Reason for the horrible title? Had to balance out the awesomeness that takes place in this chapter. Excuses you say!? POPPYCOCK!

Chapter 2 Part 3

Goings On In The Dark Forest

The helicopter crashed into the ground with a fiery explosion. Mario stared, astonished, as Darkrai descended slowly from the sky.

"I defeated both of your friends with one hit. I am unbeatable. No one can stop me, not even you. Prepare to die."

But before Darkrai could advance, there was a whirring sound. In the distance, Mario could see a dust cloud coming towards them. Then...he could hear a voice.

"TAIIILS!" A blue hedgehog ran in and stopped in the clearing. He pointed at Darkrai.

"I saw what you did to Tails. You think you can knock down a helicopter from the sky without anyone seeing you! You'll pay for that! And you..." At this, he pointed at Mario. "You against this guy?"

Mario nodded.

"You and me, we are gonna cause some serious carnage to this group of baddies. Ya ready?" He asked.

Mario nodded.

The hedgehog waltzed up beside him and stretched his legs. "I'll take care of all those baddies behind him, you take care of the big guy. I'll join you quick as I can. Ready? Alrighty then. Oh, and by the way, my name's Sonic."

Mario looked at him in surprise, but he had already sped off into the enemy ranks. Mario ran at Darkrai. Darkrai glided to the side but Mario was ready. He sidestepped and whacked Darkrai full on with his hammer. Darkrai recoiled and came back boiling.

"Okay, that's it, now I'm serious."

Darkrai grabbed the hammer and threw it to the edge of the clearing. Darkrai then directed a punch at Mario but he dodged. Again and again, punch, punch, dodge, dodge. Just when Mario was getting too tired to evade any longer, Sonic popped up beside him.

"All done, now, let's take care of this bozo." He winked and, super fast, ran behind Darkrai and kicked him. Darkrai turned around to attack Sonic, but he was already gone. Sonic appeared beside Mario once again, holding his hammer.

"Thought you might need this." He tossed it to Mario and then ran headfirst into Darkrai.

Mario, seeing that Darkrai was winded, ran and smacked him rapidly with his hammer in succession.

"Very good, but you haven't won yet, I've still got one trick up my sleeve." Darkrai wheezed.

Sonic stepped back. "Bring it." He taunted with a smirk.

Darkrai looked at Sonic. "You first" He snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, the giant Steelix that had been lying motionless stirred. Mario saw that it was getting up. He was just about to run over to it when Sonic stopped him.

"I don't think you should go near that thing, it looks like it's in a bad mood."

Mario looked back at Steelix. It had opened up its eyes but the eyes looked strange. They were red instead of white. It glared at Mario and then swung its tail around. Mario jumped to the side and dodged it by the skin of his teeth.

Darkrai laughed. "As you can see, your friend has turned against you. Witness the power of my Hypnosis attack. Hahahaha, are you willing to hurt your friend, Mario?"

Sonic stared. "If that thing's your friend, you must have some pretty nasty enemies. Well a fight's a fight. I say we ignore big guy over there and go after Darkrai. After all, he's the one controlling Steelix."

Mario nodded in agreement. They turned to Darkrai, but he was no longer there.

Sonic made a face. "He must have run off into the forest. Don't worry, I'll find him. You take care of Steelix. I'll be as fast as I can. See ya." Sonic sped off into the dark trees.

Mario turned to Steelix. He just had to keep him busy, he didn't have to defeat him, or even fight him. Mario waited for the giant steel snake to make a move. The beast opened its mouth and released hot flames. Mario ran for his life as the flames chased him around the clearing. Mario ran towards the edge of the clearing in an attempt to get out of range.

Suddenly the fire stopped. Mario turned around but Steelix was no longer there. Instead, there was a big hole. Mario stared around, trying to anticipate where Steelix would pop up. Those were the longest moments of Mario's life. He walked around, attempting to sense where his friend would pop out. All of a sudden, the ground beneath Mario trembled and Mario was flung into the air by Steelix. He landed face first into the ground. Struggling to stand, Mario was hit in the back by Steelix's firm tail. Pinned against a tree, Mario was trying to get free, as Steelix prepared to fire his flames. Was this the end?

Meanwhile, in the dank arboreal verdance, Sonic was confronting Darkrai.

"Got a bone to pick with you. Nobody hurts my friends and gets away with it." Sonic threatened.

"Oooh, I'm soooooo scared. I hurt and annihilate who I want, when I want, and no one has ever stopped me, and no one ever will." Darkrai retorted.

"We'll see about that." Sonic started running circles around Darkrai. The dark figure looked right and left but could never get an exact point of where the hedgehog was. Finally, he just emitted a dark pulse that went all over. Sonic was hit and tripped into a tree.

Dazed, he got up but was quickly knocked down again by Darkrai's merciless fist. A bit battered, Sonic rolled up into a ball and bowled into Darkai. He followed up with several kicks to Darkrai's stomach. Darkrai flew backward into a tree and crumpled to the ground.

Sonic looked down at him. "Any last words."

Darkrai looked up, still smiling. "Hmph, sure. We will meet again, I hope. And when we meet again, I will make you suffer. For now, farewell."

Darkrai disappeared in a flash. Sonic looked around, shrugged, then ran back to Mario.

Back in the clearing, Mario was awaiting his doom. But it never came. The Steelix's eyes cleared and then it looked around, free of it's hypnosis. It spotted Mario, injured and singed.

"Hey Mario, what happened to you?" He asked.

Mario smiled and shook his head.

Sonic arrived and went straight to the burning helicopter.

"Tails, you in there?" Sonic yelled, with a look of panic.

"U-up here." Said a weak voice from above.

Sonic looked up and saw Tails hanging from a tree.

"The eject button still has a few kinks to fix." Tails joked.

Sonic sighed. "Oh Tails."

Steelix was back to being Chatot and the group had just finished explaining to Sonic what had happened so far in their journey.

"Huh, so you need some people for your heroic group, eh? Okay, sounds like fun, count me in." Sonic winked.

Mario sighed in relief. At least they wouldn't have to try and persuade him.

"So, where we headed next?" Sonic asked.

Chatot and Mario stared blankly at each other. They didn't know. Would they have to go all the way back to Meta Knight to ask where the next hero was?

"Y-you see, Squawk, uh, we don't know. Meta Knight, didn't tell us where to go after we found you. I'm afraid we'll have to go back and ask him, Squawk." Chatot said.

"No problem. I'll ask him for ya. Just tell me where to go and I'll be there and back before you know it." Sonic reassured.

The two agreed and told him where to go. Sonic nodded and then took off.

Before anyone could start a new conversation, Sonic was back!

"Hey I'm back! Sorry I took so long, but I had some trouble finding the secret cave. Anyway, I'll give you his exact words."

"Congratulations, Mario and Chatot, on finding the third hero. I presume you want to find the next one as quickly as possible. Well, if your done in Hiun City, then you can head for Sonic's dimension, which happens to be quite close to Hiun City. It is called Mobius. I am fairly sure one of the heroes is there. Sonic can guide you there and beyond. Good luck."

Sonic finished quoting.

Tails spoke up. "Are you telling me that all this time, I could've been in Mobius. Wow, that's depressing."

"Well, are we gonna leave or are we gonna stay and chat all day. Let's get going."

"I'll come along too, just for a bit." Tails said.

And so they set off for the next stage of their adventure...