NOo LOL WHY IS THIS QUICK UPDATE? I saw some of you just review, and then I carelessly upload this fourth part. If you're one of those people (that I described at the end of last chapter) who don't like to be served their food so fast, I apologize! Dx.
But thank you all so much! If I look at it, I guess I am quite glad I was able to update sooner, opposed to later : ) so yes! I am glad. Thank you guys so much, once again! You all mean so much to my speedy updates : )
Anyways, Mission 2 has just begun! I do hope it plays out well for the players. Nothing is as easy as it seems at first, it appears. Enjoy!
Episode 1 (PART 4)
"All these…objects!"
The store's inside was a baffling and exquisite view for the players. All the normal items that were supposed to be present and normally sold on a regular day in Yold Town were nowhere to be seen. Instead, what was scattered in front of the players were shelves upon cabinets of unique items, with each object on sale having a different price tag attached to its front in bold marker.
"Oh, pardon me," Zess T. said quickly and in a jokingly manner, ducking to avoid a pair of shoes which were hanging on a string from the ceiling. Seen amuck in the store were various, random objects, literally hanging in front of the players' noses, attached to strings that hung down from the store's top.
"Welcome to the shop of Yold Town!" said the temporary store owner of the store from the desk near the front. "I hope you enjoy your unique shopping experience."
"What…huh…oh, it would be you," Bowser Jr. said with exasperation, seeing McHallyboo seated behind the counter.
"As the money spenders in this game, you will be the shoppers," McHallyboo explained. "You must each, before forty minutes is over from this point, buy an object that is crucial in identifying you."
"And in the end, the three archeologists must determine which person bought which object?" Zess confirmed. McHallyboo nodded.
"Correcto!" the players faced the objects.
"Oh, look at this pen," Mimi said, grabbing a gem-covered pen that was on the shelf. "It's so pretty!" She looked at its price tag: 150 coins.
"ONE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY COINS?" Mimi cried. "What kind of shop is this!"
"How much do we even have, guys?" wondered Bowser Jr, as everyone took out their coins and put them on the counter before them. As they counted, they saw that their total piled up to no more than thirty coins in total.
"Man, that's not enough for anything," Bowser Jr. said, sighing. "We can't afford half these items yet!"
"I really want something expensive," Mimi wailed.
"But we can't buy anything here, not with the money we have," Zess realized, "Or rather, lack of money! Look!" She picked up a spatula from a shelf, seeing its ridiculous price tag of 168 coins.
"We have to go back," Bowser Jr. said. "Let's hope the others have uncovered more treasure!" The four shoppers could only return back to the sand lot of the shop, leaving the store that they considered to be as repelling and difficult as ever. But little did they know, the interior of the store was about to become even more discouraging and deterring the next time the four of them would enter.
"Second dump of sand, in three…two…one…" Snifit had dug into the rich-filled sand of land once again with his excavator, and had retrieved another bucket of sand for his two teammates.
"Button pressed; it is emptying! Sand attack initiated. Sorry again!" The sand dumped once again onto Dashell and Tiny Kong, who were better prepared than their first time. However, the sand attack was no less intense than it was their first time either, and both players were knocked to the ground from the sand load's pressure.
Tiny Kong: Like, we tried to keep our posture as the bucket of sand was poured onto us, but it was just so strong, we were both knocked to the bottom of the trashc canister
Dashell: I didn't even dare to breathe every time the sand was dumped. Otherwise, I'd probably be eating a sand sandwhich.
"Okay, search!" The container, filled with more sand that before, began to get scavenged by the two hunters, who had no other option but to use their hands like shovels. Each shiny coin they came across, they threw to the pavement besides them on the ground.
"It really is like searching in a playground for coins," Tiny laughed, using her hands to pick up piles of sand and throw them out of the canister. "Just, not so kid-friendly."
"McHallyboo said something in my walkie-talkie," Snifit told them, from the window of his excavator. "You are not allowed to get any coins that fall to the floor out of the trash container. You can't leave the container."
"Roger," confirmed Dashell. "We won't."
"Hey guys!" called out Bowser Jr to them, the four shopped returning back to the sand area base. "We don't have enough coins for anything! The items are like, mad-priced!"
"Ooh, nice findings," Mimi said, as the players tried to grab from the ground as many coins as they could and into their pockets.
"It is best we retrieve at least thirty or so coins," Eclair insisted. "Going back and forth to the store continuously will tire our energy. We must first gather."
"Okay, then we'll keep on searching," Dashell said, and he and Tiny could only use their hands to scoop and find as many coins as they could, unaware of the digging tools that existed just a few feet away from them.
"Hmm…I wonder what activities the others are partaking in right now," Piantissimo thought, a little irritated with his role in the game. "Our roles are very uneventful, so it is fun to imagine their roles in my head."
"Well, it is nice to sit back and reflect on things, especially when there is just such a plethora of things to think about in this game," Flurrie said, smiling with relaxation. "We should consider ourselves quite lucky." They saw the group of four players, at the shop in the very distance, run out of the store and head back to where they had come from. However, they were at a distance so far that they could not tell who each player was.
