Chapter 12
Invasion of Privacy

The squad entered the base. Almost immediately, two Fear-Rahkshi jumped out at them. Both Kerry and Joseph pulled out their MA-5Bs. Kerry dropped to a crouch, while Joseph fired over his head. Soon, the Rahkshi were nothing but shredded metal and pulped gore.
As the group moved on, they saw a massive door. When they got to it, Joseph gave a pull. It wouldn't budge.
"Good thing I brought a key," he mumbled, unsheathing Onukra-Nui. Kerry held out a hand to stop him.
"We do it my way first."
Kerry walked to the door and, standing next to the hinge, knocked loudly. He stood silently and waited.
The door opened, and a raspy Shadow Matoran voice asked, "Yes?"
Kerry slammed the door on him, sending the poor creature flying. He opened the door, shaking his head. "They don't make doormen like they used to."
They filed in. They appeared to be in a prison. Kerry saw many creatures imprisoned in stasis fields. Not all of them were inhuman. Shadow walked over to a field where a plumber in red and blue overalls was held. He knocked on the field. The being stirred, but did not wake.
Julie looked into another. In it was a blond man in a green tunic. A sword and shield were strapped to his back, and a weird symbol was tattooed onto his left hand. It looked like three little triangles were being used to make one large triangle.
Joseph found one that contained a small black creature with a silver facemask. A cape billowed behind him, an image of bat wings sewn into the fabric. He wore shoulder pauldrons, the left having an insignia of an M with a sword through the middle, making an N.
Kerry saw that one of the fields had a conscious prisoner. A beautiful female in a blue bodysuit. Purple markings covered her back and chest. He cocked his head at her and mouthed, "Why are you here?"
She just shook her head and pointed at a control panel in the middle of the room. Kerry looked at it and saw, in Matoran, the words Release Controls above it. He went to it and selected pods MM-294, LHT-475, MK-853, and SA-010.
As one, the stasis pods the team had been studying cut out. Shadow caught the plumber before he hit the ground. Julie jumped out of the way as the man in the tunic fell in front of her. As the pod opened, the black being Joseph was studying opened his eyes and teleported away. The woman in front of Kerry landed gracefully in front of him.
Kerry asked her, "Who are you?"
The woman simply said, "Samus."
Kerry looked around. Shadow was slapping the plumber across the face, and Julie was trying to coax the man awake. Shadow woke his up first.
"Mama mia…" the plumber muttered, "What happened?"
"Take it easy, my friend," Shadow implored, "You were imprisoned."
The plumber shook his head. "Shadow? Where am I?"
Kerry walked over. "You're in an alternate dimension. My guess is Vexorn and Eggman are trying to rid the dimensions of heroes."
He held his hand out, "My name's Kerry, from HaloEarth. Yours?"
The plumber held out his hand. "Mario Mario, from the Mushroom Kingdom."
Julie had succeeded in waking the green man. He sat up and held his head.
Julie asked, concerned, "Are you alright?"
The man nodded.
Julie pressed on, "What's your name? Where are you from?"
He paused, and in a voice that sounded like it had never been used before, said, "My…name…Link. From…Hyrule."
Julie smiled, "Well, Link, if you go stand by the short plumber over there, we'll tell you what happened."
Link nodded and walked over to Mario.
Joseph looked around frantically. "Where'd he go!?"
A whooshing sound came from behind him. He turned and saw the small black being standing there.
Joseph tentatively asked, "Who're you?"
The creature responded in a slight Spanish accent, "Meta Knight, from Dream Land. What happened?"
Kerry walked over to him. "You were captured by Dr. Eggman and the Makuta Vexorn. Do any of you know who we are?"
Mario nodded, "We know Shadow. When the Hands forced us to fight each other, they turned Shadow into a trophy for use during the fights."
Kerry cocked his head, puzzled. Shadow looked at him with a look that said "Later."
"Okay," Joseph started, "Who's gonna help us?"
Mario nodded. Link raised his sword in assent. Meta Knight simply grunted.
Kerry turned toward the last one of the group. "Samus?"
She got up from her sitting position on the floor. Energy arced over her body, and a suit of armor appeared over her body. It was orange and red, with green LEDs over certain surfaces. A cannon was fixed over her right arm.
"Now I'm ready," she stated simply.
As the group split up, Joseph asked Meta Knight, "Why don't you take off the mask?"
"I will wear it until I die. My ancestors would want it that way."
