Sonic, Bowserand Zelda led the heroes down a long corridor that looked and felt like the inside of a pipe, with Zero behind them, sword drawn out as if he was expecting a rouge atom to attack them. Link felt as if the air was made out of water that was both trying to crush him and freeze him to death at the same time. He looked at Zelda who looked as if she was in a movie and had forgotten all of her lines, the three hedgehogs looked absolutely stunned, Fox seemed to have forgotten how to blink, Mega Man seemed to be attempting to see how many facial expressions he can pull in a second and Tails looked as if he had just woke up from a bad dream.
All of them knew one thing, that this world, this universe is bad. However just how bad, and how many bad things had happened was an enigma to them, not to mention the fact that when they did get answers to questions it was either glanced over at worst, or raises more questions at best, which even made the hero of time himself completely baffled, and he has an incomprehensible timeline.
The corridor only had two doors, one at each end, each one looking as if it can survive a strike from a nuclear bomb. Sonic stopped to turn to the rest of the heroes and gave them a comforting smile "I hope that Miles is finished with what I asked of him"
Bowser placed his hand on a hidden panel and the door hissed open to reveal an enormous workshop. Enormous however was the wrong word. Link can tell that Ganondorf's mansion could fit comfortably inside of it and still have room to spare to place a palace for Peach and the Death Egg.
There was everything in the alphabet that the eye can see from Airplanes and Automobiles, Barges and Balloons, Computers and Cannons, Disks and Drones, Earphones to Elevators, Fiddles and Ferries, gliders and glassware, hang gliders and husks, ice breakers and instruments, jewelry and jogging shoes, kites and kernels, levers and lawn mowers, machines and microwaves, noisemakers and needles, orthodontics and ottomans, pull toys and pillars, quarters and quivers, race cars and radios, saws and space ships, teaspoons and televisions, urns and ukuleles, valentines and vines, wigs and wires, xeranthemums and xylorimbas, yachts and yokes, zithers and zabras.
Link turned to Tails seeing his eyes light up as if he was a child in a candy store. But then he saw his look of jubilation change to puzzlement then a look that made him appear as if he was punched in the face by an invincible force. Link followed Tails' line of sight to see what he was looking at.
Right in the middle of the room was an all too familiar two tailed fox. However something had changed about this Tails. For one, this Tails looked significantly older, at least in his mid to late 20's, and for another his fur was completely black as if his fur was on fire. Tails looked up on the thing that he was working on to see the rest of the heroes staring at him. The instant he saw them he raised up his arms and whooped for joy "YES!" He cried "I KNEW IT CAN WORK! I KNEW IT!"
"Well done indeed Miles" Bowser said, as if he was a teacher congratulating their favourite student "However, only half of them had arrived here. The others…"
But Miles interrupted him "Yes, they should be here in a few hours. But I think we can do with what we got here" He said gesturing at the 8 heroes.
"Lets hope so" Zero said melodramatically "I had to give up on a rematch battle with General M, and I am hoping that my little rescue of Time boy, brainy fox and good M would drive General M nuts."
"…I see" Miles said, unsure on how to respond to such a statement. He then turned to face his counterpart that was staring at him. Miles made a face as he stared at his counterpart and Tails stared back
"…err hi" Tails said staring up and down examining Miles down to the last atom
"Hello there yourself" Miles said softly "…I see that you are fascinated by my new look…its kind of a long story…" Miles trailed off as if lost in deep thought, he then suddenly pulled himself together and said "I am going to need your help with something, want to help?" Miles said gesturing at Tails to follow him.
Tails paused for a moment and then finally making up his mind he said "Sure!" as he followed his counterpart disappearing behind a large blimp.
"This is the way to the training room" Bowser said, pointing at a large door at the other end of the workshop "There is also a library there, so you can catch up with…things that are hard to say"
"Why do we need to go there?" Mega Man said "I mean, we faced many things before. Master Hand, Tabu…" but Bowser interrupted him.
"Yes, you are right." Bowser said calmly "You have faced great threats before, including me…however Mario. He's different. Master Hand, Tabu and all of that, they were not aiming to kill you, they were either trying to turn you into statues and all that jazz. Mario. He is going to kill you, and your little incident at the Reploid military base wouldn't go unnoticed if your other self's ego isn't a factor…"
"Don't worry." Zelda said "I have personally planned this mission out. I know that this time there won't be as many deaths as in the fall of the green lanterns or the I can guarantee to you that within the end of the week, Mario will be in jail and the resistance will be victorious!"
Zelda was right about two of the things she said. She was right that Mario would be in jail for all the crimes he did. She was also right about the resistance against Mario being victorious. However there were two things that Zelda was horribly wrong about. She had horribly underestimated the time it would take, and that she had misjudged the death toll.
(In the next chapter we will finally see what is going on in Emperor Mario's castle)