Done with the next chapter!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 14: Teehee Valley

The Teehee Valley was once a large seabed; however, over time, the sea dried-out and became a desert. There were spiky cactus, fossils and skeletons of dead fish and starfishes in the sand.

"Well, we're here; Teehee Valley." Flora announced.

"Feels like death valley to me…" Sonic commented, seeing all the skeletons and the dead starfishes in the sand.

Toadsworth stood in front of the escort team and told them:

"Now then, please be sure to take the utmost, most diligent, sincerest care of Princess Peach!"

"Don't worry, Toadsworth! I'll be back before you know it!" Peach assured. "OK, everyone! Let's go to Little Fungitown!"

They all nodded and went further into the valley with Peach in the lead. Toadsworth stood at the entrance and called out:

"Princess! Be careful!" but then, he recalls something: "Hmm… Why do I get the feeling I forgot to say something vital? …Oh! That's right!"

With that, he quickly rushes to the escort team without Peach noticing as she moved on.

"Masters and Mistresses! Wait!" he stopped them.

"What is it, Toadsw-?"

"EEEEEEEEEK!" Mario was cut off when they suddenly heard Peach's shriek.

"Oh, now I've done it!" Toadsworth panicked.

"Oh no! Miss Peach!" Cream shouted in horror.

They saw a Gritty Goomba carrying Peach on a pillow above his head up ahead and watched the Goomba heading towards a yellow pipe.

"HELP ME!" Peach cried out as the Gritty Goomba carried her into the pipe.

"*sigh* I forgot to tell you all one vital tidbit…and now just look at what has happened!" Toadsworth stated. "If you let the princess out of your sight like we just did, she'll get kidnapped instantly!"

"Typical Damsel in Distress… Reminded me of a certain princess that I had to take care of, and she gets kidnapped as much as Peach does!" Sonic thought while rolling his eyes.

"I beg of you: Rescue her and take care to ensure that you do not leave her side again." Toadsworth begged. "Well then… Good luck! I am counting on you!" he then leaves.

First of all: rescue Peach. Therefore, they went into the pipe, taking them into an underground cavern. At the end of the path, they saw Princess Peach tied in a rope, struggling.

"Hang on, Peach! We'll get you out!" Mario assured as he approaches her.

"Mario! Above you!" Peach warned as she looks up.

"Woah!" he quickly steps back as two Gritty Goombas fell down from the ceiling and blocked the heroes' way to Peach.

"I knew it wasn't going to be easy." Sonic said sulkily. "Guess we don't have a choice!"

Suddenly, the Gritty Goombas created a sandstorm, forcing the heroes to close their eyes.

"Huh?!" Sonic didn't see that coming.

"OWCH! I think a grain of sand just went inside my eye!" Luigi cried in pain while squeezing his left eye.

"We can't fight them with this sandstorm! What's worse than unable to see them is that it'll hurt our eyes!" Tails informed.

"Then how are going to get Peach back?" Amy asked while shouting.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" just then, a shouting voice came out of nowhere.

At the same time, yellow glowing spears showed up from above and they flew straight down, killing the two Gritty Goombas. Once they were defeated, the sandstorm stops.

"Hey! What just…?" Flora was speechless.

The heroes opened their eyes to see a black-hedgehog with red stripes on his quills, arms and legs, and a white bat standing in front of them.

"Hey, Shadow! And Rouge?" Sonic said.

"Hm. What a surprise to see you here at Teehee Valley, Faker." Shadow replied with his neutral expression while crossing his arms. "This place is dangerous, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I can already see the reason right here." Rouge noticed Peach behind her still tied in a rope. She goes to her and unties her. "Here you go, my dear."

"Th-Thanks, Rouge." Peach thanked.

"So the Mario Brothers are here too… Interesting." Rouge said in her seductive tone as always. "And I can also see Lady Rose and her friend as well as the Beanbean Kingdom's princess."

"You…knew it already?" Luigi questioned.

"Green Guy, I am a sneaky bat, you know." Rouge approached Luigi and held his chin with her finger, making him nervous. "I've listened to that whole conversation outside at the airport and I reported all of this to Shadow. By the way, I just love seeing your nervous look!"

Shadow sighs at Rouge's comment and tells the group:

"We both were quite confused when you were entering the valley and decided to follow you. And you all needed our help it seemed. *sigh* how I hate to do that…" he mutters at the last sentence.

"I heard that." Sonic sassed.

"Oh, shut up!" Shadow shouted back.

"Uh…anyways, I appreciate your help, Shadow and Rouge." Peach changes the subject. "Say, would you mind helping the Mario Bros and their friends with my escort? We're traversing Teehee Valley so that we could reach Little Fungitown."

"Why, sure! We'll do everything we can to guard you. Right, Shadow?" Rouge elbowed him.

"*groan* whatever…" Shadow rolled his eyes.

After that, they all exited the cave and back aboveground. Shadow and Rouge decided to stay at Peach's side to protect her from any sort of enemy coming after her, like Gritty Goombas and Spiky Snifits, while the rest of the gang focused on the puzzles.

After traversing through the valley, they found a sign in the wall, which reads:

'Little Fungitown The Mushroom Kingdom Immigrant Community'

"Little Fungitown is up ahead! Don't let your guard down yet!" Peach warned as she goes ahead with the rest following suit.

