Sonic & Mario
Chapter 10
Clash in the Cavern
Sonic and Mario walked at a slow pace inside of the cave. The storm outside of the cave increased its rage upon the muddy earth, but the cave's ceiling protected the two wandering heroes from the hard rainfall. Even if they were still out in it, neither of the heroes would have minded the raging storm. They had too much important stuff on both of their minds.
Neither Sonic nor Mario had said anything to each other when they entered the cave, but the cave itself wasn't quiet. Both Sonic and Mario could hear the little drops of water dropping to the cave's floor, and the thunder from the storm echoed inside the cave. An occasional screech from some unidentified creature could be heard further inside of the cave, but Sonic and Mario still kept their even slow pace.
As the heroes ventured farther inside the vast cavern, the thunder from the storm outside decreased and was replaced by the dripping of water drops on the cave floor. But neither of the heroes noticed the decrease of the thunderstorm; instead they noticed something else.
The light from the cave's entrance, their only source of light, was decreasing rapidly. A moment later, the two heroes stopped when the last patch of light coming from the cave's entrance disappeared, leaving both Sonic and Mario inside a very dark cavern.
Sonic and Mario stood by each other, but neither of them said a word. They were too busy thinking out a solution to their light problem.
A moment later, Mario tried to look at Sonic in the creeping darkness. Even though Sonic couldn't see Mario's face, he knew from the way Mario was shifting around in the darkness that he had an idea.
"I have an idea!" said an excited Mario to Sonic.
"Fire away!" approved Sonic.
Mario pushed Sonic back gently behind him.
"Stand back!" ordered Mario.
Sonic just shrugged and tried to watch Mario's "idea" in the darkness of the cave.
Remembering what he had done back in the sewer, Mario quickly formed a fireball in his right hand. The fireball let out enough light for Mario to see Sonic's surprised face.
"So, what do you think?" asked Mario.
In the light of his small flame, Mario saw Sonic give him a thumbs up.
"That is a pretty cool idea!"
Mario smiled back at Sonic and led their way further into the cave. Even with the help with his little flame, however, Mario could only see what was only a couple of feet ahead of him, and Sonic could only see Mario's flame. They both stopped and looked at each other: they needed more light.
"I have an idea," Mario said to Sonic and took a step forward to keep out of Sonic's way. Once he was a safe distance away from Sonic, Mario quickly increased the height of his flame till it was towering over his head.
"Eureka!" yelled Mario.
Sonic was watching Mario play with his flame when some noise caught his ears. It was a screeching noise that was coming from the cave's ceiling.
Sonic slowly looked up at the ceiling, and to his horror, he saw thousands of giant vampire bats with their wings folded across their heads. The sight of Mario's flame slowly woke them up.
Sonic looked quickly at Mario who was still increasing the height of his flame.
"Mario!"
Sonic's voice echoed loudly inside the cave, startling a surprised Mario from his work. At that moment, Mario's flame, which was now being unattended, flashed higher until it reached the cave's ceiling. Unfortunately for Mario and Sonic, Mario's flame fully woke the vampire bats out of their sleep and, seeing Mario's flame coming straight at them, they panicked.
Sonic quickly pushed Mario to the ground as thousands of frightened bats swarmed through the cave towards the exit. Once they found it, the bats flew out of the cave and into the stormy sky. The cave was once again quiet and dark.
After the bats had left, Sonic and Mario got up and stared at each other.
"At least it was a good idea at the time," Mario said to a grumpy Sonic.
Sonic remained quiet. Once again they were without a source of light.
"Let's not try to use the flame unless we need it," Sonic finally said.
Mario nodded.
"I am out of ideas. Do you have any?"
Sonic thought for a moment and then quickly took out Tail's emerald tracker and turned on the light. A small beam of light flashed its way inside the cavern, giving off enough light for both Sonic and Mario to see the path ahead of them.
Now it was Mario's turn to be grumpy.
"Why didn't you suggest that before?"
