"Where do you think they went?" asked Oscar for the fifth time.

"I bet they went to a magical land filled with rainbows and sunshine," Alexander replied, although it was hard to tell if he was joking.

Jonathan, sitting on the ground beside them, shook his head anxiously. "Oh, I don't know... I bet it can't be good!"

Princess Peach sighed and turned to her butler beside her. "Toadsworth, he has been gone for quite a while... don't you think we should do something?"

"Now, I know you're worried about him, your Highness, but Master Mario can take care of himself, don't you think? If something had gone wrong, after all, he likely would have returned immediately," Toadsworth pointed out.

Peach couldn't help a little frown as she turned again to the base of the Grand Pianta statue beside them, where the mysterious glowing rainbow 'M' still wavered on its front. The surrounding toadstools sitting on the ground around them had since relaxed a bit from the kidnapping escapade, and the plaza had since calmed down to its previous hustle and bustle. After the chase had ultimately disappeared beyond the paint's surface, things had seemed to go back to normal, and no one had further questioned them. Unsure of what to do, Peach, Toadsworth and the rest had decided to stay by the strange portal until Mario returned.

"I'm not worried about him, so much," Peach said, sweeping her gaze across the square. "It just seems like something's not right."

"Well I can't argue with you there," Toadsworth replied, clasping his small cane in his hands. "And do the police not even care? I haven't seen a trace of them!"

Peach sighed in disdain. "I don't need the police's help," she said. Indeed, it was hard to want it after everything they'd gone through in the past day. The police were just about the last people she wanted to see.

It was true and a bit strange, that they hadn't shown up or else done anything since her small kidnapping skirmish in the square. Of course, they still believed the real criminal and Mario were the same person, so it probably didn't matter to them if he was running around. But why, oh why couldn't one of them have been there to clearly see it wasn't the case?

Twirling her parasol over one shoulder, Peach turned back to her butler. "I just wish I could have told Mario more about that strange man."

"Yes, strange, indeed! Do you know him, princess? What on earth were you saying back there?"

Peach sighed and looked to the ground. "Oh, I'd better just wait until Mario gets here. It's kind of difficult to explain."

Toadsworth raised his eyebrows but gave no reply. He had certainly never seen the strange blue man before; and whatever the princess knew, he would surely be interested in hearing it.

"Are we all in danger, princess?" Jonathan spoke up, a little fearfully.

She looked at him as kindly as she could manage, but she couldn't completely erase the doubt in her eyes. For just a second a tendril of guilt rushed over her. Was it all her fault for bringing them here, and getting everyone involved in this mess? What if she had endangered everyone?

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But Mario's tracking the criminal right now. I'm sure it'll be alright."

"No, he's right here right now," a familiar voice answered. Everyone looked up in surprise. The Grand Pianta statue had become momentarily aglow; the rainbow portal shimmered from a sudden disruption, which it had just deposited on the ground before them like an instant-delivery service.

In an instant all the toadstools had jumped up with gasps of excitement. Swarming around their friend, they immediately pelted him with questions.

"Mario!"

"What took you so long?"

"Why are you all wet?"

"Where's the bad guy?"

Peach stepped forward eagerly to meet him and the toadstools backed off a little. "Welcome back! We're so glad you're safe, Mario," she said, blue eyes glittering in the sun as she pushed her parasol away from her head. The sincerity Mario found there was certainly welcoming indeed after the mixed emotions of the windmill villagers.

"Oh, and you too, Fludd," the princess added, glancing back at the water pump who moved at the sound of his name. She smiled and looked to Mario curiously. "Did you... how was it?"

"Yeah, what didja find in there?" Oscar wanted to know. "Was it a magical rainbow land?"

"Did you catch the villain?" Alexander demanded.

Mario shook his head, but he didn't let the failure sour his disposition. "No, but we did find some shine sprites," he answered, taking a couple from his pocket and holding them out for them to see. It was their first time seeing one up close, and the toadstools' awed reactions at the lovely golden sprites were as expected.

"Oohhh," they admired in unison.

"So are they like stars?" Benji asked.

"Uh-huh," Mario replied. "They've all gone missing on Isle Delfino and we're gonna have to find 'em."

"How pretty!" Peach exclaimed, looking on the glowing objects in Mario's hand. "They mentioned those in the trial. So will you take them to the Shine Gate or that place you mentioned?"

