The mauve waters of the surface began to wane only shortly after Mario's departure to the undersea city. As if his very presence had somehow soothed the savage beast below, the darkened poison that had held the bay hostage all day now at once started to abate, the waterfall's steadily churning flow only helping to flush the toxic terror out. In a matter of minutes, the improvement became visibly apparent to the two nokis at the surface.

After sending the boy with the water pump to do his deed, Aldo's grandpa had descended the cliff to rejoin him on the floating platform at the tower's base. A few times it had seemed to them that the entire bay trembled with an earthquake from beneath, but the roar of the neighboring waterfall prevented them from being certain.

   That was, until Mario himself emerged from the lilac surface, gasping and thrashing like a drowning animal.

   "There he is! HEY MARIO! OVER HERE!" Aldo hollered from their buoy, waving his arms above his head in excitement. "He made it!"

"Yes, yes," his grandpa snorted next to him, seeming rather disinterested. "I wonder if the water is safe to touch then...?"

"I should sure hope so," his grandson remarked, watching the human splash recklessly through the bay towards them. The purple waters seemed almost to tear as he swam through it, dissipating like fading memories of last night's disaster.

Mario had breached the surface, but apparently he was still very much at a lack for air. Powering along the water with his hover nozzle as engine, he made a final desperate lunge towards the floating rock, grasping it with a soaked glove. Then, struggling over the side like a fish trying to grow legs, he rolled his weight along with the heavy air tank and plopped himself, face-up and sopping, on the stone platform. But the struggle wasn't over yet: it was only a few seconds later, after his hands had found the rim of the air helmet around his neck and pried it over his head at last, that he laid back on the concrete and gasped in relief.

Panting and dripping like a half-drowned rat, the boy merely stayed there sighing like he was almost faint for a good thirty seconds or more. The glass bowl he had thrown off rolled to a stop at the elder's feet, causing the old man to finally look up from the fishing hook he had placed tentatively in the water.

"Well, Master Mario, you truly are something!" he said, seeming not at all concerned for the human's lack of air.

"You did it! Thanks to you, our bay is growing clean again!" Aldo exclaimed, kneeling down a respectful distance away from the recovering human. "...Are you alright?"

"I..." Still finding himself breathless, Mario just nodded, sitting up straight and rubbing a hand across his eyes.

"That poison didn't hurt you, did it? You swam all the way through, so I wondered..."

The noki was pleased to see Mario shake his head. "Oh, that's good! I guess this means the bay will be back to normal soon!"

"And look! The fish are already surfacing!" the elder nearly screeched, pointing to a random spot close to the waterfall. "Did you see them jump??"

Mario, ignoring him in a bid to rise to his feet, felt for Fludd's handles, taking comfort to find them still there. Blinking against the daylight—it was a harsh change despite no direct sun—he took another deep breath. Boy, oxygen felt good.

He hadn't thought he was seriously in trouble—at least, he would never convince himself of it—but he would admit he had been more comfortable in underwater situations before. Even after surfacing, the tank had remained empty, rendering Mario basically in a stale carbon dioxide chamber until he took off the helmet.

Don't worry too much about me or anything, he thought briefly, shaking himself of water droplets like a dog. The nokis who had sent him to his task seemed none too concerned that he might have run out of air.

Nevertheless, the elder did seem grateful. "Now, hopefully all of our people will return again!" he said, turning his full attention to the boy. "We owe it all to you!"

"Don't mention it," Mario said at last, beginning to recover his voice. "Did you see the eel leave?"

"No, we didn't see that," Aldo said in interest. "But the bay is already turning blue again, so whatever you did must have worked!"

I would sure hope so! Mario thought, looking out over the water for the first time. To his great delight, it was true: the violet and magenta from before was turning into a turquoise and blueberry backdrop that seemed to hold every ray of light that hit it. Gazing down into the bay from which he had swum, he realized that he could now see several entire feet down through the water, revealing a glimpse of the hanging noki dwellings just underneath. Shaped like little upside-down castles in the water, the stone houses floated in a crystalline pool that looked delicious enough to put on a postcard.

Slowly, Mario allowed a smile as his breath began to calm and his lungs relaxed. Then it would seem his mission was a success.

"Well, Master Mario, I guess we can't keep standing around forever," the elder said, swinging around that fishing pole of his. "I've got to return to fishing. Thanks again! And say, do you know that guy?" he asked now, pointing to the ledge a small ways up the tower over their heads. "Funny fellow. He showed up here a little bit ago. He's been waiting up there for you for quite a while..."

Following the noki's arm, Mario looked up in slight confusion until he remembered: Il Piantissimo. Sure enough, the tanned human in costume was pacing about in a small circle on the overhanging stone step in the tower's base. Given his giant fake pianta head, it was impossible to be sure of eye contact, but he seemed to be keeping an eye on them from above.

Mario inwardly sighed, remembering. He had slightly been hoping the guy would forget... "Yes... he wants to challenge me to a—

"Yes yes, that's nice for you," the elder interrupted, "but now I've got to prepare the bay to be sure we are ready for the citizens' return! So you take care of that, and we'll deal with this, alright?"

"Umm—okay." Mario didn't know how to argue with that.

