Super Mario Sunshine Adventure

Episode 5: Secret of the Village Underside

It was night when the group of five heroes arrived in Pianta Village again. Those pesky Wind Duppies dared to try and knock them off of the bridge once more for some unfathomable reason. Mario explained that it was because they had nothing better to do and Sonic gave his own opinion on the matter. What was it? Oh, yes. He said that the Wind Duppies assaulted them because they simply disliked them. Then everyone got into a huge argument about why the Wind Duppies did what they did until Mario had to shut them all up, telling them that it was completely pointless to argue about something like that.

Anyway, after reaching the end of the bridge, they were mildly horrified to see a Yoshi egg sitting there next to a pink male Pianta. Yes, this guy was pink. Sonic burst out laughing immediately and then was elbowed hard in the ribs by Pauline. That made the blued hedgehog quit his laughter.

"Howdy there, son!" greeted the pink Pianta man, smiling at them joyously.

"Hi!" Silver greeted back with much enthusiasm.

Blaze gave him a nod. "Hello."

"Hey..." Mario trailed off, eyeing the Yoshi egg once more. It seemed that it wanted some bananas. Mario groaned inwardly and tried not to think about the consequences of hatching another Yoshi egg. They all acted the same for some reason! Well, the ones in Isle Delfino, that is! It was weird! All they wanted to do was eat!

"The entire village is getting ready for the annual Fluff Festival." The pink Pianta informed them gleefully, putting his enormous hands on his hips. "Even us old folks start getting excited about this. Heh heh."

Pauline's interest was piqued. "Annual Fluff Festival? That sounds like fun!"

"I know right?!" Silver totally agreed with her.

"Sounds like something Amy would've dragged me to…" Sonic mumbled, a frown coloring his face.

Mario sighed in disappointment. "Peach would have liked to go to this annual Fluff Festival."

"Oh, and before I forget…I…am NOT the mayor!" hollered the pink guy.

"Holy macaroni!" yawped Sonic, putting his hands in the air as if he were surrendering to the cops or something. "No one said you were, pal!"

The pink Pianta glared at him. "If you're looking for him, he's probably by that yellow mushroom."

"Why would we need to look for the mayor?" questioned Blaze, becoming flabbergasted.

"To see what's up this time. Usually there's always something wrong whenever we come back to visit," replied Sonic, shrugging at the purple cat.

Blaze just nodded.

Ahem, anyway, the quintet of heroes ignored the Yoshi egg for the time being and headed on over to the yellow mushroom, finding quite a few Piantas over there, including the mayor. It seemed as though they were having a little party.

"Mr. Mayor!" Pauline waved at the guy.

He peered at her, a grin curling his lips underneath his mustache. "Where's the fluff? The puffy fluffy fluff?"

"The puffy-what?" Silver asked, baffled.

Clearly, this mayor guy was in a daze as all the other Piantas around him danced and frolicked about. It seemed as though they were performing some kind of ritual and the mayor was in some kind of whacky trance. It creeped everyone out!

"Uh…let's just let's just go find some fruit to hatch Yoshi…"

"I won't say that's a good idea, but it's our only option…"

"…Sonic's right. I see a fruit tree over there."

"Let's go…"

So the friends hurried over to the fruit tree that wasn't too far from where they were standing. The fruit tree had all kinds of fruit, which was odd! There was a yellow Pianta woman standing next to it, watching them.

"I wonder if Yoshi will show up?" she commented to herself, thoughtful.

"Lady," said Sonic as he plucked some bananas from the tree. "You have no idea."

The yellow Pianta female smiled at them all. "Well, okay then. I was wondering if Yoshi would show up because there is a secret about the village's underside that you guys should go seek out. I don't know much about it, but I do know that you'll need Yoshi's help to get down there and to discover the secret."

"That was very informative. Thank you." Blaze bowed at the woman respectfully.

"Oh! It was no trouble at all!" remarked the female.

Silver grinned at her. "Thanks again!"

So the five of them walked away from the Pianta and approached the Yoshi egg once more. Groaning in despair, Sonic gave the egg the bananas and a pink Yoshi instantly burst out of the egg.

"YAY!"

"Hey, Yoshi…" muttered Mario.

"Those bananas SURE were scrumptious!" the pink Yoshi babbled, peering around at the faces of the heroes. "Got any more where that came from?"

Pauline performed a deep sigh, wobbling her head from side to side in a lazy shake. "No, Yoshi. We don't…"

"Yeah, we don't," Sonic fibbed, remembering the fruit tree. It still had plenty of fruit.

The pink colored Yoshi glowered at them all. "Well! You better get me something to eat! I'm STARVING!"

"You just had bananas!" caterwauled Silver.

"That's laughable!" spoke Yoshi, shaking his pink head. "When I eat, I eat a LOT!"

Pauline allowed her face and hand to meet. "We can't feed you right now, but we need your help…please."

"FEED ME!"

Sonic threw up his hands, fed up. "Alright. That's it. I'm done. I'm not riding that Yoshi. Someone else has to do it this time. I'm done with this!"

"I'm not doing it!" snapped Mario.

"I'm not doing it either!" shrieked Pauline.

Silver bit his lip. "…I don't want to."

Everyone looked at Blaze.

"What? Why are you all looking at me?" Blaze demanded to know, starting to become uncomfortable.

Silver strolled on over to the purple cat and pulled her into an embrace, giving her a very big smile. "Blaze, sugar muffin, can you please ride the Yoshi to the village's underside and find out what this secret secret is all about?"

Blaze shoved him off. "Fine, but don't call me that ever again!"

"Okay…cookie dough."