"Yup, that's kind of where I'm headed," Mario answered.

"Oh, well it's in the north part of town," Toadsworth interjected, coming over. "We'll accompany you, if you don't mind," he added, looking up to the princess, who nodded.

Mario then turned to the princess. "Have you all been doing alright?" he wanted to know, voicing the concern that had long been on his mind.

Peach smiled. "Yes, we're all fine now, Mario," she said. "Nothing's been going on here ever since you left. But what became of the blue man?"

Mario stopped and turned a bit more serious. "He ran off. I'm sorry princess, I don't know. But we'll find him," he added, glancing back at Fludd.

"So he just like, makes magic portals and then disappears?" Jonathan asked.

Mario nodded. "It would seem to be so," he answered. "That one actually took me up into the hills of Isle Delfino. There's a small settlement there called Windmill Village... and some other stuff, too. It's pretty nice overall."

Peach sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't get to warn you earlier about all this, Mario," she said. "I should've told you, but... I just didn't know."

"Didn't know what, your Majesty?" Toadsworth asked.

"Who that man was," Peach answered. "Like I told you, I've seen that man on the airstrip before, shortly after we landed. He was just standing near the dock, watching us. I could have sworn he was watching us."

"And did you have any prior knowledge of this man?" Toadsworth questioned.

She shook her head. "No, I've never seen or met him before in my life until now," she answered earnestly. "But that's just the thing. He... he looks like Mario!"

Looking back and forth between her butler and her friend, her surprise was apparent. Toadsworth and Mario shared a glance.

Finally Toadsworth nodded. "Indeed. I saw him up close, princess, and I know what you mean. He looks just like you, Master Mario," the older toadstool agreed, turning to the young man beside him.

Mario also nodded. "I know. I saw him. But Fludd says he was wearing a disguise."

Benji, who was listening alongside all the other toadstools, jumped up. "The man who kidnapped the princess was using a giant paintbrush to draw the graffiti," he said. "I saw it with my own eyes!"

Peach nodded. "It's the same one the police were after – the one who's really on the wanted posters," she supplied.

"Well that would certainly appear to be the case," Toadsworth said. "But one must ask why?"

"He's obviously committing the crimes, and it looks like he's using Mario's identity to do it!" Alexander declared. Everyone looked at him and fell silent for a second in thought. That certainly wasn't good news.

"You know," Peach suddenly spoke up. "I just remembered... I think I may have seen that man even before we landed."

"What?" Toadsworth asked in shock.

She nodded thoughtfully. "On the plane. We were watching that ad, remember, and I tried to ask you. I could have sworn... I thought I saw someone who looked like Mario in the ad, somewhere in the background. I'm completely sure now."

Everyone was silent for a second. When no one said anything, she continued. "I dismissed it because I knew how impossible it all was. I figured I was just being silly..."

"Well, no harm done," Toadsworth said. "You're alright now, princess, and that's what matters. Although I must say it gave me quite a scare when that man just made off with you like that," he added a little reprovingly. "Which begs the question: Why ever would he try to kidnap you?"

She shook her head in cluelessness. "I don't know," she said. "It was a little frightening, but I wasn't worried." She flashed Mario a grateful smile.

Trying to shrug over it, Mario glanced around. "He might come back," he said.

Toadsworth nodded. "We must be careful. I say, this island seems to be the victim of a bad turn of fate! Oh my, yes..."

"Yeah, thanks for saving me, Mario!" Jonathan added, trying to get in on the conversation.

Mario looked at him in confusion. "Saving you?"

The toadstool nodded. "Yeah, from the goop here in the square!" he said simply. "I was trapped with the statue, remember? Everything just went dark, and I thought, 'I'm done for'..."

Peach looked a little horrified. "Oh, are you alright?" she asked, turning to him with concern.

"Oh yeah, I'm great now," Jonathan replied with a wave of his hand. "It turned out okay. It was pretty scary, though!"

"Well we must all be careful," Peach said, looking back and forth among them. "This vacation is just a whirlwind of bizarre events, huh?"

Mario simply nodded, not sure what else to say.

"And the boat to the hotel still isn't running, so we can't even go check in!" she added, shaking her head.

"Yeah, and I heard this was a sun-splashed isle, but it sure is dark!" Oscar piped up. "What kind of tropical vacation is that?"

