Going Separate Ways?

“Going Separate Ways?”- April Fool’s special (Volume 4, Story 18)

The weekend arrived at last. It felt like forever for Katelyn, because she spent her last weekend working on so much things for her classes right before Easter. And if the work right before the holiday was rough, then the week that followed up wasn’t easy for Katelyn as well, because lots of stuff was going on.

But it was finally Friday, and she wanted to hang out with Mario and Sonic. After getting to a good stopping point on her assignments, Katelyn headed through the portal she had to go back to Mobius and made it to the tree house. She was expected Mario and Sonic to be there to greet her, but there was no sign of them anywhere. After waiting for a little while, she decided to head to the Mushroom Kingdom and see if Mario was there.

As she walked over to the Mushroom Kingdom, she ran into Yoshi, who was trying to grab some fruit off of a tree. The dino couldn’t reach it by jumping up, and when he tried to use his tongue, he wasn’t able to pull it down.

“Need a hand, Yoshi?” she asked him.

“I’d like help,” Yoshi told her with a nervous chuckle.

Katelyn cupped her hands and helped Yoshi climb up. The dino climbed up a couple branches and was able to reach the apples. He grabbed a few and climbed down. After getting down, he handed one to Katelyn.

“Aw, thanks Yoshi,” she said with a smile.

“You’re welcome. What are you up to on this fine day?” said Yoshi.

“Oh, just heading to the Mushroom Kingdom. I have today off, so I wanna hang out with my brothers. Haven’t seen them in a while…” said Katelyn.

“I like how you call Mario and Sonic your brothers. It shows how close the three of you are as friends,” said Yoshi.

“Thanks Yoshi,” said Katelyn. She took a bite of her apple and said, “Well, I’m gonna get going. Nice catching up real quick with you, Yoshi.”

“No worries. Have a good day, Katelyn,” said Yoshi.

They waved goodbye to each other and Katelyn headed to the Mushroom Kingdom. She ran at supersonic speed and made it the Mushroom Kingdom in just seconds.

“Hi Peach,” Katelyn greeted the princess when she made it to the castle.

“Hello Katelyn,” Peach told her with a smile.

“Where is Mario and Sonic? I have today off, and I was wondering if they wanna do anything,” said Katelyn.

“Mario and Sonic? Oh they went to Westopolis to hang out with Jet. They’re having an Extreme Gear race right now,” said Peach.

“An Extreme Gear race? I asked Jet if he wanted to do that this weekend and he said that he’s busy. What the heck?” said Katelyn.

Before Peach could say anything, Katelyn turned around and headed to Westopolis to meet up with her friends. It took her a few minutes to get there, but it took her almost an hour to find her friends.

She finally found Mario and Sonic sitting in a shady spot as they were taking a break from an Extreme Gear race. However, there wasn’t any sign of Jet, Wave, and Storm.

“Hey Mario. Hey Sonic,” Katelyn called out to them.

Mario and Sonic looked up from their cell phones and saw Katelyn coming over to them.

“Oh, hey Kate…” said Mario.

“What’s up?” she asked them.

“Well, we were having a nice day, until you showed up,” said Sonic, sounding a bit rude.

“Excuse me?” Katelyn asked him with a confused look.

“Yeah… we’re done hanging out with you. We’ve had enough of doing anything with you, Katelyn. We’re not a team anymore,” said Mario with a bored look.

At first, Katelyn wasn’t sure if they were being serious, but Mario called her by her name instead of ‘Kate’. Mario and Sonic rarely called her by her name these days, so it seemed serious.

Katelyn wasn’t hurt at all. Instead, she was pretty mad.

“Fine the, Mario and Sonic! Screw you both! I should’ve know you’d be like the rest of them…” she snapped at them.

She turned around and stormed off.

When she was gone, Mario and Sonic started to laugh.

“Oh my god, she easily bought it,” said Mario.

“Clearly she forgot to look at her calendar,” said Sonic.

Katelyn stormed off to go somewhere else in Westopolis. She wasn’t upset at all with Mario and Sonic’s words. Instead, she was angry with them.

