Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.

While JNPR and Co Are at Gloomy Manor

Carmen wandered around the outskirts of Mushroom City, humming along the way. "Beautiful night, isn't it?"

"Yes, I'd say so." Gilgamesh nodded. "...Don't know why you had to pull me away from that bridge."

"You were about to fight a Wiggler Bus."

"It was chargin' right at me!"

Carmen shook her head with an amused sigh. Just what am I ever going to do with you?

The two of them walked around when they were suddenly ambushed by Beowolves, an Ursa and even a Deathstalker.

"Oh no, some Grimm… whatever shall we do?" Carmen hummed as she immediately conjured up some paint while Gilgamesh got in a battle stance as they all lunged at each other…

…When suddenly, someone came running out of the bushes and attacked the Grimm, slashing through them effortlessly as Carmen and Gilgamesh stopped their advances.

"Hmm? Who's this young maiden?" Gilgamesh wondered as Carmen tried to get a good look at her, noticing a dorsal fin on her back.

"A Dolphin Faunus? Interesting…"

The Dolphin Faunus cut through the Ursa with her two scimitars, cutting off its head without much effort as the Beowolf grabbed her from behind, but the Faunus quickly heel kicked him in the gut as she then grabbed him and threw him into a few trees, knocking them down until he struck a boulder.

The Beowolf let out a groan… until the tree landed right on top of him to finish him off as another Beowolf was thrown into the Deathstalker as she then lunged and slashed through the Deathstalker's tail, causing the stinger to fall and impale the Beowolf to finish it off as the Dolphin Faunus then jumped up, combined her two scimitars in one and then swung it down, impaling the Deathstalker in the head to finish it off.

Clouds parted from the moon as it shined down on the Dolphin faunus, giving the two onlookers a better look at this individual.

BGM: Laughter and Merriment (Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix)

She had a lean and athletic build to her as she also had wavy shoulder length honey blonde hair with a noticeable tan while she also had green eyes. She flashed a toothy grin, where her teeth were also incredibly sharp.

She was also wearing a green wetsuit with a hole in the back for her fin. The wetsuit has a honey colored trim on it and a light blue belt with a seashell buckle that has holsters for her weapons. It also has a seashell icon printed on the chest. On her feet are a pair of honey colored water shoes and on her hands were a pair of honey colored gloves.

Hmm, an attractive dolphin faunus to boot! Gilgamesh thought.

"Hello~!" She waved. "You guys aren't hurt, are you?"

"No, we were just about to make them suffer, but it seems like you had it under control." Carmen said. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Nicole Baiji! I'm from Koa Kuana from Menagerie. My parents are fishermen by trade… well, technically, my dad's the fisherman. My mom runs the family business called Yangtze Fresh Seafood. Due to my impressive swimming abilities, I help from time to time."

"Oh, so is swimming your semblance?" Carmen asked.

"Nah, my semblance basically lets me feel comfortable no matter where I'm at. Heck, I can wear my swimsuit at the top of a frozen mountain and I'd still feel pretty good. Or regular baggy clothing on a hot day and I'll just be cool as a cucumber."

"Oooh, interesting…"

"Mhm! Though I don't know why I would even decide to vacation on a frozen mountain peak, but… hey, it's there." Nicole shrugged. "Though, I'd do it with a smile on my face anyway. Nothing really gets me down anyway, especially if there was something like that weird Eggman thing, that weird Red Sky incident or evacuating the planet from that blue Phazon junk. Oooh, it was so cool traveling through space~!"

"You do anything for fun?"

"Swimming mostly. I do water sports and treasure hunting based on any rumors I come across."

"You ever decided to go see what's out there?"

"Well, I wanted to go out and explore, but my parents held me back in case the leader of the Crimson Fang would spot me and find a way to brainwash me into his "clan". The moment the news broke out that he was no more, I set off and swam through the ocean to see what the outside world contained. Vacuo, Vale and Mistral were pretty cool. It's too bad about Atlas… I wanted to see that floating city for myself. But then I came across a different land I've never heard of. The Mushroom Kingdom."

"Yeah, the Mushroom Kingdom is pretty popular." Carmen nodded.

