Mercy Robbery

## **Plot**

Toadette and Squirt are in the middle of planning out a date. Toadette brings up the possibility of going to another city but Squirt isn't so sure about leaving the kingdom in such quick fashion. She assures him they will be fine and he ultimately agrees to the idea. Suddenly, Mario and the rest of the team say that there is detection of seal serum in Little Fungitown, according to the lumas who Rosalina told to scour the island for the serum. She says since they have no more serum, thereis no way to seal up the rift but says that there may be a person that might know where to find more. She tells them that there is a professor named Tony who may hold the key to finding more seal serum. Toadette immediately offers that she and Squirt help but the team is resilient against the idea, saying they might get lost since they have never been there before. Squirt argues with the fact, bringing up that they have traversed an entirely new dimension before. Everyone bids them adieu, with Bowser saying for them to be safe, and if they die, he will "kill" them. Before they leave, Lizel appears and says that she wants to join, the team immediately denies her request but Lizel begs, saying that they said for her to prove that she can be trusted again so she is doing just that. Squirt insists they allow it, saying they will keep a sharp eye on her should she try any "tricks". Luigi tells him to be careful before threatening Lizel, saying if anything happens to either one of them, he will kill her.

The trio hop on a bullet train towards Little Fungitown and along the way, an awkward silence ensues between the three, with Toadette expressing how she just wanted the mission to be them two. Squirt tells her that he did initially as well but says that he wants to try and give Lizel a chance, but says if she fails them one more time, he is sure he along with everyone else will never trust her anymore, further adding Luigi will kill her.

They arrive at the Heat Heaven region to learn they must traverse across The Outback Back, a section of the region closed off to tourists and is only accessible to the locals since the outback back is crawling with thugs and monsters who prey on the vulnerable. Lizel assures the two they will be fine as long as they all stick together. However, as soon as she finishes her encouragement, Toadette is seen being taken away by a large bulky pirate thug. Squirt and Lizel chase after her and follow the thug into an abandoned tugboat wreck. Lizel questions why there is a ship in the middle of a desert but Squirt tells her to not worry about it as there are more pressing matters to be dealt with. They enter the boat and lose sight of Toadette but hear her screams from another part of the boat. They then walk in a room of skeletal pirates playing chess and they demand to know where Toadette is. They refuse to answer, instead pulling out their swords which prompts Lizel to use her staff against the two. She tells Squirt to stay close behind but he says he wants to help but she demands he stay put, saying it would not only do her a favor but she also just doesn't want him getting hurt. Squirt eyes down Toadette's pigtail bands and follows a trail but sees Lizel is too distracted with the pirates so he does not tell her where he is going. Lizel finishes off the pirates and becomes instantly horrified to see Squirt is missing, she yells out for him.

Squirt sprints towards a maze of rooms, only finding more pirates in them. He hears screams of Toadette and is about to barge into the room she is being kept in, her screams sound like she is being tortured which fills Squirt with rage. He barges inside but finds that Toadette is instead laughing with a crew of skeletal pirates, who call themselves the Sand Dunes. Squirt is confused and asks her what is going on and she tells him that the reason why they kidnap tourists who wander into their territory is because they are just bored of each other and want to play chess with strangers. She cites the fact that they mean well, but just do what they are trying to achieve the wrong way. Squirt tells them they can't kidnap random people out in the world as they will see it as wrong and cruel and that if they want to find someone to play with, they need to simply ask, saying there will be at least one person who is willing. The crew members look at each other and thank Squirt for his advice, further telling him that there is a secret entrance to the town in the form of a warp pipe behind the ship. Lizel finds the duo, and almost faints, saying she thought she lost them. The Sand Dunes tell them that though they could take the shortcut, they will still need to be careful of the monsters that lurk around the area.