Joseph shrugged, "To each his own..."

Kerry and Samus ran north. They hit a door. Kerry opened it, and Samus ran in, clearing the room. The shooting stopped, and Samus called to Kerry, "You better get in here!"
Kerry ran in, rifle up. What he saw sent chills down his spine.
Multiple stasis tanks, all of varying sizes, were housed in this room. Kerry saw many different creatures housed in these tanks. A giant penguin with a hammer. A large bionic dragon. Even something that looked like a dinosaur with a spiked turtle shell. Kerry cocked his head at this one.
"Oh, my God!"
Kerry whirled, and saw Samus standing in front of two tanks, her hand on one of them. Kerry walked over to her, and looked at the tanks.
Each held a giant hand. The one on the left, the right hand, was floating calmly. The one on the right, the left hand, was curled up in a feral-looking position. Kerry turned to Samus.
"Who are they?"
Samus's helmet tilted down, and her helmet lost cohesiveness and disappeared. Her eyes were closed. "They're the Hands. The ones that forced us to fight in that stupid tournament."
Kerry cocked his head, "Why would you care?"
She looked at him. "If they are capable of capturing the Hands, who knows what else they can do. Don't you realize what this is?"
Kerry shook his head.
Samus slammed her fist into the tank. "They are harvesting villains. That giant penguin is King DeDeDe, Meta Knight's enemy. That turtle, that's Bowser, the King of Koopa's. He's Mario's villain. And that dragon, that's Meta Ridley."
Kerry asked, "And who is it the enemy of?"
Samus looked down at her feet again. "Mine. He was the one who killed my parents on K-2L."
Kerry realized how hard it was for her to see her villain brought so low, so easily, by someone other than her. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Listen, I understand how it feels to have the enemy in possession of something more powerful than you. In my reality, we have an array of seven rings known as the Halos. This array is so powerful, when fired, it would wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy. The last year of the War, it was us and them fighting over them. We took the rings, but the Caretaker of the rings themselves betrayed us. He was destroyed, but not without cost."
He paused to take a breath, "What I'm saying is, even when the odds are stacked against you, there is always a chance of success."
Samus looked at him and smiled. "Thanks, I needed that."
Her helmet rematerialized. Kerry looked around at the containers. "Who do you think is safe to let out?"
Samus thought for a second. "I think DeDeDe is okay. Bowser, too."
Kerry walked over to a tank that just contained a puddle of water. "What do you think this is?"
Samus looked at it. "Scans say it is from Mobius. It is certainly emitting Chaos Energy."
Kerry commed Shadow. "Hey, what do you know about a puddle of water that emits Chaos Energy?"
There was a pause as Kerry listened to the reply. "Well, do you think it's alright to release it?"
Again, a pause. "Okay. If it give us any problems, we'll comm you."
Kerry turned to Samus. "Evidently, this is the Mobian God of Destruction, Chaos. Shadow says he is also the God of Peace, so it should be safe to release him."
Samus walked to the control terminal in the center of the room and hit three buttons. The stasis fields around DeDeDe, Bowser, and Chaos disappeared. Bowser and Dedede hit the floor hard. Chaos just kinda slopped out of the tank and scattered.
Bowser got up, clutching his head. He spoke in a voice that resembled a growl, "What happened? I remember that fat slob Eggman coming into my chambers in the castle, then nothing…"
Dedede also held his head. The penguin spoke with a South-Western accent, "Yeah, I remember the same thing. What gives?"
"We'll tell you everything, once we find Chaos," Kerry said.
A watery voice spoke out behind him, "I sense a large amount of Chaos in you, Armored One."
Kerry spun around, to see a being about Sonic's height standing before him. He was made completely out of water, and Kerry could see his brain. He had bright green eyes.
"Chaos?"
The being nodded. "Now, tell us, Armored One, why have we been taken out of our dimensions?"
Kerry nodded. "Right. Eggman and the Makuta Vexorn have been taking Heroes and Villains from most of the dimensions and draining their power. They've already drained the Hands, and started work on Ridley. If we hadn't gotten here, you would have been drained, too."
Dedede held up a hand, "Whoa, hang on just a second. You're tellin' us that they're drainin' our energy? For what?"
"That, we don't know…" Kerry stated slowly.
Bowser looked at Dedede and Chaos. "I don't know about you two, but I want some revenge!"
