RPG OtakuBoards Survivor: Game On! <PG>

[Ezekiel]

[SIZE=1]Kuja didn't seem at all fazed after the Team Council; he was, after all, a villain. There was nothing his pretty exterior could do about that. However, this had been the first time in his existence that people hadn't really hated him...he let a brief smile cross his lips before he parted from the rest of the group with a wave.

He decided a shower was in order and started to investigate his bathroom, happy to find it was large and spacious, with many ornate and pretty shiny things to keep him occupied. Yes, this was lovely. Not quite as big as home, but lovely. He dropped his clothes in a neat pile by the floor and stepped into the flowing water; happy he was able to relax now he'd passed over the first hurdle.

After a long and thoughtful shower Kuja stepped back into his bedroom, rubbing his hair with a towel to get it back to gleaming perfection. He threw on his outfit; where it used to be purple it was now green, camouflage, you see, it was all the rage.

He smiled and looked out of a one of the large dome like windows in his room, peering over the beautiful water below. He liked looking at water, but he didn't like being in it. His tail curled a little at the thought of swimming and the young man backed away, instead deciding on taking a well-deserved nap.[/SIZE]

[Raiyuu]

[b][color=Purple][font=Trebuchet MS]"He was boring," [/font][/color][/b][color=Purple][font=Trebuchet MS]Xiaoyu said of Mitsurugi, slumping down on the couch near Dante, [b]"but having less people is MORE boring. Let's win next time, 'kay?"

"Hey, weird attitude," [/b]commented Dante, still standing on the coffee table, [b]"but the end result's the same, right? We all wanna win."

"Yeah!"[/b] agreed Xiaoyu, who, regaining a little of her energy, bounced onto her feet to give Dante a high-five. She saw his nose wrinkle up in disgust, and looked back over her shoulder to see a slimy green stain on the couch where she'd been sitting.

[b]"Eeewwww!" [/b]she squealed. [b]"Is there Lemming goo on my clothes?"

[/b]Samus' helmet bleeped, and a short chuckle left her mouth. [b]"I'm afraid your back is covered in the stuff."

"EEEWWWW!" [/b]repeated Xiaoyu, running off to her room to find some washing facilities.
[/font][/color]

[Blayze]

[size=1]Shadow trudged along the beach, kicking up sand with his feet as he walked. The challenges were fine, apart from putting him off small furry creatures for ever, but it was this time between challenges he couldn't stand. He needed something to take his mind off the boredom.

He came to a plain full of huge sand-dunes, with a familiar shape sitting on top of one of them. It was a giant yellow ball. Pac-Man. Shadow saw a chance for mischief, that might entertain him for a bit.

He took a few steps back to give himself an adequate run-up, then sped forward and launched his boot into Pac-Man's rear, or whatever his equivalent was. The yellow ball flew through the air, landing with a splash in the water. Unfortunately, he landed with his mouth in the water, and bubbles began to froth wildly. Shadow, barely able to control his own laughter, ran into the water and picked Pac-Man up.

[b]"Sorry, Pac," [/b]he said, [b]"I just couldn't resist. It is a brilliant target, though."

"Thanks a lot, Shadow," [/b]said the big yellow ball, spluttering through a mouthful of salty water.

[b]"By the way, Pac, I never got to tell you that you pretty much saved our asses in there. I mean, even if it was just 'coz you were getting hungry but didn't have time to eat those little things, you still did good. I don't normally say this to people, but...well done."

[/b]Pac Man looked at him, with as much expression as a big yellow ball could, and his mouth began to open wider and wider. Suddenly, he burst out with:

[b]"Shadow is a nice guy!" [/b]at the top of his voice, and he bounded off down the beach, going to tell everyone.

[b]"Don't tell them, or I'll have to...dammit."[/b]
[/size]

[Desbreko]

Samus laughed quietly as Xiaoyu scurried off to the bathroom. She had to admit, for all its other features, the self containment of her power suit was one of the best. It kept the monster goo off her, and she had encountered a [i]lot[/i] of different kinds of monster goo. Skrees in particular, she recalled, seemed to explode into a rather large number of bits when shot. Her chuckle fading into a sigh, she turned her thoughts back to the present. A shower wasn't such a bad idea.

Samus reached up and pulled her helmet off, which turned some heads. "Hmm. Expecting something else?" She shook her head to straighten the blond ponytail behind her, her face expressionless.

Silence prevailed for a few moments before CJ finally burst out with, "Damn, bitch, you's hot!"

A resounding slap echoed through the appartment before Ada cleared her throat and lowered her hand. "[i]What[/i] did I tell you back in the lemming dungeon?"

A red hand print was emblazened across CJ's left cheek. He looked a bit dazed. "Yea, yea, we coo'. . . ."

Shaking her head slightly, Samus restrained a laugh from escaping her lips. "Well then, I'll leave you two alone. I'm going to follow Xiaoyu's plan of action and go wash up."

Watching silently thus far, Dante couldn't help but speak up here. "Hey, you mean--"

"No." Samus' expression had turned deadly serious.

Dante shrugged. "Hey, was just askin', you know."

"Be glad I'm not following after Ada here," Samus said as she raised her metal-clad left hand. "My hand would hurt a whole lot more." Walking away down the hall to her room, leaving silence behind her, Samus again restrained a laugh. Things were getting interesting.

[Solo Tremaine]

[color=#503f86]The bed wasn't as comfortable as she'd anticipated. She bounced over to her left side, then onto her right, hoping to be able to form some kind of groove that she could nestle into. Unfortunately, the rather stiff springs of the mattress didn't want to co-operate. Perhaps sleeping on the sand would be a more comfortable idea.

Just as she placed her waistcoat over the pillow for extra cushioning, a few light knocks shook her door. A soft voice called through the wooden panelling.

"Hey Krystal, it's Lara. Mind if I come in?"

"Uh, sure,"

Lara walked quietly inside and pulled the door too behind her, looking very stylish in her summery outfit. Krystal looked at her expectantly, holding her waistcoat in her lap.

"Is everything alright?" Lara asked, wearing a look of friendly concern.

Krystal was a little taken aback; she didn't expect someone to ask about her. She shuffled on her bed and wrung her hands, breathing in deeply.

"Yeah, everything's okay," she sighed happily, smiling up at her companion. And really... everything was okay. At least it was now that someone had been in to see her, all personal quibbles aside. She had been annoyed about the mirror, and the fact that everyone just seemed to disappear after their first successful major challenge. But then, they were a new team and the challenge had been pretty strenuous so it's only expected that everyone would want to do their own thing. She was still quite insecure at heart, not that she'd ever admit it.

"I guess I'm having trouble getting used to the structure of this place. It's not quite what I was expecting."

