The next chapter is here!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 9: Sunnycide Squad

As soon as everyone walked into the next room after venturing in the narrow passage created by the boulder, they heard a scream:

"Whoa! Help!" it was from a Yoshi.

"Eh? Where did that come from?" Mario puzzled as everyone looked around.

"Up there!" Baby Mario pointed upwards.

They looked up and saw a strange blue machine, where a red Yoshi was on the top, in a small bathtub of bubbles.

"Bleahhhhh… This is gross." The red Yoshi cringed, until he was sucked inside the machine's interior. "Ouch! Dark, too."

He came out trapped inside a magenta egg with green spots. It followed the trail of the conveyor belt, showing more of those eggs on, leading them to somewhere.

"THE HECK?!" Luigi shouted in shock.

"OH NO! It's Dinosaur Land all over again!" Mario panicked, remembering back when he and Luigi had to rescue trapped Yoshis during the events of Super Mario World.

"Well, I am stupemortified! There's an EGG factory in this beast's torsal cavity…" Stuffwell said.

"Thanks to the Author for putting caps on to not confuse with Eggman's lair." Sonic thought thankfully.

"This is vile Shroob work. We must do whatever it takes to free the captive Yoshis!" Stuffwell continued. "Not only that, we need to find Bowser and his precious belly. BACK TO ADVENTURE!" he jumped back into Mario's pocket.

"Well, we need to free the Yoshis. I can't stand to see any of them hurt." Veronica said. Everyone nodded and moved on.

On the next room, they saw the same green, yellow, red and light-blue Yoshis trying to push another boulder, which was blocking the exit.

"Another one?! Seriously?" Young Sonic complained.

"Push! PUSH!" the green Yoshi demanded as he and the other Yoshis struggled to move the boulder.

"Something's missing here… Where are the blue and pink Yoshis?" Young Tails asked.

"Maybe they're trapped inside those eggs over there?" Tails pointed to two eggs inside two transparent blocks next to the entrance.

"Possibly. I'll get them." Veronica said as she flew towards the blocks and picked up the eggs. She flew back to them and placed the eggs on the floor. "Now how do we break them?"

"Leave it to us!" Baby Mario said as he and Baby Luigi pulled out their hammers and smashed both eggs with them, freeing the blue and pink Yoshis.

"Whoa… Tight fit…" the blue Yoshi remarked.

"Ewwwwww… That was gnarly." The pink Yoshi cringed.

"Hey, look! There they are!" the blue Yoshi pointed to the Yoshis pushing the boulder.

"We gotta roll ANOTHER?!" the pink Yoshi questioned in shock as he and the blue Yoshi went to the others.

"No matter! Let's do it!" the blue Yoshi exclaimed as he and the pink Yoshi worked together to push the boulder.

Eventually, the boulder rolled out of the way, unblocking the exit.

"All right!" the Yoshis cheered. "Now we can move on!" they walked through the exit, with Mario and Co. following suit.

Soon after dealing with some Dry Bones and RC Shroobers, the heroes heard a familiar female voice coming from the next room:

"Hold on! I'll bust you out of there!"

"Wait… I know that voice!" Sonic's eyes widened.

"Me too!" Tails added.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's hurry!"

To their surprise, they saw none other than Amy Rose standing next to a bunch of eggs! Once the heroes went in, she turned around and looked at them with her eyes widened.

"Uh oh, here it comes…" Sonic thought with a nervous look, getting ready for Amy to tackle-hug him like she always does. Strangely enough, she didn't do it; instead, she only just stood there with a confused look on her face.

"Hey, hang on! Who are you guys?" Amy asked.

Sonic's eyes widened in surprise once she said that; she doesn't remember them at all? That really wasn't a good thing…

"Amy? What are you talking about? We're your friends! Don't you remember?" Tails asked.

"What? 'Amy'? My name's Amy?" Amy questioned. Hearing that made the youngsters astonished since they're seeing the future version of Amy.

"Yeah! Amy Rose! And…" Tails began blabbing on.

"A 'hedgehog' from 'Mobius'? 'Princess Peach'? 'Time'… 'machine'?" Amy questioned on the topics Tails was telling her. But she became stressed out and held her head while shaking it. "Ow…" she winced. "I… The past is a total blank! It makes my mind hurt… No matter how hard I try, I can't remember a thing…"

"Oh no… Is she suffering from amnesia?" Sonic thought with a saddened look.

