Mario, Peach, Daisy, and the two Toads were beginning to get a little impatient waiting for Luigi to return. He was taking far too long trying to find a dice block.

"I'm gonna go see what's taking him so long," Mario said.

"No need," a voice said.

Everyone turned, and saw Gruber coming up to the board, balancing a brown dice block on his head.

"Oh no!" Toadette shouted. "It's him!"

"All Goomba's may look alike, but I doubt Toadette will ever get any of them mixed up with one that's stalking her," Toad said.

"What are you doing here, Goomba?" Mario asked.

"I'm here to take your brother's place," Gruber said. "I brought my own dice block, too!"

"What?!" Toadette shrieked.

"Yeah," Gruber said. "He sent me."

"I highly doubt Luigi would do that," Peach said, eyeing Gruber suspiciously.

"Forget it, Goomba," Mario said. "We don't allow any of Bowser's minions to play in these party games!"

"But I'm not Bowser's minion anymore!" Gruber argued. "He gave me the boot about a month ago! Wanna see my pink slip?"

Out of thin air, the Goomba produced a pink slip, and handed it to Mario. He looked at it, and gave it to Peach.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"Looks authentic to me," Peach said. "I recognize Bowser's handwriting. And I do believe he would fire a Goomba for incompetence."

"I guess," Mario said. "But I still don't trust him."

"Me neither," Daisy said. "Let's go get the ping pong ball machine, and draw another name out of it. That's the only fair thing to do in this situation."

"No!" Gruber said, jumping in front of Mario. Then he got down on his knees, and began kissing Mario's boots.

"Please-oh-please-oh-please-oh-pleee-heee-heee-heeeeeeze let me plaaaayyyyy!" he begged. "I'll behave myself! I promise! I won't lie, I won't cheat, I won't steal, I won't do anything mischievous like we Goombas are known to do! Please, please, please, please, let me play! Please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeze!"

"All right! All right, already, you can play!" Mario shouted. "Just stop that! I can't stand to see a grown Goomba grovel! And remember, I'm gonna keep my eyes on you!"

"Fair enough," Gruber said. Then he walked to the starting space on the board, but not before giving Toadette a wink, and making clicking noises at her.

"Hello, my little snickerdoodle-doodle-doo," he said. "My little snookie-ookie-wookie-pookie-poo! How's about giving Daddums a great, big kiss?"

"Ooooh!" Toadette shuddered, clapping her hands over her mouth. "I think I threw up in my mouth a little!"

"Mario, how can you let him play?" Peach asked. "This is liable to send poor Toadette completely over the edge!"

"I know, but I couldn't take his begging any longer," Mario said. "He was slobbering all over my shoes. Besides, I'm gonna watch him closely. The minute he steps out of line, he's pizza."

"I still don't like it," Daisy said. "Hey, Goomba! Where is Luigi, anyway?"

"Oh . . . ." Gruber said, with a sneaky look on his face. "He's a little . . . . tied up for the moment."

Truer words have never been spoken by a Goomba. Indeed, Luigi was a little tied up at the moment. Literally. By this time, Luigi was beginning to regain consciousness, and found himself in a dark room, laying on the floor, bound and gagged. He looked around, wondering where in the world he was, and what was going on. The last thing he remembered was being grabbed, and knocked out. He struggled a bit, trying to get himself loose, but he was tied too tightly. However, he wasn't completely helpless. He managed to push himself towards one of the walls, and roll over onto his back. Then, he began kicking at the walls as hard as he possibly could, and screaming as loudly as he could. His screams were muffled by the gag, but he figured he might be able to get someone's attention, anyway.

Luigi happened to be in luck. Mario, Peach, Daisy, and Gruber had just finished their first mini game in their party, when they began to hear a banging noise coming from the watermelon island.

"What in the world is that?" Peach asked.

"Uhhhh, fruit flies!" Gruber shouted, quickly.

"Fruit flies?" Daisy repeated. "Making that much noise?"

"They're fruit flies on steroids," Gruber said.

"I don't buy that," Toad said, giving Gruber a look.

"I'll tell you guys what, I'll check it out!" Gruber shouted, and he beat a hasty retreat. The others looked at each other. There was no way they were buying this at all.

Gruber ran to Kamek, who was keeping watch at a door they created on the side of the watermelon island. Actually, he was sitting in front of the door, asleep.

"Wake up, you wonky wizard!" Gruber hissed, kicking Kamek in the side of the head. "Green Stache woke up!"

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" Kamek asked.

"Here, give him one of these," Gruber said, taking a very small object out of a bag. It was a mushroom. It looked like a 1-up mushroom, but it was smaller, it didn't have eyes, and it had a black cap, with neon red spots on it. Kamek got one look at it, and nearly had a heart attack.

"A Black Widow mushroom?!" he gasped. "Are you out of your mind?! This is the most deadly fungus in the entire Mushroom Kingdom! Princess Peach had these banned a long time ago! Where did you even get it?!"