"Who is that…Snifit?" Dry Bones thought he saw.
"I believe that was definitely the shape of Dashell," Flurrie spoke in a voice of certainty.
The three of them suddenly all turned, as they heard the walkie-talkie from Dry Bones' pocket produce static.
"zzz…pstzzttt….Hello?" came the voice of McHallyboo.
"Hi, hi!" Dry Bones said, taking out and holding the walkie-talkie to his head. "McHallyboo? We thought you were trying to speak to us."
"Yes, it is me" said the host, as they heard him clear his throat from the walkie-talkie. "I just wanted to make sure you're all there."
"Yep, it's not like we're doing anything of activity," Piantissimo spoke with bored eyes.
"You might think that your roles in this game are saved for the end. But you all have a greater role than that. The three of you all have the chance to earn an exemption." The three of them paused suddenly and looked at each other.
"Oh…do elaborate," Flurrie continued. "I believe we would all be interested."
"On the back of your walkie-talkie are three buttons," McHallyboo said. "Turn it over." Dry Bones turned the device over, and on its back were three protruding circles, all of different shades of color that made the three players wonder.
"Blue…black…yellow?" Dry Bones wondered, looking at the three buttons.
"Each of you own a button," McHallyboo said. "Piantissimo, you have control over the blue button. Dry Bones, the black one. And Flurrie, the yellow button. In order to all gain the equal opportunity to do a lottery for an exemption, you must each press your respective buttons sometime in the next thirty minutes. After that, once this game is over, one of you will be randomly selected to earn an exemption."
"Okay…" said Flurrie, a little carefully. "But just what exactly does each button do in this game?"
"The blue button," McHallyboo began, "will emit a sleeping gas within this store that I am in. It can put a large dragon to sleep within minutes, if inhaled directly. The shoppers will suffer it if they enter the store." The players looked at each other with alarm.
"A sleeping gas?" Dry Bones said, with incredulity. "That's not safe! What if someone's allergic to it? Or chokes to death!"
"The black button will turn all the lights in the shop temporarily," McHallyboo went on. "Press it, and the players will be in darkness, unable to see their items." Flurrie looked at the yellow button.
"What does my button entail?" Flurrie asked with concern.
"It will activate a current in the shop…and every object on sale that the players touch will emit an electrical shock to them." Flurrie looked horrified.
"An electric shock!" she reiterated with incredulity. "Why! That is fairly unpleasant!"
"For an exemption, you'd be surprised what can change," McHallyboo said. "So in order to all run for the chance at an exemption, you must each press your respective buttons. Manipulate the shop." They weren't sure if they heard McHallyboo laugh or not in the background.
"Well, carry on now." The walkie-talkie flickered off. Dry Bones just looked up at his teammates, face flabbergasted.
"Hmm…you see…it is simply temporary pain for our teammates," Piantissimo said, looking at the others around him as well. "We must think like that. Only temporary pain. Nothing terrible at all." But even his face showed the slightest of uncertainty.
"I'd hate to say it, but…it is very tempting," Flurrie told them. "Though…I'm just oh-so worried about the shocking part of this offer. It sounds dangerous."
"You know...this game isn't any better or less dangerous than the first one," Dry Bones realized, and they all realized that he was right.
"Twenty-eight…twenty-nine…thirty!" Bowser Jr. shouted, counting the retrieved coins that he and his teammates had counted one by one.
"I think we have enough to buy at least one of those expensive objects," Zess said, standing up and pointing to the store behind them. "Let's go back!" The four of them made their way back to the store's front, on the other side. As close as it was to them, it was still a hassle to keep on transitioning from the store's inside to the sand lot behind it, especially with the fact that a high ledge that they were forced to climb separated both areas of the game.
"Phew…wow," said Tiny, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "That was so hard! Finding thirty coins to give to the other players. If they didn't force us to look, a lot of coins might have gone undiscovered."
"Yeah, true that," Dashell said, wiping sand from himself. "It's like a gold mine in here." The two of them were actually sitting down at the bottom of the large container, upon the sand, like two exhausted kids in a sand play area.
"So, who do you think is the most suspicious in our group so far?" Tiny asked Dashell. "You don't have to tell me the truth, but it would be cool if you did. I just want to know what others are thinking in this game."
Dashell: I didn't think it was nosy, but it was something to definitely consider in this game, whether you should be truthful to some people and not truthful to others. But, I decided to be truthful.
"You know who's suspicious?" Dashell said. "Snifit."
"Oh gosh…shh!" Tiny said, wanting to jump up and cover his mouth. "He's right above us! What if he hears you?"
"I don't think it'd make a difference if he knew or not," Dashell told her. "Do you think it would?" Tiny thought for a second, but then shook her head.
