Werewolf99: Well, you didn't have to wait. I got your review about ten minutes before finishing this off! I just couldn't wait to write!

And here's the last chapter before the true finale begins. Heroes vs. Villains. This is the only finale for any of the stories to be fully a boss battle – As it should be, with the heroes against Bowser and Eggman.

Chapter 23 (Heroes FINALE)

"So, same old, same old, or switch it up?" Sonic asked Mario. "Me and Tails against turtle breath, you and Luigi against eggface?"

Mario nodded, throwing Sonic something before motioning for Luigi to follow him to Eggman. Sonic caught the projectile, and looked in his hands, surprised to see a pair of Fire Flowers. He grinned, handing one to Tails. Simultaneously, both Mobians used them. Sonic's fur became a stark white, his gloves turning red as a bright red scarf appeared around his neck. Tails' fur changed from its normal yellow to a reddish-orange color, and his gloves and shoes became yellow once again.

"Gwa ha ha!" Bowser laughed. "Ha! This'll be a piece of cake! With the Super Stupid Bros occupied with Ivo, there's no way you two can hope to beat me!" Bowser jumped high into the air, coming down on top of Sonic and Tails… Or, rather, where they'd been two seconds before. Before Bowser could process it, a ball of flame slammed into him, breaking apart to reveal the fox and the hedgehog.

Bowser laughed. "Oh, you're fighters! I like that!" Bowser grinned, a huge, toothy smile. "Not that it'll help you win."

Eggman's latest creation had arrived – A gigantic, robotic dragon. "So, you two aren't my usual adversaries. No matter. Let's see how much of that data I collected on you is true. This is the Egg Wyvern." His Egg-O-Matic flew into the mouth of the robot, hiding him from sight. The great metal behemoth flew up, and into a nosedive straight for Mario and Luigi. Luigi grabbed Mario's hand, and jumped at the last second. Mario was able to grab onto the horn of the robot, anchoring them to it. Mario slammed into the hull with his fist, leaving a sizable dent. Luigi kicked at the same spot, nearly breaking through the armor.

"So you do have the strength!" Eggman said. "Oh-ho-ho! But is it enough? What can you truly do?"

Mario smirked. "You really want to know? Fine." Mario grabbed the giant metal dragon's horn, and yanked with all his might. The robot immediately veered a sharp ninety degrees, barreling straight into Bowser and sweeping him onto its back. In a second, a fireball was slamming into Bowser, accompanied by an aura of electricity.

Surprisingly, this wasn't the work of the Mario Brothers, but a Thunder Shoot from Tails augmented by the Fire Flower. Tails landed on the Egg Wyvern, catching Sonic as he rebounded off of Bowser.

"Grah!" Bowser yelled. "You're annoying little pests, that's for sure!"

"Good job, you two!" Mario yelled at Sonic.

"You're not so bad, yourself," Sonic replied. "Hey, Tails, let's sweep things up with a bit of spin, you know!"

"Yeah!" Tails agreed. Sonic and Tails rushed forward, both twirling on the spot in front of Bowser's legs. The great Koopa fell to his stomach as the fox's tails and hedgehog's foot, both accompanied by flames, whacked him in both knees. Sonic and Tails were out of the way before he fell, and grabbed onto his tail.

"AW CRUD!" Bowser yelled, as they started working together to swing him around. "I. HATE. THIS. MOVE!" Sonic and Tails let go, tossing Bowser back to the ground.

"Say, we can't let him party down there by himself," Sonic said.

"Nah. Need a lift?"

"Don't mind if I do!" Sonic grabbed onto Tails' hands, and the little fox flew them back down to Bowser.

"Hmm… Why don't we put our own 'spin' on things?" Luigi asked Mario, taking out his hammer.

"Ah-ha! Always the best ideas, bro!" Mario said, holding his hands up for Luigi to hop on top of them. Hammer in hand, Luigi started spinning, faster and faster until the brothers were nothing but a blur.

"And what is that going to – Oh." Eggman began to taunt, but stopped once he noticed that the two plumbers had become a drill and had left a three-foot wide hole in one of the wings. "Hah! Didn't think that through, did you? You can't fly!" Come to think of it, the Wyvern wouldn't last much longer, either.

"Oh? Egghead?" Said a high-pitched voice belonging to a certain red-capped man, who had just appeared in front of the Egg Wyvern sporting a raccoon tail and ears.

"We've always got a ton of these," Luigi said, joining his brother with a fox tail and ears. "There's really nothing that beats the thrill of flying on your own."

"Except, of course, this," Mario said. Mario shot forward, using his momentum to punch the front of the Egg Wyvern with all his might. The snout nearly crumpled, and only the Egg-O-Matic within kept it from fully doing so. Before Eggman could mount another attack, Luigi dashed forward, whipping the already-damaged wing with his new tail.

Bowser was having his own problems, down below. He'd started doing the screaming jet-fire thing at Sonic and Tails, but, as it turned out, it was VERY hard to hit two targets who could move twice the speed of sound without much difficulty.

"Think we need to give him a twist, little bro?" Sonic asked.

"Out of the blue?"

"You got it, bud!" Sonic exclaimed, jumping up and starting to spin around Bowser, creating a tornado of flame. Tails joined in, flying around the circle to enhance its power. Bowser was thrown upward by the force of the wind, and seared by the flames, but he wasn't out. Not in the least. Bowser summoned a hammer with a head as big as Sonic himself out of nowhere, and flung it at the duo with all his might. And, as assurance, threw seven more in different directions in quick succession. Sonic and Tails were barely able to dodge them all, as they were moving as fast as they were. In fact, Tails failed to dodge the last one, but managed to catch its handle. Using all his strength, he brought it to a stop, but the impact was still enough to strip him of his fire form.