Lara nodded. "Well, it's only our first day- I've had a few surprises myself." Which was true- the discovery that she was the only human on their team was quite a shock. "I'm sure it won't take long for us to pull together."

"Yeah... Do you know-"

A dull rumble interrupted her speech. Krystal blushed, prompting Lara to give her a very quizzical look.

"Sorry about that!" she giggled. "I haven't eaten yet today. Do you know where we can find something to eat?"[/color]

[Doukeshi]

[SIZE=1]Lara frowned.

[B]"You know, to be honest, I hadn't actually thought about that." [/B] Now that Lara did think about it she was rather hungry herself. Patting her stomach lightly she gave Krystal a rueful smile.

[B]"It seems unlikely that we should have to hunt for our own food...surely.[/B]"

Krystal shrugged and blushed again when her stomached growled even louder.

[B]"I hope not, I don't think I could hold out that long." [/B] Lara chuckled at this response and made her way to the door, her bare feet moving silently across the wooden floorboards.

[B]"I think I'll have a little scout around, see what I can fi..." [/B] Lara was abruptly cut off as a rather happy looking fox came bounding into the hut, a rather large grin plastered on his face.

[B]"Krystal guess what!..Oh hey Lara." [/B] Fox acknowledged the woman's presence with an absent wave. Lara rolled her eyes and nodded in return.

[B]"What Fox?" [/B] Krystal patiently regarded the excited animal/man before her.

[B]"I was just sitting on the beach, cleaning my blaster then all of a sudden this huge spread just appears right out of thin air!" [/B] Fox waved his arms skyward to illustrate his point. [B]"Its all out there, I've never seen anything like it!"[/B]

Lara perked up at the mention of food and wrenched the door open with one swift movement.

[B]"Well why didn't you say so, lets eat!" [/B] Needing no further encouragement Fox sped out of the room, towards the apparent banquet. Chuckling softly, Lara nudged Krystal as the both made their way onto the sand. [B]"Excitable sort of chap isn't he?"[/B]
Krystal smiled after Fox fondly.
[B]
"Not usually."[/B][/SIZE]

[Sakura]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=navy]Yuna lounged in the pilot's chair, her left knee was pressed against the edge of the control panel, her right leg was relaxed below. She was holding her sphere grids again, looking at them. Yuna touched the Thief and Warrior sphere with care and thought, they reminded her of Rikku and Paine, since those were the spheres each girl respectively wore regularly.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna lazily ran her index finger along the grooves, each time she changed her outfit. The first change was from Gunner to Trainer, then to Mascot, Warrior, Thief, and back to Gunner. The door hissed as she traced Thief back to Gunner, there was a bright flash of light, and Yuna was back in her normal clothes. She leaned back a little more to see it was Mario.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Hey Mario, take a seat." [/b]Yuna waved with her hand to any of the chairs around the area.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Thank-a you." [/b]he replied, sitting in the seat where Kuja had sat earlier.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"What's up?" [/b]she asked, continuing to change spheres.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Mario looked at her strangely.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"I-a just wanted to know how-a you feel about the Team-a Council."[/b] Mario watched her changes, interested.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Well, I was upset, it's never fun to vote out a team member. Though I wasn't sure whether the sadness came from the voting, or because we lost the challenge, and [i]that [/i]led to voting. But I've gotten over it mostly, because I know that it's necessary so we can progress further in the game. At the same time, I obviously [i]don't [/i]want to go through it again, which means we gotta try our hardest at the next challenge to win!" [/b]With that Yuna pumped her fist in the air.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"I-a see." [/b]Mario said, nodding wisely.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna stopped her changing when she reached her custom made dress sphere, [url="http://img345.imageshack.us/img345/907/10yunaa2lq.jpg"]Summoner[/url]. She stood and whirled around.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"What d'you think?" [/b]Yuna winked at Mario.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"It's-a nice." [/b]Mario replied nervously.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna pouted and his reply and whacked him across the head with her staff.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"I travelled around all of Spira in this costume, and it cost a whole lot of gil to have a sphere made of it, so appreciate it!" [/b]she huffed.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"I'm-a sorry." [/b]he sweatdropped, not knowing what to say.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna looked at him from the corner of her eye and turned her head in the other direction. She sweatdropped and looked at him again.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Sorry. This dress sphere kinda comes with my old personality too. I was quite up myself and stuff like that. But come on, Summoners are very high up in the social ranks." [/b]Yuna told him.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Mario nodded and accepted it, though he was still a little unsure of what was going on.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Do you want to see an Aeon?" [/b]Yuna questioned, clasping her hands behind her back and leaning forward with a grin.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Why-a not." [/b]the Italian shrugged.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Alright!" [/b]Yuna cheered happily, she walked over to the window and started doing a dance, twirling her staff, spinning and touching the ground.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]There was a rift outside the window and [url="http://www.kristasalter.com/gamesguru/ffx/valefor.jpg"]Valefor[/url] soared from the sky, hovering outside the window, calling to Yuna because he couldn't reach her. He pressed his head against the glass and she stroked the spot, he seemed to accept that and pulled away. Mario looked at the large bird creature in amazement before Yuna dismissed him.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Cool, huh?" [/b]Yuna laughed, she changed her sphere back to Gunner and took her seat, Mario did the same.[/color][/size][/font]

[Onix]

[COLOR=SlateGray][SIZE=1]Riku was reclining lazily in a chair, counting as Squishy bounced up and down against the metal floor. Squishy seemed to be an apt name for the elastic little Heartless. He could stretch, bounce, and, Riku found out with some chagrin, reform if...severed. To his credit, though, Squishy really should have pulled his head back faster when the doors were closing. Luckily, the doors weren't even close to Keyblade strength, so there was no danger of him being destroyed. No, here he was, bouncing happily.

[B]"...217, 218, 219, 220, 221..."[/B] Riku ticced off in a bored town, green eyes flicking up and down in time with the Heartless's bounces.

All of a sudden, there came the sudden sound of air being displaced, and the room shook slightly. Riku lurched forward and stared out the window as a massive, bird-like monster suddenly appeared. If it hadn't been for his journies across the Worlds, he might've been frightened. The fact that the bird pressed its head against the window outside the captain's station did make him a bit nervous, nervous enough to get up and leave the room.

Squishy following, of course.

He darted into the room just in time to see Yuna engulfed in a flash of light. She and Mario were sitting near the controls, and he looked between the two, then to the window, then back at them.

[B]"What...What was that thing? Where did it go?"[/B] he asked. Squishy bounced up onto his shoulder, and he reached up to pet the little, ink-colored puff-ball. It reassured him.

[B]"It was an Aeon,"[/B] Yuna explained, smiling calmly.

