High above the clouds, higher than Cool, Cool Mountain or Mt. Mobius, was Star Haven, home of the stars. All was peaceful for the seven Star Spirits, the rulers of Star Haven. They had just foiled Bowser's plot to take over the nearby Dream Depot where dreams were made. Of course, they couldn't have done it without the help of Mario and his friends. They had a lot to thank Mario for, actually. He had reassembled the Star Road when it was destroyed by Smithy so wishes could come true and, another time, he had recovered the Star Rod, the key to granting wishes, from Bowser. However, Twink, a star child who helped Mario recover the Star Rod, was a little concerned. He had just gotten over the fear of the Beanstar being used to take over the world when Eggman showed up, making him quite worried about if Eggman should ever try to attack Star Haven. He decided the best course of action was to ask the Star Spirits about it. Nervously, Twink went up to the Star Sanctuary, where the Star Spirits resided.
"Um, Star Spirits?" Twink asked, "Aren't you guys a little worried about that Eggman guy down below? What if he tries to attack Star Haven?"
"Heh, I wouldn't worry." Muskular, one of the Star Spirits, replied, "That guy doesn't even know Star Haven exists!"
"I'm not so sure." Misstar responded, "If he's working with Bowser now, he's bound to know about Star Haven sooner or later."
"We should not worry!" Eldstar declared, "We were able to defeat Bowser with Mario's help, so we can take on whatever comes our way! Right?"
Before anyone could reply, a loud explosion was heard outside. When the seven Star Spirits (and Twink) rushed outside, they couldn't believe their eyes. Star Haven was in ruin, and lots of stars were running around in a panic. Hovering above the wreckage was a swarm of paratroopers, but something didn't seem right about them. They looked metal, and they flew with jet packs on their backs, not with their wings. While Twink ran for cover back in the Star Sanctuary, Skolar stepped forward.
"So, Bowser did decide to attack Star Haven again, huh?" he mockingly asked, "Time to see if what Eldstar said was true... STAR SHOWER!!!"
Suddenly, the sky blackened, and stars rained down from the sky. However, the stars simply bounced off the Paratroopers' shells.
"YOUR ATTACKS ARE FUTILE." one of the paratroopers began, "YOU CAN NOT DEFEAT THE BOWSER/EGGMAN EMPIRE. SURRENDER AT ONCE."
"Never!" Eldstar cried, "I most certainly am not going to let Bowser take the Star Rod again!"
"WHO SAID WE WERE HERE FOR THE STAR ROD?" the same paratrooper asked, "WE ARE HERE FOR YOU! ATTACK!"
Suddenly, the other Paratroopers dived straight for the Star Spirits. Now, the Star Spirits were fairly good fighters, especially against normal koopas, but these robot koopas were much stronger. Pretty soon, the Star Spirits found themselves being held in place by seven paratroopers, watching as the remaining paratroopers trying to grab the other stars.
"THESE OTHER STARS WILL MAKE GOOD ROBOTS." the paratrooper stated, "EGGMAN WILL BE MOST PLEASED."
"You wouldn't dare!" screamed Misstar, "I would sooner eat a poison mushroom that let you do anything to the other stars!"
"REQUESTING BACKUP." came a paratrooper's voice from inside the Star Sanctuary, "SPECIMEN IS STRONGER THAN EXPECTED."
As soon as the paratrooper was done speaking, the doors to the Sanctuary flew open, and Twink came rushing out. All of the captured stars couldn't help but cheer for Twink as he used his small size to dodge all the paratroopers trying to grab him. Soon, Twink saw there was no way he could save the stars without getting captured himself. Hesitantly, Twink flew to the exit of Star Haven.
"Don't worry!" Twink called to all the other stars as he fled Star Haven, "I tell Mario about this! You'll be saved in no time! I promise!"
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While the Robo-Koopas were invading Star Haven, Mario was looking all over the mysterious island he and Gadd were stranded on for any signs of Luigi. Having no success, Mario decided that the two of them should take the train to wherever it went in hopes of finding Luigi there. However, right before they got on, Mario noticed something that caused him to grab Gadd by the arm and rush out of the station."Whoa! What's the rush, Mario?" Gadd asked while making sure his arm still worked.
"I think I saw the guy who destroyed our boat in the train!"
"Mario, whoever it was wasn't human."
"Fine, I saw the thing that destroyed our boat in the train."
