Chapter 14
Sackle stood at the edge of a grassy cliff, overlooking the colorful city before him. It had everything: A lighthouse, a marketplace, a Grand Pianta statue, a cannon, a good few little islands, and some docks and some boats to top it all off. This was Delfino Plaza, and it seemed the blue-capped thief had just earned for himself a free vacation here without even trying. It seemed those ghost people actually did for him a favor. Well, him and Crookie. Speaking of Crookie...

“Ugh... What happened?” he said groggily, using his own sack of goodies as an improvised pillow. Crookie was lying on his back somewhere at the base of the isle’s resident volcano, Corona Mt. It let pillars of steam drift slowly into the air while Crookie was busy rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Sackle seemed a little delighted by the sight of this.

“Crookie, you nincompoop, you’re awake!” he said upon trotting over to his subordinate.

Crookie was still blinking his eyes at him. “I am? Oh, yeah. I am,” he said. He got up off the ground, brushed himself off, and looked Sackle in the eye. “Boss?” Crookie asked. “What happened? Where are we?”

“You got yourself hit on the head during that battle, Crookie, you numbskull. I swam you to safety!” He wrapped his right arm around the young burglar’s shoulder. “Take a look around you, Crookie. This is Isle Delfino, where people treat you right.”

”Really?” he asked. Sackle removed his arm.

“Of course not, dummy! We’re in Muckville. Now start eatin’ before you keel over.” Sackle pointed to a pile of bananas, coconuts, pineapples, pears, and durians not too far from where his sidekick was just lying down. It was quite a horde. Sackle’s sack was right next to it.

“Um, okay, Boss!” He walked over to the collection of produce, sat down in front of it, tore out a banana, and started peeling. Sackle watched for only about a split-second this apprentice of his obeying his orders. Then he went back to observing the island he was on. He saw Ricco Harbor here, Gelato Beach there, Pinna Island off in the distance, etc. He started to hum a tune.

“Hmm hm hm hm hmm hm hm hmm hm hm HM hm...” he went on. He continued this as he continued sightseeing. Crookie was just about done with his banana. He tossed aside the remnants of it and went on with another fruit. He just got started on a big, orange pear when something in him woke up and made him recognize the tune.

“Hey, Boss,” he inquired. “Isn’t that that one song that that one little guy was singing back on the boat? You know, the one about the birds and the bees?”

Sackle was having a look at a place off in the distance with some kind of hotel. He had his back turned towards the yellow-capped one. “What if I am?” he asked.

Crookie took a bite of his pear. “Oh, nothing,” he responded. He chewed and swallowed. “Can you believe those guys were werewolves? Talk about creepy!”

“Yeah, I guess I was pretty surprised, too, but we got ‘em, right?” his superior cheered on.

“Righ-toh, Boss!” Crookie took another bite of the pear. Sackle just chuckled.

“I didn’t tell you about that one guy with the vacuum, though,” he said below his breath, scratching the back of his head.

Crookie had just made a white ring of parts he bit out of surrounding the pear. He thought he heard Sackle say something. “What’s that, Boss?”

Sackle shook his head. “Forget about it,” he said.

“Hm. Okay, Boss!” Crookie got started on a pineapple, but he didn’t know how to eat it. In the middle of trying to figure this out, another issue popped into his head. “Hey, Boss?”

”What now?” he replied.

“What about that one doll we were looking for? The Belome one? Did you get it?” He was slowly picking away at the spiky, papery skin of the pineapple while looking over his shoulder.

Sackle sighed. “Sorry, Crookie, but I didn’t. It could be anywhere as far as I’m concerned.”

Crookie released his hold of the spiny delicacy. It plopped to the ground and rolled to one side on its own as he got up and looked at his blue-capped leader. “ANYWHERE?! Boss, how are we gonna find it?? Boddle said that doll was an ultra rare, one-of-a-kind work of art and that he was gonna pay us billions for it!!”

Sackle turned around and faced the hysterical guy. “Chill out, Crookie. Maybe that brown guy still has it. Who knows?”

Crookie was still panting up a storm. “But... But... Boss...” He still couldn’t get a hold of himself. Sackle held up his hands as though proving he didn’t have anything.

“Now just relax, Crookie. Just relax,” he said, calmly.

“But- But- But- But-“

”-RELAX!!” Sackle belted out. Crookie jumped back and shut up. Sackle put his arms down. “Sure, we don’t know where the doll is. Sure, we don’t know where that brown guy is. But, one way or another, we are gonna find that thing. I swear it.” He gave a nod to his little assistant.

