Sonic & Mario
Chapter 6
The Pyramid Prophesy
Sonic appeared instantly at where the bright light had occurred, still holding the glowing blue emerald above his head. As soon as the emerald stopped glowing, and the bright light disappeared, Sonic put the emerald away and turned to walk along his path. Instead of feeling a path, however, Sonic's feet just felt pure air. Confused, Sonic looked down at his feet; only to discover he was high up in the sky.
Sonic's eyes grew big.
"Uh oh."
No sooner had he said that when he started falling out of the sky.
Sonic tried to turn around in the sky to land on his feet, but he was falling too quickly to change his body position. Sonic closed his eyes quickly, hoping that it wouldn't hurt too much when he lands on the hard ground below him.
"Puff!"
Sonic landed head first in a big sand dune. His head, along with his arms and his body, were fully buried in the sand. His legs and sneakers were the only parts of his body that stuck out of the sand dune; the rest was hidden away by the sand.
He was, indeed, in a ridiculous body position.
Sonic's feet landed on the ground and tried to pull Sonic's head and body out of the sand dune. After a little squirming around, Sonic managed to pull his arms and body out of the sand, but Sonic's feet failed to free Sonic's big spiky head from the sand's grip. Fortunately for him, Sonic's arms were free to use and with their assistance, Sonic managed to yank his head out of the sand dune. Unfortunately, the force of the pull caused Sonic to tumble down the sand dune and land on a bed of sand.
"If this is how all the trips are, I never want to use chaos control with a single emerald again!" Sonic said as he helped himself off the sandy ground.
After brushing all the sand off his body, Sonic turned around to look at the scenery. He could now see the ruins sticking out from the ocean about a couple miles off shore, but everything else he saw was not as lovely as the ruins. All that Sonic could see for miles was sand: just fine yellow hot sand. There was not a spot of green grass in sight; just sand. There was no wind to bring moisture in the air; just intense heat coming from the large desert sun.
"Of course, of all the places to send me, chaos control sent me here to the most boring place in any world," Sonic grumbled and started walking into the vast desert.
He didn't have to go far till he saw a sign sticking out in the middle of the desert.
"Hmm, I wonder what it says," Sonic thought and approached the sign.
When Sonic walked up to the sign, he could see clearly what it said. Or what it had on it. Instead of words, all that was on the sign was a skull and a pair of crossbones.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sonic asked.
Suddenly Sonic felt his feet sinking in the sand he was standing on. Sonic soon realized his mistake.
"Quicksand!" Sonic yelled.
The quicksand was now up to Sonic's body. If Sonic didn't do anything quickly, he was going to be buried alive in a jiffy.
Luckily for him, he was faster than any quicksand. Sonic immediately jumped high out of the quicksand and landed on solid ground.
"Woo! That was close," Sonic chuckled.
That is until his feet started to sink again.
"Not again!" Sonic said and quickly jumped out of the quicksand, only to land into another patch of the swirling sand.
"Great," Sonic said as he just let himself get swallowed up by the quicksand. Soon, Sonic's head disappeared under the sand, and all became quiet.
Suddenly, Sonic immediately popped out of the quicksand and dashed across the other pools of quicksand before he finally made it to solid ground.
"Yuck! And I thought water was terrible," Sonic said as he coughed out the sand he had swallowed in his mouth.
Once his body was clean from every particle of sand, Sonic stood where he was at and looked around him. He could no longer see the ocean, and the sun seemed to shine even brighter out here than at the beach. There was still sand everywhere, but after his big experience Sonic wasn't sure what was real sand and what was not. Sonic soon realized that he was trapped by a hidden hazard that could suddenly engulf him in each step that he made.
"Caw!"
Sonic looked up in the hot sun and saw a bunch of vultures gliding in the sky, waiting for someone to die in this terrible wasteland.
And they had their eyes on Sonic.
"Sorry, guys!" Sonic said, "But I'm not interested in becoming your dinner!" Sonic yelled cheerfully up at the vultures.
The vultures, annoyed by Sonic's comment, dived straight down at Sonic. Sonic quickly ducked, and the vultures just missed him. The vultures, angry at Sonic's actions, dived again at Sonic. Sonic ducked again; this time, however, one of the vultures pecked him hard on the head.
