Chapter 3
A Dark Detour
A while after the others left, Princess Peach was taking a stroll through the castle garden. The roses were in bloom and the scent was calming. Her mind had finally drifted from the cares of the day and relaxed from the worries. As she walked through the garden she heard a sound off in the distance which was growing louder. It started to sound like a rocket, and when she looked up, she could see some sort of space ship coming down from the sky. Peach started to wonder if it was Mario and the others coming back, but as it drew closer, she could recognize the house on rockets. Marina was dropping in for a visit.
Peach went out to the field to greet the visitors. Once the ship landed, Professor Theo stumbled out, still unable to cope with Nintendo's strong gravity. Marina then stepped out, holding her hand above her eyes to see through the bright sunlight. Peach then approached them and bowed.
"Theo, Marina, it's a pleasure to see you again."
"Hey Peach, nice to see you too!" Marina said with a wave.
"What brings you both here?"
"Actually, we're here because we heard that Starfox was heading here." Marina then turned and punched and elbowed Theo. "The Prof. had to go and break our dimensional drive, so we wanted to ask Slippy to help us repair it."
"Hey, give me a break here! This technology is nothing like cybots!" Theo complained.
"I'm afraid you just missed them. They headed out with the others to help the Zox."
"Help out? Something going on?"
"It's kind of a long story." Peach briefly explained to them what had happened that day, but before they finished, the sky went dark. They looked around attentively, wondering if it was more dark crystals. A portal opened up horizontal with the ground, and just a mere second after it opened, a blue blur came blasting out. The blur came skidding to a stop, and everyone's fears were calmed.
"Hey guys, what's up?"
"Hey Sonic! Haven't seen you in a while!" Marina said.
"My, this is turning out to be quite the reunion. What brings you here? And…what is that suit you're wearing?" Peach asked. Sonic usually only wore shoes and gloves, but right now he was wearing a red suit which had several devices on it.
"This thing is why I'm here, actually. This is the portable dimensional drive that Tails just made. He wanted me to test it out, so I thought I'd come here. Guess I can say that it works!"
"A dimensional drive? In a suit? He does it work?" Theo asked, his attention now piqued.
"I dunno. Tails said something about it being powered by my speed. I just enter the coordinates on this device," Sonic said as he pointed to a keypad on his left arm. "start running, and it opens a portal."
"Great! If you've got a working dimensional drive, then let's go catch up with the others!" Marina said.
"Catch up? Where'd they go?"
"They went with Shin to go help them with some trouble, and there's no way I'm letting them leave me behind!"
"All right, count me in!" Sonic said.
"Huh? You're going now, just like that?" Peach asked.
"Of course! 'Won't stop, just go!'" Sonic said, quoting himself.
"I've got nothing better to do." Marina said. Sonic then pressed a few buttons on his keypad.
"All right Marina, grab my hand." Sonic said. As soon as Marina grabbed Sonic's hand, Sonic dashed forward. He quickly picked up speed and soon became a blur. Before they were out of sight, electricity coursed through his suit and then reached out to pull open a portal. They went through, and like that, they were gone. Professor Theo stood there looking out at where they disappeared.
"But, what about my dimensional drive?"
In a dimensional tunnel, there's nothing physical to grab hold of, and there's no gravity to pull you towards the walls of the tunnel. With the speed that Sonic entered the portal, both Sonic and Marina floated through the tunnel at an incredible speed. Stars and multi-colored lights flew past them, almost as if they were traveling through space at warp speed, except they were breathing the air that came with them through the portal.
They were beginning to reach the end of the tunnel, but instead of seeing Compet on the other side of the portal, there was a dark void. They braced their selves as they approached the void, but once they hit it, they simply went through, and found themselves still inside the dimensional tunnel.
"What…was that?" Marina asked, shouting above the noise of the rushing air.
"Beats me." They didn't have much time to think about it, as they were now approaching a light at the end of the tunnel. As the light came into view they could see that it was the end of the tunnel, but in the second that they exited the portal, they faced a metal wall only a few feet away.
"Marina? Marina? You okay? You awake?" A faint voice echoed. There was nothing but darkness, and aside from the muffled voice, there was a loud ringing in her head. The darkness started to lift, and a fuzzy light filled her sight. As things became clearer, she could recognize Sonic leaning over her. Sonic's voice was now becoming clearer, and she could now recognize that she was lying on her back. As her hearing and vision cleared, though, she could feel pain flaring up in her back and in her head.
