A/N: I don't know if you guys noticed, but whenever a story is uploaded, it doesn't send you the notification. I've seen this problem over the last couple of days when I was reading other people's fanfics. The same will probably happen when this chapter gets posted, but chances are you had to manually search for my story to see if the update even occurred. Hopefully this problem can be fixed ASAP.

But on a more positive note, I've finished my second year of college, and this story has reached over 3000 views! I want to thank you guys so much for this accomplishment, and I hope you'll be looking forward to what's coming up next in the adventure. So without further ado, on with the story!

Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. The Mario and Sonic characters are respectively owned by Nintendo and Sega.

Chapter 20: Learning from the Enemy

Location: Vanilla Dome

Had it not been for the pesky Super Koopas, the Mario Bros. and Colombo would have flown to the entrance to Vanilla Dome easily in less time than it would take to travel by foot, unless they were Sonic. (1) What made their adventure longer was getting hit by those shell-less, flying turtles and losing their cape power-ups. Despite the loss, they trekked through Donut Plains as if it was no problem. Along the way, they utilized a couple of Fire and Ice Flowers to pelt and freeze the various obstacles and enemies. There were no signs of ghosts, so the Poltergust 6000 remained untouched. It didn't take long for the three to reach the cavern entrance. Princess Peach and the other prisoners had to be in the dome somewhere…

"Here we are again. Vanilla Dome." Mario sniffed the delightful aroma as he walked inside. "Ahh, nothing beats the fresh scent of vanilla. It always reminds me of Peach and her delectable cakes…"

Luigi rolled his eyes, but had a smirk on his face from Mario's comment. He followed his brother with Colombo by his side. He grabbed the Poltergust's hose and turned on the flashlight to brighten the region up ahead. And in the case a ghost pops out of nowhere, he has the Strobulb ready to stun the paranormal creatures. After traversing through long corridors of darkness full of Swoopers, Koopa Paratroopas, and Buzzy Beetles, they continued running until they reached one of the deepest underground areas of the dome. Soon enough, they came across the Vanilla Lake. (2)

"Bark! Bark!" Colombo yipped for attention.

"What is it, boy?" Luigi looked down at him.

The Polterpup pointed his paw down below the water. Within the distance, he saw an underwater tunnel.

"Nice job, Colombo! I bet this tunnel will lead us to Peach and the others," said Mario.

"Are you sure they're down there?"

Mario thought about it for a second. "Actually, I'm not sure. But it looks as though we need to swim down there. I don't see anywhere else we can go."

Still feeling unsure, Luigi looked all around him in high and low places. There weren't any other caves or tunnels to traverse. Eventually, he turned back to Mario. "Hmm, you may be right, bro. It does seem logical that Edge would keep them captive in the deepest part of a dungeon. That, and what you said before is true. There is nowhere else to go."

"Alright then. Let's dive right in!"

With that, Mario dove head first into the lake. Colombo followed the man in red as he used his paws to gain momentum. Taking a deep breath, Luigi placed his hands together, closed his eyes, and dove right after. The three swam through the passage with Mario leading the way. After a couple of minutes, they reached the other side and quickly floated up to the surface as they gasped for air.

"Bleck! Ppbth! Oh, good lord! I thought that I was going to drown!" Luigi spitted water as he kicked his legs and waved his arms to keep his head above sea level.

"Easy there, Luigi. It wasn't that bad."

"Well in my defense, I'm not that good of a swimmer, nor can I hold my breath underwater for so long."

"Well the good news is that we made it out of there." Mario searched to find land. "Look! Over there!" he pointed to his left, acknowledging another cavern entrance. "Maybe the dungeon is down there somewhere."

"Looks like the only way to go. I'm right behind you," Luigi responded as he swam towards shore.

After getting out from the water and drenching their hats dry, the brothers walked forward into the next tunnel. Colombo walked ahead of them while Luigi turned on his flashlight again.

To give him some extra comfort, Mario placed his left hand on Luigi's shoulder. "You okay, Luigi?"

He looked down at Mario to see a comforting smile on his face. It made him feel a bit relaxed knowing that his brother is beside him. "Yeah, Mario. Just happy that you're with me right now. If I was in the cave alone, I'd probably be shaking in fear."

Colombo was hearing the brothers' conversation, and he let out a soft whine as he stopped walking.

