Chapter 27

Sackle and Crookie were still in their powerful robot, the Giga Mole. They had spent a good amount of the last few hours piloting it towards their destination, a green spot on one of their screens, clawing through dirt all the while. They could tell they were getting closer and closer.

"This is it, boss! We're finally going to get the Belome doll!" Crookie said excitedly.

"We're gonna be rich, baby!" Sackle agreed. The two thieves were totally intoxicated by the thought of having their dreams fulfilled. Greed and thrill were plastered upon their faces as they raced to the goal. Suddenly, the excitement vanished and the giant robot came to a halt, ceasing its digging action. The green spot they were going for had mysteriously disappeared. Sackle was ticked. "What the-" he blurted. "What's going on? Crookie, where'd Belome go?!"

"I dunno, boss! It was here a second ago!" Crookie stammered.

"Well, find him! I can't take much more of this!" Sackle spazzed.

"Right, boss!" Crookie started punching at a few more keys. The screen they were staring at suddenly started moving northeast. As its green gridlines flew by, more and more of some new image began to show up. Once it took up the bulk of the screen, all was revealed. Sackle and Crookie were then looking at an outline of what resembled a giant four-leafed clover.

"What's going on?" Sackle said. "What in the world is that?"

"That's the, uh..." Crookie hit a few keys. "The Clover Kingdom, boss! That's where Belome went!"

"The Clover Kingdom, huh?" Sackle mused. "Okay. Whatever! Let's go."

"Righ-toh, boss!" Crookie shifted a few gears and the robot started changing direction. Within moments, the Giga Mole was back to clawing through the walls of the underground.

"Man," Sackle grumbled. "This search just keeps getting crazier and crazier..."

Boshi and Prof. E. Gadd were standing outside of the tavern they had just spent the night at. The sun was in the air so it was time for both of them to attack the new day. Boshi spoke first.

"Well, um," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I guess you, uh, helped me out, so, uh..."

The professor chuckled a bit. "You're welcome, friend!" he said, patting the blue Yoshi on the arm and smiling. Boshi nodded.

"Yeah," said the tough Yo'ster. He set his arm down from the back of his head. "Well, Yoshi, Xoshi, and Yazzee are out there somewhere," he said. "I'm gonna go look for 'em. I don't know what you're gonna do."

"Oh, don't mind me. I'll just be here doing my best to unveil the mystery behind that strange, new flower," the scientist replied.

"Okay. You do that," Boshi responded, pointing to the scientific man. "Well, I'm off." Boshi held up a hand to represent his departure. "See ya."

"Good luck finding your friends!" E. Gadd encouraged. Boshi waved a hand with his back turned as he walked away. The ghost-oriented man watched him saunter off for a few seconds. He finally clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "All right," he said. "Down to business!" The quirky man headed back into the tavern...

Somewhere in the middle of the woods, it was time for four adventurers to begin their journey anew. They woke up, stretched themselves out, took a good look at that temple in the distance, and began walking towards it, leaving a smoking pile of wood behind. After a while, the cheerful quartet was right before the foreboding entrance to this place. Their humungous leader had one thing to say.

"Well, Laser Snifit, Chogun, Davey?" he said. "You guys ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," said the gray one.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" said the bug-like one.

"My adulthood is just around the corner. I can feel it!" said the little one.

"All right, then," their leader said. "Onward!" With that, the brave four-some could walk up the checkered steps and disappear into the blackness of the strange temple they had been waiting for. Finally, the journey was nearing its end for Big Guy, Laser Snifit, Chogun, and Davey...

Annabyss, Tessa, and the Kamenstein Bros. were further along in Ganchan Canyon. The journey had been a hectic one, complete with more falling rocks and dodging than they would have liked. After a long while of close-calls and being covered in the dust of the place, the four of them had finally arrived at the entrance to a cave of sorts.

"We're not going in there, are we, Annie?" Tessa asked.

"We have to, dear. It's the only thing we can do," the woman replied.

"But..." Tessa stared into the blackness of the canyon's cavern. She could hear falling rocks in the background and could feel coldness. She shivered and rubbed her shoulders for warmth. "I'm scared."

The dark woman leaned over and placed a hand on the back of the girl's head. "You don't need to worry," she said, looking into the girl's eyes. "The boys and I will protect you."

Wario and Waluigi looked at Tessa, grinned, and gave her the thumbs-up. "Wir werden Sie schützen," they said at the same time. Tessa smiled.

"Well," Annabyss said. She slid her hand from Tessa's head. "Let's go in." She strode into the cave, disappearing into its depths.

"Ja, madame," the brothers said. They started goose-stepping after her. Tessa stared at them a bit. She looked behind her and saw a few more boulders break away from their respective walls and begin tumbling down into the canyon's pit. She shuddered and ran after her three comrades. Soon all four of them were inside, continuing their journey to Uaurpe...

The four of Big Guy, Laser Snifit, Chogun, and Davey were soon enveloped in a realm they had never seen before. Here and there and all around them were floors, steps, hallways, ceilings, and walls of all sorts that were checkered with tiles of white and blue. They could almost feel their body temperatures drop just from looking at the strange combination of hues. However, other things were on their minds.

"Now where do we start?" Chogun asked.

"Hmm..." Big Guy looked around. Out of all the directions he looked in, the one straight ahead of them caught his interest the most. He pointed one beefy arm that way. "Forward!" he said. Everyone saw a plaque implanted into the wall at the far end of where the big man was pointing and caught on.

"All right. Let's get to it!" Chogun said. With that, the four people started running down the tiled hall towards their destination. The image of that plaque gradually got larger the more they ran. Soon they would have it. Then suddenly...

WHAM! "WOAH!" Laser Snifit jumped back and everyone else skidded to a stop. They came to find out that their comrade was inches away from having been flattened by a big, blue cube. They looked at it in shock. "Man," Laser Snifit said, "what's up with this place?!"

"Treasure's never that easy to come by," Chogun commented.

Davey suddenly pointed upward. "LOOK OUT!" he yelled. The other three just glanced up and could tell immediately that jumping out of the way was what they had to do. WHAM! It saved their lives.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Laser Snifit pouted.

"Good lord!" Davey looked behind them and could see more cubes of white and blue falling all over the place.

"All right! Let's hustle!!" Big Guy ordered. The four of them started running even more crazily than they had before. Their cautiousness levels had to be higher while they were at it, as well as their evasive skills. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! Big Guy, Chogun, and Davey could have been done for. Regardless, the four of them just kept running. Suddenly, WHAM! A big, blue block slammed its way right in front of Big Guy. He suddenly grabbed a hold of the edge closest to him and hurled himself over it and landed on the other side, where he met his three comrades.

"Big Guy, are you all right?" Chogun asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But look!" He pointed and three heads turned. Right there was the plaque they were looking for.