"Ouch!" Sonic said, "Okay! I get it! I'm outa here!"
And with saying that, Sonic dashed away from the vultures and back into the dangerous desert, running fast enough to avoid sinking into any quicksand that blocked his way. Sonic didn't know where he was going, but one thing was sure: he had to get out of this forbidden wasteland.
Mario slowly landed on the sandy ground. This was where he saw the light, but there was no sign of the hedgehog anywhere. Perhaps he was just imagining things back in the ruins.
Then Mario saw Sonic's footprints in the sand.
Mario bent down to the ground and studied the footprints. There were a whole bunch of them heading out to the desert. Mario smiled at his discovery.
"Well," Mario said, "It looks like he thought he could escape me by going into Shifting Sand Land. He had just made his biggest mistake yet!"
Mario carefully followed Sonic's footprints into the desert. The footprints led Mario to a sign then they disappeared in the sand in front of the sign.
"I wonder," Mario said and kicked a little rock into the sand. The rock quickly disappeared into the shifting sand. Mario smiled. It was quicksand, and it looked like the creature wasn't cautious enough to avoid sinking in it.
"I guess the all powerful creature wasn't very smart after all," Mario remarked and turned to walk away. His mission was over: the creature had committed suicide by going into the most dangerous place in the Mushroom Kingdom. All that Mario had to do now was to tell the princess that her worries were now over.
"Got ya!"
A huge bird knocked Mario down to the ground and took his hat off his head. Mario looked up to see the bird flying in the desert sky with his hat in its talons. Mario recognized the bird easily: Klepto, the hat stealing bird that would never leave Mario alone. Mario had encountered him before in this desert land, and he remembered all the problems that bird had caused him on his last adventure.
"Klepto!" Mario yelled at the bird, "Give me back my hat!"
The large vulture ignored Mario's command and was dancing in the sky saying, "It's mine! I finally have Mario's hat!"
Mario shook his head. Klepto was just as crazy as he was the last time Mario saw him, always obsessed with taking Mario's hat. He was harmless for the most part, but was just downright plain annoying. Why one time when Mario was flying over the desert, Klepto stole Mario's hat in thin air! It was a pretty messy situation after that, for Mario at least.
"I'm warning you, Klepto! Give me back my hat right now!" Mario yelled, trying to hold his temper.
Klepto just shook his big bald head.
"It's mine! It's all mine now!" laughed Klepto as he danced around in the sky.
"Okay then! Don't say I did not warn you!" Mario yelled and quickly formed a fireball in his hand.
Klepto, being distracted by his all time success in stealing Mario's hat, did not notice the fireball shot by Mario coming at him.
"Caaaaaawwwwwoowwww!" squawked Klepto when the fireball hit him.
Mario just stood by and watched as Klepto crashed landed on a sand dune in the desert. Knowing that this was his opportunity to get his hat back, Mario carefully did a long jump over the pools of quicksand and ran to the sand dune. Upon arrival, Mario saw Klepto lying on the ground, unconscious from the crash landing. But where was his hat?
Mario looked down the side of the dune and saw his hat dangerously floating on a pool of dangerous quicksand. Normally, Mario would just forget his hat and get a new one back home but not this time. This was a life and death situation to his best hat in the entire kingdom. He wasn't going to let his best hat disappear forever in this forbidden wasteland!
Without thinking on what he was doing, Mario slid down the sand dune towards the quicksand. Instead of landing in to his own death, Mario quickly did a somersault over the shifting sand and grabbed his hat along the way. Mario had good timing and landed safely on solid ground.
Mario carefully brushed the sand off of his hat and put it back on his head.
"No one takes my best hat unless they want to face the consequences," Mario said to himself and went to walk away.
Till some footprints caught his eyes.
Mario looked down at the ground. There were dozens of pairs of footprints stretching across the desert, disappearing only when the owner ran over quicksand and reappeared on the other side.
Mario gave out a loud grunt. His mission wasn't over after all! The creature had escaped one of nature's most dangerous death traps and was making a fool out of it by actually running over it without sinking into it!
