Yes! So I wanted a two-week budget on this update, and...well...I was close! In fact, I'm in a hotel room right now, finishing this part because I know I can't go any longer without updating for you guys. I'd break my promise of a swifter end! Tsk tsk.

But here it is. Part three of this last, last episode!

Episode 8 (Part 3)

The activity in the casino was in full swing. One player found herself temporarily succeeding in the game she had discovered, answering a series of trivia questions to her wins.

Vivian: I knew that I stood my best chance in something that didn't fully involve luck. But at the same time, I was hoping my best that the host wouldn't trick me or anything, later in the game. But for now, the questions seemed easy.

Another player was sleuthing the casino, betting here and there, but baffled with the presence of a mysterious object in his hand.

Wario: This chip had to mean something. Heck, it had a hidden message, and I wasn't going to let this one pass me.

The third player wandered about, bag of chips in his hand and eyes wandering about until he spotted a secluded table, with both a player and a host sitting at it.

Yoshi: Since this was our final game, we were all kind of betting here and there. Luckily, I discovered McHallyboo, so he had to be good news.

"Ooh, watcha playing?" said Yoshi, walking over to Vivian, who was in full playing-mode at the dealer's table. His voice was full of fatigue from the slot machines, compared to the more energetic and alive playing of Vivian, as McHallyboo gave her three more chips into her pile.

"It's just a game," Vivian said to him, but McHallyboo began to elaborate more.

"It's a betting game to a trivia game," the host said. "It's choose or lose. Wanna play?"

"The heck I do," Yoshi said, taking his bag and plopping it upon the table and sitting down. As McHallyboo shuffled a deck, Yoshi leaned in towards Vivian, looking at her pile of chips.

"How much do you have?" Yoshi asked, as Vivian paused for a moment.

"I made a profit of around, seven chips so far," she said, shrugging modestly. "Does that sound good?"

"That's amazing!" Yoshi hissed. "You're probably doing better than both me and Wario. In fact, none of us even know how he's doing. Funny, he's like...avoiding us."

"I don't know," Vivian said, laughing. "I'm not even good at gambling!" McHallyboo finished shuffling the deck, and lifted up the top card.

"Question: What bodily function can reach a speed of 200 miles an hour?" He laid down four cards, and flipped them over.

"A: Clapping, B. Blinking, C. Sneezing, or D. The pumping of your heart. Individually, you can bet a maximum of five chips each round, even on different answers. If you get the right answer, your winnings are doubled. Wrong answer, I keep them all. Choose correctly." Yoshi looked at the cards carefully, while Vivian pondered.

"Do you think it's clapping?" said Yoshi, but Vivian shook her head.

"No...I can't clap 200 miles per hour," she reasoned.

"But it's saying, which COULD reach 200 miles per hour," Yoshi pointed out. "So maybe average people can, just not us."

"I still don't think so," she said, holding a chip in her hand. "Go for whichever." Yoshi thought, then grabbed some of his own chips.

"I'm going to put...three chips on D, the heart, because that answer sounds the most detailed and right," he said, grabbing three chips and placing them on the fourth card, "and...one chip on A, Clapping." With four chips placed, he sat back in his chair, then looked at Vivian. Vivian was still thinking, until she chose.

"I'm just going to go randomly with...sneezing, Choice B," Vivian said, looking completely clueless but putting two chips on the third choice anyway. "Because I know sneezing is mega fast, and it's possible. Final answer." With all chips given, the host flipped over the right choice in one movement: Card C.

"Sneezing," he announced. Vivian looked amazed.

"Darn!" Yoshi said. Vivian looked sad too, but at the same time a little joyful and surprised at her win. While Yoshi got none in return, the host gave two chips to Vivian respectively.

"This game really is luck," McHallyboo shrugged, as he shuffled his deck again.

"Still, a one-fourth chance," Vivian said, denying it.

Yoshi: Vivian was doing really good at gambling. Even better than me, and though it was a good thing, you still had to be suspicious when you saw her winning all that money. Even Wario wasn't winning that much.

"Grr, I guess this is testing our intelligence too," Yoshi said, looking defeated, but Vivian shook her head.

"No, I think this game is based on luck as well," she reasoned, then added, "Sometimes. I'm not winning that much. And you're smart!"

"Well, thanks," said Yoshi, accepting her compliment. The host grinned.

"Well, another round, shall we?" began McHallyboo, and the other two had no other choice but to agree with him.

"Hey, you didn't happen to see any leftover chips located around here, did you?" Wario asked with suspicion, going over to a Pianta in custodial clothing. The Pianta leaned against his mop, thinking.

"Yeah, umm, I think I saw a chip or two lying around," he said. "Check over at the mini slot machines, I saw some there. People always tend to get careless."

"All right," he said, keeping the blue chip in his hand, still as confused as ever. He read the message again, on the back of the chip's face.

Wario: It really did bug me that I had this message and couldn't decipher it. The reason I didn't want to show the others? Maybe it would give me some sort of advantage in the end, and I just had to figure it out myself.

"Finally!" said Yoshi, sounding as if he had won a fortune at McHallyboo's question.

"The answer was indeed, Tyrannosaurus Rex," the host said, and three chips were rewarded to Yoshi, who laughed.

"Aww, no fair," said Vivian, who had suffered a disadvantage at the question's content. "I lost three chips...well, at least I made a lot earlier, so this really doesn't mean anything at all, does it?"

"Hmm, wait for an art history question," Yoshi said, as Vivian smiled. McHallyboo flipped four more cards, then began with his next question.