"YES! Now for some answers," Chogun crowed. The four of them rushed up to it before another white block could flatten them. WHAM!

The four of them crowded the big rectangle of gold. "What does it say?" Davey asked. Laser Snifit squinted his eyes and traced the words with a gray fin. He read it aloud.

"If it's the treasure that you need,
Then these instructions, you must heed:
The top and bottom of this place
Is what your presence is to grace.
The left and right wings as well
Have more rooms for you to dwell.
These vital rooms; there are four in all.
Each one has a switch-bearing wall.
All of these switches must be flipped,
But here's the part that can't be skipped:
All at once, this must be done.
Only then will your treasure be won."

Big Guy scratched his head as more cubes fell in the background. "'All at once'? What does that mean?"

"You dummy! We have to go to the top, the bottom, the left, and the right parts of this place and flip their switches simultaneously!" Laser Snifit explained.

"Ohhh!" Big Guy said in realization.

"It's just like that time we went to the tomb in Star's End!" Chogun pointed out.

"So it is," Davey agreed.

"Alrighty then! Here's the plan," Big Guy said. "Laser Snifit, you take the bottom part. Chogun, you take the right. Davey, you take the left. Me? I'll take the top. Everyone got that?"

"Uh, maybe, but how will we know when to flip these switches?" Laser Snifit asked.

"We'll just know!" Big Guy assured. "Everyone know what to do?" Big Guy asked. They all nodded. "All right! Let's get to it!"

"YES!" his three comrades agreed. At that, the four of them scattered, leaving the cubes to continue to fall in their wake...

Big Guy rushed onward. The two of him and Davey had taken the route to the left of the bronzed poem they had encountered while their other two teammates had done just the opposite. Every second they got further away from what had instructed them on what to do and closer to where they had to go. Lucky for Big Guy, a nice, big staircase leading to what was surely the upper chambers of this vicinity was soon to be his for the ascending. Before that was where the hallway split off into two different directions. That was where Davey skidded to a stop, leaving Big Guy to commence rushing up the stairs. He quickly found himself turning around, looking at the confused boy.

"What's your problem?" he said.

"Which way do I go?" Davey asked.

"I dunno. Pick one!" the muscleman suggested.

"Okay," Davey replied. He headed off into the hallway to his left. Big Guy caught a glimpse of this and continued heading up the stairs...

Meanwhile, Laser Snifit was doing just the opposite. He had come across a flight of stairs leading down beneath the main parts of the temple and made the logical choice of descending them. Halfway through, the steps stopped, forcing him to run across a small, rectangular room of sorts, turn, and start heading down another flight of stairs. Finally, he was in what definitely looked like where he needed to be. It was revealed that the basement of this odd place was a huge, seemingly four-cornered room of orange and blue tiles rather than the blue and white ones he had quickly become accustomed to. What made it all the more strange was the fact that the center of this room was taken up by a huge, bottomless pit. Laser Snifit could see that his only chance of getting across this crazy thing was by hopping across the rotating logs connecting the walls of the left and right sides of the pits.

"Oh, geez," Laser Snifit moaned. "Sometimes, I really hate being me." Laser Snifit twisted his body about, preparing himself for the inevitable. "Well," he said, "here I go!"

The lab coat-wearing 8-Bit sped off with all his might and courageously made that first leap onto that first log. Immediately, he could feel the pressure he had knocked into it, with the landing forcing the log to start tilting forward. Centers of gravity were constantly changing and throwing the traveler into a state of confusion, but he had to keep things moving. He jumped in the nick of time and landed awkwardly in a similar fashion onto the next one, but this time the log started rotating even faster than the last one as a result. Once again, he had to think fast. Log after log, he had to keep jumping. Each segment of this brought about panic and confusion. All the while, he could feel a tightening in his chest becoming more and more prominent. He was losing his cool. At some point, SHWUP! He landed on the next log so badly, it sent him tumbling onto the next one. In desperation, he started clawing furiously with his hands for something to latch onto. Doing this, he flung himself onto the next one, which caused the log to start spinning so fast he couldn't even think for a split-second. He leapt onto the next one and continued this faster than ever. Hop! Hop! Hop! Hop!! Just a few more to go... Almost there... Laser Snifit's eyes widened. Just one more remained! Using all his might he leapt onto it, felt its spinning, and immediately leapt off, landing harshly on the ground. He made it!

"Phew!" Laser Snifit rasped. "I could have been a goner!" Laser Snifit panted and swallowed a few times before he could get on with the rest of this. Afterwards, he found himself at the end of this room. The whole thing consisted of a big, fat wall with a switch easily within reach. "Ah! This must be it," Laser Snifit noted as he approached it. "Hm?" He also noticed how this switch just happened to be beneath a square-shaped light blinking red that was about the same size of the switch itself. Sandwiched between these two things were two more lights just like it. "Hmm..." Laser Snifit extended a gray fin and wrapped it around the switch...

The left wing of this place was interesting for Davey. He found himself in a gigantic rectangular room with tiles of yellow and purple and a humungous pit in the middle of it. He couldn't cross this pit as there was no bridge, but rather a whole bunch of columns rising from the pit and connecting to this room's very high ceiling. Hanging off of various places of each of these pillars were assorted circular mirrors.

"How am I supposed to get past this one?" Davey pondered. The mirrors were definitely noticeable to him. He kept looking at them until he noticed something: there was hardly a single mirror here that wasn't pointing to another mirror! "Interesting," he mused, "but what does it mean?" He thought this over for a bit, and then looked at the laser pistol in his holster. "Hmm..."

Davey then began to run along the pillars closest to him, examining what mirrors he could in the process. For a while, all he could see was reflections within reflections within reflections. It was getting tiresome. Then finally... BINGO! Something caught his eye. He suddenly stopped and stared closely at one particular mirror. Yes... this seemed to be the key. He squinted as much as he could in order to make out what it was that made him stop and look at this. It turned out that one of the tiny mirrors he could make out within this mirror had a rope in the middle of it. Davey could smell the treasure already.

"All right, here goes," he mumbled. He pulled out his pistol, held it before him, closed one eye, aimed at the dead center of the mirror, waited, and fired. TSSEEWW! CHING CHING CHING CHING CHING CHING CHING! What Davey had done amazed even him. The instant he squeezed that trigger, a beam of red light burst from the gun and nailed the mirror. The instant that happened, it flew off and bounced off of another mirror. After that, it bounced off another mirror, and so on. It was going so fast, Davey's keen eyes were beginning to burn from zipping back and forth looking at red light continuously. At last came the moment of truth. In just a few split-seconds, CHING CHING BZZZDDTT! That rope had been snapped. It released its hold of the top of its pillar and made the thing come crashing down like a tree that had just been chopped. Seeing this massive, checkered pillar come falling towards him, Davey jumped out of the way ahead of time. WHHAAMM! The thing had broken its fall. At that moment, it was officially a bridge, fixing the gap between the two sides of the pit. "Yes!" Davey celebrated. He jumped onto the newly-formed bridge and ran across its checkered surface, feeling ready for anything.

