanks for this exquisite gemstone…”

“See ya I suppose…” Link responded.

“Goodbye,” the koopa replied, waving as Link made his way in the direction the map guided and out of the town.

In following this map, Link went through a number of different things throughout the desert, past a number of question blocks, platforms, warp pipes, platforms, and the like, not without having to fight a number of koopa-troop aligned goombas and koopas along the way as well as dealing with some of the creatures that dwelled within Desert Land such as Pokeys, Chain Chomps and the elusive Fire Snakes.

Soon enough, after following the red marks on the map to the end of where they guided, after taking a look around, Link realized the map didn’t bring him to the Oasis.

“Even with that map...no sign of the pyramid huh…” Link thought to himself, somewhat bummed, and continued to wander up ahead.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have given him that Rupee, especially given that map-”

At that moment however, Link, by looking ahead, saw something peculiar…. Green grass...and a forest of palm trees.

“...or maybe not...could that be it?” Link then thought, seeing this.

The green-tunic’d pioneer, seeing this decided to make his way up to where he was arm length distance from the palm tree woods.

“...is this where that pyramid is?” Link questioned, giving his map from E. gadd a peak. “The map details seem to match…. Hmm...I consider myself an adventurer, it’s pretty clear what to do, what did I come out here for anyway?” Link then told himself. “Here goes…” he then said, making his way into the palm trees woods.

For the most part, exploring the oasis went smoothly, and soon enough, he made it to a clearing where he saw the very thing he came out here to find. A large pyramid, notably rather run down. as stated by the previously meet E. Gadd had informed, it indeed looked ancient.

“Wow, so it’s really here…. May as well investigate.”

Link scouted the structuring and design of the pyramid, seeing if, on its multiple layers, each with a walkway, he could find an entrance of some kind.

Soon enough, around the center, he found it sealed shut, with some mystical-looking markings on them.

“Hmm, there should be a secret switch or button somewhere to open this,” Link thought, being used to puzzles like this.

He started by looking on each layer of the pyramid steps to see if there was any pressure plate that could be stepped on or panel that you could push your hand against, finding nothing.

He then decided to go back down to the location of the entrance, remembering a detail there, this being that there was several pairs of large pillars on either side to the entrance.

He made it back to the entrance, and began to investigate the pillars, wondering if there’d be some kind of detail not meeting the eye on them.

And quickly enough, on the pillar in the second row to the entrance, to the left, he noticed it, a spot hidden on it that looked separate from the rest of the pillar.

“Hmm, this looks like it could be something…” Link thought upon seeing this detail.

Thinking it was what he thought it was, he pressed his hand on it. The separated area indeed let back from the force of his hand.

Upon doing so, an eye-catching spectacle took place. The lining of the panel glowed a distinctive light shade of blue. And upon looking at the entrance of the door, several previously unlit cracks in the wall slowly filled with this same blue lighting, eventually reaching the previously locked door, which then slid open. There was nothing blocking the way in now.

“That did it…” he thought. “Well...time to head in,” he then thought, heading through the now opened entrance to the ancient structure, intent on seeing what could be discovered within it.

Meanwhile, at Toad’s Whereabouts...

The mushroom midget had made it through the pipe, and had stepped foot into the land of the dinosaurs, Dinosaur Land to be exact, specifically in Donut Plains.

“So...I think Dino Mountain is north of here?” Toad thought aloud. “Well atleast based on memory and what the map shows it does,” he continued, looking at the way the map was laid out.

“No point in stalling. let’s get over there,” Toad thought, then starting to make his way north.

Traveling in this manner for a while, nothing too notable happening along the way, other than the fact that he came across a berry bush, and, having a feeling he should do so, plucked a fair number of the berries. And soon enough, the momentous slope rested before him. Dino Mountain.

Upon seeing this, a sudden wave of nervousness and fright overtook Toad, only now realizing what it is that he signed up for.

“What...what was I thinking?” Toad thought. “Why did I agree to this…” his thoughts continued.

“...Why did I agree to climb a mountain…a dangerous, trechnous mountain? In a land of big...gargantuan...reptiles. Alone?”

Nerve continued to run through Toad’s mind in this manner for a good while, but eventually, another thought came about.

“No...No Toad...you came this far, don’t turn back now.”

Toad then took a deep breath, not that it made him feel any better at all, and then looked around for a way up the mountain. He quickly found a wall of rocks that could be used as footholds, and began his climb up.

As he made his way up the mountain with a fair amount of difficulty, he eventually made it to a decently large footholding, and decided to look up again, seeing how much further up ahead he had to go.

He saw that he still had quite a ways to go before he made it to the top; the spot the map he had acquired led him.

“Oh man...I’ve only just started climbing this mountain...and i’m already exhausted…. There’s gotta be a faster way up...”

Toad then, on the large platform he had wound up on began to look around, see if there was anything to do so.

“Maybe there’s a warp pipe to the top...or a flight based power up like a P-Wing...or propeller mushroom...or something of that sort…”

As he continued to search however, he found none of the distinctively question marked blocks; only brick blocks or blocks already opened.

“Nothing around here...What will I…” Toad began to think, then something caught his eye in front of him.

II: DINO Mountain

There were several creatures up ahead, three to be exact. They were small, blue in color, and white on their bellies. They had red shoes or something of the sort that covered their feet and red, rounded spikes that ran along their back, and like Rexes, Yoshis, or other dinos of that caliber, had a pair of eyes positioned at the top of their heads.

“Those...those small dinosaurs over there...they...kinda look like...those ghostly dinos the marios and the princess saw a lot in the haunted houses here in dinosaur land....except that...they're alive…” Toad continued to think. “Aren’t...aren’t they called...Kuribins?” Toad’s thoughts ran. “...wait, no, Kuribons…” Toad recalled.

As these thoughts ran, Toad quickly decided to hide behind some nearby rocks.

“...how would these guys react if they saw me...a mushroom person here? I...I’d rather not know…”

“What are you saying Toad, if they bother you, you can deal with them,” Toad told himself, then deciding to stop hiding, began to go by the small dinos.

Rather quickly however, the Kuribons took notice of Toad’s haste and looked over in his direction, in which Toad froze, making eye contact with them.

The reptiles, also staying in place, eyed Toad for a while, seemingly awaiting what he’d do.

“Huh...they seem harmless…” Toad thought.

He stood, eying the dinos back for a while longer, and this continued for a bit of time.

“They don’t seem to be doing anything,” Toad then thought, beginning to walk. “Don’t mind me, just passing through,” Toad stated aloud, hoping it’d keep the Kuribons away, which it seemed to, as they only continued to watch him, keeping a distance.

Toad then continued to look for ways up the mountain, eventually catching the eye of what seemed to be a somewhat steep slope leading further up the mountain.

“That looks to be a good path up…. Only issue is...could I really climb a slope that steep on my own?” Toad thought. “Hmm, dunno, maybe there’s-”

It was then that, to Toad’s surprise and shock that a loud sound echoed throughout the peaks of the mountaintop; this sound was none other than a roar.

Frightened by the booming cry, the nearby Kuribons flead, quickly leaving behind the mountain platform and scurrying off elsewhere.

“Wh...what’s that?” Toad thought aloud, fearful of the source of the roar himself.

As Toad continued to listen, there then began loud, pounding thuds. Based on the “rhythm” of them, they seemed to be footsteps, footsteps of some kind of large creature, and they seemed to be getting closer and closer to where Toad stood.

“Where...could it be?” Toad thought to himself. “Whatever it is-Toad said as he began to head away from it-I better find a place to-”

Before he could finish his sentence however, it was then that he heard a thud again; far louder than any of the ones beforehand. and not only that, but it sounded that it was RIGHT BEHIND HIM.

Realizing there most likely wasn't a point in fleeing now, Toad decided now was the time to decipher what exactly was behind him.

And there he saw it, it was indeed a large creature like he thought it was. It had a blue-green body, four limbs, each of which ended with three white toes, several pink spikes that ran along it’s back, a short tail, and a head shaped somewhat like that of a ceratopsian, but lacking horns of any kind. And on their head above the snout, a pair of oval shaped, white eyes.

And not soon after, two more smaller dinos with very similar features and physiology jumped up to the creature’s level as well.

“O-Oh no...a Dino Rhino...and...Dino-Torches...didn’t Mario once say he narrowly avoided being eaten by one of them in a circus trap set up by Bowser?”

As these thoughts ran in Toad’s mind, the three dinos all looked his way and stared.

Toad gulped, still nervous, but tried to calm himself down.

“M-Maybe they’re friendly like the Kuribons were?”

Toad then began to slowly make his way around them, in which they continued tracing his movements, not taking their eyes off of him.

“H-Hello Dino...group...family...congregation...g-gang...don’t mind me…” Toad tried to play off. “J-just a regular old mushroom person minding their own business...following a dusty old map…. Right in my hand...right here,” Toad then said, taking out and showing the map to them.

“So with that said, y-you guys do you...I’ll do me...y-you got th-”

Before Toad could finish trying to convince the Rhino-like dinos to not bother him, all three of them’s mouths gapped open wide. They had all fired a stream of blazing hot fire Toad’s direction.

Quickly taking notice of this, Toad frantically made a dive to the side, dodging the flames, then briefly checked the map wasn’t burned. Seeing it wasn’t, he quickly tucked it away.

“T-They aren’t friendly…” Toad realized.

The two dino-torches that rode the dino rhino then unmounted their larger brethren, and the three did what looked to be communicating.

Toad observed this, both puzzled and worried at what this was about.

Once the trio of dinos stopped speaking to one another, the two dino torches just stood in place, looking Toad’s way, while the Dino-Rhino began to scrap the heel of their foot along the ground.

“Oh dear stars…” Toad thought, realizing what was about to happen.

As Toad thought would happen, the Dino-Rhino then began charging right at Toad. Behind the Dino-Rhino, the two Dino Torches seemed to be lying in wait for some reason or another, but despite catching eye of this, Toad waited for the Dino-Rhino to be not too far from him, and then, with anxiousness, dodged by jumping over it.

The dino took notice of their target’s leap and quickly broke their movements.

As Toad fell back down, the two dino torches looked up to his direction, mouths open, and blasted him with fire balls.

Toad was able to narrowly maneuver around them, and upon landing decided to try to focus on dealing with the dino torches first.

As he ran the Dino-torches’ directions, the Dino Rhino that had previously made a ramming attempt had turned around, and shot a large fireball Toad’s way.

Toad noticed the fireball, and dodged it, the fireball nearly hitting a dino torch instead, but also missing.

Given this, Toad continued to rush in the Dino-Torches’ direction and quickly gave one of them a hard kick, knocking them down. Despite the hard hit, they were able to get back up again.

As the Dino-Torch recovered, the other fire breathing dino shot another flaming ball in Toad’s direction, which Toad once again narrowly evaded.

The stray fire ball hit the recently struck dino-torch, knocking them down once again, this time, knocking the Dino-Torch out cold.

With one dino down, Toad had slightly more confidence about being able to deal with the two remaining dinos, and decided first to try to focus on the other dino-torch.

While he stood on guard trying to think however, the Dino-Rhino was on it’s way once again and was rushing Toad’s way.

Toad, thinking this would help him, not remembering earlier, jumped on top of some nearby brick blocks, thinking it’d help him.

“Shouldn’t be able to reach me up here…” Toad thought.

Toad was wrong, as shown when the Dino-Rhino, with just a slight running start, lept up and smashed the blocks toad stood on from below, breaking his foothold, in which he then plummeted back down, landing on his back, face to the ground.

Toad quickly looked up and saw the rhino-like beast looking right at him, growling aggressively.

Seeing this, Toad fearfully scurried backwards as the creature then tried to bite him several times, which he did so to avoid such.

After eventually getting back on his feet, seeing that the dino had actually backed him into a corner, saw the high up mountains behind him, he had to think of a way out of this.

Which after quick thinking, jumped atop the Dino Rhino.

The Dino-Rhino quickly noticed and threw Toad off immediately, in which the latter then landed on the ground, next to the Dino-Torch from before.

The small fire breathing reptile took the opportunity to get in an attempt at barbequing Toad, but with quick reflexes, Toad once more evaded the fire stream.

Toad saw a nearby warp pipe, and got the idea that this was his ticket out.

But then he realized that the pipe actually lead DOWN the mountain, not up, like he was headed, so that wasn’t the option here.

Toad then further began to think outside the box, then getting an idea.

The two dinos were once again on their way, and this time around, the Dino-Torch tried to rush at Toad and tackle him.

Toad stood still in wait for the Dino-Torch to be in reach to enact his idea.

Once the critter’s feet had left the ground, having made their jump for their attack, Toad quickly wrangled the reptile by it’s right ankle and began to spin them around in a circular manner, to the dino’s shock.

Toad spun around like this for a while. The four-legged dinosaur attempted to wriggle free in him doing this, to no avail.

After building up enough momentum, Toad hurled the small dinosaur, tossing them head first into the warp pipe at a rapid speed, inducing a hard concussion; knocking the dino out in one fell swoop.

“That only leaves me with one more to deal with...the big one…” Toad thought to himself, still somewhat nervous.

Toad looked back behind him and saw there was the large ceratopsian, ready to charge once more.

As this occurred Toad began losing focus, but then saw behind the dino rhino a couple things. These things being a question block, and next to the question block, the steep slope that he had seen earlier.

“I should try to open that question block…” Toad thought, given that all of the other blocks around either were already opened or too far for him to reach.

The large quadruped had finished preparing for a charge and was now charging at Toad head on.

Toad then, taking a quick breath ran towards the Dino Rhino and lept over it. The Dino Rhino was quick to notice and began to stop, starting to turn around once more.

Toad had landed and was making a straight sprint for whatever it was that was in the question block.

As he did so, the Dino-Rhino fired off another large fireball, which, nearly hitting Toad, still knocked him down.

Seeing that it’s target was crippled once again, it began to, without charging, rushed Toad’s way.

Toad, with a bit of difficulty shook it off, and seeing the dino rapidly approaching, hastily closed what distance stood between him and the golden block and unboxed it.

In the box...something started growing out of it, which even stopped the Dino-Rhino, being somewhat curious about what it was. This something that grew out was a vine.

“Looks like my ticket out of here…” Toad thought as the vine grew.

Toad then noticed something...the vine stopped growing. It had hit a small foothold on the mountain, and as such it only grew a measly five feet; nowhere near enough distance to make a significant amount of ground between him and the reptilian below.

“No...no it isn’t…” Toad then realized.

Toad then began to panic, as the Dino Rhino wasn’t too far away now and had just now begun to come back to its senses after seeing the vine momentarily.

Trying to think of what to do, it suddenly hit him, a crazy, out of the box idea.

He first started by plucking the vine from the block.

After doing so, the Dino Rhino was preparing another fireball for him, and then fired it.

Toad dodged it by simply making another jump, being very careful for the vine he grabbed to not get burned.

As the Dino Rhino prepared to charge again, Toad saw this as his opportunity, he saw a nearby short hill, high enough to create a wall, but low enough to jump on.

Toad hustled over to the hill, and waited for the reptilian beast to charge.

Soon enough, the rhino-resemblant dino rushed his way. Waiting nervously for the right moment to move, just before the dino rhino hit him, he jumped up to the elevated hill.

As a result, the Dino Rhino crashed face first into the side of the hill, being largely dazed by the impact.

“Now’s my chance…” Toad thought, then leaping onto the dizzy reptile, mounting it and drawing the vine along it’s mouth, for leverage.

The large-bodied ceratopsian came back to its senses, and noticed Toad on it’s back, assuming the worst, the creature then began to roar loudly, making violent attempts to throw Toad off.

Toad held on for a while until the Dino-Rhino stopped resisting, showing that he wasn’t going to harm it now.

And as such, the Dino-Rhino eventually stopped, in which Toad, through some sign language and reasoning, made a deal with the Dino-Rhino.

“N-No...I-I’m not trying to floss you...” Toad first said aloud.

He then explained through his signs that he needs a way to get up the mountain, but doesn’t feel confident in being able to climb a steep slope like the one that’s right there over, wondering if he could give him a ride up.

He offers in return that it and the dino torches that he just knocked out, can have every berry he has in his bag, all of them being berries that cannot be found on the mountain.

The Dino-Rhino seemed to consider the deal for a moment, and eventually decided it'd accept.

And as such, starting at the steep slope, the Dino-Rhino began to give Toad a climb up, the latter of which kept the vines in the former’s mouth, as a way of keeping a grip and not falling off.

Meanwhile, At Mushroom Plains…


III: Shortcuts and Cutoffs

As the Mario Bros. had planned, being unable to catch the airship at the hills, headed back to Toad Town. It is here in which they then begin to discuss what it is that their plan should be on saving the princess this time around.

“Okay brother...we’re-a here, what’s the-a plan?” Luigi asked.

“I’m-a thinking, I’m-a thinking…” Mario responded, and as such tried to think in his mind about what their next move should be about how to go about things. Eventually, after further thought, he updated his brother on things. “I...don’t-a know to be honest,” Mario eventually responded. “I’m not-a really good at coming up with complex strategies, I usually just dive in first and ask-a questions later…”

“Yeah...you-a do do that alot…”

“Well...I-a do, and it-a works...usually…”

Luigi was quiet for a bit, but continued. “So you don’t-a know what we should-a do?” Luigi then questioned.

“Yeah...I’m drawing an-a blank…”

“Well...I don't have any good ideas my-a self…” Luigi replied and added. “And not gonna lie...I could go for an-a pizza pie right now…”

“It is around-a lunch time…” Mario answered. “And you know, I am a bit hungry my-aself….” After some further thought, Mario continued. “Know what, let’s-a go get a bite to-a eat, and while we’re there, think of what our next-a move is…” Mario eventually concluded.

“Okay...that sounds-a good…” Luigi responded, as the two looked for a local pizza place, eventually spotting one in the form of Pizza Of Mushrooms, a pizza place chain around the kingdom. Seeing it, they pushed aside the double doors and headed in.

Within the interior of the building, they found much of what was to be expected within what’d normally be expected in a pizza place; something like what they’d see in their hometown back in Brooklyn.

At the register they saw a Yoshi in a red-white uniform taking orders. There however currently was no line, so the Mario bros had nothing to wait on and went straight to the counter, the Yoshi being shocked to see them here.

“Hey buddy,” Mario said to the cashier, being familiar with this one specifically with how often he came to this spot. “The-a usual please.”

“Oh, um...sure! Coming right up,” The front-desk managing dino responded, then heading over to a back room, telling the order to the workers there.

“Guys, the Mario Bros are here, you know what that means, give them the Marios’ special.”

As the Mario Bros looked for a place to sit, quickly finding one and making their way over to it, they made a few comments to one another.

“It’s-a crazy that we’ve become so-a recognized here over the years that they named an-a special after us…” Luigi started off.

“Isn’t it?” Mario responded. “But hey, only-a right they give us something to show thanks, not like we’re being-a paid to do this…”

“Mario…”

“Wha? I was just-a saying…”

“Don’t-a worry about it…”

“...Okie dokie…”

After some brief silence, Mario picked things up again.

“While we’re-a waiting, we should get back to the-a subject and figure out what we’re-a going to do.”

“Yeah, any-a ideas yet?”

“Not really…”

“I just thought of something...should we-a inform the Mosaic Group on what’s-a going on?” Luigi suggested.

“...that’s an-a really good idea, maybe they’ll-a even have an idea regarding what to-a do,” Mario responded in agreement.

As such, Mario got out his phone and dialed Mosaic, then awaiting an answer.

Meanwhile, at Sarasaland...

“So Mosaic, think you can quickly go over what the plan here is?” Hoops asked Mosaic.

“Sure Hoops,” Mosaic responded. “So on the first day of our trip, so yeah...today. We’re going to take the Ferry, which should take us to the capital of Sarasaland, City Sarasa. We’ll meet with Princess Daisy assuming there’s no complications, do some other things there for the day like checking out the Circuit there, maybe even see a kart race or such, and on the second day, take the Ferry back. When we get back, we’ll go on the tour around Birabuto that they seem to be having on a daily basis.”

“Sounds good, after?”

“After staying at a local hotel or inn on the second day, we’ll probably take the railway system that seems to exist around Sarasaland, correct Rosy?”

“Yeah, there should be one.”

“And then throughout the week, pay visits to the other kingdoms and attractions that are around here.”

“Well okay, so where is the Ferry we’re taking?” Hoops asked.

“I’m pretty sure I saw a directory or such earlier, and based on that, it should be north of us I think.”

“Well okay, let’s ge-”

It was at this moment that, picking up Mario’s call, Mosaic’s phone began going off.

“Another call already?” Mosaic said, pulling his phone back out and checking who it was. “It’s Mario again…”

This intrigued the four, but regardless, Mosaic gave the call an answer.

“Hello?” Mosaic said.

“Hey-a there Mosaic so umm, I have some...news to-a deliver to you.”

“News? What kind?”

“Well...let me-a lay it onto you.”

“Okay…”

“Well first off, the group has split-a up, i’m with Luigi, and Toad and-a Link are alone as of now.”

“Wait, why did you guys split up? Weren’t you looking for the pieces?”

“They...did what?” Hoops added to the conversation.

“That’s...just-a it...the...the princess was kidnapped...again.”

“Oh…” Mosaic responded. “I was wondering when that’d happen again with how much you guys told me it does…annoying...”

“So me and Luigi are-a trying to rescue her again while Toad and-a Link are looking into these-a two locations E. Gadd told them to check-a out, and...we’re in an-a snag…”

“Wild guess from me...did you try to catch a moving aircraft on foot?”

Mario was silent, shocked that Mosaic guessed that, but responded. “...Y-yes actually...what made you think that?”

“Saw it happen in a rushed 3d platformer video game one time…”

“Oh...I-a see…” Mario responded. “But anyway, we’ve now-a stopped at Toad Town to regroup and-a figure out if there’s is an-a way to quickly make it to Dark Land.”

Luigi then chimed in. “Yeah...me and-a brother have tried to figure something-a out, but we got-a nothing, so this is why we’re-a asking you guys about-a this.”

“Faster ways to travel? Hmm…umm...” Mosaic responded, then trying to think of something. “Do you know any shortcuts to Dark Land?” Mosaic eventually asked.

“Not off-a hand no…” Mario responded.

“Like, no warp pipe, no cannon, no planes, nothing?”

“Nope…” Luigi replied.

“Hey Mosaic, what are you guys talking about?” Hoops asked.

“Oh umm, alot…” Mosaic answered.

“Maybe you guys could put the phone on speaker?” Rosy suggested.

“Hmm, good idea,” Mosaic responded, clicking the speaker button.

“You-a there Mosaic?” Mario asked.

“Yeah, I was just talking to the group…”

“So to ask again, you guys have no ideas of how to quickly make it to Dark Land without taking the long route?”

“None…” Luigi responded.

“Hmm...do you guys have access to a Warp Whistle?” Hoops added in.

Being shocked by this suggestion by Hoops on both ends, there was a moment of silence from everyone, having not thought of this as of yet.

“A...Warp whistle?” Mario asked.

“Yeah...those things you can blow into and have them warp you wherever you want. they have this orange-brown color?” Hoops replied, trying to see if Mario knew what he referred to.

Mario was just silent in regards to this.

“Mario? Something wrong?” Mosaic asked.

“No, there-a isn’t...it’s just…” Mario began. “I’ve heard of them...but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one…”

“Didn’t we-a actually find some kind of orange-brown whistle in that-a circumstance of navigating the-a Mushroom Kingdom lands to help the kings?” Luigi said.

“I think I-a might actually remember something like-a that…” Mario responded.

“Well, do we still-a have something like that?”

“Wait, you mean you guys have actually seen one of these things before?” Hoops asked.

“I...think I-a vaguely remember finding something like-a that from a toad one time…like, it was long before I met any of you-a four,” Mario then said. “But to answer Luigi’s-a question, I don’t think I-a have it anymore because I-a-”

“‘Threw-a it away because he thought it-a was a scam’, i’m calling it, that’s what he’s gonna say...” Hoops predicacted.

“Threw-a it away because I thought it-a was a scam.”

“Agh! I called it!” Hoops said, disappointed to hear it. “Welp, I don’t where you guys are going to find another whistle, so I guess that crosses off that option to-”

“Wait a minute...I just thought of something Mario and Luigi could do,” Rosy suddenly brought about. “Could I get some words in?”

Sighing, Hoops responded. “...I guess you can get some words in…”

“Sure you can Rosy,” Mosaic replied, holding the phone closer to Rosy.

“So given what I thought of, here’s my idea,” Rosy began. “What if you guys were to travel through Subcon to get to Dark Land?”

“What if we were to-a...wait, huh?” Mario began, then realizing what Rosy said. “Wait, why-a Sub-acon?”