"Excellent! I would ask you to return this book to its tomb," the noki added, shifting the old tome under his arm, "but I think I still have some reading I want to do. I'll get someone to do it later."

Mario gave him a skeptical glance, but secretly he was glad he wouldn't have to go on another cliffside run up there again.

"Alright. Aldo, come with me," his grandpa instructed. "Our first stop is the boathouse."

"Sure thing, teacher..." the younger noki replied, beginning to move after his departing grandfather. Casting a regretful glance back at the human, he added, "Thank you, Mario! You're amazing!"

Adjusting his hat on his head—which was the only part of him that was still strangely dry—Mario didn't reply; he only offered a grin and a tiny salute off the brim of his hat.

~

If anything good came for Mario personally out of his undersea excursion, aside from the serious lung workout, it was the stains that had seemed to magically come out of his clothes.

That and the shine sprite, of course.

The golden treasure he'd found buried with Eely-mouth in his toxic tooth trouble had been a welcome bonus—he'd stowed it away before surfacing to add to his growing collection. Overall, he was pleased: Noki Bay had proved a worthwhile venture so far, and if he was correct, Il Piantissimo would be ready with another shine for him now. He started trying to do some mental estimates as he headed to meet him on the tower's ledge.

...He had to be amassing a pretty good sum of shine sprites by now, right?

Before he could think on that further, Mario had climbed to the step where the masked man was waiting. On seeing him at last, Il Piantissimo put his hands on his hips and laughed.

"Ho HO, foolish man! So you have come to accept my challenge after all!"

   Mario raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, coming over to get in his face. "First I've heard of it," he replied in amusement.

   Il Piantissimo was not so much for jesting. "I spoke to those locals down below. It seems that your work is done, and now that the bay is clearing, you have no excuse. It is a race to the finish!" he exclaimed, pointing to the far shore on the opposite side of the bay. "To the boathouse! The first one there wins the glory! ...And for you, should you turn out victorious, I shall give the added bonus of the location of a sunshine sprite!"

   Mario frowned and took a step forward. "The location? Hold on, I thought you said you'd have another shine sprite for me if we raced!"

   "Oh impatient hero, where is your sense of challenge?" the masked man teased. "I can't get ahold of all of your sprites. That is for you to do! But, I do know where another one resides! So come and get at the ready!"

   For a second the other human merely squinted at him, a few different whines on the tip of his tongue, but Mario quickly let them go. Il Piantissimo was right, of course: he couldn't count on someone else to get all his shines. And the running man had been quite helpful to him already.

   It's the polite thing to do, I guess, Mario thought, obediently coming forward where Il Piantissimo gestured. At first he thought they might be going down to the shore to line up, but another glance at his opponent and he realized that was not the plan at all.

   "No starting line this time, Mr. Important! We dive and swim this time!" Il Piantissimo crouched down at the edge of the step facing the bay.

   "Swim? Are you sure you want to be going in that water already?" Mario asked in surprise.

   "Nonsense, I know it is safe now! I saw you enter it only moments ago," the man replied pointedly. "No backing down!"

   How can someone be so single-minded? he wondered. With a sigh, Mario lined himself up beside the running man as he had multiple times before, this time positioning himself with one knee to the ground in preparation for the dive. Il Piantissimo wanted to swim? That was fine. Mario had been swimming all his life, and perhaps more importantly, all day.

   "Then get set..." his opponent announced.

   Feeling just a second for Fludd's nozzle switch, Mario cracked a secret grin. He'd never specified that he couldn't use Fludd, either...

   "And GOOO!" With an unnecessarily exaggerated scream, Il Piantissimo lunged forward over the edge, jumping down some twenty feet into the clearing bay below.

   He's good on land, but how about in the sea? he asked himself smugly, splooshing into the still faintly purple water with a heavy plop. Launching himself upwards to a comfortable breathing position, Il Piantissimo set his course for the boathouse on the opposite end and sailed forward with a streamlined ease.

   As he paddled along, taking big gulps of air every so often between wide arm strokes, he wondered briefly if perhaps it was unwise to enter the water that had seemed so toxic only a short while before; but he quickly dismissed the thought. The brash man racing him had no issues to show for it, and he could not have been the fittest person on the island.

   Besides, now even the fish were returning to the bay. As he swam past a cluster of white noki houses floating peacefully to his left like stepping stones, a couple of large pink and purple cheep cheeps leapt from the water around him, flying overhead in a small arc before returning to the place from which they came. Ducking his head slightly deeper into the water, the masked man kept an occasional eye upwards to ensure that he would not be hit by one.

   Usually, Il Piantissimo liked to get a definite end point and spectators for his races, but by now he knew Mario well enough that he didn't care so much for the formalities. The young boy and his water pump were an intriguing duo that had demanded further appraisal, and Il Piantissimo was taking advantage of his boldness to get multiple challenges.

This race certainly was proving to be a challenge, as he realized a few moments later. The races were never won by much—only a matter of feet or yards, far from a landslide—but it mattered little to him the distance. To be bested was a cruel blow, an interesting anomaly that the running man seldom saw; and yet, given the way his past few races had gone, he was ultimately unsurprised when he saw the boy suddenly whoosh past him in a blur of red, blue and yellow.

   He can't already! Il Piantissimo thought in a slight fit, urging his limbs faster if they could. How does he do it?