Dedede nodded, "I agree. Eggman's gotta pay for this."
Even Chaos believed in some kind of retribution. "Eggman released me from the Master Emerald once, and forced me to wreak havoc on Station Square. It will not happen again."
"Okay, then," Kerry stated, "We should meet up with the others in the Hero Containment Room."

As Kerry and Samus ran north toward the Villain Containment Room, Shadow and Mario ran west. After a few rooms, they came across a R.O.B. Launcher. Shadow made to move forward, but Mario grabbed his shoulder.
"No, don't," he stated, "If the R.O.B. Squad is working for Eggman, the Ancient Minister must be around here somewhere."
Shadow cocked his head, "Ancient Minister?"
Mario nodded, "The original Robotic Operating Buddy. He controls the Squad. Either Eggman got control of him, or he's keeping him as insurance for their help."
Shadow thought back for a second. "You know, there was one of those things, a white and red one, in the Containment Room."
Mario practically jumped for joy. "Yes, that's him! That's the Ancient Minister!"
Suddenly, a chirp was heard over Shadow's comm. He put a finger to his ear.
"Shadow here…wait, a puddle of water that's emitting Chaos energy? Sounds like Chaos, the god of destruction…It should be, he's now a peace god. Sonic helped him with that…alright. Bye."
He looked at Mario. "C'mon, let's go find the Ancient Minister"
The two headed back to the Hero Containment Room. Shadow located the proper tank, Unit FR-101, Mario hit the release button.
The Ancient Minister's eyes flared red for a second, then reverted to black. He turned to Mario.
"Hello, Mario."
Mario tipped his hat.
The Ancient Minister turned to Shadow, "Who are you?"
Shadow grunted, "My name is Shadow the Hedgehog."
The Ancient Minister's voice took on a more robotic tone, and his eyes turned green, "SCANNING. SUBJECT: SHADOW. SPECIES: CROSS BREED OF BLACK ARMS AND HEDGEHOG. UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED IN SUBJECT. NEAREST READINGS MATCH: SUPER SONIC."
His eyes turned back to black. "There, now the R.O.B. Squad should see you as a friendly."
Mario looked at his feet, "Yeah, about that…"
The Ancient Minister's head swiveled toward him. "About what?"
Mario looked at him sadly. "We think that Eggman managed to find a way to circumvent your control of the R.O.B. Squad. They are patrolling this base as guards."
The Ancient Minister's eyes flashed white, and he looked down at his propulsion unit, "No, that can't be. I have absolute control."
Shadow muttered something in the background. The Ancient Minister looked at him, and his eyes flashed red. "You have a comment, Shadow?"
Shadow drew himself up to his full height, which was still a bit smaller than the Minister. "Yeah. I said if you have absolute control, how did Tabuu take over your island, when you easily could have wiped him out? How did Ganondorf force the R.O.B. Squad to detonate those bombs, even after you ordered them not to? In my opinion, you're just another machine with a god complex!"
The Minister moved straight up to Shadow, his arms in a fighting stance. "Don't ever, EVER, mention that event again! Many of my allies, my friends, died during that war! Do you have any idea how that feels?!"
Shadow got right up to the Minister's face. "Don't think for one second that you're the only one who has things they wish they could take back! Because of me, an entire space station was wiped out! Countless civilians were killed so G.U.N. could eliminate a 'threat to humanity'! Maria, my friend, was shot in cold blood as she helped me escape! An entire city was destroyed, our president nearly killed, just so Black Doom could transport his Comet to Earth, because of deal made during my creation! In a future that I helped erase, I was responsible for the release of a demon creature that destroyed the world! I nearly killed everyone! Don't you dare, not for one minute, think that you have a monopoly on bad memories!"
By this time, Shadow's black fur had tinted red, and his eyes were bloodshot. An aura of red surrounded him. The Ancient Minister moved back, stunned. His eyes cycled yellow, and he looked down at his propulsion unit. Shadow got control of his anger, and turned to leave. As he was halfway across the room, he heard R.O.B. speak. "Shadow…"
Shadow stopped, and turned his head slightly in the direction of the Minister. The motion did not go unnoticed by the robot.
"I'm sorry…about Maria. Really, I am. I realize we all have problems, but those are the past. We need to focus on the now. Can we just start over?"
Shadow paused for a second, considering the robot's words. Finally, he responded.
"Don't slow me down."