"Which of these elements has the highest atomic number?" he read, as they both seemed to groan with disinterest. "A: Dysprosium, B: Uranium, C: Nitrogen, D: Oxygen." The two of them looked at the cards carefully, with less hope.

Yoshi: These questions were getting harder. But we were getting addicted, so we didn't quit. It was like actual casino betting.

"Doesn't sound like uranium," said Yoshi, staring hard, "because isn't that at the top, and the lowest numbers are on the bottom of the table? Right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure that's right too," said Vivian, looking really hesitant. "I don't think it's nitrogen either."

"It sounds like it could be nitrogen...or dysprosium," Yoshi began again.

"Isn't oxygen at the top?" said Vivian.

Vivian: We knew that these questions were getting more difficult. I should have known this, and stopped the both of us from betting more, but who could do that? Not even ourselves could stop our willpower.

"I'm putting...one on dysprosium," said Vivian, and she did so. Yoshi got two chips, and placed them on the same choice as well. Then, he took one chip and placed it on nitrogen.

"All right," said Yoshi, crossing his fingers. "Final answer." McHallyboo looked at his card.

"The correct answer is...uranium."

"No!" The two of them groaned, both with anguish and frustration, but at the same time a small level of amusement. Just then, Wario came from behind them, looking at them with curiosity.

"Hey, nice for you to finally join the crowd," said the host to the arrived player. "There is approximately seven minutes remaining in the game."

"We're doing awful," Yoshi said, twirling and flipping a chip in his hand.

"But we're doing much better than we were in the beginning," Vivian piped in. Yoshi looked confused at Vivian's statement.

"Seven minutes? Enough time to make a lot of cash," said Wario, carefully putting the blue chip into his pocket so the others wouldn't see it. However, one player managed to notice, as she looked intently at the player's back pocket.

Vivian: Wario was acting really weird, and I saw him in the corner of his eye place something into his pocket. It could have been something, or nothing. Even if he didn't do something like that, he was still fishy and shifting around. I didn't want to bring anything up though.

"What is the capital of Sweden?" said McHallyboo, putting out four cards after reading the question. "Hopefully you won't feel kidnapped with this answer." The choices were the following: A. Warsaw, B. Berlin, C. Stockholm, D. Luxembourg.

"Oh, umm," said Vivian, thinking. "I studied capitals; I drew a detailed map diagram in my art class once of the European countries. So I should be getting this one right."

"Yeah, you better," snorted Wario, surprised at her statement. "Otherwise, that would be a big fail!" Vivian just continued looking at the choices, worriedly.

"Wait, aren't you part Swedish or something?" asked Yoshi, pointing at Wario. Wario coughed, baffled.

"What are you talking about!" he replied, frowning. "I'm Italian. That's my pride country." Yoshi shrugged.

"Oh well, here's my guess," he said, then put two chips on Warsaw. Vivian picked up one of her chips.

"I'm putting one chip on...Stockholm," Vivian said slowly, "just because it sounds like it could be the right answer." Then suddenly, she took it off, then put her chip on Luxembourg instead.

"I think Stockholm is it," said Wario, putting a chip on his choice, then glancing at Vivian. "Final answer...wait, why did you change yours!" He hesitated to take his chip back, but didn't, leaving it there.

"It could be right," Vivian reasoned, though sounded a little uncertain. "Actually...I don't know!" She panicked, then added another chip onto 'Luxembourg'.

"Everyone's final answer?"

"Wait," said Yoshi, as Wario smacked his head. He placed an extra chip on Luxembourg as well.

"Final answer," he said sheepishly. "Just in case."

"I swear, it's Stockholm," Wario said, feeling powerless in words. As McHallyboo went to reveal the correct answer, everyone looked defeated. He went to flip over Card C: Stockholm.

"Oh, I guess not," said Vivian, her voice disappointed. Wario gladly took his two-coin prize, but looked at Vivian.

Wario: Well, Vivian was doing really good, but then she stopped as we were approaching the end. Maybe it really was all luck, or maybe she was just answering questions wrong on purpose...which would confuse me even more.

"I'm really having trouble on these late questions," Vivian said, as McHallyboo took two chips from her for her wrong answer.

"Sorry, the answer was, 'A herd of cattle,'" McHallyboo announced. Yoshi jumped up, having gotten the question correct, while Wario only grumbled.

"I still have more chips than you," Wario snorted to Yoshi, who looked back at him with a puzzled face.

"This isn't a contest," Yoshi replied to him, almost forcefully. Wario was going to say something, but then stopped.

"Whatever," Wario replied, as McHallyboo took his last card out and held it in the air.

Wario: It really was aggravating. I mean, we all knew that we were working together for the team pot, but even still, we were still fighting for ourselves. It just almost didn't make sense. Nor did I like it at all.

"There's only one minute remaining," the host told all of them, as their attention became fully focused. "This is the final question." He placed the last set of four cards onto the table, then read the question in his hand.

"Which of these is in the onion genus?" asked McHallyboo, as he flipped over three cards. "A. Eggplant, B. Violet tomato, C. Grapes, D. Garlic." As Yoshi stared carefully, and Vivian looked at the question suspiciously, Wario's mouth was open with knowledge.

"I...know this," said Wario, his voice almost in a laugh. "It's garlic!"

"Are you sure?" said Vivian, holding onto her chips carefully.

"Yeah, positive," said Wario, sounding more insistent.

"I don't think grapes could be it, nor eggplant...and I've never heard of a violent tomato," Yoshi said, looking at the other three cards. "Well, I guess garlic could be it."

"It is," Wario insisted, almost annoyed. "And grape is a fruit, isn't it?"