   For a second as Mario drew ahead of him, he was able to keep an eye on the boy; for a brief moment Il Piantissimo thought he might have a chance as a low-flying cheep cheep abruptly cut through the air in his path, but Mario merely swerved aside and carried on.

   Blast it all! ...He's really got it. Paddling out of the water onto the rock shore, the runner-up shook his head ruefully and headed towards the boathouse nearby, not bothering to quicken his pace anymore. The winner—by several long seconds this time—had perched himself up on the hut's wooden railing, and now sat almost tauntingly from there, swinging his legs back and forth. As if to add a touch of insult to injury, the tanooki boathouse owner and the two nokis were there as well, talking a short distance away.

   Mario grinned down at him with a shrug and a look that needed no explanations. "So? You got that info for me now?" he asked.

   "Whoo...ha!" Il Piantissimo wheezed, leaning on his knees as he came to stop below him. "You are quite speedy! You are like a fish!" he said breathlessly, ignoring his request.

   Mario smirked and shoved off the railing, getting to the ground with a thud. "Did you doubt?" he chuckled.

   Now the masked man eyed him with a sidelong look that the boy was almost sure looked like amusement. "Indeed, perhaps... perhaps not! You may not be the slow clam-chomper I took you for!" he chuckled.

   He's not mad? Good. He's not mad. Pushing up the brim of his hat, Mario was about to grin and agree until his words sank in. Clam-chomper...?

   "Well, Mario is no ordinary opponent!" Fludd spoke up pointedly, ensuring that Mario had the last laugh.

   Blinking from Mario to the pump and back again, Il Piantissimo cleared his throat. "Yes, well... I suppose a sprite is in order," he began. "From what I have heard, you can find one up in the highest level of the tallest tower," he said, turning and pointing for the soaring pillars that stood high above. "There in the purple shell, the nokis spoke of a strange light and a portal! Perhaps there you will find what you've been seeking, eh?"

   Raising his eyebrows, Mario followed his hand to the tower. "The conch? Are you sure about that?"

   "But of course! I would not lead the hero astray when he's clearly got a world on his shoulders," the man replied, and Mario had a hard time telling if he was joking. "It is quite elevated, so you will have to make good use of those tightropes!"

  I see that. Studying the distant chamber far away over the water, the tiny human dragged his eyes across the connecting tightrope he could just see against the blue sky, letting his gaze trace a path from wire to wire. From here, perhaps he could climb the base now that the water was clear and—

   "I hope you're right," he broke off his planning to turn to his informant. "So it's a... magic conch?"

   "Well, it is not a magic clamshell," Il Piantissimo replied.

   Mario snickered. "Uh-huh. Okay, thanks for the tip," he said, surveying the gleaming towers once again from the comfort of the shade. "And thanks for... all your help, I suppose," he realized.

   The masked man waved him off. "No no, I don't want to hear it," he replied. "I am merely playing my role in your story, Mr. Hero! I will do what I must! Now, I wish you luck in your quest."

   "You're leaving?" Mario asked.

   "I think the real question is you are leaving?" the man replied. "I have no more business here, so I imagine you must have a dozen places to be!"

   Mario was about to reply when suddenly he stopped. Places to be? Well of course he had places to be! He needed to find even more shine sprites and...

   Wait a minute. Remembering something Fludd had said not long ago, Mario jerked upright and tilted his head towards the machine. "Fludd, how many more shine sprites do we need?"

   "I do not know," came the answer. "I believe there are dozens more on the island—but for the island to maintain sustenance it is uncertain. We may have enough already."

   Mario frowned. "May?? How many until we get into Corona Mountain?"

   "I am not sure. We would have to return to Delfino Plaza to check. Perhaps we should go to the Shine Gate and assess the situation," Fludd suggested.

Thinking, Mario nodded faintly. "Yeah... Delfino Plaza." It had been awhile since he'd looked around there. At least, it felt like it, even if it had only been about a day. For a second, excitement and anxiety stirred within him at the thought.

Could it really be true that they were almost there? That he would find enough shines and he could go after Junior at last...?

"Well, I recommend climbing the tower at any rate," Fludd said suddenly, breaking him out of his reverie. "Perhaps from up there we can head out and leave for the plaza."

"Yes, it sounds like a plan!" Il Piantissimo agreed enthusiastically. "Until next time, Mr. Hero; may we race again! Watch out for me!"

"Oh, really," Mario chuckled at the prospect. "Well, I'm on the island for a couple of weeks, but whether I'll be available is anyone's guess." He grinned as he elbowed Fludd. "Fludd and I have serious relaxing to do."

"Yes, I wish you well with that. Just do not grow soft! It wouldn't suit you!" With that final word of advice, the man in the Pianta mask turned as if to run off. "And when you rescue that princess, say hello to her for me."

Mario raised an eyebrow in skepticism.

"That is all I have to say to you! Now, be off!" Il Piantissimo shooed at him like any one of the cheep cheeps splashing intermittently across the bay.

Mario was going to open his mouth to protest, but before he got a chance, the masked man turned and, with a slight adjustment of his headgear, tore off down the shoreline like a bullet bill released from a trap.

"...Wonder what his deal is?" a familiar voice abruptly asked beside him.

