Sonic & Mario

Chapter 9

The Hero Alliance

"Hey, pal! Are you awake?"

Hearing the voice above him, Mario slowly opened up his eyes and saw a blue hedgehog standing over his still body. Mario tried to get up, but his hands slipped, and he fell back down onto the muddy ground.

The hedgehog took Mario's hand and carefully lifted him up from the muddy ground. Once on his feet, Mario's body wobbled a bit at trying to keep its balance, but soon enough, Mario was able to regain his balance and faced the blue hedgehog. A moment of brainstorming brought the hedgehog's name back to Mario's head.

"Thank you, Sonic," said Mario, "and I am sorry."

Sonic gave a puzzled look at Mario.

"What are you sorry for?" asked Sonic.

Mario wanted turn away from Sonic's eyes to escape his guilt, but Mario held his ground and told him anyway.

"For falsely accusing you and trying to do destroy you."

Mario expected a scolding back from Sonic; instead, Sonic gave a little smile.

"Yeah, well, it's not your fault you tried to kill me," Sonic said and gave a little chuckle.

Mario's face remained sober.

"This is serious," said Mario, "I almost succeeded in killing you!"

Sonic's smile remained on his face.

"I doubt that," said Sonic, "I am much tougher than I look. Many people tried to kill me over the years and yet, here I am in one piece."

Mario looked confusingly at Sonic.

"How can you be so carefree about this matter? I am trying to apologize to you, and you just make a joke about it."

"You don't need to apologize," said Sonic and walked slowly into the muddy swamp.

Mario, shocked by Sonic's carefree attitude, watched Sonic disappear into the swamp before he followed him. It didn't take Mario long to see Sonic laying on a tree branch right above a deep pit of mud.

Aware of Mario's presence, Sonic looked down at him and gave a small smile.

"What's up, Mario?"

"You, that's who, Sonic," replied Mario, "Now what do you mean that I don't have to apologize. Are you against apologies?"

Sonic's head turned away from Mario and back to watching the stormy sky above the swamp's canopy. Mario waited patiently for Sonic to answer, but when nothing happened, Mario jumped up onto the same tree branch that Sonic was lying on and stared down at Sonic's face.

"It is impolite to not answer someone's question.

Sonic just shrugged.

"Well, I'm not the type of guy who learned manners."

Mario's anger started to show in front of Sonic.

"I was polite enough to apologize for the deeds I did against you, so I demand a straight answer from you!"

Sonic's head swayed back and forth then finally stopped when he saw Mario.

"Could you move out of my way a bit," Sonic asked, "You are blocking my view."

Mario crossed his arms over his chest and stayed put to where he was.

"Not until you answer my question."

Seeing that Mario wasn't going to budge, Sonic closed his eyes and leaned against the tree.

That sparked Mario's temper.

"That does it!' yelled Mario and he threw a small fireball down onto the tree branch.

Sonic slowly opened his eyes.

"Um, Mario," Sonic said, "You might want to move towards me a bit."

Mario shook his head.

"I told you that I was not going to move till you answer my…"

A sharp cracking sound filled the swamp's air. Mario fell down onto the branch, where he saw the fireball he had thrown was burning the branch away.

Mario's end of the branch soon broke off of Sonic's end/

"Mama Mia!" yelled Mario and he fell down with the branch into the deep pit of mud at the bottom of the tree.

Mario tried to climb out of the mud pit, but the sticky mud stuck to Mario's clothing and dragged him deeper into the pit. Seeing the situation he was in, Mario tried desperately to climb out, but the more he moved, the quicker he sank into the deep mud pit.

Up on the branch, Sonic watched Mario's troubles and shrugged.

Seeing that he couldn't get out by himself, Mario looked up at Sonic.

"Help."

Sonic looked down at Mario.

"What did you say?"

"Help," repeated Mario who was already up to his neck in the mud pit.

At that moment, Sonic stood up on the tree branch and jumped down into the mud pit. Soon, he too started sinking.

Mario looked at him surprisingly.

"What are you doing?"

Sonic smiled at Mario.

"Trust me on this."

It was easier said than done. Mario's head slowly began to disappear into the oozing mud. Soon, Mario disappeared completely into the mud pit.

Suddenly, Sonic grabbed Mario's submerged hand and with ease pulled Mario's head to the surface.

Mario coughed the mud out of his mouth and looked at Sonic. Sonic's head was the only part of his body on the surface of the mud pit, but instead of fear, a smile marked Sonic's face.

"You ready?" Sonic asked.

Mario nodded his head.

