Baby Mario itched his eye once again, trying to get the sand out of it. His team, Caelestis Alpha, was currently exploring what appeared to be a desert world. Sand covered the planet and extended for as far as they could see. Baby Mario was currently patrolling around the Caelestis, while Kooper was nearby digging in the sand and Baby Luigi was exploring about two hundred meters away.
Baby Mario stepped towards Kooper and looked at his watch. "It's about time to call it," Baby Mario said.
"Wait, hang on," Kooper said. "I think I've figured out something. There's ruins and artifacts here." He pointed inside the hole he had dug. Baby Mario saw some sort of buried metal object there. "Obviously, a civilization must've existed here before."
"Right," Baby Mario said, "but we've been on this planet for three days. Caelestis Alpha's mission is to be the first team to explore new planets and determine if there are any threats on these planets. Obviously, there's no threat on this planet. You can come back with Caelestis Delta in a few days if you want to continue excavating."
"Alright," Kooper said. He got up and grabbed his backpack nearby, then began walking to the Caelestis.
Baby Mario took out his radio and said into it, "Baby Luigi, where are you?"
"I think I found something," he replied.
"What is it?" Baby Mario asked.
"Some sort of structure," Baby Luigi said. "Look towards the sun. You see that large sand dune? I'm on the other side of it."
"Got it. Be there soon." Baby Mario motioned to Kooper, and the two started going towards where Baby Luigi was.
Baby Luigi was standing in front of the sand dune. Just in front of him, embedded into the dune, was some sort of entranceway made out of sandstone. He stepped inside the entranceway and walked into the structure. This structure was completely buried under the sand, and the walls seemed to be made out of sandstone. From what Baby Luigi could see, there was only one room. It was circular with a radius of about twenty meters, and some sort of hieroglyphs were etched into the walls. What was in the center of the room was what was most interesting, though. It was some sort of metallic device. Baby Luigi stepped up to it and took a look at it. It looked almost like a telescope; a cylindrical metal bar stood a few feet off the ground. One of the ends of the bar seemed to be made out of glass, but the other end was metal. Baby Luigi knelt down and brushed away sand around the base of the device. The floor was also metal which seemed to be connected to the device. Baby Luigi looked into the device.
A red laser then lanced out from the device into Baby Luigi's eye. Baby Luigi instinctively recoiled back, but he felt no harm from the laser. Then, he heard a thud from behind the device. He looked behind it and saw…him. An exact replica of him, only made entirely out of metal. The metal copy of him seemed to be unconscious.
Just then, Baby Mario and Kooper came in. "What's this?" Baby Mario asked.
"I'm not sure," Baby Luigi said. "Don't look into that thing, though."
"Why not?" Baby Mario came to where Baby Luigi was, while Kooper started to look at the hieroglyphs on the walls. When Baby Mario saw the metallic clone of Baby Luigi lying unconscious on the floor, he exclaimed, "Woah."
"I looked into the device," Baby Luigi said. "Some sort of laser hit me, and then I saw…this."
"Is…it hostile?" Baby Mario asked.
"I'm not sure," Baby Luigi said. He searched his metal copy and found nothing.
Suddenly, the metal copy grabbed Baby Luigi's hands and looked straight at him. "Help…me…" the metal copy said. It then collapsed.
Caelestis Alpha had brought the metal clone of Baby Luigi back to Plit and placed him in an isolation room. Caelestis Alpha and General White were in an observation room overlooking the isolation room. The metal copy was wandering around aimlessly.
"Uncanny resemblance, eh?" Baby Mario asked.
Just then, a doctor came in. "Sir," he said to General White, "we did a full X-ray and body scan of the metal clone. From what we can tell, he has no weapons, explosives, or anything of the sort."
"Thank you," General White said. The doctor left.
"So what do we do?" Kooper asked.
"On the planet," Baby Luigi said, "I did a quick search of…it for any weapons. It grabbed me and told me to help it."
"What does it need help with?" Kooper asked.
"Baby Mario, find out," General White said.
"Got it," Baby Mario said. He left the observation room, went out into the hallway, and stepped in front of the isolation room door. He took out his card, swiped it on a card reader, and then placed his thumb in a fingerprint reader. A red light above the door changed color to green, and Baby Mario entered the isolation room.
