Chapter 65: The Ending To A Very First Adventure

"Is everyone alright?" Kris asked as he entered the room with… everyone that was trapped in Infinite's cage, along with Mimi for some reason.

Wait, how did he get them out?! And what was Mimi in the back for?

"We are. Infinite's gone, but the castle's… not alright." I said.

We all looked at the castle, and it looked like a tornado hit a whole house. The whole mess Infinite caused all because he wanted to take a trip to the castle and wreak havoc was the purpose for this. There were pictures shattered on the floor as well as souvenirs broken as well. There was glass everywhere and it was an indicator that this is worth lots of money repairing the entire place.

"Wow. This place is wrecked." Kinsley said as the others joined us.

"Talk about double whammy when you think about the situation." Darius said.

"I'm sorry about your castle, Peach." I said to her. "I really wish there was a way I can make it up to you."

"Please don't apologize, Kaze. My castle may be destroyed, but you aren't the scapegoat for all of this." Peach said.

"Oh, Princess! You're safe! Are you hurt anywhere?! Please tell me you're not hurt!" Toadsworth asked as he rushed towards Peach.

"I am fine, Toadsworth. I'm sorry for making you all frightened for your lives. I didn't want you guys gone forever. This was essential for all of us so I needed to do what must be done."

"Yeah, please don't fault us." I said. "This was Infinite's doing. He offered to help us find the yellow stone only to eventually double-cross us and keep it to himself."

"No worries, everyone!" Toadsworth said. "It was certain that he would be the one to create mischief in this world. But it's quite surprising that Bowser is not in the picture for once."

"Who really cares?" Daisy asked. "Like you said, he's out of the picture and that should be very pleasing to hear from all of us, don't you think?"

"Y-Yes. That's quite right, Princess Daisy."

"If I may ask, how did he manage to get you trapped?" Peach asked.

"It was a horrible experience." Yellow Toad said. "He just barged into the room as if it was a robbery. And Cackletta and Fawful were with him."

"We took care of Fawful when I was with Mario and Luigi." Starlow said. "And now he's refueled with vengeance thanks to this Infinite guy. He was supposed to be done with evil."

"Even Cackletta too." Peach said. "Well, she was never gonna raise the white flag even if we had Mario and Luigi to knock some sense into her. But I'm also confused as to why she's still… alive. One time, Mario and Luigi defeated her in her regular form, and then defeated her again, this time in Bowser's body. In fact, they were both supposed to have vanished."

"Well, they both have resurrected and are now with Infinite, and they are gone with him, so at least there's time to breathe for a little while. But it looks like this will be a different situation temporarily." I said.

"*sigh* I miss Mario and Luigi already." Peach whispered with a sad tone. "S-So you were saying that they barged in, yes?"

"Yes, they barged in and were demanding that they take over your castle for a while." Toadsworth said. "We rejected immediately, knowing that this castle would be in danger, and that was when the attack occurred. Miss Starlow was our only weapon, but she wasn't enough to take on a barbarous crew in Infinite, Cackletta and Fawful altogether. That was when we were held captive."

"No wonder he wanted to find that stone just to offer us a parting gift like that before leaving out!" Daisy shouted.

"We all should be happy that we taught him a lesson." Candace said. "He may be back to seek vengeance, but he did this to himself, so we're still not done with him yet. We just need to call that a win and move on already."

"Yeah, you're right, Candace." I said. "It's not only him, Cackletta and Fawful we have to deal with, but it's others we have to target. So we'll be able to get more answers as we find the other stones."

"Wait, so… we got the stone, what's next?" Daisy asked.

"Well, we have to return to our world to safeguard it." Alexis said. "No one in the entire universe knows where it is so we keep the stones there."

"But you all are in different dimensions, so how can one world be unknown?"

"Our world is Hyperdrive City." Scarlett said. "Not everyone is supposed to know about it unless it's necessary. Kaze, Blue, Candace, Gemma and Kinsley, all are in the United Kingdom and we recruited them so we have created an alliance to search for these stones. Your presence isn't really needed, but it will be soon."

"Y-You sure? It's gonna be really hard to do it all on your own."

"There's 10 of us here." Kinsley said. "That's all we need for now. We can handle ourselves."

"We'll need your help again soon, Daisy." I said. "We just need the time to figure things out while searching for the stones."

"It's totally fine, Kaze." Peach said. "As long as you figure things out, I will happily be of assistance to you any time. I want to thank you for all your help. This situation could've ended much worse if it wasn't for you."

"Yes. As a reward for keeping every one of us alive, I would like to celebrate our victory with you with a feast! My treat!" Toadsworth said.

"Wait, is it really necessary?" Scarlett asked with a sweatdrop.

"Oh, forget that! We already won our first boss fight! Let's cherish this moment!" Darius shouted.

"I'm with Darius!" Gemma said. "We should make memories of this! This was our first adventure together, and we defeated Infinite! We have to do this!"

"We don't have time for…"

"And does that apply to me as well?! I contributed! Much!" Mimi asked, cutting off Kinsley.

