[Unavailable]

[PersonNamedUser]

Not present...

[FireyPaperMario]

Wow, I liked this self-insert fan fiction more than I enjoyed "Rise of Shadow Kracko". Keep it up! ^_^"


P.S. Are you're planning on adding some SMBX members, or just the crew of the Mosaic Crew?

[PersonNamedUser]

Wow, I liked this self-insert fan fiction more than I enjoyed "Rise of Shadow Kracko". Keep it up! ^_^"


P.S. Are you're planning on adding some SMBX members, or just the crew of the Mosaic Crew?

Wow you read that fast, also, the P.S questions, actually, neither is the case, you'll see.

[PersonNamedUser]

There's been a rather large update to chapter 1 so make sure you read it again from where the To Be Continued would have been.

Basically, this is NOT chapter 2, but just more of chapter 1 that was originally going to be moved to chapter 2, but once i realized how long chapter 2 would be by me doing so, i moved it back, so there we go.

[PersonNamedUser]

Not here...

[TheNightingale]

Wow, I liked this self-insert fan fiction more than I enjoyed "Rise of Shadow Kracko". Keep it up! ^_^"


P.S. Are you're planning on adding some SMBX members, or just the crew of the Mosaic Crew?

How did you read so fast? You replied only 6 minutes after the first post lol...

[PixelPest]

Wow, I liked this self-insert fan fiction more than I enjoyed "Rise of Shadow Kracko". Keep it up! ^_^"


P.S. Are you're planning on adding some SMBX members, or just the crew of the Mosaic Crew?

How did you read so fast? You replied only 6 minutes after the first post lol...

If you know how to speedread you can do it in about 5 minutes flat

[TheNightingale]

Wow, I liked this self-insert fan fiction more than I enjoyed "Rise of Shadow Kracko". Keep it up! ^_^"


P.S. Are you're planning on adding some SMBX members, or just the crew of the Mosaic Crew?

How did you read so fast? You replied only 6 minutes after the first post lol...

If you know how to speedread you can do it in about 5 minutes flat

I don't know absolutely nothing about that so I can't believe how he did it

[ThePieSkyHigh]

Erm, not to bust the party but:

"...with Koopatrol guards wielding spears standing on either side of the throne throughout the walkway, wielding spears in their hands,"

[PersonNamedUser]

Erm, not to bust the party but:

"...with Koopatrol guards wielding spears standing on either side of the throne throughout the walkway, wielding spears in their hands,"

oof...no need to out things such as that.

[ThePieSkyHigh]

It is a mistake, just advising

[PersonNamedUser]

It is a mistake, just advising

I see, i'd just prefer feedback on it that isn't pointing out grammer errors, which i'm aware of and plan to not let slip in later chapters.

[ThePieSkyHigh]

Oh. That is rather annoying

[PersonNamedUser]

Was the third...

[PersonNamedUser]

All three chapters have been reformatted to be made easier to read aswell as have multiple grammar fixes.

[PersonNamedUser]

Mosaic Adventures Chapter 4: Mistakes Happen: show

I: Artifact Speculation

“After arriving back home from their pyramid expedition, the Mosaic group had notified Team SMBX on what they found and asked them to meet as soon as they could, which they did so the next day, Team S.M.B.X gathered inside of the Mosaic Group’s house so that the bunch of them could have a discussion on the object they found.”

“Hmm...so for starters, where-a did you guys find-a this object?” Mario asked the Mosaic Group, pacing about the room with the object in his hand, gazing at it as he asked.

“We found it deep inside of a pyramid with Glow and Beryl, inside of some old, dusty chest,” Mosaic informed.

“Huh...that's interesting,” Mario replied.

“So, was this all you guys found, or was there something else you had to show us?” Link asked.

“Oddly enough, nothing,” Rosy explained. “Trust me...we looked, but this is all that we found,” Rosy continued.

“Not to mention, it was just when we were about to leave empty handed too,” Hoops added.

“That’s-a rather peculiar,” Mario commented.

Berry then added something in his language.

“What’s that Berry?” Hoops asked Berry.

Berry then repeated himself.

“Oh yeah, Berry remembered that while us, Beryl and Glow were there, in that room, we ran into some 8-bits...and Tryclyde,” Hoops translated for the others.

“You did?” Toad asked.

“Yep, and apparently they found something in there and took it before we got there, and escaped before we could figure out what it was,” Hoops explained.

“I wonder what they had found…” Peach commented.

“Well...whatever it was, I hope it was-a nothing important,” Luigi added.

“Well, on a different-a note, I wanted to check one more-a time,” Mario began. “Do you-a guys have any idea on what this artifact is or where it’s-a from?” Mario asked the group.

“Well, we clearly didn’t, otherwise we wouldn’t have meet and talked about this,” Mosaic answered.

“Nope,” Toad answered.

“Not a clue,” Link inputted.

Luigi shook his head in response.

“Not really,” Peach responded.

“As I-a expected, looks like it’ll be a good idea that we ask-a ‘him’,” Mario then told the group.

“Him?” Link asked Mario.

“Yeah, ‘him’,” Mario answered. “Bring some-a travel stuff along guys, we’re-a going on a trip,” Mario explained.

“Oh? Again?” Hoops said. “Where are we going?” he then asked.

Mario then walked over to the door and opened it.

“Follow my-a lead to find out,” Mario said as he walked away.

The others shrugged at him suddenly doing this, but decided not to question it and instead to just follow his lead and see where he took them.


II: I'm a Professional!

A bit of time later, and the nine all ended up in a dark forest called The Stumping Woods. As far as could be seen the woods were plastered with trees, darkness and a grassy forest floor with several purple flowers and occasional ? and brick blocks here and there. Despite the forest not feeling like the safest environment, the group continued following Mario’s lead through the forest to see who the “Him” he was talking about was.

“So this person lives in this dank place?” Hoops asked.

“Mhmm,” Mario replied.

“I never liked this-a forest, I hope we get there-a quick,” Luigi retorted.

“Relax Luigi, we’ll be there soon,” Toad mentioned.

“hopefully this is worth the effort, considering we needed to take a warp pipe all the way at the colorful hills to get here.” Peach stated.

“Being honest, I may come back here alone someday, this is actually my first time being here myself,” Link mentioned.

“Interesting, this is our first time coming to this forest too,” Mosaic stated.

“I’m sure you-a guys have a lot of comments about this place, however, let’s-a save those for later, we’re on a business trip right now,” Mario said.

Berry questioned what Mario meant by this, Hoops, understanding this responded.

“He basically means we have an objective we’re trying to fulfill,” Hoops replied.

Berry understood, and the group kept moving.

Eventually the group made it to a large clearing, where they see a large building. The walls were dark gray, the roofing was dark blue, and the door brown, with pairs of windows on either side of what appeared to be a laboratory of sorts.

“So...is this the building that the guy lives it?” Hoops asked.

“Well, it’s not that he lives-a here. It is his secret laboratory after all. It’s more that he has to stay here for awhile while his other place is under renovation. Either way though, hopefully he’s in right now,” Mario explained.

Just before Mario knocked, Mosaic asked a question.

“Secret laboratory? Who’s in it exactly?” he asked.

“Oh-a yeah, you, the rest of your group, and Link haven’t met him yet. His name is Prof. E Gadd,”

“Prof. E Gadd huh?” Mosaic commented. “Interesting name, wonder what he’s like,” he continued.

“Same...” Link replied.

“Well, what do you-a guys say we-a find out?” Mario asked, then knocking on the door, and waiting for an answer.

“Oh! Hello there! Come on in, the doors’ open!” a voice inside said.

“Hey, that must mean he’s-a in!” Mario said, then opening the door, signaling the others to follow him.

When the group enters the lab, they see someone in the room, this someone looked rather short, wore a white lab coat, had a rounded, bald head minus the swirl of white hair sticking up, and had swirly glasses with a light blue tint on his eyes. This was the person Mario had been referring to, Prof. E Gadd to be exact.

“Mario! What brings you and your other friends here?” Prof. E Gadd questioned, then noticing Link and the Mosaic Group. “And hullabaloo! Who are these fellows with you?” E. Gadd then questioned.

“Oh, they’re umm…” Mario started to say. “Actually, how about you-a guys introduce yourselves?” Mario then asked.

“Sure thing, I'll start,” Link said, sticking out his hand to give him a handshake. “My name is Link. i’m the newest member of Team S.M.B.X,” Link stated.

Rosy then went next. “I’m Rosy! Nice to meet you E. Gadd!” Then shook hands.

Berry introduced himself in his language, which Rosy translated for E. Gadd.

“Oh yeah, his name is Berry,” Rosy said.

Hoops then took this as a chance for his turn. “I’m Hoops! You can call me the quickest in the group!” Hoops boasted, then skittering around a bit to show off his agility.

Finally, Mosaic introduced himself. “And I’m Mosaic, I’m the leader of, as we call it, the Mosaic Group,” He said, then shaking hands with Prof. E. Gadd.

“I’m Prof. E. Gadd, an inventor who likes to study ghosts, heh,” E. Gadd introduced.
“Anyway, nice to meet all you youngsters,” Prof. E. Gadd then said.

“Youngsters?” Link said under his breath.

Berry said, “G...Ghosts?” nervously in his language.

“What was it Berry?” E. Gadd questioned.

“Oh, it’s just that Berry heard you talking about ghosts when introducing yourself,” Rosy explained.

“Heh, so I guess Mario’s brother isn’t the only one scared of ghosts huh?” Prof. E. Gadd replied, in which Luigi reacted sorta nervously to him saying.

“Would seem so…” Hoops said. “But uh, how did you know that?” Hoops then asked.

“Me and Luigi, we go a while back, heh,” Prof E. Gadd responded.

“Oh you guys do?” Mosaic asked Luigi, looking his direction.

“Uh, yeah...it related to this a mansion I won one time, but...i don’t-a like to talk about it.” Luigi responded nervously.

“I believe he one time let us use his garage for one of our parties too,” Peach mentioned.

“Party in a garage?” Hoops asked in shock.

“Oh yeah, it was a lot bigger than your probably imaging,” Peach responded.

“Anyway, we’ve-a chatted enough, I wanted to get to another-a subject,” Mario intervened. “So basically E. Gadd, we-a wanted to show you this strange thing we-a found, or more specifically, the-a Mosaic Group found in some old pyramid,” Mario then explained, showing him the artifact and handing him it.

Prof. E. Gadd took a look at the object and then gave an answer. “Hmm, I may be able to study this thing’s origin,” Prof. E. Gadd answered. “However, I'll need a few days to look into it, I'll notify you guys in a few days about any information I find on it,” He then explained.

“Honestly, I can live with that, take all the time you need professor,” Mosaic replied.

“Agreed,” Rosy then said.

“Eh...guess we can wait,” Hoops stated.

The others then gave their opinions as well, all saying that it can work in some form.

The group then all give E. Gadd their respective goodbyes as they made their way out of the laboratory and back the way they came to make their way home and enter the warp pipe they took to get there. When they got to the park, the Mosaic Group and Team S.M.B.X wanted to discuss a bit before they went their separate ways.

“You know, at this point I'd prefer to just call a day considering what we’ve done the last couple days,” Mosaic began.

“I agree,” Hoops said in response.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Peach replied.

“Know-a what? I can get behind the idea of-a that,” Mario inputted. “Presuming there are no attacks from Bowser or another-a one of those troublemakers out there,” Mario then continued.

“I like the sound of-a that...not worrying about anything for a-a bit,” Luigi said.

“Not much to say that hasn’t been said…” Link stated.

Rosy and Toad then gave agreement as well.

“Well with that, it’s time we went about our own business, bye you guys!” Mosaic said, waving as he left with the rest of the Mosaic Group.

“See you next time!” Mario responded, as he left along with Team S.M.B.X.

III: No Worries...Right?

“Mistakes happen, we all make them, regardless of what they are, most wind up a hindrance in one way or another. While some are only a minor hindrance, others have more unthankful outcomes. Today, we see someone make one of those exact kinds of mistakes.”

Faraway, in the deep, dark galaxy, a large ship of sorts existed. This ship had many different places on it, too numerous to truly count them. It was fueled up a special source of energy, star power. This place was known as the Comet Observatory.

This observatory was home to several different beings, most of them, rather numerous as well, being small star-like creatures that beared a raindrop shape and came in many different colors such as yellow, red, etc. These beings were known as Lumas.

The one who ruled over them came to the main deck. Her name was Rosalina.

“Mama! How are you today?” One of the Lumas asked.

“I’m doing fine,” Rosalina replied to them.

After greeting the other Lumas, Rosalina then began talking to herself about other matters.

“I wonder...how’s the mushroom kingdom been?” Rosalina had begun to think to herself. “How has Mario and his special one been?” she continued. “Maybe I should check on them on this digital machine their friend had built for me recently,” Rosalina then thought. She then decided to head over to the machine she was referring to.

“Let’s see, we’ll check on what’s been happening the last couple days,” Rosalina said, then scrolling through several of the screens, then coming across a peculiar one, reading:

“The King of Koopas Strikes Again!

Just this morning, an air fleet, presumably piloted by the evil King Koopa, or Bowser, opened fire on Vibrant Park and attacked civilians, then continued onward through Colorful Hills and Fluffy Heights, eventually making it’s way to Grassland. If it hadn’t been for the efforts of nine heroes, their names, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Link, Mosaic, Hoops, Rosy, and Berry, who knows what casthropic results would have taken place next?

- Reported, The Mushroom Kingdom Press”

“He’s still causing trouble even after all he’s already done?” Rosalina stated in distastefulness. “I think I know what an appropriate course of action here is,” Rosalina said, then making her way to the library room on the comet observatory and over to a desk with paper and pen, then picking up the pen so that she could write the letter to Bowser, which was written out as follows:

“Hello sir, there’s no need for me to say your name since you already know who you are, but I'll keep what I have to say short and simple. After the actions you committed the other day. I never want to see a person of...let’s just say your color, green, red and yellow ever again. Simply put, your actions have disgusted me beyond words, so it would do us both a favor if you never showed your face to me again.”

- Signed, Rosalina

After she had finished writing the letter, she had remembered something else as well.

“I wanted to send a letter to Mosaic as well, didn’t I?” Rosalina said to herself. “I should get to doing that as well,” She then thought.

After writing Mosaic’s letter, Rosalina got two envelopes to put the letters in, writing the addresses on both.

“Alright, now to just put on the area stamps and-” Rosalina began to say as she reached for them where she normally kept them, noticing they weren’t there. “Oh dear, it seems I left them somewhere else on the ship, I should go look for them,” Rosalina said to herself. Just as she was about to leave, a red Luma came flying into the room.

“Mama! What are you doing?” the Luma asked.

“Oh! Hey there Luma,” Rosalina said, patting the Luma in her arms. “I was just writing a couple of letters, but hadn’t realized that I forgot the stamp for the postage areas,” Rosalina continued. “While I'm looking for those, do you think you can put the letters in the envelope for me?” Rosalina then asked.

“Sure mama!” The Luma replied.

“Thanks,” Rosalina responded, then letting go of the Luma to let them go about doing so.

The Luma went over to the table to go about putting the letters in the envelopes. And they had seen that each of the two letters were both next to an envelope right above them, which they presumed were the appropriate envelopes for the two letters, so they put the two letters in the respective ones.

“Greetings Luma. I’ve returned,” Rosalina said as she entered the room. “Unfortunately, I just ran out of stamps for delivering to dark land, and only have the ones for delivering to Mushroom Plains,” Rosalina explained. “So while I'll be able to send Mosaic his letter now, Bowser’s will need to wait until further notice, probably tomorrow,” Rosalina added.

Rosalina then stamped the one with Mosaic’s address it, not checking which letter was in it.

“Here Luma, now can you take this letter to one of those places they call a...post office? So that this can be delivered?” Rosalina asked the Luma.

“I will mama!” The luma replied, flying off with the letter, in which Rosalina waved.

The Next Day...

IV: Heartbreak

At the Mosaic Group’s house, the Mosaic group had all been downstairs and Rosy and Berry were both about to leave out of the front door.

“See you two later! Have fun at the carnival!” Mosaic said, waving to the two of them.

“Bye!” Rosy said, with Berry waving.

As the two were about to leave Mosaic wanted to mention a couple more things so he got their attention again so he could tell them.

“Oh, what was it Mosaic?” Rosy asked.

“Also i’d like the two of you to stick together, mainly due to your guys’ age,” Mosaic explained to them. “If you run into any of Team S.M.B.X there, i’d say stay with them,” Mosaic continued, then opening the door for them.

“We’ll try to remember to do that,” Rosy replied. “Bye now!” She then said, as she left with Berry, for real this time around.

