I: Regal Meeting

Back at Sarasaland, The Mosaic Group; Mosaic, Hoops, Rosy and Berry had successfully located the ferry that would take them to the capital.

And as such, did exactly that, purchasing ferry tickets and riding it there.

Soon enough, after around thirty minutes or so on the ferry arrived at the colorful crew's first main destination of the trip, City Sarasa.

Once the ship hits the port, the group exits the ship along with the rest of the crowd and take a look at the sights, seeing that there's a lot of tall buildings, essentially skyscrapers and the like.

"So here we are, City Sarasa huh?" Mosaic stated.

"Sure looks that way," Hoops added.

"Yeah...it's very pretty," Rosy began. "It kinda reminds me a bit of how New Donk City is described to look."

Berry drops a comment too in his language.

"Oh?"

"Ah, Hoops; what did Berry say?" Mosaic asked.

"He wants a lift to see things from a bit closer," Hoops informed.

"Ah, here you go Berry," Mosaic responded, plucking the baby reptile off the ground and lifting them up.

Berry, seeing things from closer, cooed at the sights.

Eventually, the silence was broken when it seemed Berry had had enough and was put back on the ground.

"Alright, that's enough of that, what's there to do around this city?" Mosaic then said.

"There seems to be a number of things to do here," Rosy began, then pulling out a pamphlet about the capital. "There's the Daisy Circuit."

"Daisy Circuit?" Mosaic asked, intrigued to hear this.

"It's a race track that I assume Daisy directed the construction of given its name where of course, races are held."

"Ah, makes sense," Mosaic replied. "What else is there?"

"There also a guide store here which-"

"Wait, guide store, does that mean…" Hoops interrupted.

"Yeah, we can get a guide map and book there, and as such, touring Sarasaland should be a breeze for the rest of our trip."

"Oh thank stars…" Hoops expressed hearing this.

"And of course, other than these two things is the Castle," Rosy continued. "Where of course Daisy would be."

"And well...she is the reason we did kinda travel here to begin with." Mosaic brought up. "So before we do anything else here, let's focus on doing that."

"May be a bit tough given the security," Rosy pointed out.

"The...wha?" Hoops commented.

"There's quite a few guards there that prevent most visitors from meeting Daisy in person face to face unless they have a really good reason for doing so."

"Wait, Rosy, how'd you figure that out?" Mosaic asked.

"Er...you told me Mosaic, remember? Before we left? You had said you found it out from Daisy herself?"

"Huh…" Mosaic thought aloud, trying to retrace his words. "I may have said that didn't I?"

"Yeah...I know you did."

"Well, think that's a bridge we'll cross when we get to it, for now, let's start by finding that castle."

And with that, the group went off deeper into the city, in search of the castle in which the flower-named princess dwelled.

Some Searching Later...

"I don't see the castle anywhere…" Mosaic stated.

"Yeah...me either…" Hoops added.

"Rosy, is there anything on your pamphlet about where the castle is by any chance?"

Rosy hearing this checked the pamphlet.

"Based on where we are and what the pamphlet shows...it should be right here!" Rosy stated, then looking up ahead.

There it was, a high-class looking staircase right in front of them only meters away; leading up into a larger structure that based on it's decorating, seemed to indeed be a castle.

"Wow, Rosy was actually right on something huh?" Hoops added.

"What are you saying?"

"Aaaaanyway…" Mosaic interrupted. "Let's go up to the entrance and see if we can get inside."

As such, up the stairs they went, where at the top they saw an entrance lacking a door, opening up into a larger room.

The room was quite decorated, having orange, vibrant walls and a ceiling, branching paths to other parts of the castle made with a red carpet, and a number of different artifacts within glass stands as well as picture frames of numerous different places and objects scattered about the walls as well and a large glass chandelier in the middle. Along with this, there were already several people within the room, scouting the sights that were within the room.

As such the group looked around the room a bit, giving comments here and there.

"Wow, this is a nice room," Rosy commented.

"You said it," Mosaic added.

"Aren't we trying to see Daisy?" Hoops asked.

"Ah yeah, let's do that first," Mosaic replied.

Seeing down the hall, Mosaic saw a staircase going up to another room, being guarded by two people in armor wielding spears and who both looked to be human.

"Something tells me that's where Daisy's throne room is," Mosaic explained, pointing at what his eye caught.

"Well...guess it's time for the hard part, getting past the guards…" Rosy commented.

