As chaos slowly unfurls in the known parts of the Mushroom World, a band of hero wannabes has emerged to stop the growing menace. Though at the beginning of their quest, the situation with some heroes missing has only been aggravated by more abductions. When they meet certain requirements, they will venture into realms unheard of far beyond the seas, outside the scope of the Mushroom Kingdom's influence. For now, it's a race against time to rescue the pirate Johnny.

Heroes

Yoshi: first to embark on the quest to save Mario and the others, also the de facto leader thus far

Daisy: strong, but clumsy princess of Sarasaland, has an unhealthy obsession with cheese puffs

Morton Jr.: the babbling and naive Koopaling joins Daisy's antics

Geno: newest member, and a voice of reason.

Enemies

The Master- other than defeating the Koopa Troop and turning Bowser into his new toy, not much has been revealed about him

Ludwig von Koopa- one of the Master's main brains and elite fighter; has a grudge against Bowser for being demoted to just minions, but...

Lemmy Koopa- once a happy-go-luck buffoon, to now a blood thirsting thug, this Koopaling strives to follow the Master's orders to the 'T'

Slyklyde- a poison-spiting three-headed serpent, a Tryclyde pallete swap, a capable manipulator

-o-

Forbidden Wish and the Festival Escape

Location: Kingdom of Desert Hill, Prison Complex

It is the evening shift, and swift tapping echoes through the empty halls of the prison as the Fire Bro. Duo, Hitatsu and Draco, venture into the prison again, in search of the fabled Bubble fruit, rumored to be hidden within its impenetrable walls. The warden, a doogan with a Pancho Villa 'stache, instructed the site's guards to let them have access to the entire facility, as the document presented to him bares an official Desert Hill royal seal, and has a guard that resembles Tootankoopa (which is really the tar clone made by Slyklyde) accompany them. Hitatsu is fuming and frustrated that they were going nowhere with the search.

"This is just great, dude! We've searched the place at least twice! And zilch, dude. Nada!"

Draco, although uncomfortable with the Tootankoopa doppleganger's presence, replies, "Com' on, Hitatsu. If you think about it, there must be secret passages, rooms or something."

"Draco! Dude, are we playing video games? How stupid and cliché is that, dude?"

"Well, slap me already, won't 'cha? Sheesh, it was just a thought. But since this guard is following us everywhere, no one will suspect us once. And, if we go to the warden's office, he'll most likely cooperate with us and give us some blueprints of the place..." He stops to clasp his chin while looking up. "If he has any, that is."

"Dude, we have to pass that stupid shark's tank to get there. And seriously, dude, do you think it will be that easy?"

"Has it not been so far?"

Hitatsu stops to sigh with a bit of flame in his breath while he tilts his head down and closes his eyes. His partner and escort stop as well, waiting for Hitatsu's reaction. Hitatsu inhales and exhales once more, and soon after, opens his eyes and resumes walking. After a couple of minutes, they walk into the aquarium room, which branches at its four corners. Both Fire Bros. and the Tootankoopa doppelganger turn to the left, and find themselves close to Johnny's tank, where the water surface is now barely covering his gills.

Johnny feigns unconsciousness, but really, he is very weak, so he saves as much energy as possible. His flippers are a sickly purple, bruise mess, his ribs show indicating malnourishment, his back has terrible sunburn, and his youthful blue is now a brownish blue. He is trembling as he struggles to stay afloat, and struggles to breathe, each heavy wheeze accompanied by uncontrollable trembling.

Hitatsu inspects the shark pirate's emaciated state, but thinks nothing of it. He walks a couple of steps and knocks at a door overlooking the tank. The door is labled "Vice-warden". Knowing the vice-warden was resting at the moment, he casually says, "Them Koopaling dudes will arrive here any minute, and we need turn this place into a heap of rubble if we have to and hand over the shark and the fruit to them, dude. Dude, let's hurry up and do this."

As the door to the vice-warden's office opens, Johnny struggles to open his right eye, having heard everything, and watching them enter the room. Before passing out, he thinks, 'Me life be endin', by Jove, too soon. If they be hearin' me... Me wish to th' stars… let me live... me wish… to see her again...'

