“Our tale continues...”
I: Map Pinpoints
Link, having just emerged from the other side of the warp pipe, arrived at his destination, Desert Land. After scouting the surrounding area a bit, seeing only sand, question blocks, cactus, etc. Two things were clear from this, for one, it was clear he was in Desert Land, and second...he was clueless on where he should go from here.
“No notable landmarks are really around here I’m starting to remember…at least from what I’d know...” Link thought to himself.
“How am I going to find the place...maybe the map?”
Link, after consulting the old map he was given, saw some details on it. He saw that on the map was a large structure, this most definitely being the pyramid, and that it was surrounded by what looked to be a forest of palm trees and a lake of water...an oasis.
“That scientist person was right...this thing really isn’t that useful…”
He then folded the map and put it back in his pocket.
“At least I know that it’s in an oasis…not many other details though...”
“But where...only have been in this world for about...a bit over a year by now, don’t really know it as well as the hyrule field or anywhere like that…”
After contemplating what to do for a bit longer, it quickly ticked.
“...maybe I should just get directions from the locals if they know the specific pyramid i’m looking for?” Link eventually concluded.
As such, after looking around a bit more, he saw from afar what looked to be a desert town, and as such headed towards it.
He saw several different buildings around too, mostly made of sandstone and the like, with what looked to be stone and wooden doors plastered on them, after further inspection of the buildings, one having a sign stuck out on the side, a fire flower imprinted in color. one having a sign of a blue bed on it, most likely an inn or something of the sort. But by looking around long enough, realized he wasn’t really finding anything around to help.
“There’s really no guides in town huh? No directory...No regional map...not even a fortune teller as far as I can tell…”
After further thought and seeing the civilians around, it quickly clicked what the next logical step was.
“Guess I should talk to the townspeople given there doesn’t seem to be a specific place set up from what I can see…has helped out many times in the past.”
After asking several different people in town about the pyramid and oasis he was looking for, he got very vague answers from pretty much all of them, none really helpful.
“...so no one seems to know what it is that I’m looking for huh...how am I going to do this…”
“Hmm, maybe I should just take a rest at the inn and think about this later...sleeping on the tree wasn’t really what I’d call ‘quality sleep’, and besides…-”
“Psst, hey you…” a voice called out to Link.
“Someone calling me?”
“Yes, you in the tunic, back here,” The voice called again, Link turned to the source to see who it was.
It was a Koopa Troopa wrapped in a cloak, covering their face and body all the way down to their shoes.
Link found the fact that this Koopa was present somewhat odd, but given he was desperate, decided to give them a chance and walked over to them.
“So...who are you?” Link asked.
“Not important, but what is important is that I overheard you talking about wanting to look for a pyramid within an oasis, correct?”
“Um, yeah...why?”
“You’re in luck,” The koopa responded, then pulling out what seemed to be a map. A map of Desert Land to be exact, with a trail of red lines on it leading somewhere.
“What’s the illustration meant to entail?” Link asked.
“Should be obvious, it’ll give you at least some form of guidance on what may be the place you’re trying to find…”
“What’s your price?” Link asked.
“Anything worth something currency wise…” the Koopa responded.
“Okay...would this do?” Link asked, then pulling out of his pocket a familiar, green, six-sided crystal-like gem, a Rupee, presenting it to the koopa.
The koopa was left speechless among seeing Link pull this out, being very unfamiliar with Link’s form of currency, but eventually was able to utter a response.
“Y-You keep the map! I’ll take it!” The koopa responded, quickly snatching the gemstone and practically throwing the map into Link's hand.
“Thanks for the map,” Link expressed.
“Don’t mention it, thanks for this exquisite gemstone…”
“See ya I suppose…” Link responded.
“Goodbye,” the koopa replied, waving as Link made his way in the direction the map guided and out of the town.
In following this map, Link went through a number of different things throughout the desert, past a number of question blocks, platforms, warp pipes, platforms, and the like, not without having to fight a number of koopa-troop aligned goombas and koopas along the way as well as dealing with some of the creatures that dwelled within Desert Land such as Pokeys, Chain Chomps and the elusive Fire Snakes.
Soon enough, after following the red marks on the map to the end of where they guided, after taking a look around, Link realized the map didn’t bring him to the Oasis.
“Even with that map...no sign of the pyramid huh…” Link thought to himself, somewhat bummed, and continued to wander up ahead.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have given him that Rupee, especially given that map-”
At that moment however, Link, by looking ahead, saw something peculiar…. Green grass...and a forest of palm trees.
“...or maybe not...could that be it?” Link then thought, seeing this.