Once he made it across, he found a wall with a switch on it. To the right of it was a rectangle blinking red. The two of those things were stuck between two more of the blinking lights. Davey pondered it over. "Interesting," he said. He lifted up a hand and grabbed a hold of the switch...

"Hmm..." Big Guy stated, scratching the back of his head. This man was standing in front of a huge wall that was checkered red and green like everything else in this small, rectangular room. He had been struggling to figure out the riddle of this particular room: he had to show how it was possible to change the arrow pointing left on the wall of detachable black tiles into an arrow pointing right using only four of the tiles. "Umm..." Big Guy continued thinking. "Gee, this is a tough one," he complained. He started clutching at his head with both hands in frustration. Images of checkerboards and arrows started whirling around the big man's head as he tried to make sense of it all. "What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?!" he wailed. The shadows of panic and failure were beginning to sweep over the giant 8-Bit. There was nothing he could do! "Rrrg..." he growled in irritation. He threw his hands down from his head and curled one into a trembling, beefy fist. "Ah, forget this!" he exclaimed. KA-BLLAAMMM! Big Guy's fist connected with the arrow in the wall and sent ripples of destruction echoing through it. In mere seconds, the entire obstacle was reduced to a steaming pile of debris. "All right!" Big Guy yelled.

Finally, he could advance forward. After making his way across the pile of destruction, he came upon another wall.

"Argh, not again!" Big Guy groaned. Then he noticed the wall just consisted of a switch above two rectangles blinking red that were above another one just like them. "Oh. Right," Big Guy said, relieved. He moved one muscular arm forward and prepared for some switch-flipping...

Chogun was in a room that was checkered gray and dark gray. Before him was a wall with a single doorway. "Well, it's now or never," said the bug man. He entered the doorway, but soon found out that behind it was little more than pitch-black. "Oh, drat," Chogun grumbled to himself. "This'll be trickier than I thought." Chogun then found a wall to lean against, and closed his eyes. He waited like this for minutes on end, letting the time slowly drift by. He just stayed there and waited. Soon, he knew he'd be able to open them up again. And... now! He opened his eyes up and everything had become clear. He could see walls, hallways, and doorways all throughout the vicinity, all of them resembling the gray and dark gray colors of the last room, but this time with a bit of a dark blue tone added to it. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness and it was time for action.

Chogun let his feet and his senses guide him. He strained his eyes, his ears, and even his nose and his instincts for all they were worth. If he had the feeling he should go left, then he would go left. However, if he smelled something or felt something in the air, then he would decide against it. A complicated system was what he had managed to develop in order to get through this, and he was trusting every last ounce of it. Right, forward, left, left, forward, back, right... It went on like this.

At last, his senses showed him exactly how trustworthy they were. Once he took that last turn, he could see the light he was looking for. He ran towards it, took a right, and finally made his way out of that mess of twists and turns. What made him feel even more triumphant about this was the fact that he was then standing before a wall with a switch on it. To the left of this switch was a blinking rectangle. These two things were stuck between two rectangular blinking lights just like that one. Chogun could tell this was his cue. He reached forward with one of his three-fingered hands and grabbed the switch...

SHICK! SHICK! SHICK! SHICK! All four of Big Guy, Laser Snifit, Chogun, and Davey had flipped their switches. Judging by the loud noise they heard next (WWHHAAAAMMM!), they had done it at just the right time. With a feeling of satisfaction, relief, and excitement, the quartet began heading back to their last meeting place...

It was the morning after the ceremony and it was time for a young boy named Hyrg, complete with his strange, new robe and a creepy woman named Oceanus, to go out into the courtyard of the secret hideout of the ever so enigmatic Death Sickles. The courtyard was a wide one, composed mostly of a particularly large patch of dirt surrounded by bushes that had parts of the wooden building behind them. There was no way out of this place.

Hyrg looked up and saw that behind this building all around him were the tall, lush, plumy, dark green trees of the Forbidden Forest. Above that was the blue sky, speckled with small, fluffy clouds here and there. The sun could shine down on this place, but little could brighten it up.

To top it off, various other Death Sickles of all shapes and sizes were already in the courtyard performing a wide variety of different activities. Some were practicing archery, some were running around in circles, and one of them even was just standing in front of a shrub with his hands held out. Oh my god, this place is weird, Hyrg thought for about the millionth time.

"No gawking," Oceanus said as flatly as usual. "Come on."

Hyrg grimaced and continued following this white-haired nightmare through the courtyard. Hyrg would turn his head left and right to observe the other Death Sickles and their activities. One particular one that caught his attention was the one with the shrub. The Death Sickle scrunched his eyes shut and concentrated. The instant he did, the shrub lit on fire. He pumped his arms in victory. Another Death Sickle walked up to him and patted him on the back. Hyrg was intrigued by this. However, he couldn't be intrigued by it any longer. Oceanus had led him to a Death Sickle that was a little bit taller than her and had better posture than her. He also had a frilly tail sticking out from behind his robe and two big, pointy ears sticking out of his hood. He was busy fighting invisible enemies using a sword with a blade that appeared to be made out of teal light with stars of the same color outlined in a slightly darker version of it swimming across it. It vaguely reminded Hyrg of his own sword. The two of him and Oceanus were soon two people standing just a ways away from this energetic swordsman. Oceanus grabbed his attention.

"Galileo," she said flatly. The man suddenly stopped and turned to face who had called his name. Hyrg finally got to see him. Unlike most of the other people he had seen here, this man seemed to have the hairy yet pretty face of a wolf. The only thing reminiscent of anyone else he had seen here was that the majority of his fur was gray and his eyes were yellow.

"Yes, Oceanus?" Galileo said in response.

"This is Hyrg," she said, barely even gesturing towards the boy. "You're to teach him how to use the sword like you can."

"Understood," said the wolf.

"Good luck," Oceanus said. Before leaving, she spent a few seconds staring Hyrg down. This just made him even more confused. Then Oceanus walked away, leaving Hyrg with the wolf named Galileo.

"How long will this take?" Hyrg asked.

"A few years," Galileo said. Hyrg's eyes jolted wide open.

"'A few years'?! Are you crazy?! I don't have that kind of time!" the younger one protested.

"Everyone here has that kind of time," Galileo pointed out.

"But..." Hyrg said. He didn't know how to phrase his next argument. "I'm not like you people!"

Galileo chuckled. Hyrg suddenly felt more astonishment than anger. He couldn't believe people actually laughed here.

"What's so funny?" Hyrg asked, still a bit annoyed.

