It was natural to expect casualties in a war, Sage wasn't ignorant of that. She'd fully expected the Eggman Empire to suffer loses in the battle. But she'd never expected them to be defeated. Had she missed something? Something that gave them the edge?

If she'd maybe done more research and truly understood Bowser's limits, they may have succeeded, but No. They'd be thoroughly decimated. Out of their entire invasion force. All that remained was her, a few stray badniks, Orbot and Cubot

Those two had been awfully quick to desert after Eggman was defeated. She couldn't really blame them, Father hadn't exactly been the nicest to them. She was less immediate to defect however.

She was unsure why they were even being allowed to join the Koopa troop to begin with.

Was Bowser an idiot? Or did he just not consider her a threat?

The Troops were just celebrating their victory but she just felt lost, what was she supposed to do now? She wanted revenge for her Father but after that? Then what? She didn't exactly have any immediate goals for the future.

Even then was her Revenge justified? They'd started it, Bowser was just defending himself.

She'd watched the now Skeletal Bowser ruffle his son's hair before that wizard metal had punched earlier handed him some sort of green mushroom.

Bowser at it and Blaze watched marveled as Muscle began to grow around the bones, the mushroom seemed to be, restoring him? In less than a minute all the damage the death egg had done to the Koopa King was gone.

She'd never seen anything like it. Did they ever have any hope of winning? Since they seem to have some sort of wonder cure that can instantly get their troops back into fighting shape there was no way they could have won for very long.

There was no excuse for the fact that she overlooked this.

Though it did give her an idea, Bowser had essentially been dead, he was an undead skeleton. If that mushroom could restore him then perhaps If she could find her father's body, she could bring him back as well.

She'd go with the motions for now and bring her father back when the opportunity arose all though, she would try to caution her father against seeking revenge, she really wasn't sure they could beat this guy and she wouldn't get the opportunity to bring him back twice.

Infinite had also survived the battle but his pride was a little wounded being tricked so easily and with the ruby gone he wasn't anything special. Still Sage would approach him asking if he planned to join up.

"It seems Orbot and Cubot are intent on joining, but I would like to know, are you?"

"Why are you switching sides? Because you lost? Have some self respect." infinite scoffed those two idiots defecting, he could have predicted but he was surprised by Sage.

"You misunderstand my motive." Sage began in a hushed tone. "I have seen Bowser recover from a Skeletal state with a simple mushroom. If I can get my hands on one, I may yet find a way to bring Father back to life."

"Even if that would work, which by the way I'm not sure it will, what makes you think they'd let you get your hands on one?"

"Look, it's the best I can do, so I'm going to do it. Have you got a better idea!?" Sage snapped, she hadn't meant to, it had sort of come out of nowhere. Though it was understandable considering the day she'd had.

"I suppose I don't, I'm not about to sign up with King Koopa, so I think I'll clear off, see you around kid." Infinite would take his leave. He didn't really have a horse in this race anymore, without the ruby, Eggman didn't have anything to offer him.

She'd watch him leave before getting back in line, filling in an application and handing it in.

Sergeant Guy looked over the form before looking back to her, so this person was the daughter of the man who'd attacked them was she? And yet she was willing to switch sides?

Still her reasons were her own so he wouldn't question it though he did pass the information along to the others.

She along with the other new recruits would be brought to the castle, where they were greeted by an older looking woman.

She was somewhat similar in appearance to Kamek though she appeared much older. She would introduce herself as Kammy Koopa, Kamek's mother, she also referred to herself as the brains behind Bowser.

"Now then recruits, what is it that you're good at."

Orbot and Cubot would attempt to sell themselves as best they could.

"Well we served as Eggman's personal assistants, programmed to assist him in coming up with his plans. We even helped him take over the world, that Ruby Infinite was using? Eggman never would have found it without me" Orbot was rambling but Kammy didn't look impressed.

"Fascinating, You two are on janitorial duty, Next!"

Orbot and Cubot both slumped their soldiers as they walked away, next Kammy would turn her attention to Sage.

"And what about you?"

"I am a highly advanced artificial intelligence that can analyse the situation in a second a come up with millions of strategies in order to succeed." Sage studied the older woman's face for any sign of emotion.

"Yet you couldn't come up with a way to beat Bowser, what else can you do?" the magikoopa remarked in a blunt tone.

"Well, I am able to direct Eggman's forces and I assisted him in improving his machines."