The green-tunic’d pioneer, seeing this decided to make his way up to where he was arm length distance from the palm tree woods.
“...is this where that pyramid is?” Link questioned, giving his map from E. gadd a peak. “The map details seem to match…. Hmm...I consider myself an adventurer, it’s pretty clear what to do, what did I come out here for anyway?” Link then told himself. “Here goes…” he then said, making his way into the palm trees woods.
For the most part, exploring the oasis went smoothly, and soon enough, he made it to a clearing where he saw the very thing he came out here to find. A large pyramid, notably rather run down. as stated by the previously meet E. Gadd had informed, it indeed looked ancient.
“Wow, so it’s really here…. May as well investigate.”
Link scouted the structuring and design of the pyramid, seeing if, on its multiple layers, each with a walkway, he could find an entrance of some kind.
Soon enough, around the center, he found it sealed shut, with some mystical-looking markings on them.
“Hmm, there should be a secret switch or button somewhere to open this,” Link thought, being used to puzzles like this.
He started by looking on each layer of the pyramid steps to see if there was any pressure plate that could be stepped on or panel that you could push your hand against, finding nothing.
He then decided to go back down to the location of the entrance, remembering a detail there, this being that there was several pairs of large pillars on either side to the entrance.
He made it back to the entrance, and began to investigate the pillars, wondering if there’d be some kind of detail not meeting the eye on them.
And quickly enough, on the pillar in the second row to the entrance, to the left, he noticed it, a spot hidden on it that looked separate from the rest of the pillar.
“Hmm, this looks like it could be something…” Link thought upon seeing this detail.
Thinking it was what he thought it was, he pressed his hand on it. The separated area indeed let back from the force of his hand.
Upon doing so, an eye-catching spectacle took place. The lining of the panel glowed a distinctive light shade of blue. And upon looking at the entrance of the door, several previously unlit cracks in the wall slowly filled with this same blue lighting, eventually reaching the previously locked door, which then slid open. There was nothing blocking the way in now.
“That did it…” he thought. “Well...time to head in,” he then thought, heading through the now opened entrance to the ancient structure, intent on seeing what could be discovered within it.
Meanwhile, at Toad’s Whereabouts...
The mushroom midget had made it through the pipe, and had stepped foot into the land of the dinosaurs, Dinosaur Land to be exact, specifically in Donut Plains.
“So...I think Dino Mountain is north of here?” Toad thought aloud. “Well atleast based on memory and what the map shows it does,” he continued, looking at the way the map was laid out.
“No point in stalling. let’s get over there,” Toad thought, then starting to make his way north.
Traveling in this manner for a while, nothing too notable happening along the way, other than the fact that he came across a berry bush, and, having a feeling he should do so, plucked a fair number of the berries. And soon enough, the momentous slope rested before him. Dino Mountain.
Upon seeing this, a sudden wave of nervousness and fright overtook Toad, only now realizing what it is that he signed up for.
“What...what was I thinking?” Toad thought. “Why did I agree to this…” his thoughts continued.
“...Why did I agree to climb a mountain…a dangerous, trechnous mountain? In a land of big...gargantuan...reptiles. Alone?”
Nerve continued to run through Toad’s mind in this manner for a good while, but eventually, another thought came about.
“No...No Toad...you came this far, don’t turn back now.”
Toad then took a deep breath, not that it made him feel any better at all, and then looked around for a way up the mountain. He quickly found a wall of rocks that could be used as footholds, and began his climb up.
As he made his way up the mountain with a fair amount of difficulty, he eventually made it to a decently large footholding, and decided to look up again, seeing how much further up ahead he had to go.
He saw that he still had quite a ways to go before he made it to the top; the spot the map he had acquired led him.
“Oh man...I’ve only just started climbing this mountain...and i’m already exhausted…. There’s gotta be a faster way up...”
Toad then, on the large platform he had wound up on began to look around, see if there was anything to do so.
“Maybe there’s a warp pipe to the top...or a flight based power up like a P-Wing...or propeller mushroom...or something of that sort…”
As he continued to search however, he found none of the distinctively question marked blocks; only brick blocks or blocks already opened.
“Nothing around here...What will I…” Toad began to think, then something caught his eye in front of him.
II: DINO Mountain
There were several creatures up ahead, three to be exact. They were small, blue in color, and white on their bellies. They had red shoes or something of the sort that covered their feet and red, rounded spikes that ran along their back, and like Rexes, Yoshis, or other dinos of that caliber, had a pair of eyes positioned at the top of their heads.
