AN: And here's a bit of a breather chapter before we get back into the action, because I'm not done with these characters yet. How can I not be done with them when there's only a few chapters left? Well, you'll see! Enjoy!
Italics = Flashback
~Chapter Nine: Calm Before the Storm~
The first place Sonic found himself after leaving South Island was a small town a few miles away, and he decided to stop there in order to get some supplies. As he was approaching the store he heard two people talking, and upon listening closer he realized they were talking about him; specifically, his triumph over Dr. Robotnik. Making sure he wasn't going to be seen, he crouched behind a couple of garbage cans and eavesdropped.
"I can't believe a little thing like him could take out Dr. Robotnik!" one of them said. Sonic felt a surge of pride in his chest, but it quickly deflated after the other one spoke.
"He's still nothing compared to Mario though."
Sonic frowned at the unfamiliar name. He noticed the one who had just spoken was holding a magazine and pointing at an article.
"I dunno, I think Mario may have some competition in the hero department."
"But Mario's famous in nearly every dimension. Do you really think Sonic could reach that level of fame?"
Anger bubbled in Sonic's chest. Of course he could!
"Who knows? Come on, let's go."
The two of them began to walk away, discarding the magazine on the ground. As soon as they were out of sight Sonic emerged from his hiding place, picking up the magazine and curiously scanning it's contents. He narrowed his eyes as he gazed at the photo of what looked like a plumber, before scoffing. That was his competition? He could easily gain more fame than a stupid plumber, that was for sure. He'd show them. He'd show them all.
/~/
Mario was the first one to wake up, glancing around in a bit of a daze before his eyes landed on Sonic curled up next to him, one of the hedgehog's arms laid across his chest as he slept. Gently moving Sonic's arm aside and trying not to wake him up Mario silently got out of bed, quickly locating his discarded clothes and redressing himself. Getting back into the bed he reached over to the nightside table again to grab the book he'd brought with him, figuring reading would help him go back to sleep.
Sonic - having felt a disturbance - opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times before he realized what Mario was doing. Chuckling softly he sat up and lay his head on Mario's shoulder. "I feel like I should be more surprised than I actually am, but considerin' this isn't the first time you've done this..."
Mario returned Sonic's chuckle, memories of the Smash Mansion flooding his mind. Once him and Sonic had started sharing a bed Sonic had learned of Mario's tendency to read if he woke up in the middle of the night. Sometimes if neither of them could sleep Mario would read to Sonic; sometimes in English and sometimes in Italian depending on the book it was. And even though Sonic barely understood the Italian stories, he just enjoyed hearing Mario speak in his native tongue. "You know I read in order to go back to sleep."
"So what book is it this time?" Sonic questioned, Mario folding the corner of the page he was on and showing Sonic the cover. Sonic could only blink in confusion, before lifting his eyes to meet Mario's. "You're usin' horror stories to get back to sleep?"
"Sì?" Mario replied.
"So you've mentioned that you weren't exactly that popular growin' up. Did you ever stop to consider the Grim Reaper on the cover may have had somethin' to do with that?"
Mario pondered on the question for a moment before responding. "Sì."
"An' yet it's one of the things I find endearin' about ya," Sonic murmured. "So what exactly is the story here?"
Mario smirked ever so slightly, before reading a passage from the page. "Alex turned, perplexed by the sound behind her. Her hand flew to her mouth and she resisted the urge to scream at what she found in the bathtub. A corpse. Not just any corpse though, a corpse of herself slumped against the side of the basin, drowning in a pool of her own blood."
"Cheery," was Sonic's only response. "That sounds awfully familiar though... like a psychological horror game."
"Whatever you say," Mario mumbled, resuming his reading.
"It actually kinda reminds me of the horror stories Red used to tell me an' Pit..." Sonic remembered, Mario lowering the book to give Sonic his full attention.
"You've mentioned that before... what exactly did he tell you two?"
"He used to tell us urban legends from his world, like how in this place called the Pokémon Tower there's a zombie known as Buried Alive that'll show up on occasion and eat you or some weird thing like that, an' then there was the one about a song that contained a frequency so high it caused some people to commit suicide in unusual ways. Stuff like that. I never got freaked out by it - I mean, look at what I've seen in my life - but Pit sure did."
"So that's why Pit was so jumpy during that tournament," Mario noted.
"Yeah," Sonic sighed. "Hey, turn the book towards me, I wanna read too."
Mario turned the book so the pages were visible to both of them. Resting their heads together, they began to read.
"You sure you'll be alright to fight tomorrow?" Sonic quietly asked after a few moments.
"I'll be fine. It's you I'm concerned about."
"Oh, don't be concerned about me," Sonic said nonchalantly, waving a hand in the air. "I'll be just fine."
Mario didn't like the way Sonic said that last sentence, but didn't question him further. Humming in acknowledgement he turned his eyes down to the page again, trying to ignore the sinking feeling he suddenly felt in his stomach.