Mario almost jumped in alarm, nearly tripping on a fault in the rock before looking over and seeing the noki elder with his grandson standing there.

Recovering as quickly and coolly as he could, Mario cleared his throat. "I wish I quite understood," he said in reply. "How is the bay? Do you like?"

"Oh yes, very much!" Aldo spoke up behind them. "It's like new!"

"Well, not quite, my student," the elder objected, swinging around that fishing pole of his like a staff of authority. "There is one thing..."

Stifling a giggle, Mario tried to take him seriously enough to listen. It was hard enough with his obsession with the fishing pole, not to mention he couldn't stop wondering why his grandfather treated Aldo like an apprentice.

Maybe it's some wise teaching method the nokis do, he told himself. Out loud, he said, "What's the problem now?"

Inside, he was praying that it wasn't much. He'd already done what felt like a circus show and a half for these two, and while he didn't want to complain he was starting to get a bit antsy to get a move on.

"Master Mario, you've become tied to our destiny, I'm afraid," the elder said with a sigh, as if it were a regret. Adjusting his tiny glasses, the noki pointed to the purple overhanging tower. "A pathway to another world has opened above our fair land. We saw it when we were raising the high wires. Right, student?" He glanced back at Aldo for the first time.

"Oh, yes! I saw it shining from within the shell with my own two eyes," the boy supplied eagerly. "It looked magical. At the very least out of the ordinary!"

"Yes, these things have been known to happen on occasion but we never know quite why," the elder continued without losing pace. "And now that you are here... surely you will go there? You can use the high wires to get up there in a jiffy!"

Mario crossed his arms and looked at him as if incredulous. "A portal?" he repeated. "Was it like paint, or something else?" Isn't that the exact thing Il Piantissimo said??

"Yes! Err... I don't know. I just figured that whatever it was, you would know what to do! That is why you were sent here, correct? Of course! You must go there!" The elder, as usual, had begun monologuing to himself without heed for the others' opinions. "Perhaps the shine sprites you were looking for may be hiding up there as well..."

"Hold on," Mario interrupted. Pointing down the shoreline in the direction Il Piantissimo had disappeared, he asked, "Did you tell all this to that guy?"

"Oh the funny pianta head man? Yes of course," the elder replied. "It's not like he was going to do anything about it."

Mario had to withhold a frown. So he did that race for information that the nokis could have just told him? I've got to hand it to that guy, he thought with a repressed chuckle of exasperation. He sure knows how to play his cards, even if he's not the fastest.

"I apologize for involving you in all of this," the elder went on, seeming to turn a tad serious at last. "Good luck!"

Wow, short and to the point. "Alright, I'll go," Mario said patronizingly. "But once I get up there, I may not come back. I was thinking it's about time I head out back to the plaza."

"Ah yes, I knew the time would come for you to leave us," the elder said, a tinge of bitter sorrow in his voice. "We truly do owe you! I hope you'll come back before you leave the island!"

"Yes, please do!" Aldo added. "We'll be waiting for you!"

Despite their obvious attempts to flatter him, Mario couldn't help but be impressed by their hospitality. He probably wouldn't get the same warm farewell from the folks down in Delfino Plaza, that was for sure.

"Okay," the human laughed. They act like I've been here for months or something!

"We'll cheer you on from here!" the elder assured. "Farewell!"

"Goodbye, Mario! Thank you again!" Aldo waved. "Oh! And before I forget, I should mention I saw someone up on the cliffs around there. He looked kinda like a relative of yours!"

Mario froze in his tracks. "A relative? ...Did he have a giant paintbrush??"

"I, uh, assume that's what it was," the noki chuckled in embarrassment. "I didn't get a good look... he was... a little bit crazy."

"Yes, quite an odd family you've got!" the elder put in unhelpfully.

Mario gave him a look that couldn't be deciphered right now. Then, looking back up to the tower as if to spot a glimpse of movement, he clenched a fist in determination. "Then I've got a job to do," he said at last, more to himself than to the nokis. With that, he sprang forward, darting along the shoreline with Fludd in tow.

Shadow Mario had better watch out!

~

Ever since he'd been told there was a chance he could be done, Mario had felt like a dozen yoshis were clamoring inside him.

He'd been working all day and all night and all day now. He'd collected at least a few dozen shine sprites in the last few days—he'd watched as the light around the Shine Gate had grown with the humming of freed shines. He'd felt the sun beat down with its heat all across the island and the tension in the air grow tighter with every second that he wasn't on vacation.

Now, perhaps—perhaps Fludd was right. Perhaps there was only one thing left he hadn't done.

Speeding along the water's edge across the bay, ready to follow his already-mapped plan for scaling the purple tower, Mario was suddenly more impatient than ever with the anticipation of what lay ahead; that was why it was with almost inhuman effort that he managed to stop at a nearby shout.

"Hey! You!"

Whirling in all directions, the fiery human spotted the voice's owner a short distance away: the tanooki who owned the boathouse. Waddling out from under his hut with a pleased expression, he came over to where Mario had stopped, seemingly uninterested in going to meet him.

"You're the one who was working on the bay, right? The elder told me," the tanooki said in a friendly way. "Now that our waterfall is back to normal, I can resume business! Thanks, Master Mario!"

Is that all? Trying to be gracious, the boy nodded quickly. "No problem!"

