Author's Note: And here is another chapter. Hope it's enjoyable.

Super Mario Sunshine Adventure

Episode 5: II Piantissimo's Sand Sprint

Releasing a long and weary huff, the pink hedgehog brought a gloved hand to her belly as it complained rather loudly. She moved her gaze to her cellmate, which was none other than Princess Peach. She and the peachy princess were both locked in a cold cell for some reason. Bowser Jr. had told them that his papa said it was for their own good, so Mario wouldn't steal them from them. Amy and Peach tried several times to convince the kid that they were not related to him whatsoever, but he refused to listen!

"Peach…" talked Amy, her voice coming out choppy and unkempt. She had dug into her pocket and pulled out the bracelet she was going to give Sonic. The poor girl never did get the chance.

"Yes, Amy?" questioned Peach as she lifted her head, putting her eyes on the female beside her.

"Are we ever going to get out of here?" Amy asked, clutching the bracelet in her right hand tightly. "I mean, we've been in here for a while and they don't even feed us or anything! I don't even know where we are!"

Peach shifted uncomfortably on the cold stone ground beneath her, wondering how she and Amy even got into this dire situation. "Of course we're going to get out of here, Amy," she informed her friend like it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. "Mario always succeeds in saving me whenever Bowser has me. Plus, doesn't Sonic always save you from Eggman?" she questioned the pink hedgehog.

"Yeah, but I don't always get kidnapped like you!" Amy retorted with a huff.

Peach rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"I'm so mad!" Amy suddenly blared while hopping to her feet, trying to see where they were, but all she saw was darkness outside of the cell that they were contained in. She kept a hold on the bracelet she made for her blue hero and whipped out her mallet, fury coloring her eyes. "I WANNA GET OUT OF HERE!"

Uneasy, the blonde princess scooted away from the outraged pink hedgehog, not wanting to get whacked in the head by her enormous hammer. Fueled by pure anger, Amy Rose swung her hammer in wild and erratic ways, slamming it against the bars of the cell that they were in, but it did absolutely nothing!

"I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO GIVE SONIC HIS BRACELET!" screamed Amy as she continued to throw a tantrum. "NOW HE MIGHT NOT EVER GET IT!"

"Amy, calm down!" Peach nervously yelped.

"I CAN'T CALM DOWN!" Amy caterwauled loudly, her scream bouncing off the walls and creating a loud echo. "LET ME OUT! LET US OUT OF HERE, BOWSER!"

"Screaming isn't going to do anything!" Peach tried to reason with the girl.

Growling, Amy ignored the soft spoken princess and kept on swinging her hammer about crazily. "SCREAMING IS GOING TO GET BOWSER'S BUTT OVER HERE AND HE'S GONNA LET US FREE!"

"I doubt Bowser is going to do that…"

"WHAT?!"

"I said I doubt Bowser is going to do that!"

"WHAT-EVS, PEACH! WHAT-EVS!"

Peach threw up her hands in a very dramatic manner. "Fine, fine…!"

"BOWSER, LET US OUT OF HERE!"

"Amy, please-"

"NO! SONIC, GET US OUT OF HERE! SOOOOOONIIIIIC!"

Amy suddenly collapsed to her knees, releasing the handle of her hammer and allowing it to fall to the ground with a loud clank. Princess Peach watched as Amy's form slumped forward in a defeated pose. She moved her gaze downwards and towards the pink hedgehog's open palm, spotting the bracelet there that was made for Sonic the Hedgehog.

"A-Amy…?" Peach wondered why her pink friend was so upset about this. Sure, Peach was upset too because her lovely vacation was ruined, but she wasn't freaking out like Amy was. The princess came to the conclusion that Amy Rose was just frustrated because she didn't give Sonic the bracelet when she had to the chance to do so and the fact that they have been in a cell for who knows how long.

"I wish…I wish we weren't in this situation, Peach!" Amy complained in a whine, staring down at the bracelet that rested on her gloved palm. "I wish…I could have done something when I had the chance, before Bowser's son took us away!"

Peach nodded, totally agreeing with her. "So do I! We could've done something…"

"But we didn't," Amy finalized.

"Yeah…"

Amy straightened herself up and closed her fingers around the bracelet that was in her hand. She breathed out a heavy sigh and pocketed the object. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be complaining right now. I know Sonic and Mario will rescue us."

"That's right!" Peach chirped, smiling.

"I still can't believe that Bowser's son thinks I'm his aunt and that you're his mama!" Amy blurted out suddenly, shaking her head.