They make their way towards the pipe and are about to warp until Squirt mentions that the pipe seems to be getting farther the more they walk closer. Lizel realizes the terrible truth that they are sinking in quicksand, seeing there is a sign that points to regular sand and quicksand. Lizel manages to reach the outer edge and heaves her staff towards Squirt and Toadette who hold on tightly. She tries her best to lift them out but finds herself slipping off the edge. She tells them that she is "sorry" before she heaves them over her but in turn, she falls in. Squirt and Toadette yell for her to grab onto the ledge but she realizes it is too late for her to grab on and she begins to sink into the sand, eventually becoming completely swallowed by it. Squirt drops to his knees and laments that they could have done more to save her. Toadette tells him there is nothing they could have done that would not have involved dying. She then tells Squirt they need to head to Little Fungitown as time is running out. They leave the area with solemn expressions.

They reach the town and find that it is located atop mushroom mountain towers, with buildings completely built on the tops. In order to travel across each tower, they must use a zipline connected through a magnet given by the border patrol. They begin to ask around town for Professor Tony but find no leads until they come across a certain elderly lady named Mildred who overhears their hopelessness on ever finding him. She tells them she has heard stories of Tony, saying how he has allegedly gone mad over trying to find a special liquid said to exist in the world in order to seal up a gate between the world and another dimension. The duo gasp, realizing what she is referring to. They ask her if she knows where he is but she says that nobody has ever seen him ever since his disappearance 5 years ago. The duo become instantly disappointed in hearing that he is gone but Mildred says they might find some information surrounding the serum in his old study atop the highest mushroom peak. They use the zipline which is now old and rickety to go to his cabin.

They enter the cabin and find that it is completely sack-ridden, with papers all over the floor and maps on the wall connected with dots and lines made with fabric. They examine the wall to see that the locations are exactly the ones where the gates to the Macroverse opened up when Dimentio attempted to invade Earth. Squirt looks down and sees a diary of his findings. As Squirt and Toadette read his entries, they find that Tony actually attempted to tell people about another dimension leaking into Earth but everyone found him to be mad, at one point even having a local therapist clinically diagnose him as mentally insane. Squirt notes that his journal entries date back over a 100 years ago, citing there is no way he would still be alive. They then scour towards the end of the book to find a small vial, containing the serum. They jump for joy realizing they succeeded.

They take the warp pipe back to the valley but find there are a band of monsters surrounding them. Toadette swings her pigtails and tells Squirt to use small braids of her hair as nun chucks to fight back. They fight them off for a while until they both become ultimately powerless against them as they come in bigger numbers. One of them goes for a lunge on Toadette which Squirt takes the hit for, getting a severe cut on his cheek, causing some blood to leak out. They both hug before choosing to succumb to their fate but the monster gets stricken down in the head by a spear, Lizel's staff. Squirt and Toadette are overjoyed to see her. She tells them to stay closely behind her while she fights off the monsters one by one, striking them with her spear. One such ghoulish creature knocks it out of her grasp but Squirt and Toadette pounce on the creature, causing it to fall into the quicksand. They go in to hug Lizel and she immeditely sees the gash on his cheek and covers it up with a cloth. They ask her how she survived. She explains that she too thought she was a goner as soon as she was swallowed by the sand but found that the sand just takes whoever is unlucky enough to fall in, to an underground cave, saying it was pretty easy to find her way back up. They realize that the monsters just fell in the sand and they bolt out of the outback.

They return to the kingdom but are met with immediate anger as the team inspect the large gash on Squirt's cheek. The bros walk up to Lizel confronting her on what happened but Squirt gets in the way saying that she was a hero. Toadette also joins in, saying if it wasn't for her, they would all perished. Everyone is in disbelief at the news, particularly Luigi who makes a remark on how it seems she only saves when it's convenient for her. Lizel looks down in guilt but Squirt assures her to just give him more time. Squirt then reveals they found the serum which in turn brightens up everyone, leading to more hope in the gang. Mario tells Lizel that he believes she proved to be trusted for one night, with Peach agreeing. They tell her to get Fawful who is seen napping and becomes instantly gleeful upon hearing they can sleep in the castle.