TatlTails: Well, of course he does. Well, not in canon, but there was a bit of logic I worked through: Blaze is based on an early design of Shadow, and Silver's "Sonic and the Black Knight" version is Shadow's "Black Knight" version's son. It's also just convenient. O fpm'y lmpe, ejsy'd eoyj yjr erotf asmhishe?

Faraday Fan: Yes, there are a lot of moons. Oh, it makes perfect sense if you can decode it. I gave a hint about how to solve it just below. Oh, they'll become important later in the story, don't worry about that. Actually, he did tell Luigi, but Luigi's disappearance happened within a couple of weeks.

Pandamonium: The hint is below.

About the language... It's a pretty simple cipher, you just have to place the letters visually and draw the right connections. Don't be afraid to resort to relying on your fingers, but doing everything on paper won't give you the slightest hint as to how the cipher works. You've all got a key right under your noses, if you know how to use it.

If nobody's figured it out by next chapter, I'll bold some key words in the hint.

Anyway, sorry for lateness. I read through the entire archive of a web comic, waited for DanceDream to review, did schoolwork, etc. I'm finishing my classes today, and already had most of this written.

Adventures of Mario & Sonic: Peach's Adventure

It's Above the Clouds, Stupid: Part 1

Day 2

Considering the two girls he was travelling with, Russ T found breakfast on the open plains quite calming and quiet. Key word, considering, the two girls still talked constantly. However, neither of them went shrieky for even a minute, which allowed Russ T to enjoy the green carpet of grass; the azure sky full of thick white clouds, as well as the wispier ones that he'd started seeing a few weeks ago; the multi-colored hills stretching as far as the eye could see... Truly, the Mushroom Kingdom was a wondrous place, one that made him consider leaving his study more often. Goodness knew that he needed it.

After they were all done eating, Russ helped the girls pack up everything in Peach's new magical backpack, and they began to hike across the countryside. Though progress was slow and bored Peach and Amy, Russ found it exhilarating. Two days ago, he would not have believed himself capable of walking this far, and now he felt like he had more energy than ever before. It truly was a wondrous world he lived in, an amazing place... Russ felt like he could never get tired.

They passed things Russ had never seen before... Natural loops in the ground that Amy got some fun out of running through. Russ wasn't quite sure of how she managed to run on the ceiling, but he then recalled that Mario had done the same thing. He decided that he would try to figure it out when he got home, but would just enjoy the scenery for the moment. Until this day, Russ had never appreciated how truly diverse the Mushroom Kingdom was, and had never come close to imagining the sheer size of the world.

Seven hours after sunrise, the sun was high in the sky; signalling that it was lunchtime for the heroes. The three ate, Russ sitting in silence while the girls talked some more. How many subjects can two youngsters talk about, anyway? It's as if there was no end to their conversational topics. Saving the world, Sonic, the color pink, Sonic, being saved by Mario, Sonic, being saved by Sonic, Sonic, fashion, Sonic, friends, and Sonic were some of the more popular topics of conversations. Needless to say, it didn't take long for Russ to find out what Amy's favorite topic was.

"We should be about halfway there," was Amy's finishing statement for eating her lunch, "At least, last I checked. Knuckles is a little weird about that, constantly moving his island."

"Yeah, I know. Sonic told me all about Knuckles."

"What I find intriguing is how everybody else got home before we got there, considering that they were all at the Princess' castle for Sonic's birthday," Russ cut in, "I cannot think of a reason, other than plot convenience, for them to get there first."

"You're a slowpoke," Amy said bluntly, "Come on, we need to get going so we can get there before sunset."

Russ accepted that, and the three began walking once more. Russ got a book from Peach's backpack, and started reading for the second half of the day. After all, you could never know too much... And there were a few things that were bugging him. There was something weird going on, and he was determined to make it his second priority to find out what.

A few hours later, the three had come within sight of Angel Island. And another mall, which sucked away three more hours but did allow them to obtain two Super Leaves and a Magic Feather. The Super Leaf hadn't worked for Amy, so she gained a cape from a Magic Feather. Russ and Peach both gained the raccoon-like Tanooki suits, which Russ felt the need to point out was misspelled, the correct spelling was Tanuki. Amy and Peach ignored him, and dragged him up to the floating island.

Angel Island was... Breathtaking. It had earned its name, with many distinct and wondrous environments spread over the floating island. The three adventurers landed near a jungle with foliage so thick that the air was green. The beach (with no water, as they were above the coulds) they'd landed on was eerily quiet, though Russ assumed that music would begin playing in the background once they entered the jungle.

"Here we are," Amy said, as the Magic Feather's effect wore off, "Angel Island. Weather forecast: Sunny with a chance of more sun!"

Russ was dumbstruck "... Duh. It's above the clouds."

"Reminds me of the weather forecast in Glitzville..." Peach said wistfully, "Mario was quite an impressive tournament fighter, only lost one match. He met this Yoshi friend named-"

A green egg resembling a grenade fell out of the sky, exploding and cutting off what Peach was saying.

"-And he helped Mario win the match he lost. Well, and then there-"

"Less talky, more find-knuckles-so-we-can-save-sonic-y!" Amy took off through the jungle, forcing Peach and Russ to follow.