Mario shook his head, aghast. Sure, they had plenty of problems – but what good would it do standing around listing them all?

"Come on, why don't we go to the Shine Gate?" he asked, motioning for everyone to follow him. Toadsworth quickly agreed and came forward to lead the way, heading off in the direction of the town hall nearby. Out in front was a grand water fountain, still running, which poured gracefully from a stone dolphin's mouth. It was a very large, magnificent building, in style with all the others; but its grand clock and pointed roof seemed the perfect centerpiece for the front of an extravagant island town.

To its right was another small street leading to the north part of town, tucked behind the strip of buildings which housed Market Street on the far side. The toadstools hurried to catch up with him and followed after.

"We came up here earlier," the older toadstool said as Mario slowed his pace to match Toadsworth's. "As you can see, it's actually still rather bright over here."

As the rather large party made their way towards their destination, with Peach herding the toadstools in the back, the road slanted upwards onto a higher level, where it soon opened into a rather spacious courtyard. They had arrived at a big port, presumably where the big shipments and boats came in; and there, towering overhead in all its splendor, was the enormous Shine Gate.

It certainly was 'towering'; it reached a height of about five stories, above any of the surrounding buildings in the plaza. It didn't even look so much like a gate as a tower: twin white columns adorned with gold rose on either side of the small waterfall which flowed into the harbor from behind, joining high above around an absolutely enormous statue of a shine sprite. It would have been an impressive-looking monument if it weren't for the fact that the great shine sprite's face was plastered with unsightly black graffiti. How had they managed that?

The port wasn't very big but it did look well-used. The small dock down below by the water was piled with crates where a single sailor appeared to be working, and nearby against the backs of the buildings more tents were set up where a couple more were bickering rather loudly. The white-washed pavement reflected so brightly in the sunlight that it almost blinded them at first; coming forward, they almost stepped right into the path of some sprinklers on the edge of the wall.

The L-shaped harbor, which appeared to be fed from some water source behind the Shine Gate, turned left and emptied out of the plaza beneath an overhanging arch connecting two nearby buildings. Across the way, they could see a small courtyard with chairs and tables outside a small shop – maybe a restaurant? Mario wondered briefly how one was supposed to get over there.

"I would have thought there would be more... boats around here," Princess Peach commented as they made their way closer, descending a small staircase beside the wall near the dock. Passing over a large insignia of a shine sprite painted on the ground, the party stopped beside yet another water fountain, about as near to the base of the gate as they could get.

"Usually there are," a voice spoke up, hearing her comment. They turned to see the sailor nearby, dusting off his hands after taking a pause in his heavy work. Nodding towards the empty harbor, he shrugged. "But ever since they've been having pollution troubles we've hardly had any shipments in."

"Pollution where?" Peach asked.

The sweaty pianta pointed to the ocean. "Down in Ricco Harbor, mostly. We had lost contact with the guys there for a while, but they just recently got the Delfino Express running through there again."

Peach glanced at Mario, as if expecting him to know something. Mario stepped forward.

"So can we go there?" he asked.

The sailor nodded and jerked a thumb up towards the town hall. "Yeah, you can catch a subway ticket at the station over there," he said. "Not sure if that's such a good idea right now, though."

Turning back to his work, rendering the conversation apparently over, Mario's group turned back to the Shine Gate. He was already thinking ahead – he knew that he would have to be heading there next.

"What's behind there?" Mario asked curiously, looking at the waterfall flowing through the tower.

"I'm not rightly sure," Toadsworth replied, shielding his eyes. "Nothing of importance, I suppose. This is the city limit."

"Yeah, just look how magnificent this thing is!" Oscar exclaimed, sweeping his tiny arm upwards at the Shine Gate. "Why don't we have something like this at home?"

"Because it would be a major target for power thieves," Alexander answered.

Peach shook her head with a smile. "We already have one," she said. "The castle."

Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, the power stars were kept carefully in Princess Peach's own castle, where she could be near to them. It had worked out pretty well so far, except for a couple of rather unpleasant security breaches that everyone preferred to forget. The power stars were just as important as the shine sprites were.

"Hey, look!" Jonathan pointed. "I think I can see a few shine sprites!"

Everyone followed his skyward gaze to the giant shine statue at the very top, where a faint yellow glow emanated from around its dirty surface. It was small but unmistakable.

