"A wall?" Connie gasped. "This is so strange."

"They were doin' some weird stuff in the basement in the other lighthouse," Snoutlet mentioned. "What are these creeps planning?"

"Whatever it is, it's not good at ALL!" Billdit agreed.

"Could we fly over it?" Snoutlet asked Arc. "Oh! We could blow it up! Kaboom!"

"That's a good idea." Arc responded. "But we don't have any sort of engineer or mechanic on Shipshape. But maybe we could find somebody like that while we're reconnecting the islands?"

"So, we have to keep lookin' on the islands then."

"Yeah. But either way, we'd have to unite all the islands, so it'll be a two birds with one stone situation!"

There was a new island not far from them, called Desolatt Island. Scrap metal made up the buildings and walkways. The Concordians there didn't seem shaken by much, until a large red bird swooped down and grabbed the Concordian Mario and Luigi were talking to.

As they tried to make their way around the island, other Concordians kept talking about a group of kids called IDLE. Luigi hoped they'd meet IDLE eventually. His dream came true, because as they reached the center of the town, IDLE confronted them. Their team was a bit of a mess, since they kept saying things out of order, and two of them tried to rush ahead. The green one, named Dulles, seemed to really want money, since he claimed Mario and Luigi must have a lot on them.

In order to gain IDLE's trust, they had to find Dulles, Ellow, and Loog who were hiding inside some buildings nearby. Irene, the leader, would wait by the lighthouse, since she said they needed IDLE to lead them there. Mario and Luigi were just glad they didn't need to fight some sense into anyone this time, like on Rumbla.

Dulles was inside a green building that apparently had lots of holes in the top floor. He was obviously scared to be by himself, but tried to claim he wasn't even though he believed to be alone. Mario and Luigi had to traverse between the ground and top floor in order to find the hole Dulles had fallen through. He seemed grateful that they came to save him, even though he pranked Snoutlet with false directions on how to leave, that just lead Snoutlet in a square. Snoutlet was very irritated that Dulles pranked him and was in a sour mood the rest of the time while searching for the other two.

Loog was in a blue building, which was fitting considering the fact he was blue. The boxes inside the building implied it was possibly a storage building. The lights were off when they entered, and a Concordian inside explained that the lights didn't work well, so they tended to turn off rather quickly. Mario and Luigi had to traverse the darkness, finding Loog at the end, where a small exit illuminated him despite the dark. He didn't seem to be a big fan of the dark, and lead the Mario Bros outside to talk. It revealed that was where Irene was waiting.

They had to find Ellow last. He was stuck, apparently, so Mario and Luigi had to take a long way around to save him. While Luigi worked on shoving Ellow out the door, Mario took a quick look around. Two banners hung from the ceiling, made of paper cutouts of the members of IDLE's heads. Mario figured that this building was IDLE's base of operations. Luigi shoved Ellow out, freeing him from the dirt that had trapped him there. They went back to join IDLE back at the road to the lighthouse.

"Huh," Irene said, "so you're pretty good. And I guess we made a deal. Want to see something cool?"

The members of IDLE faced the fence and cheered on the fence to open. It slid open and Mario and Luigi clapped.

Loog butt in before Irene could talk. "See? It needed all four of us to work! But now you can get to the lighthouse."

"Not if I get up there first!" Irene yelled, and took off.

"H-hey!" Loog ran after her.

Mario and Luigi made their way up the path as well, seeing Loog not too far from where he and Irene ran off from. Loog apparently stopped because he ran too fast and hurt his stomach, which Mario felt bad for but had no idea how to help. Irene stopped not long before the lighthouse, mumbling to herself about regretting her decision. IDLE only wanted to help Mario and Luigi get to the lighthouse because the strange birds were taking the Concordians they kidnapped over to that area.

"You okay?" Snoutlet asked.

She flinched, facing the three. "Took you long enough! But here's the lighthouse. And look, those birds! And...wait...Who's that on the lighthouse?"

"It's them! The ones workin' for that Zokket guy!" Snoutlet yelled.

The pink one nodded to the bird. "Great! Take them with the others." The bird flew off.

"Hey, you! Who are you, what are you doing?!" Snoutlet demanded answers, and Mario was also curious to know why they were kidnapping Concordians.

The pink one chuckled. "We're the Extension Corps! A perfect extension of Master Zokket's will! Ecks!"

The purple one struck a pose. "Ten."

