Chapter 6: Beginnings
Sonic was now in a castle, standing before Bowser on a bridge suspended above a pit of lava. The bridge was not sturdy, and felt as though it could give at any moment.
“So let me get this straight,” Bowser said. “You’re a plumber coming from a land called ‘Brooklyn’, and you’re fighting to save a woman you’ve never even seen, let alone know?”
“I guess,” Sonic shrugged. “And you are?”
“You barge into my castle and don’t even know my name?!” Bowser shouted.
“I know your name, I just don’t know why you’re here,” Sonic explained.
“I LIVE HERE!” Bowser shouted.
“Well, why are you doing all of this then?” Sonic asked.
“Well, it all started back when I was a baby, and a Yoshi rudely intruded on me during my nap…” Bowser started, then snarled, “It’s none of your business!”
“Aren’t we touchy?” Sonic mocked.
“Just tell me this, how is it a lone plumber took out an entire legion of Hammer Bros?” Bowser asked.
“Who said he was alone?” asked a voice from behind. “I’m just not willing to go on a bridge that’s so unstable… or fight any giant dinosaur-like turtles.”
“How many times do I have to say it? I’m a KOOPA! K-O-O-P-A! KOOPA!” Bowser shouted. “I’ve only been talking to you for five minutes and you’ve made me say it three times!”
“Hard to tell with such poor lighting,” Luigi commented as he nervously stepped onto the bridge. “Mario, do we really have to do this?”
“Do you even have to ask?” Sonic inquired.
“You know, I do have an alternative to fighting…” Bowser laughed. “Since you were able to defeat so many Hammer Bros, I’m extending a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“If it’s a peaceful solution, I’m all for it,” Luigi sighed.
“How would you two like to be my personal bodyguards? I’ll pay you the salary of all those fallen Hammer Bros. combined!” Bowser smiled.
“How much did you pay them?” Luigi asked.
“Luigi!” Sonic snapped.
“Sorry… I’m just not a fighter,” Luigi said in a sorrowful tone, then turned to Bowser. “My brother’s right, no amount of money can persuade us to help the likes of you… or pain… or gruesome torture… or-“
“That’s not going to happen!” Sonic interrupted. “Without that star baton-thing, this guy is a pushover.”
“So be it!” Bowser
shouted. “But remember, you had your chance to live!”
“Now I remember!” Robotnik shouted. “You’re his grandson!”
Mario looked around and saw that he was in a largem green field, with two hovering patches of land on the sides of him. Robotnik was in a hovercraft-like vehicle with a wrecking ball hanging underneath it.
“This is about revenge, isn’t it?” Robotnik asked. “I remember it like it was yesterday… it was about four years ago, and you were looking for your grandfather when I found you and pretended to help you. You led me right to him, and served as the ransom I needed to rid this world of your accursed grandfather once and for all!”
So that’s why Sonic fights, Mario thought. “And what of it?”
“You think you’re a hero because you’re standing up to me? You think that you’re some grand deliverer of justice because you fight against my machines of destruction?” Robotnik laughed. “You’re no different then I, you’re doing this for your own selfish reasons! You’re no hero! Now, I’ll do to you what I should have long ago.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Mario laughed. “Although I do fight for the memory of my grandfather, that’s not the only reason I fight. I fight to protect those that can’t protect themselves, to help those that can’t fight, to assist the innocent people that you put in harm’s way!”
“Enough with the lecture!” Robotnik sighed. “I got enough of that as a child.”
“If you had enough of it, you wouldn’t have turned out like this,” Mario commented.
“Begone, grandson of Sonic!” Robotnik shouted as he started up the EggWrecker.
So Sonic was
named after his grandfather, Mario thought to himself. This must
be when he and Robotnik first fought.
Cronos Sonic was waiting in the gap between dimensions, now confused as to why he felt so weak.
“This can’t be,”
he said to himself. “Every time I send them to another point in time, it
weakens me, and yet my power is infinite. There must be something preventing
me from reacquiring complete control of the Cronos Reactor… It looks as
though I may have to skip right to the grand finale after this act is finished.”
Bowser released a sea of flames at Sonic, who attempted to back flip to dodge them, only to fall flat on his back.