"Y-You are, Mimi."

"I'm down for it, to be honest. I should be rewarded after I was also contributing the most." Zack said.

"Yeah… I guess it wouldn't be a problem to celebrate this victory. We all should be rewarded with this after what we went through today." I said.

"Same here! I'm not opposed to such a feast! I am elegant after all!" Candace said, with a smirk.

"Looks like you ain't getting out of this one, Kinsley." Darius said with a smirk. "Come on! Don't you wanna "at least" make memories of this?! You fought a good fight! You should want to remember this moment for the rest of your life."

…

…

…

"*sigh* Very well. I guess it wouldn't hurt to remember this victory." Kinsley said as she looked like didn't want to celebrate this victory, but decided to give in afterwards.

"See? You got some heart."

"I've always had heart. It's just… I don't want to celebrate when there's still more work to be done. But it's only right to keep memories of this moment."

"Understandable." Scarlett said. "I would rather celebrate after we completed our main mission rather than celebrating one objective. But, there's no other way around it."

"Party time! When do we start?!" Gemma asked.

"Ok, ok. We're working on it." Toadsworth said.

"She can be a hyper one. Don't mind her enthusiasm."

"Kaze, why are you being mean?" Gemma asked, sounding hurt at what I said.

"I'm not being mean. It's just… we want you to compose yourself." I said.

Out of all of us, she's more eager when it comes to fun stuff. I just hope she takes it seriously at some point of time.

Few hours in, we went to Toad Town to celebrate our victory. We were given presents, there was food on the table and music being played as everyone was having a good time. I just sat on the table with Blue and Peach, eating our food.

"Wow… I never thought this food would be that tasty." I said, looking surprised.

"*light giggle* I'm glad that you like it. I've said the same thing about this meal when I first tried it." Peach said with a smile.

"Peach, I'm really glad that you decided to help us." I said. "And you decided to take a chance on us. How does it feel to experience this new era? With us… being your partners?"

"I have you to thank, Kaze. You helped me move forward with you deciding to help my kingdom. I have been here for a long time, protecting my kingdom, relying on allies, and so on. And without Mario and Luigi, my resources were limited. I was gonna be all out of options until you arrived and offered help. All of this is my way of saying thank you. And I want you to do everything in your power to save our world. Because this is what you're destined to do, is that correct?"

"Well, it's not just her." Blue said. "It's me as well. And then you got Candace, Kinsley, Gemma, Darius, Scarlett, Kris, Alexis, and Zack. We all have a duty together. To save the world."

"That's right. We'll find a way to scratch your back sometime soon. We just gotta figure out plans and stuff like that." I said.

"It's totally fine. Oh. By the way, Kaze and Blue. I forgot to bring this up. I once heard you say something about Hyrule having a stone there." Peach said.

"Yeah. That was gonna be our next location. D-Do you know something, Peach?" I asked.

"In fact, there is a friend of mine that is in that dimension. Unfortunately, I can't reach her, but we have met before and she told me a little bit about it."

"R-Really?! Ok, do tell us." I said.

"Her name is Princess Zelda. As you know, she is the princess of Hyrule and… she's more powerful than I am at the moment. Her history is more… distressing. I wouldn't want to dive into details if I were you. I asked her about it once, and she didn't wish to bring it up once. Her past bothers her and she wants to move on from it so that she doesn't get stressed out time after time. She also told me that it could stress me out as well so I decided not to bring it up. Her enemy is named Ganondorf, which was her nemesis for a long time. He is seeking this mysterious being called the triforce. And… that was it."

"Th-That's it? Nothing else?" I asked.

"Yes, unfortunately. I'm not from her world so I can't say too much about her past. She is pretty nice to everyone is all I can say. It was all the information I could gain from her. I was staying in my own lane."

"So… how did you meet up if you are not from her world?" Blue asked.

"We met at a colosseum that is far far away from the Mushroom Kingdom. I forgot what it was called. I'll have Toadsworth tell me that again when he's free. But we went to a colosseum and that was when I first met Zelda. And we had Rosalina send us there."

"Oh ok. Well, at least that's something we'll keep in mind for now." I said.

"I have a feeling this Hyrule place is going to be interesting in my eyes." Blue said.

I wonder if that Ganondorf person is involved in this war. We already know Bowser isn't there, but maybe Ganondorf is. At least, that's my prediction. It's a lot of people that are working for the mastermind.

"Maybe Zelda can give you help on finding the next stone. She's in her world so there wouldn't be any reason to find out the source." Peach said.

"But she doesn't know about it." I said. "We have to explain it to her. The other dimensions don't know about them either which is why we're going to the rest of them."

"I feel pretty bad for the other dimensions. Is your world in danger as well?" Peach asked.

"Yes. We're working to save that one as well."

"I see. Whatever happens, Kaze and Blue, just be safe. I have a feeling this Hyrule place is gonna be a little tougher."

"We will. Every world we're going into is going to be tough, but it's not too late to figure things out."

"So are you sure you don't want us to fix the damages in your castle? We were partially the reason that your castle got damaged." Blue asked.