Mario looked up at the sky and thought on his next strategy. He was in Shifting Sand Land: the most dangerous place in the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario knew it was foolish to try to run across the desert. Even if he could catch up with the hedgehog that way, he would most likely be caught in a pool of quicksand and would die a terrible death of suffocation. No, unless he had that hedgehog's speed, he would not survive one hour crossing the desert on foot.
That left only one other option: the sky. Mario's best bet at catching up with the hedgehog would be to fly high into the sky and find him before he gets out of the desert. The risk was, however, if the wind started to pick up, Mario would be blown to the ground and most likely fall into a pit of quicksand. Still, it was a much safer and quicker way to get across the desert and to catch up with the hedgehog.
Mario looked up at the sky. The wind hadn't picked up yet, so it was good for flying. Mario took his flying cap out of his pocket and jumped up into the air, the wings on the cap flapping quickly to bring Mario up in the sky. Once Mario had a good stance, he flew at a good even place across the desert, following the hedgehog's footprints across the desert sand. Even though he was behind the hedgehog, Mario did not speed up his flight speed because in a place like this, one little error could cost you your life, and if Mario died in this forbidden wasteland, how would he stop the creature from destroying Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom?
Still, Mario hoped the hedgehog had stopped at an obstacle in the desert, so he could make up his time and catch up with the hedgehog.
As a matter of fact, Sonic did indeed run into an obstacle. Though it wasn't a deadly pit of quicksand or a swarm of noisy pecking vultures, it was still, nonetheless, a dangerous obstacle. In front of Sonic was a small desert ruin and inside the ruin was a battalion of Bomb-ombs with large dark cannons.
And the cannons happened to be pointing at Sonic.
"Guess there is things that live in this desert after all," Sonic said to himself as he saw the Bomb-ombs approaching him.
If there was one thing that could be called the weirdest species in Sonic's book, it would be the Bomb-ombs. When Sonic saw the whole lot of them over in the desert ruin, he had to pinch himself from laughing. And he had a good reason to. The Bomb-ombs looked like walking bombs with feet and no hands at all! How could they be a hazard?
Sonic soon became serious, however, when he saw the cannons pointed at him.
A large Bomb-omb stepped in front of the others but nowhere near Sonic himself. It apparently must have been the leader.
"Halt! What are you doing on King Bomb-omb's territory?" asked the Bomb-omb in a loud squeaky voice.
Once again, Sonic would have laughed at the Bomb-omb's squeaky voice, but thanks to all the cannons pointing at him, Sonic grew serious again and paid attention to the Bomb-omb's comment.
"What was that?"
"What are you doing on King Bomb-omb's land?"
King Bomb-omb! What type of name was that?
"Answer me, or you shall be destroyed!" threatened the Bomb-omb.
Sonic looked down at the Bomb-omb.
"Let me get this straight. Your king is King Bomb-omb?"
"Yes!" yelled all the Bomb-ombs.
"Does this King Bomb-omb look like you in anyway?"
"Yes!" said one.
"Only he's taller!" said another one.
"And stronger!" said yet another.
"And much fatter!" said another one.
At that comment, all the Bomb-ombs turned around and faced their fellow Bomb-omb that made the comment. Seeing that everyone was staring at him, the Bomb-omb slowly made its way to the back and hid behind a pillar. Seeing that the troublemaker was out of view, the Bomb-ombs turned around once again and faced Sonic.
Sonic, now that he had their attention again, started up the questions.
"Is your King Bomb-omb very rich?"
"Yes!" they all said.
"Is he very powerful?"
"Yes!" they chorused.
"And does he own this land that we are all standing on right now?"
"Yes!"
At this reply, Sonic fell to the ground and started laughing. The Bomb-ombs, startled and yet affected by Sonic's behavior, started laughing too.
That is till the leader stared at them angrily. After that, the Bomb-ombs all lined up for attention and waited on their leader's commands. Sonic, however, was still on the ground laughing. The leader, tired of the creature's foolishness, decided to end the pointless laughter from the creature.
"Enough!" commanded the leader, "What is so funny?"
Sonic stopped laughing but stayed on the ground.
