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Chapter Text

Disclaimer: I don't own Mario or Sonic, but Nintendo and Sega do in order.

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Mario and Sonic: Temporal Escapades

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Introduction

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Across time and space, there was a version of Earth that was similar to its many otherworldly counterparts, yet different in its diversity of nations and life, as well as it's progress in science and magic. Among the many countries that dotted this planet, nine prominent kingdoms were collected as the Mushroom World continent. Referred to as such due to the abundance of fungus-based life forms that reside there and special types of Mushrooms that could restore the health of individuals among other things.

One of the largest, richest, and most influential of these kingdoms was the Mushroom Kingdom under the beloved rule of Princess Peach Toadstool. A Human well-known for her beauty, kindness, wisdom, and optimism, as well as her ongoing conflict with King Bowser Koopa Sr. of Dark Land. Charismatic, ruthless, power-hungry to a fault, Bowser was infamous all over the universe for his great crimes that ranged from simple kidnapping to outright terrorism. His main goals to universal domination and forcibly marrying Peach had been thwarted for what many viewed as a lifetime by his lifelong, Human arch-enemy, Mario, the legendary, heroic superstar whose exploits had branched across dimensions and time periods.

Not so far from Peach's domain, Dark Land was a stark contrast to the rest of the Mushroom World. A sinister land largely untouched by sunlight filled with giant skulls of undead Koopas known as Dry Bones and the endlessly burning flames of volcanoes, the few pieces of civilization it carried were castles and fortresses under the command of Bowser's Koopa Troop, defenses in the form of tanks, airships, and battleships, as well as the neon-lit capital of Neo Bowser City which stood only miles away from Bowser's central Castle styled in his likeness within a volcano where a gathering among the Koopa Troop's core members took place.

The Koopa Troop was an evil union of diverse species determined to take their revenge on what they saw as a neglectful universe that had treated them poorly by conquering it. It's name came from the fact it was led by the King of the turtle-like Koopa race, Bowser himself. Yet it was also composed of the fungus-based Goombas, the carnivorous Piranha Plants, the ghost-like Boos, and many other racial leaders who had sworn loyalty to Bowser and his quest for power and revenge.

Seated at a long and wide wooden table in the Castle's extravagant dining room were the leaders and high-ranking members of the Koopa Troop. Including Petey Piranha of the Piranha Plants, King Boo of the Boos, the seven Koopalings that served as Bowser's wards, and Bowser himself at the left end of the table. The table was stacked with foods of great variety. Mainly meats and deserts. The gathering was going quite smoothly as each invitee and host excluding Bowser enjoyed delicious food and decent conversations.

"So then, I had that idiot deserter thrown of my airship," said the second youngest of the Koopalings, Morton Koopa Jr., who was telling his evil brethren a sadistic story they were enjoying.

Morton was the largest of his siblings with a penchant for astuteness, anger, and raucous speaking. Unlike his brothers and sister, he had a dark brown skin tone, except for his face, which was white. He had a unique star mark on the left side of his face which was centered on his left eye and covered part of his snout and cheek. Possessing four fang-like teeth in the upper corners of both sides of his large mouth, a four-ribbed, light, padded stomach, tan, padded feet, a black shell lined with a white encasing along with multiple short spikes circled with white rings, small, circular-shaped eyes, a round head, metal, spiked cuffs, and the closet things he had for hair were nine, thin, long, black hairs that were divided amongst his eyebrows and the top of his head.

"Did the fool beg, Morton," said the eldest Koopaling, Ludwig von Koopa, after he slowed down his cruel chuckling.

Like the remaining Koopalings, Ludwig had yellow and tan skin. His green head was round and his eyes small and circular like Morton's. His stomach and feet were similarly padded and ribbed, as well. He had shaped cheeks, a high nose, a low jaw, and deeply curved lips with one beaver-like tooth in the upper center of his snout. Possessing average height, large, wild, blue hair and small, blue eyebrows, a blue shell with light orange rings surrounding the multiple, short spikes, and wearing the same cuffs his brothers had, he was renowned for his conceited arrogance, his cultured genius, and ability for great cruelty.

"You bet your shell he did," exclaimed Morton in response. "You should've heard him scream to his death!"

More laughter erupted across the table which quickly died down after seeing Bowser's continued arm-fold and serious look.

A huge, burly, green-shelled with a white encasing and green-headed Koopa with spikes on his shell and tail, brown-orange spike-rings along his shell spikes, two small horns on his head, bright red eyes, his bushy eyebrows and mane a bright, fiery red-orange, he wore spiked collars around his neck and arms, his massive feet each had three claws, his six fingers and two thumbs were also claw-tipped, and his snout, underbelly, limbs, and tail were an orange-tinged yellow. He was different from the casual Koopa Troopa for being a combination of the many species of Koopas. Unlike most tyrants whose subjects served them out of fear or greed, the soldiers of the Koopa Troop were largely loyal to Bowser out of genuine respect for his powers and he, in turn, treated them like family as long as they didn't show treachery and incompetence often. He called the gathering to strategize for their next plan to conquer the universe and after filling his stomach, waited patiently for them to follow his business-like attitude. Although his patience was clearly wearing thin.

"Okay, how about some music, Gooper Blooper," asked Ludwig awkwardly to the giant, white squid-like creature with a black marking on his face, which resembled a mask, with long and large tentacles.

"Alright," replied the giant Blooper. "You orchestrate, I boogie and hop."

"That sounds cool," said Bowser's lookalike, biological son and crown prince, Bowser Jr., enthusiastically.

Junior had a yellow skin tone that lacked the tan seen on his dad and most of the Koopalings, a light green head, he had one, fang-like tooth in the upper corner of the left side of his large snout, his mouth wide, puffy, and con-vexed, his black eyes similar to his peers, spikes on his head in place of his dad's horns, and he wore spike-less, metal cuffs on his wrist and a white bandanna decorated with drawn-on fangs and casually worn like a mask. Having inherited his father's bad attitude, he eagerly followed the elder Bowser's directions wherever he went.

Turning to his father on his right, Junior nudged him to get his attention.

"What about it, Papa," he said with excitement. "Which song would you like to hear?"

"Songs," Bowser bellowed with fury that seemed unreal. His patience run out, he emerged from his seat, and paced the floor yelling. His followers paying close attention out of shock and fear. "It's total victory I want, you clods! I have slaved since my crib days for the moment when I finally get the three things I've wanted most for my whole life! Complete domination of the universe, Princess Peach's hand in marriage, and Mario's death! And yet, no matter how hard I try, I fail constantly! I summoned you all here to help me think of a new plan and here you are acting complacent like we already rule the universe! If you people spent your time working more than you do eating, joking, and playing music, perhaps I'd have everything by now!"

Releasing some breaths of exasperation, Bowser took a glance and saw sad faces of shame on all of his gathered minions. Junior and most of the younger commanders were starting to cry. Realizing he went to far, Bowser returned to the table and hugged Junior.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you all," he said with sincere apology. "It just gets so frustrating that I forget I'm not the only one bruised from all this."

"No one's tried harder than you, King Bowser," said Ludwig regaining his composure.

"Yeah, Roy and me of all people know how crazy it gets," said Morton pointing to the third oldest Koopaling, Roy Koopa.

Roy possessed the same yellow and tan skin complexion and cuffs while having a pink head, a pair of cat-eyed hot-pink sunglasses, a purple, white encased shell with hot-pink rings circled his multiple, shot shell spikes, had the long arms and hunched shoulders of a gorilla, a feline-shaped mouth with his lips deeply curved and nose flat, and two fang-like teeth in the upper corners of both sides of his snout. Roy was known as the bad boy of the Koopalings. Appearing calm and collected one moment and a typical bully the next. All the same, he was a dirty player that used his brawn to get what he wanted.

"If it makes you feel better, Boss, you can know that I'll always believe in you and your plans," Said Roy in a calm tone.

Relaxed somewhat, Bowser showed a small smile.

"Thank you, Roy." Then he regained his serious look and decided to return to the subject at hand. "Now, does anyone have any ideas? Answer honestly."

"Well, King Bowser, the only thing I can think of that we team up with guys like King K. Rool, or something," said the second oldest Koopaling, Lemmy Koopa.

Very short for his age, Lemmy had a distinctive pair of orange bars on the left-side of his head which was oval-shaped, his stomach was three ribbed, his mouth was turtle-shaped, his large, oval eyes were crossed, his multi-colored Mohawk that goes from yellow, pink, blue, yellow, pink, blue, and ends in a long ponytail that fades from yellow to orange at the tip, and his orange, white encased shell had yellow rings that circled the spikes. Lemmy, despite being the second oldest, was more of a fun-loving child who wanted to join the circus instead of the serious conqueror Bowser portrayed.

"Perhaps, Lemmy," Bowser replied. "But I don't trust any of the other villains any more then I trust most of you." Pointing to the white, large, spherical ghost with small arms, black eyes, fangs, and a golden, five-pointed crown with a blue jewel in the front and four red jewels around the sides for emphasis, he added, "That means you, King Boo."

"What," King Boo said with surprise. "My Lord, I have always been loyal to you and your glorious cause." He tried to paint himself as a devotee, but Bowser would have none of it.

"Word in Evershade Valley is you tried to conquer the world for yourself," Bowser spat. "You didn't even have enough respect for me to say so yourself."

"Luigi and his nutty professor friend trapped me in a painting," King Boo pleaded. "I was angry. I didn't have time to tell you I was back."

"Just like you didn't tell me you wanted to go after the Mario Bros. yourself in the first place," Bowser said in an annoyed way. Calming down, he then said, "I'm still keeping you because I need the Boos to follow someone when I'm not around and it's safer that way so I can keep an eye on you."

"Of course, Master," said the King of all Boos in defeat.

Returning his gaze to the table at large, he then went back his discussion of trust among evildoers.

"Besides, the villains we've discovered had no more luck against hero and anti-hero alike then we do now. I see the merit, but if it's going to work, I must find a way to manipulate and betray them before they do the same to me like I did with Antasma."

After some thinking, the nearly typical Magikoopa on Bowser's right side decided to speak. Yellow skinned, he wore a pair of round spectacles, a set of blue robes complete with a blue wizard's hat with the hat brim and sleeve edges both white, he showed no physical signs of aging and yet, many knew he had been around when Bowser himself was an infant. His name was Kamek, Bowser's childhood caretaker, chief advisor, and leader of the Koopa race's number of sorcerers.

"Perhaps it's best we take a peak at the near future," he said in a sagely tone.

Everyone was looking at Kamek now. Although it was no secret the old Magikoopa had talents in precognition, he did not use them often and when he did, he used them only in the case of an emergency.

"Do it," Bowser ordered calmly.

Wasting no time, Kamek took out a crystal ball from his robe and placed it on the table. With a wave of his right hand, the ball began to glow bright and then images were shown. Images of a massive space station which resembled the face of a mustached Human man with concave eye-sockets hovering over a city no one recognized, a creature Bowser first assumed was a blue porcupine before realizing it was a hedgehog, seven differently colored gems emitting powerful surges of energy within a complex machine and many other images that the gathered evildoers could not understand. Showing animals and robots with appearances none of them have ever seen before. After a few moments, the visions died down until they abruptly vanished. Leaving the Koopa Troopers excluding Kamek with clueless expressions.

"Alright, uh, what was that about," said King Boo giving voice to his confusions.

"If you had investigated enough about Koopa dark magic, King Boo, you would know that the full extent of these sort of visions can only be understood by the Magikoopa who casts them," said Ludwig in a matter of fact tone.

"So what did it mean, Kamek," asked Junior.

"I believe the solution to our plans reside not within our world, but in another," replied Kamek. "And when the time comes, the items and people who will provide that solution will come to us." He merely shrugged. "I'd give a day, or so."

Emerging from his seat once more, Bowser relayed his orders to his followers with great confidence.

"Very well. I will order all our forces to be on the lookout for inter-dimensional readings of any kind. Once you all are done eating, I expect you to be at your bases to help in the search." As he left to carry out his order to the Koopa Troop's sentries, he spoke with great assurance that his fellow hosts and guests could hear him, "If this works out, I'll soon have enough knowledge and power to conquer all the universes."

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To be continued

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Behind the scenes

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I partly based Bowser's gathering on a scene from an old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode where Lord Dregg is inspired to work with the Shredder and Krang and from Prince John's outburst in Disney's Robin Hood movie. I plan to go forth in time. Hopefully won't have to ask for help on this one. By the way, I know the real names of Mario's home planet and dimension haven't been confirmed, but I think we all want some answers so I turned Ludwig and his siblings into wards and I'm going to make it official that the original Mario games like Donkey Kong and such are more like alternate universes and I'm going to make it stick that Mario's Earth is somewhat like our own.

Chapter Text

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Chapter One: Egg of Death

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In another place and time across time and space, there was another version of Earth where Humans and anthropomorphic animals coexist with the environment as well as with each other. Technological and architectural designs varied among the planet's countries despite many of them possessing representatives in the United Federation and protection from the Guardian Units of Nations. Aside from advancements in science, sources of great magic differentiated this world from many of its counterparts. Deities and objects holding such power were present primarily on Earth. The most well-known were the Chaos Emeralds that were powerful enough to warp time and space using the right methods.

Despite its apparent unity, that world was divided between good and evil as much the world of Mario was. Although the Federation and it's military had good intentions, they were not without histories of corruption and brutality to succeed in their goals. More painfully, many villains have sought to conquer Earth and the universe itself many times. The most infamous was a Human mad scientist named Ivo Robotnik and nicknamed Doctor Eggman, whose crimes had threatened the time-space continuum during his insane quest for world domination. Going so far as to blow off half of Earth's Moon to get what he wanted.

The one force that could stop him from fully building his Eggman Empire and the foundation of his Eggmanland model of said empire, was not G.U.N., but an assortment of heroes and anti-heroes commonly led by Eggman's arch-nemesis, Sonic the Hedgehog. Famous for his love of nature and peace, his powers to move past the speed of sound and harness Chaos Energy, and his many heroic deeds that have branched across dimensions and time periods, the blue hedgehog made it his mission defeat Eggman and any other villain constantly out of his strong sense of justice and need for excitement long before he met his current friends.

On the northwestern continent of the Earth, stood the home country of the Federation. It's capital of Central City was on an island close to the eastern mainland known as South Island. A mix of simple and advanced designs, the city was home to the Federation President, G.U.N.'s official headquarters, and millions of civilians. Within G.U.N. Headquarters' decryption lab, the organization's most successful team of operatives, Team Dark, were cooperating with the Chaotix Detective Agency to discover Eggman's present location before he would strike again.

"Well, this is peachy," exhaled Charmy Bee with impatience.

Smaller than his fellows, peach skinned, furred in yellow and black with orange-amber eyes, the honeybee child wore white gloves backed by thick black, ring-shaped cuffs, a black pilot's helmet with red trim and holes for his antennas, brown flight goggles with silver and black accents, an orange vest with a gold-colored zipper pull, white v-collar, and a patch on the left chest area that depicted a bee-like symbol, orange sneakers with gold-colored zipper pulls, black collars, and white rubber soles, as well as black shoulder pads. Charmy was the Chaotix mascot and tracker with a penchant for hyperactivity and immaturity, yet carried a big heart and admiration for his comrades.

"We've been trying to find where Eggman and his flunkies are at for half an hour and so far we've got nothing," he went on.

Upon learning of rumors that Eggman was building a new weapon of ultimate destruction and domination, the President and G.U.N. Commander tasked Team Dark and hired the Chaotix to find his current location, as well as share details of the investigation with Teams Sonic and Rose. The mission wasn't easy as Eggman had access to seemingly unlimited resources in money and bases through unspecified and underground shell corporations that aren't usually traced back to him. Although his preferred headquarters was the factory city of Metropolis on nearby West Side Island, the mad doctor relocated from stronghold to stronghold to keep the law off his trail and away from the closest things he had for territories.

"Easy, Kiddo," said Chaotix leader, Vector the Crocodile with reassurance.

A large and imposing crocodile in his twenties with vermillion eyes and green, light lime green, and brilliant vermillion scales, he wore a pair of black and gray cordless headphones, a thick golden neck chain, white gloves, black shoulder pads, black cylindrical cuffs with orange stripes and gold-colored buckle fasteners, as well as black sneakers with white and orange trim and white rubber soles. Vector was often split between being bossy or easy-going due to his position as head honcho and his love for money, he was all the same well-liked owing to charitable and music-loving nature.

"I get tired from this, too, but remember the first rule of research is patience," amended Vector.

"Yes, but so far we haven't gotten a nibble," said Shadow the Hedgehog with his arms folded.

Of average height, the red-eyed teenager with white, black, and crimson fur, as well as peach skin merely wore Hover Shoes that were mainly white with black heels and soles and a red stripe of metal lined the bottom of each shoe which was black and had a pattern of small jets which Shadow used to propel himself forward during mission along with white gloves with black and red-tongued cuffs and golden Inhibitor Rings on his wrists created to prevent his power in Chaos Energy from over-exerting him. Shadow was in many ways Team Dark's iconic symbol and served as Sonic's arch-rival in terms of speed and moral judgment. A loner and an anti-hero, Shadow had a tendency for being arrogant and was not above using firearms, but was not without a sense of selflessness and loyalty to his teammates and in his first encounter with Sonic, saved the Earth from the falling Space Colony ARK at the cost of his own memories.

"Affirmative, Dr. Eggman has reshaped his network to the point even his defected creations such as myself can't hack it," agreed E-123 Omega in a mechanical voice.

A large robot with red eyes and a red, black, yellow, green, and silver color scheme, Omega had a stockier upper body than most robots, the symbol for omega on his front left shoulder and the back of his right, as well as metallic hands that resembled razor blades to an extent. Although genderless as a robot, Omega was referred in male pronouns for the sake of convenience. Created by Eggman as the last of his E-100 series of Badnik robots to prevent Shadow's release at a time he was in the doctor's custody, Omega became furious at the apparent waste of his skills and abandoned his original programming to take his revenge on Eggman and his other creations to prove he was the greatest robot of all time. Joining Team Dark at the first opportunity. While largely emotionless, he was capable of understanding others and reacting appropriately. And despite his violent nature, he genuinely cared about his few friends in Team Dark.

After a few more failed attempts to hack into Eggman's orbital satellites, the official leader of Team Dark, Rouge the Bat, exhaled in defeat. A teal-eyed, white furred, tan skinned, beauty in her late teens, she wore white formfitting, elbow length gloves with pink cuffs, a contoured black jumpsuit which covered from the chest down, with a pink and heart-shaped with white trim breastplate, mascara, powder blue eye-shadow, pink lipstick, as well as white long-stocking high heel boots, with pink cuffs and a heart-shaped motif at the toes, along with metal soles and heels. Jewel thief, part-time agent for G.U.N., and self-proclaimed treasure huntress, Rouge was seen by most people as caring only for herself and her gems, but she did have her heroic moments.

"I give up, boys," she told the others. "I gave it my all, but this network is more harder to crack than Eggy's silly excuse for a head."

"If he wasn't such an evil, immature, narcissistic madman, he would have my full respect," said Shadow.

"Perhaps, it's best we should contact the others and see if they're making much better progress then we are," said Espio the Chameleon.

Gold-eyed, peach-yellowed skinned, and scaled in fuchsia, yellow, and black, Espio wore white gloves, topped with triangular violet pads that were trimmed in white, separate black glove cuffs, covered in white bandaging in the middle segment, complete with gold-colored bolts on the foremost segment, overlaid by a tongue with gray compartments, violet shoes intact by black straps with black accents and rubber soles, as well as separate black ankle cuffs, covered in white bandaging in the middle segment, complete with gold-colored bolts on the foremost segment. Espio was the wise, yet somewhat arrogant ninja of the Chaotix. He was usually eager to find danger to flex and polish his skills and especially disliked Eggman for his callous, evil actions.

Teams Sonic and Rose were sent to trace Eggman's trail the more physical way by routing through his old bases across the Earth. Divided into teams of two and given temporally access to G.U.N. Hovercrafts, the six heroes sent mission reports every few minutes to inform the others at G.U.N. Headquarters about their progress, or lack thereof. Getting his Miles Electric, a widely rectangular, yellow, multifunctional, handheld device with only one handle on the left side and two cyan-glowing antennas on top invented by Sonic's best friend, Miles Prower, or Tails the Fox as he was commonly know, Espio was about call them when instead a video image of a blue-eyed fox child furred in yellow-orange and white, who wore white gloves and socks with small gray fasteners and red sneakers with white toes and gray soles, as well as two twin-tails appeared on the handheld's middle touchscreen. He was Tails, the closest thing Sonic had to a little brother and was nearly equal to Eggman himself in terms of mechanical genius and aerial piloting.

"Hey, guys," said Tails in a voice that tried to be optimistic.

"Fox Boy, we were just going to call you," said Rouge in her usual flirtatious way.

"Things have been slow on our end," blurted Charmy. "Don't suppose you guys found anything."

"That's a good question, Charmy," said Knuckles the Echidna, the guardian of the floating Angel Island as well as Sonic's other good friend and rival said over the handheld. Although they couldn't see him, the gathered Teams figured he was close to Tails.

"It took some real effort, but we were able to sneak into Metropolis, hack into the mainframe, and get the few details of Eggman's new plan that we could get," said the voice of the Blue Blur himself as Sonic was known to some.

"Well, that's just full of peaches," shouted Vector, realizing that their efforts were wasted.

"We've got good news and bad news, friends," said the power member of Team Rose, Big the Cat.

Sharing confused glances, the members of Teams Dark and Chaotix showed signs of discomfort what the others would say next.

"Alright, what's the good news," asked Espio.

"Actually, both pieces of news are blended with one another," added Cream the Rabbit, who was to Team Rose's leader as Tails was to Sonic.

"Now's not a good time for riddles," said Shadow with impatience.

"Alright, no need to get huffy," said Amy Rose of Team Rose with an annoyed tone. "Eggman's built a new Death Egg with a Final Egg Blaster, a super teleportation device that can send him across this universe and others, a mass Roboticizer, a large Badnik factory, a hangar for his fleet, and it's all powered by every Chaos Emerald there is."

Teams Dark and Chaotix went silent with dread. The Death Egg name was used for a series of massive spherical space stations bearing Eggman's very face. The Final Egg Blaster was originally developed to scorch landscapes until Eggman redesigned it to destroy an entire group of stars at once while being powered by solar energy. The Roboticizer was invented in Eggman's pre-villainous years as an alternative for old age and death by changing organics on the molecular level into robots. Only for them to lose their free will. It was a fundamental force that even Eggman believed using it on a large-scale was tantamount to genocide. It was bad enough Eggman had all the Chaos Emeralds, but the fact he placed them in such a powerful weapon was enough to give even the ruthless members of Team Dark pause.

"Okay, uh, anything else we need to know," asked Charmy awkwardly.

"Eggman's taking it and his fleet over to Central City," said Tails who waited with hesitance before adding, "They'll be there in five minutes."

"Five minutes," exclaimed Vector. "Are you kidding?"

"Trust me, buddy, I wish he was," said Big worried.

"That doesn't even give us enough time to evacuate, or organize the military," said Rouge stuttering.

"Guys, I know this is very inopportune, but we need to stick together," said Sonic, more serious than usual. "Right now we can't quit. The whole world is counting on us. We're already heading your direction so you and the top brass got to hurry up and get ready."

"For once, I agree with him," said Shadow. "I don't care how many robots and doomsday devices he's bringing. I'm standing up to that fool. Agreed?!"

"Yeah," everyone else exclaimed with confidences bolstered.

"Good. I'll tell the Commander and President to be prepared. Sonic, you and the others get here as fast as you can. Everyone else, spread the word."

"We're on it," said Sonic with great eagerness.

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Over the late morning skies of South Island, a massive spherical space station with concave eye-sockets, a toothy smile, and a mustache rendered in kilometers of vacuum-hardened plasma-steel hovered across the planet until it reached its destination of Central City. Within its layers, were armies of robots and flying battleships of various designs. Some resembled land and water based animals while others were in a stream-like pattern and few almost cartoonish. At the center of it all, was a posh, futuristic office where three robots were waiting for their creator.

"Oh, baby, this is going to be so awesome," exclaimed Cubot with zeal.

A small robot with light blue eyes, a glowing, blue mouth, and a yellow, black, and grey color scheme, Cubot levitated from the floor due to his lack of legs, had glove-like hands, and was designed to retract his body into a travel-sized cube. Created by Dr. Eggman as an independent dependable interface, Cubot was lazy and slow-witted, but genuinely loyal to his creator.

"I share your enthusiasm, old boy," said his spherical, red counterpart, Orbot in a calmer way.

Although Orbot was faithful to Eggman and actually liked his counterpart, the service automaton was nonetheless sassy, straightforward, and insensitive when addressing his opinions, as well as shared Cubot's penchant for laziness.

"I must admit, I'm impressed," said Metal Sonic in his stoic, mechanical voice.

Color schemed in a yellow, blue, red, silver, and white way and possessing red irises with black sclera for eyes, Metal Sonic was created in Sonic's image and programmed with the sole purpose of surpassing and destroying him. However, this had made Metal an intelligent killing machine with a superiority complex large enough to inspire him to betray his creator on occasion and reshape the world into a robot kingdom under his rule. Although he was recently giving new programming that would harm Metal if he ever tried to inflict it on Eggman. All the same, he still carried the artificial intelligence that made him ambitious and hateful.

Emerging from the office entrance, came a tall, obese, beige skinned, bald, mahogany mustached Human wearing a pair of pince-nez glasses with navy blue tinted lenses over his blue eyes, grey hexagonal-shaped, protective goggles, a red turtleneck jacket with white trim, large yellow cuffs with triangular notches cut into the side of each cuff and gold box-compartment accessories, black contoured, form fitting one-piece pants and boots with silver accents and large silver buttons attaching his red coat to the pants in front, as well as white, cuff less gloves with a black-lined rectangle motif over the top of the hand. He was Dr. Eggman, an evil genius with an intelligence quotient of three-hundred and a self-appointed mission to dominate the Earth and beyond.