[B]"That's-a right!"[/B] Mario chirped.

Riku felt a muscle tic in his forehead.

[B]"But it...it attacked the ship, didn't it?"[/B]

[B]"Nah, it just wanted to say hello to me,"[/B] was Yuna's airy reply, her hand waving slightly with...disinterest? [B]"I summoned it, so it wanted to be close to me."[/B]

[B]"You...you summoned that beast?"[/B] Riku asked, a mixture of shock and exitement brimming beneath his seemingly cool exterior. [B]"How? Can you teach me?"[/B]

[B]"'Fraid not,"[/B] Yuna sighed. [B]"Being a Summoner is heard work, and it takes y ears of practice to achieve the kind of power necessary to be one."[/B]

Riku frowned. [B]"But, I can summon the Heartless. Isn't that kind of the same thing?"[/B]

[B]"I doubt it. Aeons are manifestations of the Fayth, whereas those Heartless things...well, I don't know [I]what[/I] they are."[/B]

[B]"Tch...fine,"[/B] the silver-haired teen grumbled. He managed to resist the urge to pout. He would never do such a childish thing, unlike Sora.

[B]"There-a, there,"[/B] Mario said warmly. [B]"You-a have Squishy, don't-a you?"[/B]

Riku patted Squishy again. [B]"Of course. My mighty Squishy, who shall stand behind me while I bring worlds to their knees, conquering all and turning them to my Heartless..."[/B] he paused, and looked from the paling Italian to the shocked Summoner. [B]"...Sorry. I was temporarily possessed by a maniacal evil and I kind of have flashbacks every now and then. Nothing to worry about,"[/B] he added, smiling cheerfully. Then he sat down quickly and looked away out a window, petting Squishy absently.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Blayze]

[size=1]Shadow lifted his nose to the air and caught a whiff of food. His stomach grumbled, and it took this to make him realise how hungry he was. He hadn't eaten anything since he entered the CPU. He looked to the other end of the beach, where the other members of the team were feasting on a veritable banquet. He sped down the beach, kicking sand up behind him in a great crest of dust.

He sat down at the edge of the spread, and looked upon all the food there was to enjoy. He grabbed a chicken leg and tore the flesh off the bone, barely leaving time to chew before swallowing and grabbing another one.

[b]"Calm down, Shadow," [/b]said Lara, [b]"There's enough for everybody."

"Sorry, Lara," [/b]he said, slightly intimidated by her. She was, after all, the only human one here, so she stood above the others by a clear foot at least. But aside from that, her personality was bold, she was emerging almost as the team leader, even though technically there shouldn't be one. It could also be something to do with the fact that she had a knife strapped to her thigh and probably a gun concealed somewhere.

A laugh came from next to Shadow, where Fox and Krystal were seeing how much food they could pile into Pac-Man's cavernous mouth, and Shadow and Lara laughed and joined in as well. Crash grabbed an entire turkey and forced it into the yellow ball's mouth. They all burst out laughing, and Pac-Man, through a mouthful of food, said:

[b]"MmmmI don't know what myour laughing at, mmmit's a free mmmmeal!"

[/b]This caused even more laughter, and Shadow sat back and observed the scene. He had never felt quite so at home with a group of people before. Perhaps because they were all new, or perhaps there was a spark of goodness hidden somewhere deep inside Shadow.

Who knew...?
[/size]

[Outlaw]

[FONT=Lucida Sans Unicode][SIZE=2]CJ spent the next few minutes rubbing his cheek, the red slap mark still present. He was getting sick and tired of all these ornery ass women. Hell, he still couldn't get that bitch Catolina to stop calling him. "Wait one Ga Damn Minute...Catolina, youbitch, I'm comin fo ya!" CJ yelled out.

But this was probobly something better left in his head, as Dante stared at him from the couch, and a fuming Ada made her way over to him, arm stretched out for another slap. "I thought I told you..." Ada scolded, pulling back for the mother of all slaps.

"Not this time," CJ responded, grabbing Ada's wrist to preotect his still rosey cheeks. "You...you ain't a bitch. But this bitch...she a bitch, in ury sense o da word." Letting go of her wrist, he turned towards the elevator at the front of the penthouse suite.

"Hey man, I donno if dat thing works, ya know. I think we're supposed to stay here," Dante called out after him.

Still, CJ pressed the elevator button, which lit up with a 'ding.' "Don't work huh?" CJ called back smuggly as the door opened and he walked inside. Upon pressing the lobby button in the elevator, the elevator doors closed, only to open back up again in the same room. "What da heeeeell?" CJ yelled out as he hit the lobby button again. And again, the doors closed and openned just as quickly. This went on for nearly 15 minutes before Carl finally gave up. "Shit, don't work."

Head hung low, CJ mopped back towards the couch and flopped down near Dante. "So, what now?" Dante asked smuggly, happy to be proven right.

CJ lifted his head with a smirk and looked over to the crimson clad demon hunter. "What dey do in ury Reality Shiz when de gots time off...Drink," he said, modding over to the bar. Dante smiled back as the two sprung to their feet and headed to the bar. "Yo, Ada, come take a drink wit us." CJ called out, while commenting under his breathe, [/SIZE][SIZE=1]"Maybe it'll warm yo fridgid bitch ass up,"[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Sandy]

[FONT=Century Gothic]All three teams were relaxing in their own abodes, when their peaceful evening was interrupted by an alarm from the teleporters.

[COLOR=Red]"I guess it's go-time again", Ling Xiaoyu sighed.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Green]"Hey-a people! It's-a flashing again!" Mario hollered to his teammates.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Blue]"Yeah, it's about time we got some action to this game!" Crash Bandicoot cheered.[/COLOR]

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

At the CPU, Mog the Moogle was already expecting the teams to arrive.

"Kupo, it's time for another challenge! This time you are going to a place that one of you will find familiar: the Mushroom Kingdom!"
[CENTER][IMG]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24873&stc=1[/IMG][/CENTER]

"A-really?!" Mario exclaimed.

"Yes, kupo, a-really. The name of the game is... [SIZE=3][B]Mushroomania[/B][/SIZE]! Here's what you have to do, kupo."

[INDENT]1. All three teams must [B]collect[/B] kupo [B]mushrooms[/B] that will increase your size once you touch them, kupo.
2. The more you pick, the taller you get! Ku-u-po!
3. The winning team is the one with [b]all the members[/b] as big as possible, kupo, so teamplay is required.
4. However, you can only find [B]one mushroom in a turn[/b], and you [b]cannot give[/b] that one to anybody else, kupo. This is very important, so keep this in your kupo minds!
5. If you need more detailed instructions, visit the [b]Mog House[/b].[/INDENT]

"Are all teams ready? Kupo, then [I]Game On[/I]!"
[/FONT]

[Ezekiel]

[COLOR=DarkOrchid]Kuja screwed his face up as he listened to the instructions of the game. It seemed rather, well, simple to him. He blinked as the team set off and followed suit, keeping an eye out for any nasty monsters that, more than likely, would try to eat his face.