"You're right," Peach said, studying it carefully. "There must be a few shine sprites left up there."

Some of the toadstools then turned to Mario. "Well, watcha gonna do, Mario?" Oscar asked expectantly.

Mario didn't know for sure exactly what he was supposed to do, but digging the four shines he had from his pockets, he held them out in front of him as if expecting them to know. Everyone gathered around and watched in some awe as the golden things began to shine more vibrantly, as if by magic; and then, abruptly, the four glowing objects sprang upwards from his outstretched hands and took to the skies. Returning to their place around the great shine high above, they seemed to emit a low hum, almost as if they were singing a joyful song upon their return.

"Wow," the toadstools gawked at the sparkly display. For a moment no one could think to say anything.

The amazing moment was quickly disrupted by Fludd jumping up on Mario's back. "Mario, incoming D.E.B.S. transmission," he announced.

Everyone backed away in surprise to give him a little room as Fludd turned to his owner. "This just in. The boathouse west of town has disappeared. Isle Delfino police are overwhelmed by the recent epidemic of strange events and note that the investigation of this mystery may take some time."

When he appeared to be finished, the group looked at each other quizzically. "Wait, did you say something disappeared?" Peach asked.

"Yes, the boathouse on the west coast has reportedly gone missing," Fludd replied. "It's not too far from here. We should go check it out, Mario."

Thinking, Mario nodded. "For some reason I doubt the police are actually doing anything."

Alexander snorted. "Yeah, those guys are so lazy."

Peach touched his head. "Alright, let's not say anything before we know what's going on," she said. Turning to Mario questioningly, she asked, "So are you going to go?"

Mario smiled regretfully. "I'd better go see," he replied. "There's probably something I need to clean up and more disasters I've got to go fix."

"It could be dangerous," Toadsworth spoke up. "I believe you should stay behind, princess. It's safer here in the plaza."

Peach sighed and turned to her friend. "Well, I guess you've got to leave again," she said. "Don't be too long though, or we'll be tempted to start relaxing without you!"

Mario grinned and shrugged. "Hey, I've got a job to do!" he said defensively.

"Are you used to using that Fludd thing now?" Jonathan wanted to know, looking over Mario's machine curiously.

Mario chuckled. "Maybe!"

Fludd, seemingly ignoring the comment, turned to him. "Let's go, Mario!"

Turning and heading back up the street with his friends looking after, Mario shook his head and laughed aloud. "You're telling me!"

~

Mario had never been in the west part of the plaza before. Following Fludd's direction, he ducked right behind the town hall and took a small backstreet away from the harbor which soon led him to exactly the place he was headed. For some reason, they didn't run into anyone along the way.

"It's kinda quiet over here," Mario commented to his machine as he walked. "I wonder what happened."

Turning a right around the corner of a building where his destination was supposed to lay, he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

"That," Fludd replied.

They had arrived at the edge of town, to be sure; indeed, the small white boardwalk along the sides of the buildings soon gave way to nothing but the deep waters of the ocean beyond. But that wasn't the cause of alarm; rather, it was the enormous black piranha, dripping with the slime that covered a large portion of the dock like bubbling tar. If a boathouse had once stood here, it certainly wasn't anymore.

Nodding, Mario slowly came forward, slipping his hands around Fludd's handles. "I might've guessed."

The black piranha plant snapped at him warningly. Appearing unconcerned, the young man came closer. "Easy there, Snappy," he said reprovingly. "You're blocking the dock!"

The beast threw back its sloppy head and screeched. It would have been no surprise if the whole plaza had heard.

Mario had little trouble with this one as with all the others. No one was even there to gawk at him – at least at first. By the time he had defeated the whiny plant and it had begun to sink again into the goopy depths, his act had not entirely escaped the attention of a certain individual – a nearby policeman.

"Hey! What's going on here?" he demanded, storming over. Luckily, he wasn't one of the two who had arrested him or been dragging him around earlier.

Wishing that Fludd would just answer for him, Mario turned to the officer. Before he could say anything, the policeman continued, "Are you the one who ruined the wall and this entire dock?"

"Oh no," Mario replied quickly. "I'm cleaning it up."

He was punctuated by a sudden slurp sound from behind him, and the two turned to see the black goo covering the boardwalk disappearing. A moment later, amidst a rather violent rumbling that shook the boards, a small hut began to rise from its now clean surface. It had a grass roof and looked exactly like a little bungalow from a beachside town: the boathouse.