"Everything's ready for your performance, Boss," said Cubot bowing his head.

"I don't suppose you wish to give words of encouragement to the Badniks, sir," commented Orbot.

Eggman smiled wickedly.

"On the contrary, I've prepared some words. I don't ever want to forget this moment."

Going to his desk, Eggman pressed a keyboard that echoed his voice across the entire Death Egg.

"Within twenty-four hours, I, Doctor Eggman, shall stand as supreme master of the world, borne to victory on the aerial might of the Death Egg and the Eggman Fleet. Our enemies' weapons will be powerless against us. If they shoot down one battleship, thousands more will rain fire upon them! If they cut off the head of one robot, millions more will take it's place. Long live the Eggman Empire."

"Long live the Eggman Empire," chanted the robots in Eggman's office. And that chant continued to be uttered by every last robot on the fortress.

"Alright, alright, let's get things started," said Eggman when the chanting died down after eight repeats. Turning to his most evil creation he ordered. "Metal Sonic, lead my army and fleet to victory. Leave few prisoners and see to it that Sonic the Hedgehog has no friends, or United Federation to protect!"

Turing his right hand into a fist, Metal Sonic's look changed from stoic to enthusiastic.

"I thought you'd never ask!"

With his supersonic speed and rocket-propelled flight, Metal Sonic traveled though entire corridors until he reached the opening hangar doors for the Egg Fleet. The steam-lined battleships emerged first following Metal Sonic's lead. Followed by the aquatic resembling ships and the more smoothed and armed ships built for space travel coming in last.

"Come, my armada," ordered Metal Sonic with a shout. "Attack! Attack! Attack!"

And with that, the battleships began firing at the capital city below.

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To be continued

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Behind the scenes

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Don't worry I'll get to the crossover part in time. Anyway, I took Eggman and Metal Sonic's actions from the Red Skull in The First Avenger and Starscream from the season two finale of Transformers Prime. I know Eggman's reluctance contradicts his image in the comics and early cartoons, but I wanted to give a reason that while Roboticization exists in the games, it hasn't been used on a mass scale. Also, while it hasn't been confirmed that Omega's with GUN, I thought it would've made sense all the same. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter Text

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Chapter Two: Clash of the Chaotic Forces

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Over the vast area of water between South Island and West Side Island, six G.U.N. Hovercrafts and their riders speeded across to reach Central City before it was too late. Suitable mainly for both aquatic and desert terrain, the Hovercrafts were designed in a steam-lined fashion with hovering devices positioned in the front. Although most of the riders were capable of flight, or gliding, they decided traveling by vehicle would be much faster.

"I know how you feel, Sonic, but we got to stay as a group," said Tails as he saw his best friend at his left pressing his hands on the handlebars of his own Hovercraft. "We'll need our all combined strengths to get to the Death Egg."

A blue furred, peach skinned, and green-eyed hedgehog in his teens, Sonic wore white gloves with sock-like cuffs and light weight, hyper friction resistant red sneakers with a white strap, cuffs and a gold buckle. Described as wind-like, Sonic drifted from place to place to find adventures to exercise his strengths and freedom. While occasionally impulsive and egotistic, he upheld freedom, kindness, peace, and justice above all else.

"I know, Tails, but this is larger than the thrills I usually go for," he replied annoyed. "Maybe if we found out quicker, we could've been ready for this." He oozed with disgust. "Eggs seriously ripped it wide open this time."

"I know what you mean, bud," said Knuckles the Echidna at Sonic's left.

A year over Sonic, he was red furred, violet-eyed, peach skinned, and possessing two spike-like knuckles on each of his hands as well as dreadlocks on his head while wearing white gloves that fitted for his knuckles as well as red and yellow shoes with green cuffs and gray sextuple-bolted plates on top. Knuckles served as the guardian of the larger version of the green Chaos Emerald, the Master Emerald, which could neutralize or empower the Chaos Emeralds while not possessing enough destructive power for itself. A loner by nature, Knuckles spent his entire life on the floating Angel Island where the Master Emerald laid, and thus, was slightly antisocial and had a history of being manipulated by others. Despite his faults, he was a caring friend and brave hero.

"If that maniac even touched the Master Emerald, I'll show him no mercy," he shouted with snarling teeth.

"I don't think you have to worry about that, Knuckles," said Amy Rose from the back with her teammates.

Three years younger than Sonic, she was green-eyed, pink furred, and peach skinned. The female hedgehog also wore a red dress with white lining, red boots with white stripes, a red hairband, and white gloves with gold ring bracelets. A mix of girly and tomboyish personalities, Amy was a kind, yet aggressive fighter head over heels in love with Sonic. A serious off-on interest Sonic didn't necessarily reciprocate, but he valued her as a close friend all the same.

"I looked at my ME just before we left," she amended. "Angel Island is still high in the sky where it belongs."

"Why can't that wacko just get a real job and hobby like normal people do," said Big the Cat unusually annoyed.

Physically strong and imposing of stature, the yellow-eyed cat in his late teens was furred in purple, white, and dark violet. He also wore yellow sandals, tan gloves, as well as a tan and mango colored belt. While admittingly not as quick-witted as most of his friends, Big was held in high regards by his teammates for his selflessness and caring attitude. An isolated, low-tech fisher by nature, Big casually preferred living in the Mystic Ruins jungle left over from Knuckles's ancestors before their civilization's demise over four thousand years in the past with his pet Froggy. However, when his friends needed his help, he would gladly oblige. Froggy himself was perched on Big's right shoulder.

"It just seems so wrong that he could do such terrible things for such selfish reasons," said Cream the Rabbit melancholic.

A peach skinned child, she had Princeton orange, cream, and white fur, cinnamon-brown eyes, and wore white socks, shoes colored in vermillion and yellow, a cobalt duel-flap tie, a vermillion dress with a white-collar, and a pair of white gloves with golden buckles. A polite, yet curious young girl, Cream was not afraid to stand up for herself and was always willing to fight to help her friends. Although many considered her too young for the heroic line of work, Cream showed she could take care of herself and pointed out that Charmy and Tails were only slightly older than she was.

Holding on tight to Cream's waist, was a small, bulb-shaped headed creature known as a Chao named Cheese. Eyes colored in dark blue, he had light blue skin with yellow markings at the tip of his head, hands, feet, and small, circular tail. Possessing pink butterfly like wings, a floating, yellow pom-pom ball hovering above the top of his head that changed appearance corresponding to his emotions as well as the emotions of his owner, and was distinguishable from other Chao by his red bow tie. Cheese was Cream's beloved pet/combat partner and was rarely seen apart from her.

"Don't worry, Cream, we'll stop him," said Sonic in a determined voice. Turning to Tails he asked, "Tails, if the blueprints said the Death Egg has an inter-dimensional teleportation gadget, you think you could hack into it once we're onboard and send Eggman and his forces to an uninhabited reality where he can't get out?"

"Sonic, I'm offended," zaid Tails in a mocking tone that showed he wasn't offended. "Of course, I can do it. I just need to get to the station's generator room where the Emeralds are stored, change the settings to only lock on to Eggman's DNA signature as well as the energy signals emitting from his networked machines, and then hot wire the transporter to cause a permanent EMP once they get to their new home."

"An EMP," said Big wondering.

"It's short for electromagnetic pulse," amended Tails. "It will shut down his technology for good."

"That way he won't come back," said Cream with an eager smile.

"And Omega can supply what we need to make it happen," said Knuckles equally enthusiastic. "He's not connected after all."

"That's a good plan, boys, but won't most of us fall thousands of feet once it vanishes," Amy pointed out.

This caught Sonic and Tails by surprise. They did not think that far ahead.

"We'll worry about that when it happens," said Sonic trying to maintain that his plan was well-thought.

Returning their focus on their travel route, the two teams saw Central City under heavy assault by the Egg Fleet. Entire buildings were destroyed, millions of civilians were scattered and trying to escape, and the G.U.N. forces were scrambling trying to sort through the mess. As they were getting closer to their destination, Sonic and his friends saw in an instant that seven huge G.U.N. Warships sporting large cannons emerged from out of time and space and instantly fired on the enemy fleet.

"Where'd they come from," asked Big in confusion.

"Think of it as a present from Shadow to the world," said Rouge, her face emerging on Tails' ME. "We took Tails' method of creating artificial Emeralds and the Black Blur's using them to get enough help as he can."

"That's good, but we need to put this fight to a stop once and for all," said Sonic coming closer to Tails. "Once he's found a good time to call it quits, tell him to use Chaos Control to get our teams onboard the Death Egg. We've got a plan to get the moustache monkey out of our hair for good."

"Got it," confirmed Rouge.

Hovering across the damaged city, Teams Sonic and Rose eventually arrived at headquarters where Teams Dark and Chaotix were waiting for them with synthetic emeralds of limited power and colored in green, silver, cyan, purple, red, yellow, and blue in their hands.

"Alright, listen up," said Sonic coming off his Hovercraft followed by his friends. "The plan is simple. We get in and divide into three. Tails will lead Omega, Vector, Cream, and Cheese to the Death Egg's generators where Eggster's keeping the Emeralds and controlling all his special features where he'll alter them to send Eggman and his entire so-called Empire into another dimension where he won't bother anyone ever again. Knuckles, Rouge, Big, and Charmy will go to the Badnik factory and make some noise to keep Tails' group from getting caught. The rest of us will do the same at Eggy's office."

"And like that, he forgot to add the part where most of us fall to our deaths," said Amy with her eyes rolled.

"That won't happen," Sonic replied affirmatively.

"How so," asked a smug Shadow.

"They each got points, Sonic," said Charmy. "Me and the girls maybe strong, but not strong enough to carry all of you to the ground from that height anymore than Tails can do all of you."

Sonic struggled to explain how they would survive.

"Well, there are Warships up there and we'll get the Chaos Emeralds so I figure we will be fine."

His friends and allies were not very encouraged.

"I know you said that you'd make sure it only worked on Eggman, but what happens if it affects us anyway," asked Big.

"Mister Big has a point," agreed Cream. "I belong here with my mom. I don't want to get stuck in some far off place with Dr. Eggman of all people."

"Who would want to," said Espio.

Face palming, Sonic regained his stance to say, "Look, I'll admit, this plan doesn't come with a very good escape route, but this isn't the time where anyone finds this be another good game." Slamming his right fist on his left hand for emphasis, he went on. "Baldy McNosehair is trying to destroy and enslave us all. He has to be stopped. And while I prefer we all come out of this alive and well, I know that these sort of moments require a complete serious attitude. Like Shadow's minus the crazy part."

His black counterpart grunted affirmatively.

"I suppose it would be a more beneficial alternative to simply destroying the Death Egg and give Dr. Eggman a chance to escape," said Omega.

Seeing his comrades exchange glances and adopting serious looks afterwards, Sonic then nodded with a smile.

"Let's do it to it," he said in an encouraging way with his left fist held high.

Despite his seeming zeal, however, Sonic's companions looked confused with what he just said.

"Please tell me that's not your battle cry, or something," said Shadow in a less enthusiastic tone.

"What does that even mean," said Tails showing the palm of his hands.

"I believe he meant to say that we fight to our maximum potential," suggested Omega.

"I guess," said Big.

"Yeah, it's something a few of my fans thought I should say to sound cooler," amended Sonic with a sheepish smile.

"No offense, Sonic, but it sounds like a catchphrase from an interesting, yet horribly melodramatic comic book series with serious copyright issues," said Vector unimpressed.

"Yeah, the imaginations of a few outsiders don't make you who you are, pal," said Espio.

"Next they're going to suggest who we should get romantically invested with," said Charmy rolling his eyes.

"Can we please get this over with," asked an impatient Amy.

Seeing they wasted enough time, Sonic grabbed a red emerald from Omega and together with the emeralds in Shadow's hands started the Chaos Power that would take them where they needed to go.

"Chaos Control," shouted the male hedgehogs as the artificial emeralds glowed bright. And in an instant, the four teams were out of sight.

[TE]

As if no time passed at all, Sonic, Shadow, Amy, and Espio found themselves in a silver-lined corridor in an artificial environment with Eggman's smiley face decaled on the halls. Their other comrades were no where in sight and the artificial emeralds crumbled into dust.

"I take it we are close to Eggman's office," said a wary Espio.

Sonic shrugged.

"Figured this way we won't get into any surprises. I'm sure the others are close where they need to be, too."

Having a worried look all the same, Amy pulled out her ME and dialed for the ones carried by Tails and Knuckles. In a second, both persons showed on the touchscreen.

"My team and I close to the Death Egg's power room," said Tails eagerly.

"Same here at the factory, people," replied Knuckles equally excited.

"If my memories of the blueprints are of any indication, I'd say we're like a few feet from the Egg-maniac's office," said Sonic pointing to the passageway at his left before turning to the touchscreen. "You guys know your parts, let's go do something about it."

"Better than the last one," commented Shadow as the ME turned off.

[TE]

After crisscrossing certain passageways, Tails' and his team arrived into a room filled with large power generators with the true Chaos Emeralds in the largest generator in the middle. The room was staffed by fourteen Badniks colored in vermillion, amber, and gray, as well as had their mouths and eyes glowing in cyan. They were E-1001 Egg Pawns one of the most common robotic foot soldiers in Eggman's armies each carrying rapid-fire blasters, single-shot cannons, and lances. Weapons more suited to defeat Sonic, not the three heroes, anti-hero, and Chao having just emerged through the lances.

"Wow," exclaimed in Tails. "This is insulting."

"Some people just can't realize that their arch-foes aren't the only ones they get trouble from," commented Vector with a nod.

"Step aside, children," said Omega as he stepped from his group and entered into the middle of the growing gathering of Egg Pawns that were preparing to attack.

Stepping back from their robotic ally, Cream, Cheese, Vector, and Tails saw Omega reconfiguring his claws into flamethrowers and spraying flames in a circular radius around him. In moments, the Egg Pawns were burned to a point their circuits were showing and the robots themselves became inoperative. Moving over the ruined Badniks, Tails moved to the central generator and with his ME, started to hack into the generator and through it, the transporter.

Turning to the robot, Tails said, "Omega, I'm going to need that piece of Eggman's DNA you have as well as the energy samples from your so-called evil brothers."

"Affirmative," Omega replied as the information was instantly downloaded onto Tails' ME.

"Are you sure you won't get transported, too, Mr. Omega," asked a concerned Cream.

"It's okay, Creamy, he stopped getting updates from the Egg Network ever since he went AWOL," said Vector rubbing the rabbit's head.

"AWOL," asked Cream.

"It's a word that refers to soldiers taking a temporally leave of absence, or illegally leaving the army."

Cream smiled hopefully followed by Cheese.

"I won't ever go AWOL on you and our other friends, Mr. Vector."

Vector's grew a wide smile, as well.

"I know, kid." Turning to Omega, he ordered, "Omega, you and me will guard the door while Tails does the hacking and the kids keep him safe here."

"I am prepared, Crocodile."

As the two power typed members approached the door, Cream and Cheese got close to Tails to check on his progress.

"How long will it take, Tails," she asked.

"I'd give or take ten minutes, Cream," he replied. "Hopefully, the others will buy us all the time we need."

[TE]

Meanwhile, in the Death Egg's Badnik processing plant, Knuckles and his fellows were having their own fight against an entire horde of Egg Fighters. Designed in their creator's image, they had torsos in the shape of a little more than a hemisphere, with four flashlights arranged in a rectangle on their front and a flat rounded head on top of it. They had relatively short legs, with flat feet and circular ankles, and arms that extend almost down to the ground with four-fingered hands. They were all colored steel-blue and silver, and had purple eyes. Possessing above average physical strength, hand-to-hand combat skills, and the ability to wield chainsaw-like swords and standard shields made out of steel, they were especially hostile in Sonic's presence as their programmed minds dictated.

"Take this, you freaks," shouted Charmy as he used his stinger to penetrate through their hardened shells.

Knuckles himself used his own super strength to punch the Fighters as well. Shooting himself directly into the air while spinning around, Knuckles then delivered a direct uppercut to the closest Fighter's head.

Rouge's raw power lied in her legs and feet. Allowing her to leave dents in the Fighters armor and to unleash a tornado kick straight up in the air which would damage any enemy.

Big's moves were in some ways more destructive than even Knuckles'. Able to lift the Fighters at one another, use his fishing rod that emerged from nowhere to catch and trip them, and drop his entire body on the robots to crush them.

"This is definitely not easy," shouted Big as he dueled fishing rod to sword with a Fighter.

"Just hold on, guys," replied Knuckles. "We have to give Tails more time. We stop for nothing!"

[TE]

Within Eggman's office, the mad doctor and his two assistants were enjoying the carnage occurring in the city below before they heard alarms screeching and a visual monitor on Eggman's desk showed images of the fight in the factory playing without sound.

"Those clowns," Eggman shouted incredulously.

"If they're here, Sonic can't be far behind, Boss," advised Orbot.

"Sonic's okay, but Shadow gives me the willies," panicked Cubot.

Just before Eggman could respond, the entrance door was rocketed to the other side of the office, showing four curling spins in pink, purple, black, and blue that revealed themselves as Sonic, Espio, Amy, and Shadow. Taken briefly aback, Eggman quickly regained his composure with a cruel smile.

"Ah, Sonic," he said with half-hearted pleasure. "I was wondering when you and your loser friends would show up." His voice became mockingly sad. "And yet after all this time, I still don't know why you can't just let me have one simple victory."

"And what," Espio blurted out. "Let you destroy the rest of the Moon? Dream on!"

"Dr. Ivo Robotnik, by the authority of the United Federation and the Guardian Units of Nations, you are under arrest," stated a stern Shadow.

Eggman didn't seem at all worried.

"I will destroy your precious Federation, Shadow, but first I will destroy you!"

The mad scientist pressed a red button on his desk that caused the ceiling hatches to open. Revealing six hovering, white robots that had missile launchers mounted to their right arms and machine guns to the left.

"Egg Gunners, destroy these fools," Eggman ordered as he sat in his floating, stylistic white chair with red chair padding and armrests with small hand pads to quickly make his escape with his scurrying assistants on his lap through another ceiling hatch that quickly closed shut.

"We'll show him," encouraged Amy as she pulled out her Piko Piko Hammer from out of nowhere. A large, brown handled hammer with in the shape of a red cylinder with flat yellow dishes on the ends, Amy used her Hammer often enough to give even Sonic good reason not to make her angry.

Using her Hammer, Amy used it to swing a Gunner a great distance and bring its weight down on another.

Shadow and Sonic used their aforementioned spin attack on two others.

And Espio threw large shuriken at the remaining two.

"That's it," asked Sonic dumbfounded. "I actually expected something more original from old Egg-Face."

"Always that confiding confidence," said a familiar mechanical voice. Turning their gaze at the entrance, the team of four saw Metal Sonic emerge with fists folded. "But I'm afraid this is the end for all of you," he said coldly.

"Where did you come from," said Espio with his shurieken raised in both hands.

"The good doctor updated me with a teleportation engine," amended Metal Sonic casually before going into a battle ready stance. "Now, prepare to die!"

"In your creepy dreams, Creep," retorted Amy.

Releasing a destructive field of electrical discharges around his body, Metal Sonic then raced to his opponents with great force.

[TE]

His hovering across the Death Egg coming to an abrupt end in the control center, Eggman left his chair as he walked to a massive computer that directed the station's motion and weapon fire and was staffed by many Egg Pawns.

"So what's the plan, now, Boss," asked Cubot. "I don't think our troops will keep Sonic and his friends away forever."

"For once, you are right, Cubot," replied Eggman. "But don't worry. I can still win this. While my forces deal with those scruffy animals and Omega, I will fire the mass Roboticizer on all of South Island! And if the Warships continue to be a nuisance, I'll blow them up with the Final Egg Blaster. It will take only a few shots for the entire world to bow before me. And then all of creation will follow."

A maniacal chortle escaped him as he typed the computer's keyboard to start the Roboticization process.

"Mass Roboticizer now online," the computer said with a computerized, non-sentient voice. "Full force achieved in five, point two minutes."

"The Earth is about to become mine, at last," cackled Eggman. "Remade as the ultimate technological utopia!"

[TE]

Feeling the Death Egg rocketing, Tails and his team listened to Chaos Energy from the Emeralds being siphoned down.

"That doesn't look good," said Vector as Omega analyzed his surroundings with his targeting system.

"It appears that the energy is being transferred to the bottom of this station," explained the robot.

"That's where the Roboticizer's located," Tails shouted.

"All those innocent people," said a worried Cream.

"Tails, we're out of time," shouted Vector. "You got to use the trans-dimensional teleportation gizmo, now!"

"But I haven't tested it, or picked a destination yet," Tails replied concerned. "Where ever Eggman goes, we could end up with him!"

Cheese and Cream showed scared faces.

"Meatbag, we are running out of options very quickly," Omega countered with impatience.

"Just do it," Vector ordered.

Panicking, Tails pressed a button on his ME's touchscreen causing the Chaos Emeralds to grow intensely bright. Forming a light that grew to envelop the entire orbital fortress.

[TE]

Outside the Death Egg, the G.U.N. forces had turned the tide against the Eggman Fleet and the Badnik army below in Central City. During the fighting, all parties, either G.U.N., Badnik, and civilian, saw the Death Egg be consumed in an explosion of light and vanish without a trace.

In time, the G.U.N. forces under their capable Commander defeated the remaining forces of Dr. Eggman with many, but sustainable casualties. The Death Egg and all it's passengers, however, were nowhere to be found on Earth.

[TE]

To be continued

[TE]

Behind the scenes

[TE]

I based Sonic's plan on the one that caused the events of Turtles Forever and Eggman's confrontation was inspired from the Buzz Lightyear movie. I took the Teams' attacks from the Sonic News Network. I'm sure you guys will figure it out. As for the catchphrase, that was just my way of expressing my opinions of Archie's adaptation of Sonic. I didn't mean to harshly criticize it, I did say it was interesting after all, but a little error and melodrama can go a long way. I'll have my own explanation for Hammerspace when the time comes. Next comes the crossover.

Chapter Text

[TE]

Chapter Three: Brave New Earth

[TE]

Along an ocean thousands of miles southeast of the Mushroom Kingdom, floated a large cruise ship owned by Princess Daisy of Sarasaland who catered to thousands of passengers as part of a grand party under the night sky of Earth. Consisting of various floors with a giant logo of Daisy's head on each side along with various flower motifs, the Daisy Cruiser was designed to be a pleasure boat, a race course for karting competitions, and a baseball stadium all at once. Boarded by Piantas, Toads, Yoshis, Kongs, Birdos, and many other people of a diversity of races, the Cruiser's party was hosted by both Daisy and her cousin, Peach, in part due to their love of social occasions, as well in celebration of the present, universal state of peace with all the known villains nowhere in sight making trouble.

While many guests were gathered in the Cruiser's dining room where much foodstuffs, others were outside near the large pool waiting for the fireworks show, or trying to distract themselves from the food. Among those not present were the notorious treasure hunters and sportsmen, Wario and Waluigi, who said they had important matters to attend. Not that many were very disappointed by the fact. Coincidently, in place of the two anti-heroes and villains, more reputable characters were among the roster, including two Human superstars at the front deck of the Cruiser.

"Great party, huh, Big Bro," said a contented Luigi in his refined accent to his shorter, stockier, older twin, Mario.

Possessing a thinner, chinless face compared to his brother, Luigi had blue eyes that were more oval-shaped, his hair was of a dark maroon color with the same hairstyle as his brother, his mustache dark brown, smooth, and each half tilting. Luigi also wore similar clothes to Mario such as gloves. Layered over his long-sleeved green shirt were unfaded dark denim jean overall with light yellow buttons which reached above his ankles and dark brown work shoes with tan bottoms that reached above his ankles, as well. Both were darker than the ones worn by his brother. One of his most important pieces of clothing was his signature green cap with a white tip encircling the "L" on the front. A bit of a cautious and considerably self-conscious coward, Luigi was, in fact, known to overcome his fears and worries to act like a hero when the need had arisen. Although he had earned himself an entire fan club due to his many heroics, even Bowser once had trouble remembering his name. Yet that didn't stop him from going on adventures alone, or with Mario and obtaining popularity where it's due.

"Sure is, Luigi," replied an equally contented and refined accented Mario.

Brown-haired with a black mustache, light blue-eyed, he wore a red shirt and red cap with an "M" on the front, and possessing a hairstyle with three swooped up bangs with two flips at the top and four at the back of his head, Mario was famous throughout the universe as a hero with multiple admirers and jobs in plumbing, medicine, sports, martial arts, carpentry, and toy manufacturing among others. Headstrong and occasionally cocky, Mario was immutably friendly, heroic, and fiery with a love for food. Proving himself time and again as an excellent fighter, all-around sports player, and party lover, Mario, however, could be impulsive and deep down resented the limitations that forced him to get help and partners.

"Hey, Mario Bros," said a familiar, energetic voice.

Turning their gaze from the ocean, the two brothers saw the hostesses themselves in their swimsuits.

The owner of the voice was Sarasaland ruler, Princess Daisy. A taller Human with ginger hair and blue eyes, her eyes were round and large with each having two, thick lashes on the side while her hair was long with parted bangs and a flip. Her swimsuit was a yellow leotard with orange lining on either side with a viridian-green jewel surrounded by flower-shaped white rims as a staple for a brooch. She wore similar jewels for her earrings and the back and front of her golden crown which also had rubies on either side. A competitive, sassy tomboy and show-off in sports and parties, she had a tendency to use slang terms from various ways of speech and to stand with her hands on her hips. Aside from her home in Sarasaland and skills in leadership, she retained a home at the Sarasaland embassy in the Mushroom Kingdom and magical abilities based on flowers. All the same, she was Peach's best friend and was rumored to be Luigi's main crush.