"You remind me of me when I first became a Death Sickle," Galileo replied.

Hyrg was even more astonished. "When did you become a Death Sickle?" he asked, but this time there was even less of an edge to his voice.

"Ehhh," Galileo said, rubbing his furry chin with one of his white, fuzzy hands. Hyrg noticed they had long, black, pointy fingernails like the others. "A couple of years ago."

"How'd it happen?" Hyrg asked. All kinds of mysteries were lying at his feet.

"Well," Galileo said, "they found me and..." The wolf trailed off. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Ah, there's time for questions later. Right now, we've got to hone your skills." Hyrg hung his head a little by the sudden end of the interview. SHING! His head was brought up again. He saw Galileo had taken a step back and was in a fighting stance with his sword in his right hand and his left palm facing the boy. "All right, Hyrg," he said. "Fight me."

Hyrg was confused and a little frightened. "What?!" he blurted.

"You heard me," Galileo said. He flipped his sword around through his white fingers as though it were a pencil. Hyrg gulped at the sight. "Come on now, take out your sword and fight me!"

Hyrg could feel a few drops of cold sweat forming on his forehead, but he decided he'd better obey anyway. He pulled out his black sword and tried holding it in a way similar to that of Galileo's, but the boy was trembling and ended up looking more pitiful than intimidating.

"Now," Galileo said, making a beckoning movement with his left hand, "kill me."

"Kill you?!" Hyrg said.

"Just do it!" Galileo commanded.

Naturally, Hyrg hesitated. He mustered up whatever energy he could to gather what wits he had and he got it on. He ran towards the wolf, bringing his sword upward. Once he got close enough, he swung the blade forward, and CHING! Galileo stopped it by bringing down his own blade. Hyrg was confused. SHING! Galileo yanked his blade away from the boy, sliding his sword off and making him jump back in the process. Then it was Galileo's turn. He ran forward and swiped at the boy, using a maneuver relatively similar to the one Hyrg had just tried. CLANG! Hyrg blocked it with his sword. CLANG! He had to block it again, but this time, from a different angle. He could tell this guy was good. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! Hyrg just kept backing up and blocking, and blocking and backing up. SHING! In the next split-second, Hyrg's sword was knocked right out of his grasp. The boy was confused. Now Galileo was using two swords. Hyrg was unarmed. In the middle of his confusion, Galileo shot one of his feet out and yanked it into the back of one of Hyrg's heels. WHUMP! Now the boy was lying on his back on the ground. Galileo plopped down on top of him, using his knee to press into his chest and using the two swords in an X-shape that was dangerously close to the boy's neck. The match was over.

Galileo stared into Hyrg's unblinking, fear-filled eyes. He was panting a bit heavily. Galileo lightened up, took his knee off the newer Death Sickle, and stepped away. Hyrg slowly got up off the ground, clutching at his chest while trying to catch his breath and relieve himself of the shakes. Galileo stared at him.

"You have never used a sword before," he said. Hyrg looked up at him. "You hold it awkwardly, you're slow on your feet, you hesitate to attack, you ooze with fear, and you retreat more often than you fight back." Hyrg looked dumbfounded. In just a few seconds, this man could point out more flaws in him than he himself ever could in years. "I can see we've got much work to do," Galileo said. He tossed Hyrg his black sword and he caught it. "Come with me." Galileo began walking the way Hyrg and Oceanus had just come from. Hyrg just watched.

"Where're we going?" he asked.

"You'll see," said the wolf. Hyrg paused before obeying. He blinked a little, then started walking after his new teacher, wondering what was in store for him...

Big Guy and Davey rushed in from one direction and Laser Snifit and Chogun rushed in from the other. The quartet was together again at the place where they had split up. On one side of them was an entire wall of big, blue and white tiles. Big Guy looked at it and scratched his head.

"Well, I guess we can't bail out now!" he said.

"The only way left to go is forward," Chogun said, pointing out how the bronzed poem they had read earlier had been replaced by a long hallway with green and black tiles. "Let's go!"

"All right!" Laser Snifit and Davey said. The foursome ditched the wall of blue and white and started running down the hall, uncertain of what was in store for them next...

The cave had been a long, winding, dark, moist, creepy, foreboding, and overall rather unpleasant experience for the four of Annabyss, Tessa, and the Kamenstein Bros. All the while, Annabyss had been taking the lead, lighting the way for them by making her silhouette-like form take on the shape of a Fishin' Boo. The blue fireball she had on the end of her fishing line provided them with an eerie but reliable blue glow that greatly helped guide them through the place.

"Annie?" Tessa asked.

"Yes, dear?" said the Lakitu-like woman.

"How long until we get out of this cave?" the girl said.

"A little longer," said the sorceress. "Just stay alert, remain calm, and be ready for anything."

"All right," Tessa replied. At that, the group continued journeying.

Annie's amazing, the girl thought. She always knows what to do and nothing ever scares her...

A while after that, the clique came upon a particularly wide area in the middle of the cave with an open roof. Being able to see the morning sky, the four people entered it with caution, constantly keeping their eyes peeled. When they least suspected it... TSSEEEWWW! The wall behind them got blasted by a big, yellow laser beam. Their eyes first observed the smoking, scorched hole it made and then at the source of it. Tessa was shocked, but her other three party members showed no change in their expression. What they were looking at was a gigantic Melon Bug wearing a pair of strange, white gloves on its antennae. Both were steaming. The monster was looking bloodthirsty.

"So this is what has shot us down," Annabyss said. She morphed into the shape of a giant Blooper while the Kamenstein Bros. suddenly did an odd, rather slowly-paced little dance in perfect unison with moves as though they were made of liquid which eventually had them getting into identical fighting stances. "You shall fell no more victims," Annabyss declared.

"Stehen Sie hinter, Tessa," the boys said simultaneously. Tessa took a step backwards and watched anxiously as her three teammates began to take matters into their own hands.

"Be careful!" she pleaded. She got another thumbs-up from the boys for a response. Letting strands of electricity flicker around its gloves, the giant Melon Bug glared down at its three opponents. They were as ready as ever.

"To battle," Annabyss growled. The giant Melon Bug made more sparks fly as the Kamenstein Bros. started running towards it. Annabyss launched herself into the air with her tentacles and the fight had begun...

The black and green hallway had led Big Guy, Laser Snifit, Chogun, and Davey to a large, rectangular, black and green room. They could see a wide set of steps leading to a slightly higher raised version of the floor they were running across. At the end of it was a vast wall and in the middle of this wall was a doorway. Beyond that, they could see a treasure chest. Victory wasn't too far away.

"We're gonna make it. We're gonna make it!" Big Guy said excitedly.

"Closer, closer!" Laser Snifit said.

"Finally, it's coming!" Chogun exclaimed.

