Into the Void

Lone Refugee

Upon hearing the shout, Max, the Pillars, and the volunteers looked up to find its source above them. Looking down at everyone was a young man who looked just as short as Mario. He had dark hair topped with a blue cap decorated with an S. His attire consisted of a blue shirt under white overalls, gloves, and brown shoes. This stranger was glaring at Mario and Peach and with a sigh, he reached into his pockets and pulled out a rock with a drawn face, wizard hat, and a wand. Then, he chucked it at the princess as it hit her head, causing her to stop screaming at Mario. Then all of a sudden, Peach let out a shrill yell before disappearing as if she was snapped out of existence. This left the group shocked at what they witnessed; Mayday even dropped her phone.

"What. Did I. Just witness?" Zuke said with wide eyes.

"I have no idea..." Mayday replied.

Meanwhile, the stranger turned his head to the right to find the group. Raising an eyebrow, he made his way down the stairs. Once he was on the first floor, he approached the group and asked, "Can I help you?"

"Uh, hi," Max said with a wave. "My name is Max. I'm a World Jumper from Planet Specter." She gestured to the others. "And this is my team: Jesse, Sonic, Morgana, Frisk, Mayday, Zuke, and Kasane."

The young man looked at the group one by one before suddenly noticing the blue hedgehog. "Wait, Sonic is here? What are you doing with these guys, man?"

"Uh, sorry, pal. I think you're mistaking me for another Sonic," Sonic replied. But then, he blinked and said, "Wait, I have a counterpart in this world?"

"As I said, there are other versions of people in Variants," Max whispered. "But sometimes, there are Variants that are connected with two or more worlds. Dimensions like that are called Crossovers."

"Ah." The hedgehog nodded before turning to the blue-clad young man. "So, yeah. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm not the Sonic you know." He paused briefly before asking, "Wait, who are you anyway?"

"Oh, me?" The young man suddenly smiled. "My name is SMG4." He then pointed to Mario. "And that idiot right there is my friend, Mario."

The group turned to Mario, who was now making strange noises as he moved around a plate of spaghetti that was on a small wooden table. Seeing that weirded them out.

"Yeah, we figured..." Jesse said.

Putting on a frown and a raised eyebrow, the man called SMG4 said, "Wait, you guys know Mario?"

"Not three of us," Kasane replied before gesturing to Max, Jesse, Sonic, Frisk, and Morgana. "These five know him."

"Well, we know a Mario..." Frisk clarified.

"The Mario we know is not..." Morgana paused for a second, gesturing to Mario, who ate the spaghetti, including the plate, before spinning in circles as he made airplane noises. "...that." he finished.

Everything fell quiet again as SMG4 looked at the group with furrowed eyebrows. But then, the silence broke when Jesse spoke. "Okay, let's just get straight to the point. All of us are on a mission right now. Long story short, the multiverse is in trouble again because there's a monster going around and it's a threat."

"Wait, what?" SMG4 raised his eyebrows as Mario stopped spinning to listen to the group's explanation. "What kind of monster is it?" he asked.

"We don't know for sure," Frisk said. "All we know is that this monster is going around the multiverse eating worlds and infecting each one's inhabitants."

"And what do you plan to do with this monster?"

"What anyone would do: hunt it down and find a way to defeat it," Sonic answered with a fervent grin.