With everything restored to normal, Mario turned back to the police officer. The pianta sighed and shook his head doubtfully. "I don't know," he said skeptically. "Your face looks kind of familiar... have we met before?"

Mario shook his head innocently. "I don't think so."

"Well... stay out of trouble," he said at last. Turning away, he disappeared almost as quickly as he had appeared, probably to go back to the police station and report what he had seen. Watching him go Mario had a feeling that somehow he was going to get blamed for something.

"Well, shall we go take a look inside?" Fludd interrupted his thought.

Mario turned and gave the boathouse an analytical eye. "Do you think we need to?"

"Why not?" Fludd asked, but Mario was already heading around to its small door on the side. Finding it open, he went in.

Inside it was small and mostly empty. The floor was covered in exotic rugs seemingly woven from colorful grass, and light filtered in through a couple of small ornately-shaped windows. It was only a single circular room, with a desk on the far wall behind which sat a strange creature and what must have been his child. Coming in out of the daylight, Mario saw in surprise that he appeared to be some sort of raccoon.

Approaching the desk, Mario supposed that this was where one was supposed to rent boats – but then where were the boats? Hanging on display behind the desk was an absolutely enormous statue of a shine sprite. While he was eyeing it curiously, the receptionist called out to him.

"Yes, yes, come in! I suppose you freed the boathouse from that trap, did you?" the larger one asked.

Coming over, Mario nodded. "Yeah. Were you trapped inside here?" he asked incredulously.

"Oh yes, but we were not too concerned," the raccoon replied. Adjusting his straw hat, he looked Mario over. "So have you come for a boat? Because we're all out at the moment."

"Oh... no, I was just checking to see if everything's okay," the young man replied, glancing around skeptically. For some reason, he didn't get the feeling that everything was okay – as if something was being hidden here.

"Yes, yes, it's all fine. Well, I'm afraid we're not really open for business right now," the raccoon man answered. "You'll have to come back later." With a wink, he seemed to finish the conversation.

With a blink of surprise, Mario glanced back at Fludd, who had moved but didn't say anything. Mario remembered that he generally kept a low profile while Mario was around strangers.

"Oh... well, okay," he said, beginning to head back out again. "I guess we'll come back later."

Stepping outside again on to the dock, Mario shook his head as he made for the direction of town. "I don't know, Fludd," he remarked. "Something just doesn't seem right about that place."

"Agreed," his machine replied. "But for now I think we should focus on more pressing problems at present. We should head for Ricco Harbor now, don't you think?"

"Oh, right," Mario said, making for the building near the town hall. He didn't exactly know where that was, but... "We can just catch the train there, right?"

"Correct," Fludd said, as Mario made his way over to the small booth he had spotted in front beneath an overhanging sign that read DELFINO PLAZA STATION. "It should just be a short subway trip from here."

As he approached the pianta lady behind the booth Fludd fell silent once more. "Hello, will you be riding with us today?" she called out in a friendly way.

Mario glanced around and then nodded. "Do you have anything for Ricco Harbor?"

"Yup, we've got one for everything," the lady replied. "The Delfino Express moves around the whole island, so you can go as far as you like in one trip. Ricco Harbor is our quickest stop, and you can hop on the one about to leave in just a few minutes."

"Okay, one ticket for Ricco Harbor," he said, digging in his pocket for the money Fludd had cleverly not mentioned. At least they wouldn't charge for him.

"Oookay, that'll be one sol coin," the lady said.

"Sol coin?" Mario asked in surprise. He had heard this island had Italian influence – but he'd never heard they actually used its currency! Feeling his pockets, he realized with a groan that he didn't have any on him.

He did, as a matter of fact, carry the red coins sometimes – but they usually couldn't be spent anywhere he was used to frequenting. "I'm afraid I'm just out," he answered regretfully.

"No problem, you can purchase one for five coins," the lady replied just as cheerily.

"Oh, okay then," Mario replied, pushing the coins through the opening across to her. Claiming his ticket a minute later, he studied it for a moment with interest. Across the top in exotic lettering it read ISLE DELFINO TRANSPORTATION, and along the bottom beneath the fancy drawing of a subway it said Delfino Express, est. 2000.

"Just head through these doors and right on down to subway 2," the lady instructed. "It'll be departing soon."

