X-Nauts (organization)

"We X-Nauts aren't all rainbows and lollipops. I could assure you, we could be quite nasty."

- Sir Grodus

The X-Nauts is an evil organization led by Sir Grodus in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The majority of the operatives are also called X-Nauts, though there are other classes of soldiers and creatures in Grodus' employ. Their base of operations is the X-Naut Fortress, which is located on the moon.

History
All that is known about the X-Nauts stems from their failed plan to conquer the world using a 1,000-year-old demon known as the Shadow Queen. Grodus somehow came in contact with a trio of sisters known collectively as the Shadow Sirens, who told him that the Shadow Queen could only be released from her prison if the seven Crystal Stars were collected, and a vessel provided for her disembodied soul to possess. The X-Nauts kidnapped Princess Peach to use as the vessel, and Mario was manipulated into gathering the Crystal Stars in an attempt to save her from her captors.

However, Grodus had been misled by the Shadow Sirens, and when he tried to command the resurrected Shadow Queen to do his bidding, she destroyed his body. Grodus' robotic head, his second-in-command, Lord Crump, and two regular X-Naut soldiers and two Elite X-Nauts were last seen in Poshley Heights, as TEC-XX destroyed their fortress earlier, and reportedly reformed for the better.

Technology

 * TEC-XX
 * Magnus von Grapple
 * Magnus von Grapple 2.0
 * Superbombomb
 * Teleporter
 * X-Ship

Pronunciation
It is unclear whether the organization's name is supposed to be pronounced "ecks-naughts" or "cross-naughts", as there is evidence for both sides.
 * Some dialogue only makes sense if "ecks" is used, such as Koops comparing them to "tissues...to the extreme".
 * The Tattle for most X-Naut soldiers goes "an X-Naut" rather than "a X-Naut", implying "ecks".
 * The X-Yux's Tattle specifies that it's pronounced "cross-yux".
 * "Cross-naughts" would be a reference to Naughts and Crosses (i.e. tic-tac-toe).
 * TEC-XX's name would be a suitable piece of foreshadowing to be pronounced "double cross".
 * Other languages call the group by a name based on "cross".

Names in other languages
Incrociati