He tiptoed over certain paths that didn't look all that steady and jumped a couple of steps to reach a higher level on the 'course'. It was then that he spotted it and gasped excitedly. A mushroom~!

He made an effort not to look enthralled as he made his way over, hoping that others hadn't noticed the little fungus as he'd squealed.

As he got closer he squinted in concentration, summing up his odds of catching this thing if it, say, decided to move.

He finally pounced and landed painfully on his hip, but the little mushroom was caught firmly in his hands. It was to his dismay that he realised it wasn't, in fact, moving. But it was making a rather strange noise. Oh dear me, no, that was his bones...

Suddenly he popped in a cloud of pinkish gas and was at least a foot taller than he had been before. He smiled giddily and placed the mushroom into a hip bag on his left side and patted it, strolling off in search of more mushrooms.[/COLOR]

[Desbreko]

Glancing around as the surroundings of the CPU faded away in a swirl of pixels, Samus kept an eye on her companions. She was used to inter-dimensional travel, having gotten plenty of experience while on planet Aether, but she wasn't so sure about the rest. None had gotten sick yet, but she wasn't taking any chances; there was no telling which direction the vomit would fly in a trans-dimensional space, after all.

Her feet finally coming to rest on some rather pixelated ground, she found herself in 2D once more. A blue backdrop of a sky, a small hill in the background, and few small shrubs were all that was apparent for landscape. She was right at home, but the others didn't look too happy about it.

Ada sighed. "Again?"

"This shit be trippy, yo." CJ was looking all around, trying to get a grip on his surroundings. "Whoa, check dis shit out!" He pointed up, where a large sign reading [i]Super Mario Bros.[/i] floated. Above it were the words [i]World 1-1[/i], and below, [i]©1985 Nintendo[/i].

Dante whistled, shaking his head. "Man, how'd they live back then?"

Chuckling, Samus stepped forward, eager to start the hunt. "We got by as best we could. But come on, let's find some mushrooms before we lose to those blue feathers again.

Xiaoyu punched the air excitedly. "Yeah! Let's go!" She ran past Samus and a strange mushroom-like creature appeared only a few steps beyond. "Ooh, there's one already! I got it!"

"Xiaoyu, I don't think that's--" Samus reached out to stop her, but it was too late. Xiaoyu ran straight into the creature, promptly flying straight up into the air, a shocked look of pain on her face, then falling down out of view, somehow bypassing the ground. The rest of the team stood there a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened to the girl.

"Da hell?" CJ voiced what they were all thinking.

Morphology: Goomba
Mushrooms turned evil, these creatures move slowly along the ground, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings. They are weak to hard impacts from above.

Coughing, Samus offered an explanation, reading straight from the information gathered by her scan visor. "It's an enemy," she added after she had finished, looking back over at the goomba, which was still shambling towards them. Raising her arm cannon, she vaporized the baddie with a single shot from her power beam. "A weak one, apparently."

"What happened?" A distressed Xiaoyu called from behind them. The team whirled around, staring at the girl, who looked no worse for wear. Except that a small avatar of her with [i]x2[/i] beside it now appeared above her head. "What are you looking at?" She quickly looked to where the rest were staring, just in time to see the display before it vanished.

"Let's just say," Ada began, "that the walking mushrooms are bad. And I think it would be a bad idea to do that twice more."

Dante was tapping his foot impatiently. "Let's go already." Walking past Samus, he idly sliced a floating block in half with his sword. Two halves of a large, gold coin fell out and onto his head. "The hell?" He kicked the halves away in annoyance.

Taking the lead again, Samus pointed to some more floating blocks just ahead. "It looks like they have things in them -- maybe even mushrooms. So be careful." Setting her power beam to half power, she picked off a single block floating above a row of others. The blocked shattered into four quarters and out fell a coin. Aiming down to the lower row, she continued firing, and out popped a mushroom from the second block.

"There's one!" Xiaoyu said and again began to rush forward before Samus held out her arm to stop the girl.

Morphology: Super Mushroom
A species of fungus unique to the Mushroom Kingdom. Eating one increases body size substantually.

"Wait," Samus said, scanning the mushroom as it slid along the ground, then rebounded off a green pipe a little farther ahead. "Okay, I think this is what we're looking for." Samus knelt down as the mushroom neared her, then grabbed it. [i]No adverse affects so far[/i], she thought. Taking off her helmet, she popped the mushroom into her mouth, then replaced the helmet.

"Shit!" CJ exclaimed. "I gotta get me some o' dat!"

Looking down at herself, Samus realized she was no less than twice as tall as before. "Mog wasn't kidding," she mused quietly to herself.

"Lucky," Xiaoyu pouted. "I'm next!"

"Finders keepers," Ada said as she began shooting the remaining blocks open with her handgun.

[Solo Tremaine]

[color=#503f86]A blinding flash of light indicated the[/color] [color=blue]Adventurers[/color] [color=#503f86]had just entered the Mushroom Kingdom. Looking around them, they saw fields and pathways covered in bright green leaves. The sun was shining, and the clouds gazed at them with blank, gormless smiles plastered over their fluffy vapour.

"This place is creepier than the dungeon," Shadow shuddered, trying to ignore a bush that had just winked at him.

"I dunno. Somehow I feel strangely at home," Pac-Man mused, noticing the 8-bit texture of the ground.

Fox stepped forwards and began sniffing along the path ahead of them, searching for mushrooms. "We should get on with this, guys. I don't want to see anyone here get deleted."

Everyone nodded in reply and began scanning the ground. It all looked the same after a few feet, and scanning over it too quickly had a tendency to induce dizziness. Every so often a small red, white and orange flower would spring out of the ground, glowing furiously.

[i]"Ah, a power-up for my staff!"[/i] she thought excitedly. It needed a recharge after the previous challenge, where it had been used to blast rather fruitless Lemming-holds in the walls. She grabbed it, and as she did she felt her entire body becoming warm. What felt like fire surged down her arms and erupted into two perfectly round fireballs which flew from her fingertips and bounced into a creature that looked like a small, triangular potato with legs.

As she recovered from the shock, she noticed something even more peculiar- her clothes had been changed into a set of red and white, badly-fitting dungarees, complete with huge brown loafers.

"What [i]is[/i] this?" she cried, holding the straps over her shoulders in an effort to try and secure the overly-loose garment and looking to the others in distress.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Fox tried to suppress a laugh. "It'll probably wear off before long."

