144Hey! Thanks for being patient guys! Welcome to Part 2 finally!
So I was gonna update last week...but then realized I hadn't finished Episode 3 enough. Doh. (my habit is to write ahead as much as possible in case I hit a serious writer's block xD It's like writer's insurance.) Anyways I'm almost done with Episode 3, Part 4, at this moment in time.
Old and New readers, thanks for reading and reviewing! :D In case you don't know, like always, I always reply to everyone's reviews at the end of the chapter! They are spoiler free of this chapter :) So if you scroll down really quickly, you can read my review reply! It's tricky sometimes though, cause I understand context gets lost xD Anyways, enjoy!
Episode 3 (Part 2)
Wii Fit and Joker must either cooperate or betray one another as they lower 5,000 feet into darkness. Lucario performs his fated jump, then makes a decision involving a princess' crown and a dinosaur's head.
Lucario was silent. Then, the host heard him sigh.
"Was that a sigh of conflicted emotions?" asked the host. Lucario's eyes widened as he stuttered a response.
Lucario: I sigh too loudly sometimes. Though, perhaps expressing your emotions at times may be a good thing. It is beneficial and healthy. But...maybe not so in a game like this. We must keep in secrets.
"Do...I have to make my decision now?" Lucario asked Smash Host precariously. The host's laugh was evident from the other side.
"Not at all," was the host's reply. "But regardless of who you'll be when you jump...you'll have to choose a Peach and a Yoshi afterwards. That's decision number two. Who will you help? Think about that also."
"I do not follow...did you mention Princess Peach?" Lucario replied with misunderstanding. "Why do you mention...Peach?"
"See you later, Mario….or Bowser," was all the host replied.
"I truly believe, if I had to choose..." Lucario began in an unsure tone, but by then...the host had already signed off the radio.
On opposite sides of a bottomless gap upon stair-like large pedestals, Joker and Wii Fit stood across from each other, looking down into the darkness between them.
5,000 feet of darkness.
Joker: When the host said a seemingly-bottomless pit….we were both hoping it was an exaggeration. But it wasn't.
"I suppose we will be climbing into...this terrible...whatever you call it," Wii Fit spoke, standing tall and proudly. One would get the impression by looking at the trainer that she wasn't afraid one bit. But it couldn't be denied, even by her, that their next game would indeed be the most terrifying of all three.
"Hm." Joker made a sound of uncertainty. And hearing him, Wii Fit looked at him slyly.
"A bit afraid of heights, I assume?" Wii Fit smiled, as if already competing against her partner.
"Only afraid if my partner is going to mess up..." Joker smirked back. "Will you?" Wii Fit folded her arms, eyeing him angrily.
"Hello, hello...don't kill each other just yet!" The host approached them both, having walked his way from a warp pipe that a trio of players had collected an incorrect number of coins from.
"This third game...is called, "Rappel to Eternal Hell! Muahaha!" The two players were taken back by his loud exclamation.
"Just kidding," the host laughed, shaking his head to shake out his humor. "I couldn't help it...good, opportune rhyme. Forgive my humor."
"Geez…" Wii Fit commented, rolling her eyes.
"Not very off from the truth however…" Joker noticed, smirking and looking down into the tall darkness.
"This third and last game is called, 'One Up, One Down." Hearing the name of their game, Wii Fit and Joker looked at the bottomless pit curiously.
"I suppose one of us will win...and the other will fall?" Wii Fit spoke too hopefully. Joker shook his head at her.
"Not quite," said the host. "One at a time, you will rappel down into this bottomless gap. One will be going down. But in this twist...your partner will be the one cranking a lever and lowering you."
"Oh…" Joker and Wii Fit turned to each other. They were not at the highest level of excitement hearing his instructions.
Joker: Could I even say, in the slightest, that I trusted her? To lower me into a 5,000 foot pit of darkness? The only person I trust in this game, frankly...is myself. Who else could I trust?
"Located on the walls in this pit...are small-text questions," the host explained further, and with even more wonder, the two players stared down into the abyss to study its bricked sides. Miniature rectangles could be seen every thirty feet down the vertical pathway. Glimmering rectangles of green would be key to winning their minigame. But the only way to truly read the words within each green block, as they assumed, would be by being directly next to each sign in the perilous pit...while hanging up to hundreds of feet below.
"There are ten questions in total in this bottomless chute…" the host explained. "You have three minutes for each of your descents...and you only get ONE descent each. You must successfully answer...just three questions between you two in total after both rounds. Give me three correct answers by the end of this game after your two rounds...and win this game. Simple as that." Joker and Wii Fit nodded, and then looked at each other.
"We'll win this game for sure now, won't we?" Wii Fit spoke to Joker in a voice just too innocently. Joker paused.
Joker: And with that tone of voice...I knew that I definitely couldn't trust her.
"Of course we will win...why would we not succeed?" he replied in a fake tone of reassurance himself.
With a red harness around her body and multiple wires and cables attached to her, as well as a final helmet on her head for final security, Wii Fit looked ready for almost any dangerous expedition to come her way. She would be rappelling down into one of the most dangerous areas of the Mushroomy Kingdom.
"Remember: the green button unlocks the rappelling cable, and the red button locks it. Don't. Forget. To lock it." The game was soon to start, and Joker nodded after hearing the host's instructions concerning the unique mechanism next to him.
"Ready as ever..." Next to Joker, a machine mechanism, consisting of a crank and two colored buttons, sat. It was a complicated, yet also very simple, mechanism. It was also very important.
"Wii Fit...in a few seconds...you will be asked to step over the ledge," the host's voice called out. Wii Fit stood on the top of her stairs...and looked down into the abyss.
Wii Fit: I hate to admit it, but I might as well be honest only in this confession: I felt a strange wave of fear hit me...even a brave athlete like me who has climbed mountains before can still get that jolt of terror before an adrenaline activity. You only feel it the very second you're about to do something so dangerous. And this was one of those moments.