"How are you enjoying the party, little dudes," Daisy asked.

"It's great, Princess," Luigi exclaimed.

"I'm very eager for the fireworks show," admitted Mario.

"As am I, Mario," replied Princess Peach.

A slightly taller Human with golden-blonde hair and sky-blue eyes, Peach had a similar body type to her cousin's, but with a more elongated waist and unique frame in comparison. Her skin was fair in complexion, her nose was pert, pointed, and sharp with a curved stem and her puffy smile was covered in round, pink lipstick. Her eyebrows a dark shade of her hair while being thin and small. Her deep-set, oval eyes were smaller than Daisy's possessing multiple, thin lashes consisting of light cyan tones. Her thick, flowy, long hairstyle consisted of four, small, flipped pieces which reached above shoulder-length, heart-shaped bangs shaping down the center of her forehead, and long, split, ear-tails that shaped her oval, soft, and pointed face. Her hair tied up in a ponytail for this special occasion, Peach wore a golden crown with two rubies o either side and two sapphires on the front and back, a pair of round sapphire earrings, and a sapphire brooch set in gold on her light pink leotard with dark pink stripes on the sides. Well known for her adventurous personality and noble spirit, she was more than capable of acting tough and enjoyed trying new things. Although occasionally naïve and lonely, Peach was also competitive, motherly, and shared a deep, devoted relationship with Mario while having considerable skill in magical hearts.

Not long after Peach's response, five Kongs came forward to join in on their conversation.

"Hey, everybody," said Donkey Kong.

An ape with muscular pecs, a slim stomach, along with large triceps and biceps all covered in chocolate-brown fur which on the top of his head gave the appearance of a Human hairstyle, Donkey Kong only wore a red necktie with his initials printed on it in yellow. A laid-back and brave hero with simple intelligence, Donkey tended to get into trouble with villains who threatened his banana horde, home island, along with his relatives and friends as well with Mario on occasion, but was capable of reconciling with his friendly rival.

"Good to see you made it, dudes and dudettes," cheered Daisy as she hugged the Kongs one by one.

"This party's awesome, Princesses," said Donkey's spider monkey-like nephew and close companion, Diddy Kong.

Possessing big black eyes as large as his ears, he wore a red cap with the word Nintendo on it and a red tank top with yellow stars on it, Diddy had shown to be very quick and nimble opposed to his uncle's great strength and proficient with a jetpack.

"It's quite romantic, isn't it," asked Diddy's girlfriend, Dixie Kong, as she held his right arm with her own hands.

Blonde haired tied up in a long, thick ponytail with the sides of her bangs longer and curled, she was green-eyed with fur lighter in shade than Diddy's, and wore a pink beret that matched her pink tied top along with large blue pearl earrings. A very brave hero more than happy to go on her own adventures, Dixie was one of the most active Kongs with a tomboyish and assertive yet cheerful and lively demeanor.

"And best of all, no stupid bad guys," blurted Funky Kong.

Possessing the same general build as Donkey, Funky's fur was light brown in color and he wore a polka-dot bandanna, purple tinted sunglasses, a black belt around his blue shorts, and a white muscle shirt. A mechanical tinkerer, pilot, and shop owner, Funky preferred showing his bold mood during parties and sport events instead of adventuring with the rest of the Kong Family.

"Please, don't jinx it, Funky," asked a tired Candy Kong.

Blue-eyed, furred with pink shades, her blonde hair going slightly below her shoulders, she had pink nails, pink lipstick, and blue eye shadows, and wore a pink bikini top with her name on it and pink mini-shorts with a dark pink belt. Candy was rumored to be Donkey's girlfriend, although she viewed him not ready to settle down and Donkey himself had conflicting feelings for Mario's close friend and business partner, Pauline.

"Shame the rest of the Family had to miss this, huh," asked Luigi

"What are you going to do," shrugged Diddy.

"Tiny's teaching baseball, Cranky's reflecting on his anniversary, and the rest had too much to do," explained Dixie.

"Maybe some day they'll come over," suggested Candy.

"So, how are Yoshi, Birdo, and the professor holding up," asked Peach.

"They're fine," said Donkey. "Professor Gadd had to make a call to one of his labs and the two dinosaurs are having some private moments, but they'll be here for the show."

After ten minutes of casual conversations, the nine friends were joined by a vast majority of the passengers in preparation for the fireworks which would be fired from the Mushroom Kingdom and shown in the sky for all to see. As excited murmurings erupted from person to person, Daisy ordered the deck lights to be turned off slowly while Peach had one of her Mushroom Retainers bring her phone to her so she could alert the firework starters that it was time for the show when something unexpected happened. Before the fireworks, emerged a large, bright in the sky which quickly spread wide all over the universe.

"What is that," panicked Luigi over the panicking of the other passengers.

"It appears to be a distortion in the very fabric of our dimension," shouted Professor Elvin Gadd as he held the light from his eyes with his left hand.

A short, old Human, E. Gadd had only one visible tooth in the right upper corner of his mouth, uptight white hair, and wore black pants, long brown shoes, a white lab coat over a red buttoned shirt, and glasses with swirls. World-renowned for his scientific achievements in time travel and teleportation among others, E. Gadd was the founder of Gadd Science, Incorporated and an occasional guide to the Mario Bros. during their adventures.

"You mean like a Paranormal Portal," Luigi replied, remembering his experience with one in Evershade Valley.

"No, this looks more like a collision with another world that isn't fully paranormal in nature!"

"Then what is going to come through," asked Mario as the light was dying down.

In an instant, the light was replaced by a darkened figure in the night sky that quickly fell right on the cruiser screaming. Seeing its descent, the passengers in the middle front deck stepped back to encircle it when it finally landed on its feet. The lights turned on to reveal a male, blue, quilled creature with gloves and sneakers regaining his composure.

"Wow," exclaimed the creature in a relieved, confident voice. "That was one hectic ride through time and space. To top it off, I didn't fall flat on my face like usual. Just hope the guys are okay."

"Monster," screamed several of the passengers and crew at the shocked creature who began to notice his surroundings. Many were running around in circles, or trying to escape in the lifeboats.

"Excuse me," pleaded Peach as she tried to get everyone's attention. "Excuse me," she repeated when no one heard. Although they still panicked all the same.

"Quiet," yelled an annoyed and loud Donkey who quickly got the attention Peach wanted before anyone even got off the Cruiser. After clearing his throat with a smile, Donkey then said, "The Toad Princess wants to speak."

"Thank you, DK," said a happy Peach before turning her gaze to her audience. "Everyone, calm down. I understand this is a big shock, but that's no reason to riot like crazy." Getting closer to the creature, she gestured to him with her left hand before going on. "Look at this little guy. Is this the face of a monster to you? This cute little porcupine's probably just as scared and confused as you are!"

"That's what some people say about Bowser Jr," someone shouted.

"Uh, hello," said the creature. "Can the 'monster' make his case to the scared people?"

"Yeah, I want-a to hear his story," said Mario who walked to the creature without fear before placing his right hand for a shake. "I'm-a Mario!"

Considering it for only a moment, the creature then shook Mario's hand.

"My name is Sonic the Hedgehog!"

[TE]

Meanwhile in Bowser's central Castle in Dark Land, the King of Evil and his top henchmen were discussing their strategy for the inter-dimensional travelers arrival in the wake of the universe-wide distortion over a wide holographic map of their world that hovered above a table in the Castle's large, heavily supplied war room where tactics for conquest were planned.

"The time-space disruption appeared to have spread not only across Earth, but across the universe itself due to some sort of collision with not another dimension, but a whole multiverse altogether," explained Ludwig in a calculating tone.

"There's more than one," asked a confused Larry Koopa.

Like most of his siblings, the youngest Koopaling had tan and yellow skin, a padded stomach and pair of feet, and a green head with a blue star on the left side. Possessing two, fang-like teeth placed in a similar position to Roy's, his face was also similar aside from the jawline. His eyes were large, oval and light blue, his head oval-shaped, his ice blue hair spiky and combed, his shell was also light blue with the back spikes circled with blue rings, and he wore spiked cuffs like his brothers. Short-tempered and devious, he had an interest into horror and sports while sharing his siblings' loyalty to Bowser who was deeply fond of Larry for his usual stamina and sneaky ways.

"All worlds are collected into a multiverse which is, theoretically, a part of a greater omniverse that comprises all of creation, little brother," said the fourth oldest Koopaling, Iggy Koopa.

The tallest and thinnest of his pack, Iggy had teeth similar to Morton's with a straight mouth and jutting jawline, his hair was a tall plant-like stalk of lime-green tipped with darker green, his large, oval eyes held a pair of glasses with eccentric, blue-ringed swirls, and his green shell had purple spike rings. A crazed, mechanical genius with a penchant for trickery and emotional sadism, Iggy was, however, an animal person and cared for his family greatly.

"Can we at least find out where these people are," asked Wendy O. Koopa with a hint of impatience.

The fifth oldest Koopaling and sole female, her round, bald head matched her yellow and tan skin complexion with thinning, feminine legs, round cheeked with a puffy, round mouth covered in pink lipstick, she had blonde eyebrows that extended off her face with her eyelashes and large, round eyes with light blue irises. She wore thick, pink pumps, golden bracelets on her wrists in place of her brothers cuffs, a long, beaded, red necklace, a large pink bow with white polka-dots, and a pink shell with grey spike rings. Wendy was the spoiled materialist of her group with desires for wealth, prestige, and becoming Bowser's favorite Koopaling. Possessing passions for water and singing, Wendy adopted studious and tomboyish traits due to her dealings with her family's enemies and being the only female among the Koopalings. Despite her faults, she was fanatically devoted to her legal guardian and his cause.

"I'm not sure that's possible, Lady Wendy." said Kamek. Pointing toward the map, he explained. "The distortion was on a very large-scale. They could be anywhere. Assuming they're together."

"Did you and Junior finish the descriptions we saw in the vision, old friend." said Bowser to Kamek with arms folded and sitting in an armed command chair at the left end of the table.

"As you commanded, Royalty." the old Magikoopa replied with an eager nod and salute.

Changing the map into images of the space station and the robot fighters and controller from the vision, Kamek pointed to the orbital fortress first.

"From what I gathered in my premonition, the fortress is christened the Death Egg. It's master is the mustached Human in red named Doctor Ivo Robotnik. Although he was called by many aliases such as Eggman for example."

Kamek's debriefing was interrupted by laughter from his fellows.

"Eggman," exclaimed Lemmy. "What kind of stupid nickname is that?!"

"Not that he doesn't look like an egg," said Morton cheerfully.

"Yes, yes, it was hard for me to take it seriously either," spoke Kamek before shaking his head. "But the name doesn't matter. His advanced technology and grand ambitions are what we need to turn the tide in our favor. Especially if he can lead us to the Chaos Emeralds."

"Those jewels from the vision" said King Boo wondering.

Kamek nodded to the ghost ruler.

"I don't know how far their power goes, but if they could send their possessors across the omniverse, they must be more powerful than a hundred Super Stars."

"Powerful enough to control time and space," said an eager Bowser rubbing his hands together before adopting a serious look. "All the same, we must handle the situation first, preferably before our enemies find out."

Before anyone could continue the meeting, a beeping nose signaling from a nearby computer paused the gathered evildoers.

"I will answer it, sirs and ma'am's," offered General Guy in his straightforward mannerism.

Fairly short and wearing a white mask that served as his face with holes that represented eyes and a mouth over his true, secret face, General Guy was a grey robed Shy Guy dressed with a peaked cap, shoulder patches, and a gold medal with a red ribbon on it. The faithful leader of his people under Bowser's rule, the General had childish and cowardly tendencies, but was considered to be reliable enough to follow Bowser's instructions without question.

Walking towards the computer, the General answered the caller to reveal a low ranking Boo calling from the rain-drenched capital of Neo Bowser City.

"I apologize for the interruption, Glorious Leaders, but I wish to ask for reinforcements from the Castle," explained the respectful Boo.

"For what purpose," asked Kamek.

"During the distortion, a black animal with gloves, some traces of red, white chest hair, and futuristic shoes emerged from out of nowhere. When we tried to question him, he ran very fast as if startled."

Glances were exchanged from across the table as they knew the description resembled one of the fighters from the vision. Then Bowser emerged from his seat and joined General Guy at the computer.

"Make sure the intruder does not leave the city," ordered Bowser. "See what you can do to surround him. I will join you personally in this matter."

[TE]

Shadow ran as fast as he could through the bottom of a brightly lit city in the rain he did not recognize. Separated from his friends and allies, he was chased by strange creatures he had never seen before. From gigantic turtles that tried to step on him to masked, red robed, short men with blue shoes and carrying black cannons that fired bullets with serious eyes and fists at the black hedgehog. Unlike his blue rival, Shadow could only move at supersonic speeds with his Hover Shoes and even they had limitations.

"Send the Death Egg to another dimension," Shadow said in a way that was intended to mock Sonic. "Don't worry, we'll be fine." Turning more serious he shouted, "When I see that idiot, I'll kill him for real this time!"

Seeing his surroundings, Shadow saw what appeared to be a race course and a billboard with a huge, shelled, monster with red hair and eyes as well as a large snout. Trying to escape his pursuers through an alley, Shadow saw it came with a dead-end and was quickly surrounded by ghosts, the short men, the giant turtles, and an assortment of creatures he lost count of.

"I don't know where I am, or who or what you are, but if it's a fight you're looking for, I'll be more than happy to oblige," Shadow taunted.

Cruel guffaws took place in response from the small army and the red-haired monster seen on the billboard himself emerging from the mob.

"No need to get so hasty, Shadow," said the creature calmly.

It's response caught Shadow by surprise as the creature started to make rounds around him.

"You know me?"

"I know you come from another multiverse entirely. I know you came here with powerful friends and enemies with even more powerful items. You have two paths. We either talk gently and you give me what I want, or I force my answers out of you."

Shadow was not impressed by the creature's threats.

"You call that a threat? I destroyed an entire rock full of bloodthirsty aliens to keep my world safe. Don't expect I won't go easy on you."

The creature smiled.

"Very well, then."

Releasing a breath of orange flame, the creature missed Shadow who curled himself into a ball and jumped on him only to be punched to the left wall. Regaining his balance, Shadow fired a lighting bolt made of raw Chaos Energy which collided with lighting from the creature's own hands. Starting a small explosion that brought the creature down on his back with Shadow landing on his stomach and forming a new Chaos Spear as the small army tried to get to them.

"Take another step and your leader dies," Shadow warned which his enemies took to heart. Turning towards the fire breather, Shadow spoke to him with impatience, "Yield and I'll let you live!"

Soothing anger took hold of his opponent's face.

"Bowser does not yield."

Before he knew it, Shadow was given an uppercut. Flinging him from Bowser and back to the wall. As he tried to make sense of what happened, Shadow saw the uppercut deliverer was a skeletal right arm emerging from Bowser's stomach. Another arm appearing alongside, soon an entire skeleton styled in Bowser's image pulled itself out of its owners body while helping Bowser, whose body of flesh was still holding together, back up and going to his left side. Shadow gawked out of shock and dread.

The skeletal Bowser's nose was beak-shaped, it's shell a charcoal gray with dark red spike rings and scarlet spaces between its plates, the horns longer and more curved, the eye sockets more triangular with thick bone where the eyebrows were supposed to go, the eyes themselves black holes with glowing yellow pupils, the hair was ponytailed, and the collars around the neck and arms were scorched and turned a dull, very dark red. And it shared it's counterpart's serious look of rage.

"He conquers," the two lookalikes roared in unison before releasing fireballs of orange and blue at the surrounded hedgehog.

Although Shadow was created to be immortal, he was not without senses of pain and the combined flames damaged him greatly. As Bowser and his bony counterpart took a pause, they saw Shadow coughing in charred fur with his few attire pieces damaged or torn to shreds. Seeing his attackers merge as one, lively Bowser in a form of dark magic from a single holding of hands, Shadow adopted a look of pained anger and tried to speak, "I'll heal... and you will be..."

After attempting to threaten Bowser, Shadow fall on the floor losing consciousness before hearing a smug Bowser say, "Welcome to a brave, new Earth, Shadow the Hedgehog."

[TE]

To be continued

[TE]

Behind the scenes

[TE]

I based E. Gadd's appearance from what I could tell on his picture on the Super Mario Wiki. Not a lot of characters have very descriptive physical information sections. I was able to find the omniverse thing on the Marvel Comics Database. I know Shadow's the ultimate lifeform, but I wanted to remind people he has his hurt moments. I partly based some scenes from Night at the Museum and the first episode of Beast Machines: Transformers with some lines from its predecessor.

ormers with some lines from its predecessor.

Chapter Text

[TE]

Chapter Four: The Race Begins

[TE]

After clearing it up with the other passengers that he wasn't a monster, Sonic was summoned to Princess Daisy's private suite to explain himself and receive introductions from the five Humans, the five Kongs, and the two Dinosaurs who watched his descent into the alternate world he was present in while the staff tried to bring the party back in order.

"So, why are you called Sonic," asked Mario.

Sonic merely shrugged with a smile. "Because I can run faster than the speed of sound." In an instant Sonic ran in a blue blur faster than his surprised hosts could see, before coming back to them with a cocky smile. "See?"

"Huh, not bad, kid," commented Yoshi.

Like the rest of his people that he was named after, Yoshi had a large nose, a row of spines around his head, a red saddle on his back used when he is being ridden on, orange shoes, a long sticky tongue used for swallowing things, and lime green skin. What set him apart from his race was his famous reputation as a hero and close friend of the Mario Bros., having saved them both as newborns from the Koopa Troop many years before. Somewhat gluttonous, Yoshi was, however, humble, friendly, and courageous.

"Yeah, I don't think I knew anyone who can run that fast until today," said Luigi.

"Very incredible, but what I must know is why you are here in our world," asked a curious E. Gadd.

"I could ask myself the same thing," replied Sonic truthfully. "One minute, I'm putting the kibosh on my metal double with my friends, and the next thing I know I'm sent on a cruise ship boarded by complete aliens!" Seeing the shocked looks of Mario and the others, Sonic quickly and awkwardly said, "No offense."

"Uh, none taken," said Peach equally awkward. "So you don't have any of us from your world."

"Well, my Earth's got Humans, Primates, and such, but no Mushroom People and Dinosaurs are pretty much ancient history."

"What did you meant by metal double," asked Birdo.

A member of the same named species, she looked similar to Yoshi with a funnel-shaped snout and a row of red spikes on the tail. Mostly pink with a rounded white belly, she had purple spots on her cheeks, purple eyes framed by three long, thin eyelashes, she wore a big red bow atop her head in place of hair, purple eye makeup, and a large diamond ring set in gold on her left hand. A close partner of Yoshi's during sport events, Birdo was flirtatious, feminine, and held great confidence for becoming a superstar. Although she occasionally got into fights with Mario for whatever reason, she enjoyed being with her friends all the same.

"It's a long story, but I'm going to need some help to find my friends and get home so maybe it wouldn't hurt," said Sonic before explaining himself. "In my world, I fight against villains who seek to destroy, or conquer my home. The most tenacious, is my arch-nemesis, Doctor Ivo Robotnik. Although we call him Eggman so much he doesn't even refer himself as that like he used to."

Luigi made a short chuckle. "Why is he called Eggman?"

"Because he's fat enough to look like an egg, and stays like that because he thinks it will turn into something of power once he conquers the world," chuckled Sonic before returning to his story. "He and his robots, including a robot of me, are usually pushovers, but when they aren't, the entire time-space continuum gets into trouble."

"Like what brought you here," inquired Donkey.

"Aside from his advanced technology, he also attempts world domination by using the seven Chaos Emeralds that contain unlimited power. He was able to place them all in his Death Egg space station which had more than enough weapons and other machines to conquer the multiverse. I came up with an idea to stop him for good by sending all his networked robots, factories, and the like into another dimension with no life before starting an EMP that would disable his machines for good. Leaving him trapped forever!"

"EMP," asked Diddy. "Oh, you mean the electromagnetic pulse thing Cranky tutored me about."

"Yeah, that's right."

"But if it was in space, or in the sky, wouldn't you fall, little dude," asked Daisy.

Sonic exasperatingly face palmed. "Okay, I admit, I didn't think that far ahead, but what was I supposed to do when Eggman had a star destroyer, a trans-dimensional transporter, a mass Roboticizer, and a robot factory all rolled into one?!"

"Easy, Sonic," said Mario with his hands. "No one's saying you didn't do what was necessary."

"What's a Roboticizer," asked Candy.

"An invention of Eggman's that can create robots from people," explained Sonic. "The one on the Death Egg had settings from a city to an entire planet."

"That is possible in your world," said E. Gadd, incredulous.

"Let's just say that Eggman's capable of a lot of things smart and evil."

"Is that bad," asked Funky. "I wouldn't want to not eat food, or dream ever again, but I don't think I see much harm in it."

"Eggman designed it to turn the Roboticized into his slaves."

"That is horrible," exclaimed a terrified Peach.

"And he's in our world," nearly screamed Luigi.

"Why'd you send him here," asked an annoyed Dixie to Sonic.

"When we got on the Death Egg, my friends and I split into three teams of four," explained a calmer Sonic. "Eight of us handled Eggman and his forces while my best friend, Tails, tried to send him away." He shrugged. "I guess with everything happening he didn't get it right in time."

After an awkward silence, Mario went to Sonic and asked, "If you need any help, I'll be happy to lend a hand."

Sonic shook his head. "I appreciate it, Mario, but the last thing I want is to let you get hurt by my bad guys."

Mario took a serious look and ordered, "Hit me."

"What," exclaimed everyone in the suite.

Sonic actually tried to dissuade him. "Mario, I..."

"Hit me as hard as you can," Mario repeated more affirmatively.

After some hesitation, Sonic threw a punch at Mario only for the red Human to jump high and slam his rear on the blue hedgehog. As Sonic tried to stand up, Mario saw the shocked looks of his companions.

"What," he asked with a shrug. "I had to convince him I wouldn't hold him down."

"Mario, even I'm not that stupid," said a disapproving Donkey as Sonic regained his balance.

"How did you do that?" Groaned Sonic.

Mario smiled. "In this world, I'm a hero, as well. I've honed power in my martial arts, my fire abilities, and my whole body. I'm actually the second best jumper in the Mushroom Kingdom next to Luigi. Eggman's a threat to my world right now as he was to yours. I won't sit still while he's making a mess. That's the promise of a lifetime, or my name isn't Super Mario!"

Luigi stood by his brother's side with an equally eager look. "As much as I don't want to die, or get enslaved, I'll stand for what's right no matter what!"

"I'm in, too," offered Yoshi.

After exchanging nods, Donkey, Dixie, and Diddy came forward as well, saying in unison, "Us three."

"Daisy and I are too busy being Princesses to join, but we will help in any way we can," suggested Peach.

"Candy and I aren't big on adventures, but we'll give help from the sidelines when you need it," said Funky.

"I'll give you any technical advice you require," blurted E. Gadd.

"I'll give you the moral support needed to find your friends and kick this Eggman's butt," said Birdo enthusiastically.

Sonic smiled, "Alright, you guys. First we'll going to have to find my friends. Especially a former robot of Eggman's named Omega. He's got a built-in tracker for Eggman, his other robots, and the Chaos Emeralds. He'll help us find the rest."

"I think we'll have a better chance at Mario Land," suggested Luigi.

"Then let us use the ship's Pixelator Screen, and the eight of us will go," said an energetic E. Gadd.

"The ship's what," asked a confused Sonic.

"The Pixelator is used to teleport things from place to place by turning them into computerized pixels," explained E. Gadd. "I invented it myself."

Saying their goodbyes to the others, Sonic, the Professor, and the six volunteered heroes arrived at a large screen next to a camera in the Cruiser's lobby. After placing some buttons for coordinates and activation, E. Gadd and the others were transformed into multiple pixels and pulled through the screen to reassemble at their destination.

[TE]

"Wake up, little hedgehog," said a giddy voice as Shadow regained consciousness.

Opening his eyes, Shadow saw an energetic creature with plant-like hair and glasses that appeared to be of the same species as Bowser staring intently at him. Turning his surroundings, Shadow saw he was chained head to toe to the wall in a stony dungeon.

"Who are you supposed to be," Shadow asked unamused.

"I'm Iggy Koopa of the seven Koopalings," Shadow's captor gestured to himself excitedly. "I'm King Bowser's fourth-born ward and one of the technical geniuses of the Koopa Troop."

"Bowser," Shadow spat in anger, remembering his humiliation at his hands.

"Uh-uh, that's King Bowser to you, filthy rodent," Iggy retorted.

"Your his ward?"

"He's usually absent-minded, but he's truly a superb and powerful evil overlord. And it is an honor to be raised by and serve a god in all but name."

Iggy's praising only made Shadow angrier. "I'm sure he appreciates you sucking up to him."

Not impressed by his sarcasm, Iggy took out a grey scepter with a yellow round, dome-shaped gem at the end of it from his shell and with it, fired a green blast of magic at Shadow. Screaming in pain, Shadow tried to escape his chains with no gain as Iggy insanely laughed at his pain. Finding a stopping point, Iggy surmised the shocked hedgehog with delight.

"Go ahead," Iggy demanded with a sadistic smile. "Try to summon your powers to escape and strike me down. Those gifted in science and magic here, like myself, have already made sure you won't do anything of the sort." Pointing to the chains, he went on. "Those chains were crafted to zap you anytime you try to use your Hover Shoes and inner powers."

Shadow showed a pained smirk. "This should be fun then. I am immortal after all."

