Re: Mosaic Adventures(My Mind has been changed, so read)
Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 1:29 am
by 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.
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
“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