After the two had left and were out the door, Hoops began to talk with Mosaic.

“So the two of us are staying here while they head to the carnival, correct?” Hoops reasserted with Mosaic.

“Yeah, I figured this would work out since today isn’t the only day that the carnival is going to be up, so we probably can go on another day,” Mosaic explained.

“So we’re basically just going to kick back here today?” Hoops asked.

“That’s the plan. I, and I’m fairly certain, you have been pretty exhausted after what we’ve dealt with the last few days, so I feel that we’d need at least one to do that,” Mosaic answered. “So, what ideas did you have Hoops?” Mosaic then asked.

“Well one of the things I was thinking was that we could play something like Go Fish or Solo,” Hoops thought of.

“Don’t think I’d want to play that,” Mosaic replied.

“Hmm, maybe we could order pizza?” Hoops then suggested as well.

“Maybe we could,” Mosaic inputted. “Or we could also play video games,” Mosaic then put out as well.

“Hey...thinking about it...why not both pizza AND video games?” Hoops then suggested.

“Now your talking, let’s do that!” Mosaic agreed, then along with Hoops made his way over to the TV, but noticed the game console was nowhere to be found.

“Oh, I must have left it upstairs at some point,” Hoops mentioned. “I’ll go upstairs to find it,” Hoops then stated.

“While your doing that, I'll order the pizza.” Mosaic said.

After Hoops made his way up the stairs to their room, Mosaic went over to the phone and began to dial in a number, however, as he dialed it he heard a peculiar noise, which seemed to be the sound of the mailbox.

“Mail call!” The mail carrier shouted before leaving.
“Maybe before ordering the pizza, I should check the mail,” Mosaic thought to himself, putting down the phone and making his way out the door and to the mailbox, taking the letters out and heading back inside.

“Alright, now let’s see what’s arrived today,” Mosaic said to himself, then starting to look over the letters.

“Bills...Junk mail, more bills, more junk mail…” Mosaic said to himself as he skimmed through the letters, until he noticed a light blue envelope at the bottom of the pile. “Hey, it’s a letter addressed to this house…” Mosaic realized. “And based on the handwriting of the address, it’s from...Rosalina?” Mosaic continued, then proceeding to tear the envelope open, eager to see what’s inside. “Hey...it’s a letter...what does it say?” Mosaic then continued.

Mosaic read over the letter to himself...and his eager expression slowly transitioned to a heartbroken one as he read what it said…

Meanwhile, back at the Comet Observatory, Rosalina was now going to deliver her letter to Bowser, having had now gotten the appropriate stamp. “One last thing I need to check,” Rosalina said as she talked to herself. “Let’s look over that letter again to be sure I said everything I wanted to,” Rosalina continued, opening the envelope to look over the letter again.

However, when she took the letter out of the envelope and began looking over it, it seemed rather...positive and forgiving.

“Wait a second...why is this letter so...positive?” Rosalina began to wonder. Upon closer analysis of the letter, she realized the reason for this. “Wait a minute...isn’t this the letter that I meant to send to Mosaic?” she realized.

“Mama! Is something wrong?” a red Luma came by and asked, being the same red Luma who put the letters in the envelopes for her the other day.

“Umm, Luma, do you remember how I asked you to put those letters in the envelopes for me yesterday?” Rosalina asked the Luma.

“Yeah Mama, I do…” The Luma replied, sounding a bit puzzled.

“Did you check what each of the envelopes said when I asked you to put the letters in before inserting them?” Rosalina asked them.

“Um, Mama, I’m sorry, but, I sorta put the letters into the envelopes in a hurry so I didn’t really get the chance to look at what they said...I’m sorry about that,” the Luma explained remorsefully.

Rosalina sighed, and then said, “Try not to do it again, if I hadn’t checked this envelope, Bowser would have gotten Mosaic’s letter, and I don’t intend to send him it because…-” Rosalina began to explain, then cutting herself off mid-sentence because of the awful realization she came to. “Wait a minute...if Mosaic’s letter is in Bowser’s envelope, and you mixed up the letters, th...then that means…”

“Mama? What does it mean?” The Luma asked.

“It means that...Oh...Oh my...Mosaic probably...received Bowser’s letter instead…” Rosalina explained.

“Oh no! Is that bad?” the Luma then asked.

“Very much so,” Rosalina answered. “Forget the hate letter for now, I need to get over to Mosaic as soon as I can with the right letter so I can explain what happened to him,” Rosalina realized.

“That’s terrible!” the Luma exclaimed. “Is there anything I can do to help?” The Luma then asked.

“There is, you can come with me along with another Luma to help me find Mosaic,” Rosalina explained to the Luma.

“Thanks mama! I’m on it,” The Luma replied, then flying to a different part of the comet observatory to find another Luma to assist themself and Rosalina.

V: Cheer Up

Back at the Mosaic Group’s house, Hoops was coming back down from the stairs.

“Hey Mosaic! I found the Wii U!” Hoops said aloud. “So now we can-” Hoops began to continue, before he noticed the saddened look on Mosaic’s face. “Hey Mosaic, what’s the matter?” Hoops asked him.

“Oh, nothing’s wrong Hoops…” Mosaic replied, still not sounding too good.

“Mosaic...I know you well, you look rather down, so I’m presuming there’s something you’re not telling me, which, assuming there is, there’s really no need to hide it,” Hoops explained.

Mosaic sighed, then started to explain the issue to him. “So basically, Rosalina sent me a letter just now and...well...just see it for yourself,” Mosaic explained, then handing the letter over to Hoops.

Hoops quietly read over the letter to himself, and afterwards placed it on the table next to the couch.

“So essentially, based on what this letter says, Rosalina broke up with you?” Hoops asked.

“That’s what I feel like it is based on what it says.” Mosaic explained.

“Well, I’m...sorry to hear that…” Hoops stated, feeling bad for Mosaic but also being unsure how to handle this specific thing.

“I didn’t think she was still that mad with me over that one time…” Mosaic said to himself.

“Huh? What thing are you talking about?” Hoops questioned, hearing Mosaic.

“So basically, around last week, me and Rosalina had a date of sorts on the Comet Observatory, you know, that large ship we visited one time that travels the cosmos according to her?” Mosaic began to explain, then asking Hoops the question.

“I do remember that place, but carry on?” Hoops replied.

“I had personally cooked dinner for the two of us, however when I came over with the tray of food, I made a horrible accident,” Mosaic continued.

“This accident being?” Hoops asked.

“Basically, I accidentally tripped over something, and I ended up dropping it right on top of one of Rosalina’s lumas, and they were hurt really bad,” Mosaic explained.

“Oof, that doesn’t sound good,” Hoops responded.

“It wasn’t,” Mosaic stated.

“What happened after that?” Hoops then asked.

“She sorta seemed like she wanted me to leave in a hurry after I did that, and seemed to be pushing down her anger towards me,” Mosaic answered.

“I see…” Hoops replied.

“I can’t believe she’s still holding that against me considering that it was an accident,” Mosaic then remarked.

“That’s rather unfortunate, people hold grudges over petty stuff is the thing,” Hoops began to explain. “Like for example, remember that one time back when Mario didn’t really like me when me and you visited himself and Luigi’s house, and how I accidently broke a glass, which he got angry with me about, and due to me snapping back at him too wouldn’t let me into his house again for an entire month but eventually got over it?” Hoops then brought up.

“Y...You could be right…” Mosaic said, sounding even more saddened and starting to get teary eyed.

Hoops quickly noticed this, and climbed up into his lap in an attempt that he could comfort him.

Though Mosaic noticed Hoops’ concern, he didn’t make much note of it.

“Mosaic, I understand that breaking up, especially with someone who you loved is hard to deal with. But you need to remember, there’s plenty more cheep cheeps in the sea,” Hoops explained to Mosaic. “However, it’s alright that your feeling this way, I'll help you through it,” Hoops said to Mosaic, then clutching his arms around Mosaic’s torso, giving him a comforting hug.

Acknowledging that he’s right, Mosaic then puts his own arms around Hoops’ body.

“Hoops...I’m glad that your such a good friend to always be there for me and help me through hard things such as this...” Mosaic said.

“Of course I am Mosaic, what are friends for?” Hoops replied.

After the two good friends hugged for awhile longer, the two eventually released their grasp off of one another.

“Are you better now?” Hoops asked.

“A bit I guess…” Mosaic replied.

“That’s good, but I think you need a bit more cheering up,” Hoops stated. “How about some Mario Kart 8?” Hoops then asked.

“Eh, I don’t know if I’d want to stay home right now, I feel it’ll just remind me of the letter,” Mosaic explained.

“Hmm…then why don’t we head to the carnival like everyone else has?” Hoops then suggested. “Maybe they could help you out with how your feeling a bit more,” Hoops also added.

“That’s a good idea, we should do that,” Mosaic said. “Before we do that however, Hoops, do you want to bring your 3-D Glasses?” Mosaic then asked.

“Actually, I do, I heard that at a certain point of the carnival, their going to have a music presentation or concert of sorts there, and it’d be cool to see it in these things,” Hoops answered, then running back up the stairs to find them.

“But wait a minute...isn’t it already 3-D if it’s live action?” Mosaic thought to himself but decided not to question it too deeply.

Hoops then came back down the stairs, wearing his 3-D Glasses.

“Alright, I found them, now are you ready to go Mosaic?” Hoops asked.

“Of course, let's go,” Mosaic said, opening the door so that they could leave, and then closing it behind them once the two of them had gotten out.

Afterwards, the two took the same path they took to get to take the warp pipe to Desert Land yesterday, however at the fork in the road, they took the opposite direction as the one they took that day, then made their way up north to Sunbathed Plains, where the carnival was set up.

After traveling north for a bit, the two eventually made their way to the field, and saw a festive looking area surrounded by gates with an entrance in the front where the admission fee for carnival tickets was paid. This seemed to be the carnival, which it indeed was.

“Hey, we made it,” Hoops stated. “Now that we’re here, let’s start by buying tickets at the entrance,” Hoops then said.

“That should be simple, especially considering there doesn’t seem to be a line right now,” Mosaic replied, then along with Hoops walking over to the booth at the entrance to check out tickets.

“Excuse me, we’d like to check out-” Mosaic began to say, however, pausing when he saw who was running the ticket booth.

It was a Toad, this Toad’s clothes however were pink and had white spots, and from outside of their hat two pink braids stuck out. He and Hoops recognized the person immediately.

“Toadette?” Mosaic asked.

“Mosaic?” the Toad, indeed being Toadette replied, then noticing Hoops with him as well. “And Hoops?” Toadette then said.

“Indeed it is Toadette, how have you been?” Hoops replied.

“It’s been nice, you two?” Toadette responded.

“I’ve been fine as well, Mosaic however…-” Hoops began to say.

“I’m not in the best mood, so I’m hoping going here will help out a bit,” Mosaic, interrupting, explained.

“Oh, that’s a bummer, did you want to share why?” Toadette asked.

“I’d prefer to not right now to be honest,” Mosaic replied.

“I see,” Toadette responded.

“Anyway, I have a question,” Hoops said, changing the subject.

“What is it?” Toadette asked.

“Did you see Team S.M.B.X as well as Berry and Rosy purchase any tickets here earlier?” Hoops then asked.

“Well, I remember a purple baby Yoshi and a pink Porcopo coming here and purchasing a couple tickets if you were referring to them?” Toadette answered.

“I was,” Hoops replied. “And how about Team S.M.B.X?” Hoops asked next.

“I remember that they definitely did buy some tickets a bit earlier,” Toadette began to answer. “I even remember how Toad sounded when he ordered the tickets,” Toadette said, then clearing her throat to mimic him. “‘We’d like five tickets please!’” Toadette quoted, mimicking Toad’s voice as well.

“Thank you for letting us know,” Mosaic responded. “Now we’d like to have two tickets ourselves please,” he then asked.

Toadette grabbed two tickets for them and asked for admission. “That’ll be twenty coins a piece please,” Toadette requested, which Mosaic gave to her in exchange for the tickets. “Thank you, now have fun at the carnival!” Toadette said afterwards as Mosaic and Hoops entered the carnival, the two of whom waved at her as they went in.

VI: Festive Atmosphere

The two entered through the carnival gates and looked around, seeing that the atmosphere of the carnival seemed rather festive. All around, there were hundreds of people of different species. There were Yoshis, Toads, Koopas, and even a few Goombas here and there. There were many colorful tents set up where people could go to play minigames for a shot at a prize, or purchase a yummy treat such as cotton candy with people lined up at most of them. There was a rollercoaster that seemed to go around nearly the entire area, a line for a game where the riders go on a minecart ride through a simulated cave, and a ginormous ferries wheel tall enough that it reached over the entire park. From the looks of things, there was many things to do at the carnival in general.

“Hey Mosaic, I realized something,” Hoops brought up.

“Oh, what is that Hoops?” Mosaic asked.

“It’s about the number of tickets that Team S.M.B.X bought according to Toadette that I find kinda odd,” Hoops answered.

“Huh? what about it?” Mosaic replied, somewhat puzzled.

“Well, it got me thinking about the other day when we played that minigame at the Toad’s house and I recall that Peach didn’t have to pay admission when we played it,” Hoops explained to Mosaic.

“Hmm? I don’t see where your going with this,” Mosaic responded.

“Think about it for a second…” Hoops told him.

Mosaic thought about it for a bit and thought of something. “Wait a moment, I think I see what your saying,” Mosaic then stated.

“Yeah, exactly,” Hoops answered. “Why would they buy five tickets if Peach didn’t need one?” Hoops speculated.

“That’s an interesting thing to wonder,” Mosaic replied. After a bit more thinking one of them realized an obvious answer. “It’s possible they have somebody else with them,” Mosaic then deducted.

“Huh...why didn’t I think of that, we’ll probably find out when we find them,” Hoops said. “Anyway, on a different note Mosaic, which ride do you want to go first?” Hoops transitioned to.

“To be honest, I’d rather find the others first before deciding that so that they could possibly help me out with how I’m feeling,” Mosaic answered.

“Ah, that’s probably a better idea,” Hoops replied.

The two looked around the park for awhile and eventually see a peculiar tent sent up in the distance for a game called “Target Blast”, where there is a medium sized line. However, even better, they saw that Team S.M.B.X, along with Rosy and Berry were waiting in the back of the line to play it.

“Hey, there they are!” Mosaic stated.

“Let’s go over to them!” Hoops then said, in which the two made their way over.

The two go to the back of the line along with the other seven and Mario turned around and noticed them.

“Hey-a guys, look who’s-a here!” Mario announced, getting the others’ attention and for them to turn around and see Mosaic and Hoops as well.

Along with them however, someone else with the group looked over as well. Mosaic and Hoops immediately recognized that this someone was a green Yoshi.

“I see that you brought Yoshi along with you guys,” Mosaic stated. “Well, Yoshi, how have you been lately?” Mosaic then asked, shaking hands with Yoshi.

“Yoshi!” Yoshi replied, speaking in his language.

“Yeah, how’ve you been Yoshi?” Hoops asked, reaching his hand out for a handshake too. As Yoshi reached however, Hoops pulled his hand away. “Sike! Just kidding, I’m not…” Hoops began to say. “Hey, I’m just kidding,” Hoops then said cutting himself off. “I’ll give you a real handshake now,” Hoops then said, sticking out his hand again, this time giving Yoshi a real one.

“Umm, why did you guys come? Rosy said that you two were staying home to relax,” Link questioned, puzzled of them being there.

“Well it’s because…” Hoops began to say. “Umm, you’re okay with me explaining it to them, right Mosaic?” Hoops then asked them.

“Sure thing Hoops,” Mosaic responded.

“Alright,” Hoops said. “So basically, Mosaic and I were going to play video games and order some pizza to go along with it,” Hoops began explaining. “And I'm guessing while I was looking for the Wii U, Mosaic had gotten the mail from outside. Correct?” Hoops explained, and then asked Mosaic.

“Yep,” Mosaic answered.

“And in the mail he had gotten a letter,” Hoops continued.

“A letter?!” Toad exclaimed.

“Whom was it from?” Peach asked.

“Patience, I was going to get to that,” Hoops responded.

“When I came down the stairs, Mosaic had already read it, and didn’t look like he was doing too well with it,” Hoops continued explaining. “Also, the letter was from Rosalina,” Hoops added.

“Rosalina!?” Mario exclaimed with shock.

“You-a mean...that woman who we meet in space one time with all of little stars with-a them?” Luigi asked.

“Yeah, that Rosalina,” Hoops continued. “Anyway, Mosaic showed me the letter, it was rather negative what was written on it, however I'll spare you the details unless Mosaic wanted to go into it later,”

“Alright then,” Link replied.