"I can tell! The people are so nice and carefree… and these weird pipes take you anywhere! In fact, there was this one time earlier…"

End BGM

A few hours earlier…

Nicole swam deep underwater with her while wearing a pair of green edged swimming goggles and a green pair of flippers with honey colored trim. She was also swimming with a few friendly Dragoneels.

Hmm? Nicole noticed a Warp Pipe on the sea floor as she swam down to investigate it. I wonder where this one leads…

She went inside of it, and then popped out on the other side.

BGM: Deep Sea of Mare (Super Mario Sunshine)

Whoa… Nicole looked around in awe, seeing a bunch of Nokis hanging around on jellyfish. She curiously swam around and waved, then spotted a coin fish swimming around that made Nicole raise an eyebrow in amusement before continuing to explore the underwater city.

She then swam up further until the water began to light up. She smiled as she continued to ascend, thankful that she can hold her breath longer compared to everyone else. Perks of being a Dolphin faunus.

She then made her way up and breached the surface.

End BGM

BGM: Noki Bay (Super Mario Sunshine)

"Bwah!" Nicole breathed as she looked around. "Cool! I wonder where I'm at…"

She then looked up in the sky, seeing it was broad daylight. "Hmm, it was evening earlier… guess I'm in a different time zone." She giggled as she climbed out. "Alright, let's see… where-"

She turned her head the moment she heard a thud as she turned around to see a commotion going on near a hut. "Hmm?"

Nearby, Umber was wrestling against Gooper Blooper.

"Nnngh… my… sandwich!" Umber grunted.

Gooper Blooper grunted back, both of them struggling to gain the upper hand as Umber let out a growl, using a summon to help him out.

"Fear me, if you dare!" Puss declared as he proceeded to try and cut the tentacle off, but Gooper grabbed a hold of him. "Hup! Have at thee!" He said, proceeding to parry the tentacle as Gooper Blooper yelped at the sharp sword poking him before using his other tentacle to try to smack him.

At that moment, Nicole swam up to them and pulled out her sword. "Hiyah!" She slashed through them, unintentionally cutting the sandwich in half.

"NOOOOOOO!" Umber cried.

Gooper Blooper blinked as he looked at half of the sandwich that was cut. He shrugged, popped it into his mouth and smiled happily as he swam away, letting go of Puss and Umber, the latter floating on his stomach in the water.

"Well, that takes care of that." Nicole put her swords away and then looked at Umber with a tilted head. "Hmm? You okay there, dude?"

"Ah, he's just being dramatic." Puss said before bowing. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, seniorita. I am Puss in Boots." He said, taking off his hat while doing so.

"A talking orange tabby cat with a fashion sense? Neat!" Nicole smiled. "Nicole Baiji-... okay, seriously, are you okay?" She asked, poking Umber on the back as he emerged, anime tears running down his cheeks.

"That was such a beautiful sandwich… the lettuce, tomato, provolone, the turkey, the light glaze of the miracle whip… it was so beautiful!"

Nicole sweatdropped. "...Oh."

"Told ya."

"Well, you still have half a sandwich, right? It should be here somewhere." Nicole said as she noticed it was floating down to the bottom of the sea. "Oh! I'll go get it for-"

At that moment, a Cheep Chomp swam over and ate it all in one gulp before swimming away.

"...Never mind."

Umber sighed. "I brought that with me from home too… the local delicacy here in Delfino is really expensive."

"Oh, I'm sure it's not that bad. The food is like, what, sixty Lien or something?"

Umber pulled out his phone. "One of the reasons why I came here was so I could see these prices for myself when my girlfriends told me about the prices last time they came here."

"Let's see… WHOA!" Nicole jawdropped. "Are these triple digits necessary?"

"I asked around on why the prices are ridiculous and apparently the answer was that since the Mario Bros, team RWBY and friends helped save the island from pollution, they were getting lots of tourists showing up and paying a lot of money, so they jacked up the prices to make it more… "exotic"."

Nicole sweatdropped. "Exotic…?" She wondered as she looked through the pictures. "Butter for two hundred coins is considered "exotic"?"

"That's what I said! What's so exotic about butter?" Umber shook his head. "Oh, sorry about that… Umber Lightwave."