"Anyways, I said he was suspicious…but I don't think he's the Mole," Dashell elaborated. "He's just a good suspect...in my opinion. He could be still be it though. They're all good suspects, actually." He stopped talking, and Tiny realized that it was her turn to return the question.
"I think it might either be Mimi or Piantissimo," Tiny decided to say. "And as much as I think Piantissimo is such a cocky character…you know, it would be a good cover up. With him being the most competitive."
"Yeah…I never thought about that." Dashell thought. "To be looking like your only game is to win, when you're the Mole. Do you think there's something deeper to what he's trying to show us?"
"If he's the Mole, this whole game is screwed up," Tiny said, laughing. "But, yeah. Piantissimo just strikes me odd." She thought.
"And Mimi, she's so innocent, but then you know there's something evil in that girl," Dashell said with a shake and a grin.
"Mimi's nice though," Tiny admitted. "If you look past her whole spoiled attitude, she's actually surprisingly nice to hang with!"
"You know what's shocking?" Dashell spoke up. "Bowser Jr. He's even nicer than I thought he'd be. I guess he does get a lot of bad reputation, being Bowser's offspring and all. On second thought, Bowser's not exactly the baddest guy either."
"Hmm…speaking of kindness, Princess Éclair is extremely kind. I guess it's her princess background. Do you think she's nice too?"
"Éclair?" Dashell cough, his voice altering. "Yeah…she's...nice." The two of them heard the excavator roar outside again.
"Anyways, we should like, focus on our game that's happening right now, and not on other things," Tiny said, shaking her head. "This game is too tiring to think of more than one thing at once." She paused.
"Hey, I wonder why Snifit is taking so long."
"Yeah, that's strange. Why is he taking so long?" Dashell wondered, and as soon as he said that, a familiar shadow loomed over them once again. It was the shadow of the excavator.
"Sorry," came the voice of Snifit, from above them. "The machine was running into some troubles. Slowing down, not moving. But don't worry. I am about to dump the third pile of sand."
"Bring it," Dashell called out above him, ready. The two players stood up, ready to take, once again, another hit each.
"I have thought once about it, and I am ready," Piantissimo said, reaching over to the walkie-talkie in Dry Bones' hands. "I will press my blue button."
"No, no!" Dry Bones said, pulling away. "That's mean! And it might be poisonous to them!"
"You're…quite a riot," Piantissimo said, and he reached over and grabbed the walkie-talkie from the player's grip, who was stunned.
"Whenever you feel the need to take an important action," Flurrie said, almost in a voice of both caution and wisdom, "You must think twice about it, especially if it's something that will affect other people to a great level." Piantissimo looked at the cloud spirit, then back at the remote, his eyes furrowing.
"Ah…what! We barely have fifty coins?" The four shoppers had made it back into the shop for a second round, and counted the money they brought back with both disappointment but optimism.
"Look, I found a shelf full of a lot of cheap little things!" Mimi said, opening the bottom shelf of the multitude that lay within the shop. "Thirty coins, thirty-five coins…wow, twenty coins!" She held up a flower vase.
"We must not be so eager to buy a cheap object," Zess said with caution. "It may be cheap, but it may not help the archeologists in discovering who we are."
"You're right," Mimi said, half-closing the shelf. "It's not good to rush things. But, I'm going to look anyway!"
"I have found a very beautiful embroidered handkerchief, with the word, 'Majesty' on it," Éclair noticed, picking up the object. "It is almost like a handkerchief for a princess. But it is one-hundred and sixty coins, and I am afraid I cannot afford it."
"It's like they put objects in here that purposeful match to us, but we can't afford!" Mimi noticed. "What a mean trick!"
"Hey, look…there's a lighter here for one-hundred coins," Bowser Jr. said, picking up the metal object in the corner of the room. "You think it'll match me? Like, fire?"
"It is excellent," Éclair said, looking at Bowser. "But it may be mistaken for Zess, for she is a chef and likes to cook. The fire is ambiguous…it may fit both of you." Bowser Jr. groaned, nodding.
"Why do we overlap so much?" Bowser Jr. said with dismay. He yawned out loud, then looked at the shelf besides him.
"How about this funny object?" Bowser Jr. continued, noticing something on a shelf catching his eye. He picked up a spiky bracelet from the top of the shelf.
"Oh!" Éclair realized. "Its design slightly resembles your back."
"A spiky bracelet?" Zess said, looking over at him. "I don't think that would describe you very well. "
"But who else would the archeologists think the bracelet would be for?" Bowser Jr. pointed out. "You? Mimi? Éclair?"
" Anything can be interpreted for it," Zess told him, almost as if she was shooing it away with her hand. "I'd choose something else that describes you, in personality."
Bowser Jr: I thought it was a good pick that would make the others think it was me. But her words were convincing, so I put it away.
"Huh...well, if any of you find something that you want to select, let's all agree on it," Bowser Jr. suggested to them all. He let out a small yawn, once again.
"Oh, a dress," Éclair said, seeing a rack near the back of the store full of attire. "It is of similar design to mine, and it is not as expensive as the other dresses." She looked at its price tag: 83 coins.