"In return, please use my boats at any time," the owner went on. "...Free of charge, of course! I don't have any oars right now, though... looks like you'll have to use your pump to get around, hm?"

Mario raised his eyebrows at this news. A boat rental discount? Sweet! ...And thank goodness. Allowing the man a smile, he asked, "Is it good for the next couple weeks?"

"Huh? Oh, sure, sure," the tanooki shrugged, though seeming a bit uncool with the idea. "I guess that's fair."

"Thanks! I gotta run right now, but I'll definitely bring my friends back!" the human promised. Without waiting for an answer, he wheeled and was off again, wading knee-deep into the shallows where the rock sloped into the turquoise bay. Then, helping himself over the roof of one of the floating houses, he proceeded to run and jump along the residences like stepping stones.

The tanooki snorted. "Just when you think you understand tourists..."

Mario was already too far to hear, nor would he have cared if he did. By now he was a man on a mission—not that he wasn't before, but now he had added fuel to his fire. If Shadow Mario had really been here... Was he still around? What was he up to? The possibilities plagued his doppelgänger with every step, making him near to bursting with anxiousness.

He hadn't seen the kid today, although Fludd had—when he'd made the inferno of Pianta Village. Just the thought made Mario angry all over again.

The promised conch tower—the tallest of the three—loomed overhead like a skyscraper as Mario and his machine neared its base, eyeing the giant carved stone steps that fanned upwards around its central pillar. All according to plan.

From there he set out, falling back into the water to swim over to the lowest stair, then pulling himself up to make the climb. As he traversed the pearly steps towards the high wire he was aiming for, he almost shivered for a second in the shade. Woah. Noki Bay is cooler than I would expect.

"I do get some sort of energy reading," Fludd remarked as they climbed. "It reminds me of the secret sandcastle."

"Sandcastle?" For a second Mario racked his brain, scooting his hip over a ledge. "You mean the one on Gelato Beach? That feels like an age ago, Fludd."

"Your perception of time is concerning," the pump replied as Mario came to a stop at the first tightrope.

This one was shorter and much more reasonable: it only stretched a few dozen yards across the gap between the purple and red towers, bridging the two at a pleasantly flat angle. The water shone several yards below him, but falling wasn't Mario's main concern.

His main concern was the strange little crablike creatures crawling along its surface, scuttling across the rope like sentinels. He wasn't sure what they were—they looked like crabs or something with red and blue shells—but he doubted they were friendly.

"They look electrified," Fludd informed him. "I'd avoid touching them."

"Oh, that's fun," his owner replied, and although Fludd didn't share the sentiment, he didn't say so.

Setting out carefully onto the rope, Mario maintained his balance with ease given that he had no heavy helmet or book to haul. The little sparks (that's what Mario thought of them as) moved intimidatingly up and down the wire, but he managed to jump over them with little difficulty. Before they knew it he had reached the other side and consequently found himself halfway up the red tower.

"See, nothing to it," the human shrugged as he turned now to his next challenge. The best path that he could see was to take an adjacent tightrope across to the green tower, which would would put him up at the very corkscrew shell at its apex. And that's what he did, albeit with some difficulty.

The little spark crabs were not giving him a break, having seemingly infested all the high wires as soon as the nokis had replaced them. This tightrope angled upwards too a good deal, and since it was longer, Mario's focus was tested.

It was all going well as he put one foot after the other out onto the rope, letting it sink beneath his weight a moment. It seemed fine as he progressed upwards. But it was not fine as two of the little stingers came towards him right at the same time, making a clean dodge all but impossible.

He managed to step over the first one; it carried on walking as if nothing had happened. But his momentum from it left the rope, and therefore him, swaying too dangerously to risk taking a foot off the wire. He had hoped he had a second more but—

"Yowwch!" he yelped in pain as the little creature touched his foot, shocking him even through his shoe. It certainly wasn't the worst; he'd been through much more than that recently, but it was still an unpleasant experience.

"Mario! Are you alright?" Fludd was the first to ask.

"Yeah... I think," the human amended, hastening as best he could along the rope. I hope this doesn't make me foot-phobic on tightropes.

Luckily he made it soon to the next tower without any more problems. The rope connected, as he had observed, to the base of the green shell itself, a spiraling turret shell that swirled upward in a narrow path to the very tip. Wiping his forehead, Mario glanced back in satisfaction, amazed at how high he'd come.

Following the green shell path upwards, he almost felt like a tiny insect crawling along the grooves to see what lie in wait at the end. Even so, he couldn't help wondering where these giant shells had come from or if they were fashioned by the ancient sea people.

Sure look real, he thought absentmindedly as he ran along the smooth shiny surface that shimmered pink and white beneath his feet. Emerging from the corkscrew at the very top, he found the next tightrope waiting for him, stretching across to the roof of the neighboring red tower. From there, it was only one more rope to his final destination: the magic purple conch.

"I am beginning to understand why tourists don't flock here so much," Fludd said at length.

Mario chuckled under his breath as he bounded along the rope. "What, afraid of heights?"

"A certain amount of fear is healthy, you know," Fludd replied.

Mario just shook his head and rolled his eyes to himself.