"So is tomato," Yoshi remembered. "But violet tomato? These are creative choices."

"I'm just going to go with...eggplant," said Vivian, as Wario's mouth dropped open again.

"What! Come on" said Wario, protesting. Yoshi took a chip in his hand, looking as well.

"30 seconds remaining," announced McHallyboo, looking the least nervous out of the three of them.

"All right, I'm trusting you," said Yoshi, placing two chips on 'garlic'.

"Yeah, good move," Wario said, sounding better. Wario took five of his chips, and confidently, he placed it on the same card as well. After a few seconds, Vivian placed a single chip on the card that her peers had bet on.

"You all bet on 'garlic'?" McHallyboo questioned, as all three of them nodded. Suddenly, a casino siren went off, as they all ducked at the sudden sound, all except for the host in the dealer's position of the table. The siren began to slowly fade out, as the host stood up.

"The game is now over! Congratulations!" said McHallyboo, as he began taking out a plethora of casino chips out from under the game table. The players looked surprised, but as they were granted their final wins, they still felt unsure. But in their heads, the final game was over.

"Is that it?" said Yoshi, as the host slowly nodded. He stood up and motioned for the players to give them their bags. Not being able to count their chips in time, the three of them handed their bags to McHallyboo with both satisfaction but troubled looks.

"So, we had fun confirming your final win values," said McHallyboo, as the players were sitting on a couch in the blue-lighted room of the lobby. The host had three bags of chips in his pockets, as the players only waited to hear the results of their questionably-played mission.

Vivian: I had no idea how we did, or how I even did alone. I just hope we passed our final mission, because it would be a little heart-breaking if we did fail.

"All right," started the host, and he picked up a first bag from his coat pocket: Vivian's. The host shook it slightly.

"At the end of the fifteen minutes, after starting with 5,000 coins..." started the host, as the players held their breaths. "Vivian, you ended up with..."

"How much?" she asked, covering her face slightly.

"3,600 coins." Her face dropped, looking slightly disappointed. So did the faces of Wario and Yoshi.

"Huh?" Wario said with disbelief. "Vivian, you lost money?" Vivian could only stare at her bag, realizing her loss of money.

Yoshi: I was actually hoping Vivian would win a lot of cash. She was doing good, but then towards the end she began losing questions one by one. But I know she's smart though.

"Well, hmm...could have been worse," Yoshi shrugged. "But could have been better too." Vivian nodded.

"I really, really agree," Vivian said whole-heartedly. "I guess we bet just...too much towards the end."

"We haven't won anything," said Wario, looking over at the decreased bag of coins. "In fact, we lost cash." McHallyboo took another bag out of his pocket: Yoshi's.

"How much do you think you made?" asked the host, looking at Yoshi. The player's face looked mixed, holding both hope, but dread.

Yoshi: I was hoping to have made at least 1,000 coins in profit. Just anything to realize I did good. But in the end...I felt a pit in my stomach.

"In the end, we counted a total of 1,200 coins."

"Whut...you are joking me." Wario laughed out loud.

"You lost over four-fifths of your money," said McHallyboo, smiling a little bit. Yoshi's face was still stunned.

"That's...really bad," Wario said, laughing a little less, "and now...this stinks. We lost more money." His face was more serious, but down as well. Vivian looked at Yoshi apologetically.

Wario: So Vivian does bad, and Yoshi does even worse. Tragic, actually. It just doesn't make sense. I thought we all wanted to win money, and here it was, our last game. And yet, we were losing.

Vivian: I could have stopped Yoshi from betting more, but I felt like we were playing our own games. I can't help but blame myself a little bit. After all, we were still a team.

"I guess we didn't win anything yet at all," Vivian said, her face holding even more disappointment than before, but she hid her sigh.

"I honestly don't think this final mission was worth it," said Yoshi, looking at Vivian only. "We've done better elsewhere, and we both know that." Vivian tried smiling too, with optimism.

"Well, the last bag," said McHallyboo, as he lifted it up. He threw it towards, Wario, who caught it. It was heavier than before.

"Guess how much you made?" the host asked, as Wario only shrugged slowly.

"In the end," the host said, "we counted..." Everyone held their breaths, the hardest than ever before.

"8,200 coins." Vivan smiled big. Yoshi's mouth was agape. Wario looked stunned.

"That's...that's impossible," said Wario, sounding flabbergasted. "Really? No way, McHallyboo!"

Yoshi: I couldn't believe it. The question was, how did Wario manage to make so much money, in that little time that we had? But even still, I was still happy.

Vivian: I barely saw Wario for most of the time in the casino, and he didn't win that much at the Questionnaire table either. So I just couldn't help but...feel strangely suspicious of how much money he made.

Wario: Was I really suspicious for winning money? Really now. I won it all fair and square, and it's all going to the team pot anyway. So it's just nonsense. The things people can feel when another player wins.

"So, now you know," finished McHallyboo. "You either did good or bad. But how did the Mole do this game? Did they sabotage, or succeed? Or go somewhere in between to fool you all? After all, the Mole can decide to do anything at this moment. This is indeed the final episode."

"You never know what the Mole's going to do," Vivian said softly.

"There was one more thing that was hidden in this challenge," the host said, and he took out one other object from his pocket: the specially-marked poker chip coin that he had since the airplane ride of the game. The players just looked at him and the unknown object.

"What's that?" asked Yoshi.

"It's the special chip," said McHallyboo, "that was worth 5,000 coins. Had you gotten the clues from the large slot machines, you would have known that if you went up to me and took the chip, or at the least requested it from me, I would have given it to you. So this game was actually worth 20,000 coins." As both Yoshi and Vivian looked dumbfounded, Wario shrugged and looked at his pocket.