But soon, something came in Amy's mind: "Wait, no, pretend that I just lied. There is one thing…" she walks closer to the heroes. "Every once in a while, a dim memory surfaces… I just drew this picture of the image…"

She hands them a drawing of some kind. It showed a pair of two female hands holding up the complete Cobalt Star against Princess Shroob. They didn't notice, but the drawing had dirt patches on it, covering most of it, making it unclear to whom those hands belonged to. The heroes guessed that they could belong to Princess Peach.

"I honestly don't have a clue what that is." Amy said. "What I do know is that it scares me. I think that's the reason my memory is blank. I can't bear to remember!"

"Easy, Amy. You'll get your memory back soon enough." Sonic smiled.

"Thank you, S…uh…" Amy couldn't remember Sonic's name.

"Sonic. My name is Sonic."

"Okay then, Sonic." Amy smiled back. "At least I'll never forget who you are. You can take the drawing with you, if you want."

"We'll do!" Tails replied as he picks up the drawing. "We can later show it to the professor once we get back to our time."

"But, what just happened to you, Amy? How did you end up getting here? Do you remember?" Sonic asked.

"Yes." Amy nodded. "I just woke up in the Yoshis' village… Then that huge lizard ate some Yoshis and me all down."

"Just a quick question: what are these eggs?" Baby Mario asked.

"My friends, the Yoshis, are trapped inside them." Amy explained. "And the Yoshis that were in eggs are probably going to be reborn as monsters…"

"Monsters?!" Luigi's eyes widened in shock.

"Yeah… That's why I have to hurry and get them out of there, but…" she paused for a moment. "There's this huge, nasty THING in the back who's guarding the exit."

"If you say so, then we'll take that thing out!" Mario said with determination.

"Are you out of your mind? It's big and scary! And it smells…really weird." Amy protested.

"Guess we'll have to explain that to her once again in our way…" Mario sweatdropped as he turned to Luigi and the babies. The trio approached Mario as he begins: "No job's too big or threatening…"

"…when we are around!" Baby Mario finished.

"You don't have to despair!" Luigi continued.

"Cause we are…" Baby Luigi added.

"…THE MARIO BROTHERS!" the four finished, shoving their fists into the air.

"Wow… Just who ARE you guys?" Amy was astonished.

"Let's go, everyone!" Mario exclaimed.

"Yeah!" the rest of the heroes nodded as they walked into the room, leaving Amy alone.

As soon as they got in the room, they saw a monstrous egg-shaped monster surrounded by many of those eggs while blocking the only exit.

"Okaaaaay…*gulp*that thing is scary." Luigi gulped.

"%$&*#(*%*#!" the monster roared loudly.

"OH GOD!" Luigi jumped in fright and tries to leave, only to get sent back by Amy, who just came into the room. She was holding her Piko Piko Hammer with her, and she had no idea how she summoned it, but she didn't care and glared at the monster:

"Don't you harm those eggs! Just let them go!"

"…Amy?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Oh! Sorry to interrupt, I just had to see if I could help out…"

"%$&*#(*%*#!" the monster roared again.

"Uhhh… I gotta go now…" Luigi shuddered as he slowly walks away, until Baby Yoshi wrapped his tongue around him and pulled him back.

"Oh, come on…" Luigi muttered.

"By the way, I came up with a name for this monster. I called him Sunnycide." Amy said. "Get it?"

"Let me guess: you're referencing the term 'sunny-side up', a way to fry eggs, and the suffix '-cide' of 'suicide', right?" Young Sonic guessed with his eyebrow raised.

"Damn your fourth wall breaking…" Sonic sweatdropped.

The monster, dubbed Sunnycide, threw one of his eggs at Amy. Since she didn't know how to use her hammer, the egg eventually hit her.

"OUCH!" she winced as she fell on the floor, unconscious.

"Apparently, that bad guy doesn't like puns." Sonic sassed.

"Grrrrr!" just then, a familiar voice came from the thrown egg.

"What the… BOWSER?!" Baby Mario flinched.

The egg cracks open, revealing Baby Bowser.

"Hey! You all there! Don't just stand there! Get me outta here!" Baby Bowser yelled.

"He has a point." Mario said.

Sunnycide threw two eggs, which were called Yoob Eggs, in an attempt to hit Mario and Luigi. Luckily, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi jumped in front of their adult selves and hit the Yoob Eggs with their hammers right back at Sunnycide.

