I: Off On Our Ways

The large, assembled crew; having uncovered what it was that laid within the old structure, unoccupied, untouched, anything but active other than through the actions of the other, smaller group that explored it too like such had done; had now been on their ways back out, and had journeyed out of the ravine.

"That was quite the interesting expedition, wouldn't you all agree?" Toadette asked, filled with enthusiasm about it herself.

"It wassssss alright I guesssssss, exxxxxploring the place for a ssssssecond time."

"I'd imagine it was more fun for you guys given it was completely new for you…." Beryl began, starting to turn a bit green. "I mean, I didn't mind a second look though since I got to make more puns, hahaha."

"It was something I'll say," The blue toad opinionated.

"Was"-yellow toad yawned-"neat…if not a bit claustrophobic..."

"A good time..." Bank Toad stated.

"I guess if seeing a bunch of sand, bricks, and cryptic writing was interesting…" Mail toad commented as he put a finger up to his face, tapping it a bit with thought.

"A nostalgic time..." Link replied.

"I'd...say it was for reasons already said…" Toad added in.

"To be honest...it was just nice being able to hang out with some for a bit...given I don't do so too often…" Birdo responded, looking away a bit with shyness. She wasn't really too used to more involved interaction with others outside of Mario's parties.

"Huh...you don't do ssssssssso often?" Glow asked. "Don't you have friendsssssssss to hang out with?"

"I...guess I have Yoshi…" Birdo replied.

"Huh...anyone else?" Beryl joined in and asked, turning a purplish tone with curiosity.

"Oh! Umm...well...well I do...kinda…"

"Well...how about him or her?" Toad curiously asked.

"He's a shy guy…" Birdo responded.

"Wait, so shy like yo-" Link began to ask.

"No, no, I mean the species, not the terminology…" Birdo responded, as she looked Link's way and blushed, kind of embarrassed with the mistake he made as of still not knowing all of the ins and outs of a foreign world.

"Ah...I see…" Link replied.

"What do you guys do?" Toadette asked.

"Well we...talk about different things...yeah…" Birdo vaguely answered with.

"Hmm...such as?" the Blue Toad asked.

The dino however didn't respond. She just turned her head away, not looking the curious group's way, and looked down, full of silence. She didn't want to give them that information, for she felt it didn't need to come out.

"Oh...I...I see…" the blue toad replied.

"Hey...if you"-yawning then coming in from the toad-"Find more friends perhaps, things you do could be a lot more fun...remember that…"

"I suppose so…" Birdo replied. "But if it's alright with you guys, I'll be going now."

"It's okay if you got other placesssss to be…I kinda do mysssssself…ssssssssee ya!" The serpent replied, waving with his tail as well.

In turn, the others gave their goodbyes to Birdo too as she got further and further away, heading in Sandy Subcon Town's direction.

"I sssssssuppose that leavesssssss ussssss, what are our plansssssssss? Sssssince I already know mine…"

"Think i'm going to hang out here a bit longer," Beryl said, his body having faded back to brown at this point.

"Oh? You are?" Toadette asked.

"Well...I do kinda live out here and stuff…"

"To be honessssst...that'ssssss one of the reasonsssss why I want to move back out to Sssssubcon eventually, so I can be closer to you, Striker, and Elemental. Plussssss...I kinda need a better houssssse..."

"I think I could go with you then go if that's where you're headed, there's a warp in Dinosaur Land heading there," Toadette added to Glow's statement. "And I presume the brigade will be coming along with me right?"

"I do have a place to go from Desert Land, so yeah," the blue Toad responded.

"Same," Mail Toad said.

"Same," Bank Toad also said.

"Same…" the Yellow Toad said as he yawned.

"But…" The Blue Toad began which caught the group's interest once again. "Toad had told us something interesting earlier, he said that when he was on the mountain, he was given a scroll half."

"Oh, yeah...I did, what about it?" Toad asked.

"Think we could borrow it for a bit?" he asked.

"Actually...I was kind of wanting to show it to the rest of Team S.M.B.X to see if they had an idea on what we should do with it...perhaps after that you could see it?"

"Ah...I see, that's alright."