Reaching the red tower proved to be no problem for the pair. Overstepping the little sparks with minimal problems, Mario found a semi-secure footing on the surface of the red shell, which didn't even appear to be a shell on closer inspection. The tower's roof domed outwards like a giant umbrella, and rising from its center a single skewer-like point rose like the nose of a swordfish. Attached to its tip several feet above his head, a long, banner-like purple flag billowed in the breeze. Looking up into the wind to see, Mario saw that it boasted the words NOKI BAY in swirly letters similar to those he'd seen in the ruins.

   Seagulls who had caught the breeze sailed lazily around him as they circled the air overhead, cawing back and forth to each other as if to say that they had a visitor. Carefully watching his footing as he crossed to the last tightrope, Mario couldn't help but marvel a bit at the spectacular view.

   Below and behind him the bay sat in its entirety, white cliffs with their embedded ruins standing over the meager coastal areas around the water. Around him, the other two towers of similar stature blossomed out of the water like ancient watchtowers. Then the water itself almost seemed to glow below him, the toxins seemingly vanished at last in their entirety. From up here, the sea floor and the darkened caverns that led to the Deep Sea below were all laid out for him, so clear and visible now that the water was almost not even there. But that only lasted for the near vicinity: past the high towers' boundaries and the cliff's end, aqua blues faded into an endless expanse of ocean beyond, an entire sea opening up to Mario's left. Just for a moment, he wondered what would happen if he were to leave it all behind and follow that wide horizon into the sky.

   But now an entirely different kind of world awaited him. Looking ahead to the purple conch, which waited just up ahead at the top of the neighboring tower, Mario could suddenly see the light that the nokis had spoken of. Where the giant shell swirled into an aperture at its base—where, ideally, the inhabitant's head would poke out—was nothing but a small gaping hole, a ring of light that shimmered from within mysteriously. He couldn't have told what it was supposed to look like on an ordinary day, but today wasn't really an ordinary day anyway.

   And it was his for the exploring, as long as he could get there.

   The rope stretching across from one shell to another wasn't very long or difficult—it was nearly horizontal—but the boy could feel his spirits sink as he saw that it was crawling with little electric crabs. Not to mention, he realized as he put one foot out, this was by far the most outrageously high tightrope. Glancing down over one shoulder, only because he knew he wasn't afraid of heights, Mario gawked at the plummet down into the crystalline water beneath him, prevented only by a thin rope that bounced beneath his feet. It probably wasn't deadly... but boy would that fall not be fun.

   Redirecting his attention with a quiet, practiced focus, Mario proceeded forward towards his goal. Keeping his eyes primarily on the portal, he made it past one crab and then two without any slip-ups... and then he slipped.

   It wasn't his fault, exactly. The little sparks had somehow decided it was a great time to stop and converge in the center of the high wire, right where Mario and his water pump happened to be treading; one extra thing to worry about and a tiny gust of wind and—

   "Whoa—!" Reacting in the nick of time, the tiny human bolted out a hand and grabbed the wire just as his feet left the rope, leaving him essentially hanging by his arms over the two hundred foot drop. On the bright side, it would be harder to fall with him grabbing the rope with both hands.

   "Mario, they are coming," Fludd said in the tone he only saved for urgent situations. Looking left and right at either end of the rope, Mario took a tiny breath and kicked his feet, trying to sway the line.

   "It isn't working," Fludd quickly informed him as the crabs inched closer and closer.

   "I know," Mario replied impatiently. The rope did bounce up and down faintly, but only enough to make the hanging man feel a slight bit nauseous. Glancing upwards nervously, he saw the critters' legs grow close to his right hand. I really don't wanna find out if I can stand that sting while holding on—

   He was just about to be left with no other choice when a thought came to him, and without waiting to deliberate on the wisdom of it, he let go with one hand, reached blindly down for Fludd's handle, and blasted his hover nozzle.

   In a millisecond Mario went from being a flailing figure at a standstill to a rocketing corkscrew on a high bar. He had never realized how powerful Fludd's nozzles must have been, because the force that shot him forward now felt like a motorboat's engine had just malfunctioned after getting stuck to his back.

   Mario knew better than to let go of the rope, of course; and it was all he could do to hold on. The hover jets, as expected, pushed him upwards; but instead of merely helping him rise to his feet again, they propelled him at such an intense speed that it sent Mario virtually spinning out of control around the tightrope, looping around multiple times like a spoke on a wheel. Aside from that, it also sent the entire wire into a large reeling frenzy, his weight pulling it up and down like a giant jump rope.

   "WhoOA—whoOA—whoOA—

   "Your body has built up quite the momentum," Fludd remarked, steadily as ever from his perch behind Mario's head.

   "I—can—see—that," the human answered jerkingly, stomach turning upside down with every rotation. The entire world for a second was just a blue blur before his eyes, water swirling with sky and cliffs and water and—

   "Hurk!" Mario grunted as his water-powered high bar routine finally died down, leaving him flopping over the tightrope on his stomach. Clinging to its undulating surface, he stared straight down at the water and thanked goodness he hadn't eaten much today after all.

   "That would be a great way to do a cannonball," he remarked as he strained his arms to hold on. Then, with a careful swift motion, he swung himself back upwards into a standing position atop the wire.

   "Are you okay?" Fludd asked, but it was moot at this point.

