Mario and Sonic: Heroes Unite!

Chapter 36: Kong Rampage!

Mushroom City, Inside Flower Concert Hall

It was already nightfall. The concert hall was packed with loads of people looking forward to a night of wonderful music. Almost all of the seats were filled. Toadette's band was already set up onstage. They had instruments such as violins, cellos, clarinets, flutes, drums and more. Toadette herself was still preparing behind the stage. She was wearing her conducting outfit. It was a regular conducters outfit, only it was all pink instead of black. She held her conducting stick in her hand.

Our heroes were sitting near the front rows of the concert hall, excited for the performance. They wondered what kind of musical piece Toadette and her orchestra would perform for the audience. Yoshi hoped it would be an upbeat, happy tune. Amy and Peach aspired for a warm, compassionate piece, one that would fill them with a majestic feeling. Sonic wanted a loud, rock and roll type tune, but he knew that would never happen.

After a few minutes, Toadette walked up on stage and positioned herself in front of the orchestra. She rose her conducting stick up, prompting the musicians to raise their instruments in their ready positions. After a few moments, she began waving her stick in a conducting manner. The orchestra started playing a soft, pleasant tune. It soothed the whole concert hall. There was a short pause. Suddenly, the tune became more fast-paced and epic sounding. It gradually became faster and faster until Toadette stopped the orchestra. She conducted them back to the soft tune in the beginning. The tune soon ended and the crowd cheerfully applauded. The heroes also clapped, impressed by the orchestras, and Toadette's performance.

"Wow! That was amazing!" Tails exclaimed. He and the rest of the heroes watched as Toadette bowed down in front of the whole crowd. She had a proud look on her face. She turned back to the orchestra, ready to play their next piece. Right as they were about to play, a loud, stomping sound was heard. It shook the whole room in the concert hall.

"Hmm...nice bass going on." Yoshi said. Mario shook his head, explaining to him it wasn't the bass. The stomping noise became louder and louder. The shaking became much more violent. It suddenly stopped. Everyone thought it was done, but suddenly a loud, ferocious roar was heard, coming from the outside.

"What was that?" Amy shouted in surprise. No one knew. Suddenly, the doors of the concert hall flung open. In came Diddy Kong, hopping up and down in panic. He was shouting for help. The heroes came up to him, trying to calm him down.

"Whoa, Diddy Kong! Take a deep breath and calm down." Sonic told him. Diddy Kong nodded to him and slowly calmed down. "Alright, now tell us what's wrong."

"It's terrible!" Diddy Kong shouted in agony. "You see, me and Donkey Kong were in the jungle and-" before he could finish his sentence, a loud crash was heard outside. A car alarm soon followed up. Screaming was heard. Chaos was emerging from outside. Diddy Kong had to show the heroes what was going on. "Quick! Follow me!"

The heroes followed Diddy Kong outside. When they came out, all they could see around them was overturned cars on the street and people running around in terror. Street lights were flashing on and off. The heroes couldn't believe what was happening in Mushroom City.

"My goodness! Who could have done this!" Peach spoke out. She held her hands to her mouth, completely shocked from the scene. Suddenly, another loud, ferocious roar was heard. It sounded like it came from right above them. The heroes looked up to the roof of the Flower Concert Hall and were terrified from what they saw. On top of the roof, was Giga Donkey Kong. He was holding a Wiggler Transit Bus with both his hands, giving off a maniacal look on his face. He gave out another roar and threw the bus in the air. It soared across half the city and crashed into the streets. Luckily, it didn't hit anyone.

Yoshi pointed at Giga Donkey Kong. "What exactly is that thing?" Mario inspected the huge beast, and quickly recognized him. He looked to Diddy Kong, asking him to explain what happened. Diddy Kong told them everything. He explained how the shadow figure used some sort of magic spell to transform Donkey Kong into this monstrous beast.

Sonic shook his head in frustration. "Man, I should haveve known that shadow figure was behind this." He punched his fist into the palm of his hand. "He must be real determined to get rid of us." He looked up to Giga Donkey Kong, wondering how they would get rid of that.

Suddenly, Giga Donkey Kong jumped off the building and landed onto the street right in front of the Flower Concert Hall. The ground rumbled violently, as if an earthquake hit the area. Giga Donkey Kong turned around, seeing the heroes. He gave them a petrifying look and roared at them. He suddenly reached his hand towards them and grabbed Amy. She screamed in horror. "Aaaaah! Help!"

