A/N: Well, so here I am…with yet anew update, I'm sorry for the long wait, I swear that will try and update my other story, so for the time being just read this long one here…I've got it back!

Disclaimer: I own nothing Nintendo or Sega related.

Mario &Sonic: World Heroes

Chapter Seventeen

Knuckles, You Idiot

Most of Princess Peach's castle was badly damaged, but our heroes could be seen in the courtyard. Mario, Silver, and Shadow were seen slowly regaining consciousness.

"Dang it! I can't believe I lost the princess!" Mario groaned, groggily standing up, his face was all red from pure anguish. "And to make the situation even worst, it was by some craze sky-boarding chickens to boot!!!!"

Silver did his best to try and cheer up Mario. "Uh, I'm inclined to agree, Mario!" he muttered, dusting himself off. "It was a real shame that she had to be kidnapped again...But what really got me thinking: how did they managed to get here in this realm!"

"Hmm, that's what I would like to know, too..." Shadow huffed, dusting himself off the ground.

"Huh...Shadow?" Silver muttered, turning toward the emo-hedgehog. "Oh, so you're back up? It good to see that we're all up and accounted to." Silver chuckled.

"Whatever..." Shadow retorted. Shadow then started looking around and noticed how the castle was all in ruin. "Humph. Those cowards, when they know we got them on the ropes, they'll go and throw some giant missile at us and blow up the whole room...Typical."

"Eheheh...You actually think that's typical behavior from the Babylon Rogue, Shadow?" Silver said, placing his arms behind his back.

"Yeah!" Mario yelped, getting Silver and Shadow's attention. "It was those stinking do-do birds! Somebody musta order them here to kidnap Princess Peach!" Mario exclaimed, slamming his fist to the ground.

"Nah, ya think?" Shadow retorted, sarcastically, as he folded his arms. Mario just turned toward and started staring annoyingly at him.

Silver then stood up, balding up both of his fist. "But I wouldn't worry, Mario! I'm quite sure with the provided help from Shadow, of course, me, you and Shadow will find her! We just need to try and keep a good head on our shoulders!"

"Yeah! Yeah! Whatever! Whatever!" Mario cried. "We're gonna start our search at the most likely place; Bowser's Castle!"

Both Shadow and Silver still wasn't sure if Bowser was behind this, but there wasn't any reason to argue with Mario, because, c'mon, he is the most likely suspect.

"Listen Mario, I highly doubt that pee-brained dinosaur's behind this plan." Shadow huffed, as he folded his arms.

"Hmm...Is that so, Shadow? I that what you really think, hmmm?" Mario muttered, his eyes all budged as he raised his eyebrow. "I think the idiot is behind this little...conspiracy!"

"And I'm telling you, that this is a waste of our time!" Shadow retorted, folding his arms, getting slightly pissed of at Mario. "Bowser can't even plan his next meal, let alone an elaborate kidnapping."

However without having Peach around Mario's brain went completely nuts and he began jumping to insane conclusions.

"How come I never saw it!" Mario shouted at the top of his lungs. Shadow and Silver looked each other, and then at Mario. "It's all so obvious now! I should of saw it before!"

"What're you blabbering on about know, you moron." Shadow huffed, turning from Mario, folding his arms.

"Uhh...Yes, Mario, I'm quite interested in what you are elaborating about now too, as well..." Silver chuckled nervously, while looking at Mario.

"Shadow!" Mario murmured, pointing at the emo-hedgehog. "You never did liked Princess Peach, didn't you Shadow?" Shadow just turned and stared at Mario. "I bet you're in cahoots with Bowser, aren't Shadow!"

"Not that again! Listen you moron, I just think we need to think before we act!" Shadow shouted back at him.

Silver interjected between them sighing. "Relax, Mario! I'm quite certain that Shadow isn't a spy for Bowser, so I suggest that we'll just go to Bowser's Castle and see if your suspicion are correct!"

"Well, alright...Okay, for now, I'll keep quiet..." Mario then looked and glared at Shadow. "...But, I'm making sure to keep close eye on you!!!" Shadow just walked passed Mario, shaking head in disgust.

Meanwhile at Bowser's Castle, the Daft Punk Koopa walked up carrying the famed Genie Lamp. "It's about friggen time we made some screen time!" Brick muttered. "I mean, a bunch of smelly gorillas had more time in more chapter than us, and that's just ain't right, feel meh!"

