Disclaimer: I don't own rights or the characters to Mario and Sonic as they belong to Nintendo and Sega, respectively.
Chapter 2: The Infiltration
Location: Mystic Ruins
Sonic walked into the living room of their house after finishing his call with Mario. He approached a shelf where the yellow Chaos Emerald laid. He took the gem and stuffed it in his quills. He then turned around and saw Tails sitting with a frustrated look on his face. He was using his digital communicator with his right elbow leaning on the arm of the sofa as his head rested on the palm of his hand.
"Come on, Shadow. It's for Luigi's birthday. He would want all of us to come," begged the two-tailed fox, talking to the black hedgehog on the other side. "Wouldn't you want people to be with you for your birthday?"
The black hedgehog was unmoved. "I rather be alone, minding my own business. Besides, birthday parties are completely meaningless. Why do you want me to go anyway?"
Tails answered bitterly. "Because being alone just shows how unsocial and miserable you are, just like you're probably feeling right now?" Sonic put his hand to his mouth as he snickered at Tail's remark. "Sigh, I'm not forcing you to go. I'm suggesting you to socialize with others. Don't you want see the brothers, the princess, and the rest of our friends?"
The conversation continued longer than expected which did nothing but irritate Tails due to Shadow's backlash. Eventually, Tails hung the call up and cursed under his breath. He then looked to his left to see the blue hedgehog standing there.
"So…" he began. "Is Shadow feeling it right now?"
"He's Shadow, not Shulk. (1) He couldn't care less about Luigi or the others in the kingdom. Why does he have to be like that?" Tails groaned.
"That's just how he is. Arrogant, unmotivated, hard-to-get. He only does something if it's to his benefit," Sonic replied as he shook his head.
"Luckily, he was the last one to talk to." The fox got up from the couch and stretched his arms. "At least everyone else agreed to join us. I told them to congregate near the mushroom-decorated warp pipe outside the train station."
"It's pretty neat for the Mario Bros. to find a way for our worlds to connect," admired Sonic. "It's just that we rarely see them since we have to defend ours from Eggman and his damn robots, just like how they protect the kingdom from Bowser. Anyways, I told them we would be there in 15. Looks like we're gonna be late though."
Tails looked up at the wall clock. 9:05 a.m. "We better get to Station Square now!"
"You're right, buddy. Well, what are we waiting for?" Sonic smirked as he raced out of the house leaving a trail of blue behind.
"Ugh, when are you gonna stop leaving me behind, Sonic?" muttered the kit as he locked the house and spun his tails to catch up to his fast friend.
Location: Station Square
Outside the station was said pipe Tails mentioned earlier that would lead the gang back to the Mushroom Kingdom. It was blue with a pattern of red Super Mushrooms and green 1-Up Mushrooms encircling the top base of the cylinder. There was a door entrance on top of the pipe. However, it remained locked because Tails predicted that leaving the pipe wide open could let Eggman allow to infiltrate the other world and terrorize the kingdom. To unlock the entrance, the power of a Chaos Emerald was needed to enter the transportation device. Unfortunately, the emerald was with the dynamic duo and none of Sonic's friends didn't have one.
Most of the team had arrived at the pipe, which included Knuckles the Echidna, Amy the Hedgehog, Cream the Rabbit, Cheese the Chao, Rouge the Bat, Silver the Hedgehog, Blaze the Cat, and the members of the Chaotix: Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon, and Charmy the Bee. The only ones who weren't there were Sonic, Tails, and Shadow. However, the gang was unaware that the ebony hedgehog refused to join the festivities.
"Where the hell are those guys?" grumbled the red echidna folding his arms. "Knowing Sonic, he and Tails should be here in no time. Why are they so late?!"
"Yeah! I don't want to wait forever! I want to get there and eat some birthday cake!" Charmy enthusiastically flew in circles.
"Be patient, Knuckles," the pink hedgehog assured. "My Sonic always gets here on time and I know he'll be here soon." Knuckles just rolled his eyes over her comment.
"I'm sure Amy's right," Cream replied. "They wouldn't want to miss a party for Mr. Luigi."
Her Chao, Cheese, agreed. "Chao, Chao!"
"I'm also positive they'll be here in no time," Silver added on. "Besides, why else would Tails have called all of us on this special day for our friend?"
"All we have to do is be patient. That includes you, Knuckles," said Blaze.
Knuckles was about to throw a fist in front of their faces until Vector spoke up. "Hey, I think I see a blue streak from the streets!" No doubt about it, Sonic arrived at the scene. He stopped and gave a thumbs-up to the party.
"What's up, guys? Long time, no see!" winked Sonic.
"SONIC!" Amy yelled as she jumped into the blue hedgehog, squeezing the life out of him as she grabbed his neck. "I knew you would be here!"
