Hey everyone, I just want to give a quick update before the story begins. The story has officially hit a one thousand views and is still climbing. Good news is, I finally got Super Smash Bros Ultimate and frankly it's matching expectations despite being released a few weeks ago. You can't count reality out though. Man, can't you believe that it is already the end of December? As my gift to you for Christmas, this chapter would be a long one.I am bit worried about the story though since there weren't any reviews since chapter three, if anyone doesn't want to post reviews or any of that then it's fine. It's just that saying on how stories can't progress without feedback, I'll however let that slide for now. Since the main cast is spread throughout the planet Mobius, different time zones would have to come into play. Lastly, I have decided to insert quotes from time to time if it reflects the chapter or the story.

"Coming together is the beginning, Keeping together is progress, Working together is success." - Henry Ford

Chapter Seven: World of Realizations

April 7, 2018

10:36PM

Cocoa Island

Located just off the Continent of Mazuri, Cocoa island had seen battles that raged on it's shores. Many famous battles that included the work of Dr Eggman. The island was largely inhabited by only those seeking refuge away from civilization, including a certain yellow fox with two tails. That's right! This was the long time friend of Sonic. Being referred by his two tails. He would often tag along to help defeat evil whenever it rises. Now five months since the end of the war, Tails was looking for some peace and quiet. This island was discovered by him when he was younger so it was an ideal place. Currently he was fast asleep after another day of enjoyment. While he was suppose to be traveling the world to clean up the mess Eggman made, he like everyone had limits. After coming close to facing death a few times, the fox had the thinking. He had several labs located round the world but mainly he liked this one the most. Located deep under the ground with a small house above, this lab had everything he needed. This lab however was full proof so the planet shaking didn't deter him from sleeping, however that was about to change. Even though the resistance was dissolved, he kept his communicator at hand just so Sonic and the others could quickly contact him. It was set on the dresser, beside his bed as he slept.

The communicator gave off a loud tone before receiving an incoming transmission. The fox woke up instantly, groaning before tossing around to reach for the device. His sleepy eyes adjusting to the light from the communicator as it began broadcasting a message. The voice had spoken clearly, there was trouble and the fox had missed what it was. Once he verified the message, confirming it to be originating from South Island. A burst of energy made him jump into action, heading out of the room, to the hallway and outside towards a garage on the right side of him. Although he was yawning the rest of the way, he opened the large door to the inside.

Resting inside was a grey and red bi-plane, but not just any bi-plane. It was the old but still durable Tornado, the one that originally belonged to Sonic. He had the choice of going for his own tornado but urgency said otherwise. Once he seated himself, he went through the pre-flight checks: making sure the tanks were full, pumping oil into the engine, and making sure the control surfaces were in working order. Once the controls were checked, the fox began taxing the plane and attached to a catapult. The Tornado shot from zero to a hundred and sixty in a few seconds, pushing the fox to the back of his seat. That was all it took for him to get into the air, pretty simple on his end.

It would take a while to get to South Island since the tornado could only travel at two hundred and seventy miles per-hour. The autopilot was set into motion once the coordinates were entered, giving the fox the concentration to contact the base on South Island through his device, the Miles Electric. Thankfully for him, Sonic had taken the goal of getting things ready while manning the large computer to answer incoming calls. Due to his ability to travel fast, it only took him a minute to do so. He had finished just as the next call came in, the data confirming the identity of the caller. Sonic kept his joyful tone as his best friend and buddy appeared on the screen, being lit by the screen.

"Tails, how you been?!" He said in a optimistic tone towards the fox.

"Hey! Sonic, I been pretty well on my end...I been helping the world recover just like you said."

"That's great!"

Tails let off the happy smile, turning into a confused expression. "Sonic, What is going on? I gotten airborne a few minutes ago and I am picking up readings that are off the charts..."

"Did you feel that shaking then?"

"I didn't Sonic, I am a deep sleeper remember?"

"Well, we got trouble... it looks like Eggman has decided to crack the planet and unleash Dark Gaia again."

"Wait what!? He's trying again?"

"I know, I thought he wouldn't try this again since we stopped it together." Tails was trying to come up with a theory as to why Eggman would try again but all he could think of is a step or distraction to a bigger more developed strategy. "I can't come up with a reason as to why he would do this, other then a distraction to another plan."

"That's why everyone has to come to South Island, if we don't do something soon...who knows what would happen." Sonic turned his attention to the right as the door opened to reveal Gadget, Violet, and Olivia. The two glazing at the surroundings to take in the base.

"So this is the help, you were referring to."Sonic took a look at the two, giving the thumbs up.

"Your Sonic the hedgehog... right? Gadget has told a lot about you."

"Well, as someone long ago once said to me, there is only one sonic."

"Sonic! Meet Violet and Olivia, I met these two after we departed. I made an offer to them and they agreed to come along."The four looked up to Tails on the screen as he began analyzing the data.