"Here we go!" yelled Sonic.

Sonic's submerged legs started to spin around faster and faster. The mud pit stopped sucking at Sonic and Mario and immediately started to spin around in a circle. The mud swirled faster, but Sonic did not stop spinning his legs. Instead, Sonic increased the speed of his legs.

Suddenly the whole mud pit erupted into the air, sending both Sonic and Mario flying through the swamp's canopy.

Mario instinctively watched Sonic and copied his every move. Both heroes grabbed on to some vines and started swinging through the canopy. Then they landed on a large mangrove tree that rested above a large pool of water. Once they landed, both Sonic and Mario surfed across the giant branches, picking up amazing speed as they continued on their journey.

When they reached the end of the tree, Sonic and Mario jumped into the air and grabbed onto some more vines and landed onto the muddy swamp ground.

Mario panted for air while Sonic shook the caked mud off his body. Once they were clean from the mud, the two heroes looked at each other in the face.

"Why did you do that?" asked Mario.

"Do what?"

"Escaping the mud pit like that, swinging on vines through the swamp and dragging me along with you?"

Sonic shrugged.

"I don't know, but I thought it was a lot of fun. Didn't you think it was a lot of fun?"

"Well, yes," said Mario, "But why couldn't we just have climbed out of the mud instead of soaring throughout the whole swamp?"

"What fun is there in just climbing out of a mud pit?" asked Sonic.

"It is the proper way to get out of a mud pit," pointed out Mario.

"Proper, but not fun," replied Sonic.

"What is it with you and fun?" asked Mario confusingly.

Sonic shrugged.

"If you are a guy like me, you would try to turn anything into a game. It makes the hard times go by quicker."

Mario kept silent.

"It something I learned back at my world. Never pass up the opportunity to turn something bad into something enjoyable," said Sonic.

Sonic waited for Mario to say something back to him. Mario said nothing.

"The problem with you is that you do not enjoy your gifts. Sure, I guess it is your duty to guard your princess, but that doesn't mean you should take it too seriously."

Mario just nodded in agreement.

"As for the apology, you already apologized to me before."

Mario looked confusingly at Sonic.

"What do you mean?"

"Back at the castle, when you realized the truth that I was a friend and called me by my real name, I accepted your apology."

Mario looked down at the ground and shook his head.

"How do you do it, Sonic?" Mario asked.

Sonic shrugged.

"Must be my carefree attitude."

Mario looked up in agreement.

"I'd say!" said Mario, "The way you do things, I doubt you take anything seriously!"

"Only the things that are really serious!" agreed Sonic with a smile.

For the first time since they had been together, Mario gave a nice smile back.

"Okay, then, but I still have a question. I have been fooled by Dr. Eggman into thinking you have been the enemy, and I am wondering, since whenever we met we fought, how you got here and what you are you going to do about here?" said Mario.

"It's a long story," replied Sonic.

"Please, I need to know the truth!"

Sonic thought it over and then shook his head.

"You better get yourself comfortable, because this is going to take a while."

Metal Sonic landed softly on the swampy ground and looked around. Ever since he had thrown both heroes into the swamp, Metal had occupied himself to search for their dead bodies. He couldn't get anywhere in the sky, so Metal landed on the ground to continue his search.

Metal didn't have to go far before he saw two sets of footprints in the mud.

Metal bent down to the ground and studied the footprints. He could tell from the outline of the prints that whoever bore them wore shoes.

And no animal in the swamp wore shoes.

"They're alive," said Metal.

A thunder clap broke the stormy sky. Raindrops began to fall down onto the earth, washing away the footprints while watering the damp earth.

Not wanting to lose his only clue to the whereabouts of the two heroes, Metal dashed through the swamp, following the footprints to wherever it may lead him.

"And now, here we are, talking like friends," said Sonic who had just finished telling his story to Mario.

Mario thought over Sonic's story and looked into his eyes. Mario was tricked before, and he did not want to be tricked again.

"What do you intend to do?" asked Mario.

"Get both Eggman and I back to our world before he conquers yours," replied Sonic.

"And how are you going to do that?"

"With these," Sonic said and pulled out the three chaos emeralds he had.

"What is so important about those gems?" asked Mario.

"These gems are called chaos emeralds. Every chaos emerald has mystical power that can be used for good or for evil. If one collects all seven chaos emeralds, chaos control will happen."

Sonic put the chaos emeralds away and looked up at the stormy sky.

"It was chaos control that brought me here, and it will send me back."