Krystal frowned and turned back to her mushroom hunt. Suddenly, a speck of red underneath a bush caught her eye. She moved aside some leaves and lent forwards- a pair of slit eyes gazed blankly back.

"Mushroom?" she asked it.

The mushroom didn't reply. It was, after all, a mushroom, and didn't have any kind of vocal capacity.

She picked it, and immediately felt herself growing taller. It was a horrible, disorientating feeling that left her unbalanced. But now she was slightly taller than Lara.

"I hate the vegetation here..." she growled.[/color]

[Blayze]

[b][size=1]"I'll try and find us some," [/size][/b][size=1]said Shadow, kicking his heels together, causing his sneakers to glow again.

[b]"Not this again, it makes me feel sick," [/b]said Crash unenthusiastically. Shadow gave him a withering look and sped off along the level, jumping up to higher platforms to try and give himself an even search of the level.

Suddenly, his foot caught on something, and he was sent crashing to the ground. He skidded a few feet on his chin, before leaping to his feet, looking around nervously to check that no-one was watching, and then went back to check out what he had tripped over.

There was a small clump of bushes that looked out of place in this world. He kicked the clump, and something stirred inside it, wriggling around before bursting out of the bush. It looked like a mushroom, but it was walking slowly around.

[b]"Now what the hell are you?" [/b]he said, to no-one in particular. It looked like a mushroom, so Shadow picked it up. It bit him, and he dropped it with a jump.

[b]"You stupid little..." [/b]he said, drawing his gun and firing a single shot into the little mushroom-creature. It vanished with a *pop*, and he was left alone. He went back to the clump of bushes, and searched around with his hands this time. He found another two of the evil mushrooms, and took care of them accordingly (ie, by shooting them), and then he found it. A mushroom that he, at first, pointed his gun at warily, but then, when it didn't move, he picked it up.

A strange sensation ran through his body, a sort of full-body stretching effect, and he closed his eyes to try and identify the sensation. When he opened his eyes, however, he felt like he was looking down on things a lot more.

[b]"What the...? It must have been one of the mushrooms! Yes!" [/b]he shouted, before running back to the team to show off his new-found size. When he got back, Krystal was around the same height as him, which was a little taller than Lara.

[b]"I guess you must have found one as well," [/b]said Lara, some small amount of jealousy creeping into her voice. Shadow nodded gleefully, and the team set off to try and find more mushrooms.
[/size]

[Onix]

[COLOR=SlateGray][SIZE=1]Riku was displeased. There were creatures in this...strange place called Mushroom Kingdom, vaguely-mushroom shaped ones with large teeth and little feet. They look like the kinds of things that would make good foot-soldiers or some such, but there was a problem. His Keyblade wasn't working. Squishy's teeth weren't working. The creatures just poofed out of existence when they were stabbed, or bitten, or even stepped on.

[I]Stab! Poof. Chomp! Poof. Stabstabstab! Poof.[/I]

Very discouraging.

So, he decided to just run around and let Squishy eat them. Save him trouble, that would, even if stabbing things was fun. There were numerous floating platforms, but he was used to that. In fact, he was going through it easily. Normally, there would be legions of living things in his path to Heartless-ify, but now, just the occasional walking mushroom.

And, to his dismay, one very angry metal ball on the end of an unfortunately long chain.

Luckily for him, he was always on guard, so that when the great iron maw appeared seemingly out of nowhere, he was able to hop back just in time to avoid getting bitten. It roared and snapped at the cliff edge he was recently standing on, teeth just barely grating against it's wall. Riku stared at it with minimal amusement, and the bare minimum in shock.

[B]"Oh, goody,"[/B] he sighed. [B] "What's next, a giant, fire-breathing tortoise? This place..."[/B]

Considering that he didn't feel like wasting time, and that the bitey thing [I]had[/I] crossed him, Riku decided that his best course of action was complete and utter destruction. One Dark Fireball later, and the metal monster was nothing but a smoldering chunk of molten scrap metal. He danced around the hot steel, still on the look out for a mushroom. Where could it be...?

[B]"Ah,"[/B] he said, smirking. [B]"There we go."[/B]

He reached out slowly for the brightly colored fungus, his fingers just barely brushing its surface when...Squishy's open mouth closed around it.

Pause.

[B]"Squishy! Nonono! Bad Squishy, bad! Spit that out, and do it now!"[/B]

Squishy simply cocked its head, smiled, and opened it's amazingly wide mouth, mushroom sitting on it's dark purple tongue. Riku sighed and grabbed the fungus, holding it tentatively as the thin coating of drool glittered in the sunlight.

[B]"Do I...have to...eat this thing?"[/B] he asked no one in particular. He sighed. [B]"Yes, yes, that would be the case, wouldn't it?"[/B]

With another world-on-his-shoulders sigh, Riku pinched his nose and popped the mushroom into his mouth, grimacing at the slimy texture. There was a loud poof, and suddenly, he found himself much, much taller.

[B]"...Well. That's interesting."[/B][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Doukeshi]

[SIZE=1]Lara looked up at her now taller team mates with a raised eyebrow. These mushrooms had very unusual properties.

[B]"Well, we can't be having this now, can we."[/B] Lara murmured, not used to being shorter than her companions.
[B]
"Hows the weather down there!"[/B] Shadow grinned and waved down at her, causing Lara to scowl and turn away. Shooting him in the kneecaps wouldn't be very productive.

Unholstering her pistols Lara stepped boldly forward, wary of the seemingly docile, yet provokable creatures that wandered about the 2D landscape. Lara squinted against the glare of the brightly coloured pixels as she leapt on top of a green pipe that sprouted inexplicably from the ground. Spotting a bouncing creature several yards away Lara crouched down upon the pipe in order to make herself less visable.

Big mistake.

A sudden wave of sound engulfed her as she was sucked down into the pipe with a yelp. Several seconds later Lara found herself deposited non too comfortably upon the hard ground of what looked to be a cave...a bright blue cave. Looking around she noticed five yellow blocks suspended in mid air, question marks adorning their surface. Frowning slightly, Lara looked around the cave with suspicion, her experience in such places not leaving her with a very comfortable feeling. Getting a short run up Lara leapt gracefully and landed atop one of the blocks, relieved to find that is was apparently sturdy. Bouncing lightly on top of it Lara's frown deepened, unable to figure out just what they were for. Shrugging Lara looked across to the next block and leapt again, hoping the next one would provide some clue.

Unfortunately, Lara discovered, she had misjudged her leap by a small amount, leaving her slightly short of the block. Her eyes wide in surprise Lara reached out in the hope that she could grapple onto the block before falling the 10 feet or so back to the ground. Grasping the block with both hands she swung haphazardly underneith the block, hitting her head painfully underneith it as she tried to straighten up. Lara almost lost her precarious grip on the block as it gave a small shudder. Not able to see above her Lara was rather surprised to find a red and white mushroom falling slowly past her to the ground.