Crookie stared, then nodded back, slowly. “Okay, Boss,” he said. He turned around, sat back down, and got back to work on the pineapple. He tore off a piece of its skin and Sackle went on with his sightseeing. In the middle of his pineapple-peeling activity, Crookie had to find the answer to something else. “Boss?”

“What is it now?” the thieving guy said to him.

“Where’d you get this fruit?” Crookie asked.

Sackle shrugged. “Some guy gave ‘em to me.”

“HEY, YOU!!” They both suddenly turned their heads around in the direction of where this voice was coming from.

“Busted again, Crookie,” Sackle said. “Let’s moooove out!” He started jogging, leaving both of their sacks behind.

“But, B- GWUGH!!” Crookie was forced to ditch the pineapple along with the rest of the fruit in order to start getting dragged yet again by his companion. Soon after that, he was on his own feet and was running beside his fellow thief without any assistance. They heard footsteps pummeling the grass behind them. At some point, Crookie decided to look over his left shoulder. He could see some big, brutal Pianta with orange skin was on their tails. He didn’t look very happy.

“Boss,” Crookie panted, “you just stole from somebody in broad daylight?!”

”It’s something only the master can do, Crookie, my boy! Someday, maybe, you can do it, too,” his boss replied.

”Hoyy!!” Crookie sighed. Their running continued. As the chase dragged on, it seemed the three people kept leaning more and more to their right. This was due to the fact that pretty much what they were doing was circling the volcano. Step after step, turn after turn, breath after breath, this went on. Then suddenly...

”In here!!”

”GWUGH!!”

Sackle had just pulled him into something. The Pianta that was pursuing them skidded to a stop, confused. He looked around, scratching his head. There was no sign of the jerk who stole his fruit anywhere, nor was there any of his little look-alike. Defeated, he shook his head and started walking back to the direction from whence he came.

“Darn it...”

 

♠♣♥♦

 

Yazzee was lying on a floor of burning sand. He had bruises all over him which seemed to reflect the fact that he wasn’t feeling too good. For a while, everything was black, and nothing seemed to matter. He heard nothing. Then he started hearing whirring noises. It kind of sounded like they were saying, “Zeee,” in this mechanical voice. At last, he looked up and saw four things: A strange machine, a strange machine, a strange machine, and a strange machine. Each of them had a weird-looking head that had a wide open mouth like a trumpet, except it was silver. Then he just saw one of those odd implements.

”Power-up complete. Thank you for purchasing this item from Mad Science Inc. Scanning for user information.”

The machine looked at Yazzee from top to bottom, from bottom to top. It could see various letters and numbers surrounding this yellow individual with such a confused look on his face. It could even see a screen that showed images of the person waving goodbye to a stork, handing a letter to a Yoshi just like him, but brown, and getting into a big fight with a Big Boo. Then it started talking again.

”Subject identified as Yazzee Yoshino. Resident of Yo’ster Isle. Greetings. I am SPOWT. A Super Program of Operating Worldly Translations. I hope to be of assistance.”

Within moments, Yazzee had this handy device strapped around his waist and into his saddle. He was armed with a utility specially designed for speaking different languages, and he was looking quite imposing in it, too. He stood defiantly on Sirena Beach with the sun shining brilliantly high in the sky. Then it turned its unusual head towards him.

”Let the tour begin...”

 

♠♣♥♦

 

Somewhere off the coast of Noki Bay there was a little island in the middle of the ocean. It looked kind of lonely way out there in the middle of an endless stretch of water all by itself. Like a good few other islands out there, this one was a mass of palm trees surrounded by sand. Upon closer inspection, one could have noticed that there was more to this place than what would have met the eye. Somewhere deep inside this forest of tropical vegetation was a large dome-shaped, metal building painted green with various splotches of tan and brown all over it so it could blend in with its surroundings. Inside such a place, some pretty dubious people were stirring about.

There were three of them. They surrounded one end of a long table in a dark room, lit only by a squashed-looking cylindrical lamp dangling from the ceiling above them and the red lights at the ends of their smoking cigars. This suspicious trio was in the middle of discussing some matter or another.

“Well, Carro,” said one of these figures, “we’re waiting...”

“Alright,” the one in front of him, Carro, said, hesitantly. “I think the X should go... Here.” A pencil hovered above a certain area somewhere on the document the three-some was looking at. The pencil lowered itself and scratched out the X Carro was talking about. Then it floated back to where he was sitting.