The green one finally spoke. "Shun!"

"Your names are Ecks, Ten, and Shun?" Snoutlet asked. "That's real creative."

Ten pointed to Mario. "Yep, it's them. The mustached ones I told you about."

"We can't have them getting' in our way!" Ecks spoke rather loudly, usually speaking over the other two, whether he meant to or not.

"I'll-" Shun tried, being cut off again by Ten.

"I'll handle them." Ten spoke calmly, showing a leader-type attitude.

A red orb appeared, vanishing quickly to reveal Zokket. "Exstinker Corps."

Ten blinked. "It's Extension Corps. Sound it out, Lord Zokket."

"...Exsqueeser Corps."

Ecks sighed sadly. "Ex-ten-sion. Master Zokket, it's not that hard!"

"...Flunksqueezer Corps. There, I got it."

"Is this a bad time to remind you of our individual names?" Ten asked.

"That name means nothing to me," Zokket said. He sounded very serious and stern. "The mustached brothers...I see. You two are the ones who've been getting in my way. Hm...yes...There are the mustaches I remember."

Snoutlet kicked his feet. "You! Mario told me all about you! What are ya plannin' with Glohm, huh? And why do ya need Concordians for?!"

Zokket stared at the four of them. "Glohm? How do you know about that?"

"I saw you talking to that Snoutlet!" Mario said, stamping a foot.

"Hm. This doesn't make sense. But it doesn't matter. I need to continue with its creation. And I need the removal of you two straightaway. I don't need you meddling in my personal life or plans any longer."

Ten slapped a hand to his chest. "Don't worry, Lord Zokket! I promised I would deal with them!"

"Then do it, Toon." Zokket vanished in a red ball again.

Ecks laughed. "Yeah, get onto it...Toon!"

"You know my name." Ten crossed his arms.

"Do I?"

"Yes! You do! We've been friends forever! Whatever, I don't have time to deal with you."

"Beat them up, TOON, or Master Zokket will punish you for sure this time!" Ecks floated off, following the stream of Snaptors flying off with Concordians in their clutches.

Shun waited until a Snaptor flew down to him and picked him up. He waved farewell to Ten as the bird carried him off after Ecks. Ten stroked his hair back and pointed his gun-like hand at the bros.

"Prepare to die in the name of Lord Zokket!"

Mario and Luigi were used to plasma magic attacks by now, since they dealt with that back with Cackletta. Ten used mirrors to try and hit the Mario Bros with haywire plasma balls, and even tried dashing them with one. He got desperate and started calling Snaptors to him once Mario and Luigi started to put dents in his metal body. He scoffed, fixing his hair one last time.

"No fair! You two seem to read each other's mind or something." He staggered away from them. "But I'm sure I taught you a lesson. Yeah, I did."

Snoutlet looked at him with a blank expression. "Lesson? The only one taught was to you, which is to not mess with the Mario brothers!"

Ten grabbed onto a Snaptor's foot and it started carrying him away. "This isn't the last you'll hear of uuuuus!" He yelled as the bird flew off rather quickly with Ten in claw.

"What a weirdo. But now we have access to the lighthouse! Let's link up this island and report back to Connie!"

"Yah!" Mario cheered, following Snoutlet to the steps of the lighthouse.

Luigi looked to Irene. "You okay? You seem a bit sad."

She sighed. "I just wish IDLE could do more. But with Concordia all broken up, we can't do anything to help."

Luigi gave her a soothing smile. "Why not come back to-a Shipshape with us? I'm sure you and the rest of IDLE can-a find some way to help out. We can't do this alone. The more help, the better. Right?"

"...Yeah. You're right! I'll go find the rest of them and tell them to head to Shipshape once you have it all linked again!"

Snoutlet came over. "Luigi? You comin'?"

"Yeah!" Luigi hurried over to the lighthouse.

Author note: You might have noticed I bumped the rating up to T. I wanted to make the story darker (since somebody said Reclusa was scary but he hardly scratched the surface of possibilities for me) in order to properly manipulate Mario and Luigi. I should note that the LotF series is rated T as a whole, even if Priceless and Endings are rated K plus. The series is pretty dark in comparison, and I'll be changing the ratings of Priceless and Endings to fit the series rating accordingly. Apologies for the change, and I'll try not to do that in the future. But don't let this get you down, I still have plenty of K and K plus stories that you are free to read!

Stay Fresh!

Soolf lirpa yppah!