Group one consists of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, Kirby, Falco, and Pichu. This is up here for both of us...
Chapter 3: Army
The Pleiades landed safely on a floating land mass. Scattered across the land was scrap junk parts for robots to be made from, along with old recognizable parts that were smashed and looked like they had been involved in a large battle. The air was cold and impure tainted with pollution coming from a large factory that was in the distance. This land used to be contained within the Sword Ship Exor. However upon Smithy's defeat Exor vanished and this land drifted through space uninhabited.
"This place brings back memories..." said Bowser inhaling the air only to begin coughing a few seconds later. "A lot of bad memories. My castle took months to repair."
"I know I wasn't kidnapped for nearly half a year." Peach said. "That was so nice, for once The Mushroom Kingdom's economy was comparable to other countries."
"It's been too long." Mario replied. "I thought this place was destroyed with Smithy."
"It should have been." Peach replied. The three of them were reminiscing about their battle with Smithy. Who had attacked the Mushroom Kingdom before and destroyed the Star Road. Those days and that grand adventure. When they came here for the endgame, they were determined to defeat Smithy and restore peace to the land. And when the final blow was dealt everything began to collapse. Mario, Bowser, Princess Peach, Mallow, and Geno ran out of there with out looking back. Since then they never thought of coming back here. "We won't get anywhere by standing here. Lets move on."
They began to walk towards the factory however a large body of liquid that blocked their way. "Its oil..." Pichu said after putting his paw in it. "How far does it go around?"
"Lets find out!" Bowser laughed breathing fire down into the oil. Instantly it was ignited and spread quickly across the floating landmass. They looked around and it seemed that nearly every place was set ablaze. "All of the oil here connects, its nothing more than a blazing hell."
"So how can we get to the factory?" Pichu wondered.
"We can wait for it to burn out." Bowser said.
"That will take too long!" Peach reminded him. "We can just walk over there." She pointed towards a rather convenient bridge that was built over the oil.
"That was my second plan," Bowser muttered as they walked towards the bridge. The bridge was metal just like the rest of the floating land mass. Eventually they got to the factory, and in front of them were two large doors. Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Falco, and Yoshi pushed open the door as Peach, Pichu, and Kirby watched.
They began to walk into the factory. At nearly every corner they were expecting to be ambushed. Mario was leading the way using a fireball to illuminate the path. Pichu and Luigi were visibly shaking in fear and their teeth were chattering, while Falco had drawn his gun and constantly aimed into the darkness. Kirby and Peach just walked in the middle without a care in the world. Yoshi was at the back looking at the darkness and occasionally smelling the air. Bowser was right beside Yoshi.
Pichu suddenly sneezed. Everyone jumped and after realizing what had happened they glared down at him. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "Its just the dust around here."
For the first time they all looked at the ground. It was covered in a thin blanket of dust and this would have been enough to convince everyone that no one had been here for a long time. Only their footprints were on the dust. However with all of them silent they could hear a faint humming coming from deeper in the factory. They all jumped to a logical conclusion of someone else was here, something was running in the factory, and there were probably more than the one entrance they came through.
They progressed through the factory, Pichu sneezed several more times. Each time he was glared at. With each sneeze it was almost as if their hearts all simultaneously stopped, and it would be a few seconds before they were ambushed. Realizing that they wouldn't be attacked they continued onwards until the next sneeze and repeated the process. "So much for trying to sneak in quietly." Bowser moaned.
"That was never really our plan anyways." Mario reminded Bowser.
They continued along the hallways. Each of them getting more and more anxious as they approached the humming. Eventually they reached two large doors metal doors. Bowser pushed them but he was unable to move them.
"They appear to be welded shut." Falco sighed, across his one eye was a scanner that had scanned the door, it was a miniature version of Samus' that Dr. Mario had created. Bowser began to breath fire upon the door and it eventually began to heat up. Bowser stopped breathing on the door and Kirby spat some water at it. With a single touch the door shattered. They walked through the door. Each of them in shock at what they saw.