"So I guess we all have settled our plans right?" Toadette, one final time, confirmed with each of the group in regards to their choices.

"More or less from the looks of it…" Link replied.

"Well...I suppose I'll see you all off...other than Glow and the brigade since we're going the same way."

And with that, the crew really did disband. Glow, being the limbless, sand-dwelling reptilian he was, slithered along with the mushroom girl over to their currently inhabited dream world's exit, with the vibrantly colored crew following behind, having plans involving them each heading off in a similar path. Beryl observed as his fellow explorers left, finding his mouth was tied when it came to having more to comment on. And like all the rest of their colleagues had done, Toad and Link then did the same, following suit.

As the group began to distance further from each other, in Link's mind something clicked. Though he hadn't known the creature long, he had come to expect a certain thing, a certain form of statement from him.

"Hey...I guess Beryl didn't end off with a pun this time around…" Link commented.

"Oh...so you noticed…. I guess my humor was just…'dry!' this time!"

Given this, Beryl had become green again, and more notably, everyone in the long distant group laughed aloud, given just how perfect it was for the situation and environment they were in. And reminding the group once again what talent that the cactus being had for such humor.

Meanwhile...

II: Still Not Familar World

"So...this is the-a dangerous hyrule-a field?"

"Yes, it is the dangerous Hyrule Field."

Luigi heard the slime creature's response, however, he had difficulty buying it. Nothing was happening in the field; it seemed rather peaceful, no danger in sight. Maybe the field wasn't as dangerous as his travel partner was making it out to be? He was the kind to do that sort of thing so perhaps.

"I…-a see…"

"Anyway, we're getting pretty close to that tunnel, so then you can get out of here and get back to whatever charade you were up to back in your world."

"Speaking of-a that…" Luigi thought. "I...suppose it'd be important to-a...find out where that-a thing...is...you know?"

As the two continued to talk, they suddenly heard what seemed to be loud stepping, very loud.

"W-What's-a that? I-It-a sounds like something-a large…"

"That's the danger that I was telling you about, just hide under a rock and we probably won't be spotted," Midnight explained.

The gargantuan live gel mass then threw his full body behind a rock with a large hop, making a considerable thud given his weight. He then quickly, using his psychokinetic ability, snatched Luigi, frozen in fear from whatever the unknown, approaching force was, and brought him along with him into hiding.

The pair crouched down behind the rocks for a good while, waiting for the source of the sound. And soon enough, it showed itself.

There was some kind of technical, or perhaps magic contraption that stood tall over the field. It had four mechanical limbs, a decorative, large pink bulb-shaped middle, and a deviantly colored blue eye up at the top.

"A guardian…" Midnight said. "It's been years since Ganon was defeated and that Shiekahs made those things but...they still haven't all been deactivated…"

"I...I-a have alot of-a questions but...are we just going to-a hide?"

"Yeah...shouldn't detect us if we don't make any sudden movements and stay out of the line of sight."

"Okie-dokie…" Luigi replied to Midnight's instruction. But then, despite what he had just said, he made a sudden, large movement.

And with that, the distinctive, blue eye on the machine reacted, picking up something.

And like it was some kind of big, mechanical crab, moved it's body in a sideways sort of motion, repositioning it's eye to face the large rock in which the two hid behind, and said eye then began to light up.

"...there's so many words I want to say right now...but I can't without increasing the age rating of this story…"

"Mama-mia…"

The machine then, acting in the way it was built to, fired a shining, hot beam of light at the rocks.

Midnight saw these coming, and given he wasn't expecting that Luigi would react in time, threw him out of the way with his telekinesis while also jumping out of the way himself.

It was clear in the moment; they had been spotted, their hiding place had been exposed, there was nowhere to hide now. Midnight wasn't really the kind to run so he didn't view it as an option, as far as he saw, battle was the only option for the two.

"So Luigi, we're going to have to fight off this magic bag of wires."

"...can't we just-a flee?"

Midnight had expected this from Luigi, and had no amusement regarding such, it was like something he'd expect from him.

"No, because we'd be caught up with anyway; and it's boring," Midnight explained. "So what i'm going to ask you to do is work with me so we can smash this sucker up."