IV: Dream Warps

“Remember that one that time all of us, all of you guys, and all of us were in Subcon in a fight with the 8-bits, and while we were there, found a Subcon door that connected to Water Land despite us only traveling about ten miles or so when we were there?”

“Wait a minute…” Mosaic realized. “Yeah, Rosy is right, I remember we were surprised to find it, as Water Land was literally hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from when we entered the subcon door I believe.”

“Wait, how could-a that have happened?” Luigi wondered regarding this.

“Don’t quote me on this, but I believe at school over in Subcon, there was something we were told about how like...i’m not sure what it was, but I think it was about how, I believe...given the dimensional properties of Subcon are very different from that of the dimension of like...the Mushroom Kingdom or the like, travel in Subcon covers far more distance than travel in the place we are now, the Mushroom Kingdom of course.”

“Wow...that’s-a something…” Mario responded.

“So basically in simpler terms, I think what it means is that one foot of travel in Subcon is three meters where we’re all standing...probably more than that…”

“So...if we were to-a travel through Sub-acon and get to Dark-a Land that way, given the connections that the-a two dimensions seem to-a have, does that-a mean…” Luigi asked.

“Yeah...I think it means you’d guys would make it to Dark Land a lot quicker,”

“Well I guess it’s-a simple as-a that, we’ll just find a door in Subcon that goes to-a Dark Land, easy as-a pizza pie!” Mario declared.

“Speaking of pizza pie...I think our-a order is ready Mario...be right-a back…” Luigi said, getting up from his seat.

“Only one issue with your “perfect” plan that you gave to them Rosy,” Hoops said.

“Oh? What is-Oh, I think I know what it is…” Rosy questioned, then quickly realized what the issue was.

“Yeah...do we even know a door in Subcon that heads to Dark Land? Or if there even is one?” Hoops pointed out.

Hearing this, Mosaic just asked himself. “Well do you guys know any door to get there?”

Mario then thought for a bit and responded. “We...We-a don’t actually…” he eventually admitted, realizing how impulsive of him it was to jump the gun so fast.

“Welp...back to the drawing board I guess…” Mosaic said.

Luigi by now had returned to the table, the pizza ready to eat, and asked how things were going on a plan.

“Not-a good...we still don’t-a know what to do…”

“Oh-a no...hopefully we-a figure out something soon…” Luigi responded.

“Maybe we should go back to my Warp Whistle idea?” Hoops suggested.

Mosaic had thoughts running through his mind as he stayed on the line with Mario and tried to think of something.

“Warp Whistles...Subcon...Travel...Water Land...” thoughts ran. Mosaic thought and thought, and it was when these four words entered his mind and he thought for longer, that it finally hit him. “Wait, I have an idea!” Mosaic shouted.

Mario, who was in the middle of taking a sip of soda, cartoonishly spit it out when Mosaic shouted this on his phone.

“What-a is it? What-a is it?”

“So for starters, do we know where that base was that we fought the 8-bits at that one time?”

“I-a might...it wasn’t that long ago to be-a honest…” Mario answered.

“Okay, so here’s my idea,” Mosaic began. “What if we were to head back to where that base is, and see if we can find that door to Water Land?”

“Huh? Why-a Water Land?” Mario asked.

“My idea is that you guys go there, and see if you can get a warp whistle from someone that’s living there, there’s a lot of Toad houses there after all, and you’d know that they always have crazy stuff they hide there…”

“You-a got that-a right…” Mario said in response to the Toad house bit.

“And assuming they do, use THAT to warp to Bowser’s Castle?” Mosaic explained.

“What if they don't have-a one though?” Luigi brought up, scared of the worst happening.

“Well...we’re desperate here, we’ve exhausted our other ideas, so that’s the best I can suggest to be honest,” Mosaic replied.

“Hmm...I think we should-a give it-ta shot,” Mario responded.

“So I guess it’s settled, head to Subcon, find the shortcut to Water Land, get the whistle, alright?” Mosaic asked to affirm.

“I think-a so,” Mario responded.

“...I...I-a guess…” Luigi added.

“Hey Luigi, don’t worry, you can do it, you and Mario always do,” Rosy dropped in.

“...Okie Dokie…” Luigi replied.

“Anyway, we’ve got a ferry to catch, good luck with the plan, hope all goes well!” Mosaic then said, intent on ending the call.

“Okay Mosaic, hopefully you and your-a group enjoy your vacation, see you next time!”

“Bye bye!” Luigi said.

“Adios,” Hoops said, trying to be clever.

“May the stars be with you!” Rosy gave as her parting words.

Berry then quickly got off a bye in his language before things cut off, realizing he sat out the entire conversation.

After Berry got in his goodbye, Mosaic hit the “End Call” option, ending the conversation.

Back To The Marios…

“Good thing that-a worked out,” Mario said. “Let’s-a finish our-a pizza, and get out-a there.”

“Yeah…” Luigi added.

As the brothers planned, they finished up their pizza, left their check and tip in a considerable amount of gold, blue and silver coins and rushed out the door.

“So...do we remember where the-a Sub-acon door leading us closest to where the old-a base is?” Luigi asked.

“I’m pretty-a sure there is a door to-a Sub-acon east of-a here,” Mario replied. “So, you-a ready? I’m pretty-a sure given we have the Ice and Fire Flower from earlier, we don’t-a have a shortage in regards to power-ups.”

“I’m never-a ready…”

“Sounds like you-a are based on your-a voice, let’s-a get moving.” Mario said, heading to the eastern exit in town.

Mumbling to himself a bit, Luigi followed his brother’s lead.

After traversing the plains for a good amount of time, passing by a lot of the usual scenery, pipes, question blocks, blocky square footholds, grass, bushes, etc. eventually, a large hill stood before the two.

“The Sub-acon door should be-a right on this-a hill I believe,” Mario informed Luigi.

“Okay…” Luigi responded.

“Up we-a go,” Mario said, then starting to scale the hill with Luigi tagging behind.

As they walked up, Luigi made a bit of conversation.

“To be-a honest Mario.”

“Hmm?”

“These plains look kinda familiar, like we’ve been-a here more than once or-a twice.”

“Yeah, I’d-a say you’re right on that-a one,” Mario responded. “We went-a here for a picnic one time, and it was-a then that I think we first-a discovered Sub-acon,” Mario continued.

“We-a did? I thought that was your-a dream…”

“Hmm, it’s-a weird-a case, of how I may have dreamed the adventure...but also went on it-a too?” Mario continued.

“...Huh…”

“I’d-a try not to think too-a hard about-a it.”

“Okie dokie…”

“And since-a then, we’ve gone to-a Sub-acon on a number of occasions, commonly going to these-a plains to take this-a door.”

“And are-a doing this again.”

“Pretty-a much.”

By now, the two had made it up the hill, and with a turn to their left, it is there that the red, rectangle decorated door rested before them. Fittingly, it looked like something out of a dream.

“Let’s-a quickly discuss one last-a time how we’re-a doing this,” Mario began.

“Okay…” Luigi responded, as he paced around near the door.

“So we’re going to-a go into-a Sub-acon…”

“Okay…”

“Find where that old-a base of the 8-bits is…”

“Alright…”

“Find that door to-a Water Land…”

“Okie dokie…”

“And try to get our hands on a warp-a whistle.”

Then beginning to lean on the door, Luigi replied.

“Okay, I guess if that’s what we have to-a do, it’s w-waaaaaaaaa!” he then said, the door surprisingly opening just from him leaning against it, leading to him falling down into Subcon, given there was no solid ground on the other side.

“Mama-mia! I’m-ma coming Luigi!” Mario said, quickly and frantically diving in after his brother, their plan being kicked off just a tad bit sooner than the two expected.

To Be Continued...

[King Mario]

Hello there Mosaic! How's the next Chapter coming along?

[Mosaic]

Hello there Mosaic! How's the next Chapter coming along?

Funny that you ask, it's actually finished.

Mosaic Adventures Chapter 11: Pieces To The Puzzle Part 4: show

I: Dino’s Farewells

Back at Dinosaur Land, Birdo and Yoshi had long arrived at Chocolate Island, and had been seeing the sights that were around. Mainly, the fittingly chocolate-colored hills that could be seen in all directions. Surrounded by a blue ocean from a distance.

At this point, the dino couple had spent an extensive amount of time together and were planning to go their separate ways.

Yoshi first asked Birdo a question to make sure things would go smoothly.

“Do I...have a way back? Yeah...I have a magic potion.”

Yoshi continued.

“It should go to the grassy place of Subcon yeah…”

Yoshi gave another response.

“Y-Yeah...I...think I’ll...I’ll be okay now Yoshi…”

Hearing this, though hesistanting a bit, Yoshi then asked one more question.

“My plans? Well...i’m probably going to head to the desert area of Subcon at sundown, that way I can watch the stars…”

Yoshi then put a word in.

“After? I...I don’t really know…. But I will be seeing my…friend again...relatively soon... at least from what we’ve planned…. Now, that’s enough about me, how about you?”

Yoshi then explained what it is that his plans were to Birdo.

“You’re going to do more on Chocolate Island and then head back to Yoshi’s Island? Sounds great...”

Birdo then took the magic potion she brought along for getting back and threw it on the ground. In the spot that she threw it appeared a red door, like that of what is typically seen for doors heading to subcon.

“See...see you some other time Yoshi...hopefully…” Birdo then said to Yoshi to close things off.

The two go in for a kiss with one another, but quickly find given their face shapes how awkward it is, and as such, settle with an air kiss.

The two dinos then finally, for real went their separate ways, Yoshi staying on Chocolate Island for the time being and Birdo heading back into Subcon.

Meanwhile, at Link’s Whereabouts...

II: Ancient Discovery

Having opened the seal to the old triangle-shaped structure; Link was now, like any explorer would, exploring what it was that was inside.

The ceiling was pretty low, the walls were worn; and in general, it seemed that a lot of time had passed since anyone had last been inside.

“What’s in here I wonder?” Link thought to himself. “Let’s find out…”

Link began to investigate the pyramid, walking through slowly. Observing the surrounding walls to see if he could see much of interest.

As he was walking, he suddenly stepped on something and looked below to see what it was.

“A...pressure plate?” Link thought to himself. “What could this be fo-”

At that moment, a chamber on the walls suddenly opened; and out came what seemed to be a statue shaped like a Birdo or the sort; mounted on a stand.

The statue then suddenly out of the snout area shot Link with a fireball, which he quickly dodged. He then quickly dodged another fireball that came his way from the other side; given that from what it seemed, statues were summoned on either side after the trap’s activation.

After avoidance of these statues, not commenting aloud on them, Link continued through the temple halls. While in here, given how things were structured, saw a pit ahead with several platforms a distance apart that could be stood on top of.

By looking into the pit below, Link saw some kind of sand of sorts shifting in place...quicksand.

“...there seems to still be a fair handful of traps here…” Link thought to himself.

As he thought this, he slowly made his way across the sand pits; careful not to fall in.

After conquering later halls of the pyramid, Link eventually hit a dead end.

Except, not exactly.

What he had found was a door; sealed shut and accompanied by a bunch of vibrantly colored square shape panels.

“What might this be?” Link wondered. “Some kind of puzzle?”

Link stepped on one of the panels, trying his curiosity. As a result of Link’s experimentation, the panel made a sound. This sound almost sounded like...a note on a piano or something of the sort.

Link then tested some of the other panels; seeing that they all made musical sounds like the first one did. He then checked the door once again, and observed that it was still locked just as tightly as it was beforehand.

“There isn’t much else I can do with this door at the moment it seems…” Link thought to himself, then looking around; not seeing any other paths leading further in.

“Looks like I’ll have to head back and see if…” Link began to say, turning around to leave.

It was at this moment that Link then saw a kind of small blue light of sorts flickering in the distance behind him.

This sight intrigued Link; and as such, he decided he should investigate and see what the light was. As such, he walked his way over.

The light he realized was, in fact,; a wisp.

“It’s...It’s a wisp…” Link stated. “What are they trying to tell me?” he then said, seeing it was flying around him a bunch, clearly intent on his attention.

As he watched the spirit fly around, eventually; they flew upwards; as this specific spot of the pyramid was more open.

After creating a distance of around five meters from where Link stood; the wisp then began to fly around again; showing Link the way.


“Up there? But how-”

The wisp then showed Link a moving platform on which he could stand that was across the room.

“Hmm...that should do it I suppose.”

Link made his way over to the platform. And once he set foot on it; it began to carry him up to where the wisp had shown. And as such, allowing him to reach the higher areas of the pyramid.

Link then saw another corridor ahead; which the wisp from before began to guide him through; wanting him to see something.

As Link followed, he looked at the walls around him, seeing a number of murals seeming to portray different events that took place.

One was what looked to be a group of dinos of some kind. If they were Yoshis, Rexes, Birdos, or another kind all together was unclear. They looked to be divided into groups, holding a number of different tools and weapons in hand such as spears, rods, and staffs.

Link found curiosity in what this meant to convey, but continued following the lead anyway. He saw more murals of a similar style along the walls showing different things as he continued.

Eventually, Link and the wisp hit another dead end. Torches on either side of it; unlit.

“Another dead end…. So...question...why did you lead me here?”

Answering Link’s question, the wisp then started swirling around a specific area of the wall. Seemingly wanting Link to take a closer look.

Needing a source of light, Link took one of the unlit torches. He rubbed it hard against one of the pyramid’s surfaces, and as such; had a light source now.

Using the lit torch to better see the wall, he saw what it was that the wisp was wanting to show to him.

There was a bunch of text on the wall; written in some kind of ancient, or secret language that he couldn’t understand.

Upon further investigation, he found other intriguing details. There were more of the blue-tinted cracks in the walls; like there was outside the pyramid, and in the middle of the cracks...a spot for...your hand?

“Huh...what’s this about?” Link thought, seeing this.

The wisp then began to point Link to the exact thing he had taken notice of. The hand shaped carving, five fingers.

“Put my hand on it, right?” Link asked.

The wisp gave Link the sign to do so; and as such, Link reached out his hand and placed it in the carving.

The cracks in the wall like before, began to glow. Which, while Link was intrigued, not as much as he was before as he had previously observed it right outside of the pyramid.

Suddenly, the foreign writings on the wall began to glow themselves. And like something out of a movie, shined in a blinding manner; in which of course covered his eyes.

Link eventually uncovered his eyes once he was confident the light was gone, and saw that the scenery around him had changed massively.

He was no longer in the dusty old pyramid walls from before. Instead, he was in some kind of lush, green forest of sorts.

“W-Where am I?” Link wondered.

He then decided to take a look at his hand and realized he was...transparent?

“What’s this about?”

As he questioned his new location as well as conditions, he noticed a blue glow swirling around him.

It was the same wisp from before…

“Huh...you’re still here….”

The wisp then began to fly around a specific group of bushes, guiding Link in said direction.

“You want me to see something over there? ...well...I guess...”

Link followed the wisp to and through the bushes and eventually saw a clearing.

In this clearing, there was a rather large group gathered. Or to be more accurate, several smaller groups creating one larger one gathered.

Based on what could be perceived, it was three different ones. One consisted of Yoshis, one of Rexes, and one of Birdos.

There were further details too however that seemed to distinguish them from normal members of their species; namely in the clothing they wore. The yoshis and rexes both wore robes, the two however being styled in a different manner from each other.

The Yoshis’ ones were more wavy and layered in areas, while the Rexes’ ones were more straightened, not really with layers on them. While the Birdos didn’t wear robes, they all seemed to wear pendants and necklaces of some kind. Despite these differences in wear, one thing the three tribes seemed to have in common was that they all lacked the shoes that two of the three species were practically always seen with in modern day times.

Along with this, Link also noticed that an individual seemed to stick out among each tribe.

There was a Yoshi that wore a purple-black robe, but along with this, a pendant with some kind of symbol on it. this symbol being what seemed to be a circle with a good number of lines protruding from it in multiple directions; all surrounded by another hollow ring.

In the rex tribe was a rex; his body was maroon in color, they wore a blue robe, and a pendant with a different symbol, that; from Link’s angle, he wasn’t able to make out.

The birdo that stood out, though they didn’t have any large differences from the other birdos. They were green in color; suggesting they were a fire breathing member of their species, wore a pendant like the others did, and seemed to be a bit larger than the others were too.

And from what Link could see, it looked that the three tribe “leaders” were in a smaller circle with one another; surrounding some kind of thing being used as a table.

And from what he could see between them, there seemed to be some kind of writing on it with several signatures at the bottom.

“Given our agreement, this day going forward; despite what differences we may have, our tribes shall stand united,” the rex began to say. “Meaning, to keep things simple, what’s yours is mine, be it, resources, land, knowledge, the like. And what’s ours is ours too. Or, you know...however the saying goes...”

This got a bit of a laugh out of the tribal groups, before the conversation was continued with the birdo tribe leader keeping everyone on topic.

“Anyway, tribe,” the birdo leader began. “Referring to all of you, the first thing we’re wanting to focus on is building a settlement on the ground that we stand, understood?”

Though finding things a bit awkward given that the changes on the agreement had just come into effect, the tribes basically understood this.

“Alright, so, I'm pretty sure our blue dino acquaintance knows what it is we’re building the settlements out of; and where we get the materials correct?” the green birdo continued.

“I would...and as we’ve had the time to familiarize with each other...call me Rhea.”

“Well Rhea, as our agreement said, we’ve been provided useful tools by those funnel-mouthed dinos. After your tribe fulfills your end, it’ll be our turn to fulfil our end of the deal,” the rex tribe leader stated.

“Yes it will,” Rhea replied. “Follow our lead,” the dino lady said, turning around, leading the fellow tribes to the “resources” they agreed they’d guide them to.

“Huh...what’s this about?” Link wondered. Curious of where they were headed, Link began to follow. But before he could get far, suddenly, the blinding light came back in, forcing Link to cover his eyes once more.

Once he could open them again, he found that the scenery that had surrounded him previously, the forest of trees, was gone. He was back in the walls of the ancient old pyramid, standing in the room; the same position as before the “vision” came in.

“What was that…. There were several tribes discussing some stuff...about resources, and the like…. But huh...i’m drawing a blank….”

Link easily found his way back out of the pyramid, but after doing so, wondered where he should go now.

“I already explored this place...and there’s not a point in heading back…” Link thought. “Mosaic and his buddies are on vacation, the Marios and Toad aren’t around...and Peach...she’s...I...I hope she’s okay…”

After thinking in this manner for a bit, eventually making his way out of the oasis, he just began to wander the desert plains, not having much else of interest he could think of partaking in at this given time.

III: Breaks, Up and Out

Meanwhile at the Mario Bros’ whereabouts...

The Mario Bros both continued to plummet down to the dream-dimension grassland below, given Luigi’s previous accident in the gateway to said place.

The brothers eventually hit the ground, in which Mario had a pretty steady landing, expecting the long drop. Luigi on the other hand landed on his bottom, clumsy as always.

“Mama-mia…” Luigi said. “Bad-a landing…”

“Well...that’s-a why you gotta watch where you’re-a leaning…” Mario replied. “Now, let’s-a head this-a way; i’m pretty-a sure it’s where the old-a base is,” Mario then said, beginning to lead the way.

After traveling several miles through the familiar dreamland, passing by multiple sets of palm trees, vases, and such that they had grown to be familiar with in Subcon; soon enough, the worn down structure rested before the two brothers.

“Here it-a is…” Mario said.

“I…-a see…”

“Let’s-a find that doorway now, come on Luigi,” Mario then said, heading through the door and inside the building.

Giving a sigh, Luigi followed his brother into the ruined base.

As the duo transversed the base, as would be figured, Of course, given the place was ‘abandoned’, The once lively-halls were anything but that in present day time; In other words, completely barren; Not a single soul in sight.

“This place gives me the-a creeps...it’s too-a quiet…”

“The sooner we-a find that door Luigi, the sooner we can-a be out-a here, don’t-a worry,” Mario said, staying close and putting a hand on his green-capped bro for comfort.

The brothers continued to transverse the empty hallways, mainly just finding the same scenery throughout, the bricked walls, the vases, both grounded and floating, several loose sprouts still stuck in the ground, etc.

Eventually, Luigi picked up the discussion with a question.

“Hey...brother...how are we going to-a find the door when everywhere here looks the-a same?”

“...good-a question actually,” Mario responded as he walked. “I remembered that we-a saw the door SOMEWHERE in-a here, but for exactly-a where…”

“Hmm?”

“I...I don’t re-Ow!” Mario began, then running into something he didn’t notice.

“Oh...you o-akay?” Luigi asked.

“Yeah, I'm-a fine…thanks for-a checking...” Mario responded, slowing down as he looked at what he ran into.

Luigi looked too and commented. “It’s..it’s an-a door…”

“It-a is...may as well see what’s in-aside…” Mario added, in which the two then entered the room behind it.

On the inside the room was rather spacious, several platforms of green blocks along the walls of it. All these details however paled compared to details at the other side of the room, namely, a key, several phantos, and on the wall, a VERY large phanto mask, greenish-gray in color, the eyes shut off.

“It’s an-a key...guarded by-a phantos…” Luigi commented.

“Yeah...it-a is…” Mario added, seemingly lost in thought in that moment.

“Huh, brother, what is-”

“Wait a minute, I just-a remembered something!”

“Wha...what did you remember?”

“When we-a found the-a door that went to Water Land, it was behind a locked-a door.”

“Are...are you-a saying that to get that door again...we...we-a have to…”

“Yeah...I’d say-a so.”

“Mama-mia...are you sure there’s-a no other-a way we can-a do this...like...that you’re not-a remembering wrong or-a something?”

“To be-a honest...I could-a be remembering it-a wrong, but I feel the fact that there’s-a key here means somewhere in these-a halls is a door that’s-a locked. And there’s an-a possibility that behind that-a locked-a door is the warp we’re-a looking for…”

“I...I suppose you’re-a right…”

“And if it-a makes you feel any better, I’ll hold the-a key and be-a careful of the phanto.”

“Oh...thank you…. You sure you can-a handle it?”

“Yeah, for-a certain.”

“Okay...I’ll wait over near the-a door.”

“...Alright,” Mario said, then making his way across the room to the key.

As Mario continued along the room however, Luigi looked ahead and upward; thinking he saw something.

Except that this something he saw didn’t seem clear to view but...seemed to be becoming more and more clear by the moment…

Eventually, what it was that was in the air became so clear that he could make it out.

It was a shy-guy...a shy-guy ghost...they still had the features of a shy-guy, such as the mask and a body shape resembling their normal looks, but they lacked legs; and behind them instead was a trail ending in a “tail” of sorts.

“M-Mario…” Luigi said quietly, but not loud enough for Mario to hear.

After he said this, he began to notice that, around the room, more were appearing; loads more...soon enough, there was about...ten...twenty...no...most likely thirty of the masked ghosts in the air, and many of them seemed to be facing Mario’s direction.

By now, Mario, not seeing the ghost guys, had made it to the pedestal in which the key rested on, and was just now beginning to reach for it.

“Mario!” Luigi then shouted.

Grabbing the key in his hands, ready to run anticipating the phantos, Mario turned around.

“Luigi, what’s-a…” Mario asked, then seeing what it was that Luigi was shouting about. “The-a...problem…”

At this moment, the eyes of the large phanto on the wall began to glow red off and on, and one of the phantos that had been previously stationary on the wall began to move.

The Shy-Ghosts atm, kind of like what boos would do, were covering their eyes given Mario looked their way. But realizing what chaos was about to ensue, Mario quickly rushed past them, escaping pursuit of the phanto as well.

“Run-a for it Luigi!” Mario quickly told his brother as he ran by him and out of the room.

Listening to the advice of his brother, Luigi quickly followed, making haste out of the room as well and in a panic.

As the brothers hustled, more things stood in the way to confuse and throw off their path in small, spherical, shock-inducing creatures. These things being Sparks.

As if the Phanto chasing the two and the large hoard of Shy-Ghosts wasn’t enough to throw the two off, multiple sparks, swiftly scaling along the walls, ceiling, and floors, hindered the plumbers’ paths as well.

Eventually, at a breaking point, the two bros, without even realizing it amidst their panic, ran off in opposite directions.

Luigi found a door leading somewhere else. This very door in fact lead him away from the base, nowhere near it...out of subcon entirely.

Mario on the other hand, like had been his hunch beforehand discovered a door which required a key. Without even thinking, the italian threw the key into the lock and opened the door, rushing his way out of the base and jumping off onto solid dirt...the door was on an elevated spot on the base.

“Whew...that was a close-a one, ay brother?” Mario said, then looking to his side and realizing that Luigi wasn’t with him. “B-brother?

Mario then looked around for awhile, having realized that due to the door being elevated, he couldn’t reach it now and wanted to see if he could find another way in.

However, he found none.