“So I helped him to get better, and well...here we are,” Hoops finished.

“Huh, I’m sorry to hear that about Rosalina…” Link inputted. “Maybe some games at the carnival can cheer you up though,” he then said.

“Yeah, hopefully it does help out, that is why we came here after all,” Hoops replied.

Meanwhile, Rosalina, via means of teleportation, had made her way to Mushroom Plains, and over to the neighborhood in which the Mosaic Group lived in, having knowledge of their place of residence, with his proper letter with her and two Lumas, one red and one yellow.

“Now that we’re here, hopefully Mosaic will let me make it up to him,” Rosalina stated.

After looking around the neighborhood for awhile, Rosalina found their house via the house number and walked down the path up to the doorsteps and knocked.

“Hello? Mosaic? Are you in there? I wanted to talk,” Rosalina spoke through the door, however receiving no answer. “He’s not answering…” Rosalina thought to herself. “Maybe he doesn’t want to answer me?” Rosalina continued. “Luma, could you look into the windows and see if anyone’s in there?”

“Sure Mama!” The red Luma replied, then flying off around the house, looking to see if they saw anyone.

…

The Luma then flew back to Rosalina and explained to her. “Mama, I checked, and all of the lights appear to be turned off,” The Luma explained.

“So they are…” Rosalina said. “He must not be home,” Rosalina then said. “Let’s go look for him elsewhere,” Rosalina then said, leaving, with the Lumas following them.

Back at the carnival, the group had made their way to the front of the line for Target Blast, seeing that it was run by a Koopa, Mario walked up next to the booth and greeted the Koopa.

“Hello!” Mario said to the Koopa. “Could you-a explain to us how this-a game is-a played?” Mario then asked.

“Sure thing,” the Koopa Troopa said. “The object of the game is to use this, of course, voluntary venus fire trap to smash as many targets as you can within the span of a minute,” The Koopa Troopa explained to them. “Red targets are worth one point, green ones are worth three and blue ones are worth five.”

“I-a get it.” Mario replied, picking up the potted plant ready to take his turn before Peach intervened.

“Hey Mario, I realized that as Mosaic isn’t feeling too well, you wouldn’t mind letting him take his turn first correct?” Peach asked him.

“Oh...that’s-a good idea Peach.” Mario replied. “Here you go Mosaic, you can-a go first!” Mario told Mosaic, handing him the venus fly trap.

“Thank you Mario,” Mosaic replied, then raising the fire breathing plant and pointing towards the target area in anticipation of them coming into range.

Once the game started, many targets various in color began to slide into view from the sides of the gallery, in which Mosaic shot with consistency.

Once the game had ended, the Koopa Troopa added up Mosaic’s score.

“It seems that you earned a total of...ninety points!” The Koopa stated.

“Wow! Great job Mosaic!” Toad congratulated.

“That earns you a medium prize, which means you can feel free to pick anything from this shelf,” The Koopa troopa informed, pointing at the second to top shelf.

Mosaic looks over the prizes to decide which of the options he wants, seeing things such as plush fire flowers, stars and mushrooms, large lollipops, etc. eventually making a decision.

“Yeah um, I'll take the giant rainbow lollipop please,” Mosaic asked.

“Here you go!” The Koopa troopa said, handing it to Mosaic.

“Thank you,” Mosaic replied.

“You’re welcome,” the koopa replied courteously.

Afterwards, each of the others took their turns in the order of Mario, Yoshi, Hoops, Peach, Berry, Rosy, Link, Luigi and Toad, each earning a different number of points and a different sized prize.

Berry, Yoshi, Hoops, and Peach each earned over thirty points, earning them small prizes, which the four chose bubbles, a small lollipop, and small plush stars respectively.

Luigi and Link both performed a bit better, both earning over eighty points, netting them each a medium prize, in which they got a large lollipop and lava lamp respectively. Toad and Rosy however were rather out of luck, due to earning less than thirty points each, they walked out of the game empty handed. Mario however had hit the jackpot, having had earned over one hundred points during the game, it netted him any prize from the top shelf, in which he choose a copy of the board game “Rainbow Road”. The group then left the tent and went over to the a different part of the carnival.

“Despite me not earning anything, playing that game was pretty fun,” Rosy stated. “But what to do now?” Rosy wondered.

“What-a else other than to have a good-a time?” Mario replied. “Race you guys to the- a ferris wheel!” Mario said, then suddenly jumping on top of Yoshi. “Come on Yoshi! Let’s-a go!” Mario said, then signaling Yoshi to start running towards it, nearly running others over several times from negligence.

“Mario! Watch where you’re going!” Peach shouted to Mario, in which he didn’t reply, but figuring he didn’t hear, just followed them to the ferris wheel along with the rest of the group.

After the group had ridden on the ferris wheel, they all went on to do multiple different activities while they were there such as ride on many fast paced rides, try good food and overall, have a good time.

VII: We Will Rock You!

Having had been at the carnival nearly all day, the sun was now starting to set. The group had just gotten off of the roller coaster and after doing so, Peach talked with Mosaic.

“So Mosaic, have you been having fun at the carnival today?” Peach asked Mosaic.

“Being honest here, no, I haven’t really,” Mosaic responded.

“Oh? Y...You haven’t?” Peach replied, sounding surprised.

“Yeah, for one, there was the ferris wheel, in which you guys didn’t listen to me when I said I didn’t want to ride it, considering you know how I am with heights,” Mosaic began to rant. “Second off, when we went in line for nearly an hour to get cotton candy, the machine broke as soon as we got to the front, wasting our time,” Mosaic continued. “Third, I felt like I nearly vomited when we rode on...what was it called? The gravitron?” Mosaic continued.

“You mean the spinning thing?” Rosy asked.

“Yeah, that thing,” Mosaic replied.

“And fourth, we just rode on the roller coaster, and I nearly had a heart attack from the speed that it was going and how high up we were,” Mosaic then said.

“I’m sorry to hear that Mosaic,” Peach responded, then continuing. “Well, maybe we can-”

“May I have your attention please?” a voice suddenly ran out.

“Hey that sounds like it came from the loudspeaker,” Hoops stated.

“Yeah, and that voice sounded like...Toadette!” Toad added.

“Now that I have your attention, let’s start by saying, I’m sure you’ve all been having a good time at the carnival today, am I right?” Toadette said on the speaker.

“Well...not everyone…” Link responded to the speaker.

“But I’m sure a lot of y’all want to see something new right?” Toadette continues.

“Oh, what is-a Toadette referring to?” Luigi questioned.

“Well, you’re all in for treat, because I’d like to announce that in ten minutes…” Toadette began to say, then stopping to build suspense. “We’ll be starting a concert with a live performance from our sponsor!” Toadette announced. “If you wish to attend it, head to the stage located in the center of carnival!” Toadette then informed.

Much of the crowd seemed excited to hear this, and began to make their way over to the stage where the sponsor would perform.

“Hey guys, I think we should watch the performance too!” Rosy told the others.

“Sounds-a good to me,” Mario inputted.

“Why not,” Hoops opinionated.

“Alright! Follow that crowd!” Rosy then said, pointing to the crowd and wanting the others to follow her lead.

Meanwhile, Rosalina with her Lumas had ended up making their way to Sunbathed Plains, still searching for Mosaic.

“Oh this is no good, we’ve been looking for Mosaic the entire day, and haven’t been able to find him anywhere.” Rosalina stated. “And I’m really tired now, I guess we have no choice but to-”

“Mama! Look at that!” one of the Lumas cried, turning her attention towards the carnival in the distance.

At the carnival, the group, along with the rest of the crowd that they followed waited near a stage set where the curtains were down for the concert to begin.

“Do you guys know who’s performing tonight?” Mosaic asked the others.

“Nope,” Toad replied.

“Not really,” Peach said.

“Not a clue,” Hoops inputted.

“Welp, guess we’ll just need to wait and find out then,” Mosaic then stated.

“Alright ladies and gentleshrooms, boys and girls! Beings of all species!” Toadette began to yell on the loudspeaker. “We are now beginning the concert with the live performance of our sponsor!” Toadette announced.

“Here it-a comes...who’s-a it going to-a be?” Mario said in anticipation.

“Give it up for...The Buzzies!” Toadette then finished. In which the crowd gave a loud cheer.

“The Buzzies? Who are they?” Mosaic questioned.

“Yeah, I haven’t really heard of them either,” Link inputted.

“Hey, I’ve actually heard of these guys,” Hoops mentioned. “I even know each of the stage names they go by, the lead singer I know is named Spinner, and his bandmates Wrecker, Scale and Smasher,” Hoops continued to give his knowledge on. “They’ve also made a lot of great songs such as I Have A Feeling, Resolution, and Fly Away,” Hoops continued to explain. “And all of those songs by them were actually pretty good, so I think that we can expect a good performance by them,” Hoops finished.

The curtains rose and the stage lights blared on. And onto the stage came “The Buzzies” as they were called, a band consisting fully of Buzzy Beetles. Buzzy Beetles in general were quadpred, stubby legged creatures who bore blue shells encasing the torso of their body, the exposed parts of which were tan or similar in color. Each member of the Buzzies however had something unique to their appearance. The drummer of the band, Wrecker, had a shell with a dark green shade, and they wore a wig in the shape of a mohawk. The guitarist, Smasher, has a shell that beared a purple color and they wore a droopy black wig. The keyboard player, Scale, had a blue color like most other Buzzy Beetles, and though they didn’t wear a wig, they wore a pair of star-shaped shades with a golden frame. And finally, the lead singer of the band, Spinner, had a shell that was as red as fire, and they wore a spiked wig on their head.

Spinner then grabbed the microphone on the stage and prepared to say something.

“Tell me! People of the Mushroom Kingdom! How are you all doing tonight!?” Spinner shouted to the crowd, who cheered loudly in response. “Sounds like your doing great! Now, I have a question for you all, are you ready to hear the latest hit of our album!?” Spinner then asked the crowd, whom once again cheered. “Alright then! You want a show! We’ll give you one!” Spinner shouted, being met with another cheer.
“I can’t hear you! Louder!” Spinner said, urging the audience to be louder, in which they were. “One more time! Louder!” Spinner yelled, the audience being louder than before.

After doing so, the smoke machine on the stage blew, and the band began to start playing their instruments.

“We like to call this song…One Misunderstanding,” Spinner told the audience as he prepared to sing it, then starting as the song began to play.

The audience speculated what the song was about as the performance continued, including Mosaic & Co. All of whom which eventually realized, they were singing about love, and a misunderstanding.

“It’s interesting that their singing about this specifically huh Hoops?” Mosaic mentioned.

“Indeed it is,” Hoops responded.

VIII: Resolution

As the concert continued, Rosalina had at this point checked into the carnival and was searching the carnival along with her Lumas for Mosaic.

“Mama, I don’t see him anywhere,” One of the Lumas said.

“I don’t see him either,” Rosalina replied.

After looking around a bit longer, they saw a large crowd gathered at the concert area.

“A large crowd...maybe he’s here,” Rosalina stated.

As the group continued to enjoy the live performance, a voice rang out.

“Excuse me, has anyone seen someone by the name of Mosaic around here?” Rosalina said aloud, however, though the audience heard them, it’s not enough that they hear her question. “Hey, do you mind having the performers stop for a moment so that I can speak?” Rosalina asked the audience, in which they understood, then yelling for the Buzzies to stop for a second. In which the Buzzies indeed do, to them and everyone else’s puzzling, and the audience’s silence.

“Huh? Is there a problem with the song?” Spinner asked the audience.

“I’d like to repeat my earlier question,” Rosalina said aloud. “Has anyone seen someone by the name of Mosaic around here?” Rosalina asked aloud.

“T...that voice...Rosalina?” Mosaic said to himself, recognizing her voice.

“I actually saw them around here!” Someone in the audience nearby said, pointing in the direction of Mosaic. A lot of the audience, being familiar with Mosaic as well, point him out too.

“I have something I need to tell them,” Rosalina added.

Upon this fact being revealed, the crowd made way for Rosalina so that she could make her way over to him.

“Rosalina? Why are you here and what did you want to tell me? Aren’t you still mad at me for what happened and send me a letter saying you never wanted to see me again?” Mosaic questioned Rosalina.

“About that letter Mosaic, I didn’t intend for you to get it and I accidentally got the letters mixed up,” Rosalina explained.

“What? What do you mean?” Mosaic asked.

“Basically, I meant to send that letter to Bowser, but a mix up happened where I sent the letters in the wrong envelopes, or more specifically, one of my Lumas did,” Rosalina began to further explain. “The letter I meant for you to receive is in my hand, do you still care to read it?” Rosalina then asked, showing it to Mosaic.

Mosaic, though silent, agreed to opening it. As the audience watched this play out, Rosalina handed Mosaic the letter, in which he opened up and read aloud:

“Hello Mosaic, I just wanted to talk to you a bit about the other day, you don’t need to beat yourself up it, mistakes happen. I understand one of my Lumas got hurt, however, I understand as well that it was an accident, so I just wanted to let you know, you don’t need to worry about what happened that day, all is forgiven and I hope to see you again sometime.

- Love, Rosalina”

“Wow...I’m glad to see that this is the case and it’s hard to believe this was all just a big misunderstanding.”

“Agreed,” the rest of the group said in unison.

Though acknowledging them, Rosalina wanted to ask someone else a question and turned toward the stage.

“Hey, Buzzies, aren’t you going to finish your song? Everyone’s waiting,” Rosalina told them.

“Oh yeah, of course we were mam,” Spinner, somewhat nervously said.

As the Buzzies resumed, the crowd got back together, while Mosaic and Rosalina stood side to side to one another, holding hands as they enjoyed the rest of the performance.

“Once again, all things seemed to work out for everyone despite the mix-up. Even though mistakes happen, more often than not, they can be fixed. It is to be remembered however...some mistakes are a bigger hindrance than others…”

Next Time...Chapter 5: Shortage

[PersonNamedUser]

Author's Notes: So for anyone who was wondering what took this chapter the time it did to release, here's what it was as simple as possible:

After I realized just how terrible the grammar was in my past four chapters, and learning how dialogue and grammar is supposed to be written, I've been spending the past while editing all of them so that they're readable.

After doing that, I of course posted, well, the chapter you're reading now, after of course editing that behind the scenes aswell.

If by any off chance you're seeing this without reading the other chapters, it's HIGHLY SUGGESTED TO READ THOSE FIRST. With that said, enjoy the chapter below.

Chapter 5: Shortage: show

I: Important Meeting

“The Mosaic Group, along with Mario, Luigi, and Link, had all made their way to Toad Town, a town about a mile away from Mushroom Castle, in which Peach lived in her rule of the Mushroom Kingdom. Today, Peach called all of them over, because she wished to discuss something of importance with all of them.”

“I wonder why Peach wants us to meet with her?” Rosy wondered.

“Maybe she just wants to eat some-a cake, it wouldn’t-a be the first time,” Mario replied.

“That is a possibility,” Link added. “Then again, did you guys get a letter about this beforehand?” he then asked.

“Yeah, we-a did actually,” Luigi replied.

“Well what did it say?” Link then asked.

“It saida to ‘meet with-a her as soon-a as possible, tomorrow morning at best. We must-a discuss something urgent,’” Luigi quoted.

“Huh, I wouldn’t expect it to just be cake if the letter said that,” Link replied.

“Yep, who knows? Maybe she’s saying the urgent thing is that they’re out of cake ingredients,” Hoops added in.

“Umm, Hoops? I don’t think Peach would consider that urgent,” Mosaic replied.

“Of course,” Hoops responded.

“Either-a way, I’m curious as all of you on what-a this is about,” Mario stated.

Berry then stated in his language that he wonders that too.

A bit of time later, the group had made their way through Toad Town, and had crossed the bridge that went into the field surrounding Mushroom Castle. The field itself was rather open with only the occasional short tree here and a few, unopened question blocks that generally were keep in place for decoration, and finally a dust path that lead to and around the castle.

The castle itself was white in interior and decorated with several mushroom shaped windows bering gold frames and a blue tint on the windows themselves. The roof was painted red and had several prism shaped protrusions at the top, with the center one having a flag up top.

The group enters the castle and Princess Peach, along with Toad, were waiting for them inside of the main hall of the castle along with several Toad guards, each of them wielding spears.

“You all have arrived!” Peach stated. “Now, may you all follow me so that we may discuss the subject?” Peach then asked.

“Of-a course,” Mario replied.

Rosy, Berry, and even Hoops, however, seemed to be eyeing the walls of the castle rather curiously.

“Hey Peach?” Hoops asked Peach.

