Sonic & Mario
Chapter 5
The Hidden Ruins
"Splash!"
Sonic landed quickly in the ocean. Despite his struggling, Sonic couldn't rise out of the water and sank slowly to the bottom of the ocean. Once on the ocean floor, Sonic tried to make a long jump out of the ocean, but it was no use; Sonic just sank back down onto the ocean's floor.
"Great, just what I needed," Sonic said to himself.
Sonic looked back and forth in the ocean. He was running out of air, and he needed to reach the surface quickly, or he would be dead.
Sonic again tried to jump to surface but just sank back down to the ocean floor.
"Why did it have to be water?" Sonic thought.
Desperately searching for some oxygen, Sonic saw a bunch of bubbles floating around the ocean floor. Sonic got up and ran as fast as he could toward the bubbles. If they were what he thought they were, then Sonic needed to get to them before it was too late.
After using up most of his energy fighting the ocean current, Sonic made it to the bubbles and took in a deep breath of pure oxygen.
"That's better," Sonic said as he relished the moment in the submerged air pocket.
Sonic looked up at the surface. There was no way he could jump that high underwater, and even if he made it, he was probably too far out in the ocean to make it back to the shore.
Unless he had a running start!
Sonic turned around and after taking a deep breath of pure oxygen, ran as fast as he could toward the shoreline. Fighting the water's pressure, Sonic ran on the ocean floor, hoping to find the shoreline before he ran out of oxygen.
Sonic then saw a wall in front of him. Sonic stopped running and looked up. The height of the wall was well beyond the surface of the ocean, and its length stretched as far as Sonic's eyes could see. Sonic then understood what the wall was: the cliff he fell off of during his previous fight with the human.
Suddenly, Sonic started gasping under the water. He was running out of oxygen!
Sonic immediately dashed off toward the air pocket. Upon arrival, Sonic immediately took in a deep breathe of oxygen and started coughing. After finishing his coughs, Sonic soon realized the situation he was in: he was trapped underwater and the only to get out was to swim to shore.
And Sonic was definitely not the best of swimmers!
"I hate water!" Sonic said to himself and sat down in the middle of the air pocket, deciding on his next move.
A bunch of clustered bubbles caught his attention.
Sonic saw a bunch of bubbles far out ahead of him and another one even beyond that bunch. The bubbles looked just like the ones he was in. If that was so, then maybe…
Sonic took in a deep breath of oxygen inside the bubbles and immediately dashed off towards the other bunch of bubbles. The pressure of the water going against him greatly slowed down his speed, but Sonic struggled on. After using up all his energy fighting the ocean's pressure, Sonic made it to the bunch of bubbles and took a deep breathe. He was awarded with pure oxygen coming from the bubbles.
After he recovered his breath, Sonic took another deep breath and dashed towards another bunch of bubbles in front of him. He made it to the bubbles and took another deep breathe before he dashed towards another bunch of bubbles. As Sonic made it to the next group of bubbles, a thought came into his mind. What if he was stuck under the ocean forever? He couldn't just survive on air bubbles at the bottom of the sea. He had to get out of here as soon as possible!
Sonic recovered his breath and raced towards the next bunch of bubbles as he slowly made his way through the vast ocean.
The stars shone in the night sky as Mario made his way down the sandy beach towards the ocean. He had waited for the creature to come out of the water for a while, but when the creature failed to show any sign of life, Mario decided that the creature was dead. If so, Mario would find its body and show it to Princess Peach to reassure her that her greatest threat was now destroyed.
Mario approached the ocean and looked around. Dead bodies would normally float on the surface of the water, but Mario didn't see the creature's body anywhere on the ocean's surface. Perhaps it sank to the bottom of the ocean…
"Excuse me, Mr. Mario" said a small voice.
Mario looked down at the water and saw a small fish swimming in the shallows. It called for him again.
"Mario."
Mario went over to the fish and knelt down to it.
"What is it?"
"Mr. Mario," said the little fish, "I just saw the weirdest thing ever in my entire life in the ocean: a big blue hedgehog running along the bottom of the ocean."