"A-Amy! Please, I… can't b-breathe!" gasped Sonic trying to softly push her away. Amy eventually let Sonic free as she tilted her head and looked at him dreamily. Rouge and Knuckles just shook their heads from the embarrassment they witnessed.
Just then, Tails flew in and landed near his friends. He was gasping for air. "Sonic, why can't… you be… more patient… and wait for me?"
"That doesn't matter right now," said Espio. "We were supposed to be at Mario's world now, but we were still waiting for you guys."
"Sorry about that," Sonic replied. "But Tails had some unfinished business to take care of."
"What do you mean by 'unfinished business'?" Rouge asked with a confused look.
"Shadow was being a wuss during our phone call," Tails answered. "I kept asking him to come to the kingdom and be with everyone, but he kept declining probably because he wanted to be alone. Long story short, he gave a ten-minute rant."
"Really, he's not gonna bother wishing the guy a happy birthday?" Tails shook his head to answer the bat's question.
"Sometimes I don't understand that hedgehog. I guess he's not coming, huh?" Knuckles questioned.
"I doubt it. It's aggravating just to talk to him for what could have been a one-minute conversation," Tails mumbled.
"Oh, forget him, Tails." Sonic assured, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "The important thing is that everyone else is here waiting to celebrate Luigi's birthday."
"Why wait when we can go now?" Amy asked cheerfully. "Do you have the Chaos Emerald?"
Sonic nodded and took out the shiny, yellow gem from his quills. He and Tails walked over to the mushroom pipe with a large slot where the emerald is needed to open it. There was also an attached keypad; if Eggman were to have a Chaos Emerald, he would have made it to Mario's world with no problem. That's why Tails decided to build a keypad with a secret passcode so the doctor wouldn't be able to gain access. After he typed in the password, the blue hedgehog placed the jewel inside the hole. After that, the pipe door flew open for the gang to enter.
"Great! Now let's get to the Mushroom Kingdom and meet up with Mario and the others. They said they'll be at the castle."
Sonic took the Chaos Emerald out from the slot and entered the pipe. He led the way as the others followed him inside the pipe one after another. Vector was the last to enter and closed the pipe up with the hatch. After locking it up, he caught up with the others as they were getting close to their friends' world.
Location: Eggman's base
Dr. Robotnik, a.k.a Eggman and the main antagonist in Sonic's world, was in his main control room, bound to build his utopia of the Eggman Empire. Albeit a robotic genius with an IQ of 300, his plans have usually been thwarted by his arch-nemesis: Sonic the Hedgehog. Through countless times, the evil scientist tried to use the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds for total conquest. And no matter what the result was, Sonic was always there to prevent him from destroying the city, achieving domination, and most importantly, hurting his friends.
Right now, the doctor has two emeralds in his possession: the red and white ones. Unbeknownst to Sonic and the gang, he had sent out some of his most trustful mechs to search for the other four. With the help of his hidden security cameras, he noticed the gang entering the mushroom pipe in Station Square with the yellow jewel in tow.
"Hehehe, with Sonic and the others gone, I can sit back and relax as my henchmen find the emeralds for me. And when the timing's right, I'll swipe that emerald away from that blue rat and I'll be unstoppable! HOHOHOHO!"
Eggman sustained his evil amusement up until he started choking from his laugh. He calmed himself down with a glass of water. He was determined to acquire the other emeralds that are scattered throughout Mobius. He also planned on stealing Sonic's once he comes back to his original world. Although he could use the Chaos Emeralds to unlock the pipe to Mario's dimension, he decided to build his empire in Mobius first before trying to control the other lands.
But what he didn't realize was that one of his cameras have caught a mysterious figure found outside his base. The figure knocked on the door frantically which caught Eggman's attention.
"Dah, who could it be to disturb my work?" Eggman grumbled.
But when he looked at the security camera, there wasn't anyone in sight. Eggman went back to his main computer and heard the loud banging again. Still, there was no one outside the entry way.
"Okay, who's playing games this time? I've already had enough from that cocky hedgehog, but he's gone for now." The perplexed doctor stood out of his chair and walked to the front door to check the source.
As he arrived, Eggman pushed a button on the wall and opened the entrance. He looked outside to see nothing but the vast ocean that surrounded his base. "Hmm, that's odd. I'm sure that someone came knock-"
Just before he could finish his sentence, a dark entity revealed himself from being invisible and punched the doctor in the stomach.
"YAAAAHHHH!"
The incredible force sent him flying back and crashed into the wall behind him. He floated over to the barely conscious man and approached him with an evil appearance on his face.
Barely getting up, the fat man looked at him for a second. The entity was wearing a black cloak with red and purple stripes laced around the end of his sleeves and at the bottom. He had purple skin with a pointy nose and a trimmed goatee under his lower lip.