"Here...goes nothing," she whispered.
"Go! Three minutes!"
START
Taking a deep breath, Wii Fit stepped over the ledge...and fell just a few feet. She was stopped by the rappelling mechanism.
"Lowering me is okay," Wii Fit directed, as Joker gave a thumbs up. He pressed the green button as he unlocked the rappel mechanism. And steadily, but carefully not letting go of the lever at any time, Joker began cranking the mechanism down. Slowly, foot by foot, Wii Fit was lowered into the pit. She was already several feet down.
"When should I stop this?" Joker called down to her. He kept on lowering and lowering his partner ….until she had reached a dangling, precarious thirty feet down.
"Stop now!" Wii Fit yelled, and she saw a message on the brick wall in front of her. Small, nearly unreadable words.
"Do not forget to press the red button to lock the rappelling device!" Smash Host warned to Joker. Joker nodded, hitting the red button upon his mechanism carefully. He let go off the crank a little slowly: all was safe.
"What does it say?" he called down to her. Wii Fit squinted her eyes.
What was the first word Smash Host had spoken to you all in the beginning of the game?
"That...is an incredibly hard question," Wii Fit shook her head to herself in disbelief. Joker turned around from upon his stair of blocks, looking at the host on the ground behind him.
"Very narcissistic of a question, I add," Joker called out to the man behind him. The host only grinned slightly.
"Was it not, 'Hello?'" Wii Fit guessed, thinking. She was hanging in the air. "I can't even remember. But if he was polite, he would have said, 'Hello' to us."
"I remember he made a slightly...sarcastic comment…" Joker tried to remember. He shook his head.
"I will go with whatever you say," Joker nodded. "Hello.' Our final answer." He then turned once again to Smash Host for the confirmation.
"That is...incorrect," the host told him. "The correct word was 'make'...for my first sentence was 'Make that eleven'."
"I remember now…" Joker shook his head: they had lost their first question.
Correct Answers: 0/3
Remaining Time to Rappel: 103 seconds
"Well, lower me down quickly!" Wii Fit spoke hastily. "We need another question pronto!" True to her words, it was a timed game, and once again, Joker unlocked the lowering machine and began cranking Wii Fit down, lower and lower into the scary abyss. After a few seconds, and now sixty feet down this time, Wii Fit called to Joker to stop the mechanism again.
"It's…!" She looked at the second question quickly:
Whose mole hole did the first victim find during Hole in One?
"Difficult-worded question...but I got it...so the first executed player?" Joker asked out loud. "That's obviously Fox. As to whose hole he found…?"
"But Fox was your partner, so you should know more than anyone, Joker," Wii Fit huffed to him immediately, folding her arms.
"He found...Lucina's mole hole, if I'm not mistaken?" Joker called out to the host. "Final...answer."
"Bingo," was the host's reply. "You have one minute left. Two more correct answers needed."
Correct Answers: 1/3
Remaining Time: 38 seconds
"Hurry! We can get one more!" And Wii Fit was lowered even further into the deep pit of the Mushroomy Kingdom one more time, foot by foot, ready to reach the next question on the wall. Now nearly a hundred feet down into the darkness...the distance between her and Joker was the farthest and most daunting yet.
"Thirty seconds...twenty-nine...twenty-eight…" the host began. The pressure was on to reach the third rectangle.
"Do you see it yet?!" Joker called down to her loudly, cranking as fast as he could.
"Stop…" Wii Fit called out once. Joker didn't hear her.
"Stop!" But as soon as Joker pressed the red button to lock the cable, it was apparent that she had been let too far down. And realizing this...Wii Fit let out a groan of frustration.
"It has been skipped!" she exclaimed. "And I can barely read the tiny text. It's about five feet above me! Do raise me up!" Joker, who had already pressed the red button on the machine, paused. He realized that they were at a loss.
Joker: The text was so small...being just two feet off, you could not read it. Well, how foolish, one could say about me.
"Sadly, this mechanism does not allow me to bring you up..." Joker said with a small hint of misfortune in his voice.
"What?!" Wii Fit exclaimed in disbelief.
Wii Fit: He lowered me TOO down! And I couldn't read the text!
Arms folded in disbelief while suspended in the air, Wii Fit could only wait for the timer to expire. And fifteen seconds later...it did.
The roles were switched. Now, it was the masked, caped gentleman who would be hanging for his life above the endless height of the gap opening. The game was halfway done...and halfway either a victory or an ultimate fail.
"I do promise, that was a genuine error," Joker told her. "And I wish you had spoken your first 'Stop' louder. But perhaps we can skip the fighting. We can still get that same question again...and not skip it so foolishly." Wii Fit seemed to largely smile to him.
"Do not worry…" she winked, her hand on the mechanism's buttons beside her. "Mistakes are just mistakes. And they happen often. And very easily. Rest assured...you will be in very, very good hands." The second rappelling round would soon begin.
"Remember...you only got one question correct your first round," the host spoke to them, as if warning them. "You need two more...for a total of three. You give me two correct answers in three minutes...and you win this game. As easy as that." Wii Fit gave a little nod to the host.
"Joker...please jump into the endless pit…in three...two...one…" The young man readied himself, looking into the pit itself.
"Go!" And Joker jumped in, not bothering to close his eyes. He fell just a few feet….and then slowly but swiftly, he began to lower. Wii Fit, using her strength and agility, and gained muscles from all her training, spun the crank faster than her partner had spun before. It was a necessary act: their first question was located a daunting ninety feet into the pit.
"Good speed," Joker called out to his partner above. "Perhaps, we truly can really win this game." He slowly lowered further into the pit, crawling his feet against the opposite wall.
"Yeah, and do believe me, I'll make sure you have a fun time too…" Wii Fit replied, smiling to herself. A minute had passed...and the hanging man within the tall pit finally reached the third question. Wii Fit pressed the red button to stop the descent, and Joker squinted his eyes.