Berry made a comment in his language too.

"Hopefully they indeed aren't mean," Hoops responded to Berry's comment.

Making their way down the hall to the entryway that the two guards stood, when they got about an arm's length away, the two guards both suddenly thrust their spears in an x, blocking the door.

"Name?" One of the guards asked.

"Umm, us?" Mosaic tried to explain.

"Us who?" the guard asked.

"Err...you don't recognize us? Us? The Mosaic Group?" Mosaic continued.

"Never heard of you," The guard responded. "What business do you have with her highness?"

"Umm-"

"W-Well, we wanted to meet with her…" Rosy tried to explain.

"And why may that be?" the other guard asked the group.

"W-Well…"

"I don't remember the princess scheduling a formal meeting with a porcupine with a bow, a baby dinosaur, an insect with baseball hands and a leprechaun."

"A...what?" Mosaic thought.

Mosaic then tried to talk. "Uh, I can explain tha-"

"Given that," the second guard continued. "How do we know we can trust you?"

"Well…-" Hoops tried to explain.

"Maybe you just want to meet her and have a formal discussion with her...or maybe the tall guy is looking for a girlfriend or something…" the guard began to speculate.

"Trust me...I know she's taken already…" Mosaic thought.

"Or maybe you guys are here to kidnap her...or maybe you're even planning on asking her out to dinner so you can then get out some poison and…"

"Excuse me boys but...what's with all the commotion down there?" a feminine voice chimed in.

Suddenly, the guards moved aside, seemingly knowing who's voice it was.

And down the stairs came a person dressed in a royal manner.

Dress...crown..brooch...kind of like Princess Peach, but unlike Princess Peach, her dress was orange and her hair was brown and styled somewhat differently. It was clear exactly who this was.

"O-Oh! Princess Daisy! Your highness-" one of the guards began.

The group were a bit surprised to hear this given that up until now, they never met Daisy in person.

"No need to call me by name again, just explain to me what's going on," Daisy asked the guards.

"W-Well...these four people wanted to meet with you for some reason…"

"These four?" Daisy began, taking a look at them.

"Wait...I know who you guys are, Peach talks about you all the time; you're the..."

"T-The...Mosaic Group, in the flesh," Mosaic responded. "So...you're Princess Daisy?"

"Yep, and what are your names again? Sorry...I forget."

"Well to start off, I'm Mosaic…" he stated, shaking hands with Daisy.

"I'm the quickest in th- umm, I mean, Hoops."

"My name is Rosy."

Berry however didn't speak, being shy.

"Oh, and...he's Berry…" Rosy introduced given this.

"Barry?" Daisy asked.

"N-No...Berry, with an E."

"Ah...I see…how about we all go back up stairs and all chat some more?" Daisy then asked, hearing their introductions.

"Yeah, sure, that is what we came here for after all," Mosaic accepted.

"They're good to go, guards."

"Yes Ma'am," both guards responded, doing the hand sign accordingly.

As the five made their ways up the stairs, they chatted.

"Let me see if I got your names a sec alright?"

"Sure thing," Mosaic replied.

"So your names are Rosy, Hoops, Berry and...Massaic right?"

"Er, umm...that's MO-saic…"

"Ah, woops...alright, will note."

At this point they had made it into the throne room and continued.

"To start our discussion...what past do you and Peach have with one another? She's mentioned you from time to time…" Rosy asked.

"Oh? Me and her? We've done quite a bit," Daisy began. "We've raced cars together, went to a lot of parties, played a lot of sports…"

"Like Soccer right? I remembered hearing about you having a team from Peach herself," Mosaic asked.

"You got that right," Daisy replied. "And we even participated in the Olympics one time…that brings some memories back..."

"The Olympics huh? Sounds cool…" Hoops commented.

"It was...wonder if we'll ever do another one…" Daisy replied.

"And you guys work together a lot when it comes to that event too, right?" Mosaic then asked, continuing with a new subject.

"Yeah, we sure do."

"Given you two are friends, I assume your guys' kingdoms have some kind of association with one another, right?"

"I'll tell you guys since you know her; that yeah, we do, though it's mainly through collaboration and trade, you know, the boring stuff."

"What exactly do you two plant princesses collab and trade?" Hoops asked.

"Oh, you know, like the annual grand prix or parties that we do every so often and stuff like that."

"Wouldn't call once in a year every so often…" Mosaic thought.

"And with trading, well, different resources we have that the other doesn't really."