...

Location: Kingdom of Desert Hill, Costume Festival in the Pyramid Town

Meanwhile, around the same time and back in the costume festival, the four heroes are enjoying themselves as they stroll about freely in the town square. There are some armed Toad and doogan guards walking about, and the town is on high alert, but no one suspect our heroes one bit.

Previously, Geno had Yoshi dress up as Link, while Morton Jr. had a makeover with some green face paint, dressed to resemble Piccolo, someone from another fandom, and both snack on popcorn and Desert Hill's caramelized confections. Daisy is being herself, and blends in quite well with the other crazy Daisys, probably having too much fun with the imposters. Geno is quite the sensation, occasionally asked to pose for a selfie.

While Morton talked away with a random Toad kid, and Geno was surrounded by groupies, Yoshi sniffs about the many aromas of delicious desert delicacies. Suddenly, an arm grabs him by his left shoulder.

"Yosh, Yosh, Yosh! There it is! That Thingood suitcase 2000!"

Yoshi sees it was Daisy, and then looks where she pointed at; it is the cart, with parts of the suitcase slightly showing among the remaining hay. He pouts and replies while Morton is chomping away at some caramelized apples he 'borrowed' from the Toad kid, "It's Stuffwell 2.0, Daisy."

Geno joins them as the groupies left him alone, also peering at the cart while rubbing his chin. He ignores a small scuffle between some cobrats going on behind him, and interjects, "We need to get the guards away from the cart, somehow." He removes his hat to check inside. "Hmmm… I ran out of fire crackers, and I don't have anything to make a diversion."

He looks around the bazaar, but finds that particular area, the town square, getting more crowded by the minute. Something seemed to be gatheringthe crowd, but Geno couldn't think of what could. "Hmm… If I dare try anything out in the open, this riled crowd's gone start lynching. Yoshi, what do you suggest?" No answer. "Uh, Yoshi?"

Geno looks behind himself, but only sees Morton Jr. catching Daisy trying to steal his cheese puffs from inside his shell. To his left was an amateur cook frying some imported mushrooms, and next to him was a lanky Toad clad in deep indigo WaLuigi overalls selling fish tacos, but no Yoshi slobbering over food. To his right, some Goomba girl is crying over spilled milk and a shaman woman similar in look to Merluvlee selling many costumes in her desert tent shop.

While Daisy and Morton argued over the cheese puffs, Geno replaces his hat, thinking, 'Where did that green dinosaur go? There's no fresh fruit here, and he's not by the foods stands. What else does he like?'

He suddenly sees a large stage that had been set up while the four were preoccupied with dressing up, since Geno certainly didn't remember it being there before. Half of the stage is veiled by two red curtains, which had two small but crudely sown, blue patches on the left one. Geno approaches the crown as the curtains unfurled even further to the sides, seeing this was what was attracting the crowd. He still ponders what Yoshi was up to.

Yoshi, while still dressed as Link, sat behind some bongos as some nomadic Toads played their desert musical instruments. While the music played, some ninji did some acrobatic stuns involving ninji pyramids and jumping through fiery hoops. Cobrats jump from their jars into the dry evening desert air in an entertaining pattern, sometimes synchronizing a jump into a different vase, earning the cheers and claps of the ecstatic crowd. Yoshi has fun providing a very rhythmic and energetic beat, typical of Yoshi parties, thus invigorating the other performers more that usual.

Geno states amidst his chortles, "Should have known! Just like the famous saying, 'You can take a Yoshi out of a party, but you can't take the party out of a Yoshi.'" He chuckles again. "Well, this is a nice problem to have."

By this time, Daisy and Morton (who is still dressed and painted as Piccolo) made their way next to Geno, and completely forgot about Stuffwell when they began witnessing the spirited entertainment.

"Yeah! You go, Yosh! WOOOOO!" cheers Daisy.

Morton Jr. couldn't contain his excitement either… "Cool! Awesome! Rad! Hey, Luddy! Come and check this…" He looks around and realizes only Daisy and Geno are there. Tears well up in his eyes and his chest began to shake. He begins to run while covering his teary eyes with his right arm, running over or pushing away random doogans and desert Toads. He catches the attention of some of the creatures and guards in the vicinity, but they think nothing of it.