“Those...those small dinosaurs over there...they...kinda look like...those ghostly dinos the marios and the princess saw a lot in the haunted houses here in dinosaur land....except that...they're alive…” Toad continued to think. “Aren’t...aren’t they called...Kuribins?” Toad’s thoughts ran. “...wait, no, Kuribons…” Toad recalled.
As these thoughts ran, Toad quickly decided to hide behind some nearby rocks.
“...how would these guys react if they saw me...a mushroom person here? I...I’d rather not know…”
“What are you saying Toad, if they bother you, you can deal with them,” Toad told himself, then deciding to stop hiding, began to go by the small dinos.
Rather quickly however, the Kuribons took notice of Toad’s haste and looked over in his direction, in which Toad froze, making eye contact with them.
The reptiles, also staying in place, eyed Toad for a while, seemingly awaiting what he’d do.
“Huh...they seem harmless…” Toad thought.
He stood, eying the dinos back for a while longer, and this continued for a bit of time.
“They don’t seem to be doing anything,” Toad then thought, beginning to walk. “Don’t mind me, just passing through,” Toad stated aloud, hoping it’d keep the Kuribons away, which it seemed to, as they only continued to watch him, keeping a distance.
Toad then continued to look for ways up the mountain, eventually catching the eye of what seemed to be a somewhat steep slope leading further up the mountain.
“That looks to be a good path up…. Only issue is...could I really climb a slope that steep on my own?” Toad thought. “Hmm, dunno, maybe there’s-”
It was then that, to Toad’s surprise and shock that a loud sound echoed throughout the peaks of the mountaintop; this sound was none other than a roar.
Frightened by the booming cry, the nearby Kuribons flead, quickly leaving behind the mountain platform and scurrying off elsewhere.
“Wh...what’s that?” Toad thought aloud, fearful of the source of the roar himself.
As Toad continued to listen, there then began loud, pounding thuds. Based on the “rhythm” of them, they seemed to be footsteps, footsteps of some kind of large creature, and they seemed to be getting closer and closer to where Toad stood.
“Where...could it be?” Toad thought to himself. “Whatever it is-Toad said as he began to head away from it-I better find a place to-”
Before he could finish his sentence however, it was then that he heard a thud again; far louder than any of the ones beforehand. and not only that, but it sounded that it was RIGHT BEHIND HIM.
Realizing there most likely wasn't a point in fleeing now, Toad decided now was the time to decipher what exactly was behind him.
And there he saw it, it was indeed a large creature like he thought it was. It had a blue-green body, four limbs, each of which ended with three white toes, several pink spikes that ran along it’s back, a short tail, and a head shaped somewhat like that of a ceratopsian, but lacking horns of any kind. And on their head above the snout, a pair of oval shaped, white eyes.
And not soon after, two more smaller dinos with very similar features and physiology jumped up to the creature’s level as well.
“O-Oh no...a Dino Rhino...and...Dino-Torches...didn’t Mario once say he narrowly avoided being eaten by one of them in a circus trap set up by Bowser?”
As these thoughts ran in Toad’s mind, the three dinos all looked his way and stared.
Toad gulped, still nervous, but tried to calm himself down.
“M-Maybe they’re friendly like the Kuribons were?”
Toad then began to slowly make his way around them, in which they continued tracing his movements, not taking their eyes off of him.
“H-Hello Dino...group...family...congregation...g-gang...don’t mind me…” Toad tried to play off. “J-just a regular old mushroom person minding their own business...following a dusty old map…. Right in my hand...right here,” Toad then said, taking out and showing the map to them.
“So with that said, y-you guys do you...I’ll do me...y-you got th-”
Before Toad could finish trying to convince the Rhino-like dinos to not bother him, all three of them’s mouths gapped open wide. They had all fired a stream of blazing hot fire Toad’s direction.
Quickly taking notice of this, Toad frantically made a dive to the side, dodging the flames, then briefly checked the map wasn’t burned. Seeing it wasn’t, he quickly tucked it away.
“T-They aren’t friendly…” Toad realized.
The two dino-torches that rode the dino rhino then unmounted their larger brethren, and the three did what looked to be communicating.
Toad observed this, both puzzled and worried at what this was about.
Once the trio of dinos stopped speaking to one another, the two dino torches just stood in place, looking Toad’s way, while the Dino-Rhino began to scrap the heel of their foot along the ground.
“Oh dear stars…” Toad thought, realizing what was about to happen.
As Toad thought would happen, the Dino-Rhino then began charging right at Toad. Behind the Dino-Rhino, the two Dino Torches seemed to be lying in wait for some reason or another, but despite catching eye of this, Toad waited for the Dino-Rhino to be not too far from him, and then, with anxiousness, dodged by jumping over it.