"It's fine. This is all of our worlds we're talking about here. It's not just my castle. I can't just think about only my castle, even though it's where I'm always protected. I'll send a lot of people to fix the damages. You just worry about saving everyone."

"Ok. We'll come back to your world when the time is right. We'll make sure your world is safe again." I said with a smile.

"Right. Thank you, Kaze." Peach said with a pretty smile.

This first adventure together has been inspiring.

After the party, we all went to the spot that we started our adventure at with Peach and Daisy tagging along with us, as we were getting ready to say our… see-you-laters.

"Well then. This was… rather short than long." I said.

"I can say the same thing. But we just got what we came here for. The yellow stone." Blue said.

"Did you guys like a certain place that you went to?" Princess Peach asked.

…

"Well… I think Twinsy Tropics was the only place that I liked." I said with a sweatdrop.

"Yeah, the other places, Doop Doop Dunes, Gloomy Woods…"

"They all weren't that peaceful when you got hawks, wigglers, and other supernatural things heading into your direction at a time like this." Kris said as he was adding to what Darius was saying.

"Twinsy Tropics feels fun to go to anyway." Gemma said.

"Yeah. That place rocks." Daisy said. "I've never seen a place that is this calm, peaceful and energetic."

"But I'm just glad you two were willing to help us out. Our situation could've gone nowhere if you two weren't there for us." I said.

"It's no problem, Kaze." Peach said. "We have you to thank for telling us this whole situation in the first place. Hopefully there's others that are willing to listen to you as you go through."

"I really guess this is see you later, huh, Peach?" Gemma asked.

"We have other things to take care of, Gemma. We'll take this into consideration another time." Scarlett said.

"Don't worry, Gemma. I'll be rooting for you on the inside." Peach said.

"Wow! Thanks! You totally won't regret it!"

"Damn. So this is it, huh?" Darius asked. "I mean…

…

I… I had fun working with you, Peach. You too, uh… Daisy. Hopefully, when the time comes, we'll regroup again."

"I had fun working with you too, Darius." Peach said. "Your personality may be… interesting at the very least. But yes, when the time comes."

"Yeah, you are quirky and athletic." Daisy said. "I may have to challenge you on any physical activities. But other than that, I'm also hopeful we'll regroup again sometime soon."

"Yeah those physical activities, I oughta beat you on." Darius said.

"Same here, Peach and Daisy." Kris said. "It was nice seeing you both. Hopefully you take our advice to heart. You know, the whole… confidence, wanting to be yourself, things like that."

"Oh yes, we will keep that in mind." Peach said. "We'll be ourselves from this point forward."

"Well, Peach. It was nice seeing you for the first time." I said with a smile.

"It was nice seeing you too, Kaze. Please do be careful out there. There's a lot of things in this world that might come in your way, and I want you to be safe."

"Don't worry, Peach." Blue said. "We all have her back, so we'll make sure her safety is prioritized."

"B-Blue, at least let me say something." I said with a sweatdrop. "I'll be fine, Peach. And we'll make sure to keep the other worlds from being in danger as well."

I offered Peach a handshake to remember this moment for the rest of our lives. She then took her own hand and firmly grasped onto mine.

"Alright. Time to head back." Scarlett said as she created a portal that will send us straight back to Hyperdrive City.

"See you later, everyone! Good luck on your next adventure!" Peach said as she waved to all of us.

"Bye, everyone! Good luck!" Daisy said as she did the same thing.

"See you later!" Everyone except Kinsley said.

"Later!" Kris said.

"Peace out!" Darius said.

And with that, we all entered the portal that sent us straight back to Hyperdrive City as we left the Mushroom Kingdom with the Stone of Healing. That means we now got two stones out of six. We're really making progress on our journey. And I completed my first adventure with some new friends with me. It feels totally different from what I did in Primp Town, because it was just me alone grabbing the red stone. Now I grabbed a stone with some reinforcements with me. As long as we keep this up, we'll be able to find out who's the mastermind behind the planned apocalypse in no time.

I'm still thinking it would be Thanos, but who knows? Only time will tell from here.

Author's Note: The Mushroom Kingdom Arc is complete! With the second stone brought back to Hyperdrive City, this first mission has turned out to be a huge success! Personally, I enjoyed writing this to a degree. I think it felt kinda rushed. Let me know if this was good enough for you guys. Maybe there could've been more that I did. But at the end of the day, it's finished. The yellow stone is retrieved. Now Kaze and the others can rest. But only for a little while.

So next up is the Hyrule Arc. For the people that don't know, I'm not really that experienced in The Legend Of Zelda series, so it's gonna take me a while to study that series because I've only played Super Mario games and not Zelda games. When I get an understanding of what this is all about, I'll be sure to use all of the knowledge in this story. So that's the bottom line.

That's all I have to say for now at least. I don't really have anything else to say that's on my head right now. So, even the Mushroom Kingdom Arc, if you guys enjoyed that arc and are enjoying this story so far, make sure you follow/favorite/review this story, and I'll see you in the next chapter. PEACE OUT!