This wasn’t the first time someone was her friend, and then some time later, started disrespecting her. It happened a lot in middle school and high school, it drove her to the point where she no longer talked to any of her classmates, for she lost trust in them.

And it happened to her so much in her past, it no longer hurt her. Instead, it irritated her.

Katelyn walked to the Juice Bar and ordered her favorite smoothie, where she saw Storm sitting at a table. He looked like he was busy working on something on his laptop.

“Hey Storm,” Katelyn told him.

Storm had headphones on, but he saw her walk up. He took his headphones off and said, “Hi Katelyn,” with a friendly smile.

“Okay if I sit with you?” Katelyn asked him, looking a bit glum.

Storm noticed the look on her face and said, “Yeah sure. Is something wrong?”

Katelyn sat down and just sipped her smoothie. She wasn’t in the mood to answer him until she took her first sip.

“Katelyn, is everything okay?” Storm asked her.

“I just saw Mario and Sonic,” said Katelyn, putting down her smoothie. “Those two had to act like the rest of them and be total butts…”

“’The rest of them’?” asked Storm, with a confused look.

“I mean like the people in my past who I thought were my friends, and showed to be total jerks after I open up to them…”

Storm looked at Katelyn with a confused look.

‘That doesn’t seem right. Then again, she probably doesn’t know what today is…’ he thought.

“Has that really happened to you in your past, Katelyn?” asked Storm, not wanting to give a hint on how he was thinking something.

“Yep. It happened a lot when the Dark King was still alive, and still human. He actually got our classmates to pretend to be my friends, and they filled him in with any information on whatever I said. At that point, I just lost trust in the people around me, save for my tiny circle of friends,” said Katelyn.

“I remember you telling us about that when we came over for a movie night at your house. Man, that’s rough.  Well, don’t let how Mario and Sonic acted get to you. Besides, maybe it’s not what you think…” said Storm.

Katelyn made a small, sad smile and said, “I won’t let their attitudes get to me. I just wish they could’ve acted differently, or else I’d find a way to keep my friendship with them. But… maybe it’s time I move on.” She took another sip of her smoothie, stood up, and said, “Well, I’m gonna go out for a walk. It’s my day off, so I’m gonna enjoy it. Bye Storm.”

“Bye Katelyn,” said Storm.

As soon as Katelyn left the Juice Bar, Storm put his headphones back on, and whispered to himself. “She must have no clue what today is. All that college work and assignments must eat up her focus, she can’t remember what usually goes on today for some people…”

Katelyn went off for a run into Mystic Ruins for a bit and decided to take a break at Mobotropolis. She walked around for a bit and found the library, where she headed inside and decided to take a look around for any books she could borrow for a bit.

After checking out a book, Katelyn sat down at a table in the library and tried to enjoy her book. But it wasn’t easy for her. As she tried to read her book, she started to remember her life before she met Mario, Sonic, and all of their friends.

It wasn’t easy, since she had only a few friends, but she felt happier when she was reading or writing while alone. It felt easier to do such things during the day when she had only a few friends. But now that she had Mario and Sonic in her life, she preferred to do reading and writing at night time, before it was time to go to bed.

Katelyn closed her book and went for a walk in the forest. It was quite by herself, so she started to quietly sing Iridescent, which was a song by Linkin Park, her favorite band:

Do you feel cold, and lost in desperation?

You build hope, but failure’s all you’ve know.

Remember all the sadness and frustration?

And let it go.

Let it go…

As she sang those lyrics, she knew that this was how she felt before meeting her friends. She not only lost trust in her peers and didn’t have friends, but also struggled to do her best and feel like she accomplished something.

But even after becoming the Dreamer of Peace, she still felt that she would fail at everything. It was something she would hide from her friends often, even whenever someone wanted to talk about the Dark King and the battle against him.

“Maybe I should try talking to the guys. I really don’t wanna lose them. They’re my brothers, and I love them like that,” she whispered to herself.

She turend to head back to the Mushroom Kingdom, but that’s when she felt something grab her.