When the three got to the place where the Launcher was, it had moved on. They went forward. Soon, they found a computer room. Shadow immediately turned to his two allies.
"If either of you dare say 'computer room', I swear to God I will kill us all right now."
Mario gulped. The Minister simply nodded, and moved to a terminal. He jacked into it, and his eyes turned purple.
An alarm blared. Suddenly, doors all around them opened. R.O.B. Squad members filed into the room. The Minister turned his head toward the doors.
"What's going on!?"
Shadow turned to him. "You're buddies here are trying to kill us!"
His eyes flashed blue. The R.O.B. Squad all turned to look at him. Their eyes flashed the same color for a split second, then flashed back to red.
Shadow dodged a rocket and looked toward the Minister. "What the hell did you do?!"
The Minister shook his head. "I can't control them! I don't think these are mine!"
Mario ducked under a laser. "We'll keep em busy! See if you can see what they're doing here!"
The Minister nodded and turned back to the terminal.
Shadow jumped out of the way of a Gyro, and Chaos Backhanded a Sentry. He whirled, and with a flash of energy, Chaos Speared two more. Three of the Launchers saw him, and opened fire.
Skating towards them, his hands wreathed in Chaos energy, he quickly deflected all three missiles and double-fist punched a hole clean through the middle Launcher. Violently pulling his hands out to the sides, he damaged the other two's rocket ability. He finished with a Chaos Launcher that sent them flying.
While this was going on, Mario was dealing with his own problems. He fireballed two of the Launchers, then Tornadoed another. As one of the sentries closed in, he crouched, and then unleashed a Super Jump Punch. He turned, and seeing a missile, whacked it with his cape. The missile changed direction and hit the Launcher straight in the head.
As more and more started to file in, Mario and Shadow quickly realized that they would be soon outnumbered. Mario realized what he had to do.
"Shadow," he ordered, "Stay behind me!"
Shadow obliged, launching spear after spear at the R.O.B.s. Mario concentrated, focusing all his energy into his hands, until they were literally ablaze. He jumped into a launching stance.
"Oh, yes!"
He abruptly released all his power into twin streams that spiraled around each other, expanding all the while. The R.O.B.s were all caught in the inferno, and were all incinerated.
As the Mario Finale ended, Mario slumped forward. Shadow caught him, only to find out he was unconscious.
Suddenly, the Minister stated in a monotone, "DOWNLOAD: COMPLETE."
Mario slung over his shoulder, Shadow walked over to him.
"What did you find?"
The Minister unjacked from the computer and stated in shock, "You are not going to believe this."
Shadow smirked, "Test me."
"It appears as though Eggman and Vexorn are NOT in charge, as per our previous assumption. It appears a 'monitor' named Ethan is running the entire operation."
Shadow shook his head, "Not important. What are they doing here?"
"If I am analyzing this correctly, he is-"
The Minister made a gasping noise that sounded like an old computer was overheating.
"-he is using all the people stored at this facility to create an ultimate form for himself. Good thing so far he's only managed to copy one trait."
"And what would that be?"
"Meta Ridley's wings. It also says here that-"
Abruptly, he stopped. His eyes flashed red several times, and he looked to the ceiling. He let out a cry of anguish. His eyes shuttered closed, and his shoulders dropped to his base. He arms fell limp to the floor.
He was muttering, "Nononononononononono."
Suddenly, his monotone replaced his normal voice. "Core system overload. Emotional distress has caused signifigant heat damage to core CPU. Rebooting CPU."
The Minister shut down, then just as quickly came back online. Shadow walked over to him.
"You all right?"
His head slumped again. "All of them...he killed all of them...just to prove a point...what kind of monster is he?"
"What happened," Shadow demanded, "Who did who kill?"
The Minister let out a mechanical sigh. "Ethan...he killed them...my kin...just to prove a point and...force me to go with him...I had erased it from my memory, but an echo of that data remains. This revelation reawakened it."
Shadow put a hand on his shoulder. "Well, my little Robotic Operating Buddy, we must avenge your kin. Ethan has caused hell in three universes now, and will continue to do so until we kill him for good. So, in the memory of those fallen on Alpha Halo and the Ark, and of the now endangered Ancient race, and of all the people he has hurt during this folly, we will press on, and we will kill him. I swear to god."
The Ancient Minister nodded, his resolve cemented. "Shadow, just one thing..."
Shadow looked him, arms crossed. "What?"
"Call me R.O.B."