"Where are they? I don't see them! Did they drown?" Ash said. They then saw Link come out from the water while carrying Sonic. He walked up the beach then sat on the ground. Sonic was coughing and taking deep breaths, trying to catch his breath.
"Whew, that was close." Link said.
"Ack, man, don't make me do that again." Sonic said.
"Are you guys all right? What happened?"
"I used nayru's love when we hit the ocean, and we went all the way to the bottom from the high dive. The shield protected us from the water for a little bit, but then my magic ran out, and well, you get the picture."
"Well, at least you two are safe." Returning to his normal stature, Link inquired of the key.
"Now, D.K., about that controller." A few seconds passed before he said anything.
"Well, I guess I see now why you want it. All right then, I'll tell you where it is. Besides, I've never actually seen the key for myself, so I'm curious what's down there."
"Down there?"
"The place is under this island. You need to go underwater, and there you can find a cave."
"You mean I got to go underwater again? No way, cut me out!" Sonic said.
"Come on, I'll help you get there!" Mario said, but it was too late, because where Sonic stood was a cloud of dust.
"Seesh, he's afraid of water so he scrams." Link said.
"Come on, let's go." D.K. said, and dived into the ocean. They went to a part of the island where they could see an underwater cave. There was air above them so they swam up, and they walked onto land inside the cave. It was pitch black since no sunlight could enter, so Mario reached into his pocket for another fire flower and held a fireball in his hand to light the way. Sure enough, the rock walls of the cave were metal walls as they proceeded through.
"You know, we've had to face a monster in the last two places, so there's a chance we might run into one again." Mario cautioned. As they walked, they then came to a dead end. In their way was a solid stone wall.
"What? There isn't any other way, is there?"
"No." D.K. said.
"Hey wait, look at this. This square line on the wall is indented." Link said. He then tried pushing at the spot on the wall, and after much effort, pushed it only an inch.
"Stand aside, let me take care of this." D.K. said with a smile, and began swinging his arm in a circle, and after gaining enough momentum, he punched the block. Donkey Kong's strength was quite amazing, and with it, he managed to punch the block right out of the wall, and they were able to enter the other side.
"Hey, all right!" Ash said.
"We better hurry." Link said. As the group continued down the large, metal passage, all of the sudden the ground began to rumble, and blocks of metal from the ceiling began falling on them.
"Watch out!" Everyone was running as fast as they could, moving left and right to avoid the falling objects. Ash wasn't as fast as the rest, and as he ran, a block fell right in front of him, nearly crushing his feet.
"Woah! Wait, Ponyta, come out!" Ash quickly got on the back of Ponyta and used that speed to get out of danger. Ash would have tried to help the others as well, but the Ponyta he was riding was too small to carry anyone else also.
D.K. was using both his legs and feet as he ran. He was paying attention to what was in front of him, and hadn't notice a block falling right above him. Just as he was about to be crushed, Mario jumped and pushed D.K. aside, with the block almost falling on himself.
"You saved me?"
"Of course, now let's go!" After running for a couple of minutes, the ground stopped rumbling, and the blocks stopped falling. With the danger over, everyone stopped to catch their breath.
"Man, you never know what to expect in these places." Link said.
"Only that something is going to try to stop us, huh?" Ash said. The group picked up their walk again, and they reached the end without more traps. When they got to the end, there were lights at on the ceiling, so Mario no longer needed to hold the fireball for light.
"Hey, there's the key!" Ash said. Putting Ponyta back in the Pokeball, he ran towards the key, but once he was within a few feet, the pedestal that held the key retracted into the ground. Then, on the wall in front of him, parts of the wall began to slide out. When it was fully out, it was obviously another guardian.
The guardian was as tall as the last one, and this one was made entirely of metal and machinery, looking just like the walls. Its body was rather block shaped, without much detail in its body. The robot raised its arm towards Ash, and its hand transformed into a gun, shooting lasers at Ash.
Seeing the lasers, Ash began running for his life, with the lasers right behind him. Mario ran out to grab Ash and bring him back over to the others. As the robot walked towards them, it changed its gun back into a hand, and raised it to attack. It swung its large fist right down on the group, and they all scattered to avoid it.
The opponent was entirely made of metal, and Link didn't have much to attack something so hard, but he had to try anyways. He took a bomb and some string, then tied it around an arrow, and aimed for its head. The arrow hit it dead on, and made a large hole in its head, but it didn't seem to slow it down at all. The robot then did a sweeping kick, knocking Link unconscious.
"That's it, let me take care of this." D.K. said. He ran towards the robot's leg and swung his mighty arm at it. He made a big dent, and the hit made the robot unbalanced, making it fall to the floor. D.K. then jumped on the back of it and clasped his hands together, bringing them down as he hit it. The hit was so powerful it made small shockwaves.
