The scuttlebug creeped down its web; no need to rush to catch prey that is already trapped. It was agonizingly slow, but gave Mario a few more seconds to think of a way out of the mess. Kicking off his shoe against the scuttlebug might work. If only he could undo his laces without his hands. He tried pushing down on the heel of one shoe with the toe of the other, but it wouldn't budge.

"Hey!" A high pitch voice called from below. "Do you need a hand?"

Mario looked to where the voice had come from, and almost felt relief. A young girl, who did not look to be older than ten stood just beneath the scuttlebug's web. She carried a large basket filled with smiling turnips. Mario glanced back up to the scuttlebug, its pinchers just a breath away from the top of his hat. He gulped. "I Might."

"Hang on," the girl replied as she placed her basket on the ground and retrieved a turnip. Straining she lifted it above her head and threw it with all her might. The turnip soared towards the web and struck Mario's nose dead center. "Sorry!" she shouted as Mario stifled a groan. She pulled another Turnip from the basket and threw it again. Mario winced, but it sailed above his head and crashed into the scuttlebug's stripped body. It made the closest sound it could to a grumble and scurried up the web and disappeared as it ran up the mushroom trunk.

Mario let out a breath, "You have good aim," he called to the little girl who was now shimming up the mushroom.

"Why thank you," she said as she tried to balance with both legs and one arm wrapped around the stem as she pulled a pair of garden shears from the front pocket of her denim jumper. She snipped the strands anchoring the rest of the web to mushroom stem. Mario felt the web become slack, and fell with it before he had a chance to cry mamma mia.

A cloud of dust puffed up around him as he crashed. But, at least he was on the ground. The net still stuck against his back, Mario dug the palms of his hand into the ground, and forced himself to stand up.

"Are you alright?" came a voice from behind.

"Perfectly, fine, thanks to you," Mario said as he turned around where the girl stood. She had a very concerned expression on her face. Mario smiled as he peeled a thread of the web from his shoulder, but this only stuck to his glove. He shook his hand until the string flew off, and land on top of his shoe. Mario sighed and decided he was never going to be free from the bits of the web.

"Your nose is starting to turn purple," the little girl said.

Gingerly Mario tapped his nose with the tip of his finger, and winced. "No worries," he said with a smile. "It looks worse than it feels," that was not exactly true, but the girl's blue eyes were wider than saucers and her voice sounded strained as if tears were not far behind. Besides, a bruised nose was nothing compared to being a spider's dinner.

She clasped her shaking hands in front of her chest. "I am really sorry, sir," she said. "I was not aiming for your face, honest."

"You're fine, you're fine," Mario replied noting that his voice sounded more nasally than usual. "You freed me from the web and that is the important part."

That little girl nodded her head quickly. "It's a good thing I was out picking wild turnips," she said.

"A very good thing," Mario replied.

Seeing that Mario was friendly enough, the girl decided it was a good idea to vent all of her recent woes onto him. "I asked papa if I could leave the house to go foraging for dinner," she explained, "Because all we grow around the house is mushrooms and I hate mushrooms. We tried cooking them in different ways, like boiling them, mashing them, or sticking them in a stew, but it doesn't matter they are just too mushroomy, and we eat them every single day." She sighed and looked down at her toes.

Mario, was not sure how to respond to that. This girl was significantly more social than the children back in toad town. Had Tatanga reached this part of The Mushroom Kingdom yet, or did this girl and her family live under the radar? He cleared his throat. "Do you have a house nearby."

The little girl snapped her head back up. "We do," she answered. "But, I can't show it to anyone." She stepped to the side where she had left her basket and lifted it up. As she walked away, Mario realized it might be a long while before he encountered another friendly soul.

"Before you go," Mario said. "My brother just got caught by Tatanga's minions, and I need to rescue him."

The girl froze in her tracks and turned back to Mario. "That's very bad," she said just above a whisper.

"I need to find my way back to town to rescue him, and was wondering if you knew of any shortcuts there…." He was going to say more, but paused when he noticed the girl's face. He eyes were wide, but the cause appeared to be more from excitement than fear.

"You mean," she said. "You are going on an adventure?"

"That is a positive way to look at the situation," Mario replied.