In front of them was an assembly line for Machine Mades. However it was fully functional. "I thought everything stopped production when Smithy was destroyed!" Mario said shocked.
"Do you think that this was the same place that the Death Egg was made?" Peach asked.
"It's a possibility." Falco replied beginning to scan the place. "But there has to be someone here if this place is operational. It can't be fully run by robots, what if they break down?" he grabbed his gun and quickly changed the settings so that it was set to the equivalent of an Electromagnetic Pulse. Everyone got ready to attack at any time. They walked down the assembly line. Watching as how a machine made was constructed. From the body to the circuits and wires being soldered together.
From his pocket Falco pulled out several remote controlled mines. "We have to blow this place up and put a dent in their plans." Falco said. "I've also packed some C4." Falco motioned to Kirby who spat out several bricks of C4. "This is C4, while it isn't the most powerful explosive in the universe it certainly will put a large dent in this facility. It can be molded like clay however it is very susceptible to heat. So Mario, Bowser you better be careful."
"Why C4?" Peach asked.
"My current plan involves placing the C4 around the facility with these remote controlled mines. Once we have gotten all of the information that we need we will remotely start the countdown that will be 1 hour. Hopefully we will be able to escape. If not this scanner is constantly recording everything and sending it back to Master Hand so that he knows what happened."
Everyone nodded. "So should we split up?" Mario asked.
"To plant the C4 as quickly as possible, yes. However if there are others here splitting up may be a little dangerous." Falco replied. "Since there are 8 of us we can split up into 4 groups of 2 or 2 groups of 4."
"4 groups of 2 should work a lot faster." Mario said. "1 of us will keep watch while the other one will plant the bombs."
"Perfect!" Bowser laughed. "So I get to go with Peach!"
"Not happening." Falco replied. "Kirby is going with Peach."
"What?" Bowser moaned.
"That's right, Kirby and Peach will be going together, Bowser you and Mario will go together, Luigi and Yoshi, and finally Pichu and myself."
"What?" Bowser shouted outraged. "Who died and made you boss?"
"I'm just saying what has to be done. If you go with Peach odds are you won't be able to concentrate on our goal!" Falco snapped. "In any case, one of us in our groups should apply the bombs and C4, while the other keeps a look out. Location for the bombs probably doesn't matter. This whole place is likely filled with oil. Once that is ignited, it will probably destroy a good chunk of this factory."
Everyone nodded and went away. "Why did you choose the groups like this?" Pichu asked.
"The strong must protect the weak, and the weak must protect the strong." Falco replied. "We are only as strong as our weakest member. That and knowing Bowser he wouldn't get the work done if he was around Peach."
Mario and Bowser were walking along the dusty corridors. All of the walls seemed the same, just dark colors and no way to tell if they were walking around in circles. "Why do I have to be with you?" Bowser asked.
"Its probably just so that you actually get the work done and don't spend your time flirting with Peach."
"Curses." Bowser moaned.
"I'm not too keen on this particular grouping together either." Mario sighed. "Ah well it could be worse."
"How so?" Bowser asked partly intrigued at how this could actually be any worse from his perspective.
Mario grabbed some of the C4 and placed it against a surface and placed a timer in it. "Well, I could be working with someone who wants me dead."
"And how do you know that I won't betray you or kill you right now?" Bowser wondered, as he cracked his knuckles to look intimidating.
"We have been living together for the past few months. I'm sure if you wanted to you would have all ready."
"True," Bowser replied. "Mind you that you know as well as I do that once Giga Bowser is released from his seal and we kill him this truce is off and you're dead!"
"Sure..." Mario couldn't help but laugh. "I know as much as the next guy that once we finally do kill Giga Bowser you will have a brief mercy period and let me go but threaten that 'the next time we meet you're dead.' Besides, whose to say that both of us will still be alive when Giga Bowser is killed."
"I hate you," Bowser muttered.