"So like?" Mosaic asked.

"Superball Flowers...Billy Guns...Propeller Blocks...things like that."

"Makes sense…" Mosaic responds. "Any other places that have had or have a connection to the Mushroom Kingdom like Sarasaland does?"

"Hmm...not that I'd know of…"

"Well I'd know that Subcon doesn't really share a real connection other than it's scattered warp doors, while Dinosaur Land...I've heard about...history, but that's all to be honest…" Rosy added to the discussion.

"Anyway, you four got plans after this?"

"Well...we do plan to give the other kingdoms a look…" Mosaic answered the question.

"Yeah, we do…" Rosy added.

"Rosy...trying to look helpful…" Hoops commented.

"Ah well, guess you're going to miss the race and dinner tonight."

This first caught Berry's attention, but also caught the others' as well.

"Wait...what'd you say about what?" Hoops commented.

"There's going to be a race tonight, down at the Daisy Circuit."

"Hey, that sounds like fun, how much is admission for it?" Mosaic asked.

"Well there's a couple deals we offer over there. For just watching the kart race, it's...oh umm, eighty-five coins."

"How many?" Rosy asked.

"Eighty-five coins Rosy...she answered that," Hoops commented.

"T-That's alot...how much does combining the dinner add to it?" Mosaic then asked, continuing with the subject.

"I recall it running for like...a couple hundred coins or something."

"W...WHAT?" Mosaic reacted. "How expensive are these dinners?"

"Only sixty coins or something I'd say."

"Then why...the heck...is both...combined...two hundred coins?" Mosaic thought to himself. "That's...a ripoff…" Then responding aloud, Mosaic gave his piece. "I'm...sorry, I'm pretty sure we can't afford that, that'd blow through a good deal of our vacation coins if we did."

"Hey...could be worse Mosaic, at least it's not the Beanbean Kingdom where a million coins from here is only one hundred there…" Rosy mentioned.

"What kind of exchange is that!?" Mosaic thought as he just gave Rosy a shocked look.

"No need to worry you guys," Daisy stated.

"Huh? But we said-" Mosaic began.

"You can't afford it?" Daisy asked. "Not really a problem if you're getting it free anyway."

"Wait...you mean it?" Mosaic asked.

"Of course I do, here you four go," Daisy responded, holding four light-blue papers out to the group.

"Dinner Race Deal Voucher…" Rosy read out.

"They're all yours…"

"No point in passing out free entertainment and food I'd say," Hoops commented.

"You're right that there isn't," Mosaic replied. "Thank you for giving us these."

"No problem," Daisy replied.

"Think we'll be going now to look around the city until the game and meal's start, when would that be?"

"Six o'clock."

"Alright...so...really soon...thanks, we'll see you there," Mosaic then said as he and the group turned to leave.

"Sayonara," Hoops said.

"Bye now," Rosy stated.

Berry also gave a goodbye as well in his own language.

"See ya Rosy, see ya Berry, see ya Hoops, see ya Massaic."

"That's Mosaic!" Mosaic shouted up the stairs, hearing her.

"Ah woops, sorry."

Meanwhile, at Dino Mountain...

II: Mystical Clues

Having tamed the creature beforehand, Toad rode the quadruped dinosaur to what seemed to be the mountain's peak, especially as could be told from the darkness around the mountain. It seemed that sunset had been arriving.

"Here you go big guy, as I promised," Toad said to the Dino Rhino, giving them the bag of berries he had harvested from the bag.

As the Dino Rhino munched on them, they began to make their way back down the hill.

Having now arrived where he had wanted to, Toad scouted the area around him, seeing that there wasn't too much ground around him, however, there was a path up ahead; going upwards. There were some more steep hills to scale and rock walls to climb, however, Toad felt he could handle them, none of them being as steep as the hill the dino rhino took him up.

"Based on the map, after climbing this bit of extra terrain...I'll be right at the place…. Welp, no place to go but up."

And up he did go, it took him some time, but soon enough, he made it to the very area that was marked on his map; the peak of the mountain.

"T-That; huff...was much, huff, harder than, huff, I thought it'd be…" Toad stated to himself.

Then, looking up, he saw a collection of rather old-school looking houses.

"So here's the village…" Toad thought aloud. "I guess it's time I-"

Suddenly, at that moment, one of the doors swung open.

"Uh...umm…"

As Toad noticed this, more and more of the doors began to open up, and out of the buildings their residents came.