"It says…" he began, reading it.
You destroyed them all, but just how many statues were initially present in the throne room of Castle Siege?
"That's extremely easy...Dark Pit was the stupid Mole, destroying them all," Wii Fit sighed, remembering. "And Kazooie and Isabelle joined in too...what a cast of deceivers. Well...all six of us, in fact."
"It's six statues," Joker spoke into the walkie-talkie piece. "Final answer." And the host, also electronically connected to them both, nodded.
Correct Answers: 2/3
Remaining Time: 97 seconds
"Congratulations…" he began. "You have over a minute and a half to get one more question."
"We can do it…!" Joker couldn't help saying with a grin. Again, Wii Fit began lowering him again. Now, over a hundred feet into the pit, she could only see the top of Joker's green helmet, shining in the darkness. He was now a far distance into the pit. It was a frightening feeling for anyone...and Joker took in a preparing breath.
"Well, it looks like you might indeed have acrophobia after all," Wii Fit smiled into the mouthpiece, after hearing his slightly-nervous exhale. Joker shook his head, smiling.
"That must have been you," he denied, as he was lowered even further down. A few seconds and a few feet later...he was next to the green sign. One hundred and twenty feet down in the pit.
"This says…" Joker began. He stopped in realization.
Stars flew through the sky...but what was the phrase that preceded each Fountain Temptation amidst the starry skies?
Joker paused. This question, he knew very well, depended on him.
"Well…." Wii Fit spoke slowly. "You get this question…and we win the game. What is the answer?" She turned to the host; he gestured one finger, a single '1' to her, signifying their low time remaining: one minute.
"Look….look into the…" Joker kept on repeating, thinking hard and trying to remember the words of the Fountain game. "Look into the…" He paused.
"Forty-five seconds…" Wii Fit spoke into the ear piece, a little hurriedly.
"Look into the fountain," Joker concluded, his answer being delivered into the microphone. Wii Fit and him both held their breaths. It was the final victory they needed.
"That is...incorrect," Smash Host confirmed. "It was, 'Look into the fountain water. You are wrong." Joker snapped his fingers in regret at the missed, one word.
Correct Answers: 2/3
Thirty seconds remained.
"Quick!" shouted Joker, and Wii Fit, with all her mustered strength, turned and rotated the dial as quickly as she could. Joker descended down the vertical tunnel at the fastest speed so far in the game, unable to keep himself from spinning around in the darkness.
Joker: I was lowered so fast...I was not facing one direction, but rather, ten directions per second while rotating mercilessly in that unlit place.
He saw the glimmering green of the question sign below him.
"Stop in 3...2...1...stop!" Panting from the heavy rotating, Wii Fit stopped her spinning. She gripped the crank, stopping it in place as Joker hanged.
"What is it!" she yelled, as Joker leaned in closer to the rectangle to read the question.
"It is..." he began. Ten seconds were remaining….then nine….then eight….
"It says…?!" Wii Fit questioned in a panicked voice. And taking a breath, she let her hands off the lever.
But...she did not press the red button to stop the crank in place. And at that exact moment...disaster unavoidably struck for her partner.
Crrrr…..WHOOOOOOOOOSH!
It was a deafening, unfortunate whooshing sound of released cables. And with no warning at all, Joker was sent plummeting down the remainder of the pit, over one-thousand feet, at the deathly speed of gravity itself.
And very reasonably, a scream of doom was heard in the near-endless gap.
The games of the deserted Mushroomy Kingdom were over. Or rather, almost over. Seven players were brought to the end of the iconic path. Two of them had run away from a Poison Mushroom. Three of them were sucked mercilessly up into the air via a large, green pipe. Two of them had rappelled down a bottomless pit, one of them having endured a five thousand foot drop.
Joker: I did not have words for what had happened to me. But I would save them for...after.
The players stood before the host...and surprisingly, even stood before Lucario himself. The Mario hat, red and reflecting in the sun, was present in his hands.
"What?" Kazooie spoke, seeing the hat with confusion and suspicion. She noticed that it was slightly inverted within Lucario's hand...and she saw that it was slightly green. Lucario noticed her glance, pausing a bit.
Kazooie: Why was his hat all weird? And also, why was Lucario shuffling awkwardly and trying to position the hat away from us? Why was he looking like some guilty dog? Huh?!
Some of the players' eyes widened, noticing the odd, new design of the hat too...yet their speculation of Lucario was immediately prevented by the host's sudden speaking.
"Three games complete...three chances to lower the flag at the end of the course…" the host told them, looking out to the flagpole behind him in the distance. He turned to Dark Pit and Isabelle.
Game One Results: Mushroom Mania
"You had five chances to get a good Mushroom...did you get it?" Smash Host asked.
"Nope," Dark Pit said flatly. "We lost. Thanks to Isa….me." Everyone looked reasonably disappointed.
"What?! What happened?!" DK asked him.
"Well…" began Isabelle instead. "We were on our fourth block guess. And it was way up high that we had to help each other climb up...so imagine our shock when a Poison Mushroom came out of that one! We tried to run from it for like ten seconds!" She paused. "And, well...I accidentally, maybe pushed Dark Pit-"
"I fell onto it all by myself," Dark Pit finished, looking happy. Everyone was flabbergasted.
"I literally...fell onto it," Dark Pit continued, shrugging. "I could have stepped anywhere else, but I fell right there."
"Hmm...suspicious," DK commented, scratching his chin.
"What!?" Wii Fit exploded. "You could have just tripped another direction, you...Mole!"
"Yep...I guess I just could have," Dark Pit replied proudly, looking at her with a smile. She stepped forwards and glared at him.
"You could have fallen left! Right! Even jumped over it! Are you blind, Dark Pitoo, even without your blindfold on?!"
"Yeppers indeed," Dark Pit said calmly. "I'm blind and can't do anything."
"And yet even still, you fell right onto the Poison Mushroom?!" The angel looked at Wii Fit directly square into her eyes.