Peach shrugged. "Neither can I!"

"It's so weird…" trailed Amy.

"And abnormal," added Peach.

"The kid must be delusional or something because I'm a hedgehog and you're a human!"

The two of them exchanged glances before simultaneously releasing unrestrained bursts of laughter.

[The quintet of heroes]

Back in Delfino Plaza for a moment, Mario, Sonic, Pauline, Silver, and Blaze all immediately noticed that there was something amiss. Spotting Shadow Mario on top of an apartment building of some sort, Sonic pointed.

"It's Bowser's son!" he yawped.

"Get 'em!" squawked Pauline.

As one, the group moved forward. Mario approached the structure with his stylish acrobatic techniques, Sonic came at him with a spin dash, Silver levitated, Blaze performed an Axel Jump, and Pauline manipulated the air around her to float upwards.

They all collided!

"OW!" Silver cried out as Sonic's head slammed into his nose. He stumbled back in the air and tumbled into an open window, appearing in someone's abode. Body making contact with a carpeted floor, Silver lifted up his head while rubbing his nose.

A Pianta woman exited a room and froze at the sight of the hedgehog in her home! She screamed and grabbed a nearby broom. "AH! THERE'S A BURGLAR!"

Silver's eyes widened. "Wait, wait, WAIT…!" he howled, putting up his hands. "I am NOT a burglar! This is all just some misunderstanding!"

The Pianta woman didn't listen!

"GET OUT OF MY HOME!" she screeched like a wild banshee, swinging her broom at Silver.

Silver lifted a hand and used his powers to stop the blow from making contact with his body. Face contorting into one of great fear, the Pianta woman released her broom and backed away, watching as it floated in the air due to Silver's awesome powers.

"Wait…I can explain…!" the poor hedgehog really didn't know what to do in a situation like this!

"Harold! HAROLD!" yowled the Pianta lady as she stumbled over furniture and whatnot. "There's an alien in our home!"

"What?" a Pianta man traveled out of the bathroom into the living room, which was where everyone was at the moment. When his vision caught Silver, he gasped. "A burglar!"

Silver face-palmed.

[Later]

"Well, we've successfully caught Shadow Mario, retrieved FLUDD's Rocket Nozzle, and now we're about to head on back to Gelato Beach!" Sonic announced all in one go, panting ridiculously hard afterwards to catch his breath.

Blaze nodded, but found him saying all of that to be rather unnecessary. However, she didn't voice her opinions on the matter. "Yes. Where is Silver though?"

"Who knows?" Pauline questioned, shrugging her shoulder in a perplexed fashion.

As they discussed Silver's whereabouts, Mario snuck away from the gang and approached a yellow Pianta that was lounging happily on a beach while sitting underneath an umbrella. Mario recalled meeting the same guy back in Bianco Hills when he and Sonic first started their adventure.

"Here, little man," said the Pianta. "Try a pair of my special sun shades. They're cool!"

Mario took the black sunglasses the male Pianta handed over to him and plopped them onto his face. "Aw yeah, this is sweet!" complimented Mario cheerfully, certainly pleased.

"Yeah heh heh…" chuckled the Pianta. "You're styling now! Come back and talk to me when you don't need them anymore," he finished.

Satisfied, the red plumber twirled around and then walked back over to his comrades, noticing Silver was now amongst them while looking like he got run over by a train or something. Mario tried not to laugh at him.

"So what happened again?" Blaze was asking Silver while she had her arms folded.

"These Piantas attacked me!" Silver whined. "I accidentally stumbled into their home!"

Sonic chortled. "Too bad, so sad!"

Silver sent him a look. "This isn't funny! I thought they were going to kill me!"

"You okay, Silver?" Pauline questioned the hedgehog, patting the top of his head and wearing a concerned expression.

"I'm fine…" sighed Silver.

Pauline nodded, satisfied with his answer.

"Okay, well, before we head on back to Gelato Beach, why don't you try getting up to that bell on the tower, Mario?" Sonic suggested while pointing at the dirty bell that was atop the tower. "Since you got FLUDD's Rocket Nozzle, I'm sure you'll be able to get up there with ease!"

Mario raised an eyebrow at him. "But why?"

"I have a feeling that something good will come out of it if you clean the bell, that's why!" shot back Sonic. "Duh!"

"Fine!" Mario turned away from the four of them and marched towards the tower. He used FLUDD's Rocket Nozzle to get on top of the tower, clean the bell, and then find a Shine Sprite! Mario snagged the Shine Sprite out of the air and showed everyone.

