Footage of the Koopalings' new treaty with the Deadly Six could be seen within a crystal ball, while also reflecting in the glasses of Kamek, who was currently inspecting the magical orb as he waved his scaly hands over it. He continued to do this for a spell, before a satisfied smile crept onto his beak and he stood up, pulling out his wand and causing the crystal ball, table, and chair to disappear in puffs of colorful smoke, vanishing into thin air.
"Well, that takes care of that," he said, before summoning his broomstick once more and flying out of his quarters. "Master Bowser? Your Lawlessness?"
After flying and teleporting around the castle for a bit, Kamek managed to find his majesty in the royal laboratory, a room containing a large array of workbenches that served as the place where the castle's medieval mechanisms were built and perfected. Since Dr. Eggman moved in, the place had become a lot more mechanized, sporting a slew of computers and automation machines that sped up the assembly process at the cost of minions' jobs. The doctor himself was currently working on a massive device hidden under a gigantic black tarp with his emblem on it, while Bowser, having reverted to his normal appearance, simply paced around, an impatient growl barely escaping his toothy maw.
"Ah, Kamek," he said, his expression lightening up a bit. "I take it you're here to deliver that status update I asked for?"
"Indeed. It seems Young Master and the Koopalings have successfully managed to seize a portion of Eggman's world, and they seem to have gained some powerful new allies," Kamek explained. "I fought every urge to join them, knowing I had to let the boy grow up at some point."
"Heh, that's the best news I've heard all day!" Bowser chuckled. "Y'know, sometimes I wish those little chumps really were my kids."
"Yes, I will let them know you sent your regards. But uh, if I may ask, what is going on in here?"
"Oh, just a little something the doc and I are collaborating on. Considering neither of us stood a chance against those do-gooders by ourselves, we figured a much better approach would be to attack them together. I'm afraid I can't provide many details right now, but I've both seen and assisted with the plans, and things are looking pretty sweet thus far!"
"Well, you know I'm always rooting for you, your Awfulness," Kamek bowed. "Now unless there's anything else you need me to do, I shall promptly send the Koopalings your regards."
"Yeah, you go do that," Bowser nodded, watching his underling teleport out of the room, before he turned back to see his partner emerging from the tarp as he tried to wipe the grease stains out of his jacket. "Yo, Eggman! How're things coming along?"
"As a matter of fact, our magnum opus is completely finished," Dr. Eggman dusted his hands off, before loudly cracking his spine. "All we need now is a suitable power source, and those plumbers and rodents will be no more!"
"…you're not seriously suggesting I go and nab a power source for you."
"Well hey, I'm the one who slaved away building this entire contraption. Besides, we agreed to a 50-50 alliance."
"D'oh, fine! But I'll need a little time to hunt one down, since there's a lot to choose from in this dimension," Bowser resumed his pacing, two clawed fingers on his chin in thought. "I could send some minions over to Isle Delfino and jack a Shine Sprite… or maybe the Beanstar could work, but it's a whole Kingdom over… then again, I could just swipe a Power Star from Peach, but I'd have to seize the whole castle again in order to do that, and I'm not in a kidnapping mood right now… ugh, decisions decisions…"
"B-B-Bowser! Check this out!"
It was then that a pink Shy Guy barged into the lab in a rather panicked state, sweat droplets flying from his stout frame as he jumped and flailed around.
"You'd better have a good reason for disturbing us, punk!"
"Your Majesty, get this! We dug up something strange out back!" the Shy Guy held up a jagged, shiny green gem. It greatly resembled the emerald shards that the heroes were hunting down, but was far larger, so much so that he struggled to hold onto it with his stubby arms.
"Holy shell! I… I've never seen anything like it!" Bowser's bushy eyebrows shot up, having been rendered speechless for once in his life.
"My word… is that a Master Emerald shard?" Eggman interjected, walking over to inspect the gemstone.
"I take it this is from your dimension?"
"Indubitably. It's arguably the most powerful thing in all of Mobius, with the capability of controlling those Chaos Emeralds I told you about earlier, which are already quite powerful in of themselves!" the evil scientist explained. "Even just a small piece of this gem possesses insane amounts of power—enough to make its user unstoppable!"
"Gra ha har! You had me at arguably most powerful!" Bowser laughed. "That settles it, then. Pinky, step away from the gemstone."
"That's not my name," the Shy Guy stated.
"I don't care! We need it to power our ultimate weapon, now scram!"
As his minion squealed in fear and scampered out of the room, Bowser effortlessly picked up the emerald shard and handed it to Dr. Eggman, before the two supervillains shared an evil grin.