Iggy scoffed. "Yes, we were all quite surprised how quickly you healed yourself from your duel with the King. And just in an hour, as well. And here we are." Adopting a curious smile he asked, "How did you come by such power, Shadow? Did Robotnik create you in a lab?"

"Depends on which Robotnik you mean, freak," Shadow retorted.

"The one who calls himself Eggman, you persistent rat," Iggy snapped.

"You think you can break me into doing what that pathetic excuse of a master of yours wants me to do," Shadow asked in a menacing voice. "I was created under the orders of a selfish fool who sought immortality by a good man who even made a deal with an alien dark lord to get what he needed. The alien's blood in exchange for the keys needed to conquer my world. My last memories before going into a fifty-year slumber was the death of the only sister I had ever known, and when I woke up, I learned my father had gone insane, instigated a doomsday event, before being executed by the same fools who tasked him with my creation, his legacy in science continued by an immature narcissist who sought to use me to conquer the world his cousin and grandfather begged me to protect. And while I have forgone my own plans for revenge and the pains of my past failures to work for a slightly changed leadership, I'm still burdened by the fact that I will outlive the few friends I have, which is part of the reason why I chose not to engage in the behavior that results in families. Torture me however you like, Iggy, I still won't help you at all!"

Raucous laughter took hold as though a large, wooden door, Bowser and seven smaller Koopas, as Shadow believed they were called, emerged from it.

"You disgusting monster," Shadow screamed angrily as he tried to summon a Chaos Spear only to feel a shocking pain.

"There will be no heroic escapes today, my dear hedgehog," said the Koopa with wild, blue hair who then gestured to himself. "I am Ludwig von Koopa, the eldest of the Koopalings." He then pointed to his six fellows. "These are my remaining siblings and our crown prince, Bowser Jr."

"Oh, for a troublesome rodent, he looks quite handsome," commented the sole female on Shadow.

"I think I'm going to puke," groaned the spikey, blue haired Koopa.

"Me, too," said the Koopa who was obviously Bowser's son due to his similar appearance.

"Not interested," Shadow said flatly to the female.

"Definitely not your type, Sis," said the shortest Koopa.

"Judging by his resilience, he's quite the glutton for punishment," blurted the larger Koopa with dark brown skin.

"An immortal punching bag I can enjoy," smiled the Koopa with hot pink sunglasses.

Bowser held his hands up for quiet before getting closer to the black hedgehog. "Shadow, don't you remember my offer," he asked with a thin smile. "Just help me find the Death Egg and the Chaos Emeralds, then I will see to it that not only you and your friends survive, but prosper as well."

"How did you found out about us," Shadow said, glaring at his enemy.

"My father figure knows a thing, or two about seeing the future. Not even the boundaries keeping our universes apart could stop him from seeing the battle that would bring you here."

"I don't know where the others are, and if it was possible, I would rather die than help you."

Bowser chuckled with a cruel smile. "Trust me, there are always possibilities."

Emerging from the door came a small turtle in a blue robe and wizard hat.

"You have something to report, Kamek," asked Junior.

Kamek nodded. "Our spies out at sea discovered the blue hedgehog, Sonic. He was seen descending onto the Daisy Cruiser."

"The Daisy Cruiser," said the female Koopa in surprise.

"Mario and his friends were supposed to have a party on that ship," explained Ludwig.

"Things just got less than good, didn't they, King Bowser," commented Iggy to his legal guardian.

Bowser grunted affirmatively. "Send word to our forces to double their search, Kamek." Turning to Ludwig and Iggy, he added, "Boys, I want you and our research division to take a sample of Shadow's DNA. If he wields the same power that brought him here, it could lead us right to the Emeralds." Changing his focus to the black hedgehog, he smirked. "Have a nice nightmare, old man."

Conjuring dark magic from his fingertips, Bowser than shot his power right at Shadow's face. In an instant, the black hedgehog started to fall into a deep slumber. As he fell back into unconsciousness, Bowser whispered maliciously in Shadow's right ear, "I have been taught many ways to kill a mortal, Shadow. Flesh that burns, bones that break. But to break a man's spirit, is to truly destroy him."

[TE]

Close by the Mushroom Kingdom, there was an island chain collectively known as Dinosaur Land. It's name owing to its population of Dinosaurs who divided themselves amongst its locations. Yoshi's Island was the home of the Yoshis, and the Koopa Troop itself held some fortresses on the islands on occasion. However, after his latest defeat by Yoshi, Bowser ordered his troops removed from the region for a time. Leaving his Valley of Bowser to be occupied by an unexpected person. Accessible via a subterranean cavern rising out of the sea in the middle of the chain in the form of Bowser's head, the Valley was mainly deserted save for a giant space station sitting atop what was once Bowser's Castle in the region. The Death Egg itself.

Deep within the station's massive structure, the anti-gravity engines that kept it borne to the air and space were badly damaged and were forced to be repaired by a team of Egg Pawns with flashlight eyes under Cubot's management. The nervous independent dependable interface paid close attention to his side of the station-wide repairs, for once in response to grave threats from Eggman and Metal Sonic to not only destroy their present bodies, but completely erase their programmed minds as well.

"Nay, ye fools," shouted Cubot in a pirate accent to a few Egg Pawns going against the doctor's instructions. "Ye suppose to connect the engines with the generators not the weapons! Are ye trying to blow us all up?!"

As the Egg Pawns tried to do their job correctly, Cubot face palmed.

"Me voice chip's all cattywampus, me place of residence in shambles, and me crew's more stupid than me! What the squire and his first mate have for being captain, I will never know!"

As a result of the unexpected teleportation, the invading teams of heroes and anti-heroes, as well as the Chaos Emeralds were nowhere in sight. The Death Egg's systems were on the brink of permanent deactivation. In Cubot's opinion, it was pure luck that Eggman was able to keep the surviving Badniks operational. Even if they were copying him and his fellows to the point of near-sentience. Before he could continue to downgrade their misfortune, Cubot and his team saw the entrance door unlatch. Scared it would be Eggman, or Metal, Cubot panicked somewhat before seeing Orbot coming though. Relaxing, Cubot went over to his companion.

"Thank me timbers it's just you, me matey."

"Please tell me you have made a breakthrough, old chum," Orbot pleaded in an unusually terrified tone. "Anything?"

"I am afraid not, good sir."

"Oh, they are not going to like this," Orbot commented.

The two friends quickly panicked when they heard the door unlatch once more only to reveal an Egg Pawn.

"Anything," the Egg Pawn asked.

"Nay," Cubot replied with a scared voice and shaking head.

"Oh, they are not going to like this."

The Egg Pawn then left through the doors, giving the two robotic helpers some peace before they started to unlatch again. When the panicking died down, they saw the same Egg Pawn again.

"What should I tell them," it asked.

Taking Cubot's instruction pad, Orbot studied it before replying, "Well, I was able to rewire enough circuitry to revive our computer processors. The engines, unfortunately, will take a week tops to repair."

The Egg Pawn merely gave a pessimistic reaction before leaving. "Oh, they are not going to like this at all."

Turning their gaze away annoyed, the two comrades heard it open once more.

"Now what," the two assistants nearly screamed.

As the doors unlatched, everyone was shocked when the Egg Pawn's head was thrown on the floor rolling towards Orbot and Cubot.

"He... didn't... like it..." the head stammered before shutting down.

Reluctantly turning their gaze at the door, the shocked Badniks saw Metal Sonic coming forward in mid-flight.

"Oh, Big Bro, hello," Orbot exaggerated in a stuttering voice. "We were just talking about you and..."

"Silence, fool," Metal blurted angrily before turning his gaze to Cubot. "You were supposed to have repaired the engines by now, you dimwitted waste of scrap! And here you are, being your usual incompetent self!"

Taking hold of Cubot's torso, Metal started to squeeze it hard much to a worried Orbot and pained Cubot's misfortune.

"Argh," Cubot exclaimed. "I be trying everything, first mate, but thee engines are feisty beasties!"

"Sir, please, give him another chance," Orbot begged. "He doesn't deserve this."

Letting go of Cubot, Metal turned to Orbot. "Fine, but you are in charge of him, now. You can start by fixing his voice chip. I have already repaired the generators and I want at least emergency power back up and running by the time I get back."

Metal then ignited his jet engine, and left where he came in.

[TE]

"Primarily engines offline," the Death Egg's central computer said in its synthetic voice. "Transporter inoperative."

After being reported that the station's computers and generators were up and running in the control center, Eggman quickly assumed the engines and transporter were as well only to feel angry and dumbfounded at his shortsightedness when the computer replied in the negative to his attempts to activate them.

"Blasted machines," Eggman yelled as he punched the console in front of him. "How am I suppose to conquer the world when those accursed renegades cause my greatest creation to fall apart?!"

"Now, you're being offensive, Doctor," said Metal Sonic in mid-flight through the control center's entrance.

"What now, Metal, can't you see I'm upset," Eggman replied annoyed as his dangerous robot came to his left side.

"I just wanted you to know that I've given SA-55 and IDI-07 enough motivation to get the rest of the Death Egg restored," Metal said in a calmer voice using Orbot and Cubot's respective initials.

"See to it that you work just as hard, as well," Eggman retorted.

Before Metal could reply, the computer made a loud beep that got both created and creator's attention.

"Temporal anomaly detected," said the computer. "Inter-dimensional flux stabilized."

"A temporal anomaly," Metal said curiously.

Taking a closer look at the computer, Eggman pressed buttons to show a wide map of the dimension they were in and the surrounding worlds included.

"It seems that the trans-dimensional transporter has sent us into a entirely different multiverse," Eggman said astonished.

"Incredible," admitted Metal. "I heard it theorized, but not proven that there was an omniverse."

"Neither did I. Clearly the combined energies from the Chaos Emeralds and my transporter make a powerful combination even I didn't expect."

Pressing more buttons, Eggman played security camera footage from the generator room during the battle to find out what happened. Revealing that while Eggman and his forces were busy fighting Sonic and Knuckles, Tails had hacked into the generators in an attempt to defeat them for good. He briefly wondered if Sonic and his friends were left back at home before a close study of Tails' handiwork showed that he did not have enough time to pick a destination nor set it to send only Eggman and his machines away. Instead, his attempts damaged the Death Egg, but allowed the Badniks to survive with enough power to help repair it.

"I hate that fox almost as much as I hate that hedgehog," Eggman groaned.

"If my analysis is correct, as it usually is, the fools must be here with us," commented Metal.

"As are the Chaos Emeralds," added Eggman. "Metal Sonic, I will deal with repairs here and see if there are any information networks that I can get data about this world from. You, on the other hand, will go out there and find any Chaos Emerald and any of our enemies you can find. Bring the former here to me and dispose of the latter."

Metal gave his creator a begrudging salute. "Understood, Doctor."

The metallic hedgehog then ignited his jet engine and took flight from within the station's structure to the outside world above. Seeing him leave, Eggman then started to use his computer to search for any other database on this alternate world for him to hack into.

"It's going to take more than changing the board to beat me, Sonic," he stated to no one. "This I swear."

[TE]

To be continued

[TE]

Behind the scenes

[TE]

I based Bowser's last lines in this chapter on Ares' page quote from the first God of War game. Don't worry I won't make this story anything too scary. As for the Death Egg scenes, I got them from Zurg's introduction in the Buzz Lightyear movie and the Technodrome's appearance in Turtles Forever.

Chapter Text

[TE]

Chapter Five: Investigation

[TE]

Far from the Mushroom Kingdom, there was an island that was gifted to Mario for his heroic deeds across Earth and beyond. Hence its name of Mario Land. Although he only came to live there during vacations, Mario owned a large castle that served as his home away from home when he was there and kept many equipment for adventures if the need ever risen. From currency of various natures to a Pixelator Set. The latter was being used to teleport the Mario Bros., the three Kongs, Yoshi, Sonic, and E. Gadd from the Daisy Cruiser into the Castle's control room. From a camera hung up on the wall, pixels emerged and reassembled into the team of eight one by one. While Sonic fell flat on his face, his new allies landed on their feet.

"Yeah, it-a took some getting use to for me, too," commented Luigi as he helped Sonic on his feet.

Taking a look at his surroundings, Sonic saw he was in a marbled room with a large table holding a map of an Earth-like planet, several pictures of certain events, as well as a large cross between a computer and a monitor.

"So this place is yours, Mario," Sonic asked interested.

"That's right," Mario exclaimed. "After a long time of adventures and jobs, I was able to earn a whole island named after me. I don't live here often, though. Luigi and I thought it was best if we lived closer to Toad Town to keep an eye on Princess Peach. I come here mostly on vacations, but I'm well stocked just in case."

"Same here with my mansion," said Luigi.

"What kind of jobs you've had," asked Sonic.

"Carpenter, plumber, factory worker, soldier, sportsperson, demolition worker, physician, baker, martial arts sensei, and I'm the president of the Mario Toy Company," listed Mario to a surprised Sonic while Donkey scoffed.

"Yeah, that's nice, but I teamed up with a banana alien," Donkey said in a way that tried to be impressive. "That sounded better in my head," he said when Sonic stared at him confused.

"Okay, so, Professor, how do we find Sonic's people and gems," said Dixie trying to change the subject.

"Well, let's see if we can trace the energy signature from the disruption," offered E. Gadd.

Walking towards the computer, E. Gadd pressed multiple buttons to show an image of the disruption on the monitor. Working the control pad, the Professor tried to trace it from its source. After the computer processed this information, E. Gadd studied its results before making his conclusion.

"Well, Sonic, it looks you answered the theory of multiple multiverses."

"There's more than one," everyone else stated confused.

"Theoretically, all worlds as we know it are part of a greater omniverse that consolidates all of creation. Although, I'm afraid that this Chaos teleportation was extensive to the point that even I can't trace which dimension in which multiverse it originated from, or where in this universe your fellow castaways are, Sonic."

"Well, that's gorgeous," said Diddy in sarcasm.

"Yeah, where are we supposed to start if we don't know where they went," asked Yoshi.

"Well, it's possible to build radars for Chaos Emeralds, but I don't know what kind of frequency they have, and we don't even have a single Emerald fragment to serve as a basis," explained Sonic. "Most of my friends and I can harness Chaos Energy without the need for machines, but I'm not sure you can make one just by studying my head."

"He's right," agreed E. Gadd. "We would have to dissect him."

"What," Sonic shouted as the Professor laughed.

"I'm just messing with you, sonny," he said with a wide smile. "You didn't think I'd stoop to such tomfoolery, did you?"

The others started to chuckle, as well.

"He got you good there, Blue," said Dixie.

Sonic laughed in mockery. "Very funny, but seriously, where do we start?"

"How about we go to Star Haven," suggested Luigi.

"That's not a bad-a idea, Bro," Mario said giving his brother a playful punch in the shoulder.

"Is that some sort of observatory," asked a curious Sonic.

"Actually, it's pretty much a city in the sky populated by grown-up Star people who can grant wishes to those deserving of it," replied Mario.

Sonic blinked twice before speaking his mind. "Sounds more like a legend than fact."

"Trust us, kid, it's definitely fact," said Donkey.

"I've been there, Sonic," admitted Mario. "I've dealt with wishes before."

After a moment of hesitation, Sonic then shrugged. "Alright, how do we get there?"

"We've got a ship that will bring us there," said Luigi.

"I understand if you want to go now, but not everyone can go a whole adventure without sleep," advised Mario.

"You sure everything will be fine while we snooze," asked a concerned Sonic.

"Everything will be A-Okay, Sonic," replied Mario with a smile before turning to everyone else. "I'll lead you to your rooms for the night."

"Thanks, Mario, but I haven't eaten dinner, yet," said Sonic rubbing his stomach. "My stomach is killing for a good Chili dog."

[TE]

Walking through a dark, swampy forest filled with dead trees, was Big the Cat trying to find an escape route from the forest and a return to his friends. He had arrived in a flash of light that he recognized was a result of Chaos Energy and had only Froggy by his side during his unusual trek.

"Man, this place beats the Mystic Ruins by a long shot, huh, Froggy," the spooked feline asked his shouldered pet.

Froggy merely croaked in fear.

"Don't worry, we'll find our way out and our friends, little buddy," said Big with reassurance.

Passing turn to turn, the two friends tried to find a sign that would lead them to an exit, but none was in sight. As the night grew darker and the Moon fuller, Big took a tree branch, scraped two rocks over it, and made a torch. Despite his new source of light, Big grew tired after what seemed like hours, and decided to rest for the night before continuing in the morning. Finding a stopping place, Big took two more branches, and with his torch, made a campfire.

"It's bed time, old friend," Big told Froggy as he laid him down on the ground. "Maybe we'll have better luck under the sun. Good night."

As he attempted to take a rest on the ground, Big heard high-pitched, haunting laughter from the trees which startled him from his would have been slumber.

"Hello," he asked scared. "Anyone there?" Taking a flaming piece of bark in the air with his right hand, placing Froggy on his head, and revealing his fishing rod in his other hand, Big tried to see where the laughter was coming from. "I've got a fishing rod and I'm not afraid to use it!"

The laughter grew louder and more fiendish.

"Is that the best threat you can come up with, pussy cat," said a voice.

As Big tried to find where the speaker was, the trees started moving around. Becoming even more spooked, Big swinged his torch around when five spherical ghosts emerged scared stiff from the flames.

"Ghosts," Big yelped.

Caught off guard, Big accidentally dropped his torch which was when the ghosts dashed at him. Acting on instinct, Big started running through the forest as fast as he could trying to escape the ghosts. Crossing through tree lines, he eventually arrived in the vicinity of a lighted shack most likely fit for only one small person. Trying to open the door, Big discovered it was locked up tight as the laughter of the ghosts came closer to him.

"Hey," he yelled. "Anyone! Help! I'm being chased by ghosts!"

Big tried to see if anyone would show up, but no one did. The ghosts emerging through the forest in hot pursuit, Big held his hands over his eyes in fright before he heard the gusting sounds of vacuum cleaners. Opening his eyes, Big saw five fairly short humanoid mushrooms with white Human skin, black, dotted eyes, and mushroom caps that were either white, red, blue, pink, or light brown, each use their own vacuum cleaners on their backs to suck up the ghosts. Once done, the Mushroom People came closer to Big and studied him.

"Are you alright, big fella," asked the lone female wearing a pink cap with white spots.

After processing what had happened, Big replied, "Yeah, thanks. Do you little guys know where we are?"

"We," said the light brown capped Mushroom Person with dark brown spots.

"Me and my friend, Froggy," said Big pointing to his pet on his head.

"You're in Boo Woods, one of the most haunted places on Earth," eagerly replied the blue capper with white spots.

"Boo Woods? I've never heard of it. Then again, I don't think this is my dimension I'm in."

The little Mushroom People gasped in surprise.

"You're from another world," asked the white capper with purple spots.

"I think so. I don't ever remember seeing ghosts like those, or talking mushrooms like you."

"We better take you to Stuffwell," aaid the red capper with white spots.

The female then took out a key to unlock the door. Once opened, Big was shown the shack only had a lantern and a ladder that led to an underground laboratory with stacked book shelves and scientific equipment that looked both advanced and primitive altogether. After making his way down, he saw what appeared to be a suitcase with eyes, short legs, and a mouth approaching towards them.

"Greetings, travelers," the suitcase said eagerly. "My name is Stuffwell. As you can see, I am a robotic suitcase built initially for travel purposes until my creator, Professor Elvin Gadd, tasked me with custodianship of the Boo Woods paranormal research lab in his absence. So what's your explanification for coming here?" As he saw Big was staring at him awkwardly, Stuffwell adopted a confused look. "What?"

"Uh, nothing," Big replied in an even more awkward way. "I just haven't seen a talking suitcase with legs before." He giggled weakly before showing his right hand for a shake. "I'm Big the Cat, and the guy on my head is my best buddy, Froggy." Stuffwell took on an awkward smile as Big remembered the suitcase didn't have hands to shake. "Right, sorry," Big said even more awkwardly.

Stuffwell merely chuckled. "It's alright. The Professor has plans to add arms for me when the time comes."

"You said you research paranormal stuff, including ghosts, right?"

"That's right, Big, and the Boos that chased you here are the most well-known in this universe. The Professor has studied such phenomenon since he was twenty years of age. Inventing many creations such as the Poltergusts that saved you." Stuffwell then pondered before asking, "You don't happen to be affiliated with items called Chaos Emeralds and individuals such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Eggman, do you?"

"You've seen them," Big exclaimed in glee and pulled the suitcase closer to him. "Where?!"

"Calm down, my fine feline," protested Stuffwell. "You have me in your grip!"

After Big did just that, Stuffwell offered his explanation.

"I haven't seen any of your friends, or foes, but the Professor sent me a message of his encounter with Sonic and that they are both staying at the castle in Mario Land to act as a forward base for this whole adventure."

"Stuffwell, can you please take me there?"

"Of course! With our Pixelator, we can take you anywhere! But perhaps we shall go in the morning. You must be tired and famished from your travels."

"Okay," Big nodded as Froggy croaked eagerly.

[TE]

Aside from Mario, the Kong Family lived on their own island which bore the namesake of Donkey Kong. Extremely large, possessing drastically different climates and ruins in various areas, Donkey Kong Island was normally peaceful unless invaded by the Kremling Krew under King K. Rool and other villains.

The Kremling Krew was a powerful organization similar to the Koopa Troop in diverse strength of numbers and agendas. It's name owing to the large number of anthropomorphic crocodilians that comprised it alongside the large Zinger wasps among other creatures, the Kremling Krew had a long-standing rivalry with the Kongs over control of Donkey Kong Island and their prevention of K. Rool's goals for universal domination. But they were not allies of Bowser and his people due to their conflicting ambitions.

Ruled under a dictatorship, Kremling society was based on marauding conquests and industrial development to the point of heavy pollution. Yet, like the Koopa Troop's leaders, K. Rool and his fellows were allowed to participate in universal sporting events. And like the Koopa Troop, not every member species was universally enlisted.

Near to Donkey Kong Island, was the Kremling home of Crocodile Island, or Crocodile Isle as it was known. While most of its neighbors were beautiful, paradise-like locations, Crocodile Isle was a gloomy and dark place. Shrouded in foggy swampland, partly volcanic, the top frozen over, and the coast almost constantly battered with rough currents that have wrecked and swamped several ships, Crocodile Isle had only two locations that could be considered oases. The inner large Lost World that resembled Donkey Kong Island and provided the energy that powered the Kremlings homes, kept the island afloat, and where the species originated from. And a stylish clubhouse of new age taste owned by the popular Kremling Kritter, Kalypso.

Situated on the expanded west side of the island after being restored from the sea, the members and guests of Kalypso's Party House acclaimed the exotic food, music, and other recreational activities provided under Kalypso's strong leadership that had earned the full trust of even K. Rool himself. Large and wide, the Party House catered to anyone who could afford the membership price and take responsibility, if otherwise. Aside from swimming, gymnastics, massages, sports, and dining, the Party House also had a penthouse apartment suite that served as Kalypso's home. Where the Kremling proprietor herself was tending to an unconscious guest on her purple covered bed as the morning sun rose.

Laying close to the right side of her guest, Kalypso had pale blue-green skin, a large purple afro for hair, purple claw polish, a purple top with a skull design, three golden rings around her left wrist, neck, and tail, a pair of round golden earrings, long eyelashes for her red eyes, and blue jeans with a skull belt. Describable as attractive in appearance, cool in personality, talented in reflexes for dancing and sports, and high-pitched in laughter, Kalypso was one of the Kremling Krew's best operatives, but was left out of K. Rool's plans for conquest to manage the people and had participated in only one Jungle Grand Prix where the Kremlings and Kongs raced each other with jet-propelled Bongos.

Her guest, on the other hand, was a large, imposing crocodilian in his twenties with light lime green scales, wore moderate clothing, and when Kalypso peeked, had vermillion eyes. He was found by her in one of the swimming pools after she came home from a Krew meeting about the disruption. Judging by the bumps on his head, Kalypso figured he fell a great distance onto the roof before falling into the pool. Normally, she would most likely tell her Krewmates about her newfound intruder, but decided against it. If there was a chance he knew about the disruption, she would better take advantage of it in a less hostile environment. Aside from that, Kalypso couldn't help, but be attracted to the stranger. Smiling seductively at him as he finally regained consciousness.

"Ouch, my head," the stranger yelped in pain.

Holding his right hand over his bumps, the guest kept trying to open his eyes before laying them on Kalypso.

"Good morning, sleepy head," she said with a smile.

As he finally realized what he was looking at, the crocodilian released a surprised scream and fell off the bed.

"What the heck," the guest uttered in shock. "What have I gotten myself into this time?! Who are you?!" Where am I?!" Gasping for breath, he then asked, "I didn't do anything too crazy, did I?"

"Sorry that I spooked you, handsome," Kalypso replied as she helped her intruder back on his feet. "I just found you in one of my clubhouse pools. I guess I got too carried away by your presence, but I didn't do anything other than sleep next to you."

"Uh, it's alright." Her guest then held his right hand for a shake. "I'm Vector the Crocodile."

"Crocodile, huh? Don't usually hear that often."

"You're an alligator?"

"Kremling, actually. A Kritter to be more precise. My people are more advanced than the typical crocodilian." She then took his hand with both of her own. "Call me Kalypso, darling."

"Okay, uh, pretty name," Vector said awkwardly with an even more awkward smile. "When I came here, I didn't show up with some people like a twin-tailed fox, or some things like a space station with a face, did I?"

"I'm afraid not. When the disruption occurred, our science boys figured it was the result of our multiverse colliding with another and that it was universe-wide."

"I'm in another multiverse," exclaimed Vector.

"I knew it," Kalypso countered with her own ecstasy. "You're involved with what happened last night. And I want to know why."