The girl dropper her basket, as she clasped her hands in front of her chest, the turnips spilled out and rolled away. "I have always wanted to go on an adventure, just like the ones my papa used to go on with his brother." Her face fell before she added much more quietly. "Before he got sick."

Her entire demeanor made Mario's heart ache for her. This little girl seemed cheerful on the surface, but she hid a lot of personal grief behind her words. "I am very sorry," he said meaning every single word.

The girl lifted her head. "He tells me stories every night about past adventures," she explained the twinkle returning to her eyes. "But, tonight I could tell him about my adventure instead." She gasped and clapped her hands. "Can I come with you Mr…."

"Mario,"

"Mario," the girl repeated. "That will be easy to remember," she said before twirling in her spot, "I'm Mariella."

Mario smiled, "It's very good to meet you."

"It's very good to meet you too, Mr. Mario." Mariella nodded enthusiastically and clapped her hands together. "There are some top-secret pipes, that my parents used to use to go see people before Papa got sick," she skipped several feet away, but stopped just underneath a large mushroom noting that the plumber was not following her. "Come on, Mr. Mario, don't you want to save your brother?"

Mario smiled and shook his head as he followed Mariella. She was clearly made entirely of sugar, spice, and all things nice, but also had an adventurous and perhaps mischievous streak to her. To be honest, she reminded him a great deal of Princess Peach.

Luigi whistled one of Polterpup's favorite songs as he sat on the wooden stool at a table in the jail. The only window was far too small for him to fit his shoulders through. Even if Luigi could fit inside the window, it was barred, and casted a grill like shadow on the floor, just near where the guard stood by the heavy metal door.

When Luigi arrived, he had asked that same guard if he could have a harmonica, but he was promptly told that musical instruments of any kind were banned. The future was not looking bright. How in the world did the Mushroom Kingdom end up like this? He really wished there was someone around that he could ask, someone who would not be afraid to still speak their mind even under the circumstances.

Explanation or no explanation, Luigi was stuck, and he was not even sure where Mario was. He saw him following after them at the mushroom fields. If he ever got back to his time, Luigi would make certain that he would do everything he could to keep things from becoming the way they were here.

He tapped his fingers against the wooden table in beat with his whistling. The toad standing guard put a finger to his lips and shushed him, "Music created by your voice isn't allowed either." He spoke as if he was reading from a list of rules. He probably was, but Luigi had this unsettling feeling that the toad had the rulebook programmed into his head rather than simply memorizing it.

Luigi did not wait in silence for very long when the heavy metal door's hinges squeaked loudly as it opened. Two other toads entered. One was dressed identical to the guard watching Luigi, but the other one, although wearing the same uniform, sported a white mustache and leaned heavily on a cane.

"Toadsworth?" Luigi blurted out.

"So," Toadsworth said. "It really is you, Master Luigi." Relief washed over Luigi. Finally, a familiar face. However, this relief dissolved into a sickening dread when he got a good look at Toadsworth's eyes. They had that same swirling look as all the other brainwashed toads. If Tatanga managed to capture and hypnotize Toadsworth, what about Princess Peach's, Mario's or even Luigi's future selves? Did anyone make it through Tatanga's conquest with their free will intact?

Then again, Toadsworth was surprised to see him. Did that mean his future self was still out somewhere? Regardless, Luigi felt it was absolutely not in his best interest to tell Toadsworth that he was from the past. "It's a me, Luigi," he said with a nervous laugh.

Toadworth struggled to climb onto a stool on the opposite side of the table to Luigi. The other two toads made no move to assist him. "This is very good news," he said once he was finally sitting. "You wouldn't happen to have seen your brother and the princess?"

Yes, Luigi had seen them, but not the ones Toadsworth was thinking of. Future Mario and Princess Peach were still at large? This gave Luigi a small sense of satisfaction. Additionally, if Toadsworth wanted to know where Peach was, then he clearly did not know about Bowser Jr kidnapping her so this at the very least implied Jr. was not in league with Tatanga but, it still did not answer why he kidnapped the Princess Peach from Luigi's time.

"Er, Master Luigi, did you hear me?" Toadsworth asked.

Luigi swallowed noticing it was getting rather warm in the room. "I did," he replied.

"Then why didn't you answer me?"