"Something tells me that whatever Eggman is planning is going to be worse then the last war; I don't know much about how G.U.N is doing but if Eggman does strike again, there would be no one to stop him."

"Last I heard, the United Federation and G.U.N is still in the process of building up so we won't be able to get some help from them anytime soon."

"We have to relay on what we have then, there are still ships out there right?"

"Amy and the others as well, they have what we need."

Mushroom Kingdom, Peach's Castle

April 8, 2018

11:35AM

The castle sustained damage from the battle that was currently raging. It was about to get worse as several gigantic death egg robots were approaching from the east. Pack knew that those could do damage, very serious damage exactly. He could spot Eggman watching high from above, confident as there was no way to win this. Luck was on their side as loud chop chop sounds could be heard starting low then growing louder. The death egg robots continued marching, unaware of the force that was about to face them as Pack's radio then began coming to life.

"Pack! This is Orwell! Stand clear and lay low because we're coming in fast!"

"Copy! Fire on those that are approaching the castle. I hope those hellfires can do enough damage like you said."

Four missiles roared in from the north, hitting the lead death egg robot low on the right leg at a speed of four hundred miles per hour. The sudden shock was like bee stings but since both the legs were the supporting structure for the weight above, the impact and resulting fire from the four missiles caused the robot to lose balance and crash below in a ball of flame.

"What?!" Eggman almost stood up in his seat as he saw the robot meeting it's fate. The next moment came as a surprise to him as six helicopters appeared from behind a cliff with guns blazing at his robotic army below. A further four off in the distance, firing the missiles. His sensors detected the flying machines packed with soldiers that were comparable to G.U.N. However they could be doubt with quickly since he had faced something like this before.

"How thrilling! Too bad this wouldn't be worth it." The Death Egg Robots began shooting lasers from their eyes to counter the threat from the flying machines, thankfully all of them were flying too fast to hit. The four cobras that were accompanying them were able to deal a blow. However, despite suffering direct hits, some of the death egg robots pressed on. About six death egg robots fell to the thirty-two hellfires with two minutes. Almost all of the ten death egg robots that Eggman had at hand were wiped out. Worse is that some of the helicopters made short drop offs, unloading their soldiers into battle to enforce the defenders. Eggman was successful at heavily damaging two of them with his own missiles. This battle had barely drained what he had left despite how hundreds of destroyed egg pawns littered the area around the castle. The machine guns riddled the egg pawns to the point of destruction. They didn't really matter that much but Eggman did plan to rebuild his empire here so he needed everything to go to plan. He ducked in reaction to several bullets penetrating his glass cockpit and out the other side.

"You put up a fight, I'll give you that! Next time you better be ready." They could continue to fight this but eventually will run out of supplies and Eggman knows it. It was time to regroup and throw everything in. He avoided the tracer fire and headed away back to the east to one of the hovering ships. One by one, the robotic army turned away and headed back to their ships. "Look, they're retreating!" Captain Toad cried among the defenders as they all began cheering.

"Eggman is retreating as well." Pack knew that it wasn't going to end anytime soon, his knowledge told him that there was more to come. With Eggman gone, there was only Bowser to worry about.

"Cmon let's catch up to Mario!"

Pack followed Ala and Bucken along with the Scoring Six into the double doors of the castle. He admired the layout as a hybrid design between 64 and Odyssey. It would be perfect to admire it all had it not been for multiple holes in the ceiling. While running up the center stairs, he listened into the communication between the Breaknecks.

"Echo Six and Four are down, send the recovery team!"

Mario threw Cappy towards a door in front of him to knock it open then continued up a set of stairs until they reached a hallway. At that exact moment, Tiara and Peach appeared from the other side, running as fast as they could.

"Mario!"

"Peach!"

A joy of happiness appeared between them which didn't last long when all of a sudden, one of the walls broke loose and out came Bowser. He tried grabbing Tiara but she evaded his swinging arm and was able to reach Mario and Cappy. Peach wasn't able to do the same as the koopa had completely blocked the way.

"Get away from the princess!" One of the hammer bros guards emerged from the destroyed wall and dashed for the koopa, trying to pull a punch to the leg but resulted in a backfire. The hammer bro yell out in pain, holding his now injured arm. This made Bowser laugh to the stupidity of the guard before he kicked the hammer bro into the other one that was coming out to join the battle. The two were quickly thrown off their feet, landing a few feet from Mario. As the two helped each other up, Mario stood on the defensive as Bowser held Peach in his arm.

"I figured that you would survive that one, I wasn't surprised when I was told that weapon would only delay you." After the rest of the heroes turned a corner. They found Mario's back facing them. They were confronted with the holding result. "Princess!"Ala and Bucken both tried to make an attack run but was stop short by the Scoring Six.