Mario ignored Bowser and placed the next piece of C4 down. This continued for a while until they got to their last bit of C4. They were in the heart of the factory and they placed it down. "And that's that," Bowser laughed. "Lets meet up with the others now."
Mario however wasn't as calm. "I think we are being followed." He said.
"By who? We would of been able to hear them or feel their presence."
"I don't think they are alive. I think we should of checked if some of these Machine Mades were still active." They were quiet and suddenly they could hear the synchronized footsteps of about 10 Machine Mades approaching them slowly.
"Just like old times fighting Smithy isn't it?" Bowser asked.
Mario didn't respond. Though if he had to guess he thought Bowser was rather happy reminiscing. They both stared at the Machine Mades and charged forwards.
Luigi and Yoshi were walking down another part of the factory. Both of them seemed rather calm. They stopped and placed the C4 bomb onto a pillar that looked like it supported the whole factory. "This place is as creepy as Mario said it was." Luigi said.
Yoshi quickly nodded in agreement. Luigi had never been here before and was rather perplexed as to why he thought Master Hand thought he had been. They placed the second bit of C4 with out any problems. However when they were walking down a hallway they suddenly heard several footsteps walking towards them. Panicking both Yoshi and Luigi ran deeper into the factory. Everything about the factory now seemed so menacing. Every robot seemed like it could come to life at any second.
Some even began to turn on and reach for the two. Panicking Yoshi threw an egg at one causing it to explode. Eventually Yoshi and Luigi were cornered. "I'm going out fighting!" Yoshi shouted summoning his Weapon of Heart. Luigi held out his hand in front of him. It sparked with electricity.
The two stared at several Machine Mades that marched in front of them. 'I have to be strong!' Luigi told himself. With that Yoshi began to fire eggs with his Weapon of Heart. Luigi rushed towards the Machine Mades. Every time his thunder hand touched a Machine Made the electricity would rip through it as though it was paper. Due to the overwhelming amount of Machine Mades Luigi had to use his thunder hand with both hands. He rushed towards the machines and defeated half of them. Luigi however soon learned the flaw of his technique; because it was rather powerful it took a rather large amount of energy to sustain. Something Luigi didn't have.
The sparks at his hands eventually died down, and Luigi fell down unconscious from exhaustion. With Luigi out of the way it was only a matter of minutes before they were able to rush at Yoshi, and knock him out.
Falco and Pichu were walking along. "Thanks for choosing me on your team." Pichu meekly said.
"I knew if we left it up for everyone else, you wouldn't have been chosen." Falco replied. Pichu just began to sulk. "But in any case we have a job to do."
"Destroy this place with C4." Pichu replied happily. Falco considered giving some C4 to Pichu but feared that his electrical discharges would kill them both. He considered placing the C4 however he realized that Pichu would then be in charge of guarding him. If an enemy did show up he would be, quite frankly, screwed.
Falco was constantly looking around, never once dropping his guard. He could have sworn that he had heard someone shout something earlier but he dismissed it as his mind playing tricks on him. After they placed the first C4 bomb they began to get the feeling that they were being followed.
"I get the feeling that we are being followed." Pichu whispered.
Falco reached up for the scanner around his eye and began to scan the area. "My scanner hasn't picked up any life."
"I really hate to point out the obvious." Pichu sighed. "But seeing as how we are in a factory for robots, it just might be slightly possible that they were activated and are following us, and since they are robots and not actually alive they would be able to avoid your scanner picking them up."
Falco instantly pushed a few buttons on his scanner. "I switched it to pick up electricity now..." Falco stared into the distance where he saw a large group slowly walking towards them. "Run!" Falco shouted. Both he and Pichu bolted out of there. However it wasn't long until they found themselves surrounded by thousands of Machine Mades.
The two of them rushed towards the machines. It was only a matter of minutes before they were both overpowered and knocked unconscious.