/~/
At some point Sonic had fallen asleep on his shoulder, so Mario had gently laid him down on the pillow to let him get some rest. He himself wasn't tired in the slightest though - the past twenty-four hours had left him completely wired and even though he knew he should try and get some more rest he just couldn't get back to sleep. Glancing at the time he saw that it was five in the morning, not an unreasonable time to get up. He gently moved the sheets aside and got out of bed, deciding to take a shower first before doing anything else.
Since he had a cast, he needed to wrap it in plastic wrap first in order to keep it dry; a lot easier said than done when no one else was around to help. Eventually though he managed to cover the cast and head to the bathroom in order to prepare for the day.
By the time Mario had finished it was a little past five-thirty, and hearing commotion from the kitchen wandered in and found Tails making a pot of coffee. He gave a small smile as Mario approached, handing him a mug and gesturing to the living room.
"Everyone else is still asleep. I couldn't though - I was worried about Sonic and thinking about today's battle. I've tracked down Eggman's location, he's still here in the Mystic Ruins in another base. I had no idea he had so many."
"He's much more dangerous than I thought." Mario admitted.
Tails nodded. "He really is." Placing his own mug down, Tails got a couple of plates and glanced at Mario. "Are you hungry at all?"
"Not really, but I should probably eat something if we're going to be fighting today."
Tails nodded. "Any food preference?"
"Just toast if you have any."
"Sure thing," Tails replied, placing a slice of bread into the toaster and pulling the lever down. "And take this apple to Sonic - try and get him to eat something healthy for once."
"I'll try, but I highly doubt I'll be able to." Mario responded, taking the apple from Tails. Just then the toast popped out of the toaster, and placing it on a plate with a bit of butter Tails handed it off to Mario.
"Here."
"Grazie." Mario thanked, taking the breakfast items and retreating back into Sonic's room, where the hedgehog in question was still sleeping. When Mario shut the door however Sonic stirred, opening his eyes and smiling when he noticed Mario.
"Hey," he greeted sleepily, sitting up before frowning at the apple in Mario's hands. "Lemme guess... Tails wanted you to give me that apple, right?"
"Sì, he thought you should be eating healthier. Though I think we all know that's probably not happening anytime soon."
Sonic snickered as Mario sat down next to him, taking the apple from his hands. "Eh, even though fruit ain't my favourite food in the world, I'll still eat it. I'm starving."
"No surprise there," Mario responded, taking a small bite of toast. "Look at what you've been through this past day."
"So did Tails find out where Egghead went?"
"He's apparently still here in the Mystic Ruins in another base. So we won't have to go far to counterattack."
"Good. I'm gonna make sure he's gonna regret attacking; not just this time, but every time before that. Plus, I have the added knowledge that I'm also avenging my mom." Sonic went quiet after that statement, thinking. "I guess I've been unintentionally avenging her this entire time."
"Is it going to be difficult fighting Eggman knowing that he's your father?" Mario asked, Sonic shaking his head and taking a bite out of the apple.
"No. We may be related by blood, but that's where the relation ends. As far as I'm concerned, I have no father."
Mario's blood chilled at that statement, and even though he knew Sonic had every right to say that he didn't exactly like the tone he was using. Sonic sounded too calm, too nonchalant about the situation. And while he knew and admired the fact that Sonic had nerves of steel when it came to quite a lot of things, he felt it was a bit inappropriate in this sort of situation.
"You okay Mar?"
Mario looked Sonic in the eye, knowing that he should ask Sonic what he was exactly going to do when he faced Eggman.
"Sì, I'm just fine."
Replies
TheGameNguyener: Well, at least one escape was successful. As for Alison though... And yeah, I think anyone in that situation would be concerned and want to do anything they could to help, and even though Sonic was being stubborn about it he secretly was really grateful. Thank you for the review!
LEGOSonicCraggerFan: Yes, Sonic's breaking the fourth wall ability strikes again. When I was initially writing the characters for the first story I'd contemplated Mario knowing about the fourth wall too considering there's been some subtle fourth wall breaking in some Mario games, but in the end I decided to leave it out of his character to have more contrast with Sonic. Besides, it's fun to have Mario think that Sonic's just crazy sometimes. I'm glad it's still a source of amusement. Thank you for the review!
TemUltimate: No, Eggman's grandfather created Shadow, technically making Shadow Sonic's great uncle, and thus Sonic would be Shadow's great nephew. Thank you for the review!
AN: The book Mario is reading is indeed a reference to a game released on the GameCube back in 2002, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. And the stories that Red was telling Pit and Sonic are references to some infamous Pokémon creepypasta that I'm sure many of you have heard of even if you're not in the Pokémon fandom. I wasn't intending to post this chapter on Halloween, but since it had those elements in it I decided to just roll with it. And speaking of Halloween, if you're heading out tonight stay safe, and I'll see ya in the next one!
~Steel