"Nicole Baiji!" Nicole smiled. "So uh… girlfriends, eh? Someone got lucky~"

Umber chuckled. "It's a two for one special. I'll tell ya more later."

"Gotcha."

"Well… I guess I could just sneak into Hotel Delfino and sneak some food from the buffet when no one's looking."

"Hotel Delfino?"

"Yeah, I'll show ya. Come on."

Umber then thought of something. "Oh, but first…"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Pokeball, tossing it up into the air as Lucky came out.

"Karp Karp!"

"This is your new home, bud." Umber smiled. "It's the least I could do…"

"Karp!" The Magikarp swam around happily before spotting the waterfall and swimming toward it.

"How in the world could he fit in such a tiny little thing…?" Nicole wondered as they both witnessed Lucky swimming up the waterfall… and suddenly glowing as their eyes widening in surprise.

"From a Heartless to evolution. Huh, it's come a long way…" Puss mused as a Red Gyarados peeked out of the waterfall and let out a triumphant roar.

"...Oh. My gosh." Nicole whispered before grinning. "Oh, that's so cool!"

Umber chuckled. "Well, guess Noki Bay's got a new guardian."

End BGM

One trip to Sirena Beach later…

BGM: Sirena Beach (Super Mario Sunshine)

"So one reason was to see these prices for yourself… and another was to have some "you" time?" Nicole asked.

"Yeah. I felt like I just needed some space. Not from my girls… Oh no, I could have easily invited them over. But it's more like I just needed a personal vacation, ya know?"

"Ah yeah, that makes sense. You gotta do some self care."

"Yeah." Umber nodded. "I wonder…"

He pulled out his phone to text Xena and Yagami.

"Hey, you girls free tonight? We can hang out at Hotel Delfino. I snuck into a room with no one the wiser."

Umber waited for a response as Nicole awkwardly waited for a response as well.

"Huh, usually they respond by now." He mused, rubbing his chin. "Either they're really engrossed in a horror movie or they conked out asleep. …Though for some reason, I can't help but shake the feeling I dodged a bullet."

"How so?"

"I dunno. Eh… probably Guzma wanting to get me into one of his shenanigans." Umber shrugged. "So, nothing really ever gets you down, huh?"

"Nope. I'm just a bubbly gal with a side of mischief~"

"Sounds like a typical dolphin…" A female Pianta muttered as she overheard the conversation.

"Hey, I like getting into mischief too!" Umber grinned. "Anyway, we'll just-"

"AIYEEEEE!" A Pianta screamed.

End BGM

"What's wrong?!" Umber asked.

"That creature's back!" The Pianta exclaimed as they turned their heads to see Phantamanta emerging from the sea.

BGM: Phantamanta (Super Mario Sunshine)

The Phantom Returns - Phantamanta

"What the heck…?" Nicole wondered as Umber immediately summoned his Keyblade.

"Alright, let's make this interesting! See if you can make it wet… that's it's weakness!"

"You got it!" Nicole nodded as she spotted some pools of water and ran toward it, picking up a bucket as Umber slashed at Phantamanta, when he was suddenly thrown into the goop behind him.

"YAAAAAH!" Umber yelped as he landed in the goop. "Ugh, I forgot it does… that…?" He wondered, noticing that he wasn't getting electrocuted. "Huh, guess he forgot to charge it up."

Nicole came back with a bucket of water. "HIYAH!" She splashed it on top of Phantamanta, only she accidentally let go of it as the bucket smacked right into it.

"AAAYYYYYYYY!" (OOOOOWWWWW!)

*Record Scratch*

Suddenly, "Phantamanta" emerged back into Big Man.

"Ay…" (I'm okay…) Big Man groaned, rubbing his head as a goose egg appeared on his head.

"Wait… you're that celebrity from Splatsville, right? Uh… Large Man?"

"Ay." (Big Man.)

"Ah, okay." Umber nodded. "What brought you here?"

"Ay!" (I just wanted to come and say hi. Didn't mean to scare the locals.)

Umber sweatdropped. "Well, there was a manta ray who sunk Hotel Delfino to the ground about a year ago..."