"Come on, come on!!" Davey urged.

The quartet was indeed an excited bunch. The stairs were coming closer, as was the treasure. Then... Plop! Plop! Plop! Plop!! The four travelers skidded to a halt. They could see that four things had just fallen directly from the ceiling. Right in front of each of them was a Buzzy Beetle. However, rather than the standard light blue, each of these creatures' shells was white and sparkly. Big Guy, Laser Snifit, Chogun, and Davey had a batch of four-legged diamonds in their way, and none of them looked very happy. The Diamond Beetles all pawed at the ground like rhinos, puffed like bulls, and glared like basilisks. The travelers knew what was coming.

"I knew it wasn't gonna be that easy," Laser Snifit grumbled, getting himself into a fighting stance.

"No problem! Piece of cake!" Big Guy said, cracking his knuckles.

"Feel the wrath of Chogun!" said the bug man as he whipped out his axe.

"You're all goners," Davey threatened as he pulled out his laser pistol.

"Charge!" Big Guy bellowed, swinging his club forward like a sword. The two parties sped towards each other and clashed in a fury of thrashing and bashing...

To show the giant Melon Bug what was good for it, Wario leapt into the air and socked it one with a nice, solid fist connecting with its round chest. WHAM! With his tremendous strength, the giant went somersaulting backwards. SLAM! It hit the wall. This seemed to spell good news for Annabyss and the boys at first, but the enemy had soon turned into a gigantic, constantly spinning cannonball that was coming right at them. Thinking quickly, Wario jumped one way, Annabyss jumped another, and Waluigi sprang his way high up into the air. This was enough to dodge the maneuver. CRASH! The Melon Bug collided with another wall. It uncurled itself, shook it head, and continued the fight. All the while, Tessa just sat back and watched in anxiety...

Big Guy's Diamond Beetle pulled itself into its shiny shell, started whirling around really fast, and shot itself at the muscleman. Big Guy jumped into the air and pulled out his club. As he came down, he swung the club downward, and SMASH! He demolished the tiled floor. The Diamond Beetle he was aiming for was too fast and had already sped back to its original position. It and Big Guy glared at each other. The overgrown Shy Guy tightened his grip on his weapon and ran towards his opponent...

Laser Snifit fired an incinerating hoop of light at his enemy. The Beetle tried to dodge it, but was slammed by the assault. BZZT! This caused it to flip over and land on its back. Seeing the monster was too distracted wiggling its feet in the air and flinging off drops of sweat in an attempt at getting back up, Laser Snifit ran towards it and jumped up. TING! He landed on the Beetle as planned, but he was too late; the pest had flipped itself over and Laser Snifit only managed to nail it on its rock hard shell. He fell off and started lying on the ground, clutching at his sore feet. Laser Snifit was angered and the Beetle could very well see that the tables had turned...

Chogun saw his enemy starting to whirl around. He had his brand new axe held up in the air. ZOOM! Once the Diamond Beetle was off, Chogun swung forward. WHAM! CLANG! The floor had some damage done to it, but there wasn't a single scratch on the Beetle. It seemed the bug man had attacked too soon, considering that the Beetle had just ricocheted off his blade. He began struggling to pull up the axe he had just lodged in the ground. He figured he had to do so soon since the Beetle was looking menacing again. It began to whirl around once more and Chogun pulled harder...

Davey grinned at his Beetle. The Beetle just grimaced. Davey whipped out his laser pistol and fired. TSEW! TING! The laser bounced off the Beetle's lustrous shell and scorched one of the building's walls. He looked perplexed. WHAM! Davey was knocked back. He fell on his back and his weapon clamored to the ground, falling from his grasp. Looking up, he could see the Beetle was whirling around again. In a situation like this, the boy could only hastily plan out his next move. No doubt, these Beetles were nothing like the Goombas they had faced the other day. Regardless, the travelers hung in there...

The Melon Bug made its next move. It made its gloves sizzle, and in the next instant, it fired another laser beam, this time towards Waluigi. TSSEEWW! Waluigi jumped out of the way and soared through the air towards the Melon Bug with one heel aiming for it. WHAM! He got it right in the shnoz. The Melon Bug was knocked back once again. It got itself together for the second time so it could perform more assaults. This time, it sent a barrage of lasers at its enemies, forcing all three of Annabyss and the brothers to start dancing. TSEW! TSEW! TSEW!! Fortunately, a few scorch marks in the ground was all this was able to pull off. Annabyss sprang into the air, aimed at the enemy's face, and unleashed a surge of black, syrupy ink into it. SHA-BLLOORRPP! The Melon Bug had been blinded. It started firing in all kinds of crazy directions. Too distracted with its firing, two of the Melon Bug's enemies, Wario and Waluigi, commenced a new attack. The yellow one grabbed a hold of the blue one's wrists and started spinning him around in an airplane ride. When the super strong brother caught a glimpse of green out of the corner of his eye, he let his sibling fly. WHAM! The Melon Bug was double-kicked in the stomach, and Waluigi sprang off its body, landing on the ground again. Now the monster was mad...

Once Big Guy was close enough, he swung his club downward. SMASH! Once again, no harm was done. The Beetle flew off in the nick of time and Big Guy had to look behind him to see where it had gone. It was a few feet away again. He saw the Beetle begin to whirl around, as well as the two craters of ruined tiles he had been able to make. As the Beetle spun like a top, Big Guy contemplated how to pull this one off. Finally, a light bulb appeared over his head and he looked at the Beetle with his club ready as ever...

Laser Snifit's Diamond Beetle shot towards him, but the gray 8-Bit jumped over it. Like a boomerang, the Beetle just spun itself right back to where it originally was. Deciding not to blow any chances, the gray man shot another ring of energy. BZZT! The Beetle was knocked over again. Laser Snifit ran towards it for the second time, but he fired another one of his strange projectiles while he was at it. BZZT! The Beetle jolted as it was nailed once again. Surely, this battle was nearing its end...

ZOOM! Chogun's Beetle was off like a rocket. Noticing this in a panic, Chogun ripped his axe out of the ground and jumped aside, letting his opponent sail past him. He felt relieved, but then he saw the Beetle curve in a new direction and start heading back towards him like a homing torpedo. It has to end soon, Chogun thought grimly, holding his axe up...

Davey's eyes darted back and forth between looking at the spinning Beetle and his gun. When the time was right, ZOOM! The Beetle shot out, and so did Davey. He rolled to his side, picked up the weapon, and fired, not at the Beetle necessarily, but rather at the ground beside it. TSEW! This hurt the ground more than it did the Beetle, but the blast was enough to cause the monster to flip over. With things like this, he held the gun up, closed an eye, and aimed...