"Boom! Right back at ya!" Baby Mario exclaimed.

Then, the two Yoob Eggs that were sent back cracked open, and a green Yoshi and a black Yoshi came out and rushed to the upper part of the room to push a large boulder.

"That's it! We could break these eggs and free the Yoshis to make them help us in battle!" Tails stated.

"Let me and my adult self handle the eggs." Young Sonic said. "You guys take care of…Sunnycide."

"All right! After all, you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs!" Sonic joked.

"Heh, good one!"

With that, the rest of the group focused on Sunnycide while both Sonics freed the Yoshis trapped in the Yoob Eggs. Mario did a stomp on Sunnycide while Baby Mario hit him with his hammer, followed up by Baby Yoshi wrapping his tongue on one of the Yoob Eggs and throwing it at Sunnycide.

Sunnycide then tried his other move: he looked at Luigi and used suction to try to regain health.

"GAAAH!" Luigi screamed as he was being sucked.

"Oh no, you don't!" Veronica hissed and used a different type of power: she first stopped Sunnycide in place, and then she created a glowing light-blue clock hologram in front of her and moved her hand counterclockwise, causing Sunnycide to blow out air instead since it was playing in reverse.

"Hurry! Shoot him in the mouth!" Tails warned his younger self. He nodded and both fired a shot from their arm cannons into Sunnycide's mouth, and he roared in pain. At the same time, Veronica ends her magic.

"That was close! Thanks, Veronica!" Luigi thanked.

"No problem." Veronica replied.

"WATCH OUT!" Baby Luigi suddenly dragged Luigi just in time as a hole showed up where he used to be. What really happened was that Sunnycide had pulled down a chain to create a hole in the ground.

"Did my younger self just save me?!" Luigi thought while surprised.

"You were just about to fall into that hole! Good thing I've saved you in time!" Baby Luigi smiled at the last sentence.

"I guess Luigi was much smarter when he was young… Things sure do change." Veronica thought.

Soon, the two Sonics had freed enough Yoshis from the Yoob Eggs and were now standing next to them up above.

"Hey, eggface! Taste the roll of the Yoshis!" Young Sonic taunted.

"Wow! Sounds like the way I joke at Eggman!" Sonic thought while grinning.

With that, the Yoshis pushed the boulder and it fell down towards Sunnycide, hitting him in the head. He was now lying on the ground, exposing his large bump partially covered with a bandage.

"I knew it! That was his weak spot!" Tails exclaimed.

"How'd you know?" Sonic asked once he came down.

"When I and younger me shot him into the mouth, he cried out in pain."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"You know, since we're talking about eggs a lot, how about the Mario Bros finish him with our own type of egg?" Veronica smirked as she used her magic again. "Use this, guys!" she summons a white egg with golden stars pattern.

"All right! The Smash Egg!" Mario grinned.

Veronica throws the Smash Egg to Mario, who did a bicycle kick at it, sending it at Sunnycide's weak spot. The Smash Egg went towards Luigi now and he also does a bicycle kick at it to send it at the weak spot. The brothers continued this 'egg bicycle kick play' until the Smash Egg cracked.

But it didn't take long enough for Sunnycide to face defeat in front of our heroes.

"Looks like Sunnycide got EGGsecuted!" Sonic joked, making the group laugh.

"Hahahahaha! That was a good one!" Young Sonic laughed.

"You and your egg jokes…" Mario snickered.

Sunnycide then exploded, and eventually, the whole place shook as the exit opened up in the ground. The heroes watched the Yoob Eggs that remained fall down into the hole…and Baby Bowser.

"Ohhh, YES! I bet if we go into this hole, we'll be free!" Amy exclaimed once she woke up.

"The exit!" a Yoshi's voice came in.

A row of Yoshis came into the room and they all jumped into the hole.

"Shall we go?" Young Tails invited.

"Ugh, why do I get the feeling that this is going to be disturbing?" Sonic cringed a bit.

"Ohh… I get it now…" Young Sonic cringed too.

"I know it's going to be disgusting, but we have to get out." Mario told them.

"Well then, let's go."

Everyone took a deep breath and hopped into the hole.

Outside, at the Yoshi Mountain, we can see the heroes coming out of Yoob's…butthole (sorry about that…) and falling down.