"Shut up, Brick! At least we found this lamp; that was our only objective after all, screen time aside, I think today job was pulled off pretty decently, wouldn't you!" Bridgette groaned snapping at her impatient little brother. "But...still, I feel sorta sorry for Wario and that skinny man, I wouldn't wish General Guy's imprisonment camp on anyone."

"Who cares about them? We asked them politely for the lamp, but they refused so we were forced to thrash them!" Butch replied.

A little later in the day Mario, Shadow, and Silver finally reached the Princess Peach's Castle where a troop of Koopatrols were waiting for them. "Halt! You three! State your business for being in these parts?" asked Rusty, an elderly Koopatrol with a long braided beard hanging from the front of his armor. I sorta based him of that old Soul Reaper dude that play on Bleach.

Mario just stared at the elder Koopa and suddenly spurted out. "Rusty?!?! Of course, I've been looking at this thing the wrong way!"

"WHAT?!?!" Silver and Shadow said in unison completely confused.

"I should of known that a dastardly Koopa, such as yourself, was behind this!" Mario shrieked running off toward him. "Prepare to be completely and utterly thrash, you fiend!!!"

"And here I thought Bowser was the brains behind this operation…" Shadow sighed, sarcastically.

However, Rusty the elderly Koopatrol was blessed with years of experience and he dodged Mario easily. "Hmm...I don't know your reason for coming here or better yet, attacking us." Rusty then lifted up his spear causing his troops to charge toward Mario. "But the way you're charging, there's no way of you proceed pass us, you're too blinded by anger. Attack, my men!"

Silver seemed to be the only one thinking clearly and he sighed. "Just a minute guys! I don't think we should rush blindly into this! If Bowser really has Princess Peach we would be too exhausted to battle him if we reached him."

Rusty stood and watched as Mario easily took down most of his soldiers. "Hmm…The fool, if he does manage to bypass our forces, I wonder how he'll react when find out the truth…" The elder Koopatrol muttered to himself, placing his hands behind his back.

Mario didn't seem to hear Silver as he leapt over Rusty hitting a bunch of Koopatrol with his Coin Rush. "I'll take these losers here!" Mario yelped, slamming his hammer into the two Koopatrols. "You boys get into the castle…" Mario then grabbed two unexpected Koopatrols by the heads and held on them tightly.

"Oh, god! He has us, man!!!!" One Koopatrol yelped, flailing around, trying desperately to free himself. "I never wanted to do this, I shoulda listen to my muthda and join the Para Troops!!!"

"P-Please, Mr. Mario…H-Have some mercy for a lowly rookie!!!" the other Koopatrol whined, tearing flowing down his cheeks. "I swear, I would never hurt anyone, in my life! I swear to Goomba that it was wife idea to join the Koopa Troops! Think about what you're doing, man, I have a wife and KIDS at home!!!" he then started crying loudly.

"Err…Reprehensible!" Rusty scowled, as he gripped his lance and slammed it into the ground. "Show some spine, you're Koopatrols for crying out loud!

However, the two Koopatrol's pleads fell on deaf ears as Mario slammed their heads into each with tremendous force, making them lose consciousness instantly. "I handle the rest of Rusty's pathetic Koopatrol."

"And if I refuse?" Shadow groaned, not moving a inch.

Mario then looked over at them with this possessed look in his eye. "He's obviously out of control, but if we refuse his rage could hit us like a laser beam Shadow!" Silver groaned.

"Stop them, my men! They mustn't enter the Master's Palace!" Rusty yelled holding up his spear.

Hundreds of Koopatrols rushed toward Shadow and Silver, but Mario quickly met them swinging through the sky like a helicopter with his mallet.

"Hammer Whirl!" Mario yelped, jumping into the fray, slamming his hammer into many Koopatrol.

Rusty watched in sheer disgust, as his Koopatrol were sent hurtling every which away in Peach's Courtyard. "…Hrmm…" he groaned, exasperatingly.

"Hurry up guys!" Mario shrieked at the top of his lungs. "Eeeyyyaahhh Hammer Toss!" he yelped, tossing his hammer toward the lead Koopatrol, Rusty.

The hammer was hurtling full speed at Rusty, and was just about to collided into the elderly Koopa, but suddenly a Koopatrol clad in a slightly different armor stepped in front Rusty, easily deflecting Mario's hammer and with a fist.

Mario just stood there staring at the strange Koopa. "Hmmm?" Mario murmured, as he slightly raised his eyebrow.

"Mario, let me kindly introduce you to my lieutenant." Rusty said, with a slight smirk on his face. "Koopon, I'm afraid this is where your time expires!"