These residents were all familiar dino-dragons that Toad had seen quite often in Dinosaur Land, Rexes. Except, they all wore plain looking robes, and were each all holding one of two things in their hands; a torch or a spear.

All of them marched out of their houses, all looking Toad in the eyes as they held their tools, thinking him an intruder.

"I...I come in peace…" Toad began to reason with the dragons.

"What's your business here, mushroom person?"

"W-Well I umm…" Toad began to try to explain. "I-I have this map here and…"

"Now what seems to be all the hubbub people?" a wise-worded voice suddenly arose.

Out of the door within the center of the village came a specific Rex. They wore a robe like the other Rexes, just a dark shade of green. They were also green themselves body color wise. And finally, held what appeared to be a staff with an emerald at the top.

Given this last detail, they appeared from Toad's perspective to be quite elderly.

"This weird fungus looking person showed up here!"

"Yeah! He just walked right on in without warning!"

In this manner, the members of the village began to explain what the deal was to the elder.

"You're all speaking as if this mushroom person is terrorizing you guys," The elder began to reason with the others. "As far as I can tell, he's just arrived here and we haven't even had the decency to ask him his name, so why don't we get started with that first?"

Understanding their superior's reasoning, the fellow Rexes moved aside and let him get his piece in, he leaned down a bit to Toad's height.

"Tell me, little mushroom, what's your name?"

"O-Oh! It's...err...Toad."

"Toad huh? Names just as I prefer them, short and simple. I'm Báilóng."

"Interesting name...hello though Báilóng."

"You locating our village at the very peak of Vanilla Mountain like this is quite a feat bearing significance," Báilóng began. "What brings you here Toad?"

"Well, there's a guy I know who told me about there being a village in Dinosaur Land…"

"Mmm…"

"So I headed here to see if well, I could find where it was."

"What might your guide have been in finding our humble mountain dwelling?"

"Oh, just this ancient old map," Toad explained, then showed it off.

It was when Toad said these words that quite a stir picked up within the group of Rexes.

"Wait...an ancient map you say?" Báilóng commented. "Could...could he be the one?" he then thought aloud.

"Wait, what do you mean by-"

"The fact that you're holding that map is another feat in of itself; why, I had assumed all of those maps...had been lost to the mists of time!"

"So...me having this map is...special?"

"Indeed it is my fungus," Báilóng responded. "Here, come inside my hut, we'll talk a bit more, just the two of us."

"A-Alright then…" Toad responded, following him inside with the door shutting behind.

Back at City Sarasa...

As had been planned by the group not too long ago, they showed up at six o clock, on the dot for the race and dinner of which they had just recently been informed.

Overall, it went pretty well for them, the food was great, as was the dessert. The race hadn't really been too close at all, despite what one might expect from a race typically. It was at this point that the Mosaic Group were talking with one another on their opinions on the kart race that they had just spectated minutes ago.

"Talk about an intense race," Mosaic began.

In which Berry agreed.

"Eh, not really Mosaic," Hoops replied. "Once those guys driving the large Koopa shell took the lead, they took the gold kinda easily…"

"Gotta say I agree with Hoops on this one Mosaic…" Rosy added.

"Oh…" Mosaic responded, not having much to respond with. "What about we talk with Daisy a bit more? There's a couple more things I wanted to talk to her about."

"Oh? What'd you want to ask her?" Rosy asked.

"What she knows about the round frame we found."

"Oh...wait, what?" Rosy responded, then quickly realizing what he said. "You...sure you want to talk to her about that?"

"Yeah, I'm sure no harm would come out of doing so."

"I'm game," Hoops added.

"Well alright…" Rosy replied.

Berry gave an agreement too.

After quickly locating where Daisy was, they began a new discussion.

"Heya Daisy," Mosaic began.

"Hey y'all, how'd you like the race?" Daisy asked, not noticing the intent.

"It was nice, anyway though, mind if we ask a couple more things?" Mosaic asked.

"Knock yourselves out," Daisy replied.

Berry began to say something in his language, sounding upset.

"It's...a figure of speech Berry, we're good," Rosy explained.

Berry acknowledged Rosy's comment, and let Mosaic speak.

"What we wanted to ask first about was if you've heard about the discovery we made about a week or so ago."

"Discovery?" Daisy asked.

"Yeah, basically we explored this old pyramid over in Subcon, and over there, discovered something very interesting."

"Umm...excuse me...am I interrupting you guys by any chance?"