"Ugh!" Blaze ignored everyone's amused snickers and sauntered over to the famished Yoshi. "If you take me to the village's underside and help me out, I promise I will give you all the fruit you desire."

The pink Yoshi's face brightened. "REALLY?!"

"Really…"

"THEN WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?! HOP ON!"

A loud and ireful sigh traveled out of the princess's mouth and into the air as she climbed on top of the Yoshi's back. Cackling, the Yoshi took off quickly along the wooden bridge, easily finding a way down to the village's underside. It wasn't hard to find it, honestly. There was a trail of Coins leading down to a massive mushroom below.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Blaze was clinging to the Yoshi's neck tightly, great fear evident on her face and in her voice. The purple cat really hated heights. Like Sonic was afraid of water, she was afraid of high places! There was an extremely long drop down into nothingness and that just caused her heart to hammer against her chest. Why couldn't anyone else do this?!

"Perfectly safe, kitty cat!" the jubilant Yoshi responded instantly, jumping from overgrown mushroom to overgrown mushroom.

Blaze felt queasy for a moment, trying not to look down. However, the journey was soon over when the duo came across some yellow gooey…stuff. The Yoshi opened its mouth and spat out some pink liquid onto the yellow gooey…stuff. Instantly, the gooey stuff disappeared, revealing a hole.

"This…must be the secret…" breathed Blaze.

"YUP!"

Blaze carefully removed herself from the Yoshi's back and put her feet on the mushroom, next to the hole. Her hand was still touching the Yoshi just in case she slipped and fell to her death. "Thank you, Yoshi. Your help is greatly appreciated."

"Yeah, yeah," dissed the Yoshi. "Where's my food?"

The purple feline gazed at him. "Um…go back up to my friends. They'll show you where all of the fruit is at."

"ALRIGHT!" Then the Yoshi was gone.

Blaze sighed once more before entering the hole, disappearing within the darkness.

The female found herself in one of those strange special stages, but there was a Pianta in there, which was weird. When he saw her, he lifted a hand and waved elegantly.

"Howdy!" he boomed. "I'm a chuckster!"

Discombobulation altered Blaze's features. "A…chuckster?"

"You'd better be careful when speaking to powerful Piantas," the guy went on as if he hadn't heard anything the cat said. "Some'll chuck you straight up, but most chuck you backward. When it comes to tossing folk, I'm…Well, I'm a chuckster!"

Realization pierced Blaze's face and she opened her mouth to use her words, but the Pianta guy grabbed her suddenly and lifted her with complete ease. Blaze hissed like a real domestic cat as the Pianta tossed her behind him like she was nothing.

Blaze flipped in the air and landed on her feet stylishly, agile and nimble. Then, she put her angry expression on the Pianta who was looking the other way as if she no longer existed. "What in the world…!?"

Desperately wanting to know what was occurring, the purple cat turned away from the seemingly deranged Pianta and put her eyes on a blue Pianta male who was just standing there on the large platform they were standing on. Blaze marched over to him.

"Excuse me-"

"I'm a chuckster!"

Blaze's eyes got big as the Pianta cut off her sentence and reached over, grabbing her and tossing her up high into the air. Screaming, Blaze soared and ended up retrieving an Ultra Shroom while she was at it. When she landed back on the ground on her feet, the Pianta was ignoring her just like the first one.

"What…what is going on here?" she whispered to herself, reluctantly walking over to another Pianta who was standing there waiting for her.

"I'm a chuckster!" blared the new Pianta as he grabbed her too and threw her across the way.

A very loud shriek tore through Blaze's throat and blasted out of her mouth as she flew over a large gap and landed on another platform. This time, Blaze's rear made contact with the ground and she hissed in pain. She rubbed her bottom for a moment, getting to her feet as she shook with fright. Her eyes met with two more Piantas. One of them was an adult and the other one was tiny.

Hesitant, Blaze swallowed her saliva and approached the big Pianta, wondering if this one was going to throw her too. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought it was going to burst right out of her chest!

"Don't hold back!" growled the adult Pianta. "Grrrrarraah!"

Before Blaze knew it, she was soaring again, this time to another platform. When she impacted with the ground she was about to get up, but there was another Pianta hovering over her, a large grin glued to his face.

"Higher! Higher!" he squawked, lifting up the cat into the air and tossing her upward.

The fire manipulator didn't even scream that time as she was flying through the air. When she stumbled into another platform, she was met with a bunch of Strollin' Stus and a blue Pianta male who looked about ready to toss her somewhere.

Without wasting any time, Blaze started to defend herself from the Strollin' Stus that attempted to harm her. Blaze launched herself at them, attacking them with her Fire Claw move. The cat fought easily, using her graceful and delicate movements to cause her opponents to perish. When she was done, which didn't take long, she reluctantly put her attention on the Pianta who had been sitting there the entire time.

"I'm a chuckster!"

Blaze let out a terrified sigh as the Pianta grabbed her with ease and threw her across the way. Landing on her feet, Blaze smoothed out her clothes and tried not to tremble with fear. Of course she was scared! She was horrified of heights!

A brown Pianta was there to meet her and he gazed upon her as if he were some type of lunatic. "I'm a chuckster!"

Blaze felt herself being lifted again and being tossed into the air. Screaming at the top of her lungs, the cat didn't get the chance to land on the next and final platform. She slipped and toppled over, but managed to grab onto the edge of the platform, hanging on for dear life. Tears appeared at the corners of her eyes, but she furiously blinked them away and pulled herself up, shaking all over.

Looking over her shoulder, she could see the Shine Sprite floating above her head, radiating with pure warmth. Shakily getting to her feet, Blaze bit down on her bottom lip and wrapped her fingers around the Shine Sprite, pulling it towards her and hugging it against her chest.

What a horrible experience!