“Yes Hoops?” Peach asked.

“Me, Berry-” Hoops started.

“Ahem…” Rosy retorted unamused.

“Oh...and Rosy were curious about this castle and wanted to take a look around,” Hoops started to explain. “Is it okay if we look around for awhile and then join the discussion later?’ Hoops then asked.

“Well…” Peach began to respond.

“I personally think it’d be fine,” Mosaic inputted, “considering your letter told the Marios what we’re discussing is serious, which is correct, right?” Mosaic then asked.

“Huh, what do you mean?” Peach asked.

“I just wanted to make sure you didn’t make the same mistake as she did the other day,” Mosaic explained.

“Oh, yeah, that is what the letter said. And yeah, considering how young Hoops, Rosy and Berry are, I don’t think we’d need to have them discuss it,” Peach replied.

“Great! Catch up with you guys in a bit then,” Hoops said, leaving with Rosy and Berry to look around the castle.

“Now, Mario, Luigi, Link, Mosaic,” Peach began. “Follow me into the throne room so we can discuss this,” she continued.

“Okie dokie,” Luigi said.

“Let’s-a go,” Mario said next.

“Alright then,” Link stated.

The four then followed Peach up the staircase leading to the room, with two Toad guards closing the door behind them. They then made their way through the hall and into a rather spacious room, where there was a large, rectangular table with fancy looking chairs surrounding it on all sides, the total number being around twelve, and one large chair on one side of the table, presumably the one for Peach to sit in.

“Heya Peach, I guess-a it slipped-a my mind, but, where’s-a Toadsworth? I haven’t seena him around lately,” Mario asked her.

“Oh, well, he doesn’t feel the need to constantly keep his eye on me anymore, and felt that he needed a vacation, so he’s been out of town the last few weeks,” Peach explained.

“Oh, I understand-a,” Mario replied.

“Anyway, we should get to the meeting, considering you said it’s important,” Link added.


“Of course,” Peach replied, as they made their way to the main seat and the others sat around the table. “So the topic at hand relates to our resources around town,” Peach began to explain.

“A shortage of resources?” Mosaic questioned.

Meanwhile, Hoops, Berry, and Rosy were looking around the castle and have been looking around the hallway leading into the main room.

“This place is pretty interesting huh?” Rosy stated.


Berry agreed in his language.

“Yeah, it is. I never really got the chance to look around here much when I met Peach here for the first time,” Hoops stated.

“So you’ve been here before Hoops?” Rosy asked.

“Yeah,” Hoops replied.

Berry then asked a question.

“Yep, and it’s where I met Peach indeed, Berry,” Hoops replied to his question. “Kinda funny, but when I first met Peach-” Hoops started.

“Hoops, hold that thought. I hear talking over there,” Rosy interrupted.

“Is that so?” Hoops said. “Guess I’ll have to wait,” he then stated, rolling his eyes.

Hoops, Berry, and Rosy peeked into the room and listened to the conversation.

“So what you’re saying is we’re running short on food for the orphanage?” Link asked, giving his input into the conversation.

“That is pretty much the case,” Peach replied.

“That’s not-a good!” Mario stated in response.

“It indeed is not,” Peach said. “And along with that, it’s possible we don’t have the funds to provide for them straight up, which makes this a problem,” Peach then said.

Upon hearing only these words, Hoops told Rosy and Berry something.

“Hey guys, follow me,” Hoops told them.

“Wait, we’re not going to-” Rosy began to ask.

“No, I have a different idea,” Hoops interrupted, then having her and Berry follow him in the hallway.

II: Extreme Measures

“Okay, so here’s my idea on what we should do,” Hoops started. “We should go to several stores and borrow the food from there so we can give it to the orphanage,”
Hoops then stated, giving his idea.

“Wait, Hoops, we don’t have any money, wouldn't that be stealing?” Rosy pointed out.

“We could just pay them back later on for it,” Hoops replied.

“Wouldn’t that take forever though?” Rosy argued.

Berry then added to it.

“Rosy, this is important, i don’t think that matters,” Hoops responded to her. “And Berry, there isn’t a need to worry about us being locked up, i can assure you that won’t ever happen to you, me, or Rosy, especially not to me though, being quick on my feet and all,” Hoops said.

“I guess…” Rosy admitted.

In which Berry also agreed in his language.

“Good, now that you two get it, i’d like you to follow me please,” Hoops then said, leading the way, only just missing the discussion that went on in the mainroom as they made their way out the castle.

“I think a good idea could be if we had the orphanage establish a giveaway donation for food and had it be posted up around town,” Mosaic suggested, giving his input.

“To be honest, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Toad replied.

“It could work,” Link inputted.

“Sounds-a good to me,” Luigi responded.

“I agree Mosaic, that-a does seem to be the best idea,” Mario said, giving his opinion.

“Surprised i hadn’t thought of that,” Peach stated. “But hey, I think it’ll work out,” She then said. “Let’s start by calling the orphanage and asking them about this idea,” Peach then said, going to a different room to use the phone there.

Once she made it to the phone, she dialed the number.

“Hello? Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom speaking,” Peach said, beginning to speak into it.

III: Plan Execution Go!

Meanwhile a bit of time later, Hoops, Berry and Rosy had made their way to Toad Town and to a place rather distant from the rest of the town in a field, and Hoops was looking at their first stop, a store that sold different kinds of produce.

“This is a good place to start, Franklin’s Produce,” Hoops said, also stating the name of the store. “Let’s see what this troopa koopa here is doing right now,” He then stated, peaking into the window.

“Yes Harriet i’ll try to get those Strawberries delivered to you by tomorrow,” The Koopa farmer said, talking presumably with someone he knew over the phone. “But for now i gotta finish my harvest for any customers that come by,” he then said. “So i’ll talk to you later,” They said and then paused a bit, awaiting a response. “Bye,” he said afterwards, then grabbing a sickle they left hanging up and heading outside with it.

“Huh, lucky break,” Hoops stated. “Now you two, let’s go inside and grab as many of the crops as we can!” Hoops told the others, then rushing inside the store.

“Here goes nothing…” Rosy said, following Hoops inside along with Berry.

The three then proceeded to take multiple different kinds of fruits and veggies from within the store and then made their way back out with it.

“Okay Hoops,” Rosy said. “Where do we go now?” she then asked.

“next i’m thinking...how about that convenience store that just a bit south of Toad Town?” Hoops suggested.

“I guess that could work,” Rosy replied.

“Then that way we go!” Hoops said.

“Wait Hoops,” Rosy interrupted.

Hoops then stopped and questioned this. “What was it?” Hoops asked Rosy, sounding a bit unamused.

“We should find a way to do this in less exposing way,” Rosy explained.

“Oh? How exactly?” Hoops questioned.

“By traveling through the Mushroom Kingdom’s sewer system of course!” Rosy answered.

“Through there?” Hoops asked.

“It’s the safest way to do this,” Rosy began to explain. “Most people wouldn’t be looking around down there, aside from, i don’t know, plumbers or such,” Rosy continued.

“Hmm, good point, i guess we could…-” Hoops began to say before making a realization. “Wait a minute, but aren’t Mario and Luigi plumbers?” Hoops pointed out.

“We don’t need to worry about that! They probably won’t be down there,” Rosy replied.

“Good point i guess,” Hoops replied. “But if this goes badly, i think you know exactly who’s to blame here. now, lead the way?” Hoops then shortly after added and asked.

Though unamused at his attitude, Rosy replied “This way, I think I know where the nearest manhole i-”

And at that moment, Rosy got cut off by something.

“Oh my stars! Where are my crops?” The Troopa farmer exclaimed, having entered his mart and seeing the crops gone.

“Shoot, and we better hurry to it as well,” Rosy stated, rushing for them to follow her way, in which they do.

The rest of the day for the three was pretty much more of the same. They made their way to the grocery store, where they snuck into the storage room when none were watching and took several packs of cheese, yogurt and milk out of it.

They then proceeded next to the supermarket, where they took different kinds of meat, as well as snacks such as crackers and chips.

Meanwhile, Team S.M.B.X and Mosaic were all gathered at Mario and Luigi’s house and discussed.

“Alright, so now that we’ve established a way for the orphanage to get a food supply, what should we do now?” Mosaic asked the others.

“Can’t we just-a relax for once instead of always looking for a something to do?” Luigi inputted.

“Well…” Mosaic started.

“I agree with Luigi, this is like...the fourth time something’s happened in a row with us getting no chance to just not do much?” Toad stated.

“Yeah, you’re right to be honest, how about we just watch a movie or something?” Mosaic suggested. “Okay with you Mario?” Mosaic then asked.

“Don’t-a see why that’s an issue.” Mario replied.

“Hmm, shouldn’t we call Hoops and the others and see if they want to see the movie?” Peach suggested.

“I was wondering where those three are to be honest,” Link stated.

“Good idea Peach, i’ll try calling him,” Mosaic stated.

Mosaic dialed Hoops phone and awaited an answer, however, receiving none.

“Weird, he won’t pick up,” Mosaic informed the others.

“That is strange indeed…” Link responded.

“Well, I guess they-a will need to miss out then if they aren’t-a going to show up,” Mario stated.

“I guess so…” Mosaic replied. “Let’s get the movie started,” Mosaic then said, looking for a DVD to put into the player afterwards, which after doing so, started the television up, which played the movie on the screen like so.

Meanwhile, Hoops, Rosy and Berry had been hiding out in the sewers, and at this point it seemed that they would have enough food so that they could feed the orphanage, and were hiding out so they could discuss how they were going to handle things from here on out.

“Alright, so now that we’ve gathered enough food, what should we do now?” Rosy asked.

In which Berry asked the same.

“I was trying to think of that, and well…” Hoops began. “Do you have any ideas?” Hoops asked.

“No I don’t, I wouldn’t have asked that question otherwise,” Rosy explained.

“Hmm, let me think about this for a second then,” Hoops replied.

A few minutes later, Hoops tells them what he came up with.

“Alright so here’s what we’re going to do,” Hoops began. “We should find a time that we can bring the food to Team S.M.B.X and Mosaic so then we can give it to the orphanage,” Hoops laid out.

“But Hoops, what if they ask us where we got all this food on such short notice? Don’t you think they’d be atleast a bit suspicious of that?” Rosy pointed out.

“Eh, I think we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Hoops answered.

“You mean you never came up with a plan for that to begin with?” Rosy asked.

“Nope,” Hoops replied as he began to make his way over to the food pile and curl up his legs a bit and yawn. “Anyway, i’m getting kinda sleepy, we should sleep out here tonight until tomorrow morning and then go from there,” Hoops finished.

“I guess so,” Rosy responded, yawning a bit herself and curling up to rest in the same area as Hoops.

Berry gave agreement in his language before settling down to rest in the same general spot himself.

The Next Morning…

IV: Exposure

Mosaic, Peach, Link and Toad had all still been at the Mario Bros’. House. They had slept there overnight as it saved time incase they needed to discuss again and they just had felt like doing so, and were all gathered in the living room looking for something on TV.

“Since Hoops and the others still haven’t arrived, how about we see what’s on the news right now?” Mosaic suggested.

“Wait, but does he and the other two even know where we are?” Toad asked.

“Well he should, I sent him a text message and everything,” Mosaic answered.

“And he still won’t answer?” Toad then questioned.

“Nope, he won’t,” Mosaic replied.

“Odd, but I do agree we could just see what the TV is broadcasting in the meantime,” Toad said in response. “Mario, may you turn it on since you’re holding the remote?” Toad asked.

“Sure-a thing,” Mario replied, then reaching for the remote and clicking the TV.

The electronic device’s large screen flashed on, showing a live news broadcast, running it, the Mushroom Kingdom Press. And the press’ speaker began to announce the following:

“This just in, in the areas around Toad Town, we’ve been receiving multiple reports of food being ransacked from the stores around town.”

“Mama mia! Trouble again?” Mario stated, surprised to hear it.

“The police during their investigations found that the places that have been ransacked are the following: the produce store, owned by Koopa Troopa Farmer Franklin, the grocery store, where when multiple cartons of milk, as well as several packages of cheese and yogurt, a shortage was found when the amount in storage was counted, and finally, the supermarket, where multiple kinds of food, such as crackers, chips, among other things were found to be missing as well.”

“Oh man, that’s really not good…” Mosaic inputted.

“The police are unable to find any form of a lead on who was responsible for this otherwise, but are still trying their best to find at least a shred of evidence pointing to it, and intend to update when they do find something.”

At this moment, Peach turned off the TV, then asking a question.

“Alright, who do you guys personally think is responsible for this occurrence?” she asked.

“Do you think it could-a have been-a Bowser?” Luigi answered.

“I wouldn’t think so Luigi,” Link replied. “I doubt Bowser would go to doing such a small thing so quick considering his last endeavor,” Link explained.

“Yeah, and knowing him, he probably would be so incompetent that he’d leave behind something very incriminating,” Toad added.

“That is-a true…” Luigi said in response.

As they talked, Mosaic had been in thought about who it could have been and spoke quietly to himself.

“Th...that actually lines up…” he thought aloud.

“Hmm? What-a lines up Mosaic?” Mario asked.

“Oh, umm, nothing, nothing,” Mosaic bluffed. “But I was thinking that we haven’t seen Hoops, Rosy or Berry since our meeting yesterday afternoon and it makes me wonder what their doing to just disappear suddenly,” Mosaic continued.

“That is an interesting question,” Toad replied.

“Yeah, i wonder that too,” Link added.

“If their not-a going to come to us, at this-a point maybe we should try to look for-a them? Who’s-a with me?” Mario suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea, they could probably help out with tracking down our culprits,” Toad answered.

“I’d agree,” Mosaic inputted.

“I do too,” Peach stated next.

“Doesn’t sound real bad,” Link said.

“Er, maybe I could-a stay here and hold-a down the fort?” Luigi said, trying to get out of it.

“Come on Luigi, you can’t negotiate all the time,” Toad said.

“I guess im-ma in too then...” Luigi graciously replied.

“Alright-a then,” Mario said. “Now that we’ve all agreed, what’s the most-a effective way to look for-a them?” Mario questioned.

“How about we split up in pairs?” Mosaic suggested. “It was rather effective when we did it the other day so it should work out this time,” he then explained.

“Good idea Mosaic,” Peach said. “And looking in the three places we see them most often should help out,” she continued.

“Exactly what i was thinking,” Mosaic replied. “I’d say that Mario and Luigi look around Grassland a bit to see if they went there,” Mosaic began to layout. “Toad and Link could probably see if their anywhere around Toad Town,” Mosaic continued. “And Peach and I will check my and their house to see if their there as well, if their not there, we’ll try looking around the neighborhood and then go on from there,” Mosaic finished. “Sound good to you all?” he then asked.

“I’d say-a so,” Mario opinionated.

“Sure…” Luigi inputted.

“That’ll work,” Peach replied.

“I suppose so,” Toad answered.

“Pretty much what’s already been said,” Link said.

“Then it’s settled, let’s get going now, the sooner we find them the faster we can figure this situation out,” Mosaic stated, as he walked over to the door. “Come on Peach,” He told her as he went through the door leading out of the house.

“Sure thing Mosaic,” Peach replied as she followed him outside to go with him to search for the three.

Meanwhile, Hoops along with Rosy and Berry had still been in the sewers walking on the sides of one of the waterways, carrying the ransacked food and were trying to figure out what to do next, having have seen through an open manhole that the sun was up.

“Okay Hoops, so what do we do now?” Rosy asked.

“Well, we should probably put all of this food somewhere at least until we find that it’s a good time to give it to the orphanage,” Hoops explained to her.

“Okay, but where?” Rosy asked.

“Hmm…” Hoops said as he thought to himself. “Well that depends, where are we right now in this sewer system?” Hoops asked.

“Well, i’m actually not entirely sure,” Rosy responded. “However, if we climbed out of here through one of the manholes or a warp pipe we could find that out,” Rosy continued.

“Alright, how about this one then?” Hoops asked, pointing at a manhole above them.

“Well doesn’t hurt to check atleast,” Rosy inputted, following Hoops as the latter climbed the ladder leading to the way out.

“Ow!” Hoops exclaimed.

“What happened Hoops?” Rosy asked.

“Bumped my head on this thing…” Hoops replied, annoyed.

Berry gave input, sounding embarrassed with Hoops’ mistake.

“Hoops...you know your supposed to push it to get it open correct?” Rosy asked.

“Obviously…” Hoops responded, then pushing on it to get it open.

After opening it, Hoops peaked out and took a look around the outside of it, seeing the area they were in was rather familiar…

“Hey guys...we’re right below our neighborhood!” Hoops informed the others, signaling them to follow him up.