"Nah, you're not, in fact-" Mosaic began to say before realizing that this voice came from someone else, in which he and the rest of the group then turned their heads in the direction of the voice, seeing that someone was listening in.

The person wore a black-purple robe and wore a sealed black pendant with a container around their neck. They were purple bodied with a white-underside, had a short tail, and were bare-footed. A Yoshi, the group was able to quickly deduce.

"Hey...you're dressed...distinctively," Rosy began, trying to be polite. "What's your name?"

"It's...Dinna," the dino lady responded.

"Well, hey Dinna, i'm Mosaic." the latter stated, then shaking hands.

"I'm some bug you can call Hoops. And by the way, I'm a guy."

"Why would she think that you're...oh…" Rosy asked, then seeing the reason.

Berry then introduced himself to Dinna too.

"And your name is Berry huh?" Dinna responded. "That's a nice name," She said as she kneeled down and gave Berry a pat.

"So you're the one I heard hollering over there earlier…" Daisy said aloud.

"Huh? Do you mean you're familiar with her?" Mosaic asked.

"Well I heard her voice earlier but couldn't talk with her at the time about what it was I'd suppose…" Daisy explained.

"Ah…"

"If you guys were talking...you can finish first…" Dinna inputted in the discussion.

"Ah, okay," Mosaic replied. "Anyway as I was saying, we explored this old pyramid about a week back, found this frame to apparently what E. Gadd has learned is a magic compass as of recently…"

"C-Compass?" Dinna said quietly.

"As we speak, Team S.M.B.X are over in the Mushroom Kingdom hunting the shards to it down, as they're apparently scattered around there, so that's where they're searching at the moment."

"Ah, so it's one of those mcguffin searching instances, sounds like a party."

"I guess you could call it a...Mario Party right?" Rosy said.

There was some brief silence before it was picked up again.

"Beryl won't be happy to hear you stole one of his puns…" Hoops stated.

"It was a nice pun though right?"

"...I suppose so…"

"Anyway, all we had been asking is if you know anything of sorts about this," Mosaic asked.

"Mmm, can't say anyone ever told me about any compasses with magic powers up until now."

"Ah, I see, that figures," Mosaic said. "I suppose we'll be heading to the hotel now."

"You can say what you were wanting to Daisy now if you wanted to," Rosy said to Dinna.

"Oh...umm...it's alright, it's not important what I was going to talk about anyway…" Dinna responded.

"Oh...well...alright; have a nice night," Rosy said to Dinna as she and the others made their way out of the racing circuit and to a place that they could stay for the night.

Back at Dino Mountain...

Having been let in the elder's shack in private, Toad took a look around, seeing that, while the place looked clean, neat, and in general desirable, it wasn't much more than that. It was small in size, and other than the necessities such as a basket of fruit and a bed, was quite empty.

"You guys don't do too much up here do you?" Toad presumed.

"Fraid not, most people on this mountain have lived here their whole lives and never really left beyond here, nor have I…" Báilóng informed. "We do however like to play games of Manjong or Chess every so often…"

"That's...nice…" Toad said. "Anyway, what were you going to show me in your...hut?"

"It's right over here," The elder dino-dragon began to guide him, leading him to a locked treasure chest.

"What's in the box?" Toad asked.

"Heh, you sounded like a motion picture character right there," Báilóng commented.

"Umm, I'd say that's 'movie' character you're looking for…" Toad replied, a bit embarrassed.

Báilóng laughed, but then had the question, "What might a movie be my youngster?"

"Oh umm...I may tell you another time," Toad responded. "Can I see what you were wanting to show?"

"Sure as can be," Báilóng replied, taking out a key and opening the crate with it.

It being open, Toad peaked at the contents inside.

There was an old, worn scroll. It seemed to be torn on one side however.

"It's...a scroll…" Toad commented.

"It is, why don't you take a look at it?"

As such, the mushroom person did just that and examined the scroll for a while, then gave his opinion.

"They look like...some kind of cryptic directions...at least, some of them. And...this looks like a shiny purple shard..."

"That my friend, is a piece of the Vegvisir Compass that the scroll is guiding you to."

"The...the wha," Toad responded, not realizing what the compass' name was until now. "That's what the compass is called?"

"Yep, it is."

"I see...back on the subject, why only half of the scroll? Do you have the other half?"

"Can't say we do…"

"Do...you know where it may be?"

"Can't say I would either. Perhaps, it too, has been lost to the mists of time!"

