ANDDD IT CONTINUES!
Sorry guys! Been busy, but now, I've free! And now...we are four-sixths into the final episode of the game.
I think I've subconsciously been holding off from continuing a fast update to this story because...well….for one simple reason. It's almost the end. I'm only ever going to update this story two more times after this, until the finale of the game.
And with the finale being only around 5 chapters long...it'll all be done.
I love you reviewers and readers so much and I'm happy to have made this journey for you all! As well as a journey for me. But it sounds like I'm saying goodbye now because I don't want the real goodbye to be as sad, haha. thfeilaenclu
(cries).
Anyways, enjoy the continuation of the story! This chapter….really reveals a lot.
And it's almost the end.
FINAL EPISODE (Part 4)
The explosion of light filled the sky at such a fast rate that Piantissimo stumbled backgrounds in surprise, falling onto the grass behind him. The detonation of color seemed to emanate from the farthest horizon of the world, and then in an instant, the entire sky began to emit a resplendent yellow. McHallyboo also grimaced and shielded his own eyes from the immense light, but he was ultimately unyielding to the strong force and did not fall to the floor as the person beside him had.
From far below the hill's pinnacle, the two female players looked in both awe and horror, stepping back with fright at the sky's sudden change. They looked to the sky in wonder.
Eclair. In just one second, the sky had turned from a night black...to the flaring yellow of the morning sky.
Tiny: I could never forget the sight I had seen. It was just...incredible.
The world was still. Above them, the sky glistened, the sun's light reflecting upon the halcyon, autumn-like grass. Settled down, the sky was now a clear blue.
"What happened?" Tiny yelled, running up to the hill's top with Eclair. "Are you guys okay? Are the houses…?" The two females were confused, and slowly their eyes adjusted from the sky's bright explosion. They saw McHallyboo standing next to Piantissimo, who in turn was staring down at the item in his grasp. In Piantissimo's possession was the remote that he had made his decision with, as well as the device that had transformed their entire night into the day's light.
"Welcome to the morning," McHallyboo said, slightly smiling and looking to the sky. "The game is now done." As Piantissimo turned to the host, Tiny glanced nervously at the fate-deciding person.
"Did you…" she began, but Piantissimo shook his head.
"I didn't," Piantissimo told them, his face serious. But as the players looked at him, they could see that he was also smiling. Before the other two could reply, McHallyboo stepped up, ready to speak.
"By pressing the third button on the remote, you made the decision...to not blow up one of the farm houses before you," the host announced. The players seemed stunned.
"They remain safe." The three of them looked out into the distance at the farm houses that held their families. It was nothing less than a tranquil image, and they couldn't be more happy to see the structures safe and standing, remaining in survival from their brutal game.
"I knew," Piantissimo said, nodding a bit, "that there was a chance the families were not truly ours at all." He turned to a tiny shed located in their far distance, with a little smile of relief on his face.
"When my parents called me by "Piantissimo"...I knew in an instant they couldn't at all be real," the player finished. The host nodded, grinning a bit himself.
"And because of that action, twenty thousand coins are added to the pot," McHallyboo continued, and the three players smiled with incredible feelings. For their final episode of the game, it had been their first win. Piantissimo nodded, but he held worried eyes, waiting for the host's next line.
Piantissimo: "And in result, Piantissimo receives a Minus 1!" At least, that's what most of us expected him to say.
"And Piantissimo...you will NOT be awarded a Minus 1 on the final quiz," the host concluded suddenly. As Eclair and Tiny both faced Piantissimo in surprise, the player looked up with a shocked look upon his face.
"No...Minus 1?" Piantissmo repeated, his eyes lighting up. "I..." He paused, seemingly at a loss of words.
"I cannot express my happiness enough," he stated in disbelief, looking surprised. He looked delighted at the host's statement.
"We would never risk a player's score on the last quiz of the game in such a manner," McHallyboo said with a voice of certainty. "And it is a reward for your good choice in this game. Well done. You will not receive a Minus 1." Piantissimo took in the host's words, shaking his head with a wide smile.
"So that means I still have a chance to win the game," Piantissimo said, his grin on his face growing silently. "I can't believe it." Piantissimo looked down at the remote with relief, then turned to face the others. Eclair and Tiny looked at him, smiling as well.
Eclair: I am happy that Piantissimo did not receive the Minus 1…but now, the game is more difficult for us to win. It will be harder on that final quiz. If Piantissimo is a genuine player...then it may mean that my chances are not so secure.
Tiny: It was a little weird. Piantissimo, the player who for this entire game had been fighting for exemptions and Plus 1's mercilessly, willingly decided to take a Minus 1 for the final quiz of the entire game.
"I guess we all have an equal chance now," Piantissimo said, putting out his hand to the others. "I guess I'm back in this game, and my chances aren't over." Eclair and Tiny, with settled emotions, shook his hand in a bit of a playful manner. Though the game was still an individual game, their victory was felt as a trio. As a team, they had won.