Big Guy watched carefully. Once the Beetle was ready, Z-BOOM! When the 8-Bit just barely saw the creature speeding off again, he slammed his club into the ground so hard, it sent a shockwave in his opponent's direction. This flipped the Beetle over and Big Guy ran towards it, club in hand...

When Laser Snifit was within great proximity of his downed foe, PUNT! He kicked it right in its face. The Diamond Beetle flipped itself right-side-up just in time only to be knocked to its back again. Laser Snifit took a jump into the air once more...

Chogun watched his Diamond Beetle speed towards him with great anticipation. It was almost killing him. Any second now... he thought. Wait. Realization dawned on the man. This is... When the timing was just right...

WHAM! BAM! SHUNK! TSEW!! Big Guy slammed his club into the belly of his Beetle, Snifit landed a heavy blow on his, Davey fired at his, and Chogun had chopped his in half. In that second, all four of the Diamond Beetles had become five individual piles of sparkling, white blood. Their former-opponents stood back and watched in great satisfaction as these messes suddenly began to evaporate and become pillars of steam.

Just like the dream... Chogun thought. Now nothing stood in their way.

"Well," Big Guy said, putting his club away as the others performed similar actions, "that was a bit challenging." His comrades all uttered various agreements. Their gigantic leader turned around, looked at the door they desired, and spoke out. "Well, the worst is over. Come on! The treasure awaits!"

"YEAH!" the other three cheered. With that out of the way, the quartet ran up the stairs in great excitement. At last the moment they had been waiting for was seconds away...

Things still weren't wrapped up for Annabyss and Co, however. To get the gunk off its face, the Melon Bug made its gloves sizzle with sparks once again and suddenly had showers of water spraying from his fingertips. The muck slid right off and the Melon Bug shook its face like a dog to get the rest of it off. It glared at its three enemies. They looked ready to give it some more. The Melon Bug's gloves sizzled again and started firing more lasers. This time, they were bigger, stronger, and faster, so the threesome was having an even more difficult time trying to survive this mayhem. In addition to this, whenever the lasers would collide with the floor or the walls, they would blast out huge boulders that would start tumbling down here and there. It seemed as though the entire canyon was coming apart. Feeling the shaking and looking at all the craziness, Tessa couldn't help but fear for her life, but also be in awe at what those monster's gloves were capable of. Suddenly, she could see she was right beneath a round shadow. She looked up, became horrified, and shrieked. SHWOOP! BOOM!! With no one to flatten, the boulder crashed to the ground and shattered to pieces. Lucky Tessa had been yanked out of the way by a rather long, stretchy arm of Annabyss after she had transformed herself into a creature not unlike a Boo Blah.

"You... saved me," Tessa said meekly.

"I can't let you die, dear," the woman said. Tessa smiled. With the girl in one massive hand, Annabyss stretched out the other like a humungous rubber band. SHUCK! Using a thumb and an index finger, she managed to pierce right through the troublesome beast's eyes. It roared in pain. "Now, boys!" she yelled.

The brothers nodded. They started running towards the giant Melon Bug, and the Melon Bug itself glared and started making more sparks with its gloves. When it least suspected it, WHAM! Waluigi dropped to the floor, swung out one of his long, spindly legs, and used it to slam into both of the monster's enormous feet, starting with its left one, causing the creature to come crashing down, face-first. Before it could hit the ground, Wario used his stubby legs to leap up and slam one beefy fist right into the behemoth's cranium. CRACKK! Not only did this break a bone or two, but it also made the enemy slam into the ground even harder. Dark green blood started oozing from the monstrosity's nose and from an opening in its head between its antennae.

The Kamenstein Bros. stepped back. Annabyss had put Tessa down and reverted back to her normal self. The cave stopped falling apart and clouds of dust started drifting into the air as the group of four stared at what they had slain. Annabyss strode towards the dead body. She got a good look at it. "Tondariya," she said. "She's returning..."

Tessa looked confused. "Tondariya?" she asked.

"Tondariya... She was one of the many reasons the world was going through such troubled times 300 years ago," the sorceress explained. "We may have more on our plates than we expected..."

"Hm," Tessa said. She stared at the fallen beast a while longer, then began to walk up to it. She ambled past Annabyss and stood directly in front of the monster's corpse. She looked its gloves over and took them in in more detail. She noticed although they were white for the most part, the backs of them had these strange symbols on them. Each one looked vaguely like a seven-pointed star, but actually looked more like something with two legs, two arms, two wings, a torso, and a head. Each segment looked somewhat like a variation of a triangle for the most part, and each one was a different color, like red, green, and blue, etc. However, the head and the torso shared the same color as the two were connected. After establishing this, Tessa took a glove in each of her small hands and slipped them off.

"Tessa, dear," Annabyss said, watching her explore these things, "what are you doing?"

"I just want them," Tessa said innocently. She slid them onto each of her hands. She looked at them in great interest and wiggled her fingers beneath them. A perfect fit.

"You're an interesting girl, Tessa," Annabyss said.

"Thanks," Tessa replied, fiddling with her new-found gloves some more.

"Well, everyone," Annabyss announced, "we move on..."

"Ja, Madame," the Kamenstein Bros. said once again. Seeing Annabyss turn into a Fishin' Boo and take the lead again, they started goose-stepping after her. Tessa shortly followed. Having completed another insane part of their quest, the quartet left the room, leaving the oversized Melon Bug to rot with its steaming debris beneath the shining sun...

Big Guy, Laser Snifit, Chogun, and Davey were finally in the room of the treasure chest. The room was tiled red and black and the chest itself was seated atop an upraised section of the floor. The four treasure-hunters eyed it hungrily. Big Guy rested his fists on his hips in satisfaction, Laser Snifit folded his arms smugly, Chogun was rubbing his three-fingered hands together, and Davey looked as though he were trying to stop himself from bursting out laughing.

"This is it, Chak!" Davey said, referring to the bug by his actual name. "We can finally finish this and put this crazy journey behind us!"

Chogun chuckled a bit. He folded his arms and shook his head. Davey looked questioningly at him. "Just like the dream," he said. Davey's mouth slowly twisted into a smile upon hearing this. He nodded his head.

"Right," the boy said. "Let's do it!" After that, the young one turned and ran excitedly across the room. Big Guy, Laser Snifit, and Chogun weren't too far behind. Davey jumped onto the platform and Chogun was behind him. They both stared wide-eyed at the chest as though it would vanish the second they blinked. Slowly, Davey bent his knees and placed his small hands on the upper half of the wooden thing. "How I've waited for this moment," he said quietly to himself, barely able to contain his excitement. Big Guy, Laser Snifit, and Chogun watched and waited anxiously. Time was drifting at a slower rate than usual, and it was killing them. Finally, Davey pushed forward. KA-CHUNK. The chest was opened and all was revealed. The box contained...

...Absolutely nothing.