"Huh…this game tires me a lot," Bowser Jr. said, taking a seat on the stool besides McHallyboo's desk. "I probably didn't get enough sleep last night."
"I agree,"" Mimi said, looking up from the shelf she was searching through. "Why, I'm not enjoying this game as much as I thought I would enjoy it! Hmph." She suddenly let out a small yawn, like Bowser Jr. had, as if she had just woken up from sleep.
"You youngin's!" Zess said, almost in a light scolding voice. "There's no time to become tired during a mission! Especially one this important. Let's continue looking!"
"McHallyboo...where is our host anyway?" Bowser Jr. noticed, looking besides him at the empty seat behind the counter. "The owner of this store is gone, I guess." The host of the game indeed did leave the shop, but for the reason that he did not want to become victim to the many other things the players in the store had to endure later on.
"Well, time to go back!" Zess said, opening the door and heading out. Éclair and Mimi followed her as well. Bowser Jr., however, remained on his stool.
"Will you follow us as well, Bowser Jr?" Éclair asked the player behind her.
"Go ahead to get the coins!" Bowser Jr. told her, still sitting on his stool and lying against the wall of the store. "I'm just gonna rest. Not enough energy, which just stinks. I should be okay."
"Please rest very well." Bowser Jr. nodded. The door of the building was closed shut.
"I feel like a witness to a crime," Dry Bones said, hanging his head. "I just saw you emit sleeping gas to the other players." Piantissimo looked at his remote, and shrugged.
"It would be done anyway, even if I had given the action a second thought or not," he replied.
"Perhaps if you had given it a third thought, something may have changed," Flurrie said to him. Piantissimo looked down at the remote, and his face looked slightly sorry.
"Ah, well, I do believe they are feeling the effects of the gas," Flurrie said, peering into the distance and seeing one of the figures stumble out of the store, almost in an awkward manner.
Flurrie: Oh dear…what sinister things had entered into our mind that allowed us to commit an act against our dear friends? This will be hard to be forgiven for in the future.
The student of the game got up from his stool, boosted and deciding to look around the store a little more. Even though he was tired, he had the feeling that he could find something crucial in a treasure chest, draped under one of the table clothes and hidden from normal eye view. He had spotted it earlier, but did not pull it out then: he had to be alone to retrieve it.
"Sorry players, but there might be an exemption in here," Bowser Jr. said, his voice more curious than ever. He took out the treasure chest, which was small in size, from under the table, then with a small twist, unlocked the latch of the chest. He threw the cover open.
"All right!" he said, discovering coins within the chest. "But what else is here...huh?" Among the fifteen coins that were hidden in the chest was an object that immediately perked his curiosity and confusion even more. It was a small, wooden figurine, and picking it up in his hands, he realized that it was shaped into an animal that was more familiar to him than he thought.
"A…mole?" he deduced. He looked at its price tag: 250 coins.
"It's not like we can buy this," he said with a shrug. He searched the chest more, but to his small disappointment, there was no exemption.
"Ah, oh well. Can't get everything." He put the wooden Mole figurine back into the chest, pocketed the coins he had discovered, and, very carefully, shut the treasure chest closed and placed it back under the table he had found it under. He then sat back at his stool, waiting for the others to come. But for some odd reason that was not made privy to him, he began to realize that the more he rested within the dangerous walls of the building, the more and more tired he became.
"I am dumping the sand! Round five!"
"Okay, we're ready!" At this delivery of the grains of sand, Snifit seemed to back his excavator a small bit. It was farther away than it usually was from the trash dumpster, but as the bucket emptied, only half of the sand had gone into the trash dumpster, and half had littered the outside ground of sand.
"Oh darn," he said, realizing the error of his dump. "I missed the container. Some went in. Some didn't."
"Oh man," Tiny said, looking up at him. "But that's okay. Hopefully there wasn't like an emerald diamond that dropped out." She laughed, but even still, there was so much sand in the container that it was already above Tiny's knees.
"Don't worry, Snifit's a fast guy," Dashell reminded. "But he keeps on having…technological glitches." Indeed, both Tiny and Dashell realized that at times during his travels, Snifit's machine would seemingly pause, almost as if the machine was going through a technological error of function.
"You don't think…nah," Dashell said. "He couldn't just be pausing on purpose. Unless he was…"
"The agent?" Tiny said. The three other shoppers arrived from the shop.
"Ah, much more coins!" Zess said, arriving and looking pleased at the pile that had formed besides the trash canister. "This will help us a lot!" Mimi and Éclair began to scoop coins as well.
"Where's Bowser Jr?" Dashell asked, peeping over the edge of the container they were in.
"He said he wanted to rest his body," Éclair said, as confused as the rest of the players. "So he is back in the shop."
"Odd...he's always full of energy," Tiny said. As the three players went back to the shop with new-found money, Tiny stood up, feeling something from the pile of sand beneath her.
