Here we go again!

Now, don't expect daily updates – I do have schoolwork. I'll try to update on weekends. But, for now… Well, here we go.

In this chapter, the legends meet. Probably the most exciting part of a Mario and Sonic crossover.

Werewolf99: I don't really understand what you're trying to say, sorry. I'm not sure how glitches have anything to do with fanfiction…

Chapter 2

After the shock of being rescued by a blue hedgehog wore off, Elise finally spoke.

"Um, why are you helping me?" she asked of the blue hedgehog.

"You needed help, and I was there," Sonic replied, without slowing down. "That's enough reason for me."

Elise was about to reply to that, when Sonic suddenly skidded to a stop and set her down. Startled, Elise didn't fully register what was going on until it was too late – As Sonic smashed up the robots, she was grabbed by a robotic hand.

"Sonic!" she yelled. "Help!" But it was too late – she was already too high to reach.

"I'll get you out of there!" Sonic yelled. "Eggman! Give her back!"

"How about – No." Eggman, for it was he and his Eggmobile who had taken the princess replied. "Sorry, or not, but I need her for my plans. Good luck finding me, hedgehog!" And with that, Eggman flew off – both very quickly, and rising high so Sonic had no chance of reaching him.

Sonic sighed. "I just wanted to have a vacation…" Then he grinned. "Well, at least I get to adventure with my two best buds! Maybe Tails will have some ideas on where Eggman went…" With that, he zipped off, back to the area where he last saw Tails and Knuckles.

Sonic came across Tails and Knuckles helping clean up Eggman's mess, along with three creatures like the one who had helped him out, only they were red, green, and purple.

"Sonic!" Tails said, stopping as soon as he saw his friend. "How'd it go?"

"Princess got kidnapped. Any ideas where Eggman might be hiding?"

"Um… No, not really…" Tails trailed off. "Knuckles…?"

"We'd better just start looking," Knuckles said, putting down his piece of rubble. "There's no time to waste."

"She'll be fine," interrupted the red creature.

"… And Sonic calls me knucklehead," Knuckles grumbled. "And how do you know that?" he asked out loud.

"Experience. Our princess gets kidnapped about once a week. No one's ever actually hurt her, no matter how twisted they are or crazy their goal."

"Oh, okay," Sonic said. "So… Elise gets kidnapped a lot, then?"

"… Um, we're not from here," the green one said. "We're from the Mushroom Kingdom. Our princess is-"

"Peach," Tails interrupted.

"... I think we've all heard of her, unless we've been living under a rock," Sonic added.

"Hang on, I've never heard of her!" Knuckles said.

"And where do you live?"

"Why you-"

"Hey!" the red-capped creature yelled. "Look, she'll be fine, okay? You three go get some sleep, and we'll gather information for you. That's our specialty, and you'll need your energy if you're gonna try and save her."

"Okay… If you say so. So… where can we meet you?"

"We'll be here. If it's crowded, just shout for Captain Toad," he replied. "That's me. See you."

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles bid their goodbyes, running off.

"Are we really gonna sleep?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "He has a point. I'm not too good when I don't sleep."

The Mario Brothers, throughout all these events, had opted to simply relax on the beach, and, eventually, just sleep there. Yoshi had left sometime before, to look for the jungle he'd seen from the sky pop, as he didn't want to sleep by himself or on top of a fifty-foot sea stack where he might fall into the water.

The Mario Bros, of course, just slept through the festival. They were unaware of anything going on, until early in the morning when they were rudely awakened.

"Mario! Luigi!" Yvan yelled. It hadn't taken more than a few hours to find them, but reaching them was another story. He'd had to make some pretty fancy wall jumps to get up here. "Wake up! We've got a problem!"

'Problem' did it. Mario's eyes shot open, and he jumped, somersaulting onto his feet. Luigi continued snoozing, until Mario yanked him to his feet. "What is it, Yvan?"

"Kidnapped princess! But not Peach this time," Yvan added quickly. "It was Elise, Soleanna's princess. You see, last night…"

Yvan explained everything that had happened.

"We have to do something," Mario said with conviction. "Right, Luigi?"

"… Ran faster than you?" Luigi asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Come on, let's go find-" Yvan didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. Right overhead, there was an absolutely gigantic flying aircraft carrier sporting an emblem on the side that was clearly styled after the man who had kidnapped Princess Elise.

"… Never mind!" Yvan said, grabbing the Mario Bros' arms and hopping off the sea stack to the beach below. "We gotta jet!" As soon as the Mario Bros were prepared, they took off at top speed. Unfortunately, however, they soon had to stop, because of an unfortunate obstruction.

In the form of killer robots.

