DanceDream: Yes, and it's quite alright. I've started another story in that time, too, if you'd like to read it. He's Mario. A quote like that has been in the planning stages for a long time. Same place he keeps everything else, I'd guess. And Mario swallows mushrooms whole. Right. No challenge, no story. Thanks. A good question, yes. Super Mario Galaxy implies it quite heavily. "Can we get better?" If results of real life is anything to go by, the answer to that question is yes. Rehabilitation works a lot better than retribution. That last part is a bit tricky to explain... The Adversary, as it's referred to in Judaism, is internal struggle, a part of every being capable of thought, rather than a spiritual entity. A concept that might help is that the afterlife in Judaism isn't supposed to be any sort of a reward, or quite as good as life itself. Also, I'd like you to read my new story, as explained below.
Fyre Red: Well, I do to.
Everybody: Also, I've been working on another story: Thunder and Lightning. It's probably going to be taking priority over this one, seeing as I haven't updated this one since I started that. Sorry about that. Some of you might like to read it - and I would be quite enjoyed if you did.
Adventures of Mario & Sonic: Peach's Adventure
Russ Takes a Leap
After a mere twenty minutes of walking, our heroes (well, two heroes, an umbrella looking for his grandpa, a bystander who is technically good, and a mischievous greed-driven "treasure hunter") came across a clearing familiar to two of the group. There were two buildings in the clearing: One shaped as a barrel, bearing a sign proclaiming that it was "Cranky's lab". The other building was resting atop a tree, a small house with a sign painted proclaiming it to belong to a certain "DK".
"... Now I know where we are," Peach said. "This is Donkey Kong Island. So the Chaos Emerald is here... Hmm... Is it random, or..."
"Seems so," Wario grumbled. "Stupid DK's probably using it as a lamp or something."
"... Or, more likely, Cranky's keeping it and is going to send us on a long, dangerous quest before he'll give it to us," Peach sighed, beginning to walk towards Cranky's lab. "Come on, let's see if I'm right..."
Princess Peach was, in fact, right. Cranky did indeed have the green Chaos Emerald, and he wanted them to go on some long, dangerous quest to retrieve something for him before he gave it up. Or several hundred gold coins, but Wario quickly made it clear that that was NOT an option. He also told them several things that didn't make sense, and Wario yelled at him about not breaking the fourth wall. And especially not by teleporting offscreen, doubly so if he decided it was a good idea to go to a completely different work that had absolutely nothing to do with the story.
So, as it was, Peach and friends were now attempting to climb the cliff face up to the Golden Temple. Amy was complaining, Perry was singing something again, Wario was cackling greedily about all the gold he would get, and Peach was just trying to stay calm and not tell everyone else to be quiet. At least Russ T. agreed with her on that, in between moments of freaking out because of the height.
They finally managed to reach the top under the noonday sun; Wario instantly dashing into the golden temple atop the cliff. Peach sighed exasperatedly, and the other two seemed to reciprocate her sentiments. Perry, however, was still singing, despite that everyone had stopped listening to his song long ago.
Peach made a motion for Russ T. and Amy to follow her into the temple, and they did so. Before long, they caught up to Wario, who was sticking his hand into the glowing interior of a banana made of solid gold.
"Wario!" Peach yelled. "That's so... Why would you even do that? It always leads to-"
A giant flash of light, perhaps? Because that's what happened.
"-a trap." Peach looked around at their new location, a surreal world in the sky populated by fruit floating and twirling through the air, with a few stone platforms here and there.
"Exactly," Wario said. "See, the traps are always near the biggest treasure. So, I figured that if I triggered it, I'd get out and grab the treasure. Whatever that is."
"And look where that's gotten us..."
"In the perfect position," Wario grinned, deftly jumping from their current platform of golden bricks to a strawberry in midair, and then to a giant banana, running across said banana to hop to a second strawberry, on and so forth across various flying fruit, his stature defying his agility.
"... Uh... How'd he do that?" Perry asked.
"No one knows," Peach answered. "Russ T., why don't you stay here while we follow Wario?"
Russ, surprisingly, shook his head. "N-no... I think... I think I want to try my hand at adventure for a bit, actually... Yes, adventure. I want to see what it's like."
Peach raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Is that so? ... That's great!" she exclaimed. "Glad to really have you along for the fun parts, Russ T. You won't regret it!"
"... Ah..." Russ trailed off, wisely deciding not to comment on the Princess's sudden lack of seriousness about saving Mario.
"Well, come on!" Amy yelled, jumping onto the strawberry. "We can't let Wario beat us there!"
Peach floated with Perry over to the second strawberry, and she and Amy continued on their way fairly easily to the next cluster of golden bricks floating above the surreal cloudy void.
Russ T. walked up to the edge of the platform and looked down. There wasn't anything below at all... Not even a hint of a planet down there. So they were in a pocket dimension... Russ T. had heard about them. If he fell into the void, he'd probably just fall back into his world. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to be nervous about. Nope. Nothing at all. He wasn't nervous. Most certainly not nervous, or scared, or terrified of it. Okay, he was actually all of those things. And that was exactly why he'd decided to do this. He backed up, and sprinted at the ledge before taking a leap towards the strawberry.