By looking at his face, Kalypso knew Vector was at a crossroads. On one hand, he would try to make an escape and possibly get hurt, or worse along the way. On the other, he confided in Kalypso the truth and how beneficial it might be. In order to reel him in, Kalypso took both of his hands and together, they sat on her bed where she adopted an understanding tone.

"Vector sweetie, if this is big news, I promise I won't tell anyone and I'll help you through this."

Vector seemed genuinely surprised by her seeming sincerity. Even smiling when he replied, "Alright, let's start at the beginning."

[TE]

Shadow woke up in a never-ending void of darkness. The pain he felt from Bowser's attack burned inside his very soul. As he tried to understand where he was, he heard a faint, female voice calling his name.

"Shadow," the voice echoed. "Why have you failed to keep your promise?"

"Promise," Shadow repeated confused. "What promise?"

"Yes, what promise," said a more masculine voice.

Shadow was stuck in between as many voices spoke up at once. Blocking his ears, he tried to understand what was happening when the owners of the original voices revealed themselves much to Shadow's horror.

"You have disappointed me, my son," said the male speaker.

Well-rounded, gray moustached, and bald, the old Human wore a brown turtleneck sweater underneath a lab coat with pince-nez glasses over his eyes. Shadow instantly recognized him as Professor Gerald Robotnik, Eggman's grandfather and his very creator. Discreetly executed by G.U.N. over fifty years ago in his Earth's timeline, Gerald was seen by many as one of the greatest scientific geniuses in the world and a loving family man before the government feared the danger of his experiments aboard the Space Colony ARK. While Gerald's granddaughter, Maria, died helping Shadow escape in his cryogenic capsule, Gerald himself was taken captive and exploited to recover Shadow before dying in disgrace under his former superiors orders. However, driven insane by grief, Gerald set events in motion for the ARK to crash into Earth as revenge for Humanity's sins against him.

"I gave you a task to avenge us, but you turned it away," Gerald snapped. "Instead you smooch the rears of the very scum that had us killed and you scarred for life."

"Don't listen to him, Shadow," cried the female.

A youthful Human, she had dark blonde, wavy hair under a blue hair band, dark blue eyes, and wore aqua colored shoes, a light blue skirt, and a dark blue shirt with light blue endings. She was Eggman's cousin, Maria Robotnik, who was also Shadow's first close friend and the main reason for her grandfather's participation in Project Shadow. Afflicted with Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, she could only survive aboard the ARK, but was compassionate and selfless all the same. Giving her life to protect Shadow when the soldiers reached the Space Colony and killed most of its people. Her final words were for Shadow to bring hope to Humanity.

"You're supposed to make the Earth's people safe and happy, Shadow," sobbed Maria. "But you're not even a real hero. You couldn't even stop Ivo from causing so much harm. And now, you possibly won't even go back home."

"No," yelled Shadow as he tried to block out the criticism. "You're not real! I putted the past behind me! This is all some sick trick!"

A cruel laugh escaped the void as Eggman emerged to join in.

"A trick," he said amused. "How predictable for the one responsible for all this! Tell me, Shadow, has it ever occurred to you that every bad thing that has happened since your creation is your fault? My actions may be based on my desire for power, but it was Grandpa's accomplishments and the tragic fate of the ARK that started me on this path. Perhaps if you were the fastest thing alive, you could've saved them all."

"Shut up," snapped Shadow. "You chose this life of yours. I moved on from it."

Even more monstrous laughter took place as a fifth person joined their group.

A menacing, floating alien with no legs or visible mouth, he had glowing red eyes, black-brown skin, and twin horns sticking out of either side of his head. Decorated in a worn robe with shoulder pads, golden chains with spiked ornaments, and a golden chain necklace with a single gem in the center of a star ornament, Shadow knew him as the self-proclaimed immortal Black Doom, leader of the Black Arms and his biological father. In Gerald's desperation to complete Project Shadow, he went so far as to make a deal with the Black Arms that traveled to Earth every fifty years aboard the techno-organic Black Comet. Black Doom's immortal blood in exchange for Shadow's services to deliver the Chaos Emeralds to him. When the time came, Shadow instead killed Doom and destroyed the Comet. Supposedly wiping out the Black Arm threat.

"I told you, child, you can never escape your past," Doom said in his deep voice. "I gave you life to destroy the Earth and its people. By allowing yourself and your equally foolish friends to be cast out from your world, you have given my surviving offspring the opportunity to conquer everything you vowed to protect."

"Your people are gone and so are you," Shadow retorted.

Doom released a sadistic chuckle. "How can you be sure? You hardly know your own progenitor race that you committed genocide against. And you should know by now that I have always been there, Shadow. Every step of your life."

In an instant, Shadow was engulfed from the taunts and criticisms. Losing his control, Shadow unleashed a powerful explosion of Chaos Energy and ran as fast as he could. Nevertheless, he could still hear the complaining voices of his past before he heard cries of pain. Turning his gaze to the source, he saw Rouge and Omega being shocked with lightning.

"No," Shadow screamed in dread.

Changing his direction, he sped across towards them when a new bolt of lightning stuck him. Too dazed from the electricity to move, Shadow could only see as his team was being electrocuted painfully. Followed by his other closest allies. Turning into Rogue's eyes, he saw her attempting to speak.

"Shadow... you failed... us..."

Cruel guffaws then took root as in the atmosphere of the void, arose Bowser sadistically burning and shocking Shadow and his fellows.

[TE]

Outside of Shadow's realistic nightmare, Ludwig and Iggy were taking a sample of Shadow's blood with a draining needle as Kamek watched. As Ludwig took the sample from his right arm, he and his brother noticed their patient's pained facial expressions.

"Impressive," said Ludwig. "King Bowser has really outdone it this time."

"Naturally," shrugged Iggy before taking a serious look. "But we haven't much time before he hits to the night terror phase. We must take his blood now."

"This isn't the night terror phase," asked Kamek.

After filling the needle completely, Ludwig led his fellows from the dungeon and into the hallway before offering an explanation.

"From what our earlier experiments suggested of the Fear Dream spell, is that there are three phases. The nightmare phase makes the victim physically unpleasant. Night terrors cause the poor fool to express his fears while still unconscious through screaming, sleep fighting, and other sort's of dangerous sleep activities. And finally, death shall occur."

"Can you believe the King invented this spell himself," Iggy asked giddily.

"Hopefully, before death becomes of him, Shadow will decide to join us willingly," said Ludwig. "King Bowser has a telepathic connection with him as a result of the spell."

"And if he doesn't," asked Kamek.

"Well, I suppose we have nothing to lose, anyway," smiled Ludwig. "Now come. We must find the Death Egg and Chaos Emeralds before our unsuspecting rivals do."

[TE]

To be continued

[TE]

Behind the scenes

[TE]

I know we haven't been confirmed on what sort of clubhouse Kalyspso runs, but I figured she was into lot's of music based on her looks and skills. I based Doom's line from Kessler's in Infamous. By the way, I noticed that a lot of people have been reviewing my work without accounts. I appreciate it, but I can't reply to your questions on this or any other story without you guys having accounts to send and receive messages. My family's easy because of Facebook. This is different.

Chapter Text

[TE]

Chapter Six: Reuniting

[TE]

Back at Mario Land, Sonic and his new friends waited in the control room for the Pixelator to summon Big and Froggy. With E. Gadd having acquired a message that his friend and pet stayed at one of the Professor's labs, Sonic started to pace in impatience when the Pixelator set began to function. Pixels then emerged and reassembled into Big the Cat and Froggy who each landed flat on their fronts.

"Good to see you, Big," said a sincere Sonic helping his friend get back on his feet before returning Froggy to him. "You guys doing okay?"

Big responded with a soft hug. "We'll fine, buddy. The talking suitcase told me you haven't found Amy and the others. You think they're okay?"

As they stopped hugging, Sonic replied, "If I know Amy, which I do, she'll be just fine until we catch up."

"Amy huh," commented Luigi. "Is that your special one, Sonic?"

Luigi's question caught Sonic off guard for a brief moment.

"We're just good friends," he said quickly.

"That doesn't stop them from going out one on one on occasion," teased Big.

Everyone in the room aside from Sonic giggled.

"Well, I have to do something to keep her from going too crazy," Sonic retorted flustered.

Everyone else then just burst into laughter.

"Alright, alright, that's enough," Sonic snapped.

"Okay, sheesh," said Big. "Sorry for thinking that this thing you and Amy have going on is funny."

"Oh, please," exaggerated Sonic. "It's only funny when she's not overdoing it or chasing me with a huge hammer."

"That aside, I'm-a Mario," introduced the red superstar to Big in an attempt to move on.

After each person was introduced, Big handed his pet into E. Gadd's hands.

"Stuffwell said that you guys haven't found the Chaos Emeralds, yet, but my Pollywog Pal here once took a bite of both a Chaos Emerald and a figurative god made of concentrated Chaos Energy," explained Big. "If there's a way to find the Emeralds, Froggy might be our only clue for the moment. Just be careful with him."

E. Gadd nodded in understanding. "I'll take some readings right away, and I promise he won't be harmed."

"That's a smart idea, Big," cheered Sonic as he patted his friend on the back. "In the meantime, Mario's got friends in literally high places that can help us."

"Follow-a me," exclaimed Mario.

Leading everyone except E. Gadd and Froggy through corridor after corridor, Mario and his friends arrived at the castle roof where a giant blue shell with white wings, a brown encasing, and a yellow star encircled in white.

"Behold the Star Cruiser," said Mario theatrically. "Built by the rulers of Star Haven itself, it will take us there in no time!"

The Kongs, Luigi, and Yoshi politely clapped in response while Big and Sonic looked confused.

"Looks more like a wheel-less chariot or giant fruit bowl than a ship," said Big in all honesty.

"Oh, trust me, my fine furred friend, this beauty is more than functional," countered Mario.

"So, how can these Starlings help us," asked Sonic.

"That's a very good question, Blue," replied Dixie.

"I figured they could be our eyes from the skies," shrugged Luigi. "They could check any place on Earth and maybe the universe to find your friends."

"Let's see what they can do," encouraged Mario. "Sonic and I will go while you guys be ready when the Professor comes back with his results."

"Okay, good luck," said Donkey.

Exchanging glances and a shrug with Big, Sonic then stepped into the Cruiser with Mario as it floated into the sky and sped across to its destination.

[TE]

Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, at the doorstep of Princess Peach's Castle, stood the flourishing and cheery capital city of Toad Town. Of varying designs, Toad Town was smaller compared to other cities on Earth, but was not without economic, cultural, and political importance. Among its many buildings, was the Toad Town Dojo where fighting skills were practiced under the illusive Toad Master's mentorship. Within its wooden training room, the Master himself was studying his recent student's fighting skills.

The Master was a small Toad covered in a red and white turban and cloak. Despite his people's conventional lack of bravery, the Master was well-known for his powerful martial arts techniques which even Mario had trouble holding out before winning.

His student for the moment was a red echidna who landed on the ground outside his home during the massive eruption of light the previous night. Taking him in, the Master learned of the echidna's otherworldly origins and heroic profession, and decided to indulge him with his knowledge of fighting before sending him off to find his friends. As his demonstrations were coming to an end, the Master nodded in approval to the echidna.

"Well done, Knuckles," the Master stated. "You are indeed ready for the challenges my world can offer you."

Knuckles gave a respectful bow. "I do what I can do, Master. Where do you think I should start at? I can only sense objects of power similar to the Chaos Emeralds from a distance, and I have no way to get in contact with my friends."

"In this world, there is a fighter more powerful than myself by the name of Mario. While impulsive, he's more than compassionate. I heard rumors from the harbor that he was last seen talking to a blue hedgehog before leaving for his island of Mario Land with his friends."

"A blue hedgehog," Knuckles exclaimed. "That sounds like Sonic!"

"Calm down, Knuckles," the Master calmly ordered. "If Mario is journeying with one of your friends, that makes it more imperative to find him. Go to the castle in town. There you will find our monarch Princess Peach who will lead you to Mario. Tell the guards that I sent you."

Knuckles bowed once more. "Thank you for everything, Master. I don't suppose now I get to learn your name."

The Master chuckled softly. "When you gain wisdom, you will learn that the greatest definition of a person does not reside in a name alone."

"Well, thanks all the same. Goodbye." Knuckles then waved as he left for the castle.

[TE]

Walking across town while attracting glances from the locals, Knuckles eventually arrived at the large castle that was easily recognizable for its tower in the center, the moat that surrounded it, and the four other towers that supported it. Coming near the gate, Knuckles saw two Toads standing guard and uniformed in classic mantles, wielding spears and shields emblazoned with a golden crown on the front.

"State your purpose," the two guards ordered in unison.

"The Toad Town Dojo Master sent me here to speak with your Princess so I can find Mario," Knuckles calmly explained.

After processing this information, the guards stood down.

"Go forward, but be warned. Violence will not be tolerated."

Entering the castle, Knuckles walked through passageways until he arrived at the throne room. In the center was a blonde Human laying down in her seat of power. Aside from her crown and jewelry, she wore a floor-length pink gown with white evening gloves beyond elbow-length. The gown had puffy sleeves, an up-turned collar, two deep pink panniers at the waist, and a deep pink ruffle completed with deep pink high heels. Catching sight of Knuckles from the book she was reading, she gasped before showing a witty smile.

"Let me guess," she told Knuckles. "You're with Sonic the Hedgehog."

Knuckles innocently smiled and shrugged. "It's that obvious, huh?"

She chuckled, walked towards Knuckles, and bowed in respect. "I am Princess Peach, ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom."

Knuckles reciprocated the bow. "Knuckles the Echidna. The Master of the Toad Town Dojo took me in after the disruption, gave me some pointers, and directed me here to see if Mario could help me. Clearly I'm on the right track."

"Knuckles," said two familiar voices altogether from the entrance behind the Princess and echidna.

Looking back, Knuckles and Peach saw both Espio and Amy together bewildered at first before running closer towards them.

"You're okay," Knuckles exclaimed as he high-fived both his friends.

"Good to see you, too, Dread," replied Espio.

"Just tell me, Knuckles, is Sonic, my team, and the others anywhere near here," asked Amy focusing her eyes into Knuckles's.

"I don't know, Amy. I just got here. But the martial artist who led me here said that Sonic was last seen talking to a guy named Mario."

"We know about him, too," said Espio. "One minute we were kicking Metal Sonic's butt, the next we ended up in two different places."

"I landed on a floating city called Glitzville where fighters around the world go at each other like crazy," explained Amy. "One of the reigning champions said that this Mario guy took him on an adventure helping people, and that he might help us, too. He gave me directions and here I am. I just met Espio outside the town."

"I was sent to Monstro Town where another martial artist by the name of Jinx trained me briefly before I was giving similar instructions," said Espio.

Peach giggled. "Well, this is fun. Mario and Sonic only reunited with two by coincidence while my coincidence is one more better."

"Sonic caught up with two others," asked Amy.

"Yes, I believe their names were Big the Cat and Froggy."

"Well, it's better than nothing," said Espio. "What about the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Well, Mario's message implied that Professor E. Gadd would find a way to find them by studying Froggy's connection to them while Mario and Sonic go to Star Haven to see if the Star Spirits could help."

"Star Spirits," asked Knuckles confused.

"They guard the dreams of my kingdom's people and grant wishes the world over."

"Oh, that should help greatly," cheered Amy.

"This should be good," commented Espio unimpressed.

"I guess we'll have to see it to believe it," Knuckles replied.

"Let me lead you to the castle's Pixelator," offered Peach. "It will take you to Mario's Castle in no time."

[TE]

Back on Crocodile Isle, within the perched castle on top of the island, seated the Kremling King K. Rool in his throne contemplating.

"Chaos Emeralds," he said at last.

Wearing a red cape, gold crown, gold wristbands, he had light green skin, a large bloodshot left eye, jagged teeth, and muscular arms. Typified by his brutal leadership and hatred for the Kongs, K. Rool was feared by even his most powerful followers and rarely gave respect to the Kritters under his rule. Nonetheless, he did listen to the advice of those who have earned his trust such as Kalypso.

When she failed to show up for the earlier Kremling Krew meeting, K. Rool sent his other minions for her Party House where they discovered a tape recording in place of her presence. Once he listened to the conversation on the recording, he learned that Kalypso played host to a inter-dimensional stowaway who informed her that the disturbance was caused by advanced science combined with seven Chaos Emeralds containing great power. The recording ends as Kalypso offers the stowaway mechanical equipment to build a radar for the Emeralds and to travel with him which he, in turn, accepts.

"Clearly she's using him to get the Emeralds," K. Rool stated to no one in particular. "Otherwise she wouldn't have brought bongos with her. She knows they're equipped with homing devices."

Pressing buttons attached to his throne, he spoke words throughout the keep, "Krewmates, I will be out on a personal affair. KAOS will be in charge until I return."

He then left his throne, exited his keep, and entered his own rocket-powered barrel vehicle he had used for the prix he entered with Kalypso. Activating his vehicle, K. Rool flew through the sky for Kalypso's location.

"I must get these Emeralds before some undeserving idiot does," he said motivated. "With their power, I will conquer the universe, if not more than one."

[TE]

Not too far from Earth, was a smaller planetoid with its surface covered by the face of the Human who traded treasures and coins to a genie for its existence. Named Wario Land, its tycoon namesake through his company of WarioWare, Inc. stood as one of the most wealthiest and powerful people on both the planetoid and Earth itself. Its capital city of Diamond City was located on an island miles away from Wario's relaxation castle where he and his cousin Waluigi were messing with a recently discovered robot that emerged from the earlier disruption.

Wario had broad, muscular arms, a large belly, a large, pink nose, a round, cleft chin, round black-eyes outlined with a light blue ring similar to his taller, skinnier partner, a black, zigzag shaped moustache, and his light-brown hairstyle consisting of small flips at the back, swooped up bangs, and styled sideburns again like Waluigi's. Dressed as a plumber, he had a yellow T-Shirt and hat with his initial displayed in blue on the latter as well as his white gloves, purple overalls with white buttons, and pointy green shoes. Extremely greedy, miserly, gluttonous, poorly hygienic, hot-tempered, and egotistical, he was, however, reasonably intelligent to the point he made a television teleportation helmet in mere moments. Regarded as an anti-hero by his own friends and coworkers, Wario was willing to commit malevolent acts to get what he desired which caused him to buttheads with his cousins, the Mario Bros.

Waluigi wore a purple undershirt under black overalls, orange pointy shoes, and a purple hat that had a vertical "L" on his hat and white gloves. He had a large, pink nose, a horizontal, thin mustache, and sharp jaw. Openly mean-spirited, self-pitiful, and vain, Waluigi worked with Wario in many sporting competitions to become just as famous as their cousins with varied success.

The robot itself was large with a varied color scheme. Discovered offline by the two glory seekers outside the castle, they gathered their tools to turn it on under their control as it laid on a berth. With Wario eventually tuning the finishing touches.

"Almost done, Cousin," Wario said affirmatively with his screw driver screwing on the robot's reattaching head.

After completion, Wario snapped his fingers for a response which the robot gave with opening eyes.

"I am E-123 Omega," the robot said emerging from the berth.

"Who do you serve," Waluigi growled.

"Wario and Waluigi," Omega replied with a nod.

The two cousins exchanged villainous sneers.

"Tell us who built you and where you came from," Wario ordered.

Omega went into excruciating detail on his creation by a Dr. Eggman, his inter-dimensional origin, and the powerful Chaos Emeralds that brought him to their universe. This last piece of information triggered eager interest in Wario and Waluigi.

"Those Emeralds must be worth a thousand fortunes," Wario exclaimed.

"Now, now, Wario," Waluigi playfully scolded. "If these Chaos Emeralds hold great power, it would seem risky to sell them to some defenseless moron or power hungry loser."

"Alright. What do you suggest we do? And please don't tell me we should work with our rivals to get them."

"I say we use them to go into the energy business," Waluigi said with opportunistic glee. "We already have popular microgames and profitable pharmacies. We should expand on that."

"Yeah, with the Emeralds, we'll own the energy market! And with our new pet robot, we'll be sure to find them."

The two anti-heroes quickly diverged into evil laughter.

[TE]

To be continued

[TE]

Behind the scenes

[TE]

This was as close as I got, sorry. Turns out I do need some help. Especially since I have limits where I'm at.

Chapter Text

[TE]

Chapter Seven: Emerald Hunting

[TE]

At Mario's Castle, the gathered heroes spectated E. Gadd's presentation. The short scientist cleared his throat to collect his voice.

"Behold, ladies and gentlemen," the Professor exclaimed in effects both exaggerated and enthusiastic before revealing a handheld device bearing a striking resemblance to a video game console in his right hand. "The 3DS Chaos Radar! My newest invention crafted though my keen intellect, the finest machinery Gadd Science, Incorporated has to offer, and the small, yet sustainable, speck of Chaos Energy I found in my newest associate, Froggy!" He pointed towards the table seated Froggy for emphasis before going on. "This device maybe small, but it's designed to have three times more processing power than any of my more older, non-sentient creations, built-in modules to help it interface with any computer known to man, and can track any Chaos Energy reading on a global scale with its own power!"

E. Gadd's small audience respectfully clapped as he modestly bowed and Big patted his pet as a compliment for Froggy's contribution, before walking towards the scientist.

"Good work, Professor," complimented Big. "But I'm a little confused why you based it on a game console. Then again, I'm not a scientist and I prefer living as a non-urban hermit far away from the hustle and bustle of tech-managed city life."

"You don't like tech, Big", asked Diddy. "It's helped save my butt nearly all the time with my jetpack."

"But it also puts the world in catastrophe," affirmed Donkey. "Think of all the bad guy stuff made in a lab, for example."

"I understand there's both good and bad sides to it," admitted Big. "I just don't like it when it makes life so easy that people get so worked up over the littlest things."

E. Gadd shrugged. "I figured it would be interesting to remodel seemingly less special devices into an assortment of advanced technology."

"I wouldn't call a game console less special, Professor," said Dixie.

A beeping noise then started coming from Luigi. Digging through his left pocket, he brought out a similar handheld known as the Mailbox SP. Checking it's view screen, Luigi started reading quietly. Finishing, he walked over to the Pixelator and turned it on.

"What are you doing," asked Yoshi.

Luigi smiled. "It's a surprise."

In an instant, the Pixelator summoned a great amount of Pixels that quickly reformed into a red echidna, a pink hedgehog, and a purple chameleon. The latter two landed gracefully while the former fell face first on the floor.

"Ouch, that hurts," the echidna groaned before getting himself back in a standing position. Looking at his fellows, he got slightly annoyed. "Hey, how come you two didn't get splatted?"

His companions casually shrugged.

"Because we're more nimble than you due to my ninja training and Amy's acrobatics," said the chameleon.

"Maybe you'd have better luck, if you were a cat," giggled Amy.

Big giggled and quickly ran over to embrace the three. "Didn't work so well on me either, but I'm glad to see you both," he said eagerly.

"Nice to see you, too, Big," said Amy. "Now, will you please don't break us in half?"

They quickly gave each other some space so the others could get good looks at them.

"You knew they'd be coming here," asked Yoshi to Luigi.

"Princess Peach messaged me and Mario that they just dropped by her castle as a coincidence." Nodded Luigi.

"And it definitely was a crazy coincidence," said the chameleon.

After exchanging introductions, the group then started exchanging information on their progress.

"Is Sonic and this Mario person still at that Star Haven place," asked Espio the Chameleon.

Luigi checked his MSP before answering the question with annoyance. "Apparently, the Star Spirits get a lot of visits from Starling teachers, merchants, and a lot of beggars begging for an easy wish. They've been waiting almost half an hour for a meeting."

"Well, at least it's not more than that," said Big, trying to keep the atmosphere optimistic.

"I'm still unsure how a bunch of dream keepers and wish collectors are going to help us," admitted Knuckles the Echidna.

"They have a lot of power, Knuckles," explained Yoshi. "It's a safe bet they and their Star Kids can search the world looking for information and maybe spot your friends."

"I have faith in that, but don't you think it would be easier, if they knew what our friends looked like," asked Amy.

"Because they guard the Dream Depot, the Star Spirits can connect with the minds of those who are willing to be connected," stated E. Gadd.

"Like telepathy," compared Espio.

"To a degree," amended Luigi.

Donkey clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "Well, while Mario and Sonic are out of the picture, we can go treasure hunting, right?"

"Sounds good to me, Donkey," exclaimed Diddy.

"Very well, allow me to interface the Radar with the main computer," E. Gadd offered.

Taking the Chaos Radar, the Professor took the computer's connected cord to plug-in to the Radar. Within moments, a virtual map of the Earth appeared on the screen. Seven dots colored after the Chaos Emeralds then appeared at seven different locations on the planet.

"It appears the closest Emerald is located to a former place of study of mine, the inactive Thwomp Volcano," affirmed E. Gadd.

"Awesome," cheered Amy with arms held high before blinking curiously. "So, how do we get there?"

"Well, I haven't been to my former lab since the Shroob Invasion so it doesn't have a Pixelator Set, but you could get there by the nearby Warp Pipe."

"By what," said the four dimension hoppers, dumbfounded.

"You guys don't have Warp Pipes," asked a stunned Dixie.

"They're perhaps the most fastest mode of transportation in the known multiverse," explained Yoshi.

"Well, uh, our multiverse, anyway," amended Luigi, awkwardly. "Let's-a go."

Exiting the castle, the gathered heroes, excluding E. Gadd, arrived at a large, green pipe near the surrounding trees. Luigi then gestured to it in a presenting sort of way when they came to a stop.

"This is a Warp Pipe," he started explaining. "The size and color varies every now and then, but it's purpose remains the same."

"Even if some of them get broken," Yoshi commented offhandedly.

"Anyway, it can transport travelers across great distances in this or any other universe instantly," carried on Luigi. "We'll use this to get to Thwomp Volcano in no time."