"Ay!" (Oh! I had no idea! Let me clean this up!)

Big Man picked up several buckets of water and started splashing his own ink away, causing the Piantas to sigh in relief.

"Okay… uh… crisis averted?" Nicole shrugged as Umber let out an amused chuckle and walked around the hotel with Nicole. He then created a mirror staircase as he climbed up and opened up a window on the second floor.

"Good thing I put up a do not disturb sign outside the door." Umber chuckled as he snuck in with Nicole following him inside.

"Wow! Pretty chill place to live in."

"Yeah, it's pretty great. Sure, Delfino's overrated especially with those obnoxious prices for a damn smoothie… but if you decide to do a little theft here and there, not to mention stay hidden in a hotel room… it's not so bad."

Umber snickered. "Honestly, I'm surprised Marnie didn't even think of going this route aside from stealing some day old cotton candy."

"Well, this would be where my sense of justice would come in and stop you, but… given how your girlfriends are, especially this Yagami girl, I'd… rather not suffer a migraine or worse." Nicole sheepishly chuckled.

Umber chuckled. "If you run into 'em, tell 'em I said hi."

"Will do." Nicole wandered toward the window. "I'm gonna go take a look at the plaza real quick. See ya!" She jumped out the window.

"Nice girl. I think she'll get along well with the others." Umber said as he had an idea and started to text.

"Hey, I know you went on a date with Gloria in Delfino and you hated everything about it, but you ever thought about squatting in Hotel Delfino or stealing fruit and smoothies when no one's looking? It's a lot more fun that way!"

He even did a selfie and sent it to Marnie, letting out a chuckle as he walked over to a personal hot tub in his room. "Alright, time to soak."

Back with Nicole…

Nicole made her way into the plaza, pulling herself up out of the water and on the dock. "Ya know, there's a beach on the other side of town that you could've pulled yourself from." A Pianta pointed out.

"Nah, where's the fun in that?"

"Fair enough."

Nicole walked over toward the town square with a hum, when suddenly she heard screaming that caught her attention. "Hmm?"

"RUN AWAY!"

"RUUUUN! IT'S THE PLANT MONSTER FROM BIANCO HILLS!"

BGM: Boss Battle (Super Mario Sunshine)

Nicole immediately ran toward the chaos as she saw Petey Piranha fighting the locals near the supermarket.

"Back! Back you vile beast! Back I say!" A Toad exclaimed, trying to poke him with a spear but Petey batted him away and swung his head to send him flying. "Auuuugh!"

"Hey!" Nicole yelled as she went straight after Petey as she brought out her scimitars. "You leave everyone alone, you overgrown plant!"

She jumped up into the air as Petey readied himself.

"HAAAAAH!"

End BGM

"Soooo, apparently all he wanted was one of those expensive smoothies but no one wanted to serve him since they thought he was attacking them. So, I did what Umber did, grabbed a smoothie while everyone was distracted and gave him a drink. Dude was so happy, he patted me on the head and flew away after he had his drink."

Carmen let out a chuckle. "Sounds like you had a fun time there."

"I did! Decided to check out the Harbor area before I turned around and swam away from the island. Found a green pipe in the middle of the ocean, popped up underneath that bridge over there, and well… the rest is history."

"There's a Warp Pipe underneath Mushroom Bridge? Huh, who woulda thought!" Gilgamesh mused.

"Hmmm…" Carmen rubbed her chin, getting an idea. "You know, how about I take you under my wing? I could show you a thing or two."

"Really?" Nicole asked in surprise.

"You sure about this?" Gilgamesh whispered. "I never took you as the kind of lady to have an apprentice…"

"Oh, there's no harm." Carmen chuckled. "What do you say? You want to learn a thing or two?"

Nicole brightly smiled.

"Oh heck yeah! When do we start~?"

This Gaiden idea was made by Cody, his brand new Dolphin Faunus OC! The scenes with Umber was Yoshi's idea!

Ibuki: This dolphin faunus is fun~

Deadpool: Yup!

Also, that Mario Kart Direct was... something. The Boost Jump is definitely gonna be broken... and I'd rather do the rewind feature in free roam and not during a race.