"Okie-dokie…"

The mystical, tank-like contraption, having missed it's original target was getting ready to make its next move as it turned around to aim it's laser their way again.

"So...we'll have to hit the eye...which I'm pretty sure you can reach…"

As he spoke, the Guardian prepared fire once again, which the two dodged, with less difficulty this time around, knowing what was to be expected. As such, the powerful beam of light evaporated instead the dusty terrain.

"I can-a jump high but...I don't think I'll reach it with just a regular jump…"

"Oh, is that so?" Midnight retorted.

Seeing one of the legs of the metallic titan were about to swat them away, like it was a mechanical jump rope, the two gave it a well timed hop. As a result, it missed entirely.

"Well…" Midnight replied, as he grabbed Luigi with his psychokinesis. "I'll make you reach it."

The slime gave the plumber a hurl, like a parent throwing their child in the air. Except in Midnight's case, he skipped the parent-child part and didn't plan to catch him again.

"Aaaaaaaaaa!" Luigi shouted.

"Don't just sit there screaming your head off, get your hammer!"

"Oh…yeah good-a point…"

Drawing his blunt weapon, he got ready to swing. The robot peered above, seeing something approaching rapidly. This being of course, a hammer straight to the face, but in actuality, the eye.

With a defined, strong swing, the hammer struck, and the contraption's eye shattered. Shattered like a glass that's been thrown to the ground senselessly.

Through that one action, the machine shut off, all of the fancy lights lost their coloration, and the metal shell left over clumped onto the ground.

Luigi landed back to the ground, hammer still in hand, and looked over to the dismantled machine.

"Huh…bulls-aeye?"

"Classy," Midnight responded. "But you see? All I had to do was throw you up to the spot you couldn't reach and you were fine."

"True…" Luigi replied. "But if it was that-a simple all along, why didn't you-"

"Didn't feel like it."

"Oh…okay…"

"Anyway…moving along now…" Midnight said, Luigi continuing to follow behind.

III: Droplet of Info

Back in Seaside…

"Now that I-a have this, I suppose the wise thing to do with it would be to get-a going to Dark Land and…"

"No way bro, that really happened?" a voice said.

Not sure who this was, Mario quickly hid behind a palm tree and eavesdropped, seeing if he could learn something juicy.

He saw that there were two individuals talking to one another, a boomerang bro and a hammer bro.

"Yep, it's just as I'm saying bro," the hammer bro explained. "The princess broke out herself! She didn't even need the Marios to break her out this time."

"Wow, no way bro, King Koopa must be slipping…"

"You'd think that with him finding that shard he has that contains all those powers, he'd be in a better position then this...guess not."

"Wow bro…"

"Though, from what his spies apparently found, she was spotted in that forest of Hoopsters, you know...the Hoopster Woods…"

"Hmm...cool story bro…"

Once the two armed, weapon wielding turtles had enough distance from Mario, he got out of his hiding place, and took some time to process the information he just picked up.

"Wait just-a minute…. 'That shard he-a has that contains all those-a powers'? Could...could that-a be what E. Gadd was talking about? The-a shards? But...also it-a sounds like Peach got-a out herself and went to a forest full of hoopsters…? Guess she-a didn't want to-a wait this time…. Where does that-a leave me though? Maybe I should-a go to those woods and meet up with-a her..."

As such, realizing that, though the woman in which he cared so much for seemed to be out of what he saw to be bad hands, he tensed up; sensing she wasn't safe just yet. She was out in the woods, in the forest of trees, filled left and right with sport object sized beetles. It wasn't just that he wasn't sure if she'd be safe, he was certain she wouldn't be until she was back in a spot such as the Mushroom Plains.

And so, Mario played the tune that the teleportation instrument called for, and in came a magical tornado or winds of sorts.

He let it carry him to his destination, and then there he was. The Hoopster Woods.

IV: Odd Encounter

Back At The Mushroom Plains...

Peach continued on her way back to her castle. It seemed that her journey, her deviation from her typical castle life was coming to an end of sorts.

As she continued on her way there, she noticed someone up ahead.

She could tell the individual was a Yoshi, and as she went by took a closer look at them as she noticed strange looking clothes worn by her.