Luigi turned to the Polterpup. "Oh, don't get me wrong, cagnetto. (3) I also feel better when you're in my company. The point is that I'm more nervous if I have to venture alone. That's how I felt when I went excavating for the Dark Moon pieces back then. And I remember I had to chase you for multiple reasons…"

Colombo whimpered sadly again, feeling guilty about the times they encountered each other. He remembered the first time when he ate the special key to unlock the Hollow Tree of the Haunted Towers. Then, he stole one of the clock hands that was needed to surpass the Clock Tower Gate of Old Clockworks. Lastly, he took the Treacherous Mansion key, leading to another annoying Polterpup capture. It took three ghost hunts to successfully lock up the playful pooch inside Gadd's vault. Once he returned to normal, he apologetically walked up to Luigi to express his guilt for being a constant disruption.

"Colombo," he uttered as he picked him up. "I understand you still feel bad about that. But you were under the influence of the King Boo's doing. It wasn't your fault and I know you didn't mean to attack or harass me on purpose. You were just the being the playful pup you are right now. And honestly, I like you like that."

Moved by Luigi's kind words, he licked his face and wagged his tail. Both brothers got a laugh out of that. The green man set him down as they went back to walking.

"Like I said before, I'm glad you guys are with me right now."

"And like I promised, I'll stick with you no matter what happens. And I bet Colombo has the same feeling, too."

The Polterpup barked happily to confirm Mario's claim.

"Well then, let's keep going."

About ten minutes elapsed as the trio continued walking through the underground cavern. But as soon as Mario was about to turn a corner, he stopped and hid behind the wall. That's because he noticed two robots standing in front of a cavern door.

"What's wrong, Mario?" Luigi whispered.

"There are guards up ahead. Stay quiet for a second," he responded. Luigi nodded back while Colombo became invisible. They peeked towards the robots and eavesdropped on the conversation they were having.

"Man, I'm so bored. I can't believe Edge demoted me to guard duty!" That statement came from Slimmer, the one who handed his boss the fifth Chaos Emerald.

A short, orange robot with a spherical body and detachable claws looked up to the lanky robot. Because of his unique hands, he was known as Clawdio. (Pretty stupid, right?) "As if you were told to do this 24/7. You shouldn't be complaining. I've been standing and sitting here for the last several days. Doing what? Nothing. Nothing but guarding the stupid prisoners we locked up earlier."

"Just out of curiosity, remind me again why they're locked up, Clawdio?"

"It's so that the green guy and his jumping brother can waste their time rescuing their friends. And don't forget about the blue rat and yellow multi-tailed fox. They're acquaintances with the two and they'll do anything in their power to interfere with our master's plan."

"Oh… Wait, why are we wasting their time?"

The orange robot groaned. "Ugh, you're so idiotic. It's to stall them while the generator creates more copies of the Dark Shards. With enough Dark Shards, their negative energy will be equivalent to the power of the original Dark Moon. And that energy can be transferred to the scepter that Edge holds. That way, he'll be able to summon the Oblivion. But in order to cause the black hole to appear, he must have not only a sufficient amount of dark energy the Shards possess from the Dark Moon fragments, but all seven Chaos Emeralds as well."

Slimmer still seem confused with the situation. "Well, why create Shards when we can use the Dark Moon fragments?"

"Those Possessor Ghosts keep those Dark Moon pieces to become more powerful than ever. You saw how ghastly they look after being powered up. Not only do they possess dark, strong energy, but so will Edge's mighty staff which is where those shards come into play. It's a win-win to complement them."

"But I still don't know why the Possessors have to guard the fragments in the first place. Why not just leave them here at his headquarters?"

Clawdio facepalmed himself. "It's part of the stalling portion of the plan, you imbecile! That green guy is going to use his ghost hunting experience to track down the Possessors to claim those Dark Moon pieces back. The Possessors are spread out in different regions to, at the very least, distract him. Secondarily, their duty is to stop that weakling. Nonetheless, he will use up too much of their time to fight those strong ghosts, along with the underlings, that it will be too late to stop Edge afterwards. Once he has possession of all seven Emeralds and enough Dark Shards, it's bye-bye to every cruel world in existence."

Mario and Luigi, who heard every word the orange robot said, had their eyes wide open as they shared a glance. They couldn't believe that Edge would come up with such a complicated, yet disastrous plan to get rid of all worlds.

"Mario, what do we do?"

"We need to distract them somehow."

An idea sparked in Colombo's mind as he remained in his invisible state. Silently, he tiptoed up to the robots. Trying his best to stay quiet, he did something that caught everyone off guard. He took one quick glance at Slimmer and bit his leg.

"YEEOOOWWW!" cried the chrome figure. Mario and Luigi returned their gaze back at the robots who were baffled on what just occurred.