"Oh so like those mechs he used?" That seemed to catch her attention. "Well, I think I have a suitable job for you. From now on you will be Bowser Jrs assistant, he also constructs machines so I trust you will be useful to him."

Bowser Junior, that smaller version of Bowser she assumed, he didn't exactly seem the brightest from what she'd seen, but he was able to construct complex machinery?

"Am I actually being left to my own devices? Are you sure that's wise?"

"Smart one aren't you? Well yes you are being observed you just can't see from where." Honestly Sage didn't even care that was fair enough as far as she was concerned.

She'd be led to a garage that wasn't too dissimilar to her father's workshop, it was just less organised. There were blueprints for different mechs scattered around the floor. Some of them had words like "Junk" or "Useless" scrawled over them, which she assumed to be mechs that had failed.

"Junior! What have we told you about greeting people when they enter your room!"

Sage could hear scrambled foot steps upstairs in response to Kammy shouting, Junior scrambled down some steps into his garage in order to see what the noise was about.

He'd look at Sage for a moment unsure what to make of her.

"Who's this?"

"This is a new recruit, she claims to be fairly skilled with machinery so I thought she may be able to help you"

He paced around Sage for a moment eyeing her suspiciously. "Well, that's alright then, I've never had an assistant before."

Kammy would leave the two of them alone as she had other duties to attend to and Sage would look around the lab, getting used to her new surroundings.

"What is it that you are working on?" Junior would rummage through a pile of blueprints before showing her a new fuel for his clown car, it lasted longer and it'd make the car go faster, the problem was it was volatile and if the car got too hot it may explode.

"This fuel is made from… Peppers?" Honestly that was impressive to her being able to create an effective fuel from something called a Dash Pepper. "I think you could solve this problem with a coolant system, I'll draw up a design" As Sage worked she'd take in the blue prints around, they were… very impressive.

"You came up with everything here yourself?"

"Yeah, I did, I learned about machines and stuff from the books in Papas library."

"So you're entirely self taught?"

"Pretty much"

Sage was astounded, he'd done all this? "Junior… you're brilliant."

"darn right I am" Junior certainly wasn't very humble, it honestly sort of reminded her of her dad.

She and Junior would discuss his machines for a short while. It was honestly sort of nice to just talk, she almost forgot about her problems, almost.

She got along fairly well with this kid sure, but she couldn't very well let that distract her from the task at hand. Still she'd spare this one, when Eggman inevitably came back seeking vengeance.

She'd spend a few hours working with Junior until he decided he was done and suggested they do something else, like a game of hide and seek. She figured she could use this as an opportunity to slip away and check out the castle so she agreed to the game, telling Junior to count to 100.

She would disappear before reappearing in a sort of armory, this was what she was her for. There were all sorts of things here conventional weaponry, strange items that granted different abilities and what she was here for those Green Mushrooms Bowser had used.

She'd open a box containing a few of them before she heard a loud footstep behind her.

"Bowser…" Sage placed the box down. "How did you know?"

"You don't think much of my intelligence do you? You're a real smart kid but like most smart guys you assume everyone else is stupid, not my boy though, cus I raised him right." He liked to think so anyway, he tried to teach Junior not to look down on folks. "You wanna bring your dad back, don't ya?, so I figured you'd make your way down here and when Junior told me you two were playing hide and seek I figured you'd use it as an opportunity to snoop around."

"So what happens now?" Sage almost didn't wanna ask, would she be taken prisoner? Executed?

"Now? Well I assume your gonna take that and bring your dad back" Truth be told he didn't really wanna be the reason this girl was an orphan, god maybe he was turning soft shelled.

"You're letting me?" Why? It made absolutely no sense to her. Did he benefit from it in some way?

"I am, ain't I a nice guy? Just make sure that nerd knows that I'd be happy to scramble him again if he causes trouble for me, he's only alive because of my generosity." He'd walk over to a shelf one far too high for Sage to reach. "Considering how badly I messed him up, you'll probably need a Super 1up" he'd kneel down to her level handing her a jar containing the mushroom before ruffling her hair.

"Now finish your game with Junior, after that I don't care what you do. But I'm sure Junior would enjoy having you around if you wanna visit every now and then." With that Bowser would turn to leave waving as he did so.

"I will." Sage flashed to Blue. Genuinely taken off guard by such a selfless act. "Thank you, your highness."