“GAAAHHH!” she cried.

Katelyn turned around to see that it was Metal Sonic.

“Target captured. Heading back to base now,” said Metal Sonic.

Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Sonic returned from Westopolis. They were looking for Katelyn, since they figured it was long enough with their little scheme.

“Right, I think that’s long enough, Mario,” said Sonic.

“Yeah. Let’s find Kate and finish this prank. But honestly, I hope she isn’t hurt. She sounded angry, but we know how Kate was in her past…” said Mario.

“I agree. Which is why we should find her before she does anything stupid,” said Sonic.

They made to the castle and found Peach.

“Hey princess, is Kate here?” asked Mario.

“She came by earlier to find you two, and I said you went to Westopolis like you said you would. I haven’t seen her since she left for you guys. Why are you looking for Katelyn?” said Peach.

“She hasn’t returned yet? We ran into her at Westopolis, and we’re pulling a prank on her,” said Sonic.

“What kind of prank?” Peach asked them with a suspicious look.

“Uh… that’s not important. But we really wanna find her, because she probably doesn’t know what today is…” said Mario.

“I’m sorry guys, but I haven’t seen her,” said Peach.

Mario and Sonic gave each other nervous looks.

“Oh man. I don’t like this. Maybe Bowser and Eggman got her. Let’s head to their base and make sure,” said Sonic.

“Yeah. I agree,” said Mario.

In Eggman’s base, Katelyn woke up to find herself locked in a test chamber.

“Urgh… now what?” she groaned.

“Welcome test monkey,” said a voice.

Katelyn turned to face the voice and saw that it was Eggman. He was with Bowser and Metal Sonic.

“What do you want now, Dr. Dubmass?” Katelyn asked Eggman with an unamused look.

“It’s been quite a while since I’ve heard you insult me…” Eggman said with a sigh. “Anyway, Bowser and I have come up with something that could be useful to use against Mario and Sonic, but we need a test subject, and who could be better for this idea than their precious, so-called ‘sister’…”

Katelyn wasn’t scared. “You and your dumb ideas. And you wonder why I call you Dr. Dumbass. You and King Crabcake don’t scare me,” she snapped at them.

“Oh, we know we don’t scare you, but we do know what does scare you…” Bowser said with an evil grin.

Now Katelyn was starting to feel nervous, but she did her best to look unamused to mask her fear. She wasn’t going to look afraid, or else it might motivate Bowser and Eggman to try something worse than whatever they had in mind.

Bowser and Eggman didn’t say anything. Instead, they started to press some buttons on a machine. It turned off the lights in Katelyn’s test chamber, making it impossible for Katelyn to see.

“What? What’s happening?” she whispered so quietly, she could barely hear herself.

Mario and Sonic made it Eggman’s base. There were a few patrols outside, but that didn’t stop the guys. Mario powered himself up with an Ice Flower, and Sonic gave himself some extra strength by holding a ring. The blue hedgehog did a spin dash to knock out the robots that were on patrol, and bust down the front doors.

The duo didn’t let any of Bowser’s minions or Eggman’s robots stop them as they ran down the hallway to Eggman’s lab. They made it in minutes, and broke down the doors.

“How many times do I have to tell you to knock, Jr.?!” Bowser shouted angrily. He turned around, and when he saw Mario and Sonic, the look of anger on his face was replaced with a shocked look. “Wah! Mario and Sonic?!” he cried.

Sonic spotted the dark test chamber and he knew what was going on.

“Are you two doing something to our sister?!” he shouted angrily.

“We hate you…” Eggman muttered.

Sonic quickly did a spin dash on Eggman, knocking him away from the controls. Bowser tried to grab Sonic, but Mario quickly froze him by tossing an ice ball. He tossed another one at Eggman, freezing the mad scientist as well.

Before Bowser and Eggman thawed out, Sonic quickly ran around the spot the villains were standing on in a circle. When Bowser and Eggman finally thawed out, they fell in a pit that was created as a result of Sonic running around them.