"Eheheh, sup…I've heard a lot about you in the past, by my master here!" The Koopatrol lieutenant then pulled out his spear and pointed toward Mario. "Say, let's have ourselves a good time, kay?" he chuckled.

"Hmm, fine, bring it on!" Mario replied, pulling out his hammer. "Let'sa Goooo!!!!" Mario the L. Koopatrol then ran full speed at each other.

Meanwhile in the unforgiving Fahr Outpost the unlikely party of Sonic and Stuffwell started their search for Luigi. "I'm picking up a trace of Luigi coming from the top of Mount Fahr maybe we should investigate!"

"I don't know Stuffwell it could be a trap I mean those X-Punks did run off real fast after getting a mysterious phone call!" Sonic muttered touching his chin. "But its Luigi dude we can't just leave him hanging like that!"

Stuffwell stumbled about smiling. "I suggest we head up the mountain and save our comrade trap or no trap!" Sonic chortled lightly it seemed like he was rubbing off on Stuffwell the little robot was always hesitant to run into a trap. "Besides if we get into trouble I can always use that special device the professor gave me!"

The hike up Mount Fahr was treacherous and Sonic complained half the way up. "I hate snow dude its just frozen water! I wish I had my board we would be at the top in a second!" Stuffwell hovered over the terrain with his little boosters.

"Shut up we're almost there!" Stuffwell snarled.

Once they reached the summit Sonic crashed exhaustedly in the snow crying out of relief, but Stuffwell muttered. "Uh...Sonic you better get up and see this!" Over there heads floated a cage with Luigi tied up in it. "I wonder who did this?"

Before Stuffwell could even move a punch flew out of nowhere sending the little suitcase flying. "Get away from him!" cried a red echidna with bandages tied around his fists. Knuckles then jacked up Stuffwell and growled. "If you want your cohort back you'll divulge information on the Master Emeralds whereabouts."

"Master Emerald? W-What...What're you talking about?" Stuffwell stammered, his eyes moving from left to right. "I don't have any recording about a 'Master Emerald' in my database."

"Save your lies, cuz I know the absolute truth." Knuckles growled, lifting Stuffwell up higher in the air. "I have you know that I got info about this matter from a very liable source! And trust me, he's very trustworthy."

"What..." Stuffwell murmured with an extremely puzzled look on his face. "Listen, I don't know who informed you these obtuse accusation, but I can assure you: we have NO idea where your 'Master Emerald' located..." he then nodded his head. "And trust me when I say: you've been flim-flam."

"ENOUGH!" Knuckles shouted as he started shaking Stuffwell, which made me get though swiggly things in his eyes. "My source told me that you would try to hide the truth!" Knuckles then started smirking, as he dropped Stuffwell on the ground. "He was very precise about his information, so you better start talking, BAG!!!!" he yelped, pointing his finger.

Sonic was still pudding behind, unaware of what just happened to Stuffwell. "Man, there he goes running off again...That kid really need to cool his jet." he murmured to himself. "Now, where did he run off too..."

Sonic finally made it downhill, when he noticed Knuckles standing over Stuffwell, still making a scene. "Huh? Knuckles? Knuckles, is that you? DUDE! It is you!!!! What're you doing here?" Sonic yelped, running toward him. "It's about time I saw a friendly face from back home. Shadow is just so mean to me!"

"GASP! You...You're in cahoots with these emerald thieves too, Sonic?" Knuckles cried, balling up his fist. "I-I can't believe this, I simply can't believe this..." he sniffed, wiping a tear from his cheek. "W-Why would you would do this to me?!"

"…Cahoots. Dude, are you serious? Nobody uses that word anymore, beside I have nothing to do with the disappearance of your Master Emerald." Sonic said, nonchalantly scratching behind his ears. "Huh...Wait, The Master Emerald's here, in the Mushroom Kingdom?" Sonic murmured, he then turned toward Knuckles. "So, Knuxs, why would the Master Emerald be here? I thought you had it on full lockdown on Angel Island!"

"Huh...Oh, right. I was doing my usual inspection of the Master Emerald's shrine, when I noticed that it was looking a little bit dusty..." Knuckles said, placing his hands on his hips. "That when it finally came to me; it must be that time of the month again, cuz I usually keep the shrine tidy and not like me to neglect my duties, and..."

"Uhh...Dude, I don't mean interject on your oh, so invigorating story…" Sonic sighed, once again picking his nose nonchalantly. "But could you, like, I don't know, get straight to the point."

"Oh, yeah…Straight to the point…I decided to do some spring cleaning, because, like you already know, I like…or at least try to keep the Master Emerald's shrine look good…" Knuckles chortled, congratulate himself.

