Chapter 4

Hey You, Zox!

Link and Mario were being sucked into their seats from the speed that they were moving at. Water splashed up from the sides of the boat, reaching several feet into the air as Sonic pushed them along. Link could move faster than most beings he knew, but he had never felt anything like this before.

As the shores of Kanto were within sight, a massive swarm of Pidgeys flew past them. There were thousands of them flying together, and there must be something going on for that to happen.

They were quite close to the beach now, but they weren't slowing down. Mario then remembered that Sonic doesn't like the water, and if he slowed down, he would drown, so he probably wouldn't stop till they reached land. As the boat hit the beach, the boat slammed onto the sand. Unfortunately, the boat slowed down faster than they did, and Mario and Link went flying out of the boat and landed in the sand.

"Whoops, sorry guys, guess I forgot about that part." Link sat up with a frown and spit sound out of his mouth while he said,

"Right." Link looked around for Mario, who had somehow got his whole upper body buried in the sand with his feet sticking out. Link grabbed Mario's feet and pulled him out.

"Woah, momamia. Eww, I got sand in my shorts."

"Well, we better not waste any time, but if someone here knows where the key is, who would it be?" Link said.

"I guess we should start in Pallet Town."

It was a little ways to town, but it wasn't too far. Sonic could have easily gone ahead, but he figured he should probably stick with them, though it pained him every moment to move so slow.

When they got into Pallet Town, there was quite a bit of commotion going on. Everyone was running in all sorts of directions in a panic.

"What's going on here?" Sonic asked.

"Not sure, but Prof. Oak's lab is not far from here, he might be able to tell us." The three heroes went inside the lab of the famous Prof. Oak and found him talking to someone over the videophone on his computer.

"I understand officer Jenny, but I'm doing the best I can."

"Very well, contact me the moment you have any information that can help."

"Professor Oak, I presume?"

"Link? Mario and Sonic? Oh great, first the ships and now this. What business do you have here? I've never seen you here before."

"Actually, we want to know what's going on. Why is everyone panicking? They run before we have the chance to ask them."

"They're running because we're under attack! Two round, flying ships came out of nowhere and started attacking us. Goldenrod and Vermillion city have already been totally annihilated, and now they're steadily attacking as they come towards this very spot. The police have asked me for assistance in trying to come up with a solution to fight them. Here, take a look." Oak pressed a button on the computer and videos of the ships were shown.

"Oh no, the CDs have already gotten here!" Sonic said.

"CDs?" Oak asked.

"Yeah, that's what those ships are called."

"You know about them?" Oak questioned.

"Long story."

"Well, either way, we haven't been able to stop them. The military and a few Pokemon trainers have tried to stop them, but nothing has worked. Right now I'm trying to observe their ships to find some sort of weak point." Link, Sonic, and Mario looked at each other, seeing that they were all thinking the same thing.

"Don't worry professor, we'll help you out." Link said.

"You will? Oh, thank you! If someone can help us out of this, its people like you."

"All right, which one is the furthest?" Sonic asked.

"That would be the one in Johto. It's currently in the town of Azalea."

"I'm there!" Just as Sonic said that, he rushed out the doors.

"Hey wait! Eh, forget it. Okay, then where is the other one?" Link asked.

"In Celadon City. We have a modified Pokeball transporter device that can transport people. I can have you two there in a flash. Good luck you guys."

Sonic hadn't traveled in this area before, but he was able to find his way with the signs that told him where Johto was, and then reading the signs that said where Azalea was. It wasn't long before he could see the CD slowly flying by shooting at everything. The town must have already been evacuated, because there was no one around.

As he saw the ship high above him, he then realized that he didn't have a means of getting up there. He looked around, but there wasn't any tall building or anything he could use to reach it.

Sonic ran around trying to think of what to do when he bumped into a boy with a red hat.

"Oops, sorry, guess I shouldn't have been running backwards."

"That's okay. Woah, what are you? Are you a Pokemon?" Sonic then noticed that there was a Charizard standing next to him.

"Me, a Pokemon? You haven't heard of me? Whatever; is that yours?"

"Charizard? Yeah."

"Do you think you could have him fly me up to that ship?"

