A/N: If any of you know how to manually change the order so that Luigi would be first in the cast instead of Mario without being in a pairing, please send me a PM on how to do so. I'd appreciate it. Just ignore what I wrote here initially. Regardless, let's get right back into HB!

Disclaimer: Mario and all the other characters/content from that property are owned by Nintendo. Sonic and the characters from that franchise are owned by Sega. I only take credit for the story idea and my OCs.

Chapter 53: Shutting Things Down

Location: The Oblivion

While their friends and enemies were defending the many areas on their home planets, Luigi, Sonic, Tails, and Colombo made their way into the large black hole that rose above Shooting Star Summit. Through an everlasting portal of swirling colors, the four flew for so long that they later saw a light at the end.

"I think we're almost there!" Tails shouted.

"Finally! Time to show Edge and his lame bots a piece of our minds!" Sonic determinedly grunted.

"Ruff! Ruff!" Colombo barked.

Luigi remained silent as he embraced the entrance to whatever was behind the light. Moments later, the heroes passed through. As they fell towards land, Tails spun his tails to decrease his flying speed. Sonic skidded his shoes against the surface, coming to a complete stop in a few seconds. Colombo used his paws to prevent himself from sliding. Luigi performed a somersault. He was about to land perfectly on his feet, but his momentum carried him forward. His right shoe ended up hitting something.

"OW! WHOA!" He tumbled to the ground and landed roughly on his front side.

Sonic sped over while Tails hovered towards the fallen plumber.

"You okay, Luigi?" the kitsune asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why does this always happen to me?"

"Don't know, man. If it's bad luck, it sucks to be you."

Luigi gave Sonic a small glower. He turned back to see what he tripped over. Colombo was inspecting by walking around it in circles and sniffing the traces.

"What do you know? It's a pile of Dark Shards."

"Didn't you say the fake Tough Possessor had one of those when you were fighting him?" Tails looked up to Luigi.

"Yeah. It wasn't until after the guys and I defeated him out on the Terrace, with the help of Duplimore and Duplicit, of course. The real Tough Possessor has to be here somewhere."

"Speaking of that, where exactly are we?" Sonic searched his surroundings.

Luigi, Tails, and Colombo mirrored him and got a view of what was around them. To their surprise, they were standing at the peak of a large hill. But this wasn't just any ordinary hill. This location was none other than the top of Shooting Star Summit. Except, everything was made up of purple, glowing material. The ground, the rocks, the entire structure... Everything was an exact replica, with a different twist. The backlight for the sky was nothing but a bunch of purple and black glitches and clouds, similar to the inside of the Void when Luigi, Mario, and the other heroes encountered Castle Bleck.

"Eerie..." Tails mumbled. "We're on top of Shooting Star Summit."

"But how could that be?"

"Hey, Sonic? I don't think you were with us at the moment. But, do you remember that time in the Trophy World when Tabuu turned the heroes into trophies inside Subspace?"

The hedgehog gave him a questionable stare. "Yeah..."

"And later, he used the worlds that were lost from the Subspace Bombs and combined them together to form the hellish labyrinth we all know as The Great Maze?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah. That maze. And you were right, I wasn't with you guys until I came last second to ruin Tabuu's party."

"Well, speaking of that, I have a feeling that Edge has done something similar to what Tabuu did."

"And what's that?" Tails asked.

"This is a hunch, but I bet he replicated all the sites that have the Oblivion floating above. Here, Toad Town, Evershade Valley, even the places on Mobius."

"Oh no! Don't tell me we have to traverse through another maze!"

"I don't think it's a maze this time. Look." Out in the distance, Luigi spotted and pointed his finger towards a faraway location.

"Hey, that's Princess Peach's Castle!" Tails acknowledged.

"A duplication of her castle," Luigi corrected. To elaborate, the entire castle was purple and made up of the same material as the Dark Shards. "But from here, I'm sure it's the exact same distance from here, just like in the actual Mushroom Kingdom. If so, then we can at least know where everything is if the geography is alike. We just have to get used to the physical layout."

Speaking of the shards, tons of them were scattered around the peak of the hill, similar to the ring Edge's robots laid out on the actual mountain. Some were even found down below and throughout the land as far as their eyes could see. Each and every pile was glowing with a strong sensation.

