Chapter 2: Out of Their Element

Mario, mustached legend and hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, rolled over in his sleep and fell over the edge, falling sixty feet and landing on his rear. He wasn't hurt much, as this sort of thing happened to him all the time, but the fall certainly roused him from his slumber.

"Ai ai ai! What happened?" said Mario groggily, as he looked around.

The plumber was surprised at the sight of the massive rock formation he'd fallen from the top of. It was something he'd never seen before, and looking around, he could see several more identical rock formations in the distance. It was a loop carved out of rock, and the inside of it had a polished look, as if something actually drove through it on a regular basis. Being a hero renowned for his jumping prowess, Mario was used to odd areas needing to be traversed but this was something else.

A short space away from the big loop was a sudden rise in the path that ran straight up. Well, Mario certainly knew how to handle these conditions. He started running towards the vertical road, jumping once, twice, then making a spectacular summersault high up in to the air. He didn't reach the edge at the top, but kicked off from the wall and rebounded towards the loop, just managing to grab onto the edge and pull himself up.

Well, he was back where he started now. He'd been asleep up here, but...how did he get here? There was no sign of any tracks, so whatever dropped him off here must've been airborne. Maybe a mischevious Lakitu. Speaking of riding clouds, the horizon looked incredibly odd. No matter how far and wide Mario looked, he couldn't see a single cloud or hillside sporting cutesy eyes. No bricks or boxes floating in the air, either. What kind of crazy land was this? Wait, there! He could see movement. Something was heading his way, making incredible speed and handling the deformed landscape as naturally as anything.

"Sonic!"

It was...it was an animal of some sort. A fox? A fox with a propeller for a tail?

Miles "Tails" Prower jumped the distance easily and landed on top of the loop, next to Mario. The Italian plumber walked slowly backwards, hesitant as to whether the fox was a friendly local or one of Bowser's new minions.

"Sonic, there you are! I just saw Eggman over that way. We've got to hurry before he gets away with the capsule full of kidnapped animals."

Mario blinked. "It's a-me, Mario!" he pointed out, confused as to who the fox thought he was.

"No time for games, Sonic. Come on!" Tails insisted.

Mario shrugged. He might as well follow. Kidnapping animals wasn't normally Bowser's style, but it was a no-good act anyway. He jumped back down to the ground, doing a ground-stomp right before landing, so as to avoid getting hurt by the fall. The fox, who apparently had two tails, turned himself into a makeshift helicopter and flew off. Following him meant running up that vertical road.

Mario got a good running start, and managed to get halfway to the top before sliding back down to the bottom. The second try didn't go better. At the third try he nearly made it. The fourth was a triple-jump that still resulted in him sliding back down to the bottom. By the fifth, he tried a wall-jump off the outer side of the loop, but he still didn't make it.

"I'm a-getting tired of this," said Mario, not quite ready to give up, but getting increasingly frustrated with the poor design of this land.

By that time the fox came back. "What's the matter, Sonic?" he called. "Did you go the wrong way? Do you want me to carry you over to where Eggman is?"

Why not? Mario had flown everything from flying carpets to fluffy clouds in his time. A two-tailed fox didn't even make the top five of hazardous transportation. Mario nodded, and jumped up to catch the fox's outstretched hand.

The flight was surprisingly comfortable, considering the strain on his wrists. The fox dropped Mario off in the middle of a wide open plain. Before Mario even had time to ask about the egg-thing and the animals, a red blaze of speed came running right at him. Mario barely managed to jump out of the way of the car with the drill bit in time. The car skidded to a halt just about far enough away to regain speed before Mario could reach it, and Mario got a clear view of the driver.

"Huaahahaha! How do you like this, Mario?" laughed Larry Koopa. "I don't know where this thing came from, but it beats a go-kart any day!"

The monster of a car rushed at Mario again, with the speed-crazy Koopaling at the wheel. Mario managed to jump out of the way several more times, and soon he picked up the timing of the attacks. By the next run, Mario was ready. Larry drove the car at Mario again, who this time turned his evasive leap into a ground-stomp that hit the back of the car hard and flipped it over, throwing Larry out on his head. Something else flew out of the crashing car as well, and was caught in the air by the flying fox.

Tails caught the black scepter. He glanced into the coloured jewel at the end of it, and suddenly the veil lifted.

"You...you're not Sonic," said Tails, looking disoriented. "And...and, that wasn't Eggman, was it? Ow, my head."

Mario let Larry Koopa make his escape, and turned his attention to the fox, who seemed to be the only one who could help him find his way in this strange foreign land.

"It's a-me, Mario!" he said for the second time.

"Mario?" said Tails, squinting. "Why did- How did you look and sound like Sonic before?"

Mario shrugged. His English wasn't the best, and he wasn't the most talkative guy around. Getting the facts sorted out was going to take a lot of questions and quite a bit of time - and possible some charades.

Meanwhile, unseen by all, Larry Koopa reached an invisible borderline, and vanished...

Next: Super Sonic Bros