"Oh man, that's unfortunate...was hoping you'd perhaps know that so that way tracking down the other half would be easier..."

"Though...I do remember reading a journal from...I think it was my great-grandfather that it's in…"another dimension" I believe."

"...Wait, another dimension?"

"I...think so, I may be mistaken…"

"You know...some friends of mine found that compass in a place called 'Subcon'. Have you heard of it?"

"Hmm, Subcon...Subcon…." Bailong thought for a bit. At that moment, the memory flooded in. "Why yes...yes I have heard of it, just a couple days ago in fact. I remembered my...grandson saying something about it before he left and..." Bailong said before beginning to cut himself off.

"Oh I se-" Toad began before realizing what it was that Bailong just said. "Wait a minute...did you just say 'your grandson'?"

"I...I did, didn't I?" Bailong said, before remaining silent for a good bit of time.

"Elder? You feeling okay?" Toad asked.

"I...I should have mentioned it earlier but...my grandson left the mountain a couple days ago…"

"W-Wait...a couple days ago? Like...exactly two?"

"I...believe so...my memory is getting foggy with my age, but I couldn't forget that much…he...he left to go do...well...exactly what it sounds like you and your friends are planning to do..."

Toad hearing this flashed back to what he heard at the game the other day.

"Bailong...a question about your grandson…"

"Yes? What may it be?"

"Is...he both green himself and someone who wears green clothing?"

"Y-Yes…"

"And...another question...what's...what's his name?"

"M...M…"

"Y-Yeah? Who?"

"Meredith."

"You know...I-I think I may have heard about someone like this from two other buddies of mine just a couple days ago." Toad explained. "He helped them out."

"I...I see…that's nice of him."

"But wait a minute...if he's your own grandson...and he left the mountain to find the shards of the...Vegvisir Compass, why didn't you give him the scroll instead of me?"

Bailong didn't respond to Toad's question.

"W-Wait...he...he didn't go off to do this against your will, did he?"

"...He...He...did…"

"O-Oh no…" Toad responded.

"Okay...I want you to listen, Toad," Bailong continued. "There's no time for details, but I want you to take this scroll, and make sure my grandson doesn't get his hands on any of the shards or either half of this scroll. And most importantly, do not let him anywhere near the compass frame…"

"I...I see…" Toad replied.

"If he does...the results will be…. Catasphrophic to say the least…"

"O-Okay…"

"The frame to the Vegvisir Compass...it's in good hands as we speak, correct?"

"W-Well...I hope so...but I'd say it's safe…"

"Alright...that's good to hear. Now, with the scroll in hand, it's time you got moving...before it's too late…"

"I...will, but on a last question, and this should be an easy one…"

"Ah?"

"How do you get down the mountain?" Toad asked.

"That should be an easy feat, just use this," Bailong said, then handing Toad a flask filled with a red liquid.

"Wait...this is a...magic potion…"

"Indeed; you know how to use it, correct?"

"I...I do...thanks. Would you have a recipe for how these are made?"

"Not really, they were given to me a long time ago. The recipe's been lost to the mists of time!"

"You sure love saying that…" Toad replied.

"Hmm, Hmm," Bailong laughed. "I suppose I do."

"Yeah...well, I'll be seeing you and your village off now if that's alright."

"Oh, it's not a big deal at all, I've used up plenty of your time by now, you have more important things on hand."

"See ya Bailong, it was nice talking with you, thanks for the information and help!"

"Don't mention it my little mushroom friend! For real, actually don't…"

As Toad had said he would, once he found a good spot for doing so, he threw down the magic potion, there appeared a magic door, and after some brief travel through subspace, just like that, there he was, near the bottom of the mountain in which he was able to see the familiar Donut Plains not too far at all from him now.

Wasting no time, he began making his way down.

Meanwhile, at Luigi's Whereabouts...

III: Green Thunder

The green plumber had made it to the other side of the door in which; given his run in he had with the many hostile creatures of subcon's environment had hurried into without thinking.

On the other side of this door was a lack of solid ground; the door was in midair.

Given this of course, Luigi went plummeting to the ground. Fortunately enough for him, the terrain below gave him a soft landing.

"Oww...Mama Mia…" Luigi retorted as he got back up; wiping dust off of his clothing. "It seems we were able to escape those guys eh bro?" he said, before quickly realizing, he was nowhere to be found. "M-Mario? Where are-a you?" Luigi began to wonder aloud, then looking around to see if he was anywhere around, finding him nowhere.