Pack knew that he could shoot the koopa right then and there but THAT mindset was what held him back. He knew that there was enough violence already but if the bad guy died then there wouldn't be a purpose for Mario to be around. Bowser began taking steps back, with the intention of running. As the koopa king had turned his back towards them. Pack had noticed Mario slowly and silently putting his hand on Cappy, getting ready to throw. He was going to try to capture Bowser again.

Mario made his move, throwing Cappy towards Bowser. Just as the spinning cap was about to land. The koopa did something unexpected that was not seen before. "Wh-What?! Oh no! Whoaaaa!"Cappy made a confused yelp at he was caught by one of Bowser's arms and thrown aside to the floor. The hat-like being quickly turned normal and floated away before anything else could happen; flopping himself back on Mario's head. Everyone was stunned except for Pack since he knew something like that was bound to happen.

"Nice try Mario, but your not gonna get me that easily."

Bowser turned to try to run again until he was interrupted. "Hey! Your Bowser, right?" Pack had decided to try to stall Bowser's escape. It was stupid to get try to get attempt it to someone who you knew has bad intentions but it was worth a try, was it?

"There could only be one and only; what do you want?"

He didn't even ask for a name. Pack decided to play dumb and follow along, asking the koopa questions. Some questions that he knew already but if he wanted to keep the cover, he has to do it.

"Why bother attacking a kingdom and kidnapping a princess?"

"You see, I have goals... I want to unite the Mushroom and Koopa nation into one, so I can rule it along with Peach here." While the koopa went along with explaining, he took advantage of it, sticking his arms out, shooting lighting from a wristband like device that was well hidden. The lighting was shooting towards Mario, too fast for him for him to evade. "Mario! Look out!"

Mario and Cappy both screamed out in pain as the electricity hit both of them. Cappy tried escaping but the electricity penned him down. Meanwhile Pack cursed again as the thinking has costed him, he stopped himself using his weapon and this was the result. He turned his weapon towards Bowser's retreating back, careful not to accidentally hit Peach, who was looking back at the group, at Mario for sure. He aimed the M16, closing his eyes and pulled the trigger. Three shots echoed down the hall and the result was a loud scream that rang from the far side. Apart from Mario and Cappy's screams, he opened his eyes to see Bowser using his free arm to lean against the wall next to him.

Mario and Cappy couldn't believe it, Pack had did the unthinkable. I mean they didn't give a care to the minions he might have killed but this was different. Even the Scoring Six were too stunned to react.

"Pack..."

Pack could see the expression on the face on Princess Peach. The face of disbelief and...satisfaction? She was shocked at what took place but at the same time, didn't mind Bowser suffering? The expression quickly turned to horror as Bowser made a growling noise. Bowser was feeling a burning sensation from his left leg, like he was hit with a spike or something like that. He couldn't look to see what happened but he felt liquid dripping and gathering around where the pain was coming from. He growled at he realized that the human he was talking to was holding a weapon. This made him become motivated, making an effort to continue to his ship.

Weapons that could shoot further then the normal hammers, it was a major changer for sure. Based on the reports from Mushroom Kingdom, the devices they call rifles would surely help the koopa army. When he gets back, he would bring the entire koopa army to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Since this attack was just a bee sting, the next one would be different. The full potentional would be unleashed when the factories become operational thanks to to that scientist.

Bowser also learned that human's name was revealed as Pack. This human was what caught him, he was able to get how he was able to gain the trust of Mario quickly. He would be seeing him again no doubt. He was gonna need to investigate further with that scientist. Back with Pack, his mind was made up. Video game character or not, both Eggman and Bowser did things that was not explained much. At this point, Pack wasn't going to leave anything out. As he saw the staggering Bowser turning the corner. Pack looked back as the lighting surrounding Mario and Cappy began to fade. Tiara hovered closer to Cappy to help him up into the air while Ala and Bucken helped Mario to his feet.

"Big brother, are you okay?" Tiara moved close go her brother, giving a form of a hug. Unknownly, the energy that was left over from the lightning was still present in Cappy. The contact sent a static discharge with Tiara. She yelped as the static hit her which didn't seem to do anything bad except for the feeling of energy running through her.

"I am fine, just shaken up."

"Peach?" Mario quickly took off as he got to his feet, leaving Cappy behind."Mario! You forgot about me!" Mario followed the trail of red blood left by the koopa king, past the destroyed walls until he heard the cry he was used to by this point.

"Mario!" Peach's voice echoed from behind the door in front of him. "I got this!"One of the koopa troops from the scoring six made shell spin attack into the wall to force it open."Nice one, Kobi!"

"We're too late!"

The trail led to the edge of the castle roof, leading to a wooden ship. All of them could see that Peach was confined in a exposed cell along with a few koopa troopas, goombas and toads. Bowser was laughing hysterically in front of them and with his uninjured leg, he kicked the plank away while several cannons below deck fired as a distraction. His ship began turning away and climbing to begin it's escape. Pack aimed his gun but couldn't get a shot as the distance was too far.