Daisy turns as he began wailing and goes after him. "Morty! Don't… Aw, man! Just when the fire snakes were about to start."

Geno chases after Daisy and catches up to her, forgetting about Stuffwell and Yoshi for a bit. He grabs her left shoulder.

"Daisy, got any idea about what's wrong?"

"How should I know? All I know is that he came and collapsed in front of my castle door some weeks ago."

Geno let's out a frustrated sigh. "I have this hunch… Maybe the whole issue with that Koopaling is deeper, and may even tie in to the world domination fiasco."

"Well, aren't you the smart one?" remarks Daisy as she grabs her hips.

Geno realizes something and slaps his forehead. "Great! We're supposed bust… uh, visit our friend that, uh, lives, close by, not having fun in the carnival. The world is at stake."

"You mean busting out John…?"

Geno quickly covers her mouth, whispering, "Shh! That's a secret. Besides, we need to get Morton A.S.A.P. before more drama happens. Yoshi can find us later."

Both turn to go after Morton Jr., but bump into a big Clubba, a Desert Hill guard patrolling the area. The Clubba looks very upset and is holding Morton by the right shoulder.

"Is this your child?"

Geno blurts out in the spur of the moment, "Well, um…" He clears his throat. "Uh, yeah, sure, he's… ours?"

"Isn't he just lovely?" adds Daisy, smiling more falsely that the crazy Daisies around. Geno follows suit, although rather uncomfortably, and blushing through his wooden face, realizing what he just said.

"This is a family event, not a daycare! Don't let it happen again!"

"We won't," replied Daisy and Geno, giving each other a nervous look.

The Clubba guard did not notice he'd stepped on Morton's cloak, and as soon as he hands Morton over and the three walk away, YANK! The cloak came off and their cover got blown, er, pulled away. The guards in the vicinity didn't notice immediately, but the civilian Toads and Mousers did, and began throwing at Morton Jr. whatever they could get their hands on. As the commotion grew louder, guards started noticing, and began to run toward the scene.

As the three get surrounded, an unknown driver in the same wooden cart the original three arrived in swerved next to them, and a familiar voice called out, "Hop on!" In the confusion of things, they do, and they race through the crowd, all of them jumping out of the way of the speeding wagon being pulled by four ostros. The guards rain darts, arrows and spears on them, with an occasional one pulling out a fire flower. Most had a bad aiming, although a spear impaled the board near Morton's horrified face.

"Cease fire!" yells one of them, which wore a slightly more ornate uniform than the rest. "You scumbags will hit the civilians! And by the time your aim gets better, we'll get taken over again!"

Pandemonium took over the crowd that night, many leaving the event or getting stopped by guards. But as the cart raced forward, the yelling eventually dies out due to distance, and the four dash toward the mountain range protecting the restricted area of Desert Hill. Daisy gets up from among the hay, but trips on Stuffwell 2.0 and lands inside the hay again.

Geno turns at the driver while Daisy's muffled grunts are heard. "Who are you?"

The driver turns. "What d'ya mean? I'm Yoshi!" Indeed it was.

"How'd you get the cart?" inquires Geno.

"I really don't know either. Compensation for participating on the show, I guess?"

Geno shrugs. "Something seems out of place. You know, that feeling when reading a story and it somehow feels rushed or too convenient?"

"I don't read books often, Geno," responds Yoshi as the Link hat flies off his head.

"Doesn't matter, Yoshi. We're here now, and we have a job to do."

Daisy pops out of her hay imprisonment with a loud, exaggerated gasp. She turns to Geno as Morton pulls out his last cheese puff bag.

"Hey, Gee. Ya know… He, he. Gee, and know."

"Very clever, Daisy," Yoshi calls out along with a sarcastic snort.

"I know, huh? But Gee, why did you join us? Last time I heard, you guys successfully repaired Starry Path, and you went back home."

-o-

Who does Johnny want to see? Why is it necessary for Johnny and this fruit to be delivered to the Master and Koopalings? And OOOH! Next time, some juicy gossip… not really, soooo, see you next time.