Team Pot
190,000 Coins
"I hope you all enjoyed this mission, albeit its cruelty," the host said, adjusting his bow. "Because this was your last game before, well...your final mission ever." In hearing McHallyboo's announcement, the players looked up at McHallyboo with feelings of disbelief.
"Our next game is..our final game?" Tiny exclaimed, her face incredulous. "There's...no way it's almost the end. Don't we have so much else left, McHallyboo?" The other two seemed stunned as well.
Piantissimo: It had been a long journey….and finally, everything would come to a close.
"I don't see what else is left to play," Piantissimo said with a shrug. "We have done so much." He looked at his own land around him.
"When this day hits nighttime," McHallyboo said, "you will meet me at that barn over there." While he spoke, he pointed to a red-colored edifice in the distance as the players looked out to it. It was a building that looked no different than the others on the land, but McHallyboo's voice was firm in declaration of its importance.
"In there, you will meet me...and your final mission will take place," said the host. With wide eyes, the players looked at the barn and could only wonder in apprehension. In just a few mere hours, they would be playing their final game of The Mole: Agent's Elevation.
"Just one game stands," McHallyboo announced, facing them, "that separates one of you from nearly 200,000 coins." The players all went silent, their eyes meeting his. The host paused for a second, then continued.
"Use everything in this game to help you," he said in a low voice. "Everything you have won in this game. Use...everything you have." The host looked at all three players equally, but for a sharp second, the host quickly glanced at the last player in his line of view before looking away. That player, seeing his secret stare, let out a silent gasp.
"Good luck." And the host, turning around with a tip of his hat, began to walk the other way. The three players were left alone by the host, and after looking silently at each other for a second, decided to go on their own ways in the pasture-filled land. Before heading down the hill, Piantissimo faced to turn the other two.
"When I see you both again...we will be ready to play our most difficult challenge yet," Piantissimo said in a certain voice. He shrugged.
"Perhaps we have stumbled a lot...but I am sure it will be our biggest victory of this game as well," he said in a resolute-sounding voice. Tiny let out a small smile.
"I agree, and just...well...good luck to you both!" Tiny whispered. "I hope you both do well in the last day of this game." Then, she began to make her heavy steps down the hill as she ventured on to explore the rest of the world. Piantissimo followed in suit, leaving the hill to make his way over to a quiet part of the world, the only thing on his mind being his final note-taking for the day in his journal.
But as the other two left, one remained. It was Eclair who remained on the top of the hill, alone and still. In almost a small trance, she was repeating McHallyboo's last words he had delivered to them. It was she who McHallyboo had strangely stared at for one extra second over the others.
"Use...everything you have," whispered Eclair, as she shivered. She remembered the host's odd look.
"Everything I have...?" Then, she looked up in realization. Slowly, she reached her hand into her dress's pocket, and felt in her hand the crucial item she had been saving since almost three episodes prior.
"The free question," she realized with a gasp. Then, with no thinking, she hurriedly ran down the hill, the long piece of paper flowing in the wind from her hand like valuable money.
"McHallyboo! McHallyboo!"
The host stopped in his tracks, hearing the loud shouts coming from a player behind him. He turned around, seeing Eclair running across the fallen brown leaves to his place in hasty fashion. As she ran, she held her dress high in unruly fashion, struggling to reach his spot. Then, she relaxed with tiredness as she finally reached him.
"Yes?" McHallyboo replied, almost unaware of the princess' pants of exhaustion. After a second, Eclair reached into her pocket, then displayed the piece of paper to the host with a hesitant face.
"I want to use this," she said, a little uncertain in her voice. "But I am not sure...what do I do?...how will this help...?" For a second, McHallyboo didn't say anything. Then, he nodded with a smile, as Eclair looked confused.
"Since the fishtank game, I was wondering when this item would be used in this game," McHallyboo replied, reaching into his own coat pocket as he seemed to be searching for something of his own possession. It took a few rustles of his hands, but after a small moment of searching, the host withdrew his hand and displayed his own slip of paper from his possession. Eclair's eyes widened, and she noticed that the text on the paper was written in gold.
"This…" McHallyboo's eyes glanced around the land, as if looking to see if anyone around them was witnessing their very transaction. But then he held out the paper to Eclair and continued to speak once again.
"This is treasure," McHallyboo said, eyes focusing on Eclair. "Hide it. Keep it safe. It is one of the final questions on the final quiz of the game." Then he took the crumpled paper from Eclair's hand, and in exchange dropped the new paper into Eclair's open palms. She stared down at it in silence as McHallyboo reached out a single finger to touch the golden paper as well.
"This may help you...or not help you at all," he finished. "It all depends on what you do with this treasure and how you decide to utilize it in the next twenty-four hours." Eclair, though not fully understanding his statement, nodded.