"Uh…where…am I?" Marina asked.
"Huh? You don't remember? You must have hit your head pretty bad then." Sonic said.
"Uh, my head is pounding."
"Can you get up?"
"I think so." As Marina sat up, the pain in her back increased, so she only got up enough to sit against the wall. She looked around at her surroundings, seeing that they were in a large room filled with wooden crates. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of metal, and there was a single door to the left of her. "Where are we?"
"Not Compet, I'm afraid. My control panel is giving me the coordinates of a different dimension."
"Oh yeah, we were headed to Compet, and I remember going down the dimensional tunnel, but…I can't seem to remember what happened after that."
"We hit that wall. Well, mostly you." Sonic said pointing at the wall above her. Marina looked up, and saw a body-shaped dent in the wall.
"Did…did I do that?"
"Yup. The portal spit us out in the air and right into this wall. Without the ground to slow us down, I couldn't do much, but you yanked on my arm and tossed me back. It wasn't enough to actually throw me in the opposite direction, but it slowed me down enough that I didn't get hurt. You then tried to turn around and use your rockets to slow yourself down, but it was too little too late. How do you feel?"
"Well, my back aches, my head is pounding and still ringing, but I don't think I broke any bones at least. How long was I out?"
"Only a few seconds. I think you'll be fine." Sonic said, smiling. His ears quickly perked up as he heard something outside though.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm telling ya, I thought I heard something back here!" The voices became louder, and then the door knob began to turn. The door to the room swung open, and a Waddle Dee stepped into the room, with another one right behind him. The first Waddle Dee looked in the direction of Sonic and Marina and jumped and screamed in horror at the first sight of the intruders. He then slammed the door closed.
"Hey, wait!" Sonic shouted. He ran over to the door, which was thankfully unlocked from the inside, and opened the door. He called to the Waddle Dees but they paid no attention to him. Instead, the one Waddle Dee ran towards a button that was placed on the far side of the wall. Once he hit the button, red lights began flashing and an alarm sounded.
"Uh oh, looks like we're not welcomed. I hope you're up to running, because we gotta get outta here!" Sonic said to Marina. Sonic grabbed Marina's hand, and once she stood up, Sonic took off, with Marina being pulled behind. They ran into the other room where the two Waddle Dees were. The two faced the intruders to prevent their escape, but Sonic merely jumped over them and ran towards the open hallway. As they ran down the hallway, Blade Knights came running in from different doors and blocked their way. Sonic then picked up the pace and started running against the side of the left wall, then continued on towards the ceiling, past the Blade Knights, and then back down the right wall and back to the floor.
At the end of the hallway was another room, along with several Waddle Dees, Blade Knights, and Sir Kibbles, all whom were ready to stop the intruders. As soon as they entered the room, the door behind them slid shut, and the only other two doors were shut as well.
"Marina, can you open that door ahead of us?"
"Perhaps."
"Then get ready." Sonic then rolled into a ball and started spinning furiously on the ground. Not waiting for Sonic to prepare, all of the guards charged forward, but they still weren't fast enough. Like a bolt of lightning Sonic dashed forward, plowing into the guards. For how closely they were packed together, they were all knocked down like bowling pins.
With a path cleared, Marina rocketed forward to the door ahead. There wasn't anything to grab onto, so she tried to slide the metal door open by pushing towards the side. The door only budged a bit, but once it had slid open far enough that she could get her hands through, she gripped the side of the door and pulled it open. Some of the Sir Kibbles were now getting back up and didn't waste time to attack. The small guards threw their boomerang-like blades at the two, but Marina was able to get the door open wide enough in time for them to slip through. The blades were heading for them, but as soon as Marina and Sonic were through, they closed the door behind them, leaving the blades to the strong metal door.
They were now in a short hallway that only led to an elevator. Deciding the elevator wasn't safe, Marina pulled the elevator doors open, much more easily than the last door. They looked inside the shaft, seeing the elevator cable hanging in the middle, and what seemed like endless darkness in either direction.
"There's no sign of what floor we're on. Which way should we go?" Marina asked.
"Beats me. Down could take us to ground level, or further below."
"Let's go up then. We can always climb back down if we find ourselves on top." With that they jumped for the cables and grabbed hold, and started climbing up.
"I know I asked this before, but where are we?" Marina asked.
"I could be wrong, but one of those guys back there looked like a Waddle Dee."
"What's a Waddle Dee?"