The person sitting across from him breathed through his cigar and looked at his proposal interestedly. He spoke up. “Not bad. Not bad. However, Carro, I’m afraid there is one minute detail you seem to have overlooked.”

”What’s that?” he asked.

A slightly different pencil floated in front of this other person Carro was talking to. “You should have put it... HERE!” The new pencil stroked out a circle somewhere else on the document.

Carro looked shocked. “Oh, I knew it!! Why do I always miss that?!” He tossed his head back and waved it left and right.

“Admit it, Carro. No-one can beat Boscis, the ultimate master of tic-tac-toe!” his opponent boasted. The third person, who was the only one who hadn’t spoken yet and the only one not wearing sunglasses, took a good look at Carro shaking his head and Boscis doing his victory dance. All three of these guys were giant, floating carrots with very ugly faces. This silent one had a more sagging, more scowling face than the other two, as well as a longer nose, angrier eyes, and plumier leaves trailing behind him as they grew out of the top of his head. Like the other two, he was also capable of making objects like pencils float through the air as though they were being held by invisible arms.

Finally, he said something. “You people bore me,” said the third one. The other two looked at him.

“Well, Boss, it’s been several months since we made that deal with those freaks, King Boo and the Eight Spookalings. You got the password right, we took care of the rest, and now the moon is looking round, but we still haven’t gotten our money yet. What are we supposed to do until then, eh?” Boscis said.

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” he growled. “We’re going to leave this dump they call ‘Half Moon’ and we’re going to actually do something fun for once.”

”What’re we gonna do?” asked Carro.

The leader thought about it for a bit. Then he said, “Let’s gamble. Let’s go to Sirena Beach. I hear they got a great casino there.”

”Great idea, Boss!” agreed Boscis.

“Yeah, great idea!” said Carro.

“Alright, you people, let’s get going,” said their leader. They began floating away from the table and out of the room together, smoking all the way, leaving the collection of X’s and O’s behind. Soon after that, the light went out, and the room was pitch-black...

 

♠♣♥♦

 

After pulling him into that cave, Sackle found that he was just as amazed as his apprentice was. The two of them were in a very different world. They were standing on a big, rectangular platform of what looked like orange wood which was floating in the middle of, quite literally, nowhere. In every direction, they could see darkness. Suspended in this darkness, there were stars. Not only that, but also these peculiar shapes swimming around. Some of them looked like choo-choo trains. The two thieves remained busy watching these oddities drift through this unfamiliar sky.

What they also noticed was that a ways beyond the platform they were then on was another one just like it, except it was much wider and was green, not orange. It seemed to go on for miles. What they also found intriguing was that this other platform had what looked like a big gray mountain taking up the space of its surface. It was spiky and had what resembled a bunch of plastic cubes of red and blue revolving around one another just above the colossal rock. It also had a wooden door with a knob to the right on the front, which just made it all weirder.

In addition to this, they took note of how a bridge of box-like figures made of sand appeared to be connecting the two platforms. The vicinity seemed to defy all kinds of laws of physics.

“Boss,” said Crookie, “this place scares me.”

“No, it doesn’t, you wuss. It’s just weird. That’s all,” said Sackle, bravely.

Crookie was gazing at the clouds of smoke coming from one of the trains. “I wanna go home,” he whined.

“You can’t,” Sackle responded. It was kind of a cold sentence.

“Wha- Why not??” said Crookie, exasperatedly.

Sackle turned about 180 degrees and spread his arms out. “There’s no exit, that’s why.” There was nothing but nothing right in front of him.

“Holy sh- This is bad, Boss. Really bad. Really, really, really bad.” Crookie started jogging in place using tiny steps with one hand rubbing the other, nervously.

“Just RELAX, Crookie. We’ll find a way out. I promise,” Sackle said coolly, letting a hand slide across the air.

“Boss,” Crookie said, turning his head to who he was talking to, “why did you take us here, anyway?”

Sackle shrugged. “I don’t know. I just saw the cave while we were running from that guy, and I pulled you in. It’s not my fault it took us here... Wherever this is...”

Crookie wasn’t the least bit comforted. He was still looking around, being freaked out by the floating blocks and the stars.

“Alright, enough chat,” Sackle brought up. “What say we have a little look-see in that cave there, hm?”

Crookie looked at him. “You mean that door, Boss?” He pointed to that very portal in the middle of the mountain in the distance.

“No, the other one, doof-head. Now let’s go!” Sackle walked onto one of the sand blocks connecting the little orange platform to the big green one. He turned around and noticed Crookie wasn’t following him. “C’mon, slowpoke!” he called out.