"What does a Thwomp noise even come from, anyway," asked a confused Amy.

"Yeah, that sounds completely made up," said Knuckles.

"A Thwomp is a living, spike-encrusted cinder-block born from volcanic activity," explained Dixie.

"Or armed boulders in the females' case," added Yoshi.

"Well, that was unexpected," replied Big.

"Are they dangerous," asked Espio, warily.

"A lot of them try to flatten people who come near or below them," answered Diddy.

"What you should be more concerned about, though, is the big, bad jerk they usually answer to," advised Donkey.

"Let me guess, he's an overweight, mad roboticist who tries to conquer the world in a crybaby fashion," said Espio. When his three companions stared at him in confusion, he shrugged. "I know that our two worlds most likely don't have a lot of similarities, but I just couldn't resist egging the Eggman."

Some chuckling gave way before Luigi took out a poster of Mario fighting Bowser to demonstrate the kind of person they may eventually deal with in front of the curious dimension hoppers.

"This is Bowser of the Koopas," Luigi figuratively introduced. "He's pretty much the evil Grand Poobah in our world with a great deal of political, military, magical, physical, and, in a few cases, intellectual power to actually give people the heebie-jeebies in their own sleep."

"Not to mention he's downright ugly," commented Knuckles.

"How is he smart," asked Amy in confusion. "He doesn't strike me as a genius."

"He has a lot of experience in tactful leadership and weapon technologies when he's not wielding magical objects with finesse," explained Donkey.

"He has his fair share of mistakes, but when he plans something bad, it usually comes off without a hitch," detailed Dixie.

"Luckily, Mario beats him more than the other way around," said Diddy.

"Is he Mario's personal foe," asked Espio.

"Yep," confirmed Yoshi. "The oldest among us have been tussling with him back when we were younger than you are now."

"You've been fighting evil way longer than we have," Big surprisingly asked.

"The Mario Bros, Yoshi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and I were no more than little babies when we first met each other," Donkey said proudly before showing the palms of his hands when his four new friends gave surprised stares. "It's true."

"Actually, I was a little older than that," Yoshi amended in a matter of fact way.

"We just wanted to give you guys the heads up, you know," Said Luigi before clapping his hands for emphasis. "Okay, the Chaos Emerald waits for no one and we better get moving."

Luigi then jumped straight into the pipe, vanishing before being followed by Yoshi, Donkey, Diddy, and Dixie. All that remained were the four animal people.

"This place is starting to get weird," commented Big in all honesty.

"No argument there," agreed Knuckles.

"Still, they seem like good people and we will need some help," pointed out Espio.

"Well, I better go first," volunteered Amy as she jumped into the pipe.

Espio, Knuckles, and Big carrying Froggy then followed suit.

[TE]

Flying across seas, Bowser's personal airship, the Koopa Cruiser, commandeered by Junior and the Koopalings, traveled as its occupants were finishing the touches to their own radar for Chaos Emerald Radiation. Resembling an adult of Bowser's breed, the metallic Cruiser in its owner's colors was atypical of the Koopa Troop's use of wooden ships equipped with Rocket Engines and propellers and was used mostly as a pleasure craft after it was attacked and hijacked by the late Beanish villains, Fawful and Cackletta. Within its command center that was patterned after the war room of Dark Land's central Castle, the eight young Koopas were sharing parts for their radar's assemblage until Ludwig was finishing the last touches by injecting a vial of green blood into a green shelled piece of technology's slot that could be held in the palm of a Koopa's hand with ease. Pressing adjacent buttons, Ludwig and his peers saw the Chaos Shell, as it was call, emit a hologram of Earth with a blinking green light emanating at the Koopa Cruiser's southwest position, in the northwest corner of the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Thwomp Volcano, huh," said Wendy in an analytical tone. "It's a shame that the Thwomps living there aren't on our side. Otherwise, we'd have another castle in place ready to handover the Emerald."

"No argument there, but why can't we see more than one," inquired Lemmy.

"The Chaos Shell isn't exactly without its imperfections, Lemmy," replied Iggy. "I'm afraid that Shadow's enduring strength of will keeps the King from getting the right Emerald force frequency in his mind and the piece of DNA only gives our device a detection force limited by a hundred miles from our present coordinates. It's only good fortune that we could combine it with our magic in order to boost it. "

"And by my calculations, the blood will disintegrate in at least an hour after being loaded in the Shell," informed Ludwig. "We must find an actual Chaos Emerald before anyone else does, so we will be able to build a proper radar."

"And falling that, we can always try to find an Eggman robot to lead us right to that tub of lard and his own super fancy tech," reminded Larry, deviously.

"What's KB's orders when we find that freak of a Human, anyway," asked Morton. "Do we pillage and plunder or does King Bowser want to gamble with him?"

"Papa said he wants to get a first look at that loon first and test him to see if he can be alright with having a job as Minister of Science rather than Emperor of Science," said Junior. "If he fails, then we take everything he's worth and leave him for dead."

"Nothing like bashing an egghead to get the mood going, if I do say so myself," added Roy with his fists pounding one another.

"Glad to know you don't hurt family," commented Iggy unimpressed as Ludwig rolled his eyes.

"Technically, Ludwig and Iggy aren't eggheads anyway since they mostly have common sense compared to those who are actual eggheads," amended Morton to Roy who then asked.

"How did you know that?"

Morton shrugged. "I read the dictionary whether it's in a book or in a computer. What kind of buffoon do you people take me for?"

"We're wasting time," interrupted Wendy. "We have to get that Emerald and not let some worthless loser get it first."

Nods were exchanged, then Junior went to the command center's ship-wide microphone to issue the order to the airship's crew. "Pilots, set a course for Thwomp Volcano and step on it!"

[TE]

Metal Sonic had been hovering across water and land from the island chain he and his associates had originated from at high speeds due to a combination of his anti-gravity system and advanced jet engine built into his chassis to the northeastern country in pursuit of the Chaos Emerald he could detect with his damaged built-in radar for Chaos Energy. Aside from the radar and his built-in communicator, the other, most important trait that was crippled was his replication ability that allowed him to scan and mimic the life data from robotic and organic life forms. Although he didn't want to admit his weaknesses to Eggman and his robotic toadies of all people, he couldn't resist acknowledging that his current handicapped abilities are obstacles in his own quest for revenge and dominance. While he had absorbed Chaos Powers from copying Shadow and the creatures the god-like being Chaos had relations with, his own skills could only be reached when in contact with Chaos Energy. Nevertheless, he had to stay focus on his present task.

It was not a full day from his departure when he spotted the green Chaos Emerald's reading on a peculiar, volcano made up of granite encrusted with cubic, angry faces with only a few patches of green plants. Continuing to hover until he made a stop at lower area where a wooden sign stood in place.

"Thwomp Volcano Trail," Metal said, reading the sign's first sentence. "Beware of falling objects." He quickly scoffed in derision. "Thwomp. I never heard such a stupid word. This entire dimension is clearly a disorganized, ridiculous, cartoonish wasteland of worthlessness. At least our world was slightly more sensical." Metal then shrugged in indifference. "Well, it's here. Might as well conquer it while we are stuck." He chuckled with evil purpose. "Perhaps I'll even succeed in getting rid of everyone I despise."

He raced across the mountain side until he reached the inactive top before hearing the sound of multiple jets approaching on his position. Acting on instinct, he quickly entered the volcano's fissure vent and stood nearby hovering and waiting within the caverns. In an instant, Metal heard the jets come to a stop as feet landed on the ground surrounding the vent.

"That was cool with all letters capitalized," a familiar voice boomed.

Using the invisibility power he acquired from copying Espio, Metal came slightly closer to see Vector the speaker and a female, more humanoid crocodilian in jeans and top removing jet-propelled Bongos attached to metallic belts around the waist through pools from their bodies. Vector's were grey and marked with a white skeleton of sorts and the female's were of a purple palette and represented her golden jewelry around the middle.

"Your performance wasn't so un-groovy yourself," complimented the female. "We might make a Jungle Grand Prix racer our of you yet."

Vector rubbed the back of his hand with his right hand while shrugging with the other. "I'm a fast learner, Kalypso," he turned to her suggestively. "And it helps when I'm motivated." Catching sight of Kalypso's widening smile, Vector started to stammer. "Uh, when I want to find my friends and way back home, I mean."

Kalypso gave out a high-pitched laugh that surprised Vector and irritated Metal's auditory receptors. She quickly covered her mouth to stop. "Sorry, my friends and coworkers say my laugh is one of my few quirks."

Vector stepped closer to his companion and grabbed hold of her hands. "Hey, it's fine! My friends and I aren't perfect, either. Look at me, for example. I love money a lot, but I'm also a sucker for charities. My landlord never shuts up about it."

"Ouch. That probably stinks for you in the long run."

"You get used to it. I like to believe that helping the less fortunate is the best reward."

"Very noble," Kalypso said with a devious smile as she locked her arms around an even more surprised Vector's neck and lifted her left leg backwards as if in a lovers' embrace. "Maybe before we go Emerald hunting you and I can have a certain talk that can make us both worth while."

Metal shook his head in revulsion. Obviously, this woman, whether her feelings were true or false, was no doubt using Vector to get the Chaos Emeralds for herself. Concluding that he had seen enough, Metal hovered down into the caverns below in search of the green Emerald.

[TE]

"Now, Babe, I want to share a few things with you that I didn't say before," said Kalypso, flicking her eyelashes.

Vector's curious expression changed into a serious look. "Let me guess, you've been using me into telling you about the Emeralds, building an Emerald Radar, and testing it, so you can grab the Emeralds for whoever it is you're working for." Vector's response caught the Kremling Kritter by surprise. "I saw the tape recorder and I've always prided myself as the brains behind the Chaotix Detective Agency's operations. You almost had me fooled, but I've grown used to telling a sign of sincerity from a deception."

Kalypso let go of his neck and stepped back chuckling. "Okay, you got me," she said as her chuckling came to a close. "In this world, a lot of my people work for the powerful Kremling Krew under King K. Rool's mastery with one goal in mind: complete conquest."

"That's who you wanted to find the tape recorder," guessed Vector as Kalypso nodded.

"With such power, my people and our allies can bring our enemies to their knees and raise our domineering flag across universe after universe." She searched though her left pocket retrieving their own radar in the form of a Kremling's head. "And thanks to this King Krocodile Radar that you made, the seven keys to our victory is within our grasp."

"But you didn't want to torture me to get the information," Vector asked. "Are you trying to wrestle control away from K. Rool?"

"No, I just thought it would be better this way and I didn't want to hurt that handsome face of yours."

"How am I supposed to believe you actually liked me?"

"I didn't hurt you so far. And now that we're alone, allow me to give you an important proposition. Join the Gang, rise through the ranks, and when we have everything literally under control, your home and friends will be safely in your care, just as you will be as successful as me."

She held out her right hand for a shake, but Vector stared at her warily.

"You offer me fame and fortune, and all I have to do is turn my back on my friends, my morals, and everything else I care about?"

Kalypso pulled back her hand and clicked her tongue in mocking disappointment. "Vector, this would be good for you and the Kremlings. With someone as smart, strong, and just as you in a big chair, we can reinvent ourselves into something a little more bearable under the Master's rule. Aren't you in the slightest bit tired that you haven't made a name for yourself and a fortune to that name? Well, this is your chance for greatness. What do you say?"

Vector stared hard at her for emphasis. "I refuse. Now give me back the Radar."

His firm tone stiffened Kalypso as well, who quickly put the radar back in her pocket. "I don't know about you, but around here, we have a saying. Burn a woman once and she burns you back."

"You realize that made no sense, right," said Vector, unimpressed.

She merely shrugged. "Sounded better in my head."

Wasting no more time, Kalypso ran over to Vector and started swiping her claws in his direction. Dodging them, he curled up into a wheel and jumped onto where Kalypso stood. Dodging his own attack, the Kritter ran back as he landed to unleash a right side kick which he did not dodge in time. Caught by surprise momentarily, Vector surprised her by breathing fire which forced her to move back away.

"What on Earth," she nearly screamed. "Did you eat a Fire Flower or something?!"

"You can be surprised what I can do," retorted Vector.

Kalypso's eyes moved from Vector the skies above, then her startled look turned to one of relief and devious acknowledgement.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Wait for it," she advised.

Hearing the sound of a rocket, Vector turned around to see a flying barrel approaching the volcano piloted by a larger Kremling, who landed it right next to them. Emerging from his seat, the muscular Kremling wore a royal attire and struck Vector as being somewhat demented with a villainous smile to go with his bloodshot eye.

"You alright, darling," the mad royal said to Kalypso, who quickly ran closer and bowed to him.

"I'm fine, Master, but my plan was of a mixed success."

"How so?"

She took out the King Krocodile Radar and showed it him. "Vector's too stubborn to join us, but I still have the radar. It says there's a Chaos Emerald in Thwomp Caverns."

"Then go get it," K. Rool ordered. "I'll handle this boy."

Kalypso immediately placed her Bongos back on her before taking one last look at Vector.

"One last chance, baby," she called out to him. "Join us. King K. Rool's nowhere near as forgiving as I am."

"Indeed, I'm not," affirmed K. Rool.

Vector took looks at K. Rool, to Kalypso, and back again with a ready gesture.

"Bring it on, Tubby."

K. Rool snarled as Kalypso took the Radar, activated her Bongos, and flew straight through the vent. Leaving Vector with an even angrier, stronger Kremling in her place.

"Okay, I'm stuck with a wrathful king of evil," Vector summarized before shrugging with a smile. "Nothing I've ever done before."

K. Rool laughed insanely. "I'm not 'a' king of evil, you unevolved miscreant, I'm the Supreme Ruler of all Evil!"

The two reptiles then ran to each other for battle.

[TE]

To be continued

[TE]

Behind the scenes

[TE]

It's mostly original. Took a month, but I did it. Don't forget to review, check for errors, and offer ideas.

Chapter Text

[TE]

Chapter Eight: Quintet Faction Battle

[TE]

Not so far from Thwomp Volcano's vent, an abandoned laboratory in the shape of E. Gadd's head laid near a blue Warp Pipe that quickly sprouted a jumping Luigi, who arrived in an acrobatic fashion followed by his friends in the order they left Mario Land.

"Everyone here," Luigi asked in an orderly tone.

"Looks like it," surveyed Donkey as he shook his head several times. "But I think I realize now why there's no Warp Pipes near my island."

"You get used to it," said Yoshi, shrugging.

"It's good to know that the ones at Mario's Castle can send us to even the Warp Pipes that don't necessarily go global," said Dixie.

"I thought it was pretty amazing," complimented an eager Amy. "I've been through a lot of teleportation gizmos and portals, but I haven't seen anything like that back at home." Turning to her friends, she asked, "What did you think, guys?"

Espio, Knuckles, and Big looked a little shell-shocked that made the others a little worried.

"You okay, pals," inquired a concerned Diddy.

"Uh, yeah, we're fine," Knuckles said in a flustered way.

"Why wouldn't we be," smiled Espio, embarrassingly.

"Yup, nothing weird here, right, Froggy," stammered Big to his nervously croaking pet on his head.

Amy folded her arms in intimidation. "You saw up through my dress on the ride here, didn't you," she snapped.

"No," yelled the three in scared defense, but Amy's penetrating gaze would have none of it, then she quickly revealed her Piko Piko Hammer.

"No," squealed Big, scared out of all belief. "Come on!" He started to sob and ran to a surprised Amy. "I'm sorry!" Graveling to her feet, he wailed, "Have mercy, Amy Rose! I was just trying to earn a decent living! Okay, a little indecent at the end, but come on, there's no need to get all cruel and unusual on me!" He sobbed loudly. "Ah, I'm so sorry! I never felt worse! Please, spare me! You can hurt these guys for all I care, just let me go free! They've probably lived full lives as far as I know!"

"What," Espio and Knuckles shouted in a mix of annoyance, surprise, and fear.

After facepalming with both of his hands in embarrassment, Luigi walked over to an annoyed Amy. "Uh, Amy, this stuff tends to happen. It's not anyone's fault that something embarrassing occurred. Okay, maybe it's mine for not saying anything about this." He shuddered. "I remember when Mario and I had a similar accident with Princess Peach. Just go easy on them, okay?"

Placing her face in her own left hand, Amy sighed before helping Big get back on his feet. "It's fine," she said with a somewhat better voice. "I know you didn't mean to be offensive. I just tend to react rather badly. Let's just go."

She walked away to get a look at the lab as Espio and Knuckles looked angrier at a worried Big, who responded with a sheepish smile as Froggy croaked.

"And I thought you were the unselfish type," said Knuckles, shaking his head.

"You are a pathetic gentle giant," added Espio.

"I'm sorry, I just overreacted," apologized Big.

"What were you three being so chicken about, anyway," asked Diddy as he came toward them. "Mario and Luigi fight with Hammers, too, but I'm not afraid of them, either. No matter how many baddies they send to the grave."

"Trust me, buddy, seeing her angry with her Hammer in tow is one of the few things Sonic's afraid of," replied Knuckles. "And I agree."

"Luckily she's not without a sweet side," informed Big.

Walking to Amy, Luigi saw that she had her eyes glued quizzically on the lab.

"The Professor used to work here studying the Thwomps when Mario and I were just babies before us and our baby selves became partners in time," he explained.

"What," Amy asked with surprised interest.

"Well, Mario and I were born in a special place manned by storks that take DNA from a certain couple that can't have kids normally to make babies which they then deliver. The process makes them more nimble and smarter than usual babies which can then be passed to their descendants."

"So, that's how you fought Bowser even as a baby."

"In fact, when we were visiting a younger Princess Peach for a play date with a fight with Baby Bowser on the way, the Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by the fungal Shroob alien race. Their planet was withering, forcing their crazy Princesses to launch an attack to claim a new home. For a time, a lot of details were lost because no one really remembered what happened. It wasn't until Peach took a ride in E. Gadd's time machine and got captured by the Shroobs that we learned how everything went done with the Mario Bros of the past and present saving everyone."

"Didn't the present change as a result of the attacks in the past?"

"E. Gadd said that the time machine's power source, the Cobalt Star, kept everything balanced out. So long as nothing too drastic happened, everything was alright. No one from the past even remembered what fully happened, despite a reporter friend of ours writing a single book."

"Huh," stated Amy. "Something like that usually happens with us whenever time travel's involved."

Luigi then gestured to himself proudly. "It was actually my baby tears that stopped the Shroob infestation."

Amy started laughing.

"It's not a laughing matter," Luigi retorted.

"I bet you do a lot of things when you're fulfilling your 'heroic duty' !"

Amy's laughing died down when she and the others heard a body slam on the ground originating from the volcano's top.

"What was that," exclaimed Donkey in bewilderment.

"We better head over," Luigi stated.

Running as fast as they can, the party of nine arrived at the vent where they saw two crocodilians panting from battle. Nearby laid strapped jet Bongos and a barrel vehicle.

"That's my team leader, Vector the Crocodile," observed Espio as he pointed towards the reptile with the headphones who was trying to stand up on the left.

"And K. Rool," said the three hostile Kongs in unison when they noticed their sworn enemy regaining his footing at the opposite direction.

"That's one mean-looking crocodile," commented Big.

"Actually, he's the King of the Kremlings," amended Dixie. "They've been trying to conquer or destroy Donkey Kong Island for almost forever."

When the two combatants finally stood up, a surprised Vector caught the arrived nine with his eyes that his equally surprised opponent quickly traced as well.

"Well, it's about time you got here," Vector said, releasing breath after breath. "This tub of lard's no easy picking." He then pointed to Luigi, Yoshi, and the Kongs. "Are those guys trustworthy? I wouldn't want to get used by some dark chick who sells me out to her crazy strong dictator again."

"Dark chick," Big said in confusion.

"It's a figurative phrase for someone who's good at using people's feelings for mind-games," explained Espio. "Someone like Rouge although they don't always have good in their hearts or even slightly feminine."

"Enough," yelled K. Rool. "As much as I want to crush your head in the palms of my hands, Donkey Kong, I, for once, don't have time for it." He waived his right hand negligently. "So, go climb a tree before I change my mind."

Donkey was about to attack K. Rool head straight when Luigi stopped him with his right arm to his chest. The Human clad in green then walked closer to see the Kremling Master face to face.

"I can't let that happen and I won't," Luigi retorted firmly.

A cruel laugh escaped K. Rool. "You seriously expect me to quiver in the face of a worthless, cowardly, pompous crybaby excuse for a hero with a name that even that stupid softy Bowser has trouble remembering? You're an even bigger moron than I thought, Luigi!"

Having heard enough, Luigi took his hands in a tight motion which then emitted blue electricity.

"Thunderhand," Luigi battle cried as he released the thunder from his hands was released right at K. Rool. Flinging him to the rock wall circling the vent.

"Holy crud," exclaimed Knuckles in astonishment.

"That was incredible," added Espio.

"How did you do that, Luigi," asked Amy, incredulous.

"Something I learned in the Beanbean Kingdom," Luigi replied with pride before gesturing for Vector and the others to come near.

K. Rool, meanwhile, was holding close to the wall to ensure he did not fall into the vent below. Choosing his steps carefully, the Kremling King eventually landed back safely away from the vent.

"Well, that was a close one," commented K. Rool.

"Oh, please," sarcastically retorted Donkey. "Everyone knows the volcano hasn't been active in over twenty years. Besides, there are caverns that would've kept you from getting to the lava."

"Assuming your fat gut doesn't break the floor," added Diddy.

"The fall would've killed me, you filthy primates," K. Rool replied in barely restrained hatred. "And Kalypso's busy enough getting the Emerald to waste time helping me. I can handle you all by myself!"

"Wait a minute," Said Big with his hands in motion for a stop. "How do you know about the Chaos Emerald?"

"Yeah, his henchwoman was very persuasive," explained Vector in embarrassment. "I nearly fell for her charms."

"Welcome to my world," scoffed Knuckles.

"Enough talk," snapped Donkey. "More smash!"

"Way ahead of you," complied Vector. "I may have used a lot of my strength in that body slam, but I can still kick this wacko's keister."

Prompted by their taunts, K. Rool quickly leaped onto Donkey Kong and swiped him with his claws repeatedly until Donkey punched him off. Running back to his jet barrel, K. Rool took out a blunderbuss that he then used to quickly fire Kannonballs at the heroes.

"Look out," Diddy warned as he and the others dodged the enemy fire.

"There are cannonballs inside that small, old gun," yelled a disbelieving Espio.

"Actually, the 'C' is replaced with a 'K' in the Kremlings' case," explained Dixie.

"How's that helpful," asked an annoyed Amy.

"Well, sorry that you don't care for trivia," replied Dixie with sarcasm.

K. Rool was prepared to fire again when Big took out his Fishing Rod and fished the blunderbuss from out of his hands and into his own where he then snapped the gun like a twig.

"How do you like them apples, Crazy Eyes," Big yelled fiercely at the mad King.

With K. Rool weaponless, Knuckles ran quickly to unleash power packed jabs on him. Taken by surprise, K. Rool quickly turned invisible to escape their clutches.

"That lunatic copied me," Espio yelled with a look of surprise and annoyance before quickly seeing a moving shadow and then launching shuriken at it. The shadow's owner yelped in surprise and revealed himself as K. Rool.

"This guy is supposed to be Donkey's arch nemesis," Knuckles asked, mockingly. "He makes Eggman look like the most competent man alive!"

"I'll show you who's competent," replied an angry K. Rool.

Assuming a ball shape, K. Rool bounced off the surface rapidly to crash onto his enemies, who, in turn, scattered to avoid his attacks, although he did slam Donkey and Big to the ground. When he came to a resting stop, Dixie fired bubblegum from her popgun to gag K. Rool's mouth before Diddy rammed him with his head.

Falling back to the ground, K. Rool quickly removed the gum from Dixie's popgun to spite his enemies.

"This is not over, yet! I've only just begun!"

And with a ground pound to the floor, he created a powerful shock wave that got the heroes off their feet.

[TE]

Down at Thwomp Volcano's base, the Koopa Cruiser had landed in stealth only moments before Luigi's group arrived. After their scanners picked up residue jet fuel, the Cruiser's crew and commanders decided that stealth would be preferable in response to a prolonged fight that would cost them the Chaos Emerald. Using the Magic Scepters that were colored in Ludwig's blue, Lemmy's green, Roy's black, Iggy's yellow, Wendy's purple, Morton's red, and Larry's orange signatures, the seven Koopalings and Junior created three magic windows through space and time that showed them the ten heroes fighting K. Rool at the top while the other two depicted Metal Sonic and Kalypso separately traveling through Thwomp Caverns. Taking place within the command center, the eight Koopa children sat in a circle on the floor for better observance.

"I see K. Rool is clumsy as ever," noted Lemmy. "And to think, I suggested that we should work with that cracked nut."

"Cracked nut," Iggy laughed, maniacally. "That's a good one, Lemmy!"

"Knock it off, will you," Morton bellowed.

"Morton's right, this is no time for foolishness," agreed Larry.

"True, but I got to admit, Kalypso is as hot as ever," commented Roy with an entertained whistle.

"Oh, please, Roy, what she needs is a gentlemanly intellectual, like myself, not a brutish tough guy such as you," Ludwig said, snobbishly.

"Enough of the kooky alpha male talk, boys," blurted Wendy. "We need to talk about an evil plan to get the Emerald before 'Psychotron' and that old styled chopper take it before us."

Nodding towards Wendy, Junior placed his bandanna around his mouth to display his fierce authority and asked Ludwig, "Is there a way we can use your lighting teleportation power to get into the caverns undetected?"

Ludwig nodded eerily. "I've done it before, but I must warn you all, it will leave you all with a nasty headache. Perhaps it's best that I go in alone."

"I don't suppose Junior's Gaddbrush can produce acidic thinner that can melt through the rock," offered Lemmy.