   "Never better," Mario replied, leaving Fludd to ponder his meaning.

   "That was a close one," the machine observed, twin voices coming out of his hover nozzles. "Did I never warn you to be careful with my jets?"

   "I'm sure you have," Mario said absentmindedly as he neared the end of the rope. His wild swing-around had seemingly knocked the little sparks from their perch, rendering the tantalizingly close entrance of the tower unguarded.

   "The force of my thrusters are three times an average power-washer at its highest," the pump informed him. "And the rocket nozzle is capable of lifting over two hundred pounds dozens of feet in the air."

    "I got that!" Mario remarked as he tentatively reached one foot onto the solid shell at the end. Holding out his arms almost like a ballet dancer, he suddenly leapt forward from the wobbling rope, landing squarely just on the edge of the small platform it was bolted to. Made it. Several yards over his head, the promised purple conch stacked like a tiny castle over the bay, reaching even a little higher than the green cliff tops not far away.

   And radiating with strange humming sounds, shimmering like a tiny black hole in the nook before him, waited the shell's secret.

   "A portal, or pathway, or something," Fludd observed after Mario had switched his head back to the squirt gun.

   "This looks like Junior's work to me," Mario shook his head. "I don't think there's a doubt about a shine sprite being here."

   "So the koopas are hiding the shine sprites from you on purpose?" Fludd wanted to know. "Or do you suppose they are simply hiding because of the graffiti incident?"

   "At this point, I think those two are about the same thing," his owner replied, eyeing the hole closely. "Like you said, I think the shines fled; but there's not a lot of graffiti left on the island, I don't think."

   "True indeed," Fludd acknowledged. "I don't believe there is anywhere else left to go. We seem to have covered it all."

   "...Really?" Mario said, pausing for a moment. "So we've been around the whole island?"

   "At least, all the large towns and tourist spots."

   They were silent for a minute. Fludd had mentioned there were still dozens of shine sprites left to find; but he thought it unlikely they would need them all. Mario wondered how they could have missed so many.

   Well, shine sprites can hide anywhere, I suppose, he thought, stepping forward. He was just about to reach out into the swirling portal, too, when he thought of something.

   "The sandcastle secret we went through on Gelato Beach didn't let me take you through," he remembered.

   "True. If this is another concoction of Junior's then I suppose it would be fruitless to try."

   "But what's the harm?" Mario asked, reaching out his hand again now. "What if I need you?"

   "Well, I guess I'll be here if not," the machine replied.

   As if to nod, Fludd rotated his nozzle over Mario's shoulder. Then, with both looking on, the boy stuck his hand and then his entire body into the black and white gateway, vanishing from view.

~

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

   The warmth and white that enveloped him was a sensation that Mario found more familiar than he might have liked.

   With his admittance to the portal being as easy as walking through a waterfall, he held hope that it would be the same for his water pump; but an instant in the light of the realm soon quelled such hopes. As soon as his feet crossed over the threshold, he felt a weight lifted from his back.

   For the brief few moments of inter-world travel—or whatever this could be classified as—Mario could scarcely move, scarcely turn; it was just the same as the last time, he was sure... But somehow, in a manner entirely inexplicable to him, the warp area was passable to his body only; the strap fastened securely around his waist seemed to disappear around him, leaving him a lone organic being in a colorless void.

   And then he passed through.

   As quickly as it had happened, Mario found himself stepping forward onto a flat surface: a wooden floor, on second inspection. Gasping in spite of himself at the sudden slap back to reality, he jerked to a halt and stared upwards.

   Sure enough, there it all was just as he'd suspected and remembered: a tiny, floating island in the midst of an indeterminate void, held aloft in midair by a big fat nothing; and beyond that, a large impressive skyscape that extended in all directions, as if he'd landed inside an enormous box.

  Either that or outer space, he thought, looking critically up at a crudely-drawn image of an airplane that trailed slowly across the plane above him, once again like a child's drawing in crayon projected across the starry view. Like last time, the entire illusion was filled with the cute drawings of train tracks and the like, as if to ensure that he was walking inside a kid's creative canvas.

   Does that make me a toy? Mario wondered with a grimace. Turning to look up again, he appraised his situation.

   The platform he'd landed on this time wasn't any sort of sand race, but rather an obstacle course. He'd been dropped into what looked like a large wooden box, long and narrow at his sides but several yards high over his head. One wall was glass, enabling him to see the void he sat in. Even from where he stood, he could look out and see the challenge ahead of him: a plethora of giant blocks, rotating platforms and bridges stretching ahead like a giant jungle gym of doom. At the very top of it all, he could see a tiny platform with a brightly shining prize hovering above.

   Shuffling a step back, Mario glanced over his shoulder to see the portal—and Fludd—gone. "Alright, Junior," he announced loudly, voice trapped within the walls of his giant container. "What's your deal? I know it's you!!"

   Glancing up again, he noticed the top of the box was open: his ticket out. Without waiting around for an invitation, Mario began to wall-kick upwards off the parallel walls.

   "Well look who it is! You came! I thought you would have given up by now," a high-pitched, all-too-familiar voice echoed placelessly through the space. "Well I can't say I didn't warn you!"

