Sonic & Mario

Chapter 8

The True Fiend

Making it to the bright end of the green pipe he was in, Sonic cautiously poked his head out of the pipe. He was expecting to see green grass on the ground, but instead, Sonic saw some stone files lining across a beautiful stone floor. The light that Sonic saw came from some bright torches that were hanging along the green walls that seemed to form some sort of hallway.

Sonic sighed deeply. He was in another room in the sewer.

Seeing there was nowhere else to go, Sonic jumped out of the pipe and walked through the hallway to find another pipe that would take him to the surface.

Instead of a pipe, however, Sonic found a wooden door inside the stone wall.

Sonic walked up to the door and cautiously opened it. Inside the door was a stairway that led up to another door. Sonic slowly walked up the stairs and came to the next door. Sonic opened the door only a little to see what was on the other side of it.

Boy! Did he get the surprise of his life!

On the other side of the door was a large hallway that was lined with paintings and statues of different creatures and places that were found in the Mushroom Kingdom. Hanging from the ceiling were some large chandlers that shone enough light in the hallway to replace the sun. The walls had changed from a rugged green color to a beautiful blue and purple color. And throughout the hallway were a dozen or more doors that led to a different room.

Sonic could not take his eyes off the beautiful scene. He had thought he was in the sewer, but now Sonic knew that could not be; he was in some type of castle!

Sonic would have probably dashed down the hallway if his eyes didn't detect some movement coming from the hallway. Sonic closed the door a little and watched as a couple of Toadstool guards walked down the hallway. Since they were busy talking with each other, they did not notice the half opened door and continued their way down the hallway.

When he couldn't hear them anymore, Sonic opened the door wide open and walked out into the hallway. When Sonic came to the middle of the hallway, he gave out a little whistle at how big this hallway was.

Sonic's eyes then rested on one of the doors in the hallway. The handle was turning, and the door flew open.

Sonic quickly jumped high up in the air and caught hold of one of the chandlers. As he was hanging on the chandler, Sonic looked down and saw five Toadstools and a small female human being walk out the door and went down the hallway.

Sonic kept a hold of the chandler till the beings entered into another room inside of one of the doors. Once they closed the door, Sonic dropped down from the chandler and landed on the stone floor.

"That was close," said Sonic.

After making sure no one else was around, Sonic immediately dashed to one of the doors and went through it into another room. In the room, two Toadstool guards stood guarding over another door at the other end of the room. Sonic dashed forward at the door between the guards, opened the door, and shut it quickly as he left the room in a second.

The two Toadstool guards looked at each other with a puzzle look on each of their faces.

"What just happened?" asked the one to the other.

The other guard shrugged.

"I thought I saw the door open quickly, but I did not see anybody go through it."

The guard opened the door, and when he saw nothing unusual, closed it.

"Must have been our imaginations," said the guard.

"Must be," said the other one.

The guard nodded to his approval and went back to his position. Both of the guards, however, knew they weren't imagining anything and that there was something wrong with what just happened.

Mario climbed up to the other end of his pipe and climbed out of it onto a warm stone floor. Mario got up and looked straight into the light of a bright chandler hanging on the ceiling. Mario put his hand to his eyes as he tried to regain his eyesight back. Once he could see again, Mario looked around the room and recognized where he was: Princess Peach's castle.

Mario took his cap off and scratched his head. How did he get into Peach's castle so quickly?

Mario put his cap back on his head and walked away from his pipe. Despite being in a princess's castle, Mario did not feel any guilt about being in it. He was always allowed to come to Peach's castle, and although he didn't come in the front entrance, Mario still thought that Princess Peach wouldn't mind. He would just go down to the throne room and tell Princess Peach that…

"Pee yu!" Mario said and held his nose.

His wet clothes had finally dried off, leaving off a stinky odor.

"I can't see Peach like this," said Mario and quickly ran to one of the doors and opened it. Inside was a rack of different perfumes and colognes. Mario quickly grabbed one of the colognes and sprayed it all over him to get rid of the stinky odor. Once he could no longer smell the odor, Mario put the cologne back and shut the door. At least he could do something about his odor; his clothing was all wrinkled from drying up quickly in the castle. Still, it was better than going to the princess with a stinky odor.

Mario went over to one of the doors and opened it. Mario went through the door and into the room. Inside the room, Mario saw two Toadstool guards guarding one of the doors. They recognized Mario instantly.

"Hello Mario!"

"Hello," Mario replied back and went toward the one door that leaded to the hallway.
"Mario!"

Mario turned around and looked at the two guards who were guarding the door.

"Did you by chance come through this door that we were guarding?" asked one of the guards.

"No, I just got here," replied Mario, "Why?"

The guards looked at each other and then back at Mario.