Mario grew tense at the news the fish brought him. The creature was still alive? But how?
"Was the hedgehog swimming towards the shoreline, or was it swimming out further to the mainland?" Mario asked, hoping to get an idea of where the creature was.
"Swimming?" asked the confused fish, "I said he was running on the ocean's bottom. I doubt that creature can swim! I saw it try to jump from the ocean's bottom to the surface several times, but it only sank back down to the seabed. I guess the only thing the creature could do was to run, though I have to admit, it must be a fast runner to fight off the water's pressure on the ocean's floor."
The news startled Mario. The creature was fast enough to run along the ocean's floor! What was this creature capable of anyway?
"How did this creature breathe underwater?"
"From what I saw," replied the fish, "The creature would run to the nearest air pocket and rest there as it gathered enough oxygen to make a run to the next nearest air pocket."
"Air pockets?" asked Mario.
"Oh yeah, there are lots of air pockets along the bottom of the ocean. I guess the creature was smart enough to use those air pockets to his advantage."
"Do you know where the creature was heading to?"
"It looked like it was approaching the ruins of Atlantis."
"Where are the ruins located at?"
"Between the mainland and the island."
Mario grew alarmed at the news the fish brought him. If the creature makes it to the mainland…
"If you don't mind, Mr. Mario," said the fish, "I need to return home to my family."
Mario woke up from his thoughts and replied, "Thank you for your message."
"I'll keep you updated," said the fish as it disappeared under the ocean's surface.
When the fish left, Mario took out his vanishing cap and put it on his head. The cap immediately turned Mario's body from a solid to a ghostly like figure. Mario then ran into the ocean and dived under the surface. The vanishing cap allowed Mario to breathe under the water, but Mario had to speed up his pace if he was to catch up with the creature.
As he swam along in the ocean, Mario reflected on what the fish had told him about the creature: that it couldn't swim in the water. If that was true, Mario would then be able to fight the creature using its weakness against him. The water would serve Mario as an aid in destroying the kingdom's most deadly enemy.
Mario reflected on those thoughts as he swam even faster through the ocean's current, hoping to find the creature and put a stop to its wicked plan to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom.
Sonic made it to the bunch of bubble and took in a deep breathe of oxygen. The newly breathed oxygen restored Sonic's breathing but failed to strengthened Sonic's muscles in his legs, and Sonic fell flat on his butt onto the ocean's floor. Sonic tried to get back up, but his legs were too weak to hold his weight, and Sonic found himself falling down on his butt again. Seeing that he wasn't going anywhere till his legs regained their strength back, Sonic crossed his arms together and waited impatiently in the air pocket.
"Man, I'm not getting anywhere in this big pool of water," Sonic muttered out loud in the air pocket, "If only I could get back on the surface and breathe in some real oxygen!"
Suddenly, a large dark shadow loomed over the sitting hedgehog. Sonic looked up and saw a large shark circling above him, looking for his next meal.
Unfortunately for Sonic, the shark had its eyes on him.
Sonic saw the shark swimming closer to him. The shark opened its wide mouth, revealing thousands of sharp teeth. After completing a full circle above Sonic's head, the shark suddenly charged at full speed at Sonic, its mouth opened wide to seize the small hedgehog.
Luckily for Sonic, his legs had regained their strength back. Sonic stood up and faced the approaching monster coming at him. When the shark came at Sonic and tried bite him, Sonic jumped above the shark and landed on its back. The shark, seeing Sonic on its back, swam around in circles in trying to get Sonic off. Sonic held on to its dorsal fin as the shark desperately tried to force him off its back. If Sonic lets go of the dorsal fin, the shark would easily shake him off and would eat him for a midnight snack.
The angry shark dashed back and forth in the water to try to weaken Sonic's grip on its dorsal fin, but Sonic's grip only strengthened as he hanged on for dear life. One wrong move and Sonic would never make it back to Mobius in one piece.
While hanging on to the dorsal fin, Sonic suddenly started gasping underwater. He was running out of air! If Sonic let go of the shark to get back to the air pocket, the shark would eat him, but if he held on to the shark any longer, he would drown. What was he to do?