"WHOOOOOOOOAAAAAA!" they screamed as they were falling.

Thankfully, they landed safely on the ground, until all of the Yoob Eggs fell…on Luigi's head.

"Ughhhh! What is this, Land on Luigi day?" Luigi muttered in anger.

Soon, Amy also landed on him.

"Yep... I called it…" he groaned while raising his arm up.

"Oh, oops! Sorry about that!" Amy apologized and got off of Luigi.

"Well, we were able to perform a dashing escape, weren't we?" Stuffwell said.

"Oh, come on! Stealing my words AGAIN?!" Sonic thought while gritting his teeth.

"An adventure-filled escape from a massive, pink horror…"

Then, everyone looked up and saw that Yoob's eyes closed and became motionless.

"It looks like Yoob isn't moving anymore…" Veronica pointed out.

"I would surmise that the eggs supplied that big hungrinator with its energy. Yes, indeed." Stuffwell concluded.

"We better hurry and get these eggs back to the village where they belong!" Amy stated. "Seems like they somehow know they've all made it home! Come on, everyone!" she guided the eggs back to the village.

"No idea how she does that…" Young Sonic said astonished.

"I suggest a return to the village to see what's happening." Stuffwell suggested and jumps back in Mario's pocket.

Back at the village…

"Bwah ha ha!" Baby Bowser laughed evilly.

He was enjoying a buffet of Yoshi Cookies while the Yoshis surrounding him watched.

"Listen up, lizards! I'm the one who saved you. Me!" Baby Bowser said. "So make with the gratitude…and the goodies, too!"

"Thanks a bunch, pal!" a red Yoshi thanked.

"Thank you!" a blue Yoshi and a yellow Yoshi thanked.

"Hey…" the Yoshis heard a little voice from behind. They turned around and saw the group of heroes coming to them. By the way, the one who just spoke was Baby Mario. "He's lying. He didn't save you, we did." He corrected.

"Grrrrr! This is NOT happening again!" Baby Bowser yelled. "Lemme just guess… You're here for the cookies? Hmph!" he scoffs and resumes eating. "I'll scarf 'em all before I let you touch a single crumb!"

"Umm… You do know you still have the Cobalt Shards in your belly, right? They're occupying a lot of space in it." Veronica warned. "If you fill your tummy too much, you'll end up choking, and that's dangerous for babies."

"Oh, shut up! You're not even my mom!" Baby Bowser scolded, not listening to Veronica and ate ALL of the cookies. But then, he started to cough and choke:

"HORK! PLABTH!"

"Told you." Veronica crossed her arms.

"Urrrrgh! BLAAAAAAARF!" Baby Bowser barfed out the two Cobalt Shards he had eaten.

"The Cobalt Shards!" Tails exclaimed.

"Look! Magic!" the blue Yoshi chirped.

"He's amazing!" the red Yoshi clapped.

"Oops! Whoa, no wonder! I forgot I'd eaten those!" Baby Bowser replied in a silly tone. The Cobalt Shards moved on by themselves. "Wait, wha—What's going on?!" to everyone's surprise, the shards dashed at full speed towards Baby Bowser and pushed him hard enough to send him flying. "YEEOW!"

"Whoa… I was NOT expecting that!" Sonic was shocked.

"Wow! Awesome! Our hero can fly!" the yellow Yoshi squealed.

"You're the best!" the red Yoshi appraised.

Baby Mario and Baby Luigi walked over to the shards and took them.

"For the love of LUGGAGE! Those Cobalt Shards hold a pugilistical power!" Stuffwell remarked, surprised about the event that just happened. "There's no record of this in my data banks. I believe we've made an important discovery! BACK TO ADVENTURE!" he jumps back in.

"Okay, this Stuffwell guy is starting to annoy me…" Sonic thought while sweatdropping.

"Listen up, Yoshis!" Amy came in. Everyone turned to her as she directed to the nine heroes. "These guys here saved you, not that little piggie. He was in an egg the whole time!"

"Yoshi! Yoshi!" Baby Yoshi spoke.

"Seriously?" the green Yoshi questioned. "Is it true, Baby Yoshi?" he asked the Baby Yoshi.

"Yes!" Baby Yoshi nodded.

"Whoa! You can speak a few words now?!"

"Yaaaaaaay!" Baby Yoshi cheered.

"Oh, wow." The pink Yoshi was astonished.

