Episode 3 (part 2)

It had been an hour and fifteen minutes. Birdo and Toadette had finally made it onto the crossway where Birdo had made her wrong turn, and they went onto Seashore Street. Fifteen miles left to go.

"I guess the arrow on the GPS system was really helpful," Birdo realized. "Wonder how the others are doing."

"They're in vehicles faster than ours," reassured Toadette. "I mean, with that being true wouldn't you say that everyone else is at Luigi's location already? We need to really hurry."

"I don't think we have to rush," Birdo said. But by looking at Toadette's concerned face she had sensed her worry.

"Okay," said Birdo, as she stepped onto the pedal harder.


"It's been an hour," Daisy said, looking at her watch. The mileage count on their helicopter read 45 miles left, as Lakitu suddenly jerked the plane backwards. Both Lakitu and Daisy yelled in panic.

"What the heck was that for!" exclaimed Daisy in surprise.

"A seagull," Lakitu said. "My bad." He chuckled, and so did Daisy.


A disgruntled Blooper drove on in the ocean, not bothering to check where he was going. An upset Peach sat in the back, facing backwards. Waves splashed harder and harder into the air as the boat bounced up and down.

"God…Damnit!" Blooper shouted in an outburst. Peach immediately jumped and turned around, as the boat stopped. He breathed heavily, his hands on the steering wheel.

"Well, I'm sorry," Peach said in a tone of bother, "That this boat has faulty wiring."

"I don't know what you did," said Blooper, "But you're the cause for us being stranded in the middle of nowhere, and who knows that when we finally arrive at the next location, all I know is that the host and the group would be starting their next execution already, sitting down and waiting for a red screen to appear, and with no surprise the names that would turn red would be Peach and Blooper because we had scored freakin' zeros on the test! The reason being that we did not make it in time to take the quizzes!"

"Oh, stop with the crap," Peach said, exasperated. "I'm as innocent us you."

"You drive," Blooper ordered. "I'll be the one sitting down for now."

"My pleasure," Peach said sarcastically, "While you sit down and mope for yourself." The positions were switched heatedly.


Another ten minutes had gone by, and the car's arrow on the GPS system had disappeared. They needn't the arrow as they drove up Seashore Street, up to the top of the cliff they were approaching.

"Oh my, we are here!" Birdo realized. The two Tranquil Travelers were energized as they saw three figures at the edge of the cliff, two large men in masks and a helpless hostage, standing on a platform. They got out of their car and ran up to them.

"Hi, we're here," Toadette told the two men. The figures in masks stood still, looking at the two of them.

"Would you like…our car?" Toadette remembered. "We'll trade it for the prisoner." The two guards nodded and left their place, going over to the SUV. Luigi was revealed, standing on a platform that extended about five feet from the edge of the cliff. He was chained by his feet and scared stiff.

"Well, that was awkward," Birdo commented. "But never mind. It's Luigi!" Luigi's face looked thrilled, as he tried to move his feet. The two others sat down on the rocky floor as close as possible to him, in fear of falling off from the cliff themselves.

"Your feet are chained up," Toadette noticed. "But at least we got the guards away." They looked back and saw the guards driving off down the winding road.

"I'm terrified," Luigi told them. "Any second now, this platform will drop, and I'll fall like fifty feet until the safety cord ends. This is scarier than that cliff jump we had earlier."

"Don't worry," Birdo reassured, although she would have been at the verge of fainting if she was in Luigi's place right now. "Has anyone else arrived here?"

"Only you two."

"Oh, that's just great," Toadette said. "We had the slowest way of transportation and we end up arriving here first. How bad can the others be?"

"Yup," agreed Luigi. "I have this, too." He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the flares he had received that morning.

"I could have had four more of these if I hadn't have taken that exemption…err, I mean if I hadn't of exempted myself from being a pyromaniac." Luigi had quickly changed his sentence.

"Oh look," Toadette said. "The keyhole to unlock your feet is blocked by a combination lock."

"That's for the others to find out when they come here," Birdo explained. "Wait, is that a signaling flare?" Luigi handed it to Birdo by reaching out towards her, who looked over it.

"Fire," Birdo said to Toadette. "We need fire."

"Don't look at me," Toadette replied. "Why would I have fire?"

"Oh shoot," Luigi said. They both turned to look at him.

"I umm, forgot to tell you," he told them, "That in the back of the car, there was another flare and a lighter. Sorry for not telling you."