The shark, in its determination to get the annoying hedgehog off its back, swam up to the surface and jumped out of the water. Sonic quickly recovered his breath but failed to react quickly to gravity's pull on both him and the shark in the air. Sonic lost his grip on the shark and landed in the water with the shark right after him.
Sonic started struggling with the water as it tried to bring him down to the bottom. During his struggles against the ocean's waves, Sonic's eyes caught sight of a floating piece of wood floating right next to him. Sonic immediately grabbed hold of the floating piece of wood and pulled himself up on it. While Sonic was trying tried to regain his balance on the piece of wood, the shark leaped out of the water and tried to bite Sonic. Sonic moved aside in the nick of time, but the shark's body then crashed into the ocean and caused a giant wave to form. Sonic saw the wave and rode on it with the piece of wood he was balancing on. The waves carried Sonic along the surface of the ocean. For the first time since Sonic was stuck in this world, Sonic was finally enjoying himself.
"Finally something I love to do!" said Sonic as he laughed along with the roaring of the wave he was on.
The shark, seeing its prey fleeing from it, swam at full speed towards Sonic and tried to swallow him whole. Sonic, however, saw the shark and surfed over to the other side of the wave.
"So you want race, huh?" asked Sonic.
The shark just gave an angry roar to answer Sonic's question.
"Well come on then! I'll race you to the mainland!" Sonic said and rode the wave even faster than before.
The shark quickly followed after him, but Sonic was too good of a surfer and stayed one wave ahead of him. During the whole incident, Sonic's smile never left his face.
Then suddenly, the shark stopped its pursuing and watched Sonic surf on in the starry night. Sonic saw the shark stopped and laughed at him.
"What's wrong? Are you already too tired to continue the race?" Sonic asked and laughed at the angry shark.
"Thump!"
Sonic's "surfboard" suddenly rammed into a large object, sending Sonic flying off the board and onto a large brick floor. Sonic hit his head against the brick floor and laid there throughout the long starry night.
Mario swam faster through the ocean's current. He had seen many air pockets along the bottom of the ocean and even saw footprints marked in the seabed's fine sand. The fish was right: the creature couldn't swim but was fast enough to run along the seabed.
Mario dived deeper to the ocean floor and looked around for any signs of the hedgehog. Instead, Mario just found more footprints leading to different air pockets along the ocean floor. Mario swam forward towards the mainland, following the footprints imprinted in the sand.
Suddenly, the footprints disappeared at one of the air pockets. Mario approached the air pocket but didn't see any sign of the creature. It was as if the creature had vanished in thin air!
Mario then saw a large shark approaching him. Mario got into a defensive position, but the shark, instead of attacking Mario, swam slowly pass him and landed on the ocean floor. It was still moving, but the shark was breathing really heavy. In a short time, it fell asleep.
Mario slowly swam away from the shark and continued on his journey through the open sea.
By the time Mario could see some light in the sky above him, he saw a large wall in front of him, blocking his path. Mario swam around it and found a small opening inside the stone wall. Mario cautiously swam inside the opening and soon found himself walking on a dry stone floor. There was no more water, so Mario took off his vanishing cap and took a deep breath of the new air around him. Mario knew where he was: the hidden ruins of Atlantis.
Mario walked down a long hallway and came upon a small door. Mario cautiously opened the door and peeked inside. To his amazement, Mario saw a big courtyard that housed many precious gems of all shapes and sizes. Attracted by the beauty of the gems, Mario forgot about the creature and studied the gems carefully. Each one of the gems was sparkling with some sort of energy, and Mario, out of curiosity, grabbed one of the gems and held it in his hands.
The gem immediately stopped sparkling and turned into a dull color. Mario watched in amusement when he suddenly heard a loud crash coming from behind him. Mario turned around and saw the ceiling starting to break away. Mario quickly dropped the gem and ran as fast as he could to the opened door he came out of. A piece of the ceiling suddenly fell down and blocked Mario from his only exit.