The isolation room was circular and had a desk with two chairs in the middle. It also had a small bed off to the side and had rubber padding across the walls. The metal clone observed Baby Mario as he stepped up towards the desk and sat down.
"Sit down," Baby Mario offered. The metal clone wearingly walked over to the other chair and sat down in it. "First things first. Who are you?"
"Who is the one I copied?" the metal clone asked.
"His name is Baby Luigi," Baby Mario said.
"Then you may call me Metal Baby Luigi," the metal clone said.
"Kind of a mouthful," Baby Mario commented. "Okay, Metal Baby Luigi. Why did you copy Baby Luigi?"
"He was the first one to look into the device," Metal Baby Luigi said. "You see, my civilization was on the brink of extinction. In order to preserve our legacy, we created the device to form a metal clone of the first person to look into it. This metal clone would have all the memories and knowledge of our civilization. The creators of the device hoped that this metal clone may be able to eventually restart our civilization on another planet, or at least pass on our knowledge to another civilization."
"How can I know you're telling the truth?" Baby Mario asked.
"Give me something to draw on," Metal Baby Luigi said. Baby Mario motioned up to the observation room. A few moments later, Kooper came into the room bearing large construction paper and a marker. He laid the construction paper on the desk and gave the marker to Metal Baby Luigi. Metal Baby Luigi then began drawing on the construction paper. After a few minutes, he finished.
Baby Mario looked at the drawing. It seemed to be a blueprint of some sort. Multiple diagrams and schematics were written on the paper. "What is it?" Baby Mario asked.
"It is a schematic for an advanced energy weapon," Metal Baby Luigi said. "Take it to your scientists."
"And you're just going to give this to us?" Baby Mario asked. "Free of charge?"
"As I said, I was created for the purpose of carrying on my civilization's legacy. If giving you this technology for free fulfills that purpose, then I shall do that."
Baby Mario nodded in suspicion, and then left the room with the blueprint in hand.
A few hours later, Caelestis Alpha and Caelestis Delta were in the meeting room with General White. Penny said, "We've taken a look at the blueprints. They seem theoretically feasible, but we would need elementium, the super-durable element you discovered on Pehram's planet, to build the weapon."
"How much would we need?" Baby Mario asked.
"More than we have," Penny said.
"And we don't have a source of elementium," General White said. Just then, a knock on the door was heard. "Come in."
A purple Yoshi walked in, flanked by two Human guards. "General White, it's an honor to be in your facility," the purple Yoshi said.
"Ms. Magium," General White said. "Please, have a seat."
The purple Yoshi sat down across from Baby Mario. "So, you are…?" Baby Mario asked.
"Viola Magium," the Yoshi said. "National Intelligence Agency. I've come to table a request."
"What is that?" General White asked.
"This metal clone of Baby Luigi that you discovered," Viola said, "you say that he has all the knowledge of the civilization that created him?"
"He claims that," Baby Mario said.
"Well then," Viola said, "I would like to request that Metal Baby Luigi be transported to National Intelligence Agency Headquarters for questioning. If it's true that he has all the knowledge of that destroyed civilization, and if it's true that this civilization was advanced enough to create powerful energy weapons like the one that he drew up the schematics for, then this could be the most important discovery since the Caelestis was unearthed."
Baby Mario said, "I don't oppose it, but I'm not sure that we should be moving him so soon."
"Agreed," General White said. "We'll release Metal Baby Luigi to the NIA for questioning in one week. In the meantime, Baby Luigi, I believe you have a meeting with the princess."
"You do?" Baby Mario asked.
"Yep," Baby Luigi said. "It's been just over two months since our first mission. I'm going to report to the princess on how it's been going since then."
"Well, I don't mean to disrespect you or anything," Baby Mario said, "but I'm the leader of the team. Why wouldn't she ask me to brief her?"
General White said, "The princess is most interested in the potential new technology and power-ups that we can get from the Caelestis. Baby Luigi is the most qualified to brief her on that. Besides, Baby Mario, if something happens with the clone, we need you here."
"Alright," Baby Mario said.
"I'll be back in a few days," Baby Luigi said.
"Dismissed," General White said. Everyone in the meeting got up, saluted, and then left.
