Super Mario Sunshine Adventure

Episode 4: Eely-Mouth's Dentist

"Okay, so, the other day was just practice; now the real challenge begins," commented Mario as they arrived yet again in Noki Bay. "We get to go to the ocean's bottom and get rid of whatever is polluting the water once and for all!"

Silver threw a fist into the air. "Hah!"

"Let's do this." Blaze was ready for this.

Sonic was uncharacteristically silent and so was Pauline. Sonic just stood there with an untellable expression painting his face and Pauline had her hands on her hips, making sure not to look in the blue hero's direction.

"Oh, Mario and friends!" The Noki with the glasses from before rushed over to greet them, a massive grin painting his face. "You're finally setting out for the ocean's bottom!"

Mario glanced over his shoulder at the blue speedster to see his reaction to this news, but he was very shocked and disturbed to see that Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't even flinching. He just stared straight ahead, an unrecognizable expression coloring his facial features. The plumber brought his eyes over to Pauline and saw that she had a vacant look on her face. She did not seem interested in their adventure at all anymore, which was unsettling.

Blaze and Silver noticed this too as they looked at their two companions. However, they did not comment on it and decided to talk about it later. Now, they were going to focus on the deed that they needed to complete right then and there.

"Grandpa is waiting for you up top!" bellowed the male Noki, grinning widely. "Oh, don't forget to wear this…"

Magically, the helmets from before were placed on everyone's heads and they were not surprised by this. "You can use this rope as a shortcut to reach grandpa." The guy gestured to the rope that was beside them. The rope was long and white and it connected to the structure beside them.

"Right, okay…" trailed Mario, smiling at the Noki before hopping up on to the rope.

"Let's get this over with!" Silver jumped on the rope too.

Blaze gave a nod. "Alright."

Sonic and Pauline followed the other three, uncharacteristically silent. It was highly unusual and it disturbed the other members of their group greatly. It seemed so very unnatural for Sonic to be quiet and Pauline always felt the need to say something, which she wasn't now. It worried everyone. Would the blue hedgehog and the ravishing woman ever forgive each other? It was starting to get in the way of their friendship.

Anyway, the quintet had climbed the mountainside and found the Noki's grandpa standing up there while still wearing that stupid hat and holding that fishing rod. His face seemed to light up with pure glee when he caught the five heroes in his vision. "You look like you're ready!" he boomed, clapping his hands even though he was still holding the fishing rod. "The gunk in the ocean is caused by…"

"Caused by what?" Silver wanted to know, leaning forward in anticipation and wearing a very curious expression. The hedgehog from the future was so pumped up for this, which was kind of strange.

"A giant eel!"

Shock painted everyone's features, including Sonic's and Pauline's. A giant eel was causing all of the polluted water? How was that even possible? It was weird! How big was this eel to cause such a catastrophe? Hopefully, not too big…that was what everyone hoped.

"It's moved into our ancestral home…"

Blaze crossed her arms over her chest in a firm fold. "Well," she yipped stoically. "That certainly is a big problem."

"Just how big is this thing?" questioned Mario the plumber, hands hanging limply at his sides.

"I was wondering the same thing!" threw in Silver.

The old guy scanned all of their faces and blabbed in reply, "Oh, it is very big…! It's at the sea floor, and it's nursing some nasty cavities there."

"Wait, what?!" The red hero's eyes enlarged and gaped at the ancient Noki.

Silver was flapping his arms about. "Cavities?!"

"That…was unexpected…" Blaze didn't know what else to say and there was a blank look resting on her facial features.

Pauline and Sonic still remained silent.

"Let's take a look…"

Without any more words for the moment, the grandpa whirled around and pointed at the huge and rushing waterfall behind him. It was the same waterfall that they had uncorked when they first arrived in Noki Bay. Clean, blue water was rushing down and splashing into the disgusting water below, creating a small puddle of fresh water that wasn't poisoned.

"The newly uncorked waterfall created a gap in the pollution."

Mario lowered his gaze downward and could see the gap in the purple water below. Sure enough, there it was. The clean water took the form of a small and round gap that they could fit through without being poisoned by the pollution. Mario could feel his stomach drop uncomfortably. What? Who wouldn't be a little uneasy about jumping into a waterfall and going deep below to face a giant eel? That was preposterous! Then again, preposterous things happened to the plumber all the time!

