A/N: Okay, this is getting completely ridonkulous. WHY does the site no longer let hyphens show up?! Now ALL my page breaks from ALL my stories are gone. I get to go back and reformat everything. Again.

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Mustard Mines

11:00 pm

As luck would have it, the notorious Mouser Gang was currently at large in both halves of the world.

The dead still and darkness of night surrounded the entrance to Mustard Mines. They were composed of large hills that rose up out of the ground, and set into each one of them was a tunnel, supported by wooden beams, that led deep down into the mines.

There was a Mouser guard standing at each and every entrance. The rest of the gang was either out patrolling further away or inside the mines, excavating all the gold they could carry.

"This… is boring," sighed one of the two guards standing in front of the easternmost entrance, who happened to be the same Mousers Mario's team had battled in Dayside. "There ain't nobody fool enough to come over here. Why do we gotta stay out here while the other fellers get to have all the fun?"

"Quite yer whinin'," snapped the other guard. "You can't be too careful with a heist like this one. Ain't you ever heard about the sheriff of Golden Spur Ranch? If he ever got it in his head to get over here, we'd all be dead meat."

"The sheriff?" the first one scoffed. "Ain't you heard the news, partner? He's gone missin'! Ain't nobody's seen 'im in a week now! Like he vanished off the face a' the earth!"

"You just wait," the second one replied darkly, not seeming moved by this information. "If he ever chooses to show 'imself here, it'd take all of us to bring 'im down… and that's if he don't got friends with 'im."

Silence fell between them again, and the first one began to stop paying attention, gazing off disinterestedly at the night sky. Not that it had ever been anything but night, of course.

He completely failed to notice the Putrid Piranha emerging from the ground, silent as a shadow, directly behind him. But he did notice when it bit him.

"YEOWCH!!!" he cried, jumping into the air as the Piranha retreated into the ground. He spun around, looking furiously for an explanation, and when he found none he rounded on his partner.

"What the heck was that fer?!" he demanded. "Ya didn't have to go and bite me to get me to pay attention!!"

The other guard looked at him strangely. "What're you blabbin' on about now? I didn't do a thing to ya. I've been over here this whole time."

"Yeah, sure ya were," the first one muttered, turning away in a huff. The second one rolled his eyes and turned away as well – and so failed to see the second Piranha emerging behind him and taking a chomp out of him.

"ACK!!" he yelped, grabbing himself in pain and whipping around in a frenzy. The Piranha was long gone, of course. "Now who's the one doin' the bitin'?! You yellabellied coward, you scared to face me like a mouse?"

"What? I didn't do anythin'!!" the first guard shouted defensively. "Don't you be blamin' me fer this!"

"Well there ain't nobody else here, genius! Who else could it have been?!"

Fighting to contain their frustration, the two guards angrily turned away from each other, glaring off in opposite directions…

And both Piranhas popped up behind them, each one biting one of the guards.

"AARRGGHHH!!!" they both bellowed as the Piranhas ducked out of sight. They looked around, saw no one, and then glared at each other.

"THAT DOES IT!!!" they both screamed, and within seconds they were rolling around the ground and swiping at each other, deserting the entrance to the mines and leaving it completely unchecked.

––

Several yards away, the two Putrid Piranhas emerged from the ground next to a third one, and all three of them looked down at the person standing in front of them.

"HYUCK YUCK… DID WE DO GOOD, MAMA?" asked the first one.

"You did perfectly," replied the shadowy figure. Of course, it was none other than Miss Maizee, the enigmatic Crazee Dayzee with an agenda unknown to all but herself. "Those guards were even more foolish than I expected. The entrance is all clear now, right?"

"OH YES, MAMA."

"Excellent," Maizee said to herself, her eyes flashing. "And the Sun Soul is in there somewhere, just waiting to be taken. Now all we have to do is – "

"MAMA! MAMA!" One of the Piranhas had suddenly noticed something from far away, and now it turned to its master with a look of panic. "MARIO'S COMING, MAMA! HE'S COMING RIGHT NOW!"

Maizee looked startled. "What? Mario's coming? Now?!"