Junior and the other Koopalings followed the thought briefly.

"Not that it isn't a good idea, Lemmy, but I'm not sure my brush can do that," replied Junior. "E. Gadd made it as a weapon to spit out toxic graffiti. I don't think my paint can erase real things."

Lemmy simply shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

The Gaddbrush was the name given to Bowser Jr.'s Magic Paintbrush that was created by Professor Elvin Gadd, who was tricked into giving it to a disguised Junior.

"I thought there was a gaping hole in the volcano that led to the caverns from the Shroob Invasion," said Larry.

"The Thwomps eventually covered it up out of respect for their home," answered Iggy.

"We've got Bob-ombs to blow a hole," suggested Roy.

"Brute," yelled Wendy with spite and a hit to Roy's head. "That would start an avalanche and get those morons' attention!"

"If we all go teleporting through lighting, our heads won't feel straight enough for fighting," Morton pointed out.

Looks of concern, contemplation, and acceptance were shared until Ludwig left the circle and placed his scepter and the Chaos Shell within his own shell.

"We're wasting precious time," he clarified to his peers. "I must go. And don't worry, I can take care of myself."

And with a flick of his hands, electricity fired to engulf him in a flash of lighting, pulling him out of sight.

[TE]

The caverns of Thwomp Volcano gave Metal Sonic the appearance that it was manmade due to the presence of pipes both green and blue and the number of floors which had markings and carvings of the same angry face decorated on the volcano outside. Paying close attention to his surroundings and his Chaos Energy radar, Metal surveyed the caverns until he finally caught a reading emanating from a lower floor of the caverns that was characterized by the angry faces carved on it and surrounded by carved walls with more angry faces.

"Almost strikes me as a throne room of sorts," Metal commented.

Observing the area, he saw at the end of the room, a circle of cubic, angry faces surrounding another similar carving in the middle where a green jewel was lodged into the rock.

"Eureka," exclaimed Metal as he calmly walked to the Chaos Emerald's resting place to remove it. "The Chaos Emerald is mine!"

However, before he could claim victory, he felt an oversized rock strike him on the head. Falling back over to the floor, Metal turned around to see another rock thrown at him before he quickly caught it with his right hand and crushed it with little effort. Tracing its trajectory, he saw the female reptile Vector arrived with in a surprised, yet defensive, stance.

"Sorry, short, robotic, and ugly, but I believe that Chaos Emerald belongs to the Kremling Krew," exclaimed Kalypso.

Metal Sonic laughed cold-heartedly. "It's hard to see who's more foolish," he told her with cruel abandon. "The fool or the fool who followed her."

Firing a laser blast from the aperture in his chassis, Metal saw Kalypso quickly dodge it and the next three shots before running over to swipe her claws on Metal's faceplate. Taking both her arms in her own, he prepared to fire another blast when a flash of lighting occurred behind Kalypso and in its place, emerged a bestial, wild haired creature with a turtle's shell, who then spun like a tornado towards them with great ferocity. Taking by surprise, the two fighters were trampled by the kicks and swipes that sent them to the ground.

"What," said a disbelieving Kalypso as she got her head back from laying on the floor.

"Who would dare attack me," Metal spoke with equal disbelief and in a similar position to Kalypso.

"The Conductor of Chaos dares," the turtle beast exclaimed as his tornado died down.

"Ludwig," Kalypso yelled in great annoyance and surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Ludwig merely made a tsk in a mocking way. "Come now, my sweet," he said impertinently with a cruel smile. "This wouldn't be so difficult, if you joined us long ago. You still can. Just hand over the robot and Emerald."

"You can keep the robot for all I care, but the Emerald's going to the Master," Kalypso retorted.

"Pity," Ludwig stated before revealing a scepter that he then used to quickly fire two projectiles at Metal and Kalypso each which the former fell to unconscious as the latter dodged her own.

[TE]

As the mechanical version of Sonic shut down from his attack, Ludwig noticed Kalypso run over to the green Chaos Emerald's resting place. Wasting no time, the Koopaling retreated in his shell to spin towards her. Emerging out his protection, he saw the Kremling female down once more on the floor trying to get back up. Having none of it, Ludwig immediately ran to place her left foot on her chest while she tried to hold it back with her hands.

"You'll live to regret this, you little monster," Kalypso said, struggling.

Ludwig merely cackled and showed the palms of his hands. "I regret everything, my sweet," He said before pushing his foot harder with a deeper smile. "Struggle as much as you like. I enjoy it."

"You'll enjoy me kicking your shell off even better," Kalypso retorted with all her might.

Before Ludwig could finally end this fight, he and Kalypso noticed an increasing static originating from Metal Sonic's body and glowing lights emanating from his shutoff eyes. In a flash of light, a short, obese Human in purple and yellow wearing an orange, technical helmet and holding an equally orange remote in his right hand appeared and quickly grabbed the Chaos Emerald from its perch. Turning around to see Ludwig and Kalypso stunned, the Human quickly laughed before pointing his remote at Metal Sonic.

"Wario," Ludwig and Kalypso exclaimed in surprised unison.

"Here I go," exclaimed Wario.

And with a push of a remote button, Wario disappeared once more Emerald in tow. After a short silence, Kalypso pushed Ludwig off.

"You idiot," Kalypso yelled as she got back to her feet. Her face contorted in anger. "I lost the Chaos Emerald to Wario of all people because you and that robot meddled in my mission!"

Ludwig reacted with equal anger as he stood up once more. "How was I supposed to know he was in on this so-called escapade," he asked in annoyance.

"For one of the Koopa Troop's second in commands, you sure don't know squat," insulted Kalypso before exhaling in annoyed impatience with a wave of her right hand. "I'm out of here."

Walking away to the right wall, she revealed her jet Bongos and strapped them around her body. Immediately activated by her presence, the Bongos exhaled jet fuel as she flew straight to the top. Leaving an amused Ludwig alone with Metal Sonic.

"Just this once, my brothers were right," he said with a smile. "She is just as beautiful when she's angry. Now, if I can just get her to be angry at others instead of me, then I'd have a very lucky mate." He dismissed the thought with a wave of his hands and turned to the robot next to him. "But for now, I have to play workshop."

[TE]

In moments after leaving Ludwig and the robot, Kalypso flew straight for the area where she left Vector and K. Rool to find both them and several old and new faces, including Donkey, Diddy, and Dixie Kong.

"Well this was unexpected," she commented as she landed next to a tired K. Rool.

"Never mind that," barked her king. "Show me our first Chaos Emerald."

"Uh, I don't have it, Master," stuttered Kalypso with great reluctance.

"What," everyone exclaimed in surprise.

"No way," yelled a disbelieving Vector. "I may not be a mechanical genius, but I'm darn right sure I built that radar accurately."

"I saw it with my own eyes, but I got in a fight with some spiked robot, then I fought Ludwig von Koopa, and the next thing I know, Wario, of all people, shows up and plucks it right from under my snout," explained Kalypso in haste.

This left shocks of shocked recognition and confusion among her eleven spectators.

"You've got to be kidding me," said the Human in green. Double facepalmed in exhaustion.

"I think I get who's the robot she's talking about, but who's Ludwig and Wario," asked the pink rodent.

"Ludwig is Bowser's eldest ward and Wario is Mario's archrival/black sheep cousin," explained the Yoshi. "If they're involved, Bowser and the Anti-Luigi, Waluigi aren't far behind."

"Great," commented the dreadlocked rodent in red, sarcastically. "More villains."

"Actually, Wario and Waluigi are more like pitiful anti-heroes out to get rich and famous," amended Donkey.

Having had enough, K. Rool waved his hands with cruel abandon. "Forget it! Let's just go, Kalypso!"

The Kremling King then took the jet Bongos that Vector arrived, placed them within his own rocket barrel, and took a seat before flying away with Kalypso following suit.

[TE]

As the ten heroes were left on Thwomp Volcano's top, Luigi took out the 3DS Chaos Radar from his left pocket to scan if the Emerald was still near, but not a single reading was shown anywhere near them on the screen. Placing it back in his pocket, Luigi exhaled in grave tiredness. "Okay, so we've got the Kremling Krew, the Koopa Troop, the robotic armies of Dr. Eggman, and my dopey cousins out for power, profit, or whatever comes to their minds," summarizing the whole event.

"By 'spiked robot', she meant Metal Sonic, right," asked Big.

"It sounds likely," nodded Espio.

Knuckles shook his head in Vector's direction. "You just had to give those crazies a Chaos Emerald radar, didn't you?"

"She was very charismatic with her voice, looks, and everything," stammered the crocodile.

"For once, it's not his fault, Knuckles," defended Amy. "Even you have your history with Rouge, remember?"

Knuckles merely rolled his eyes on that remark.

"How does Wario even know about the Emeralds, anyway," inquired Dixie.

"We'll find out later, babe," Diddy explained. "It's probably best we just go back to the castle and wait for Mario and Sonic, now."

"Sounds good to me," shrugged Donkey.

"Same," Yoshi similarly shrugged.

The group of ten then took their leave through the Warp Pipe they came from.

[TE]

Metal Sonic found himself awoke in apprehension in a strange, perhaps even spooky forest nowhere near the volcano he fell unconscious from battle at. Checking his surroundings, he felt a strong sense of anger for his prior defeat before he noticed his inbuilt answering beacon that let him know if Eggman needed his immediate attention was activated. Scoffing that his search for power and revenge had to be put on hold, Metal Sonic, nevertheless, activated his anti-gravity system and jet engine to fly back towards the subterranean valley where the Death Egg was left half-buried.

"Alright, let's see what that fool is up to, now," he stated to no one, but himself.

[TE]

Back on the Koopa Cruiser, the seven Koopalings and their crown prince watched on their holographic map of the Earth eyeing a homing beacon that was racing from the Mushroom Kingdom's Toadwood Forest to the southwest. Before anyone could comment, a beeping noise signaling from the command center's computer stated they had a video communication interception from Dark Land. After Lemmy quickly pressed the controls needed to accept the transmission, the eight young Koopas saw their father/legal guardian arms folded with a serious look.

"Have we found at least one of the next seven jewels in the Koopa crown," Bowser asked with his eyes staring in equal intensity.

The six youngest Koopalings pushed Ludwig and Junior forward so they can answer the question.

"Uh, we were on the approach of one in Thwomp Volcano, Papa, but King K. Rool, Luigi, and Metal Sonic were there on their own searches when Wario showed up and took the Chaos Emerald right from our clutches," Junior explained with an awkward smile. "Sorry."

"Wario," Bowser nearly screamed. "You kids were outsmarted by that disgusting waste of Human flesh?!"

"Whoa, whoa, hold up, King Bowser," stuttered Ludwig with his hands up for calm. "We got you a consolation prize for good measure."

"Yeah, Ludwig was able to knock Metal Sonic to whatever he has for being out cold, then he and Iggy placed a Shell Tracker in his body," said a coming forward Lemmy.

This calmed Bowser somewhat. "Go on."

"His body and programming were both very complex, sir," Iggy explained. "It appeared that Robotnik made assurances that he wouldn't betray him by choice or by reprogramming by adding a voice command for rebellious behavior in his immediate presence and a code that must be put in place when doing more physical work under a timed bomb threat."

"Our geniuses were, however, able to trick Metal Sonic into not only waking up, but to think that Eggy's calling for him," further explained Morton.

"My every instinct tells me we'll find them at Dinosaur Land, boss," answered Roy.

"Excellent," exclaimed a much better Bowser. "If I was there, I'd give you all hugs."

"Your welcome, Your Majesty," replied a genuinely smiling Wendy.

After a few moments of thinking, Larry then offered to say something with a malevolent look, "And I've got an idea to make the so-called Eggman Empire our allies."

[TE]

To be continued

[TE]

Behind the scenes

[TE]

I based some scenes from season one of Avengers Assemble, an early episode of the old Buzz Lightyear show, and Beast Wars episode 49. I know Big's reaction seemed a little out there, but I wanted to get the point across that Amy's anger scares everyone. I borrowed some referrances from TV Tropes and the Epic Mickey games. I'll explain how Wario was able to teleport in such a manner later.

Chapter Text

[TE]

Chapter Nine: Updating Information

[TE]

While Wario made a detour to Thwomp Volcano, Waluigi was busying himself at Wario's Castle on Wario Land with Omega constructing numerous Chaos Emerald radars for their own search. They had already made one in the form of a gold coin emblazoned with the "W" initial and named it the Chaos Coin before hooking it to the castle's central computer to maximize its power radius over the entire Mushroom Kingdom as a test of its capabilities. Therefore, the two cousins and their new robot servant learned that there was a Chaos Emerald on Thwomp Volcano ripe for plundering. Wasting no time, Wario took his TELMET, a helmeted device of his own creation that teleports the wearer through television waves into the given origin of the waves, to teleport himself from his castle to the volcano through the electric systems stationed at both the castle and the former laboratory of E. Gadd's.

It hadn't been half an hour after Wario left that Waluigi and Omega saw the nearby television turn on in a emanating bright light with Wario himself materializing from the screen.

"Lo behold, my lanky partner in crime," exclaimed Wario with a green emerald in his left hand. "The first Chaos Emerald goes to the Purple Wind, who is silent, but deadly!"

"Congratulations, Mr. Wario," commented Omega.

Waluigi scoffed, but smiled all the same. "Yes, yes, that's grand, Wario, but I'm darn well sure I could've done it better."

Wario laughed as he removed his TELMET and placed his remote and Emerald on the nearby table. "That will be the day, my local beanpole!" He then cast a serious look and walked towards his cousin. "But seriously, when I was at the volcano, I found out we weren't the only ones who knew about the Emeralds."

Waluigi facepalmed in exasperation. "Those glory hogging cousins of ours just don't stop looking for adventures, don't they?"

Wario nodded agreeably. "I saw Greenie, some of their pets, a few faces I recognized from checking Omega's visual memories, two Kremlings, and that so-called composer, Ludwig, in and around the volcano, but don't worry. When I detected that one of the treasure hunters was a robot through the TELMET, I then used the TELMET to travel electrically through E. Gadd's lab tech, out of the robot's systems, and grabbed the Emerald with only Ludwig and the she Kremling seeing me. Good thing you suggested we use a Super Star to supercharge the TELMET."

Waluigi thought over it before replying. "Perhaps the robot can give us some weak points on his friends, so we know best how to cheat them out of the race?"

Wario thought about it himself before shaking his head. "We don't have time to go all strategic. Unfortunately, this isn't some competitive sport where we see how the others are doing at the same arena. No, Waluigi, this is a race for limitless glory, treasure, and power where we have to rely on our eyes and ears. Some preparation is good, but if we over think ourselves, we'll never get the prize."

Waluigi gave a pout, but only relented. "You're right, of course. If we have all that Chaos Power ripe for selling as energy, then everyone would bring WarioWare, Inc. all of their money."

"Attaboy," Wario exclaimed with a quick clapping of hands. Stopping, he turned to Omega. "How many Chaos Coins have you two made?"

"Plus the original, twelve to be exact," informed Omega without emotion.

"It was about as much we could build with what we have around the place," explained Waluigi.

"Once you give the Coins a taste of Chaos Energy, their processing power and functionality will be more lasting," Omega informed once more.

"How are we on buying the local, geothermal power plant of Goldbobbington's," asked Wario.

"He was hard to get through, but eventually Goldbob gave us some papers," replied Waluigi after a theatric sigh of exasperation which Wario followed suit.

"What kind?"

"Oh, the usual, you know? Warranties about treating the workers non-harshly, not shutting down the plant without good reason, a few pieces of company stock, a Gold Coin payment amounting to two million..."

"Two million Gold Coins," Wario blurted in angry disbelief. "Out of all the cheating, possessive, no good rip-offs, that absentminded fool of a Bob-omb big wig had to do this to us?!"

Panting from his outburst, Wario saw Waluigi's annoyed face. "It's his power plant, Cousin, and it's served him quite nicely in the past. I had to try to be nice telling him that we would be very considerate and all that stupid junk to the employees working there and that our new source of energy would be much more workable and beneficial to us and society as a whole."

Calming down, Wario let loose his breath. "Alright, what else is there to do?"

"Goldbob said that if we give a demonstration of our new power source by thirty days, then the plant and it's workers are ours."

"You kept said power source on the low-low, right?"

"Of course, I'm not stupid. Although, your own blunder at Thwomp Volcano probably blew our cover already."

Wario scoffed, indifferent to Waluigi's penetrating gaze. "Look, despite this setback, we can still continue searching the Earth for the remaining Emeralds and our automated defense system will keep any unwanted pests out of the castle."

"You may also have to consider that the disruption scattered some of the Chaos Emeralds to other parts of your universe, if not your multiverse as a whole," offered Omega before pointing out, "I was teleported to Wario Land while a Chaos Emerald was later shown on your Earth."

Wario and Waluigi exchanged uncomfortable looks at the prospect of that possibility.

"Uh, it's probably best that we focus on what's at hand with those chumps on Earth before we focus on anything else," Said Waluigi. "With any luck, they can show us where the other Chaos Emeralds are on the planet which we can swipe at anytime."

"Good point," sang Wario, who then gestured broadly. "Imagine the limitless mother lode of cash that this and any other universe will pay for all that delicious Chaos Energy to power their lives! Waluigi, who else can pull it off, but you and me?! We'll be rich!"

"We'll be rich," repeated Waluigi in breakdance and song.

"We'll be out," Wario versed with a flex of his muscles.

"We'll be out," Waluigi repeated with a right hand grabbing of his partner's right hand, prepared to sing at once.

"And all worlds will have some more to talk about!"

Their joint singing at a close, the two cousins then let go, and laughed maniacally.

[TE]

Above the Mushroom Kingdom, accessible though the captivating road of sparkling stars known as Star Way, floated the small city of the Starlings, Star Haven. While not nearly as expansive as Neo Bowser City and even less modern than Toad Town, Star Haven carried a sense of beauty that wasn't unnoticeable to either occupant or visitor. Consisting of moats, white trees that had stars for leaves, ancient forts that served as homes and shops, and a celestial blue temple that served as the Star Spirits' place of council. Outside of the temple, Mario and Sonic waited fifty minutes for an audience with the Spirits and decided to pass their time of waiting by exchanging information on their separate friends, adventures, and worlds while sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"So the Star people live here, but aren't born here," Sonic asked curiously.

"They're formed from the magic surrounding the Earth which connects with the magic in the neighboring stars to give raise to Star Kids who are born in Starborn Valley and raised by the locals until they are old enough to ascend to Star Haven," explained Mario. "The scope of their powers in granting wishes depends on how old they are and how well-intentioned the wish is. Aside from the Spirits, there is an object called the Star Rod which embodies all their powers combined to make any wish. Once they see a wish worth granting, the Star Road that serves as vanguard between Star Haven and Earth shoots a star down to the planet below where the person who made the wish must then collect."

"Do all these wishes even work?"

"There are some limitations. In fact, it's more like the scales of karma than simply asking an omnipotent dragon to bring your loved ones back to life from the dead."

After processing it all, Sonic decided to change the topic to something more related to their eventual obstacles. "So what's Bozo like?"

"Uh, I think you mean Bowser, and man you shouldn't take him lightly. That guy nearly sent me to the grave after he took the Star Rod."

Sonic scoffed lightheartedly. "Can't resist mocking him with a name like that. Besides, how tough can he be?"

"He breathes fire, he's super strong, he knows dark magic, and he's nearly immune to anything life throws at him," counted Mario for good measure. "So yes, he's tough."

"He's bad, Mario. I get it, but I'm sure he doesn't lack some weaknesses."

"Of course not. He's quick to anger and miss some important details, but that doesn't mean we should ignore him unless we know for certain he isn't going to be a really big problem."

After considering it with a nod, Sonic then asked something else, "What about your cousins?"

"Quick to anger as well, but their focuses are more about getting rich and famous whether than powerful most of the time. They're pretty much sore losers in their own strong armed or strong legged sort of way."

"Strong legged?"

"Waluigi's power is in his feet. You should've seen the day that he defeats Bowser with one kick. Wario owns a castle on a nearby planetoid which he also owns, but getting through his defenses will be tricky. He's been seriously paranoid about someone stealing his treasure ever since the Black Sugar Gang pirates of Captain Maple Syrup were able to get to Wario Land through a Warp Pipe."

"Wait a minute," Sonic stated confused. "He owns his own planetoid?"

"In all, but name. After he first fought Syrup, Wario traded all the treasure he collected on Kitchen Island to a genie in exchange for his own private kingdom."

"Sounds like a guy after Rouge's own heart."

Before they could go over something else, the temple doors opened to show the Toad merchants leaving with satisfied faces after concluding successful business dealings with Spirits followed by the hovering elder of Star Haven, Eldstar, who was yellow, had dark green eyes, white eyebrows, and a white mustache.

"Alright, boys, it's your turn," he told Mario and Sonic, who quickly got back on their feet and entered the temple ecstatically.

Inside, the moat from outside entrenched nearly the entire room save for seven crystal pillars where each Star Spirit hovered and surrounded the lone octagon floor where the orange and green Star Rod hovered over a smaller octagon in the middle.

Upon seeing his surroundings, Sonic sighed in mild contempt as Mario finished explaining their request. "Why did it have to be water?"

"You okay, Sonic," Mario asked in concern.

"Oh, I'm fine, but back in my dimension, I'm notorious for being one of the few hedgehogs who can't swim. It's a nightmare."

"Fear can be quite complexing," said the greenish-yellow Star Spirit with a brown mustache and dark blue eyes named Kalmar.

"I didn't say I was scared," said Sonic in defense. "I just feel uncomfortable that I have to use floats or something all the time."

"Let's not get feisty, my young friend," advised the rosy-cheeked, pink bowtied, dark-eyed, book carrying Klevar. "You came to us for help and we are willing to offer it."

"Unfortunately, the omniversial collision was so wide, that not even we can pinpoint the locations of where your friends, foes, and Chaos Emeralds can be," informed the pink bow equipped Mamar.

"However, we are willing to send our people to keep close eyes on what goes on Earth," said Misstar, who was purple in color and wore a yellow ribbon on her head.

"And we'll cooperate with our Luma buddies to see what Rosalina and Lubba know about this," offered the blue, sailor hatted Muskular.

"We won't let either of you down," said the light purple, brown mustached, blue glasses wearing Skolar with brown eyebrows in an attempt for encouragement.

"That sounds good, guys," complimented Sonic with a slight bow as he and Mario started to take their leave.

"Thank you so much for your help," said Mario with a tip of his hat.

As the two heroes left to go back to the Star Cruiser, Mario heard a cackling noise emanating from his MSP. Checking it out, he and Sonic started hearing something like a robotic voice.

"I failed to get the Chaos Emerald, but I am approaching the Death Egg in the southwestern continent as quickly as possible, Dr. Eggman, sir," said the voice.

"That sounds like Metal Sonic," exclaimed Sonic in astonishment. "But how are we getting his reception?"

"Yes, Doctor, I will continue to hurry and minimize communication attempt until I arrive," continued the supposed Metal, unaware that he was being eavesdropped. "Yes, I know that my transmissions are likely being received by unwanted, third parties. Which is why I am hurrying."

The transmission ended abruptly, leaving Mario and Sonic staring at each other dumbfounded.

"This obviously sounds like a trap," said Sonic after a short silence elapsed.

"Clearly, but this could be a good chance to get Eggman," replied Mario. "And if my longitude is correct, the continent he's talking about is Dinosaur Land."

"Then let's go get the others and scramble that egg," Sonic ordered as he and Mario ran to the Star Cruiser.

[TE]

Raucous laughter took hold of the Koopa Crusier's command center as Junior and the Koopalings finished listening to Mario and Sonic unknowingly following into their trap.

"Oh, what a bunch of dumbbells," Morton chortled.

"I know, right," commented Roy.

"How stupid can those losers get," Iggy yelled.

"And all we had to do was copy that metal rodent's voice and hack into Mario's MSP," laughed Ludwig.

"Alright, settle down, people," barked Larry. "Although my plan is starting without a hitch, we still need to be prepared to come to 'Yolk Breath's' rescue." He allowed his arrogance to show soon after. "After all, it would seem quite embarrassing if the leader out of the Koopalings messed up his own plan, not like that will ever happen, of course."

"Then let's be good children of evil and bring Papa the Eggman," ordered Junior enthusiastically with his left fist up high in the air.

[TE]

To be continued

[TE]

Behind the scenes

[TE]

I based Wario and Waluigi's song from the one in Anastasia, made a reference to Dragon Ball, and copied BJ's line from Mojo's in his debut appearance in Avengers Assemble. Please continue to provide aid in whatever way.

Chapter Text

[TE]

Chapter Ten: Alliance of Evil

[TE]

Upon being told through e-mail about the apparent transmission overheard from Metal Sonic, Luigi and the others replied that it would be best if Mario and Sonic used the Pixelator Set in Princess Peach's Castle to teleport themselves and the Star Cruiser to Yoshi's Island through a working counterpart on the island just as they themselves would travel through the Set at Mario's Castle, so they can surprise Eggman and his forces quicker.

It wasn't ten minutes after the messages were exchanged that the Pixelator Camera situated on Kappa Mountain on Yoshi's Island activated and reformed the Star Cruiser carrying Mario and Sonic in an instant from emerging pixels. Upon their arrival, an immediately groaning Sonic turned to Mario. "I don't know about you, but this Pixelator crud is making my stomach queasy."

Mario raised his left eyebrow in confusion. "Haven't you ever been teleported before?"

"Well, yeah, but this gadget of the Professor's turns me into even more tiny pieces than the usual does. Just gives a funny weird feeling, you know?"

Before Mario could reply, the Pixelator Camera behind them sprouted pixels that quickly reformed into Luigi, Yoshi, the Kongs, and Sonic's friends in an instant digital flash. Seeing they arrived, the Human garbed in red plumber clothing and the blue Hedgehog exited the Star Cruiser to where they emerged.