"Hmm... It doesn't look like Edge or his underlings are here. They may have gone to another location. The question is, where did they go?" Tails put a hand to his chin.

Luigi opened up his 3DS in hopes of picking up a signal of the Tough Possessor. He almost forgot the Parascope function on his device. Unfortunately, there was nothing available on the screen other than a faulty map of the region. Static and buzzing was heard from the speakers, and it was tough for Luigi to discern their current location, even though the layout of this world was basically identical to the real Mushroom Kingdom.

"I don't have a clue," he finally said. "My 3DS isn't picking up anything."

"And our new communicators were taken away. Plus, I didn't have time to make new ones for us."

"Then we'll have to stick together and hope we don't separated once again."

"Hey, do you see what I see?" Sonic got up on the tips of his toes, raising a hand and holding it over his eyes like he was searching for something out in the sea. Except he wouldn't be doing that near water, of course.

"What is it, Sonic?" his little brother asked.

"There's something happening near the front of the castle."

Luigi scrutinized to the best of his ability, and he barely managed to notice what Sonic saw. However, it was hard to tell what was down there from afar. He could see a few things moving, but that was it.

"We better take a closer look then. If you somehow see any ghosts, don't hesitate to tell me. I've got the Poltergust ready."

"Hey, Luigi?"

"Yeah?"

Sonic pointed behind and shouted, "GHOST!"

"WAAAHHH!" Luigi jumped in the air and landed back on the ground. He turned around and saw nothing behind.

"HAHAHAHA!" Sonic lost it as he guffawed. However, Tails and Colombo didn't find it humorous at all. The fox gave him a disappointing frown, not that Sonic noticed since his eyes were shut and tears of amusement came out.

Luigi, irritated about his hoax, shifted his head to glance at the hose of his Poltergust 6000. He thought for a second. He later grabbed it and turned on the suction power. He aimed the hose at the Blue Blur. Surprisingly, as Sonic barely felt the air on his back, his back quills got caught into the nozzle. He immediately stopped laughing.

"Whoa! Hey! What are you doing?!"

Luigi deathly stared at him before expelling him with the blowing function. (1) Somehow, he was sent all the way down to the base of the purple summit.

"AAAH! OOF!"

"Come on. Let's meet him down there," Luigi descended the rocky steps. Colombo followed him while Tails took the short route and simply flew down to where Sonic landed.

"Ow..." Sonic groaned.

"Here, I got you," Tails grabbed his hands to help him stand.

"Urgh... What the heck was that for?!" he dusted his shoulders and body.

"Well, to be honest, you decided to pull a jape on Luigi. And it was neither funny nor was it cool to do it in the first place."

"Hey, whose side are you on?"

Tails wasn't happy with his response. "The side of justice, equality, and safety first."

"And like that was safe for him to do that to me?"

"Sonic, we're less than twenty-four hours away of potentially expiring at the hands of Myster Edge and Dimentio who he's planning to revive. He's already got Mario captive, and he could do much worse to him, us, and Luigi than what's he done in the past. And speaking of our friend, did you really think he'd appreciate a jump scare at this time?"

He finally understood Tails' point. "No, I guess not."

"And that's why he reciprocated. It's just like you and Mario back at the Evershade bunker, except Luigi wasn't bickering with you. Instead, you pulled a mean joke, and he wanted to teach you a lesson known as karma. You need to know when to draw the line between right and wrong."

Sonic sighed. "Yeah, you're right, Tails. That's why you're usually my voice of reason. I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one who you should be apologizing to," Tails slanted his head towards Luigi who made his way to the bottom of the summit. They both saw how angry he was.

"Listen, Luigi, I really didn't mean to scare you like that. I was only kidding. So if I hurt your feelings, then I'm sorry."

Luigi closed his eyes for a second and inhaled deeply through his nose. After exhaling and opening his eyes, he responded, "I accept your apology, but my feelings weren't hurt. I just don't want us to waste any more time right now."

"I understand. We better head over to the castle."

"Ruff! Ruff!" Colombo began to run as the other three followed him.

