Deciding that a break was in order after making so much progress in their journey together, the Mario Bros. and their Mobian friends ventured back into Toad Town in order to explore a bit more, taking in everything they could within both the village and the castle that rested in its center. And it seemed that many other denizens had the same idea. By now, races from both dimensions had decided to cross over and explore; for every Toad or Yoshi one might encounter, they'd be equally as likely to find a human or an anthropomorphic animal in the same vicinity. And who could blame them for being curious? It wasn't very often when the dimensional fabric would be torn, let alone in such a way that hopping between different realms was so accessible.

Just outside the castle, the Chaotix was leaning up against the outer wall, engaged in a lax discussion with the Toad Brigade. None of them paid any attention to a joyful Big running by with the healed Froggy on his shoulder.

"So you guys are basically us from this dimension?" Charmy asked.

"Meh, not really. We're more like treasure hunters than detectives," the green Toad replied, showing off his pickaxe.

"Yeah, but right now, we're on front desk duty, just without the desk," Captain Toad moaned, slouching his shoulders.

"Hmm, well any group looking to get rich is cool with us, since we're in the same boat and all," Vector winked with a thumbs-up. "Right, guys?"

Before anything more could be said, a light buzzing sound could be heard, produced by none other than a Stingby as he approached the group. Before it could harass anyone, however, Espio nonchalantly lashed his prehensile chameleon tongue at it without even looking, but wasn't prepared when a nearby Yoshi let his own tongue loose as well. The two ended up tied in a knot at the ends as the bee flew away, and it was only then when Espio opened his eyes, quickly alarmed at what he saw as they both tried desperately to loosen themselves.

Not too far away, Mario and the gang were exiting the castle grounds, all of them appearing content as they were greeted by the crisp, fresh air and the ambiance of the humble mushroom-themed town. Most of their break time had been spent inside the castle, testing out its various amenities and exploring every last nook and cranny… except for the gym, knowing it wouldn't be wise to disturb Peach for the time being.

"Man, that was probably the most fun I've had in a while! I'm not sure what I enjoyed most, the aquarium, the rec room, or that racetrack in the basement where we rode on the two-person karts! That was so exhilarating, I'm surprised you guys don't bring those out more often!" Tails said with a relaxed grin. "Oh, and how could I forget that hidden slide?! I could probably go down that for hours and not get bored!"

"I'd say my favorite part was jumping into all those paintings," Sonic replied. "And you said you had to jump into them multiple times, each with a different objective?"

"Mm-hmm," Mario nodded.

"Huh, why can't any of our adventures revolve around exploration instead of just running past stuff?"

Before that question could be answered, a horrified scream could be heard from somewhere overhead. On one of the castle's many towers, a Toad with a white-spotted blue mushroom cap, a blue vest with a white tie, and coke-bottle glasses, was surveying the town from above, with the help from a rather expensive-looking telescope. Wasn't long until he noticed an ominous smoke signal all the way on the opposite side of the Mushroom Kingdom's main sector.

"B-By boogity!" he gasped in horror. "Wh-What is the meaning of this?!"

The odd occurrence ended up startling him so much that all he could do was stammer like a madman and stumble backwards until he absentmindedly fell off the roof. His scream was enough to alert the heroes, prompting Sonic to sprint over and catch him in his arms, gently placing him back onto his feet.

"Oof, t-thanks!" the Toad panted, wiping his brow.

"What seems to be the problem… whoever you are?" Tails inquired.

"That's Toadbert," Captain Toad explained, leaving his troop behind as he walked over to the group. "Lucky schmuck got watchtower duty…"

"Now Captain, you know the only reason your brigade was stationed at the gate is because there are more of you," Toadbert answered, dusting himself off. "Anyway, I was just surveying the town from above, and I saw a smoke signal on a roof way off in the distance!"

Placing a hand above his eyes, Luigi gazed off in the direction of Toadbert's pointed finger, barely able to see what he was talking about. By the looks of it, it seemed to be positioned on the roof of a rather tall building. This prompted him to babble a response in Italian, quickly met with a reply from his brother in the same language.

"Mushroom City? Huh, sounds like a place I can sink my shoes into," Sonic smirked. "To the smoke signal!"