“Boss, I don’t think- BOSS, LOOK OUT!!” he suddenly yelped.

“What the- ACK!!” Sackle jumped back. The block of sand he was just on nearly disappeared beneath his feet like a melting ice cube. Unfortunately, the one he just hopped backwards onto was also beginning to disintegrate. “What- ACK!!” He hopped again.

“I’LL SAVE YOU, BOSS!!” Crookie yelled. He got into a sprint and dashed his way onto this wacky bridge. Sackle continued hopping backwards like mad, trying desperately to not let these dissolving things get the best of him. Crookie only had his feet on the first one for about a split-second before practically leaping onto the next one, letting it vanish into thin air. He kept running, and the bridge kept withering away. Closer and closer to him, the hopping Sackle drew. Then finally...

“GWUGH!!” Crookie grabbed the blue-garmented one by his collar roots and started dragging him across the crazy overpass like all get out. He ran and ran and ran and ran until at last the green platform was within reach. With all his might, he leapt onto it, landed hard, and swung his boss right in front of him on the ground. Sackle sprawled a little. Crookie let go and placed his hands on his knees. Bending down, he started panting heavily. Sackle rubbed his head and got up off the ground. He swept the little grains of sand off himself, took one last look at the bridge, then let his eyes fall on Crookie.

“Thanks, buddy,” he said. Crookie stopped panting and looked up, wide-eyed. Sackle looked back. “But don’t you ever drag me like that again!” he added.

“Um, okay, Boss,” he exclaimed. He put his head back down and resumed panting.

Sackle turned to face the door they sought out. He put his gaze on Crookie and spoke the next few words. “Well, then,” he said, “shall we go in?”

Crookie stopped struggling to catch up with his breath. He started standing upright again. “Okay, Boss!”

Knock, knock, knock. Not far away, a blue light revealed all. A wooden door with a knob to the left turned slowly, letting the big plank gradually swing forward while making creaking sounds with the hinges. Two completely black heads with white eyes and hats of blue and yellow poked in and looked around.

Sackle and Crookie could see that a mere hallway was behind this door. It was lit by torches stuck in the stone-gray walls, all of them evenly spaced from each other. These torches were composed of blue flames which seemed to provide such a location with a rather creepy and unsettling feel. In the distance, they could only see that the hallway faded into darkness.

“Booosss,” Crookie moaned.

“Shut it, you. We’re goin’ in. No complaints,” Sackle ordered.

“Awww,” the apprentice griped.

“ANYBODY THERE?” Sackle rang out. He was only answered by the echoes of his voice. “Guess we’re on our own, then.” He heard Crookie whimper.

They let the door swing in all the way so they could waltz in. Crookie looked around a little more, even though there wasn’t much to see. Sackle then closed the door behind them. He looked at Crookie.

“Let’s go,” Sackle commanded. Crookie shivered. The two of them commenced walking along the gritty floor of this creepy stretch, steadily. All the while, they remained extra alert. Both of them were sure to keep their eyes peeled, not willing to take any chances with such a foreboding abode. Sackle did this calmly, and Crookie did this fretfully. The whole time, it didn’t feel as though that darkness at the end of the tunnel was drawing any closer. The innumerable blue flames going past them hypnotically did little to counter this awkward sensation. After a while, Crookie just couldn’t take it anymore.

“Booosss,” he whined, “what’s with this place?”

”Like I have a-“

“-SSSNNNRRRKKK... sssSSSNNNRRRKKK...” Sackle’s words were interrupted by an abnormal sound. It was nasal and it was coming from a few feet ahead of them.

“You hear that?” Sackle whispered.

“Snoring?” Crookie guessed. Sackle motioned forward. The duo trekked onwards. In due time, they reached it. To their right, there was an arch with probably a room behind it. They looked through it, and saw what could have been the source of the noise: A shadowy figure sticking out of a pool in the middle of an ovular room. There weren’t really any lights in the room, so they could only make out so much. The two criminals exchanged weird looks.

“Should we wake him up?” Crookie suggested, quietly.

“Sure, I guess,” his boss replied.

Sackle raised a fist and banged it against the wall. Knock, knock, knock.

“sssSSSNNNRRRKKK... sssSSSNNNRRRKKK...”

“Geez, heavy sleeper,” Sackle griped. He wasn’t satisfied by the results. He tried again. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

“ZZzzrrg... Mph. Ugh. Is someone there?” The figure lifted its head up. It had long hair that was dripping wet.