By the time they reached the outskirts of the Toad Town replica, the quartet found out what was going on. The front doors of Peach's Castle were open as a conveyor belt from the inside extended over the bridge. On the moving belt, many robots were being transported onto separate pathways, each ending with a white portal. To be specific, the robots were copies of Edge's army of Shadelings.

"So that's how Edge is distributing the robots from the Oblivion to our worlds. I bet each of those portals leads to a different hole. And they're endlessly going to keep being conveyed to keep our friends distracted as they try to terrorize our homes," Tails deduced.

"I was beginning to wonder how they even appeared from the holes in the first place," Sonic shook his head in disbelief. "Now I see why."

"Edge must have somehow constructed these duplicate worlds to be held inside the Oblivion. And in the meantime, he had the time and power to make this as a factory. This reminds me of the time Mario entered one when he fought Smithy. (2) Man, that was a long time ago," Luigi exhaled.

"Wasn't that factory making duplicates of bosses he faced?"

"Yep. And it looks like Edge is doing the same thing, only with the Shadelings. So far, I haven't seen his superior ones in quite a while. There's Alpha, the main one."

"And Slimmer, Clawdio, even Rocco who ambushed me," Tails shuddered as he reminisced.

"Then there was Scythe and Proto that the girls and us faced when we tried to rescue you two with Mario and the others from Sparkling Waters. Now that I think about it, Edge didn't have a lot of unique minions."

"Yeah. They're pretty generic and as strong as Egghead's Badniks and Crabmeats," Sonic huffed.

"At least those robots don't look active right now. They must be once they're sent to the worlds though," Tails thought.

"Arf! Grr!"

"What is it, boy?"

Colombo directed his friends at someone who was entering the factory. It was a Shadeling he and Luigi knew quite well since they first saw him in the Vanilla Dome caverns.

"Slimmer..."

The chrome robot gazed at his surroundings to make sure he wasn't being eavesdropped. At one point, he thought he saw someone at the top of a hill. He shook his head rapidly and had to do a double take. The second time he looked, there wasn't anyone within his eyesight.

"Weird. Could've sworn I saw someone. Oh, well. I doubt that the green guy has come here already. But if he did, I wonder if he'll really take down Edge at this point. Ah, what am I saying? Of course the boss is going to win and rule the universe."

Slimmer stopped talking to himself and headed inside the castle. Sonic and Tails snuck their heads over a Dark Shard pile.

"Is the coast clear?" the fox wondered.

"Looks like it," Sonic stood up.

Colombo resurfaced from his invisibility powers with Luigi. The Polterpup growled with his teeth visible.

"Easy, cagnetto. If it's any start, we might as well sneak inside without trying to get caught. It's probably better if we go to the backyard garden and enter from there."

"And what if we do get caught?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Then just go ham."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Sonic got himself ready and raced down the incline.

"And there he goes again," Tails followed pursuit to chase his friend.

Luigi and Colombo glanced at one another before nodding and rushing down as well.

Inside the castle, the factory had an automatic assembly line to construct the legs, bodies, and heads of the Shadeling copies. As tons of them were produced within seconds, they were distributed to the conveyor belt that led to the portals outside. Slimmer made his way past the lobby. He went up to the second floor and stopped at the room that would've been Peach's chambers. The chrome android knocked twice before entering inside. There, a large computer running the operations of the apparatus was activated and manned by Clawdio.

"So, Claw Man, how's it going for you?"

Clawdio stopped what he was doing and extended his arm to grab Slimmer over his thin physique. "Don't call me that, you skinny weirdo." He let him go.

"Geez, don't need to act so rude."

The orange mech shifted his head back to the computer. "What's gotten you in such a good mood? Before we came here, it's like we were on the same page. Now you're back to your goofy self who wants our leader to be successful despite him being a self-centered jerk."

Slimmer shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just thinking how cool Edge would be if he ended up getting all that power after the worlds are gone."

"You do know he doesn't care about us. All he cares about is taking control, reviving Dimentio, and killing the green guy."

"True."

"And, he's making us fight him once he comes here."

"Right."

"Plus, he doesn't seem too keen to repair us if we fail again."

"I understand that."

"So much for the new claw I was given."