The guardian still wasn't down and out, and got back up while Donkey Kong was on its back. D.K. let go, and the robot then kicked D.K. right when he landed. Donkey Kong was now also unconscious.
"Mario, what are we going to do?" Ash said, now scarred.
"Don't worry, we'll beat this thing."
"Oh wait, I know! He's metal, so maybe fire can melt him! Typhlosion, come out! All right, Typhlosion, fire blast!" The scorching blast of fire shot out towards the guardian's chest. When it collided with its chest, there was a small explosion, and the heat burned a whole in its armor, making his machinery visible.
"Good, now hit it again at the same spot!" Typhlosion fired again, but this time the robot shot a laser at it, making the fire fizzle out, and another laser hit the Pokemon. The laser hit it head on, and Typhlosion was knocked to the ground.
"Typhlosion, are you okay?" There was a large wound on him, and he was bleeding quite a bit. Ash quickly retrieved him, hoping Oak could heal him.
"You'll be okay, don't worry." The robot walked towards them, ready to attack.
Mario didn't have the physical or magical abilities to take it down, but there was the hole in its armor. It looked quite dangerous, but everyone's lives were in danger now. Mario ran towards the robot, dodging the lasers that it was shooting at him. He then jumped up to its chest where the hole was, and crawled inside.
The guardian couldn't hit Mario with him inside, so it then began smashing itself to try and hit him, but it didn't appear to accomplish anything.
Mario pulled and ripped wires as he squirmed through, hoping that something would shut it down. He threw fireballs wherever he could, then when one of his fireballs hit a mechanical box, it exploded.
The robot stopped what it was, and froze like a statue, then fell down with a large thud. Mario, however, was still inside when it exploded.
Mario had a strange dream. Distorted memories flashed through his head, and nothing made sense, but that's how some dreams go.
Link, Ash, Sonic, and the Kongs stood around Mario, hoping he would wake up. His clothes were burned and torn from the explosion, and he laid on the shore.
"Pika? Pkiachuuu." Pikachu was pushing Mario, trying to make him wake up. Mario's eyes started to move, and the rest of his body was then moving.
"Eh, where am I? Man, what a strange dream." Suddenly remembering what happened, Mario immediately sat up.
"Hey, what happened? Did we beat the guardian? Did we get the key?"
"Calm down Mario, everything worked out. We have the key, and you saved us from that robot. You made something exploded inside it and made it stop working while you were still in there. Ash had to come in and drag you out. You've been out of it for three hours. You're lucky I had a spare fairy in my jar. Man, what were you thinking of pulling a crazy stunt like that?" Link said.
"Heh, your lives, that's what I was thinking about."
"Well, everything's all right now. Now we just need to get the other key. Zelda told me where it is, but you're not going to like it."
"And what place will I not like?"
"Sand Wilderness."
"Isn't that near where Neo Arcadia is? That place is sure to have tons of reploids!"
"I told you so. We should rest up first though." Mario then tried to stand up, but his body ached all over.
"Ow. Yeah, good idea." Mario said.
D.K. looked at Mario, and realized that even though he had done some rotten things to him, he was still willing risk his life to help him. Perhaps Mario has actually forgiven him. Having seen first hand at what kind of enemy they're facing, D.K. saw what he had to do.
"You know what? I'll join you on this quest of yours. You guys could probably use my help!" Mario was surprised from Donkey Kong's statement. He always saw D.K. as not wanting to do anything with him, yet he just volunteered to help them fight. He had helped D.K. out, and even saved him from the falling block earlier, but that was out of instinct. He always seemed angry with him, but perhaps he was ready to change his mind. After all, Mario knew that you should forgive and forget.
"Really? You'll, help us?"
"Yeah! I've been bored around here lately anyways."
"Well, all right then, welcome to the team." Mario said.
"Oh wait! Before I go, I better grab something." D.K. ran back over to the tree house. When he came back, he held a large, log-looking coconut gun. He held it across his chest and smiled.
"Now, I'm ready."
After a good night's rest, they were ready to proceed with the journey.
"So how are going to get there? I mean, I don't even know where this Sand Wilderness is!" Ash said.
"It's a lot, lot farther than it was from Kanto to here." Link said.
"Hey, we can use my super barrel cannon!" D.K. said.
"Your what?"
"It's a much larger and more powerful version of the barrel that blasted Link and Sonic to the CD. I think it can get us there, or at least part of the way." When they agreed to the idea, they followed D.K., and came to barrel that was a hundred times bigger than any other one. When they all got inside, Cranky came to launch them off.
"When you blast off, you'll hear a ringing in your ear. Don't worry, that will go away after an hour or so, heh heh! Hasta la pasta! He he!" With an earth-shattering boom, they were gone from sight within seconds as they sped towards their last destination.