Wario: I knew that clue chip meant something...and I remember seeing McHallyboo show his own chip numerous times before we got into the casino. Yet, I failed to fit the puzzle together. In the end, I really did lose.

"All right, well," said McHallyboo. He took out a calculator and began pressing buttons, but the players knew that he already had the total value in his mind, stored.

"After your time in the casino, you had gained an official..." The players looked at the host, their ears fully open.

"Negative 2,000 coins," said McHallyboo. The only sound heard was that of the nearby blazing torch and the sound of the slow running paths of water surrounding them, but nothing else. The players didn't make a sound, as the final mission statement was announced to them.

"I'm sorry. You have lost your final game." Even in his voice, there was the slight sound of sorriness. The players' faces were glum, not only from hearing the value won for their last game, but realizing that they themselves were sorry as well that the game had ended in such a loss. It was the last thing that any of them wanted to hear.

"Well," started Yoshi, shifting his boots and looking at the floor. "We tried, right? Didn't we?" Vivian faced McHallyboo.

"Yes, we did try," said Vivian, looking at the host, who looked back at them. "And that's all that counts. We didn't lose. I don't care if we lost the money, or did a terrible job. But we played a good game, and that's all there is to it. Right?"

"Yeah," said Wario, sounding a little down too, but at the same time, feelings slightly up. "And even though we lost, I think we still played a great game." He looked at Yoshi, who looked at Vivian, who was looking at the host strongly. McHallyboo himself tried to hide his smile.

"Wise words," said the host, as he grinned slightly. "And I'd like to celebrate with you all. However, the fact can't be denied that your value is now less than last year's. And unfortunately, this was your final mission."

TOTAL POT VALUE

238,000 COINS

"Hehe...ha," laughed Yoshi, suddenly laughing. "Our value...it's off balance now!" They all laughed suddenly, and McHallyboo laughed too.

"Still a hefty value, and you can't deny that," said McHallyboo.

"It is," admitted Vivian. "It'd be such a gift anyway, for anyone to win."

"And one of you will be winning it," the host said to them. "Very soon." The thought was inconceivable to all of them. But even still, they all felt a moment of success.

"So, now that we're done, where do we go now?" said Wario, looking around the lobby and grinning. "Is it all over? Looks like it to me."

"Yep, it is," said the host, walking them over slowly to the other side of the floor and out of the hotel's lobby. "I will now bring you all to your hotel rooms for the night." He smiled.

"Hotel rooms?" Vivian repeated. The host nodded, a little slower than usual, but never the less he led the three players toward a set of stairs, going upstairs to the second floor of Hotel Delfino and whatever it held for them. Outside, the sun was slowly beginning to set.

"It's dark," said Yoshi, as they reached the second floor. At the stairs' top, a floor was visible, and so were a plethora of other doors that led to their own separate sleeping quarters.

"All right...Vivian, your room," said McHallyboo, pointing to one door on the other side of them. As Vivian walked up to it, McHallyboo nodded slowly, as she entered.

"Good night," he said, as Vivian nodded back, but with a smile still on her face.

Vivian: This game had been quite amazing. Even with our last loss, it was great to know that I've come such a long way. So I was finally happy it was ending for me.

Going up another flight of stairs, the two others were brought to the very top floor of Hotel Delfino. On the third floor, a pool was visible through glass on the right side, and once again, room doors were present. This time, McHallyboo lead Yoshi to a room at the other side of the floor, the direct location of where Vivian's would be, except a floor above it.

"Good night, Yoshi," said the host, as Yoshi smiled tiredly, but still with energy.

Yoshi: It's been so much fun, and I'll miss a lot of it. A lot of it I'll forget, like the drama and failures we had to endure. But in the end, I'll look back at this game with happy thoughts.

On the same third floor, Wario was led away, to a room at the very end of the path that went around the exposed square area of air.

"Good night, Wario," said McHallyboo, and they both shook each others' hands firmly with gratitude.

Wario: Well, it's finally the end. The last mission was played, and I couldn't wait for the final quiz to begin. My fingers were dancing with anticipation. But at that very moment, I had to wait. But I couldn't believe it: it was finally over.

Wario entered his room, and then before he could close it himself, he realized that the host had already shut it for him. Confused, he simply just walked forwards into his room, seeing two beds before him. He flopped onto one, and let out a sigh of relaxation.

"Well, at least...huh?" His eyes lingered towards the entrance he had just entered from, and when he looked closely at the door that led to his exit, he saw something unusual above the metal knob of his door. There were a series of digit pads. As he tried to turn his knob, he realized something

"What...the? My door's locked?"

"I'm locked inside, let me out!" Yoshi shouted, realizing that his hotel door wouldn't open up. He banged on the front of his door, then stopped as he heard the sound of footsteps walking outside.

"McHallyboo!" he called out with relief, but after a second, he realized that the footsteps were not walking on the outside tiled floor, but going downstairs. He turned his door knob again, then stopped when his eyes fell on the digital lock before him.

"A lock," he realized. He looked up, at a messages pasted on the back face of his door.

"Hello?" called out Vivian, putting her ear next to the door. "Is anyone there? I'm trapped in my room!" Vivian, too, had noticed that not only would her door refuse to open, but an electronic lock was blocking her way from escaping. She looked up at her door to read a message, in small letters but hidden on the same page as the fire escape on the back of her door:

To the players: Welcome to your final mission of The Mole: Saboteur's Island.

You find yourself trapped. But everything around you will help set you free.