"Hold up!" Sonic's voice suddenly penetrated their ears as he shoved everyone out of the way to gaze over the edge and into the water. There was a horrified expression dancing along his face and trepidation showed in his green eyes. Everyone was surprised that the blue hero was actually talking now. "You don't expect us to go IN THERE, do you?!"

"Yes!" yawped the grandfather uncaringly.

Sonic threw an incredulous look his way. "No way!"

"Yes way!" Silver joked.

The blue speedster gave him a sarcastic smile, which Silver jubilantly returned.

"Look, it's not that bad…" Blaze muttered out, arms still folded across her chest.

"It is THAT bad, Blaze!" wailed Sonic.

Silver whipped around to face the old Noki. "Wait, so you said that this eel has cavities and you want us to do something about it? So…does that mean you want us to clean his teeth?" Silver wanted to know, eyes wide.

"Yeah!" caterwauled the grandpa. "You can use this gap as an entrance! Jump right in there! Dive to the bottom of the ocean and clean that eel's teeth!"

Sonic groaned loudly. "You CANNOT be serious!"

"Doing so will ease his pain, and he'll return from whence he came!"

"I'M GONNA DIE!"

Mario gave Sonic a look. "Geez Louise! Calm down. Sheesh, Sonic!"

"DIVE!" the old man commanded. "Get this over with so we can have clean water again!"

Blaze glanced at everyone. "So…who's going first?"

Without a word, Pauline backed up and then raced toward the edge. Everyone shouted for her to hold on, but the burgundy haired woman didn't listen. With perfect grace, she jumped off of the edge and went diving down into the water below, disappearing underneath the waterfall.

"Pauline!" Mario yowled, worried.

"We better follow her!" the purple cat commented, jumping off afterwards.

"Here I GO!" Silver followed the cat.

Mario released a dramatic sigh before also falling off of the edge, making sure to pull a screaming blue hedgehog with him. As one, the two plummeted into the water below and disappeared within the waterfall…

"This is so beautiful…!" Pauline couldn't help but gasp as she gazed around at all of the ancient relics underwater. There were ruins and whatnot everywhere, seemingly forgotten. School of fish swam around pleasantly and all seemed well. There was no sight of the overgrown eel anywhere.

"It's so…archaic!" put in Silver as he swam around while using his powers.

Mario nodded to his friends' words. "Now I'm just wondering where this eel is at…"

"It's gonna attack us!" howled Sonic, flailing about in the water and trying to swim properly.

"My sensors show highly toxic materials approaching…" FLUDD piped up after a long time of being silent. "Please keep safe everyone."

The quintet had no idea what FLUDD was going on about, but then they noticed massive goopy and purple bubbles floating up towards them purposely. They looked highly toxic and they could possibly land some serious damage on their Life pieces!

"Whoa!" shouted Sonic, evading one of the purple bubbles. He had managed to swim to the side by flailing.

Blaze went to use some of her flames on one of the bubbles, but her flames would not work underwater of course. Embarrassment struck her cheeks, but then her embarrassment was replaced by horrible pain as one of the bubbles smacked into her, getting into her purple fur. The cat hissed in pain and she went spiraling backwards, two of her Life pieces being taken away from her.

"Blaze!" cried Silver, rapidly swimming over to his feline friend and getting behind her, hooking his arms underneath her armpits to help her out. "Blaze, speak to me!"

Blaze groaned. "I'm fine…"

"Are you sure?!" Silver was so worried.

"I'm sure, Silver…"

Mario used FLUDD's hover nozzle to spray water beneath him, causing him to fly upwards and avoiding one of the purple bubbles. The red plumber glanced to his side and could see that Pauline was having no trouble getting rid of the purple bubbles with her wind abilities. Yup, they worked underwater too.

"Where are those things coming from?!" the blue hedgehog yawped crazily.

"They're coming from down there!" exclaimed Pauline, pointing her slender index finger down below. Simultaneously, everyone peered down into the darkness and could see a pair of glowing yellow eyes. Their own eyes adjusted to the darkness and instantly they could see the humongous eel down below, mouth open and spitting out toxic bubbles out at them. Its teeth appeared to be horribly dirty too!

