Not sure anyone has actually noticed, but Sonic still hasn't seen Yvan in normal form, only as Ice Yvan. There'll be a new power-up showing up this chapter, though!

On that note, yes, I do hope to have characters use power-ups from each others' series. It'd be cool.

This chapter is long, compared to the others, the main reason being that it has a bit of exposition… And a fair amount of dialogue.

Chapter 5

"I can't believe someone stole the Sky Pop!" Luigi complained as they returned to Soleanna Castle Town. "I mean, what are the chances that some random person walking on the beach can fly a plane?"

"I'm pretty sure most of us can," Tails pointed out. "But you've got a point. Let's find the Tornado!"

Tails led them to a wreck of two planes. He could only stare at the wreckage, at a loss for words. How had this even happened?

"… Ah, the good old adventurer's luck," Mario said. "Never fails."

"… Both of these planes are mine…"

"Well, it's always more fun on foot anyway!" Sonic grinned.

"When you can run fast," Knuckles grumbled, but Sonic ignored him.

"And, hey, we'll fix 'em up. But saving people first, right?"

"Right," Tails nodded. "Let's go!" And so they did… To try and figure out how to reach Dusty Desert. In the end, Knuckles' suggestion of asking the locals for directions turned out to be surprisingly effective.

Yvan, Mario, and Luigi took over once they got to the desert. According to Yvan, princesses were always kept in dark, stone places when kidnapped, so they should check out the ruins. Mario and Luigi backed him up, and the group of six ran off towards it.

"So, what's your home like?" Sonic asked Mario, as he jogged alongside the plumber. Tails and Luigi were involved in their own conversation, while Yvan and Knuckles were keeping an eye out for any threats.

"… Weird," Mario said. "There's nowhere else in the whole world quite like the Mushroom Kingdom. Some of the nearby places come close, but… Still. It almost runs on completely different rules from the rest of the world.

"Hey, Knux lives on a floating island. Can't be weirder than that, can it?" Sonic grinned.

Mario smirked. "That's about the gist of it, actually. Most of the kingdom is made up of small floating landmasses that are constantly moving around. Even apart from those, there are floating platforms absolutely everywhere, but those show up in other places too. The only place that's attached to the Earth is Toad Town, the capital."

"Oh… Huh. That is weird. How's that work?"

"Something about the Power Stars. Not sure how it works, to be honest," Mario admitted, as they reached the building. "You go first. It is your nemesis, after all. We'll follow in a bit."

"Right!" Sonic replied. "Tails, Knuckles, let's go!"

"I'm sure I saw him come this way!" Silver said, leading Yoshi and Amy through the desert. "How could they have gotten anywhere so fast?"

Amy shrugged. "Looks like there's an Eggman base somewhere around here. See the robots over there? Let's smash' em!" Amy ran forward, Yoshi quick behind her. Silver, not being nearly as fast as the other two, lagged behind a bit.

Amy and Yoshi, despite their friendly (if a bit… obsessive, in Amy's case) demeanors, both proved to be rather vicious fighters. Yoshi kept using his hip-dropping move Silver had seen earlier, while Amy… Silver wasn't entirely sure where she had gotten a mallet the size of her own head from, but she could certainly use it. Besides her hammer, she also made use of her spines by curling into a ball and smashing into robots.

Silver was able to catch up soon enough, and once he did he started smashing robots into each other with his psychokinesis.

"Does this happen a lot?"

"You have no idea," Amy said.

"What's this? Some stupid pet?" Sonic asked, taking in every aspect of the gigantic robotic dog he, Tails, and Knuckles were facing in the room they'd found in the ruins. "Egghead, this thing looks like it's about to fall apart. Seriously, I thought you were a bit better at this. Guess not."

"SHUT UP HEDGEHOG! I WAS working on repairs. Some idiot snuck into my base last night and smashed its face in with a single punch!"

"Wow, really?" Sonic asked.

"Yes, now, if you're quite done-"

"I'm not sure if that says something about the strength of this guy or how weak the robot is," Sonic taunted.