"A minion of King Dedede, someone who lives in dimension N."
"What? But I thought you said we were in some other dimension?"
"I don't know, maybe this thing is broken. Tails's machines aren't always perfect." Sonic said. The elevator cables suddenly began to move and they both lost grip. They then grabbed onto the cable that was going up, which gave them a free ride. They were moving somewhat fast now, but as they looked up, they could now see the ceiling.
"Ah! We gotta jump!" Sonic shouted.
"No, hold on!" Marina then grabbed with one hand the cable that was going down, while still holding onto the cable that was going up. As soon as she grabbed hold of both cables, her arms were jolted in two directions, and she felt as if her arms would be torn right off. Her left hand slipped and she was pulled upward, but she grabbed on more tightly. The cables were slowing down, but the friction from the cable was starting to burn her hand, and the pain in her back was now sharp and stinging. They were now coming to a stop, finally stopping only a few feet from the ceiling. Sonic jumped up towards the elevator door on the wall and pulled it open, and they both jumped back into the light.
Sonic and Marina were now out of the elevator shaft, but they didn't look before they leaped; they were now surrounded. At the top floor was a control room of some sorts. It was a large semi-circle, with control panels on the sides and windows all along the walls, and a sailing ship-like steering wheel at the front. Several Waddle Dees were in the room, with a Blade Knight at the steering wheel. There was no way out, except for the windows which only showed thick fog. The Blade Knight faced the intruders and brandished his sword.
"It looks like there's only one way out of this place. You with me?"
"Yeah, let's go for it." Sonic and Marina charged forward, and so did the others. The small force drew their weapons as they charged towards the intruders, but just as they reached them, Sonic jumped in the air, and holding onto Marina, dashed in the air towards the glass window. The small force could only watch, dumbfounded, as the intruders whizzed past them overhead and broke through the window.
Once they broke through the window and flew into the mist, they fell only a few feet before hitting the ground. The wind was strong, blowing the white mist past them at a furious pace, but they could still only see about a foot in front of them. Deciding to not stick around they ran forward, but at a pace that Marina could go; any faster and they might bump into something before seeing it. They ran, hoping that they weren't being followed, but with the noise from the wind it was difficult to tell. It wasn't a minute longer that they came to a ledge. They couldn't see what was down there, but they didn't have many options.
"Come on, let's go"
"Wait Marina, maybe we shouldn't. I have a bad feeling about this." They pondered what to do, but suddenly the mist was replaced with a bright light. As their eyes adjusted to the light, they could see what was around them. Above them was a clear, blue sky, and below them they could see what the mist really was: clouds. They had stopped at the bow of an air ship. They turned around to see the ship they were on, and two things took them by surprise. One of the things that took them by surprise was that they were on Meta Knight's ship. The other surprise was that the main canon was charged and ready to fire at them.
The beam canon fired its devastating beam, and the heroes were corned with nowhere to run. Marina thrust her arms forward in front of the beam, and with her strength and the power of her suit, held it back. It was like trying to hold back a waterfall, but she managed to protect both herself and Sonic. As the beam ended, Marina gathered up some of the energy into a ball, and while the canon stopped, she threw the energy ball back at it. The ball exploded upon impact and carved a large hole in the front of the canon. Sonic whistled in amazement.
"Wow Marina, that was impressive! And even being injured like tha…" Sonic looked back at Marina to find her collapsed on the floor. "Marina!" Sonic knelt down to see if she was okay, but was stopped as someone grabbed him from behind.
"You leave that monster alone if you want to live." The voice said from behind him. Sonic looked down and could see a jagged sword pointed at his neck.
"Dang, looks like you got the jump on me." Sonic said smugly. Even in a dangerous position Sonic held his cool. "Look, I think there's some sort of mistake here. We didn't know we were on Meta Knight's ship. There's no reason we need to fight."
"As long as you're partners with the monster Marina there's a reason to fight."
"Monster? What are you talking about? Wait…that voice…is that you Meta Knight?"
"So, you've heard of me. I can't say the same about you."
"What do you mean? We met each other in the last Smash Brothers tournament! Look, if you're still mad about me beating you, you don't…."
"Now you're talking nonsense! Now I'll say this once: either surrender, or die with Marina." At this point some of Meta Knight's men had gathered around them. Two of them came to pick up Marina, but they stopped before taking her away.
"Sir! Something's different about her."
"She's wearing different clothes, so what?" Meta Knight asked. As he looked down at Marina's legs, he saw what they were referring to.