"How do you know? All I could see in the train were peoples' shadows."
"The thing that destroyed our boat had some sort of spiky hair, and I saw the shadow of someone with the same hair in the train!"
"Well then, what should we do?"
"What else? I'm gonna whack him with my hammer as soon as he steps off the train!"
And with that, Mario marched up to the train and readied his hammer. As soon as the train door opened, Mario slammed his hammer down on the guy who he thought was the attacker. When Mario actually looked at the guy, however, he noticed, with horror, a tiny difference between him and the one who attacked the boat.
"You... Your fur... is... blue..." Mario stuttered, "Not black... Um... Oopsies..."
Mario started to sneak away when he heard someone who was with the person he had just attacked start screaming.
"HOW DARE YOU HURT MY SONIKKU!!!"
Mario, not wanting to see who he had just ticked off, ran as fast as he could to the exit. He got about two feet before he, ironically, got hit over the head with a hammer. This didn't stop Mario from running, however, except only now he was about one-third his normal height! He was about to leave the train station when Gadd stopped him.
"Mario!" Gadd gasped, "Behind you!"
"Yeah, I know!" Mario replied while trying to get around Gadd, "Someone with a hammer is really upset with me over a misunderstanding. Now could you let me through!?"
"No, Mario! Behind that!"
Mario turned around, hoping that his persuader wouldn't whack him again, and saw four things: a blue hedgehog, who was the guy Mario accidentally attacked, a pink hedgehog holding a hammer, clearly the one who got ticked off, a fox with two tails, and Luigi! Throwing his safety out the window, Mario raced past all the animals, including the one with the hammer, and tried to hug Luigi. Unfortunately, he could only reach up to Luigi's ankle, thanks to his shorter height. However, another hammer whack courtesy of the pink hedgehog quickly solved that problem. After all the introductions were made and life stories explained, they focused on what they should do next.
"So," Sonic began, trying to figure everything out, "Eggman went to your world, he's turning your friends into robots, and he launched your brother over here, causing you to have to come here, only to have your boat destroyed by Shadow the Hedgehog."
"I guess that's summing it up," Mario answered, "But that still leaves one problem: we're here and Eggman's over there."
"Well, I'm sure Tails will think of something," Amy replied, "Right, Tails?"
Tails wasn't paying attention, however. He was busy chatting with Gadd about the wonders of science. Sonic was about to lecture Tails about not paying attention when Mario heard a familiar voice calling to him in a panic.
"Mario! We've got trouble in Star Haven!"
Mario turned and saw his friend, Twink, high above their little group. Seeing that he got Mario's attention, Twink rushed down to Mario and nearly wiped out Sonic in the process.
"Mario! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Twink cried, "It was only when I got to Yoshi's Island that someone told me that you went out looking for Luigi, so I had to cross this big ocean looking for... who are those guys?"
"They are my new friends," Mario answered, "Sonic, Amy, and Tails. Now, what about this trouble in Star Haven?"
"It was horrible! Star Haven was attacked by these robo-koopa guys and they kidnapped the Star Spirits!"
"Huh? What are the Star Spirits?" Sonic asked.
"The seven Star Spirits," Mario Explained, "Watch over the Mushroom Kingdom and make sure everyone's wishes come true. If they were kidnapped by robo- koopas, that only means one thing: Bowser and Eggman are working together to conquer the world!"
"They grant wishes, eh? Sounds a lot like the Chaos Emeralds to me!"
When Sonic mentioned the Chaos Emeralds, Luigi immediately remembered his little "dream" he had earlier. That echidna girl, didn't she mention something about chaos? Nervously, Luigi interrupted Sonic as he was explaining the Chaos Emeralds to Mario.
"Um... Sonic?" Luigi asked, "You wouldn't happen to know where there are echidnas, do you?"
"There use to be a lot of them on Angel Island," Sonic replied, "But now only one lives there: Knuckles. He's a pretty good friend of mine, but he's kinda anti-social. I don't think he'd like it if you dropped by."
"But he's watching those Chaos Emeralds!" Mario exclaimed, "Bowser and Eggman already have the Star Spirits, do you think that guy alone can stop them from stealing the emeralds?"
"Well, I guess so..."
And with that, the small group of Mario, Luigi, Twink, Gadd, Sonic, Tails, and Amy started walking to Angel Island, unaware of Knuckles current hatred towards a certain Italian plumber...