"Oh, come on. Don't be so pessimistic."

"I'm not pessimistic. I'm realistic. I'm telling you, that plumber has gotten stronger and braver as time went on. He probably hit a breaking point after he conquered Overset. Since Edge has been manipulating him by separating his friends, and more importantly, his older brother, he has nearly been unstoppable. And chances are, we're going to experience our last several minutes since the boss is careless enough to leave us for dead with the rest of the universe."

"But who knows? Maybe we can stop the dude, and the boss will actually praise us for doing our job."

Clawdio shook his head. "You are very ambiguous, you know that?"

"No, I'm right-handed."

He facepalmed at another one of Slimmer's idiotic replies. "I didn't say ambidextrous. I said ambiguous."

"So? What's the difference?"

"You're imposs-"

Clawdio was interrupted by a loud, booming sound. It was like a crack of lightning. Or rather, thunder. They ran out of the room and to the lobby. There, they saw Sonic and Tails spin dashing and wrecking the assembly line of Shadelings.

"Hey! Get out of here!" Clawdio yelled at them.

"Yeah! What he said!" Slimmer added.

Sonic skidded on his feet and turned around to see the two underlings. He smirked and made a run at them. Slimmer and Clawdio were caught off guard as he attacked them in the front. They went flying back several feet until Tails flew over to slap both robots with his namesakes. As they screamed, they went back and forth between the Inseparable Duo like a match of tennis. Sonic intentionally missed as he allowed Slimmer and Clawdio crash into a wall.

"Fifteen-love," Tails announced.

"Heh, that's the only time I don't mind losing."

The two continued their job to prevent more robots from entering the portals. Meanwhile, Luigi and Colombo were invisible thanks to the latter. This was Luigi's idea in the first place. After infiltrating through the back door, Sonic and Tails went straight to the foyer. Luigi then used his Thunderhand to freak the robots and coax them out. He let his friends handle them as he and Colombo roamed the corridors to find a way to shut down the machines. They emerged in front of the open door and inspected the large workstation.

"Golly. Edge and his minions really know how to use technology for evil purposes. Just like Eggman and E. Gadd. Except, the professor isn't on the side of malice."

The Polterpup made a small sound to get his owner's attention. He pointed his paw at a large handle in the top position with a 'ON' label in red letters.

"Then again, the design to operate it isn't complex. Oh, well. Easier job for us."

"Ruff!"

Luigi grabbed the handle and pulled it down. However, it didn't budge an inch. He used both hands to add force, but the lever remained still.

"Okay. This is more difficult than I thought."

The Italian glimpsed at the screen. He sat down in the chair and began typing on the keyboard to try and override the switch. It was safeguarded by a password. He tried typing stuff that sounded cliché yet stupid for an enemy like Myster Edge to use.

"I'm awesome," he typed.

"Password denied," the computer sent an automated voice.

"I'm powerful."

"Password denied."

He then thought of stuff related to Edge. "Shadow Spirit."

"Password denied."

"Chaos Heart."

"Password denied."

"Dimentio."

"Password denied."

Luigi was getting tired and searched for clues on the desk and in the drawers. When he couldn't find anything, he got frustrated. Then, Colombo barked when he saw something by the man's feet. A small slip of paper was on the floor. Luigi picked it up, turned it around, and read what was written. He narrowed his eyes, much to the confusion of the ghost dog. He turned back to the monitor and typed in the password box one more time.

"Password accepted."

"Quel stronzo," he swore in his thoughts. (3) He got up from his seat and slammed the paper on the desk. He went over to the handle and pulled it to the 'OFF' position.

Back in the lobby, Sonic and Tails saw the machines power off. The inactivated Shadelings became disabled and fell apart off the conveyor belt. The portals outside disappeared, too.

"Nice! Looks like Luigi and Colombo did their part. And nice fighting, bro," Sonic gave his friend a fist bump.

"Heh heh! You too, Sonic!"

Upstairs, Luigi exited the room without saying anything. Colombo took a peek at the paper.

It read: 'Password: LUIGI SUCKS. (No spaces, capital letters) Devised by Myster Edge.'