The three Piranhas looked expectantly at her, waiting for an order. She glowered to herself, cursing this twist of bad luck.

"Well then, I suppose we'd better go say hello."

––

Mario's party had warped over to Nightside some time ago, as soon as they'd seen the first guards patrolling a far distance away from the mines. They had spent the last half hour sneaking cautiously past the seemingly endless groups of Mousers, a task that would have been impossible during the day and was still not particularly easy now.

Thankfully, Mario's plan had worked like a charm. They had finally made it over to the mines without getting caught, and they were currently crouching on top of a large hill where they had a good view of the whole place.

"All right, Mario," Snatchel said in exasperation once he was sure nobody could hear them. "Now d'you mind tellin' me just what that doohickey a' yers was, and how the heck it made it night out all of a sudden?!"

"All right, all right," Mario sighed. He'd been stalling for time when he insisted that they had to get over to the mines before anything else, but there was no point in keeping secrets any longer. He could only pray the sheriff would believe him.

"Well… where to start," he wondered, turning to glance at his other partners. "You know about the Twelve Guardians, right?"

Snatchel gave him a strange look. "You think I'm thick or somethin'? How can you not know about 'em?"

"Right, sorry. Dumb question. Well… you're not going to believe this, but Goomblaine and I… just last week, we saw somebody kill the six Guardians of Day."

Snatchel just raised an eyebrow, chewing on his stalk of wheat. "Yeah, yer right. I don't believe it."

"But it's true, though!" Stubba insisted.

"Why else do you think time is all messed up like this?" Mario pressed. "Without the Guardians of Day, the world was thrown so out of balance that it got split into a Day half and a Night half. And you've seen that yourself now, so you can't say we're lying about that."

That seemed to get Snatchel thinking. "Well… if that is true, and yer tryin' to fix it, then what're you fellers doin' all the way out here?"

"Well, now that the Guardians of Day are gone… there are six people from this world who are going to become the new ones. But they can't do that without these things called Sun Souls. And one of those… just happens to be hidden inside the mines."

Mario got a little nervous when Snatchel suddenly narrowed his eyes.

"Now, that's just bull," he said sharply. "Ya really expect me to believe that yarn? Yer tellin' me that you've just been goin' around pickin' up random people to be Guardians from every which way?!"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you," Mario confirmed. "In fact, we've found two of them already: Hanner and Stubba!"

Snatchel turned to them in shock as they both smiled sheepishly at him. To add to their favor, Stubba pulled out his Sun Soul and held it out.

"Well, slap me and call me a Snifit… maybe you fellers aren't lyin'," the sheriff muttered, staring in awe at it. "Dang… we got us a real crisis if some lunatic went and killed those Guardians… you don't got any idea who the next one is, do ya?"

"Oh, no, we don't," said Hanner, stifling a smile. "It could be anybody."

Stubba looked at her in confusion. "Huh? But I thought he – " He broke off as Hanner whispered something in his ear. "Oh… oh, yeah! It could be anybody!" he agreed enthusiastically.

Not surprisingly, Goomblaine had chosen not to partake in this conversation. He was staring down at the mines from his vantage point, and suddenly he noticed something of interest.

"Uh, listen, you guys," he announced. "There's an entrance right down there that's got no guards in front of it. We could sneak in from there."

"Huh?" Mario and the others quickly crawled over to Goomblaine and looked down where he was indicating. Sure enough, the easternmost entrance, the one closest to them, was completely unguarded. If they hurried, they had a good chance of running right in without being seen by anyone at all.

"Boy, talk about lucky," Hanner remarked.

"Or not. It might be a trap," Mario decided.

"There ain't no trap I can't take care of. Come on," said Snatchel, promptly standing up and striding down the hill. The others looked unsurely at each other, then followed him.

Thanks to the perpetual darkness, not one of the other Mouser guards even noticed them. Mario and the others reached the bottom of their hill and found the unguarded entrance right in front of them, eagerly inviting them inside.

"All right… good job, guys. We actually made it," Mario said with a smile. "Now let's get in there and – "

He was abruptly cut off by a very familiar rumbling in the ground.

