Chapter 7: Live by the Sword…
"Okay Bowser, but don't think we're not keeping a close eye on you," Knuckles said.
"And don't expect us to be surprised when you try to kill us after we stop Exor," Tails said.
"Or expect us to actually believe you when you say you're not going to do that," Amy said.
"Finally, don't expect us to join your Koopa Club when we're done with this," Sonic said.
"That's Koopa Klan, who would be dumb enough to call themselves the 'Koopa Club'? That doesn't even begin to sound anywhere near as fearful as 'The Koopa Klan'!" Bowser laughed.
"Fearsome," Knuckles said.
"Bless you," Bowser replied.
"No, I said fearsome," Knuckles repeated. "You should have said 'as fearsome as The Koopa Klan', not 'as fearful as The Koopa Klan'. Fearful means your troops are afraid, fearsome means they put fear into those that see them... Oh, wait, never mind, you're right, it should be fearful."
"The second Exor is gone, you're a dead echidna!" Bowser threatened.
Sonic jumped behind Bowser, Tails got in front of him, Knuckles ran to his right, and Amy readied her hammer on his left. Bowser growled, then sighed.
"Fine, let's start planning the mission," Bowser sighed. "I'll need everyone to gather supplies while Ludwig reconstructs the doomships."
"Why do I have to build them by myself?" Ludwig complained.
"Do you see anyone else here who knows how to build a machine that can fly?" Bowser growled.
"What about me?" Tails asked. "I built the Tornado all by myself, a pretty sturdy set of wings if I'm not being too boastful."
"Okay, new plan! Sonic, Roy, and Knuckles will do the actual building of the doomships," Bowser explained, "Ludwig and Tails will do the planning and oversee the construction. Everyone else will gather the raw materials and then do any other things that I'm to laz- er, busy to do myself!"
"Brilliant!" Morton started. "Genius! Stupendous! Amazing! Incredible! Terrific!"
"SHUT UP!" yelled everyone else.
"So what about the actual fight against Exor?" Sonic asked.
"What about it?" Bowser asked.
"How do we beat him?" Sonic asked.
"We fight him, how else?" Bowser laughed."How dense can one Porcupo be?"
"Hedgehog, and I mean, what exactly are we going to do in the fight?" Sonic sighed.
"We destroy him," Bowser said. "What else?"
"What's the plan? We can't just go into a fight head on and expect to win," Knuckles sighed.
"Why not? How else is there?" Bowser laughed.
"We formulate a plan, using the information on Exor that you can provide us with," Tails started. "The plan should include a battle formation that avoids Exor's advantages in battle and uses his weaknesses against him."
Ludwig laughed. "My fazer, strategize! Zere is a good laugh! I can't even lose to him in zess when I try to let him win!"
"Dungeon! One month!" Bowser shouted.
"Very funny, Fazer!" Ludwig laughed. "Vut you don't even a castle right now!"
Bowser growled, then said, "Fine! You can wait until I have a new castle, but now it's two months!"
Ludwig grumbled, but wasn’t at all surprised by this turn of events.
“Everyone ready?” Sonic asked.
Everyone nodded.
“Then it’s time to show this metal head
what we’re made of!” Sonic said.
“How much longer until we reach this Oil Ocean place?” Luigi asked as the sun beat down on them on Green Hill.
“Don’t know, never been there before,” Vector said, “but I can tell you this, you’ll be regretting it if you forget to bring nose plugs, the place is supposed to stink!”
“Can’t be worse than the sewers of Brooklyn,” Mario said, “right, Luigi?”
“I can’t believe you’ve never heard of the place,” Espio said. “That ocean is the only known source of oil in the entire solar system, and you’ve never even heard of it.”
“We’re not exactly up on current events,” Mario said. “There’s a whole lot of things we don’t know about Mobiüs.”
“Did you guys flunk geography back in school or something?” Vector asked. “Even Charmy knows about the Oil Ocean, and he’s only 6!”
“You probably wouldn’t believe us if we told you,” Peach said. “I’m not even sure that we completely understand it.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Charmy asked. “Why wouldn’t we believe our clients? If you guys lied to us, it would only take us longer to help you!”