Sonic shrugged.
"I thought you had a better idea," Sonic replied with a smirk across his face and lead their way further into the cavern.
They didn't go far when they saw their path split into two paths that led to two entrances. Sonic stopped and looked at Mario.
"Which way do we take?"
Mario pulled off his cap and swung it around on his finger.
"Which ever way you like," was all that Mario said.
Sonic turned back to the two different paths in their way. The right path looked longer and smoother than the left path and would probably lead them to a green pipe.
"Let's take the right path," Sonic suggested and walked over the right path's entrance.
Mario watched as Sonic disappeared into the right path's entrance, and then, putting his cap back on his head, he followed Sonic's light. Mario did not know his way inside of the cave, and he had no intention to lose his only ally inside a vast cavern. If Sonic was right, the path should lead them to another pipe, which would lead Mario back to his familiar dwelling: the sewer.
Just as Sonic and Mario entered the right path's entrance, Metal Sonic approached the two paths and stopped. At the entrance to the second path, Sonic's light was quickly fading off as the two heroes moved farther into the unknown cave, leaving Metal Sonic standing by the two paths in the dark.
The darkness didn't bother Metal Sonic. He had no need for a light; his eyes were made to see clearly in the dark. In fact, Metal was actually quite comfortable in the dark; it gave him a sense of mysterious power that only he could control.
With the two heroes out of sight, Metal studied the two different paths directly in front of him. He recognized both of these paths before, and he knew where each of them went. Fortunately for him, the path that Sonic and Mario took was the long path that would lead them to a dead end. The left path, on the other hand, was a shortcut to the same location the heroes were going at.
His decision made, Metal fired up his engines and zoomed into the left path's entrance.
The light from Tail's emerald tracker rested on the stone blockade in front of the two heroes. Sonic and Mario stopped in their tracks and looked around with their light. They were standing on a small stony passage that rested above a large chasm below them, and in front of them was a dead end.
"Look's like we have to go back," said Sonic.
Mario didn't reply. He knew they were running out of time. They couldn't take anymore sidetracks; they had to get to the sewers as quickly as possible.
Just then Mario looked up and saw a ledge on top of the stone barrier.
"Sonic, look!"
Sonic looked at what Mario was pointing to and shined his light on the ledge. The ledge was about twenty feet above their heads and there were no footholds on the stone barrier to climb up to the edge.
Sonic gave a low whistle.
"How are we going to get up there?" asked Sonic.
"Don't worry about that, Sonic. You have more important things to worry about," said a dark voice.
Hearing the voice, Sonic shined his light farther up the ledge till it rested on the shiny metal plating of Metal Sonic.
Metal Sonic looked down at the two trapped heroes, an evil grin marked across his face. He blocked their only exit, and he enjoyed having the power over their lives.
Both Sonic and Mario recognized Metal Sonic's appearance.
"Metal!" Sonic yelled, "How did you find us?"
"That is for me to know and for you to find out," replied Metal.
Mario stepped in front of Sonic and looked up to Metal Sonic. The darkness that surrounded Metal Sonic brought the memory of the painting inside of Peach's castle back into Mario's head.
"You are the one who are responsible for getting us into this mess, aren't you?"
Metal shrugged off Mario's question.
"I have more important things to do than to argue with a short gullible plumber."
Mario grew angry at Metal's insult, but before he could say anything back at him, Mario saw Metal grab a device and throw it down towards them. Sonic recognized what Metal had thrown.
"Mario, watch out!"
The device quickly exploded, causing a small earthquake inside of the cave. The stone passage that was holding the weight of Sonic and Mario was quickly blown away.
Acting on instinct, Mario quickly jumped as high as he could and grabbed hold of the ledge that Metal Sonic was standing on. Sonic for once was too slow to react and found himself tumbling with the stone rumble down into the dark chasm that lay below him.
"Sonic!" Mario yelled, but it was too late. Sonic disappeared quickly into the darkness that surrounded the dark pit.