"What's this?" she wondered, picking up a circular disc-shaped object from within the sand. "It must have been buried…oh." It was a sifter. Tiny and Dashell looked at each other, both happy their game just got a little bit more advantageous.
"Come on," said Piantissimo, his voice strangely luring. He walked behind Dry Bones back.
"You know you want to press that button. Every normal player would do it. Nothing to be guilty of!"
Piantissimo: I was basically going all the way to get Dry Bones and Flurrie to press their buttons. What more can a player in this game do? I needed to appear as one.
"You do know, for every button we press," Flurrie reminded him, "we are simply losing money from the pot as well. Hindering our teammates will hinder their performance, and…oh, just so conflicting." She let out a sigh, closing her eyes.
"We're back!" Mimi announced, as they opened the door to the shop that they were very familiar with. They entered back into its inside, as Zess sniffed the air.
"There's an odd smell," she noticed. "I just know it."
"Bowser Jr, I am happy to say that we…Bowser Jr?" Éclair called carefully into the room. The stool, which the player had previously sitting on before they left the shop, was no empty.
"Where is…oh my gosh!" The three females saw that on the wooden floor, in an awkward position and clearly not conscious or awake at the moment, was the body of the player. As Mimi shrieked with fear, Zess and Éclair ran up to Bowser Jr, who was lying motionless on the shop's ground.
"What is the matter with him?" Éclair wondered with alarm. "There is probably something he had eaten!" They both saw that Bowser Jr. was indeed alive, and that his body was taking heavy, long breaths. Overall, and to their relief of the players, they saw that his mouth was letting out small sounds, as if one was peacefully snoring.
"It appears he is sleeping," Éclair noticed, her face baffled. "But that is so peculiar. How did he transition from sitting in a chair to lying on the floor?"
"He must have fallen off from his stool," Mimi said, wide-eyed. "But then…why on Earth didn't he wake up?" Bowser Jr. shifted slightly in his sleep.
"I just KNOW there's a peculiar smell in here," Zess said suspiciously, looking around the room. "As a chef, my nose has been sharpened to detect the tiniest and most abnormal of scents."
"Do you think that there's like…oh my gosh, something in the air that's making us all sleep?" Mimi wondered out loud.
"A gas?" Eclair spoke with alarm. "Could it possibly be? It seems...very incomprehensible."
"Nonsense!" Zess spoke, shaking the thought away. "If there was, we would all be sleeping by now. Oh dear, what do we do now? One of our players is sleeping." They tried to shake Bowser Jr, but his motionless told them that he would not be waking up for at least the next many minutes.
"Do you think we're allowed to purchase an object in his place?" Mimi wondered. "Since he can't do it anymore?"
"It is so much more difficult now," Éclair realized, "because we must pick an object for a player we have only known for two days." Bowser Jr. let out a loud snore.
"Okay!" said Dry Bones, almost as if he finally snapped. He suddenly, without warning, pressed down on the black button on the back of the walkie-talkie.
"Dry Bones!" Flurrie said, in a disbelieving voice. Dry Bones looked apologetic.
"Okay, I snapped," Dry Bones admitted in a sorry voice.
"That is not a good excuse," Flurrie said, in a small scolding voice. But she looked at the remote with a sigh.
Flurrie: The temptation…it was drawing close. It was a feeling that I just ever so hated.
Though they all cared about the players' situation within the shop, there was something more on all three of their minds that they all wanted to grasp: an important, critical card of green and security.
"It's so much more difficult now, you're right," said Zess. "How do we know Bowser Jr more than himself? We don't!"
"I think it's all just a-" Suddenly, a loud swoosh sound was heard, and before they knew it, every light in the inside of the store vanished and shut off, leaving the four players in a large room of darkness. Window-less, and in the dark, the three players let out exclamations of panic.
"AHHHHHH!" Mimi let out the first yell. Even Bowser Jr. seemed to snore just a little bit.
"Oh my gosh, the lights!" Mimi exclaimed with anxiety. "What do we do?"
"Please do not worry," Éclair said reassuringly, "for I will get us light. Please wait." She felt her way to the door of the shop to open it. She pulled, but to her surprise, nothing happened.
"Oh no…it appears the door is not opening," she realized, then turned to the others in the darkness. "If I were to unfortunately presume...I believe we are trapped."
"It's locked?" Mimi shouted. "No! Does that mean we're stuck in darkness until the game ends?"
"What is our time limit?" Zess said, getting more concerned. "We only have, if I were to guess, ten minutes remaining in this game." She was about right: as the game drew closer to its finish, they realized that there was not much time remaining until their time limit expired for the game.
"I may know a way," Éclair suddenly realized, and she made her way towards the end of the store, in the dark blindness of it all. She was reaching forwards, feeling in the dark and making sure she did not bump into anything.
"Éclair! Where are you?" Mimi gasped. "What are you trying to do?"