"You guys, of course!" said Sonic as he started laughing again, "I have never heard of such stupidity!"
The leader looked at his comrades then back again at Sonic.
"And what may that be?"
Sonic struggled to control his laughter as he told them.
"Your big fat leader that looks exactly like you had sent you guys all here to guard a piece of desert wasteland that is entirely worthless in everyway possible!"
At hearing Sonic's words, all the Bomb-ombs fussed up.
"No one makes fun of our king like that!" said the leader, "You shall die for insulting King Bomb-omb and all of the Bomb-ombs!"
Not recognizing the seriousness in the leader's voice, Sonic continued to laugh.
"Oh yeah, what are you guys going to do without hands?" said Sonic said and continued to laugh.
The leader, now ready to blow his top, stomped off to his comrades.
"Ready the cannons! Aim for the hedgehog!"
Sonic continued laughing till he saw the Bomb-ombs ready their cannons and pointed all of them at his head. It was then that Sonic realized his mistake.
"Oh boy," Sonic said.
"Fire!" said the leader.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!"
The Bomb-ombs pulled back their cannons and went to see the dead hedgehog. Instead of a dead hedgehog, however, they just saw a large black spot in the sand.
'I'm up here!"
The Bomb-ombs turned around and saw Sonic on top of one of the pillars.
"I was right! You guys are as dumb as you look!" Sonic said cheerfully.
Hearing the insult, the Bomb-ombs aimed their cannons at Sonic.
"Fire!"
"BAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG!"
As the cannonballs came flying at him, Sonic jumped off the pillar. The cannonballs, instead of hitting Sonic as the Bomb-ombs wanted, hit the pillar Sonic was standing on. The pillar, destroyed by the force of the explosion, came tumbling down onto the Bomb-ombs. The Bomb-ombs scattered everywhere to avoid getting smashed by the pieces of stones from the broken pillar.
Sonic landed softly on the stone-paved floor of the ruin.
"Finally, back on real solid ground!" Sonic said and gave a grin.
Though not for long.
All the Bomb-ombs, though shaken from accident they had created, went back to their cannons and pointed them at Sonic.
Sonic's grin soon turned into a big smile.
"Time for some fun!"
Mario felt a little breeze hit him in the hot desert sky. That wasn't good. If the wind gets stronger, it could force Mario to crash land onto the desert floor.
And all hopes of finding the hedgehog would be lost.
Keeping his balance in the air, Mario shifted to a better position to fight the little wind current in the air. As long as Mario fought off the wind, it could not harm him.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNGGGG!"
Mario's ears burned with excitement towards the loud bang coming at him. With his ears in pain, Mario fell down a couple feet from the air. Quickly realizing he was losing altitude, Mario quickly ignored the pain and flew back to his normal height. No sooner had he done that when he saw the source of the noise coming at him: a big cannonball.
Mario quickly dodged the cannonball and looked down at the ground, searching for the being that shot at him. There on the sand was a small ruin, and in the ruin was a battalion of Bomb-ombs firing at one another. Or, as Mario looked even closer at the scene, something else. Mario's eyes could see a small blue streak of light going back and forth across the ruin, sometimes near the edge of the ruin and sometimes near the Bomb-ombs themselves. Mario recognized immediately what that blue streak was.
"It's the hedgehog!" Mario said, blurting his thoughts out loud.
It was, indeed, the hedgehog!
Mario studied the situation that was going on on the ground. The hedgehog was playing games with the whole Bomb-omb battalion! Even he, who was a mighty good fighter, would think twice before taking on a whole battalion of Bomb-ombs! But this creature apparently feared nothing, and he seemed to be doing a grand job at fighting the army single handedly.
Mario approached carefully to the ruin, trying to keep out of sight of both the Bomb-ombs and the hedgehog. As Mario prepared his landing, he suddenly saw the hedgehog right in front of his eyes. It was too busy with the Bomb-ombs to notice Mario, making him an easy target to attack. Mario thought it through; it wasn't very honorable to attack an opponent from behind but then again, this was a desperate situation. Besides, the hedgehog seemed to take no honor in fighting, so it probably wouldn't hurt Mario's honor this one time. Making his decision, Mario dived down at Sonic, forming a large fireball in his hands. It was all over now for the hedgehog and his battle plans.