Lara blinked, attempting to shaze the fuzziness from head. Looking down she saw that the mushroom was travelling slowly across the cavern floor, bouncing of either wall. Lara released her grip in the block and fell to the floor as gracefully as she could manage. Reaching out she grabbed the mushroom and an tingling vibration shot up her arm. Her headache immediately vanished as her body seemed to expand slightly, utalizing the growth effects of the mushroom.

Lara straightened up to her now full height and grinned, rubbing her head where a large bruise would have been.

[B]"An acceptable pain I feel."[/B] She said, before heading towards the pipe that rested at the other side of the cavern.[/SIZE]

[Sakura]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=navy]Yuna started to hop around instead of using her bullets. She watched Mario and how he did things since Mushroom Kingdom was his world. She was surprised as she saw him jumping on the enemies to destroy them instead of using other means.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna jumped up, flattening an evil looking mushroom with feet and teeth. Soon she was having a lot of fun, but she was still searching out one of those mushrooms they were supposed to be looking for.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Soon she had wandered far out, and still no sign, she guessed the others must have gotten the ones in the close vicinity. Suddenly a row of green turtle shells rolled down the path she was on. Yuna quickly jumped over them. They slowed to a stop and a turtle on two feet with shoes, they waddled toward her before popping back into their shells, hurdling themselves at her once again. Yuna jumped on their shells this time, bouncing from one to another. That seemed to stop them, and Yuna kicked them down the path in the opposite direction she was heading.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]After a while she came across some lines of bricks floating in the sky with a few glowing boxes with question marks. She pressed the glowing box and nothing happened, Yuna guessed that she needed more power, she stood back and shot twice. A mushroom popped out of the box and started moving away.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna swore, holstering her guns and chasing after the escaping mushroom. Suddenly she saw a gang made of Goombas and Koopas and they had the mushroom, though it seemed to have no affect on them.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Hey, give me that!" [/b]Yuna called, pointing at the mushroom in their possesion.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Hahaha, finders keepers!!" [/b]they called, waddling off faster than she expected they could due to their small legs.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna gave chase, the Goomba passed it to one of the Koopas who shot ahead in his shell. As she went she squished the gang members she came across, the Goombas were soon eliminated since they were slow.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna had trouble with the Koopas, they were all in their shells, speeding down the path and they constantly swapped places with each other to make it harder for her. She was utterly stressed and finally decided to use her sphere grids again.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna traced the path back to Trainer, Kodago appeared at her side.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Go, sniff out a mushroom on them, ok?" [/b]she patted her dog.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Kodago barked in response and shot off down the way, catching up fast. She watched as he rounded them up like sheep, soon the group was huddled together out of their shells. Kodago sniffed at each before stopped at one, glaring and baring his teeth, releasing a deep, threatening growl. [/color][/size][/font][font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna came up and held her hand out expectantly.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"If you don't give it to me, you'll be seriously sorry." [/b]she said after some moments of hesitation.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]The Koopa extracted the red and white mushroom from his shell and gave it to Yuna, she nodded to Kodago and he barked loudly, the Koopas shot into their shells, taking off again.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna felt funny as soon as she touched the mushroom, there was a strange crunching sound, and she realised it was her bones changing shape. Soon she was at least twice her normal size. Yuna had to bend down even more to pat Kodago for his good job.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Alright Kodago, I need you to sniff out more of those mushrooms." [/b]Yuna grinned.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Kodago nodded and yipped, his little tail wagged furiously with determination and he put his muzzle to the ground, sniffing left and right. Yuna followed her faithful dog, he was a lot of help in times like this.[/color][/size][/font]

[TheShinje]

[size=1][color=darkblue] PacMan mused over the absurdity of this world, it was one of the most bizzare places he had been too. The same bush that winked at shadow, also winked at him, and seemed to be calling out," eat me, eat me!"

PacMan joined the rest of his teammates with a branch protruding from his mouth. When he saw how big his teammates had got, he dropped the hapless bush in awe.

"damn, and you think blue pills are bad fro your health!" PacMan exclaimed as the taller Krystal, Shadow, and Lara looked down on him.

"hmph, small ball" Lara joked.

"hows the weather down there?" Krystal mused to the ball
"hey, don't steal my joke" Shadow butted in.
"oh, didn't know it was YOUR joke!" Krystal snapped back, obviously shadow hadn't coined the joke himself....

PacMan ignored the shenanigans, and went off to find a mushroom. He found a small little brown one that appeared to be moving, and promptly mouthed it before realising it was lethal. And with that, Pac was sent hurling into the ground below, to respawn with one less life, and a throbbing headache. "Damn, that was not nice." Pac groaned, it almost felt as wierd as splitting in half and withering into the ground, which was one of Pac's pet peeves. "Hey Lara, which of these mushrooms do we need to eat?"

"The red ones." Lara boomed from the heavens, scaring Pac a little with her deity overtones. "okay okay, I think I've got it."

Pac went around the world until he found a cluster of winking bushes, which upon seeing the mangled wreck of the first one, promptly stopped winking. Around them, Pac found two brown ones and jumnped on their heads to knock them out, to his surprise, they seemed to just pop. "man, this world is whacked!" Pac exclaimed as a red musroom came into view.

Pac bounded over a couple of floating boxes and found the 'shroom behind a little brown fence, guarded by these strange turtle creatures. Pac bounded over the fence, and did his best to avoid the turtle thingy's, which, despite their bubbly cheery look, seemed intent on killing anything that looked like a player in this game.
Pac finally got to the 'shroom, and after eating it, felt a little wierd.

"hey, I think these 'shrooms have the same medicinal properties as the blue pills!" Pac exclaimed as the tingling grew more fierce, and he promptly exploded into a bigger sphere of his normal self. "well, maybe not quite the same" Pac remarked as he went to join his team, thankful he felt like he belonged in this wierd world, for once. [/size][/color]

[KKC]

[size=1][color=darkorange]Fox looked up at Krystal's new found height and frowned. He for sure couldn't have a female fox who he worked with being almost three feet above him. Fox's frown deepened as the image of him and the tall Krystal dancing appeared in his head, and Falco pointing and laughing. He shook the image from his head and marched off into some winking bushes to find a size enhancing mushroom.

"This place is..." Fox started and then watched as a red turle creature with a spike on its shell walked upside down on a platform that was suspending in midair, "Different." Fox concluded as the spike shell creature started to come towards him. Fox smiled and pulled out his blaster, aiming it at the little creature.