"Do not worry," Éclair said, feeling around. "I am trying to find an object that Bowser Jr. had discovered earlier. Perhaps it will help us to see in this dark…." Suddenly, she felt something, and grabbed it into her hand. With a small click, a small but significant fire rose up from the darkness of it all. It shined so much, that some of the objects on a surrounding shelf, though still shaded with black, were visible to them.
"Brilliant, girl!" Zess said, clapping her hands in the dark. "Since when did I lose such smartness when I was in my younger days?"
"It is of nothing, but thank you," Eclair said, smiling with relief. "At least we can see now. I am thankful." She held the flame up and carefully began to search the shelves.
"I'm happy we can see, but it's still sooo scary," Mimi noticed.
"Where on Earth are they?" Tiny said with confusion, peeking out from out of the trash canister. "They haven't been back for like ten whole minutes! And there's so much money we found!"
"I really don't know where they are…duck!" said Dashell, as an eighth bucket of sand was emptied into the container. Now, the amount of sand was so immense that the container the two players were in resembled a miniature sandlot itself: two-thirds of the container was completely taken by the existence of sand, and the remaining third of air was all that was left to keep the two of them alive.
"Even with this sifter, it's still hard to get coins!" Tiny noticed, trying to lift the lower-half of the body, which was buried completely, as much out of the sand as possible.
"There are only eight minutes remaining for this game," Snifit called from above them, as he went to dump another load of sand into the container. In very soon time however, the entire container would be filled with sand, and Dashell and Tiny could only fear the worst until it was over.
"Ah…wait, why is he coming here?" The three players that were separated from the main area of the game saw a figure making their way to them. Walking in unhurried steps to their place, the three of them could only wonder what message he had in store.
McHallyboo smiled. "Well, two of the three buttons have been pushed," the host said. "It is all out of your selfishness that you are doing this, but never the less, it is for an exemption." The three players looked self-conscious for a second, but remained upright.
"There are eight minutes remaining for this mission," McHallyboo informed them. "In order for this exemption offer to become complete, the final button must be pressed in the next three minutes." Flurrie looked hesitant.
"Mmhmm…so that final role is mine, is it not?" Flurrie asked again, looking down at the remote walkie-talkie which had passed to her. All eyes turned to the cloud spirit.
"What will be your decision?" he asked. As Flurrie opened her mouth to speak, McHallyboo looked hard at the player.
"I will…well, you see," Flurrie started, closing her eyes for a second, thinking hard. "Yes...I think I know."
Flurrie: I had decided my decision. Yes, it was a decision that may have conflicted to my real personality over the past years…a BIG confliction, if I will say.
"I will make a decision," Flurrie said, looking at the host, "and I will not press the yellow button." Her two teammates, shocked, looked at her with gaping mouths.
"Wh..what?" Piantissimo stuttered.
"I have been in my past years a self-centered person," Flurrie began, facing them all. "When I was growing up as an actress, I would take every opportunity I could to succeed over other people. And even though I had become successful, there were quite those few but strong moments when I would look back and simply have too much guilt. If you very well see, it was the guilt from the memories of disadvantaging someone else in my past for my own, self-centered benefit. It is simply not worth it." She looked at the remote, which was still in her hand.
"So I will not press this silly button, just to help myself and hurt other, nice people," Flurrie said, almost as if speaking to the remote. "Even if one of them is the devious Mole." With a smile of triumph and calmness, she dropped the remote to the dusty ground.
"Well...what a speech" said McHallyboo, impressed himself. Piantissimo looked down at the ground.
"Well, I believe the decision has been made!" McHallyboo announced, looking at the female player. "None of you win the opportunity to gain an exemption, but everything that you put upon your other teammates, the gas and the darkness, will be removed immediately. Nobody will be electricuted. Carry on."
McHallyboo, as soon as he had come, left. Dry Bones and Piantissimo just looked at Flurrie. Their mouths were wide with stunned looks and disbelief
"What?" she said, in a voice of amusement. "Was my decision not shocking enough?"
The lights were back on.
"Bowser Junior!" said Mimi, lifting him up. The sleeping playing had stirred a bit from the sudden boost of light.
"A cook book!" exclaimed Zess. She had been crouching on the ground before the lights had turned on, and when it came back, a stack of magazines and various books were hidden beneath one of the larger shelves in the room. Within the stack was a book of recipes, with a price: 35 coins.
"Zess, that was an amazing find," Éclair said with a smile. "It was a find of sharp eyes and wisdom." Zess knew that the princess was trying to compliment her back.
"Pfft," said Zess, opening the door of the shop again. "Only shows that I got a snooping eye! Oh, and I'll be back to get more treasure from the others. They ought to have found a pile by now." As Zess went off to the sand lot, Éclair noticed something in a bureau, metal and larger than most of the objects present.
"It is…a waffle iron," she realized with awe, taking out the antique object slowly. "It is quite beautiful…and might help us." She looked at the sleeping player on the floor.
"If we used this for Bowser Jr, do you think it will suffice?" the princess asked Mimi. Mimi looked at the player, then at the device.