"Ex….act….uh….mundo," he said. And Wii Fit, for the first time against him….seemed at a loss for words at him.
Kazooie: What a boss.
DK: What! Totally sabotage! That was weird that Dark Pit stumbled right upon the Poison Mushroom. He's totally on my suspects list now!
Dark Pit: The others think I'm just a dark, evil soul anyway. So might as well take the blame. And it felt good. It was completely worth it witnessing Wii Fit's shocked face. I finally won against her.
Wii Fit: I...simply cannot...this guy. Sigh. He's surely evil, and definitely the Mole.
Isabelle looked at Dark Pit, wide-eyed, but then just looked down to the ground in silence, a little smiling.
Isabelle: Wow! So I noticed that nobody looked at me for the blame. I felt entirely awful having messed Dark Pit up and I should have taken blame! ...but sometimes it's good to stay in the background, isn't it?
"I gave some verbal hints that the Mushroom was hidden in the final block, furthest from you, at the end of your instructions," the host added, almost proudly to the duo. "Had you only picked up on them...the game wouldn't have been so guessy." Isabelle and Dark Pit had faces of disbelief.
Isabelle: And that's what makes it more embarrassing! Oh well...but at least we were right in our intuitions: the game was not just about luck! I had to pay attention for future games!
"That's one game down...but the flag remains the same, hanging high," the host nodded. "You guys lost. Hmm. Next." Smash Host then turned his way to the three players in the middle.
Game Two Results: Coin Me Down
"Warp Pipe players." Kazooie, Lucina, and DK, all three of their faces, were understandably mixed. They were the second team.
Kazooie: Actually...I really didn't have any hope. Only a fool would.
"So, how did we do?" DK asked a little too excitedly to the host, jumping up. "Did we win?! Yeaahhhh! Give us the MONAYYY!" He let out an overexcited grin, as Kazooie wing-palmed, not as optimistic as her happy primate partner.
"I must first ask: how do you think you did?" Smash Host replied, and by his tone of voice, DK immediately frowned with suspicion: indeed, the host did not sound the least positive.
"I am completely aware we did not perform as...excellent as we had hoped," Lucina spoke first, stepping forwards and acknowledging their failure with a mixed face herself. "First of all, I realize now, after reflecting, that the answer to one of our puzzles was wrong. It was not eleven coins. It was seven coins."
"Seven was the amount of coins you should have retrieved….not eleven," Smash Host confirmed to Lucina's answer. He pointed to an imaginary board of numbers in the air.
"The numbers were the number of letters in each of your names...all ten of you, in the order you arrived in the game of The Mole," the host continued to them. "The eighth blank...Lucario's name...had seven letters. Seven was the answer." Kazooie and DK both looked shocked, hearing the explanation.
"Doh!" said Kazooie. "I do admit, that was a harder riddle than mine was. Tough luck. Oh well."
"That was almost IMPOSSIBLE to get!" DK added in opinion. He didn't look satisfied with the results.
"You were incorrect...and for that one error...your amount of coins was at least three coins off, and thus, a failure. I'm sorry." Everyone looked at the trio of players with a bit of disappointment but also curiosity: something had gone wrong.
"Who...missed that question?" Wii Fit asked the group, looking both disappointed and skeptical to the trio of players.
"Hey, well…" DK began a little sheepishly and madly.
"It was DK's room, and I provided the incorrect answer," Lucina replied, her voice full of truth and honesty. "It was not just his fault. However, we had solved two out of three riddles…"
"Yet two out of three wasn't enough," DK moaned, as if angry at the rules of the game.
"One interesting thing I might point out, however," the host pointed out to them. "The clue outside the room stated Players...yet you all did not use that as a reference to try and solve that riddle." At this line, Lucina and DK turned to each other, their eyes bigger than ever. The host had spoken the truth.
Lucina: We should have worked harder...I feel ashamed. In the panic of important time, we forgot the basic steps. The clues were ignored. But it does show that I have more room to improve in terms of my teamwork skills with others.
Kazooie: If DK had taken responsibility for his own question, we would have maybe won. DK. Is. Not. That dumb. I think a lot of it was his act. Hurmph.
"I know, I know, it was supposed to be my riddle to solve," DK announced, letting out a huff of disapproval.
"Typical," Wii Fit sighed. "A big bloke player not being smart. What's next, a tall, athletic woman excelling at everything?"
"But…! It was Lucina who gave the wrong answer!" DK protested, pointing to her. "And Kazooie, you didn't help me ONE bit!" He successfully shifted the blame to the other two, as everyone looked at them.
"Why should I have even helped you?" Kazooie retorted calmly, laughing to herself. "That was your riddle. You were too dumb to solve your own puzzle. It's as simple as that." Before DK could explode another response to her, Lucina stepped forwards to speak.
"We all could have helped each other," Lucina acknowledged. "We must take blame and we take this loss as a team. No one else to blame but ourselves. Me included." DK and Kazooie both looked at each other, a bit begrudgingly, yet agreeingly.
Kazooie: Lucina was all, "It's everyone's fault, it's everyone's fault!" ...which I didn't necessarily agree with at all.
"There is one aspect, however….that was lastly, also a bit wrong..." Smash Host began. Everyone turned to him…but the host was looking directly at Kazooie.
"Kazooie, you successfully solved the answer to your riddle of 19 coins," the host began. "But can you count the number of coins in your pockets?"
"Of course!" Kazooie laughed, looking at the host with a ridiculing look. "Why do you want me to, anyway?" He looked at her with a small smile as she fished out the numerous number of coins from her pocket
"….sixteen….seventeen...eighteen…nineteen… twenty..." She stopped. And checked again. And again.
"You exited your room after grabbing twenty coins," the host confirmed to her nodding. "You accidentally grabbed one coin more. For that, your value was wrong too." Everyone stared at the bird.