"Okay, Fire, Ice, Thunder!" Mario said. He formed a fireball in his hand. Luigi and Yvan, hearing his command, started charging electricity and used an Ice Flower, respectively.

In rapid succession, each of the three sent a projectile at each robot. This was a strategy that hadn't failed them yet – Through experience, they'd figured out that there wasn't a whole lot that could resist fire, ice, AND electricity. These robots were no exception – They went down in under a minute, and the three were dashing along again.

Meanwhile, in another part of the beach, another team of three was blasting through at even greater speed. Sonic was running in the lead, with Tails flying behind with Knuckles in tow.

"Ha, yeah! All right!" Sonic yelled. "Another adventure, here we go! It's game over, Egghead!"

"You could stand to be a bit more serious," Knuckles said. "It's not a game. And he's not even here."

"Doesn't mean I can't have fun!" Sonic whooped, as he ran onto the water. "Haha, take that water!"

Knuckles shook his head at Sonic's general stupidity. "Tails, don't you wish he'd consider the gravity of the situation?"

"Well…" Tails began. "Hey! What's that up there?"

Knuckles was a bit irritated by Tails' lack of an answer, but looked ahead nonetheless. Having by far the best eyesight out of the three, he was able to pick out three quick-moving shapes. None of the three were anywhere near as fast as Sonic or Tails, but their speed was still quite impressive, especially considering that two of them appeared to be human.

"Some weird blue mushroom guy and-"

"Hey, that's the guy I met last night!" Sonic interrupted. "Let's go see him! Never thanked him for the assist!"

Knuckles growled again. He really wanted to break something… Partially because he was angry, but mostly because it was something he was just plain BETTER at than Sonic.

Mario, Luigi, and Yvan had nearly managed to catch up to the giant object.

"Alright Luigi, it's your time to shine!" Mario said to his brother. "Just a hop, skip, and a-"

"Hey!" a new voice said. Mario, Luigi, and Yvan turned to the right. Now, running alongside them, where there hadn't been anyone before, was a blue hedgehog. "Never got ta thank ya for your help last night! Name's Sonic, and these-" He pointed out the yellow fox and the red echidna he was carrying behind him, "Are my lil' bro, Tails, and my best friend and all-time grump, knucklehead!"

"KNUCKLES!" the red one yelled, "My name is Knuckles!"

"Oh, you're welcome. I'm always doing stuff like this," Yvan said. "It was nothing, really. These guys are Mario and Luigi. They're the leaders of our team. They've been through way more than me."

"Nice to meet you," Mario said, flashing a thumbs up at the hedgehog. "Anyway... Let's get back to salvataggio di persone, yes? Luigi, saltare."

Luigi nodded. He hopped, jumped again when reaching the ground. Upon his second landing, he jumped like only he could. He shot into the air, kicking his legs to get as much height as possible.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles could only stare as the green-clad human shot well over fifty feet in the air. Luigi nearly missed the Egg Carrier, but was able to just barely grab the edge with his fingers. For a moment, it looked like the adventure might be over before it began. For a moment, it seemed like he wouldn't fall.

Unfortunately, fate has a nasty habit of intervening. It also has a nasty habit of being an evil robot. And, in addition, a nasty habit of literally stepping on the fingers of heroes. Luigi fell from the airship, clutching his left hand in pain. He hit the ground hard, but to him it barely hurt. He would have tried to reach the ship again, apart from one tiny problem.

"It's the end of the beach…" Sonic said. "… Well, that stinks. Tails, do you know where it's headed?"

Tails shook his head. "Sorry – I didn't really check up on the geography of this place. Knuckles?"

"Me neither."

"Dusty Desert," Mario spoke up. "I think that way leads to the desert next to Soleanna Castle Town."

"It does," Luigi confirmed, as he sat up. "At least, my memory tells me the same thing. I didn't get that good a look at the map before Yoshi ate it…"

"Well, looks like we know where we're going," Sonic said, holding out his hand. "You guys comin?"

"Oh yeah!" Mario yelled, reaching forward to shake his hand.

"Hope you can keep up with my speed!" Sonic said, before running off back towards Castle Town, just slow enough for Mario, Luigi, and Yvan to follow.

"Hope you can keep up with our jumping," Luigi countered, as they followed.

Knuckles just groaned. He really didn't need two more people with Sonic's attitude.

Alright! Another chapter finished. You might have noticed that there's no mention of a Chaos Emerald anywhere in this chapter. That is because, in this story, Elise never had the blue Emerald to begin with. That, in particular, is a huge timeliney continuity mess, so... Well, I'm going to try and sort that out.

The next chapter is going to be... About Silver, taking place a little before Eggman attacked last chapter.