“I...I hope he’s-a fine but...it looks-a like we’re going to have to part-a ways…” Mario eventually concluded, realizing he had no way to reach him now. “And now that i’m-a thinking about it, I feel like the-a door was actually right outside of the-a base, not directly in…. S-See you-a later brother...t-take care of your-a self,” Mario then said, trying to shake off having to leave Luigi behind for the second time, this time seemingly for good as he left the rundown base behind.

As he wandered, he began to think to himself.

“Okay, so...the-a door should be somewhere around-a here...right?” Mario thought to himself.

As he looked around the relatively open field of palm trees on the hill in which he stood, he noticed that on the downward slope of the hill, what seemed to him to be a large red...bow, or such was panning into view.

“Do I recognize...that-a bow…it looks-a kinda...familiar...”

As the bow continued to pan in, soon enough, he saw the wearer of the bow. One pink Birdo.

She looked somewhat down at the moment, but looked up as she walked up the hill, and noticed the plumber, snapping her out of her mood.

“W-Wait...is...that...Is that umm...Mario? Like...the Mario?” Birdo thought to herself, seeing this.

“Hold on...I...I’ve seen that-a Birdo before,” Mario realized. “Hey-a you, you’re...that-a Birdo aren’t you?”

“O-Oh! It is you, and...yeah, I...I am…” Birdo answered.

“You’ve been to alot of my-a parties as well as kart races during competitions we’ve-a had, right?”

“Oh...yeah, I have...often because...Yoshi went to them and…you know.”

“Wait...and weren’t you around to help us out in that circumstance of us trying to stop Peach’s voice from being stolen?”

“...Y-Yeah...my language...was literally explosive for awhile after that I kinda remember…”

“Didn’t you also help this-a...Popple guy for some-a reason at one-a point?”

“Y-Yeah...but...I don’t talk about that…”

“To change the-a subject a bit, were you by any-a chance just on a date with-a Yoshi?

“Yeah...I-I was…”

“Well...did you-a guys enjoy it?”

“I’d….I’d say so…”

“That’s-a good. But anyway, I gotta be on my-a way now, the Princess was captured...”

“Again huh...can’t she catch a break from that?”

“Guess-a not…”

“Well...good luck, I’ll...I’ll be going now…”

“...O-akay...see you-a another time.”

“Goodbye…”

With Birdo’s last comment, the two departed from their brief acquaintance with one another, with Birdo walking by and leaving.

After scouting the surrounding area for a bit, there he saw it. There were several grassy footholds submerged partially within a pond, and on top of one of these footholdings was a door.

“I think that’s the-a door…. Well, here we-a go...” Mario said, then sprinting towards the door.

Meanwhile, at Peach’s whereabouts, aka, Dark Land...

The Koopa Troop had long since arrived at Bowser’s Castle within Dark Land. Peach had been locked upon in the dungeons, the Koopalings and Jr. were doing work around the castle; while Kamek, and their boss, Bowser, aka King Koopa, were in the middle of a discussion on what their next move would be.

“Alright your evilness, so what sho-”

“Please...call me boss,” Bowser interrupted.

“Er...er, alright so umm, boss,” Kamek continued. “Now that we’ve got the princess in the dungeon, what’s the move now?”

“I think you’d know,” Bowser responded, then tapping a single claw-nail on the yellow-tinted shard on his pendant.

“Oh yeah, finding more of those pieces...that would have been my move too...but I thought I should, maybe...check.”

“You bet, so now let’s discuss that,” Bowser continued.

“Okay...so from what I've read your wick-umm, I mean boss; the other pieces of this...I think it was a compass from what I've read, are spread out across the Mushroom Kingdom.”

“Mhmm...go on…”

“And each of the pieces seem to have their own unique colors and properties as well as powers that they bestow upon the holder of them.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“In regards to what powers they give...err, while I don’t know, based on what color the one you’re wearing is, I’d say...that’s the mind shard…”

“As we’ve already figured out.”

“Yeah...boss, it’s crazy to think what you can do with that thing…”

“When my minions are being lazy, well, I’ll just make them do their tasks with this little trinket here. Hahaha.”

“Y-yeah…”

“I could even make the Princess do anything I say...even…-”

“King Dad! King Dad!” a voice interrupted.

“Ah! it’s Jr.” Kamek said, knowing who’s voice it was.

“Oh! Hello there my son, what’d you want to tell me?”

“King dad...wait until you see what I just found digging through junk!” Jr said, having rushed into the throne room; holding his hands behind his back, hiding what he found.

“What’d you find?” Bowser asked the smaller koopa.

“Check it out!” Jr responded, finally revealing the concealed object.

This object was none other than what seemed to be a straight tool with a long, yellow handle. On one side of this handle was a metal guard, in the middle a Bowser. Jr printed emblem. And finally, most notably, at the top, a large clump of bristles decorated in some kind of colorful liquid of sorts. This very thing was a large paintbrush. Not just any paintbrush, but the Magic Paintbrush.

“It’s...It’s...Isn’t that the thing that wacky scientist gave you?” Kamek questioned.

“Yep,” Jr. responded.

“And the thing you framed that annoying, obnoxious red plumber for in that one instance way back?” Bowser added.

“You bet it is King Dad, sure gonna have a lot of fun with this thing next time I see those plumbers and their loser friends!” Jr. replied.

“Sounds like this should be an easy victory for us,” Bowser said with cockiness.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that...Boss,” Kamek continued. “Remember th-”

Before Kamek could finish however, Bowser began to just give him a glare.

“O-Okay...to get back on topic sir,” Kamek started, trying to ignore what happened. “What do you think should be our plan to track down the other pieces of this compass?”

“Argh, I don’t know,” Bowser responded.

“Well...if this thing King Dad is wearing is the part of a compass, shouldn’t we have a frame to guide us to those other shiny pieces?”

“There is a frame...that we don’t have Jr.,” Kamek explained.

“Oh…” Jr. replied.

Bowser, Jr. and Kamek thought for a bit about how to go about it, continuing discussion further. Eventually, an idea came to Kamek.

“Mmm, I have an idea,” Kamek said.

“Well, what are you waiting for? spit it out!” Bowser demanded.

Within the dungeons of Bowser’s Castle was locked up for the clique-eth time, one prisoner. Princess Peach Toadstool, who was contemplating several things.

“Oh my, oh my...here we go again...just waiting around for the Marios to show up and come to my rescue...again…” Peach thought to herself, sitting around within her cell.

After sitting around for extended periods of time, she eventually came to a realization.

“Wait a minute...I don’t need to sit around waiting for those two to show up...I should try to find a way to break out myself…”

Peach started by looking at the bars of the cell.

“Maybe I can pry them open?” She thought. “Nah...that’s not my style... and I'm not strong enough to do that…”

Peach investigated her holding place further, and noticed something peculiar in one of the neighboring cells.

This thing was none other than a key, lying face up on the floor, and fortunate enough, it was an arm’s length away from Peach’s cage.

“Huh...I could make an easy key pun here, but think I should just take the key,” Peach said. “Looks like Bowser’s still his moronic self, leaving something like that there.”

Peach reached through the bars of the cell for the key, grabbing it easily and then quietly opening it; seeing that the guards at this given moment seemed to be dozing off.

Seeing this, the princess snuck past them. And leading out of the dungeon, saw a hallway branching to the left and to the right.

Careful not to be seen, Peach took a look to the left hall; and then to the right of the hall; and from what she could tell, hunch told her that the hall on the left would lead her out. At first, she played things in a stealthy manner; but eventually, she made it to a large open area of the castle and realized it didn’t matter what she did here, and as such, just made a run for it.

“So it looks like it’s settled, I’ll send an order out to all of our troops across the kingdom to search everywhere for these pieces! The vastest of plains! The highest of hills! The deepest of caves! The darkest of seas! Everywhere!” Bowser exclaimed, repeating the pitched plan.

“That is correct boss,” Kamek affirmed.

“Sounds like a good plan,” Bowser responded. “Glad I thought of it.”

“You mean when I tho-”

“Your wickedness! Your wickedness!” a voice broke out, catching Bowser, Kamek and Jr.’s attention.

The voice came from a Koopatrol, who had frantically rushed to the throne room of his authority.

“That’s Boss for you, underling!” Bowser responded. “...now tell me, what’s the ruckus?”

“T-The, T-The...Princess…”

“What about her?”

“S-She’s...not in the dungeon...she...she seemed to...b...break out…”

Hearing this, the Koopa King stormed off his throne and grabbed the smaller, armor-suited turtle by the neck.

“Then what are you waiting for?! Go get her!” Bowser roared, then dropped the soldier back on the ground.

“O-On it...Boss…” the Koopatrol responded, then heading back out of the throne room to pursue the escaped monarch.

Rushing through halls, jumping platforms, outrunning the Koopa Troop, Peach continued to run as fast as her legs could carry her with a fair amount of difficulty.

Though it was tough to do so, she eventually saw the exit straight ahead...across a drawbridge going straight over a pool of lava…

Peach quickly took a peak behind her as she continued to run, seeing that the large assembly of Koopatrols, Dry Bones, Goombas, Koopa-Troopas, etc. weren’t far off from her.

Peach realized that she had to lose them and buy time someway or another.

It is then that the idea hit her on what it is she should do.

As she continued to run, she pulled out her trusty fry pan that she kept on her for use as a weapon and looked to the side of the drawbridge, looking for the draw. She quickly spotted it.

Upon seeing this, Peach hurled the cooking tool at the draw as hard as she could. The impact of the thrown object did exactly what she had intended to. The draw began to spin around a bunch rapidly, bringing up the drawbridge.

“This is cutting it close...but I need to buy more time….” Peach thought aloud, then proceeding to the next move, being that she jumped the drawbridge as it pulled up.

The stone bridge on the other side wasn’t too far, and with the use of her dress, she is able to slowly glide down to it, having a relatively safe landing.

“This will only buy me a few seconds...but it may be just long enough to lose them…” Peach thought, continuing to rush away from the dark stronghold and into the volcanic wasteland.

All around was more of the same brown, bare soil; leafless trees, lava pools, pipes, and floating question blocks.

Realizing that it wasn’t going to be long at all before the Koopa Troop showed up, intent on recapturing her, Peach quickly hid from view behind a warp pipe.

The squad of troops had pursued the escaped princess to the dark wastelands; and all began looking around for her, with none of them seeing her.

From afar, she noticed one of the troops talking with the others; and based on the lip reading, the assumption the troops made is that she went somewhere else further away from the castle, and all left the area; looking deeper into the plains of dark land.

“It...seems like I’ve lost them,” Peach stated, going out of her hiding place, then examining the pipe she hid behind. She compared this pipe to the other pipes in the area, all of which were red.

The pipe she had been hiding behind however, was yellow.

“Interesting...does this imply I’ll warp somewhere different all together?” Peach wondered. “I’m trying to escape here...may as well figure that out now.”

Peach, wasting no more time, dived down feet first into the yellow warp pipe, completely unbeknownst to where it’d take her.

Meanwhile from afar, in the army of troops sent to retrieve Peach by Bowser...

“I feel a disturbance in the retrieval mission…” One of the Dry Bones said.

“The dino pair brought a close to their date...the green tunic’d explorer uncovered compelling information...the italian brothers had been separated from one another; and the kingdom’s monarch, which an evil turtle tyrant had been holding captive; made a break for it, and succeeded. Where will this tale lead for our crew next? Time will reveal the answer to that question.”

To Be Continued...

double digit higher than ten hype!

[King Mario]

Thanks for the new Chapter! I'm looking forward to what's next. Until next time, take care!

[Mosaic]

Thanks for the new Chapter! I'm looking forward to what's next. Until next time, take care!

You're welcome! and that's nice to hear.

[Mosaic]

Mosaic Adventures Chapter 12: Pieces To The Puzzle Part 5: show

I: Regal Meeting

Back at Sarasaland, The Mosaic Group; Mosaic, Hoops, Rosy and Berry had successfully located the ferry that would take them to the capital.

And as such, did exactly that, purchasing ferry tickets and riding it there.

Soon enough, after around thirty minutes or so on the ferry arrived at the colorful crew’s first main destination of the trip, City Sarasa.

Once the ship hits the port, the group exits the ship along with the rest of the crowd and take a look at the sights, seeing that there’s a lot of tall buildings, essentially skyscrapers and the like.

“So here we are, City Sarasa huh?” Mosaic stated.

“Sure looks that way,” Hoops added.

“Yeah...it’s very pretty,” Rosy began. “It kinda reminds me a bit of how New Donk City is described to look.”

Berry drops a comment too in his language.

“Oh?”

“Ah, Hoops; what did Berry say?” Mosaic asked.

“He wants a lift to see things from a bit closer,” Hoops informed.

“Ah, here you go Berry,” Mosaic responded, plucking the baby reptile off the ground and lifting them up.

Berry, seeing things from closer, cooed at the sights.

Eventually, the silence was broken when it seemed Berry had had enough and was put back on the ground.

“Alright, that’s enough of that, what’s there to do around this city?” Mosaic then said.

“There seems to be a number of things to do here,” Rosy began, then pulling out a pamphlet about the capital. “There’s the Daisy Circuit.”

“Daisy Circuit?” Mosaic asked, intrigued to hear this.

“It’s a race track that I assume Daisy directed the construction of given its name where of course, races are held.”

“Ah, makes sense,” Mosaic replied. “What else is there?”

“There also a guide store here which-”

“Wait, guide store, does that mean…” Hoops interrupted.

“Yeah, we can get a guide map and book there, and as such, touring Sarasaland should be a breeze for the rest of our trip.”

“Oh thank stars…” Hoops expressed hearing this.

“And of course, other than these two things is the Castle,” Rosy continued. “Where of course Daisy would be.”

“And well...she is the reason we did kinda travel here to begin with.” Mosaic brought up. “So before we do anything else here, let’s focus on doing that.”

“May be a bit tough given the security,” Rosy pointed out.

“The...wha?” Hoops commented.

“There’s quite a few guards there that prevent most visitors from meeting Daisy in person face to face unless they have a really good reason for doing so.”

“Wait, Rosy, how’d you figure that out?” Mosaic asked.

“Er...you told me Mosaic, remember? Before we left? You had said you found it out from Daisy herself?”

“Huh…” Mosaic thought aloud, trying to retrace his words. “I may have said that didn’t I?”

“Yeah...I know you did.”

“Well, think that’s a bridge we’ll cross when we get to it, for now, let’s start by finding that castle.”

And with that, the group went off deeper into the city, in search of the castle in which the flower-named princess dwelled.

Some Searching Later...

“I don’t see the castle anywhere…” Mosaic stated.

“Yeah...me either…” Hoops added.

“Rosy, is there anything on your pamphlet about where the castle is by any chance?”

Rosy hearing this checked the pamphlet.

“Based on where we are and what the pamphlet shows...it should be right here!” Rosy stated, then looking up ahead.

There it was, a high-class looking staircase right in front of them only meters away; leading up into a larger structure that based on it’s decorating, seemed to indeed be a castle.

“Wow, Rosy was actually right on something huh?” Hoops added.

“What are you saying?”

“Aaaaanyway…” Mosaic interrupted. “Let’s go up to the entrance and see if we can get inside.”

As such, up the stairs they went, where at the top they saw an entrance lacking a door, opening up into a larger room.

The room was quite decorated, having orange, vibrant walls and a ceiling, branching paths to other parts of the castle made with a red carpet, and a number of different artifacts within glass stands as well as picture frames of numerous different places and objects scattered about the walls as well and a large glass chandelier in the middle. Along with this, there were already several people within the room, scouting the sights that were within the room.

As such the group looked around the room a bit, giving comments here and there.

“Wow, this is a nice room,” Rosy commented.

“You said it,” Mosaic added.

“Aren’t we trying to see Daisy?” Hoops asked.

“Ah yeah, let’s do that first,” Mosaic replied.

Seeing down the hall, Mosaic saw a staircase going up to another room, being guarded by two people in armor wielding spears and who both looked to be human.

“Something tells me that’s where Daisy’s throne room is,” Mosaic explained, pointing at what his eye caught.

“Well...guess it’s time for the hard part, getting past the guards…” Rosy commented.

Berry made a comment in his language too.

“Hopefully they indeed aren’t mean,” Hoops responded to Berry’s comment.

Making their way down the hall to the entryway that the two guards stood, when they got about an arm’s length away, the two guards both suddenly thrust their spears in an x, blocking the door.

“Name?” One of the guards asked.

“Umm, us?” Mosaic tried to explain.

“Us who?” the guard asked.

“Err...you don’t recognize us? Us? The Mosaic Group?” Mosaic continued.

“Never heard of you,” The guard responded. “What business do you have with her highness?”

“Umm-”

“W-Well, we wanted to meet with her…” Rosy tried to explain.

“And why may that be?” the other guard asked the group.

“W-Well…”

“I don’t remember the princess scheduling a formal meeting with a porcupine with a bow, a baby dinosaur, an insect with baseball hands and a leprechaun.”

“A...what?” Mosaic thought.

Mosaic then tried to talk. “Uh, I can explain tha-”

“Given that,” the second guard continued. “How do we know we can trust you?”

“Well…-” Hoops tried to explain.

“Maybe you just want to meet her and have a formal discussion with her...or maybe the tall guy is looking for a girlfriend or something…” the guard began to speculate.

“Trust me...I know she’s taken already…” Mosaic thought.

“Or maybe you guys are here to kidnap her...or maybe you’re even planning on asking her out to dinner so you can then get out some poison and…”

“Excuse me boys but...what’s with all the commotion down there?” a femimine voice chimed in.

Suddenly, the guards moved aside, seemingly knowing who’s voice it was.
And down the stairs came a person dressed in a royal manner.

Dress...crown..brooch...kind of like Princess Peach, but unlike Princess Peach, her dress was orange and her hair was brown and styled somewhat differently. It was clear exactly who this was.

“O-Oh! Princess Daisy! Your highness-” one of the guards began.

The group were a bit surprised to hear this given that up until now, they never met Daisy in person.

“No need to call me by name again, just explain to me what’s going on,” Daisy asked the guards.

“W-Well...these four people wanted to meet with you for some reason…”

“These four?” Daisy began, taking a look at them.

“Wait...I know who you guys are, Peach talks about you all the time; you’re the...”

“T-The...Mosaic Group, in the flesh,” Mosaic responded. “So...you’re Princess Daisy?”

“Yep, and what are your names again? Sorry...I forget.”

“Well to start off, I'm Mosaic…” he stated, shaking hands with Daisy.

“I’m the quickest in th- umm, I mean, Hoops.”

“My name is Rosy.”

Berry however didn’t speak, being shy.

“Oh, and...he’s Berry…” Rosy introduced given this.

“Barry?” Daisy asked.

“N-No...Berry, with an E.”

“Ah...I see…how about we all go back up stairs and all chat some more?” Daisy then asked, hearing their introductions.

“Yeah, sure, that is what we came here for after all,” Mosaic accepted.

“They’re good to go, guards.”

“Yes Ma’am,” both guards responded, doing the hand sign accordingly.

As the five made their ways up the stairs, they chatted.

“Let me see if I got your names a sec alright?”

“Sure thing,” Mosaic replied.

“So your names are Rosy, Hoops, Berry and...Massaic right?”

“Er, umm...that’s MO-saic…”

“Ah, woops...alright, will note.”

At this point they had made it into the throne room and continued.

“To start our discussion...what past do you and Peach have with one another? She’s mentioned you from time to time…” Rosy asked.

“Oh? Me and her? We’ve done quite a bit,” Daisy began. “We’ve raced cars together, went to a lot of parties, played a lot of sports…”

“Like Soccer right? I remembered hearing about you having a team from Peach herself,” Mosaic asked.

“You got that right,” Daisy replied. “And we even participated in the olympics one time…that brings some memories back...”

“The Olympics huh? Sounds cool…” Hoops commented.

“It was...wonder if we’ll ever do another one…” Daisy replied.

“And you guys work together alot when it comes to that event too, right?” Mosaic then asked, continuing with a new subject.

“Yeah, we sure do.”

“Given you two are friends, I assume your guys' kingdoms have some kind of association with one another, right?”

“I’ll tell you guys since you know her; that yeah, we do, though it’s mainly through collaboration and trade, you know, the boring stuff.”

“What exactly do you two plant princesses collab and trade?” Hoops asked.

“Oh, you know, like the annual grand prix or parties that we do every so often and stuff like that.”

“Wouldn’t call once in a year every so often…” Mosaic thought.

“And with trading, well, different resources we have that the other doesn’t really.”

“So like?” Mosaic asked.

“Superball Flowers...Billy Guns...Propeller Blocks...things like that.”

“Makes sense…” Mosaic responds. “Any other places that have had or have a connection to the Mushroom Kingdom like Sarasaland does?”

“Hmm...not that I’d know of…”

“Well I’d know that Subcon doesn’t really share a real connection other than it’s scattered warp doors, while Dinosaur Land...I’ve heard about...history, but that’s all to be honest…” Rosy added to the discussion.

“Anyway, you four got plans after this?”

“Well...we do plan to give the other kingdoms a look…” Mosaic answered the question.

“Yeah, we do…” Rosy added.

“Rosy...trying to look helpful…” Hoops commented.

“Ah well, guess you’re going to miss the race and dinner tonight.”

This first caught Berry’s attention, but also caught the others’ as well.

“Wait...what’d you say about what?” Hoops commented.

“There’s going to be a race tonight, down at the Daisy Circuit.”

“Hey, that sounds like fun, how much is admission for it?” Mosaic asked.

“Well there’s a couple deals we offer over there. For just watching the kart race, it’s...oh umm, eighty-five coins.”

“How many?” Rosy asked.

“Eighty-five coins Rosy...she answered that,” Hoops commented.

“T-That’s alot...how much does combining the dinner add to it?” Mosaic then asked, continuing with the subject.

“I recall it running for like...a couple hundred coins or something.”

“W...WHAT?” Mosaic reacted. “How expensive are these dinners?”

“Only sixty coins or something I’d say.”

“Then why...the heck...is both...combined...two hundred coins?” Mosaic thought to himself. “That’s...a ripoff…” Then responding aloud, Mosaic gave his piece. “I’m...sorry, I’m pretty sure we can’t afford that, that’d blow through a good deal of our vacation coins if we did.”

“Hey...could be worse Mosaic, at least it’s not the beanbean kingdom where a million coins from here is only one hundred there…” Rosy mentioned.

“What kind of exchange is that!?” Mosaic thought as he just gave Rosy a shocked look.

“No need to worry you guys,” Daisy stated.

“Huh? But we said-” Mosaic began.

“You can’t afford it?” Daisy asked. “Not really a problem if you’re getting it free anyway.”

“Wait...you mean it?” Mosaic asked.

“Of course I do, here you four go,” Daisy responded, holding four light-blue papers out to the group.

“Dinner Race Deal Voucher…” Rosy read out.

“They’re all yours…”

“No point in passing out free entertainment and food I’d say,” Hoops commented.

“You’re right that there isn’t,” Mosaic replied. “Thank you for giving us these.”

“No problem,” Daisy replied.

“Think we’ll be going now to look around the city until the game and meal’s start, when would that be?”

“Six o’clock.”

“Alright...so...really soon...thanks, we’ll see you there,” Mosaic then said as he and the group turned to leave.

“Sayonara,” Hoops said.

“Bye now,” Rosy stated.

Berry also gave a goodbye as well in his own language.

“See ya Rosy, see ya Berry, see ya Hoops, see ya Massaic.”

“That’s Mosaic!” Mosaic shouted up the stairs, hearing her.

“Ah woops, sorry.”

Meanwhile, at Dino Mountain...

II: Mystical Clues

Having tamed the creature beforehand, Toad rode the quadruped dinosaur to what seemed to be the mountain’s peak, especially as could be told from the darkness around the mountain. It seemed that sunset had been arriving.

“Here you go big guy, as I promised,” Toad said to the Dino Rhino, giving them the bag of berries he had harvested from the bag.

As the Dino Rhino munched on them, they began to make their way back down the hill.

Having now arrived where he had wanted to, Toad scouted the area around him, seeing that there wasn’t too much ground around him, however, there was a path up ahead; going upwards. There were some more steep hills to scale and rock walls to climb, however, Toad felt he could handle them, none of them being as steep as the hill the dino rhino took him up.

“Based on the map, after climbing this bit of extra terrain...I’ll be right at the place…. Welp, no place to go but up.”

And up he did go, it took him some time, but soon enough, he made it to the very area that was marked on his map; the peak of the mountain.

“T-That; huff...was much, huff, harder than, huff, I thought it’d be…” Toad stated to himself.

Then, looking up, he saw a collection of rather old-school looking houses.

“So here’s the village…” Toad thought aloud. “I guess it’s time I-”

Suddenly, at that moment, one of the doors swung open.

