Chapter 10: The Factory
The EggCarrier crashed through Exor into Smithy's factory, throwing Mario and Sonic onto the cold metal floor. The factory, however, was completed this time. Unlike Mario's previous visit to the factory, this one was completed. The factory's pathways were completely laid out, the assembly lines were operating at 100% efficiency, and Smithy's weapons were being produced faster then Sonic could run.
"I've got a suggestion," Sonic said. "Let's not do that again."
"Agreed," Mario said.
As the two of them got up, they saw the enormous automated factory.
"Something isn't right here," Mario said. "If they have this huge army, why didn't they send it out to attack us?"
"Let's find out," Sonic said as he rushed over to try to take out some of the Macks that were being produced.
Sonic quickly blasted through about ten of the Macks, until he saw two Yaridoviches behind him.
"First pogo sticks, then spears; this Smithy guy sure is odd," Sonic said.
"Sonic! Get away from the Yaridoviches!" Mario shouted, but it was too late. The Yaridoviches had each activated a water blast, crushing Sonic with gallons of water.
"Water," Sonic laughed. "Never try to drown me. You will regret it!"
Sonic created a tornado to blow the robots away, but the Yaridoviches stuck their heads into the ground to stay put. The Macks, however, were not so lucky. When the wind died down, one Yaridovich split into two. The two of them prepared to stab Sonic, but Sonic jumped on top of one, and started running in place on it, using his feet as a drill. The other Yaridovich started to jab at Sonic, when Mario grabbed it by the legs and started spinning around. When Mario built up enough speed, he released the Yaridovich, and threw him into Mobiüs.
"You have to be more careful with these automatons," Mario said. "They're much stronger then Robotniks."
"Automatons?" Sonic asked. "Why can't you just say robots?"
"Because of this," Mario said as he kicked open one of the Yardovoiches' heads. "They don't use electricity."
The machine was run completely on steam, without a single wire running throughout the entire thing.
"How is that possible?" Sonic asked. "They're able to change their movements, they act like they think, and they definitely weren't attacking me with a set pattern of movement."
"There's many things I don't know about Smithy," Mario explained. "I don't even think that he's from our dimension."
"That's a safe assumption," Smithy said as he threw open a door. "This factory resides within its very own dimension."
"How is that possible?" Gadd asked as he climbed out of the wrecked EggCarrier.
"Smithy, it's not my fault," Robotnik said. "They forced me to-"
"Shut your mouth!" Smithy said. "Metal Sonic and I know exactly what happened, and we know that you would rather be Sonic's slave before you would serve Metal Sonic willingly."
"Really?" Sonic asked with a smile. "Well, in that case, maybe you should force him to choose sides more often."
"I suppose you four want an explanation," Smithy said. "Yes, that's what Bowser or Robotnik would do, they would explain their plan with grandiose detail, knowing that you would be unable to stop it."
"Bowser? Make a plan?" Mario laughed. "Did you know nothing about whose castle Exor crashed into?"
"No, and that time, I didn't really care, I simply wanted to get rid of that accursed Star Road!" Smithy laughed. "I would have been just as happy if I landed in Booster's Tower!"
"Wait a minute, you still never answered my question," Gadd said. "How is it that this factory exists in another dimension, yet when you attacked the Mushroom Kingdom the first time, it did nothing to disrupt the time-space continuum?"
"Well, if you must know, this isn't truly a dimension all by itself," Smithy started to explain. "It's really quite difficult to explain in human terms, but think of it as more of a crossroad, between dimensions."
"What do you mean?" Robotnik asked. "I thought anything in between dimensions was permanently frozen in time and space, unable to change."
"I said it was a crossroad, I never said it was an actual gap between them," Smithy said. "Think of the dimensions as houses, and this as a street. Exor, he is little more than a key to open the doors. The factory itself, think of it as an RV; it can travel on the road, or it can park in the garage, allowing my creations to enter the house."
"Well, in that case," Mario said, "your RV has just been entered into a demolition derby."
"Wait!" Robotnik shouted. "How do your machines think if they don't have a computer to run them?"
Smithy laughed, then smiled and said, "You really think that all dimensions follow the same rules of logic? No, in some of them, there are creatures that are made out of living plastic, in others, electricity can flow through bricks, in others, stars that emit cold with empty space being hotter than anywhere else! There are dimensions where everything is capable of thought, and others where life itself would be impossible. Others still have it where the wind is alive, others fire. Some have living metal, others intelligent plants. Very few universes are even made of molecules! All of you really are quite ignorant of how little you really know. Only two parts of logic remain the same throughout the multiverse: time, and space. The defiance of each other's logic is why the time-space continuum is disrupted when beings from one dimension enter another. The laws of nature, physics, common sense, all of them are different from one universe to another! To put it simply, beings from other dimensions are like termites to the house. One will do almost nothing, and usually remain undetected, but a swarm of them can unintentionally destroy the house from the inside."
"In that case, you still haven't answered my question," Gadd said. "Why doesn't your presence disrupt any of the dimensions you're in?"
"Well, some questions are better left unanswered," Smithy said.
"You don't know," Robotnik laughed. "You talk as though you're omniscient, and you only know a little more about it than we do!"
"I know everything, it's simply impossible to put it in human terms!" Smithy argued.
"If you truly knew everything, you'd know exactly how to make us understand," Gadd argued. "And also, you would have destroyed the Mushroom Kingdom the first time you visited it."
"Okay, so I don't know!" Smithy said, then turned to Gadd, and continued, "But I know how to find out."
"I believe you are referring to the Cronos Engine?" Gadd asked.
"Why are you asking me?" Smithy questioned. "You already know the answer."
Just then, the entire assembly line stopped, and the factory fell silent.
"What happened?" Mario asked.
