First off, Me and Luigi were-a... Preoccupied. (Something that I-a don't think will be the last I hear of-a it...) And then, when we were-a done, some thief stole our-a Warp Whistle back to the-a Mushroom Kingdom.
To be honest, I'm-a surprised at how long the flight from-a Mega City to the Mushroom Kingdom is, even with-a Tails' Tornado...
Also, TWO-a Bowsers!?
...Hm... Two-a Bowsers...
(...If what I'm-a thinking is correct, then I-a wonder... Should we-a tell Somari about this?)
(...CAN we-a tell Somari about this? I don't think even-a Sonic has a way to contact him...)
...Actually, something tells me that's-a not even the worst part... I've-a been doing some scou- ...Er, I-a had someone ELSE* do some scouting for me...
...And, well... Have-a you ever heard of a Company called Quartet Enterprises? If-a not... I'm-a sure Wario can tell you all about it.
Indeed, strange. Had you have wanted to go to this "Direct" why did you not go sooner? Surely you would have arrived in timely fashion.
....
...Ah, cripes.
I doubt Master Luigi is lying. Wario. What do you know about this "Quartet Enterprises"?
...Look. Before I did some investing of my own, when I found myself lost doing some... innocuous treasure-hunting... I met a certain guy. He offered me a job as an elite artifact-hunter, steeeaaaaaluhbuhbuhbuhborrowing plenty of important items in different worlds.
It's been a long time I've done anything involving them, though. What I wanna know, though, is why this is so important?
....Ah. Of course. How foolish of me to ask.
Would this be to your pleasure?
However I may be of use.
...Because apparently, Bowser has-a been provided some troops by-a this "Quartet Enterprises". And I'm-a not sure whether or not they can still- or will- continue to do their business here on Earth, in whatever world or dimension they happen to be in...
...But if Bowser has had some form of-a business connection with-a this company, we may be in-a serious trouble in the future.
...Ok, Beta Shadow said that he'll be able to arrange for us a place to live here in...
...Huh. What city IS this, even?
You know, it's been such an unimportant factor, that I don't think it's even been considered.
...Allegrotopolis. (Of course it'd be based on a musical term...)
...You seem in thought. Something on your mind?
Just a curious thought... There are many different versions of Sonic and Mega Man, and we have at least 3 different Marios in the world, not counting Somari... Heck, we even have several different Quints and- of all people- Proto MKII.
Which makes me wonder... Are there alternate versions of us? I mean, you could argue that it's unlikely, seeing that you, me, and "vanilla" Beta Man are from similar universes... Heck, Beta X is from an alternate world where I remained to be reprogrammed.*
...But then there's Beta Serif.
...Well... It's certainly not impossible.
Hey. Wake up!
We missed the raid and they haven't come back yet. Come on, wake up!
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Really. Telekinesis. Like that hasn't been used before.
Let's make this easy. I've got an island of bananas waiting for me after this.
This should be enough...
With these viruses reprogrammed to be at my side, Null should be a piece of cake.
This is for the good of the system, not myself...
What!? That can't be possible! We were thrashing mooks left and right, we didn't even catch a clue of anything that could've been manufactured!
Well... other than that giant robo-Somawhatever head.
Honestly, this encounter seemed kinda half-baked the entire time. Not as grand as you'd expect it to be. What if that was just the test run... the beginning of things to come?
Yeah, and on top of that... How can we be so sure that those stupid Bowser and Koopenstein guys are the only ones working together?
We can't. That's why we have to stick together at all costs...
...Because the battle's just begun.
...What the fu--
This needs to stop.
What does?
This whole "waiting for trouble" bogus. Even before the lab was made - before half of us even knew each other - all we've been doing is idling around, sometimes toying with each other, until something dangerous shows up, and where has that taken us?
It gave Team Mecha a new opportunity*, it made Coda rear his ugly head†, it left us as cannon fodder when Regulus decided he was actually going to do anything‡, and none of the "preventive measures" we've taken have worked a bit.
Face it, mates. We're inviting the villains to do their thing. Dark Matter's been doing nothing but making moves, the UKR's probably ready to go against the whole reason Orchestra didn't want us to blast them on sight, Kahtos is on the loose, and there's probably like a dozen or so other things on the way.
You all wanna wait and be disaster's li'l toy? Fine. But I'm goin' to beat these bogans at their own game.
Okay, who the heck are you!?
Hey, you're from the Somariverse, right? Shadwari?
How do you figure?
Those three told me a thing or two about you.
Hmmph. Then you must know why I'm here.
Toooo lend a helping hand?
That's not all.
It's about time that you all finally meet.
...What's taking so long?
So the UKR's looking for a new doctor...
For my safety, I would suggest against this.
Oh come on? What's the worst that could happen? We get famous and I get to build all the robots I want?
...But aren't they the bad guys?
Bad guys? How so? Sure they want to regulate the robot market, banning us independent makers, but think of the good it could bring us!
The good it could bring you you mean.
Look, with or without us, the UKR's likely to fall soon.
How so?
It wishes to operate at a universal scale, and since the universe is massive-
Their forces are spread thin.
Bingo! All it will take is for someone strong and smart enough to find their capital and it will all be over.
So what your saying is-
We join, request loads of money to build some high-tech death weapon, then book it once the walls start to fall.
The treachery of you humans continues to amaze me.
I believe the word you meant to say is brilliance! Now come on, let's get going!
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