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"You'd think something that powerful would be easy to find using radar," Luigi commented, looking at the computer screen.

"Perhaps..." E. Gadd agreed as he typed some additional data into the machine, "But sometimes something can be too powerful to be picked up."

"Huh? That doesn't make any sense! How can something be too powerful? Wouldn't more power make it easier to locate?"

"On the contrary," Tails explained, "if the Emerald Stars are powerful enough, the energy would be too much for radar to pick up. It's kind of like how the human ear can't hear a sound that is too high pitched or how we can only see certain wavelengths of energy known as visible light and not others like ultraviolet or infrared."

"I see... I really shouldn't have dozed off in my physics class..."

Luigi leaned against the side of a huge computer tower as E. Gadd and Tails continued to tinker away with their so-called 'Chaos Radar'. After recovering the Emerald Star in the Beanbean Kingdom, they decided that it was best to move their base of operations back to Princess Peach's Castle. After all, it was the center of the Mushroom Kingdom and there was already an Emerald Star there, bringing their total up to two.

"So, is that thing looking for Emerald Stars the Mushroom Kingdom?" Luigi asked, trying to make conversation.

"Better than that!" Gadd replied with a chuckle, "Tails helped me link this up to the Space Colony ARK so we can search the entire planet!"

Suddenly, the machine started to beep loudly. Gadd immediately looked at the monitor and nearly jumped out of his chair.

"Holy smokes! We've found something! Tails, get Mario and Sonic in here fast!"

"Right! You can count on me!"

Tails quickly used his namesakes to fly out of a nearby window and onto the castle grounds. Unfortunately, an immediate look around didn't reveal where the duo was. Instead, all he saw were Peach, Amy, Cream, and Cheese having tea in the garden.

"Would you like some more tea, Cream?" Peach asked politely.

"Why, yes, Ms. Peach! That would be nice!" Cream responded.

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese also answered, munching on a cookie.

"You're castle is really pretty, Peach," Amy complimented, "It must be really nice living here."

"Yes it is. Although, I sure do wish security was a little tighter..."

At this point, Tails began to walk up to the small party. Amy was the first to notice.

"Hmm? Tails? What are you doing here?"

"I think E. Gadd found something on the Chaos Radar, and we gotta tell Sonic and Mario about it! Have you seen them?"

"I think Mario said something about them practicing their fighting techniques," Peach recalled, "You should probably check the fields nearby."

"Okay! Thanks for the help!"

With that, Tails flew back up into the sky, leaving a slightly confused Amy to look back at Peach.

"Practicing their fighting techniques? What on Mobius were they talking about, Peach?"

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One moment, Mario was jumping through the air and the next, he got a face full of spikes and felt himself hit the earth with a rather loud thud. Lying face up, he could see a blue sphere dropping down on him like a cannonball. At the last second, he back flipped out of the way and back onto his feet as the blue ball hit the ground in front of him, immediately unrolling itself to reveal it to be none other than Sonic the Hedgehog. Before Sonic could run in and get another strike, Mario quickly did a break-dance sweep and sent the hedgehog back a few feet. With the extra breathing room, he threw a few fireballs before running in for the final blow. However, he was surprised to discover Sonic immediately curling up into a ball again and spin-dashing right into his legs, knocking him face-first onto the floor! Before he could get back up, Sonic placed a foot on Mario's back, pinning him to the ground.

"Okay... Okay... You win this round..." Mario mumbled, "But I'm still wining by three."

"Hey, at least I didn't try to send you flying out of bounds this time," Sonic replied with a playful smirk, "and you're only ahead by two! That one time didn't count!"

At this point, Sonic took his foot off of Mario, allowing him to get on his two feet again.

"Yeah right... You're just saying that because you don't want to admit I was quick enough to grab and toss you out!" Mario teased, dusting his overalls off, "Really, though, you're not half bad! Next time that Master Hand decides to throw another one of his 'tournaments', you should join!"

"Heh, really now? I'll have to think about that..."

"SONIC! MARIO!"

The duo quickly looked up to see Tails flying downwards. Once he landed, he hunched over and began to pant heavily.

"Whoa there, Tails!" Sonic called out, "You really should take it easy on that flying! You know you can only go so long before you just tucker out!"

"I... pant... I know... wheeze... Sonic," Tails sputtered, "What... phew... are two you doing... gasp... all the way out here?"

"Practicing," Mario explained, "I figured that with Bowser and Eggman joining forces, we could use all the combat prowess we can get!"

"Of course," Sonic continued, "It was also a good way to find out who's really the better hero, and yours truly was naturally the victor."

"What? Hey! I'm beating you by three!"

"Two," Sonic corrected, "and they were both cheep shots."

"Since when was juggling you in the air with head butts considered a 'cheep shot'?"

"Um... Guys?" Tails, now fully recovered from his tiring flight, interrupted.

"Oh, yeah, gee... I nearly forgot about you, little buddy! What's up, Tails?" Sonic asked.

"I think E. Gadd found another one of the Emerald Stars!"

"He did?" Mario gasped, "Momma mia! We got to get back to the castle pronto! Let's-a go!"

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"You failed me again, Lord Crump."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault! I didn't know that the Emerald Star could do that Chaos Control thing! Nothing like that happened last time!"

"That's because last time, we were looking for a different set of relics!"

"But... But wasn't one of 'em also called an Emerald Star? I think it was the one in that big tree..."

"Crump... Just be silent."

Sir Grodus turned away and walked back to his throne and sat down. He was still disgusted at Crump's failure, but even more so at his pathetic excuses. Thanks to his incompetence, they had failed to recover the Emerald Star and now the world was aware of their return.

