"So," - said Eight, breaking the silence - "This clearly isn't the Mansion"

All around them, a lush and magnificent rainforest stretched as far as the eye could see.

"We can see that" - responded Solo, slightly irritated - "where are we, and why didn't we land where we wanted to?"

"If I were to hazard a guess for the latter question, I'd say that there was something placed by the being we were hoping to face that messed with our spells and any other magic" - deduced Luminary, deep in thought.

"Whatever the case is, it's better that we get moving" - suggested Erdrick, ending the conversation.

But before they could take a single step, they all came to the same conclusion, with Solo being the quickest to state the issue:

"Which way do we go, genius? It's the same on every direction!"

Erdrick, not one to be slow on the uptake, replied:

"Any direction is a good direction. If we keep moving we're bound to find someone or something to help locate us"

Luminary, seeing what Erdrick's reasoning was, followed up with:

"I agree. Like the Hands said, the important landmarks of this world were made to have each fighter always find a place that resembles their home, and I doubt any of them would live in an empty forest"

Eight, sporting his usual jovial expression walked in between Solo and Erdrick and put his arms around their shoulders, exclaiming:

"Whatever happens, I know that it'll be a fun adventure with my friends!"

To which Erdrick gave a slight smile and Solo just rolled his eyes.

"...And as it turns out, the princess was the horse the whole time! Weird, right? It sure made conversations awkward afterwards"

After trudging through the forest for half an hour, they reached a road that cut through it. It was rudimentary and not very well kept, but it was usable.

Looking in the distance, Solo spotted a sign a ways down.

"I see something over there. It should help us know where we are and how to get out"

When they approached it, they read: "Cranky Kong's shack"

"Cranky... Kong? He must be related to those monkeys, Donkey and Diddy" - noted Erdrick - "Maybe he can help us get out of here"

"Or better yet, befriend one of them, or both...and then get out of here," said Eight.

"I don't know nor care about befriending him, but finding an exit of this jungle and maybe finding one or both of the Kongs would be a good idea" - deduced Luminary.

"If it means getting the hell out of here faster, then fine." Solo replied.

He walked up to the door of the cabin and, not even bothering to knock first, tried to open the door to the cabin. Finding that the door was locked, Solo proceeded to kick the door in.

"Let's try not to do that next time, ok Solo"

"Whatever." Solo scoffed. "So where is this 'Cranky Kong' who owns this joint?"

"Given his name, probably as far back from us as he can, especially after a literal break-in." quipped Eight as he casually walked across toward the other end of the house.

From the end of the cabin came a loud but croaky voice.

"Who just broke my door?! They'll get a beating, that's what!"

An old ape walked towards them from that direction. He had a snow-white beard that nearly reached the ground, spectacles, a hunch, and a cane to help him walk.

"So? Which one of you is responsible?"

Everyone pointed to Solo, even Munchie, Eight's pet Pigrat.

"Thanks a lot, ya bunch of jerks."

Squeak

"Our apologies, we don't mean any harm, we just have some questions on where we are and how to get out" explained Erdrick

The only thing they managed was to make Cranky angrier.

"You think you can barge in here, break down my entrance, and demand directions?!"

"First, fix my door, and then we'll see!"

Erdrick being the most level headed one in the group tried to get cranky a little more calm to prevent anything unnecessary that could slow them down. "We'd love to but, how will we be able to fix it?"

"You should've thought of that before breaking it down!" - howled Cranky, threatening the four of them with his cane - "You figure it out on your own how to fix it!"

This time, it was Eleven's turn to try and mediate, not wanting the situation to get worse. "What my companion here meant is that we'll have your door fixed very soon and that we apologize for the damage."

"Right" Erdrick sheepishly replied

"Fine," Solo grumbled.

"Hm..." Eight started by gathering some of the bigger pieces and putting them together. He even stacked a few up, but the moment he touched it ever so slightly, it fell apart. He sighed. "How am I gonna do this without some sort of adhesive? Oh well." He went back to laying them out on the floor.

"I suggest that we go outside for now" - proposed Eleven.

"Don't you dare run and leave my door unfixed!" - yelled Cranky.

Eleven answered with an attempt at an apologetic smile as he signaled his companions towards the door.

"Okay we'll probably need a rope to get started, anyone experienced in fixing doors?"

"I put some of these planks where they're supposed to go, I guess." Eight looked at the recreation of his recreation somewhat nervously.

"Great. But what good is that gonna do us without any glue?"

"Where on Earth do you find glue in a jungle?"

Eleven, resisting a strong urge to facepalm, said calmly "how about we cut a tree down and work with that?"

"Since you think you can magically attract glue from a tree, how about you take eight and work on cutting one cutting down"

"Me? Eh, alright."

Eleven and Eight walked a ways from Cranky's cabin so that the noise wouldn't give the old monkey more reason to be angry at them.