While looking down at his lost comrade, Mario suddenly heard some laughing. Mario pulled himself up the ledge and was barely able to see Metal Sonic laughing at the demise of Sonic. A sudden surge of anger entered into Mario's body.
"You!" Mario yelled and he charged directly at Metal Sonic.
Metal Sonic easily sidestepped Mario's charge and tripped Mario, causing him to crash to the floor.
"Sorry, but I have more important things to do than to fight a wimp like you," Metal said darkly and with a grin on his face, he dashed farther into the cave, leaving Mario once again by himself.
Mario slowly stood up and walked over to the chasm and looked down into it. He had no idea how deep it was or what lay down at the bottom of it, but one thing Mario did know was that he had just lost not only an ally but also a friend to his own actions. Instead of saving both Sonic and himself, Mario had only jumped for his own life and left Sonic to meet his terrible end.
And if that could happen to Sonic, then it could happen to Princess Peach too.
Mario stayed at the chasm for a long time, but he knew that in the end, he wasn't going to get anywhere by staying there mourning over the loss of his friend. If he was going to save Peach and the kingdom, Mario would have to find his way out of this dark cave and find a way back to Peach's castle.
And he would have to do it alone.
Seeing there was nothing else he could do, Mario quickly formed a small flame in his hand and ran farther into the cave. Sonic didn't die for nothing, and Mario was going to see to that: once he saved Peach and the kingdom he was going to take his vengeance out on Metal Sonic.
Lying on a hard stone pile, Sonic slowly began to open his eyes. He could have sworn he had fallen at least a mile deeper into the cave, but none of that mattered to him. Even with his sore body, Sonic quickly jumped off the stone pile and looked around at his surroundings.
Even though he was deeper down in the cave then he was before, Sonic noticed that the cave wasn't dark for a reason: small pools of molten lava bubbled along the path that Sonic was standing on. The lava pools were giving off enough light to show some dangerous looking stalactites hang above the perilous path that marked Sonic's way which was, unfortunately, the only path that could be seen anywhere.
"Well, at least there are no bats down here in this lava pit," Sonic said sarcastically.
"BEEP!"
Sonic looked down at his feet and saw Tail's emerald tracker beeping. It had picked up another chaos emerald.
Sonic picked up the tracker and studied it. He was quite used to reading the tracker now and could easily tell that the emerald was somewhere along the treacherous path.
"Look's like being sent down here wasn't too bad after all," Sonic said excitedly. If he found this emerald, that would leave only three more emeralds to find.
And only three emeralds away from getting home.
Without the slightest bit of caution, Sonic dashed along the path, only looking from the tracker's screen when he needed to jump over a pool of lava or dodge a falling stalactite.
Mario's flame flickered against the large gust of wind that was coming from the wind tunnel directly in front of Mario's path. Mario had stopped in front of the wind tunnel and looked inside of it. Large stones and stalactites were being blown up and down above a large pool of red hot lava where the wind was the strongest. The lava stretched for at least a mile inside the cave and on the opposite side of the lava laid the only entrance outside of Mario's path.
Mario blew out his small flame; he had no need for it now thanks to the light coming from the lava. With extreme caution, Mario walked inside the wind tunnel and looked down at the lava. Even though he was at least a hundred feet above the lava, Mario could still feel the heat wave being generated by the molten rock and stepped back from the ledge.
Mario knew that his only option was to cross the lava, but he wasn't prepared for the challenge of accomplishing his task. The heat wave coming from the lava created the wind tunnel that could carry large boulders across the lava pool, but Mario was unsure if the wind would be able to hold him high enough away from the heat of the lava below.
"This is going to be harder than I thought."
Then his memory came back. Mario could see Peach, bound in chains, being held captive by his so called "ally" while his robots made chaos through the entire kingdom. He could see Sonic, his enemy turned friend, screaming as he fell to his doom. Why? Because Mario had hesitated. It was Mario's fault that he gave the kingdom into the wrong hands, and it was up to him to regain peace throughout the Mushroom Kingdom.
