Chapter 4: Ripples in Reality
At first glance it might appear as if they Mecha-koopas were vandalising Eggman's metal fortress, but it depended on how you looked at things. From the perspective of the real King Bowser, who'd found himself in the middle of a treasure trove of futuristic technology the likes of which the Mushroom Kingdom had never dreamed of, it was interior decorating. After a lot of effort, the Mecha-koopas managed to crack open the last valve, spilling out tons of molten metal around the perimeter of the base.
"See, Junior?" said Bowser, overlooking the operation from the vantage point of the observation dome at the top of the superstructure. "A moat of lava is exactly what this place needs to be a fitting castle for us."
"It looks great, Pa!" Bowser Jr shouted in reply.
The youngest Koopaling was flying around the vast metal corridors in an Eggmobile. He'd found out right away that it was no harder to pilot than his father's Koopa Clown Car, and to his delight he also found that the control-freak creator of this place had modified the vehicle to serve as a control unit for just about everything with a circuit around here. In just the short time they'd been here, they'd been able to get the manufacturing plants running, producing hundreds of Mecha-koopas by the hour. The amazing resources of the factory had not only been able to replicate the mechanical Koopas based on Bowser's hastily-sketches blueprints, but had even improved upon the design with titanium claws, built-in flamethrowers, and advanced AI systems that made each one super-advanced compared to the original models that patrolled the castle in the Valley of Bowser, back home.
Of the Koopalings, only Junior, Ludvig and Roy had awoken along with their father in this metal fortress. There was no sign of the others, but Bowser had faith that they were fine, and wreaking havoc where they were. Ludvig, the composer, remained the intellectual of the family, and while his knowledge of sorcery couldn't compare to the Head Magikoopa Kamek, he was able to ascertain what exactly had happened when the spell went wrong.
"Simply put, the banishment spell backfired," he explained. "We've arrived in a different world, with physics that don't match our own. I've checked the library downstairs, and strangely enough, here toadstools don't give humans superpower, but poison them instead, and apparently they don't grow more than half a foot in height, compared to the tower-sized ones we have back in our world."
Similar conclusions were being reached by the boy genius fox who'd met up with Mario on the tropical plains, far away.
"So you got a message from someone named Toad, who wasn't a toad, who'd dressed up as a...a Lakitu to spy on that villain, Bowser, who was planning to cast a big bad spell that would banish his enemies from your world?" Tails summarised, and was happy to see Mario nod enthusiastically. "But, if you arrived her together with one of Bowser's kids, then the spell must've gone wrong. But...that doesn't explain why it's so hard to recognise that you're not Sonic. Unless..."
In the other world, Dr Eggman the genius scientist thought aloud in the large empty makeshift throne room of the Koopa fort, as he considered the situation he'd accidentally created through that Chaos Control catastrophe.
"That blast of raw energy cut a hole through the interdimensional barriers, carving through to the specific reality where the boundary was weakest at that precise moment in time," Eggman said, while writing down complex phycics equations on a notepad that he carried with himself at all times, just in case. "Holes in the universe itself were cut, holes in the shape of this character called 'Mario', and this turtle king, called 'Bowser'. The law of conservation of mass demanded that the newcomers to this reality would fill the holes left by the ones removed from, yes, this reality. The interdimensional barriers are trying to repair themselves naturally, that's why Sonic and I are being forced to fill the roles that are missing. According to my calculations, given enough time the dimensional hole will seal, and Sonic and I will lose all trace of our true identities, replaced with the ones enforced by this dimension How...how to prevent it?"
Ludvig von Koopa thought long and hard about the problem. Finally, he said "It must be the wands. Roy, Junior and I - we've all still got the wands we used for the spell. Magic isn't supposed to exist in this world, so to repeat the spell, we've got to get back the magic items that arrived here with us. The Ultimate Star might be here, too. Fortunately, there's no Mario to get in our way here, and we've got a shiny new army of Mecha-koopas. It'll be easy!"
Tails made up his mind. "Okay, Mario, let's go look for Sonic. I'm sure he'll help you find those Koopa people so you can get back to your own world. Trust me, Sonic has never failed to meet a challenge. It'll be easy!"
Eggman pulled the red Chaos Emerald out of his pocked at stared at it thoughtfully. "Gathering the keys to the dimensional tear, the 7 Chaos Emeralds, would give me the power to enforce my true presence in this reality, and be fully recognisable as Dr Eggman the greatest genius of all worlds, and enable me to return home. However, putting all the keys to the catastrophe together in one place a second time might inadvertently expand the tear until it causes the two dimensions to pour into one another and be swallowed up, which would probably erase both of them from existence permanently."
"This is not going to be easy."
Next: Hero of the Mushroom Kingdom