Everyone gasped, noticeably shocked. Big Guy took a step back, Laser Snifit threw his arms down, Chogun dropped his sturdy axe to the ground, resulting in a loud clattering, and Davey just sat there on his knees with a blank look on his face as though his soul had just left his body.

"Wh-Wh-" Chogun stammered. "What is the meaning of this?! WHERE'S THE TREASURE?!" The bug jerked his head towards Big Guy and Laser Snifit did the same, but much slower.

"Uh, um, well, uh," Big Guy said while tapping the tips of his fin-like hands together like a pair of index fingers. "Well..." he hesitated some more. This didn't change the fact that four accusing eyes were boring into him. "Come on. Don't tell me none of you ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, someone already found the treasure. Right?"

"I get turned into this... hideous, bug thing," Chogun lamented. "David becomes a little boy. Then you two come along, as friendly as ever, promising us that there's a way to turn us back." Chogun bent down and picked his axe up off the ground. "You gave us your word," Chogun growled, clutching his axe tightly. "You gave us your word. We got out of that messy jungle, watched a huge fight, rode across the sea on this big... turtle thing, spent two nights out in the wilderness, went saved a bunch of Goombas we didn't even know, had an equally hard time of it in this godforsaken temple, all the while clinging desperately to the thought that there was still hope for us, that there were people out there that cared, that our lives could go back to normal in no time..." Chogun breathed heavily, looking down at the ground. He then bolted his head up and glared at Big Guy some more. "What for?! We came all this way for NOTHING?!"

"Um..." Big Guy said, looking as nervous as all get-out.

"I'm... stuck like this," Davey gasped, still not looking behind him. He was like a statue brought to life. "I'm not gonna get any respect. I'll never win a woman's heart. Never. It's all over..."

Laser Snifit lowered his head and shook it wearily. Seeing so much disapproval aimed in his direction, Big Guy had to say something. "Look," he said, "I'm sorry. I didn't know this would happen. Honest! If there's anything I can do to make it up-"

"There's nothing you can do," Chogun sighed. He put his axe back where it belonged, turned towards Davey, and put a hand on his shoulder, who had his face buried into his hands. Slowly Davey lifted his face from them and looked at his friend. "Come on," Chogun said. Davey stared at him for a second, and then he turned his head back towards the chest. He gazed at its emptiness for a while and sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment, and opened them back up. Letting Chogun slide his hand off his shoulder, he pushed himself up off the ground, and was back on his feet.

Chogun turned around and faced the doorway they’d used to come in. Davey did the same. Chogun looked at Big Guy and Laser Snifit. Big Guy's fins were folded as though he were pleading and Laser Snifit just folded his arms droopily. They looked back as Chogun stared at them, not with red-hot, flaming eyes, but with a very sad, apologetic facial expression. "Goodbye," Chogun said. With that, he let himself down from the platform with Davey sulking behind him.

Big Guy and Laser Snifit watched sluggishly as their former two teammates walked out on them. Seeing them disappear, Big Guy dropped his arms down like a pair of weights and hung his head. It was like the upper half of his muscular body had suddenly became a ton or two heavier, too much even for him to handle. Laser Snifit watched him in pity.

"Snifit," Big Guy said, "you were right all along; I AM an idiot."

"Awww," Laser Snifit droned. "Don't be so hard on yourself, man. It wasn't your fault."

"Had I have known..."

"No one could have known about this, Big Guy. It just happened. What's important is that you tried your best. Plus, it's the thought that counts..."

"Snifit," Big Guy said, "shut up..."

Laser Snifit sighed and hung his head at that remark. In such similar positions, the two of them looked like twins. Defeated and all alone in the middle of this deathly silent place, the gray 8-Bit thought one thing. Well... what now…?

Hyrg and Galileo were in a gargantuan room loaded with shelves upon shelves of books as well as various chairs and tables. The Death Sickles even had a library. Some of them were even here studying and writing things down. Hyrg looked at the humungous place in awe. These guys have even more books than that Dr. Kamenstein guy does, he thought. However, there was something he still didn't understand. He turned and looked at the anthropomorphic wolf.

"Why are we here?" he asked.

"Knowledge," Galileo said, beginning to walk through the enormous sanctum with his young disciple following. "Knowledge is very important, Hyrg. However, wisdom is even more important." The wolf turned his head to look behind himself and let the boy catch a glimpse of one of his yellow eyes. "Do you know what the difference is between knowledge and wisdom?"

"Uh, no," Hyrg replied.

"Knowledge is what you learn from someone telling you something," the older Death Sickle explained. "Wisdom is what you learn from something you personally experienced. So, in a sense, knowledge is but simulated wisdom."

"Oookay," Hyrg said. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Everyone possesses knowledge and wisdom," the wolf went on, "whether it's about glaciers, Blarggs, or swords. Unfortunately, it's not possible to know everything, nor is it possible to have the same experiences as everyone. Unlike most of the Death Sickles here, what I have on me is, not just knowledge of the Twelve Gods of Chaos, but personal experience as well. Therefore, I can tell you better than any textbook can who and what exactly those beings were."

Hyrg looked amazed. "You can?!"

"Yes," Galileo responded. He suddenly stopped walking, allowing Hyrg to do the same shortly afterwards. He slid his index finger across a certain row of books until he stopped it at one. He pulled it out, started carrying it with one arm, then led Hyrg out of the shelves and up to a table where he set the book down, opened it up, and started flipping through the pages. He stopped upon reaching two pages with a vast picture on it of what appeared to be an army of mummy-like monsters going at it with an army of strange, little elf-like creatures in the middle of a battlefield. Floating in the red sky was a titanic, dark purple crystal with a single eye like a Cyclops and four ugly tentacles not far from the ones an octopus would have. "Trondaga," Galileo said while Hyrg was busy looking at the gruesome picture. "Many years ago, this tragic series of events that threw the whole world into a state of mayhem began. There were numerous reasons behind its eruption, but mainly it was due to twelve extremely powerful and extremely power-hungry beings. All of them wanted either to destroy the world, conquer the world, both, or worse." Galileo flipped through a few more pages. This time, he stopped on one that showed a map of the entire world. "Nations everywhere were forced to choose sides, but no matter what anyone did, it just resulted in more bloodshed. Seventy million died."

Hyrg gulped. Seventy-million?!

"If there's anything the sentient beings of the world have failed to realize throughout time, it's that the solution to a problem begins with the problem itself, not the products of that problem. In other words, few knew that the end of those twelve beings would be the end of all this madness..." Galileo again flipped the pages, showing Hyrg a picture of a group of strange-looking people. One of them looked like the wolf himself.

"Who's that? You're great-great-grandfather?" Hyrg guessed.