Escape the hotel in under 90 minutes. You will need each other.

Only one guess is allowed. You guess wrong, the game is lost.

If you meet me outside of the hotel before the time limit, I will grant you your final win: 50,000 coins.

Good luck. This is your final game.

-Your host, Mason Coles Hallyboo

"I knew it," she said quietly. "There was another game for us." She turned to see the important object right besides her: a telephone. Before she went to it though, she looked at the map of the hotel's fire escape, noticing something on its back.

"Is that writing?" she thought, seeing dampness on the back of the paper. She tore it off from her door and flipped the paper over.

"Phone," said Yoshi, turning to the telephone besides him. Suddenly, his own phone rang, catching him off guard. He picked it up immediately.

"Hello?"

"Yoshi!" Vivian said, looking at the 'Fire Escape' paper in her hand. "I thought this would work. I got your number."

"Wait, how'd you know my room number?" Yoshi said, confused.

"There's a clue on the back of the 'Fire Escape' paper," she said, looking at where it said, 'Yoshi's Number: 100-208'. "But honestly, I guess I could have gotten your number on my own somehow. I guess I cheated."

"That's cool," Yoshi replied, then looked at the lock on his door. "Vivian, I'm locked in my room."

"I am too," Vivian said, reassuringly. "And we probably need to find combinations to unlock these digital locks on our doors."

"On the paper, it says, 'But everything around you will help set you free,'" Yoshi told her, reading off the message on his door. "What do you think that means?"

"Well, I can only assume..." started Vivian, looking at the same paper in her hand as well, "that our combinations are hidden someplace in our rooms. We have to find them in order to activate the locks on our doors, and get out."

"That's a crazy thought," Yoshi said, sounding dazed, "but there's nothing else to believe, is there?"

"And I also think," Vivian said, looking at her door message fearfully, "that we only have one guess on the combination. Or else it locks forever."

"Yikes," Yoshi added. "Let's be careful, right?"

"What's in your room?" Vivian asked, as Yoshi looked around his. A third of his room was almost like a kitchen counter, full with a sink, but he saw a large metal object on the opposite side of his room that caught his eye: a refrigerator.

"A fridge," said Yoshi. "Do you think Wario's locked also?"

"I think so," said Vivian, shrugging to herself. "I'm not sure, but if anything, we need to find our combinations. Search your room! I'll search mine, and you tell me what you find. I'll do the same, but later."

"I'm going to go food-hunting then," said Yoshi, looking at the refrigerator with determination. "Try getting Wario. I'll get back to you."

"Sure," said Vivian, as she hung up. "Wario...I wonder how he's doing right now."

"I'm going...to get...that host," Wario huffed, looking at the entirety of his room after reading the message on his door. There were two beds in his room, like any other image from another hotel room, but against a wall of his room was a large bookshelf, filled to the edge with various books of various sizes.

"Way too many," he commented. Scanning the books with his eyes, his eyes wandered until he noticed that the table near his window held a mechanical device upon it, an object that seemed out of the ordinary: a radio.

Wario: I didn't even know what was happening. But I could only figure there was some crazy game going on. And to support that fact, my room was as suspicious as ever, and from the message on the paper, I learned that 50,000 coins was at stake at that very moment.

"Hmm," he said, flicking the radio on. "Maybe some music won't hurt." As he pressed on the power button, he only heard static, as he winced back.

"Ouch," he said, grumbling, turning it off as fast as he could. He turned to look at his room even more, then stopped. Disguised as one of the pillows on his bed was a white, fluffy object, shaped as a certain farm animal.

"Moo," said Wario, unamused and grabbing the cow plushie.

Yoshi opened his fridge, stepping back from the intense cold air as it opened up. Big enough to store himself in it, Yoshi looked inside and saw a plethora of drink cartons and containers. He looked at them, his eyebrows furrowing.

"All drinks," he noticed, "But no food?" Seeing a carton of orange juice, he grabbed it from the shelf and began reading its label. After looking at it, he sighed, putting it down and thinking.

Yoshi: There were too numbers on one label. Guessing the right code out of hundreds of numbers, it was impractical. There had to be something else to the game that would lead us to our right numbers.

"This game will be difficult," Vivian sighed, talking to no one in particular but expressing her feelings out. "But I have to play it." Sitting down on her bed, Vivian had turned on her television manually, looking at the static before her with cluelessness.

"That's pretty," she said, looking at a single painting placed on the wall above the TV, its image displaying an antique-looking house. Standing up, she noticed a remote control sitting at her feet. She picked it up.

"Maybe this does something," she said, pointing the device towards her television nonchalantly.

Vivian: The remote control had no company label on it, so I immediately knew something was up with it. I was trying anything I could in my room. Even the walls of the room looked suspicious to me.

"Umm...Channel 1?" she tried, pressing down on the button. Nothing happened, as she pressed on the 'On' button once again to turn it off. However, the television remained on, its static ringing in the air.

"Wha!" Wario jumped at the sudden sound that was ignited behind him. Turning around, he saw that the radio in his room had turned on, the static once again filling his ears.

"Darn radio!" he said, pressing down on the same button he had pressed beforehand to turn it off. As he turned around, his phone suddenly rang, as he ran over to the side of his bed to pick it up for the first time.

"Hey! Who's this?" Wario asked.

"It's me, Vivian!" Vivian spoke. "So glad I found you...I got your number, called you, and well, I guess it worked."

"Thank goodness you found me," Wario said, sounding more relieved in his voice than anything. "I thought I was trapped in the middle of nowhere, with no one around!"