"Human legs? What happened? Isn't she a Cybot?"
"Yeah, several years ago."
"What? But we saw her only yesterday with those machine legs."
"Yesterday? Look, something's not right here, so how about you put down your sword so we can talk this over." Meta Knight looked back at Marina, then back at Sonic. Something was indeed different here. Meta Knight then sheathed his sword.
"Tend to Marina's wounds, but place her in the cell."
"Yes, sir!" One of the Blade Knights said, who then carried her off. Sonic turned around and faced Meta Knight.
"Thanks."
"So what's your name?"
"Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog!"
As Marina came to, she found herself once again in a metal room. She slowly lifted her head off the floor, seeing that no one was around. She sat up, and that's when she noticed the barred wall. She stood up and tried move the bars, but they wouldn't budge. Even with her strength they still held strong. This seemed to be a very secure prison cell.
"Oh, come on!" Frustrated, Marina sat on the barren floor, and started thinking to herself. "How'd I get her anyways? I don't remember anything after stopping that laser cannon. I guess I blacked out from the stress and pain. Wait, considering what I just went through, I actually feel pretty good right now! Maybe a good rest is all I needed to recover!"
Somewhere out of sight, the sound of a lock clicked, and a door swung open. Someone was walking towards her cell. Marina stood up, and around the corner came a large, blue, roughly penguin-shaped person.
"So, you're the other Marina Liteyears. You do look a little different."
"Huh? What does that mean?"
"Come on, follow me. Your spikey friend was explaining it to us." The penguin man then unlocked the cell and opened the door. Marina then followed him out.
"So who are you?" Marina asked as they walked down a hallway.
"The name's Dedede, and I'm the King of Dreamland."
"Dreamland? Isn't that the place where Kirby's from? Wait, you mean we're back in Dimension N?"
"As I said, your spikey friend was explaining everything." Dedede then opened the door at the end of the hallway. Inside was Sonic and Meta Knight sitting at a round table.
"Sonic! I'm glad to see you! What happened?"
"Take a seat. How ya feeling? Meta Knight said they healed your wounds."
"Pretty good, actually. So, what happened? How did we get back to Dimension N?"
"Well, I can't say how we got here, but what I do know is that this isn't Dimension N."
"What? But I thought Dedede said we're in Dreamland."
"An opposite Dreamland, in an opposite Dimension N."
"Opposite? How so?"
"Your villains are our heroes, and vice versa." Dedede said.
"Really? Everyone?"
"Even Dedede here." Sonic said. "From what the people on this ship have said to me, Dedede is a generous, benevolent king, even though where we're from he's mean and greedy."
"So what about Kirby?" Marina asked.
"The terror of Dreamland!" Dedede shouted. "That punk has gone and eaten entire villages!"
"Okay, so how about Mario?"
"Mario? You mean that guy on Nintendo who's always trying to kidnap Princess Peach?" Meta Knight said. "He's always causing mischief, but Bowser is always there to stop him."
"And Link?"
"Threw Hyrule into seven years of darkness, but was eventually defeated by the hero Ganondorf."
"Samus?"
"Tyrant ruler of five galaxies. Uses her army of Metroids to conquer planets. Sometimes hires the Starfox team to do her dirty work."
"Wait, let me guess…Sonic usually tries to conquer the world but is stopped by the hero Dr. Eggman?
"Actually, we've never heard of Sonic before."
"I wasn't born in Dimension N, remember Marina? I only ended up there because of the Zox."
"Well, I guess all of this makes sense. Wait, so if you were trying to attack me, then does that mean…."
"The Marina we know is a vicious pirate." Meta Knight quickly replied. "You do look a little different, which is why I was willing to give you two a chance. But remember this: if you are the Marina we're looking for, then I'll take you down the moment you try anything."
"The Marina we know recently stole something precious to us." Dedede explained. "It's called the Star Rod, and it's a powerful relic. For some reason, Marina has been working with Kirby, and they've been on the attack for a while."
"I got to admit, I just can't picture an evil version of Kirby." Sonic said.
"Well, I suppose as long as we're here, we could lend you a hand. It just feels weird to think there could be an evil me." As soon as they offered to help, an alarm sounded, and then someone shouted over the loudspeakers.
"Captain Meta Knight! We've spotted Marina's ship! It's five kilometers from our bow!" With that, Meta Knight and Dedede hurried to the bridge. Marina and Sonic followed.