"Who the hell do you think you are?! Appearing out of nowhere and assaulting me and my home?!" Eggman yelled.
The entity did not respond back initially. Instead, he used his dark magic to reveal his staff, with a large crystal orb attached to a purple stick. The object was glowing with ominous power. The shadow figure pointed his staff at the doctor.
"Give me them, or you shall perish," the dark villain threatened with a deep voice.
"You're gonna have to be more specific than that," grunted Eggman.
"Don't play with me, fool. Give me them. NOW!"
"I'm not gonna give you anything with that kind of manner, especially to someone with a hideous face. Now why don't you move your-"
The dark figure had enough and released a lightning strike on the scientist, shocking in him with excruciating pain.
"YEOOOOOOWWWW! L-Let me g-g-g-gooo! This i-i-insta-a-ant!"
But the figure did not obey his command as the lightning attack continue to injure him with severe pain, running through his nervous system.
With Eggman occupied, the shadow busted through the metal walls of the base as if they were made of basic plaster. He salvaged through the scientist's lab, living room, and the rest of his lair before he reached his control room. There lied the humongous supercomputer Eggman has for him to do his research and brainstorming to plot against Sonic and his friends. There were also the multitude of TV screens capturing the live footage and activity going on around Mobius from his cameras. But the things that caught the villain's eye were none other than the two Chaos Emeralds he possessed. They were retained on the large control panel in plain sight, encased in a glass dome. To the scoundrel's advantage, he shattered the barrier with his dark scepter and swiped the prized objects with his cold, dark hands.
Grinning evilly, he made his way back to where Eggman was, only to find him unconscious from the pain he endured. The figure chortled deeply knowing that he was one step closer to succeeding his plan. Afterwards, he pulled out his staff again. Only this time, it shined a bright light emitting from the orb. The light began to enlarge as it surrounded both the figure and the unconscious Eggman. Once the light encompassed the two, it flashed away leaving nothing behind.
Meanwhile, two of Eggman's henchmen were still at the base, monitoring and cleaning up their leader's home. Both of them were some of Eggman's main followers, though they weren't the sharpest nor the strongest of his minions. One of whom was a robot with a yellow, cube-shaped head. He was making his way to the front entrance with a broom in his hands. As he continued sweeping, he came across the large hole in the wall. Right next to it was a large dent in the shape of an egg-like body.
"Huh, that's weird. I didn't think the boss liked running into walls. Then again, when does he even run?" the cube-shaped robot pondered. "Either way, I'm not cleaning that up. I wonder if Orbot knows anything about this."
Cubot simply ignored the damage and continued brushing the floors with his cleaning tool. It didn't take long for him to run into his robot friend. The red, round-headed robot was busy cleaning the kitchen and noticed his partner at the doorway.
"So, did you clean the front of the base like you were instructed?" Orbot asked in his diligent voice.
"I did. But do you know anything about that huge hole and the dent in the wall?" Cubot responded.
"Huge hole? Dent? What are you talking about? Did you have another one of those sugar rushes and damage his stuff? You know what happened the last time you went through one of the crazes and the way the boss reacted."
"No, but speaking of him, I happened to recognize him as the one who caused the dent. But I don't know what was with the open crevice."
"Are you sure you didn't do anything stupid?" Cubot only scratched his square noggin as his response. Shaking his head, Orbot continued, "Alright, fine. Show me this hole you speak of."
The two henchmen put down their brooms, and Cubot led the way to the front of the base. He revealed the damage to his friend.
"How did this happen? And where is that Eggman?" Orbot asked.
"I dunno. That's why I asked you. I haven't seen him since after he punched me in the head for wrecking his collection of robot figurines. And about that hole in the wall…"
The two robots followed through the broken divider and noticed the mess in each of the rooms the dark figure previously searched through. They reached Eggman's supercomputer room and searched for their leader. There was silence during their hunt before Cubot reached the control panel and spoke up.
"Uh, Orbot, you might wanna take a look at this."
Orbot floated over to Cubot and immediately noticed that the two Chaos Emeralds were gone. He then looked up at the security cameras where Cubot was playing back the footage of the confrontation between Eggman and the dark shadow.
"Oh, bolts. This is not good. Not good at all…"
END OF CHAPTER
Indeed. This isn't good at all. With Eggman surprisingly gone, along with the two Chaos Emeralds, what is the dark figure's next motive? And who exactly is this infiltrator? What will the robots do next? In the next chapter, the two parties meet up with each other!
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Post-Chapter Notes:
(1): I couldn't help but put Shulk into the conversation. 'I'm really feeling it!' is one of Shulk's memorable quotes in Xenoblade Chronicles, which would later be used as a taunt in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U & 3DS.