Standing in front of one of the many trees, Eleven worked on how best to cut it, while Eight waiting on him, looking clueless. This was unlike any enemy that drew near them.

"With our strength, we're more likely to do damage our swords before we make any significant progress"

Quickly, he had an idea.

Searching through his spells, he performed one called "Hatchet Man", but instead he held his sword sideways. Hitting his target vigorously, he managed to reach halfway into the trunk. Looking towards Eight, he urged him to do the same.

"Okay then!" Eight also performed "Hatchet Man", cutting the other half. The tree fell somewhere between them. "Aaand now I take a fifteen-second nap to refill my MP," he joked.

"Hey!" called Eleven, looking towards the others - "do you plan to just stand around, or are you going to help us?"

"Do I look like I know how to fix a door? Whatever, if it gets us out of this jungle and away from the old-timer. What do you need me to do?" Solo grumbled.

"Let's start by chopping up some of it" Erdrick said as he calmly walked over

He activated his hatchet man ability, and in 3 full swings, he chopped up parts of the tree, fortunately, they looked useful enough to repair a door.

"I think we should make a new door from scratch rather than try to fix the mess that Solo made" - surmised Eleven. "It's not a very sophisticated design either way, since it belongs to a literal monkey in a jungle, so it shouldn't be very hard."

"You mean I painstakingly put all those chips together for nothing?" Eight whined.

"Yes, yes you did"

The distraught Hero hunched over to hide his look of embarrassment.

And so, the four heroes got to work, cutting wood, making measurements, and gathering vines to use as ropes.

Meanwhile, a shelled creature was approaching from the opposite direction as they entered Cranky's home.

Since Eight was the last one to turn around, he noticed it first. "Guys, a monster!" The four Heroes looked on at the sight of Bowser. Eight pilfered through his bag a bit to find a slice of Cold Cheese and fed it to Munchie. He breathed out a Freezing Blizzard on the Koopa King. Eight could tell it was going to take a little more than that to beat the Great King Bowser, but the other three were able to install the new door as Eight drew his sword and prepared for his next attack-holding back Bowser's claws. After he managed to push the beast back, Cranky came out of the cabin.

"What's with all the noise out there?"

"You gotta be kidding me, what the heck is that thing". Erdrick said while drawing his sword.

What stood in front of them seemed to be a massive 8 foot reptilian with a spiky shell on his back, he had horns that look like they could pierce metal swiftly, and to top it off menacing razor-sharp teeth

Cranky smacked the offending hero with his cane. "Don't you dare interrupt me you pretty boy brat!"

"Don't you know, that's the Great King Bowser-Mario's archnemesis, and no, we did not bring it here!"

"Mario's archenemy? Hoho! That changes EVERYTHING! HOW GOES IT, KING KOOPA?"

"Hunting after that pesky plumber as always, so he doesn't get in the way of my plans like he always does!"

"The utter nerve! Doesn't he ever give up? He even had the audacity to invite my son and good-for-nothing grandson for go-karting and other social activities. Next thing you know, they're all chummy and best friends!"

"He must be destroyed at all costs! Is he here?"

"As much as I'd like to say it, he's not."

"DANG IT! You may win this round Heroes, but once I'm done with him, you're ALL GOING TO PAY, and your little rat too. GWAHAHAHHAHAR!" Bowser ran off.

The four Heroes stood in utter disbelief at what was going on.

"What was that all about?"

"Hell if I know. But I know I'm up for hunting him down and taking that overgrown turtle down. Who's with me?"

"Settle down. He isn't a pressing concern right now. At least he didn't step in our hard work, or otherwise, I would've personally Thwacked him to the next world" - said Eleven in his usual calm tone.

"Pressing concern?! The whole point of games ARE the bosses! You can't just decide to not fight him. Why do they even call you chumps 'heroes' anyway? All you've done since you've gotten here is cause trouble!"

The four Heroes looked at each other with a collective "We should probably get out of here before this old coot give us any more chores."

"Yeah, old mans gonna croak if he keeps yelling like that."

And with that they made their way past Cranky Kong's cabin, unfortunately, they were barely able to make any progress in finding out where to go and where they were.

"You know, there was a reason we went through the trouble of making the door to begin with" - noted Eleven, dreading what needed to be done - "and we never attached it, either"

"Eh, old man deserves to suffer for the door, he made such a fuss of it and sent us away, he could fix it himself" Erdrick replied, still a bit annoyed by the cranky monkey.

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Erdrick. Now, which way did turtle head go? I'm in the mood to use my sword for something other than fixing doors."

"You what? I held him off so you could do just that. I'm so useless...Hold on! I know for a fact that he went south!" Eight pointed southward with his Dragovian king sword. "I am the best with directions after all!"

"Alright, we head southward, time to slay a dragon…. Or whatever the fuck he is"

Eight covered Munchie's ears. "Hey, not in front of the pigrat."