"What just happened?"

"I don't know! It felt like someone bit me!"

"Probably a stupid fly or something."

"No way. This bite felt large and more painful than what a fly would cause."

"You're over-exaggerating, Slimmy. Get over it."

"Over-exaggerating? Try getting bit by something with teeth the size of a shark, and you'll see why this freaking hurts!"

"Why do I even put up with you? You're one of the most stupid, despicable minions of Edge's squad."

"Hey! At least I found a Chaos Emerald for him. Unlike me, you're so short and weak that you got stuck as a guard."

"At least I have the brains and common sense to even do my job. I don't go around asking the boss for some type of praise or reward."

While they were arguing, Colombo executed his next plan of action by biting Clawdio's hand. Despite having no physical teeth, his bites still hurt like a bitch. Speaking of which…

"OWWWW! Damn it! What was that?!" he yelled as he shook his left claw in pain.

"I told you there's something going on here!"

"You never said anything that something was going on. All you did was tell me that someone bit your leg."

"And that someone happened to bite your claw really hard. Checkmate, jerk."

"Oh, shut up, stick legs."

Out of nowhere, the two heard an echoing bark within the caves. It came from Colombo, but they were unaware of his presence because he was still unseen.

"That's Colombo! I thought he was with us!" exclaimed Mario quietly.

"Maybe he's trying to distract the guards," thought Luigi.

And that's exactly what Colombo intended on doing. The canine reappeared and barked twice. He managed to gain the robots' attention. He growled in front of Slimmer and Clawdio, showing his white ghost teeth and an intimidating stare.

"Hey! I bet that pup's the one who bit us! He must have been invisible to try to hurt us while in hiding."

"What do we do now?"

Clawdio turned back at Slimmer with a look that says 'Are you kidding me?' "We're gonna catch the dog. We'll throw him in the pound with the rest of the captives."

"But he's a ghost. He can easily walk through walls and those cell bars. What's the point of locking…"

"JUST RUN AFTER THE GHOST DOG, IDIOT!"

"Bark! Bark! Grrr!" Colombo growled as he took off on a wild ghost chase. Both the guards ran from their resting place in pursuit of the Polterpup. As soon as the coast was clear, Luigi and Mario ran up to the intersection where they looked to their right and saw the robots sprinting after Colombo.

"I sure hope Colombo doesn't get into too much trouble. I don't want those robots to harm mio cane."

"Sometimes he can be so unpredictable. But at least he's smart about his actions. I'm confident that he's going to be okay. Not only is he stalling time, but he distracted the guards away from their spot."

They turned their attention back to the door in front of them. "I wonder what's behind here."

"Hopefully, the Princesses and everyone else is in there. Hmm…" Mario gazed at the lock for a moment. "Maybe we can use our fire power to burn this lock down."

"Good idea, bro."

Taking out another pair of Fire Flowers from their inventory, the guys absorbed their power-ups until their hats and shirts changed to white while their overalls became their respective colors. One by one, they threw alternating fireballs of red and green. Twenty fireballs later, the lock disintegrated from the intense heat.

Mario stepped forward and pushed the door open. He then looked back at his younger twin. "Ready, Luigi?"

Luigi took out his flashlight again as he gave his response. "Ready as I'll ever be, Mario." And so, they plodded forward through the entrance, hoping that Peach, Daisy, and the other prisoners were on the other side.

But as they entered, a pair of white eyes spied on the brothers from behind. For the brothers, they were unaware of the presence behind them. The entity secretly followed them, remaining quiet without making a single footstep…

END OF CHAPTER

Sorry if this chapter's short because I was on a time crunch to get it finished. But stay tuned for the next one, because we'll be encountering a familiar foe. Will Mario and Luigi rescue the princesses and their friends? Can Colombo distract the robots long enough to help them escape? And who's spying on the brothers as they delve deeper in the cave?

Once again, I appreciate the support for taking the time to read my story. Be sure to follow/favorite if you want to catch up on updates (that is if they even send you the notification) and write a review to let me know how I did. See you guys later! This is TGN, signing off.

Post-Chapter Notes:

(1): Super Koopas are basically Koopa Troopas without shells, but they have capes to fly around the levels. They first appeared in Donut Plains in Super Mario World.

(2): There's ambiguity here because I'm referring to the water region inside Vanilla Dome when you enter that World on the map in SMW. I am NOT referring to the Vanilla Lake courses in Super Mario Kart.

(3): Italian for 'doggy'. Luigi used this word when he befriended the Polterpup during the conclusion of Dark Moon.