"Yeah, but you can stop them from attacking?"

"Yes."

"All right then, hop on! Oh, by the way, my name is Ash." Ash said as he jumped on Charizard's back.

"I'm sonic." Sonic jumped on too, and the Pokemon began flapping its wings, making dust float around as it flew off.

Link and Mario were transported directly to Celadon City by the modified Pokeball transporter. They stepped out of the Pokecenter to find the city completely abandoned, and a CD firing lasers as it slowly moves along.

"Man, that thing is wrecking havoc to the city! How do we get up there?" As Mario questioned that, they saw three Pokemon trainers riding on flying Pokemon. One was on a Skarmory, another was on a Dragonair, and the other was on a Pidgeot. They were flying around the ship trying to avoid the lasers being fired at them.

"Hey, down here!" Link shouted as loud as he could, and they apparently heard him, because they came down towards them. Before they did however, one of the lasers came down directly at Mario and Link. They ran as fast as they could, but when the laser impacted with the ground, the explosion it made knocked them forward. Debris from the pavement flew everywhere, but they got away from it with only a few scratches.

As soon as the Pokemon trainers came down to them, they immediately offered them a ride, so Link got on the Dragonair while Mario got on the Pidgeot.

"You guys all right?"

"Yes, but wasn't the military trying to take care of that ship?"

"They did. They retreated when the ship destroyed half of their tanks. Now we're trying to do what we can. Hey, you're Link, right? And you're Mario. I'm glad you guys are here to help us. Do you know how to take them down? Those things are pretty tough."

"You see the center of the ship? I think that's its weak point. When one of those ships had its main weapon turned against it, it was a one-hit K.O." Link said.

"All right, you heard him! Aim for the center! Dragonair, hyper beam!" The three began their attack. With the many lasers being fired at them, it was hard to get a clear shot. When one was open, Dragonair used its hyper beam attack and aimed right for the ring around the center. It hit dead on, and it created a large explosion, but it wasn't enough.

As another clear shot was open, Pidgeot too fired a hyper beam. As it was about to hit, the ship increased in speed, and the beam went right through the hole in the center. Just after Pidgeot attacked, it was caught off guard, and a laser hit them. Pidgeot took the hit, but the blast knocked Mario and the trainer off.

"Skarmory, get the girl!"

"Dragonair, get Mario!" The two dived down towards the falling people, and managed to grab them. As the girl trainer looked down, her heart sank as she saw Pidgeot falling towards the ground. It was hard to see from that distance, but it didn't look like it was even alive.

"Pidgeot, return!" She used her Pokeball to bring Pidgeot back before it hit the ground. "Please don't die on me, Pidge, please don't die." She held the Pokeball close to her chest as they flew on the back of Skarmory.

Sonic and Ash flew left and right, avoiding the lasers as they headed straight for the CD.

"Ash, can your Charizard make a hole in the side of that ship there?"

"We'll see. Charizard, fire blast!" Charizard inhaled deeply and let out a large blast of fire. When it hit the ship, the fire melted right through the metal, and then blew something up inside.

"Good, now fly right inside." Sonic said. As Charizard landed inside the huge ship, Ash put him back in the Pokeball. It looked like they were in some sort of cargo room, because there were many metal crates. The fire blast probably hit something explosive, because there were wires everywhere sticking out of the walls sparking with electricity.

"So now what?" Ash asked.

"Hold on." Sonic grabbed Ash's hand and started running through the ship. They ran down a hallway that went in a circle around the ship. Sonic had been on one of these before, and he knew just what to look for, but before they got there, they came face to face with a Zox.

The Zox guard was standing, about seven feet tall, with a laser rifle in his arm. It had tough, brown skin, and his muscles were huge. As Ash saw his face, he was scarred. It was a hideous head that looked like a Goblin's, with long, pointed ears, and a face that showed much anger and hatred. The guard immediately aimed his rifle at Sonic, but he ran away before he fired.

Sonic then found what he was looking for: the power generator room. The door was sealed shut, and it could only be opened by entering the right code on the keypad next to it.

"Do you have a Pokemon that can knock down that door?"

"Let me think. Oh right, come on out, Machamp!" Out of one of Ash's Pokeballs came a Machamp.