"We're all stuck, and this is our final mission," Vivian explained, "but what we have to do is try and solve our door combinations." Wario looked at his own door, nodding, but still confused.

"Yeah, I've been trying to get somewhere," said Wario, picking up the cow plushie on his bed.

"Wario, watch out," Vivian warned. "We can only guess on our doors once. So...only touch the lock combination digits when you're sure."

"I figured that too," Wario said, looking a little uneasy on the fact, but nodding. "There's this weird radio on my room that suddenly turned on by itself."

"Hmm, that's weird," said Vivian, acknowledging the fact. "Anything else in your room?"

"Umm, this cow plushie," said Wario, looking at it and shrugging. "There's a bookshelf with way too many books in it, so I'll try looking there for something. But other than that, that's it."

"Does your radio have buttons on it?" Vivian suggested. "Try changing the station by pressing buttons."

"I tried, but nothing works," Wario said, looking at it. "It's just annoying static. I can't get it to work and for all I know, it's a red herring."

"Well, it has to mean something," Vivian said with thought. "So does that cow."

"Red Passion Fruit Juice," read Yoshi, taking out containers out of his fridge one by one. "Chuckola-Cola, Moo-Moo Milk...that's odd." He stood up, closing the refrigerator door and exploring his room even more.

"There has to be more to that fridge," he said, sitting on his bed and looking at it carefully. "There's always something obvious..." Turning to his side counter, his face changed immediately. The bottom shelf was partially open, as if someone was inviting him to look into it. He got off his bed and walked over to it, then opened it up completely. Inside was a metal key, laying in the drawer's compartment.

"Yes!" he said, his voice triumphant as he grabbed it into his hand. But before he could explore further, he noticed something in the corner of his room that he didn't see before. Going up to it cautiously, he saw that it was a bucket, with a paintbrush placed inside of it along with an unidentified liquid that made Yoshi even more curious.

"Color-less paint?" he realized, seeing that the paint looked more clear than anything.

"Huh, what could be here?" Vivian had entered her bathroom, and saw what looked like another hotel guest's toiletry items scattered on her bathroom counter, except in neat fashion. She went through the items, seeing countless bottles and brands of shampoos, lotions, spray bottles, and conditioners.

"Sea Island Cotton perfume...hmm," she said, sniffing it a bit and finding it relaxing. She turned to her shower curtain, pulling it open and looking inside. Nothing else was visible.

"All the shampoo bottles shouldn't be near the bathroom sink, should it?" she pondered. "Why are they on the counter instead?" She turned the dial on her shower on, only to discover that no water was coming out of the tub faucet. Before she could experiment more, her phone rang, as she immediately ran out of the bathroom to pick it up.

"Hello? Wario or Yoshi?"

"It's Yoshi!" said Yoshi, panting. "Look, I found a key in my drawer. I think it's a clue."

"That's great," said Vivian, sounding surprised. "Try it on your door! Maybe it'll open."

"All right," said Yoshi, reaching his hand over to his hotel room door. Crossing his fingers, he saw the key hole of his door still present, as he inserted the key inside. He twisted left, then twisted right, but nothing was clicked. He tried again, but to no avail.

"The key has to work," Vivian said surely. "Did you open the door? Twist the knob too at the same time!" Yoshi tried again, but again, nothing clicked.

"Can't!" said Yoshi, trying to budge his door open. "It won't fit. We can't win this until we find a clue of some sort."

"A clue?" Vivian said, looking around her own room, sounding mystified. "I'm just so baffled by everything around me." Vivian looked at the painting on her wall, staring at it carefully.

"Do you know how Wario's doing?" asked Yoshi, turning around to look at the whole of his bedroom even more. Besides the other odd objects that were placed around him, there was only one bed in his room, small but comfortable enough for one person.

"This doesn't seem like a regular bedroom at all," he realized. He looked at his refrigerator: the door was open and cold air was seeping into his room.

"I was just talking to him a minute ago...he seems fine," Vivian commented, then added, "but confused as well. I hope he's doing okay though. He was trying to search his bed sheets, I think." Yoshi tried reaching the door of the refrigerator, but was stopped by the length of the phone's cord.

"Hang up and talk to him," said Yoshi, annoyed. "I want to search more. I won't be able to search and talk with you at the same time. The phone's cord is too short."

"I'm sure the producers had something to do with that phone placement," said Vivian, shaking her head but smiling at the game's intelligence. She hung up, and before she could dial for Wario's number, the phone rang again. Confused, she picked it up.

"Hello, Yoshi?"

"Yoshi? It's me!" came Wario's voice, sounding tired. Wario was holding the stuffed animal cow in one of his hands, and the phone in his other.

"Umm, did you get any success?" said Vivian. Wario looked around his room: he had turned his pillows inside-out, and his entire mattress for one of his beds had been flipped over and moved off, courtesy of his hands. But Wario just shook his head.

"I can't seem to find anything," Wario said, sounding baffled by the whole predicament. "Maybe we're not even doing the right thing."

"I'm sure we are, somehow," said Vivian, looking towards her door. "I mean, this is our final mission, right?"

"Wait a second, I got...something..." said Wario, feeling the inside of the sheets of the bed he had moved off from its original position. His hands came upon a rectangular-shaped container, as he pulled it out from hiding. It was a blank DVD case.

"Hey, look what I found," said Wario, sounding victorious. "A hidden DVD! Under my bed sheets!"

"Really? What's it do?" said Vivian, curious at his finding and sounding interested too. "Try playing it."

"Okay, but I'll have to hang up," he said, and he did so. Walking over to his television, he was surprised to see that a DVD player was located right under his TV pedestal. Taking the DVD out of its cover-less container, Wario inserted it into the television, and sat back.