"Well this may sound funny, but we were guarding the door as always when suddenly the door opened quickly and closed just as fast. I looked to see if someone was at the door, but no one was there."

Mario listened to what the guard said and thought about it.

"You said you didn't see anybody at the door?" asked Mario.

"Yes,"

"Did you feel anything when the door opened?"

The guards looked at each other.

"Come to think of it, we both did feel some strong wind when the door opened and closed quickly."

Mario's eyes grew big at the answer.

"Where does that door lead to?" asked Mario urgently.

"To the hallway upstairs," said the guard.

Mario quickly ran over to the door and opened it.

"If that happens to either of you again, tell me," ordered Mario, and he quickly shut the door before the guard could answer.

The guard looked at the other guard and shrugged. Whatever was going on wasn't their business.

Sonic dashed into one of the doors of the upper hallway and stopped. The room he was in was different from the other ones he was in; it had a balcony. Sonic walked over to the balcony and stood by its railing, looking up at the clear blue sky. The sun shone on many green hills that darted across the landscape; just like in Green Hill.

Sonic sighed. He was getting homesick; sick of running around and not being accepted, sick of not being to talk to a friend. Sonic would have given anything to meet Tails and the others again; even Knuckles who was always to serious to mess around with.

Sonic forgot about everything else and just stood there, watching the beautiful scenery. If there was one thing he wanted, Sonic wanted to be back home.

While enjoying the view, Sonic slowly pulled out one of the chaos emeralds he had found and looked at it. He had three chaos emeralds; he would need only four more to go back home.

Sighing heavily over his homesickness, Sonic put the emerald away and watched the sun shining on the grass covered green hills.

Some footsteps caught hold of Sonic's ears.

Sonic awoke from his daydreaming and turned around just in time to see a large fireball coming straight at him! Sonic ducked quick enough to avoid the fireball as it flew past him. Sonic got up quickly and went to go to the door but stopped himself from doing so.

At the closed door was none other than Mario himself.

Sonic stood where he was, staring his opponent in the eye. He was not in the best of moods, and he was getting annoyed by this little human that kept trying to kill him.

Mario stood in front of the door to make sure Sonic couldn't escape. He finally had him trapped, and Mario was not going to let him go away without a fight.

Sonic stared angrily at Mario. Why wouldn't this guy just leave him alone? What had he done anyway?

Mario stayed where he was and smiled at Sonic.

"As you can see, hedgehog, I have your only escape route blocked off. We are going to settle this whole thing right now."

Sonic anger grew at hearing this from Mario's mouth.

"There's nothing to settle!" Sonic said angrily, "I didn't do anything!"

"Don't you lie to me, hedgehog!" yelled Mario, his own temper rising, "Now tell me what you are planning to do!"

"All that I want to do is to get home!" yelled Sonic back, "Is there anything wrong for me to go back where I came from?"

"And when do you plan to go back?"

"When I am good and ready!"

Mario tensed at the hedgehog's sharpness of voice. The hedgehog must be ready to accomplish his plan, but Mario would not allow him to do that.

"Listen here, hedgehog," said Mario, "I have been following you everywhere in the Mushroom Kingdom and at each place, you have been growing stronger. I must stop you now before you destroy the entire kingdom!"

Sonic's anger suddenly dropped when he heard Mario say this.

"Why would I want to destroy the kingdom?"

"Because of the evil inside of you," said Mario and with that, Mario charged at Sonic.

Sonic was too busy thinking to notice Mario's charge.

"The evil inside me?" Sonic said to himself, "That can't be me. That has to be Me…"

Sonic didn't have time to say what he had to say for at that moment, Mario's fist rammed right into Sonic's face. Sonic fell back from the blow, but Mario came at him again with another punch in the face, sending Sonic farther back this time.

Sonic shook his head quickly and dodged Mario's other punches. Mario kept on sending punches at Sonic, hoping that it will keep Sonic's guard down. Sonic dodged another punch and gave Mario a nice kick in the stomach.

Mario backed away from Sonic, giving Sonic enough time to recover from his bruises.

"Hey, pal!" Sonic tried to say, "I am not who you are after!"

Mario, however, failed to hear Sonic, and putting on his winged cap, Mario flew around in the air and threw a multitude of fireballs at Sonic.

Sonic saw the fireballs coming and quickly outmaneuvered them.

"Looks like I have to knock this guy out if I'm going to put any sense into him," Sonic said to himself and quickly spun into a ball and launched himself at Mario.

Mario tried to dodge the attack, but Sonic was too quick for him. Sonic collided into Mario in midair, knocking Mario down to the ground.

Sonic landed smoothly on the ground and before Mario could get up and fight again, he quickly took Mario's winged cap off his head.

"Give that back!" shouted Mario angrily.