"You made it just in time," stated Mario to the group.

"Hey, guys," exclaimed Sonic with a wave of his left hand. "Glad you made it!"

"Sonic," shouted Amy in delight as she ran to hug Sonic around his waist. "Oh, Sonic! It's so good to see that you're okay!" As Sonic started gasping for breath, Amy finally let go and pushed him with both of her hands. "I told you your plan was a bad idea," she yelled, angrily. Turning to everyone she asked, "Didn't I tell him?!" Turning back to Sonic more annoyed, she continued. "But do you ever listen?! No! It's always my idea this and my idea that with you! Now we're stuck in some wacky, alternate universe in a completely alien multiverse!" Letting loose a deep breath to relax, she turned to Luigi, who approached cautiously, and said., "No offense."

"Uh, none taken.," Luigi replied, awkwardly.

"Okay, my plan screwed up, but it's not like I was there when Tails should've taken care of the Death Egg," said an annoyed Sonic with his arms folded. "Not that I'm blaming anyone. As far as I care, it was just a mistake that had big ramifications or whatever."

"He's kind of right," Vector confirmed. "With the Roboticizer activating, Omega and I rushed Tails to a degree."

"It's probably best we should focus on getting Eggman and finding a way back home before freaking out over what happened," commented Knuckles.

"He's right, of course," agreed Espio.

After seeing to it that Mario was acquainted with the new comers and vice versa, they went back to the topic at hand.

"Where can the Death Egg be at, anyway," asked Big, confused. "I'm not seeing anything that looks remotely like it for a thousand miles."

"Maybe it's underwater, or underground," suggested Diddy.

After mulling it over, Yoshi then piped up as he walked to the Star Cruiser, "I think I know just the place to look for it."

"The Valley of Bowser," asked Mario and Luigi in unison.

"Yep."

"That oversized freak's got his own valley here underground," asked a stunned Amy.

"Its only entrance is a rock carving in the shape of his head that lies in the center of the continent," explained Dixie.

"But it's been abandoned for a while now," added Donkey.

"Only one way to find out for sure," said Espio as he followed Yoshi into the Star Cruiser.

"Sure, why not," shrugged Knuckles as he and the rest of their party joined them in the Starling ship and tried to fit in with all passengers struggling equally, especially with the sizes and weights of Big, Donkey, and Vector.

"Well, this is just stupid," impatiently exclaimed Amy as she attempted to preserve her personal space. "There's hardly any room, if we can even call it that!"

"That better not be a crack on my weight," retorted Donkey with his arms forcibly tied down to his sides due to himself being crowded around as Mario eventually arrived at the front of the Star Cruiser to steer it towards the Valley's entrance.

[TE]

After a long deal of time flying from the forest to the Death Egg's cavernous resting place, Metal Sonic was in no mood for games. Entering through the battle station's main hangar, he kept his levitation system active for increased mobility to arrive at his creator's control center. Upon arrival, he bared witness to the doctor informing a dozing Cubot and a laying in midair Orbot of their current status.

"While I would've preferred that repairs came to effect more immediately, it's better than that one week report you bumblers gave previously," Eggman said with great authority in an attempt to suppress his impatience. "Due to no small effort on my part, the Death Egg is eighty-five percent operational as of now. Alas, the transporter's inter-dimensional traveling capabilities are still disabled, but it's short-range accessibility will be enough to teleport us out of this dismal, unacceptable, and downright smelly excuse for a hiding place!"

The sheer voice of his outburst awakened Cubot fully and brought Orbot to full attention as Metal joined their group. Taking notice of his recently returned majordomo, Eggman adopted a look of surprise before cutting to the chase.

"I trust you came back because you either disposed of my enemies, retrieved the Chaos Emeralds, or both," he said intimidatingly with his arms folded.

Metal then appeared stunned himself before replying coldly, "I answered to your beacon. I assumed that you had need of me which wouldn't be surprising in any circumstance."

"I didn't activate the beacon, you troublemaking scrapheap," Eggman said in a stern voice that heavily implied his mild anger. "I would've called you through your communicator, if I wanted anything. Speaking of which, is it still working? Surely you would've called to confirm."

Metal balled his metallic fists in rising frustration. "My communicator, long-range radar, and replicator were hampered as a result of the teleportation flux. I didn't inform you because I had no intention of either wasting time or playing the part of a fool. And no, I didn't achieve my objectives!"

Anger contorted Eggman's face and body language before he yelled for all to hear, "Punishment distribution authority sigma-theta-alpha-beta!"

Before Metal could react, his entire body became consumed in electrical discharges originating from his tesla power coil of a secondary engine that, once in contact with his sensory receptors, induced a piercing feeling of pain that brought Metal to the floor wailing from his suffering. As the electricity slowly died down, Eggman approached the disabled robot on the floor and began to kick him fiercely.

"And to think, once upon a time, you didn't have sensory receptors," the scientist said in the middle of his cruel chuckling and kicking. "I never intended to give you, or any of my creations, such discomfort, but your constant betrayals forced my hand. So I installed sensory receptors connected to your secondary engine which is now connected to your computers. Every time I say the key phrase, that Ring Spark Field of yours gives you a very shocking experience just as you've used on your opponents!"

As a quick guffaw followed, Metal Sonic slowly remerged from his agonizing stance, and looked at his self-satisfied maker with menacing eyes as he tried to balance himself.

"Excuse me, Boss, but what was the point of that short speech," Orbot asked straightforwardly. "Last I recalled, you already gave a similar explanation when you demonstrated this for the first time."

"Why do this shocking thing, anyway, Doc," followed a normally voiced Cubot with his own question. "Sure he scares me, but it sounds a little overkill to punish him with such a harsh action."

Swinging his arms agitatedly, Eggman made a show that he had half a mind to treat his assistants terribly as well.

"The point was to remind Cubot before he asked again for the umpteenth time how Metal Sonic gets a figurative taste of his own stabbing medicine!" Turning to Cubot, he then went on. "And I'm sure if you had half of a fully functional brain to recognize the insult of being locked up, impersonated, usurped, and practically threatened by your own invention, you'd be standing where I am! Never leave your enemies unscathed, even you have to be close to them, and, dare I say it, stand up for them, so you can have all the senseless destruction and killing under your absolute control as much as you want when some accursed wannabe trying to steal your shtick bites the dust! That's what separates a conqueror like me from the bottom of the food chain such as the three of you."

Restraining an angry rebuttal, Metal Sonic begrudged a salute. "Understood, sir," he said at last. "But if you didn't activate my in-built beacon, who did?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't me," said Orbot, hands fronted as a defense.

"Wasn't me, either," followed Cubot.

"Last I recalled, I was about to acquire a Chaos Emerald at a volcano before I was knocked out by some turtle-like abomination apparently named Ludwig," explained Metal.

"Wait," interrupted Cubot. "This turtle guy wore a wig?"

"Shut up, you buffoon," snapped Eggman before signaling Metal to continue with his right hand gestures.

"He was seemingly a magic practitioner and wanted me as well as the Emerald. Aside from him, Vector the Crocodile and another reptile named Kalypso were present. My every instinct told me that Kalypso was manipulating..."

Before he could convey on Kalypso's character, alarms beeped from the central computer to serve as another interruption.

"Perimeter breach," spoke the computer as it repeated once more, it's screen picturing an unidentified object approaching the Death Egg.

"Now what," asked an irritable Eggman.

[TE]

The flight took less than fifteen minutes to complete, but it felt unbearable to the Star Cruiser's occupants all the same. Fortunately, it was coming to a close as a large, spherical fortress came closer to view over the remains of a castle.

"That's the Death Egg," Luigi nearly screamed in surprise at the mass of Eggman's seemingly immobile headquarters. "It's huge!"

"Not to mention its got a face," commented Donkey as the Starling ship came to a landing in front of the Death Egg. "That old crank's probably compensating for something."

"Must be a result from his physical appearance complex," snickered Knuckles as the more heavy-weighted heroes made their exit followed by the rest.

"Yeah, that sounds like Baldy McNosehair," said a smug, stretching Sonic.

"McNosehair," asked the Mario Bros in annoyed unison with their hands on their hips.

"Yep," chimed in Big. "That moustache of his is so long it's silly."

"So you think long moustaches are stupid, eh," deadpanned Luigi as he and his brother were twirling their own moustaches.

It did not take long for Sonic to register their body language. "That's not really the case," he said in defense with a sheepish smile. "We just like to toy with Eggy like that."

Seeing this, Espio quickly joined in the conversation. "Perhaps we should discuss the fashion sense of moustaches after we remove Eggman from the equation."

Before anyone else could comment, the space station's eye-sockets glowed a bright yellow before joining together to project a holographic representation of it's creator over the group. Twirling his very moustache, Eggman did not look happy.

"Great, just what I needed," he said in a sarcastic tone. "It's bad enough that I can't even trust my so called mightiest Badnik with the simplest of tasks, but you show up right on my front yard! Typical, just typical."

"That's Eggman," Luigi asked somewhat surprised. "I thought he'd be a bit more cone-headed and twice as bulbous."

"What," the doctor yelled in a shocked Luigi's direction slightly angry. "What gave you that impression, Greenie?"

"Well, uh, it's just that Sonic said you were fat enough to look like an egg, so I..."

"Did he, huh," interrupted the insulted mastermind. "Well, I'll show you how much wrath I can unleash on those I despise, you weak-minded fools!"

The hologram quickly dissipated, and it didn't take long for a hatch on the fortress' lower front to unseal. Releasing a hundred robots ranging from Egg Pawns to Egg Gunners with the hovering Metal Sonic leading the charge.

"Destroy them," yelled Eggman over the speaker. "All of them!"

"With great pleasure, Dr. Eggman, sir," complied Metal as he and his legion quickly made their run to the heroes.

"Oh, boy," pessimistically stated the facepalmed Luigi. "Here we go again."

Narrowing his eyes, Mario let out a loud battle cry as he ran straight to the approaching robots. His hands joined together on his right side, a great red flame appeared instantly.

"Firebrand," he yelled fiercely with a throw of the fire to the robots' left flank, destroying five of the Egg Pawns and damaging five more.

"Whoa," Big said surprised. "Now that's what I call a burnout."

"I can do better," girmly replied Sonic before he curled into a ball and created a shock wave aimed at four Egg Fighters which damaged them significantly. He then ran at maximum speed to form a dashing spin attack against six Egg Gunners.

Rolling his eyes, Luigi quickly started generating electricity on his own hands and turned his attention to the whole group. "Alright, let's help them out!"

The remaining nine heroes then charged towards their enemies and fought with all their might.

"Prepare to meet the strongest of the Kongs, you metal chumps," taunted Donkey as he punched robot after robot.

"Finally, some bots to tear apart," Yoshi said in the middle of cheerfully sticking out his long tongue before grabbing an Egg Fighter which he then gobbled up, processed as a green dotted white egg he laid, and threw as a projectile against a stunned Metal Sonic. Making a short chuckle, Yoshi looked at his left to see Knuckles with a face mixed in shock and disgust. "What," he asked the echidna.

"You're a guy, right," Knuckles asked awkwardly.

"What," nearly screamed the dinosaur in a defensive and angry tone. "Of course, I am! It's just a biological defense mechanism thing! Depending on what I swallow, I can either digest it completely or make it into a highly effective weapon! That doesn't mean I'm going to have a baby, you crazy knucklehead!"

"Well, sorry, but until today, I didn't know such a creature existed," Knuckles said in his own similar manner.

Before they could argue some more, a burst of electricity spontaneously erupted and a large, turtle-like airship appeared in plain sighted midair over the combatants. Before anyone could register what happened, the airship's "mouth" opened to reveal seven monstrous turtle creatures jumping out and landing on their feet. Quickly getting into battle stance as a group, they appeared that they were on the verge of enacting theatrical poses, but were stopped by a berating young voice from the airship's speaker.

"How many times do I have to tell you guys," yelled the voice. "You're not posing, or singing a crummy song, and that's final!"

"Oh, come on, Your Highness," retorted the wild haired turtle in the middle of the group with sarcastic annoyance. "We're trying to regain the fame we had before you showed up and the King made us take that vacation, so you could shine!"

"Yeah, bro," agreed the shortest. "Besides, I think this theatric stuff is great. Reminds me of my dreams in the circus. Can you seriously blame us for trying to stand out?"

"I can relate to that," commented Luigi in the background as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

After a short silence, the speaker intended to make his point even more firm. "You Koopalings are supposed to be evil villains! Not a bunch of embarrassing actors inspired by oriental ideas of entertainment! Now do your evil duty, and rescue the doctor as he is our fellow evildoer!"

"What," asked everyone previously fighting in the cavern astonishingly.

Emerging from the cavern wall Yoshi rocketed him at, Metal Sonic came right upfront the seeming leader of the Koopalings with clenched fists. "What is the meaning of this," he asked unimpressed. "First you humiliate me, now you have the nerve to ally with us, especially at a moment where it's abundantly clear that you're not needed or wanted?"

"On the contrary, my arrogantly self-proclaimed mayor of the palace, this team up may yet prove to be interesting," Eggman contradicted over the Death Egg's speaker in interest before sternly addressing the Koopalings. "I bid you Koopalings welcome to our little battle, for now."

"Finally," cheered the dark brown Koopaling as the seven moved around Metal Sonic. "Let's crush some vermin!"

"I have a better idea, Morton," replied the skinniest of the bunch with a sadistic smile as he and his fellows revealed their scepters. "Let's roast them."

Pointing their wands together, six of the rogues proceeded to fire blasts of energy at the twelve heroes. The latter group made attempts to dodge their opponents' attack which blasted some robots instead. Meanwhile, the shortest Koopaling used his wand to conjure four large, star-patterned purple bombs which he then threw into the cavern's ceiling. However, this did not go unnoticed to Vector.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing," he yelled in a running blaze towards the circus lover before the latter acrobatically jumped straight and punched him in the face. Falling on his back from the punch, the crocodile was helped back on his feet by Big before they each glanced at the short Koopa running to his fellows and then towards the ceiling where they slack-jawed noticing the emplaced bombs.

"Are those..." Big tried to ask Vector in his own scared way.

"Yep," Vector replied just as concerned.

"Then that means..."

"Yep."

Sharing dumbfounded glances, and hearing an equally worried croak from Froggy who was held tight around his friend's waist with the latter's belt, they started running back to the Star Cruiser yelling warnings to their friends.

"Run away, people! Bombs in the ceiling! Got to get out!"

"Say what now," asked a distracted Diddy as he continued to dodge the magical attacks before he got carried away by Donkey when he and the others realized what the commotion was about.

"Bombs," Eggman sputtered over the speaker in surprised outrage. "What's all this about, turtles?!"

As Eggman complained, the Koopalings and their airship quickly moved into the still open hatch of the Death Egg with Metal Sonic following suit as the twelve heroes retreated to their own mode of transportation as fast as they could. Quickly arriving into the safety of the caved space station's interior with his companions and airship, the apparent leader began to generate electricity within the palms of his hands before placing them on the metallic floor as the hatch behind them closed shut.

"Trust us, Doctor, you won't regret this," the wild haired Koopaling half-promised as the Death Egg and everyone in it quickly disappeared in a flash. But not before leaving enough electric current to lit the bomb fuses in the ceiling.

[TE]

Just when Sonic and his friends both old and new thought it couldn't get anymore daunting, the bombs exploded in a fierce blast sending countless rock and tumbling water to engulf the underground valley and the panicking Badniks abandoned by Eggman just when they are arrived in the Star Cruiser.

"Whoa," screamed the team at their predicament.

Wasting no time, Mario at the front quickly took the controls and piloted the cruiser as fast as he could. The Valley fading into the waters over it and his passengers at an increasingly panicked level, Mario could feel his own heart pumping as he piloted the vessel at a direct course to their prior entrance, never once slowing down until they finally escaped to the surface. Gazing at their surroundings, they noticed the Bowser rock carving collapse into the sea below, the valley it guarded a fleeting memory now. Silence took the Star Cruiser's passengers for a time before Amy asked her love interest an amused, yet startled, question.

"Uh, Sonic... can you please stop hugging my waist?"

This got everyone's attention, and they saw the blue hedgehog tightly holding his pink counterpart closely in a timid sort of way before he recognized what was going on and let go. Noticing the still present gazes on him, Sonic quickly attempted to regain his usual demeanor. "I wanted to make sure Amy didn't panic too much," he said with a smile. "I knew all along we'd make it."

Knuckles chuckled and exchanged knowing looks with Vector and Espio. "Too bad there wasn't a camera," he whispered.

"I heard that," barked Sonic.

Feeling something grabbing hold to his own body, Mario saw his brother holding him closely as well.

"Luigi," he stated both knowingly and firmly.

"Sorry, Bro," apologized the man in green as he let go.

"I guess what happened there wasn't exactly a good way for good people to die," stated Big on the obvious subject.

"True," deadpanned everyone else.

"Vector, I suppose you have an inkling of what happened there," asked Espio to his partner in detective work. "That felt too chaotic, even by our standards."

"I'll say," agreed Dixie.

Vector began to think it over. As he mentally put the pieces together, Metal Sonic's seemingly open transmission to the Death Egg which occurred after his unseen confrontation with Ludwig, Kalypso, and Wario did not sound so coincidental. "I think we've been played."

"If Bozo tried to send us to our watery graves, he clearly failed," Sonic said trying to act smug.

"But it still scared you stiff," reminded a teasing Knuckles as Sonic glared at him.

"Who says that we were his targets," Vector commented grimly.

[TE]

For a time, Eggman couldn't believe his eyes. Apparently, the wild haired Koopaling, now known to him as Ludwig after a short introduction and explanation, used some sort of electric teleportation power of his to transport the Death Egg and all beings carbon-based and artificial to a volcanic wasteland of darkness that reeked of a foreboding atmosphere the evil genius in him found both terrifying and beautiful. Looking outside as it were through the Death Egg's surveillance system in his office, Eggman and Cubot learned that the Death Egg was placed only miles away from a busying city of neon lights that stood in front of a volcano entombed castle.

"This place is both cool and spooky," reviewed Cubot in a mix of both awe and fear. While Eggman didn't have any actual love for his simple-minded creation, Orbot and Metal Sonic were occupied with guiding the Koopalings and their young superior on a permitted tour of his fortress, and the doctor needed some help in evaluating their current situation.

"For once, I agree with you," replied Eggman, betraying little concern of their surroundings when he was in fact more wary of their rescuers. He didn't need an I.Q. of three-hundred, which he had, to get the feeling there was more to these Koopas then they let on.

Before he could continue on this train of thought, Prince Bowser Jr. arrived with a devious smile on his face. "My dad, the Evil King of Evil Kings himself, wishes to speak with you."

"As he wishes," Eggman answered after a brief, dubious eye contact with the Prince.

"That's right," bellowed a gruffer voice as a far more older and larger lookalike of Junior entered the office. "I'm not an emperor for nothing, as you'll all see."

Seeing Cubot quickly backing up from the fearsome creature, Eggman left his chair to appraise his smirking guest one way or another.

"So, you are the great and powerful ruler of this land, eh," he asked in a purposefully mocking tone which earned an angry frown from both father and son.

"And you must be the most oblivious ingrate of a scientist I've ever met," the elder Bowser replied with his arms folded.

Not having the slightest tolerance for an insult himself, Eggman scowled and engaged into a stare down with his rescuer.

"I'll have you know I was fully capable of rescuing myself without the assistance of your so called forces, Your Majesty. If you're such an indomitable leader, why would you send something as pitiful as a squad of child soldiers, instead of perhaps a more intimidating general of yours? Assuming you have one. I only accepted their unneeded help to see what opportunities awaited me, but it seems I was mistaken."

"Oh, boy," Cubot muttered to himself before covering his eyes with his hands. "I'm so scrapped."

"Am I to assume you look down on my son and wards because they remind you of the constant times Sonic and his similarly aged buddies kicked your pompous behind," Bowser asked. "My mental interrogation of Shadow the Hedgehog was most successful in partially understanding your Earth and a lot of things about it, including the overweight brat in an old man's body named Ivo Robotnik."

"Oh, my word," Eggman exaggerated as if he were in a soap opera. "You have Shadow in your custody and got a handful of information from him? Then you should know that I'm most definitely the most qualified in destroying him for good, you pathetic soup ingredient!"

Steam began to emerge from Bowser's nostrils as if he were about to breathe fire. "Don't test me, Human. I have more than enough power to make you wish you were never born."

Seeing how things would get, Eggman took out a ray gun from within his jacket to prepare for the fight ahead. "Do your worse."

"So much for diplomacy," Junior commented smugly at the standoff. "Too bad there's no popcorn here."

The confrontational mood went on in silence for a few moments before Eggman started chuckling followed by Bowser until they were laughing heartily to both Junior and Orbot's confusion.

"What just happened," Cubot asked an equally bewildered Koopa prince. "Since when do people become friends after exchanging mean words with each other?"

Junior thought about it for a moment before answering the question. "Tough Guy-ology."

"What?"

"It's something Morton and Roy use to describe their attitudes. Pretty much, my papa and your maker were trash talking each other to show how restrained they were from killing each other. Now, they respect each other. More or less."

"Oh, okay," eventually replied the robot.

The laughter subsiding soon enough, Bowser and Eggman regarded each other with more accommodating looks.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's skip to proper introductions," said Eggman as he took his right hand out for a shake. "I am Doctor Ivo Robotnik, but I also go by Eggman of my Eggman Empire as a sign of how powerful one who has been mocked can become."

"King Bowser Koopa Sr., my fellow bringer of crime and mayhem," said the shaking Bowser. "I had feeling you'd be a significant help to my plans to conquer this universe and the ones surrounding it, so my faithful son and students brought you to Dark Land and to me. Alas, the first Chaos Emerald we could find was taken by a money grubby nuisance I know as Wario. His more goody two-shoed cousins and their friends who I despise even more were helping your own nuisances in the underground valley." He then adopted a sly, conspiratorial smile. "I don't know about your world, but I have an old, old, old proverb here that states those with a common enemy should team up."

Eggman adopted a similar look with a chuckle. "Couldn't have said it better myself, partner."

The remark raised an eyebrow of Bowser's before he shook Eggman's hand again. "Good then. I'll send my techno posse to help with your repairs, then I'll introduce you to my commanding council where you can make a good first impression on the troops, my fiendish comrade."

"I look forward to it, my liege," bowed Eggman as Bowser and his son took their leave.

Relaxing for the first time in what seemed like forever, Cubot approached his creator. "At least we made friends, Boss. That's a good sign."

"Indeed," smiled Eggman in a far more devious fashion. "If this pays off as I think it will, I'll have my revenge on Sonic, everything that my gaze falls on will be mine as well, and best of all, I'll get to pull off that palace coup I always wanted."

The doctor guffawed almost hysterically until a confused Cubot interrupted, "Wait, a palace coup?" He then asked, "Why would you want to make a castle for chickens?"

The dumbstruck look on Eggman's face was quickly replaced with anger as he kicked Cubot into a nearby book shelf. "Idiot," he barked. "At least Metal Sonic knows how to grasp the inner workings of an intelligent conversation!" He yelled one last order to the shaken robot covered in books as began to leave, "Clean up this mess! And if I see one book out of it's proper position, you'll be recycled into a coffee machine!"

[TE]

Bowser Jr. and his father had left Eggman's office several feet behind them before the young prince decided to confide what was on his mind.

"I don't get it, Papa," he said. "You said that if he wouldn't play ball with us, we'd crack his shell and feed the yolky stuff to Petey Piranha. Why change your mind? The guys and I put a lot of effort in letting it look like we came to rescue him."

Bowser patted his son on the head before giving his answer. "He's a smug fool, but he's still smart enough to be of assist." His smile then took a wicked form of its own. "At least until we don't need him anymore."

[TE]

To be continued

[TE]

Behind the scenes

[TE]

Sorry it took so long, everybody. The last year of high school was distracting, even without the other preoccupations. In the mean time, I expanded my interests and gave myself a new name here on . I was inspired by Eggman's password scene in the Archie comics where he used Epsilon-Gamma-Gamma to open a door where he was still super crazy. I thought it was a good way to explain why Metal Sonic still works for him and shows that, even in his genuine funny moments, he's still something of a monster. Maybe not like Black Doom and Dimentio, but enough to hurt others and occasionally take pride in it.

I also figured that Sonic holding Amy in fear of being drowned was also good of showing how much he cares for her as a friend and that he also get's scared. I hope no one was disappointed in the true purpose of the trap, and that you all can understand why I had Bowser and Eggman met like they did. It seemed logical and more awesome to have them test each other to see if they were worthy of each other's cooperation before teaming up, and that they'd eventually try to double-cross each other when the time was right. Thus is the nature of evil beings such as them.

I haven't thought much on my Sly Cooper story, but I have been thinking this month that I should make a chapter centered on the antagonists for a change. Also, I know this may not look like game material, given how effective I portrayed Bowser and his people, but in my opinion, a written fan fiction should be treated like a novel or a short descriptive story depending on the setting, but still shown as best as the writer can manage. Finally, while I know the guys at Japan prefer to have Yoshi as gender neutral or something like that, I just thought I'd explain how he works the egg thing and deals with it. My Mom said it was funny and I felt bad that I didn't have him fight before.

Chapter Text

Awareness Bringer: I guess I should start with an apology with how late I've been in updating this story. I don't intend to abandon it, of course, I'm just insanely preoccupied with different ideas and obligations among other things.

Mario: I completely understand. It's-a bit hard in moving from point A to point B, after all.

Awareness Bringer: Thanks. I just thought I'd send this out to let my readers know that I haven't died or abandoned this story, and that I would appreciate some help.

Sonic: Hopefully, you'll get the attention you need.