"So this is the Mushroom Kingdom huh…" the Yoshi said.

"Oh, hello there," Peach said.

The Yoshi turned around and saw Peach.

"Oh! Hello to you too...I'm Dinna,"

"Well, I'm Peach, Princess Peach…"

"You're a princess? Of what place?"

"Well...here…"

"You're the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"Well yes, yes I am…"

Dinna remained quiet for a stretch of time, she was in the face of someone with a lot of authority, someone in which many of the locals would know about. Would it be wise for her to just tell her straight everything that was going on and risk the information becoming public knowledge if she felt it necessary to share? She didn't really think it was worth betting on; and once she had thought it through, eventually picked back up.

"That's interesting...is it okay if I ask something?"

"Sure thing."

"Well, have you seen some kind of round frame, like a compass recently?"

"Hmm...I do know that some friends of mine had found something like that, but I haven't really heard much of anything on it as of late…"

"Oh...I see…" Dinna responded. "I'm...going to be going now, where were you headed?"

"Well...back to my castle…"

"Alright, what had you been all the way out here? Were you just on a walk or something?"

"Oh...no...it's a long story…"

"Oh, umm-"

"Well...if you want me to explain what had happened…"

"No, no, it's alright, I won't be nosy."

"Well alright…" Peach replied. "It was nice meeting with you, but I've got to get going."

"Ah, see you," Dinna replied.

And with that, the two ladies parted ways, Peach headed the direction in which Dinna came from, in the direction of her castle, while the robed dino headed adjacent to the princess, heading down a path similar to which she herself had come.

Little did she know what danger she was about to walk into...

V: Continuously Not Familiar World

Back in Hyrule...

the dark as night slime creature, native to his surroundings; continued to lend the human, green overalled plumber; who on the contrary was foreign to the landscape and environment that surrounded him, So he himself could get back to his native-not so native land, but actually native land.

Before he was taken back, Luigi, realizing his time in this world was limited, got curious and decided to strike up a conversation with Midnight.

"So...Midnight, is there anything else you want to-a tell me about the way this place is-a like?" Luigi asked.

"I guess I can try to explain a few general tips. For one, assume most places you go are dangerous, towns should generally be okay, but if you're out in the wilderness, be ready for someone or something to pick a fight with you, like that metal trash heep we saw earlier."

"I...I-a see…"

"Also, there are some places you just never go alone, take Death Mountain for example."

"That's...all you need to-a tell me…"

"Good that you know that. Moving on, I'd also say don't go into a dungeon alone, unless you're Link or Zelda or anyone like that."

"Or-a you?"

"...yes…"

"Under-astood...I really don't like to-a go places alone to begin with...so it's-a not a big-a deal for me…I mean...even back when me and bro were in-a Brooklyn I…-"

"Huh? What's Brooklyn?"

"Oh...it's...me and my-a bro's hometown of-a sorts…"

"Huh...how far would you say it is from your current home? And why exactly did you move?"

"Oh...you-a know...circumstances and stuff…"

"So you don't want to tell me...okay, that's-" Midnight was just about to mouth off, however, in doing so realized he was touching a slanted slope. "Actually, never mind...we're here…the tunnel should be up this hill."

"That's-a relief...I was anxious every step of the way not going to-a lie…"

The two make it up the mountain without much difficulty and make it to the peculiarly colored pipe.

"Well, here you go," Midnight introduced Luigi, using a nearby rock to point it out to him.

"That's-a one colorful pipe...with all of the-a red, green and blue swirling around on-a it…"

"Indeed it is…" Midnight commented.

There was suddenly some kind of stiff, awkward silence in the air. Neither party was sure how to act at this point, they had found the pipe, now what? Was Luigi just to leave with no proper goodbyes? Was Midnight going to rush him out? Was there to be no closing discussion? For a decent period of time, neither Midnight nor Luigi knew.

Eventually, the silence was broken.

"So...what would you say you are planning to do when you go back?"