“Uh...umm…”

As Toad noticed this, more and more of the doors began to open up, and out of the buildings their residents came.

These residents were all familiar dino-dragons that Toad had seen quite often in Dinosaur Land, Rexes. Except, they all wore plain looking robes, and were each all holding one of two things in their hands; a torch or a spear.

All of them marched out of their houses, all looking Toad in the eyes as they held their tools, thinking him an intruder.

“I...I come in peace…” Toad began to reason with the dragons.

“What’s your business here, mushroom person?”

“W-Well I umm…” Toad began to try to explain. “I-I have this map here and…”

“Now what seems to be all the hubbub people?” a wise-worded voice suddenly arose.

Out of the door within the center of the village came a specific rex. They wore a robe like the other rexes, just a dark shade of green. They were also green themselves body color wise. And finally, held what appeared to be a staff with an emerald at the top.

Given this last detail, they appeared from Toad’s perspective to be quite elderly.

“This weird fungus looking person showed up here!”

“Yeah! He just walked right on in without warning!”

In this manner, the members of the village began to explain what the deal was to the elder.

“You’re all speaking as if this mushroom person is terrorizing you guys,” The elder began to reason with the others. “As far as I can tell, he’s just arrived here and we haven’t even had the decency to ask him his name, so why don’t we get started with that first?”

Understanding their superior’s reasoning, the fellow rexes moved aside and let him get his piece in, he leaned down a bit to Toad’s height.

“Tell me, little mushroom, what’s your name?”

“O-Oh! It’s...err...Toad.”

“Toad huh? Names just as I prefer them, short and simple. I’m Báilóng.”

“Interesting name...hello though Báilóng.”

“You locating our village at the very peak of Vanilla Mountain like this is quite a feat bearing significance,” Báilóng began. “What brings you here Toad?”

“Well, there’s a guy I know who told me about there being a village in Dinosaur Land…”

“Mmm…”

“So I headed here to see if well, I could find where it was.”

“What might your guide have been in finding our humble mountain dwelling?”

“Oh, just this ancient old map,” Toad explained, then showed it off.

It was when Toad said these words that quite a stir picked up within the group of rexes.

“Wait...an ancient map you say?” Báilóng commented. “Could...could he be the one?” he then thought aloud.

“Wait, what do you mean by-”

“The fact that you’re holding that map is another feat in of itself; why, I had assumed all of those maps...had been lost to the mists of time!”

“So...me having this map is...special?”

“Indeed it is my fungus,” Báilóng responded. “Here, come inside my hut, we’ll talk a bit more, just the two of us.”

“A-Alright then…” Toad responded, following him inside with the door shutting behind.

Back at City Sarasa...

As had been planned by the group not too long ago, they showed up at six o clock, on the dot for the race and dinner of which they had just recently been informed.

Overall, it went pretty well for them, the food was great, as was the dessert. The race hadn’t really been too close at all, despite what one might expect from a race typically. It was at this point that the Mosaic Group were talking with one another on their opinions on the kart race that they had just spectated minutes ago.

“Talk about an intense race,” Mosaic began.

In which Berry agreed.

“Eh, not really Mosaic,” Hoops replied. “Once those guys driving the large koopa shell took the lead, they took the gold kinda easily…”

“Gotta say I agree with Hoops on this one Mosaic…” Rosy added.

“Oh…” Mosaic responded, not having much to respond with. “What about we talk with Daisy a bit more? There’s a couple more things I wanted to talk to her about.”

“Oh? What’d you want to ask her?” Rosy asked.

“What she knows about the round frame we found.”

“Oh...wait, what?” Rosy responded, then quickly realizing what he said. “You...sure you want to talk to her about that?”

“Yeah, I'm sure no harm would come out of doing so.”

“I’m game,” Hoops added.

“Well alright…” Rosy replied.

Berry gave an agreement too.

After quickly locating where Daisy was, they began a new discussion.

“Heya Daisy,” Mosaic began.

“Hey y’all, how’d you like the race?” Daisy asked, not noticing the intent.

“It was nice, anyway though, mind if we ask a couple more things?” Mosaic asked.

“Knock yourselves out,” Daisy replied.

Berry began to say something in his language, sounding upset.

“It’s...a figure of speech Berry, we’re good,” Rosy explained.

Berry acknowledged Rosy’s comment, and let Mosaic speak.
“What we wanted to ask first about was if you’ve heard about the discovery we made about a week or so ago.”

“Discovery?” Daisy asked.

“Yeah, basically we explored this old pyramid over in subcon, and over there, discovered something very interesting.”

“Umm...excuse me...am I interrupting you guys by any chance?”

“Nah, you’re not, infact-” Mosaic began to say before realizing that this voice came from someone else, in which he and the rest of the group then turned their heads in the direction of the voice, seeing that someone was listening in.

The person wore a black-purple robe and wore a sealed black pendant with a container around their neck. They were purple bodied with a white-underside, had a short tail, and were bare-footed. A Yoshi, the group was able to quickly deduce.

“Hey...you’re dressed...distinctively,” Rosy began, trying to be polite. “What’s your name?”

“It’s...Dinna,” the dino lady responded.

“Well, hey Dinna, i’m Mosaic.” the latter stated, then shaking hands.

“I’m some bug you can call Hoops. And by the way, I'm a guy.”

“Why would she think that you’re...oh…” Rosy asked, then seeing the reason.

Berry then introduced himself to Dinna too.

“And your name is Berry huh?” Dinna responded. “That’s a nice name,” She said as she kneeled down and gave Berry a pat.

“So you’re the one I heard hollering over there earlier…” Daisy said aloud.

“Huh? Do you mean you’re familiar with her?” Mosaic asked.

“Well I heard her voice earlier but couldn’t talk with her at the time about what it was I’d suppose…” Daisy explained.

“Ah…”

“If you guys were talking...you can finish first…” Dinna inputted in the discussion.

“Ah, okay,” Mosaic replied. “Anyway as I was saying, we explored this old pyramid about a week back, found this frame to apparently what E. Gadd has learned is a magic compass as of recently…”

“C-Compass?” Dinna said quietly.

“As we speak, Team S.M.B.X are over in the Mushroom Kingdom hunting the shards to it down, as they’re apparently scattered around there, so that’s where they’re searching at the moment.”

“Ah, so it’s one of those mcguffin searching instances, sounds like a party.”

“I guess you could call it a...Mario Party right?” Rosy said.

There was some brief silence before it was picked up again.

“Beryl won’t be happy to hear you stole one of his puns…” Hoops stated.

“It was a nice pun though right?”

“...I suppose so…”

“Anyway, all we had been asking is if you know anything of sorts about this,” Mosaic asked.

“Mmm, can’t say anyone ever told me about any compasses with magic powers up until now.”

“Ah, I see, that figures,” Mosaic said. “I suppose we’ll be heading to the hotel now.”

“You can say what you were wanting to Daisy now if you wanted to,” Rosy said to Dinna.

“Oh...umm...it’s alright, it’s not important what I was going to talk about anyway…” Dinna responded.

“Oh...well...alright; have a nice night,” Rosy said to Dinna as she and the others made their way out of the racing circuit and to a place that they could stay for the night.

Back at Dino Mountain...

Having been let in the elder’s shack in private, Toad took a look around, seeing that, while the place looked clean, neat, and in general desirable, it wasn’t much more than that. It was small in size, and other than the necessities such as a basket of fruit and a bed, was quite empty.

“You guys don’t do too much up here do you?” Toad presumed.

“Fraid not, most people on this mountain have lived here their whole lives and never really left beyond here, nor have I…” Báilóng informed. “We do however like to play games of Manjong or Chess every so often…”

“That’s...nice…” Toad said. “Anyway, what were you going to show me in your...hut?”

“It’s right over here,” The elder dino-dragon began to guide him, leading him to a locked treasure chest.

“What’s in the box?” Toad asked.

“Heh, you sounded like a motion picture character right there,” Báilóng commented.

“Umm, I’d say that’s ‘movie’ character you're looking for…” Toad replied, a bit embarrassed.

Báilóng laughed, but then had the question, “What might a movie be my youngster?”

“Oh umm...I may tell you another time,” Toad responded. “Can I see what you were wanting to show?”

“Sure as can be,” Báilóng replied, taking out a key and opening the crate with it.

It being open, Toad peaked at the contents inside.

There was an old, worn scroll. It seemed to be torn on one side however.

“It’s...a scroll…” Toad commented.

“It is, why don’t you take a look at it?”

As such, the mushroom person did just that and examined the scroll for a while, then gave his opinion.

“They look like...some kind of cryptic directions...at least, some of them. And...this looks like a shiny purple shard...”

“That my friend, is a piece of the Vegvisir Compass that the scroll is guiding you to.”

“The...the wha,” Toad responded, not realizing what the compass’ name was until now. “That’s what the compass is called?”

“Yep, it is.”

“I see...back on the subject, why only half of the scroll? Do you have the other half?”

“Can’t say we do…”

“Do...you know where it may be?”

“Can’t say I would either. Perhaps, it too, has been lost to the mists of time!”

“Oh man, that’s unfortunate...was hoping you’d perhaps know that so that way tracking down the other half would be easier...”

“Though...I do remember reading a journal from...I think it was my great-grandfather that it’s in…”another dimension” I believe.”

“...Wait, another dimension?”

“I...think so, I may be mistaken…”

“You know...some friends of mine found that compass in a place called ‘Subcon’. Have you heard of it?”

“Hmm, Subcon...Subcon….” Bailong thought for a bit. At that moment, the memory flooded in. “Why yes...yes I have heard of it, just a couple days ago in fact. I remembered my...grandson saying something about it before he left and...” Bailong said before beginning to cut himself off.

“Oh I se-” Toad began before realizing what it was that Bailong just said. “Wait a minute...did you just say ‘your grandson’?”

“I...I did, didn't I?” Bailong said, before remaining silent for a good bit of time.

“Elder? You feeling okay?” Toad asked.

“I...I should have mentioned it earlier but...my grandson left the mountain a couple days ago…”

“W-Wait...a couple days ago? Like...exactly two?”

“I...believe so...my memory is getting foggy with my age, but I couldn’t forget that much…he...he left to go do...well...exactly what it sounds like you and your friends are planning to do...”

Toad hearing this flashed back to what he heard at the game the other day.

“Bailong...a question about your grandson…”

“Yes? What may it be?”

“Is...he both green himself and someone who wears green clothing?”

“Y-Yes…”

“And...another question...what’s...what’s his name?”

“M...M…”

“Y-Yeah? Who?”

“Meredith.”

“You know...I-I think I may have heard about someone like this from two other buddies of mine just a couple days ago.” Toad explained. “He helped them out.”

“I...I see…that’s nice of him.”

“But wait a minute...if he’s your own grandson...and he left the mountain to find the shards of the...Vegvisir Compass, why didn’t you give him the scroll instead of me?”

Bailong didn’t respond to Toad’s question.

“W-Wait...he...he didn’t go off to do this against your will, did he?”

“...He...He...did…”

“O-Oh no…” Toad responded.

“Okay...I want you to listen, Toad,” Bailong continued. “There’s no time for details, but I want you to take this scroll, and make sure my grandson doesn’t get his hands on any of the shards or either half of this scroll. And most importantly, do not let him anywhere near the compass frame…”


“I...I see…” Toad replied.

“If he does...the results will be…. Catasphrophic to say the least…”

“O-Okay…”

“The frame to the Vegvisir Compass...it’s in good hands as we speak, correct?”

“W-Well...I hope so...but I’d say it’s safe…”

“Alright...that’s good to hear. Now, with the scroll in hand, it’s time you got moving...before it’s too late…”

“I...will, but on a last question, and this should be an easy one…”

“Ah?”

“How do you get down the mountain?” Toad asked.

“That should be an easy feat, just use this,” Bailong said, then handing Toad a flask filled with a red liquid.

“Wait...this is a...magic potion…”

“Indeed; you know how to use it, correct?”

“I...I do...thanks. Would you have a recipe for how these are made?”

“Not really, they were given to me a long time ago. The recipe’s been lost to the mists of time!”

“You sure love saying that…” Toad replied.

“Hmm, Hmm,” Bailong laughed. “I suppose I do.”

“Yeah...well, I’ll be seeing you and your village off now if that’s alright.”

“Oh, it’s not a big deal at all, I’ve used up plenty of your time by now, you have more important things on hand.”

“See ya Bailong, it was nice talking with you, thanks for the information and help!”

“Don’t mention it my little mushroom friend! For real, actually don’t…”

As Toad had said he would, once he found a good spot for doing so, he threw down the magic potion, there appeared a magic door, and after some brief travel through subspace, just like that, there he was, near the bottom of the mountain in which he was able to see the familiar Donut Plains not too far at all from him now.

Wasting no time, he began making his way down.

Meanwhile, at Luigi’s Whereabouts...

III: Green Thunder

The green plumber had made it to the other side of the door in which; given his run in he had with the many hostile creatures of subcon’s environment had hurried into without thinking.

On the other side of this door was a lack of solid ground; the door was in midair.

Given this of course, Luigi went plummeting to the ground. Fortunately enough for him, the terrain below gave him a soft landing.

“Oww...Mama Mia…” Luigi retorted as he got back up; wiping dust off of his clothing. “It seems we were able to escape those guys eh bro?” he said, before quickly realizing, he was nowhere to be found. “M-Mario? Where are-a you?” Luigi began to wonder aloud, then looking around to see if he was anywhere around, finding him nowhere.

Infact, when he looked at his surroundings, he found that above him was an orange sky, indicating that sunset was arriving, all around him was a forest of palm trees planted on grass, and on the ground below...sand.

“W-Wait...am...am I...in Desert-a Land?” Luigi wondered. “I...don’t remember us ever-a finding an Oasis here…. Is...is this even Desert-a Land? I don’t-a know but...either way...let’s-a get out of here!”

The high jumping italian tried several times to reach the door in which he fell from, but to no avail, the door was far too high to reach.

“I...I can’t reach it…” Luigi said to himself. “I really am alone huh…. No...get a grip on yourself Luigi...what would your brother do in this situation? He’d...he’d press on...wouldn’t he? Well, that’s what you got to-a do too!” As such, Luigi began to march his way down a path that he saw, thinking it’d lead him out of the oasis and somewhere more familiar.

As he walked, Luigi pulled out the frame to the Vegvisir Compass and looked at it, feeling somewhat bored.

“Man, I wish this thing could lead me to Mario…”

At that moment, the compass’ needle began to twitch violently, it had picked something up!

“Wait! It’s reacting! A compass piece must be nearby!” Luigi began as he started to run, following the needle.

Luigi hustled and hustled, in rapid pursuit of whatever it was the needle was pointing at; but he wasn’t looking where he was going. Soon enough, as one may expect from moving at high speeds and not watching your surroundings, he ran into someone and crashed, knocking him, the one he ran into, and the compass all onto the ground.

“Hey, watch where you're-” the person began before recognizing who it was. “Hold on...haven’t I seen you somewhere before? You’re the electrician right?” they then said.

Reconvening himself, Luigi began to look up, ready to apologize. “Sorry about-a running into you like-a that, guess I should of...ran-a slower,” Luigi began, then realizing he’s seen this person before. “Hey...I saw you earlier today didn’t I? You’re...the M...Meredith guy right?”

“Y-Yeah…” the dragon mage responded. “It’s funny how you and I keep running into each other like this.”

“Heh, well...maybe it’s destiny or something that this keeps-a happening?”

“Heh heh, maybe so, that, or…” Meredith continued before looking next to Luigi, noticing something lying on the ground. “Wait a minute...what’s that!?”

Catching Meredith’s eye, Luigi looked at what it was he was eyeing.

“Oh...this? Well, it’s an-a frame to a magic compass...why do you-a ask?” Luigi then, realizing what he said, put a hand over his mouth.

At this moment, Meredith grew silent, and just stared at the compass, seemingly...shaking almost, not with fear but...something else?

“Where...Where did you get that?” Meredith angrily asked.

“Err umm well, I...I wasn’t the one who-a found it but umm, some friends of-a mine did…” Luigi explained. “...are...are you okay buddy?” Luigi then asked.

“W-Why do you have it?” Meredith questioned next.

“M-My brother gave it to me to-a...hold on to…”

“Y-Your brother has no idea what foolish action he’s just taken.”

“W-What do you mean?”

“That compass belongs to the Descentia Tribe and it’s descendents.”

“W-What’s the Descentia Tribe?” Luigi asked.

“...clearly your ignorance shows,” Meredith responded. “All I want for you to do is be a good electrician, plumber, whatever you are, and hand that thing over to me.”

Thinking it was a bad idea based on what he’s seen, Luigi responded, and quite nervously, “N...No...I don’t think...I-a will…”

Given Luigi’s answer, Meredith once again went quiet. After a few seconds, he responded.

“No? Did you just say…’No’?”

Luigi in response just nodded.

“Okay then, I’ll ask you again, give me the compass frame, NOW.”

Luigi shook his head in response.

“Okay then, I guess you want to do this the hard way, plumber,” Meredith stated, some kind of electricity starting to form in his hand; electromagnetic magic.

Luigi at first stuffs the compass into his pocket and makes an attempt to flee.

Using his other hand however, Meredith whispered something under his breath and snapped his finger.

They were surrounded in a magic forcefield.

“Well...guess I’ll-a have to fight this out…” Luigi said to himself nervously.

Starting the fight off, Meredith fired a stream of electricity Luigi’s way, which using his jumping ability, dodged from above.

Wanting to see if he could stomp him for a counter-attack, Luigi came diving down from above.

Meredith however, instead of dodging, crossed his arms together, and above in front of him, a circular green energy barrier formed.

Luigi, not having enough time to react, got sent flying back from this and crashed onto the ground.

Quickly getting back up, Luigi commented. “He has an-a magic shield? Direct attacks won’t work I-a guess…Maybe I’ll try to ambush him with ‘that’?” He then stated.

Meredith at this point twirling his fingers seemed to be getting some kind of magic blast ready.

Waiting for the moment he fired it, Luigi stood ready, and when the shot came, he dodged the blast.

Meredith then tried the blasts several more times, none of them hitting Luigi, but one after hitting a nearby tree creating quite a bit of smoke.

At this moment Luigi made his move and dove at Meredith up close with his hammer.

Seeing this however, Meredith dodged to the side and whispered more words, throwing Luigi at a tree with a psychokinetic spell.

Luigi crashed into the tree with a thud and fell back onto the ground, hurt a bit.

Right after this however, he got up once again, trying the same strategy once more but harder.

The same resulted, and he crashed into a tree once again.

“Ready to hand it over?” Meredith then asked the fallen plumber.

Recovering from the impact, Luigi began to recover and responded.

“Listen-a buddy, never underestimate the Green Thunder!” he told him, at this point now making a full recovery.

“I see…” Meredith responded.

“Looks like I-a gotta fight fire with fire...or you-a know...thunda with-a thunda,” Luigi thought to himself.

Luigi then held his hands together, charging up a string of lightning, in which Meredith did the same thing.

After a good fifteen seconds of charging from both sides of the battlefield, the blasts were fired off.

Upon collision with each other, out of the opposing lightning strikes was born a large explosion.

Both sides were set flying back a good distance, however, both hit the forcefield containing them, stopping gravity in its place and softening the impact.

Both sides stood, waiting for the smoke to clear, and once it did...both saw that the opposing side still stood.

“Not bad...can you keep up?” Meredith stated.

Luigi, continuing, began to form electricity within his glove again, trying to give Meredith an electricity-infused flying punch. Meredith simply threw him off with his psychokinesis again, however; in which Luigi once again hit the ground.

“Stubborn aren’t we?” Meredith commented.

With the punch not working, Luigi got back up and instead ran in with his hammer once more and made a very large jump into the air and held it over his head.

“The hammer trick again huh-”

Interrupting his response, Luigi instead threw the hammer down Meredith’s way in an attempt to throw him off.

“Bad move,” Meredith responded.

Whispering the words from earlier, Meredith grabbed Luigi’s hammer with his psychokinesis, to Luigi’s dismay.

“Here, you dropped this,” Meredith continued, tossing the hammer back up at Luigi.

Not having a way to dodge the hit due to the fall; combined with the speed the hammer came back his way. His own hammer hit him smack in the face and spun him around helplessly; causing him to fall back to the ground.

Luigi crashed, and now feeling a bit dazed, began to recover.

Not giving Luigi a chance to breathe, Meredith picked up the plumber’s hammer again with his same spell from before, and threw it his way once again, knocking him down a second time, sending him reeling back once more into a tree.

Really having trouble getting up now, Luigi once more tried to recover from the constant beatdown, really having trouble now keeping consciousness.

The dragon mage then held his hands together once more, preparing another electric magic strike.

Realizing he was finished if the blast hit, Luigi then started to try to charge up his own electric attack.

However, given how much he had used earlier combined with his current state, he found it was far too difficult to pull off something like this in the given moment.

As a result, the electric shock hit Luigi, doing serious damage.

Once the assault ended, Luigi, unable to take anymore, slumped to the ground. He was out cold.

“Hmm, I guess you couldn’t keep it up,” Meredith said, realizing he had won.

Walking over to the unconscious man, the rex dug into his pocket, finding the Vegvisir Compass frame perfectly intact.

“I’ll just be taking this off your hands now if you don’t mind; not that you can really answer in your state…” Meredith monologued. “Anyway, one last thing to do to make sure you don’t interfere again,” Meredith then said, whispering a good number of words to himself as he spun his hands in a circle a good number of times.

Through doing this, a portal appeared below Luigi’s unconscious body, through which the plumber went. He had been transported to another dimension unbeknownst to him...

“Our tale continues to unfold, The Mosaic Group and Daisy’s paths had come to meet while meeting a distinctive individual at the same time. and Toad learned the info which he seeked from a remote mountain tribe living in non industrialized lives in the vast wilderness, much too late did he however. For the artifact in which the brother of Mario was responsible to keep from falling in wicked hands has now done just that. Where will this tale go next? Will info reach the others in time? Time will reveal the answer to that.”

To Be Continued...

[King Mario]

Great Job! Keep up the good work, and have a nice day!

[Mosaic]

37. Anyway...

Mosaic Adventures Chapter 13: Pieces To The Puzzle PART 6: show

I: Mysterious Place

Luigi, given his previous encounter with Meredith in which he was defeated, lied unconscious within his new, unknown whereabouts.

Soon enough however, the plumber opened his eyes; regaining consciousness.

“Huh, wha...what-a happened?” Luigi wondered. “Oh, oh yeah, that…that-a Rex Mage...he...he destroyed me…”

Luigi then instinctively dug his hands into his pocket, finding that his worst fear was realized.

“The compass frame, it’s...it’s-a gone…. He...he-a took it didn’t he?” He thought to himself. “Wait, wait a minute…” Luigi realized as he then felt the ground below him, noticing it was rough and hard. “Where...where-a am I?”

Realizing this, Luigi investigated his surroundings further, realizing he hadn’t tried to figure this out as of yet. Around him he found that stone walls surrounded him on both sides; and throughout the hallway were a number of torches currently lit. It seemed to be some kind of dungeon; not any kind that Luigi recognized however.

“Mario?!” Luigi first called out.

“Peach?!” Luigi then tried.

“Toad!?”

“Link!?”

“Hoops!?”

“A...anyone?”

Given the lack of a response, Luigi realized that indeed no one he was familiar with was around.

“I...I-a guess I’ll have to find the way out on my own…” Luigi realized.

At that moment, Luigi heard what he thought were footsteps. They sounded distant, but he had heard them regardless.

“And…And-a fast…” Luigi said, as he hustled quietly.

Meanwhile...

II: Seaside Land

Mario, like he and Luigi had planned before, had made it to Water Land through the Subcon door.

“It’s un-aforunate that me and Luigi got separated like-a that...but I can’t stop-a now, it’s-a time that I look for that-a warp whistle.”

It was with that that the red-suited italian was off through the beach sands; intent on tracking down a mushroom house containing one of the warp whistles as sundown drew closer and closer.

Mario asked for directions as he went along the beach and through the usual obstacles one would expect when traveling through Water Land; fighting off Bowser’s minions, avoiding jumps from cheep cheeps, finding secrets, and yes; even avoiding being eaten by the much dreaded Boss Basses.

In his travels through Water Land, Mario stopped at several Toad Houses; playing the games they offered, picking a box as he was told the contents would help him on his way, trying to line up pictures and playing the same card dart game he and the others played just a week back. Even through all of this however, he didn’t earn a single warp whistle; nor did he earn any other prizes.

At one point in fact, he had stopped at a shop to see if by any chance they were selling one.
“Sorry Mario, I checked all of my cupboards, don’t have any of these magic flutes you’re talking about,” The shopkeeper explained.

“Well that’s-a unfortunate…”

“However, I do have a nine-pack frog suit deal for the simple price of one-hundred seventy coins!”