Luigi sniffed and faked a sob, "Because I was so overcome with grief over the loss of my brother, I couldn't form any words to respond to your question."

"Master Luigi," Toadsworth clasped his hands together and leaned against the table. "Have you forgotten our friendship?" Luigi shook his head, and Toadsworth continued. "Then why do you lie to me?"

"Because," Luigi said very slowly as he tried to think of something to say that would not make him sound even more like a liar. "Because I am telling you the honest to goodness truth."

Toadsworth frowned deeply. "No, you are not."

"Yes, I am."

"You aren't."

"I am…"

"Enough!" Toadsworth slapped his hand against the metal table as Luigi jumped out of his skin. "Obviously, being polite isn't getting us anywhere." He turned away from Luigi and pointed to the guards, "Hook him up to the Tickler 3.7." All the blood drained from Luigi's face as he slouched in his seat wishing he could disappear.

The other toads looked to one another and shrugged. The one who wouldn't allow Luigi a harmonica cleared his throat. "No can do, Sargent, it's down for maintenance."

Luigi sighed with relief as Toadsworth thoughtfully stroked his mustache. "That's true, isn't it, well is the older model still working?"

The guard nodded, "I think so."

"They just don't make them like they used to." Toadsworth shook his head as he nonchalantly waved his hand, "Well better hop to it and hook him up to the tickler 2.89."

The two guards saluted and took their stations at either side of Luigi. "Please come with us, sir."

Luigi gulped and wondered if he should ask if he could call his non-existent lawyer. Mario, where are you?

As they journeyed through the forest of mushrooms, Mario found talking to children was different than adults. Children are probably the only people who would be curious about what his fourth favorite dinosaur was. It was still a very sunny day, but the towering mushroom caps casted shade over them. The entire ground was carpeted by mush smaller, but equally colorful mushrooms.

"It should not be much farther from here, Mr. Mario," Mariella called from where she stood on top of one of the smaller mushrooms. She was very nimble and loved to bounce around. If Mario had not been bruised from his excursion with the police cruiser and scuttlebug earlier he probably would not be lagging behind as much as he was.

Mariella stopped suddenly and turned around to face Mario, her freckled cheeks were flushed red from the exercise. The must had been the most fun she had in a while. "The pipe is hidden near here," Mariella said breathlessly. She held up a finger to Mario, "But," she said. "It's super-duper top secret and I can't have you telling anyone."

"Absolutely," Mario said and crossed his hand over his heart. "If I don't keep the secret then my mustache must fall out."

Mariella giggled before she turned around and felt around on of the thickest mushroom stems. "The illusion door should be around here, a-ha!" she pulled aside a curtain the exact cream color of the mushroom's stem revealing the inside to be hallow. There was just enough space for an adult to duck inside. It was dark, but if Mario made out the unmistakable shape of a warp pipe.

Mariella ducked inside. Climbed up the pipe until she sat on the rim with her legs hanging inside. "Come on, Mr. Mario, Let's a go!"

Mario stepped inside the entrance, but paused, a smaller mushroom growing just outside the entrance had caught his eye. Mario lifted up a mushroom, it's cap was black with purple spots. A mock poisonous mushroom. Looked similar to a poison mushroom, but was perfectly safe to touch and eat. It also looked a great deal like the required uniform of Toad Town. Mario glanced down at Mariella, she was probably about as tall, if not taller than most adult toads at her age, although it would be difficult to tell without anyone to compare to. It would work. Mario pulled the stem from the mushroom.

"Why are you tearing apart the mushroom?" Mariella asked with a grimace. "We don't have time for snacks; we've got to save your brother."

Mario smiled, he could not have found a more determined companion on this quest if he had looked for one. "This is part of my idea to sneak it."

"You're using a mushroom to sneak into a jail?" Mariella asked.

Mario nodded as he handed the mushroom to Mariella, "I want you to try this on."

Mariella stared with a very confused look, before a huge grinned bloomed on her face. She pinched her nose and pointed at a red mushroom, "Do I hear happiness in here?" She said with an exaggerated-nasally voice. "Happiness is banned so stop having fun or I will have to bring you in." She laughed at her own joke and held her sides.

"I like this idea," she said. "Super sneaky."