Authors note: First off, I own nothing; everything belongs to Nintendo.
Wow. I wrote a crossover. I'm really still trying to process that. Nothing wrong with crossovers, they're just not my cup of tea...yet I've written one. How does that work? I should also mention that the title has nothing to do with the story.
The Shy Guy wasn't quite sure how he got to this strange place, though he had a pretty good guess. He must have taken the wrong warp pipe, just his luck. The pipe shot him out and dissapeared. Now he was stuck here. Wherever 'here' was. The climate was very hot, the sky was red, the ground was dry, and volcanos littered the landscape. No sooner had he dusted off his red outfit, a voice yelled at him.
"Hey! What are doing here? This is my private ore stash. Go find your own."
The Shy Guy looked around...and saw someone looking back at him. The Shy Guy couldn't help but stare. A short figure, just about his own height, clothed in a green robe with large white eyes staring from the darkness of a hood. It was like looking in a warped mirror. Likewise the subrosian stared at the weird creature in the red robe with a white mask strapped over its face, leaving two large black ovals for eyes and a small hole for a mouth.
The subrosian giggled. "You look funny."
The Shy Guy, true to his name, couldn't quite make out a proper sentense. "Well, I...um...you're the one who...er...I don't..."
His stumblings only made the subrosian giggle more. "Sorry I yelled. I thought you were trying to dig up ore off my land, but you don't even have a shovel. Are you from the world up above stranger? You sure don't look like any respectable subrosian and you're clearly not a Holodrum native."
"I-I'm from the Mushroom Kingdom. The p-p-pipe sent me to the wrong p-place."
The unblinking white eyes gazed curiously. "Never heard of it. Do you happen to know the guy dressed up in green with the hat who comes here sometimes? He's from one of the other worlds. I can't remember his name though, some weird upworlder kind of name. I know it starts with the letter L. Sound familar to you at all?"
The Shy Guy panicked. Guy in green? Hat? Also from an other world? Name that starts with 'L'? Eeeek! It's must be the younger Mario Brother! "N-n-n-no. I d-don't know anyone like th-that." he squaked hastily.
The subrosian didn't appear to be phased by the Shy Guy's terrible stuttering. "Well, things have been weird all around since the "temple" fell over in the east. Come home with me stanger. I'll fix you up with some lava soup."
The Shy Guy didn't know how it was possible to make soup from lava, but he found out that the dish was actually pretty tasty. When he thought about the kindness being done to him, being invited into someone's home and given a meal, he wanted to give something to the green robed in return. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a gold coin, it wasn't much but it was all he had with him.
"Here this is f-for you. For all you've d-done for m-me."
The subrosian took the coin and looked closely at it. "This is gold." He said brightly. "A much better currency than those pointy rupees. It looks like refined gold ore. It's even got a star on it too!" he squealed. "Like it was made from a star shaped ore. Oh thank you stranger."
"Um, y-you don't have t-t-to call me 'stranger', m-my name is Shy Guy. What y-yours?"
"I'm Tiver."
"Uh, p-p-please don't get mad Tiver, but w-what are you?"
"I'm a subrosian. This is place is Subrosia. Don't feel bad, hardly anyone knows about us. What are you?"
"I'm a Sh-Sh-Shy Guy. J-just a regular Shy Guy."
"Huh, a Shy Guy named Shy Guy. Can't say it rings with originality, but whatever. How long will you be staying here?"
"I d-don't know. The warp p-p-pipe d-disaapeared. Now I'm stuck here!"
Tiver thought for a moment. "You could try a portal. They link up to the above world."
"B-but the p-pipe brought me here. I won't ever f-find it if I keep jumping worlds. I sh-should stay put."
Tiver shruged "Suit yourself Shy Guy. I'll let you stay here for awhile."
Outside, several volcanos started erupting. The subrosian equivalent of an afternoon rainshower. The air, which was already hot, rose to stifiling levels. Tiver seemed to enjoy it. He laughed gleefully, but Shy Guy thought it was becoming much too warm.