The dino took notice of their target’s leap and quickly broke their movements.
As Toad fell back down, the two dino torches looked up to his direction, mouths open, and blasted him with fire balls.
Toad was able to narrowly maneuver around them, and upon landing decided to try to focus on dealing with the dino torches first.
As he ran the Dino-torches’ directions, the Dino Rhino that had previously made a ramming attempt had turned around, and shot a large fireball Toad’s way.
Toad noticed the fireball, and dodged it, the fireball nearly hitting a dino torch instead, but also missing.
Given this, Toad continued to rush in the Dino-Torches’ direction and quickly gave one of them a hard kick, knocking them down. Despite the hard hit, they were able to get back up again.
As the Dino-Torch recovered, the other fire breathing dino shot another flaming ball in Toad’s direction, which Toad once again narrowly evaded.
The stray fire ball hit the recently struck dino-torch, knocking them down once again, this time, knocking the Dino-Torch out cold.
With one dino down, Toad had slightly more confidence about being able to deal with the two remaining dinos, and decided first to try to focus on the other dino-torch.
While he stood on guard trying to think however, the Dino-Rhino was on it’s way once again and was rushing Toad’s way.
Toad, thinking this would help him, not remembering earlier, jumped on top of some nearby brick blocks, thinking it’d help him.
“Shouldn’t be able to reach me up here…” Toad thought.
Toad was wrong, as shown when the Dino-Rhino, with just a slight running start, lept up and smashed the blocks toad stood on from below, breaking his foothold, in which he then plummeted back down, landing on his back, face to the ground.
Toad quickly looked up and saw the rhino-like beast looking right at him, growling aggressively.
Seeing this, Toad fearfully scurried backwards as the creature then tried to bite him several times, which he did so to avoid such.
After eventually getting back on his feet, seeing that the dino had actually backed him into a corner, saw the high up mountains behind him, he had to think of a way out of this.
Which after quick thinking, jumped atop the Dino Rhino.
The Dino-Rhino quickly noticed and threw Toad off immediately, in which the latter then landed on the ground, next to the Dino-Torch from before.
The small fire breathing reptile took the opportunity to get in an attempt at barbequing Toad, but with quick reflexes, Toad once more evaded the fire stream.
Toad saw a nearby warp pipe, and got the idea that this was his ticket out.
But then he realized that the pipe actually lead DOWN the mountain, not up, like he was headed, so that wasn’t the option here.
Toad then further began to think outside the box, then getting an idea.
The two dinos were once again on their way, and this time around, the Dino-Torch tried to rush at Toad and tackle him.
Toad stood still in wait for the Dino-Torch to be in reach to enact his idea.
Once the critter’s feet had left the ground, having made their jump for their attack, Toad quickly wrangled the reptile by it’s right ankle and began to spin them around in a circular manner, to the dino’s shock.
Toad spun around like this for a while. The four-legged dinosaur attempted to wriggle free in him doing this, to no avail.
After building up enough momentum, Toad hurled the small dinosaur, tossing them head first into the warp pipe at a rapid speed, inducing a hard concussion; knocking the dino out in one fell swoop.
“That only leaves me with one more to deal with...the big one…” Toad thought to himself, still somewhat nervous.
Toad looked back behind him and saw there was the large ceratopsian, ready to charge once more.
As this occurred Toad began losing focus, but then saw behind the dino rhino a couple things. These things being a question block, and next to the question block, the steep slope that he had seen earlier.
“I should try to open that question block…” Toad thought, given that all of the other blocks around either were already opened or too far for him to reach.
The large quadruped had finished preparing for a charge and was now charging at Toad head on.
Toad then, taking a quick breath ran towards the Dino Rhino and lept over it. The Dino Rhino was quick to notice and began to stop, starting to turn around once more.
Toad had landed and was making a straight sprint for whatever it was that was in the question block.
As he did so, the Dino-Rhino fired off another large fireball, which, nearly hitting Toad, still knocked him down.
Seeing that it’s target was crippled once again, it began to, without charging, rushed Toad’s way.
Toad, with a bit of difficulty shook it off, and seeing the dino rapidly approaching, hastily closed what distance stood between him and the golden block and unboxed it.
In the box...something started growing out of it, which even stopped the Dino-Rhino, being somewhat curious about what it was. This something that grew out was a vine.
“Looks like my ticket out of here…” Toad thought as the vine grew.
Toad then noticed something...the vine stopped growing. It had hit a small foothold on the mountain, and as such it only grew a measly five feet; nowhere near enough distance to make a significant amount of ground between him and the reptilian below.
“No...no it isn’t…” Toad then realized.