"EEEEEEEEK!" they heard Peach screaming again.

They found out that a tree-like monster has cornered Peach to a wall.

"Peach! Oh no!" Mario flinched horrified. He then gets serious and calls out the tree monster: "Hey, you!"

The tree monster, known as Trunkle, heard Mario and turned around, seeing him and his friends glaring at it in their fighting stances. Unknown to them, two of the Toads from Little Fungitown were watching them from behind the scenes.

"Hey, man! Isn't that Mario? And Sonic and his friends?" the Toad on the left whispered to the other.

"Y-You're right! Talk about lucky!" the Toad on the right whispered back.

"Everyone! HELP MEEEE!" Peach screamed in horror.

Trunkle roars at the heroes and launches an attack at them. The group noticed the small tree on its head, assuming that they'll have to take it out first.

"I and Rouge will take care of the body! You all take care of that small tree!" Shadow told them.

With that, the Mario Bros used the Fire Bros Attack, followed by Sonic's Homing Attack, Tails' wind power, Amy's Piko Piko Hammer attack, Cream's attack with her ears and Flora's Seed Bomb attack. Shadow and Rouge were attacking Trunkle's body by doing punches and kicks. Just then, Trunkle's hands came out and became boulders, which began to roll towards the pair.

"Look out!" Shadow warned as he and Rouge dodged the boulders.

However, more boulders were coming after them.

"This is taking us nowhere!" Rouge growled as they continued to dodge the boulders. "I'll show it! Screw Kick!"

Rouge spins her body rapidly in the air like a screw, and dives right at Trunkle's head, doing a powerful kick at the small tree. Eventually, Trunkle ends up splitting into four small versions of itself.

"What the?!" Shadow wasn't expecting that.

Then, one of the small Trunkles showed an orange berry in its mouth before closing it and all of the other Trunkles hopped around.

"What's this? Finding the coin game? Oh, come on!" Sonic complained.

"What?! I don't have time for games!" Shadow shouted impatiently and jumps into the air. "Chaos Spear!"

He swings his arm and shoots more yellow spears, hitting all of the small Trunkles at once. Mario then noticed that the Trunkle on the far left had the orange berry.

"There's the one with the berry! Luigi! Let's do the Fire Bros Attack again!"

"Yes!" Luigi nodded while grinning.

The brothers finished the Trunkle with the berry with the Advanced Fire Bros Attack, and all of the Trunkles exploded into a bunch of colorful stars.

"Yahoo! We did it!" Mario cheered as he and Luigi high-fives.

"Hmm, good job." Shadow said, smiling a bit.

Peach got away from the wall, let out a sigh of relief and thanked the group:

"Oh… Everyone… Thank you! You saved me!"

Soon, the two Toads came out from hiding and the one on the right spoke:

"It-It looks like they got it…"

"Oh, hey! Are you both one of the Toads from Little Fungitown?" Mario asked.

"Yes, we are!" the same Toad responded. "So, yeah, that monster blocking the gate to town was a huge problem, needless to say. Thanks!"

"You're welcome!" Flora replied politely.

"W-Welcome to Little Fungitown." The Toad on the left announced quite nervous.

"P-Princess Peach! M-Mario Bros! T-Team Sonic! T-Team Rose! A-And Team Dark! We have been waiting for you!" the Toad on the right added. "We were told to expect you. Please! We insist you use the lift in back!"

As the two Toads stepped out of the way, the group went ahead where there was the lift, which was an elevator platform, stepped on it and it lifted them upwards.

"Tee hee hee! Neither have I known what Little Fungitown is like… I wonder just what kind of town it is… Oooh, I can't wait!" Flora giggled excitedly.

The Little Fungitown is an immigrant Toad community built on giant mushrooms. It contains many mushroom-shaped houses, bridges connecting each mushroom to the other and a hospital in the town's Embassy. As the group arrived via the lift, they walked off from it and went forward, until two other Toads rushed to them and they were shocked to see Princess Peach.

"P-P-P-Princess Peach! Is-Is that you, Your Highness?" one of them asked. "We-We'd heard you were coming from T-Toadsworth! But so soon? And you a-also have P-P-Princess Flora too?"

"We-We're so honored you've come all the way h-h-here!" the other Toad added.

"A-A-And over here we have the s-s-superstar M-M-M-Mario Bros and the s-s-speedy T-T-Team Sonic!"

"And the s-s-sweet T-T-Team Rose and the s-s-storming T-T-Team Dark?! Are you for r-r-real? We-We don't deserve such an in-in-in-incredible honor!"

"Tee hee hee! You Toads are so funny!" Flora giggled.

"Thanks for your hospitality." Peach bowed.

"V-V-Very well then!" the Toad from earlier replied, still gagging. "A-Allow us to show you around L-Little Fungitown!"

Peach stepped in front of the group and thanked them:

"Everyone! Thank you so much for all that you've done. I'm all right now."

"You all can relax a little and walk around and enjoy the sights." Flora said.

"Really? Thanks a lot!" Cream exclaimed.

"Chao Chao!" Cheese chirped.

"We can all meet up again a little bit later. I and Peach have some things to do, so, feel free to take your free time!" Flora finished and walks along with Peach and the two Toads.

Now that they were free to do whatever they went in the town, they all split up to enjoy the sights.

To be continued…

If you played the game, you'll probably know what's coming up next! ;)

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