“What was that?” Luigi asked as he helped Sonic up.
“He wasn’t in as shape as he is now,” Sonic sighed. “At least I didn’t get burnt.”
“I can see the axe behind him,” Luigi said. “Just like the other castles… but how are we supposed to reach it?”
“I’ll try to distract him, you go for the axe,” Sonic explained.
“But if you’re still on the bridge, you’ll fall in the lava too!” Luigi explained.
“Then don’t cut the bridge with it! Use it to attack Bowser!” Sonic said.
“But if I take it from where it’s at, the bridge will collapse!” Luigi exclaimed. “That axe is the only thing holding this bridge up!”
“Don’t worry about me, I don’t plan on cooking,” Sonic said.
“You don’t have a choice!” Bowser fumed as he threw a hammer towards the Mario Bros.
Sonic ducked and rolled under the hammer towards Bowser while Luigi jumped over it. Bowser ran towards Luigi in an attempt to ram him with his horns. Luigi jumped backwards to dodge the blow, but lost his footing and fell off the bridge. He caught the edge of the bridge with his right arm, but he was unable to pull himself back up.
“Mariooooo!” Luigi
shouted. “A little help please?”
“Now, hedgehog, die knowing the full potential of my creations!” Robotnik shouted. “Behold, the might of my EggWrecker!”
“What is it with you and eggs?” Mario asked.
Robotnik ignored the question as the wrecking ball began to swing back and forth.
“This should be easy,” Mario said as he tried to jump up and use a homing attack.
However, he found himself unable to do so. Instead, he was knocked aside by the wrecking ball, which crushed his right arm.
“So much for that idea…” Mario grunted as he got back up.
Mario saw the wrecking ball was coming back his way, so he attempted to spin dash away. He tripped over Sonic’s legs, and fell face first back into the dirt. Luckily for him, the wrecking ball wasn’t low enough to hit him while he was lying like that.
I can’t even spin dash… Mario realized. Not only can I not use my abilities, but I can’t use his either! Or rather, he hasn’t learned them yet.
Mario got back up and ran away from the EggWrecker.
“You won’t escape that easily, you runt!” Robotnik shouted as he chased after Mario.
Mario ran into a forest in an attempt to lose Robotnik while he thought of a strategy, only to be ambushed by a swarm of buzzbombers.
“I sure hope Sonic
is having better luck then I am,” Mario said as the buzzbombers began to
close in on him.
“I’m coming!” Sonic sighed as he kicked Bowser back, then proceeded to help Luigi back up.
“Never kick a king!” Bowser shouted as he got up.
“You’re nothing more then a tyrant,” Luigi said. “A real king would care for his subjects, not attempt to replace them with the people that won against them!”
“You question my methods?” Bowser snarled. “You’ll suffer the consequences!”
“Bring it on, I’d like some turtle soup!” Sonic mocked.
“I AM A KOOPA!!!” Bowser shouted, pausing between each word enough so that each word sounded like its own sentence.
“Kappa, got it,” Sonic mocked.
“You know what a kappa is?” Luigi asked in a surprised manner. “But you hate mythology!”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about it,” Sonic replied. “Besides, the Chinese are okay in my book!”
“Kappas are from Japanese mythology,” Luigi sighed.
“Whatever,” Sonic shrugged.
“Aren’t you two forgetting something?” Bowser asked.
“Not that I can think of…” Sonic replied in a puzzled manner.
“ME!” Bowser shouted. “It’s not polite to barge into someone’s castle and then completely ignore them!”
“I’m sorry, were you saying something?” Sonic mocked.
Bowser simply roared as he swiped his claw at Sonic, who quickly jumped back. Sonic then attempted to jump on top of Bowser, but Bowser countered with a headbutt to his feet. Luigi did as Sonic said, and attempted to slide under Bowser as not to be noticed by him. The Koopa King was focused on Sonic, but not enough for him to ignore the axe. He grabbed Luigi by the wrist, and threw him into Sonic, who was still trying to get up.
“Is that the best
you two can do?” Bowser laughed. “You should have joined me when you had
the chance! Now you’re as good as dead!”
Mario realized that for there to be this many buzzbombers, they had to be mass produced, which meant they must share a common weakness, so he did what he knew how to do best: he jumped onto one of them, and bounced from one buzzbomber to the next until they were no more.