"The black market, where else?" Gruber said.

"Do you realize what these can do to Green Stache? If Mario finds out about this, he'll make cream of Goomba soup out of you! With Kamek sauce on the side!"

"I did my research! One Black Widow isn't gonna kill him! It's just gonna make him sick! Hopefully, it'll be enough to knock him out for awhile! Now let's go in there and give it to him!"

Kamek sighed, and walked inside of the watermelon. When Luigi saw him and Gruber coming, he immediately stopped banging his feet against the wall.

"Okay, Green Stache, cut it out," Gruber said, giving Luigi a kick in the stomach. "Look, Kamek and I have something special for you!"

Kamek held up the mushroom. Once Luigi saw the color scheme, he gasped, and tried to back away from Kamek, but he didn't get very far. The Magikoopa grabbed Luigi by the front of the shirt, pulled him into a sitting position, and removed his gag for the moment. Luigi decided to take advantage of the situation.

"MAAAARRRIIIOOOOO!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Help! Mari—"

"Oh no you don't!" Kamek shouted, forcing the mushroom into Luigi's mouth. He then covered the plumber's mouth with his hand, to prevent Luigi from spitting it out.

Luigi tried to get the lethal mushroom out of his mouth, but he had no choice but to chew it up and swallow it. Unlike most poisonous mushrooms, the Black Widow began to take effect immediately. Luigi grew dizzy, and he felt sick to his stomach. Kamek tied the gag back over Luigi's mouth, and tightened it. He also tightened the ropes binding him.

"That should hold you for awhile," he said. "Believe me, buddy, it isn't my idea to use the Black Widow on you! Not even Lord Bowser would use it on somebody! So . . . . don't hold it against me if your big brother finds out, okay?"

"Mmmmph . . . ." Luigi moaned, weakly, and then fell unconscious.

"Okay, good, he's out," Gruber said. "I gotta get back to the game before someone comes looking for me. See ya!"

Kamek nodded, then went back outside of the watermelon to watch the rest of the game. Both he, and Gruber, hoped nobody had heard Luigi yell for help, but his hoping turned out to be futile. Everybody on the game board heard it.

"What was that scream?" Peach asked, once Gruber returned.

"What was what scream?" Gruber asked, playing dumb.

"That blood curdling shriek we heard about a minute ago," Daisy said.

"Yeah, it sounded a lot like Luigi," Mario said, giving Gruber the "evil eye."

"I didn't hear anything," Gruber said. "I think you're imagining things. Come on, let's get this show on the road! We've still got nine more turns to go through! Stars are a-waiting!"

"I'm warning you, Goomba," Mario said, "if I find out you've done something to my brother, it's going to end very badly for you."

"I'm shocked you would even suggest that, sir!" Gruber shouted. "Do I look like a person who would intentionally hurt someone? On second thought, don't answer that. Come on, let's get rollin'!"

Gruber kicked his custom dice block into the air, balanced it on his head, and began doing a little dance, while heading back to his spot on the board.

"Rollin', rollin', rollin'," he sang. "Keep them dice blocks rollin'. Boom chicka boom chicka boom boom boom!"

The others sighed, and went back to the game. It was about all they could do. Mario kept his eyes on the Goomba at all times. He didn't really care about picking up stars at this point. On the third roll, Gruber wound up rolling the exact number he needed to end up on the star space, much to Toadette's horror.

"Hiya, gorgeous," he said, waving his eyebrows up and down.

"Ew," Toadette shuddered. Then she heaved a sigh. "Okay, here's your star."

"Forget about the stars, baby! How's about a little kissy-poo?"

Gruber puckered his lips, and began making kissing noises. Toadette was so grossed out, she shoved the star into Gruber's mouth.

"Just take the star and go!" she shouted, impatiently.

Gruber paid his ten coins for the star, and went shuffling along, as Toadette floated to another space on the board, far away from Gruber. Gruber then shouted something nobody was able to understand.

"What did he say?" Peach asked.

"I ehd geh ih ig ow a eye ow!" Gruber shouted.

"I think he said get this thing out of my mouth," Daisy said.

"Oh," Mario said. "No problem. I can handle that."

Mario walked over to Gruber, and pounded him on the head with his fist as hard as he could. The star popped out of Gruber's mouth, but it also left Gruber seeing stars.

"Thanks," he said, dazedly. "I think."

"Happy to help," Mario said.

Gruber growled at Mario, and the game went on. It was pretty uneventful. Mario was making a clean sweep of the mini games, and he, Daisy, and Gruber were in a three way tie, with one star apiece, while Peach managed to collect two stars along the way. Though it became apparent to everyone Gruber was not interested in collecting stars. He was more interested in getting close to Toadette. And she definitely wanted nothing to do with this Goomba!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Greenwood Forest is something I came up with. I couldn't think of a better name, and I really couldn't find anything equivalent to what I wanted from researching locations in various Super Mario games. The Black Widow mushroom is also something I created (well, it was a joint creation between me and my sister).