Sonic looked about ready to faint. "THAT'S THE EEL?!"

"That's the eel, alright!" retorted Mario.

"How on Earth are we going to clean its teeth when its spitting acid bubbles at us?!" Silver shrieked insanely, still holding onto Blaze and still very much concerned for her.

Blaze rolled her eyes at the hedgehog. "Stop exaggerating, Silver," she remarked, shaking her head. "It's not acid…it's just, well, toxic."

"Basically the same thing!"

"No, it isn't!"

Silver pouted.

"Well, despite whatever it is, we have to hurry up and get this over with," Mario told his companions, putting on a determined look. "We have to get closer!"

With that, the red-capped hero started lowering himself, allowing his body to sink lower and lower to the ocean's bottom where the eel was at. Mario assumed that the others were following him, so he didn't feel the need to look up to check. He had to keep his attention on the eel and the toxic bubbles floating up towards him, which he nimbly evaded. Once he reached the massive eel, the eel opened its huge mouth and revealed its filthy teeth. Mario landed on the monster's tongue and felt extremely vulnerable.

"Mario! What are you doing in that thing's mouth?!" Sonic hollered, green eyes large.

"It seems we are being attacked by plaque-forming bacteria…" FLUDD announced unceremoniously as Mario got stung by one of the purple bubbles that seeped out of the creature's nose. Mario yelped in pain and swam away a little.

Mario muttered through his teeth. "Tell me something I don't know, FLUDD!"

"Just letting you know, Mario…"

Mario huffed loudly and used FLUDD to spray water at one of the eel's huge teeth. The sea creature howled when Mario did and kept howling until it was cleaned completely. "One down, uh…a lot more to go!"

Suddenly, the overly large eel began spinning around rapidly and sucking in air like a vacuum, obviously trying to swallow everyone up. Pauline, unfortunately, had gotten too close and was now being pulled into the eel's mouth like a vacuum sucking up lent from some carpet. The beautiful female screamed inside her helmet as she was slowly losing air. She only had four Life pieces left.

"Pauline!" everyone boomed.

Sonic took this chance to thrust a hand out and latch onto Pauline's wrist before the monster could suck her in completely. The blue hedgehog found himself getting sucked in too though and he started yelling in fright.

"Silver! Use your telekinesis to hold that eel still!" Blaze ordered sharply.

Snapping out of his surprised daze, Silver nodded his head shakily. "Uh…right!" The hedgehog from the future threw his palms out towards the eel and summoned his special abilities, using his mind to halt the eel's movements. It caused him to struggle, but he was managing to keep it still.

"Good work, Silver!" Blaze praised.

"No…problem…!" Silver forced out through clenched teeth, limbs shaking.

Instantly, Sonic and Pauline weren't being sucked into the eel's mouth anymore and they floated upwards slowly, Sonic still clutching onto a shocked Pauline's wrist. The blue hedgehog avoided her gaze and didn't say anything.

"You…saved me!" Pauline squeaked, disbelief written on her facial features.

Sonic rolled his green eyes. "Well, duh!" he shot back, shaking his blue head. "I always help my friends when they're in need of it…even though we're still in the midst of a stupid feud!"

A smile spread across Pauline's face and she nodded her head. "Alright then!"

"Uh, guys?" Silver talked, sounding pressured and tired. "Can you stop talking for a moment and start cleaning that eel's teeth? I don't know how much longer I can hold on to it…!"

As soon as the words left Silver's mouth, the quartet got to work while Silver continued to keep the eel still. It didn't even take too long and the danger had decreased because of Silver's amazing talent to keep the eel in one place. The stubborn eel growled and struggled to get free the entire time, but the heroes managed to clean all of its filthy and large teeth.

"Remember to take proper care of your teeth!" FLUDD blubbered out, bouncing upon Mario's back in a very jubilant manner.

As the overgrown eel disappeared within the ground, the five heroes swam down to see that a Shine Sprite was resting at the bottom where the eel had been. Mario grabbed it with both hands and laughed happily. Soon, everyone else's laughter joined his and all was well.

…for now.