"Perfect," Eggman gloated. "Soon as I insert this, all we'll need to do is bide our time for a bit, until the perfect moment to attack Mario and Sonic arises!"
"Sounds like a plan there, dude," Bowser nodded. "But, uh, are you sure we can't take the tarp off now that it's finished?"
"No way! We don't want to spoil anything!"
"But… Mario and Sonic aren't here to see it."
"No, sire. I was referring to the player."
"Huh? ...oh! Okay, I get it, heh heh heh!"
When Mario, Sonic, and their respective partners had emerged from one of many portals throughout Mobius, they were followed by a wave of lava that had followed them from the bottom of Corona Mountain. It was a miracle that it hadn't scalded them alive along the way, but they certainly weren't complaining. As the four heroes landed in a thick pile of snow, the magma froze upon contact with the surrounding cold air, turning into a harmless rock formation that blocked off the portal completely.
"Whoa!" Mario exclaimed, as soon as he noticed what had happened.
"Whoa-hoo hahaha!" Luigi laughed, pointing at the bizarrely-shaped crystal formation before them.
"Huh, good thing we didn't land in the Lava Reef," Sonic sighed in relief. "For once, the RNG kicks in and ends up helping us."
"Don't get used to it," Tails stood up, dusting the snow off his Miles Electric. "Phew, good thing all my gadgets are waterproof… now, I'm detecting a whole slew of-"
"Whoa, I remember this place!"
As Tails groaned in frustration, Mario and Luigi followed Sonic to the nearest ledge, immediately putting on expressions of awe as they took in the sight of the snowy mountain range they'd wound up in. Slopes and cliffs dotted the landscape, alongside a few caves and hanging icicles that looked sturdy enough to climb on. Even the air was noticeably warmer than the last cold place they'd ventured through, thanks to the sun being out. As his brother continued to take in the view, Mario turned to Sonic and spoke in Italian.
"Heh, only the second best hangout spot in Mobius, just behind Green Hill Zone," the hedgehog boasted, tucking his arms behind his head. "Gentlemen, welcome to Ice Cap!"
"Speak for yourself. I couldn't care less about this place. I only got to explore a tiny bit of it—under a time limit no less—and since then, I've never been able to come back and explore the rest," Tails grumbled. "Now as I was saying, it happens to contain more emerald shards, so hop to it."
"Geez, way to be a buzzkill, Tails."
"Hey, someone has to act as a foil to your devil-may-care attitude."
Before their friendly banter could continue, Sonic noticed that Mario and Luigi had already left, seeing them use their impressive jumping and acrobatic abilities to easily navigate their new surroundings. Both friends just shrugged and leapt off the ledge in order to catch up.
Unbeknownst to the heroes, another small group was currently rendezvousing at the very bottom of the mountain. A flash of blue light occurred within a cave, as a black hedgehog with upturned quills and red accents on his fur quickly sped out. He skated across the ground, the hot bottoms of his shoes melting the snow around them until he stopped at a nearby evergreen, coolly leaning against it as he tucked the yellow Chaos Emerald into his hammerspace.
"Rouge, report," he said into one of his golden bracelets, his voice relaxed but no-nonsense.
"Honestly Shadow, is there any particular reason as to why we randomly chose to meet here of all places?" a white, well-endowed bat spoke up, hanging upside down from one of the pine branches. She quickly leapt to the ground once her friend arrived. "If I knew ahead of time, I'd have worn a less revealing top."
"Hmph, at least that things's made of a hard material, so it shouldn't be too bad."
"Aw come on, you know you would've liked what you saw."
"Whatever, Rouge. Now all we have to do is wait on one more arrival…" Shadow folded his arms as he turned away, signifying that he wasn't in the mood to chat.
Both were unaware that they were currently being watched. A bulky robot at least twice as large as Shadow stood on a small ledge far above them, scanning all of its surroundings. A small signal from much further up the mountain seemed to catch his interest for a moment, but he was quickly distracted by a larger one at the bottom, immediately recognizing it as his two partners.
"Threat level: roughly 5%. Commencing rendezvous with allies," the robot droned, before activating the twin jets on his back as he launched down to the ground, landing right by Shadow and Rouge.
"Well if it isn't Omega. Bout time you showed up," Rouge snarked.
"I actually arrived first. Was just scoping out our surroundings. Someone else is here."
"And who would it be?"
"Enough with the small talk, you two," Shadow grumbled. "Commander Towers sent us to scope out these odd portals that recently appeared. The reason why we met up here is because one of them happened to spawn nearby."
"Let's hope it'll lead to a warmer spot," Rouge chimed in, rubbing her furless arms.
"Only time will tell. Now c'mon, let's move! Besides, if we're apparently not the only ones here, we'd better lose them."