   "Why are you still causing trouble on the island??" Mario demanded, pulling himself up onto the box's top. Now that he was out, he could see the challenging path that lay before him, set up like an Olympic agility course that had taken a super mushroom.

   "Because you're still on it!" the nasty voice chuckled gleefully. "I thought you wouldn't be able to resist a free shine sprite. If you can make it through my play box, maybe I'll let you have it!"

   "Ha! Yeah, I know how the deal works," the human retorted loudly, hardly paying attention as he jumped onto a wide, spinning balance beam that carried him in large circles. Poising himself near one end, he launched over to the waiting platform at the other side and ran on.

   "Whatever you say, pest," the bratty kid replied. "Just watch your step—that's an ugly fall!"

   "I'm coming for you!" Mario shot back, hoping he sounded more intimidating than he felt. Standing on a small platform that protruded from the side of a wall, he was trying to keep his balance as it moved in and out like a giant tongue.

   "Haha! Good luck catching me, slow poke! By the time you get out of here, I'll already be long gone!"

   He's trying to rile you, Mario told himself, setting his brow as he leapt along for the next platform. Don't pay attention to that kid! Skidding to a stop as the path came to an end, he gazed up at the waiting ledge above him, accessible only by a single wooden pole that stood in his way. With a shrug, Mario grabbed on and began climbing upwards, pulling his weight with a long-practiced ease.

   Junior, in all his disembodied power, didn't seem eager to drop the subject. "Hey, Mr. Kooky Mustache! Just wanted to let you know that there's no point in following us to get Mama Peach, because you've got other problems to worry about," he taunted. "See you later! Oh, and when you get there, say sorry to the folks in Bianco Hills for me! Nyah hah!"

   For just a second Mario stopped. Wait, what??

   It seemed that his bratty overseer was gone. Looking up at the last few stretches of obstacle course he had until the shine, he stood and quickly planned out his route: up the jagged wooden steps, jump off the neighboring wall and then follow the giant rotating block to the prize above. It sounded easy in his head...

   ...And just as simple in practice. Staying one step ahead of gravity in his speed run, Mario felt a pleasantly familiar thrill as he maneuvered up through the maze, even lighter on his feet than normal without Fludd. Despite all that the machine let him do, he couldn't replace Mario's natural set of skills: running, jumping and flipping his weight around like physics hadn't been perfected yet. Grinning to himself as he ran steadily across the enormous gyrating block that turned like a rolling pin, he found himself almost wishing, just for a second, that the shine sprite wasn't already upon him. Its gentle tinkle in the air greeted him as he ran forward, promising to break this little illusory charade.

   Mario enjoyed his adventures and all the crazy things that often happened on them; at the very least he tried to. He liked being challenged and he especially couldn't refuse a good reward. But always, at the end of the day...

   It's not about having fun anymore, he thought, assuming an urgent face as he reached out a hand for the shine. It's about catching that koopa kid now... and putting an end to injustice. Claiming his prize, Mario welcomed the rush of light that swarmed upon him right after.

~

   Fludd was sitting, silent and still like a tiny security camera, by the shell's ledge when Mario emerged.

   Folded up and propped on his handles like a sad and abandoned dog, he raised his head when his owner returned. "Mario! I see you were successful," he greeted.

   "That's one word for it," Mario replied, stowing his shine sprite while immediately kneeling down to pick him up. "I've got a bad feeling, Fludd."

   "What is it?"

   "I heard Junior's voice while I was in there," he replied, strapping his friend on securely. "Did you see him?"

   "Not a trace," the machine said. "What did he say?"

   "Well, Juniory things," Mario shrugged. "But I think... I think Bianco Hills might be in trouble."

   "Bianco Hills?"

   "Yeah, you know, the people in Windmill Village," his owner said, turning now to the tightrope that stretched across to the cliff's end close by. Without wasting any time, he ventured out onto it and headed for land.

   "What kind of trouble?" Fludd asked. "There have been no major reports about it."

   "I don't know," Mario said, watching his feet move along one after the other. "But I think he's heading there, and he's got it out for me."

   "Well, I believe that now it is really your decision," the machine said, holding still so as not to throw off Mario's landing. "The number of shine sprites we need is indeterminate but likely adequate already. With that kind of power, the island is at your mercy."

   Mario's eyebrows shot up. "What? Really??"

   "I mean in a geographical sense," Fludd clarified. "Even Corona Mountain should be open to you."

   Climbing up the steep little incline to stand at the land's end, Mario lifted his face to the cool breeze blowing off the empty ocean. It felt wonderful, alive and excited; almost as if even the air felt the tension in his veins.

   Should he go to the plaza? Return to look at that gate he'd been longing to enter since yesterday? Or should he follow the suspicious hint left him, go to the place where his hunt had all begun? What if there was something terrible headed their way?

   After a long second of internal debate, the man clenched a fist at his side.

   Fludd didn't understand. "Mario?"

   He lifted his eyes to the sun, almost forgetting to avoid its harmful rays as it shone down from perhaps its highest point in the sky. "We go to Bianco Hills," he spoke at length with a voice edged with determination. "Make sure all is quiet. And then, rain or shine, we get to that Shine Gate." Wheeling around, Mario turned from the ocean view like it was nothing and marched down to where the endless grass stretched out in miles of plains before them.

   Then, Junior and I are gonna have a chat.