"Simple, Metal Sonic and I wish to fight you alone, without my minions to get in the way," Smithy chuckled. "Also, we're both quite curious to see what kind of effect the power of the Chaos Emeralds will have on me."
"Speaking of Gramps, where is he?" Sonic asked.
"Stop asking questions that I can't answer!" Smithy shouted. "I'll destroy the four of you by myself if I have to!"
Smithy revealed the Chaos Emeralds, and stepped aside to reveal the Master Emerald. The Emeralds glowed brightly, and caused Smithy's hammer to glow the same way.
"Interesting, with everyone else, the Emeralds power up the being who activates them," Smithy said. "However, when I use them, it seems to have some effect on my hammer. I wonder, what would happen if I created a weapon?"
"Let's not find out," Sonic said.
Sonic spun in place for as long as he could, until he eventually created a vacuum that caused a quick blade of wind to shoot out at Smithy. Smithy was hit, but the attack didn't even seem to phase him. Mario let out a barrage of fireballs, which proved to be equally ineffective.
"Sonic, let's try using the Power Stars again," Mario said as he tossed them back to Sonic.
"So I'm going to be a bullet again?" Sonic said. "Sheesh, now I know how the EggCarrier must have felt a few minutes ago."
Sonic went ahead and used the Power Stars, then jumped over to Mario. Mario started to spin around, building up speed. While they were preparing their attack, Smithy went ahead and forged a large sword, about twice Mario's height. When Mario let Sonic go, Smithy slashed at Sonic with the sword, knocking Sonic into Mario.
"Mamamia!" Mario said. "Okay, so that didn't work."
"What is it with this Smithy guy and ridiculously big swords?" Sonic asked. "First Exor and now this thing."
Smithy threw the sword at Mario, narrowly missing his left hand. After the sword hit the ground, it disappeared.
"That's odd," Robotnik said, who then noticed Gadd was doing something on the floor. "What are you doing?"
"Give me a hand here," Gadd said. "I'm trying to modify this thing so that it can identify non-spectral energy signatures."
"What is that thing?" Robotnik asked.
"It's called the Gameboy Horror, and I use it to identify ghosts," Gadd explained. "I'm hoping I can get it to work on the Chaos Emeralds instead."
Smithy forged a double-ended spear, broke it in half, and then threw one at Mario and another at Sonic. Mario jumped over the spear, while Sonic stepped to the side.
"I don't know much about the Chaos Emeralds," Gadd said.
"Step aside!" Robotnik said as he grabbed the GBH, "And watch a master at work."
Smithy rushed towards Sonic and smashed him with his hammer, knocking Sonic to the ground and causing the Power Stars to fail.
"Yeouch!" Sonic shouted. "I think he broke my arm!"
Mario saw Sonic in trouble, and tried to jump on top of Smithy. However, Smithy hit Mario, causing the plumber to fall short of his target.
Mario grunted in pain, "I think that was my leg."
"Something is wrong," Smithy said.
"Yeah, you're winning," Sonic joked.
"That's just it though," Smithy said with a worried voice.
"Wait, you're upset that you're winning?" Mario asked.
"I'm not supposed to defeat you until our next encounter," Smithy said. "But that would mean-"
Just then, Metal Sonic blasted Smithy with a laser, causing Smithy to melt into a pool of burning iron.
"That would mean you've been outdated!" Metal Sonic laughed. "He fulfilled his purpose, and now victory is mine!"
Just then, the doomships appeared in the factory.
Metal Sonic laughed, and then quickly took the Power Stars, as well as the Chaos Emeralds.
"It looks like a retreat is in order," Gadd said.
"Don't have to ask me twice," Sonic said. "Professor, I'll keep Gramps busy, get Mario out of here."
"This feels awkward," Mario said.
"You have no chance of survival," Metal Sonic said. "Just give me the Cronos Engine and get it over with... but no, you're not going to do that, are you?"
Everyone got off the doomships and helped Mario up. Sonic realized that he too was in no condition to fight. He used his good hand to grab onto a rope ladder that was dropped from Ludwig's doomship.
"I've got an idea," Gadd said as they left the factory and entered Mobiüs. "Use the Banzai Bill to destroy what's left of Exor!"
"Understood," Ludwig said as he launched the oversized Bullet Bill.
Exor collapsed, trapping Metal Sonic
in the factory, for the time being.
Once the doomships reached shore, Gadd looked at everyone's injuries.
"Well, the bones aren't broken," Gadd said, "but you certainly shouldn't be using them anytime soon. They both seem to have a small fracture, but if you stay off of them for a couple months, they should be fine. All we need to do now is put casts on to prevent you from moving them."
Tails helped the professor put the casts on, but everyone knew that Metal Sonic would be back.
"So, what exactly happened?" Luigi asked.'
"Well, if everyone's got a bit of time, then I guess we could explain," Mario said as he told them what happened, starting from when he faced the robotic Shadow on the EggCarrier.
After they finished, everyone frowned.
"This only raises more questions," Tails said, "and it answers nothing."
"Yes, this puzzle seems to be too complex for us to figure out," Gadd said. "It's quite perplexing, and seems to offer no hint of a solution."
"We do know something," Luigi said. "Metal Sonic will be back, and he wants nothing less than the power of a titan."
"Yes, but not just any titan," Gadd said, "but that of the son of the Mother."
To Be Concluded...
Confused? I want you to be... but don't worry, I'll clear everything up, in the exciting conclusion to this trilogy, which will be known as Mario Vs. Sonic 3: Multiverse Mayhem. But before I leave you to ponder what I might have in store for you, let me give you a small hint. The last word of the story is capitalized for a reason. Why? I said a hint, you'll have to figure it out for yourself. Or, of course, you could just wait...
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