Several days had passed since Metal Baby Luigi was first brought back to Plit. So far, nothing bad had happened. Metal Baby Luigi had revealed a lot of information to Baby Mario, including the state and technology level of his civilization just before they were destroyed. Currently, he was telling Baby Mario how his civilization had been destroyed.
"We had discovered the Caelestis," Metal Baby Luigi said. "We sent an expeditionary force through it. The expedition was met by hostile aliens; a species called the Old Kings."
"Not the coolest guys around, huh?" Baby Mario asked.
Metal Baby Luigi shook his head. "Months later, a starship appeared in orbit of our planet. We prepared our planetary defense satellites, but the satellites were easily destroyed. The starship then fired powerful weapons, bombarding our cities from orbit. Within ten minutes, every major city on our planet was destroyed."
"Dang," Baby Mario said. "And how long ago did this happen?"
"I believe about 20,000 years ago," Metal Baby Luigi said.
"Wow," Baby Mario said. "You know, if the Old Kings attacked us now, we would be in no better position to defend ourselves than you guys were."
Metal Baby Luigi continued, "My people, in an attempt to continue their legacy, created a device. This device would create a metal clone of the first person to look into it. As I told you, this metal clone would have all the knowledge and memories of my civilization. I am that metal clone, and my mission is to preserve my peoples' legacy."
"Well," Baby Mario said, "no offense, but wouldn't it have been easier to just create some sort of database that we could download?"
"My people wanted to ensure that their knowledge did not fall into the Old Kings' or any other enemies' hands," Metal Baby Luigi said. "Within my person is a memory storage unit. It contains the entirety of my peoples' knowledge. I am prepared to give it to you, provided you pledge to put it to good use."
"We'll use that knowledge and technology to fight the Old Kings," Baby Mario said. "Your people might be able to get some sort of retribution through us."
Just then, the door opened. General White, Viola, and two guards came in. "Baby Mario," General White greeted.
Metal Baby Luigi stood up and said, "You are General White, the commanding officer of this facility. Correct?"
"That's correct," General White said. "I've come to tell you to prepare for transport."
"Where?" Metal Baby Luigi said.
"To a place called NIA HQ," General White said. "There, you'll be questioned about your civilization and their knowledge. Don't worry. I assure you that you will be treated with the utmost respect at all times." Viola nodded.
Metal Baby Luigi said, "I'm sorry, but that's unacceptable."
Baby Mario looked surprised at this. So far, Metal Baby Luigi had been fully cooperative. "I don't think you have a choice."
"Yes, I do," Metal Baby Luigi said. He moved his fist up. A ring then suddenly materialized on his index finger. He pointed the ring at Baby Mario, and a laser shot out from it. Baby Mario ducked to the side, but was hit and knocked out by it. The guards quickly grabbed their super scopes, but Metal Baby Luigi fired the ring laser at them too, knocking them out. General White and Viola tried to get away, but they too quickly got shot by the laser.
Then, next to the unconscious bodies of the Plitians, metal began pooling. Then, the metal formed into metal clones. Metal Baby Mario, Metal General White, Metal Viola, and two metal clones of the guards formed and looked to Metal Baby Luigi. Metal Baby Luigi nodded, and the clones left the isolation room.
Meanwhile, in his room, Kooper was looking at pictures of the hieroglyphs that were on the walls of the room with the device on the alien planet. He tapped one of the hieroglyphs, and then took out a book and looked through it. Kooper then looked back at the picture in sudden realization. He quickly left the room and started dashing to the isolation room.
Kooper ran past two guards who were walking through the hallway. Just then, a laser shot out, barely missing him! Kooper ducked to the ground as the two guards behind him pulled out super scopes. Two lasers hit the guards, knocking them out. Metal pooled near their bodies, and then formed into metal clones of the guards. Another laser lanced near Kooper, just barely missing. Kooper ducked into his shell and dashed away.
Meanwhile, at the top of Peach's Castle, Baby Luigi was speaking with Princess Peach, monarch of the Mushroom Kingdom. "So you see, your highness," Baby Luigi said, "in just the two months that we've been running the Caelestis Agency, we've already come across some amazing discoveries. Poké Balls and elementium are just the tip of the iceberg."