"This better work," he said, unknowing of its contents. When the TV flashed on, Wario looked almost hypnotized at whatever was being displayed to him.

"INSTA-TAN!" shouted the loud MC-like voice from the television monitor, as swirling abstract images of yellow and orange filled the screen along with the product's brand name. "COMES IN ALL 7 SCENTS AND COLORS. BUY YOUR OWN BOTTLE AT YOUR OWN CONVENIENCE STORE! Results on individuals may vary."

"What-the-word?" Wario said, scratching his head as the disc finished. Suddenly, the noise from his radio started again, even more deafening than before.

Vivian flipped the remote in her room on and pressed random buttons once again, but she only sighed. Her phone rang.

Vivian: Nothing was working. My TV worked manually, but the remote didn't control it. When I checked the remote control itself, there were batteries in it. I knew they were alive because I plugged them into a nearby lamp, and they worked. So the remote wasn't the one broken...

"Hey Vivian, so I got that DVD working," said Wario, talking into the phone.

"Oh, that's great," she replied, still looking around her own room with worry. "What does it show?"

"All it showed was some sort of weird advertisement," said Wario. "It was like, for a tanning bottle."

"Tanning bottle?" she repeated, then she lightened up. "What was the name?" Wario turned to the paused television.

"Insta...Tan?" Wario read. Vivian immediately looked towards her open bathroom door: among the various beauty bottles and various brands, a single orange can was visible on the counter that stuck out to her immediately: Insta-Tan.

"Wario! There's a bottle called, 'Insta-Tan' on my bathroom counter!" Vivian informed him. "Do you think that's it?"

"Yes, I think so," Wario said, grinning. "I bet there's the combination on it! Or something." Vivian nodded, then stopped, hearing the static in Wario's background.

Vivian: All of a sudden, it made sense. I just had to put the clues together.

"Wario, let me try something else," she said. "You said that the radio in your room couldn't be controlled, right?"

"Yeah?" Wario replied. "Why?" With the remote control for the TV in her hand, Vivian pressed down on the 'On' button, except this time, it would normally turn an object off. Suddenly, the static of Wario's radio become silent, as Wario stared at it.

"Did you...just do that?" Wario said, sounding stunned.

"I think our rooms are very interconnected," she replied with realization, and smiling a little.

"Whoa," said Yoshi, pulling something out from under his bed. Digging his hand in, he realized that he had found a book-shaped object under his lone bed, as he looked at its title: How To Build A Hydro Pipe To A Designated Place.

"Nice, but what's this for?" he said, opening it. On the first page, he found a picture of the kitchen-like side of his room, besides the refrigerator. The lone sink in his room was pictured on the page, as he turned to look at it.

Yoshi: I felt like this was our intelligence test. Everything we've worked for in this game, it was finally being tested to us in this final game. It was as intense as heck.

Yoshi turned to his fridge, looking at the magnets that littered its front for the first time. A series of letters were present, stuck to its front via magnets. He took them off, put all of them on the ground of his carpet, and looked at them carefully once the letters were all gathered.

"L, E, S, C, H, A, R, C, K, E, N, S, D, I," he said, reading each letter, and now his face was determined. "Let's anagram this."

"Okay, so my remote controls your radio," Vivian realized, pressing more buttons, randomly on her remote. "But the only thing is, all the channels I try don't even work. I think we need the right channel number."

"Yeah," said Wario, hitting the radio on its head. "So I really don't know what to do next, because we've hit a blocked road. But, what does the tanning bottle spray say in your room?"

"There's nothing else on it," said Vivian, disappointed. "I looked inside, but there's only actual liquid." She looked at her door again, and then back at her phone base.

"Hey, you ever tried talking to Yoshi?" Vivian suggested. "You guys should talk, and see maybe you guys are interconnected somehow. I'll just be here, experimenting with my tanning bottle."

"Sounds like a plan," said Wario, hanging up, as he looked over at his bookshelf and its scattered books. He sighed, going over to it, forgetting all about calling Yoshi as he stared miserably at the bookshelf stuck in his sleeping boundaries.

Wario: With over 500 books in that shelf...I really wasn't going to search through them all. It would be useless.

"Hey Vivian!" said Yoshi, picking up his phone. But he frowned, hearing someone else for the first time that game.

"Heh, wrong person," said Wario, shaking his head, the phone in his hand. "It's Wario, and I got your number now. Look, tell me what's in your room. Maybe I can find something useful from what you tell me."

"Okay, got it," Yoshi confirmed, and he turned to the center of his hotel room floor, his pile of all potential clue objects piled up. "So far, this is what I've found in my room: there's a metal key, a book-like folder labeled, How To Build A Hydro Pipe To A Designated Place, a fridge in my room with a lot of drinks in it, but no food, and a bucket of color-less paint was in my room corner." Wario pondered these objects, and after a few seconds, he shook his head.

"I really can't make use of any of that," said Wario, looking at his own room. "Sorry. I mean...if I was actually there, maybe I could help a bit. Try thinking more, huh?" Yoshi sighed.

"Oh, wait," Yoshi said, remembering his fridge magnets. "There are magnet letters here that I'm trying to decipher. I think they're either an anagram or a message! For something."

"I really don't think those would help me either," said Wario, as Yoshi sighed again.

Wario: So there was something we were missing. And I had a feeling that a lot of the stuff in my room were connected to the others. My only regret? Not realizing this sooner enough.

"Well, what's in your room?" Yoshi asked back.