"Thank you," was all she said. And with that, McHallyboo winked, and left. He turned around towards the directions of the land of trees before him and began to walk away from the standing player. Eclair remained still, in a moment of apprehension and uncertainty. As soon as the host was out of view, she opened the piece of folded paper and read its contents.
How many siblings does the Mole have?
As she read the line over and over again, she was frozen again, as if taking in the tiny moment that had just happened with a strange feeling of hope. As she turned around, she went away from the hill, walking and moving to another part of the land. She had received an item in the game that no one had ever received before.
From the very top of the hill, Tiny Kong stood with folded arms, staring down at the encounter she had just witnessed with conflicted feelings.
He knew exactly where to find the haystacks upon the land of wheat and pastures. Sitting on top of one of the lofty stacks of straw, Piantissimo rested back, letting out a relaxed sigh. He had one arm resting behind his head and the other holding his journal up. As he reflected upon the notes of his journal that he had taken over the past five weeks of the game, his feelings were mixed. His alloyed emotions were in a combination of worry, stress, but ultimately overall, freedom.
Piantissimo: You could not find a better place to relax before the game's finish. I was free from it all. Free from everything.
"Hey…resting it up for the final game?"
"Who...?" Piantissimo jumped up, startled at the voice he had just heard. He lifted his head off the haystack and closed his journal.
"Greetings of the afternoon," Piantissimo replied, turning his head as he saw the other player approach him. Stepping down from the tall hay barrel, he removed himself from his position of comfort to approach the person who had just spoken to him. It was Tiny.
"I just wanted to wish you luck again...but I guess we won't need it, since we're both so confident for this final game," replied Tiny, looking at the straw around the floor of the farm ground.
"Well, confidence has been my key attribute in this game up to this point," Piantissimo replied, smiling a bit.
"Showing an appearance of confidence, yes..." Tiny nodded. As Piantissimo slightly frowned, Tiny looked out at the land's distance.
"Also, I saw something...really weird today," she continued, as Piantissimo's turned his direction to her slowly. "But I don't think it's important. Maybe it was. Maybe not." Piantissimo's mouth opened, as his eyes followed her pace.
"And what is this peculiar thing you noticed?" he replied, carefully piqued in curiosity.
"Well…" Tiny began, looking at him. "I was standing on the top of the hill from our last game...and on the ground...I saw both McHallyboo and Eclair...talking with each other." She swallowed, before continuing.
"As if maybe...Eclair was conferencing the next mission in secret or something," Tiny whispered. Piantissimo eyes turned stunned, as he thought carefully.
"Do you think..." he began, speaking carefully. Tiny turned to him, her face serious.
"It may just be a possible indicator that...maybe she's the Mole." Piantissimo's mouth opened, slightly surprised.
"She has been suspicious, no doubt, throughout this ENTIRE game" Tiny kept on saying. "And she really didn't help us in the castle game. I think...I think she's it."
Piantissimo: It definitely makes me a little bit more suspicious towards Eclair, to know this. I would have not have known about this if Tiny did not tell me. So perhaps Eclair was truly the Mole of our game this entire time?
"That is odd," Piantissimo began. "Do you think she is, and that perhaps she was planning with McHallyboo to sabotage for our next game?" Tiny shook her head, shrugging with unknowing eyes.
"It might just be," she replied, her eyes showing an appearance of confusion and uncertainty. "I mean, since when does a regular player and the host talk outside the game? She definitely has to be a choice for the traitor now."
Tiny: Maybe Eclair has been the Mole this whole time.
"You have a point….it is very peculiar for a player to talk with the host outside the game," Piantissimo said, nodding a bit and putting a finger up to his chin. "I can't even remember a time a player would even do that. Hmm." He nodded.
"Thank you for this information….and for deciding to share it with me. In these last stages...I think the best thing the innocent players have left to do is to help each other." Tiny nodded, and looked down at the ground. She smiled a bit, then her face turned serious.
"Anyways, besides that...I just wanted to also say," Tiny said, her eyes turning slightly to a set of houses a few feet away from them, "that even though our relatives were virtual in this world, it meant a lot that you would save them." Piantissimo only nodded and smiled, waving his hand at her line.
"I mean," Tiny continued, laughing a bit, "the choice to sacrifice a full point on the final quiz of the game….wow. I mean…well..." Piantissimo turned to her suddenly.
"I don't even think I MYSELF would do such a thing like that," she continued, almost in a voice of wonder. "I can't believe someone like you...a genuine player...would willingly risk an entire point on the last quiz, just for the possibility of adding a mere 20,000 coins to the pot." At hearing this line, Piantissimo looked at Tiny directly in the eyes.
"I find it almost disparaging," Piantissimo replied, a small smile curving on his mouth, "that you would insinuate that I took the Minus 1 not from the kindness of my heart...but for perhaps other reasons."
"I never even insinuated that," Tiny replied, turning to him with a smile. Piantissimo paused for a second, not knowing how to reply. Then, he spoke in return.