"Good job, Baby Luigi," Princess Peach said. "It looks like our gamble to use the Caelestis is paying off."
"Yes, ma'am, it is," Baby Luigi said.
"Thank you," Peach said. "You may leave now."
Baby Luigi bowed, and then left the room. He went down to the base floor of the castle and went back down to the Caelestis Agency. Just as he stepped out of the elevator into the meeting room, a laser shot by his head! Baby Luigi quickly rolled to the side and pulled out his hammer. Another laser was shot at him, barely missing. Baby Luigi looked at the attacker and saw that it was a metal clone of Colonel Redington, the leader of Caelestis Gamma. Baby Luigi leapt at the Metal Redington and smashed his hammer into him, knocking him to the floor. Metal Redington tried to fire another laser at Baby Luigi, but Baby Luigi smashed his hammer into the clone, shattering its fist. Baby Luigi then swung his hammer at Metal Redington's head, severely denting it and knocking it out.
"What the heck was that?" Baby Luigi asked out loud. He looked to the side and saw Colonel Redington laying on the ground unconscious. He rushed to the Toad and shook him, trying to wake him up.
Colonel Redington quickly woke up and asked, "Woah. What's happened?"
"I'm not sure," Baby Luigi said. "I was hoping you could tell me."
Redington wiped his brow and said, "I was just going to see General White, when some sort of metal clone, like the one you found on that planet, came. I fired at it, but the bullets didn't do anything. Then, it fired some sort of laser at me, and…here I am now."
"Some sort of metal clone takeover," Baby Luigi said. He took out his radio and said into it, "This is Baby Luigi. Anyone, come in."
Kooper's voice came out through the radio. "Baby Luigi, I read you!"
"Kooper!" Baby Luigi said. "What the heck's going on?"
"Come to just outside my room," Kooper said. "I'll explain everything!"
"Alright," Baby Luigi said.
"I'll lead the way," Colonel Redington said, grabbing his super scope. He got up and then led Baby Luigi through the hallways of the Caelestis Agency.
A level down, in the control room, Metal Baby Luigi was standing in front of the glass pane overlooking the Caelestis. Metal Baby Mario and Metal General White came up to him. Metal Baby Mario said, "The cloning room has been completed."
Metal Baby Luigi turned around and said, "Good. Begin mass manufacturing immediately."
Metal General White said, "It seems that we have not managed to neutralize all the Plitians. One Koopa got away, and we believe that another Human has entered the compound."
"Then capture them," Metal Baby Luigi said. "They will not stand in our way." Metal Baby Mario and Metal General White nodded.
Meanwhile, just outside of the living area, Baby Luigi and Colonel Redington met up with Kooper. "What's going on?" Baby Luigi asked.
"I managed to translate some of the writings on the walls of the alien planet," Kooper said. "It was a warning of some sort. I'm not sure what exactly it was warning against, but I have a good idea."
"What's with all the metal clones running around?" Baby Luigi asked.
"I think that Metal Baby Luigi created them," Kooper saw. "I was rushing to the isolation room, when I saw two metal clones. They fired lasers at two guards, and those guards were instantly knocked out. Then, metal clones of those guards formed. I just barely managed to get away before they cloned me too."
"If that's the case," Colonel Redington said, "then we have a foothold situation. We cannot allow these metal clones to spread outside the facility. We must arm the self-destruct."
"Woah, isn't that a bit extreme?" Kooper asked. "Certainly, we can-"
"He's right," Baby Luigi interrupted. "We can't let them escape."
"Self-destruct's two levels down," Redington said.
"Hang on," Baby Luigi said. He went inside Kooper and Baby Mario's rooms and came out a short while later with their Poké Balls. He gave Kooper Mudkip's Poké Ball and said, "Super scopes don't seem to work against these clones. Poké Balls are our most concealable weapons."
"Let's go," Redington said.
The trio made their way through the halls of the agency, getting closer to the self-destruct room. Just outside that room, two metal clones stood guard. Kooper smashed into one with his shell, and Baby Luigi smashed one to the ground with his hammer. Redington then rushed inside the room. A few seconds later, he said, "Clear." Baby Luigi and Kooper walked inside the room.