Infact, when he looked at his surroundings, he found that above him was an orange sky, indicating that sunset was arriving, all around him was a forest of palm trees planted on grass, and on the ground below...sand.

"W-Wait...am...am I...in Desert-a Land?" Luigi wondered. "I...don't remember us ever-a finding an Oasis here…. Is...is this even Desert-a Land? I don't-a know but...either way...let's-a get out of here!"

The high jumping italian tried several times to reach the door in which he fell from, but to no avail, the door was far too high to reach.

"I...I can't reach it…" Luigi said to himself. "I really am alone huh…. No...get a grip on yourself Luigi...what would your brother do in this situation? He'd...he'd press on...wouldn't he? Well, that's what you got to-a do too!" As such, Luigi began to march his way down a path that he saw, thinking it'd lead him out of the oasis and somewhere more familiar.

As he walked, Luigi pulled out the frame to the Vegvisir Compass and looked at it, feeling somewhat bored.

"Man, I wish this thing could lead me to Mario…"

At that moment, the compass' needle began to twitch violently, it had picked something up!

"Wait! It's reacting! A compass piece must be nearby!" Luigi began as he started to run, following the needle.

Luigi hustled and hustled, in rapid pursuit of whatever it was the needle was pointing at; but he wasn't looking where he was going. Soon enough, as one may expect from moving at high speeds and not watching your surroundings, he ran into someone and crashed, knocking him, the one he ran into, and the compass all onto the ground.

"Hey, watch where you're-" the person began before recognizing who it was. "Hold on...haven't I seen you somewhere before? You're the electrician right?" they then said.

Reconvening himself, Luigi began to look up, ready to apologize. "Sorry about-a running into you like-a that, guess I should of...ran-a slower," Luigi began, then realizing he's seen this person before. "Hey...I saw you earlier today didn't I? You're...the M...Meredith guy right?"

"Y-Yeah…" the dragon mage responded. "It's funny how you and I keep running into each other like this."

"Heh, well...maybe it's destiny or something that this keeps-a happening?"

"Heh heh, maybe so, that, or…" Meredith continued before looking next to Luigi, noticing something lying on the ground. "Wait a minute...what's that!?"

Catching Meredith's eye, Luigi looked at what it was he was eyeing.

"Oh...this? Well, it's an-a frame to a magic compass...why do you-a ask?" Luigi then, realizing what he said, put a hand over his mouth.

At this moment, Meredith grew silent, and just stared at the compass, seemingly...shaking almost, not with fear but...something else?

"Where...Where did you get that?" Meredith angrily asked.

"Err umm well, I...I wasn't the one who-a found it but umm, some friends of-a mine did…" Luigi explained. "...are...are you okay buddy?" Luigi then asked.

"W-Why do you have it?" Meredith questioned next.

"M-My brother gave it to me to-a...hold on to…"

"Y-Your brother has no idea what foolish action he's just taken."

"W-What do you mean?"

"That compass belongs to the Descentia Tribe and it's descendents."

"W-What's the Descentia Tribe?" Luigi asked.

"...clearly your ignorance shows," Meredith responded. "All I want for you to do is be a good electrician, plumber, whatever you are, and hand that thing over to me."

Thinking it was a bad idea based on what he's seen, Luigi responded, and quite nervously, "N...No...I don't think...I-a will…"

Given Luigi's answer, Meredith once again went quiet. After a few seconds, he responded.

"No? Did you just say…'No'?"

Luigi in response just nodded.

"Okay then, I'll ask you again, give me the compass frame, NOW."

Luigi shook his head in response.

"Okay then, I guess you want to do this the hard way, plumber," Meredith stated, some kind of electricity starting to form in his hand; electromagnetic magic.

Luigi at first stuffs the compass into his pocket and makes an attempt to flee.

Using his other hand however, Meredith whispered something under his breath and snapped his finger.

They were surrounded in a magic forcefield.

"Well...guess I'll-a have to fight this out…" Luigi said to himself nervously.

Starting the fight off, Meredith fired a stream of electricity Luigi's way, which using his jumping ability, dodged from above.

Wanting to see if he could stomp him for a counter-attack, Luigi came diving down from above.

Meredith however, instead of dodging, crossed his arms together, and above in front of him, a circular green energy barrier formed.

Luigi, not having enough time to react, got sent flying back from this and crashed onto the ground.