“Mmm, I don’t-a think I can-a…” Mario began to respond to the offer. “Actually...I’ll-a consider it some-aday perhaps.”

“Here’s my card if you change your mind,” the shopkeeper said, handing it to Mario.

“Okie dokie, I’ll be on my-a way now.”

“Good luck on your mission!”

Mario then at that point left out the door to continue searching.

“Wow, it’s no-a good, I can’t-a find a warp-a whistle anywhere…” Mario stated, then looking at the ocean, where the sun was. “And the sun’s very-a close to setting now.”

Mario up ahead saw another mushroom house. Generally, the feeling one would get is that it doesn’t mean much. However, for some reason he felt that this was the one; given how isolated it was as well as it’s unusually colored roof.

Given that, he hustled over to the house, eager to see what he'd find within.

Meanwhile, at Peach’s Whereabouts...

III: Lost Wilderness

The princess had emerged from the pipe in which she retreated in to escape the pursuit of the Koopa Troop, and caught her breath.

“Phew, good thing that I found this pipe…” Peach said to herself. “Where did it take me though I need to ask?”

Given this question, she decided to take a look around to see if she could work this out.

“Let’s see...trees are everywhere...so this is probably a forest of some kind given the look of them…” Peach began analyzing. “There’s dark brown soil beneath my feet…. Hmm, what forest is this though?” Peach began to wonder. “The Forest Of Illusion? Probably not, Dark Land likely has no warp pipes leading to Dinosaur Land…. I don’t think this is the Stumping Woods either, it’s too bright around here to be that place…. I guess the best thing to do at this point is just explore and see if I find anything....”

Peach then began to do just that and wandered along through the mysterious trees, not sure what to expect.

As she walked however, eventually, she heard something rustling; stopping her in her tracks and quickly found the source of the rustling was a set of nearby bushes.

“H-Hello? I-Is someone there?” Peach asked towards the noise. “I...I hope I haven’t been tracked down…”

The rustling in the bush got closer and closer; and soon enough, it stopped and the rustling within the bushes revealed itself. It was a Hoopster, a red one to be exact.

“O-Oh...it’s...it’s just a Hoopster…” Peach said. “W-Well...one little Hoopster isn’t a big deal I’d suppose,” Peach continued, trying to keep cool and continuing on. “I think I’ll just be on my way and-”

At that moment, much more of the rustling in the bushes from before spread throughout the surrounding trees and bushes.

From out of the bushes, and down the stumps of the trees, came not one, not two, not three...it was too many to count; came a bunch of Hoopsters of varying colors. These Hoopsters blocked Peach’s way, and when she turned around, intending to go the other way, more of the basketball-sized beetles blocked her path, a couple of them holding what appeared to be spears.

Unlike how Peach would usually react to a singular hoopster, a whole colony of them was a different story. She found she was unable to move and shivered in place.

“U-Umm...n-nice beetles...you...you guys d-don’t want to h-hurt a n-nice, i-innocent g-girl, r-right?” Peach tried to convince the bugs.

Several of the Hoopsters instead in response charged at and lunged onto the frightened princess, restraining her.

Peach tried to get free, finding struggling useless.

“I-I...suppose…” Peach thought. “I could use my…. Wait...no...no! I...I threw away my frying pan...” Peach then realized as she tried to think of ideas.

As Peah realized just how hopeless her situation was, more Hoopsters latched onto her and surrounded her, and the ones holding the spears approached closer to her, to her indimiation.

“Why do you dwell on our ground human?” One of the hoopsters finally asked.

“Yeah, don’t you know these woods belong to us?” another said.

Peach however was not sure how to respond to these questions that were being asked to her.

“You plead silence?” one of the Hoopsters asked. “Don’t think you’ll have to do that in a minute,” the same one then said, then raising their spear up. “Not once I-”

“All of you! Stop this at once!” a loud, booming voice suddenly overtook.

Suddenly, all of the hoopsters which before had seemed to practically breathe down Peach’s neck let off of her in response to the voice’s request and lined up in a way in which the requester could pass through.

Said orderer was a Hoopster; navy blue in color, and a very big one too. Large enough to where he made a thud with each step he took.

“W...Would you be…” Peach began to ask.

“If you’re going to ask ‘their leader’, fair maiden, then yes, yes I would be,” The large hoopster responded. “Sorry that my clan bothered you like this…”

As the giant insect eyed Peach for longer, he eventually then once again spoke up.

“Wait...you look familiar…. Could you perhaps be...Princess...Peach?”

“Oh...I...I am, but, how’d you know?”

“Anyone would recognize the Princess of the kingdom,” the gargantuan beetle responded. “What way could I make this up to you, if any?”

“Well...for starters, think you can help me get back to my castle?” Peach asked.

“You have a castle huh...perhaps...where would it be?”

“Well, in a place called Mushroom Plains…” Peach responded.

“Mushroom Plains hmm?” the clan leader began to think aloud. “Our clan...may know where a pipe leading there would be...follow us.”

“Okay…” Peach responded, following the gloved creature’s instructions.

“All of you too; follow me,” the hoopster leader ordered his underlings.

Not questioning given the context was clear, the other Hoopsters began to follow their superior’s lead.

Meanwhile...

IV: Friendly Meet

By now, Toad had made it to the bottom of the mountain and was on his way back to the Mushroom Plains from the Donut Plains.

As he continued en route however, up ahead he saw two individuals he wasn’t expecting to, nor had he had seen for a couple of days up until now.

He made his way over to them, listening to what they were saying.

“Where could he be I wonder? Being late like this isn’t like him.”

“Perhaps he got lost trying to find the path...he hasn’t seen it much you know…”

“Oh! Hey Striker! Hey Elemental!” Toad said, calling out the names of the two discussing.

“Ah?” Striker said, looking in the direction of the voice. “Toad? What’s he doing here?”

“I wouldn’t know…” Elemental responded.

Striker then gave Toad a sign that coming over was alright, which he did.

“Long time no see little guy,” Striker began.

“It’s been two days…” Toad quietly said. “Anyway, what have you guys been doing here? I usually don’t see you guys in the northern half of Donut Plains.”

“Nah, we should be asking you that,” Elemental replied.

“Oh, well me? Err...it’s kind of a long story…”

“That’s alright, fire away,” Striker responded.

“Wait, I don’t remember ag-” Elemental began.

“Well basically, early this morning, the Mario Bros as well as Link had caught me while I was on a break from my work at the Mushroom Castle, we went to to the Stumping Woods where E. Gadd was,-”

“E. Gadd? Who’s that?” Striker asked.

“He’s...a scientist, at least he tries to be one I hear,” Toad responded.

“Ah, I see,” Striker responded.

“And learned some things about this compass frame we found, that it's from some ancient tribe of sorts,” Toad continued.

“Oh, Mosaic or one of the others had mentioned that to me the other day, so that’s what it was?” Striker had asked.

“Yeah, he asked me to go to this mountain to investigate the place a bit and well…” Toad continued. “It was interesting...that’s all I’ll say.”

“Ah…” Striker responded.

“Not gonna tell us...alright...understood…” Elemental commented.

“Anyway, what had you guys been doing up here?” Toad asked.

“Well, we were wanting to hang out with Glow today, play a game or two, but yet he hasn’t shown up yet.” Striker answered.

“Well, he’s probably just running late…” Toad responded.

“He can be late...but not fourty-five minutes late Toad…” Elemental explained.

“O-Oh…that...that is odd….”

“And he also hasn’t contacted us about it or anything,” Striker continued.

“Wow…” Toad said in response.

“On the subject...think you can do us a favor Toad?” Striker then asked.

“Oh, I...I guess I could…”

“Think you could go check on him for us?” Striker asked.

“Wait what? But doesn’t he live all the way over in Desert Land? You guys realize how long it’d take me to get to him from here right?”

“Umm Toad-” Elemental began.

“No, it’s alright; since I have nothing else to do anyway, I’ll just go over to The Mosaic Group’s neighborhood and-”

“Toad, Toad, there’s no need for that. You can just take the subcon door over here in Dinosaur Land,” Elemental explained to Toad as the latter was about to leave.

“Subcon door in...wha?” Toad responded.

“Yeah, there’s one down on the lower base of the Dino Mountain that heads to...I think it’s the desert area of Subcon?” Striker added.

“It’s...It’s on Dino Mountain?” Toad asked.

“Yeah, shouldn’t be hard to find,” Striker continued.

“...where do you find it?” Toad asked, not the most amused at this.

“Well, I’d say it’s like...a few paces north, a few west, a couple meters north, and then…”

“Striker...let’s just take him there instead of explaining it to him vaguely like this…” Elemental added.

“Ah, good idea…” Striker responded.

The jersey wearing dragon then mounted the magic-wielding ostrich, taking Toad along with them as they headed there, riding up to the mountains, climbing them a bit and going through the minor obstacles in the way of it.

Some time later, they made it to said spot of the mountain in no time flat, right at the edge of a cliff.

“There it is Toad,” Striker specified, pointing it out.

“Well...okay, thanks for the help you two, I’ll be sure to check that Glow’s doing alright I suppose,” Toad responded. “Though, I gotta ask something.”

“Ah?” Striker replied.

“How’d you guys know about how to get to Subcon?”

“Oh?” Striker answered, thinking about his question for a bit. “That’s kind of an interesting story, it kind of relates to why Elemental and me even know each other.”

“Oh...that’s actually really interesting, I was kinda wondering how you, a Rex, a usually Dinosaur Land native creature, and Elemental, who’s an Ostro, who’s normally only native to Subcon would have even become friends to begin with,”

“Yeah...well it is kind of related to that,” Elemental commented. “Also, you mean, ‘And I’ Striker…”

“True...my mistake I suppose…” Striker responded, putting a hand over head, embarrassed.

“I may be interested in knowing something about it another time; Is it alright if I get going for now?” Toad asked.

“Ah, yeah, definitely, we did kinda ask you to do this to begin with,” Striker responded.

“Sure, we’re not really in a hurry to write you a verbal biography, so it’s no issue,” Elemental answered.

“Well,”-Toad stated as he began to open the door to subcon-”I’ll see you guys- OFF!!!!!!” Toad then shouted, realizing he fell as no solid ground was on the other side, as was typical of Subcon doors.

“Think he’ll be alright?” Striker asked.

“I’ve seen him survive worse...yeah, I think so…” Elemental responded.

“And with that...the group each continued on their separate paths...seperate stories, separate pieces to a big, underlying puzzle…”

To Be Continued...

[King Mario]

Hi there Mosaic! Nice fair weather here today! How's your story coming along? Chapter 13 was quite a cliffhanger.

[Mosaic]

Hi there Mosaic! Nice fair weather here today! How's your story coming along? Chapter 13 was quite a cliffhanger.

It's still being worked on, hopefully it'll be out sometime in this specific week.

[Mosaic]

Mosaic Adventures Chapter 14: Pieces To The Puzzle Part 7: show

I: Explorer Detour

Having explored the structure he was sent to, Link was on his way back to Mushroom Plains, lost in thought on several things.

“Sometimes...I wonder why it is that I stay here in the Mushroom Kingdom with those four as well as the others…. Like...I do help them….somewhat...but before I came along...did they really have problems without me here? In this situation for instance...they’re probably all dealing with something dire yet I don’t know how it is that I can help them out…. If I really do belong here...with them...why is it that it feels like to an extent I feel almost...distant from them? Maybe it’s not that...but perhaps...”

Before his inner monologue to himself could continue, nearby up ahead, he saw someone familiar.

It was a Toad, wearing pink clothing, wearing a hat with a searchlight on the top with braids and turned the other way at a village; the same one Link had been at beforehand. Link quickly identified this person.

“It’s that Toad Girl...what did Toad say her name was...? Toad...ette? I think it was? What’s she doing here?”

Given this, Link walked her way, preparing to greet himself and show he was there.

“Um...hello there...Toadette?”

Toadette had been in the middle of rambling about something, but quickly took notice of Link.

“Oh! Hey there, you’re...that sword guy that hangs with Toad and others right?” Toadette asked.

“I suppose you could say that but...call me Link…. Anyway, what were you doing out here? Didn’t I see you handing out tickets at that carnival the other day? What are you doing out here with that goofy looking light on now?”

“You would have seen me handing out the tickets I suppose...but that was then, this is today…” Toadette responded. “To answer your other questions...welllllll…. I’m out here wearing this ‘goofy looking light’ because I was actually about to go exploring.”

“Exploring...that’s what I had been doing too…. Where are you thinking of going?”

“Oh, to some old pyramid over in-”

“Wait...I was just at an old pyramid myself…” Link responded.

“Huh?” Toadette responded.

“Yeah...north of the desert in some Oasis, I found an old pyramid.”

“Interesting...I was referring to this old pyramid over in Subcon actually.”

“Subcon huh?” Link commented. “So there’s more than one of these pyramids around huh…” he then thought.

“Yeah, and I'm going to go with a brigade of several Toads as well as Glow and Beryl, since I had heard about the place from them a few days back.”

“Glow and Beryl...I think I know them, aren’t one of them a large, fire breathing serpent and the other...some kind of living cactus creature?”

“...pretty much…. But yeah, I'm planning to meet with them over in a town in Subcon's desert area along with the rest of the brigade, want to come along?”

“Hmm…” Link said aloud. “I suppose so,” Link then responded. “Because to be honest...what else am I going to do at the moment?” he then thought.

“Great! The more the merrier,” Toadette responded.

“Where would this pyramid be in Subcon? I know you can only get there through those fancy looking doors.”

“Don’t worry, just follow my lead and you’ll be led right to it as well,” Toadette explained. “That being said, this way!”

With that, Toadette then began to head towards the direction of the door, taking Link along while doing so.

Meanwhile...

II: We Live In A (Beetle) Society

The Hoopster tribe leader had led Peach to another area of the woods; a large clearing. In this clearing were even more Hoopsters of varying colors working on a number of different things around the settlement, such as carrying rocks or blocks, guiding the others on how to go about doing things, some talking to one another casually, etc.

“Wow...this seems to be...quite an active settlement you guys have going on here…” Peach commented.

“Yeah, it’s acceptable to our standards,” The leader began. “And alot of us even enjoy building upon it in whatever ways that we think of or help us out.”

“That’s...neat…”

“Though, work hasn’t been as enjoyable lately…”

“Oh? Why may that be? Is it a morale issue?”

“No...it’s well…” The large insect explained, but not finishing, not being sure if he should tell his new acquaintance.

“What may it be?”

“Don’t...worry about it…. Anyway, the pipe should be a couple hundred feet away over there...” the primitive clan leader told Peach, pointing straight ahead.

“Oh, well...thanks for the directions for when I want to go, but umm...you don’t mind me hanging out a bit longer...right?”

“Yes! umm, I mean...not at all, take your time.”

As Peach continued to follow the Hoopster leader, she had some inner thoughts.

“I may get uncomfortable around bugs a lot, especially this many at once, but knowing what problem they’re having that’s affecting their living conditions may be a bit more important…”

After traveling along the clan grounds for a while, before Peach and the large Hoopster sat a large stone structure, specifically a staircase leading to an elevated area of the woods up to something else.

“Oh...what’s this used for?” Peach asked.

“How about taking a look, curious princess?”

“I suppose if you insist.”

The two made their way up, and things immediately pieced together when Peach saw in front of her two hoopsters on either side of a large, fancy stone chair holding spears.

“Oh? Would this be your throne?” Peach asked.

“Yeah, indeed it would be,” The kingly beetle answered. “Suppose you would know that.”

“This is where you give all of your orders to the Hoopsters down below huh?” Peach asked.

“Well of course, what else would I use it for?”

“Isn’t sitting there a bit uncomfortable?” Peach then asked.

“Maybe a little bit...I don’t really mind either way though,” The leader responded, and made his way to the throne, turning his full body around, sitting in it.

“And since I never got your name, would you mind telling me?” Peach asked.

“Ah sure, Oved…”

“Well alright Oved, I’ll be sure to refer to you by that name going forward.”

Oved gave a nod, and then continued, “Hey, Hoopster #272, hurl my staff over to me, would you please?”

“Your wish is my command sire!” The smaller hoopster responded, grabbing a dark brown cane of sorts and hurling it to his larger brethren, who caught the long cane with ease.

“Wow, that’s quite a long cane you have there…” Peach commented.

As Peach examined the cane a bit longer, she realized that the top of it was slightly shiny. Curious, she gave the shine a closer look. What she found on the staff caught her attention quite a bit.

It was a crooked shard of some kind, this of which gave off a paleish blue tint.

“Wait a minute...wasn’t Bowser wearing something like that?” Peach thought for a bit. “...Wait a minute; he was...it looked exactly like that...except that it was yellow...not blue…. Isn’t he after these things?” She then realized. “What if he were to go after this innocent clan for the sake of getting the shard? That wouldn’t turn out well…”

Given this, she decided to ask the only clear question to ask the ten-limbed creature.

“Hey so...Oved…” Peach feebly began.

“Huh, what may be going on now, miss?”

“So I was just looking at your cane, it’s pretty nice and well...I wanted to ask something…”

Oved stayed silent as he awaited Peach’s response.

“I was wondering if there was well...maybe some way that...umm...you could give that blue shard...to me?”

Oved remained silent, though acknowledging Peach’s plee, giving it some thought.

“Hmm, so you want this sparkly, shiny thing I have?”

“Well...yeah...that is what I asked…”

“Hmm...well i’m not going to lie to you,” Oved began. “On one end, I’d be willing to give this to you...however, I don’t feel something as special as this thing can go off for free.”

“Ah? Why exactly?” Peach asked.

“Well, observe,” The bug explained, then pointing the cane at a couple stacks of bricks that laid side by side.

A blue glow surrounded one stack of the bricks, and through levitation or the sort was then piled onto the other golden stack of building blocks.

“Oh wow...he wasn’t kidding about these things huh…” Peach thought.

“This shard on the cane happens to have mysterious magical properties, so it’s pretty valuable,” Oved explained.

“It would be…”

“Though...given you're the princess of the mushroom kingdom, I suppose if you insist on taking it you could…”

Peach was about to respond before he continued.

“And we do honestly prefer to build things by hand around here than have them be done easily with magic as it feels there’s more reward to it than otherwise…”

“So, what’s the catch here? You’re not going to give it to me for free...are you?”

“Not this time...the request I do have for you is pretty simple…” Oved began to answer. “Do you think you can find a jewel that’s equal in value to something like this magical shard?”

“Oh?”

“If you did, I’d happily trade with you,” Oved explained.

“I...I suppose I could…” Peach answered. “My only question is...where do I start to find something like that?”

“That’ll be no problem,” Oved responded, then giving a whistle.

In this, three blue hoopsters quickly showed up next to Peach and Oved.

“May you three lead this regal highness to the Jewel Caverns?” Oved ordered.

“Oh...that place…” Peach commented. “I suppose that would make sense as a place to look…”

“Aye, aye sir…” one of the hoopsters responded, scuttling off with the other two, guiding Peach to the mining area in which their clan had become accustomed to.

Meanwhile...

III: Searcher Toad

Toad had plummeted down onto Subcon’s terrain, landing face first before quickly recovering from the landing.

“That...wasn’t a good landing…”

After making this comment to himself, he took a look around. Seeing all of the grass and palm trees around, Toad quickly came to the obvious conclusion.

“This...isn’t the desert area like they had informed me…. Thanks for the accurate information you guys...”

Deciding to figure out the quickest way to make it to Subcon’s Desert area, Toad looked around, and soon enough saw something of help, a sign reading ‘Subcon Village’, in the shape of an area pointing to the left.

“Maybe the townspeople will know something about getting to the desert area…” Toad deduced, deciding the best course of action was following the sign to town and gathering information there.

On route to the town, he didn’t really run into much trouble. He peeked into vases here and there, he plucked up veggies and the like; typical subcon stuff. Except when he had a brief run in with several minions within the 8-bits.

With some good thinking however; they too, he found he was able to overcome.

And soon enough a good few meters away, he saw his destination right then and there; Subcon Village.

“Well...here we finally are…” Toad commented to himself. “Haven’t seen these...suit wearing fairy guys for awhile...not since we saved them that one time, among other rare instances after…. Regardless...I should figure out what I can....”

Looking around the village, Toad found that it had a lot of things he’d come to expect in a civilization such as this one. Residential homes, shops, the usual; of course, coming with a dreamy feel given the dimension they were located within.

Soon enough, one of the dreamland fairies noticed Toad.

“Hey, you, you’re…” they began.

“If you’re going to say, ‘one of the four heroes’, well...I suppose you could say I was…”

“Well, what brings you here today?” The subcon asked.

“Well, I was wanting to ask if you know of any quick way to get to Subcon’s Desert Area, I was looking for where Glow and Beryl were and heard they’d be over there.”

“Oh! I’ve heard a buddy from over there mention the two sometimes. I think there should be a taxi service here that’ll take you right over for just twenty coins.”

“Wow...good thing I grabbed those coins on the way…” Toad thought to himself. “Ah, alright, and where is this taxi service?” he then asked aloud.

“I think it’s just a block of this village or so down on top of a large building with two guys in golden suits guiding a magic carpet.”

“Okay, that’s where I’ll go, thanks for the information,” Toad responded, making his way downtown, walking fast, passing faces and he’s trip bound.

“Hello, I’d like to use the taxi service?” Toad asked the carpet holding fairies.

“No problemo!” One of the Subcons responded. “Just give us the coins and we’re good to go!”

“Yeah...we’re good to go,” the other Subcon added.

“Well I’d suppose this should make you guys ‘good to go’” Toad replied, emptying some coins out of the small case he was keeping them in and giving it to the subcons.

“Thank you.”

“You're welcome.”

With that, the Subcons, using all of their might, picked up the carpet, carrying one mushroom person with them and flew up into the sky east; en route to the Desert Area of Subcon.

And soon enough, that’s exactly where they made it and stopped down within the desert town that resided within the dusty landscape; the buildings characteristically built out of yellow, sandy looking blocks and the like.

“Alright buddy, we’re here,” one of the Subcons said to Toad, however, receiving no response.

“Huh, what’s going on?” the other said, then checking the carpet, seeing that Toad was there, however he was sitting down, curled up and in a cold sweat.

“Wow...he’s sweating vases...I wonder why?” the first subcon commented.

The other Subcon shrugged, then gave their piece to Toad. “Hey, buddy, we’re here now, you can stop shivering.”

“Oh?” Toad responded, getting out of the position he was in before. “T...Thank you for the lift guys,” he began. “And...I suppose so.”

“Yeah...no problem,” the first Subcon commented. “Just try to stay out of trouble.”

“And stay safe...especially when members of the 8-bits like Mouser or Tryclyde could be lurking around here somewhere,” the second Subcon added.

“Oh...okay…” Toad replied.

“Either way, safe travels,” the first Subcon continued, then giving his workmate a sign they should head back to the grassy area in a bit, which they indeed planned to do, sticking at the town they currently resided for the time being while Toad went off deeper into the town seeing if he could track down the desert duo in their usual place of dwelling.

Meanwhile at ???...

IV: Somewhat Less Mysterious Place

After wandering within his unknown surroundings for an extensive period of time and realizing that he was getting nowhere fast, Luigi eventually came to an explanatory conclusion.

“Mama-mia...I don’t-a know where I am-a going, it feels-a like i’m going in-a circles…” he thought to himself. “I wonder if I’ll-a ever get out of here.”

As these thoughts went through his mind, he quickly picked up on a familiar noise given they were the same from earlier; rapid paced footsteps. This time however, they were a lot closer than they were before.

Wanting to know who this was; given he was worried enough about his surroundings, Luigi shouted, “W-Who’s-a there?!”

Given this person had been in Luigi’s area for a while watching his movements but had stayed concealed, it was then that they felt no further need to stay hidden and emerged from the shadows, where Luigi could see them in detail.

The person appeared to be humanoid and sleek in appearance; wearing some kind of blue outfit in different shades separated by different sections of cloth. The shoulder areas of the cloth appeared to be slightly raggy, the wrist areas had a bandage-like look to them, and the upper torso area was white; designed with a red eye of some kind. The person also had yellow hair and wore a white cap of matching design to the rest of the outfit.

“It’s just me…” the person responded.

Luigi of course, seeing them, felt unnerved, not knowing what they’d do.

“And to ask...are you lost?”

“Y...yeah…do...do you-a have a way to help me-a out?”

“I’m pretty sure I would, just follow my lead.” the person responded to Luigi, heading back down the dark, stone halls present around them, expecting for Luigi to follow; in which he did exactly that.

As Luigi followed the person, he asked a question.

“What’s your-a name?”

“Well, you can call me Shiek,” the person responded.

“Oh, well alright...Shiek.”

Soon enough, the two made it to what appeared to be a dead end.