Blaze stared. "Wow. Something good did come out of it!" she stated.

"Told ya so!" Sonic bragged.

"Yeah, yeah," Pauline rolled her eyes at the blue hedgehog, hands on her hips.

So, anyway, the quintet made their way back to Gelato Beach, pleased that they had found another Shine Sprite. Once they reached Gelato Beach again, that same Pianta guy was there running around. They wondered what he was so worked up about…

"Dude, what's up?" Sonic wanted to know.

"Once we work up a sweat, let's jump in the ocean!" the Pianta babbled.

"What? No way, Jose!" Sonic exclaimed, horrified. "I ain't jumping in the ocean!"

Everyone rolled their eyes at this, knowing Sonic was just being…silly. After all, he claimed to be the Blooper-surfing legend so how could he possibly be afraid of water?!

"Ahem," Blaze cleared her throat and lifted a finger, pointing it ahead and showing everyone a very odd individual who was just standing around while dressed up as a Pianta. "There is a very weird gentleman over there."

Silver peered in that direction. "Blaze is right!"

"Who is that?" Pauline asked, putting a hand above her eyes and shielding her face from the sun.

"I have no idea…" Mario trailed.

Sonic, however, was more interested than any of them and zoomed right on over to the guy. "Yo, 'sup, dude?!" the blue hedgehog demanded to know, excited.

The guy released a wild laugh. "I am II Piantissimo!" he responded in a gloat. "And now, we shall race to that flag!" he pointed at a flag that was atop the hill behind them where lots of Piantas and Nokis waited.

Sonic's emerald green eyes moved upwards and he viewed the flag that was gently blowing in the wind. When he was done staring at it, he brought his gaze back to II Piantissimo. "You want to race me to that flag?" the blue hedgehog questioned for confirmation.

"Wow, is this guy being serious?" Pauline queried while listening in on the conversation. "Nobody can race Sonic! Sonic is…too fast!"

"Tell me about it!" rambled Mario.

"Well, we already know the outcome of this," Silver commented while shrugging.

"It is inevitable," put in Blaze.

II Piantissimo nodded his head at Sonic's question. "It is a race to the finish flag!" he claimed noisily. "And only one can triumph!"

Sonic scoffed. "And that's totally ME!"

Ignoring Sonic's statement, II Piantissimo went on, "By the way, the current record is 00:35:00."

"00:35:00?!" snorted Sonic. "Please, I can get 00:00:00!"

The weirdo guy didn't seem deterred. "Are you at the ready? Then get set...and GOOOOOOOOO!" then he took off at a fast pace. Oh yes, this guy was pretty fast…

…but apparently he wasn't fast enough!

Sonic left him in the dust before the guy could even make five steps! Just as Sonic claimed he would, he reached the flag before the timer could even start, which was wickedly awesome! He had touched the flag and showered in the civilians' cheers and glorious feedback.

It took thirty-five seconds for II Piantissimo to reach the flag and he was huffing and puffing like he had just finished running a marathon! Sonic smirked at him in a very cocky manner, gazing at him. "What took ya?" he taunted.

"Phew whew haaah…" panted the weirdo individual. "You are pretty good! You have some speed!"

Sonic guffawed. "Do you know who I am?!"

"Uh…no…" the guy answered with a shake of his head. "Er, ahem…You have grown ever so slightly in my esteem! Slightly!" he revealed.

"Cool!" Sonic gave him a thumbs up, flashing him a happy grin. "Glad to have kicked your butt, Piano!"

II Piantissimo glowered at him. "It's II Piantissimo!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…Piano!"

"We will meet again! And…goodbye!" the weirdo growled out and shoved a Shine Sprite in Sonic's face. He took off after that, disappearing.

Sonic grabbed the Shine Sprite, chortling in amusement. "That guy was nuts if he thought he was going to beat me, the fastest thing alive! HA!" the blue hedgehog cackled.

That was when the hedgehog heard what everyone there had to say…

"You know, I'm just really not that into sweaty guys…Doot doot DOO!"

"Boy, you sure do have a lot of energy! Admirable!"

"Does anyone have any eggs?"

"Where's the Sand Bird?"

"Special juice, anyone? I've got special juice!"

"So fast, too fast!"

"It's Christmas!"

Sonic gave them all a look, wondering if they were all delusional or something. Turning away, the blue hedgehog shrugged and danced around with the Shine Sprite in his hands, glad that he obtained another one.