Toad then began to panic, as the Dino Rhino wasn’t too far away now and had just now begun to come back to its senses after seeing the vine momentarily.
Trying to think of what to do, it suddenly hit him, a crazy, out of the box idea.
He first started by plucking the vine from the block.
After doing so, the Dino Rhino was preparing another fireball for him, and then fired it.
Toad dodged it by simply making another jump, being very careful for the vine he grabbed to not get burned.
As the Dino Rhino prepared to charge again, Toad saw this as his opportunity, he saw a nearby short hill, high enough to create a wall, but low enough to jump on.
Toad hustled over to the hill, and waited for the reptilian beast to charge.
Soon enough, the rhino-resemblant dino rushed his way. Waiting nervously for the right moment to move, just before the dino rhino hit him, he jumped up to the elevated hill.
As a result, the Dino Rhino crashed face first into the side of the hill, being largely dazed by the impact.
“Now’s my chance…” Toad thought, then leaping onto the dizzy reptile, mounting it and drawing the vine along it’s mouth, for leverage.
The large-bodied ceratopsian came back to its senses, and noticed Toad on it’s back, assuming the worst, the creature then began to roar loudly, making violent attempts to throw Toad off.
Toad held on for a while until the Dino-Rhino stopped resisting, showing that he wasn’t going to harm it now.
And as such, the Dino-Rhino eventually stopped, in which Toad, through some sign language and reasoning, made a deal with the Dino-Rhino.
“N-No...I-I’m not trying to floss you...” Toad first said aloud.
He then explained through his signs that he needs a way to get up the mountain, but doesn’t feel confident in being able to climb a steep slope like the one that’s right there over, wondering if he could give him a ride up.
He offers in return that it and the dino torches that he just knocked out, can have every berry he has in his bag, all of them being berries that cannot be found on the mountain.
The Dino-Rhino seemed to consider the deal for a moment, and eventually decided it'd accept.
And as such, starting at the steep slope, the Dino-Rhino began to give Toad a climb up, the latter of which kept the vines in the former’s mouth, as a way of keeping a grip and not falling off.
Meanwhile, At Mushroom Plains…
III: Shortcuts and Cutoffs
As the Mario Bros. had planned, being unable to catch the airship at the hills, headed back to Toad Town. It is here in which they then begin to discuss what it is that their plan should be on saving the princess this time around.
“Okay brother...we’re-a here, what’s the-a plan?” Luigi asked.
“I’m-a thinking, I’m-a thinking…” Mario responded, and as such tried to think in his mind about what their next move should be about how to go about things. Eventually, after further thought, he updated his brother on things. “I...don’t-a know to be honest,” Mario eventually responded. “I’m not-a really good at coming up with complex strategies, I usually just dive in first and ask-a questions later…”
“Yeah...you-a do do that alot…”
“Well...I-a do, and it-a works...usually…”
Luigi was quiet for a bit, but continued. “So you don’t-a know what we should-a do?” Luigi then questioned.
“Yeah...I’m drawing an-a blank…”
“Well...I don't have any good ideas my-a self…” Luigi replied and added. “And not gonna lie...I could go for an-a pizza pie right now…”
“It is around-a lunch time…” Mario answered. “And you know, I am a bit hungry my-aself….” After some further thought, Mario continued. “Know what, let’s-a go get a bite to-a eat, and while we’re there, think of what our next-a move is…” Mario eventually concluded.
“Okay...that sounds-a good…” Luigi responded, as the two looked for a local pizza place, eventually spotting one in the form of Pizza Of Mushrooms, a pizza place chain around the kingdom. Seeing it, they pushed aside the double doors and headed in.
Within the interior of the building, they found much of what was to be expected within what’d normally be expected in a pizza place; something like what they’d see in their hometown back in Brooklyn.
At the register they saw a Yoshi in a red-white uniform taking orders. There however currently was no line, so the Mario bros had nothing to wait on and went straight to the counter, the Yoshi being shocked to see them here.
“Hey buddy,” Mario said to the cashier, being familiar with this one specifically with how often he came to this spot. “The-a usual please.”
“Oh, um...sure! Coming right up,” The front-desk managing dino responded, then heading over to a back room, telling the order to the workers there.
“Guys, the Mario Bros are here, you know what that means, give them the Marios’ special.”
As the Mario Bros looked for a place to sit, quickly finding one and making their way over to it, they made a few comments to one another.
“It’s-a crazy that we’ve become so-a recognized here over the years that they named an-a special after us…” Luigi started off.