"Oh, no… not again. Not now," he groaned, covering his face in his hands.

"What's goin' on?" Snatchel asked warily.

He immediately got his answer as the three Putrid Piranhas came bursting out of the ground, blocking the entrance. Stubba cried out in fright and ran behind Mario.

"Not these guys again!" Hanner moaned, slowly stepping backwards along with the others.

"…Am I goin' nuts, or is there something different about those guys?" asked Goomblaine.

Mario realized Goomblaine was right – now that he looked, the Piranhas did look different from before. He was sure that they were taller, and their teeth looked larger and sharper. They each had little thorns growing out of their stems, along with a crown of poisonous-looking leaves surrounding their heads.

In other words, they looked a lot stronger.

"Those fellers don't look none too friendly," Snatchel remarked, actually sounding nervous.

"Just wait 'til you meet their 'mama'. She must be here too," Hanner said darkly.

"Correct, as usual," came a familiar voice, and suddenly Maizee had jumped down from the roof of the tunnel and landed in front of them.

"Well, Mario, we meet again. I can't say I was looking forward to this."

"Yeah, me neither," Mario replied with a frown. "Why do you keep following us everywhere?!"

"Following you?" Maizee scoffed. "I think you're mistaken. I go wherever the Sun Souls are. You're the ones who keep getting in my way."

Goomblaine was getting exasperated. "Look, ya crazy old bat, you're not gonna beat us to that Sun Soul! Why don't you just give up?!"

Maizee smirked at him. "Give up? Maybe you haven't noticed, but my pets have grown much more powerful since our last meeting. I honestly don't think you stand a chance against them this time."

Mario felt his gaze drawn back to the Piranhas standing loyally behind her, slavering in anticipation of a fight. Though it was hard to see in the darkness, he could have sworn their slobber was actually fizzing.

"What'd you do to them?" he exclaimed. "Whatever it was, it wasn't natural!"

"That's none of your business, is it? Now, Mario, I'm only going to say this once. Go away, or I can't be responsible for what happens to you."

Snatchel had had enough. "Now look here, missy," he said sternly, stepping forward. "I dunno what business you think you got here, but I ain't gonna stand for it! There ain't nobody gonna be lootin' any more gold outta the mines so long as I'm here, and – "

Maizee noticed him for the first time, and she rounded on him with venom in her eyes, catching him completely off guard.

"You honestly think I'm doing this for money?" she snorted. "I'm no common criminal! Something as fleeting as money holds no sway over me. My only concern here is the Sun Soul. It's mine, and you'd do well to remember that!!"

Maizee was glaring daggers at Snatchel. For some reason, it was making him break out in a sweat.

"Look, Maizee, I hate to tell you this, but we're not going anywhere. Not without a fight," Mario cut in, pulling out his hammer. "I don't care how strong your little pets are, that Sun Soul belongs with us."

Maizee sighed theatrically. "I expected as much from you, Mario. So be it. But don't say I didn't warn you."

And she stepped off to the side, which her pets took as a sign for the fight to begin.

Mario braced himself as the Piranhas dived into the ground and popped up in front of them. He whacked the center one on the head with a Power Smash before it could get in a move, but it hardly even seemed to notice the attack.

"Come on," Mario groaned in frustration, quickly jumping out of the way as the Piranha lunged at him in retaliation.

Hanner and Stubba were faring better, but not by much. Both of them were ganging up on one Piranha, but even with the two of them attacking it at once it didn't seem to be suffering much. Hanner had to pull Stubba out of the way as it shot a lethal-looking glob of poison at them. Snatchel was valiantly taking on the remaining Piranha by himself, repeatedly ramming into it, but the poisonous plant just cackled at his efforts before attempting to take a chomp out of him.

"This is useless!" Hanner cried. "They're way too strong for us!"

"You're telling me," Mario grumbled, whacking his Piranha again and again to little avail.

"This ain't right… no Piranha should be this tough!" Snatchel growled. He had thrown his lasso around his Piranha's mouth in an attempt to incapacitate it, but was putting up an obvious effort as his opponent struggled to free itself.