Fox shot a bolt at it, but to his surprise the blast reflected off the shell and started to come back towards Fox. Fox yelped and ducked down as the bolt barely cleared his head.

"Hey! Watch it!" Fox heard Shadow yell from a distance.

"Uh... Sorry!" Fox yelled back. He turned his attention to the little spike ball again who was now walking on top of the platform, right above Fox's head. This started him and Fox jumped up from his crouched position to fast and whacked his head on the block that the spike was on. The spike ball flew through the air and bursted with a pop.

"That wasn't so hard." Fox said, rubbing the sore spot on his head. He looked up and noticed that just above the platform was a block with a question mark on it, surrounded by a bunch of blank blocks. Fox jumped on the platform and looked at the square of blocks surrounding the question block. He once again aimed his blaster and shot, expecting the block to shatter he covered his eyes.
When he felt nothing, Fox looked up and the blank block he shot was now spinning in circle.

"What the?" Fox looked at the block and tried to stop it from spinning, but his hand went through it as if it were a hologram.

Fox smiled and hoped up through the opening and blasted the question block with his blaster as well. Out popped a red mushroom that Fox caught in his hand. He felt all tingly for a moment and could here a strange high pitched sound. When fox looked down he was positive that he was now taller than Krystal. [/size][/color]

[Ellerby]

[color=#333333]
Mario excitedly jumped up and down, shouting at the top of his lungs. Sora looked at him and shrugged. Yuna, Kuja and Riku had already left to find mushrooms, leaving Sora and Mario alone. But he was back in his 8-Bit homeland and that's all that mattered to him.

He trudged onward, leading Sora behind him. He spotted a Goomba and pointed at it.

"These are-a Goombas. They can be disposed of by-a.. jumping on them." he explained.

Sora nodded and swiflty stomped the Goomba. A grin spread across his face as he looked back at Mario.

"That's fun!" he exclaimed. He ran off, spotting another Goomba to squish. Mario chuckled and looked up. Right above his head, was a floating yellow-orange cube with a white question mark on it. He jumped and let his head hit it. The question mark seemed to disappear and a coin popped out of the top, soon vanishing in thin air.

"That's-a great. But I need Mushrooms, not coins." he mumbled to himself. He stepped under the floating block beside the previous and jumped again. This time, nothing happened at first. Until a Mushroom fell right infront of his face and started sliding away. He quickly dashed at it and grabbed it. Instantly he grew larger and he ran on to scout out more Mushrooms.[/color]

[Kitty]

[COLOR=#006aaf][SIZE=1]Sora had watched in awe as his teammates grew in size. He had always felt sort of small, and this was not helping. And worst of all, Riku had already found a mushroom. Before him!

[b]"Gah.. Stupid Riku.."[/b] he growled. That was it. With Mario being the only other teammate of his left without a mushroom, he placed his keyblade on his belt and followed the italian man in the blue overalls. However, this was Mario's homeworld. He was already comfortable with the way things worked, but Sora was clueless. When he shrugged at one of the ugly mutated mushrooms that was waddling their way, Mario explained to him what exactly the weird creatures called "goombas" were and how to squish them. Immediately, he tried it out.

[b]"That's fun!"[/b] he cheered, grinning back at Mario. He ran over to another Goomba and stomped on it as well, flattening it until it dispersed into a small cloud of pixels. [b]"But wait a minute.. How does getting rid of these little guys get me a mushroom?"[/b] He turned to ask Mario his question, when he saw his teammate grab his own mushroom.

[b]"You have [i]got[/i] to be kidding me!"[/b] Sora cried in frustration. He was growing impatient and angry, being left behind. With his attention on other things, a goomba waddled up to him and bit his leg.

[b]"OW!"[/b]

The sudden pain sent him soaring upwards, only to be stopped by a painfully hard brick a second later. He floated back down to the ground, the broken pieces of the brick falling around him. He took a second to recover when he realized his skull was still in one piece.

[b]"Lucky me,"[/b] he grumbled. He sat up slowly, rubbing his aching head. [b]"I'm never going to find a mushroom.."[/b] he sighed, resting his head on his fist. He reached down to pick up a brick to throw at an approaching goomba when he saw it. It was a mushroom. The top was red with white spots and it had eyes on it. He grabbed it and examined it.

[b]"Isn't it supposed to make me bigger when I touch it? Or do I have to.."[/b] He grimaced at the thought of eating such a thing, having no idea what it would taste like. And who knew the side affects? (Other than growing bigger - that's a given.) But he would rather risk a stomach ache than let his team down.

[b]"Bon appétit,"[/b] Sora grumbled before opening wide and stuffing the odd fungi in his mouth. Swallowing loudly, he felt strange for a moment before spontaneously growing larger. [b]"Wow.. So this is what it feels like to be tall."[/b][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]Crash squatted on the ground to get his bearings back after the teleportation from the CPU. This world was familiar in many ways, but strangely... cartoonish too. The ground was one solid colour, and above them, in the monotone blue sky, were monotone white clouds. Which only seemed to come in three different shapes. What an [b]exceedingly[/b] odd world this was.

Of course, this oddness paled in comparison to the fact that they were here to collect some sort of [i]mushroom[/i] that would... make them taller? Maybe Mog had finally lost his marbles.

And then, over near a bush, he saw Krystal just... sprout up, to almost twice her previous height. This was insanely weird.

Shadow sped off to try and find some mushrooms, and it seemed that everybody just wandered off looking for them. Which left Crash alone, sitting and thinking, whilst he recovered from his trans-dimensional nausea. Maybe it was something about moving to completely unrelated worlds, because Crash should have had more than enough experience warping.

Some distance ahead of him, floating in mid-air were what looked from afar like crates.

With a shout of glee, he sprang up and ran towards them. Surely there must be Wumpa fruit in these crates! But as he got closer, he realised, quite disappointingly, that these were brick... blocks, floating in mid-air. Which was, Crash had to admit, rather unusual. Only crates floated in mid-air, right? But, in an odd world such as this, who knew what sort of insanity could occur?

Just then, he saw a line of... small brown toadstools shuffling towards him. They were leering at him in a most uncomfortable way, and savagely squealing.

Now, Crash had an inkling of what to do. Of the Blue Team, he was probably most prepared for a world like this, and the fact that these were rather... 'animated' mushrooms suggested to him that they were the natural predators of this strange land. So, Crash did what he almost always had to do with predators. He jumped on their heads.

*poof* *poof* *poof* They vanished.

Crash nodded smugly. Just as he had suspected. But, in that case, where were the mushrooms that he had to collect?

He gazed thoughtfully at the blocks suspended in mid air. He double-jumped on top of them, and examined them closely. Perhaps they had some sort of hinged lid? Prising at them with his fingertips yielded nothing. What a disappointment.