"Fire…that's right!" Mimi realized. "I think so! But doesn't that look like a cooking object? People might mistake it for Zess!"
"The fortunate thing is," Éclair said with a satisfied smile and looking at another object, "is that Zess already has a cook book. That cookbook, a book of recipes….only a foolish individual would mistake it for someone else's, other than Zess."
"Yeah! The only person who would mistake is…the Mole" Mimi pointed out. "Do you think that Dry Bones, Flurrie, or Piantissimo might sabotage their part of the game?"
"True, if one of them is the Mole," Eclair said with realization, "our efforts are all for naught. But let's not worry about that for now." Éclair paused.
"Oh no, but then I am from the Waffle Kingdom," Éclair said, looking defeated. "I might be mistaken…oh." Her eyes lit up with realization.
"I have not told anyone that," Éclair said with revelation. "I have never divulged to anyone that I am from the waffle kingdom. I am thankful for that." The princess turned the waffle iron upside-down, to study it more.
"Look look look!" Mimi looked over at the device as well. In small text, among the copyright text engraved into the bottom of the waffle iron was a single word that made them surprised to the maximum: the word 'Firemaker Corporation'".
"Fire maker...like a dragon! This object is like, meant for Bowser Jr!" Mimi said excitedly. "We must must must must get it! How much is it?" A price tag was attached to its bottom: 50 coins.
"It does not look like a treasure," Éclair said, "but it may help us win this game. Mimi, have you found something to buy for yourself? I believe we are running out of time."
"Yes, actually!" she said, and she held up something to the princess. They were small in size, but in a pair. She had chosen a pair of earrings, tan in color and curve-shaped.
"Look: crescent-shape earrings," Mimi said. "Look at the label. See, everyone knows I like to wear fancy stuff, so this has to be good for me! And it's so cheap too! Only 10 coins! And you don't even wear earrings so they can't mistake it for you."
"I am choosing the dress I had seen earlier for myself," Éclair said, removing the dress from the rack in the store. "Its design is very similar to mine. But, I do hope we have enough money to buy it. I hope Zess…"
"Girls, I won the jackpot!" the elderly woman cried, bringing in a bucket of gold-glowing mass. "Coins, coins!" It was the biggest collection of coins that any of them had seen for the entire game. Mimi and Éclair stared at it, in wonder of how many coins lay inside.
"Snifit claimed that he found this bag of money within the seat of his excavator machine," Zess said, laughing. "I don't know how he did it, but whoopee!"
"Under his seat?" Mimi wondered. "He actually thought to do that? How smart is he?"
"Zess, I believe we have chosen our four items," Éclair said, who had lined up the objects for her to see. "Please state if you agree or dissent with our choices. I have chosen this dress."
"And me, these pretty earrings, that I don't think anyone would mistake it for anyone else!" Mimi said, showing them to her. "Éclair doesn't wear earrings, so I don't think they would choose her for it."
"You are the cook book, and Bowser Jr," Éclair said, pointing to the important device, "will be the waffle iron. We have both justified his choice on two reasons: my history of being from the Waffle Kingdom was never divulged to anyone, and that the cook book will outweigh you for being chosen for this device, which cooks food as well."
"You're from a kingdom full of waffles?" Zess said, flabbergasted. "Never knew. And sure! As long as it wasn't that horrid spiky black bracelet Bowser Jr. was trying to suggest. I don't think that would justify him at all."
"I think we're set," said Mimi, looking at her partners happily. All of a sudden, they heard the loudest snore, as a player woke from his slumber.
"Hey…hey guys, what are you all standing there for?" Bowser Jr. said, a little groggy from his sleep and shaking his head. "Let's go complete this mission! We're running out of time! We haven't even selected our objects yet!" The three females could only chuckle at the young and still-groggy player's statement.
"Ah, I believe we are done with this…sandy mission," Tiny said, her voice relieved. "Thank goodness we can get out of this!" They had been notified by Snifit via his walkie-talkie that the timer expired.
"I'm out of this compartment!" Dashell hopped out first, and went to help the player who was stepping her way out of the tall trash dumpster.
"Grab my hand, I got you…hold on," said Dashell, reaching up to the exiting player.
"My shoe is stuck…there!" said Tiny, hopping down with Dashell's assistance. But as Tiny Kong hit the ground, something else hit the ground as well, and Dashell stopped. He had seen a coin, fall to the ground, but before it had hit the pavement he had seen it come directly out of the front pocket of Tiny Kong's pants.
"A coin?" Tiny said, bewildered and looking around.
"Yep," said Dashell, then after a slight pause, decided to add, "I think I saw it fall from your pocket."
"Oh," Tiny Kong said with disbelief, laughing. "I guess it must have fallen into my pocket as the sand dumped on us. That container was so strenuous. I guess we didn't get everything."
Dashell: Maybe I should have questioned her more at that moment, but I didn't. Maybe it was something, or maybe it was nothing.