"Don't worry," said Birdo. "What you did wasn't so bad." Luigi gulped, remembering the exemption he had taken.


It was an hour and a half into their time remaining. 12:30 P.M. and Daisy and Lakitu were flying in their helicopter over the sea. Daisy took time to admire the sight as she breathed deeply with her eyes closed.

"It's so tranquil," Daisy stated, looking out from the cockpit window. "The Wild Roam was an inappropriate name to call this."

"I couldn't agree more," replied Lakitu. "And do you notice how close we are to Luigi? Thirty one miles to go."

"It's been an hour and a half," Daisy said, looking at her watch. She sighed and stared at the water passing below them.

"You know, you've targeted me once again," realized Daisy. "You decided to ride in the helicopter after I had chosen to. I mean, this can't just be another coincidence---"

"I chose the helicopter first," Lakitu pointed out. Daisy remembered.


Peach drove like a madwoman, recklessly across the waves. Blooper stared at her, counting numbers in his head as his way of cooling down. Peach had lost her anger from her uncontrolled and wild boat maneuvering.

"I didn't break the radar!" she said over the waves.

"I couldn't care less!" he said back over the rushing water. "We were messed up anyway!" Peach stopped the boat and lay back in her seat. She was exhausted.

"You drive?" she asked him.

"Sure, why not," he said, and they switched positions coolly.


One hour and forty five minutes from the starting time, and Peach and Toadette were waving their hat and flag into the air, jumping up and down at the edge of the cliff, as Luigi waved his hands too. They heard the propellers of the helicopter as the helicopter came into view.

"Over here!" the three of them yelled. "Here!"

Lakitu looked over at the pressure meter and saw that it had gone blank. He tapped it in surprise.

"Hey, umm, our navigation item has suddenly collapsed," Lakitu noticed.

"That's because we're a mile from Luigi…a cliff!" Daisy pointed in excitement at a cliff in the distance, as Lakitu speedily went to drive over to it. A minute later, the figures came into view, shouting and waving themselves in the air to catch the helicopter's attention.

"Hey, they see us!" Luigi yelled. "Hey, down a here! Daisy! And Lakitu!" The helicopter landed on the large grassy cliff area behind Birdo and Toadette, and they stepped back at immense wind. Lakitu perfectly landed the vehicle, taking little time to do so as the helicopter was positioned stationary on the cliff top. The two Wild Roamers came out to the ground.

"Yes, they made it!" Toadette said happily, as Daisy and Lakitu met them. Daisy's eyes went wide when she saw Luigi, chained up at the edge of the platform that stretched out from the cliff edge. Lakitu looked stunned too.

"Daisy!" Luigi called out, waving his hands in the air. Daisy rushed over to him and went down to see his chained feet.

"Huh?" he asked. "What are you doing?"

"I found this key," she told him. The other three rushed over to him as well, watching Daisy take out the key from her pocket and stare at Luigi's chains. Birdo knew what she was thinking.

"I know," said Birdo. "There's a combination locking blocking the key hole."

"We don't have much time to finish this challenge," Toadette said in a worried voice. "How much time will it take until the others get here?"

"I think they only have ten minute left," Lakitu said in equal concern. "And what a way to hold Luigi hostage. Ha." Luigi seemed so helpless on the platform.

"Wait, you know that phone number?" Birdo suddenly said. "I think it might be for another use."

"You think it's also the combination?" said Toadette. Birdo nodded, as Toadette took out the little tree freshener from her pocket. Lakitu saw the numbers.

"Hey, aren't those the numbers that were in Noki Village?" Lakitu asked her.

"Yes they were," Toadette said. She looked at the number and the combination lock.

6-6-5-3-4-7-8-7

"The combination lock is only five numbers," Daisy pointed out. They tried anyway, and the five of them hoped for the best as they filled in the slots as best they could; 6-6-5-3-4, 3-4-7-8-7, 6-7-6-8-5…


Blooper had turned off the engine of the boat. Peach suddenly jumped when the cell phone in her hand had rung with a tune. She answered it, as Blooper listened along.

"I am sorry Ocean Drifters, but there is only one more minute left until the hostage is killed."

"We're---" Peach had not been able to speak in time, as the phone was hung up.


Two hours exactly had passed since the time the vehicles had started on their mission. The players had given up, assuming that the numbers on the air freshener had been no use for anything except the phone. The four who were not chained or held hostage sat down on the cliff side, away from Luigi.

