The next pipe they came to stood before a large sea. With nothing to lose, the Toads jumped in to find them underwater.

"It's a good thing we can breathe just as easily underwater as up there," Yellow Toad stated.

"Yeah, just imagine if you couldn't," Blue Toad agreed. "I mean, that'd be terrible, huh?"

They don't know how many people die of that issue in another universe.

The two swam for a while, fighting off Cheep-Cheeps (fishies) and other Mushroom Kingdom sea creatures. Then, they came to one they had never seen before.

"Uh, hello," Blue Toad said, staring curiously at the creature. It looked like a horrible mutation between a Blooper and a Cheep-Cheep. That is, a fish with tentacles. It merrily shot Blue Toad's face with black ink.

"Well, I tried," he sighed, swimming away.

Yellow Toad wasn't ready to give up quite yet. He had grabbed a Fire Flower on the way, and was now pelting this creature (which he named a Bleep-Chooper) with fireballs. It didn't work, as the creature was invulnerable to his attacks. It smacked Yellow Toad across the face with a tentacle. Then again, and again.

Blue Toad got angrier every hit. He hated seeing others beat up his brother, and he wasn't go to let this mutation do it. He swam up, just as the Bleep-Chooper was ready for the finale. Blue grabbed the tentacle and, with great force, flung the creature to the seabed.

"Stay there!" Blue Toad shouted as he and Yellow swam off.

"Wow, Blue, I've never seen you do that before!"

"He deserved it," replied the blue mushroom. "No one beats up my bro except for me."

Yellow Toad playfully punched his brother in the arm. "You would."

That wasn't the end of their ordeal, though. There were two large Urchins, too large for them to go around. Only a small crack lay in between.

"What? Are we stuck?" Yellow Toad asked.

"Until we find a way to get rid of them, yeah," Blue replied. Yellow Toad used his fireballs, but they repelled. Blue wasn't ready to try to whap his tail at them.

"Maybe we missed a pipe or something back there," suggested Yellow Toad.

"Let's check, just in case," Blue Toad replied. There were many shooting streams of water, but none were clear for entry.

"I don't get it," sighed Yellow Toad. "We looked all around, but there aren't any pipes. Or any way out, that is."

"WAIT!"

"What?!"

"I think I know a way out," Blue Toad said.

"Really? How?"

"Look at that ? block over there," he said.

"What about it?" asked Yellow Toad.

"Maybe a power-up can help us get through. Like a star or something."

"Nice idea. Let's just hope it works."

Yellow Toad hit the block, and out popped two small mushrooms. Blue Toad grabbed one, and power-downed.

"OK, I have one in my reserves," Yellow Toad replied. "Let's try again."

They swam back, and Blue Toad just fit through the two Urchins. Yellow bubbled over.

"Wow, what luck!" laughed Blue Toad.

"Yeah," replied his brother. At the other end of the urchins was a pipe leading to higher ground, and they gladly took it. Before, though, Yellow Toad gave Blue a mushroom so he'd be Super Blue Toad again (there's an item inventory, after all).

Usually, they'd end up in a castle or something. But this time, they ended up someplace different.

"Is this a…"

"I really don't know. Is it?"
They ended up on a ship. Not an airship, but a regular ship on water. The anchor was lowered and the gangway lengthened, so the Toads climbed aboard.

The ship was somewhat similar to a steamship, having four funnels, propellers, masts, and lots of riggings. Of course, it was decked out in Goombas and other enemies familiar to the Mushroom Universe.

The ship rocked back and forth, as the tide was rough. The Toad Bros. almost lost their balance more than once. Lightning flashed in the nighttime sky, signaling a storm.

"We'd better cross quickly, or we'll be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time," noted Blue Toad. Yellow nodded in agreement.

As they began crossing the deck, a barrel almost crashed into Blue Toad. If it had hit him, he would've plunged into the deep black waters below.

"What was that?" he cried. He looked up to find that stacks and stacks of barrels on the deck were falling off, as if by magic. Most rolled down, almost flattening the mushrooms.

"Watch out!" Yellow Toad cried, jumping clear of a falling barrel.

"This is kinda like that adventure Mario told us once about," Blue Toad noted as they jump, double-jumped, and triple-jumped over the barrels.

"You mean the one with the monkey?" Yellow Toad asked.

"Yeah, that one."

"Super Mario 64?"

"Um, no," replied Blue Toad.

"Super Mario 64 DS?"

"No.

"Super Mario 64 for the Virtual Console?"
"What? I-"

"For the Nintendo e-Sho-"

"DONKEY KONG!" shouted Blue Toad. "For crying out loud, you said you KNEW something! Surely, you should know how Mario first appeared!"

"Whatever, I have better things to worry about," Yellow Toad said, sticking his tongue out at his brother.

"Like that abnormally huge barrel tumbling our way?" Blue Toad asked.

"Yeah, that."

"Mm, I see."

"WAIT, WHAT?!" they shouted in unison.

The barrel crashed into them both, splintering into small pieces and bits of wood. Blue Toad turned into his regular form, and Yellow Toad lost his Raccoon Suit powers.

"Ugh, dang it," said a frustrated yellow mushroom. I wonder what's in my inventory."