"Pow!"
A huge cannonball rammed into Mario's side, sending him far out into the desert and away from the battle. Mario tried to move the cannonball away from him, but the cannonball was creating too much force to be stopped. As Mario wrestled with the cannonball, he noticed that he was going to crash; in a pit of quicksand that is.
Seeing the danger coming rapidly towards him, Mario quickly climbed on top of the cannonball and held on to the top. The cannonball, along with Mario, quickly fell into the quicksand pit. The cannonball quickly started sinking, but Mario, who was on top of the cannonball, quickly jumped off the cannonball and onto the desert sand. Mario watched as the cannonball sank out of sight in the quicksand, then he fell down onto the desert sand. His side was aching from the impact from the ball, and he quickly went to sleep.
Sonic was laughing out loud as he dodged the cannonballs that were being shot from the Bomb-omb's cannons. The Bomb-ombs increased the power of their cannons and fired more rapidly, but they proved to be of no match to Sonic's amazing speed. Sonic, however, was started to get annoyed by the cannons.
Sonic suddenly dashed through the Bomb-omb battalion and stopped at the end of the ruin. Then, Sonic charged the battalion. The battalion fired their cannons, but Sonic easily outmaneuvered the cannonballs. As he approached the cannons, Sonic immediately spun into a tight powerful ball and headed for the nearest cannon. Sonic's powerful ball easily broke the cannon, causing it to blow up. As the Bomb-ombs watched in awe, Sonic destroyed the cannons back and forth like a pinball in a slot machine. Once the last cannon was destroyed, Sonic stopped spinning and stood in front of the surprised Bomb-ombs.
"You guys give up?"
The leader of the Bomb-ombs quickly made his way through the battalion and faced Sonic.
"The Bomb-ombs never quit a fight! If we can't destroy you with our cannons, then we shall sacrifice ourselves to destroy our enemy!"
Sonic just shrugged at his comment.
"How are you going to fight me if you have no hands?" Sonic asked jokingly.
"Like this!" said the leader and the fuse on his head suddenly lit. The other Bomb-ombs copied their leader and soon enough, their fuses were lit too. They then charged at Sonic.
Sonic watched them in confusement.
"Hey, what's going on here?" he asked.
The leader of the Bomb-ombs ran up to Sonic, and when he was close enough to Sonic, he blew up right in Sonic's face. Sonic backed away from the explosion, coughing from all the dust that was created from the leader Bomb-omb. As he stopped to catch his breathe, Sonic saw the rest of the Bomb-ombs charging him, ready to blow up to destroy their one enemy. Sonic quickly ran away just in time as the whole battalion exploded. The explosion knocked down many of the pillars, which Sonic quickly dodged. Seeing that the explosion was bigger than he thought, Sonic dashed through the ruin to avoid getting crushed by the collapsing ruin.
The explosion woke Mario up from his sleep. Mario quickly got off the ground and ran up one of the sand dunes to watch what was happening. To his amazement, Mario saw the entire ruin collapsing. Wanting to take a closer look, Mario quickly put on his winged cap and flew over to the big mess.
Once over the ruin, Mario looked down desperately for a sign of the hedgehog, but he saw neither the hedgehog nor a Bomb-omb in sight. It was then that Mario realized that the whole battalion of Bomb-ombs must have self destruct. No other possibility could have caused such an explosion.
Mario flew around the broken ruin, looking for the hedgehog.
Sonic quickly dashed out of the ruin as the whole thing suddenly collapse. A big pile of sand flew into Sonic's face, blinding him from seeing the ruin. Sonic heard some objects flying at him, and he quickly jumped over one large wood piece and caught another one in the air. After that, the wind died down, and everything was quiet once again.
Sonic stayed where he was, holding the wooden board in his hand. Seeing that nothing was happening, Sonic tossed the board in the air and caught it again.
"Man!" Sonic said in amazement, "And I thought Knuckles was hot-headed!"
Sonic turned to continue his journey, but then he saw something flying in the sky.
"What is that?" Sonic asked as he saw the object come closer to his view.