The self-destruct room had a massive nuclear Bob-omb in the center of it and tons of computers surrounding it. A nuclear Bob-omb was a special type of Bob-omb that was much more powerful than an ordinary Bob-omb. The exterior was the same, save for being much larger than an ordinary bomb, but the interior was much different. Instead of using chemical explosives like trinitrotoluene, a nuclear Bob-omb used nuclear fusion in order to create extremely powerful explosions. A nuclear Bob-omb basically consisted of two parts. In the first part, a neutron was fired at uranium, splitting the uranium and creating a large explosion equivalent to several thousand ordinary Bob-ombs. This explosion then creates the necessary pressure and temperature in the second part of the Bob-omb in order to induce fusion in the deuterium and tritium, creating a massive explosion millions of times more powerful than an ordinary Bob-omb. This nuclear Bob-omb was big enough to completely collapse the Caelestis Agency, but small enough to not do any damage to Peach's Castle or Toad Town above. Baby Luigi and Colonel Redington went to opposite ends of the Bob-omb, took out two keys each, and inserted the keys into keyholes on the nuke. Colonel Redington turned to one of the computers and typed something into it, then said, "I'm setting the self-destruct for five minutes."
"Got it," Baby Luigi said. He turned around to a computer and entered a code into it.
Colonel Redington then entered a code into his computer. The lights of the Caelestis Agency turned to a dark red color, and a computerized voice came through the intercom, "Self-destruct set. Five minutes."
Colonel Redington then got onto the intercom and said, "Metal Baby Luigi, or whoever is commanding the metal clones, this is Colonel Redington. As you may have heard, we have set the self-destruct of this base. If you do not immediately stand down and surrender, we will let the nuke detonate, destroying all of us."
"Guys!" Kooper shouted. Metal clones began pouring into the room. Baby Luigi took out his hammer and leapt at the clones, smashing as many as he could. Lasers started lancing into the room, barely missing the trio. Kooper got into his shell and started attacking the clones, while Redington got behind a computer terminal and took out a super scope belt with hundreds of bullets in it from his backpack. He equipped the belt and hooked it up to his super scope. He then began firing as much as he could at the clones. The bullets dug into the clones, penetrating a few inches, but the clones shook them off.
"Self-destruct in three minutes," the computerized voice said over the intercom. Baby Luigi jumped behind Kooper, Kooper ducked into his shell, and Baby Luigi smashed his hammer into Kooper. Kooper rocketed forward in his shell, slamming into one of the clones and ricocheting off of it into several others. Just then, a laser hit Kooper's shell. Kooper collapsed, and a metal clone of the Koopa formed.
"We're being overrun!" Baby Luigi shouted.
The voice came through the intercom, "Self-destruct in two minutes."
Colonel Redington fired a few more bullets at the clones, then shouted, "Detonate the nuke now!" They rushed to the Bob-omb, looked at each other, and each silently counted down from three. They then closed their eyes and turned the keys on the nuke.
After several seconds, Baby Luigi opened his eyes again and looked around. Nothing had happened. He looked at the keys and confirmed that they were both turned fully. So why didn't the Bob-omb detonate?
Just then, Metal Baby Mario and Metal General White came into the room, pointing their laser rings at Baby Luigi and Colonel Redington. "Surrender!" Metal Baby Mario shouted.
Baby Luigi looked over at Redington, who nodded. They laid down their weapons and held their hands in the air.
A few minutes later, Metal Baby Mario and Metal General White had escorted Baby Luigi and Redington to General White's office. They forced the two inside, then stood guard outside. Metal Baby Luigi was sitting in General White's leather chair, looking at some papers on the desk. "Interesting facility you have here," Metal Baby Luigi said.
"What's going on?" Colonel Redington demanded. "Why didn't the self-destruct detonate?"
"Oh, I took control of your computers a long time ago," Metal Baby Luigi said. "I simply overrode your destruct command."
"Why are you doing this?" Baby Luigi said. "I thought the Old Kings destroyed your civilization. I thought you wanted to help us fight them."