“Not bad,” Robotnik chuckled. “But I would expect more from the grandson of my late rival.”
“So those robots were just a distraction to slow me down while you caught up with me,” Mario chuckled. “But what you don’t realize is that I have the advantage now.”
“So you think,” Robotnik said, not having any idea what Mario was referring to. “Now, stay still and die!”
Robotnik attempted to crush Mario with the wrecking ball by causing it to swing directly towards Mario. Mario attempted to run up a tree, but the tree was crushed by the wrecking ball, and he fell with it.
“Did you really think it would be that easy?” Robotnik mocked. “Did you think that these trees could save you?”
“That wasn’t exactly what I had planned, but it still works to my advantage,” Mario said as he got up.
“Well then, allow me to help you some more!” Robotnik laughed as he charged at Mario.
Mario jumped over the wrecking ball, and tried to run up another tree, this time reaching the top before Robotnik could react. Robotnik knocked the tree down at its base, and Mario quickly jumped to another tree.
“Care to take another shot?” Mario asked.
“You begin to bore me, Hedgehog!” Robotnik said as he smashed another tree.
This time, the tree fell towards Robotnik instead of away from him. Mario stayed on this tree as it fell until he was level with the EggCraft. He then used a spin jump to crush the wind shield on the EggCraft, but was unable to stay on the EggCraft’s smooth surface.
“Is that all you planned to do?” Robotnik laughed. “Allow me to end this little game right now then!”
Robotnik knocked down every tree within range of him, before Mario could climb any of them. He attempted to run up a few of them, but before he could do so, Robotnik would knock the tree down before he could even get halfway up.
“So what now, Hedgehog?” Robotnik asked. “Now you’ve no way of getting up high enough to fight me.”
This would
be a good time for a new strategy, Mario thought to himself, But
what?
Sonic and Luigi got back up, their strength ebbing away.
“There has to be some way…” Sonic started, “…to get to that axe.”
“Over and under,” Luigi replied. “I hate to say it, but it might be our only choice…”
“Over and under?” Sonic asked.
“You know, the way we took out the Bammer Bros. disguised as this guy,” Luigi said. “I attempt to jump over him as he jumps while you slide under him. He’ll only be able to attack one of us.”
Sonic stared at Luigi blankly. “But the other might-“
“Do you have to remind me?” Luigi cried. “Can we just get it over with before I change my mind?”
“Okay, let’s do this,” Sonic nodded.
Luigi attempted to jump over Bowser while Sonic slid under him. Bowser simply laughed as he jumped up and headbutt Luigi as Sonic slid under unharmed.
“Go on!” Luigi shouted as he got back up. “Pull the axe! I’ll be fine!”
Sonic then realized that Luigi’s plan was quite simple really, and went ahead and pulled the axe as Luigi retreated back to the other side of the bridge.
“Curse you, Plumbers!” Bowser shouted as he fell into the lava. “I’ll be back! And next time, you’ll be dead!”
“You okay?” Sonic shouted to Luigi.
“I’m fine, Bro,” Luigi sighed with relief. “I’m just fine.”
At that, Sonic
vanished once more…
Mario chuckled and smiled. “You’ve helped me more then yourself.”
“What are you talking about?” Robotnik laughed. “Do you honestly expect me to believe that?”
“It’s quite simple really, even you should be able to understand it,” Mario mocked, then continued. “Here’s what you did: you did, indeed, knock down all the trees, but they didn’t all fall the same way, so now I can climb on top of trees that have stacked on top of one another and get high enough to attack you.”
“You seem to forget,” Robotnik laughed, “my EggCraft is capable of flying high above you!”
Mario ran up a group of trees as Robotnik tried to increase altitude. However, the weight of the wrecking ball prevented him from doing so, and he remained stationary.
“I forgot to account for the weight of the ball and chain!” Robotnik realized. “But that means-“
Before Robotnik could finish his sentence, Mario dove into the EggCraft, and cut through the chain.
“This isn’t the end, Hedgehog!” Robotnik shouted. “If you truly wish to fight me, meet me at the Marble Ruins!”
Before Mario could respond, he was taken to his final challenge…