"Why you… GAH! Okay, you'll never find its weak spot!"

"… Didn't you just tell us it's the face?" Tails piped up.

"SHUT UP TAILS. EGG CERBERUS, ATTACK!" Eggman yelled, and the giant robotic dog bounded forwards.

"Alright, Knuckles, here's the plan. You smash its face," Sonic said.

"I've got a better idea," Knuckles said, "I'll smash its face!" He jumped up, and punched the dog in the face just as it was about to meet them. It was flung across the room, but managed to get back up.

"Ha! Did you really think I didn't learn from last night and reinforce it?" Eggman asked, taunting them. "Really, what was the purpose of that?"

"A distraction," Sonic said. "Tails, let's do this!" Tails jumped towards Sonic, and linked hands with the hedgehog. The two began rolling together, smashing into the robot dog's head at extremely high speed.

The robot dog didn't flinch at all. In fact, it didn't even get knocked back. On the other hand, it did get a three-foot wide hole drilled through itself, and it did explode about five seconds later. So, all in all, it was another failure for Eggman.

"Curse you Sonic!" Eggman yelled. "I will get you! And this doesn't mean I can't take Elise! I still need the Flames of Disaster…"

"Yeah, not gonna let you do that, uovo di idiozia," a voice Eggman didn't recognize said. He turned to the entrance of the room to see a short man with a rather large nose, a big mustache, and vibrant red and blue clothing. The oddest thing about him, though, was none of these, but the fact that he had a raccoon tail and ears.

"What…" Eggman said. Honestly, he'd never seen anything like this. The raccoon-man's tail was moving in a completely natural fashion, so it couldn't be fake, but he still definitely appeared to be human.

"Uh… Mario? Why do you have a tail?" Sonic asked. Tails and Knuckles echoed his question, in their own ways.

"Explanations later," Mario said. "Now, Eggman, right? Are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"I'll fight you, too!" Eggman said, dropping a wrecking ball out of his hovercraft.

"Wait, you still have that thing?" Sonic asked. "Didn't I trash that, like, five years ago?"

"Shut up. I chose my way," Eggman smirked. "Now, what do you have to say?"

Mario laughed. "Let's go! I hope you're ready for me, my bro, and a certain little blue person you happened to face last night!" Mario jumped in the air, spinning his raccoon tail to fly. Luigi and Yvan dashed into the room, Yvan sporting red clothing and a blue cap with red spots, while Luigi was holding a green boomerang while wearing a greenish-blue helmet and armor that looked like a turtle shell.

"So, anyway, say hello to Raccoon Mario, Boomerang Luigi, and Fire Yvan!" Mario said. Between tail whacks from Mario, boomerangs from Luigi, and fireballs from Yvan, the battle didn't last long at all. Yvan did manage to get hit, though, reverting back to his normal colors.

"You'll pay for this!" Eggman yelled.

"Don't care!" Mario yelled back. He walked over to the princess, who had been watching from the corner. "So, hi. My name's Mario."

"… I've heard of you," she said. "… Thank you. For saving me. You too, Sonic."

Sonic flashed a thumbs up. "You're welcome! Let's get out of here before more of Egghead's goons show up."

"Yeah, you do that," Knuckles said. "I'm gonna stay back, though. You know, distract robots, take out any negative emotions on them, that sort of thing. You guys go on."

"You sure? Be careful, Knuckles," Sonic said.

"Please. I'll be fine," Knuckles waved his hand in dismissal. "See you around, Sonic."

"See ya, Knux!" Sonic said, as he lifted Elise in his arms and jogged out the door.

"Bye Knuckles!" Tails added, as he followed his brother.

"Wait, Bros," Yvan said, stopping Mario and Luigi in their tracks. "I'm going to try and find Wolley and Peach. Give Wolley some backup, you know?"

Mario and Luigi shared a look.

"We understand," Mario said. "See you later." The Mario Bros followed Sonic and Tails, while Yvan ran back towards Castle Town.