Before anyone else could respond, the two Mobians sped off, leaving behind a massive, thick cloud of dust as the plumbers coughed in their wake.

"Heh, it's a good thing I'm wearing tan, 'cause now I can blend into my surroundings!" Captain Toad chirped.

"I'm just going to assume those two came from the portals?" Toadbert asked with a deadpan delivery.

"Oh yeah," Luigi nodded, before he and his brother hurried into the town square.

But by the time they arrived there, they had completely lost sight of Sonic and Tails. In the meantime, countless citizens were scrambling around in a panic as they were known to do, having also noticed the plume smoke in the distance. The Mario Bros. were about to keep moving, until Luigi accidentally tripped and fell down, sliding along the ground and bumping his head against a brick block. Out of it popped a Master Emerald shard, which Mario quickly swiped. After a brief exchange in Italian, the two agreed to scour the residential area of Toad Town for as many shards as they could, though not without acknowledging how challenging it might be without the Miles Electric and its built-in radar.


Unbeknownst to them, Sonic and Tails had already left Toad Town and were hurrying through the Mushroom City district, which the blue blur immediately took a liking too, having run through more than his share of cityscapes over the course of his life. As expected, he had to dodge several cars and trucks that were too slow to swerve out of his way, but even Sonic was caught off guard when giant rolling Bob-Ombs and green, fast-moving Wiggler-shaped buses were added to the mix. Still, these didn't provide much of a challenge and were all dodged with relative ease, whether it be by quick-stepping around them or simply grinding along the shoulder rails.

Never failing to make the most of his time, Sonic also made sure to explore the upper regions of the city as well, sprinting up and down along the sides of many skyscrapers. During one of these attempts, he swung and tricked off the peak and ended up launching himself up into the evening sky, where he landed on what appeared to be a looping Rainbow Road just floating there for some reason. Sonic and Tails hurried through it, but after completing one lap, a spring launched them back towards the city below, where they broke their fall by bouncing off of the various mushroom-shaped hot air balloons.

Not long after touching back down, the duo was soon ambushed by a particularly large Wiggler Wagon, whose eyes immediately started to glow crimson upon spotting them. It gave chase, seemingly with a mind of its own as all the Bob-Omb Carts in the vicinity also started to go off, manipulating the terrain as the Mobians desperately tried to escape. It wasn't until they slipped into a tight alley (resulting in the Wiggler destroying itself in its pursuit) when they could finally get away, capping off their trek to the smoke signal by sprinting up alongside the biggest building in the area.


At the same time, Mario and Luigi were also hurrying into the urban district, having searched Toad Town high and low and even ventured into some of the Toad Houses, ultimately winding up with a sizable handful of emerald shards. They soon arrived at the same skyscraper that their friends were scaling, choosing to take the elevator all the way to the roof. The two teams just so happened to arrive at the top right at the same time, much to each other's shock.

"Huh, guess you two are a lot faster than I thought," Sonic chuckled.

Luigi responded in Italian, holding up a few Master Emerald pieces.

"Oh, good thinking guys. Now where's that-" Tails was cut off by his best friend.

"Smoke signal!"

With Mario leading the way, the quartet hurried over to the nearby plume of smoke, which seemed a lot smaller up close. A female Toad with a white-spotted pink mushroom cap and braided pigtails stood by it, looking rather panicked.

"Oh, Mario! Thanks goodness you're here!" she cried out, before taking notice of Sonic and Tails. "Oh, uh, and I see you brought some new friends…"

"Yep, I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, and that's Tails the Fox," Sonic introduced.

"Tails the Fox? Really?" Tails shook his head. "But long story short, we're from Mobius, and our nemesis Dr. Eggman is responsible for creating those portals between the two dimensions."

"Well I'm Toadette, and if what you're saying is true, then you're not gonna like this!" the girl Toad pointed off into the distance.

One of the many inter dimensional portals had unsurprisingly spawned up in the sky nearby, and a massive fleet of slightly upgraded airships, decked out in Bowser and Eggman flags and piloted by both of their minions, was flying into it at an alarming rate.

"Oh no!" Mario screamed.

"Eeyaahh!" Luigi screamed as well.