"Hey Snifit, had a fun time digging to your pleasure…like the mole would dig?" Tiny joked, seeing the masked player make his way over to them.
"It was actually really fun," Snifit replied, his hands in his pockets. He then looked at the two of them.
"Would any of you like to trade?" he said suddenly. Both Dashell and Tiny Kong looked at him, a little oddly.
"Trade…you're talking as if you have something valuable right now that's tradable," Dashell said, slightly amused, and looked back forwards.
"That's because I do," Snifit said, his eyes glowing underneath his mask. "You see, I have an exemption."
OHHH...snap. These players are just so secretive, and delivering surprises one by one. It's scary D:
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Mission 2 was definitely an interesting, multi-layered game. In my head at first, I had no idea how it would play out! But I'm happy it went smoothly : )
Anyways, you all had some very awesome and interesting viewpoints, in your reviews, and theories too! I really love seeing and reading them all! : ) they are either so creative, or so right! Anyways, let's see...
sixthsense6: Excellent hashtag xD. And yes, some players just change in characteristics, and others don't! It's quite an interesting mix.
PSULucky: Congrats! I believe you were correct about the "grandest treasure" bit! Very nice eye indeed. And about the players, I do agree that they finally began shaping up. I'm happy you see that! Some of them are definitely shady, but there's always another alternate dimension to their supposed images. Besides one of them being the Mole! heh. As for the "clue" you had discovered, do not be afraid to state it any time! I am so curious on what readers have found and what not. : )
Moley Koopa: Yes, haha! It's almost as if the mission was designed to be sabotage-able (is that a word?) to the players! So good for the Mole. And like I said before, with any clues you have found, feel free to state them in a review any time!
AdmiralBobbery: Thank you sir!A great suspects list and deduction of suspects. And yes, as the game goes on, you'll see more of who the characters are, and what comes out from them, because some things are ambiguous. And about quick updates, I guess that'll be happening more this season, so I am happy for that! xD Thank you, Admiral Bobbery!
Blucad: That was indeed, a wonderful, superb analyzation! I must genuinely thank you for writing your words and theory, because I very well enjoyed reading it very much : ) And also, it makes me really happy that you went to analyze the dreams in the story. They are not random and do have meaning, so I'm happy you put thought into that : ) Ah, and your mention of Season 2 brings me fond memories. I'm glad you liked (insert character). I guess I made him likeable as the game went, hehe, cause I liked him very much too actually!
FireKai: Ah, that is a greatly written theory! Hmm, I believe, on next part, part of it may or may not be answered! I guess we will both see xD And about Snifit, correcto-mundo! You also get a cookie! Either way, your last part of your review made me shed an inner tear and I thank you for your words like always, Firekai!
fredthemontymole:Hello hello hello! It is great to see you there, sir : ) and yes, I am happy you will be able to tag along with the story as well! I look forward to your words! Very nice perspectives and analyzing on some of the players, I must say. About your Vera Claythorne and Philip Lombard mention, I do know they are characters in And Then They Were None, never read the book. So I did a quick google run through. but I think I know what you're saying! Good analyzing, yus.
Princess Toady: I really do like your suspects list and favorite characters too! Maybe know a little bit more than most people because you were a very Mole yourself? : ) hehe. But your suspect theories are very great as well and I enjoyed looking and thinking about them as well! And I must say, I was very amused by your list of characters you weren't particular of. Some players, in my past seasons, I would feel like slapping them too. xD
Coooool123: Thank you! And yes, I guess I SHOULD elaborate on the whole "McHallyboo/McBallyhoo" character aspect, hehe. So being quite not as intelligent in my first series, I did not bother looking up more on the host's name spelling, and went ahead with claiming him as "McHallyboo". Then I realized that not only was his name McBallyboo, the MC part was a completely different name title. So! I just kept with "McHallyboo", because, one, I was already in Episode 2 when I realized this error. And second: at this point. I consider McHallyboo as a DIFFERENT dimension of the actual Mc Ballyhoo. Except this character dedicates his time to hosting awesome Mole games. I hope that made a little more sense to you! If it didn't, don't worry. I'm not surprised : )
Anyways, thank you all so very much once again! You all make this wonderful and going on. Oh...old fans are going to kill me. But I WON'T BE DOING "FINAL DESTINATION CLUES" ANYMORE! Whaa! -dodges lightning cloud shock-
But yes, I was afraid they gave away too much at some points of who was going to be executed next. So! I will keep them all random for now : )
No one knows you will be executed next...except for the Mole.
OH, AND THERE'S A NEW POLL UP ON MY PROFILE! I would like to do these at the end of before every execution and episode ending. Thank you all! UP TO THREE VOTES! Episode 1: Who is the Mole of The Mole: Agent's Elevation? At the end of the next chapter, I shall display everyone's votes.
The end of Mission 2's sandy game of purchasing and deception, will be concluded and revealed. In addition, along with the Mole's very first victim! Who will be going home in the very first execution of the game? Tension amuck! Stay tuned guys!