"Luigi! Come and-a help me-a lift them up!" He exclaimed to his brother who sat up now and was rubbing at his temples.
"Alright!" Luigi quickly jumped up in order to fulfill Mario's request.
After hoisting their companions up, the brothers set forth towards this strange collection of greenery. When they reached the edge, they peered inside. Mario could see plenty of spots that were perfect for concealing them from danger. This specific spot was reminiscent of the jungle they had been in previously. Vines hung from the many of trees that were the same style as the crystal ones.
The thing that mostly struck Mario and his brother as odd was the obviously man-made camp site and hammock. There was also some food stored in a cranny by a tree stump that was hidden by rocks and moss that draped over the rocks. Having been exhausted and drained of energy, The plumbers shrugged it off like nothing and placed their friends down. The both of them remained on vigilant guard for the next two hours, eventually themselves falling into a deep and well deserved slumber.
The blazing afternoon sun woke Mario up, It's rays searing into his skin with it's focused glare. This reminded him of the times when he would encounter one of his more dangerous enemies, The Angry Sun. Memories of the mushroom kingdom made him feel homesick, but he knew he had a lot of work to do before he could return home and he didn't let it get to him.
His ears soon picked up the sound of a moving vehicle, and it was getting closer and closer to their hiding spot. Quickly waking Luigi he then hopped towards the edge of the vegetation to investigate the sound's origin.
Right outside of their location was a transportation device of some sort. It was light orange colored and had tracks just like that of a tank. A perplexed expression consumed Mario's face as he tried to discern if it was friend or foe. When the tank came to a halt it was just right next to the edge of the hideout of theirs. A compartment on the vehicle released steam alongside the sand. Near the top of the vehicle a door swung open upwards. Out popped a two-tailed creature who's color's consisted of orange fur with white on his belly and tail tips. The sun reflected the pools of his sky-blue colored eyes as he looked up at the clouds smiling.
Relief came over both Mario and his brother and at once he didn't even think anymore about this person being a threat to them or not. This is due to the fact that the man that stood upon that machine was none other than a good friend of theirs. They both shuffled out of the small shrubbery to greet him.
"It's-a me Mario and-a my brother Luigi, Tails!" Mario shouted with happiness lacing the chords of his voice.
"Mario, Luigi, What are you guys doing here?!" Tails responded to them quizzically.
After exchanging pleasantries, Mario began to explain their situation. Tails was surprised at what they had been through and was also happy to hear Sonic was well and actually here and with them.
"Sonic is here?! I had worried about where he had gone to..." Tails told them.
During their conversation Luigi was inspecting the transportation device that Tails was riding in previously. Mario also happened to notice that Tails was wearing a ring just like the ones that Aragonite and Sonic had.
"You enjoy it? It's created by this ring I found." Tails sated Luigi's curiosity.
"You-a have a ring?!" Mario quickly asked Tails.
"Yes I found it when I first arrived in this world." Tails answered him and then continued to speak. "I also have some what of a theory for how we got here."
Just as he was about to relay his supposition, Sonic walked out of the shrubbery, A groan indicated his remaining grogginess from yesterday's encounter.
Rubbing and adjusting his eyes to the dessert sun, Sonic blinked in disbelief when he saw Tails. His feet took him directly over to the group and he smiled big, happy to see his companion from Mobius here.
"Haha Tails, I am so happy to see you, I thought I'd never see you again." Sonic said, practically tackling the orange-furred Tails over.
"Sonic! I'm glad you are okay, we all got worried when you vanished all of a sudden." Tails replied to the overly-excited hedgehog.
"How did you even get here in the first place Tails?" Sonic inquired of his friend.
"Well, I have a theory for that but I' m not one-hundred percent sure about what I have come up with." Tails began to explain to them. "To begin though, I was just examining some Mobius ruins for any traces of where you had gone to, when a strange rock landed right next to my side.
"A rock? The same thing happened to me, I was just running around when I encountered one." Sonic chimed in.
"Really?!, That is very intriguing, it may be linked in some way or another." Tails told him. "When the rock landed beside me, it opened up and swallowed me up, and I take it the same thing befell you as well Sonic?"
Sonic nodded in response to his question and then let go of his friend after realizing he was gripping him just a bit too much. Adjust his ring, Tails soon deconstructed his machine into raw energy that was quickly absorbed by the ring.