"Oh, those fiends have another thing coming if they think they can try and take over two worlds," Sonic whammed his fist into his open palm.

"You got that right! Ready guys?" Tails asked with a serious expression, balling his fists.

Mario and Sonic both looked at each other with a determined nod, before getting a short running start and leaping off the roof, using their parkour and acrobatic skills to skip across the roofs of the cityscape and sneaking onto the last of the airships just before it could fly out of their range. Knowing Luigi wasn't quite brave enough to do that, Tails offered to simply fly him over to the ship, to which he happily obliged.

"Good luck out there, you guys!" Toadette called after them, giving a two-handed wave. "You will most definitely need it…"


Hiding among the airship's cargo, the gang was relieved that they no longer had to worry about tumbling uncontrollably as they traveled through the violet vortex. It was also due to the ship's speed that the process of traveling between dimensions didn't take quite as long as the previous times they'd done so. Before the four knew it, the fleet had arrived at a place high into the clouds. Tails was the first one to peek out, peering over the side of the ship, and what he saw below wasn't quite what he expected.

"Uh, guys? You're not gonna believe this, but we're not even on Mobius," he said quietly.

"No kidding. I never thought I'd stop by the Lost Hex again," Sonic replied.

Before anything more could be said, the cannons on the sides of each airship started to fire off, releasing tons of animal capsules like the ones Eggman used to use, only instead of innocent woodland creatures, these ones contained swarms of Eggbots, Badniks, and mechanized members of the Koopa Troop. These certainly did their job in spreading the villains' influence throughout the floating landmass, popping open upon landing and releasing their contents.

"Ugh, we can't go on like this. At the rate they're going, they'll have all of Mobius' skies conquered before we know it," Tails turned to the others, before his tablet went off, thankfully not alerting the nearby minions. "Oh, and it seems there are more emerald shards down there too!"

"You know what to do," Sonic smiled.

"You guys handle the ground troops, while we take care of things up here."

"Okey-dokie," Mario replied, performing a backwards somersault off the ship.

"Here we goooo!" Luigi leaped high into the air, scuttling after his brother.

Unfortunately, this had the side-effect of alerting the few minions stationed on board the ship, immediately taking notice of Sonic and Tails. Without wasting another moment, Sonic sped straight ahead, swerving around the wrenches thrown by a Rocky Wrench before he leapt high into the air and performed a stomp attack, crushing it beneath its protective lid. He then launched some homing attacks against a group of Galoombas, kicking the last one into a Mechakoopa and knocking him off the boat. Tails shot down some Bullet Bills with his arm cannon, unintentionally alerting a nearby Bob-Omb, which he knocked into the Bill Blaster with a tail whip. The resulting explosion blew up the airship's hull, causing it to sink out of the sky. Fortunately, Tails was fast enough to dash over and carry Sonic safely over to the next one.

On the ground, Mario and Luigi found themselves having to navigate the bizarre gravitational pull of Windy Hill Zone, combining their shard hunt with a rampage as they strove to take out as many mechanized minions as possible. The enemies weren't any tougher than usual, but their sheer numbers made for a slightly more daunting task, especially when combined with the fact that some of them carried the emerald shards they were looking for, as well as the bizarre, tubular and spherical terrain that seemed to float and could only be accessed via large springs. The plumbers didn't have quite as much trouble as they assumed, when it came to getting accustomed to running sideways or upside down, but it certainly added a bit more challenge to punching and jumping on their foes. Thankfully, there were plenty of shields, speed shoes, and invincibility to help them power through the hordes, and it didn't take long to start seeing results.

Pleased to see the influx of enemies on the ground start to slow down, Sonic and Tails continued their assault from the air, boarding each airship in the fleet, taking out any on-board enemies they could find, and capping off each attack by destroying the ship, whether it be by luring Bulls-Eye Bills into the weak spots or setting off Bob-Ombs. Tails knew he had to conserve his energy, so he decided to mostly use his twin tails for combat, but thankfully Sonic was more than able to move from ship to ship, homing attacking the Bullet Bills and slow-moving cannonballs to cross gaps. Sometimes he would even homing attack a Banzai Bill, surfing on it through the skies as he evaded flying enemies and launched it into the next ship, sinking it in an instant. Downing the airships also had the effect of taking out large swaths of the enemies on the ground, greatly assisting the Mario Bros. on their end.