Mario said nothing. He had witnessed some of the power of the chaos emeralds, but he had no idea how much power was inside all seven of them. For that reason Mario kept his chaos emerald in his pocket and didn't tell Sonic about it. It wasn't that he didn't trust him; Mario just didn't want the emerald to fall into the wrong hands.

"Now what?" asked Mario.

"We have to go back and stop Eggman."

Mario nodded in agreement.

"Do you know where we are?" asked Sonic.

Mario shook his head.

"No, but if we find a large green pipe, we could probably make our way back into the castle undetected."

"Okay, but how do we find one of these pipes?"

"Those pipes can be found anywhere in the Mushroom Kingdom, but they are most common in buildings and caves, so I suggest we find a cave."

"Right," Sonic agreed and immediately dashed away into the swamp.

"Hey, wait!" Mario yelled but it was no use. Sonic had already disappeared into the swamp. Mario was alone.

"He sure doesn't stay around long enough to change his mind," Mario grumbled and made his ways through the swamp.

Mario walked along the swamp trial when a thunderbolt broke the silence of the swamp. At that moment, raindrops fell down from the sky and started to wash away the trial Mario was on.

Mario quickened his pace to keep track of the trial when he suddenly tripped over a tree root. Mario fell down to the ground; right on top of a hard object.

"Ouch!"

Mario quickly rolled off the object and stood up on his feet. Mario looked down at the object he had landed on.

The object was covered in caked mud, but a small green glow could be seen coming from the object. Mario picked it up and brushed the caked mud off it. The green light shone brighter into Mario's eyes as he held the green chaos emerald in his hand.
Mario looked at the green emerald in his hand. This was the second emerald that he had found, and if Sonic had three and Eggman had one, then that equaled six emeralds.

"Six emeralds," Mario said aloud.

A sudden rustling in the bushes took Mario's attention from the emerald. Mario looked around him, looking for the source of the noise. When nothing appeared, Mario went to put the emerald in his pocket.

Only it wasn't in his hand anymore.

Mario looked around for the emerald, but it was no where in sight.

"Plop!"

A large coconut fell on top of Mario's head. Mario fell back a little from the impact, rubbing the sore part of his head. Mario looked up just in time to see a monkey drop another coconut right at him.

Mario quickly dodged the coconut and looked angrily at the monkey.

Only to see the chaos emerald in its hand!

"Thief!" yelled Mario and he quickly jumped onto one of the tree branches to get his emerald back. The monkey climbed higher up into the tree, with Mario right behind him.

Finally, the monkey went out on a small branch at the top of the tree. There were no other branches in sight.

Mario blocked the monkey's only escape route.

"Now give me back my emerald."

The monkey shook its head.

"Give."

The monkey moved further towards the end of the branch.

"Now!"

Suddenly, a second monkey came out of the leaves and grabbed Mario's hat. Surprised, Mario lost his balance on the branch and fell off. The monkeys watched in interest as Mario quickly grabbed a vine and swung himself to another branch.

Once he regained his balance, Mario looked angrily up at the two monkeys, one with his emerald, and the other with his hat.

"Give me back my hat and emerald!"

The two monkeys screeched at Mario and threw the emerald and hat to each other.

Mario tapped his foot lightly.

"No, give them to me!"

The one monkey looked at the other and nodded its head. The monkey then grabbed a large coconut and threw it at Mario.

Mario caught the coconut and threw to the ground, but then another coconut crashed into his face, almost sending him off the limb.

Mario regained his balance and glared up at the laughing monkeys.

"That does it!"

Mario positioned himself in between both monkeys. Then, Mario sent a fireball from both of his hands at the branches the monkeys were on.

The branches quickly burned away, and the laughing monkeys, who finally stopped laughing, fell out of the tree. As the monkeys fell right beside him, Mario grabbed both the chaos emerald and his hat from the monkey's hands and watched as they continued their journey down to the ground.

Fortunately for the monkeys, they were able to grab on to some vines and landed safely on the branches of another tree. They quickly swung away out of sight.

Mario jumped off the tree and landed on the ground. Mario dusted off his hat and put it on his head.

"Nobody takes my hat," Mario said and put the emerald in his pocket and continued on the swamp trail.

Metal Sonic came to a stop when the footprints disappeared under the pressure of the rain. He had lost the trail, but he wasn't discouraged. He knew they were alive, and it would be a matter of time before he met them again.

Metal took out his communicator and turned it on. Eggman's face appeared on the communicator's screen.

"What is it, Metal?"

"Sonic and Mario are still alive, but the rain washed away their footprints, and I am unable to follow them."

Eggman was not pleased with the news.