And that meant passing the obstacle that lay ahead of him.
Having made up his mind, Mario backed further away from the ledge, and then he ran full force to toward the ledge.
"This is for you, Sonic!" Mario yelled as he jumped off the ledge.
At that same moment, a big heat wave coming from the lava created a large gust of wind that caught Mario in thin air. Mario stopped falling and floated a dozen feet above the lava. He was sweating anxiously from the heat of the lava, but other than that, he was okay.
Mario slowly spread his arms out and made a small stroke in the hot air. The wind, undisturbed by the slow movement, still held Mario the same height as it did before.
Feeling a sense of confidence, Mario slowly continued his stroking above the molten rock. A small explosion came somewhere further out in the lava river, but Mario knew that as long as he made slow movements, the wind would support his weight and keep him in the air.
As Mario made his way across the lava river, he heard more of the explosions coming closer towards him. Scrintching his eyes in the hot air, Mario could see some large lava bombs coming straight at him.
Even with the danger, Mario did not make any sudden movements. Mario slowly veered over to his right, just as the flaming lava bombs rushed by him and fell into the lava. A large wave of lava formed from the bombs and crashed into a stone barrier that was only inches away from Mario's cap. Still Mario relaxed and "swam" with the wind current till he finally reached the other side.
Once Mario was above solid ground, the heat wave dropped and Mario crashed to the ground.
Getting up from the rocky ground, Mario carefully looked behind his back and was surprised to see that he was only inches away from the ledge. Mario had never thought what he would have done if the heat wave carrying him would have dropped; one second late could have sent Mario tumbling into the lava pit.
Mario gave a nervous chuckle.
"I guess Sonic would have called me lucky."
"Sonic… screaming…falling…to his death…because of your hesitance…"
Mario quickly shook his head from the thought. He had more important things to do than to pity himself for losing a friend. If he was going to get back to Peach's castle, he would need to find a green pipe that would lead him to the sewer.
Mario turned and went into the passage that lay in front of him. The light from the lava was not enough for Mario to see far, but Mario did not dare create another flame for above his head he could see thousands of vampire bats sleeping lightly on the cave's ceiling.
And Mario did not want to give them their wake up call again.
Thousands of feet of stone beneath Mario's feet was Sonic who had stopped in front of a dead end. Tail's emerald tracker was beeping franticly in Sonic's hand now, signaling that the chaos emerald was very near.
Sonic looked around for the emerald, but it was nowhere in sight. That didn't mean it wasn't close!
Sonic looked back at the dead end in front of him. The barrier was made up of the hardest stone found in any stone quarry found in the Mushroom Kingdom and unless you had a powerful drill, you could not get past the wall.
Of course Sonic didn't have a drill, but he didn't need one anyway. Sonic put away the emerald tracker and took out his power ring. The ring glowed brightly inside of Sonic's hand and soon Sonic was covered in pure energy coming from the ring.
With the ring still in his hand, Sonic quickly spun into a powerful ball and spindashed into the stone barrier. The rock and rumble crumbled apart from Sonic's spindash and allowed Sonic to go deeper into the barrier. At remarkable speed, Sonic's ball finally burst through the other side of the barrier and landed on the ground.
Sonic uncurled himself from the ball and saw a white glowing gem glowing a couple of feet in front of him.
It was the white chaos emerald.
"At last" Sonic said. With this chaos emerald, Sonic would now have four chaos emeralds, leaving only three more to find.
Sonic slowly approached the emerald, but before he could grab it the ground beneath him began to shake violently. Sensing danger, Sonic quickly leapt away just as a large robot emerged from the ground in front of him. The robot had two drills on both sides of its body and one green eye in the middle of its body. Along the body were printed the words "Egg Drill."
The robot went over to the emerald and sucked the emerald right inside its mechanical body.
"Hey!" Sonic yelled when he saw the robot steal his emerald.