"Something in my gut is starting to give me the hunch that we weren't just sent here by chance or on accident. It's as if there is some power out there that called us here, and I don't know why, but I feel like it's an ominous sort of power." Tails hypothesized.
"Me and-a Luigi were sent the-a same way!" Mario put in his two cents to the conversation. "We-a were just-a having a nice little afternoon-a nap when it-a happened!"
"It was-a sooooo scary!" Luigi said shivering at the memory of it.
"Whatever it may be it seems as though we were strung into something bigger than we can even imagine, these rings are proof of that." Tails concluded after noticing that each one of the people in the group was wearing a ring. "The reason for the rings is that people want them. I encountered some mysterious beings earlier that wanted to take mine away from me."
"You-a too?" Mario asked wondering about his encounter. "Did they-a happen to be-a called the Discordial Avengers?"
"I never got a name out of them, but they were gruesome creatures, I couldn't tell you what kind of species they were." Tails said. "I can only say this though, Their bodies were horridly deformed."
"That is-a strange, they-a don't sound like-a the guys we-a faced Mario." Luigi told Mario.
"You are-a right Luigi." Mario said as he faced Tails again. "We have-a fought a big organization that-a wants the rings as-a well."
"Oh? It seems this world has a lot more people after these things than I had originally thought." Tails responded. "Let me tell you about the things I encountered."
Tails had then begun describing the beasts he had fought with. Malevolent looking beings they were, Their heads protected by a bone skull cage helmet infused into their very skin. The flesh on their faces was melted and their arms were bent in a mantis-styled manner. From each finger grew a sickle like claw that pulsated and glowed with a red hue. Huge thick thighs extended from their waists and connected their legs to the main body.
Wrapped around the creatures chests were hauberks made of infused metals and solidified obsidian. Tails also described them having one limb that was detachable at the joints and was still connected by a bundled up tube of muscle. This allowed for the creatures to swing these limbs of theirs as mini chain sickles. The last detail that was revealed was the description of the tail, which was armored too and had equipped on it a solid ball of hardened bone and rock. If that wasn't bad enough, it was said that they could ignite this part of their body at will with flame.
The others listened intently as Tails told them stories of his battles.
"They were a tough bunch, but I managed to pull through with this ring." Tails triumphantly told them. "Something tells me they weren't just some low-band of miscreants either."
Just as tails was about to elaborate on this, an ear-piercing cry for help laced itself amongst the hot dessert wind. In the distance, betwixt the rubble of some ruins, a young child was running for her life. Her thing legs rapidly propelled her through the dessert terrain with ease, but whatever it was that pursued her, was faster.
Straight behind the child was a trailing cloud of sand that seemed to emanate from the ground. This wasn't the only one either, two more followed closely on both sides of the first one. As the child ran, her arms hung back in the opposite direction she was heading in, her feather hair whipped around with both her momentum and the dessert wind acting upon it. Her face displayed fear, but to anyone who had not seen one of her kind before, this would be very hard to discern.
The face of the child resembled that of a metallic mask that was a part of the body and not just a fashion statement of some sort. Another unique feature of this mask was the beak that served as the mouth for the child.
"A Nak'tol, I wondered when we would see them out here." Aragonite said while making his way out of the shrubbery. "Though I have no idea what is chasing the child."
"We-a have to save the child, She is-a in danger." Mario stated and then with a quick hop he headed off to assist.
Everyone was having the same idea Mario had and also went with him. The child suddenly tripped and face-planted into the sand. Even if she had skills traversing the dessert, she was still only a mere child. One dust cloud stopped abruptly right in front of the now cowering child, with a rumble of sand a creature emerged from the ground.
A worm like body made up of metal-infused rock with a center core that was a high-density compacted shell appeared before her. This core was covering up the very life force of the worm and looked to be near impossible to penetrate with most attacks.
Towering over the child about 20 feet, it made it's presence menacingly known to her as it produced a horrifying roar. Upon finishing, Mario stepped in front of the child protectively. He had a stare down with the new creature. His eyes sternly fixed on the worm, without even a flinching muscle within his body. He stood their calm and relaxed and with a determined look only a true hero could ever have.
"Let's-a go! You are-a gonna have to get through-a me first!" Mario proclaimed to the beast, as he launched an attack.