At the bridge were several Waddle Dees and Blade Knights controlling the ship, as well as two Waddle Dees wiping a window. It looked like they had just replaced the window that Sonic and Marina broke earlier.
"Show me." Meta Knight demanded. A Blade Knight handed him some binoculars, and Meta Knight peered out the windows. They were above the clouds, but out in the distance he could see a black flag, marked with a skull and crossbones, poking out from the clouds. It swam through the clouds like a shark's fin, hinting to the danger that was coming.
"Is the main cannon online?"
"No sir, we're still repairing it."
"Then open all starboard cannons and bring us about!" The Halberd veered to the left, while countless hatches on the right side of the ship slid open. Cannons then pushed out from the hatches, lining the side of the ship. As the Halberd prepared for battle, the Pirate ship emerged from the clouds. The ship appeared to be a typical wooden pirate ship that would be found on the sea, except it was flying through the use of rockets attached to the bottom. It also had tattered black sails, even though a ship on rockets had no use for them. The ship was about a third of the size of the Halberd, but it was moving a lot faster. It too had cannons ready at the side of the ship, and ready to fire.
Just as the pirate ship passed to the right of the Halberd, both sides opened fire. The Halberd unleashed a fury of lasers right into the pirates. It would have ripped the wooden ship to tinder, but the lasers instead collided with an energy shield. The pirates then fired their own cannons, firing large metal balls. The Halberd didn't have an energy shield, but its sturdy hull withstood the beating.
As the pirate shipped passed it then turned around and began circling the Halberd, continuing to fire its cannons.
"How are we holding up?"
"The hull is withstanding, sir, but they're aiming for our cannons. We've already lost thirteen percent of our arsenal."
"So they're trying to disarm us?" Meta Knight took a second to think. "Concentrate your fire on their bow! We have to break through their shields!" They began firing at a single spot, and their shield started to glow a bright red. It looked like the plan was about to work, but then the pirates dove below the clouds.
"Looks like she ducked for cover. She definitely seems to know what she's doing." Dedede mentioned.
"What should we do? They're probably going to try to sneak up on us." Sonic asked. Meta Knight then looked towards the helmsman.
"As soon as they appear, head in the opposite direction to avoid fire."
"Aye, Sir!" The pirate ship then emerged just in front of them. It rose from the clouds and headed straight for them.
"They're on a collision course!"
"Dive! Dive!" The Halberd dove towards the clouds, and the pirates rose above. Parts of the Halberd scraped against their shields, sending a nerve-twitching screech throughout the ship. Visibility was poor in the clouds, and soon their rear was being fired on.
"Navigator, how far are they behind us?"
"Holding roughly at a hundred yards."
"Helmsman, forward at full throttle!"
"Yes, sir!" The helmsman pushed a lever forward as far as it could go, and a long stream of fire jetted out the back of the Halberd and right into the pirate ship. The pirates ascended to get out of the fire, and the Halberd did as well. They were now both above the clouds.
"Now, turn us around and head straight for them!" The large ship slowed down to turn as sharp as they could. Once they faced the pirates they sped back up.
"Open forward canons!" Forward-facing canons then opened up on the Halberd, aimed straight for the pirates. Just as they were about to be within firing range, however, the pirates turned around.
"Are they running away?" Sonic asked.
"I doubt it. They're not the kind to run away from a fight." The pirate ship was moving faster though and moving further away from them. From the back of the pirate ship a canon then pointed towards the Halberd and opened fire. Only one shot was fired, and the pirates then sped away.
"A single cannon ball is headed our way, sir."
"Just one? There has to be more than that." Meta Knight and the others looked more closely, and they could see that something was on top of the cannon ball. Once it reached the ship they could see that a person was on the cannon ball. As the ball flew over the ship the person jumped off and landed on the deck. As the crew looked at who was on the deck, chills went down their spines.
"Sir Meta Knight! It's Marina!" Marina looked down at the deck, and sure enough it looked like her, though a little different. Instead of Marina's hat she wore a bandana that covered her hair, with tassels from the bandana hanging down the back. She wasn't wearing power armor, but instead a red shirt with a black vest and black pants. She held a sword in her mouth but then removed it, and holding it in her hand pointed the sword at the cabin.
Author's Notes: So yeah, I'm going incredibly slow on this story. I'm pretty busy, and writing is pretty low on my list of priorities right now. This chapter is close to finished though, so I figured I'll put up at least part of it since I don't know when I'll get back to this.