"You grabbed the wrong number of coins?!" Dark Pit exclaimed.
"Ooooops…" was all Kazooie replied, her face a bit embarrassed.
"Oh, that blows!" DK began, facing her.
Dark Pit: HOW do you grab one more coin accidentally?! Arrrgh.
Wii Fit: It was a small error, and I was hoping my coalition partner was acting in sabotage, not truly sabotaging the game.
"The correct answers were seven, nine, and nineteen," the host confirmed once again. "Three important numbers."
"Uh...did any teams win?" Lucario couldn't help but voice out a little unnerved. The flag remained high in the air at the top of the flagpole...and everyone realized too.
Lucario: Two games gone...so many potential saboteurs, as much as I didn't want to think so. And sadly...would I become a third saboteur in the end?
"Lastly, Wii Fit and Joker," the host said, turning to the two rappellers. Both looking like an unmatched pair, they couldn't help but side-eye each other just a little bit antagonistically.
Game Three Results: One Up, One Down
"Wii Fit...you got one question successful on your way down," the host confirmed. She nodded.
"If I wasn't let down a bit too far down the abyss at the end of my round, I would have gotten two questions correct... but yes, sadly only one," Wii Fit nodded in elongated, blaming reply. Joker shook his head.
Joker: Blaming me? She clearly had no right to do so after what she had committed.
Wii Fit: Little things...he attempts to sabotage in little, hidden ways. And they won't go unnoticed, so of course, I needed to mention them for the sake of the group. If he's the Mole, then I'm helping the players win.
"And Joker...you got one question correct on your rappel down in the beginning...and that was until…"
"A rappel down?" He scoffed. "I would correct that as...a plummet down."
"A four thousand and eight-hundred foot drop down," the host elaborated, and all the players gasped in shock and surprise.
"WHAT?!" exclaimed DK at the high number, mouth dropped. Nobody had been aware of his haunting plummet.
"I had...unfortunately not pressed the red button," was Wii Fit's sudden sentence. Everyone turned to the tall woman. She gave out a loud sigh….one full of vigor and strength….and exaggeration.
"I suppose I let go too early. How terrible of me. What a mistake. But after all, like I said before...mistakes happen easily." She grinned a little to Joker, as he opened his mouth with the tiniest of surprise.
"I…" Joker began. He looked madly at her.
Joker: It was not a mistake.
Wii Fit just looked smugly to him.
"I'm...glad to say...that your mistake was countered, Wii Fit," Joker replied calmly. And at his sentence, the players gasped again. Wii Fit stopped smiling and was staring at him in surprise. She glared her eyes.
"What...did you say?" she demanded.
"I saw the question...right before you very unintentionally let me go," Joker added. "The question was, "What did Fox leave in Castle Siege as a memento for himself?"
"And as you yelled down the way down, you yelled not in terror, but your answer," the host nodded to him. "Your answer of 'A Sword'...which Fox had stuck into the wall of the castle...was correct." The players clapped. This time, Joker turned a little smugly to Wii Fit. Her face was shocked.
Lucario: What was with these two? Even without any aura sensing...I knew they were just at war.
Wii Fit: Well...he just didn't know: I still had his journal in my possession. And I would be using that to all the advantage I could use against him. He was not a winner. Not against me.
Dark Pit: And probably every player was thinking, including me: was Wii Fit sabotaging on purpose as a player, or was she the Mole?
"You won...one game." The host's last sentence was good news.
"Yes!" Lucario shouted the loudest of everyone. Everyone cheered but mostly laughed at the canine's relieved shout. The flag would be ultimately lowered.
"Without further delay, please lower the flag...once!" the host commanded loudly.
Crank….. It was as if his own voice was a remote control, because one he spoke, they heard a soft, eerie cranking sound echoing not too far from their spot. As all eight players turned, they saw the symbolic flag of the world, their finish, lowering down slowly. After sliding down just a few feet….the flag stopped in place.
"Of course...it could have been lower...if some of you had played better," the host couldn't help but add. Several of them shuffled uncomfortably.
Kazooie: So hmm. Had the Mole played a role in this game already? Or did the Mole even play their role yet and still had to jump?
"The question is...before our jumper goes…." the host spoke again, as everyone turned to Lucario. "Who are you?"
Lucario stood still. Three words...and his answer would determine the end of the game. The wind in the world was silent.
Isabelle: Oh no...just who would he choose to be?
"Who will you be, Lucario?" the host asked again. "Mario...or Bowser?"
And Lucario put on his hat.
And the players gasped.
"Of course...in a game where I feel like everyone else is Bowser," Lucario spoke with integrity and truth, and a calm smile on his face, "I must, of course, be Mario." And everyone breathed with thankfulness and relief. His hat was red. A blue Mario was soon to jump.
Billowing in the now-blowing wind that also now blew the hot sand across the land of the Mushroomy Kingdom as well, the flag soared and waved high on the pole, if not a few feet down. It was not as glorious as it had once been: its Mushroom logo was faded and gone and its bright white was now a faded yellow from sadly wind and exposure. But its symbolism still held strong: it was the end of the game. The end of their very game of Episode 3.
A few meters away from the flagpole was a series of blocks stacked upon one another. They formed a series of steps. At the bottom of the stairs...Lucario was standing. The hat on his head that of a hero's.
Lucario: I had on the hat of Mario...and Mario's role I would play.
The other seven watched from the background upon several wooden benches. Some of them were just squatting above the sandy ground.
"Phew, I don't know what's worse," Wii Fit noticed with dismay. "Sitting on the sandy ground...which will ruin my yoga clothes...or sitting on a ten million year old bench that could break at any moment."
"Are you calling the bench the Mole now?" Joker laughed. Next to him, Lucina sat, her eyes focused on Lucario; he was stretching and meditating upon the sand in the near distance.
"Though it is Mario's hat and only Mario should don it...out of all of us here...it is maybe permissible for Lucario to wear such," Lucina wondered to herself. "Mario was a hero...and Lucario, by choosing to wear his hat instead of Bowser's, is therefore a hero as well." She nodded to herself.