“Now tell us what you did with Kate, or you’re gonna find yourselves sleeping in that hole!” said Mario.

“Your threat isn’t scaring us!” Bowser snapped at him.

“Clearly you don’t know what today is. Tell us what you’re up to, or you’ll be sleeping in that hole…” Sonic started to say, as he pulled something out. “With a bunch of bugs!”

He pulled out a little bug cage that a kid would use to have something like a caterpillar inside it, but the container’s glass was covered with black paper, which made it hard for Bowser and Eggman to see just what kind of bugs were inside it.

Now Bowser and Eggman were scared by Mario and Sonic’s threat.

“Okay! Okay! We’ll tell you! We came up with this idea on making a formula that traps someone in a nightmare that has them haunted by their fears! We planned to use it on you two, but decided to use Staples as a test monkey!” said Eggman.

“We only knocked her out! We didn’t give her the formula yet! Just press the button that says ‘Open Chamber’ to get her out of there!” said Bowser.

Mario walked over to the machine and pressed the button. The lights to the test chamber Katelyn was locked in turned on, and the door opened. Mario quickly ran in and to Katelyn, who was fast asleep. He quickly picked her up and carried her out, in case it was a trap.

The plumber started to head for the exit, while Sonic still watched Bowser and Eggman over the pit.

“So… are we cool?” Eggman asked Sonic nervously.

Sonic smirked, opened the lid to the container, and tossed it down.

“Now we are!” he shouted, as he followed Mario and Katelyn out.

Bowser and Eggman screamed in panic when the container hit the floor, but when they looked inside, they saw that there wasn’t anything inside of it.

“Dang it! They got the juke on us!” Bowser shouted angrily.

“And now we’re stuck in this stupid pit…” Eggman muttered.

A little while later, Katelyn finally woke up. She found herself at the tree house, lying down on her bed in her room.

“Huh? What happened now?” she asked herself. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

“Kate?” said a voice.

Katelyn turned around to see Sonic, sitting in a chair right next to her bed.

“Hey Kate,” he said with a smile.

Katelyn eyed him angrily and got up, without saying a word to him.

“Come on, you can’t still be mad at me and Mario…” said Sonic.

Katelyn didn’t answer him. She just kept walking away. She made it to the living room, where she saw Mario sitting down watching TV. The plumber turned around and saw her.

“Kate, you’re finally awake,” he said with a smile.

Like with Sonic, Katelyn didn’t say anything to Mario and only focused on leaving the guys. Before she could exit the tree house, Mario called out to her and said, “Kate, we’re sorry. It was just a prank.”

“A prank?” Katelyn said. She stopped walking away, turned to face Mario and Sonic, and gave them an unamused look.

“Yeah. Don’t you know what today is?” asked Sonic.

“Friday…” Katelyn said with an unamused look.

“Uh… yeah it’s Friday, but it’s also April first…” said Mario.

“April first? You mean, it’s April fool’s day?” asked Katelyn.

“Yeah…” said Mario and Sonic.

Katelyn felt like she failed the most easiest test there was to ever take. Out of all the things she could fail to notice, it was the date on the calendar. So all along it was just a prank.

She let out a sigh and said, “I feel really stupid now…”

“Don’t say that, Kate. You just didn’t know what today was,” said Sonic.

“And we’re sorry if we hurt you in anyway with the prank. But… are we cool?” asked Mario.

Katelyn was quiet for a minute as she thought of her answer.

“We’re still friends? It was all a prank for April fool’s?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Sonic.

“Then we’re cool,” she said.

“Cool. Cool,” said Mario.

“Cool beans,” said Katelyn.

“Heh, cool-o-rama,” Sonic said with a smile and a chuckle.

Katelyn and Mario smiled at him.

“The day’s still young, so you wanna go do something?” said Mario.

“I’m up for anything as long as there’s no pranks,” said Katelyn.

“No more pranks. We promise,” said Sonic.

The three of them started to walk out and go to town to figure out what they could do.

‘You guys better watch out. I forgive you, but one day, I’m gonna settle the score…’ thought Katelyn.