"If you're having trouble now, you may as well just give up," Maizee said listlessly. "Have I mentioned my pets have learned a new skill? Show them, you three!"

At her command, the Piranha that Snatchel was fighting burst free of its bonds, sending the sheriff staggering backwards. Then, to the shock of Mario and his friends, all three of them threw their heads back and let loose a trio of cacophonous screams…

…and a swarm of enormous thorny vines came bursting out of the ground. Mario and the others cried out in pain as the thorns lashed out at them like deadly whips, slicing them up before they even had the chance to get away.

"You see what I mean?" Maizee said coldly, her expression unreadable as all five of them sank to the ground in exhaustion. The vines retreated back into the ground, and the Piranhas grinned ravenously at their victims, ready to finish them off.

"Mario, this might really be it," Hanner groaned, fighting back tears of pain. "We can't beat these guys… they're just too strong."

But Mario wasn't about to give up. "No… we're not going out like this," he declared. "They may have a new skill, but so do we."

He turned to his youngest partner. "Don't we, Stubba?"

Stubba looked up at him and immediately understood. He grew a determined expression and nodded.

They both grabbed hands and shouted, "Freeze Frame!"

Suddenly, a glowing rectangular frame of bright green light appeared out of the air, surrounding the three Putrid Piranhas. They looked at it in shock and fear, having no idea what was about to happen…

And then the frame of light let out a brilliant flash, and they seized up, frozen in place.

Maizee was astonished. "What?! What did you do to them?!"

"We just leveled out the playing field!" Mario replied with a smug smile.

Now that the Piranhas were completely incapacitated, Mario's team made very quick work of them. By the time the Star Power had worn off and the Piranhas returned to normal, they had almost no energy left, and within seconds they had all wilted and drooped to the ground.

"Yes! We did it, you guys!" said Mario, and his partners (except Goomblaine, obviously) all struck flashy victory poses and cheered.

"This is unbelievable," Maizee muttered to herself, still looking shocked. "I never imagined – "

Hanner heard her and quickly turned to her in annoyance. "There! We beat you again, Maizee! Now will you drop this whole thing and leave us alone?" she asked impatiently.

"Don't be ridiculous," Maizee snapped. "As long as there is breath in me, Mario, I won't let you get those Sun Souls. You can expect to see me again. And I won't be nearly so civil next time."

And with that her three Piranhas burrowed underground, and she leapt off into the shadows and vanished.

Once they were alone, Mario shook his head. "She has to be the strangest stalker I've ever had. And as much as it saddens me to say it, I've had plenty."

"I wish we knew why she wants the Sun Souls so bad," Stubba remarked, looking thoughtful.

"Does it matter? She knows they belong with the Guardians and she doesn't care. It can't be for anything good," Hanner sighed.

"Yeah…" Snatchel was looking slightly distracted as he gazed off in the direction Maizee had vanished. "Really, it's a shame such a fine-lookin' lady had to be so nasty."

"Yeah, it really – " Mario did a double take. "Wait – what did you say about her?!"

"Oh, don't you mind me, Mario. I'm just over here ruminatin'. Every Dayzee has its thorn, I suppose."

"Okay, you need to stop," Mario said sharply, grabbing Snatchel and pulling him through the entrance. His other partners followed, deciding they would rather not have heard that conversation.

––

Mustard Mines

11:10 pm

Mario's party ventured down the narrow tunnel in a single file line, and the air grew stuffy as they traveled deeper underground. Now that the light from outside could no longer reach them, the only source of illumination in the mines came from a series of lanterns hanging from the walls every few yards.

Mario kept glancing up at the ceiling, praying that the wooden beams would keep it from collapsing on top of them.

"I sure hope we don't get lost," Hanner muttered. "I mean, this place is supposed to be pretty huge, isn't it?"

"I'll say it is," Snatchel agreed. "That's why yer lucky you got me. It's my job to know my way around this place."

Sure enough, he kept guiding the rest of the group along until the tunnel opened up into a large, circular cavern. There were other tunnels branching off of it in all directions; this room was apparently one of the central hubs.

"Uh oh… hide, you guys," Mario muttered, pulling his partners into the shadows as three Mousers came walking out of one of the other tunnels.