Kirby and Peach were walking around. Kirby was quite happy as any time he felt the slightest urge of food, Princess Peach could just summon a turnip out of thin air to satisfy his hunger. Peach however was leading Kirby into the deepest part of the factory "Why are we going so deep into the factory?" Kirby asked.
"I want to check something out." Peach replied rather calmly.
Eventually they got to the very heart of the factory where there was a giant hole in the ground. "Its down here." Peach said jumping down and using her umbrella to slowly descend. Kirby followed. They landed in a pit full of broken Machine Mades painted red and welded together. In the middle was a giant body of a machine. Suddenly they smelt a strong overpowering stench.
"What is that foul stench?" Kirby asked.
"It smells like something rotting. Lets get out of here quickly." Peach looked up at Smithy's body and walked up to it. "Smithies body is destroyed." She muttered placing her hand against the metallic surface.
"This guy was Smithy?"
"Yes, Mario, Bowser, and two other warriors by the name of Mallow and Geno along with myself. We fought against Smithy to take back the Mushroom Kingdom. He was a truly cruel monster."
"So this is all that remains?"
"Yes we fried his circuits. All he thought about was war, and destruction. Who ever made him was a sick and twisted monster."
"So why did we come down here?" Kirby asked.
"I was hoping to find out who was making all of these Machine Mades, but Smithy is still destroyed beyond all repair. Lets set up the C4 here." They began to place the C4 around the room. "The least we can do is if there was a small bit of humanity in this monster is we can give him a proper burial." Peach would occasionally look at the old robotic body expecting it to come to life at any moment. But it looked the same as it did all those years ago when they defeated him. Smithy's face was transfixed in horror. Unable to comprehend that he had been beaten. Holes were all around his head from where explosions had occurred.
Against her better judgment Peach inspected the mechanical monster further. She looked through several of the holes in his body. Where she expected circuits, it was only empty and hollow. She placed a C4 inside of the body and walked away. It was then that she noticed that the stench was coming from around Smithy. This confused her, but she just did her best to walk away. Nothing in this place was organic and was capable of creating such a smell. For a moment Peach thought that it was something inside of Smithy that was making such a smell, so she went back and inspected it once again.
Her eyes hadn't adjusted, and she had no light sources. So she just placed her hand in a hole. She then looked through another hole that was close by and a calm blue aura surrounded her hand. The aura barely illuminated the hollow inside of Smithy's husk. Unable to see anything she gave up trying to figure out what was making the putrid smell and walked away.
"I'm done placing all of the C4." Kirby said rushing towards her. "Lets get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps."
"Agreed." Princess Peach said. Just before they were about to depart Peach turned around and gave one look over at Smithy. His melted metal exterior gave off such a twisted expression. His hand stretched out. This was the pose that he died in, reaching out to grab them: Mario, Peach, Bowser, Geno, and Mallow. Back then they were all shocked that he still had the power to move. But a few seconds later he stopped moving and was frozen like that for the rest of time.
Suddenly they heard a loud metal sound. A sound much like metal dropping, and then scraping upon the metal below. Both Kirby and Peach turned in shock to see numerous Machine Mades falling.
"Smithy's body found." A Machine Made muttered. "Retrieve for Dark Lord!" For a brief moment all of the Machine Mades seemed more interested in the body of Smithy than Peach or Kirby.
"What's going on?" Kirby asked.
"My guess would be an override in their programming has occurred that the people who are now using this factory didn't know about. It was probably a safety that would click just incase Smithy broke down."
"But then why did they talk about the Dark Lord?" Kirby asked. Peach realized that Kirby was right and they had said something about this mysterious Dark Lord. "Were they looking for the body for a reason and that's why they were building so many Machine Mades."
"I doubt just for that reason. There would be too many for just finding Smithy's body. At one point of time they might have wanted to use them as an army."
Several Machine Mades focused their attention towards Peach and Kirby. The duo braced themselves for battle.
But just like the other groups, due to the sheer numbers on the Machine Mades side, they were overpowered and knocked unconscious.
To be continued...