Silver had changed his mind about this beautiful desert. Sure, it was fun, at first… Until he got to the giant ball puzzle. He had to use his psychokinesis to move a gigantic ball just right, and if he made one mistake, he had to start over.

Amy and Yoshi were no help, because Amy was hugging someone else she'd mistaken for her 'boyfriend' (Silver doubted the guy actually was, but what did he know?), and Yoshi seemed to know this mushroom creature (how she mistook him for a hedgehog, he had NO IDEA).

Hopefully, before long, he'd finally manage to FINISH this stupid puzzle and move on to finding the blue hedgehog.

"Alright, Mario, spill the beans," Sonic said. "What's with the tail? And the ears?"

"Power-up," Mario said, as he flew beside the hedgehog. "Hey, look out, quicksand up ahead."

"… I can help with that," Elise said quietly. She focused, and a shield appeared around Sonic. "… There. Now you can walk on the quicksand."

"Cool," Sonic said, before simply dashing out. "Nice. Actually worked. Anyway, what's this about a power-whatchacallit?"

"Power-up," Luigi said. "Mario, Yvan, Wolley, and I use them a lot. Each one transforms you into a different form with different abilities. Most of the time, they last a few hours, until you get hurt, or until you grab another."

"Was Yvan's ice thing a power-up?" Tails asked, as he flew over the quicksand.

"Yeah. He used an Ice Flower," Mario said. "He's rather fond of them. I used a Super Leaf, and Luigi had a Boomerang Flower. Yvan's second power up you saw was a Fire Flower. Almost anyone can use those, they're really common back home, too."

"Are they all like plants?" Sonic asked, as he somehow managed to Homing Attack a robot with Elise doing nothing but listen to their conversation.

"Nah, some of 'em are different, but most of them are plants."

"Hey, I see the end of the desert just up ahead!" Tails said. "We're through!"

"Awesome!" Sonic said. "Hey, you'll have to show me more of this things, okay, Mario?"

"Can do."

Once the five were well out of the desert, and had managed to reach some grassy plains, Sonic slowed down and set Elise back on her feet.

"… I have no words to express how grateful I am for all of your help," Elise said.

"Nothing needed, it's just what we do," Sonic said.

"Are any of you hurt?" Elise asked.

"Nothing that won't heal in a few hours. Don't worry about us."

"As long as people are safe, we'll be fine," Mario said.

"So… Eggman mentioned the Flames of Disaster," Tails said. "… Do you know what that is?"

"… Yes," Elise said, hesitating. "Our country honors a sun god, called Solaris. It is told that Solaris's rage would destroy the world, his wrath is the Flames of Disaster. Ten years ago, it almost happened… Soleanna nearly went up in flames… But my father… I lost him, but he was very brave."

"I'm not sure why you'd honor someone like that," Mario said, after it sunk in. He punched his palm. "But don't worry! If I meet this guy, I'll fight fire with fire! My flames against the flames of disaster!"

"And I know he will," Luigi said. "I'm sorry about your father."

Elise made a sad smile. "It was a long time ago… And he was a great man…"

"Don't worry," Sonic said. "As long as we're around, nothing bad's gonna happen to the world!"

"Yeah!" Tails added. "We'll beat all the bad guys, and you'll be safe!"

Elise smiled, a real smile this time. Maybe… These four may be the oddest group she'd ever met. But they sounded so sure of themselves… She started to believe that if anyone could do this, if it ever came to that, it would be them.

"FINALLY!" Silver screamed. He hoped he never had to do anything that frustrating again. Unfortunately, the Iblis Trigger was long gone now. Come to think of it, so were Amy, Yoshi, and that weird blue guy. Oh well, he'd find them later. Right now he needed to try and catch up to the blue hedgehog.

Keep dreaming, Silver. I'm pretty sure you're not a serious stoic black hedgehog or a genius kid fox.

So, yeah, I know the description of the Mushroom Kingdom is different. It's a sort of explanation for how its geography keeps changing, and all the bottomless pits. Plus, it's cool.