"Why you good for nothing scrap of metal!" Eggman screamed, "You were supposed to stop them from coming back!"

"I didn't say that they are back yet!" scowled Metal, "I intend to stop them myself, but first I need one of your robots."

Eggman thought it over and then nodded his head.

"Which one of my beauties do you have in mind?"

Metal knew which one he wanted.

"Eggbomber."

The swamp grew denser as Sonic made his way through it at alarming speed. He had been searching for hours, and he still did not find any pipe anywhere.

Sonic quickly stopped in his tracks. Right in front of him was the entrance to a large cave. If Mario was correct, some pipes should be in there, and the pipes will lead him back to the castle.

"I better find Mario and tell him I found this cave," Sonic said and prepared to dash away.

Suddenly a large bomb dropped in front of Sonic and erupted. Green gas came out from the bomb and intoxicated the swamp air. It was sleeping gas.

Sonic tried to cover his nose from the toxic gas, but it was useless. He was in the middle of the gas cloud and was receiving the most gas into his body. Sonic fell down to his knees and dropped to the ground.

Mario cautiously made his through the dense jungle like growth of the swamp. The rain had washed away the rest of the trail, so Mario was on his own.

The vegetation cleared a bit when a green gas appeared out of nowhere and floated above Mario's head. Mario took one sniff of it and coughed.

"Sleeping gas," Mario said.

Mario quickly grabbed his metal cap and put on his head. His body instantly turned to metal. The green gas increased in volume, but thanks to the metal cap, Mario couldn't breath it in.

Mario quickened his pace through the jungle growth till he came to the clearing. The green gas formed a thick fog over the clearing, so Mario walked carefully into the clearing.

Soon enough, Mario tripped over something. Mario stood back up and looked at what he tripped over.

It was Sonic.

'Sonic?"

Mario bent down and examined Sonic. He was still breathing, but the gas had made him unconscious. There was nothing Mario could do for him.

A loud engine filled the gas soaked air. Mario turned around and saw an egg shaped robot land right behind him.

"Halt! In the name of the glorious Eggman!"

"Glorious indeed!" said Mario in a sarcastic tone.

"Enemy within target range! Fire!"

The robot let out a large flame of fire from its gun. Mario easily caught it in the air and threw it back at the robot. The flame just glanced off of the robot's armor.

"Changing weapon sequence! Laser Guns!"

The robot began shooting out laser bolts at Mario. Mario held up his hand and blocked the laser bolts with his metallic hand.

"Is that the best you can do!"

"Launch missiles!"

The missiles launched out of the robot and flew straight at Mario. Mario quickly dodged each of the missiles and ran up to the robot.

The robot continued to fire laser beams and missiles, but easily sidestepped them. Once he reached the robot, Mario jumped into the air and spun around into a small spinning top.

"Spin jump!"

Mario crashed through the robots armor. The robot began to glow red.

"Self destruct in 30 seconds!"

Mario landed on the ground, grabbed Sonic and ran away from the broken robot. Mario had just made it out of the fog when the robot self destruct. Metal fragments flew everywhere, and the gas quickly cleared up. The swamp was once again quiet.

Mario put Sonic gently onto the ground and took off his metal cap. Mario's body returned to normal.

Mario turned behind him and found himself looking into the entrance to a large cave.

Mario looked down at Sonic and smiled.

"No wonder why you were here."

Being out of the sleeping gas, Sonic's body stirred as Sonic woke up from his sleep. Seeing Mario next to him, Sonic gave a weak smile.

"I see you made it!"

Mario nodded.

'Just barely."

Sonic gave a little chuckle and stood up on his feet.

"I was going to go find you again when one of Eggman's robots dropped that gas bomb on me," Sonic said and looked around, "Speaking of robot, where is it?"

"I took care of him for you," Mario said with a smile on his own face.

Sonic gave a return smile.

"Guess you are tougher than you look."

"Same as you," agreed Mario.

Sonic nodded and looked into the entrance of the cave.

"Do you think there is a pipe in there?" asked Sonic.

Mario nodded.

"I believe there is."

"Then what are we waiting for," Sonic said and prepared to dash.

Mario quickly grabbed hold of Sonic's arm.

"How about we stick together this time," Mario suggested.

Sonic shrugged.

"Works for me!"

And with that, the two heroes walked slowly into the entrance of the cave.

Metal Sonic looked down at the remains of Eggbomber. Apparently, the robot was no match for the heroes but that didn't matter. It was just a test to see how good his opponents really were.

Metal gave a small grin and walked into the cave.