"I want to be a hero," Dark Pit mumbled, hearing her sentence.
Dark Pit: Whatever. I don't need to be a hero. I'm my own person. I'm just an angel of destruction, right?
"Oh...the host." And in the foreground of Mushroomy Kingdom, they saw the host walking towards Lucario's spot from behind. The Pokemon turned around, surprised, but acknowledging that he would soon have to make his jump...his short, one, impacting jump.
"Lucario, before you are two things," Smash Host explained to him deeply. "Several sandy steps you must run up and jump from the top of...and after those stairs, a flagpole twenty feet away with a waving flag attached to it. That flag...must be touched."
"I...I understand," Lucario stated with comprehension, and slight nervousness.
"Miss the flag...and no money is added to the pot," the host told him. Lucario froze.
Lucario: It was a very, very possible outcome.
"But be able to touch that flag...and you single-handedly add 20,000 coins to the pot, and the game is won." Lucario's eyes sparkled a little bit.
The host took a step back. "Any time you are ready...Mario." And he walked away...far enough away from the stairs and Lucario. The player was left alone, a little dazed. But then he focused. He walked in the direction away in opposite direction from the steps...and walked...and walked further...until he stopped.
He turned towards the stairs...and adjusted his cap.
"He adjusted his cap!" Kazooie blurted. "That means he's gonna jump anytime soon! Whaa! Get the popcorn, folks!" The players all gathered.
"That's a big jump," DK noticed, eyes wide with surprise. "And he can't use any special moves? Dang, if only I could utilize that Up-B of mine…"
"I worry, due to the flag being failed to be lowered by a few of us sabotaging folk, that he won't make it," Wii Fit nodded honestly. They saw him ready his feet. He was going to run.
"Oh, Lucario!...you can do it," Isabelle whispered, face nervous and crossing her fingers.
"I believe...he can succeed for us as well," Lucina whispered. Her blue eyes were conflicted...but hopeful.
Lucario: It was truly now...or never.
And then...Lucario began to run. Everyone gasped at his sudden movement. But they all knew that at that second...the momentous jump would take place.
"The moment we've all been waiting for!" DK exclaimed with excitement.
And...using the potential energy from his running force...he leaped into the air.
Jump! Lucario jumped off from one foot, leaping high, then eventually landing on the fourth step of the ancient stairs: in a single leap, he was halfway up the steps. Everyone was ecstatic….and before another millisecond could even pass by... he made another leap from his other foot.
Jump! Lucario's hopped off from his right foot and soared impressively high with his second jump, landing directly on the top step of the entire stair formation. Everyone gasped.
"He's at…!" Isabelle voiced excitedly.
"The top!" DK yelled nervously. The last, crucial jump was all that was left.
Everything that occurred next happened so quickly. The last leap off from the top of the stairs and the jump towards the flag was in less than one second. Lucario's third step was from the very top of the dusty, ancient stairs, his foot landing just briefly on it, propelling his final jump. And then...he jumped towards the flag.
Sand over the many years in the Mushroomy Kingdom had been blown through the air. So high, even, that over several decades, a layer had accumulated on the very top of these steps...and some of this sand was stepped upon by Lucario as he took his final jump off the top of the bricked stairs.
And this sand caused him to slip.
The third jump was not a jump, but rather instead, an attempted jump that was immediately followed by a flipped stumble. Lucario's right fingers reached considerably close to the flag at the last second...but was still several feet off and away from the fabric as he began to fall due to gravity.
Lucario, as he plummeted, saw nothing else but the bricked ground below him, and when he looked up, the remainder of the flag's metal pole as he fell head-first to the floor of the world. Yet also...at the last second, as he stared upwards at the sky...he caught one glimpse of the waving, large flag, still beautiful yet also very faded. His hand reached out to it with futility, as if wanting to symbolically grab for it again. But he, of course, did not touch it.
And then he hit the ground…hard.
The rest of the players gathered beside a structure near the beginning of the world, mostly worried for their poor teammate and friend. Producers were giving the seven waiting players bottles of water to beat the intense heat of the desert land. The scorching sun made their apprehensive feelings even worse.
"They should have put mattresses underneath the flag," Wii Fit complained, shaking her head. "That's what they do in gymnastics. Poor designs."
"It's him!" Everyone turned and saw the slightly dazed Lucario. He was not injured. If anything, he appeared mostly confused and disappointed as he made his way to the group.
"I did not make the jump…" Lucario began, his head down in regret. "I am very sorry."
"We don't care!" DK shouted to him. "Good job! Good job! Awhooo!" Everyone crowded him, giving him their own cheers of congratulations. Lucario looked a bit taken back, but overall, happy.
Isabelle: He had jumped farther than any of us could have, so I really give him my appreciation! He's really inspiring in a way.
Joker: Of course...in the most important role, all Lucario had to do was simply trip and fall...and if so, the 20,000 coins would be lost. It had. It all depended on him. And he had lost, surprisingly.
Wii Fit: He could still be the Mole. It was possible. We just didn't want to think that he was.
"The game is not over yet," the host interrupted, coming from behind Lucario. Everyone turned to Smash Host, a little hesitantly.
"As I had told you, Lucario, during the mission," Smash Host continued, "Mario...you must choose two companions: a Peach and a Yoshi." Everyone, at these final words, were surprised.
"What! This wasn't told to us!" Kazooie gasped. The host then unveiled two objects from behind his back in his very hands: one was a crown of a princess, sparkling in the desert sun, elegantly hitting the eyes of every player who saw it. The other was a visor in the design of Yoshi, looking as if it could have been retrieved from a souvenir shop from Isle Delfino itself.