Jumping lightly off the edge of the bricks, he landed on the ground. Something behind him squealed, so he turned around and jumped on another of those savage brown creatures. He bounced up, and cracked his head on the block, which crumbled. He fell to the ground in a foetal position, holding his poor broken head. The pain was intense! It was never this bad when he had to smash crates open. Getting to his feet he gazed around. Sitting in a ring around him were gold coins. Kicking at them savagely he yelled at the indifferent clouds;

"WHERE IS MY WUMPA FRUIT?!?!"

After getting no reply, he leapt once more onto the platform of blocks. I'll fix these bastards he thought, double jumping and then Belly-Flopping onto them. They all disintegrated, except for one goldy-coloured one.

And there weren't even any more coins. Or Wumpa fruit.

Except for that gold coloured box. Crash leapt up and spun at the box. It changed colour, and out popped a mushroom, which began to shuffle away from him at a fair gait.

"Oh no you don't, you little bastard!" Crash swore as he chased it down. He leapt for it in mid-air, and as soon as he grabbed it, he felt this sickening crunching in his wrists. With a pop, the mushroom disappeared, and Crash felt his internal organs doing things that they probably weren't meant to. And then he grew, to twice his previous size. Thankfully, so did his shorts and shoes. That could have been awkward.

Crash shivered, and then with a delighted grin, began running towards another set of brick blocks further away. He wanted more of [b]those![/b][/size]

[Sakura]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=navy]Yuna strolled down the path, watching her faithful red dog try to sniff out mushrooms, Kodago was also handy to destroy the enemies around for her.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]She took time to take in her surroundings of the Mushroom Kingdom, there were clouds floating in the sky, they all looked identical and had faces on them. Yuna was thinking about how peculiar it was when she saw a little bush winking at her, she raised an eyebrow and continued on her way. She couldn't help but giggle when she saw some palm trees bending from side to side in a dance.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna came across more of those floating bricks. She didn't have her guns now so she couldn't shoot them, she walked under a glowing block and seemingly out of no where a Goomba was waddling quickly toward her, she jumped up so she could flatten it, but hit her head on the block.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[i][font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Ding! Poof! [/color][/size][/font][/i]
[i][font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font][/i]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna was confused, the glowing box was now dull. She had ended up destroying the Goomba. She wanted to try that again and climbed up to the row above the one she was under. Yuna jumped, hitting the block with her head. There was a ding again, but this time Yuna was watching, a gold coin popped out of the box, disappearing in midair.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Great, we get money, but we need mushrooms." [/b]Yuna mumbled.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Kodago barked up ahead and Yuna ran, jumping off the bricks to see what he had found. It seemed he had rammed into another block, and there was a flower blooming on it. [/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Well the world has nice flowers." [/b]Yuna commented, she bent down and plucked the flower below the stem where it met the block.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Suddenly it disappeared like a lot of things in the world, she was puzzled but shrugged, continuing to walk. Kodago was far up ahead, Yuna just took her time, she was soon surrounded by the gang of Koopas she had gotten rid of earlier, now they were with a large black ball on a chain, it opened it's mouth widely, snapping with it's sharp, pointy teeth.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Eh heh, no hard feelings right?" [/b]Yuna held her hands up, she was afraid of the ball more than the Koopas, she didn't think destroying it by jumping would work.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]The Koopas grinned and released the chain, letting the metal ball jump forward. Yuna screamed, throwing her hands out.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[i][font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Blip! Blip! Blip![/color][/size][/font][/i]
[i][font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font][/i]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Yuna was confused and saw a fireball bouncing along the ground, colliding into the Koopas. She dodged the ball just as it lunged and kicked the Koopa shells at it, running ahead.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]She sped down the path and met up with Kodago, panting. [/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"F-Find anything?" [/b]she grinned.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Kodago shook his head with a bark, leading them on. Yuna kept up with her dog in case something like that happened again, but she was wondering about the fireball. She pressed her hand forward, away from herself and Kodago, a fireball dropped from her palm. She smirked, this would be an advantage. Yuna practised more, soon she didn't even have to think and a fireball would form, bouncing off down the way. After she thought about it, she realised that it must have been the affect of the flower she had gotten.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080]Kodago disappeared behind a bush and started barking furiously. Yuna rushed over and saw he was wagging his tail, panting happily. She ran her hand over his coat and bent down, picking up the mushroom.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Good boy, Kodago." [/b]she smiled, growing up another length of her normal self. Kodago now looked very short from her height.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][color=#000080][b]"Keep going, Kodago, go find more." [/b]Yuna told him, he woofed and trotted on, sniffing carefully, not wanting to fail his mistress.[/color][/size][/font]

[Raiyuu]

[color=Purple][font=Trebuchet MS]Xiaoyu found it made the game more fun if she pretended the bitey mushrooms were Lemmings. Although the little *poof* when she jumped on them wasn't as satisfying as the green *squidge* would have been.

She'd run on ahead of the rest of the team, jumping on bad guys or pounding them into the ground with a well-timed Sunset Fan move. Looking backwards, she realised she couldn't see any of the others. And having stopped to breathe for a second, she realised her Lemming-squishing fantasies had distracted her from what she was supposed to be doing.

[b]"Oh yeah ... mushrooms!"

[/b]There was a green pipe ahead. Xiaoyu wasn't used to exploring areas, more just using the surroundings to smash people's faces into, but it looked like a place to go.

[b]"Guys, I've gone down the pipe!" [/b]she yelled over her shoulder, hoping the others would hear her, and scampered into the pipe. It looked really long and dark, but after a couple of seconds' loading time the exit appeared, and Xiaoyu found herself inside a blue castle.

[b]"Aww," [/b]she lamented to herself, [b]"I liked the clouds ... they were cute!"
[/b]
A couple of evil mushrooms accosted her at the entrance. She pounced, jumping on one, but then made the mistake of attempting an evasive side tumble move in a 2-D environment. She [i]felt [/i]like she was rolling to her left. But she was still on the same plane as the mushroom.

It waddled into her, and she sprang up into the air. As she did so, the 8-bit graphics showed their weakness and she clipped through a brick floating in the air, just long enough to see the outline of a mushroom inside.

[b]"Yay!" [/b]she cried as she respawned back at the castle entrance. A little avatar of herself with a [i]x1 [/i]next to it flashed momentarily. [b]"Better be careful," [/b]she decided, before leaping up and giving the brick a hearty somersault kick. She nimbly landed and caught the falling mushroom in her cupped hands. Her body stretched and tingled, and she was suddenly twice as tall. The slowly approaching mushrooms stopped and their eyes widened.

[b]"Got you now!"[/b]
[/font][/color]