Sonic went into a fiery spindash, slamming into Bowser's gut and knocking him back. Without even a second of delay, he followed it up with a homing attack and bounce attack to the head of the great Koopa king.

Eggman was trying his hardest to defeat Mario and Luigi. He'd finally gone on the offensive, and was shooting missiles at the two. Unfortunately, though they only moved a third the speed of Sonic and Tails, the two could react far, far faster than the speedy duo could. They responded by dodging, deflecting, heck, even RIDING the missiles. On multiple occasions, straight into the already-damaged wing.

"TAKE THIS!" Eggman yelled, firing a laser at Mario. Somehow, it connected, causing the red plumber to lose his raccoon form and plummet to the ground. Moments later, Luigi zipped off after him. Eggman sighed in relief. Finally, a little breathing room. This robot had been designed to take on Sonic – Against the Mario Brothers, it seemed unlikely that he stood a chance. But with them out of the way for a few moments, he might be able to turn the tide. He activated the charged laser, and kept his finger on the button – He'd need exactly the right timing to pull this off.

Twenty seconds of charging later, and the Mario Brothers return – Luigi still in Fox form, but Mario with a new look he'd never seen before. Mario's hat and shirt had turned a brilliant white, with his overalls becoming a vibrant red. He held onto Luigi with his left hand, his right held out in front of him. Eggman grinned – It didn't matter what this form was. His laser would take good care of it. He released the laser, just as a ball of fire the size of a car was released from Mario's palm with a flick of the plumber's wrist. The laser which could've levelled a building didn't stand a chance, and the attacks neutralized each other.

"What the-"

"Fire Mario!" Mario yelled. "That's what, Egghead!"

"You take someone with the Firebrand, and power them up into Fire form," Luigi said. "And you get… Well, you'll see."

Mario pulled his hand back, and began gathering a ball of fire in his hand. It grew and grew, glowing as brightly as the sun itself. Eggman panicked, slamming his hand onto the charge laser button once again.

"Ha!" Bowser yelled, as he countered one of Sonic's homing attacks with a punch. Sonic was knocked back, losing his fire form in the process. "Man, you might actually be as powerful as the Mario Brothers! But you're not going to win. You know why?"

Sonic grinned. "Because my little bro's got everything covered?" He guessed.

"Huh?" Bowser asked, looking up to see the little yellow fox dropping one of his own hammers. Bowser didn't have time to react as the hammer slammed onto his head, knocking him out.

"Way to go, bro!" Sonic said, giving Tails a high-five as he came down. "That was sweet!"

"Heh… Thanks, Sonic. But I couldn't have done it on my own."

"Hey, what's the fun in adventuring on your own, anyway?" Sonic asked. "Come on, let's watch Mario finish off Egghead's latest machine."

Eggman didn't make it in time. He tried to release the laser, but Mario released his attack first. The ball of compressed flames in his hands exploded into two gigantic, shining dragons of flame – Each one twice the size of the Egg Wyvern itself. The flaming dragons flashed over the metal one, the sheer heat absolutely destroying the metal frame and bringing the machine to pieces. The only thing that remained was a singed Egg-O-Matic and a mad scientist with a bit of sunburn. Eggman turned and flew, screaming at Mario. "I'll get you next time! And Sonic, too!"

Luigi flew Mario back down to Sonic and Tails, exchanging high-fives all around.

"That was a good move there, Tails," Luigi said to the little fox. "Dropping one of Bowser's hammers on him? Why didn't we ever do that? And that thunder shoot thing? Gotta try that sometime."

"That drill thing was pretty cool, too," Tails said. "I didn't even know you could do that with a hammer."

"Impressive speed, as always," Mario complimented Sonic. "You hardly let him get a move in!"

"I know, right? And you! With the Fire Flower! Just…" Sonic trailed off. "… I mean, WOW! That was EPIC! Man, we should do this again sometime!"

"Oh, yeah!" Mario agreed. "That was great!"

"That was… Amazing!" Elise said, coming out from her place behind the safety of a rock. "You four… I've never seen anything like it! I… I can't thank you four enough for everything you've done for me. Saved me, helped my kingdom… Gave me something to do other than look over new laws and appear at ceremonies… Thank you, so much. It's too bad it's over now…" She seemed a bit down at that.

"Hey," Sonic said, walking over and trying to reach up to her shoulder. "How about… Let's make it last a bit longer. We'll walk back, instead of running."

Elise snorted, in a very un-princess-like way. "You? Walk?"

"Hey, that's the thing about goin' fast. Sometimes, you gotta know when to take it slow." Sonic smiled. "And, honestly, I've been running basically non-stop for three days. A bit of rest sounds really nice right about now."

"Yeah," Mario said, coming to walk next to Sonic. "Man, this was a LONG adventure. Usually mine are over in about five or six hours."

"Wow, really? Always?"

"Well, not at first. I got better at the whole hero thing, though, and they stopped lasting so long."

Sonic and Mario continued talking to each other, laughing along like old friends.

"Nothing like an adventure to bring people together," Luigi commented to Tails.

"Yeah… That's how me and Sonic always make friends, actually…"

"Well, you've got two or three new ones," Luigi said, smiling at the little fox. "Are you tired?"

"A bit."

"Too tired to fly back?" Luigi said, pointing out that he was still Fox Luigi.

Tails smiled. "Not a chance." He took to the air, Luigi following him. The two flew after their older brothers at a leisurely pace, finally having time to actually talk to each other after a huge adventure.

And… Done! The heroes' story is over. Next time, the beginning of the end!

Bit of trivia: I have been writing fan fiction for three years, one month, and one day. This is the VERY FIRST time Fire Mario has made an appearance of any of my fanfics – The sole reason being that he's incredibly overpowered in my headcanon because of Mario's already existing fire abilities.