"Well, what you did insinuate is that you would willingly keep 20,000 coins out of the pot by not sacrificing a house...and in result, sabotage the pot instead," Piantissimo added, grinning, "and that, Ms. Kong, is something that should be very much questioned in this final stage of the game."
"Well..." Tiny opened her mouth, but instead of saying something, she simply looked at Piantissimo with beady eyes. Piantissimo faced her as well, his own steady eyes also looking at his opponent. For a second, they didn't say anything.
"Well...we are going into the final mission," Tiny said with a whisper, "And...I have just one more thing to say." She paused.
"Good luck," Tiny said, her eyes staring gently at her opponent. Piantissimo nodded, then replied to her.
"And commensurate to your own level of wishing...I also wish good luck to you as well." And then Tiny, with heavy steps, walked away from Piantissimo.
All three players went their own ways.
It was at a point of the day where the sun shined so weakly, most people would have already discerned the day to already be at the time of night. But as the host walked his slow steps to the farmhouse, he knew that their final mission had not yet started, and for that reason, McHallyboo did not yet adjudge the day to be at its end. Once the last game is finished, McHallyboo thought, the day would finally be over.
As fall leaves blew in the crisp wind, both the host and the Mole walked together to the red barn. It was an austere edifice that held the game's final mission, and as they walked, each step they took was a step closer to the end of their time together.
"Our final game," McHallyboo said, pointing ahead of him. The Mole took in a deep breath, staring at the image before them that was calm and peaceful. It was a single farmhouse.
"It is indeed our final game...and in honesty...I am nervous," the Mole replied. The host let out an understanding smile, but then, his face changed into one of memory.
"Do you remember," McHallyboo began, staring straight in front of him, but his words were being spoken directly to the person besides him.
"Do you remember...when we had first met? When I had visited your land...almost a year ago?" The Mole's mouth opened, in memory, as if in stunned surprise at the host's remembering. But he or she nodded.
"Yes...I do remember that day we met," the Mole replied. "It was almost exactly one year ago...and it seemed like just yesterday we had met for the first time." The Mole looked down at the yellow leaves, and then smiled slightly.
"I would have never thought I would be here today...finishing the game as the very saboteur itself. I...didn't want to at first be it. But I am happy to have chosen this challenging role. I have learned so much about myself." Hearing the Mole's line, McHallyboo couldn't help but let out a smile. He sighed a bit, chuckling, then his face turned into a different expression. But it was one of gratefulness.
"And I'm happy you decided to take the role...because it's been a pleasure to mentor and be with you this entire journey."
Together, the two of them entered the barn.
The three of them stood in the old building.
It was aged and dusty, as if not used for the past several years since the finished constructing of its inside. Scattered hay and mud littered the floor of the small barn, and its windows were barricaded by wooden planks, keeping the last shines of moonlight out from the world outside. Piantissimo, Tiny, and Eclair all looked at the host as he stood in front of the one creation in the room that was not synthesized by the elements of the game: the elevator.
"We are taking the elevator?" Eclair asked, perplexed. The host shook his head.
"No...this elevator will just be awaiting you...right after you return back to this very spot from your final game," the host said with a smile. Piantissimo's eyes looked slightly unnerved.
"And where...are we going exactly?" he asked McHallyboo. The host didn't reply, but instead took out a book from behind his back. It had a dusty binding and cover, almost as dusty as the farm-filled surroundings around them. But as the players looked at the title, they could only wonder in silence about the game they were about to enter: The Wonders of Time Travelling.
"Time...travelling," Eclair read. "How is such possible?" Tiny turned to her, then to the host.
"Anything is possible," Tiny stated out loud, as if setting the mood for the final game. Piantissimo's eyebrows furrowed, looking at the book's cover. McHallyboo cleared his throat.
"Your final game," he announced, "Is called, The Flashback Adventure."
FINAL MISSION:
THE FLASHBACK ADVENTURE
Prize: 50,000 COINS
The three players seemed bedazzled, but mostly from hearing the mission's name.
"For this final mission….you will be brought to many places that have been traveled to before...and you must make it to the end." The three players looked at him, their minds racing with questions.
"Before as in…?" Eclair asked.
"Before," Piantissimo realized, his eyes widening. "Ah. We going back to visit our previous games. The ones we had played! Our previous missions! Would I...happen to be right?" McHallyboo looked at the player, and then after a second, nodded.
"Yes, we will be going back to previous missions of this entire game," the host replied, and he seemed to not want to say more. Tiny looked at him, curiously.
"But what will we do in each one?" she asked. "Haven't we played them all already? Will we just be repeating them?" McHallyboo turned to face them all.
"In each past mission, you will have to complete a part of its mission…succeed in the overall game, and you move on to the next one." He paused.