“Isn’t this-a dead end?” Luigi asked.

“Right here…” Shiek replied.

“Right-a here?” Luigi asked.

“It’s a barricade, can you help me push it?”

“Sure-a thing I suppose…” Luigi responded.

With a somewhat considerable amount of effort, the two pushed aside the barricade, revealing a secret door which gave off a triangle-shaped yellow glow.

“It’s an-a secret entrance…” Luigi commented.

“Let’s head inside,” Shiek then stated, opening up the door, the other side flooding the dark dungeon with light.

The two entered the lit up room, and saw that it was much more open in space than the dungeon the two were exploring beforehand as well as greatly decorated, with things such as a red carpet, diamond pattern green-white tiles, golden statues, a throne, etc. and behind the throne was a large stained glass mosaic.

The peculiar thing about the mosaic was the mural portrayed. On this mural was a strange, almost mystical looking symbol. the symbol in the center portrayed what looked like a two sided spike thing of some kind, with the top one being bigger than the bottom one, and on either side of it being what looks like some kind of straight and jagged wings on either side as well as two things that looked to be some kind of mural supposed to portray talons. And finally, above all of this was what looked to be three triangles, that in of themselves, formed a triangle, the bottom left one was blue, the bottom right one was green and the top one red.

“This room has interesting-a scenery…what’s it-a for? And...what’s with-a that surreal mural up on the-a window?”

“I’d think that your first question would be clear, but it’s the room in which-”

“Hello? Zelda? Would you happen to be here? I wanted to talk about some things,” another voice suddenly came in.

Luigi looked in the direction of the voice, finding it peculiar.

“That...that-a voice…. Haven’t...I-a heard it a couple times before?” he thought to himself.

The one who had spoken before then let themselves into the room, revealing who they were.

“Wait...Wait...do...do I remember you…” Luigi began to say. “MIDNIGHT!? W-what the...what are-a you doing here?”

Midnight just didn’t respond, though he was notably surprised to see that Luigi of all people was in here.

“Well...to answer your question Midnight, I am right here, i’m just Sheik right now…” Shiek responded.

“W-Wait...h-hold on...what do you...what do you mean your Shiek...right...now,” Luigi slowly said, trying to keep his composure as he felt him getting light-headed from the whiplash of everything that was happening.

“Well...it’s because Shiek and Zelda are actually the same person...though I wouldn’t expect you to know that, not knowing that is not even an issue for someone like you.”

“T-They’re-a what?” Luigi responded. “I...I think I'm-a gonna pass out…”

Causing what was practically a self-fulfilled prophecy, the confused plumber then proceeded to do exactly that. He collapsed on the floor, overwhelmed from everything happening around him, completely unconscious.

To Be Continued...

[Mosaic]

Chapter 15: Pieces To The Puzzle Part 8: show

I: Assembled Brigade

Toad continued wandering through the desert town in search of the two he was sent off to look for. He then saw something peculiar off in the distance.

There were several toads of varying clothing colors which were gathered in the front of what seemed to be a shop.

Curious of what it is that they were waiting in front of the resource providing building for, Toad decided to make his way over to them to see what was up.

The first thing Toad noticed upon closer inspection is that each of the four Toads had something notable about them.

One toad was wearing blue as well as a pair of glasses. One of them wore green, and on the chest area of their shirt seemed to wear a circular badge with a question mark symbol on it. One wore purple and had with them some kind of satchel. And finally one was wearing yellow...they were dozing off against the shop walls.

“Wait a minute...I know these guys don’t I?” Toad thought and realized. “I think I went treasure hunting with them…let’s get their attention first…. Hey guys, what’s up?”

The first one to take notice of Toad’s signal is the one in the glasses, the blue one.

“Heya, guys, it’s one of our captains!” he said to the others.

The green toad acknowledged the blue’s comment, and the purple woke up yellow, who muttered something.

“Aircrafts! In the sky!” the yellow toad said, waking up with shock. “...wait, what happened?” the yellow toad had then realized.

“Well...what about taking a look sleepyhead?” the blue toad continued.

Taking the fellow toad’s advice, the yellow toad looked up, taking notice of who he made reference to.

“Oh hey! It’s you! You were the captain on one of our adventures we went on, right?”

“Oh, yeah...I guess I was…” Toad commented. “But what I wanted to ask you guys was what you’re hanging out here for.”

“We’re waiting for Toadette to arrive.”

“T-Toadette?”

“We’re planning on heading to some pyramid a bit south of here and well...we planned on meeting with her at a randevu point, this shop of course,” the blue toad explained further.

“Oh, I see…” Toad responded. “Well have you guys by any chance seen a certain large, handkerchief wearing reptile and punny cactus anywhere?”

“Hey, speaking of them, they actually planned to go with us to the pyramid,” the purple toad added to the conversation.

“Oh...that explains...why he didn’t show up to hang out with Striker and Elemental huh…” Toad thought. “So, would you guys know if they’ll be arriving here soon?” he then asked.

“Ahhhhh...not really...they haven’t contacted us about if they’re on their way or not…” The yellow toad explained in a somewhat tired way.

“I...see…” Toad replied.

Toad was about to start walking off when the blue clothed, glasses wearing toad got his attention once more.

“Hey, how about you come with us to the pyramid? I think you could do a good job leading,” he offered.

Toad gave them some thought, and then gave his answer.

“I…don’t know about leading...but I don’t really wanna wander these dangerous sands alone...I guess we can hang out awhile…”

“Great! Glad you want to come along,” the blue toad responded in support of his decision.

“In the meantime...I’ll just wait for the others to get here along with you guys, and I guess we can talk about things,” Toad then said.

Elsewhere in the Desert...

Toadette and Link, the former guiding the latter, had both arrived at the Subconian Dunes, in which Link picked up the discussion.

“Huh, It’s sometimes hard to remember another whole dimension is just behind a door like this…” Link commented.

“It is quite an incredible phenomenon...it’s like magic or something…” Toadette replied. “Anyway though, to the town we go!” Toadette then said, going through the desert towards where said town sat, knowing it’s location by heart.

And not too long at all, the two arrived; and like when they were in the Desert biome in the mushroom kingdom, were back in town once more.

“Here we are…” Link commented. “This where we’re meeting your buddies?”

“Yep! Now to find them.”

Given the mushroom girl’s familiarity with going on adventures, even in the likes of places such as Subcon, finding the desert dreamworld residence was of no trouble at all.

“I had the randevu I’m meeting with the group set up at a shop in this town,” Toadette explained. “Shouldn’t be hard to find them.”

This too, was not tough. Up ahead, Toadette saw Toad and the brigade hanging out, chatting with each other.

“There they are,” Toadette commented, as the two then walked over to them.

“So you meet with a tribe of rexes on a mountain and learned all of that?” The purple toad commented.

“Pretty much I’d say, yeah…” Toad responded.

“Sounds almost as exciting as when we traveled the stars with Rosalina,” the blue toad added to the discussion.

“What do you mean ‘almost as’...that was...probably more exciting…” Toad replied.

As the group talked, eventually calling attention to such; the yellow toad took notice of Link and Toadette’s presence.

“Hey guys, she’s here…” he said. “But umm...who’s the guy she’s with?”

“Oh...I know him,” Toad answered as the pair made their way over.

“Heya guys, how are things going?” Toadette asked. “And...how would you be Toad?” she specifically asked Toad, blushing a bit.

“We’re kind of just hanging out and talking,” the green toad explained to Toadette.

“Well...were, since you’re here now,” the blue glasses-wearing toad added. “Who’s the guy with you?”

Toadette gave Link a sign, and he decided to get around to it.

“Ah? Well...you can call me Link,” the elf person informed.

“Ah, I see,” the blue toad responded.

“Alright then I’d suppose that’s fine,” the purple toad replied.

“Noted,” the green toad commented.

“Can I call you elf guy?” the yellow toad asked.

“Umm...why?” Link asked.

“Because...I...saw your ears and umm…”

“Is that it?”

Letting out another yawn before answering, the yellow toad then responded. “Yeah…”

“Well, I suppose now that you guys are acquainted with each other I can ask Toadette and Link something…” Toad added to the conversation.

“Well what’s on your mind, Toad?” Toadette asked with interest.

“Have you guys seen Glow and Beryl around? I had come here to look for them and happened to run into these guys.”

“Well, they did say they’d meet us at this shop for the exploration of a pyramid they said they found a bit ago, but no...nowhere...”

“Nor have I…” Link added.

The brigade each gave their opinions too, saying similar comments.

As the group were all lost in thought; thinking of where they may be; they suddenly heard some familiar voices in a conversation.

“Sssssssssssso here’s the town but…”

“But what may be wrong?”

“Even though we agreed to meet Toadette and go to that pyramid with her...for ssssssome reasssssson...I jussssssst feel like I'm forgetting something…”

“If you forgot it...it probably wasn’t important.”

“Yeah...you’re right…”

It was at this moment that the elf boy and crew of mushroom people looked in the direction of the voices, seeing that it was who they all were waiting for, Glow and Beryl.

“Well, well, well, there they are…” Toadette said aloud. “Hey, guys!”

Beryl and Glow then looked forward, seeing the larger group in front of them.

“And there they are now,” Beryl said.

“Well...okay...let’ssssss talk to them I ssssssupposssse,” Glow responded, with the two then drawing closer to them.

“So it looks like the entire crew is here now huh?” Toadette said.

“Yeah, I’d say so. You’ve got me, Glow, you, the Toad with the glasses, the toad with the satchel, the snoozy toad, the banking toad, Toad Toad, and...what’s your name again since I still am forgetting it?” Beryl stated.

“Oh err, Link,” Link answered. “I decided that I’d come along with you guys wherever you’re going.”

“I suppose that makes sense, the more the merrier after all,” Beryl replied.

“Funny, because I said that earlier too…” Toadette added.

“Umm, before we get too off track, may I ask Glow for clearance on something?” Toad began.

“Are you going to ask him to convince the shopkeeper to put the items on clearance?” Beryl asked.

“Umm...not exactly…” Toad replied. “It’s about something else.”

“While you guys talk, I'm going to snag something from the shop since you mentioned it,” Toadette told the group.

“Alright...that’s just fine…” the yellow toad mumbled, still trying to wake himself up.

“So, I ended up coming out here looking for you guys...because Striker and Elemental had mentioned to me that you had planned to meet with them today and hang out…”

“I...I ssssssssaid that? ...me and my endlessly giving nature…. I honestly do remember that I sssssssssaid that now...I guessssssss what happened is that ssssssssince me and Beryl agreed to exxxxxxxplore the pyramid with Toadette a few daysssssss ago; when I was assssked about hanging out by Sssstriker and Elemental, I had jussssssst forgotten this was the sssssssame day we had planned to do thisssssss...”

“So I suppose what you’re saying is…” Toad began. “You accidentally gave yourself a-”

“Slippery schedule?” Beryl interrupted, making a pun.

“...I...guesssss you could sssssay that Beryl…. Either way, I’ll try to apologizzzzze about that nexxxxxt time I ssssssee them...”

“Good thing you could clear that up…” Toad responded.

By then, Toadette had returned from out of the shop.

“Alright guys, I’ve bought the item, so I suppose we’re ready to depart.”

“What’d you buy?” the green toad asked.

“A magic potion,” Toadette answered.

“That should be useful,” Toad commented. “Do you have a map to where we’re going?” Toad asked.

“Would I plan a trip without a map Toad?”

“I guess not that I recall.”

“That being said,” Toadette began, then pulling out the map she referred to, which the group huddled together to take a peak at, “According to this map, we gotta head this way!” Toadette declared, pointing north of the town.

As such, Toadette began to pace north as she peaked at the map, leading the large group behind her.

II: Jewel Expedition

On the hunt for a gemstone holding a lot of value, Peach was now in the depths of the jewel-rich caverns, mining along with the three blue bugs.

“Let’s see...are any of these gems a good fit?” Peach began to think aloud. “There’s this round amethyst right here as well as this emerald shaped like a water drop…”

“He wouldn’t accept that, we find those things all of the time,” one of the hoopsters explained.

“Oh...I-I see…”

As they continued on further, they found more gems that Peach had to say things on.

“How would a triangular ruby suit him?”

“Another common gemstone…”

“Oh, I see…”

Peach had then noticed yet another gemstone.

“Hey...this sapphire...it’s shaped like a football, isn’t that something rare?”

“No...infact, it’s one of the most common kinds of shapes for us to find…”

“Oh…”

“And if you think that’s weird, we’ll have you know we once found a diamond shaped like a coffin.”

“W-Wha...that...that is weird…”

“But I suppose staying on topic, none of these common gemstones are going to do, we’d need to find something distinctive, something different...something he hasn’t seen before that’d really impress him if you want him to go through with your deal.”

“Hmm...well I did remember that a friend of mine once found this gemstone in a perfect diamond shape that also looked like it had eyes as well…”

“No offense but...sounds like Oved would definitely not be impressed by that…”

“Poor Toad…” Peach thought. “Well...I don’t have too many other ideas of what gemstones we could give him…”

“Best thing to do is keep searching and see if we find anything new, he hasn’t seen before, and that he’d be impressed by.”

“It...It won’t be easy huh?”

“I’d say.”

The four traversed the caverns for a good while, at no point really finding anything notable gemstone-wise, mainly finding a lot more gemstones that the beetle leader was used to seeing, as Peach had been informed by the Hoopsters guiding her around.

Soon enough something peculiar sat in front of the group, at least in Peach’s case; not having been in the Jewel Caverns too many times.

This thing being what looked like a large, red bunch of crystals of some kind.

“Hey, that’s an interesting gemstone…” Peach commented.

“Ah, I’d suggest leaving that…”

“Huh?” Peach replied.

“We don’t see them often, but those are lucky jewels,” one Hoopster explained. “We kinda consider them good luck charms of sorts. Surely seeing one must be a good sign of us approaching a suitable gem I’d say...so let’s press onwards.”

As Peach continued down the corridor they saw the distinctive red gem along with the beetles, still not finding much, eventually, Peach asked the Hoopsters if she could stop for a bit, which they accepted.

Crashing to the floor, Peach looked up to the cave’s ceiling, lost in thought.

“We’ve been searching for...what would it be now...hours? And I still haven’t found anything that that big creepy-crawly would accept, according to them…. Maybe...maybe I should give up and...”

At that moment, Peach’s thought was cut off by something; this something being some kind of clamping noise.

This caught Peach’s attention, snapping her out of her state of blank thought and feeling a touch behind her.

The three blue hoopsters with her had huddled behind her, seemingly hiding from something or someone.

“H-Huh? W-What are you guys doing...right here?”

One of the bugs then pointed at what it was.

It was a piranha plant with a blue head and green stem, rooted within a potted plant and able to walk freely thanks to said rooting. With the venus fly trap’s size, if Peach were standing up, it’d be only around a foot shorter than her.

Peach looked at the plant creature for an extensive period of time, feeling some odd aura of familiarity from it. Eventually, she spoke a word.

“...Toothy?” Peach asked the plant.

Recognizing the word as its name, Toothy gave a visual sign back, flaying their leaf arms a bit with joy.

Feeling it was safe to go near them now, Peach got up and closed the distance between her and the plant, petting them a bit on their round, spotted head.

“He’s fine you guys,” Peach informed the hoopsters.

“If you say so...” one of the hoopsters replied; who as such, along with the others decided to stop cowering in fear of the large plant.

“So, what were you wanting to tell us Toothy?” Peach asked the potted plant.

Doing a bit of sign language, Toothy explained that he knew what they were discussing.

“Yeah…we were actually looking for a rare gemstone,” Peach answered.

Giving more sign language, Toothy explained something gemstone related, given he held one in hand.

“You found one you think we might be interested in?” Peach interpreted.

Toothy in response gave a nod to Peach’s question.

“Do you have it on you?” Peach next asked.

Giving further sign language, Toothy asked Peach to follow him.

“Ah, you want to lead us to it…. Well...alright...”

As such, the mining crew decided that the best course of action given this was their only lead was to see where it is that the pointy-toothed flytrap would take them within the caves.

III: Not So Mysterious Anymore World

Back in Luigi’s Whereabouts...

“Mama-mia...what-a happened?” Luigi said, As of the time that had passed, he had regained his consciousness once more, finding he was looking at the ceiling, being looked in the face of Midnight, and someone else; a woman who was dressed in a white dress and cape, with a pink article of clothing decorated with the familiar triangle symbols from before in golden coloring. Along with this, she was also wearing gold shoulder pads, golden bracelets, golden, triangular earrings as well as a decorative waistband. And on her head, she had long, golden hair.

“Well...to answer your first question,” Midnight began. “You passed out.”

“P-Passed-a out? I really did?” Luigi asked.

“Yeah...like one of those overworking game developers making a massive crossover game...or an overly ambitious writer…” Midnight answered..

“Oh…” Luigi responded.

“It was because well...you were really confused about everything happening around you and had gotten a bit overwhelmed,” the woman explained to Luigi.

“Oh...umm thanks…” Luigi responded. “I’d...I’d like to ask another-a question now if it’s alright with you...”

“Sure thing…” the royally dressed person responded.

“Umm...who-a are-a you and...what-a happened to that ninja looking-a person?” Luigi asked.

“Well I’d say that she’s…” Midnight began. “Actually...you explain it…”

“Of course Midnight,” the woman responded. “Starting off, you may call me Zelda.”

“I see...hey-a there...Zelda…” Luigi replied. “Umm...what-a happened to-a Shiek? I think that was his-a name?”

“That’s where your next answer comes in,” Zelda explained to Luigi. “For you see, Shiek and I are one in the same; more or less...he’s my alter-ego.”

Luigi felt multiple emotions from this; fear, intrigue, and confusion, all at the same time. Eventually though he continued once more, speaking up.

“Wait...so...can you transform into them or-a something?”

Zelda gave a nod in response to Luigi’s question.

“Sounds like something out of one of those-a video games….” Luigi stated. “Is there an-a limit to when you can-a change into Shiek? Or can you-a do it any-a time at-a will?”

“Anytime, Anywhere,” Zelda answered. “Like so,” Zelda then said, turning back into Sheik.

And after several moments, she then reverted back to her normal self.

And then back to Shiek once more, and then, finally, back to herself again.

“Now she’s there...now she isn’t…” Midnight comments.

“I...I-a see…” Luigi replied, still taken aback by Zelda’s powers. “That-a takes me to my next-a question speaking of-a being places…. Where...where-a am I? And what are you doing-a here Midnight?” Luigi asked next.

Remaining silent on Luigi’s question for an extended period of time, the psychic, living slime, eventually replied.

“So he and none of the others told you, did they?”

“He...He and none of the-a others? What do you-a mean?”

Being unamused that he hasn’t put two and two together, Midnight asked further questions.

“Luigi...tell me, who do you know; other than me, who’s from a different world than you?”

“Err...Mosaic?”

His eyes darting a bit in response, Midnight then reacted.

“NO! Link!”

“Oh...WAIT, does...does this-a mean…”

“Well...it only took you ages...or in my case several chapters for you to realize but yes...this would be the homeworld of Link and I, Hyrule.”

“Several-a chapters?” Luigi asked with confusion.

“You wouldn’t understand…” Zelda added.

“Now I have even more-a questions…” Luigi began.

“Aaaanyway,” Midnight interrupted. “I suppose you’re going to ask next what this room is used for.”

“Looking at-a it...is it some kind of-a throne room?”

“Mhmm, my throne room,” Zelda answered.

“Wait...you mean you’re-a…”

“Indeed, the Princess of Hyrule.”

“I guess that’s-a someone else I can add to my lists of princesses I’ve-a heard of…”

“So you’ve heard of others?”

“Well...one,” Luigi answered. “Her name is Princess Peach, she rules a place called the Mushroom Kingdom.”

“Sounds like you’re somewhat used to princesses,” Zelda replied.

Luigi didn’t comment, but acknowledged the comment and moved on to his next question.

“Well...I was a bit-a curious about that-a surreal looking mural up there,” Luigi then stated, pointing at the decorative, winged art with the triangle symbol.

“The most important part of that mural is the triangular artifact at the top, so I can just tell you about that if that’s okay with you.”

“I suppose.”

“That design on the top is meant to portray the sacred object known as the Triforce.”

“The-a Triforce huh?” Luigi commented. “Tell me-a more.”

“Basically, Hyrule, and all of the realms that exist within it were created by three goddesses, their names Din, Nayru, and Farore.”

“Alright…”

“And when they created Hyrule, they also created the Triforce, this being an extension of their power, the Triforce of Wisdom being an extension of Nayru’s, the Triforce of Power being an extension of Din’s, and the Triforce of Courage of Farore’s.

Luigi isn’t sure how to respond to Zelda’s explanation, however eventually a response enters his mind.

“An...An extension of their-a power!?” Luigi asked with shock. “W-Wouldn’t that be a dangerous-a thing to permit their creations?”

“Well, it would be a dangerous thing to give to just anyone,” Zelda replied. “That’s why they also added an enchantment of sorts to each piece of it.”

“I suppose that makes a bit more-a sense…” Luigi replied. “What’s the-a enchantment?”

“For one to wield even a single piece of the triforce, they need to possess a great amount of the respective piece’s traits. And to wield all three one needs a great deal of all three.”

“Ah…. So...if one wanted to hold, say...the Triforce of Power, they’d need to be a strong, powerful being?” Luigi asked.

“Correct,”

“Mama-mia...Bowser could probably wield it then…” Luigi thought. “Is it the-a same idea with the other-a two pieces?” Luigi then asked aloud.

“That is also correct,”

Luigi, remaining silent for an extended amount of time to take in all of this new info, eventually got his thoughts in.

“Mama-Mia, I could never wield a single piece of that-a thing even if I wanted to,” Luigi conceded. “First off, with no-a star power, I'm not a powerhouse in any sense…. I don’t really feel like given a number of things about myself, my intelligence, and my actions that I’d say I have wisdom either…”

“Wisdom and intellect are two different things,” Zelda commented.

“I...I-a know that...but-a still…I feel I have neither…. But finishing up...I’ve especially accepted that I'm a coward through and through...”

“Midnight did tell me about someone in green being cowardly one time...I wondered if he had been talking about Link at all, but it looks like that isn’t so…”

“So he-a did…” Luigi commented. “But anyway...I’d like to move onto my-a next, and last-a question.”

“Fire away,” Midnight approved.

“How do I get-a home?” Luigi asked.

“Well-” Zelda began.

“Getting you home should not even be an issue,” Midnight interrupted.

“So you’re thinking of taking Luigi to that tunnel that lead you back here huh from the world you were in the other day huh?” Zelda asked.

“Wait….what-a tunnel Midnight?” Luigi asked.

“He’s really told you nothing huh…” Midnight replied to the question. “Basically, I was exploring with Link and the Mosaic Group a couple days ago; exactly two infact, and in this random cave we found a ‘warp pipe’ like you guys call them that lead here.”

“Wait...if-a Link and you found your homeworld, why didn’t he stay? He always-a talked about wanting to ‘go back there’.”

“Meh...I’m not repeating it, read Chapter seven.”

“Read...wha?” Luigi asked.

“Those who watch beyond the realm of which we can see will understand what we refer to,” Zelda added in the discussion.

“Basically, why Link didn’t stay here...it’s related to you guys,” Midnight continued.

“Us?” Luigi stated, surprised at this.

“Maybe you should ask him about it yourself when you have the chance,” Midnight explained.

“I...I-a see; but anyway, what’s the-a plan? Are you-”

“‘Am I going to-a lead you to the tunnel’?” Midnight asked Luigi in his own voice and accent.

“Well...yeah?”

Though annoyed, Midnight responded.

“Meh...you’d probably get lost in this place if you didn’t have someone to hold...your...hand...wait…”

“So I suppose it’s been settled, you’ll help Luigi to get back home, correct Midnight?” Zelda asked, somewhat sternly.

“Mmm...yeah…” Midnight responded. “This way Luigi,” Midnight then said, as he began to lead Luigi out of the castle.

“Actually, Luigi, I had a question of my own for you,” Zelda intervened.

The two stopped so Luigi could answer the question.

“I’d presume this should be a simple one but...how did YOU end up here?”

At the moment of hearing this question, Luigi’s mind was left blank.

“You-a know...I don’t-a know…” Luigi replied. “One moment I'm knocked-a out, the next-a moment I wake up and I'm in the middle of some-a dark dungeon, here.”

“Wow…” Midnight commented.

“Hmm...I see,” Zelda replied. “One last thing, and this is for you to hold onto Midnight.” Zelda then said, producing a velvet pouch filled with something.

“O, what would this b-”

“Don’t look in it, save for Link the next time that you see him.”

“I don’t even know if there will be a ‘next time’ I see Link, but okay,” Midnight responded. “Let’s go Luigi, or however you say it instead,” Midnight then said to Luigi, continuing to guide him on to the exit of their world.