At first, it looked like just another vulture in the sky, but then as it came closer, Sonic recognized what it was.
"Not him again!" Sonic complained, "Doesn't this guy ever give up!"
Mario easily saw Sonic standing on the sand near the collapsed ruin. He grinned as he approached him, his hands starting to form fireballs. This was what Mario was waiting for: to face the hedgehog when he was tired from his previous battle. It would be a lot easier to destroy him.
Sonic saw Mario approach him from the sky and grew uneasy about it. Sonic turned around but came into disappointment when he saw a ledge in his path. With the ruin in front of him, and the ledge behind him, Sonic was trapped.
Mario took advantage of Sonic's predicament and threw a couple of fireballs at Sonic.
Sonic saw the fireballs and tap danced away from them. Suddenly, Sonic felt his one foot on the ledge. Sonic turned around and saw that if he took another step, he would fall off the ledge and slide down the sand slide into the quicksand pit down below it.
Sonic turned and saw Mario prepare a large fireball in between his two hands. Seeing no other choice ate hand, Sonic made his final decision.
"I hope this works!" said Sonic, "Gerrromino!"
And with that, Sonic leapt off the ledge.
Mario stopped powering his fireball and flew down to the ledge. The hedgehog was foolish enough to kill himself rather than stay and fight Mario. Mario grinned at the hedgehog's decision.
That grin soon disappeared off of Mario's face.
Down on the sand slide was Sonic, surfing on it with the wood board he had in his hand.
"Woo hoo!" yelled Sonic who was enjoying the free ride.
Mario just watched in amazement as Sonic surfed down the side with remarkable speed and balance. Never had he seen someone so daring to try out new dangerous tricks.
Sonic laughed all the way down the sand slide but then stopped as he faced an obstacle: the quicksand pit. Positioning his body for a better position, Sonic surfed on toward the danger that lied ahead. Mario watched in interest.
As he landed in the quicksand pit, Sonic spun his board around and around at lightning speed. Spinning around quickly on the surface, Sonic and his wood board floated on the quicksand as if he were on a regular wave in the ocean. After making sure the board was floating on the sand, Sonic quickly made his way to edge of the pit where there was a ledge that led to solid ground. Timing his movements carefully, Sonic made one long jump with his board and landed on top of the ledge and on solid ground. He was safe, for now.
Mario couldn't move from his spot. How could he do that? It was impossible to do a trick like that, but this creature had just broken the impossible. Just who was he up against anyway?
Mario woke up from his thoughts and watched the hedgehog from the ledge, waiting for its next move.
Sonic playfully kicked the wood board up in the air and caught it as it came back down.
"Man, I haven't had that much fun for a while!" Sonic remarked with a wide smile on his face.
After fooling around with his wooden board, Sonic placed the board on the ground and looked up in awe at a mysterious figure in front of him: a large golden pyramid shining in the desert sun.
Sonic looked around the pyramid for the desert, but instead, the entire desert was engulfed in a large quicksand pit. The sand bar that Sonic and the pyramid was on was the only piece of solid seen for miles; the rest was covered in a vast ocean of quicksand.
Sonic turned his eyes back to the pyramid. At the base of the pyramid was a small opening large enough for him to walk through. Seeing that there was nowhere else to go, Sonic slowly walked through the pyramid's entrance and into the pyramid itself.
Mario waited on the sandy ledge as he saw the hedgehog walk into the pyramid. The hedgehog was much smarter than Mario had thought he was. Mario was expecting it to take a dash across the quicksand pit, but the hedgehog was smart enough to know that it would probably not survive for long on the shifting surface of the sand. Mario was impressed at not only the hedgehog's physical abilities, but at its intelligence as well.
Too bad he was a dangerous adversary that needed to be destroyed.
Mario slowly backed away from the ledge. No way was he going to try the stunt that the hedgehog had accomplished; he was going to be smart and do it the safer way: by flight. Mario put his flying cap back on his head and made a long jump off the ledge and into the air. The wings on the cap immediately started flapping, trying to hold Mario's weight in the air. As soon as he was well balanced in the air, Mario flew towards the pyramid, knowing that he had to find the hedgehog before it found an exit out of this desert.