"The Old Kings had nothing to do with my peoples' destruction," Metal Baby Luigi said. "About 20,000 years ago, a scientist created a metal clone of himself in an experiment. The clone had one directive: to reproduce. The clone developed these cloning rings that we're using. Basically, these rings fire a laser that instantly incapacitate and create a metal clone of the target. Using the cloning rings, we eventually began to overrun the planet, destroying our creators. Our creators detonated massive radiation bombs over the surface of their entire planet in order to destroy us, but at the cost of their own lives. Before we were destroyed, though, we created a device that would create a clone of the next person to look into it, so that we could restart on another world."
"So you're going to do to Plit what you did to your original creators' planet," Baby Luigi said. "You're going to create metal clones of the entire population and overrun us."
"And then," Metal Baby Luigi motioned towards the Caelestis, "we'll use the Caelestis to spread to other worlds. We'll conquer the populations of those worlds. Eventually, we'll spread throughout the galaxy. Then, to other galaxies. Nothing will stop us."
"Unless we stop you before that happens," Redington said.
"Oh, I doubt that'll happen," Metal Baby Luigi said. "Take a look at your situation. Your frontline and only defense facility has been conquered."
"Well, if the Old Kings didn't destroy your people, then how did you know about them?" Baby Luigi asked. "How did you know how to get into our computers?"
"When I told you that I had all the knowledge of the civilization that created me," Metal Baby Luigi said, "I neglected to tell you that I also had all of your knowledge and memories. Each clone obtains the knowledge and memories of the original. That's how I knew." Metal Baby Mario and Metal General White then came in. "Take them to the cloning room."
Metal Baby Mario and Metal General White forced Baby Luigi and Colonel Redington out of the room. They escorted them down the hallways of the Caelestis Agency until they reached one of the armories. Metal Baby Mario placed his hand onto a device next to the door, unlocking it. They then entered the room. Apparently, the clones had renovated this place. There were rows and rows of metal beds, with Caelestis Agency personnel chained to them. Multiple wires led into their bodies. Just then, lasers fired into the personnel, creating metal clones of them. The clones bowed, and then marched out of the room. About fifteen seconds later, more lasers fired, creating more clones.
"They're mass producing clones," Baby Luigi said. He looked to the front row and saw Baby Mario, General White, Viola, and Kooper, each bound to the devices and unconscious.
Metal Baby Mario and Metal General White began searching Baby Luigi and Redington for weapons. Baby Luigi then smashed his knee into Metal Baby Mario's face, sending the clone staggering backwards. Metal General White tried to fire a laser at Baby Luigi, but Baby Luigi took out a Poké Ball and aimed it at Metal General White. The laser hit the Poké Ball and harmlessly dissipated across its surface. Baby Luigi then activated the Poké Ball, summoning Baby Mario's Charmander. Charmander fired a burst of flame at Metal General White, causing the metal clone to fall to the ground. Baby Luigi then leapt at Metal Baby Mario and smashed the clone's face in with his hammer.
"Nice job," Colonel Redington said.
"Charmander, start freeing people from these things," Baby Luigi said. Charmander nodded and fired flame attacks at Baby Mario's bonds, causing him to fall to the ground.
"Woah!" Baby Mario said. He quickly jumped to his feet and looked around, then calmed down when he saw no hostiles. "What's going on?"
"The metal clones have taken over the base," Colonel Redington said.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Baby Mario said. "Let's get some more people free." Baby Mario and Redington rushed to free members of Caelestis Gamma, while Charmander burned off Viola's restraints.
"Guys!" Baby Luigi shouted. Reinforcements for the metal clones were coming. Baby Luigi smashed his hammer into a metal clone of Viola, and Charmander incinerated another clone of Baby Mario.
"What's going on?" Viola asked, cradling her head with her hand.
"We'll explain," Baby Luigi said. "Let's get out of here." Baby Mario and Colonel Redington had managed to free three members of Caelestis Gamma. The team rushed to the entrance of the room and took out the first wave of reinforcements.
"More are coming!" Baby Luigi said.
"Come on, let's go!" Redington shouted. "Move!"
"Wait," Baby Mario said. He grabbed the body of his metallic clone and began dragging it with him. The team then rushed out of the room and down the halls. Baby Luigi dispatched any clones they came across using his hammer, and made it to the meeting room. They rushed inside the elevator, which shot up to Peach's Castle.
Just then, Metal Baby Luigi walked up to the elevator. Dozens of metal clones rushed into the meeting room. "They already escaped," Metal Baby Luigi said.
