The dark serpent that tried to strangle Sonic from before was back, and it wasn't alone. Five serpents in total, one for each of them. The heroes prepared themselves for a battle. Mario brought out his hammer and slammed Luigi into the ground. Luigi then traveled underground and popped back up with a lightning charged punch, and was then sent back into the ground by Mario. This repeated about ten times, each time the serpents hissed in agony.
In the meanwhile, scraping bits of unused parts, Tails built a temporary Medi-Bot to assist Sonic. The conditions didn't look too good for him. Completely tinted green, Sonic could only dully comprehend what was going on. He was confused and weakened to the point of death. Tails tried his best to keep his brother protected.
The serpents regrouped, forming a larger serpent. The dino that was left out in all the action growled.
"Yoshi! We could use your help!" Mario said to the dino.
The proclaimed "Yoshi" ran to the Mario Bros. Luigi got in front of Mario. Yoshi swallowed the Mario Bros... and laid an egg. Tails stared in awe and confusion as Yoshi tossed the egg in the air. The egg bounced off of the head of the serpent, split open, and the Mario Bros. popped out, hammers blazing with fire and electricity. They effectively shocked, burned, and smashed the skull in of the serpent-beast.
The beast writhed in pain, and shrieked so loudly and in such a high pitch it disoriented the heroes, and added insult to injury in Sonic's case. All the energy in the room seemed to be absorbed, Sonic could defiantly feel the same ominous wind from earlier. Snakes seemed to pour in from nowhere. They merged with the serpent-beast, creating a terrifying monster. The beast had three snake heads, each with terrifying red eyes, the torso of an athletic female, and the last limb was a long slithering serpent body. A voice emanated from nowhere.
"Yooou foooolsss..." it hissed, "Nooo ooone fightsss Naagaamiimaa and liivesss tooo telll the tallle... Yooou ssshall perisssh..."
The serpent-beast, supposedly called Nagamima, sent a fist at the Mario Bros. It missed but careened into the machine behind them. There was a cyan light that was instantaneously blotted out by darkness. Nagamima grew a ginormous height. The muscles of the body became massive, the eyes lost their irises, the fangs more sharp, and a dark aura faintly surrounded Nagamima. The tongs flickered in and out, waiting for the Mario Bros. to strike. The air cooled down, but not by much.
Mario did a triple-jump, that hardly did anything to the beast. Luigi brought out his hammer, which bounced off of the metal-like skin. Nagamima laughed and grabbed Mario. He was flung into the main chamber of the volcano. The force did a number on him, but he wasn't out yet. He was severely bruised and stuck in a small crater. He lifted himself up, faced scrunched up in pain. Luigi and Yoshi both ran in the cavern Nagamima chasing after them. Sonic was clinging onto Tails. Both of them limped in. Sonic clutched his bitten shoulder in agony. Tails shouted something, panic written on his face, and pulled out another Medi-Bot. A humongous rumble shook the volcano. Everyone, except Nagamima, fell. The temperature rose to dangerous heights. Mario knew the next tremor would set the volcano off. He could feel the power of the volcano fitting to burst.
"Fooolllsss..." Nagamima hissed, "Theeree isss nothhing lefft ffor yoou..."
Mario thought quickly. Pulling out an Ice Flower he transformed into Ice Mario! The cool powers flowed through him, renewing some strength. He figured that if Nagamima lived in the volcano, then she would never have felt anything below volcanic temperatures. The ice would overtake her.
"Mario! Look out!" he heard his brother shout.
Nagamima threw another punch. But Mario was ready. Jumping on her massive arm, he sprinted up charging a snowball in each hand. He jumped up into the air bringing both snowballs crashing onto two of the three heads. Nagamima's two heads intantly fell off, bleeding a black substance. Nagamima shrieked in pain, writhing on the floor. She swatted Mario away from her and into the lava.
Mario thought he was done for. If he survived the fall, the lava would kill him. But someone caught him by the hand. He looked up to see his savior. Sonic's face poked out. Though in pain, he managed to smile and bring Mario back over the edge. He stood there for a moment before falling back to his side. Something green trickled from his mouth. Mario temporarily forgot what was going on, until he heard Nagamima scream.
Luigi blasted her with a Lightning-Ice attack, thanks to Yoshi being able to store a single ball in his mouth. She cracked, cyan light filled the volcano. A flash of white light, and temperatures dropped back to normal. Nagamima was nowhere to be seen. A cyan gem floated towards Tails. Looking wide-eye as he held it, he quickly rushed to Sonic.
"Please let this work..." he muttered, placing the gem over the bite-wound on Sonic's shoulder.
The gem glowed brightly for a second. Sonic's coloration returned to normal as the wound vanished. Sonic shuddered and half vomited, half hacked up something green from his mouth.
"S-Sonic?" Tails said nervously.
Sonic slowly sat up. Still looking slightly dazed, he looked around. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Remind me that I owe you a lot of things..." Sonic said to Tails with a cocky smirk.
Tails looked overjoyed. He pounced on Sonic and gave him a huge hug. Mario smiled.
"We should head back." Luigi said. Everyone agreed. Mario extended a hand to help Sonic up. He gladly took it. Emerald eyes looked into baby-blue. Both of them had a lot to explain to each other.
The five-some got back to the Yoshi Village. Along the way Sonic and Mario were having a question and answer session. The first was how Sonic got here. He explained, though Mario didn't believe him at first.
"So what are these dino-people called?" Sonic asked.
"They're Yoshi." Mario replied, "This one happens to be the one who helped me when I was little."
He nodded as if to confirm the story. To further prove the point, he licked Mario playfully. Mario laughed at his companion.
"So why were you avoiding me earlier?" Sonic asked, that one question in particular that eluded him.
"Oh, yeah..." Mario mumbled sheepishly, "I honestly thought you were untrustworthy..."
"Hey, don't sweat it. It's all in the past now." Sonic said, giving a grin.
They reached the village, where they received a heroes welcome. The Yoshi of the island crowded together, trying to thank Mario and Sonic individually.
"Outstanding performance, boys." said a familiar voice behind them.
On the edge of the crowd, was Professor Frankly, along with Goombella and Vivian.
"Great job, Mario!" Goombella shouted enthusiastically.
"You were brave too, Sonic." Vivian said.
"Don't give all the credit to us," Sonic said, "If it wasn't for Luigi, Tails, or Yoshi, none of us would be here."
Luigi was astonished, no one had directly given him credit other than Mario. Tails just blushed embarrassed and Yoshi shouted something in a happy way. All to soon it was time to go. Mario offered Goombella to join up again, but was politely refused.
"After all, someone's gotta keep my fiance out of trouble!" Goombella joked.
Vivian rejoined the group and got on the helicopter along with Sonic, Tails, Luigi, and Mario. Tao had a lot of interesting things to say.
"Heard what you did in the volcano." He said, "I knew that whatever was up there would give you no trouble."
"How do you know what went on?" Sonic asked.
"Ass to mouth." Tao replied simply.
Sonic burst out laughing, while Tails and Mario managed to stifle a giggle. Vivian blushed and Luigi scowled at Tao.
"But seriously, great job, you showed that snake lady who's boss!" Tao said happily. The helicopter was filled with question, answers, and happiness as they flew back to the castle.
Off on a cliff on the island, the hooded figure from earlier looked at the helicopter as it flew away. Under the hood, you could see them smile with malice, before retreating into the jungle. A small silvery white crack appeared between two trees, creating an astral visual and depicted an ancient shrine with a large glowing gem...