"I...don't-a know…" Luigi replied. "I do-a know however I'll probably tell Mario that I lost this thing he-a trusted me to hold on to...and given that he's saved the-a Princess by now...ask if he could help me-a out…"

"Given he's saved the...That dumb turtle dragon guy creature thing nabbed her again? Hylia…"

"Yeah…"

"Wait...if you were with Mario...how did you end up here of all places?"

"Well...we-a got separated in this shortcut over in Subcon…"

"Wait hold up, what's a Subcon?"

Hearing Midnight's question, Luigi had no idea what to say. He knew that the word Subcon carried more than one definition around where he heard it. Sometimes it was the word used to reference the fairies which inhabited the land. And at other times, it was used to make reference to the very dimension of itself. As such, he found himself at a loss, should he tell him about the place, or the species first? Eventually, after much intense thought, he came to the best explanation he could.

"Well...it's kind of like...this-a other dimension that exists somewhere parallel to the-a Mushroom Kingdom...by-a entering these red-a doors, you can go between it and the-a Mushroom Kingdom and Main-a World...and in these place you can find things you don't-a find in the Main-a World, like buried vegetables, vases…-"

"Too much information."

"Okay...long-a story short, we-a got separated when taking this shortcut, I ended up in-a Desert Land, a guy there beat me-a up and knocked me out, I wake-a up, no compass frame, in this-a place…"

"Compass frame huh...is that the thing the Mosaic Group found?"

"Yeah, it-a was."

"Hmm...I wonder…"

"You-a wonder...what?"

"Don't worry about it...but yeah...i'm pretty sure that guy, whoever it is sent you here."

"That...makes-a good amount of sense...I do remember him having-a magic…"

"That sucks then…I'd say you should do something about that."

"Is there-a any chance you could help me-a out?"

"Not a chance...not really my problem, plus i'm on 'guard duty'"

"Oh...o-akay. One last-a question, do you have directions to-a Toad Town?"

"Basically," Midnight replied. "When you go out of the pipe, you reach a small cave area, to your right should be the exit. Down out of the cave should be a downward slope heading to Moonlight Meadows, careful of the Piranha Plants, after that, you'll eventually hit Toadstool Valley, stay on the sides of the path, don't fall off, go through more fields, there you go, you're there."

Taking a second to process the information dump that was unwillingly dropped onto him, Luigi eventually replied.

"Any-a safer way?"

"Not really, I wasn't exactly interested in my surroundings there…"

"Mama-mia…"

"Now, are we gonna sit here and chatter endlessly, padding this story further or are you gonna actually get down into the tunnel and go through?"

"I think I'll-a go through…" Luigi replied, finally, after having chattered for quite the amount of time, in a number of ways stalling and putting off continuing with his journey, decided now was the time to advance, and through the interdimensional tunnel he went.

"See ya."

VI: Dusty Danger

Taking the same general route that he took to get here initially, Toad, along with Link, was long on the path out of the dreamy desert dunes.

"So you got here through Dinosaur Land?" Link asked.

"Yeah, it was Striker and Elemental who had initially sent me here after all…"

"So our plan is to head back there...correct?"

"Can't really use a door when it's floating hundreds of feet in the air so…"

"Huh, what's the plan then?"

"I'd know a shortcut or several…"

"Oh? You would?"

"Yeah, I've been here a share of times…"

"I suppose being familiar with a place does that…"

As the pair continued their discussion regarding heading back, they hadn't realized just what situation they were about to walk into. They had assumed it was all smooth travels from here. And this was further reflected by the quietness that surrounded them…

"Hmm...quiet valley…" Link commented.

"For some reason...I don't like it...it is quiet but...almost too quiet…. it seems like the kind of thing that happens wh-"

At that moment, Toad stopped talking.

"Wait, why did you stop?"

"I...I hear something…"

"Something?"

"It's...it's talking…"

"Huh…"

"Quick! Quick! Hide!" Toad quietly exclaimed to Link, which the two both did so, no clear idea on just who it was that was talking.

Toad peaked his head back out from beyond he and his travel partner's hiding spot to investigate, and see where the talking was coming from. When the source of the voices meet his sight. He was filled with shock, dread, and most of all, caution. Bells of memory rung...the individuals in which he saw were two that he hadn't encountered in quite some time...but was seeing now...

To Be Continued…