"Ahem…Uhh, dude, remember about…speeding up the process?" Sonic sighed, looking at his wrist, while tapping his feet. "Dude, just please, get to the friggen point, I swear, you're slow at everything."

"Yeah, okay, so to make a long story short, when I came back to the clean the emerald, I saw some shady characters dressed in long robes stealing it, I tried stopping them, but then the island, like per usual, started hurtling down and end up crashing into the ocean!" Knuckles groaned with severe pain.

Knuckles then sighed. "When I came to, I saw these weird owl-like creatures departing through a wormhole." Sonic just looked on. "I slowly, but surely followed behind these…perpetrators and leapt in the same jump gate they came through, thus ending up in this strange…dimension."

"Dude, that's a crying shame." Sonic sighed, shaking his head in disgust. "It strange though, how come peoples are always stealing it?"

"That's what I want to know…" Knuckles murmured, glaring at Sonic with an extremely suspicion expression on his face.

"Dude, no offense, but you're a really untrustworthy guy." Sonic chuckled. Knuckles just raised his eyebrow…If he had one. "I mean you and that emerald are the only peoples on Angel Island, it's suppose to be reclusive, but somehow, someone's always seeming to find it."

"Yeah, none taken…" Knuckles chuckled back, halfheartedly. "It is strange that it's always getting swapped. I mean, the only peoples who knows about Angel Island is you and Tails…And I'm pretty sure Tails isn't here in this dimension, so that pretty much rule him out."

"Yeah, that sorta does, huh?" Sonic said, nodding his head. "Well, sorry for your lose, but since I've been here in the Mushroom Kingdom, I haven't seen any signs of the Master Emerald, shards and all."

"Humph. Really?" Knuckles exclaimed, folding his arms.

"Yep." Sonic chuckled.

The area grew temporarily tense as Sonic noticed that Knuckles was staring intently at him. "Huh, what's wrong, Knuxs ol' buddy? Is there something in my eye or something." Sonic said, picking in his eye.

Sonic lifted his head and noticed that Knuckles was still staring, now glaring at him. "Wait, I just remember something you said earlier: if you're ruling Tails out of being the culprit of Master Emerald disappearance, where does that leave me?" he said, placing his hands on his hips. "I know you're not seriously ruling me as a suspect?"

"Humph. I wouldn't put it pass you, Sonic, you no-good, beleaguering, Master Emerald thief." Knuckles growled, balding his fist. "I mean, you have the perfect motive to want to claim the Master Emerald for yourself."

"WHAT?!?!" Sonic screeched. He was deeply mortified, he couldn't believe that Knuckles would think of such a thing. "Dude, how could you accuse me of stealing the Master Emerald?!" he scowled. "I didn't do it, I swear it! And what exactly would be my alternative motive for obtaining the Master Emerald?!?"

"Absolute and complete Rein of Power!!!!" Knuckles echoed, his eyes budged outta his head. "Does your lust of power have no end?!?!?!"

Sonic just stood there with his mouth agape as he looked on at Knuckles. "Dude…What? Are? You talking about?!??!" Sonic yelped, flailing his arms. "I think I speak for everyone, especially Stuffwell!" he said, as he pointed at an unconscious Stuffwell. "When I say: You've totally gone off the deep end!"

"I was told by my liable source that you would try and cover yourself!" Knuckles sneered. "I thought you were better than this, but obviously I was mistaken!" Knuckles sighed, lowering his head. "I thought that after everything we went through you wouldn't lie to my face. It seems like I have no choice but to end you here and now."

Sonic cried from frustration. "Dang it, Knucklehead you always do this. Why would I steal your Master Emerald, it's probably that 'liable source' who took the Master Emerald, I mean, just think about it?"

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!!!!!!" Knuckles roared, unwrapping the tape that was covering his fist. "I didn't come all the way to this realm to hear you take up for yourself! I'm afraid it's GO TIME!!!!"

"Man, I really need to rethink who I'm friends with! Knux is totally being unreasonable!" Sonic sighed, under his breath, as Knuckles spun his arms around in circles like a helicopter as he ran toward Sonic but the enigmatic hedgehog evaded him.

Knuckles stopped in his tracks growling. "Grrr...Stop with the lies Sonic, I know for a fact that you're traveling around collecting the shards of the Master Emerald."

A/N: I swear to you guys, I'm gonna try and update more regularly like I did before, I'll start with my Daisy and Mario...uhh...love story? I guess, if you want to call it that.