"Hmm..." Galileo's eyes shifted away from the boy. "You could say that..." His eyes went back to the picture and he continued his explanation. "Anyway, once coming upon this realization, a group of heroes set forth to vanquish the twelve beings. This was no easy task given the many different terrains and monsters they had to go through. In spite of all this, it still wasn't enough. They were a strong set of warriors, strong enough to challenge the beings and live, but not strong enough to take them away for good. Instead, various curses were placed on each of them, robbing them of their power, banishing them to the darkness, ensuring the world would be safe from them..." The next page showed a picture of a tomb bearing the image of the hideous, crystal-like creature Hyrg had seen earlier. "...But not for long..." Hyrg opened his eyes even more. Galileo flipped and showed him a photo of their planet taken from space. Hyrg found its many swirls of blue, brown, and white beautiful. It was like a giant marble. "The world rejoiced and Trondaga had been recorded in the history books. The beings that plagued it came to be known as the Twelve Gods of Chaos and the people who’d stopped them came to be known as the Death Sickles. Knowing they were not safe forever, the lot of them formed an organization away from the rest of the world, and began their many years of training and enlightenment." At last, Galileo closed the book up and faced Hyrg. "As for you, Hyrg, your training and enlightenment begins now. Now that you have been enlightened, you now know why the Twelve Gods of Chaos must be stopped at all costs." Galileo picked the book up off the table and placed it beneath his arm like before. "You possess knowledge now," he said, beginning to walk on back to where he found the book. "Now all you need is wisdom..."

Watching the wolf walk away, Hyrg couldn't help but think to himself. So that's what's going on, he thought. Well... it sounds pretty serious. Sounds like SOMEONE's gotta take care of it... The boy watched as Galileo slid the book back into its rightful place on the shelf. Hyrg frowned. But why does it have to be me?! he mentally protested. He then softened his facial expression a little, taking on a more somber tone. It's too much, he thought. Maybe I should just-

"Hyrg!"

The boy snapped out of his daze. "Coming!" he replied. He ran after Galileo, catching up with him. The two of them began to walk out of the library.

Maybe I should just wait a while. I don't have an answer NOW, that's for sure...

Fresh air at last. The four of Annabyss, Tessa, and the Kamenstein Bros. were finally out of that deep, dark cave. Annabyss could revert back to her normal self and lead the group onward. This time, they were on a vast stretch of land that basically just looked like one big, flat rock. Nothing would fall from the sky and hit them here.

Annabyss took them to the edge of this place, where the foamy edges of the sea were crashing, looking as though they were trying to demolish the canyon itself. The quartet stopped and looked at this endless stretch of spiky water. The stench of salt was in the air and seagulls were flying over their heads. Such a serene place was a nice change for the group, but it didn't make them any closer to their goal.

"Was jetzt, Madame?" the brothers asked.

"Well," Annabyss said, "although I'll just be using up Manajus, it looks as though I'll have to carry you all to Uaurpe."

"How?" Tessa said. To answer this, the woman walked even closer to the edge. She knelt down and threw herself into the water. SPLASH! Tessa gasped, but Wario and Waluigi signaled for her to stay back. The threesome watched the waters that Annabyss had disappeared into until the gigantic, darkly-colored head of a Nep-enut emerged. Without hesitation, Wario and Waluigi hopped on top. Soon afterwards, Tessa got on as well. Once all three were aboard, the Nep-enut started gliding across the sea, and the journey to Uaurpe could at last continue.

We'll get there soon enough, Annabyss thought. With that, the journey carried on...

Chogun and Davey found themselves wandering through the woods once again. The temple was far behind them, but thoughts of their next move were close by.

"We're on our own now, you know," Chogun said. "We've got to figure out what we're gonna do next."

"What can we do?" Davey said. "We might as well just head on back to the village and see what those Goombas have on them."

"Good idea," Chogun said. "Surely, there are folks there more reliable than the ones WE were hanging out with..."

"Yeah..." Davey agreed.

I was getting pretty sick of that Big Guy anyway, Davey thought. Who knows... Maybe we'll meet again some day...

Meanwhile, Sackle and Crookie were still in that Giga Mole of theirs. While Crookie was doing most of the work, pushing buttons and tugging on levers and whatnot in order to make the robot move through the ground, all Sackle did was sit back with his eyes closed. Then they began to twitch and he slowly opened them back up.

"Hey, Crookie!" the boss asked. "How much longer 'til we get there, eh?"

The apprentice looked up at the green screen and saw that they were merely a few lines away from the massive clover that they sought. "Just a little further, boss!" said the yellow-capped thief.

"It better be," Sackle said, closing his eyes again, "'cause I'm startin' to get mighty sick of this..." Then things were quiet again. All that could be heard was the mechanics of this machine as it clawed through the rock. Perhaps it wouldn't be too long...

As for Big Guy and Laser Snifit, those two were on a beach on the other side of Kariboo Island. The muscular 8-Bit was standing on the sands with his strong arms folded. His gray companion just stood back looking perplexed.

"Big Guy," he said, "what are you doing?"

"I'm waiting for Dino Splash to come!" the large teammate replied. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"But..." Snifit protested. "You said Dino Splash only comes every Wednesday night. This is Friday afternoon."

Big Guy took a few seconds to respond. "I knew that," he finally said.

"Then what are you doing?!" Laser Snifit said, a bit exasperatedly.

Big Guy then began to do some stretches. "I'm gettin' ready for the swim."

"What?" Laser Snifit asked.

"How else do you expect us to get there?" Big Guy reasoned. His lab coat-donning partner shook his head. After a while, Big Guy was finished stretching. He crouched down and held his palms out behind him. "Come on, now," he said.

"What?" the other guy said again.

"Piggy-back ride, Snifit! Come on!" the massive 8-Bit said enthusiastically. His less motivated companion sighed and walked up to the bodybuilder. He hopped onto his hands and used them to jump onto his back. He wrapped his arms around his neck, but couldn't hold his hands as even his neck was too muscular, so he just hung there the best he could. "Ready?"

"Ready."

"All right!" Big Guy did a few last-minute stretches for his arms, and then he ran into the water. Gradually, the liquid engulfed him as his feet ran across mushy, brown sand down below. Once he could feel the cold clamminess up to his shoulders, he kicked off the ground and began to float as though there were no gravity, remaining careful to keep his head and Laser Snifit above. Then his arms started taking turns lashing out as his feet kicked the water behind him. Soon, the big man was propelling himself forward and his little cohort was just enjoying the ride.

I've got to start being more competent, he thought to himself. I may have failed Chogun and Davey, but Robin Hifit, Small Fry, Crystal Guy, and Gray Guy are another story. Big Guy tried squinting to see if their next destination was getting any closer. If I remember correctly, those guys were last seen on Bobbus Island. Big Guy suddenly started swimming harder, breaking into a sweat in the process. Hold on, guys>, he thought, the Shy Gang will be back in business in no time...!

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