"Stupid password. If you're going to create one based on me, make it less insulting. You might as well have named me 'Player 2' or 'Green Mario'. But to add the second word in there, ugh... I'm getting sick of him one too many times."

Luigi went to the first floor as Colombo caught up to him. Sonic and Tails managed to see him in a rough mood.

"Hey, Luigi! Colombo! Great job shutting this place down!" Sonic winked.

"Yeah. You, too," he replied unenthusiastically.

He frowned. "What's got you down in the dumps?"

"Nothing," he dismissed Sonic.

"Are you sure?" the kit furrowed his eyebrows.

Luigi ignored Tails' question when he saw Slimmer and Clawdio getting up. The orange underling stretched his arms out at the hedgehog and fox. Acting on impulse, Luigi flipped the switch on the Poltergust and shot two Shriek Shields at his partners. Clawdio's hands were deflected off the barriers, causing him to vibrate from the impact.

"Ow! He did it again!"

"Did what again?" Slimmer looked at him.

"Oh, forget that! Might as well do our job, not like it's going to last long."

"Well, duh. We're gonna wipe the floor with your faces," Sonic teased.

Clawdio rolled his eyes, but it was not at the hedgehog's remark. He just had a feeling that things weren't going to be in his or Slimmer's favor.

Taking advantage of the invincibility, Sonic and Tails split up to deal more damage to the enemies. Their hits sent them out the doors and onto the castle grounds. Luigi and Colombo sprinted with the duo to continue the combat. Since this was his first time facing them in a fight, Luigi needed to pay attention to their attack patterns.

Clawdio was nearly predictable. Using his extendable arms, he tried to restrain at least one of the heroes in his grasp. However, Sonic was too fast for him, Tails outmaneuvered him with his flying ability, and Colombo could turn invisible whenever he wanted to. That's when he planned to target Luigi, despite his newfound power.

Instead of buying extra power-ups, Luigi opted to take Blumiere's advice and utilize his Thunderhand. He thought deeply to generate the sensation. Once he felt a spark in his hands, he pointed an index finger at Clawdio to zap him. The foe was on the receiving end, taking the thunderbolt to the chest. Clawdio elongated his arms once more, but Luigi blocked them with a Shriek Shield. The green hero managed to penetrate the thunder through the shield to attack the orange robot.

"Grr... I'm not going down that easily..." he muttered.

Clawdio jumped high to implement a surprise aerial attack. Luigi, with his shield gone, ducked and rolled away from the hands as they cracked the hard ground. Tails took action to whack him with his tails again. He landed harshly with a couple bounces, grunting after every time he felt the surface.

Slimmer may be much lankier than everyone else, considering he was ten feet tall. But his fighting experience was limited. The best he could do was institute a T-pose with his arms and spin around like a top, hoping he could knock out someone with a concussion. His other option was to let the others do the work since he has been lazy since he found one of the Chaos Emeralds for his leader. But since Clawdio was the only one with him, and he wasn't in the mood to start another argument, Slimmer went with the flow.

Unfortunately, Sonic and Tails were able to pierce his spinning form with their famous spin dashes. After he got up, he pressed a button on his chest and transformed his fists into missile launchers. He caught a look at their surprised faces.

"Ha! Bet you weren't expecting this!"

Tails hastened to Sonic and carried him by the hands. The brothers soared away from the flying weapons as they end up firing the inside of the castle. The result was a massive explosion that officially wiped out the inactive Shadelings and the computer system that operated the whole thing. And because of that, there wouldn't be any more Shadelings to continuously invade their homes.

"Oh, come off with this..." Clawdio groaned.

"Um... whoops?" Slimmer shrugged before he ducked away from Sonic running at him.

"You just HAD to ruin everything by your stupidity, don't you?!"

Before Slimmer could respond, Colombo chomped on his leg.

"OW! Not again! Get off me, you spectral pooch!"

Colombo did as he obeyed, but he soon barked at Luigi to give him a signal. From there, he sent two thunderbolts at Slimmer. They shocked the tall mech's circuits. He shuddered from the intensity and fell flat on his torso. Sonic added more salt to the wound by kicking him into the castle moat. The main difference was that it was filled with purple plasma instead of water.