Mario quickly looked around for another exit and saw a small hole in the floor near the gems. Mario quickly leapt into the hole and went down a watery slide. Mario screamed as he slid down the slide at a fast speed. The slide led Mario to another small hole in the floor and into a large pool of water. Mario quickly swam up to the surface and swam to the side of the pool and climbed out. The whole experience Mario had just been in reminded him of the many booby traps the Atlatians had created to keep out intruders that had found their ancient city.
And Mario had fallen for one of their traps.
Mario recovered his breath and walked away from the pool. Next time, Mario would be more cautious than before when he sees another beautiful and yet, deadly sight in this hidden kingdom.
Mario approached another opened door and walked inside. To Mario's relief, it was only a hallway. Mario walked cautiously down the hallway as he tried to figure out a way to get out of this hidden building and back on course to the mainland to stop the creature before it was too late.
The bright morning sun shined on Sonic's face. Sonic woke up to the sun's light beam and sat up from his little nap. Sonic's eyes slowly came up as he tried to stand up on the hard stone floor he was on.
"Stone floor?"
Sonic immediately woke up and looked down at the floor he was standing on. It wasn't the sandy floor of the ocean, but the stone floor of a building!
Sonic looked around in sight of land, but all that he saw was water and the continued path of the stone floor. Sonic sighed; he wasn't back on dry land after all!
Sonic shook his head rapidly and started walking along the stone floor. Who knows? Maybe the floor will lead him to the land!
"Beeeeeeepppp!"
Sonic heard the beep and looked for the source of the noise. To his amazement, Sonic pulled out the perfectly dried emerald tracker and saw the screen beeping.
The tracker had found another emerald!
Sonic studied the screen for the location of the emerald. The beep was faint, but the dot was glowing red down at the bottom of the screen.
"It's under my feet!" Sonic exclaimed.
Sonic looked around and to his surprise, he saw a large stair case going down into the stone floor. Sonic walked slowly down the stairs and found himself in a large room with dozens of gems along the walls of the room. Sonic jumped off the staircase and studied each of the gems closely. None of them were a chaos emerald.
Sonic then saw a large door in front of him. The door was all locked up by heavy chains and a large lock. There was no way Sonic could open it.
"Guess I'll have to break the door down," Sonic laughed and quickly rolled up into a fast spinning ball and dashed into the large door. Sonic easily went through the door only to find himself go down a large water slide.
"Whoa!" Sonic yelled as he slid down the giant water slide.
The slide took Sonic down to a large hallway. Sonic fell off the slide and landed on the stone floor. Sonic carefully stood up and walked down the hallway with the emerald tracker in his hand.
Sonic went down a multiple fleet of stairs and into another hallway when the tracker started beeping like crazy. Sonic saw a small door in front of him and entered into it.
The room was filled with precious gems, but none of them caught Sonic's eyes for standing on a small pillar in front of him was the blue emerald. Sonic dashed up to it and grabbed it.
"That was easy," said Sonic.
Suddenly, the floor started to crumble under Sonic's feet. Sonic tried to jump out of the way, but instead, he landed into a large hole. Sonic yelled as he fell down the large hole and looked down at the bottom of the hole. The bottom was filled with water and in the water was a hungry shark.
"Not again!" shouted Sonic and quickly grabbed on to one of the edges of the hole, just barely missing the shark's teeth. Sonic climbed up the ledge and laid down on the rocky surface. After recovering his breath, Sonic held up the emerald he had in his hand.
'Finally," Sonic said in relief as he held his first chaos emerald that he managed to keep hold of.
Sonic got up off the floor and walked down a fleet of stairs along his path. Now that he had the emerald, all that Sonic had to do was to get out of this submerged palace and make it to shore.
Mario continued down the hallway till he came to a door in the ground. Mario cautiously opened it and jumped down onto another stone floor. Mario sighed. He wasn't getting anywhere inside of this labyrinth maze!
Mario stopped to rest for a moment but was interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming his way. Having nowhere to hide, Mario held his ground and faced the being that was coming towards him.
That being happened to be Sonic.