“As i say, checking always helps out,” Rosy stated, as she climbed up the ladder.

As she climbed up however, she accidently dropped a piece of fruit, which landed next to Berry, who picked it up and was about to put it in his mouth.

“Berry! Don’t eat that!” Rosy sternly told Berry.

Berry acknowledged them, stopping what they were doing in the process.

“We haven’t paid for this stuff yet, and if we’re caught doing anything with it when we haven’t paid for it, do you realize what could happen?” Rosy continued telling them.

Berry felt that they should listen to them, so they abstained from eating the fruit due to that.

After the two had made it out of the sewer along with Hoops, they shut off the manhole and talked out what to do now.

“So what should we do?” Rosy asked.

“I’m thinking we head to our house, and hide the food in there until we have an explanation ready for Team S.M.B.X and Mosaic,” Hoops told them.

“Hmm, I think that could work,” Rosy replied.

In which Berry agreed as well.

“Alright, now follow me, I know where it is,” Hoops replied, leading the way.

The three eventually made their way to the acre of land in which they house stood, only to remember an unthankful detail.

“Umm Hoops, I actually just thought of something,” Rosy stated.

“Which is?” Hoops asked.

“Well, do we actually have a way to get inside?” Rosy stated.

“Oh, umm, well…” Hoops began to stutter.

“I know we have only two keys to the house,” Rosy started to analyze. “Mosaic has one key, but he’s not here right now so we can’t ask him about it. And the other one, I believe me and you share it?” Rosy continued.

“Oh yeah, we do both share a key.” Hoops replied. “Unfortunately…” he then added under his breath.

“I heard that…” Rosy mentioned.

Hoops, ignoring them, continued. “Anyway, I don’t have it, do you have it?” Hoops then asked.

“I don’t remember bringing it this morning,” Rosy replied.

Hoops sighed in disappointment. “Of course…” he then stated. “Well I guess we could just use the key under the mat,” Hoops then stated.

Berry gave input, surprised to hear this.

“There’s a key under the mat?” Rosy asked, sounding shocked.

“Yeah, i had suggested getting one in case of emergencies,” Hoops explained.

This compelled Rosy to look underneath the mat, where they indeed found a shiny gold key.

“Huh, that’s pretty convenient…” Rosy stated aloud seeing this. “There’s however a problem with doing this,” Rosy began to add.

“What’s the problem with it?” Hoops asked.

“Well, it’s bad to leave this key out here because if someone found it, they would be able to break into our house and take whatever they wanted,” Rosy explained.

“It’s hidden in a spot that i doubt a burglar would look though, don’t see how that’s much of a problem,” Hoops replied.

“Yeah, it’s not likely, but it could still happen, so we should make sure we stay cautious about that,” Rosy explained. “But anyway, let’s head inside now,” Rosy then stated, changing the subject.

The three went inside with the food, closing the door behind them.

Later…

V: Discussion & Solution

Mosaic and Peach had made their way to the former’s house to see if they’d find the other three there and up to the doormat at the front of the door.

“Now that we’re here Mosaic, we should knock to see if their inside,” Peach suggested.

“That would be logical,” Mosaic replied, then giving the door a knock and waiting for an answer.

A bit of time passes, and the door props open, Mosaic’s knock having had been heard.

“O-Oh! Hey there Mosaic!” the answerer, being Hoops said upon seeing them nervously.

“So you were here Hoops!” Mosaic replied. “Are Berry and Rosy here too?” Mosaic asked.

“Ah, uh...yeah. They are,” Hoops answered.

“That’s great, could you have them come over here?” Peach asked. “We wanted to talk with you three about a couple of things,” Peach explained.

“...I...I see,” Hoops responded. “I’ll go get them...umm...you guys can come inside,” Hoops continued, then running up the stairs to the two’s room to get them.

Inside the two’s room, they were in the middle of a random discussion.

“And that’s why i’m contemplating being more fashionable past this bow someday,” Rosy said to Berry.

Berry understood, however, due to the length Rosy went on for, asked if she really had to go on for that long.

“I suppose i could have been a bit shorter,” Rosy replied.

The two suddenly hear a knock, so Rosy opens it up, seeing it’s Hoops.

“Guys...they're here!” Hoops informed them.

“Who? Do you mean…” Rosy began to ask.

“Mosaic and Peach!” Hoops answered.

“Oh no, what do we tell them?” Rosy thought aloud, unsure what do.

“I think...we shouldn’t mention it yet and try to act casual for now,” Hoops suggested.

“Good thinking,” Rosy replied.

Berry nodded in agreement shortly after.

“Now, let’s go have our chat with them, they wanted to discuss ‘a couple things’ with us as they said,” Hoops informed. “Come on,” Hoops then stated as he gave a hand sign and turned around, making his way out of the room, having the two follow him down the steps.

The three made their way downstairs into the living room, where Mosaic and Peach had been sitting on the sofa, waiting for them.

“Oh, so you now that you’ve brought them down here, I presume you’re all ready to talk?” Mosaic asked them.

“I...suppose,” Hoops responded, attempting to act natural, then giving Rosy and Berry a sign to do the same.

“That’s great, do you guys want to take a seat?” Peach asked in response.

“Nah, we’re good,” Hoops said.

Rosy didn’t approve. “Hey, I didn’t-” they began.

“Shh, that’s not necessary,” Hoops interrupted, whispering to her.

Rosy just sighed, as she preferred to express herself on matters but didn’t continue on it not considering it a big deal.

“Okay, so basically, I wanted to ask you guys a couple of questions,” Mosaic began. “First off, I wanted to ask you guys, umm...where did you slip off to yesterday?” he then asked. “Last I saw you guys, you said you wanted to look around Peach’s castle, but you guys never attended the meeting, what were you doing?” Mosaic questioned.

Hoops was hesitant to respond as he didn’t know how he should go about telling them what they were doing in a way that didn’t sound off, and went with the one of the first things he thought of.

“Well umm, we sorta overheard you guys talking about the food problem the orphanage was having, so we went out to get some food to provide for them,” He told them.

Upon hearing his answer, Mosaic had a bad feeling overtake him as displayed by his change in expression, then looking over at Peach, whom also looked over at him.

“I really...REALLY hope this is just a coincidence…” Mosaic whispered to Peach.

“Are you suggesting that THEY could have…” Peach began to question.

“I hope not…” Mosaic replied.

Putting it aside for the time being, Mosaic moved on to his next question.

“Okay, so now I wanted to ask you guys,” Mosaic continued. “Are you guys aware that supposedly there are thieves on the loose at the moment?” he asked them.

Hoops shuddered a bit when he finished, but though nervous, responded. “N-No, we hadn’t known that I believe…” Hoops replied.

“This is bad…” Mosaic whispered further to Peach.

“Should we go that route and ask that?” Peach asked.

“I feel like at this point it’s the best option,” Mosaic replied. “Alright well I wanted to ask,” Mosaic continued, turning his attention back to Hoops, Rosy and Berry. “Did you know that these thieves stole food supposedly?” Mosaic asked them.

“R-Really!?” Hoops panickingly replied.

Seeing his reaction, Mosaic asked Hoops a question. “Hoops...where did you guys get this food?” He asked him.

“W-Well, umm...umm...we found it?” Hoops tried to answer.

Mosaic sighed in response and asked another question. “Where did you guys really get it?” he asked.

Hoops looked over at Rosy and Berry, and through facial expressions alone, they agreed that they knew what they had to tell them.

“W...We...We stole it…” Hoops hesitantly told Mosaic.

Mosaic expressed disappointment upon hearing his answer and talks it out with him. “Hoops...i know you, Rosy and Berry had wanted to get food for the orphanage, but stealing is really not the way to go in any circumstance…” Mosaic began to explain to him.

“I couldn’t really think of another way considering the three of us had no money directly on us…” Hoops explained.

“Hoops, if you three had stayed behind, you’d have realized that we did come up with a solution on the food issue,” Mosaic replied.

“O...Oh...you guys came up with something?” Hoops asked, a bit remorseful.

“Yeah, we’re going to ask the Mushroom Kingdom’s residents for food donations and state to them what our goal is regarding it,.” Mosaic continued explaining.

“I...I hadn’t known...We hadn’t known…” Hoops replied, still feeling bad.

“Hey Mosaic, I realized something,” Peach chimed in.

“What was it Peach?” Mosaic asked.

“They could still return the food if none of it’s been eaten or opened,” Peach explained “which it hasn't, right Hoops?” Peach then asked him.

“Oh no, I don’t believe it has,” Hoops replied.

“Well then it’s simple, you guys just return the food and can apologize to each of the people you took the food from and promise to never do it again alright?” Peach proposed.

“If it’ll get us out of trouble, I think we could do that…” Hoops replied.

“You’re not going to get us in trouble right Peach?” Rosy asked.

“If you three simply return the food to their respective owners, I won’t,” Peach answered.

“Then this should all work out,” Hoops replied. “Rosy, Berry, let’s get that grub returned,” Hoops told them.

“Agreed,” Rosy stated, which Berry did the same in Yoshi.

VI: Closure

Later that day…

After Hoops, Berry and Rosy had returned the food to each of their respective owners, they along with Mosaic decided to watch the current news broadcast, in which the following was broadcasted:

“This just in, the culprits of the recent thefts of local food shops have been found, the culprits were none other than three of our well known and beloved heroes, Hoops the Hoopster, Rosy the Porcopo, and Berry the Yoshi, still a baby no less,” The speaker began. “It seems however that their motives held no malicious intent, though their actions were a crime, they wished to help the Mushroom Kingdom orphanage, whom has been experiencing a food shortage lately,” the speaker explained.

“Oh geez, we’re on the news,” Hoops commented.

“Once they realized the error of their ways, the three returned all of the stolen food as it was, untouched, unopened, uneaten, so the police force, as also favored by our own Princess Peach Toadstool, agreed to not press charges against them. As they also pledged that they’d never do this again,” the speaker continued.

“That’s a relief,” Rosy inputted.

“In others news, the proposed solution to the orphanage’s food shortages has not worked all that well,” The speaker continued. “The orphanage has only received two donations of food which will not cut it according to them” they continued.

Berry didn’t like the sound of that based on the response in their language.

“Team S.M.B.X is looking into finding someone who can provide the necessary funds so that solving this shortage may be a success,” The speaker informed. “That’s all for now, tune in later for more updates on the current status on the Mushroom Orphanage and more,” The speaker finished.

“Phew, nice to know that we’re not going to get locked up for what happened,” Hoops stated aloud.

“Yeah, I agree,” Rosy added, which Berry did as well.

“While I’m as glad as you guys are that your not getting charges for this,” Mosaic began. “Please, and let me emphasize this, DO NOT, GET, IN THE HABIT, OF DOING THIS KIND OF STUFF,” Mosaic firmly told the three. “You guys could have easily gotten arrested if you had been caught doing any of this,” Mosaic explained.

“We’ll be sure on that,” Rosy replied.

Berry agreed in their language shortly after Rosy’s reply.

“Mosaic, there’s no need to worry, I’ve learned my lesson at this point,” Hoops began to respond. “I feel that as long as I and we all remember this day, we won’t ever have a situation where any of us get arrested,” Hoops stated with confidence.

“Well Hoops, be sure you stand by that…” Mosaic replied.


“With their problems solved, another conflict bit the dust. However, though they didn’t consider it now, they still had a problem on their hands. What would they do to solve the food shortage the orphanage still had? What daring adventures or conflict would the Mosaic Group and Co. take on next? You will have all of your answers...in time.

Next Time...Chapter 6: Sporty Sass

[PersonNamedUser]

Yeah...sorry for the wait...wanna keep it simple so you can just get to reading...

Chapter 6: Sporty Sass: show

“It had been a couple mere days since The Mosaic Group gave the frame to Prof. E Gadd. It was morning and Mosaic and his group didn’t have any plans for the day, and therefore, he made the decision of checking up on Prof. E Gadd to see how his research was going.”

I: Invitational

“Hey there E. Gadd, me and the group had nothing planned today,” Mosaic stated through his phone. “So I figured today would be a good time to check...how is your research on that thing I gave you the other day going?”

“Heh, well youngster, sorry to tell you, but I have yet to make any concrete deductions on it, however, I may be on to something,” E Gadd answered.

“Really? What exactly?”

“Well, that round thingamajig you and your group found appears to be rather old.”

“I sorta figured that it was considering it’s condition, And did you find anything else about it?”

“Didn’t find much else out yet sorry to say chap.”

“Ah...I understand, well, thanks for telling me how your research has been going, see you another time.”

“And I’ll see you another time chap, so long!”

Upon hearing his reply, Mosaic hung up.

Afterwards, Mosaic went over to his bed, and laid across it, staring at the ceiling, and began to talk among himself.

“Hmm, considering E Gadd hasn’t found anything, it’s 10 o’clock in the morning and nobody’s bothered me either on the phone or in person, looks like I’ll finally be able to relax today,” Mosaic said to himself. “Yep...I’ll finally be able to rest...not being bothered by anyone...absolutely no one at all…”

As Mosaic continued to ramble, he slowly closed his eyelids, enjoying the silence.

…

…

Suddenly, after just a few seconds, Mosaic’s phone began to ring. Mosaic, hearing this opened his eyes back up and sighed, a bit annoyed.

“Or not…” Mosaic stated. “May as well see who it is I guess.”

As such, Mosaic picked up the phone and hit the “answer” button.

“Hello?” Mosaic asked.

“Um, isssssss thissssss Mosssaic?” the voice on the other end asked.

Upon hearing the caller’s voice, he recognized them immediately.

“Ah! Yes it is, hey there Glow! Haven’t seen you for a couple days,” Mosaic responded.

“And greetingssss to you Mossssaic,” Glow replied. “Now, I wanted to ask,” he continued. “Do you remember going to that place in Dinosssssaur land one time called Dino Ssssstadium?”

“Hey...I think I do recall going to a place called that one time.”

“Well, assssssss it turnssssss out, they’re going to be having a game over there today.”

“Hm, so which sport are they going to be playing over there?”

“From what I heard, they’re going to be playing ssssssoccer over there.”

“I see, and who’s competing?”

“Well, I’m not entirely sure, but I think we’ll sssssssee a ccccertain 'familiar someone’ there,” Glow answered. “And I guessssss I should jussssssst get to point now,” Glow continued. “Do you and the othersssssss want to go to it?”

“Huh, let me think for a second,” Mosaic responded, then thinking for a bit. “You know, I think that'd be a fun activity for the four of us to go to."

“Really? Great!”

“Now, I'm gonna put you on hold to check with the others to make sure they’re okay with it,”

“Of courssssssse.”

After he finished the discussion, Mosaic hurried down the stairs to inform the others. When he arrived at the bottom, he saw the three in the living room, Hoops on the floor, gamepad in hand, while Rosy and Berry sat on the sofa, each holding a white game remote. The three of them were playing the Wii U.

“Hey, guys, I wanted to talk,” Mosaic announced, interrupting their playing session.

Hearing his buddy, Hoops clicked the small white house shaped icon on the handheld and turned his attention over to him.

“Oh? What’s it about Mosaic?” Hoops asked.

“So basically just now, a certain fire breathing friendly neighborhood reptile just gave me a call.”

“You mean...Glow right?” Rosy asked.

“Yeah, him,” Mosaic began to answer. “He just told me over the phone that they’re going to have a soccer game at the stadium in Dinosaur Land,” Mosaic explained. “And as such, that brings me to my question: do you guys want to go to it?”

“Sure why not?” both Hoops and Rosy said simultaneously.

“Jinx! You owe me-” Hoops began.

“A container of nail polish.”

“Dang it…”

Berry gave his personal opinion, not sounding the most agreeable on going.

“You wanted to stay to play Mario Kart?” Rosy asked Berry, which Berry confirmed.

“Well Berry, the issue sorta is that all three of us want to go and I swear I've just been over why leaving you here alone is a bad idea,” Hoops explained.

Berry, though hesitant to agree, understood him.

“And Berry, you three have been playing all morning,” Mosaic began to point out. “and playing video games too much is bad for your eyes,” Mosaic continued to lecture.

“Oh? When did you find that out Mosaic?” Rosy asked.

“...nothing you need to know about...” Mosaic embarrassingly responded. “But anyways Berry,” Mosaic resumed. “You guys should shut that off and collect your things so we can get ready.”

Berry gave a response accepting his direction.

As such Hoops shut the console off and the three began making their way over and up the stairs to get ready.

“Hey, they accepted,” Mosaic started off in his return call to Glow.

“They did? That’ssssss great!”

“We should be there in about an hour,” Mosaic informed. “So we’ll see you there.”