“Um, uh, yeah,” Sackle stammered. “Not that we’re burglars, or anything,” he started, “and I don’t know how to explain this, but we kinda really need some help here.”

“Yeah, what he said,” Crookie agreed.

“Oh, gracious, I fell asleep in the tub, again,” the person mumbled. “Could you two look away, please?” he requested. Sackle and Crookie turned around, obediently. For a good number of seconds, the troubled couple stood there with that arch behind them, waiting for this new person, leaving him to do what he had to do. They could hear a few splashes and some wet footsteps, but that was about it.

“Oh, it’s been too long since I’ve had guests,” he mumbled to himself. The waiting continued. Finally, the man had himself wrapped up in a bathrobe, but his long hair remained damp. He stepped forward from his spot in the cave-like room. “You may turn around now,” he said. Sackle and Crookie did so. They could see this silhouette walk its way into the blue light and become something visible. This man was averagely tall. His long, messy hair was brown, and so was his goatee. He was also adorning a pair of glasses. “Alright, boys, what seems to be the trouble?” he asked.

“Well,” Sackle began, “we were just minding our own business, walking along this volcano, when suddenly we saw this cave. Crookie, here,” he motioned towards the guy, “said to me, ‘Hey, Boss! Let’s go in this cave!’” He did a high-pitched voice to imitate his apprentice. “I said, ‘No way, Crookie, bad idea.’ But no, he went in anyway. I tried stopping him. Honest, I did.”

“Uhhh,” Crookie said.

Sackle moved the story along. “I went in after him, but now we’re stuck in this weird place. Some luck, huh?” he finished. “So, do you live here or something? You know a way out?”

The strange man nodded. “Yes, I live here. I know a way out,” he answered.

“Really? Right on! Show us,” Sackle said.

“Very well, then,” said the strange man. “Follow me.”

The two guests stepped back, allowing this new helper of theirs to walk out of the arch and into the hallway. He started walking in the direction the other two had just been going in a second ago. They began to follow. Along the way, an explanation began to pour out.

“I am Mad Scienstein,” he said, “and this, in case you were wondering, is the moon.”

”THE MOON?!” his two listeners blurted out at once.

The walking and talking continued. “Yes, the moon. I always wanted to go the moon, and now I live there. Ever since I moved here, I’ve been inventing many things, including the Super Program of Operating Worldly Translations, and the Invisibility Potion. Actually, that last one I made up on accident. I was really trying to make an Invincibility Potion. I had a little trouble with the Clofide Enugulator Spectrum and the Enoobulator Spectrum, so I got the Invisibility Potion, instead. My friend, Elvin, got to invent the Invincibility Potion for me. It was like a trade! He called it Red Essence, or something. It looks like this peculiar red liquid in corked bottles. Too bad it’s effects don’t last very long.”

“So that’s what that one creepy Yoshi guy was drinking,” Sackle whispered to Crookie.

“Did he say, ‘Elvin’?” Crookie whispered back. Sackle just shrugged.

The three-some continued walking. Mad Scienstein started talking again. “Yes, me and Elvin go way back. In fact: There was this one time the two of us and a friend of ours, Amos, got into quite the heated debate with a trio of witches. It was madness, I tell you. Pure madness,” he continued. “Well, sorry for the rambling. I don’t know why I brought up all that stuff. Please; tell me about yourselves.”

”Aw, what’s to tell?” Sackle said, modestly. “I’m Sackle, and he’s Crookie. We’re just two guys who don’t know how to get out of here. Right, Crookie?”

”Right!” he agreed. “One question, though,” he added. “If this is the moon, how come it’s not all cratery, and stuff?”

The eccentric inventor took it upon himself to explain, or at least try to. “Well, it’s like a typewriter. You know how you can only type so much before you have to turn it and push it back to the left?”

“Yeah,” the other two said.

“And you know how if a trashcan is right-side up, it’s a trashcan, but if it’s upside-down, it’s a table?” he explained.

“Uhhh... Yeah?” they said.

“Well, it’s like both of those. The moon has these things called lunarettes. They’re an odd color, and they’re kind of like toasters; bread goes in, toast comes out.”

“Ummm...”

“But in order for toast to be useful, someone must eat it, right?”

“Riigghhtt...”

“The lunarettes have thousands of tiny little particles called motons. They are always going to the left, to the right, up, down, you name it. But they can only do that for so long before they become motrols.”

”Huh?” Crookie exclaimed.

“What?” Sackle said.