Soon as he'd destroyed the last of the airships, Sonic allowed himself to free-fall to the ground. He broke his fall by curling into a ball and bouncing a couple of times, striking a cheesy pose at the peak of his last hop. Tails hovered down to the Lost Hex, and Mario and Luigi hurried over towards them soon after, relieved to once again be on a flat, normal piece of land.

"Heh, looks like our world really dodged a bullet… Bill," Sonic joked.

"Ugh," Tails slapped a hand onto his face. "At any rate, I just spotted another one of those flying boats off in the distance. Bowser can't be too far."

"Wahoo!" Mario banged his fists together, taking the lead as he jogged off in that direction.


Meanwhile, Bowser Jr. was "pacing" around a good ways away from the heroes, still inside his Junior Clown Car as the Koopalings and the Deadly Six were all gathered nearby. In the case of the latter, each of them had brought along their own large mech, all of which looked somewhat familiar: a snake-like dragon for Zavok; a floating full moon with fangs for Zazz; a snowman for Zeena; a zombie head made of cubes for Zomom; and a giant owl for Zor. Master Zik, meanwhile, just stood with his wooden staff, feeling confident enough that he would not need to hide behind technology like his younger cohorts.

"Hmmm… are you sure we'll get another swing at conquest and destruction?" Zavok folded his muscular arms, drumming his clawed fingers against his biceps.

"Patience, Zavok… unless you want another migraine!" Bowser Jr. had his mask on, holding up the Cacophonic Conch in a threatening manner. "My dad sent in a whole army of our finest troops to back us up, so quit your worrying!"

"Really? 'Cause it looks like all those troops just got trashed," Zeena pointed into the distance, noting the countless smoking wreckages and unconscious bodies that littered the ground.

"Eee hee hee! Whoever did that got some nerve bringin' about all that destruction without me!" Zazz cried out, shaking a fist. "That's exactly the kind of person I like to fight, I tell you what!"

"And you will, because uh… because that was all according to plan! Yeah, heh!" Bowser Jr. rubbed the back of his head, trying to mask how much the Zeti terrified him. "See, I called in those troops to lure those runts right to us! We can conquer the world once their games are over."

"Not before we eat them first, I hope!" Zomom interjected.

"Whatever you say, dude," Ludwig rolled his eyes. "…fatso."

Without warning, a blue blur sped around the entire group, trapping them in place for a bit, before it abruptly headed straight for Bowser Jr. and zoomed around him in order to disorient him. Before he could recover, Mario leapt in from above and hopped onto his head, front-flipping back onto the ground. Tails then flew in, dropping Luigi next to his brother as he readied his arm cannon.

"Waugh! Darn you, Mario! Why do you always have to ruin my fun?!" Bowser Jr. slammed his fists onto the rim of his vehicle, before he felt the Deadly Six all glaring at him. "…I-I mean, well, well, well, so nice of you to drop on by, you pasta-loving pests."

"Huh, never would've taken Bowser as the fatherly type. Makes me wonder why Eggman doesn't have kids. I mean, he's already got the dad bod goin' on," Sonic commented. "Oh hey, Zavok! Long time no see! Hey, I dunno if you're aware, but Eggman actually made clones of you last time he took over the world!"

"Silence, hedgehog! This is not your fight… not this time, at least," Zavok barked back.

"Yeah, step aside! We wanna fight those plumbers!" Zomom said. "Something tells me they're really delicious! …so marbled with fat…"

"Let us at 'em, boss!" Zazz looked raring to go.

"No! No! Bad Zeti! No!" Bowser Jr. sprayed the Deadly Six with paint from his magic brush, mimicking a squirt bottle. "Put one more toe out of line and I'll bring out the shell again."

"Could you just get to the point already?!" Roy grumbled.

"Fine. As the official boss of this whole coalition, I'm not ready to fight until we do just one more thing…"

All three factions just looked at each other with a slight pang of worry, but everyone got into a fighting stance nonetheless, wondering just what the Prince of the Koopas had up his proverbial sleeve. But judging by that childishly wicked giggle escaping his mouth, it would definitely not be a good thing.