Sonic quickly reacted and tried grabbing Amy's hand, but missed. He fell forward onto the ground. He looked up to Giga Donkey Kong and pointed at him. "Hey! Let her go!"

Giga Donkey Kong ignored him. He stared at Amy with his intimidating red pupils and roared at her. Amy struggled to free herself from Giga Donkey Kongs grasp, but it was no use. Giga Donkey stared off into the distance, seeing the Empire Shroom Building. He quickly headed into that direction. HE climbed over buildings and trudged across the streets. Amy shouted back to the heroes.

Tails and Yoshi quickly helped Sonic back up. They could only watch as Giga Donkey Kong headed for the Empire Shroom Building. "We have to do something." Tails told Sonic. They weren't sure what to do though. How would they be able to stop a titanic, rampaging gorilla?"

Suddenly, Toadette came running outside to them. "I may be able to help!" She had also witnessed the wrath of Giga Donkey Kong. When she saw how huge he was, she instantly knew what the heroes could do to stop him. In her hand, she had a small box. She opened the box, revealing inside what appeared to be a Super Mushroom, only it had mean-looking eyes and it's cap was all purple, with a skull logo on front. "This is a Poison Mushroom." Toadette explained. "If you can get that huge gorilla to somehow eat this, it will shrink him back to his normal size, giving you a fair chance against him."

Toadette carefully handed the box the Poison Mushroom was in to Mario. They knew they had only one chance with this. Mario, Sonic, Yoshi, Tails and Diddy Kong headed in the same direction Giga Donkey Kong was with Amy, while Peach and Toadette stayed behind in the Flower Concert Hall. They wished the heroes good luck.

Meanwhile, Giga Donkey Kong had just reached the Empire Shroom Building. He remembered what the shadow figure had commanded him to do. He had to bring Sonic and his friends to the shadow figure. Giga Donkey Kong was going to use Amy as their bait. He looked at Amy, who was still struggling to free herself.

"Let me go!" Amy shouted at Giga Donkey Kong. He gave her an angry look and roared at her once more. Amy stared back at him and suddenly recognized her friend. "Wait a minute, Donkey Kong?" Giga Donkey Kong gave a surprised look. Due to the shadow figure's mind control, he didn't have any control of what he was doing or remember anything else. But when Amy said it, his consciousness slowly kicked it. He wondered what was he doing in the Mushroom City and why he was holding Amy in his grasp.

"NO! YOU MUST CARRY OUT THE PLAN!" a familiar voice boomed into Giga Donkey Kong's head. He snapped back into the mind control and vigorously roared into the air. He began climbing up the side of the Empire Shroom Building. Amy began to scream again.

The heroes had just reached the corner of the Empire Shroom Building and watched as Giga Donkey Kong climbed up it's side. "What is he trying to do?" Sonic wondered. Whatever it was, the heroes had a plan to stop Giga Donkey Kong. Once Giga Donkey Kong reached the rooftop, Diddy Kong would fly up to him with his barrel jet pack and start shooting at him with his Peanut Popguns, which would distract him. Then, Tails would fly Mario up with him. They would wait until Giga Donkey Kong would open his mouth again and throw the Poison Mushroom in. It would most likely shrink Giga Donkey Kong back to normal size, causing him to let go of Amy. Sonic and Yoshi would be waiting somewhere near the rooftop and one of them would catch her. Then they would fight Giga Donkey Kong.

"I hope this plan works." Yoshi said with a nervous tone. Everyone prepared themselves. Diddy Kong took out both his Peanut Popguns, each fully loaded with ammo. He opened up his barrel jet pack and flew high into the sky, heading towards Giga Donkey Kong. Tails propelled himself into the air, holding onto Mario and flew up as well. Mario had the Poison Mushroom still inside the box. Sonic and Yoshi went inside the Empire Shroom Building, heading to to rooftop.

Giga Donkey Kong had finally reached the top of the Empire Shroom Building. He held onto the tall pole on the building and gave out another loud roar, which echoed throughout the Mushroom City. Amy looked down into the streets, seeing how high they were. She was hoping the others could save her.