"This game will take you to many previous places. Places that I've treasured...places I've missed. And I wish you all the best of luck in everything you encounter. I will be watching you all from afar on your journey." The players were silent for a second, taking in the host's words for a second.
"I cannot say anymore. Good luck" The three players turned to him, a bit silent, but overall they nodded together in unison.
Tiny: So, to be honest...he did not seem willing to answer our questions. Why all of a sudden, McHallyboo?
Eclair: There was an element that I sensed he wanted to keep secret. An element that was missing, but we did not want to ask him any more.
"So we will be returning back all the way to the first jump of the game," Piantissimo said with a voice of readiness, turning to the other two players, then facing McHallyboo with a grin. "We'll be at the top of the cliff again, am I correct?" But at this line, McHallyboo let out a strange smile that made the optimistic faces of the three players disappear. It was a smile that struck the eyes of each of the players before him, and one that almost resembled a smile that was trying to hide a certain joke from them. The others turned to each other, uneasy.
"Yes," McHallyboo replied, and he closed his eyes. "You will be at the very first jump of the game. At the top of the cliff." He opened his eyes, and they gleamed with excitement. As his fingers suddenly curled, the players saw that he was about to snap his fingers. All the time same time, they stepped back.
"Are you ready to play your final game of The Mole: Agent's Elevation?" McHallyboo called out, his grand voice booming across all corners of the small barn. The players all took in a breath, nervous.
"Yes," the three of them seemed to speak in unison. At the same time, they all tensed up. Their game was about to begin
Tiny: I was not ready for this at all.
Eclair: Oh dear...
Piantissimo: Here we go...our final game. 50,000 coins.
"I wish you all a wonderful jumping start," he whispered. The players faced him, curious at his words.
And then, the host snapped his fingers. The sound wave of his snap's echo went through the barn.
"Good luck!" McHallyboo finished.
And once his snap was done, their entire world had transformed.
FLASH!
McHallyboo's snap still echoed through their ears. The players were dazed, disoriented and unable to open their eyes at first. They were lost, bewildered in thought. Though they couldn't see, they felt that they were floating through the air, as if the three of them were in the realms of outer space and no longer standing on the face of the earth. But it wasn't air that their bodies floated across: it was a strange, gelatinous substance that the three of them seemed to preternaturally glide through.
Slowly, they could open their eyes. But they couldn't move, and they could barely breathe. And they were travelling to their final game.
Tiny looked to her left, and saw the struggling image of Piantissimo, trying to escape from the grasp of the jelly-like material that surrounded him. As she looked to her right with confusion, she saw Eclair, huddled in her own liquid-filled sphere and floating through the substance with acceptance. Tiny tried to let out a scream, but she wasn't able to.
Tiny: What...was happening? Where were we going?
Slowly, the world turned dark again.
Then, they arrived at their final location.
They all suddenly felt as if they had been reborn into the world for the first time.
Their faces were hit with a warm wind and their eyes adjusted to the sudden glare of what seemed to be morning. The dusty insides of the barn were no more, and now, they could breathe open air. The sky was blue, and below their feet, their shoes felt a terrain that was firm and solid. When they looked at the ground beneath them, they saw that it was made out of dark-colored rocks, slightly wet from water. Arriving in the beginning of their new game, the three players took a few seconds to collect their minds, and slowly realize what had happened.
When they fully looked ahead of them, the three of them saw the edge of a rocky cliff. They could hear the sound of rushing, flowing water ahead of them, and realized that somewhere below the cliff they were standing on was a waterfall. Entering their final mission, Tiny, Eclair, and Piantissimo found themselves in a new world. Beginning their final mission, the three of them looked around, lost.
Piantissimo: None of us were aware of where we had ended up.
"This is..most definitely not Lineland Road," Piantissimo realized with baffled eyes, looking around. It was not the same edge that they had encountered in the beginning of their game. The edge of the precipice before them was damp, discolored with water.
"I feel the ground is... rocky...with dusty terrain and rocks and…" Eclair began, and then she stepped a bit farther on the land forwards. She stopped in her tracks.
"Or perhaps this is a cliff," Eclair whispered, looking over the edge. The players all peered over the edge of the rocky terrain they were standing on and gasped. The image they saw below them was nothing but gravity itself, leading to a bottom of glistening spring water.
Eclair: It was a cliff...and there was beautiful water below...but where was this?
The water in the pool was letting of a resplendent glow to the three players who stood forty feet above it. The waterfall below them rushed into the pool with pleasant sound. But even with the aesthetic views and sounds before them, the players were baffled
"A cliff…" Tiny uttered. The beautiful pool of water before them rippled slightly, as if inviting them to jump. As Eclair and Piantissimo looked at the cliff below with perplexed feelings, Tiny suddenly let out a small shout, startling the others.
"Oh my...gosh," she whispered, covering her mouth. The other two turned to her.
"Tiny...what is it?" Eclair asked, concerned. Tiny took a step back, her eyes wide.