The torches along the walls of the pyramid were the only source of light that Sonic received inside the pyramid. Sonic had to squint his eyes at times to make out an object inside the pyramid. But being partly blind inside a dark pyramid didn't worry Sonic at all; it was all part of the adventure.
What Sonic really needed, however, was a map to the whole pyramid. Sonic had ran into several dead ends during his wanderings, and even now, it seemed he was about to hit another one.
Unfortunate for Sonic, he was wrong.
As Sonic made his was around a corner, he came to an edge of a pit filled with quicksand. Instead of looking at the negative sides of his travels, however, Sonic decided to reflect on the positives first.
"Oh Well!" Sonic said, "At least I didn't run into another dead end."
Sonic desperately looked for a way to cross the quicksand pit. He soon found the solution: a large wire net hanging over the pit.
Sonic jumped up and grabbed hold of the net. Unsure if the net could hold his weight, Sonic slowly moved above the pit and landed on the other side of the pit.
Only to come to another dead end.
"No way!" Sonic said angrily, "There's got to be a way out of this pyramid!"
Sonic stomped his way up to the wall and looked up. There was another ledge above Sonic's head, but it was too high to jump to it. Instead, Sonic quickly dashed back and forth between the two walls of the pyramid until he managed to grab hold of the ledge. Sonic quickly climbed up the edge and continued his journey.
Mario carefully landed on the top of the pyramid. There was a small hole in one of the sides of the pyramid. Seeing it, Mario cautiously lowered himself down the hole onto a stone brick floor. Seeing that there was no danger, Mario cautiously made his way through the pyramid's hallway.
Sonic followed the pathway the torches had lit through the pyramid. He was slowly making his way to the top of the pyramid without encountering many obstacles. Still, Sonic kept a watchful eye out for trouble.
After walking up a small fleet of stairs, Sonic was sure now that he was on the top floor. Sonic quickened his pace across the hallway till something on the wall caught his attention. Sonic stopped walking and stared at the wall.
The wall was marked with hieroglyphics, but in the center of them all was a large stone carved picture carved deep inside the wall. Sonic took a close look at the picture.
It was a picture of a hedgehog.
Sonic quickly shook his head, thinking that he was imagining the whole thing. But when Sonic looked again, it was the same thing: a picture of a big blue hedgehog holding a gemstone in its hand.
Sonic stared at the picture, not sure at first what to make of it. If it wasn't so old, Sonic would have thought it looked like himself.
Himself!
Sonic's head soon exploded with new ideas and thoughts that just came from the one picture on the wall. The hedgehog in the carving was rather mean looking, and it also held what appeared to be an emerald in its hand. Still, something wasn't right. The image resembled Sonic in a way, but there was a type of darkness surrounding it; darkness that Sonic never cared about.
"Metal."
The word just came out of his mouth. That's what the image represented: Metal, Sonic's mechanical look alike. And the gem in his hand must be a chaos emerald!
This explained a lot of things. No wonder why that little human was always trying to destroy him. That little man was probably deceived into believing that Sonic was the real villain, not Metal. If Sonic ever found out who told that dreadful lie he was going to…
"Beep!"
Sonic quickly tried to remember in his over crowed mind what that noise was.
"Beep!"
"Tail's emerald tracker!"
Sonic quickly got out the tracker and turned on the screen. The tracker was really beeping, and the dot was glowing very red. A chaos emerald must be here in the pyramid!
Suddenly, a loud pounding caught Sonic's attention.
Sonic turned around and saw a huge stone figure looking angrily down at him.
"Intruder!" the stone figure said in a very loud voice and tried to grab Sonic.
Sonic quickly jumped over the stone figure and dashed away; only to hit a stone wall that was in this path. Sonic rubbed his sore head and looked to see that he had found another dead end.
"Intruder! Golem will make you pay for waking him!"
Sonic quickly turned around to face the stone giant.
"What if I just leave quietly and let you get back to sleep? It could avoid any violence."
Golem's answer to Sonic's reply was a large ground thud coming from the force of his fists. The stone blocks under Sonic's feet soon became loose and Sonic fell down to the second floor.