"Mario! We have to do something."

Mario look towards one of the injured hammer guards, who was quickly biting down a super mushroom that was given to him by Kubuto. Mario then got an idea."Mind if I borrow your body for a little bit."The hammer guard realized what the hero was about to do, respecting the hero by making a closed smile. The guard watched as Cappy was thrown towards him and expected to lose control. Only, he saw nothing happening.

"Huh?"

Cappy sat on the Hammer guard's helmet, confused to why Mario was not being transported into the hammer bro. The hammer bro grasped the hat off and plopped it back on his helmet to see if it would work. Again, nothing happened, frustrating the hat.

"This didn't happen before..."Cappy flopped off and looked the hammer bro in the eye further confused.

Both of them turned to Mario but they could only see panic through the hero. Mario didn't know what to do from there, he was unsure of what to make how he was feeling now. After years and years of doing this. He felt the anger build up, yelling out to sit down in defeat. So that's what he did, sitting down with his face grumpy and his arms crossed. This sent chills throughout the group, to see the hero finally make the decision that they expected for him not to make. Mario had refused to give chase after Bowser.

Pack saw what was happening, quickly thinking to talk to the helicopters close by."Echo Team! Shoot the ship down but watch your fire, there are hostages on that ship."

"Copy all, we'll get it done."

The four cobras closed in, catching up to and even surrounding the ship. Bowser was struck further as he saw the cannons turn and began spewing up.

"Minions!"

The spiked koopas ran all over the ship, getting ready to combat the helicopters. Even readying smaller versions of the weapon bowser used earlier. Their efforts proved too late as the helicopters began spraying back and forth throughout the ship while keeping fire away from the holding cells.

Eventually, the damage from twenty-milimeters cannon shells was too much for the wooden ship to bear. The ship began to drop height and descend towards the ground with smoke pouring from shattered windows. Bowser was lucky enough to avoid all the fire and abandoning the crashing ship on his Crown Car and headed east, following the retreating ships of Eggman. Bowser growled to the open wound on his left leg. Even if Peach wasn't caught, she would understand why her kingdom is doomed. While he did still have romantic feelings for Peach; thanks to that scientist, it wasn't about convincing her anymore but it was rather something else...she can't keep the toads safe forever.

Those who were left locked in the cells were lucky as the descending ship impacted the ground with relatively low speed. The ship had not made it far from the castle, crashing near the east of Toad Town. Upon seeing the smoking ship crash and halt, Toadette and the defenders within Toad Town hurried to the wrecked ship.

"Cmon lets go!"Several holes were cut into the ship, further venting the smoke out and gaining a way inside.

Toadette was one of the first ones to go in since she had a headlamp. The minions that she and others discovered to have also survived the crash quickly gave up without a fight since there was no meaning to continue on. It wasn't long until the top deck was reached and they arrived towards the exposed cells. After a quick examination, Toadette hopped towards the edge of the top deck. Toadette waved her arms in the air happily below to let the gathering crowd below know.

"They're alright!"

As expected, everyone cheered to the news, relieved it ended quickly. This gone well even for Peach as she remained fine. Toadette was able to find the button that opened the cells. With the princess being the first one to step out towards Toadette, Peach couldn't help but share the silence.

"Princess, Follow me!"

With her pink dress still perstine, Peach was personally escorted by Toadette out of the ship. Several of the helicopters including Orwell's landed beside the downed ship. The chopping sounds still announcing the arrival of the help. It was still uneasy for the humans to understand the people of the mushroom kingdom, still happy and cheerful even when it came close to defeat. On his radio, the Pack could hear Orwell saying. "The princess is safe, Pack you can spread the word to the castle."

"Copy Orwell... I will see to it that we including Patterson and Finn get together to better explain ourselves to the Princess."

Pack relayed the word to the group and everyone else at the castle cheered to the news. The princess was saved from being kidnapped again, this was going to be big news. For the first time in years, the Royal Guard had succeeded in protecting Peach. It almost failed but it has succeeded thank to the strange visitors. However since this kidnapping attempt was way more violent and brutal then the last attempt. Lots of explaining would need to be done. Watching the crashing ship made Mario retreat into the castle, showing the disappointed feeling. This did not go unnoticed by the now silent group. No one wanted to talk about it, not even Ala and Bucken. This incident however was enough to set off alarms in Pack's mind.

What happened to Mario, It was odd for him to act this way...he wouldn't refuse to rescue Peach unless...

Pack remembered and called back to the end of Odyssey. Was he not feeling the need to rescue her? Losing the feeling for Peach? Did that ending really change him? He needed to find Mario and get answers, even if he didn't want to answer them.