"I think I know where we are," Tiny whispered. "We're at a cliff…in the beginning…." Thinking for a second, it took a few moments for Eclair and Piantissimo to finally realize where they were. And then all of a sudden, all three players knew where they had landed in the beginning of their final mission.
They were at the Cliff Springs at the beginning of The Mole: Traitor Aboard.
"What!" Piantissimo exclaimed, looking around. "Why...here? This is ridiculous!" The players looked around the land of the cliff's top: it was unmistakingly the location of the series' first game.
"To play our previous games," Tiny realized, smiling a bit. "You said it yourself, remember? Your wish granted." Piantissimo folded his arms, unamused.
"He wasn't lying..the host," Eclair remembered, walking carefully on the land of the cliff's top, "when he said that we would be going to the very first jump of the game." The other two nodded, and then peered over the edge together. In the corner of her eye, she saw a wooden structure.
"And now we must play by rules," she noticed, as the others turned around. Sticking out of a crack on the rocky cliff top was a wooden post, protruding in view for the players to read. As they walked up to it slowly, they saw words etched in green marker that was meant for their game. They read it together:
Flashback Adventure
Welcome to your final game. For this game, you will travel back through the series of The Mole. Your final game depends on how well you can travel through the series once again. Play the games before one-hundred and twenty minutes, and 50,000 coins is yours.
The series in the past has been riddled with incomplete tasks and errors, but it is your job as a team to complete them fully as a whole. Make this game perfect again. Fix its errors,and make it perfect.
Reach me back at the elevator before ninety minutes, and you will be granted the final award for this entire game.
I believe in the three of you. Good luck.
-McHallyboo
As you can see, you are at the cliff in the very beginning of The Mole: Traitor Aboard. Your first task? Jump.
"It's a time game," Tiny realized with panic, and she faced the other two. "Our entire game...and the success of our final episode...it depends on this game! We can do this, right?" The other two nodded silently, knowing with full knowledge that their final game's fate lied in themselves only.
"I'm ready to win," Piantissimo said loudly, bending over as he began to remove his sneakers in preparation for his jump. "We're not going to let McHallyboo down. We can't." Eclair closed her eyes, looking ahead of her at the cliff's edge.
"Past games...this is unbelievable," she said, reflecting to herself silently. "We have heard of them, and we have seen each of them on television in the past...but now we are to face them in real life. This is...unimaginable" Eclair looked at the edge with acceptance. Piantissimo faced the ground, ready to jump and shoes off his feet. Tiny nodded, removing her hairband as she stepped back a bit. But then, she suddenly paused.
"Wait...if we want to clean the game's mistakes...then…hold it! We're already making it worse!" She quickly tied the headband back into her hair, and then darted her eyes to Piantissimo's feet.
"Remember when Luigi in the first season gave his hat to Rawk Hawk?" Tiny exclaimed excitedly. Eclair and Piantissimo faced her in confusion.
"Who?" retorted Piantissimo, looking ready. "What are you talking about? Let's simply jump!"
"Put those shoes back on...we're not supposed to remove or add anything," Tiny spoke urgently, pointing at his sneakers. "That's the point of the game...to fix its mistakes! That's what the players did in the past" As Piantissimo knelt down again to put on his sneakers, his face lit up in realization. Eclair nodded, understanding.
"If you insist," Piantissimo said, a confused look on his face. But he put back his sneakers on nonetheless.
"We must go together," Eclair said, and she held out a hand to Tiny. Tiny grabbed her hand, then turned to offer a hand to Piantissimo. He looked at it with surprise.
"Together," Tiny said to Piantissimo with a gentle smile. "We will start our game." Piantissimo gave out a heavy nod to his partners, and with a resolute face, grabbed her hand. The three player got ready, their feet on the rocky terrain of the water cliff's top. One step forwards, and they would be plummeting to the ground and cliffwater together.
"We will jump, on three!" Piantissimo, Eclair, and Tiny all looked over the edge together.
The colossal cliff falls were daunting yet beautiful, and the three of them paused in breath. They, wondered, for a second, how each of the nine players from the first season of the Mole had felt in their very spot, over three years ago. It was an unbelievable first task for them, jumping off from a cliff on the directions of a mysterious game they knew nothing about. But for the three current players, it was not a new game, and most importantly, they were not jumping alone. They at least had each other. And for this reason, they were more ready than ever before.
"One...two.." began Tiny, facing nervously in front of her. The players gripped each other's hands.
"Three!" Together, the three players jumped off the edge of the cliff, their feet lifting off from the rocky terrain and into nothing but air. Falling fifty feet, the three players of the third season fell into the glistening pool of water below.
Splash!
The players landed in water, and they struggled to get back to the surface after a few seconds. As they sputtered and coughed from recovering from their long jump, the three players took a second to look around where they had landed. The water felt damper and murkier than the clear pools at the bottom of the cliff springs they witnessed just a few seconds ago from the cliff's top.