"Thanks," Mario said with a pleasant smile and headed on through as she directed. It was substantially cooler inside, and for a moment it felt nice to get out of the sun. Walking through the small and nearly deserted lobby towards the terminal, Fludd finally spoke up to him.

"So you are not going to inform the princess that you are leaving?"

"She already sort of knows," Mario replied, stretching a bit to see over a couple of nearby piantas' heads as they headed down the ramp into the station. "Ah, there it is."

Exiting into the busy underground, a strong rush of wind hit him as the man and his water pump approached the boarding station for the nearby subway 2, the dim lighting making for a somewhat exciting feel. Mario was no stranger to metros – he had used to ride them all the time back in one of his previous hometowns. But in the Mushroom Kingdom, automobiles were usually a novelty thing – most citizens just walked to their destination, and Mario was no exception.

Getting in the short line to board the subway, he observed the sleek white and blue train, adorned with the outline of a dolphin on the side alongside the big showy Delfino Express Tours. On an island this large and busy, he supposed, it wouldn't be possible to walk everywhere, even though cars seemed to be prohibited in the plaza.

After showing the admission pianta his ticket, Mario climbed aboard, taking in with pleasure the rather luxurious interior. There were only about five other people on board after the doors were closed, making for a very peaceful trip; and after picking a random seat near the front, Mario took off Fludd and set him on the bench beside him for the ride. From there they could look out the big window they had all to themselves and just rest for a minute before the train started.

"Well, this is nice," Fludd said aloud. "I must still question their security, but it is nice to sit and relax for a while."

Mario turned to his machine in agreement. "Do you even need to rest?" he asked jokingly. "I've been carrying you around this whole time!"

"Well, you need to rest sometime, don't you?"

Mario grinned and turned away, not giving an answer at first. He did like to get out of the intense heat for a while, but Mario was never one to shy away from adventure. He didn't mind going for a long time without stopping – he was used to it. His endurance likely would have surprised even the durable machine.

Finally Mario glanced back at him with a cocky eyebrow. "I think that's the whole reason I came to this island," he snickered, gripping the edge of the bench as the train lurched forward and began rumbling away.

~

But rest for the young human was almost always short-lived. After only a very few short and silent minutes, the steady roar beneath them began to subside, and before Mario knew it the quickly-passing walls outside slowed to a crawl as the train screeched to an airy stop. The idle human sat up a little in his seat and glanced at Fludd as an announcement crackled over the intercom.

"Now arriving at Ricco Station. Please watch your step as you depart to your right. Have a wonderful day, and thank you for traveling with us!"

Getting to his feet and re-strapping on his jetpack, Mario quickly exited as directed, finding to his slight discomfiture that he was the only one getting off here. He could only guess as to why...

Stepping out into the station, he found it nearly deserted except for the attendant by the door. After seeing him off, the Delfino Express quickly emitted another loud shudder and, after he had started a distance away from it, began again to roll forward on the track. After a moment it had departed, disappearing noisily down the long tunnel behind him, leaving Mario seemingly alone. Now he had only forward to go.

Following the dim lights that lit the exit ramp, he soon came out into the harbor's small train station, where the place was admittedly a bit more abuzz than the previous one had been. Behind the front counter, an employee tried to appease the two rather boisterous piantas who were going on about something rather loudly.

"I'm telling you, old man Jenkins said he saw it with his own eyes!" one insisted.

"Well I'm sorry fellas, but the next train will not be arriving for fifteen more minutes," the pianta at the desk told them calmly as he could manage. "You'll just have to wait here. I'm sure everything will be fine –

"No, you don't understand," the other pianta broke in. "That thing was huge! Didn't you see what it did to the harbor?"

Mario tentatively approached them, drawn to commotion like a moth to flame. "Excuse me, but –

"Did you just get here?" the pianta turned to him urgently, looking over the human who'd just appeared. He certainly appeared riled up over something.

"Oh yes but –

"Well you'd better just turn right back around!" the man exclaimed. "Trust me you don't want to go anywhere near the harbor!"

Looking back and forth between the two crazy piantas, Mario could feel Fludd shift in an antsy way behind him. "Why?" he asked, more and more curious by the second.

The first pianta widened his eyes and paused for a moment, almost as if he couldn't stand to speak it aloud. Finally he looked at Mario and said, "There's an enormous monster out there!"