"Trying to avoid trouble? Well that's not your style."
"If you don't shut your-"
"Hey now, remember what we said about cursing!"
Rolling his crimson eyes, Shadow skated along at a speed rivaling Sonic's as he led his team into a nearby cave. The path appeared to branch out into three directions, forcing the trio to stop.
"Hmmm, I remember teleporting in from that way, so that narrows down our choices," Shadow pointed down the rightmost path.
"Otherworldly occurrence detected. Best course of action is the path on the left," E-123 Omega replied.
"Pfft, of course. It can never be the path down the middle," Rouge shrugged, following the others down the leftmost path.
It took about six minutes, but they eventually arrived at a dead end, containing nothing except a large, purple vortex leading into the Mushroom World. Even Shadow appeared to be in shock at what he saw before him, hesitating a bit as he considered what he was about to do. But after a few seconds, he took a deep breath and snapped his fingers. The ebony hedgehog leapt into the air, curling into a ball in the process, before Rouge hovered above him and caught his arm, flying them into the portal. Omega stood there for another moment, scanning the void before him.
"Probability of survival: 99.9%," he said. "Good enough for me."
With that, he used his jets to propel himself into the portal.
Back to our heroes, Mario and Luigi were busy searching every nook and cranny on the Ice Cap for all the emerald shards they could possibly carry. The plumbers had an absolute blast, exploring the many caves, spinning around giant icicles like they were poles, and utilizing many different types of jumps to access the cliffs and ledges. Even after all the time they'd spent adventuring together, Sonic and Tails were still amazed at the brothers' ability to make a playground out of any location they were plunked in, even ones that they weren't familiar with. Just a few more minutes later, and the Mario Bros. rejoined their new friends on a slightly sloped patch of snowy ground, hardly needing to catch their breath at all.
"I'm actually pretty impressed," Sonic smiled. "I mean, you two wander around with those beer guts, you ate a dozen chili dogs each not too long ago, and yet you can just run, jump, and flip around like it's nothing!"
"I wouldn't have gone so far as to insult your weight, but yeah, I agree," Tails nodded.
"For crying out loud, they're not even dressed for the kind of exercise they get!"
That last comment echoed throughout the snowy mountain range for a few moments, before a rumbling sound could be heard, growing louder by the second.
"Not one word," Sonic rolled his eyes, knowing Tails would spew a snide remark on the matter.
Before everyone knew it, they were being blanketed by a massive silhouette, caused by none other than a large wave of snow that quickly slid down the mountain. Tails and the Mario Bros. immediately freaked out.
"Waugh haugh haugh haugh!" Luigi screamed, trembling on the spot as Mario spoke in fast, panicked Italian.
Everyone rapidly looked around, before Sonic noticed a group of four TV monitors, each with a snowboard visible on its screen.
"Quick! Follow me!" he said, leading the others over to them.
"Nice save there, buddy," Tails smirked.
"Just what I needed!" Mario cheered.
Each hero jumped onto a monitor, breaking it and immediately gaining a snowboard that attached itself to their feet, which they used to speed down the steep slopes. Conveniently, a series of bright flags lined the correct path down the mountains, and a series of ramps with a similar color-scheme was also present to mark the perfect spots for a huge jump. Everyone, including Luigi, seemed to enjoy themselves as they glided and tricked down to the ground below. During the last and highest of such jumps, leading over a massive, bottomless chasm, Mario and Sonic locked hands and spun around, performing a few paired-up tricks in mid air before effortlessly landing on the other side and continuing on until they reached the bottom, wherein their boards automatically disappeared.
"Phew, man! That was epic!" Sonic grinned. "It was almost like we were at the Olympics or something!"
"Aaaaannnnd, my opinion of Ice Cap has officially improved," Tails smiled a bit, before everyone looked back to see the avalanche still coming. "Aw, dang it!"
"Quick! Into that cave!"
"What, are you crazy?! We could get trapped!"
"Just trust me!"
Mario shrugged and climbed onto Sonic's shoulders as he sped into the cavern. Tails sighed and picked up Luigi so they could follow closely behind, only using one hand this time so he could use his Miles Electric.
"Hey, guys? When you get to the fork, turn left! I'm detecting another portal that way!"
"Roger that, Tails!" Sonic called back.
That little exchange aside, everyone hurried down the leftmost path as the avalanche pursued them through the narrow corridors. Despite the speed they were going at, they couldn't help but notice the tracks on the ground, suggesting that others had been here before them. But with no time to think it over, they kept moving, eventually finding the portal looming dead ahead and haphazardly leaping into it, right as the wave of snow caught up, spilling into the vortex as well.