Quickly getting back up, Luigi commented. "He has an-a magic shield? Direct attacks won't work I-a guess…Maybe I'll try to ambush him with 'that'?" He then stated.

Meredith at this point twirling his fingers seemed to be getting some kind of magic blast ready.

Waiting for the moment he fired it, Luigi stood ready, and when the shot came, he dodged the blast.

Meredith then tried the blasts several more times, none of them hitting Luigi, but one after hitting a nearby tree creating quite a bit of smoke.

At this moment Luigi made his move and dove at Meredith up close with his hammer.

Seeing this however, Meredith dodged to the side and whispered more words, throwing Luigi at a tree with a psychokinetic spell.

Luigi crashed into the tree with a thud and fell back onto the ground, hurt a bit.

Right after this however, he got up once again, trying the same strategy once more but harder.

The same resulted, and he crashed into a tree once again.

"Ready to hand it over?" Meredith then asked the fallen plumber.

Recovering from the impact, Luigi began to recover and responded.

"Listen-a buddy, never underestimate the Green Thunder!" he told him, at this point now making a full recovery.

"I see…" Meredith responded.

"Looks like I-a gotta fight fire with fire...or you-a know...thunda with-a thunda," Luigi thought to himself.

Luigi then held his hands together, charging up a string of lightning, in which Meredith did the same thing.

After a good fifteen seconds of charging from both sides of the battlefield, the blasts were fired off.

Upon collision with each other, out of the opposing lightning strikes was born a large explosion.

Both sides were set flying back a good distance, however, both hit the force-field containing them, stopping gravity in its place and softening the impact.

Both sides stood, waiting for the smoke to clear, and once it did...both saw that the opposing side still stood.

"Not bad...can you keep up?" Meredith stated.

Luigi, continuing, began to form electricity within his glove again, trying to give Meredith an electricity-infused flying punch. Meredith simply threw him off with his psychokinesis again, however; in which Luigi once again hit the ground.

"Stubborn aren't we?" Meredith commented.

With the punch not working, Luigi got back up and instead ran in with his hammer once more and made a very large jump into the air and held it over his head.

"The hammer trick again huh-"

Interrupting his response, Luigi instead threw the hammer down Meredith's way in an attempt to throw him off.

"Bad move," Meredith responded.

Whispering the words from earlier, Meredith grabbed Luigi's hammer with his psychokinesis, to Luigi's dismay.

"Here, you dropped this," Meredith continued, tossing the hammer back up at Luigi.

Not having a way to dodge the hit due to the fall; combined with the speed the hammer came back his way. His own hammer hit him smack in the face and spun him around helplessly; causing him to fall back to the ground.

Luigi crashed, and now feeling a bit dazed, began to recover.

Not giving Luigi a chance to breathe, Meredith picked up the plumber's hammer again with his same spell from before, and threw it his way once again, knocking him down a second time, sending him reeling back once more into a tree.

Really having trouble getting up now, Luigi once more tried to recover from the constant beat down, really having trouble now keeping consciousness.

The dragon mage then held his hands together once more, preparing another electric magic strike.

Realizing he was finished if the blast hit, Luigi then started to try to charge up his own electric attack.

However, given how much he had used earlier combined with his current state, he found it was far too difficult to pull off something like this in the given moment.

As a result, the electric shock hit Luigi, doing serious damage.

Once the assault ended, Luigi, unable to take anymore, slumped to the ground. He was out cold.

"Hmm, I guess you couldn't keep it up," Meredith said, realizing he had won.

Walking over to the unconscious man, the rex dug into his pocket, finding the Vegvisir Compass frame perfectly intact.

"I'll just be taking this off your hands now if you don't mind; not that you can really answer in your state…" Meredith monologued. "Anyway, one last thing to do to make sure you don't interfere again," Meredith then said, whispering a good number of words to himself as he spun his hands in a circle a good number of times.

Through doing this, a portal appeared below Luigi's unconscious body, through which the plumber went. He had been transported to another dimension unbeknownst to him...

"Our tale continues to unfold, The Mosaic Group and Daisy's paths had come to meet while meeting a distinctive individual at the same time. and Toad learned the info which he seeked from a remote mountain tribe living in non industrialized lives in the vast wilderness, much too late did he however. For the artifact in which the brother of Mario was responsible to keep from falling in wicked hands has now done just that. Where will this tale go next? Will info reach the others in time? Time will reveal the answer to that."

To Be Continued...