"D-does it normally get th-this hot?" he asked
"Only on good days." smiled Tiver, then frowning almost instantly "Oh wait, I forget upworlders don't like too much heat. Well perhaps if you took that mask off, you'd feel cooler."
"Eeeeeep!" Shy Guy instantly covered his already covered face. "Oh no! No no no no! I c-c-can't! Shy Guys can't t-take their masks off, no one is ever s-supposed to see wh-what we really look like."
The subrosian's white eyes blinked from under his hood. "I understand." he said in a very solem voice. "We subrosians are bound to the same secrecy. We never pull our hoods back lest anyone might see our faces."
The strange conection made Shy Guy forget about the temperature. Shy Guys weren't the only ones. Other people hid their faces. These people were, quite literaly, worlds away from his own but that didn't seem to matter. They both had the same secret. The knowledge filled him with the sense that he now had a special sort of friend.
Shy Guy ended up staying for more than just a little while, but Tiver never seemed to mind. He took Shy Guy all over Subrosia; from the red ocean beach, to one of Rosa's concerts, to the market, to the dance hall where the red clad subrosian dance insructor eyed Shy Guy's own red robe with interest. Shy Guy wasn't a good dancer, but the red robed subrosian never threw him out no matter how many times he stumbled. Tiver would take Shy Guy out ore hunting and Shy Guy would tell Tiver about the Mushroom World while they dug. He would try to describe Koopas, Boos, Cheep-Cheeps, Bomb-Ombs, Piranha Plants, and the many other species that inhabited his homeworld.
Then one day they went back to Tiver's secret ore spot, hoping to find some valuable ore. Turning the corner to what should have been a clearing, Shy Guy gasped. A green warp pipe was sticking out of the ground. As if it had always existed there. Shy Guy ran over to it and literally hugged the pipe.
"So uh guess that's the pipe you wanted to find." Tiver said
The Shy Guy jumped up in joy. "Yes. N-now I can g-go back home."
The subrosian looked downward "Well um, I guess this is goodbye. I'm not too good with those. Subrosia isn't eactly a vacasion spot. No one ever comes, so no one ever leaves, so no one has to say goodbye."
Shy Guy looked at his cloaked friend. Though neither could see the other's face, they wore the same expression.
"Come with me." Shy Guy said, not stuttering at all.
For the first time ever, Tiver was the one who couldn't speak. "I-I-I don't think I could do that. Well I could but..." He looked into the empty black holes of Shy Guy's mask "Do you really mean it?'
Shy Guy's stutter returned full force. "W-well, y-you'd have t-to work for Bowser with me, he's King of the Koopas b-but us Shy Guys work f-for him t-t-too. I th-think you'll like it though. Mushroom Kingdom's real s-sunshiney and gr-green, but Bowser has a thing f-for dark castles and large p-pits of lava."
Tiver climbed up onto the warp pipe. "So what are we waiting for? Sounds like a good time. Don't worry about the whole having to take orders thing. I've worked in the furnaces under that hot tempered blue robe. Thnks he's so good just because he fashoned himself a headress. You said Bowser has spikes and an army of moble bomb flowers. Now that's impressive! Plus he likes lava. I could handle taking orders from a guy like that."
And so the Subrisian and the Shy Guy headed off to the Mushroom World. Bowser thought Tiver was some kind of sub Shy Guy species or something. He didn't much care what Tiver was, he was more impresed by the fact that the subrosian liked to soak in lava- for fun. Tiver fit right in with the Shy Guys. He wanted to teach the Groove Guys the subrosian dance and was never afraid to play tag with the Pyro Guys. Everything seemed to be fine. Was he a bit concerned when he found out that the Bowser army was trying to kidnap a princess and take over the Mushroom Kingdom by force? If he was, he didn't show it. Those subrosians are a scretive bunch. Just like Shy Guys.