Diddy Kong flew up to them and stared Giga Donkey Kong in the eyes, aiming his Peanut Popguns at him. "This is for your own good, Donkey Kong!" He began rapidly shooting peanuts at him. It hit Giga Donkey Kong, which angered him. He roared loudly at Diddy Kong as he continued to shoot the peanuts at him.

Tails and Mario quickly caught up to them. Tails looked down to Mario. "Make sure you're ready." Mario nodded to him, assuring he was. The two flew closer to Giga Donkey Kong, hovering themselves a safe distance above his head. Seeing this, Giga Donkey Kong tried to punch them with his hand that held Amy. They quickly dodged it, hardly believing what just happened. "I can't believe he's trying to punch us, while Amy is in his hand!" The heroes had to finish their plan quickly before any of them would get hurt.

Sonic and Yoshi had reached the top of the Empire Shroom Building. They were a few floors lower from Giga Donkey Kong. Yoshi looked down, seeing how high they were. "Gee, one wrong step and you're done." Sonic tried to assure him they would be okay. They watched as Diddy Kong continued to shoot peanuts at Giga Donkey Kong and Tails and Mario trying to throw the Poison Mushroom into his mouth.

Suddenly, one of the peanuts that hit Giga Donkey Kong had hit him so hard, he temporarily lost grip from the tall pole he was holding onto. He stepped back a bit, causing the rooftop to rumble. The rumble caused Sonic and Yoshi to lose balance. Yoshi landed on his stomach, holding tightly onto the rooftop. Unfortunately, Sonic fell backwards and suddenly fell off the Empire Shroom Building. Yoshi panicked and tried to grab him with his tongue, but it didn't reach far enough for him. "Aaah! Sonic!"

Sonic screamed as he fell down the side of the building. There was nothing he could grab onto. Knowing he wouldn't survive the fall, he quickly braced himself. He thought it was all over for him. The impact would surely finish him.

Suddenly, something swooped down and caught his hand. The thing that caught him quickly glided them both onto another rooftop. It carefully dropped Sonic. He slowly stood up and wiped off some dust. He was relieved he was saved. He turned to the person who had saved him and was completely amazed and shocked to see who was standing right in front of him.

"Knuckles!"

The red echidna simply nodded at him and smiled. He held out his hand. "Long time, no see, Sonic!" Sonic smiled back and shook his hand, both joyful to see one another again. "I can't believe I found you here! Where are Tails and Amy?"

Sonic quickly pointed back at the Empire Shroom Building. Knuckles saw the situation that they were in. A gave a shocked look. "What the heck? Is that a giant gorilla on that building?" He turned to Sonic. "So, what plan do you have in mind?" Sonic explained the plan he and the others made. Knuckles thought it over for awhile. "Good plan and all, but how about I spice it up a bit?" He explained to Sonic what they should do.

"Hmm, not bad." Sonic commented. He gave him a thumbs up, agreeing to Knuckles's plan. "You know, unlike other knuckleheads, you're pretty smart!" Knuckles simply gave him an annoyed look.

"Good to know you haven't changed when you were gone, Sonic." Knuckles told him in a sarcastic voice. He quickly turned serious. "Now come on!" He jumped off the rooftop they were on and glided his way towards the Empire Shroom Building. Sonic jumped down to the streets and sped his way there.

Meanwhile, Giga Donkey Kong was growing immune to Diddy Kong's Peanut Popguns. They were starting to have no effect on him. He simply ignored it. Diddy Kong was became frustrated. "Gah! These things aren't working anymore!"

Tails and Mario were still trying to drop the Poison Mushroom into Giga Donkey Kong's mouth, but the gorilla just wouldn't open it anymore. "There's gotta be another way to shove this Poison Mushroom into his mouth." Tails said to Mario. Giga Donkey Kong continued to try and hit him with his punches. All this was happening while Amy was still struggling in Giga Donkey Kong's hands. His grip was getting tighter from anger. It felt like she was slowly being smooshed between two narrow walls.

Yoshi was panicking on the rooftop. He was wondering what had happened to Sonic by now. "Oh no! He's probably a scrambled egg on the street. What am I going to say to the others?" He looked down onto the streets. He suddenly saw a blue blur pass by the building. It turned back and suddenly it started going up the building. The blur reached the rooftop part Yoshi was on. It was none other than Sonic. Yoshi was relieved. "Oh! Thanks goodness you're alive!"