Slimmer gurgled from the intense heat. "Oh... I guess I deserve this... It was nice... knowing you... Clawd... Tell the boss... I failed him..." He sank into the bottom of the moat. His eyelids glitched until they turned off.

"Urgh... Just finish me already," Clawdio told the heroes.

"Um, that's it? You're gonna give up like that?" questioned Sonic.

"Yes, it's anticlimactic, I know! Just do it already! It's not like Edge gives a damn about me or the other robots. We were gonna die either way."

"But, you're one of Edge's minions," Tails was confused at his defeated response.

"If you haven't seen the big picture that Edge is a callous person, then you must be blind out of your mind. No matter what, all he cares about his himself, his partner, and taking over everything. I'm through serving him."

"Is that what you want?"

He looked up at Luigi who asked him that question. "Yes. Put me out of my misery. You've already defeated Slimmer. Now you can do the same to me."

"Okay. If you say so."

"But... I will say this. You're tougher than what Edge thinks of you." Luigi blinked. "I'm serious. You deserve a lot more credit after how much torture you suffered from him. You still managed to do anything to stop him. That takes guts, kid."

"Um, thank you, I guess."

"You still got Alpha to worry about before the real deal. He's waiting in the duplicate location of Vanilla Dome." All four were surprised that he gave them a piece of valuable information. "Edge might be there, too. Or maybe not. But he's got one more surprise for you."

"What's that?"

Clawdio was about to answer, until his circuits overheated from the shocks he previously sustained. And before they knew it, he was shut down automatically from his injuries. Sonic, Tails, and Colombo stood next to Luigi as they viewed the remains of the broken subordinate.

"He must be so done with Edge that he seemed to be on our side. Sort of," the Blue Blur murmured.

"I kind of feel bad for him and Slimmer," said Tails.

"Me, too. But at this point, there's no time to grieve or think about this. We better head over to Vanilla Dome in the Oblivion world," Luigi straightened his hat.

"Bark!" Colombo agreed.

"You're right. Before we can try to stop Edge, we better get rid of everyone from his main line. Because who knows if Alpha is going to attempt to hinder our progress?" Tails pondered.

"Well, we better start running again," Sonic stretched his legs.

The other three nodded as they set out to find Edge's top minion. What they didn't notice was two figures emerging from being invisible. They appeared at the top of the castle, and they just witnessed the loss of Slimmer and Clawdio. One of them overheard the orange robot's comments to his disgust.

"Luigi may be braver and stronger than before, I will admit. But he still doesn't have the ability to overthrow me. Unless he bows down as my permanent slave, you," Myster Edge directed at the other figure, "will convince him to obey me, one way or another."

He nodded at the Shadow Spirit. "Whatever you say, my master." Despite being possessed, his voice sounded the same, only with a ghastly echo.

Edge malevolently smirked as he stroked his goatee. "Oh, Mario... You'll do fine as my vassal for now. But I'll throw you out once I get my hands on the brother I truly want..."

END OF CHAPTER

Thanks to Luigi, Colombo, Tails, and Sonic, the robots will no longer invade the Mushroom Kingdom or Mobius for the time being. That will put less pressure on the heroes back home. But they still have more work to do as they pursue Alpha in the Oblivion's version of Vanilla Dome. And eventually, they will have to defeat the Tough Possessor (a.k.a. a possessed Mario), followed by Myster Edge himself...

And with that, I thank you guys for reading! Please review down below, follow/favorite so you don't miss out on the last upcoming moments, and I'll see you next time in Ch. 54 of Hidden Bravery! This is TGN, signing off.

Post-Chapter Notes:

(1): In LM: Dark Moon, Luigi has helped E. Gadd's Toad assistants by holding them with the Poltergust's nozzle and shooting them across gaps or onto ledges to progress his missions. I decided to write a humorous skit of Luigi shooting Sonic down the summit as his revenge.

(2): Smithy was the main antagonist in Super Mario RPG where he built a factory in a strange dimension to mass-produce copies of weapons and bosses that Mario and his team had faced. This is where I got the concept from as Edge built a factory of his own to send Shadelings to raid Mario and Sonic's worlds.

(3): This explicit Italian phrase translates to 'That asshole.'