One of the clones said, "We are sorry."
"It doesn't matter," Metal Baby Luigi said. "We attack the surface soon."
About half an hour later, the team was in Peach's Castle. A lockdown had been instituted over the entire castle, and dozens of soldiers stood guard just outside the entrance to the Caelestis Agency.
Baby Mario entered a room of the castle, where Baby Luigi was. "Hey, Baby Mario," Baby Luigi greeted. "Figured out anything from the clone we captured?"
"Nah, he won't speak," Baby Mario said. "It's strange to be talking to a perfect metal copy of yourself."
"Well, I have been doing some testing on the cloning ring we got from him," Baby Luigi said. "It looks like it creates metallic clones of any organic matter it hits, even plant or animal life. But it does nothing if it hits anything inorganic, even thin plastic sheets."
"So you're saying that as long as we wear some sort of body armor, we should be invulnerable to those lasers?" Baby Mario asked.
"Yep," Baby Luigi said. "I think so, at least."
"Well, you came to that conclusion pretty quickly," Baby Mario said. "I hope you're right."
"Well, let's test it," Baby Luigi said. He tossed a thin metal chestplate to Baby Mario, who equipped it while Baby Luigi put the cloning ring on. Baby Luigi pointed the ring at Baby Mario and fired. A laser lanced out from the ring and struck Baby Mario in the chest, but it harmlessly dissipated across the chestplate.
"Nice," Baby Mario said. "We're going to take back the Caelestis Agency."
Another half an hour later, a dozen soldiers equipped in full body armor stood assembled in the foyer of the castle. Baby Mario, who was also equipped in thin armor, paced in front of them. "Alright, everyone," Baby Mario shouted. "You've all been briefed on the situation. Because of the body armor, we should be immune to the clones' lasers. However, they could start using super scopes and other conventional weapons, so there's still a risk. Now, as far as we know, the clones are immune to super scopes. Therefore, we will use items like Fire Flowers, Thunder Rages, and Ice Storms to defeat them. We've determined that the main entrance is too heavily guarded, so we're going to attack through an alternate entrance, that comes in through the living areas. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir!" the soldiers shouted.
Colonel Redington marched to the front of the troop and said, "Alright, let's move out!" The soldiers dashed down a narrow hallway off to the side of the foyer. At the end of the hallway was a large metal shaft. One of the soldiers kicked open the shaft, revealing a tall ladder going down to the Caelestis Agency. The soldiers began climbing down the ladder.
At the bottom, the first soldier down burst through a door, quickly searching the area. The rest of the team came through as the soldier said, "Clear."
"Alright," Baby Mario said. "Redington, you and your team clear out all the clones you can find. Baby Luigi and I will try to get to General White's office and see if we can't take out the leader of this whole thing."
"Got it," Redington said. "Alright men, let's move out!"
Several minutes later, Metal Baby Luigi was in General White's office, looking at a display of the base. Red dots, signifying Redington's team, moved through the hallways, taking out any silver dots, signifying metal clones. Eventually, they made it to the cloning room and began freeing as many people as they could. Metal Baby Luigi slammed his fist into the desk and left.
Baby Mario and Baby Luigi got closer to General White's room. Another metal clone fired a laser at them, but the laser harmlessly hit their body armor. Baby Mario leapt at the clone and smashed its head in using his hammer. They then turned a corner and came upon the last hallway to the control room. Then, more clones blocked their way. These clones took out super scopes and fired at the Baby Mario Bros. A bullet nicked Baby Mario in the arm, while one just barely missed Baby Luigi. They ducked back around the corner, and Baby Mario took out an Ice Storm. A blizzard of ice shot forward, freezing the clones. Baby Luigi then rushed forward, grabbed one of the frozen clones, and smashed it into the other clone, destroying both.
"Are you okay?" Baby Luigi asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Baby Mario said. He took out a bandage and wrapped it around where the bullet nicked him. "Let's go." They burst through the door to General White's room and saw that Metal Baby Luigi was gone.
Baby Luigi looked out the window to the meeting room, and saw dozens of clones there. Baby Luigi barely saw his metal doppelgänger escaping behind the clones.