“It’s not that,” Luigi said. “It’s hard to explain… you see, we’re not exactly from around here.”
“That much is obvious,” Vector laughed. “You live in a cave or something?”
“No, that’s not what he means, is that we aren’t from Mobiüs,” Mario said. “We’re not even from this dimension.”
“Seriously, where are you guys from?” Espio asked.
“He was serious,” Peach said. “I’m the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.”
“Aren’t you a little old to be a princess?” Charmy asked. “I always thought princesses were anywhere from 6 to 14 years old.”
“You read too many fairytales,” Espio sighed.
“What do you expect?” Vector asked. “Everyone does when they’re 6… it’s all that they can read!”
“Hey! I can read more bigger books!” Charmy said.
“More bigger?” Espio echoed.
“Hey! Can you guys see that smoke?” Charmy asked as he pointed beyond the horizon.
Sure enough, when they looked ahead, they could see it.
“We haven’t got any time to waste, we
can’t let a fire go on unchecked,” Mario said.
Inside of Smithy’s new factory, Smithy, Shadow, Wario, Eggman, and Metal Sonic were all gathered.
“Preparations for our attack are almost complete,” Shadow said. “We should be ready to strike within the hour.”
“Excellent, now we need one last thing before the assault,” Smithy explained. “An old man should be but a mile north of here. He is carrying an object of great power. You will attack him and take whatever he is unable to secure before he escapes, but you will not pursue after him, understood?”
“Immediately,” Shadow said as he ran off.
“As for you,” Metal Sonic said to Eggman, “it appears that Sonic is preparing to strike our gateway with Bowser’s help. We need you to keep them busy long enough for Shadow to retrieve the Power Stars. Wario has the Chaos Emeralds, and will be able to help you once we are ready for the attack.”
“All my scientific genius and you’re wasting my talents as a decoy?” Robotnik asked as he pointed to Wario. “You think I’ll just stand back and play second fiddle to this moron?”
“Are you challenging us?” Smithy laughed. “Do you really think we need you?”
“On second thought, being a distraction sounds quite entertaining,” Robotnik laughed.
“Good to see you’re finally giving that huge brain of yours some use,” Metal Sonic mocked.
Eggman mumbled insults as he left to
take the EES EggCarrier III to defend Exor.
“It’s them!” Mario said as he pointed to Sonic. “We’ve found them!”
“Then what are we paying these guys for?” Luigi asked.
“Hey! We did our job!” Vector said. “You never even heard of the Oil Ocean until we told you!”
“What are you plumbers doing here?” Ludwig asked. “It’s vad enough zat we have to work with zis rodent, now you’re here!”
“What’s the matter, Lugnut? You afraid of us?” Sonic taunted.
“An explanation would be nice,” Mario said.
“Giant sword has turned the Oil Ocean into the world's biggest bonfire, he was too strong for us to take alone, and Bowser seemed to know about him. He needed our brains, we needed… wait, why did we need Bowser’s help?”
“We were hoping he’d have a tactic for bringing the thing down,” Tails sighed.
“So Exor has been here!” Mario said. “How long has he been here, do you know?”
“At least three months,” Tails explained. “I thought it was just a dream. Every night I would see the sword fall into the Oil Ocean; I thought maybe it was just the bad memories I had from the place, so I ignored it. But I was wrong, I should have known it… especially since it stopped while we were in the Mushroom Kingdom, but I didn’t think it was important. I should’ve told someone…”
“It isn’t your fault, Tails, I don’t think any of us would have done things differently,” Sonic said.
Just then, Bowser walked out from behind some trees.
“Mario! What are you doing here?” Bowser shouted. “You’re supposed to be at home, putting everything into that horrible policy you call peace!”
“I actually came here to take you back home,” Mario said, “bnut we’ve got something more important to do at the time.”
“So, you ready to take this sword down?” Sonic asked.
“It’s not the first time this overgrown portal has forced me to work with Bowser,” Mario explained, “but I sure hope it’s the last!”
“Well then, you know what they say about those who live by the sword,” Peach said.
“Right,” Knuckles agreed. “Those who live by the sword, die by the sword!”