Chapter 10: Do the Mario
At dawn literally thousands of Mecha-koopas flooded across the horizon, cutting straight through the wilderness (and more accurately stomping it underfoot), heading straight for the nearest bastion of civilisation with only one goal in mind: Destruction. Conquest would come later. Right now a demonstration of power was called for. The people of this world needed an education in respect and fear for their Koopa superiors.
A short distance ahead of the approaching army, Shadow the Hedgehog detached the second ring bracelet and handed both to Tails. The accessories' simple appearance was decieving. They were products of super-advanced technology, invented to prevent the Ultimate Lifeform from becoming overpowered and burning out. So remarkable were the creations of Professor Gerald Robotnik that present day technology was still failing to catch up, over fifty years later.
Mario didn't quite get what was going on. He'd agreed to stay behind and not get involved in the fight unless something went wrong. To contain the alien influence it was best to allow the champions of this world to deal with the matter in their own way.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Shadow?" asked Tails.
"No," said the black hedgehog. "But it has to be done."
Unforeseen problems were a guarantee now for the heroes, because a certain Koopaling that found herself lost in the middle of nowhere yesterday had come across the Mecha-koopa army as they marched during the night. Her ego wouldn't allow her to walk past a Koopa force that powerful without taking charge and taking credit, so she'd mounted a robot and joined the attack.
Mario and Tails watched Shadow kick into speed, his body burning with a dark red glow. Crossing the vast distance in seconds, he shot into the silvery army like a fireball at a bowling alley. The two watched the impressive display for about thirty seconds before the explosions suddenly ceased, and the army started to march again as if nothing had happened. It had all gone down too far away and with too many Mecha-koopas in the way for either Tails or Mario to make out what'd happened to Shadow.
They looked at each other. Then, without a word, they started running towards the robots. When they clashed, it came down to years of experience fighting robots and Koopas, respectively, and the fierce fighting happened more based on instinct than conscious strategy...
Mario slid between the metal maws, paused for a second to let them draw breath, then jumped out of the way as they sprayed intense flames, causing the bots to melt each other down. Tails spun around fast, turning his tails into makeshift whips, which knoced the Mecha-koopas off their feet. Mario ran past his furry new friend, grabbed a stunned robot by its tail, jumped, and threw the Mecha-koopa with enough force to smash a quartet of robots. A flying Mecha-koopa nearly fried Tails, but the fox spotted it in time, and smacked a detached robot head like a soccer ball, knocking the flying Mecha-koopa out of the air. Mario's whirlwind spin, extended by the length of a stunned Mecha-koopa in each hand, was clearing a wide space through the army. The brief respite gave Tails a chance to pull a screwdriver out of his shoe and make some quick minor alterations to the flying robot he'd shot down.
Wendy O Koopa had had just about enough. First some upstart porcupine tried to get the way, forcing her to dirty her hands by paralyzing it with the power of her wand, and now that stupid plumber and his pet fox were in the process of ruining everything. They hadn't seen her yet, but that was going to change right now!
Tails banged the side of his MacGyvered flamethrower to get it going. The powerful flame that shot out was enough to melt the armour plating of the nearby Mecha-koopas, causing their internal combustion engines to explode. Unfortunately, the Mecha-flamethrower was really hard to hold onto while it was spewing fire at full force. When the infuriated Koopaling jumped on top of the pile of trashed Mecha-koopas and fired a bolt of glowing energy from the tip of her wand, scorching the ground between Tails's legs black, Tails lost his grip completely, causing the perpetually-flaming robot-turned-weapon to fly forward like a missile. Mario jumped.
Wendy advanced on the fox. "I'm going to turn you into a puddle of goo!" she promised.
The glowing wand, ready to fire off another deadly bolt, filled Tails's vision completely. She had him in point blank range. Nevertheless, Tails jumped and spun his tails into a helicopter, trying to get away. Wendy reacted faster, though, and she would've succeeded in making good on her threat if Mario, riding the Mecha-koopa missile like a surf board, hadn't rocketed into her and snatched the wand right out of her hand.
The bratty Koopaling could only watch in frustration as Mario flew around at high speed, zapping the remaining Mecha-koopas with the stolen wand, turning them into puddles of metal. She growled deep in her throat, and was likely about to let loose a tantrum of epic proportions. However, the next moment Wendy O Koopa was gone. She simply vanished without a trace.
"That was weird," Tails said after they'd cleaned up from the battle and woken up Shadow.
"It may be related to the dimensional instability," said Shadow, reattaching his golden bracelets. "If those wands work like an anchor to this world, then their removal would banish the owner."
"What do you mean?" asked Tails.
"I'm certain that Eggman and Sonic got sent to Mario's world, and possibly Metal Sonic as well. That's just three holes to fill. But if this human and eight dragon-turtles came through from there, then there's a displacement."
"So that means we can beat the Koopas by taking away their wands, right?" said Tails.
"Right. But it won't work with the last two. You'll have to send them back through the hole."
"It's a-no problem," Mario assured Shadow.
"Hmph!"