"One male player...and one female player...and each player you choose," the host began, "gives that player each a Plus 1. If you successfully administer these two objects...the team wins an additional 10,000 coins. However...if these objects are not given by you...or they are rejected for any reason...then no money will be won. Will you choose to assign two friends? And if so: who exactly will you choose?" Everyone looked confused, yet excited, and began to talk out loud immediately. But some of them were tense.
Wii Fit: I did NOT expect this portion of the game. I don't believe anyone had.
"Oh my gosh…" Isabelle put a hand over her mouth.
"Choose me!" DK shouted, face looking ecstatically happy yet also pleadingly at the same time to Lucario. Everyone couldn't help but feel the same emotions of the ape's words: would they be chosen?
"At least choose someone," Dark Pit huffed. "So we get money."
"But choose well, cause I WANT IT!" DK stammered again. The players were at war.
"Hmm…" began Joker, his eyes slightly shining.
Joker: If Lucario had to choose someone...then I was going to make it in my best interest for it to be me.
"I-" Joker began, but everything that was planned by him, or any other player in that very circle, was halted as Lucario suddenly spoke.
"I have already decided my two players," Lucario stated, and everyone in the group became silent with confusion. Joker frowned, especially. Lucario only continued speaking.
"I have in mind two players whom I want to give these objects to."
"Oh?" the host asked, a little surprised himself. Smash Host held the crown up first.
"Then let's start with Peach. Who...will be Peach?" Everyone turned to Lucario.
"I choose...as Peach herself..." Lucario began. He cleared his throat.
"Peach...will be none other than our remaining princess, Lucina."
"Oh!" The swordswoman gasped, looking at the Pokemon himself with shocked eyes. Everyone else seemed surprised. Lucina, the chosen player, seemed stunned herself.
"Lucario...I…" Lucina began, voice full of surprise. She also turned to the host, who was simply now holding the shining crown up to her with a grin in his outstretched, gloved hand.
"It's yours," the host smiled to her, and she was at a loss for words.
"I...I am...speechless," Lucina could only respond with wide eyes, her mouth slightly open in disbelief. "I did not expect this...offering. Not at all."
"I feel as if you deserve it," Lucario nodded, those being his only words. "We have had a certain connection over the past two episodes, and as much as I've supported you, you have supported me as well. Take it. It is well-deserved." He tilted his head down. Lucina, though still surprised, bowed slightly to him. When she lifted her head...she was happier. And now, she was smiling with gratitude.
"Thank you…" she whispered, realizing the truth.
Lucina: He had chosen...me. To succeed and continue in the game. Thank you, Lucario. I owe you a debt I will do my best to repay one day.
Then, the host then walked up to her slowly...and held the crown in his hand to the player even more insistently.
"This crown...truly once belonged to the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom herself..." the host smiled. "You must place it upon your head and claim it as yours." But at this very new sentence...Lucina's smile slowly disappeared.
"Place it...upon my head?" the Ylisse princess repeated, her expression suddenly changed.
"For 10,000 coins...and for a Plus 1...put this simple crown on for the rest of the day. Take her place. From today, it will no longer belong to Peach. It is yours." The host smiled a little.
"Put this crown on…" he finished, "and become Princess Peach herself." Lucina almost gasped out loud at the host's last sentence. She turned to Lucario with a conflicted expression, then to the other players, then slowly made her direction to stare at the dusty ground beneath her feet. Her face seemed shakened...and she seemed to be struggling on the inside.
"What…?" Joker began, staring at her. Everyone else looked confused at her actions. Lucina paused, then stared at the host once more. Now, her face was resolute and almost calm.
Then, she spoke.
"This...and I apologize to everyone present...is an offer I simply cannot take."
What?! Dun dun dun!
So the chapter ends on some weird level of betrayal and honor. I just love that Peach is somehow still alive in the 3rd episode. Her mysteriousness can never disappear! She's too influential as a Mole player!
Anyways, the players travel to a new destination in the next chapter! A little more lively, I promise! Haha. Thanks for reading :D Stay tuned for 2 weeks! (and if not 2, it's def. 3 haha)
Dark Punxysaur: Funnily, Mario was never a Mole player in any of my previous stories! I have this thing where I don't choose the main characters to star in my stories xD Maybe you can call it popularity discrimination, haha. After all, I did choose an obscure Pixl from Super Paper Mario to be a major character in my 3rd fic xD Getting the poison, right? Isabelle just couldn't help it! That's cool that you thought Lucina's riddle was easy! I wasn't sure if it was simple or difficult...maybe you are just too smart :) Interesting theory on the numbers in DK's riddle possibly being the final three players. What is the riddle's true answer? As you now probably know, you WERE right about them being connected to the players!
Masking What Remains: How can we forget Peach! T_T Not even the players can forget her, right? I like how you put the word "alliance" in quotation marks! You really are analyzing the relationship between Wii Fit and Kazooie closely and well. There are some hints that maybe they aren't as trustworthy of each other as they seem or act when they're together. Haha, you're right about Isabelle still being her secretary self and so hardworking! It really pays off in the game of the Mole, huh. Yeah, riddles are just too difficult sometimes, I agree! But I solve them...I just get a high thrill :D hahaha, maybe I'm weird. Awesome pattern spotting with the number differences however! I guess it was a very open-ended riddle huh? XP
Darksymphony777:What the...huh...how can a story be so mysterious, beautiful, and sad at the same time? MAKE A NEW FANFIC! Seriously, I want to see a story like this under your account. It's great and I am a fan! Reading how McHallyboo and Sherry saw the Agent's Elevation crew frozen in a hug...reading that gave me chills. I pictured it and... *shudder* Oh wow, McHallyboo's backstory. Who is this Carpaccio? Is he the true origin of these Mole games? I like how McHallyboo nonchalantly mentions Tiny's appearance...wait...she's there, right?! And I guess she's not the friend that McHallyboo wants to say goodbye to. My theory is that the building took the existences and memories of the real players, were exposed to them for so long, that they became engrained as virtual existences and copies in the building. It's all too intriguing and Black Mirror in a way. Poor Sherry...you can sense their trauma so well at the end :(
Cavin856: *says, "I'm not going to explain this, but…* *explains detailed theory of how Kazooie could be the Mole, traveling and going to her hole, secretly without DK knowing*. Bahaha! With those lines pasted onto a poster split horizontally with your face somewhere on it, I turned you into a living meme! But like a smart meme :D cause you're smart. See? Yeah, in a way Dark Pit did subtly shine in this chapter! I didnt think of it until you link the dead new world with Dark Pit's "meh " personality haha. This journal theory you have, with Joker having his 3rd journal is pretty crazy! I admire your creativity in forming this, whether it's true or not :) Anyways, you described the mission so well, as a game that's, "All or nothing but with three, potentially irrelevant, subsections." hahaaa, cause indeed, a failed game could still mean a win.= anyways. Nice great job figuring out Lucina's riddle COULD mean 8! And congrats on also being right about DK's riddle. LMAO! Your line "OK hold up Lucina, everyone knows you're being suspicious, but even I couldn't follow that nonsensical math." I'm officially dead xD Because rereading the chapter I had the same exact thoughts for that part of her pathways and trying to decipher them :) You're like a careful just-in-case detective in a way too.