“Alright, I’ll sssssssssssee you around,” Glow replied, then hung up.

After finishing preparations, the group made their way south of the house, recalling there being a warp pipe heading to Dinosaur Land there. After a short stroll down the southern path they make it to the pipe. Just as they’re about to enter, Hoops asked Mosaic a question.

“So, you sure this will take us to Donut Plains?”

“I was taken down here once by Glow when we went to this same stadium a few months ago, so it should definitely take us there.”

“Oh, then what are we waiting for?” Hoops rhetorically stated, then made his way into the pipe, in which the others followed suit.

The four emerged on the other side of the pipe one by one, then observing the surrounding scenery.

The atmosphere of the area was much like that of how Mushroom Plains looked, but with a few differences. Like Mushroom Plains, it was lush and green, had ? blocks and bricks in various places high and low, and many pipes of vibrant, diverse colors. Unlike Mushroom Plains however, it also in distant spots had several sets of rolling hills and the occasional bush, lush with yoshi berries. The Mosaic Group was in the Donut Plains.

“So Mosaic, would you mind leading the way?” Hoops asked his buddy. “Me, Berry, and i’m pretty sure Rosy haven’t been here too many times so I'm pretty you’d know the way better.”

“To be honest, I haven’t been here too many times either,” Mosaic explained. “But I do remember going north after going through this pipe, so we should try going off my memory.”

“Haven’t you said before your memory is bad?” Hoops pointed out.

“Well, SOMETIMES it is, not all the time though.”

“Fair enough.”

and as such, he and the group made their way up north.

II: Gathering

They traveled north for awhile, and now were not too far from the stadium. Along the way they had gotten a bag of donuts from a vender and were each munching on one of the circular pastries.

“Good that they actually had donuts here,” Hoops stated.

“Oh? Why?” Mosaic asked somewhat confused.

“Because I would’ve made a petition to sue the people who named this place if there weren’t any for false advertising.”

Berry asked something in response.

“How many signatures would I have gotten? At least four.”

“Uh, who would they have been from?” Mosaic asked.

“They’d of course be from you, Rosy, Berry and-”

“Hey guys, I see the stadium,” Rosy interrupted. “And there seems to be a large crowd gathered there.”

As such, Hoops postponed his chatter and took a look in Rosy’s direction along with Mosaic and Berry. The crowd consisted mainly of Yoshis, Birdos, the occasional toad, and dinosaur-like dragon creatures.

Said creatures, like Birdos, had a lot of similarities biologically to Yoshis. they stood bipedally and generally wore shoes on their feet like them, but past that, the differences were numerous, though not to the extent of Birdos. Their underbellies were orange and striped, with their rest of their bodies being primarily blue, red, or purple in most cases. Other notable traits included their small horn, wings, and spikes that ran along their tail. Their horn and spikes were both short and pointed, and their wings were too small to fly with, and as such, these features didn’t serve much purpose past aesthetic. These dinosaur-like dragons were known as Rexes.

“Would your fourth signature have been yourself?” Mosaic asked.

“Maybe…” Hoops replied.

“Figured…” Mosaic responded. “Now let’s get to the stadium and see what the crowd is doing outside like this,” Mosaic then continued.

As such, the four made their way over to the crowd around the stadium, once they closed their gap from them, they stopped.

They then began to survey the crowd a bit, as they did so they noticed that, to their surprise, all of Team S.M.B.X was there, and had Yoshi with them.

“Hey, Mario!” Mosaic recognizing him called out.

Mario noticed him and gave him a wave, which got the attention of the rest of the group and afterwards the Mosaic Group made their way over to them.

“So how did you guys know this was going on? Were you called about it?” Mosaic asked Mario.

“Indeed we-a were,” Mario replied. “I got a call over the phone about it from-a Glow, and he filled me in on-a it,” Mario began to explain. “And then I-a told Luigi about it, and then we-a called Peach and Toad about, and as I’d presume, they told-a Link about it,” Mario explained.

Noticing a detail missing in his explanation, Mosaic asked a question.

“How did Yoshi find out about the game exactly?” Mosaic asked.

“It’s-a funny, we hadn’t actually thought about inviting him, but we-a ran into him on our way-a here, so just decide to-a bring him along,” Mario explained.

“Huh, I see,” Mosaic replied.

“Hmm...now I have someone to mess with…” Hoops said quietly to himself.

“What was that Hoops?” Rosy asked.

“Oh, umm...nothing…” Hoops dishonestly responded.

Yoshi then looks over, and eyes the bag Mosaic was still holding hungrily, in which Mosaic noticed.

“You want one?” Mosaic offered, taking a frosted one out of the bag and preparing to throw to him one.

Yoshi gives a sign that he does, and as such Mosaic throws him it and he catches it in his mouth.

“So...why’s everyone waiting out here and not in the stadium yet?” Rosy asked.

“Well, the entrance is-a locked, and nobody here has the-a key, so we’ve all been waiting here for someone that has a key to come and open it,” Mario answered.

“I hope someone arrives soon, we don’t have all day,” Peach added to the conversation.

“So here’s the stadium...” someone spoke in a distant conversation

“Yeah, but what’ssssss with the large crowd there? it usually issssssssn’t like thisssssss.”

“Hey...are those voices who’s I think they are?” Mosaic stated.

“I suppose you could say that it’s quite unusual that they’re...hoarding the entrance?”

“...That’sssss sssssso bad…”

“Sorry, guess i’m a bit rusty today,”

“I think it is,” Rosy stated.

The group then looked in the direction they heard the voices coming from, finding that they were indeed who they thought, being Glow and Beryl.

“Glow! Beryl!” Rosy shouted to them to get their attention, in which Glow looked her direction.

“Would you look at that, it’ssssss Mosaic and the others,” Glow informed Beryl, having noticed them as well.

“Hey you’re right…” Beryl replied. “How did they get here before us I wonder?” Beryl then stated.

“Peculiar question,” Glow responded. “But hey, let’sssss go chat with them,” Glow suggested, and as such the two made their way to them. “Hey there you guyssssssss, how’ssssss it been?”

“Well, it’d say we’ve been-a good!” Mario started off.

“Er, minus err, umm, every-athing,” Luigi inputted.

“My guess is that you’ve been flight over fight like usual am I right?” Beryl asked.

“I...guess-a so,” Luigi responded.

“If only he knew just how ‘flighty’ Luigi was that day on the flagship…” Mosaic thought to himself.

“Yeah...I’d say that the Mario Brothers’ accounting has been...accurate for the most part…” Peach said, tripping on her words a bit being a bit nervous around Glow herself.

“Other than the fact that we, kinda, are trying to solve a problem,” Toad joined the discussion with.

“Oh? Do you mean the problem with mushroom orphanage?” Glow asked.

“...Yes actually, how’d you know?” Toad said, pausing a moment.

“Heard it from the newssssss,” Glow answered.

“Oh…” Toad replied.

Link and Yoshi however didn’t have many comments regarding Glow and Beryl showing up since neither knew the two much at all other than a couple instances, the crowd shortly after however then took notice of Glow and Beryl’s presence and a specific yoshi called out to them.

“Hey mates! Look who it is! Glow and Beryl!" the yoshi called out, which seemed to get the crowd pumped, with them cheering.

“Does the crowd know Glow and Beryl or something?” Mosaic asked.

“I’d ask Yoshi,” Peach suggested.

“Okay,” Mosaic responded, then proceeding with Peach’s suggestion. “Yoshi, does the crowd here know Glow and Beryl?” he asked.

Yoshi responded.

“Could someone translate?” Mosaic asked.

“He said ‘I guess they do, though I haven’t seen them too much’,” Hoops translated.

“Ah, thanks Hoops,” Mosaic replied.

“Hey Slippy, we’ve been waiting here awhile,” The jersied Yoshi continued in reference to Glow. “Have you seen your buddy along with his feathered friend today?” The Yoshi then asked.

“Oh? Are you referring to Ssssstriker and Elemental?” Glow asked.

“I am,” The yoshi answered. “I’m asking because, not only is he one of the only ones with a key, but he and his friend are basically our two key players if we want to win, being the best on our team,” the yoshi continued to explain. “And I hope they get here soon, this ain’t like them,” the Yoshi finished.

“Yeah, i’d called this situation to be a real…’Striker’, eh?” Beryl said, with the crowd finding a bit of humor in it.

“Striker...and Elemental…” Link said quietly to himself. “Isn’t Striker that rex I just meant a couple months ago that seems to be practically sport obsessed?” Link then asked Mosaic.

“Yep, that’s him,” Mosaic replied.

“Thought so,” Link reacted. “Now, about Elemental, I don’t think I remember as much about her, think you can fill me in a bit on her?” Link asked.

“I think Rosy or Peach should know more than I do,” Mosaic answered.

“I see,” Link responded. “Rosy, what do you remember about Elemental?” he then asked her.

“Well I do know that she’s an Ostro Striker befriended at some point,” Rosy answered.

“Ostros? Those pink road runner creatures we’ve encountered in subcon time to time?” Link asked.

“I’d say they look more like ostriches, but yeah, those,” Rosy replied. “But in Elemental’s case I recall her feathers are black,” Rosy continued.

“So we’re waiting here for them to start the game huh?” Link asked.

“That, or if sssssomeone else with a key sssssuch asssssss the manager were to show up, we’re waiting here in the meantime,” Glow explained.

“Alright then…” Link replied.

“And Mosssssaic there’ssssss sssssssomething I wanted to tell you while I can,” Glow began.

“Ah? And what was it exactly? Is it about Striker and Elemental?” Mosaic asked.

“Yeah, when the two of them show up, you and the othersssss should put away your donuts,” Glow explained.

“Huh? Is there any specific reason?” Mosaic questioned.

“Well, you know how Ssssstriker is when it comessssss to junk food correct?” Glow asked.

“Oh yeah you’re right!” Mosaic exclaimed, realizing it. “I’ll try to remember when he gets here.”

“Hey guys...I see someone...or two in the distance…” Beryl informed the crowd.

As such the crowd looked in the direction Beryl was facing, seeing that they were making their way over quickly.

“Hey...that kinda looksssss like-”

“Look out!” one of the two shouted, and such the crowd quickly made way for them.

One of the two that had arrived was a rex. Said rex had a green body and eyes shaded amber, unlike the common color of a rex. This rex in particular however was wearing an outfit, being a jersey and shorts, which were blue and yellow respectively.

This rex was also, was riding on something, or more specifically, someone.

It was a large ostrich-like bird creature. it’s full body other than it’s legs and beak were covered in feathers, in most cases pink, with the unfeathered parts both being yellow in color. It was an Ostro.

This wasn’t just any ostro however, this one had black feathers, eyes violet as amethyst and wore a pendant with a gold chain and a mystic purple gemstone attached to it.

This Rex and Ostro were Striker and Elemental respectively.

“Elemental...you know you could have slowed down a bit, it’s fortunate no one was knocked down,” Striker lectured.

“Hey bud, at least our abrupt entrance is all that happened,” Elemental rebutted with a bit of attitude. “And hey, I didn’t use my pendent to shock them or anything like that, so that’s something,” Elemental continued.

“Hey regardless, their arrival was still quite...shocking, right Glow?” Beryl whispered to Glow.

“Yep…” Glow agreed.

“Hey! Looks like our top players finally made it!” The yoshi from before shouted aloud, in which the crowd reacted with a cheer.

Striker at this point had taken notice of Glow and got off of Elemental’s back to greet him.

“Hey buddy! Glad to see you!” Striker eagerly shouted to him, then embracing him with a big hug.

“Irk! Ss-Sstriker, y-you’re sss-sssqueezing me,” Glow exclaimed.

“Oh,”-he said as he began to release his grip on him-”Sorry about that bud,” Striker apologized.

“Yeah, I’d agree on that,” Elemental commented.

“Oh, umm...hi there Elemental,” Glow stated, blushing a bit as he said it. “Umm, why were you two late exxxactly?” he then asked.

“Oh, you know, we were just-”

“I think we should tell everyone Elemental,” Striker interrupted.

“Ah okay,” Elemental responded, then clearing her throat as if she was preparing a speech, then speaking loudly. “When we were on the way here, the two of us were talking on the way, and STRIKER didn’t tell me what was up ahead, and I ended up getting tangled in a bunch of vines,” Elemental began to explain. “And not only did my pendent get tangled up not letting me just burn the stupid thing, but Striker tried to get me out for awhile, but nothing worked…” she continued. “We then got into a debate about our situation and I was about ready to tell Striker to go find someone to help me, but then-”

“Er, how did you get out?” Beryl asked, his body converting to a purple tone.

“I was getting to that…” Elemental replied unamused. “Anyway, I was fed up with being stuck, but then someone showed up,” Elemental continued. “It was some rex wearing a green robe, not to mention he was green himself…” Elemental revealed.

“That guy’s about...a week and a half early for St. Fungus Day it sounds like…” Toad commented quietly.

“He asked me and Striker to close our eyes, and that he’d get me out, we did, and well, he did what claimed he would,” Elemental explained.

“I’d say that’s pretty accurate to what happened,” Striker added. “And afterwards, he asked us for directions to Mushroom Plains, so in a way to return the favor, we told him there should be a pipe south of him that goes there, and off he went,” Striker mentioned as well.

“Huh, interesting…” Mosaic responded.

“Wonder what that guy’s deal was…?” Hoops wondered.

“So you just-a ran into a minor inconvenience? That explains the-a delay,” Mario said.

“Yeah, it does...” Rosy stated.

The rest of Team S.M.B.X, Berry, Glow, and Beryl and the rest of the crowd then each followed with their opinions as well, saying similar things.

Striker then took notice of Team S.M.B.X and started a bit of discussion with them.

“Hey there Mario, how’s it’s been?” he started.

As they talked, Mosaic considered now to be a good time to hide the donuts, telling the others to do the same, but panicking, hastily hid them in his hat.

“Well, we’ve been doing the-a usual, you know, adventuring, fighting, making sure the-a princess isn’t captured for the gazillionth time…” Mario responded.

“Hey!” Peach remarked in distaste to Mario’s comment.

“We still need to be-a onlook for-a that,” Mario rebutted. “For all we-a know, you could get kidnapped again in a day or-a two,” Mario then explained.

“I suppose so, but still…” Peach replied.

“Speaking of, how about your other friends, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and...what’s his name?” Striker asked.

“If you mean-a Link, he and the others are doing-a well too,” Mario answered.

“Good to hear,” Striker replied. “And you Yoshi?” Striker then asked.

Yoshi gave a response, which Striker presumed signified that he’s good.

“And now we have Mosaic and his crew, what have you guys been doing?” Striker then stated, making his way over to them.

Mosaic get anxious due to what he’s hiding, but begins to make conversation.

“Well...we’ve been doing similar things to Team S.M.B.X,” Mosaic began. “We just went exploring inside this dusty, old pyramid the other day,”

“Glad to hear you and your crew have atleast been active and haven’t been just cooped up indoors playing video games and eating junk food, which you haven’t been doing either of the two correct?”

“Of course not…”

“That’s the spirit!” Striker replied, giving Mosaic a hard slap on his head approvingly. as a result however, knocked his hat off, revealing the donut bag he was hiding, Striker noticed it and picked it up.

“Huh? What’s this?” Striker asked.

“Nothing…”

“Well, it isn’t nothing, it at the very least appears to be a paper bag,”

“True…”

“Huh, what’s in it…” Striker stated as he began to open it.

“Wait, don’t!” Mosaic said, however being too late, as he already saw the donuts inside the bag.

Seeing this, Striker didn’t seem mad at Mosaic, but simply said, “You don’t need these,” then hurling them to a nearby trash can like a basketball.

“No, No, don- aw,” Mosaic stuttered, before cutting himself off mid sentence realizing it was too late.

“Hey, it’s not something to be upset over, donuts aren’t good for you anyway, no nutritional value, alot of sugar…”

“Yeah...I know…” Mosaic cut him off.

“Hey Striker, you gonna open the door or what? We’ve been waiting,” Hoops pointed out.

“Sure thing ladybug buddy, I nearly forgot,” Striker replied as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a key.

“I’m not a ladybug…” Hoops stated unamused.

Either ignoring him or not hearing him, Striker then put the key into the slot and opened up the door, letting most of the people in the crowd, including Team S.M.B.X, The Mosaic Group, Glow, Beryl and Yoshi in before he and Elemental went inside the stadium themselves, so that they could finally prepare for the game.

III: Good, Clean Fun

Later...

Striker, having prepared for the game before coming to the stadium, as he practically always had a sports outfit on, sat on a bench outside of the locker room, waiting on the rest of his team to prepare and chatted with Glow, Mosaic, Berry, Beryl, Hoops and Rosy.