Russ T. wasn't a bad jumper, not at all. He was actually average for a Toad, able to clear a height of around ten feet, maybe twelve with a running start. There was no way he'd measure up to a Yoshi, a Kong, or one of the Mario Brothers, but it was more than enough to get the job done. He landed clumsily on the strawberry, but managed to keep his footing as the fruit bobbed up and down under his weight. Taking a deep breath, he jumped to the banana, clambering up the side and stopping to catch his breath.
"You're doing great!" Princess Peach yelled from the mass of golden bricks. "Just keep going!"
Russ fixed his gaze with determination, and ran along the length of the banana, throwing himself of the end. He soared straight over the second strawberry, landing in a heap on the golden platform.
"Well... You're no Sonic, but that was pretty good," Amy said. "Come on, can't let Mr. Fatso-flatulance beat us!" She jumped to the next flying fruit, a half-banana suspended over the void. Peach helped Russ T. up before continuing on her merry way with the pink hedgehog girl.
Russ walked to the edge of the golden platform, and tried to figure out how to make the jump onto the banana. Remembering something he'd seen Toad do once, he crouched down and jumped, managing to get a few extra feet of height, just enough to land on the giant fruit. After that, it was an easy hop to a strawberry, but then he was presented with another problem: The next strawberry was far too distant for him to simply jump to. While trying to figure it out, his strawberry and the next actually moved towards each other, and he realised that they were moving platforms, rather than simple floating platforms. Careful to get the timing just right, he made the leap to the strawberry. From there, it was an easy matter of jumping to a banana and onto another golden platform.
"This is getting easier," Russ said, as he landed in front of the princess.
"That's great," Peach said. "So... You think you can handle following us without us stopping?"
"I... suppose," Russ hesitated. "Yes, I think I can manage that... I hope so."
"We'll try it out," Peach said. "Come on, Amy. Let's get going."
"Finally we get to catch that... Whatever guy, don't wanna try and think of some clever nickname." Amy and Peach bounded off towards Wario, leaving Russ to fend for himself. With newfound confidence, the blue toad forged on. It did become somewhat harder because of the smaller blueberries he had to land on, but he managed it quite well. While the jumps got progressively harder, he got progressively better at making them. The first real nasty surprise he got was that the cherries resting atop what seemed to be giant birthday candles sticking out of the clouds actually blew up if you stood on them too long, but he managed to get out of that sticky situation by somehow learning to wall-jump off the sides of said candles. After that, there were few more unpleasant surprises until he was merely within throwing distance of the golden platform that seemed to hold the treasure, and beyond which there were no more platforms.
That's when the oranges started falling from the sky. He barely managed to make it past the first one, and decided to play things a tad more cautiously. He jumped from fruit to fruit only after making sure an orange wouldn't fall on him, until he came across some spinning bananas he could tell there was no way he'd be able to stay on top of. So, he sucked up his fears, and took them as fast as he could, dodging oranges and finally reaching a floating barrel cannon that shot him to the final golden platform. He landed into a roll, somehow, and had actually managed to make it just after Peach, Amy, Wario, and Perry arrived.
"So you made it, poindexter." Wario said. "With some trainin', you might be useful on a treasure hunting team. Maybe. I'll let you know." He held up a golden hand mirror with half the rim in the shape of a banana. "Anyways, this here's that mirror grumpbutts wanted. Who knows what it does, let's just get outta here and give it to him so we can grab some real treasure."
Getting back to Cranky's lab was far easier than getting to the Golden Temple. After exiting the pocket dimension, they simply jumped down, and landed in the jungle after several minutes of falling. After Russ caught his bearings, the group took the mirror to Cranky. Cranky promptly started complaining to them about all manner of fourth wall-breaking things. They quickly left after that, running into Donkey and Diddy Kong. After a short catching-up, Peach asked the two primates if they could come with them to help save the world.
"Sorry, no can do, Princess," Diddy said apologetically. "K. Rool-"
"K. Rool steal Kong's bananas. Donkey and little buddy fight him soon," DK explained shortly.
"Oh... That's too bad," Peach said sadly. "Thanks anyway, though. Do you know any way I could get back to the Mushroom Kingdom?"
"Funky," both said immediately.
"You know where he lives," Diddy said. "Come on, DK, let's go kick some tail! Sorry we can't talk longer, guys!"
DK and Diddy ran off, leaving the Princess to lead her friends to Funky's workshop, where he made all sorts of technology from nothing but wood. As the three in the group who hadn't met the strange ape before discovered, he had a stereotypical surfer dude way of talking. He agreed to fly them back to Toad Town, free of charge ("Savin' the world's important, man!"), but warned them that they wouldn't get there until morning and that the engine was very loud. Peach informed him that that wouldn't be a problem, and the group was off.