Amy turned to the heroes and thanked them: "Thanks, you guys. Seriously."

"You're welcome!" Mario replied with a smile.

"Yay!" all of the Yoshis, including Baby Yoshi, jumped in joy.

"Well, we have to go now." Veronica told the heroes.

They nodded and gathered around her. However, Sonic was surprised that Amy didn't want to tag along.

"Are you sure you don't want to come back, Amy?" he asked.

"No." she shook her head. "I'll stay here for a while, so that my memory comes back over time. After all, this whole village needs a repair."

"Alright, then…" Sonic replied. "Gee, she acts VERY different when she's with amnesia... Why am I feeling bad for her?" he thought.

"Goodbye, our true heroes!" the adult Yoshis waved.

"Bye!" Baby Mario waved back. He then looked at Baby Yoshi. "Oh! Goodbye to you too, Yoshi! I and my bro will make sure we live in big adventures together in the future!"

"Yoshi!" Baby Yoshi chirped with a big smile while waving.

Mario and Luigi couldn't help but smile at Baby Mario's words about Yoshi in the future. After the goodbyes, Veronica used her time-traveling magic and the heroes disappeared from sight in a bright light.

After travelling through the time portal, they reappeared at Peach's Castle Garden in the present day. There, they wasted no time in heading back to Professor E. Gadd at the throne room.

"Welcome back again, fellers!" E. Gadd greeted them. "So you've got your hands on some of the Cobalt Shards, hm? 2 of 'em?"

"We have also found Amy Rose in Yoshi's Island of the past." Sonic told him.

"Oho! You've found miss Rose? Then why isn't she with you?" E. Gadd asked.

"Well… She's suffering from amnesia, I'm afraid. She decided to stay there so that her memory would return." Sonic said. "And we also have a picture that she drew prior to her memory being erased." He hands E. Gadd the drawing.

"Hm… Ah…" E. Gadd looks at the drawing. "It looks to be a sketch of the Shroob princess attacking someone else…"

"Yes, we believe that person is Princess Peach." Stuffwell informed. "Seems that she's holding off the alien scourge with the Cobalt Star, but…"

"As we know, Princess Peach lost this battle, and the star shattered into fragments. How did this all happen? Was the Cobalt Star alone not enough to win the day? Or did something unexpected and just plain awful happen? Veronica, you have any clues?"

"Umm… Well…" Veronica looked quite nervous for some reason.

"What's the matter with you? You're able to see visions of the past, present and future, don't you?" E. Gadd questioned. "That's what you told me. You sure you're alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Veronica replied. "I'm sorry, professor. I don't have any clues at this moment." She said. But in truth, she's actually lying. What could she be hiding from our heroes?

"Hmm, you're still acting veeeeery weird for me." E. Gadd suspected. "Anyhoo, it hardly matters. You just find those time holes and collect Cobalt Shards."

"Leave it to us!" Tails exclaimed.

"Oh, and that reminds me, a new time hole has appeared on the third floor of the castle. My readings indicate that this particular time hole is a direct link to Peach's Castle of old."

"Really?!" Mario, Luigi, Sonic and Tails said in surprise.

"Unfortunately, my visions show that the Castle is under guard by the Shroobs. We can't go there yet." Veronica warned.

"So it looks like we'll have to just focus on gathering more Cobalt Shards for now." Mario stated.

"You're right, Bro." Luigi nodded. He turned to Veronica and asked: "Veronica, are you getting another sense of time energy?"

"Yes, I am getting another one." Veronica answered. "This way."

She led the heroes out of the throne room. Not too long, they once again encountered both Toadsworths entertaining Baby Peach again. They teach the adult Mario Bros the Bros Ball, where they turn into a rolling ball and not only it allows them to move faster, but also allows them to go under walls and tight spaces.

Once the learning was done, Veronica led the group back to the second floor. This time, the other time hole was at the top. They jumped inside, wondering what their new destination will be.

To be continued…

Remember back at chapter 5 where I mentioned that Toadiko and Toadbert wouldn't show up in my story? Because of that, I decided to use Amy to replace Toadbert's role.

I think I did a really good job with the humor in this chapter, adding a lot of egg jokes during the fight with Sunnycide! XD Even I am proud of myself! ;D

Where could the next destination be? Will our heroes find Princess Peach? And is she really the person using the Cobalt Star in the drawing? Find out in the next chapter! Please review.