"Machamp, ice punch that door!" Machamp's four arms started to have a cold mist around them, and it then struck the door several times, making it covered in ice.

"Good, now break it down!" With the door having been brought down to a negative temperature, it was more vulnerable to being shattered. It didn't take too many hits before the door came crumbling down.

"Good job, now return!" Sonic and Ash went in, and inside was a huge power generator.

"This thing powers the whole ship. If we blow this up, it won't be able to fly anymore, and that will destroy it for sure."

"So, um, just how do we do that?"

"Not sure. I used to do this with explosives at hand." Sonic looked over the controls on the generator, thinking of what to do.

"You know, Tails always gets mad when I mess with his stuff, perhaps if I...." Sonic started pressing buttons at random, hoping he'd mess something up. As Ash saw what he was trying to do, he joined in also. After a few seconds, an alarm went off and a red light started flashing. A recorded message was then played on speakers throughout the ship, warning of the danger.

"What's that they're saying, Sonic?"

"I don't know; I never really got a good understanding of their language." Ash and Sonic turned around to leave, but they found three Zox guards standing by the door, pointing their weapons. They shouted something at them, and they didn't know what they were saying, though it was quite obvious they wanted them to surrender.

"Just give me a sec." Sonic dashed towards the guards and knocked them out with a few blows. It wasn't hard because they didn't shoot at him, because they were afraid of accidentally hitting the generator.

"Wow, you're good!"

"Now hold tight."

"What?" Sonic grabbed hold of Ash's hand and ran out. They were again running through the hallway, and they ran into more guards, but they weren't anything Sonic couldn't zip past. As they came to the cargo room where the hole was, Ash saw that Sonic wasn't slowing down.

"Hey, shouldn't I get Charizard out?"

"No time." Sonic then leapt out of the hole. As they fell towards the ground, the generator exploded, which created fissures in the ship, breaking it apart, and falling to the ground. While Ash was screaming, Sonic was smiling from excitement. They were falling towards a forest, so Sonic tried falling towards a tree. Sonic grabbed the tip of the tree and swung around, and was then swinging around branches as they fell to the ground. Sonic and Ash then landed safely from slowing down from swinging on the branches.

"Yahoo! Yeah, that's what I'm talking about! About time I show them who's boss!"

"Woah, that was intense." Ash was trying to settle down from the wild ride.

"Well, I better get back to Oak's place to see how the others did."

"Professor Oak? Hey, I know him! Mind if I come?"

"That is if you don't mind going super sonic again."

"I think I'm getting used to it."

Skarmory made an onslaught of swift, but the damage was still not enough. Before they knew it, they were already in Cerulean City, and the CD had begun charging its main weapon.

"We have to take it down now, before it fires!" Link shouted. Dragonair tried to get another clear shot to fire a hyper beam. When one was open, the blast hit in the center, and blasted off a chunk. The hum that it made when charging the laser sounded different when the chunk was blasted off, but it was still charging.

"Again!" Link shouted.

"He can't, Dragonair used up all his energy! He doesn't have anymore." Skarmory then used more swift at the ship, but it was just not a strong enough attack.

The CD had reached full energy, and was now ready to fire. As Mario saw the ship about to fire, it was deja vu. He saw his home, the Mushroom Kingdom, be destroyed by the same attack, and he could imagine what would happen to the city below.

Just as the CD fired, however, something went wrong. The ship exploded at the center, and it was so large it destroyed the whole ship. Because of the chunk they destroyed at the center, it messed up the laser beam, and caused it to overload.

They landed back on the ground and watched the burning rubble fall to the ground. It did cause damage to the city, but it was less than what would have happened if they failed.

Mario and Link saw the girl trainer holding her Pokeball, crying. Mario walked over to her, and tried to comfort her.

"He gave his life to protect you; you should be proud."

"I know." She said through her tears.

Mario and Link were about to head off, and thanked the trainers and their Pokemon for stopping the CD.

"Thank you for your help. You managed to save your homes and friends, and you should be glad."

"No, thank you. We wouldn't have known where to attack if it weren't for you. Good luck on your journey. I hope you find that key of yours."

"Thanks."