The robot ignored Sonic's remark.
"Chaos Emerald found. Egg Drill's mission complete. Egg Drill must report back to Dr. Eggman," said the robot in a mechanical voice.
The two drills on the robot spun rapidly as the robot quickly burrowed inside the ceiling of the cave, causing some stalactites to fall down at Sonic.
Sonic quickly dodged the stalactites and looked at the hole the robot has made in the ceiling. The robot and the emerald were both gone.
"Great! Now I have to go on a wild goose chase to get my emerald back. Oh well, I guess I can't expect a free easy emerald nowadays," the grumpy hedgehog said.
With the power ring still in his hand from burrowing through the barrier, Sonic spun into a ball and jumped into the hole the robot has created. Sonic burrowed deeper through the ceiling till he finally popped out of the ground.
Uncurling from his ball, Sonic looked for the robot, but all that he saw were stalactites hanging from another ceiling inside the cavern.
"Perhaps I took the wrong turn?" questioned Sonic.
A laser beam suddenly appeared and struck Sonic in the back. Sonic tumbled along the ground, but quickly got up and leapt into the air as another laser beam shot past him.
Sonic quickly got into a defensive position, but he couldn't see his attacker anywhere. Then, out of the shadows appeared the robot, preparing to fire another laser beam at Sonic.
Sonic dodged the laser beam and leapt at the robot when it quickly disappeared into the shadow. Surprised, Sonic dropped down to the ground and searched for the robot.
Sonic had to leap again when the robot tried to shoot him with another laser beam from his left.
Mario quietly made his way through the tunnel passage when a green pipe suddenly appeared in his path. Surprised but pleased, Mario went toward the pipe when the ground suddenly started rumbling beneath him.
Mario quickly placed his hand along the wall to keep from falling. The rumbling continued for a while longer, and then it stopped.
Not wanting to find out what caused the rumbling, Mario quickly dived head first into the green pipe and out of the dark cavern.
The robot disappeared again from Sonic's view. Sonic backed off his midair attack and stood quietly on the ground.
After battling this robot for the last couple of minutes, Sonic had finally realized that the robot could camouflage itself with its surroundings and would attack its enemy from behind. When the robot changed color, Sonic's eyes were worthless.
Sonic's ears, on the other hand, were his secret weapon.
A slight rustle of metal scraping stone were caught by Sonic's ears and signaled into his brain. The robot was behind him!
Out of pure instinct, Sonic did a quick back flip behind the robot and kicked it hard in the air. The robot, damaged by Sonic's kick, crashed into the ground, causing the whole cave to rumble. The robot has served its purpose and was defeated.
Sonic landed on the ground and headed to the damaged machine. Amongst the flames coming from the dying robot was the white chaos emerald, glowing as brightly as it did before.
Sonic grabbed the chaos emerald and did not even bother to look at it. Instead, his eyes rested on the remains of the robot that was quickly being smothered by its flames.
"Eggman must be looking for the emeralds," Sonic said under his breath.
Sonic's eyes rested back on his chaos emerald. Dr. Eggman had always tried to use the emeralds to power up his machines, but why would Eggman send one of his robots inside the middle of a cave to find a chaos emerald? It's not like he could create a doomsday device in one day!
Then the realization closed into Sonic's mind.
"Eggman must have found the Egg Dentastrater!"
It was the only logical answer to Sonic's question. Why else would Eggman be so desperate to find the chaos emeralds?
Sonic put the white chaos emerald away with his other emeralds. At least he had four of them.
Sonic quickly dashed past the destroyed robot and came to a green pipe inside the ground. Not wasting a second, Sonic quickly jumped inside of the green pipe, hoping that he would find the other chaos emeralds before Eggman did.
Unknown to Sonic as he went down the pipe, Metal Sonic appeared out of the shadows. An evil grin crossed his face as he held the red emerald in his hands. Sonic and Mario had no idea of the plan HE had created.
The fun was just beginning!