"Come on, I just fell was all." Sonic joked to him. He looked up to Giga Donkey Kong. He shouted at him. "You're not going to be up there anytime soon, big guy."

Giga Donkey Kong looked down to Sonic and roared at him. The others had no idea what Sonic was up to. The hedgehog himself was taunting Giga Donkey Kong. He wiggled his finger and tsked at him. Giga Donkey Kong was going to throw a punch at him when suddenly Knuckles shot up from the building side. He soared through the air and gave out a loud yell. He flew towards Giga Donkey Kong and threw a powerful punch on his forehead.

Everyone, except Sonic, was surprised from what just happened. The punch caused Giga Donkey Kong to lose grip on both the tall pole he held on and Amy. Sonic quickly jumped into the air and caught Amy, landing safely on the rooftop. Giga Donkey Kong began to fall backwards off the Empire Shroom Building, giving out a defeat roar at the same time.

Taking the opportunity, Mario took out the Poison Mushroom and threw it into Giga Donkey Kong's open mouth. He swallowed it, causing the effects of the "power-up" to begin. His began to shrink back to his normal size. Unexpectedly, Giga Donkey Kong's fur changed back to the normal brown it was. His eyes turned back to normal.

He was back to regular old Donkey Kong!

"Gwaaaaah!" Donkey Kong shouted. He began falling down the side of the Empire Shroom Building. Quickly reacting, Diddy Kong swooped down with his barrel jet packs and caught Donkey Kong. He carried both of them back onto the rooftop of the Empire Shroom Building, reuniting with the rest of the others. They were all tuckered out.

"Gee, that was tiring..." Tails began to complain. It took him awhile to notice Knuckles was with them. "Wait a minute...is that? No way! Knuckles!" He quickly ran up to him, awestruck to see his friend standing right in front of him. The two exchanged high-fives, happy to see each other again.

Amy was just as surprised as Tails. She poked him, making sure it really was him. "Oh my, it really is Knuckles! I can't believe you're here!" Knuckles simply gave an embarrassed grin and scratched the back of his head. Even he was glad to see Amy.

Yoshi carefully stared at Knuckles. He suddenly pointed at him and began chuckling."Heheheh, you're hair looks funny!"

"HUH! WHAT DID HE SAY?" Knuckles yelled out, offended by Yoshi's comment. Yoshi was scared from Knuckles's rage and immediately hid himself behind Mario. Sonic quickly calmed him down.

"Relax, Knuckles." Sonic said to him. He introduced him to Mario and Yoshi. "These are a few friends of mine. The one in the blue overalls is Mario and the green dinosaur hiding behind him is Yoshi. They were kind enough to help us in their world."

Knuckles slowly calmed down. He relaxed and shook hands with the both of them. "Hi, it's nice to meet you guys. I'm Knuckles, one of Sonic's friends." Mario was happy to meet another one of Sonic's friends, while Yoshi was still a little terrified of him.

"Wait a minute..." Knuckles turned to Sonic with a confused look. "Just right now, you said these guys were kind enough to help us in their world. What the heck does that mean?" Sonic told him that they were not in their world anymore and in fact were in Mario's world now. Knuckles's eyes slowly grew wide-open. "W-w-we're in a different world now?" It took him a while for the news to sink in. He sat down, trying to calm himself down yet again. Sonic, Tails and Amy decided to explain what had been happening ever since they left their world.

Meanwhile, Diddy Kong carefully laid Donkey Kong's body on the rooftop. He gorilla had a noticeable bruise on his forehead from Knuckles's punch. At that moment, he was unconscious. Mario and Yoshi walked up to them, hoping Donkey Kong was still okay.

"What will happen to him now?" Diddy Kong asked them. Donkey Kong had just swallowed the Poison Mushroom. Sure, it reversed the effects of the shadow figure's spell, but what else could it have done?

Mario kneeled beside Diddy Kong and put his hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm-a sure that he'll be okay." Suddenly, as if on cue, Donkey Kong started regaining consciousness. He was a bit lightheaded, but other than that, he was completely fine.