IV: Jewel Acquired

Back to Peach...

Following the plant’s lead, Peach and the hoopsters eventually were led to what seemed to be a river, next to a cliff of sorts.

At this point, Toothy then jumped off of the cliff, notably using their leafy arms as leverage to slow down the fall.

“What’s he doing?” one of the hoopsters asked.

“Who knows, maybe he just got tired of us,” another one of the hoopsters answered.

Peach, however, just watched, and awaited the pipe piranha’s return.

And return they soon did, as the four heard a propelling noise of sorts from the side of a cliff that grew louder and louder.

This noise being from Toothy, who had returned with their mouth shut.

Upon close examination however, there appeared to be a green glow of sorts coming from the plant’s mouth.

“Is that the thing you wanted to give to us?” Peach asked.

Toothy gave a nod.

“May we see it?”

Toothy gave another nod, and then proceeded to open their mouth, producing a large, green, prickled gemstone.

“N-N-No way! That’s...that’s…” One of the hoopsters began to say.

“It’s...it’s a…” another one of the hoopsters also began to say.

“Wait...what’s going on guys? Is this gemstone super valuable?”

“Oved’s been looking for one of these things for over a year now!”

“Woah, he has? Do you know why?” Peach asked.

“I think the main reason he wanted one is because it’s a very rare gemstone.”

“Do you know what it would be called?” Peach also asked.

“I believe it’s known as a Pirahana Stone.”

“Piranha Stone? Interesting…”

Turning her attention back to the creature that tracked the gem down, Peach asked another question.

“So you’re giving this to us? Are you sure that’s okay with you?” Peach asked.

Toothy nodded, and held their mouth open to let one of them take it. Peach plucked the gem from the plant’s tongue as a result.

“It’s...a bit wet…” Peach commented.

Toothy held their head down, a bit embarrassed to hear this.

“Eh, we should be able to just dry it off, no biggie,” one of the hoopsters chimed.

“Ah...well in that case, here you go,” Peach then said, giving the jewel to one of the hoopsters to hold.

Toothy recovered after hearing this, picking their head back up, and made their way back over to the cliff.

“So you’ll be going now?” Peach asked as the blue-bulbed piranha was ready to take off with its leaves.

Turning and looking back, Toothy gave a nod, then flying off.

“Okay, see you another time!” Peach said, waving as they left.

Turning her attention back to the hoopsters, Peach asked one more question.

“So this stone should work as a replacement for the shard right?” Peach asked them.

“I’d imagine so,” one of the hoopsters informed.

“Well in that case, let’s not waste much more time and get back to the settlement,” Peach stated, being led back to where Oved sat by the hoopsters.

…

…

...

She hadn’t known it then, but unbeknownst to her in all that had been happening around her, she missed one key detail...she was being watched from afar.

Said spy then entered a number on their device and gave them a call.

“Boss, I’ve found the princess’ whereabouts, she’s in the Jewel Caverns, around the area where Mushroom Plains is also located, over.”

To Be Continued...

[Mosaic]

That's practically an adult, yet you still treat me like i'm a little kid - Vanessa, Phineas and Ferb quote

---

ANNNNYway...

Mosaic Adventures Chapter 16: Pieces To The Puzzle Part 9: show

I: Play the Game, Win The Prize

Arriving at the Mushroom House he saw in the distance, as well as considering how it was dusk by now, Mario pounded on the Toad’s door, intending to quickly get their attention.

“Hello? Hello? Are you in-a there? I need your-a help!” Mario shouted in.

“I recognize that voice…” someone within the mushroom shaped structure stated.

The blinds on the mushroom house window slid open, and inside was a Toad in red and white clothing mixed with a small amount of blue.

“Wow...it really is him huh…” the toad remarked.

He then closed the blinds and opened the door, seeing the plumber more directly.

“Hey Mario...what way could I help you?” the shop runner asked. “I was actually just about to close up shop, so you’re my last customer today.”

“Made it just in-a time it-a seems…” Mario thought. “Would you happen to have a warp-a whistle on-a hand?” he then asked.

“...as a matter of fact...I do…. But...you know how it is…”

“I have to play an-a game? Right?”

“...correct…” The toad stated. “This one should be pretty simple though,” he explained, flickering on the lights, and revealing behind him three chests.

“It’s...one of these-a games huh…” Mario thought.

“Choose wisely, as in one of these chests is the warp whistle.”

“And the-a other two?”

“Well...they’re not warp whistles…”

“...okie dokie…”

Mario stared at the three chests for a long while, contemplating which to open.

“I could-a open the right chest...they do-a say that right is-a right…. But maybe that’s-a trap, and I shouldn’t pick it as it’d be too-a obvious…. Maybe I should take the-a left...as perhaps he-a…’left’ it in the left-a chest? ...eh...I don’t-a know…. Maybe don’t-a a bank on either thing and take the-a middle road? They do-a say that when you don’t-a know which side to-a take in an argument, take the-a middle road…. And well...i’m not-a sure which chest to-a open...guess we’re going with the-a middle.”

As such, the red-clothed italian walked over to the middle chest and pulled it open.

Inside he found that…

He had made the right choice, the Warp Whistle was right there.

Looking at the whistle for a long while, he eventually plucked it out, amazed that he picked the right chest.

“Wow...I actually-a won...imagine what would have-a happened if I-a didn’t…”

“Truth be told...I likely would have given you it anyway, you really think I'm going to gamble the kingdom’s fate on chance?”

“I...I don’t-a know…. Either-a way...I got to get-a going now, before it’s too-a late,” -Mario said as he headed out the door-”See you next time!”

“Hey you said the phrase!” the toad said. “See you next time too!”

And with that, Mario was off, the item he and originally Luigi so long sought after in hand now.

II: I’ve Kept The Bargain

Meanwhile at the Hoopster Woods...

Oved, the large-bodied beetle king was sitting around on his throne, seeming somewhat bored.

“Sire, should we put the info hut at quadrant three or quadrant four?” a hoopster suddenly asked him.

“...I’d say whatever is more convenient for the finished project…” Oved answered.

“Well...alright then, thanks for the directions…” the hoopster replied, scuttling away once more.

A bit more time passed, and suddenly, a voice came in shouting.

“Sire! Sire! The princess found something interesting!” One of the blue hoopsters who had ran ahead begun to shout.

“Oh? Did she now?” Oved responded. “We’ll see, may you bring her up here?”

“She’s on her way with the other two now!”

“Well alright then…” Oved commented.

As the basket-ball sized bug had said, the princess indeed arrived with the other two blue insects on either side of her, hands behind her back. And soon enough, they closed the distance to where she only stood several meters away from Oved.

“H-Hello Oved...I...I’ve returned with...my...trade offer…”

“Ah, that,” Oved replied. “Well, let’s see it.”

“Well...here it is…” Peach stated, then produced the Piranha Stone where Oved could see it.

“Oh my...oh my...oh my stars!” Oved began to shout. “That’s..that’s…” Oved continued to exclaim, throwing himself forward off of his throne and onto the ground on all ten legs with a loud, ground shaking thud, dropping his staff and then moving his two front limbs forward around the large gemstone and snatching it from Peach’s hands. To Peach’s nervousness of being so close to such a large bug.

“I’ve been looking for one of these beauties for ages!” Oved began to say. “I was always told that these gems existed, it's just that with the fact that they’re one of the rarest gemstones in not just the Mushroom Kingdom, but perhaps Subcon as well, maybe even the entirety of both planets and dimensions, I thought we’d never find one. But now; Princess Peach, you’ve proved us wrong!”

“D-Does...does this mean that I can…-”

“Oh yes, certainly, certainly, you can keep that worthless shard now; something like this I wager has far more value than something like that does.”

Hearing this, while Oved was still enamored by the rare gem, Peach plucked the light-blue shard off of the cane, and gazed at it for a bit.

“I may not know exactly what this is...but something tells me I shouldn’t let Bowser have it…”

Oved planted the newly acquired gem on his staff, in place of where the shard originally rested, and then, sitting up and getting back on his throne again, asked Peach a question.

“So princess, what will you be doing now?”

“I...think i’m going to get back to my castle...Mario, Luigi and the others are probably worried sick...like they always get…”

“Well alright then, you remember where the pipe is correct?” Oved asked.

“I...don’t actually…”

“A couple hundred feet away over there,” Oved pointed, refreshing Peach on its location.

“Oh, okay...I’ll be leaving now if that’s alright with all of you,”

“Oh yeah, for sure, someone like you would probably be busy quite a lot…”

“You know...you’re not really wrong when you say that...it’s really tough sometimes as I have to manage everything that goes on in the kingdom…”

“Well, if you ever need a break from it, we’re always here if you want to visit.”

“A-Ah...t-thanks….I...I’ll remember that...yeah…”

“That being said, you are dismissed, you can be on your way now.”

“Alright...g-goodbye!” Peach said, then making her way to the pipe she had been led to earlier.

Once none of the insects could spot her, Peach quickly ran to the pipe, seeing a solid green one in front of her and practically diving in.

After making it through the pipe tunnel, Peach emerged on the other side of it, one look around told her she was back in Mushroom Plains.

“Whew...glad that’s over and finished with...now...where would the castle be?” Peach said to herself.

Looking around the area a bit longer, she saw a couple of familiar landmarks, and as a result she was able to deduce where in Mushroom Plains she was. Knowing her way, she was off en route to Mushroom Castle.

III: Unexpected Tag Along

Back In Subcon...

“So then I told them, ‘it’s a great way of getting things off your chest’!” Beryl told the group, reminiscing about what happened the other day.

Given this, the group got a bit of a laugh out of Beryl’s story as they continued on the path to the pyramid that laid present in the ravine.

As the group continued, looking around absentmindedly a bit, Glow saw something eye-catching.

“Huh? Who’ssssssss that lying down over there?” the fire-breathing serpent said.

“Oh? Where?” Link asked.

“There,” Glow then pointed with his tail.

He saw a bow-wearing pink dino...Birdo, lying down in the sand and lost in thought.

“Oh...what’s she doing here I wonder?” Toad commented.

“I dunno...but I’m going to sssssee what’ssssss going on with her,” Glow said.

As such, the large snake slithered over to the bird dino, looking over her, making direct eye contact.

“Hey there...Birdo...what’ssssss going on?”

“Oh...do...do I know you?”

“Maybe we’ve meet once or twicccccce and don’t remember it but I'm Glow...a Cobrat.”

“That name somewhat rings a bell…hello there Glow.”

Sitting up, Birdo put her hand on the reptile’s tail; doing it as an alternate form of handshaking.

“Sssssssso, to asssssk my question again...why are you lying in the ssssand like thissssss?”

“Well...I was just thinking…”

“Oh...about what?” Glow asked.

“About…” Birdo began. “Well, how annoying it was that I got lost just aimlessly wandering the desert like this and lied down to rest…”

“Oh, wasssss that all it wassssss?”

“...yeah…”

Remaining silent for a bit, Glow eventually responded. “Ah I sssssssssee, good that you’re doing alright, well if you tagged along with ussssss we could help you find your way.”

“Oh, where would you be headed to?” Birdo asked.

“We’re exxxxxxploring thisssssss old pyramid, or more accurately, me and Beryl are revisssssting it; but exxxxxxploring it for the firsssst time with the group over there,” Glow explained, pointing in the group’s direction, in which they waved back.

Birdo gave it some thought then responded. “I suppose it’d be alright…”

“Ah, that’ssss great! The more the merrier,”

“If I had a red rupee for everyone who’s said that phrase today...I’d have sixty in rupees…” Link stated.

“What are”-the Yellow Toad asked as he then yawned-”Rupees?”

“I could try telling you at some point I guess if you’re curious.”

With a tenth companion now in their group, the crew continued on to old ruins.

And soon enough, they arrive at a certain large, familiar ravine.

“Well...here it is,” Beryl stated.

“Yep…” Glow added.

“This the ravine the place is in?” Link asked.

“Long drop…” Toad commented.

“You guys hadn’t told me but since it was such a large pitfall, how di-” Toadette joined in.

“How did we learn what was down there? Is that what you’re going to ask?” Beryl interrupted.

“Err...yeah…how’d you know?”

“The Mosssssaic group assssked the ssssame thing…he fell...” Glow cleared up for the group.

“Yeah...but I'm not going to do that this time now that I know this is here.”

“Actually...we kinda have to fall down there again, remember we couldn’t find a way out?” Glow pointed out.

“Oh...you’re right…” Beryl replied. “Well, may as well get it over with now…”

Sliding over the edge, Beryl let his segmented body drop to the ravine’s bottom, eyes shut, each of the parts stacking atop one another one by one as they fell.

Once his head segment plopped ontop of his body, he reopened them.

“Wait...if you guys eventually found a way out, can’t we just get in that way?” the Blue Toad pointed out.

“...wish I remembered that mysssself before Beryl made that daredevil dive…”

“Would you say...before I...planted myself down here?” Beryl shouted out, hearing them.

“I...ssssssuppose that’ssssss one way of putting it…” Glow replied. “Anyway, we’ll meet you down there, don’t worry.”

With that, Glow led the new group through the vase once more; getting them to the bottom once again.

As such, not too shortly after, the group meet back up with Beryl, and one jog up a short hill later, there they were; the ancient ruins still in front of them, more or less untouched.

“The Mosaic Group said you guys explored this place with them, right?” Toad asked Glow and Beryl.

“Yep,” Beryl replied.

“That’ssss correct,” Glow answered.

“So..you’ll guide us?” Link asked.

“Yessssss and no,” Glow replied. “We’ll help you guysssss out here and there, but then we’ll ssssplit up to exxxxxplore the placesssss we misssssssssed lassssssst time.”

“Alright…” Link replied.

“That being ssssssaid, let’sssss get to it.”

And with that, the large group finally made their way inside of the ancient ruins to tie up all loose ends with it from beforehand.

IV: Not Really Familiar World

Meanwhile In Hyrule...

Luigi and Midnight had long made their way out of Hyrule Castle and were on their way directly to the settlement which was built right near said castle, plainly named, Hyrule Castle Town.

“So from what I recall, when it comes to the pipe that’ll get you home; it’s right in the middle of Hyrule Field.”

“Oh? What about that-a place?”

“It’s dangerous…”

“Oh…”

“As such, let’s stop here for supplies before we get going; would be wise to do.”

When the two entered the town, their presence quickly got the townspeople’s attention.

“Hey...it’s that Midnight creature and...who’s that with him?” One of the townspeople said.

“Could it be...Link?” another townsperson said, seeing the green clothing.

Given this, the townspeople decided to take a closer look at the two.

“Wait a minute...you’re not Link…” the townsperson from before stated.

“Yeah...my name is-a Luigi…”

“Oh, Luigi huh? Not Link? Can’t say we’ve heard of you…”

“I’m not-a...from around here…” Luigi replied, being honest while also not telling the entire story.

“That would make sense...we’re just really worried about where Link could be...he hasn't been seen in Hyrule for...I believe pretty much a full year now.”

“Wow that’s...that’s-a unfortunate…”

“Hey...think you can-a mention to Link to return here next time you-a see him?” Luigi then asked Midnight.

“I think I should be asking you that, I don’t exactly plan on touching your guys’ world again anytime soon.”

“Oh...I suppose I could do-a that…” Luigi replied.

“Anyway, let’s talk to the craftsman and see what we can conveniently exploit.”

“You mean-a use?”

“...yes.”

After a brief search within the town, they were able to track down the craftsman’s place.

And wanting to get straight to the point, made a couple of comments regarding the building and went inside.

Inside, they saw the typically expected scenery for a store-workshop combination. Wooden desk, check. Wooden plank floor, check. Wooden supports on the roof, check. Guy with a beard wearing an apron of sorts along with gloves working on a random tool? Check. This was the craftsman.

“Hello? Who’s there?” the craftsman asked, back turned the other way.

“It’s…-a me…” Luigi answered.

“Yeah...it’s-a him…” Midnight added, copying Luigi exactly.

“Hmm...I recognize one of your voices a bit but…” the craftsman began to say as he turned around.

“Oh...you’re...a friend of Link’s right?” the craftsman asked Midnight.

“I guess you could say that…” Midnight replied.

“And you’d be?” he then asked Luigi.

“Luigi…”

“Interesting name...can’t say I’ve heard of or seen you until now.

“Don’t think that’s important; the point is, we need a couple supplies.”

“Hmm...I’ll look in the back and see if we have any…” the craftsman responded.

After taking a look, the craftsman got back to the two.

“All I have is one red potion, some arrows, and not much else of use.”

“How? What happened?”

“I guess people have been buying up my alot of my stock,”

“Is there-a reason why that could-a be?” Luigi added.

“I guess since they don’t have a hero to defend them at this time, they’re trying to take matters more into their own hands from what I can tell.”

“Guess you didn’t make the right choice Link…” Midnight thought to himself.

“I suppose I’ll give you what I can either way though,” the craftsman then said, giving them the red potion. “And before you get going, one last thing.”

“Huh, what?” Midnight asked.

“Next time you see Link, I have something I want to give him so be sure he comes by.”

“This is my second time saying this is today, but I don’t know if there will be a next time, but okay.”

“Can we-a get-a going now?” Luigi then asked once the two were outside of the building.

Agreeing, Midnight also said two words to him. “Okay coward.”

And with that, the two were finally on their way off to the danger-ridden plains.

V: Revisited Ancients

Meanwhile in a certain dream world...

The quite extensive group had made their way into the large interior of the ruins, finding that it was still as dark as it had been on Glow and Beryl’s trip with The Mosaic Group.

“So what are each of us going to do?” the Bank Toad asked.

“Mainly jusssssst giving thingsssssss a ssssssecond look...atleassssssssst it’ssssss a sssssecond look for usssssss…” Glow replied.

“I for one thing we should light this joint,” the Blue Toad stated.

“Wait, why would we do that especially in a place that’s been here for-” Beryl began.

“Up...light up this joint…”

“Oh...I thought you meant…” Beryl began to say. “Anyway…” Beryl then picked back up. “Like that blonde guy in that mystery show would say, let’s split up gang! You don’t mind me pairing with you right?” Beryl asked the Bank Toad.

“Sure thing I suppose.”

“I’m going to focus on lighting this joint UP,” the Blue Toad said.

“I’ll,”-then giving a yawn-”go with you,” Yellow Toad said.

“Do you mind exxxxxploring with me?” Glow asked Birdo.

“Oh no, not at all…” Birdo replied.

“I call pairing with the leader! In other words, Toadette!” the mail Toad suddenly shouted.

“But...I was supposed to pair with…” Toadette began. “Toad…”

“Hey, it’s alright, he doesn’t have to be on your side all the time just because you feel that way about him…” Beryl said to Toadette.

“I suppose…”

“Huh, I suppose that leaves me and you as the last pair doesn’t it?” Link stated to Toad.

“I guess so...let’s get exploring, why don’t we?”

“Indeed guyssssss, don’t forgot that thissssss room will be the randevu where we’ll report our findingsssssss, alright?”

And with that, everyone acknowledged and agreed to Glow’s comment and the pairs made their ways through the different tunnels of the ruins to give the old structure it’s second, and through search.

As Toad and Link searched, they were in the more upper area of the ruins and found they were having a problem.

“All of these walls look the same…” Toad began. “How do we know which way to go and where we’ve checked?”

“Hmm, that’s a good question...I’d say it’s a thing of…” Link began.

As he then examined one of the walls however, he saw something interesting; blue marker.

“Hey...this is the first time I’m seeing this here…” Link stated.

“That blue marker looks awfully familiar…” Toad said.

“Yeah...perhaps Mosaic left that…”

“I suppose that’d make sense since he was here with his group.”

“By following those...that should give us a sense of direction.”

“Well alright then, we’ll just remember that this shape is a triangle then.”

“That’s about right I’d say…”

The two roamed further down the hall, eventually coming across some interesting ancient text.

“More of this ancient text huh?” Link stated.

“What do you mean more?” Toad asked.

“I saw some text like this at the pyramid I was at earlier.”

“Oh, I suppose that makes sense…” Toad said, looking straight ahead, away from what Link was.

As he was, he suddenly saw a distant green flicker.

“Ah?!” Toad reacted.

“Huh, what was it Toad?” Link asked.

“I’ll...be right back, I want to look at the corner for a sec if that’s okay with you.

“Sure,”

With that, Toad decided to investigate the flash that he saw, but upon reaching said corner, it was just a dead end, sand below his feet.

“Huh...there’s nothing here it seems…” Toad whispered to himself, not noticing his situation.

“Well, may as well get back over to LINK!!!” Toad then shouted, the ground letting out below him. He hadn’t realized it then, but he was standing right on top of quicksand.

“‘when the artifact comes together, a new rule will fall about the land…’” Link read. “This bit is in english...I wonder why and what it could mean…. Hey Toad...what do...you think of this…. Wait...where is he? Didn’t he just say he was looking at the corner? I better look for him,” As a result, Link wandered off, away from where Toad fell.

Toad on the other hand had had a soft landing, more sand having been below him, and upon looking up assessed his surroundings, finding he was in a much smaller room than compared to the rest of rooms he’d been in, even for the ruins’ standards.

And on the wall, he saw a lot of foregin visual. Text in an ancient language, a design drawn on the wall and in the center…

“Is that...a mold in the shape of a hand?” Toad described. “With what I always see from stories where this happens; like Indiana Toads, I think I know what to do.”

As such, Toad pushed his hand right onto the area which presented itself, and as a result, the design on the wall glowed a green color, around the same shade of the shine he saw earlier. And within moments, the lights blinded him.

“Ah!!!” Toad shouted, covering his eyes.”

By the time he had uncovered them, the scenery around him changed to a forest...right next to a clearing….

“Wow...i’m somewhere else...and…” Toad then looked at his hand. “What happened to me!? Did...did I become a ghost?”

As Toad was gushing over this, eventually he heard voices in the nearby clearing and decided to look at what was going on.

It was here that he saw a large number of robe and necklace wearing dinosaurs; namely Yoshis, Rexes and Birdos all doing what appeared to be various forms of activity. There was some construction work, which based on the blue glowing that came from some of the build material, was being done with magic. Some were seated next to one another, with one showing the other a map as they designed it. And some showing the others weapons or tools of theirs that they crafted.

What most caught his attention was the two dinos standing in the center of it all, a blue Yoshi wearing purple-black robe, a pendant bearing a mystical symbol, and completely barefoot. And the other being a rex with a maroon body, blue robe and pendant with a different mystic symbol.

“Things are looking pretty good around here, wouldn’t you say?” The rex said to the yoshi.

“I think that I’d argue it could be a bit more, but it does for the time being.”

“You know, I like that mindset, there’s so much more that our tribe could be, just think about it, we could…”

But before the Rex could finish his reply, a shout came.

“INCOMING!” a Birdo shouted.

A large brick block, like what the gang often saw in Dinosaur Land was on it’s way over to the dino duo, but with quick thinking, the Rex blocked the incoming projectile with a blue, magic energy shield, bouncing the block away.

“Whew, that was a close one, we waited any longer and we could have been goners…” the Rex then said.

“Either way, it’s alright now.”

“Wow...this group of dinos...they kind of remind me of who I saw over…” Toad began to say.

Before his thoughts could finish however, he was suddenly forced out of the vision as the light came back to him once more, and once it left, he found he was back in the cuby sized room from before, finding he too was back to normal.

“Was that a vision from the past I was being shown or something?” Toad wondered. “If so...maybe those were the ancestors of those Rexes I met on the mountain…. I should tell the others about this...”

Toad first looked for an exit to the room in which he was trapped in, and eventually saw an area of the wall separated from the rest of it; seeing a pressure plate over on the side. Toad put his hand on it, and the door slid open.

On the other side Toad found a somewhat spacious room; and in this room found a large chest which had been already opened.

“Huh...I wonder...was this the room in that...maybe…”

Toad then continued on, heading through the corridor leading to the other halls of the pyramid.

“So what you’re saying is, you think if a situation happened like that, the kingdom’s entire system as we know it would collapse?” Beryl asked the Bank Toad.

“That’s economics…” the Bank Toad responded.

The two then noticed an opened corridor.

“Interesting...we should look in there.”

“Actually, I think it’s fine, I recall that being the room where we saw the hydra guy.”

“Tryclyde right?”

“Yeah, and after he slipped away, we looked in there and got everything interesting we could.”

“Ah, I see.”

At that moment, Toad emerged from the entryway, and upon looking to his side, he saw the two next to one another talking.

“Hey guys!” Toad shouted, getting the two’s attention. “I think this may be a good time for us to meet back up! I found something interesting!”

“Well I suppose we’ve all had plenty of time to explore, I’d think heading to the radevu would make sense.”