“Isn’t it?” Mario responded. “But hey, only-a right they give us something to show thanks, not like we’re being-a paid to do this…”
“Mario…”
“Wha? I was just-a saying…”
“Don’t-a worry about it…”
“...Okie dokie…”
After some brief silence, Mario picked things up again.
“While we’re-a waiting, we should get back to the-a subject and figure out what we’re-a going to do.”
“Yeah, any-a ideas yet?”
“Not really…”
“I just thought of something...should we-a inform the Mosaic Group on what’s-a going on?” Luigi suggested.
“...that’s an-a really good idea, maybe they’ll-a even have an idea regarding what to-a do,” Mario responded in agreement.
As such, Mario got out his phone and dialed Mosaic, then awaiting an answer.
Meanwhile, at Sarasaland...
“So Mosaic, think you can quickly go over what the plan here is?” Hoops asked Mosaic.
“Sure Hoops,” Mosaic responded. “So on the first day of our trip, so yeah...today. We’re going to take the Ferry, which should take us to the capital of Sarasaland, City Sarasa. We’ll meet with Princess Daisy assuming there’s no complications, do some other things there for the day like checking out the Circuit there, maybe even see a kart race or such, and on the second day, take the Ferry back. When we get back, we’ll go on the tour around Birabuto that they seem to be having on a daily basis.”
“Sounds good, after?”
“After staying at a local hotel or inn on the second day, we’ll probably take the railway system that seems to exist around Sarasaland, correct Rosy?”
“Yeah, there should be one.”
“And then throughout the week, pay visits to the other kingdoms and attractions that are around here.”
“Well okay, so where is the Ferry we’re taking?” Hoops asked.
“I’m pretty sure I saw a directory or such earlier, and based on that, it should be north of us I think.”
“Well okay, let’s ge-”
It was at this moment that, picking up Mario’s call, Mosaic’s phone began going off.
“Another call already?” Mosaic said, pulling his phone back out and checking who it was. “It’s Mario again…”
This intrigued the four, but regardless, Mosaic gave the call an answer.
“Hello?” Mosaic said.
“Hey-a there Mosaic so umm, I have some...news to-a deliver to you.”
“News? What kind?”
“Well...let me-a lay it onto you.”
“Okay…”
“Well first off, the group has split-a up, i’m with Luigi, and Toad and-a Link are alone as of now.”
“Wait, why did you guys split up? Weren’t you looking for the pieces?”
“They...did what?” Hoops added to the conversation.
“That’s...just-a it...the...the princess was kidnapped...again.”
“Oh…” Mosaic responded. “I was wondering when that’d happen again with how much you guys told me it does…annoying...”
“So me and Luigi are-a trying to rescue her again while Toad and-a Link are looking into these-a two locations E. Gadd told them to check-a out, and...we’re in an-a snag…”
“Wild guess from me...did you try to catch a moving aircraft on foot?”
Mario was silent, shocked that Mosaic guessed that, but responded. “...Y-yes actually...what made you think that?”
“Saw it happen in a rushed 3d platformer video game one time…”
“Oh...I-a see…” Mario responded. “But anyway, we’ve now-a stopped at Toad Town to regroup and-a figure out if there’s is an-a way to quickly make it to Dark Land.”
Luigi then chimed in. “Yeah...me and-a brother have tried to figure something-a out, but we got-a nothing, so this is why we’re-a asking you guys about-a this.”
“Faster ways to travel? Hmm…umm...” Mosaic responded, then trying to think of something. “Do you know any shortcuts to Dark Land?” Mosaic eventually asked.
“Not off-a hand no…” Mario responded.
“Like, no warp pipe, no cannon, no planes, nothing?”
“Nope…” Luigi replied.
“Hey Mosaic, what are you guys talking about?” Hoops asked.
“Oh umm, alot…” Mosaic answered.
“Maybe you guys could put the phone on speaker?” Rosy suggested.
“Hmm, good idea,” Mosaic responded, clicking the speaker button.
“You-a there Mosaic?” Mario asked.
“Yeah, I was just talking to the group…”
“So to ask again, you guys have no ideas of how to quickly make it to Dark Land without taking the long route?”
“None…” Luigi responded.
“Hmm...do you guys have access to a Warp Whistle?” Hoops added in.
Being shocked by this suggestion by Hoops on both ends, there was a moment of silence from everyone, having not thought of this as of yet.
“A...Warp whistle?” Mario asked.
“Yeah...those things you can blow into and have them warp you wherever you want. they have this orange-brown color?” Hoops replied, trying to see if Mario knew what he referred to.
Mario was just silent in regards to this.
“Mario? Something wrong?” Mosaic asked.