"Ugh...what happened..." Donkey Kong asked them. He covered his forehead with his hand, feeling the bruise. "Hey, why do I have a bruise on my head?" He looked around, seeing that they were on the Empire Shroom Building. "What the-how did we get here?" Diddy Kong hopped up and down in joy, glad that Donkey Kong was alright. Mario took the time to explain to him what just happened. The ape slowly rubbed his head, awestruck to realize what had happened. "Wow...that's...crazy."

By this time, Sonic and the others had finished explaining what happened to them to Knuckles. He slowly nodded his head, somewhat understanding the situation. "I see now. So that's what happened to you guys. It's good to at least know you guys are alright. Me and the others back at our world were worried sick about you guys."

"The others..." Sonic repeated. He wondered how well the others were handling this situation. He, Tails and Amy were beginning to miss their friends. But to see Knuckles once again still made them happy. Sonic slowly crossed his arms, raising a curious brow to Knuckles. "Well, we've told you our story. Why don't you explain how you were able to get here?"

Knuckles face suddenly turned serious. He looked down to his feet. He seemed to be upset. "I'll tell you how I got here, but you probably won't believe this." His friends drew in closer to him, curious about his story.

"You see, it was just another peaceful night. I was at the Master Emerald shrine back at Angel Island when something unexpected happened. This shadowy figure popped out of nowhere and began to attack me. I tried to fight back, but he began shooting this weird spells at me. When I was down on the ground, he came upon the Master Emerald. Suddenly, this huge black portal appeared behind them and sucked in the Master Emerald! That shadow figure entered it, but before the portal closed, I jumped in, expecting to follow that shadow figure. Instead, I found myself in this weird palace in the middle of the desert with this ugly, fat mustached man and his bone-legged friend. Hehe, I was surprised for a bit and ran out of this place. Then I came here where you guys are."

Sonic and the others seemed to understand the story. But one thing bothered them. Tails spoke up. "Wait, you said a shadowy figure attacked yo and took the Master Emerald, right?" Knuckles nodded to them. Tails suddenly began to worry. Amy asked him what was wrong. "This isn't good. If that shadow figure Knuckles encountered was the same shadow figure we've been fighting all this time, then it has the Master Emerald! Do you know what this means? It could use it's power against us!"

Sonic and his friends realized the true danger the shadow figure had. They realized it wanted to get stronger. This was becoming a bigger problem to them. Mario and the others weren't exactly sure what they were talking about.

The heroes soon climbed back down from the Empire Shroom Building. They would meet back with Princess Peach and Toadette back at the Flower Concert Hall. For now, everything was okay. The heroes would take a deserved rest back home.

.

..

...

To be continued!

The Mushroom City is safe once again, thanks to the heroes! Donkey Kong is back to normal, while Sonic and his friends have finally reunited with Knuckles the Echidna! But now, they know the Master Emerald has been stolen by none other than the shadow figure! What will they do now? Stay tuned next week for the next chapter of Mario and Sonic: Heroes Unite!

Author Notes: Chapter complete! It felt pretty great to finally add in another Sonic character into the story! For me, Knuckles is one of my favorite characters in the Sonic franchise. It would be great if SEGA implemented him more into Sonic video games.

It's obvious that this chapter is a homage to the movie King Kong, where the humongous gorilla (Giga Donkey Kong) captures the damsel-in-distress (Amy Rose) and climbs high onto the top of a skyscraper (Empire Shroom Building) and fights the heroes upon it.

I kind of think it's ironic that Giga Donkey Kong would take Amy Rose as his hostage. I mean, the first time they had met, Donkey Kong was there to SAVE her, not THREATEN her.

I added in another Mario power-up into the story. The Poison Mushroom! If you don't know, it originated from Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels for the original NES. If a player touches it, it can either shrink them to Small Mario, or if they already are Small Mario, it can instantly kill them.

Don't ask me why Toadette had a Poison Mushroom in the first place.

I'd add more to this chapter, but it's already long enough. Parts of what was supposed to be in this chapter will be moved onto the next chapter. I just have so much story I want to tell, but I can only fit so much onto one single chapter.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for taking the time to read it. Make sure to come back next week to read the next chapter! Thank you for everyone who has been supporting me, (unlike others, you know who you are ;P)

Bye for now! :D

-I do not own any Mario or Sonic related characters. They are property of Nintendo and Sega-