As Sonic slowly got up, he felt the ground suddenly shake under his feet. Sonic turned around and faced the enraged Golem, who had jumped down from the top floor onto the second one.
"You will pay for ever entering the pyramid!" yelled Golem.
"I'm already sorry I ever came in it," Sonic replied back.
Sonic's reply only seemed to anger Golem even worse. Golem charged up to Sonic and tried to punch him with his big stony fists. Sonic quickly dodged the attack, but then Golem grabbed him with his one hand and punched him with the other one. The force of the blow sent Sonic flying against the wall.
Even though he was in pain, Sonic quickly stood up and faced Golem.
"Okay Pal! I tried to be nice!"
Sonic quickly spun into a hard ball and launched himself at Golem's face. Golem tried to block his attack, but Sonic was too fast for him. Sonic rammed into Golem's face, sending pieces of stone flying everywhere. Sonic landed and watched as the stone giant quickly crumbled into a thousand pieces.
"Good riddance," said Sonic and turned to look for the emerald.
Suddenly, a glowing light appeared in front of Sonic. The rocky remains of the stone giant quickly reassembled together, bringing Golem back to life.
And Golem wasn't happy.
"You made Golem very angry! I shall crush you!" roared Golem and did another ground thud with his fists.
"Not again," Sonic said as the floor once again crumbled under his feet. Having no foothold, Sonic once again fell down another floor level of the pyramid.
Sonic crashed landed onto a huge stone that had broken many years before. Around the large stone were other large rocks all floating on top of a pool of quicksand.
"I thought I was free from this stuff," Sonic said as he tried to balance on the shaky rock.
After he found his balance, Sonic looked up at Golem who was still on the second floor. Instead of staying there, though, the dumb giant jumped off the ledge and onto Sonic's rock. Sonic went flying off the rock and luckily crashed onto another one. Sonic quickly got up and faced his adversary.
"Golem shall never be defeated! I'm all powerful!" said Golem and, to Sonic's surprise, he held out a large yellow gem in his hand.
"A chaos emerald!" Sonic said.
"Now Golem has power!"
The emerald glowed in Golem's hand, and Sonic's rock suddenly exploded. Sonic jumped quickly to another rock, but then that rock exploded too. Running out of rocks, Sonic land on a large rock and thought out a new strategy. Apparently, Golem was using the emerald's power to give him power over the whole pyramid. If Sonic could just somehow get the emerald, Golem would be easy to defeat. An idea suddenly popped into Sonic's head.
"Hey Golem!" yelled Sonic, "Do you know what you are good for? You're good for building stone houses!"
Sonic's smart remark greatly angered Golem.
"You dare make fun of Golem! Golem shall crush you!" said Golem and with that, Golem used the emerald to have the sand tilt up the one end of the rock which tossed Sonic in the air.
This was what Sonic was waiting for. Sonic quickly got out his power ring and rolled into a large ball in the air. Having gathered enough power, Sonic charged at Golem's head and smashed it. Before Sonic left, however, he quickly grabbed the emerald out of Golem's hand and landed on a large rock near the pyramid's entrance.
Golem, without the power of the emerald, crumbled apart into small rock sized pieces which then sank into the quicksand. The all powerful Golem was defeated.
Sonic jumped over to the entrance and then looked at the emerald he had. It was the second one he had recovered, and the second one he had kept out of Eggman's grip. After admiring it for a while, Sonic put the emerald away and walked over to the exit.
Suddenly, the whole pyramid shook. The stone ceiling was crumbling down as the wall to the pyramid started to collapse. Sand started to come up from the stone floor. Sonic suddenly realized what was going on: the pyramid was sinking!
Sonic went toward the exit, but a large stone suddenly fell down and blocked the entrance. With the escape route now blocked, Sonic looked for another way out. To his fortune, Sonic saw a large green pipe sticking out of the floor. Without thinking on what to do, Sonic quickly dived into the pipe and escaped the pyramid.
Up on the top floor, Mario felt the pyramid starting to shake. Mario immediately ran across the wall and found a large green pipe sticking in the ground. Without even thinking about the hedgehog, Mario quickly jumped in the green pipe; just barely escaping the collapse of the whole rooftop of the pyramid.