"Hmm, if I were to tell you, it'd be a chockful," Wario replied, "but there's a TV, a DVD player, a DVD inside it for a spray tan commercial, two enormous beds, sheets, a cow stuffed animal, a book shelf with too many books, and this radio that just won't shut up, which I'm now suspicious Vivian controls with a remote in her own bedroom. Or at least we assume."

"Oh, well," said Yoshi, amused. "Those are some pretty funny...wait, did you say a cow stuffed animal?"

"Yeah," said Wario, looking at the plushie in his hand and shrugging, his face perplexed. "Why? I mean, it's just a plushie, isn't it?" There was silence.

"Hold on a second," Yoshi said, and he hung up. Yoshi immediately went to his fridge, uncertain at first, but then opened it, letting cold air flow into his room again.

"Cow stuffed animal," he said, searching through the bottles in his refrigerator. "Could that mean...Moo-moo milk?" At last, after pulling out bottle after bottle, he found the one container he was looking for.

"There's nothing on this!" Looking at the label of the milk carton, besides the brand's name and a picture of a cow, no other text or images were revealing. But as Yoshi examined the bottle once more, he saw one more imprinted piece of writing on the bottom corner of the bottle that caught his eye: the expiration date.

10-18-08.

"Expired three years ago...it can't be," Yoshi decided. Determined, he stood up, bottle in his hand as he walked over to the door of his hotel room. His fingers went over the cold keys of his digital lock, as he began pressing down digits.

Yoshi: I really was at the end of my rope for answers. I was typing in numbers from a milk carton, but even still...something compelled me to keep on going and punch in those numbers. Maybe I was wrong, or right. But I only had one guess, and this was it. I had to decide.

"Ten," he said, his fingers pressing down on the buttons as his other hand held the bottle of milk. "Eighteen. Zero." He went to press one more final button, his eyes closed.

"Eight." Even when he typed in the last number of the digital code, Yoshi still shook his head, having no hope for the event that was to happen a second later.

CLICK!

His eyes wide open, Yoshi saw his hotel door open up, fully unlocked, as even more cold air seeped into his room.

"WARIO! VIVIAN! I'M OUTSIDE!"

His voice so loud, Wario turned around in his own room to face his own door, stunned for a moment.

"Wait," Wario said, flabbergasted, talking to Vivian on the phone. "Did I just hear...Yoshi shouting?"

"From where?" Vivian asked, looking confused. "I don't know what you're talking about, sorry."

"I think he might be outside his room," he said, and he was right. As Yoshi looked at the floor he was on, he became baffled, due to the fact that he never saw Wario sequestered. Never the less, he ran as fast as he could through the floor, yelling.

"Hey, here!" Wario said, banging on his own door. Yoshi stopped, then ran to the noise at the end of the third floor, to the door at the very end of the row he was in. Wario banged again.

"Wario?" Yoshi asked, standing in front of his door.

"Hey! You're out of your room!" said Wario, a little flabbergasted. "Nice going. How'd you get your lock open anyway?"

"Milk carton," Yoshi said excitedly, through the door. "I followed your cow stuffed animal clue. The expiration date, actually, was fake on the milk carton. I just entered it, and whala. Click!" Wario's face looked confused.

"All right, well," Wario replied, "we still need to get out of our own rooms! And just because you're out doesn't mean you're done. You have to still go back to your room and get more clues, right?" Yoshi nodded eagerly, though Wario couldn't see him.

"This is like, our last teamwork effort," Yoshi said, smiling light-heartedly. "I'll do my best. Just give me some slack, yah?"

"Get that anagram!" Wario called out, hearing his footsteps disappear. As he realized he was alone again, Wario sighed, looking at his bookshelf with aggravation. He slowly walked up to it, grabbing a first book, putting it down, and then grabbing a second book.

"Is my combination really here?" he said with disbelief. Before he could let out an umpteenth grunt of frustration, his phone rang, as he picked it up.

"Hi, Wario," Vivian said, sounding a little happier. "I heard that Yoshi is out of his room!"

"I know," said Wario, grinning. "That's great! Thanks for reminding us that we had to work together, Vivian."

"Well, we want to win this, right?" Vivian said, shrugging. "Yoshi's out. So let's just keep this up."

"Now we just have to get out ourselves, right?" said Wario, happier. "I knew we would get this mission done in time." Vivian's voice changed, as her face turned worried.

"Well, actually," said Vivian, her voice sounding less happier than before. "I found this clock under one of my seat cushions. And...I really don't think it's a real clock at all."

"Huh?" said Wario. Vivian only looked at the numbers on her clock carefully.

"It's a timer for our final game," she said, sounding even more worried. "And we've lost over half of our time already." Wario gave out a small sound of frustration, but only spoke more into his telephone.

"Well, what else can we do but do what we've always done before?" Wario said. "Panic." Vivian smiled, and then looked at her clock again, still with apprehension but with small hope as well.

44 MINUTES REMAINING

The timer for their final game was counting down. In less than an hour, all would be finished. It was up to the Mole to choose what to do, and the other players to either go against the Mole or work with the game's saboteur to the end in order to succeed.

And just two parts left! The players play their last mission of mystery and intelligence within Sirena beach, with determination! And with the Mole present, can they really win this last game? What other shock might come in store for them? All will be answered, next chapter!

I can't thank you readers all enough! Really, you make this story keep going and going, and I don't want this to end at all :( But I'll know that you guys have really made it possible for me, so thank you all so much :) You guys are so amazing! FREE MOLE FOOD FOR EVERYONE, NYA?

Just two parts more. It's up to the Mole and their two companions to solve the final moments of this vacation! And very soon, all will end. Stay tuned...