“When it comes to specifics, what have you guys been doing?” Striker asked.

“Well, the other day, we found thisssss old pyramid over in sssssubcon and found thissss sssstrange artifact inssssside, asssssss Mosaic may have already mentioned,” Glow explained.

“Nice stuff,” Striker responded. “Do you have it right now?” Striker asked.

“Last I remembered, The Mosaic Group had it?” Beryl added.

“Actually, we gave it to this scientist or something named Prof. E. Gadd who told us he’d study it for us and get back to us on it,” Mosaic explained.

“Oh...Okay…” Beryl reacted.

“Also, the day before that, we stopped another invasion from that fool Bowser,” Hoops told Striker.

“Boy that guy doesn’t give up does he?” Striker replied.

“Yeah...will he ever learn?” Rosy wondered.

“Maybe someday,” Striker said. “But hey, even if his actions aren’t exactly good-willed, you gotta respect his persistence,” Striker also mentioned.

“Huh…” Mosaic responded.

“Oh, and I also forgot, just yesterday, we, or more specifically, Hoops almost got himself, me and Berry into trouble because of one of his extreme ideas,” Rosy then informed.

“He did? What happened?” Striker asked.

“He tried to have us steal food to give to the Mushroom Orphanage…” Rosy replied.

“Yeah…” Hoops admittingly assured.

“The Mushroom Orphanage? You mean those guys that we’re running this game for to boost the funds of?” Striker asked.

“Wait, that’s why you’re running the game? To boost the funds for the orphanage? And on such short notice too?” Mosaic asked.

“Yep…” Striker replied.

“Wow...if that’s isn’t a world record...I don’t know what is…” said Mosaic in disbelief. “On another note, what’s your team’s name again?” Mosaic asked, changing the subject.

“Well, we call ourselves the ‘Striking Dragons’” Striker answered.

“Is that because...your name is…-”

“Yesssss...I’d sssssay that’sssss obvious.”

“Hey, Striker wanted to ask while on the subject,” Rosy began. “Who is your team facing?” she asked.

“Well, we’re facing the-”

“Attention all contestants, the opening ceremony will commence in five minutes, please make your final preparations and make your way to the field, ” the loudspeaker announced.

“On second thought, you’ll see whom we’re facing out there,” Striker instead said.

“Huh, in that case, we should catch up with the others and go where they’re sitting,” Mosaic stated, in which he and the others made their way to the outside of the interior and to the many rows of seats that surrounded the playing field.

IV: Face Off Time

The Mosaic Group, Glow, and Beryl by then had found the rest of the group and took their seats alongside them, waiting for the game to begin.

As they waited, Mario decided to strike up some conversation.

“Alright you-a guys, place your-a bets now, who do you think the-a Striking Dragons are-a facing?”

“Well, it could be a team lead by Daisy,” Peach answered.

“True, it-a could,” Mario replied.

“Daisy? I’ve heard of her before, but have never met her in person as of yet,” Rosy added.

“Oh, she’s the-a princess of Sarasaland, a place you and the rest of the-a Mosaic Group may or may not have heard of,” Mario explained. “Maybe you and the-a others should visit there some-aday,” Mario added.

“Hmm...that’s not a bad idea, maybe we should sometime,” Mosaic responded.

“Well, I think the challengers are a team literally known as...‘The Challengers’!” Beryl added.

“...If someone actually named their team that, that’d have to be one of the most uncreative names I’ve heard…” Link added.

“I know right…” Beryl replied.

“Y’all have zero patience, we’ll hear the team name soon enough,” Hoops added in sarcastically.

“Guessssssssss you’re right…”

Right at that moment, a voice came in on the loudspeakers.

“Sorry to keep you all waiting! But we are now able to start the game!” A yoshi said on the loudspeaker, in which the crowd cheered in response.

“What’d I tell you?” Hoops told the group.

“I hear that you’re all eager to hear who’s competing in today’s game, so how about we get straight to the point and introduce the competitors?” The yoshi continued, then clearing his throat.

“Here they come…” Toad stated.

“In the left corner, a team with a clear sense of dedication, passion, and most importantly, teamwork, and a team record of thirty wins, seven losses, and a single draw,” The announcer continued. “give it up for...The Striking Dragons!”

As the crowd cheered, the team, consisting of Striker, Elemental, who had now dressed in blue soccer clothing, two yoshis, and behind them, a Chargin Chuck, a large, burly kind of koopa troopa whom wore white helmets with a blue and orange stripe, blue shoulder pads, red spiked cleats, and black shells, and had chubby, baby-like faces and small, squinting black eyes. All walked onto the field, waving at the crowd as they did so.

“Okay...and their opponents?” Mosaic commented.

“And now...the visitor team, carrying less experience, and not as impressive of a record, and having a rather...cocky leader and a team record of seven wins, eleven losses, and no draws...please welcome...The Gnarly Garlics!” The announcer finished.

“The Gnarly...Garlics? Wait a minute...I think I know who this is…” Mosaic began.

“Are you-a thinking who i’m-a thinking?” Mario interrupted. “Because based on that-a name…-”

“Based on that name they must call themselves the GG Gang for short?” Hoops interrupted.

Ignoring his comment, Mario continued. “Based on the-a name, I think I know it’s-a got to be because I remember my-a team playing against them in the semi-finals of the-a Striker Cup,”

“The Sssssssstriker Cup? Does Sssssstriker by any chanccccce have anything to do with that name?” Glow asked.

“It-a didn’t, however, I actually remember him participating in-a the cup as well,” Mario responded.

“I recall that hissssssss team didn’t win, but finished in the ssssssemi-finalsssssss,” Glow added.

“Not only-a that...but the circumstances were-a rather peculiar as well,” Mario replied.

“They were? What were they?” Mosaic asked, hearing this.

“You could-a ask Striker about it later, for now I’ll save you the-a explanation of whom I recall the Gnarly Garlics are, let you-a see for your-aselves, and watch the-a Striking Dragons woop their behinds,” Mario responded.

the members of the Gnarly Garlics made their way onto the field. Like Striker’s team, the Gnarly Garlics had a Chargin Chuck assisting them, wearing the same gear other than the helmet having black and red stripes as opposed to blue and orange. Along with this, there was also two birdos that assisted the team as well, each of them also wearing jerseys.

And finally, there was the team leaders themselves…being just who Mario had speculated they would be...Wario and Waluigi. However, both were not dressed in their usual attire, which in a number of ways was alot like his and Luigi’s of wearing overalls and an undershirt. Both were wearing a more sporty version of their regular outfits, being yellow and purple and several shades of purple respectively.

“Yep, just as I-a predicted...Wario and Waluigi…” Mario commented.

Acknowledging the crowd, Wario and Waluigi both did different actions. Waluigi waved his hands at them frantically. However, Wario acted alot more arrogantly, doing various prideful acting such as flexing and sticking two fingers up at the audience.

In general, the crowd booed the Gnarly Garlics.

“Wario...they-a...seem to hate us…” Waluigi told him.

“Who cares what the-a spectators think? Im-ma gonna win this thing and clobber these dinosaurs anyway!” Wario arrogantly responded.

“Er...We...” Waluigi reminded him.

“Am I a joke to you?” Elemental said under her breath, hearing them.

“I see no clear fan favorite today,” The announcer said. “Now, may both teams get into position for the opening kickoff?”

Within several minutes, both sides had fulfilled the announcer’s order. Striker and Wario went to kickoff positions as their respective teams’ captains, Elemental and Waluigi further back behind the positions of Striker and Wario respectively, the Yoshis and Birdos, while still around a meter, a bit closer by on either side of their captains, and the two charging chucks guarding either goalpost, and ontop of that, the referee had made their way to field as well, being a red rex in a dark blue jersey with a whistle.

Striker and Wario, as the team captains, stepped foward, with the former already holding a soccer ball and putting it in the middle of the field before going back so the two were equal distance.

“Alright teams, on your marks,” the referee began.

“Five...”

“Four…”

As the ref counted, both teams, as well as the crowd braced themselves.

“Three…”

“Two…-”

But then, at that moment, Wario ran forward and kicked the ball mid count, quickly being stopped by the ref, whom blow their whistle and chewed him out for a bit. Like the ref, the crowd also, was not amused by this.

Sighing, Mario then said, “Classic-a Wario...wants to play-a dirty before we’ve even began the-a game.”

After both teams got back into positions, the ref started from five once again.

“Ready…”

“Five…”

“Four…”

“Three…”

“Two…”

“One…”

Afterwards, the ref blew the whistle, and as such, the game commenced with Striker making the opening kick.

“And Striker grabs the ball!” the announcer commentated.

The chase was on, Striker dribbled the ball around, dodging the members of the Gnarly Garlic’s attempts to steal the ball, thanks to the passing it back and forth between himself and Elemental. though a Birdo briefly stole the ball after hitting Elemental with a red shell, a Yoshi on the Striking Dragons quickly took it back after slipping him up with a banana, then proceed to run it back to the Gnarly Garlics’ goal and kicking it past the goalie despite their attempt to block it, scoring the Striking Dragons a point.

Both teams got into kickoff position once again, and Striker got the ball first again. This time however, Waluigi managed to steal it from him and began to run to the Striking Dragons’ goal, however, one of the Yoshis stole it and quickly passed to Striker, whom passed to Elemental, whom managed to avoid both Wario and Birdo, but was sniped by a red shell from Waluigi by then, giving the chance to one of Birdos to snatch the ball and kick it to Wario, whom passed it to Waluigi.

However, before the ball could reach him, one of the Yoshis stole it and passed it to back to Elemental. Looking for a way to pick up her speed, Elemental looked for an item to use, and found a mushroom, which she quickly grabbed, giving her a brief speed boost and the capability to quickly zip past all attempts made to take the ball from her and kick it into the Gnarly Garlic’s goal, once again getting it past the chuck, that earning them another point.

The first half of the game in general continued heavily in favor of the Striking Dragons, with the announcer continuing to commentant it. At one point during the match, Striker was about to make a kick over the Gnarly Garlics straight into the goal to earn his team another point, however Waluigi stopped the ball.

The only problem however was how he went about doing it...he stopped the ball by catching it in his hands...

The ref upon noticing this blew the whistle and shouted “Foul play!” to Waluigi, mentioning to him that he and the rest of the team knows the consequence of this, and for their team to get into their positions.

Wario, Waluigi, the two birdos on the team and the Chargin Chuck guarding the goal as such all stood in front of the goal side by side in a line.

Berry asked a question in his language.

“What was that Berry?” Mosaic asked.

“He asked why they’re standing like that,” Rosy answered.

“Oh, Berry, it’sssssss becausssssse ssssssince Waluigi touched the ball with hissssss handsssss, the oppossssing team, in thisssss casssse being the Ssssssstriking Dragonsssssss get a free kick, and their allowed to try to block the goal by standing in front of it” Glow told Berry.

Berry understood Glow, and continued watching.

The Striking Dragons by then had decided on having Elemental kick the goal, and she easily kicked the ball over the Gnarly Garlics, earning the team their third point.

The rest of the first half of the game then continued in a similar fashion, in which the Striking Dragons continued to curbstomp the Gnarly Garlics, scoring two more points in the process.

As a Yoshi on Striker’s team was about to score a sixth point, the buzzer sounded, and the ref blew the whistle, signifying for both teams to cease their actions.

“It is now halftime!” The announcer said. “The score is now five to zero, things aren’t looking too good for the Gnarly Garlics, can they make a comeback in our second half? Find out after the break and some messages from our sponsor!”

V: Sponsored By...

Glow, Beryl, Hoops and Mosaic, it being halftime, took the chance to head to the snack bar and continued to discuss the game.

“Striker and his team are really getting their...points, across and showing the Gnarly Garlics what they’re all about I’d say!” Beryl stated.

“Indeed they are, the Gnarly Garlicsssss better sssstep up their game if they want a chanccccce at beating them or thissss isssss going to be a defeat for them by a landsssslide!” Glow responded.

“You mean it already isn’t?” Hoops added.

“Hmm...well…-”

“Hey guys, instead of talking, let’s hurry up and get our snacks, I wanna see what the Mushroom Orphanage has to say,” Mosaic interrupted.

As such of Mosaic’s statement, the group quickly decided on buying two large popcorn and about eight drinks and made their way back to their seats where they waited.

“For our next sponsor, we have the Mushroom Orphanage,” a voice said on the speakers, in which the crowd responded in awe. “It’s been having a food shortage as of late. when their drive they had sadly didn’t turn up many donations, they quickly looked for someone to sponsor them. Not just to further spread the word, but to raise funds so that they may support those in need and that have no place else to go,” the announcer continued. “So if you paid to show up to today’s game, thank you…and if you’re hearing this and haven’t contributed, please consider donating and making a difference today...”

“Wow...that was...quite touching from the announcer,” Rosy thought to herself. “Sometimes you really do forget the big picture of things and that sometimes our backgrounds aren’t so different after all...” Rosy continued. “Growing up in that kind of environment, without anyone to closely look after and care for you must be hard…I’m glad that Mosaic was able to get him out of being in that position, I can only imagine how he would have been growing up if he hadn’t...”

“Huh, you seem awfully quiet Rosy…” Hoops commented.

“Oh...I was just thinking to myself,” Rosy replied.

“About what? Your looks?” Hoops asked. “Wouldn’t surprise me to be honest.”

“Nah, something else, not that you’d care I’d imagine,” Rosy responded.

“And to that you’re probably right,” said Hoops.

VI: Playing Dirty

Meanwhile, in the Gnarly Garlics locker room, the Gnarly Garlics contemplated what their strategy should be.

“Er, Wario, what are we going to-a do? We’re going to-a lose if we don’t do a something,” Waluigi asked.

“Eh heh heh heh,” Wario laughed.

“I...don’t-a like how you’re-a laughing…” Waluigi responded.

“I thought something like this might have-a happened, so I came-a prepared,” Wario responded.

“...What do you-a mean, and why do I-a feel like I don’t want to-a know?” Waluigi thought aloud.

“These,” Wario answered, showing him two sets of rollerblades, both of which looked identical to their normal shoes, other than the fact that there were wheels hidden underneath.

“Er, emm, are we-a supposed to wear those? That’d be-a cheating!” Waluigi asked.

“So what if it’s-a cheating? We’re in this to win this! So join-a me, unless you want to-a lose?” Wario responded.

“Eh...o-akay…” Waluigi said hesitantly, taking the pair he gave him and replacing his currently worn pair with them.

By the time this all went on, both teams had made their preparations and halftime had ended, and both were on their way back to the field.

“And that ends the messages from our sponsors!” The speaker announced. “It is now time for the second half of the match of the Striking Dragons versus the Gnarly Garlics! The score at the moment is five to zero, Striking Dragons five, Gnarly Garlics zero, clearly the Striking Dragons have started off with a tremendous lead, however, can the Gnarly Garlics turn it around? Find out now in the kickoff in, three...two...one…play ball!” The announcer finished, with the ref blowing the whistle.

Wario, thanks in part due to the rollerblades hidden under his shoes get off an early lead, getting the ball at the kickoff and passing it to a Birdo. Like they had done in the first half, the Striking Dragons were already acting to retrieve the ball, with a Yoshi on the Birdo’s tail, however, Waluigi signaled the Birdo to give him the ball, which the Birdo managed to kick to him accordingly.

After obtaining it, he hurried for the goal, Elemental nearly stole the ball, but Waluigi quickly zipped around her because of his rollerblades, to her shock, then continuing over to the goal, which the Chargin Chuck was guarding, however, with a swift and carefully maneuvered kick, Waluigi got the ball past him, giving his team the point.

“And that’s the first goal made by the Gnarly Garlics!” the announced declared, with the announcer however not giving much of a reaction, and for the most part, booing this fact.

After reassembling for the next kickoff, once again the Gnarly Garlics got the ball, and it seemed that once again, they seemed to be doing really well. A birdo got the ball, and then passed it to Wario, whom passed it to Waluigi, whom passed it to the other Birdo, though a Yoshi tried to stop Waluigi’s pass to the Birdo, he fell on a banana peel placed on the ground by a Birdo earlier allowing the Birdo to receive the ball and dribble it about, only for them to get the ball stolen by the other Yoshi, whom saw Striker giving him a signal that he’s open, and gave a pass, however, as the ball was on the way to him, Wario slid in front of him, snatching the ball from under his nose, to Striker shock of him grabbing it so quickly.

Wario then ran the ball to the goal again, and gave it a hard kick.

Somehow...someway, he didn’t hit the goal, but hit the Chargin Chuck acting as the goalie right in the forehead, dazing him.