“No, there-a isn’t...it’s just…” Mario began. “I’ve heard of them...but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one…”
“Didn’t we-a actually find some kind of orange-brown whistle in that-a circumstance of navigating the-a Mushroom Kingdom lands to help the kings?” Luigi said.
“I think I-a might actually remember something like-a that…” Mario responded.
“Well, do we still-a have something like that?”
“Wait, you mean you guys have actually seen one of these things before?” Hoops asked.
“I...think I-a vaguely remember finding something like-a that from a toad one time…like, it was long before I met any of you-a four,” Mario then said. “But to answer Luigi’s-a question, I don’t think I-a have it anymore because I-a-”
“‘Threw-a it away because he thought it-a was a scam’, i’m calling it, that’s what he’s gonna say...” Hoops predicacted.
“Threw-a it away because I thought it-a was a scam.”
“Agh! I called it!” Hoops said, disappointed to hear it. “Welp, I don’t where you guys are going to find another whistle, so I guess that crosses off that option to-”
“Wait a minute...I just thought of something Mario and Luigi could do,” Rosy suddenly brought about. “Could I get some words in?”
Sighing, Hoops responded. “...I guess you can get some words in…”
“Sure you can Rosy,” Mosaic replied, holding the phone closer to Rosy.
“So given what I thought of, here’s my idea,” Rosy began. “What if you guys were to travel through Subcon to get to Dark Land?”
“What if we were to-a...wait, huh?” Mario began, then realizing what Rosy said. “Wait, why-a Sub-acon?”
IV: Dream Warps
“Remember that one that time all of us, all of you guys, and all of us were in Subcon in a fight with the 8-bits, and while we were there, found a Subcon door that connected to Water Land despite us only traveling about ten miles or so when we were there?”
“Wait a minute…” Mosaic realized. “Yeah, Rosy is right, I remember we were surprised to find it, as Water Land was literally hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from when we entered the subcon door I believe.”
“Wait, how could-a that have happened?” Luigi wondered regarding this.
“Don’t quote me on this, but I believe at school over in Subcon, there was something we were told about how like...i’m not sure what it was, but I think it was about how, I believe...given the dimensional properties of Subcon are very different from that of the dimension of like...the Mushroom Kingdom or the like, travel in Subcon covers far more distance than travel in the place we are now, the Mushroom Kingdom of course.”
“Wow...that’s-a something…” Mario responded.
“So basically in simpler terms, I think what it means is that one foot of travel in Subcon is three meters where we’re all standing...probably more than that…”
“So...if we were to-a travel through Sub-acon and get to Dark-a Land that way, given the connections that the-a two dimensions seem to-a have, does that-a mean…” Luigi asked.
“Yeah...I think it means you’d guys would make it to Dark Land a lot quicker,”
“Well I guess it’s-a simple as-a that, we’ll just find a door in Subcon that goes to-a Dark Land, easy as-a pizza pie!” Mario declared.
“Speaking of pizza pie...I think our-a order is ready Mario...be right-a back…” Luigi said, getting up from his seat.
“Only one issue with your “perfect” plan that you gave to them Rosy,” Hoops said.
“Oh? What is-Oh, I think I know what it is…” Rosy questioned, then quickly realized what the issue was.
“Yeah...do we even know a door in Subcon that heads to Dark Land? Or if there even is one?” Hoops pointed out.
Hearing this, Mosaic just asked himself. “Well do you guys know any door to get there?”
Mario then thought for a bit and responded. “We...We-a don’t actually…” he eventually admitted, realizing how impulsive of him it was to jump the gun so fast.
“Welp...back to the drawing board I guess…” Mosaic said.
Luigi by now had returned to the table, the pizza ready to eat, and asked how things were going on a plan.
“Not-a good...we still don’t-a know what to do…”
“Oh-a no...hopefully we-a figure out something soon…” Luigi responded.
“Maybe we should go back to my Warp Whistle idea?” Hoops suggested.
Mosaic had thoughts running through his mind as he stayed on the line with Mario and tried to think of something.
“Warp Whistles...Subcon...Travel...Water Land...” thoughts ran. Mosaic thought and thought, and it was when these four words entered his mind and he thought for longer, that it finally hit him. “Wait, I have an idea!” Mosaic shouted.
Mario, who was in the middle of taking a sip of soda, cartoonishly spit it out when Mosaic shouted this on his phone.
“What-a is it? What-a is it?”
“So for starters, do we know where that base was that we fought the 8-bits at that one time?”
“I-a might...it wasn’t that long ago to be-a honest…” Mario answered.
“Okay, so here’s my idea,” Mosaic began. “What if we were to head back to where that base is, and see if we can find that door to Water Land?”