"Help!" Eclair called out, struggling to keep her face above the water.
"Hey!" shouted Tiny. "I'm here! I'm fine! Is everyone okay?" She was trying to kick her feet up, her swimming immediately reminding her of her game with an electric eel two episodes ago.
Tiny: All of a sudden, I got flashbacks of my game with the eel, and I started to freak out. For a second, this evil thought entered my head saying, "Don't go any further! This game will be too difficult". But I just knew I had to muster on for the team and for the final game.
After a few seconds of panicked thinking, they came to realize that they were no longer at the bottom of the tall cliff they had jumped off from: their game had continued on to its next world. They had been dropped in the middle of the ocean.
"Both of you...I found something!" Piantissimo's voice called out, and they turned to see him against a metal structure that floated on the ocean's surface.
The three of them floated in the middle of the ocean, with nothing in view but the small motor boat that Piantissimo was working to climb aboard. Tiny reached the boat second, pushing herself up into the body of the metal vehicle. Then, the two of them reached down to help Eclair, who also made it into the body of the strange mechanism.
The three of them, exhausted and bewildered, sat back in their new vehicle.
"In the middle of the ocean….great," Tiny said out loud with a confused look.
"At least we have a boat," Piantissimo said with a little snicker, looking around at the boat's inside.
"What is our time?" Eclair wondered. Piantissimo looked cluelessly around.
"I do not know...like 115 minutes remaining to complete the rest of this game? It has only been a mere five minutes." Tiny, looking at the emptiness of the boat, frowned.
"Where are we? And what do we do now?" Tiny asked, looking at the others. "Do we just stay here now in this boat?"
"I think this shows what we must do," Eclair spoke, and they turned to see a slate of metal on the floor of the motor boat. As she lifted it up, the players turned to each other, then read the scratched letters on the sign in silence.
The Hostage Challenge
When Blooper and Peach's boat stalled in the middle of the ocean, it was the Mole's wrongdoing that caused the boat's navigation to malfunction.
Fix the boat's navigation screen by connecting the two colors of its previous riders. Only then will the boat bring you to your next location.
Good luck. Go far.
"I do not understand," Eclair said, and the three players looked at the sign in silence.
"The hostage game...okay! I remember exactly what had happened," Piantissimo said, trying to recall the events that had unfolded in their two seasons prior. "Toadette was revealed to have manipulated the functions of the navigation screen…" He put a hand to his chin.
"But I do not exactly know how to fix this…" Piantissimo ended.
"Oh!" Tiny pulled her hand back, having touched the glass of the screen display. In result, the entire screen had shifted downwards, revealing behind it a small square of hidden space. Behind the boat's navigation screen was revealed to be a plethora of wires that befuddled all three players.
"Wow…" The wires were all cut, as if sabotaged by a previous Mole. Tiny folded her arms with a smile.
"Well, it looks like this is the cause of our problem," she said jokingly. Tiny looked at the sign again, reading its directions.
"Colors…" she read, picking up a green wire. "Colors...of its previous riders?"
"It is a riddle," Eclair said, confused. She looked at the wires, and then at the directions of the sign again.
Eclair: We saw many colors that painted the many wires. The clue said we had to connect two colors of its previous riders...but it was vague. But we knew it had a meaning.
A few minutes had passed, and it became a guessing game for the players. In the still boat, the players remained in the middle of the ocean, matching each wire with another one. But their progress was static.
"I am trying to think if there is a quicker way to try to connect these wires, two at a time," Eclair said, hastily trying to match each wire with another existing shade. She shook her head.
"Just...if we don't get this riddle...we're not going to win our final game," Eclair continued, looking despondent. Tiny shook her head at her words.
"We haven't gone through every wire pairing," Tiny realized. "And...how do we even know this is the right action to do? Maybe this isn't it?"
"Indeed, I think it is the right thing to do..and I have the answer," came the whisper of Piantissimo, and they both turned to the player who was thinking in the back seat of the motor boat.
"Previous riders, of course!" Piantissimo exclaimed, jumping forwards from his boat seat. "I believe I have got it." With surprised looks, Eclair and Tiny watched as Piantissimo went up to the entanglement of wires, his hand fumbling among them.
"What, what...?" Tiny said, eyebrows furrowing. "What do you mean?" Piantissimo continued to look through the cut wires.
"I think I know what it is trying to say," he said in a hesitant yet odd voice of certainty. "If I'm not mistaken...then the two previous riders are referring to none other than Peach and Blooper!" The two females were silent.
"Then if it is referring to those two players in the past," Eclair realized with wide eyes, "then that means the two colors we must match are-"
"White and pink!" Piantissimo, gripping a wire of each color in each fist, put the two cut ends of the wires together. All of a sudden, a rumbling sound was heard as they felt all around the metal body of the boat begin to vibrate. The entire machine was ignited, and the propellers of the boat started to spin. From that single motion, the boat had come alive.