Suddenly, a snapping sound was heard. They turned to look at Luigi and saw the chains around his feet snap off suddenly. Before the poor individual could react, the platform he had been standing on for over two long hours collapsed down swiftly, followed by the terrified scream of Luigi as he disappeared from sight. All four gasped and ran up to peer over the edge, hearing the yells of Luigi. He was hanging a distance down with a safety cord supporting him.

"Crap!" Luigi yelled. "Help me!"

"Yeah, crap!" Lakitu agreed. "You've been 'killed'.

"You okay?" Daisy asked Luigi, who was dangling fifty feet below from where they were standing.

"I would be, if you were to define okay as horrible shaken up and hanging hundreds of feet above the water."

"Oh well, we tried," Toadette said optimistically. "And two vehicles aren't, you know, half bad."

"But twenty thousand coins is still lost," Birdo reminded her.


"Well," said the host. All seven players had been brought back to a street side an hour after their game had finished. They looked disappointed.

"Two vehicles had made it to the cliff top, where Luigi remained hostage. The last piece of information needed was the combination, which was in the boat. I'm afraid Luigi had fallen to his doom and your challenge was lost." Luigi shuddered, remembering the frightening plunge he had went through.

"But now I must say something," the host told them. "Luigi was in his own challenge this morning at five o'clock. He did have the option to abort it, and add fifteen thousand coins to the team. But he also had the option to deliver the paper clue and a flare to each hotel room without waking anyone up. In doing so, he would win an exemption; a free pass to the next episode." They all turned to Luigi.

"Luigi, do you have the exemption?" the host asked. Luigi meekly pulled it out from his pocket, as the others seemed let down.

"I'm afraid that's a double loss," the host told the seven of them. "Out of the possible thirty five thousand coins today, you have won none of it."

Team Pot

40,000c

"It turns out that Blooper and Peach's radar screen went blank during the Hostage challenge," added McHallyboo, "Which was the cause for their misdirection. Peach was the one who had touched the screen, resulting in the malfunction." Blooper looked at Peach, who looked back sheepishly.

"Or maybe someone else had been tampering with it previously," said the host. "Blooper was in the boat along with Peach." Blooper gave him a look of innocence.

"And how do you feel about the hostage now?" the host questioned. "Do you really feel sorry for him now for suffering the tension and the plummet? He was the cause of the lost fifteen thousand, and he had traded it for his own safety." Luigi looked at the others, who looked back at him disappointed.

"Today's work has been such a success. For one of you." Again, the usual looking at each other at the host's witty phrase.

"Now, you will all be riding in the SUV the Tranquil Travelers had arrived in," the host said. "We have gathered all your belongings from the Noki Hotel to follow us to your next location.


The seven players were riding in the SUV, and a crew member drive them to their next destination. Talking was among them.

"Well, umm, I'm sorry," Luigi said. The others didn't reply right away, and some were just too exhausted.

"It's okay Luigi," Daisy told him. "I would have taken it too."

"Well, I wouldn't have minded if Luigi had waken me up in the middle of the night," added Blooper. "Because he didn't, our money as been lost."

"I don't think it's bad," Lakitu said. "But I don't think it's okay either. We needed extra money for the team, Luigi, and you gave it in for your own security."

"Don't look at it that a way," said Luigi, trying his best to make them forget about the entire incident.

Luigi: I really hoped that the others didn't mind. I felt so unsafe and needed to make it to the next round, no matter the cost.

"The team pot money only goes to one person," Birdo reminded them all.

"So what did happen at the boat?" Toadette asked Blooper and Peach. "I mean, isn't the boat faster than the car we were in?"

"We couldn't find a way to navigate because someone had been messing around with the screen," Blooper said, looking at Peach.

"All I did was touch the screen," Peach argued. "Once, and it shocked me as if someone had malfunctioned it to do that."

"So it's fair to say that Blooper may have been the one who messed it up earlier," Birdo said. Blooper looked at Bird with a glare.

"That guess is one hundred percent wrong," he told her. Birdo just looked at the window, thinking.

"So far, I think the Mole might be playing it good," Lakitu said. "Playing it real good."

"I know a hidden clue," Toadette suddenly said. They all looked at her.

"The name for this show is The Mole: Traitor Aboard," she said. The six others nodded.

"And when you say the word 'aboard', when do you usually use it?" she asked them.