“Huh? Why-a Water Land?” Mario asked.
“My idea is that you guys go there, and see if you can get a warp whistle from someone that’s living there, there’s a lot of Toad houses there after all, and you’d know that they always have crazy stuff they hide there…”
“You-a got that-a right…” Mario said in response to the Toad house bit.
“And assuming they do, use THAT to warp to Bowser’s Castle?” Mosaic explained.
“What if they don't have-a one though?” Luigi brought up, scared of the worst happening.
“Well...we’re desperate here, we’ve exhausted our other ideas, so that’s the best I can suggest to be honest,” Mosaic replied.
“Hmm...I think we should-a give it-ta shot,” Mario responded.
“So I guess it’s settled, head to Subcon, find the shortcut to Water Land, get the whistle, alright?” Mosaic asked to affirm.
“I think-a so,” Mario responded.
“...I...I-a guess…” Luigi added.
“Hey Luigi, don’t worry, you can do it, you and Mario always do,” Rosy dropped in.
“...Okie Dokie…” Luigi replied.
“Anyway, we’ve got a ferry to catch, good luck with the plan, hope all goes well!” Mosaic then said, intent on ending the call.
“Okay Mosaic, hopefully you and your-a group enjoy your vacation, see you next time!”
“Bye bye!” Luigi said.
“Adios,” Hoops said, trying to be clever.
“May the stars be with you!” Rosy gave as her parting words.
Berry then quickly got off a bye in his language before things cut off, realizing he sat out the entire conversation.
After Berry got in his goodbye, Mosaic hit the “End Call” option, ending the conversation.
Back To The Marios…
“Good thing that-a worked out,” Mario said. “Let’s-a finish our-a pizza, and get out-a there.”
“Yeah…” Luigi added.
As the brothers planned, they finished up their pizza, left their check and tip in a considerable amount of gold, blue and silver coins and rushed out the door.
“So...do we remember where the-a Sub-acon door leading us closest to where the old-a base is?” Luigi asked.
“I’m pretty-a sure there is a door to-a Sub-acon east of-a here,” Mario replied. “So, you-a ready? I’m pretty-a sure given we have the Ice and Fire Flower from earlier, we don’t-a have a shortage in regards to power-ups.”
“I’m never-a ready…”
“Sounds like you-a are based on your-a voice, let’s-a get moving.” Mario said, heading to the eastern exit in town.
Mumbling to himself a bit, Luigi followed his brother’s lead.
After traversing the plains for a good amount of time, passing by a lot of the usual scenery, pipes, question blocks, blocky square footholds, grass, bushes, etc. eventually, a large hill stood before the two.
“The Sub-acon door should be-a right on this-a hill I believe,” Mario informed Luigi.
“Okay…” Luigi responded.
“Up we-a go,” Mario said, then starting to scale the hill with Luigi tagging behind.
As they walked up, Luigi made a bit of conversation.
“To be-a honest Mario.”
“Hmm?”
“These plains look kinda familiar, like we’ve been-a here more than once or-a twice.”
“Yeah, I’d-a say you’re right on that-a one,” Mario responded. “We went-a here for a picnic one time, and it was-a then that I think we first-a discovered Sub-acon,” Mario continued.
“We-a did? I thought that was your-a dream…”
“Hmm, it’s-a weird-a case, of how I may have dreamed the adventure...but also went on it-a too?” Mario continued.
“...Huh…”
“I’d-a try not to think too-a hard about-a it.”
“Okie dokie…”
“And since-a then, we’ve gone to-a Sub-acon on a number of occasions, commonly going to these-a plains to take this-a door.”
“And are-a doing this again.”
“Pretty-a much.”
By now, the two had made it up the hill, and with a turn to their left, it is there that the red, rectangle decorated door rested before them. Fittingly, it looked like something out of a dream.
“Let’s-a quickly discuss one last-a time how we’re-a doing this,” Mario began.
“Okay…” Luigi responded, as he paced around near the door.
“So we’re going to-a go into-a Sub-acon…”
“Okay…”
“Find where that old-a base of the 8-bits is…”
“Alright…”
“Find that door to-a Water Land…”
“Okie dokie…”
“And try to get our hands on a warp-a whistle.”
Then beginning to lean on the door, Luigi replied.
“Okay, I guess if that’s what we have to-a do, it’s w-waaaaaaaaa!” he then said, the door surprisingly opening just from him leaning against it, leading to him falling down into Subcon, given there was no solid ground on the other side.
“Mama-mia! I’m-ma coming Luigi!” Mario said, quickly and frantically diving in after his brother, their plan being kicked off just a tad bit sooner than the two expected.
To Be Continued...