In part due to this, he moved away from the goal for a bit, which Wario used as a chance to score the Gnarly Garlics their second goal.

“Oh my stars! I can’t believe this! The Gnarly Garlics are starting to make a comeback and have made the score five to two! Will they keep it up? Or will the Striking Dragons defend their position?” the Yoshi announced stated.

“Wait, what in...how was Wario not signaled out by the ref?” Rosy asked.

“Well...unfortunately, that thing that Wario just-a did...it is-a completely legal…” Mario explained.

“...It’s allowed?” Rosy continued to question.

“Yeah, while we don’t-a see it often, there isn’t technically any-a rules against doing that in a match, seen it a couple-a of other times in the games I’ve participated-a in...” Mario explained.

“...I seriously don’t think that should be okay,” Rosy opinionated.

After next kickoff, in which Striker managed to get the ball this time around, he passed it around between himself and a Yoshi on the team, for once managing to dodge the Gnarly Garlics’ attempts to take the ball, but though they try to make a kick into the goal, they miss the mark and the goalie blocks the ball, then giving it a nearby Birdo, who began to dribble it, passing it to another Birdo, whom passed it to Waluigi, Waluigi however noticed a green shell coming his way and quickly gave it Wario, whom, noticing a mushroom on the ground, got a sneaky idea, like he typically did. He dribbled the ball about, and carefully using the rollerblades, slid towards the mushroom and grabbed it, boosting his speed, allowing him to quickly make his way towards the goal, in which he seemed to have something prepared.

“Why’d he stop?” Link asked.

“You’ll sssssssee, he’ssssss up to ssssssomething,” Glow answered.

Glow was right, Wario had begun dribbling the soccer a bunch really frantically between his feet until seemingly...electricity? Seemed to surround the soccer ball, in which he then jumped into the air and gave it a hard kick, sending the ball flying towards the goal practically like a meteor, making a yellow trail behind it.

The goalie was unable to block it, and it zipped right past them and into the goal, scoring the Gnarly Garlics not one, but TWO points as a result.

“This...this is insane!” The announcer began to say. “This is blasphemy! this is madness! this...is...incredible!” the announced then continued. “The Gnarly Garlics are making a comeback big time! If they keep this up, i’m afraid to say that the Striking Dragons may have to admit defeat here!”

“Hmm...something about the Gnarly Onions seems suspicious to me…” Hoops stated.

“Er, aren’t they called the Gnarly Garlicssssssss?” Glow asked.

“Yes, they are.”

Glow, hearing his answer, just didn’t question it.

“Clearly, with seven mintues still left on the clock, it is still anyone’s game here! So let’s all see how the remainder of this game pans out!” the announcer said.

Before everyone knew it, it was back to the action, the Striking Dragons had an early lead having grabbed the ball at the kickoff, however, Waluigi managed to get his hands on a starman, thanks to his period of invincibility, he easily stole the ball from Striker and ran it to the Striking Dragons’ goal and kicked it toward the goal, however, the ball being caught by the goalie and thrown to a Yoshi.

This was however was short-lived as not too long after, a Birdo managed to steal the ball from the Yoshi after throwing a red shell his way, picking up the ball underfoot, and quickly passing it to the other Birdo, who made another shot for the goal, getting it that time around.

“And with that the score is tied! It truly seems that with this, the Gnarly Garlics could make a comeback after all!” the announcer declared.

“Who’s side is the announcer on anyway? They’re not really making it easy to tell...” Toad stated.

Kickoff commenced, the ball was gotten by Wario, whom passed it to a Birdo, however, before said Birdo could get far, the ball was taken from them by a Yoshi who dribbled it for a bit and was able to maneuver around the Gnarly Garlics, but before he could make the goal, he was hit by a green shell from Waluigi, which gave the Birdo the chance to grab it and pass it to Wario. Wario, seeing the goal not too far from him, kicked it into the air, Elemental was the only one on her team near the goal at that given moment, and in panic about the Gnarly Garlics gaining the lead, without thinking, she caught the ball...with her wings.

“No…she didn’t...” Striker said as he facepalmed.

“Elemental...you know what happens now…into position with the rest of your team,” The ref told them.

“Oh-a no! Oh-a no! OH-A NO! Why-a now? Why-a now? Why so-a close to the game-sa’ end when they're’s-a only...”-Luigi began as he then checked how much time remained of the game-“less than a-a minute of the-a game remaining!?”

Glow sighed, then said, “That’ssssssss her for you...she doessssss have a tendenccccccccy to be the carelessssssssssss kind…”

“hopefully this doesn’t cost Striker and his team the game…” Peach said.

Like the Gnarly Garlics did earlier, the five members of Striker’s team all stood side by side to guard the goal.

Wario stepped forward to give the ball a kick, hitting it hard, right past the Striking Dragons, scoring themselves their sixth goal.

“And with that, in an unexpected turn of events, The Gnarly Garlics have gained the lead!” the announced declared. “With only forty-seven seconds left on the clock, will the Striking Dragons have to chance to turn this around? Or will the Gnarly Garlics take home the gold despite the Striking Dragons’ initial lead? Find out here and now!”

“Announcer...while I think you’re on our side, you’re not doing a good job showing that…” Toad commented.

Both teams got into positions for presumably the last time, before Striker made a statement.

“Timeout!” Striker told the ref.

“Huh, okay…” the ref responded, seemingly very accepting of him doing so.

“Eh? Lizard wants a-a break?” Wario questioned. “Agh, make it-a quick…”

“Okay guys, we need to discuss things for a second,” Striker told the others getting them into a circle along with their goalie.

“Umm...Striker, is this...about my mistake?” Elemental asked, not really willing to hear the answer.

“Well...somewhat,” Striker replied. “Elemental...I hate to say it, but your mistake, maybe, kinda, sorta, may cost the game.”

“Oh...if it does...sorry…” Elemental replied.

“It’s alright if it does, even though it’s kinda a bummer if we lose,” Striker responded. “So basically, considering how little time is left on the clock, i’m realizing if we want to beat the Gnarly Radishes-”

“The Gnarly Garlics?” a Yoshi on the team asked.

“Oh, yeah, forgot their name,” Striker answered. “The Gnarly Garlics, there’s something we’re going to have to do that’s a tad bit crazy.”

“Which is bud?” the Chargin Chuck asked.

“If we’re going to win and not just draw with them, I’m going to have to make...a superstar kick into the goal...and not miss it,” Striker explained.

“In under a minute...because we’ll totally make that in that amount of time…” Elemental, said, not so amusingly.

“Well...do you have any other ideas?” Striker asked Elemental.

“Well...no…not really...” Elemental responded.

The other members of the team shook their heads as well.

“Then that’s the plan we’re taking, ready?” Striker asked them.

Each member of the team gave their response, each signifying that they were.

“Are you all-a done holding hands around the campfire and ready to lose?” Wario impatiently asked.

“Right back atcha, and yes...I’d say we are…” Elemental responded.

“Then get-a over here…” Wario demanded.

The Striking Dragons did just that, and prepared for real for the final kickoff. The ref blew the whistle, and Striker managed to get the ball and began dribbling it, then seeing a mushroom on the ground, allowing him to quickly out run the Gnarly Garlics. He then passed it back and forth between himself and a Yoshi to throw them off and so that they couldn’t get the ball.

“This match is already-a over,” Wario stated, starting to skate over to the two of them in an attempt to snatch the ball away.

“Oh no you don’t…” Elemental stated, quickly looking around the field for a question mark printed cube containing a red or green shell, being lucky enough to find a red one on just the first cube. As such she hurled it Wario’s way, causing him to fall down.

“Thirty seconds remain! It looks like the Striking Dragons could turn this around, but now the question is, ‘Will they succeed’?” The announced narrated.

“What are you-a doing you nitwits? Stop them!” Wario shouted at his team members.

Before he even finished, they were already on their way to them to stop them from making the goal.

Despite that however, Striker and the Yoshi had made it in range of the goal. The Yoshi was about to pass to Striker so that they could go through with their plan, but before he could, a green shell came flying his way, causing him to drop the ball and knocking him down.

“Twenty-three seconds…” Mosaic thought to himself as he looked at the clock.

Striker rushed to grab the ball which had begun to roll to the corner of the field, however, under circumstances unbeknownst to him, Waluigi had managed to swipe it before him and had made a u-turn back to the opposing side of the field.

“Fifteen seconds remaining…” Rosy thought.

“We only have fifteen seconds left to play and Waluigi has the ball...face it Elemental, we’ve lost…” one of the Yoshis on the team said.

“Not if I can help it!” Elemental responded, opening another cube and finding banana peels inside.

She then threw them in the pathway of Waluigi, who, not seeing them, tripped over them and dropped the ball.

“Ten seconds remaining!” the announcer said. “Say it with me!”

“Ten!” the audience began to follow through.

“Nine!”

Elemental by then had gotten the ball and quickly passed it Striker.

“Eight!”

“Striker! Quickly! Wario and his team are gaining!” Elemental told him.

“Seven!”

“Six!”

Striker quickly ran in front of the goal and began, like Wario earlier, quickly dribbling the ball into the air, until sparks began emitting from it and a green aura surrounded it.

“Five!”

“Four!”

“Three!”

“Two!”

Realizing it was now or never, Striker made a jump for the ball and gave it his best shot. He gave the ball one last kick, and hoped for the best.

Missing by only an inch...the ball...slipped right past the goalie, and into the goal.

“One!”

And with that one action, despite it all, the Striking Dragons had ended the game with a score of them seven, Gnarly Garlics six.

“I can’t believe it! I don’t know how they keep pulling it off, but the Striking Dragons have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat!” the announcer declared, in which in response, the audience cheered.

Unhappy with this, Wario and Waluigi begin to have a temper tantrum of sorts.

“Oh come-a on!” Waluigi stated.

“...they don’t seem too happy about losing…” Link commented.

“Well...that’s-a classic Wario Bros for-a you...don’t-a know how to have good sportsmanship and accept an-a lose…” Mario replied.

“Either way, glad to see the Striking Dragons were able to clutch the win despite the odds being against them,” Mosaic said, giving his thoughts.

“Yeah, agreed,” Rosy added.

“Eh, that’s what these fools get, mess with the Bully, you get the horns, or in this case, mess with the Rex,” Hoops said.

VII: Despite It All

With the game over, the teams assembled in position for the closing ceremony, in which a distributor, the announcer, and a cameratoad had showed up to the center of the field.

After a speech from a yoshi dressed in a formal matter thanking both teams for giving the audience a great game and the like, he announced it being time to hand out the awards, he afterwards came down from the steps he stood on to give the Striking Dragons their ribbons, each of them having a golden shade and bold W imprinted on them.

“And here are some ribbons for you,” The Yoshi said, speaking to the Gnarly Garlics, handing each of them one.

“Eh?” Wario responded, shocked.

“Looks like we-a aren’t leaving empty handed after-” Waluigi stated, then stopping when he realized the ribbons had a P imprinted, were smaller in size, and blue in color. “Oh...participation awards…”

“Now, this is only a formality at this point, but Striker, Wario, please step forward and face one another,” the Yoshi then stated.

Striker accepted it just fine, but Wario was more resilient to doing so.

“What are they doing now?” Link asked Glow.

“Oh, it’sssss a formality that we have after each game here, we have both of the team leaderssssss, or in thissssss casssssse, captainssssss shake handsssss to show that they have no hard feelingsssss about the outcome and had a good time,” Glow explained to him.

“Ah, makes sense…” Link replied.

Begrudgingly, Wario complied with the wishes of the distributor and announcer and began to make his way over to Striker, but not thinking, forgot about the rollerblades on his shoes and slipped, exposing the bottom of his shoes in front of the camera, therefore broadcasting it to the audience, in which they gasped in response to what they saw.

“Yep! I called that something was up!” Hoops shouted aloud.

“Hey, you okay?” Striker asked Wario, about to help him up.

“Wait a minute...Striker, something is off about his shoes, let me take a look,” Elemental commented.

“Oh, sure thing.”

“So Wario, what are those things on your shoes?” Elemental asked.

Wario only stuttered in response.

“They seem to be small wheels. Oh wait, they are.”

“Wario...” The Yoshi that had been making announcements stated. “rollerblades are a big no-no here, you know better than to bring something like that along for how much your team has played here. Since you didn’t win however, that’ll save you the embarrassment of being confiscated of a victory award like another time. However, I’ll be confiscating your participation awards instead.”

“Meh, whatever,” Wario responded.

“And furthermore, as soon as i’m done with announcements, go to the locker room and gather your things, you’re suspended from playing any games on Dino Stadium for the next three months to think about what you did and maybe think twice before doing it again.”

“What!?” Wario replied, not amused.

“I apologize for the interruption,” the Yoshi then began. “but to continue, overall, despite it turning out one of our teams weren’t playing in an exactly honorable way, this game turned out to be quite the exciting experience, don’t you all agree?”

The audience shouted in agreement.

“Well, with all of that said and done, that ends tonight’s game, the exit is to your right, stay safe, and have a good night!” the Yoshi then finished, in which afterwards the crowd began to empty from the stands.

VIII: Separate Ways

By the time the game had ended and everyone was on their way out of the stadium, it had been six o’clock at night. Team S.M.B.X, The Mosaic Group, Yoshi, Glow, Beryl, Striker and Elemental had gathered outside of the stadium to discuss what their plans were for tonight, as well as tomorrow.

“So, you, Elemental, Glow and Beryl are planning to stay here for some aftergame practice?” Mosaic asked Striker.

“That’s the idea,” Striker answered.

“Well, stay safe, and don’t stay out for too long,” Rosy advised them. “And also, Beryl.”

“Yeah Rosy?” Beryl asked.

“You so missed a chance at a pun after what the announcer said at the end of the game,” she explained.

“Oh, really?” Beryl responded, starting to turn a purplish tone. “What could I have said?”

“Well...I’ll let you think about that one,” Rosy answered.

“Huh...okay…” Beryl replied.

“Well, what plansssssss do you and the ressssst have Mario?” Glow asked.

“Well, me and-a Luigi are probably going to an-a italian restaurant for dinner,” Mario answered.

“Hey, how about that new buffet that opened up instead? They have italian food there too,” Mosaic suggested.

“Hmm, not a-a bad idea,” Mario responded.

“I think Striker, Elemental, Beryl and Glow could come along too since they still need to eat, how about it?” Peach asked.

“Sure thing, we’d be cool with that, and then we can get to our practice right after,” Striker responded.

“How about your guys’ plans afterwards?” Elemental asked.

“Me and Luigi are probably gonna head-a home,” Mario answered.

“Thank-a you…” Luigi commented.

“Me and Toad are going to head back to the castle so that we can figure out what we should do next for the orphanage,” Peach inputted.

“Umm...I wasn’t planning on doing that…” Toad retorted.

“Sorry Toad, but that’s what’s going to happen,” Peach responded.

“I’m thinking that after dinner, me and the group could go out for a movie night to see that movie that just came out based off that comic book character ‘Iron-Shroom’,” Mosaic informed.

“Sounds like a plan,” Hoops said.

“Indeed that does,” Rosy agreed.

Speaking his language, Berry too agreed.

“I personally...am probably going to go for a nightly scroll, kinda see if I can clear what’s on my mind a bit,” Link informed.

“Oh? What would that be?” Mosaic asked.

“Maybe I could tell you later,” Link answered, “but yeah, that’s what i’m probably going to do.”

“So it’s-a settled, after we eat at the-a local buffet, we can all go our seperate ways, let’s-a go! To the buffet!” Mario said, then leading the way.

As they made their way over, Mosaic made a small comment.

“I wonder if I’ll ever catch a break…”

“Eventually I presume Mosaic...eventually,” Hoops answered.

“As the eccentric bunch had intended, after filling themselves at the buffet, each went their separate ways for the night, Mario and Luigi back home, Peach and Toad to the castle, Beryl, Striker, Glow and Elemental to practice, the Mosaic Group on their movie night, and Link on his stroll.

…

…

…

The Mosaic group hadn’t known it then, but Link’s stroll wasn’t going to be the uneventful endeavor he expected it to be, and not only would they get an idea of what he had on his mind, but they would meet quite an...interesting acquaintance of his. to say the least...”

Next Time...Chapter 7: Psyched

[PersonNamedUser]

Isn't present.

[King Mario]

Hi there Mosaic! I really liked your stories. Could you please put them back on the Forums? Dad won't allow me on Discord and even if I was allowed, I really don't like social media in general, with the exception of this site, as you can clearly see. I think that your stories are so awesome (I especially liked the one with Rosalina and the one with sports) and I owe you an apology, if I had remembered I would have posted you about these stories long ago. I'm sorry that I didn't.

Good luck with the next chapter.