"I've got an idea," Baby Mario said. He set down his backpack, reached into it, and pulled out a metal cap. He took off his normal hat and put the metal cap on. His entire body was instantly transformed into metal. Baby Mario then stepped out into the meeting room. The metal clones reached for their super scopes, but stopped when they saw that Baby Mario was seemingly one of them. Baby Mario stepped forward into the middle of the clones, then paused. He then quickly pulled out a Bob-omb and detonated it.
The explosion shot out through the room, annihilating the metal clones. Baby Luigi rushed into the meeting room when the smoke was clear and saw Baby Mario standing there unharmed, no longer in his metal cap form. "Good thing the metal cap makes me temporarily invulnerable," Baby Mario said.
"Let's get down to the control room!" Baby Luigi said. They rushed down into the control room and saw Metal Baby Luigi place his hands over the control sphere. The Caelestis activated, creating a wormhole between Plit and the desert planet.
Metal Baby Luigi then took out his hammer and raised it over his head, preparing to smash the control sphere. "Don't!" Baby Mario shouted. Baby Mario took out his super scope and shot the handle of the hammer, causing Metal Baby Luigi to drop it. Metal Baby Luigi glared at the Baby Mario Bros, then rushed forward, jumped through the glass overlooking the Caelestis, and tumbled into the Caelestis room.
Baby Mario and Baby Luigi rushed up to the shattered glass window and saw Metal Baby Luigi getting up. Baby Mario pulled out a power-up to use, but Metal Baby Luigi dashed through the Caelestis to the desert planet. On the other side of the wormhole, Metal Baby Luigi rushed to the control sphere and placed his hands over it, disengaging the Caelestis.
Just then, Baby Mario got a radio message. Colonel Redington said, "Baby Mario, all the clones that we can find have been neutralized."
"Alright," Baby Mario said. "Regroup in the meeting room."
A few days later, Caelestis Alpha was in a meeting with General White. General White sat down and said, "Caelestis Beta just returned from the desert planet, but they found nothing. The remote for the desert planet's control sphere had been taken."
"My metal copy probably dialed to another planet and took the remote so we couldn't follow him," Baby Luigi said.
"So he can just restart what he was planning to do on another planet," Baby Mario said.
"The good news is that we've done an entire sweep of the base," General White said. "Every clone has been neutralized. In addition, we also have a few of the cloning rings they were using, and the blueprints for the energy weapon that Metal Baby Luigi gave us."
"I've been looking at the cloning rings," Baby Luigi said. "They're impossibly complicated. They'll take decades to reverse engineer, probably longer. I don't even know whether to call them magic or technology."
"I've managed to complete the translation of the hieroglyphs on the walls of the chamber we found the device in," Kooper said. "They basically confirm what Metal Baby Luigi told Baby Luigi. Scientists on that planet accidentally created the metal clones, and the metal clones overran the planet, forcing them to use massive radiation bombs to take out the clones."
Baby Mario said, "Those scientists must've been pretty stupid to not include any failsafes or anything. You know, this does beg a question. If we beat back the clones so easily, why couldn't they?"
"I wouldn't say that we beat them easily," Kooper said, "and we got lucky. We only had to deal with a few hundred clones. By the time word was spread, they probably had millions to deal with."
"And even with our luck, we almost lost containment," General White said. "If the metal clones escaped the Caelestis Agency, what happened to the civilization on that desert planet could've very well happened here on Plit."
"I'm concerned about security," Baby Mario said. "These metal guys were able to easily take over the entire base. If they could, who's to say that another, more powerful enemy, like the Old Kings, couldn't?
"That is why I am establishing a new objective for Caelestis Alpha," General White said. "This objective is to find an uninhabited planet that we can build a secondary Caelestis base on, so that if anything like this happens again, it might be contained to only that base, and not spread to Plit. Eventually, we'll move all Caelestis operations to this off-world base, and only use Plit's Caelestis for communication to that base."
"Sounds like a good plan," Baby Mario said. "With your permission, Caelestis Alpha will begin searching for a suitable planet immediately."
"Permission granted," General White said. The group got up and went down to the control room. A technician entered a code into the control sphere, creating a wormhole between Plit and another planet. Caelestis Alpha stepped through the wormhole, beginning another adventure.