He checked, finding only a Mini Mushroom and a Super Mushroom. He gave the red fungus to his brother, so that he returned to Super Blue Toad size.

"Thanks."

Suddenly, a wrench whizzed by, almost knocking Yellow Toad's hat off. Another flew by Blue Toad, who ducked just in time.

"What in the Mushroom World was that?"

They looked ahead, and saw two Rocky Wrenches laughing at them. This angered the Toad Bros. They exchanged glances, and knew exactly what to do. As they were laughing, the Toads charged at the Rocky Wrenches. They hid underground, leaving them invulnerable. However, they made the mistake of peeking up to see if the Toads were gone, and that's when they made their move.

The Toads hopped in the air, then ground-pounded simultaneously. This caused a super-ground pound, or an earthquake, knocking the mole-like creatures out of the place, tumbling into the sea.

"Nice," Yellow Toad said, grinning at Blue.

Ahead, the ship seemed to end. There was nothing else. No pipe, no nothing. The only thing was the final mast, which pointed up towards to sky. A crow's nest stood atop the long pole.

"That's odd," said Blue Toad. "The crow's nest is usually located at the bow (front) of the ship."

"Let's see what's up there. Something's wrong, or I'm going crazy again," replied Yellow.

The two Toads climbed surprisingly quickly, considering they had no legs and had to hop all the way up. At the top was…

Nothing.

The Toads were disappointed and ready to climb down, when something small fell from the sky.

"Well, lookee here!" said a voice. It sounded like it belonged to a little girl.

"Huh?"

"Who is it?"

"Oh, it's just silly ol' me!" laughed a girl with squarish parts and was green. She wore a blouse and had sticks for arms and legs.

"You look like a classroom doodle I drew once," laughed Yellow Toad.

"Shut up, meanie heads!" she pouted.

"How old are you? Five?" asked Blue Toad sarcastically.

"NO!"

"You sure act like it."

"Well, I'm gonna whop you rude boys upside the head!" she said.

"Wait! Who are you?" Yellow asked, and he meant it.

"Me? My name is Mimi," replied the girl. Then, she went under a horrible transformation.

Her head twisted around her neck, which was impossible for anyone with a normal skeleton. It spun around, faster and faster, but her torso was replaced with legs like a spider's.

"Oh GROSS!" choked Blue Toad.

"That doesn't belong in the Mushroom Universe!" Yellow Toad gulped.

"MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI!" said Mimi. She began crawling around, just like her buggy counterpart.

"Does she have an attack of sorts?" asked Blue Toad.

A ruby landed next to him, stabbing the wooden floor. He stared wide-eyed at this.

"Never mind."

The Toads wildly ran around, trying to find a way to attack her. Their jumps weren't high enough to reach the top of her head (?), and no power-up could assist them.

Another ruby flew in the air, and Yellow Toad caught it.

"Uh…what do I do?!" he asked, panicked.

"GET RID OF IT!" Blue Toad replied.

"Right!" Yellow chucked the gem in Mimi's direction, hitting her firm on the head.

"Hey! You aren't supposed to hit little girls!" Mimi yelped.

Yellow Toad stared and saw that one of her legs detached.

"Blue! Pick up the rubies and throw 'em at her!" Yellow ordered.

"But what if they stab me?"

"NOW!"

Blue Toad caught a flying ruby and threw it with all his might at the spider/ girl's head. Another leg fell off and stuck to the ground. They kept doing this until there was one remaining leg.

"OK, that does it!" she yelled. She grew angry, and a shower of rubies popped out of thin air and landed. The Toads ducked, and their large caps protected them.

"Darn, darn, darn!" she yelled.

After a while, she stopped throwing normal rubies and shot sharper ones. They had spikes all over, and the Toads wouldn't dare touch one.

"What do we do?!" asked Blue Toad.

"Hmm…" Yellow Toad pondered. He noticed Mimi's head was out of reach, but only just out of reach.

"Bro, I need to bounce on your head."

"Why?" Blue asked, confused.

"Just let me…"

Blue Toad did, and Yelllow Toad jumped high into the air. Once over Mimi, he ground-pounded Spider Girl, causing her last leg to fall down. She fell too, rolling around the floor. She couldn't hurt the brothers now.

"Oooh, you wait and see!" she fumed. "You won't make it!" With that, she disappeared. A purple block took her place.

Blue Toad clenched his fist and punched the bottom of the block. A card popped out, and it looked like it had come from a normal deck.

"What? We defeat a spider-girl mutation and all we get is a PLAYING CARD?!" Yellow Toad said angrily.

But it wasn't a normal playing card. Once touched, a warp pipe appeared. It was purple, just like the block. The Toads looked at each other, and then hopped inside.

"Ooof!"

"Oomph!"

The Toads took a good look around, and were horrified at what they saw. A large, boring background, depressed people, ruined buildings, and filthiness surrounded the brothers.

They stood in the middle of a wrecked town.

Alrighty! Finished with the Nighttime World, but the Toads now encounter a new town. What could this mean?! :O

If anyone doesn't know, Mimi is from Super Paper Mario, the third installment in the Paper Mario series. The cards idea was inspired by the symbols on the Boost Blocks of New Super Mario Bros. U. I'm trying to throw something new in here.

Every character belongs to Nintendo. Except for the Bleep-Chooper. That thing is MINE.