"Now that you have managed to lose one of the Emerald Stars," Grodus continued, "we'll have to locate another one to claim as our own."

"And I'll be the one who goes out and gets it, right?"

"No! You have failed me for the last time!"

"Uh... That's bad, huh?"

Grodus didn't get a chance to reply before a large explosion echoed throughout the moon base.

"Hmm? What was that?" Grodus questioned.

"I dunno, boss! It wasn't my fault!"

Suddenly, the door to the throne room opened and a very charred X-Naut Trooper stumbled in. Despite his blackened body, his face was very pale. It looked like he had seen a ghost.

"You! What's going on out there?" Grodus demanded.

"Dude... There's this... this dude out there... in a freaking huge mech... shooting everything in sight..."

The X-Naut passed out from exhaustion before saying anything else. Grodus looked back at Crump, who was sweating bullets at the thought of this new foe.

"Crump..."

"Gulp... Yeah?"

"Perhaps this is a chance to redeem yourself. Go and stop this intruder!"

"Wait a second! How am I supposed to stop him? You heard that bub, he's got a mech!"

"Then I suggest that you go see if the X-Naut PhDs have finished their repairs on our mech."

Upon remembering that they had a mech as well, all of Crump's fear quickly faded.

"Oh right... When you put it that way, let's teach that invader a thing or two! Buh! Buh huh! Buh huh huh!"

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Although Eggman usually preferred to let his robots do most of the dirty work for him, he enjoyed occasionally climbing into his Egg Walker and causing mayhem and destruction first-hand. He drove his vehicle through the hallways of the X-Naut base, blasting anyone who dared oppose him. Of course, he didn't want to kill them, since he had bigger plans for the X-Nauts, but he did want to show them that he meant business. After tearing through a few dozen X-Nauts, he was surprised to encounter one that was slightly bigger and chubbier than the others standing in the way.

"Why, hello there," Eggman greeted in mock politeness, "And who could you possibly be?"

"The name's Lord Crump, and don't you forget it! Sir Grodus sent me out to teach you a lesson about coming in uninvited!"

"Oh yeah? You and what army? Besides these pathetic foot solders, I mean."

Crump didn't reply. Instead, he pulled out a small remote and pressed the only button on it, causing a small, box-shaped pod hovered down. He jumped inside, and the pod slowly transformed into a giant, platinum robot, complete with arms, something the Egg Walker lacked.

"Prepare to face the wrath of the Magnus Von Grapple 3.0! Buh huh! Man, I'm so evil, it's awesome!"

"Oh please! That thing looks like it's made of paper!" Eggman joked, "Nevertheless, I'll gladly destroy your little robot and prove that my machine is superior."

"I'd like to see you try! Buh! Buh huh! Buh huh huh!"

The Magnus Von Grapple aimed one of its arms directly at the Egg Walker and fired a missile. Eggman countered by quickly sidestepping the projectile and retaliating with a shot from the Volkan Cannon, which hit Crump dead-on.

"What? Hey! Don't move when I'm trying to hit you!" Crump protested, "That's not fair!"

"Do I look like the kind of person who cares about fairness?" Eggman rhetorically asked, "Now, get a load of THIS!"

Eggman flipped a lever, and a miniature missile silo came out of the back of the Egg Walker, which sent a hail of explosives at the Magnus Von Grapple. Although Crump dodged some of the missiles, it was virtually impossible to avoid them all, and he was sent reeling once again from the blast.

"Grr... Okay, now I'm REALLY mad!" Crump shouted, "Time to pull out my secret weapon!"

Crump slammed his fist down on a button, causing the front of the Magnus Von Grapple to open up, revealing a huge canon. Rather than shooting, though, the canon began sucking stuff inside. Three unconscious X-Naut troopers, two barrels, and one huge chunk of a blown-out wall later, Crump pressed another button, which made the cannon begin shooting its... unique projectiles.

"Good grief! This is ridiculous!" Eggman grumbled, dodging an X-Naut that missed his head by about three inches, "Alright, it's time to end th--- OW!"

Before Eggman could finish his remark, one of the barrels hit him square on the nose, causing it to swell up even bigger than it normally was.

"Ow... My nodes... Dad's id! I'm finishing dis ding now!"

The Egg Walker's cannon began glowing as blue particles began to be absorbed by it forming into a light blue sphere right in front of the cannon.

"Dake dis! POWER LASER!"

The canon fired, sending a sideways pillar of blue light directly at the Magnus Von Grapple. The laser engulfed the entire mech for about five seconds before finally fading away. When the attack ended, all that was left was a dumbfounded Lord Crump sitting suspended in the air for a moment before dropping onto a pile of ash that used to be his machine right below him.

"Uh... Okay, how about we call this a draw?" Crump suggested.

Eggman just laughed and walked past the defeated Crump and towards the throne room. Upon entering, he was somewhat surprised to discover Grodus sitting calmly on his throne, as if he was waiting for him.

"I knew you would get past Crump," Grodus stated flatly, "that imbecile couldn't find his way out of an empty room."

"Heh, heh... That was certainly true," Eggman agreed, rubbing his slowly healing nose, "But that dweeb certainly had some interesting tricks up his sleeve."

"I'm sure... So, what reason do you have for cutting a swath of destruction through my base? It wasn't just to drop by for tea, I'm sure."

"Of course not! Rather, I have a proposition I would like to offer to you, and I can assure you that it would be in your best interest if you took my offer."

"And why would that be?"

"Tell me... Are you looking for the Emerald Stars?"

Sir Grodus' mechanical heart skipped a beat. If this man could find another Emerald Star for him, surely he could finally obtain his revenge!

"I'm interested," Grodus responded, a sinister grin appearing on his face, "Continue..."