Sonic had been walking along in the hallway when he saw an object standing in front of his path. Sonic stopped and studied the object carefully and sighed in disappointment.
"Not you again! How did you get all the way down to the bottom of the ocean?"
"The same question I wanted to ask you," sneered Mario who had now crossed his arms.
Sonic just smiled.
"Well pal, if you are in the mood for another fight, you can just forget it because I'm too busy to fight."
"Really? What type of business would that be?" asked Mario seriously.
"Why the business of getting out of this place, of course," replied Sonic.
Mario gave a little grin.
"I am sorry to disappoint you, but I can't just let you leave."
Sonic jeered at Mario's comment.
"Just watch me," he said and went to walk past Mario.
Only to get smacked by Mario's fist.
Sonic fell back from the blow but quickly recovered himself and went on the defense.
"What is it that you have against me anyway?"
Mario, whose temper started to rise again, saw a small button on the ground next to him.
"The safety of the whole kingdom!" yelled Mario, and he jumped on top of the button.
"Huh?" Sonic asked at first but then felt the floor crumble beneath his feet and fell right through the floor into a large pool of water. Sonic sank down to the bottom of the pool and tried to jump out but only sank back down to the bottom.
Mario watched in interest.
"So the fish was right after all," replied Mario as he saw Sonic trying to jump out of the pool.
Mario jumped down the hole in the floor and landed in the pool. Unlike Sonic, however, Mario swam up to the surface and watched the frantic hedgehog on the pool's floor.
Sonic saw Mario jump into the pool and sighed.
"Things had to get worse," Sonic said to himself and watched Mario closely to make the first move.
Mario went under the water and swam at Sonic. Sonic ducked from Mario's charge and prepared himself for another attack. Mario again charged at Sonic. Sonic tried to duck again, but Mario was too fast for him. Mario grabbed Sonic and started to punch him. Sonic immediately reacted back by blocking Mario's blows and giving Mario a powerful kick away from him. Mario backed away from Sonic's kick, but recovered quickly. Instead of attacking again, however, Mario swam above Sonic and just watched him. He knew the hedgehog would run out of air and when he does, Mario will attack again.
As Sonic waited for another attack, he suddenly started gagging underwater. He was running out of air! Sonic desperately looked for an air pocket, but alas, there was none in sight. The only source of air was at the surface where Mario waited for him. Quickly losing his strength, Sonic fell down in pain on the pool's floor. It wouldn't be long before he ran out of air and died.
Mario saw Sonic fell down and after taking a quick breath from the surface, he charged at Sonic. The creature had nowhere to go; Mario could now stop him from destroying the Mushroom Kingdom.
In his pain, Sonic suddenly saw Mario charge at him again. In a desperate attempt to save himself, Sonic took out the blue emerald he had hidden away from Mario's view.
Mario slowed down his charge when he saw Sonic pull out the brightly colored gem. Now what was he doing?
The emerald started glowing brighter and brighter in Sonic's hand. A source of energy suddenly went inside Sonic's body, now powering him up with the oxygen he lacked. With the chaos emerald glowing in his hands, Sonic suddenly jumped on top of Mario and then jumped out of the pool.
Mario watched in shock at what just happened. The hedgehog had used the blue stone to restore his energy! What else could this creature do?
Mario suddenly started gagging underwater. Mario swam to the surface and saw the hedgehog standing near the pool's edge. Mario went to grab him, but before he did, the hedgehog held the emerald high up in the air and said, "Chaos Control!"
Immediately after saying that, the emerald glowed even brighter and suddenly, the hedgehog and the emerald disappeared!
Mario stared in amusement over the incident that just happened, but after remembering that he was still in the water, he climbed out of the pool and walked over to an open doorway that led to a bunch of stairs. Mario quickly ran up the stairs and found himself on the roof of the Atlantis ruins. Mario could now see the mainland as well as a bright light that shone on the beach. It was the same light that made the hedgehog disappeared!
Mario quickly put on his winged cap and flew over to shore. There were a lot of questions that he needed answer, including what else that hedgehog could do.