“And I do think I got to meet back up with Link either way, we did kinda arbitrarily get separated.”

“Guess you guys gotta ‘link up’ again right?”

“...clever...very clever,” Toad commented.

As the four had planned, they headed back to the rondevu point, and after a bit of waiting, the rest of the group eventually arrived back at it themselves.

“Alright crew! What’d you guys all find?” Toadette asked with outspokenness.

“We found some kind of cracked wall, it looked like it was blown up,” the blue Toad replied.

“Yeah but...there was nothing behind it…” the yellow toad informed, then yawned.

“We found ssssssome vasssssessssss,” Glow answered. “We, or more accurately, I decccccided to sssssslip around in them a bit and sssssssee if there wasssssss anything intresssssssing in them…. There wassssssn’t...”

“More interesting than what we found to be honest…” Toadette then decided to inform herself.

“Ah? Why may that be?” the blue Toad asked.

“We just found an empty key room...with a few phantos and nothing more than that.”

“Oh…” the blue toad replied.

“I suppose that leaves Toad and Link, what about you two?” Toadette then decided to question.

“I found this weird text on the wall saying something...in english about ‘when the artifact comes together, a new rule will fall about the land…’” Link informed.

“Hmm…” Toadette commented.

“That’s something…” the blue toad added.

“Intresssssssting…”

“...I’ve got nothing punny to say, that’s quite a find…”

“New rule…” Birdo thought aloud.

“Wow, that’s quite the message…” Toad opinionated.

The other three Toads that were within the group each had similar things to say to the others.

“That’s really interesting Link, I suppose that leaves just Toad...so Toad...what’d you find?” Toadette asked, giving a wink.

“Well…” Toad began as everyone listened. “I was of course with Link…. And I saw this mysterious green flicker far away and got curious about what it was.”

“...green flicker? That sounds...somewhat familiar…” Link thought.

“While Link was reading the text he told you guys about, I wanted to check out what it was. But when I went where it was, not only had it vanished, but I then went plummeting down into quicksand.”

“So that’s where you went…” Link commented.

“That mussssst have been a shock…”

“It was…. Then I gave the room a look around and on the wall I found this visual that looked like some kind of ancient technology…”

“Wait...was there by any chance a spot for your hand on what you found?” Link asked.

“Why...yeah...there was…”

“Wow…”

“Huh? What do you mean wow?”

“You know...i’m going to be honest...I found something similar just earlier today…”

“Wait, you mean in the pyramid you told me you went to earlier?” Toadette asked.

“Yeah...I mean that one...”

“Link...let me ask...did you...also have some kind of vision when you found this similar thing?”

“I did…” Link answered.

“Was it of...Yoshis, Rexes and Birdos wearing robes and necklaces? Something like that?”

“Yeah…”

“Wow...that’s...that’s…”

“Wait...Wait a second...robed rexes?” the blue toad added in. “Didn’t you tell us that you meet some rexes like that on Dino Mountain’s peak?”

“Huh? Of course I did…. Wait...that’s kind of interesting...”

“Hmm...do you guys deduce that maybe…” the Mail Toad began.

“Those Rexes Toad told us about on that mountain…” the Bank Toad added in.

“Like to cosplay?” Beryl finished.

Everyone went silent given Beryl’s way of finishing the group’s collective deductions.

“Err...umm…” Birdo added to the discussion.

“I think a more likely ansssswer Beryl isssssss...they’re related to that tribe...like dessssscendentsssssss or sssssssssomething like that…”

“...Oh! Yeah…I suppose that makes more sense…”

“Huh...on that note...what do we do with this info?” Link questioned.

“To be honest...I get the feeling that making this public knowledge is something we shouldn’t do just yet…” the blue Toad said.

“Honestly, I'm with the glasses Toad here…” Toad added.

“I suppose that’d be wise…” Toadette agreed.

The rest of the group held similar thoughts with the subject.

“In the meantime, what about we get out of this place?”-the yellow toad began as he yawned-”this place is getting claustrophobic to me personally…”

In general, the group shared similar thoughts to the yellow toad, and as such, the group all made their way towards the structure’s exit…leaving together.

Meanwhile...at Mushroom Plains

“Hmm...based on what this thing is saying...one of the shards must be nearby...there’s no other conclusion to be drawn…whoever has it...you better look out...I intend to take back what’s mine after all...”

To Be Continued...

[Mosaic]

In the US anyway.

Mosaic Adventures Chapter 17: Pieces To The Puzzle Part 10: show

I: Off On Our Ways

The large, assembled crew; having uncovered what it was that laid within the old structure, unoccupied, untouched, anything but active other than through the actions of the other, smaller group that explored it too like such had done; had now been on their ways back out, and had journeyed out of the ravine.

“That was quite the interesting expedition, wouldn’t you all agree?” Toadette asked, filled with enthusiasm about it herself.

“It wassssss alright I guesssssss, exxxxxploring the place for a ssssssecond time.”

“I’d imagine it was more fun for you guys given it was completely new for you….” Beryl began, starting to turn a bit green. “I mean, I didn’t mind a second look though since I got to make more puns, hahaha.”

“It was something I’ll say,” The blue toad opinionated.

“Was”-yellow toad yawned-”neat…if not a bit claustrophobic...”

“A good time...” Bank Toad stated.

“I guess if seeing a bunch of sand, bricks, and cryptic writing was interesting…” Mail toad commented as he put a finger up to his face, tapping it a bit with thought.

“A nostalgic time...” Link replied.

“I’d...say it was for reasons already said…” Toad added in.

“To be honest...it was just nice being able to hang out with some for a bit...given I don’t do so too often…” Birdo responded, looking away a bit with shyness. She wasn’t really too used to more involved interaction with others outside of Mario’s parties.

“Huh...you don’t do ssssssssso often?” Glow asked. “Don’t you have friendsssssssss to hang out with?”

“I...guess I have Yoshi…” Birdo replied.

“Huh...anyone else?” Beryl joined in and asked, turning a purplish tone with curiosity.

“Oh! Umm...well...well I do...kinda…”

“Well...how about them?” Toad curiously asked.

“He’s a shy guy…” Birdo responded.

“Wait, so shy like yo-” Link began to ask.

“No, no, I mean the species, not the terminology…” Birdo responded, as she looked Link’s way and blushed, kind of embarrassed with the mistake he made as of still not knowing all of the ins and outs of a foreign world.

“Ah...I see…” Link replied.

“What do you guys do?” Toadette asked.

“Well we...talk about different things...yeah…” Birdo vaguely answered with.

“Hmm...such as?” the Blue Toad asked.

The dino however didn’t respond. She just turned her head away, not looking the curious group’s way, and looked down, full of silence. She didn’t want to give them that information, for she felt it didn’t need to come out.

“Oh...I...I see…” the blue toad replied.

“Hey...if you”-yawning then coming in from the toad-”Find more friends perhaps, things you do could be a lot more fun...remember that…”

“I suppose so…” Birdo replied. “But if it’s alright with you guys, I’ll be going now.”

“It’s okay if you got other placesssss to be…I kinda do mysssssself…ssssssssee ya!” The serpent replied, waving with his tail as well.

In turn, the others gave their goodbyes to Birdo too as she got further and further away, heading in Sandy Subcon Town’s direction.

“I sssssssuppose that leavesssssss ussssss, what are our plansssssssss? Sssssince I already know mine…”

“Think i’m going to hang out here a bit longer,” Beryl said, his body having faded back to brown at this point.

“Oh? You are?” Toadette asked.

“Well...I do kinda live out here and stuff…”

“To be honessssst...that’ssssss one of the reasonsssss why I want to move back out to Sssssubcon eventually, so I can be closer to you, Striker, and Elemental. Plussssss...I kinda need a better houssssse...”

“I think I could go with you then go if that’s where you’re headed, there’s a warp in Dinosaur Land heading there,” Toadette added to Glow’s statement. “And I presume the brigade will be coming along with me right?”

“I do have a place to go from Desert Land, so yeah,” the blue Toad responded.

“Same,” Mail Toad said.

“Same,” Bank Toad also said.

“Same…” the Yellow Toad said as he yawned.

“But…” The Blue Toad began which caught the group’s interest once again. “Toad had told us something interesting earlier, he said that when he was on the mountain, he was given a scroll half.”

“Oh, yeah...I did, what about it?” Toad asked.

“Think we could borrow it for a bit?” he asked.

“Actually...I was kind of wanting to show it to the rest of Team S.M.B.X to see if they had an idea on what we should do with it...perhaps after that you could see it?”

“Ah...I see, that’s alright.”

“So I guess we all have settled our plans right?” Toadette, one final time, confirmed with each of the group in regards to their choices.

“More or less from the looks of it…” Link replied.

“Well...I suppose I’ll see you all off...other than Glow and the brigade since we’re going the same way.”

And with that, the crew really did disband. Glow, being the limbless, sand-dwelling reptilian he was, slithered along with the mushroom girl over to their currently inhabited dream world’s exit, with the vibrantly colored crew following behind, having plans involving them each heading off in a similar path. Beryl observed as his fellow explorers left, finding his mouth was tied when it came to having more to comment on. And like all the rest of their colleagues had done, Toad and Link then did the same, following suit.

As the group began to distance further from each other, in Link’s mind something clicked. Though he hadn’t known the creature long, he had come to expect a certain thing, a certain form of statement from him.

“Hey...I guess Beryl didn’t end off with a pun this time around…” Link commented.

“Oh...so you noticed…. I guess my humor was just…’dry!’ this time!”

Given this, Beryl had become green again, and more notably, everyone in the long distant group laughed aloud, given just how perfect it was for the situation and environment they were in. And reminding the group once again what talent that the cactus being had for such humor.

Meanwhile...

II: Still Not Familar World

“So...this is the-a dangerous hyrule-a field?”

“Yes, it is the dangerous Hyrule Field.”

Luigi heard the slime creature’s response, however, he had difficulty buying it. Nothing was happening in the field; it seemed rather peaceful, no danger in sight. Maybe the field wasn’t as dangerous as his travel partner was making it out to be? He was the kind to do that sort of thing so perhaps.

“I…-a see…”

“Anyway, we’re getting pretty close to that tunnel, so then you can get out of here and get back to whatever charade you were up to back in your world.”

“Speaking of-a that…” Luigi thought. “I...suppose it’d be important to-a...find out where that-a thing...is...you know?”

As the two continued to talk, they suddenly heard what seemed to be loud stepping, very loud.

“W-What’s-a that? I-It-a sounds like something-a large…”

“That’s the danger that I was telling you about, just hide under a rock and we probably won’t be spotted,” Midnight explained.

The gargantuan live gel mass then threw his full body behind a rock with a large hop, making a considerable thud given his weight. He then quickly, using his psychokinetic ability, snatched Luigi, frozen in fear from whatever the unknown, approaching force was, and brought him along with him into hiding.

The pair crouched down behind the rocks for a good while, waiting for the source of the sound. And soon enough, it showed itself.

There was some kind of technical, or perhaps magic contraption that stood tall over the field. It had four mechanical limbs, a decorative, large pink bulb-shaped middle, and a deviantly colored blue eye up at the top.

“A guardian…” Midnight said. “It’s been years since Ganon was defeated and that Shiekahs made those things but...they still haven’t all been deactivated…”

“I...I-a have alot of-a questions but...are we just going to-a hide?”

“Yeah...shouldn’t detect us if we don’t make any sudden movements and stay out of the line of sight.”

“Okie-dokie…” Luigi replied to Midnight’s instruction. But then, despite what he had just said, he made a sudden, large movement.

And with that, the distinctive, blue eye on the machine reacted, picking up something.

And like it was some kind of big, mechanical crab, moved it’s body in a sideways sort of motion, repositioning it’s eye to face the large rock in which the two hid behind, and said eye then began to light up.

“...there’s so many words I want to say right now...but I can’t without increasing the age rating of this story…”

“Mama-mia…”

The machine then, acting in the way it was built to, fired a shining, hot beam of light at the rocks.

Midnight saw these coming, and given he wasn’t expecting that Luigi would react in time, threw him out of the way with his telekinesis while also jumping out of the way himself.

It was clear in the moment; they had been spotted, their hiding place had been exposed, there was nowhere to hide now. Midnight wasn’t really the kind to run so he didn’t view it as an option, as far as he saw, battle was the only option for the two.

“So Luigi, we’re going to have to fight off this magic bag of wires.”

“...can’t we just-a flee?”

Midnight had expected this from Luigi, and had no amusement regarding such, it was like something he’d expect from him.

“No, because we’d be caught up with anyway; and it’s boring,” Midnight explained. “So what i’m going to ask you to do is work with me so we can smash this sucker up.”

“Okie-dokie…”

The mystical, tank-like contraption, having missed it’s original target was getting ready to make its next move as it turned around to aim it’s laser their way again.

“So...we’ll have to hit the eye...which I'm pretty sure you can reach…”

As he spoke, the Guardian prepared fire once again, which the two dodged, with less difficulty this time around, knowing what was to be expected. As such, the powerful beam of light evaporated instead the dusty terrain.

“I can-a jump high but...I don’t think I’ll reach it with just a regular jump…”

“Oh, is that so?” Midnight retorted.

Seeing one of the legs of the metallic titan were about to swat them away, like it was a mechanical jump rope, the two gave it a well timed hop. As a result, it missed entirely.

“Well…” Midnight replied, as he grabbed Luigi with his psychokinesis. “I’ll make you reach it.”

The slime gave the plumber a hurl, like a parent throwing their child in the air. Except in Midnight’s case, he skipped the parent-child part and didn’t plan to catch him again.

“Aaaaaaaaaa!!!” Luigi shouted.

“Don’t just sit there screaming your head off, get your hammer!”

“Oh…yeah good-a point…”

Drawing his blunt weapon, he got ready to swing. The robot peered above, seeing something approaching rapidly. This being of course, a hammer straight to the face, but in actuality, the eye.

With a defined, strong swing, the hammer struck, and the contraption’s eye shattered. Shattered like a glass that’s been thrown to the ground senselessly.

Through that one action, the machine shut off, all of the fancy lights lost their coloration, and the metal shell left over clumped onto the ground.

Luigi landed back to the ground, hammer still in hand, and looked over to the dismantled machine.

“Huh…bulls-aeye?”

“Classy,” Midnight responded. “But you see? All I had to do was throw you up to the spot you couldn’t reach and you were fine.”

“True…” Luigi replied. “But if it was that-a simple all along, why didn’t you-“

“Didn’t feel like it.”

“Oh…okay…”

“Anyway…moving along now…” Midnight said, Luigi continuing to follow behind.

III: Droplet of Info

Back in Seaside…

“Now that I-a have this, I suppose the wise thing to do with it would be to get-a going to Dark Land and…”

“No way bro, that really happened?” a voice said.

Not sure who this was, Mario quickly hid behind a palm tree and eavesdropped, seeing if he could learn something juicy.

He saw that there were two individuals talking to one another, a boomerang bro and a hammer bro.

“Yep, it’s just as I'm saying bro,” the hammer bro explained. “The princess broke out herself! She didn’t even need the Marios to break her out this time.”

“Wow, no way bro, King Koopa must be slipping…”

“You’d think that with him finding that shard he has that contains all those powers, he’d be in a better position then this...guess not.”

“Wow bro…”

“Though, from what his spies apparently found, she was spotted in that forest of Hoopsters, you know...the Hoopster Woods…”

“Hmm...cool story bro…”

Once the two armed, weapon wielding turtles had enough distance from Mario, he got out of his hiding place, and took some time to process the information he just picked up.

“Wait just-a minute…. ‘That shard he-a has that contains all those-a powers’? Could...could that-a be what E. Gadd was talking about? The-a shards? But...also it-a sounds like Peach got-a out herself and went to a forest full of hoopsters…? Guess she-a didn’t want to-a wait this time…. Where does that-a leave me though? Maybe I should-a go to those woods and meet up with-a her...”

As such, realizing that, though the woman in which he cared so much for seemed to be out of what he saw to be bad hands, he tensed up; sensing she wasn’t safe just yet. She was out in the woods, in the forest of trees, filled left and right with sport object sized beetles. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t sure if she’d be safe, he was certain she wouldn’t be until she was back in a spot such as the Mushroom Plains.

And so, Mario played the tune that the teleportation instrument called for, and in came a magical tornado or winds of sorts.

He let it carry him to his destination, and then there he was. The Hoopster Woods.

IV: Odd Encounter

Back At The Mushroom Plains...

Peach continued on her way back to her castle. It seemed that her journey, her deviation from her typical castle life was coming to an end of sorts.

As she continued on her way there, she noticed someone up ahead.

She could tell the individual was a Yoshi, and as she went by took a closer look at them as she noticed strange looking clothes worn by her.

“So this is the Mushroom Kingdom huh…” the Yoshi said.

“Oh, hello there,” Peach said.

The Yoshi turned around and saw Peach.

“Oh! Hello to you too...I’m Dinna,”

“Well, I'm Peach, Princess Peach…”

“You’re a princess? Of what place?”

“Well...here…”

“You’re the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom?”

“Well yes, yes I am…”

Dinna remained quiet for a stretch of time, she was in the face of someone with a lot of authority, someone in which many of the locals would know about. Would it be wise for her to just tell her straight everything that was going on and risk the information becoming public knowledge if she felt it necessary to share? She didn’t really think it was worth betting on; and once she had thought it through, eventually picked back up.

“That’s interesting...is it okay if I ask something?”

“Sure thing.”

“Well, have you seen some kind of round frame, like a compass recently?”

“Hmm...I do know that some friends of mine had found something like that, but I haven’t really heard much of anything on it as of late…”

“Oh...I see…” Dinna responded. “I’m...going to be going now, where were you headed?”

“Well...back to my castle…”

“Alright, what had you been all the way out here? Were you just on a walk or something?”

“Oh...no...it’s a long story…”

“Oh, umm-”

“Well...if you want me to explain what had happened…”

“No, no, it’s alright, I won’t be nosy.”

“Well alright…” Peach replied. “It was nice meeting with you, but I’ve got to get going.”

“Ah, see you,” Dinna replied.

And with that, the two ladies parted ways, Peach headed the direction in which Dinna came from, in the direction of her castle, while the robed dino headed adjacent to the princess, heading down a path similar to which she herself had come.

Little did she know what danger she was about to walk into...

V: Continuously Not Familiar World

Back in Hyrule...

the dark as night slime creature, native to his surroundings; continued to lend the human, green overalled plumber; who on the contrary was foreign to the landscape and environment that surrounded him, So he himself could get back to his native-not so native land, but actually native land.

Before he was taken back, Luigi, realizing his time in this world was limited, got curious and decided to strike up a conversation with Midnight.

“So...Midnight, is there anything else you want to-a tell me about the way this place is-a like?” Luigi asked.

“I guess I can try to explain a few general tips. For one, assume most places you go are dangerous, towns should generally be okay, but if you’re out in the wilderness, be ready for someone or something to pick a fight with you, like that metal trash heep we saw earlier.”

“I...I-a see…”

“Also, there are some places you just never go alone, take Death Mountain for example.”

“That’s...all you need to-a tell me…”

“Good that you know that. Moving on, I’d also say don’t go into a dungeon alone, unless you’re Link or Zelda or anyone like that.”

“Or-a you?”

“...yes…”

“Under-astood...I really don’t like to-a go places alone to begin with...so it’s-a not a big-a deal for me…I mean...even back when me and bro were in-a Brooklyn I…-”

“Huh? What’s Brooklyn?”

“Oh...it’s...me and my-a bro’s hometown of-a sorts…”

“Huh...how far would you say it is from your current home? And why exactly did you move?”

“Oh...you-a know...circumstances and stuff…”

“So you don’t want to tell me...okay, that’s-” Midnight was just about to mouth off, however, in doing so realized he was touching a slanted slope. “Actually, never mind...we’re here…the tunnel should be up this hill.”

“That’s-a relief...I was anxious every step of the way not going to-a lie…”

The two make it up the mountain without much difficulty and make it to the peculiarly colored pipe.

“Well, here you go,” Midnight introduced Luigi, using a nearby rock to point it out to him.

“That’s-a one colorful pipe...with all of the-a red, green and blue swirling around on-a it…”

“Indeed it is…” Midnight commented.

There was suddenly some kind of stiff, awkward silence in the air. Neither party was sure how to act at this point, they had found the pipe, now what? Was Luigi just to leave with no proper goodbyes? Was Midnight going to rush him out? Was there to be no closing discussion? For a decent period of time, neither Midnight nor Luigi knew.
Eventually, the silence was broken.

“So...what would you say you are planning to do when you go back?”

“I...don’t-a know…” Luigi replied. “I do-a know however I’ll probably tell Mario that I lost this thing he-a trusted me to hold on to...and given that he’s saved the-a Princess by now...ask if he could help me-a out…”

“Given he’s saved the...That dumb turtle dragon guy creature thing nabbed her again? Hylia…”

“Yeah…”

“Wait...if you were with Mario...how did you end up here of all places?”

“Well...we-a got separated in this shortcut over in Subcon…”

“Wait hold up, what’s a Subcon?”

Hearing Midnight’s question, Luigi had no idea what to say. He knew that the word Subcon carried more than one definition around where he heard it. Sometimes it was the word used to reference the fairies which inhabited the land. And at other times, it was used to make reference to the very dimension of itself. As such, he found himself at a loss, should he tell him about the place, or the species first? Eventually, after much intense thought, he came to the best explanation he could.

“Well...it’s kind of like...this-a other dimension that exists somewhere parallel to the-a Mushroom Kingdom...by-a entering these red-a doors, you can go between it and the-a Mushroom Kingdom and Main-a World...and in these place you can find things you don’t-a find in the Main-a World, like buried vegetables, vases…-”

“Too much information.”

“Okay...long-a story short, we-a got separated when taking this shortcut, I ended up in-a Desert Land, a guy there beat me-a up and knocked me out, I wake-a up, no compass frame, in this-a place…”

“Compass frame huh...is that the thing the Mosaic Group found?”

“Yeah, it-a was.”

“Hmm...I wonder…”

“You-a wonder...what?”

“Don’t worry about it...but yeah...i’m pretty sure that guy, whoever it is sent you here.”

“That...makes-a good amount of sense...I do remember him having-a magic…”

“That sucks then…I’d say you should do something about that.”

“Is there-a any chance you could help me-a out?”

“Not a chance...not really my problem, plus i’m on ‘guard duty’”

“Oh...o-akay. One last-a question, do you have directions to-a Toad Town?”

“Basically,” Midnight replied. “When you go out of the pipe, you reach a small cave area, to your right should be the exit. Down out of the cave should be a downward slope heading to Moonlight Meadows, careful of the Piranha Plants, after that, you’ll eventually hit Toadstool Valley, stay on the sides of the path, don’t fall off, go through more fields, there you go, you’re there.”

Taking a second to process the information dump that was unwillingly dropped onto him, Luigi eventually replied.

“Any-a safer way?”

“Not really, I wasn’t exactly interested in my surroundings there…”

“Mama-mia…”

“Now, are we gonna sit here and chatter endlessly, padding this story further or are you gonna actually get down into the tunnel and go through?”

“I think I’ll-a go through…” Luigi replied, finally, after having chattered for quite the amount of time, in a number of ways stalling and putting off continuing with his journey, decided now was the time to advance, and through the interdimensional tunnel he went.

“See ya.”

VI: Dusty Danger

Taking the same general route that he took to get here initially, Toad, along with Link, was long on the path out of the dreamy desert dunes.

“So you got here through Dinosaur Land?” Link asked.

“Yeah, it was Striker and Elemental who had initially sent me here after all…”

“So our plan is to head back there...correct?”

“Can’t really use a door when it’s floating hundreds of feet in the air so…”

“Huh, what’s the plan then?”

“I’d know a shortcut or several…”

“Oh? You would?”

“Yeah, I’ve been here a share of times…”

“I suppose being familiar with a place does that…”

As the pair continued their discussion regarding heading back, they hadn’t realized just what situation they were about to walk into. They had assumed it was all smooth travels from here. And this was further reflected by the quietness that surrounded them…

“Hmm...quiet valley…” Link commented.

“For some reason...I don’t like it...it is quiet but...almost too quiet…. it seems like the kind of thing that happens wh-”

At that moment, Toad stopped talking.

“Wait, why did you stop?”

“I...I hear something…”

“Something?”

“It’s...it’s talking…”

“Huh…”

“Quick! Quick! Hide!” Toad quietly exclaimed to Link, which the two both did so, no clear idea on just who it was that was talking.

Toad peaked his head back out from beyond he and his travel partner’s hiding spot to investigate, and see where the talking was coming from. When the source of the voices meet his sight. He was filled with shock, dread, and most of all, caution. Bells of memory rung...the individuals in which he saw were two that he hadn’t encountered in quite some time...but was seeing now...

To Be Continued…