"Not until you listen to me," said Sonic, twirling the cap around on his finger.

Mario mumbled out something and immediately pulled out his Metal cap. As soon as he put it on, Mario's whole body turned into shiny hard metal.

Sonic stared in amazement. Guess there were things Sonic didn't know this human could do after all.

Sonic didn't have anytime to say anything because Mario charged at Sonic again. Sonic leaped over Mario, but then Mario quickly leaped up into the air and kicked Sonic hard with his metallic foot. Sonic came crashing to the ground, while Mario landed calmly beside him.

Mario went over to Sonic and picked him off the ground, ready to destroy him. The moment Sonic was lifted off the ground, however, Sonic quickly spun into a ball, dragging Mario along in the spin. With a dizzy Mario inside of Sonic's ball, Sonic bounced back and forth across the room, hitting the walls and ceiling with Mario. Finally, Sonic landed down on the floor with enough force that Mario flew away from him and crashed into one of the walls.

Sonic picked himself up and looked at Mario. Seeing how badly hurt Mario was, Sonic went over to Mario to help him out, but to his surprise, Mario jumped off the ground and attacked Sonic with a bunch of punches. Sonic easily dodged the punches and gave a punch at Mario, hitting him square in the face.

Too bad for Sonic, Mario's face was made of the hardest metal ever created.

"Ow!" Sonic said and wriggled his hand sore hand back and forth in pain.

Mario cracked a smile and punched Sonic directly in the face. Sonic went flying across the room and rammed into the wall.

Sonic struggled to get back up when he saw Mario charging him again, ready to destroy Sonic while he is down. With no options left, Sonic quickly pulled out his power ring.

The ring glowed brightly in Sonic's hand, and Sonic's body spun into the largest and hardest ball he had ever made. Mario stopped his charge and watched as Sonic spun faster and faster inside his ball. Once Sonic had enough speed and power from his ring, Sonic launched himself at Mario.

Mario, seeing the super ball Sonic was in, put his metallic hands up to stop Sonic's attack, but Sonic's ball was too strong for Mario to stop. Sonic's ball rammed into Mario's metallic body and sent him flying against the wall.

Sonic stopped spinning and quickly grabbed Mario's metal cap off his head. Immediately, Mario's body turned back to normal.

"Give up, little man," said Sonic, "It is useless to keep fighting each time we meet."

"Never!" said Mario and with that he give Sonic a good kick in the stomach.

Sonic fell back only a little, but that was all Mario needed. Mario quickly took out his vanishing cap and put it on his head. Mario's body immediately turned invisible.

Sonic stared in amazement again. Just how many hats did this guy have anyway?

Being invisible, Mario once again charged at Sonic and this time succeeded. Sonic fell down to the ground but quickly got up again and punched where he thought Mario was at.

Only to punch thin air.

Mario leaped over the confused hedgehog and gave Sonic a good kick in the back. Sonic fell down again and quickly got up again to defend himself. Since he couldn't see Mario, Sonic would have to depend on his ears to tell him where Mario is.

Sonic's ears heard Mario's footsteps behind him. Sonic quickly turned around and kept punching at the air, hoping to hit his invisible enemy. When he noticed he wasn't hitting anything but air, however, Sonic stopped his attack and went back on the defense.

Mario smiled at Sonic's effort.

"You have hit me a dozen times and have not even knocked me down to the ground," said Mario, "Too bad for you, my cap not only makes me invisible, but phasable too."

Sonic grew tensed. No wonder why he wasn't getting anywhere with his attacks! He couldn't hit him! And if he couldn't hit him, he wouldn't be able to take his cap off! Unless…

Sonic quickly dashed around and around the invisible Mario until he formed a small tornado around Mario. Mario tried to hold onto the ground, but the wind was too strong, and Mario flew up into the air. The wind blew Mario's vanishing cap off of Mario's head and immediately, Mario's body became visible once again. Mario fell down to the floor, and Sonic quickly took Mario's vanishing cap.

Seeing that Sonic had all three of his special caps, Mario put back on his red cap and lunged himself at Sonic. Sonic caught Mario in the air and threw him to the ground. Mario groaned loudly as he tried to get up again, but he was too weak and fell back down to the floor. Sonic landed in front of Mario; a serious look on his face told Mario that he had won.

"Go ahead, hedgehog! You have defeated me, and I am now to weak to stop you. Finish me!" cried Mario.

Sonic knelt down to Mario and grabbing his hand, he pulled Mario's body up off the ground.

"What are you doing?" asked a surprised Mario.

"Helping you to your feet," said Sonic.

With Sonic's support, Mario was able to stand up again.

"Why did you just help me if we are enemies?" asked Mario.

Sonic looked deep into Mario's blue eyes.