FFWF: Im happy to be back too! :D aww thanks for greeting me! If I wasn't mistaken, you guessed either a civilization place or the opposite, a deserted place? You were right! :) Spoiler but your civilization guess is gonna come true in the next episode and the players will be surprised. Interesting note on Mario's cap and DK's tie both being red, whether that's significant or not. You analyzed Lucario so well on his choices :) And yeah, good point! Why risk your reputation on snagging the exemption if it ends up being so out of reach anyway? I mean however, reputation doesn't exist in the game of the Mole, huh haha. Nice analysis on Isabelle and Dark Pit in their game! To be honest, they are such a weird duo and putting them together, I just had to make it obvious that they DON'T exactly play well as a team xD Kazooie and DK solving riddles kind of harks back to their first mission together with riddles. Ironically, DK did good back then but isn't too strong in this pipe coin game, while Kazooie struggled in the first game but redeems herself here. Yay, you joined forces with Cavin! :D Always nervous when two smart people team up. Really intriguing theory on Joker and Wii Fit having teamed up and are trying to dupe Kazooie. I mean, those kinds of twists are not unfamiliar to the twists present in such games of the Mole, and it's deceptive enough too. Thanks for your words and awesome thoughts like always! : )
LuiasyLover: Missed you too! :) Aww those posters were precious! Apples and kisses? aww I'll gladly take them all haha :D Your last poster asking who the Mole is, the effort is commended muahaha. Carton-made tombstones for Peach and Fox sounds so accurate; in the game of the Mole, the players have no time to grieve or build fancy burials, bahahaa. Why would Daisy be munching popcorn if Peach's castle was falling to ruins?! Does she secretly hate Peach that much?! I laughed when you said Lucina was ruining Kazooie and DK's duo, because she literally jumped out of nowhere LOL and DK and Kazooie were probably already content being an animal duo of some sort, ahahaa. I'm glad you thought Isabelle and Dark Pit's interaction was funny! xD Because I wrote in as so because they DEF. are not likely partners, so they went all bad and mismatched together hahaaa. "DK doesn't even know what a number is" hahahaha! XD I guess both game in this mission did pretty bad huh. Nice job on the riddles however! :) and now...suspect list! A great one as always! I find it so intriguing how your Number 1 suspect is becoming less of a suspect! It's an interesting element of your overall list! Nice noticing of Lucina worshipping the Mario characters and posssibilyyy connecting it to the past Mario Mole stories, hehe. So interesting to see Kazooie the Moley bird shoot up your list, as you have great reason to! Because she has been sabotaging here and there! Toadsworth is watching my seasons?! Aww, thanks Toadsworth! :D And why is the Season 1 winner, Luigi, being so mysterious at the end of your review? He's not even the Mole *scratches chin* hmmm.
Mr. Rainbow Dude: NICE nice nice prediction about the final episode taking place on Final Destination. It just makes sense, huh? Wouldn't it be funny if it ended up that it did take place there? *WINK* Apples are great fruit! I was getting hungry while writing the last apple mission, haha. I love how you're like "Lucario's in trouble if he doesn't take the exemption". It seems to be like a story curse, huh. Valid thoughts on that. It's intriguing however seeing that he's your top suspect! And lastly, very cool to see Wii Fit in a Top 3; among other readers she doesn't rank high, so it's refreshing to see that ;) Not saying she's the Mole or whatsoever hur hur.
CocoTots: You definitely get a cookie! A sad, peachy cookie :( Goodbye Peach! She really was off on her Mole suspects all along, huh, even back in Episode 1. The animal duo are your top Mole picks! So intriguing to see that! ;) It's really funny that you say the riddle was obviously about players...because Smash Host himself even points out after the game how Lucina and Dk completely ignored the "Players" clue written outside the door xD bahaha. So interesting to see your execution predictions! Part 2 of this episode really does end up focusing a lot on Wii Fit and Joker! Along with the end of the episode :) So perhaps you may be right.
Skerioni Bassio: Hey! Nice to hear from you :D I'm so glad you are reading my story! Skeri rolls of the tongue really well, I'll call you that :) Have you seen any Mole show seasons or read any Mole stories in the past? It seems as if you have! Aww, thanks for the writing compliment! It took me 4 stories to finally get to a good level I suppose xD Anyways, I love how you've collaborated with the other readers to form a suspects list :) Nice predictions! Interesting how you think Dark Pit is a suspect just cause he's not really a suspect, haha. I like how you are also treating other reviewers here like LuiasyLover as potentially being the Mole! Hahaha! It's like a mini-Mole game among the reviewers :) I love it! Good luck on your clue hunting! Just like in my past stories, I try to make them as subliminal yet meaningful as possible, heh.