Eclair: We had succeeded in our second game. We had fixed the errors of a past Mole.
"Wow, you deduced that puzzle so fast!" Tiny exclaimed, looking at Piantissimo. She faced the front of the boat with disbelief, seeing it come to life.
"I thought you guys might have needed a helping hand for this game," Piantissimo said with a wink. Tiny smiled, and for a second, she stared at the white and pink wire, and realized that the two wires of disparate colors had magically fused together. She held in a laugh.
Tiny: We really did fix the errors and mistakes of the past...in the mission, Blooper and Peach fell apart, blaming each other and becoming enemies during the Hostage rescue. And now….the white and pink wires had to be put together in order for us to continue in the game. They needed to be reconnected again for us to continue the boat. Maybe after all the sabotage throughout our missions...this is what the three of us had to do in our final game? Reconnect?
"Now we are set to go further!" Piantissimo called out. "To the future, let us go!" He pushed back the navigation screen up, and it locked into place. Immediately, the screen lit up, and a small map was displayed to all of them. With gratitude, they saw a red line displayed on the water of the electronic map that showed their next location.
"Umm, I think the real challenge of this game is..." Tiny began with a worried face, "deciding who knows how to control a motor boat." The other two turned to each other, faces clueless.
"I think we just-" began Eclair, but before she could speak, the boat let out an unimaginable roar, as if its engine was set to full blast. The players looked down for a second, expecting the worst as they saw the speed gauge meter move to display a speed of maximum value.
Exactly that, the boat sped off at a monumental speed, and the players struggled to grab on as the small boat ripped across the surface of the water. All the players screamed, trying to grab onto the seats of the boat in order to stay aboard the lightning-speed boat.
Piantissimo: All of a sudden, the boat had sped off mercilessly. Mercilessly is perhaps an understatement.
"Help!" Eclair tried to shield her eyes from the water that hit her eyes. Panicked, she struggled to keep her balance, but had lost her grip. In the process of the boat's violent waves, Eclair had been thrown back harshly. Within a split second, the other two saw her body fall away from the safe inside of the motor boat. With horror, Tiny reached out to her in panic.
"Eclair! No!" she yelled. As the boat made a large bump on the ocean's surface, Tiny was next to fall off, losing her balance as she fell into the raging waves of the boat's speed. Piantissimo faced backwards with disbelief, having seen both of his teammates disappear into the white fury of the water.
"Where...are you...guys!" With futile effort, he was facing backwards in the boat, trying to spot his two teammates in the water behind him, but they were long gone in the body of the ocean.
"Oh no…" He faced forwards again and his face turned white. The boat, with unremitting speed, was now heading towards a green mass of land.
"Stop...stop…!" Piantissimo shouted, trying to pull on the lever of the boat. But at a speed that was at its peak, the boat was unstoppable.
"Nooooooo!" Hitting the edge of the grassy land, the boat was destroyed, and Piantissimo's body flew through the air unsparingly, in similarity to his two teammates, onto the grass in front of him.
Thump!
Feeling grass below her, Eclair stood up. She looked to her left, then her right. The area had changed.
Eclair: We were in another place...closer to the end of our game.
"I am okay…" she spoke out loud with sadness, as if trying to overcome both the physical and mental difficulties of the game. But in truth, she knew that she was not fine. Her last memory was from being thrown severely off a boat and into water, and when she looked at her clothes, she realized that they were still wet. The game was only in its third location and first season, but even still, the final mission was already hard. As she stared at the grassy field before her, she noticed odd machines placed evenly across the large field in her view. She stared forwards at the green land, mystified.
And that is when a Zb June dart had hit her.
...I am so sorry that over the past seven episodes, I have been perpetually cruel to these players. Even when the game is almost over. As soon as they're almost done, and they are in their final mission...the game just doesn't get better.
This is the final mission! A flashback run through the entire game. If you didn't get the slight symbolism, this final game is almost like a tribute to my entire series of the Mole. Because of this indeed being my final season of the Mole….I want it to go out with something like this : )
Readers: Wait, what? Final season...no.
Krisetchers: Hehee...uh... (sniff)
The true reason I updated after all this time was because of the recent reviews and messages I got to remind me to update. Without you guys reviewing...this story would fall. But because of you all, it has lived through not one, two, but THREE beautiful seasons of the Mole. Because of your wonderful words and reviews, this has turned into a trilogy : ) and for that, I could not be more thankful. Anyways, thanks for being so faithful my reviewers and readers! You are all wonderful people. :D
I promise to reply to your reviews on the NEXT chapter! Since I fell so far behind in updating the last chapter, I will be sure to individually reply to you all on the next one : )
For now though….I will GIVE YOU ALL my love! Just two more chapter remain after this until the end of the game...and in three chapters….the identity of the Mole will be revealed. Stay tuned! gsemesaem