"Because I truly believe we are not really enemies."

A surprised look came upon Mario's face.

"What do you mean we are not enemies?" asked Mario.

"Because first of all, I didn't start whole enemy bit and second of all, I can tell that you are not a villain. I can tell by your eyes," answered Sonic.

Mario stared at Sonic's serious face.

"You are right about the second part," said Mario, "but you are not right about the first one. The princess had seen you in her vision, and in it, you have destroyed the entire Mushroom Kingdom. Then there is a painting in this castle that shows you destroying the kingdom. You are the villain!"

The memory of the stone picture in the pyramid came inside of Sonic's head.

"Did anyone actually tell you that I was a villain?" asked Sonic, hoping to solve the riddle.

"Yes, a scientist called Dr. Eggman told me that you were his adversary and even showed me a picture of you. That proves that you are the villain," said Mario.

Sonic's eyes grew big at hearing this.

"Eggman told you this?" asked Sonic.

Mario looked into Sonic's green eyes. When he realized how serious Sonic was, Mario answered, "Yes."

Before Sonic could say anything else to Mario, a large explosion shook the whole castle. Sonic and Mario both fell down to the ground, and when they got up again, they were surrounded by a dozen large robots. And floating above the robots in his Eggmobile was Dr. Eggman himself with a grin on his face.

Mario was the first one to speak.

"Dr. Eggman! What are you doing here?" Mario asked confusingly.

Eggman gave a little laugh at Mario's question.

"Why I am just conquering this beautiful castle of yours. I hope you don't mind."

"What?" asked Mario.

Eggman again laughed at Mario's question.

"I see that our little warthog friend hasn't told you the truth yet," said Eggman.

Mario looked at Sonic then back at Dr, Eggman.

"What do you mean, Dr. Eggman?"

"You were easier to trick than I thought," said Eggman, "Even though I am well known for my deceitfulness, I never did think you would have fell for my lie so easily."

Mario stared up silently in disbelief at Eggman.

"You see, Mario," said Eggman, "Once Sonic and I got transported here to your world, I knew he would try to stop me from conquering it. That is why I lied to you, so you could keep him busy while I build my robot army and conquer your world. Thanks to you, Mario, I have now not only built my robot army, but I have also have fixed the Egg Dentastrater."

The Egg Dentastrater?" asked Sonic for the first time.

"Yes, Sonic. I have found it and rebuilt it, so now it is twice as powerful as before. And thanks to my little friend here, I now have the power source to power it up," said Eggman and saying that, Eggman pulled out the red chaos emerald.

"The chaos emerald!" said Sonic.

"Of course only one chaos emerald won't destroy an entire planet, but it won't be long before I have all seven chaos emeralds to power up the Egg Dentastrater, and with it I will build the Eggman Empire!"

Eggman put the emerald away and gave out a loud laugh of victory.

Mario turned and faced Sonic.

"Your name is Sonic?" asked Mario.

Sonic smiled.

"Yep, and I guess your name is Mario. If we weren't in a jam here, I would be laughing over your name." Sonic said and gave a little chuckle.

Mario gave Sonic a serious look, so Sonic quickly stopped chuckling and looked at Eggman.

"I now have no longer use of you, Mario, but I still do have some use of your princess here," said Eggman and pointed his finger at the door.

Mario turned around and saw one of Eggman's robots holding Princess Peach, who was in chains.

"Peach!" Mario yelled and with that, Mario leaped over the robots surrounding him and raced over to Peach. Sonic quickly followed him.

A large ball from behind suddenly rammed into both Sonic and Mario, knocking them both to the ground.

"Good job, Metal," said Eggman.

"Thank you, Dr, Eggman," said Metal Sonic who was standing in front of Sonic and Mario.

Mario put his head up and saw a metallic hedgehog standing right before him. It looked exactly like the hedgehog that he had seen in the painting.

"You!" Mario said and tried to get up, but Metal Sonic kicked him hard in the face and knocked him out cold. Mario fell back down to the ground.

"Metal, dispose of these two fools and make sure they don't try to stop me!" commanded Eggman.

"It will be my pleasure, Doctor," said Metal and saying that, he grabbed both Sonic and Mario and flew high up into the air until he was out of sight.

With both Sonic and Mario gone, Eggman went over to Princess Peach.

"Don't worry your highness. I won't dispose of you, yet!" said Eggman.

And with that, Eggman broke out into a victorious laugh.

Metal Sonic flew high across the Mushroom Kingdom with both Sonic and Mario in both of his hands. When he approached a large murky swamp, Metal Sonic threw both Sonic and Mario and watched them as they crashed into the swamp.

"So long, Sonic and Mario," Metal said and gave out a loud laugh of triumph.

Now that those two were disposed of, no one could stop Metal's plans now.