"On a train?" Peach said. Toadette shook her head.

"On an airplane," Daisy realized.

"And Lakitu," Toadette said, as he looked at her in surprise. "You are an air traffic controller, aren't you? You guide aircrafts."

"Ah, I see," Luigi said. "And you rode the helicopter. Is that…a clue too?"

"Come on, you got to be kidding me," Lakitu replied. "I mean, just because it's Traitor Aboard doesn't mean it points to me."

Lakitu: I mean, it was so absurd. I have no idea why Toadette has decided to look at the TV show title as a clue. What kind of person would look there?

"Why choose the word 'Aboard'" Toadette queried. "Hmm?"

"Well, I also know a clue," said Birdo. "There were Peach tart and squid guts in the Food challenge; Peach and Blooper."

"I find that being totally random," commented Peach.

"Well, I wonder what other challenge we'll be having next," said Blooper. "But for now, I think it's safe to take a rest."


During their discussion and resting for an hour in the SUV, McHallyboo had suddenly been informed about something unrelated to the show. And although the producers of The Mole had barely agreed on it, the police had the permission to take in the players for interrogations after reports of a stolen vehicle had taken place just a few hours ago.
The players were set alert to the sound of sirens behind them. They immediately looked behind at the rear window and saw two police cars, traveling down the road and directly following the vehicles they were in. They sat in their seats, shocked.

"Shoot," said Lakitu. "What are the police doing?" The sirens continued on.

"Are they following us?" said Peach worriedly.

"Seatbelts, seatbelts," repeated Luigi, as everyone tugged around at the seatbelts around their waists.

"Excuse me, sir," Daisy told the driver. "There are police car behind us with the sirens, and you should really slow down." The crew member driving the SUV stopped the car immediately, as the players stayed still with nervous faces. A policeman came up to the door and opened it.

"Would you all step out?" he asked them.

Blooper: When he said that, I was like, "Oh crap, what have we gotten into?"

Daisy: My legs were shaking, and I didn't know what we had done, but the hell we were going to be on schedule with the game!

All seven players had gotten out of the vehicle, all still nervous.

"I'm aware that you are all in a certain game show right now," the policeman said. "But there are no exceptions with the fact that this may be against the law in this district. This vehicle is suspected of being stolen according to its registration and serial number." Wide mouths.

"We will be detaining these vehicles with the involuntary permission of the host, and from this moment on we will be determining whether or not this is the vehicle we had been searching for this morning."

"Holy," Lakitu said, stunned.

"I need to now officially detain all seven of you for various investigations in the terms of suggestive stolen property."

"What?" Toadette asked. "Are we getting arrested or what?" The policeman nodded, taking out a notepad as he wrote down information.

"You got to be kidding---"

"Failing to produce your registrations is subject to against the laws of the Motor Vehicle Act. Please, everyone follow me."

"How can you possibly---" started Peach.

"I've just arrested you all," stated the policeman. The faces were as shocked as ever.

"Wait, I need to see the host," Lakitu demanded. "I need to object this." The other police car had gone off; the crew member was taken away.

"Oh shoot, wasn't that was the guy who was driving our car?" Luigi asked.

"Hands behind your back," another police woman ordered Toadette. As soon as she did so, she felt the cold feeling of handcuffs across her wrists.

"Oh no…" she said. One by one, the other players were handcuffed against their will, and all were put into separate cars as they headed out to the nearest police station.

Daisy: Now what? We're really going to be messed up from here. It's the director's fault, or whoever had been in charge with this SUV's fault that it was stolen. We have nothing to do with this.

Birdo: I felt speechless. We were actually taken out of the game for the first time. I guess a break is good, but not this kind of break. I have almost no words.

Peach: Well, interrogate me and everything. I'll be found innocent and nothing to do with this stolen property.

"This is absurd," Lakitu said to the camera, as the door was shut.

Unexpectedly, the players had been pulled out of their games for questioning that was not relevant to them. The producers and crew of the show had been notified immediately about the persistence of the case, as well as McHallyboo the host. According to the rules of the district they were in, the seven of them had to be processed through, and any further actions that needed to take place would do so. The game of The Mole was delayed.


Huh. Well, I guess nothing can be a hundred percent planned like expected. Oh well, the players hopefully will be okay as they are processed and asked questions.

And for those who are looking for the paper with the clue, it's on my profile all the way at the bottom. Good luck with it!