After his battle shout, Mario did a back-flip kick with the utmost precision. With no time to react the worm took a direct kick to the jaw. Plummeting to the ground, it yelped in pain, but quickly got back up with no signs of residual pain. Two other worms quickly joined their companion in the battle and together all three looked prepared for a smack-down.
"Mario, be careful, these beings aren't phased by any physical or special abilities in any spot but their core." Tails yelled out to him.
Energy soon resonated from this core that Tails spoke of as they began to rain metal shards Mario and the rest of his now arriving pals. A shard scratched the plumbers arm and caused a slivering trail of blood to ooze out. It soaked his shirt a bit, though the color of the fabric made it unnoticeable.
With swift dodging, Sonic came at the side of one worm slamming into it with a skull-bash. Just as Tails had previously said, the beast seemed unharmed. In response to Sonic's attack the, the worm slapped him away. Tails watched as his friend crashed into a sand dune.
"Thats it, play time is over." Tails said enraged at the sight of the beasts tossing them around like their play things.
When he said that he lifted his hand up raising it so that it was parallel to the ground. It was with the very same hand that soon began to make him glow.
"I'll give you a real show!" He proclaimed. "Mario, ready yourself to attack when the core resonates energy! That is when they are most vulnerable!" Tails informed the plumber as he prepared his attack.
At that very moment tails constructed himself a mecha and jumped right into it, manning the machine instantly. The tread like feet of the mecha were suited for the dessert, and when the mechanisms that made it move activated it zoomed through the sand with not a single problem.
Tails intercepted a beast that was about to unleash another storm of shards unto the field. As the core of the beast glowed, The mecha that Tails was operating threw it's fist into the shell like organ of the worm. Upon impact the creature let loose a malignant cry of desperation and then fell, the core pouring out the life force rapidly.
The sight of their companion being slain in combat was enough to make the other worms become very irate, and make them initiate their own counter strikes. One whipped it's tail at the Mecha's frame, and the other gorged it's mouth on to the fist of one arm. Each one resonated energy and prepared for a massive assault, but Mario was not about to let this pass. Moving with speed and much skill, he activated his ring, and charged a fireball into his palm. With a suddenly silent and still moment, his fireball left the vicinity of his palm and crashed into a core that was almost fully resonated with pure energy.
When it hit, the creature was done for. The fire melted away the entire center of that particular worm, and with luck it was the one that had tried to consume Tail's mecha's fist. Having that arm free, allowed for him to jump back, avoiding the last worm's tail attack.
Mario and Tails gave each other congratulatory nods as they witness the fall of yet another worm, but this became a mistake for them and an opportunity for the last worm. Just as they were looking away from the beast to look at each other, it had decided to whip it's tail at the both of them, in a sort of cleaving strike. They were not prepared for this ambush attack and suffered a knock back into nearby sand dunes.
As they were shaking off the daze-effect left over from the bulk of that tail attack, they beast seized another opportunity and began to charge a more concentrated beam of energy aimed at them. Sonic had removed himself from the dessert sand in time to see the beast's preparations. He responded to this by readying a spin-dash. When the creature was near finished with it's desired attack, Sonic let his body propel forwards. The impact of Sonic's spin-dash happened right at the same time the beam was released, but Sonic's collision with it sent the beam off just out of Mario and Tail's direction.
"Shoo, That was a close one, any second later and you guys would have been toasted." Sonic sighed in relief as he watched the worm fall and die.
The kid watching all of this was in a state of disbelief, her eyes brimming with sudden realization that she was still alive. She finally stood to her knees and then walked over to the travelers that had saved her life.
"Travelers, You have saved my life, for that you have my utmost gratitude. My name is Mi'Kotyana, It is a pleasure to meet you all" Mi'kotyana said to them, grateful for them saving her life.
"It's nothing!" Sonic replied, giving her a smile and a thumbs up. "We couldn't just watch a little girl be eaten alive by whatever those things were.
"That's-a right!" Mario added.
"Anyone else would have done the same as us!" Tails said as well.
"I would like to repay back your act of kindness, but alas I have nothing of value on me. You seem to be famished though, and are probably very thirsty. May I offer to take you back to my hometown Naza'rabar?" Mi'kotyana asked them.
"That would-a be very wonderful Mi'kotyana!" Mario answered her.
Mi'kotyana gave them all a smile, and as soon as the group had gathered together they all set off under the guidance of this new Nak'tol towards Naza'rabar.