"Boy howdy, this sure is easier than I thought!" one of them laughed. "Already we got more gold than we can carry, thanks to that there crazy Mechaminer doohickey!"

"Sure is makin' our job a lot simpler," the second one agreed. "I dunno what we woulda done without that thing! And I reckon we'll make a fortune just with those last thirty Gold Nuggets we got outta it!"

"Just as soon as we get 'em all outta here, before we get caught," the third one decided. "The fellers who're hangin' onto 'em are all over the place. We're gonna have to round 'em up pretty soon."

"Geez! Thirty Gold Nuggets?!" Hanner marveled to herself.

"That's a lot, isn't it?" Stubba said fretfully. "And those guys are gonna steal all of them!"

"Unless we beat 'em all, that is," Goomblaine grumbled, sounding like he had better things to do.

Oh, no… we have to fight thirty of these guys? Mario thought hopelessly to himself. I couldn't even handle two of them. I'm not strong enough for this… what am I going to do?

"Well, c'mon, you two, let's get back to work. That Mechaminer ain't gonna pilot itself, you know!" said the third Mouser.

"Hoo-wee! I never thought this job'd be so much fun!" cackled the first one as all three of them took off up a different tunnel. Once they were gone, Mario's group stepped out of the shadows and peered after them.

"A Mechaminer… I don't like the sound of that," Hanner remarked as she looked up the tunnel. "What d'you think it could be?"

Snatchel looked like he knew the answer to that all too well. "Oh, brother… I've been hearin' about this. I didn't know it was true," he moaned, leaning against the wall. "The Mechaminer 2400… it's some crazy machine they got that's helpin' 'em dig out the gold around here in record speed. So that's how they've been clearin' this place out so fast."

Mario looked at him in concern. "You okay, Snatchel?"

"I can't believe I let this happen on my watch." He looked like he wanted to pull his hat down over his face. "I shoulda been able to take care a' this… I ain't fit to be sheriff."

"Hey, now, don't say that," Hanner said encouragingly. "We all think you're a great sheriff. Probably even greater than you realize."

Mario hid a smile when he heard that. Snatchel smiled at her too, although he failed to recognize the significance of those last words.

"Well, thank you, Hanner… that's mighty kind of ya."

"Guys, can we stop wasting time now?" Goomblaine griped. "Look, if we're gonna run these freaks outta here, shouldn't we start by getting those Gold Nuggets back from them? Before they all get away?"

"Right," Snatchel agreed, immediately straightening up and looking newly determined. "Let's get to it. We're gonna nab that gold back, and then we're gonna make them Mousers wish they never crossed us."

"Right on!" Hanner cheered. The five of them marched off through the central hub and down one of the other tunnels, although Mario was hanging back and looking somewhat reluctant.

"What's wrong, Mario?" asked Stubba.

"I'm just thinking about all those fights we got into back in the desert," Mario sighed. "I wasn't strong enough to take those things on by myself. And now we have to fight all these Mousers… I really don't know if I can do it."

Mario suddenly noticed the tunnel they were heading down quickly led to a dead end. Hanner and Goomblaine were examining a large chest that was sitting on the ground.

"Is this another treasure of the Mousers'?" asked Hanner. "They've sure been hoarding a lot of stuff."

"Well, they are mice, after all. I reckon it's in their nature," Snatchel grumbled. "Looks like they've been usin' this place to stash all their stolen stuff… the nerve a' those critters!"

"Ooh, what's in it? Can we take it?" Stubba asked excitedly.

"Let's have a look…" Mario decided, although he was still feeling rather distracted and dejected.

He walked up to the chest and kicked it open, and his eyes widened as he saw what was inside…

Mario got the Super Boots! He can now use Spin Jump to break wooden panels or reveal hidden items in the floor! He can also use the Spin Jump in battle to do extra damage to enemies!

Mario pulled the Super Boots out of the chest and grinned at his partners, completely forgetting how upset he'd been just a second ago.

"Those guys don't stand a chance."

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A/N: Yeah, this chapter is definitely gonna be five parts. YAY! I don't want it to ever end!