“Never mind,” Mad Scienstein finished. “I don’t know why I brought up all that other stuff. The moon’s a very complicated, very mysterious place. That’s all there is to it.”

The hallway seemed to be getting a bit shorter. “Are we there yet? I wanna go home,” Crookie complained.

“Well, you boys are in luck,” said the odd inventor. Their sauntering had finally come to pay off. The hallway came to an end and the trio found themselves in the middle of another ovular room. This one was way bigger than the other one. It had all kinds of machines, shelves, and tools lying around in it. However, one of these things was able to catch the interest of the two people following the inventor a little more than the others. It was practically the pride and glory of the room, what with standing there in the middle of it and all. It practically went all the way up to the ceiling. It was a mostly tan-colored device that seemed vaguely humanoid. It had two short legs, but two very long arms. The bulk of the arms consisted of its lengthy claws. The majority of the head’s face was hiding behind a big, black visor. The master and his apprentice were both quite in awe of this machine. “I see you boys have taken an interest in my latest creation, the Giga Mole.”

”The Giga What?” they asked.

Mad Scienstein cleared his throat. “The Giga Mole. It’s a giant robot I’ve been working on. It can do many things. It can tunnel through the ground, it can see in the dark, even find lost items.”

Sackle and Crookie’s eyes bolted wide open.

“Did he say it can...” Crookie trailed off.

“Yes. He did,” Sackle answered.

“Not only that, but it also has heat-seeking missiles and force-field projectors. It’s quite the technological feat, if I do say so myself. Or the engineering one. I’m not sure,” the inventor droned on.

“Boss,” Crookie said quietly, “we gotta get wunnadose.”

”I know, I know. Especially since our stuff is gone,” Sackle replied, just as discretely. He was referring to their sacks.

“Oh... Gosh... It is? Uggghhh...” Crookie moaned.

“Don’t you worry about a thing, Crookie, we’ll get this cleared up in no time,” Sackle reassured.

“I swear, this thing will work miracles for mankind, just like the Super Program of Operating Worldly Translations and the Invisibility Potion will. I like to help people out. It’s what I’m here for,” their potential savior interrupted. “Well, that’s enough rambling for the day,” he said. “I’ll show you how to get out of here.” He wandered over to one of the shelves and started pawing through his stuff. “Now where did I put that thing?” he mumbled to himself. He went over to one of its counters, pulled out a drawer and did the same thing with that. “Hmmm...” he hummed. He walked back up to his two customers. “This might take a while. You boys just make yourselves at home. I’ll find it. I promise.”

”Okay!” responded Crookie.

“Can do!” Sackle agreed. Mad Scienstein walked through another arch, no doubt beginning the rest of his search. The two schematic people he left behind remained standing around with not a whole lot else to do other than that. Then Sackle turned to his apprentice. “This’ll pay off. I know it will,” he said.

Crookie nodded. “Right,” he spoke. The duo resumed their waiting...

 

♠♣♥♦

 

Yazzee with the helpful, new SPOWT on his back, walked up the outdoor stairs of this new place and took a moment to observe the big building at the top of the steps. This was quite the impressive hotel that surely could have been seen from a good distance away. He continued up the steps and made his way before a Pianta wearing a red vest and a mustache. This guy was blocking the way inside the structure.

“Excuse me,” Yazzee said, “but could you tell me about this place?”

SPOWT turned its head around so it could put Yazzee’s words in the Pianta’s language. ”He said he would like to be informed of the highlights of Hotel Delfino, please.”

Catching on, the Pianta said, “Ah, certainly, Sir. Hotel Delfino is where tourists usually come to stay for the night while on vacation. We provide our customers with all the service they need to enjoy themselves. We’ve got an indoor swimming pool, very clean bathrooms, cushy beds, fruit, air-conditioning, and the sunsets are just gorgeous. We even have a casino where you can gamble your troubles away.”

SPOWT repeated what the Pianta said to Yazzee, but in Yoshish, this time. “Really??” Yazzee said to it, excitedly. “They’ve got a casino?? Oh, hot dog! Let’s go in!”

SPOWT asked the Pianta if they could go in. The Pianta complied, and the unlikely duo walked through the door.

It’s too bad, Yazzee thought to himself. Yoshi, Xoshi, and Boshi should be here right now...

 

♠♣♥♦

 

What Yazzee didn’t know of at that moment was that a certain trio of scheming carrots had similar plans. Their journey to that very Casino carried on.

This should be loads of fun, thought the ugly leader, Let’s just hope nothing crazy happens...