The group had found themselves back at the boat with which they came to this cursed place, after many tedious hours of walking through the scorching desert sand under the vicious daytime sun.

Kooper was relaxing on a lawn chair, and Kolorado was complaining about the sand in his shoes.

Goombella sat upon the deck, staring out into the sky. How could she have been fooled by a pair of Duplighosts? That is just pathetic! She gazed back at Kooper, who was fitting in quite nicely into the lawn chair, and she walked up to him.

"Heh."

"Yeah, Goombella?" he asked.

"That was some crazy adventure, huh?" she remarked, smirking.

"I agree." Kooper said, tiredly. "I'm glad it's almost over. We have the gold statue thing-a-ma-bob, and now we can return to the real Frankly."

"That bastard sure played a good Professor Frankly..." Goombella dragged on. "He fooled me good. He probably even thought he was Frankly!"

"Actors usually need to get into character near 100% if they wanna pull it off, you know..." Kooper replied to her suggestion.

"I hate being beguiled." Goombella stated with a cold breath.

"Don't we all?" asked Kooper.

"I guess." replied Goombella, as she walked up to Kolorado.

"Kolorado," she said. "I'm not sure how to put this, but..."

"Out with it, I say!" Kolorado commanded, voice exposing his feeling of expecting an apology.

"I'm, uh..." Goombella was searching her mental dictionary from the 'pride' bookmark. "I guess, sorry, for uh, bashing you the whole time, and, uh, I guess you aren't so bad..."

"Well, you more than made up for it, my little scapegoat..." he said, jokingly.

"Ugh! You jerk!" Goombella spat. "I can't believe I'm apologizing to you! You owe ME an apology! For making me go through all that!"

"I just wanted to help you gain experience in the way of archaeology and adventure!" Kolorado exclaimed. "You needn't speak to me with such disrespect! Besides, I was merely suggesting that I was happy that you retrieved the Statue of Goomses!"

"Don't hog the earnings all to yourself!" Goombella threatened, walking away. "...Or I might have to break your nuts."

"Ouch." Kolorado replied, imagining the piercing pain.

Eventually, the boat came to a nice halt in front of Rogueport harbour. the smell of garbage, waste, and armpit stink filled the air. There were Bob-omb sailors, Toad sailors, and a Ratouie man leaning against a wall.

"Ahhh, the memories that come from this place..." Goombella announced, recounting her adventure with Mario.

The trio marched into town, past the Gallow, past the skull encrusted fences, past the save block, and into the East end, where Kolorado had to chase down the Bandit who stole half of his cash, which didn't matter, as he only had a coin left, anyway. Kooper and Goombella mumbled to each other how he should be grateful the Bandit didn't know about the golden statue he ha din his bag.

They walked past Merlon's house and cut into the building directly beside it, and there sat Professor Frankly, gagged and tied up to his chair. They wasted no time in freeing him and showing him their lusterous artifact.

"A-ha! Good work, you three!" the old Goomba exclaimed. "I knew you could do it! You found the priceless artifact!"

He gave Goombella a pat on the head. "Excellent work, Goombella! We may now be able to learn about the ancient cultures of Goombas from outside the Mushroom Kingdom! Beautiful job!"

"Thank you, Professor Frankly!" Goombella blushed, beaming proudly at her achievement.

"A-hem!" Kolorado tried to get Frankly's attention. "...And what about your STAR pupil?"

"Erm... Good work, Kolorado!" Frankly said. "You three managed to beat back that fiend Doopliss and his hypnotized Duplighost friend, I'm sure?"

"Ohhh, yeah." Kooper replied. "it took some struggle, but it wasn't so bad."

"Good, I feared it may have been too strenuous for the lot of you." Kolorado said, proud of himself.

Kooper replied. "Oh, no, sir! It was no trouble at all!"

"Psssh!" Goombella released her pride. "Try something more challenging next time! Like, seriously!"

Professor Frankly shook his head. "You three seem to have more difficulty in coming to terms with each others' opinions."

"Their opinions don't matter." Kolorado snorted. "Mine does, as I am the official expert explorer here."

"Goombella has a great deal of experience under herself." Frankly defended his pupil. "She helped Mario collect the Seven Crystal Stars to open the Thousand-Year Door and ventured forth into the Palace of Shadow to defeat Shadow Queen."

"Sounds like gibberish to me, old boy." Kolorado said, tweaking his moustache. He then gazed at his clock. "AH! My wife will be sternly angry if I'm not back home by sunrise. Kooper, come, as we venture forth back to our hometown in Koopa village!" And with that, he opened the door and left.

Kooper left to follow, but before he opened the door, he turned around and looked at the two Goombas. "Goombella, it was a pleasure working with you, even though things didn't go all that well. I hope someday we can work together again! Maybe in a cooler adventure!"

"Sure, Kooper!" Goombella replied. "I'd really like that." She walked over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "That's for the road!"

Kooper blushed and turned from side to side. He then opened the door and waved to the two Goombas and followed suit after Kolorado, who had just been mugged a second time by one of the Robbos.

"Well, professor," Goombella said, sitting down and kicking off her shoes. "let's analyze this statue, okay?"

"I've already analyzed it," Frankly turned to his student. "and..."

"And...?"

"And it is not real Gold. It is actually a Gold wrapper on a chocolate statue."

"WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATT?!"

Goombella could be heard screaming from outside Professor Frankly's house.

[Goombella and Professor Frankly obtained: Desert Chocolate!] (It's not as good as mainland chocolate, though.)

"Well, that was all for nothing..." Goombella sulked in a corner. "I should get my Mailbox XP and tell Kooper..."

"Nah!" Professor Frankly dismissed. "it wasn't all for nothing! Let's eat, shall we?"

"Ehhh... what the hell?" Goombella shrugged and joined the Professor in feasting over the dried chocolate delight.

"Some treasures are valuable..." Frankly concluded. "and some are just valuable lessons."

"Never get too ahead of yourself..." Goombella deduced from her experiences.

"Exactly."

The two Goombas began to eat slower and Goombella halted for a second. "Wait, I think I packed some diamonds with me!" She reached into her knapsack to find them, but all she found was her Tattle log. And then it hit her like the Crimson eye- "OH, NO! I FORGOT THE BAG ON THE BOAT!"

A week later, Kolorado was being interviewed on live television for his amazing solo expedition into the ancient Temple of Goom and how he escaped with all its riches; including the Solid Gold Goomses Statue. He did, however in his interview, omit the fact that he had received lots of help from two other people, and that he had stiffed the two Goombas with a decoy. He could live with this, after all. Nothing halts the path to fame.

Kooper, however, decided to send Goombella an e-mail, telling her about how Kolorado had stiffed them. She did not care any longer, because she had realized that she could always go back to the Temple of Goom with Goombario and Kooper to get any treasures left behind in the rubble.

- THE END -