Mark & Sonic: Heroic Partners

Chapter 7

Mark was riding on one of the wings of the Tornado, Sonics plane, with Sonic being on the other wing, and Tails flying it.

"Are you sure that this is where you sensed this energy, Mark?" Tails said.

"I'm sure Tails, both of you, I'm going to fly ahead in my Super Form, see you in a bit!" Mark then turns into his Super Form, and starts flying towards the shore, once he flew over some grass, he was caught off guard with a punch to the face, somehow releasing his Super Form, and the Chaos Emeralds fell out of him.

"HA! Serves you right, you thief!" A voice said.

Mark turned to where the voice came from, and saw a Red Echidna. "Ow, Thief? What are you talking about? I only just got here." Mark said, rubbing his jaw.

"You're a Thief because you obviously stole those Chaos Emeralds! Speaking of which, I'll take those, and put them right where they belong!" the Echidna said, laughing.

He then collected all of the Chaos Emeralds, however, to the Echidna's confusion, as soon as he grabbed the Red Chaos Emerald, it immediately flew out of his hand, and back to Mark, the rest of the Chaos Emeralds would have done the same thing, if he didn't have a strong grip on them. 'huh? Why would it do that? The Emeralds would only do that if someone was a Guardian, but, no, I shouldn't worry about this right now.' The Echidna thought.

"Hmph, I have no idea why the Emerald went back to you, but you won't be keeping that thing for long!" He then ran off to hide the other Emeralds.

After recovering, Mark yelled, "HEY! GET BACK HERE!" chasing after him. He ran after the Echidna, surprised to see that he was climbing a very large tree. Due to Mark's shock from taking the blow, as well as not being able to fly without the Chaos Emeralds, The Echidna had managed to escape.

"What's going on?" Asked Sonic as he ran up to Mark's right.

"Yeah, what're you yelling about?" Asked Tails as he landed to Mark's left.

"That Red Echidna stole the Chaos Emeralds, except for the one I Guard! He even punched me out of my Super Form!" Mark said, his voice concerned.

"Wait what?! How's that even possible?!" questioned Tails.

"I have no idea, but something tells me he is being manipulated, after he punched me, he called me a 'Thief', even though he hasn't seen me before." Mark said in a thinking pose.

"Of course!" Said Tails, working it out in his mind.

"How does that make sense?" Askes Sonic, not getting the picture.

"Eggman." Mark and Tails said simultaneously, both with a deadpan.

"There's a distinct lack of robots for this to be the Egghead, and I don't see Silver around either sabotaging his machines or declaring a challenge to you." Sonic stated.

"You sure about that?" Mark said, pointing farther ahead.

"Yeah I'm...sure." Sonic finished, seeing the Badniks. He let out a sigh. "But why? Can't we ever just have a nice, long break?" Sonic complained.

"Come on Sonic, you know as well as I do that whenever Eggman does something like this, it always leads to an adventure!" Mark said, stretching.

"Yeah, I know. But why can't it be an adventure to find treasure or something, and not recover stolen items or defeating evil guys." Sonic asked rhetorically.

"He has a point, but hey, if we don't stop them, who will?" Tails pointed out.

"Literally anyone else." Sonic replied

"No one else is as fast as us dude." Mark said in a deadpan. "If someone else were to try to do it, Eggman would probably have most of his plans finished, if they didn't even have a fraction of our true speed."

"I mean we could probably convince Silver to do it, assuming we had something worthwhile to offer him." Sonic said.

"Can we go now? The longer we stand here arguing, more of Eggman's robots will keep appearing." Tails said, in a rare moment of impatience.

"Fine, but after this I'm going on vacation somewhere…" Sonic said, mumbling off at the end.

They pressed onwards, running through some weird forest and destroying all the Badniks they encountered.

Of course, soon after running off, Mark sensed one of the Chaos Emeralds directly beneath him. So after Mark tells Sonic and Tails this, they jump down the ledge to find a rock, which Mark spindashed into, breaking it, and revealing the Green Chaos Emerald. Mark picked it up, and absorbed it.

"That's one down, five more to go." Mark said.

"Don't you mean two down, five more to go?" Sonic asked.

"No, because we're only looking for six, since I already have one. Therefore, it's one down, five more to go" Mark replied, giving Sonic a small grammar lesson.

"Anyway, let's keep going." Tails said. They dashed off once more, heading deeper into the forest.

As they ran. They came across a large waterfall. They stopped and had Tails fly them across the pond at the bottom, so they didn't have to worry about making a mistake and drowning. Then they had to swing across some vines.

It was then that they came across a clearing, where one of Eggman's machines appeared. It immediately started shooting missiles while Mark, Sonic, and Tails were trying to destroy it. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, it fled as soon as the area around them was covered in flames. They ran on, and saw a star post.

Mark could feel a Chaos Emerald from down below, and started spinning himself fast enough to drill into the ground. He found the Yellow Chaos Emerald buried in the ground.

"Two down, Four to go." Mark commented.

"Speaking of go, we probably should." Sonic said, dashing ahead. As they ran ahead, they saw the same robot again. They attacked it together, and managed to destroy it.

"What do we do about the fire?" Asked Sonic.

"I don't think there's anything we CAN do." Mark said with a sweatdrop. Mark felt a Chaos Emerald hidden around, and found the Purple Chaos Emerald. "Three down, three to go".

They kept running, with the intent of making Eggman pay for burning down the entire forest. They eventually had to climb a waterfall via large stones jutting out from the cliff, and even run across an old bridge. Suddenly, they heard the roar of an engine above them. They saw a huge ship in the sky, which started dropping bombs on the ground. They had to run quite fast to avoid getting blown to bits. They kept running, and they saw a cluster of trees ahead. Deciding it would make good cover, they ran inside. Eggman was forced to follow them in his Eggmobile.

"HA! You'll never survive this time, MARK! Even If you destroy this robot, you'll die in the forest fire, along with Sonic and that Pesky Fox! Victory is mine!" Eggman shouted, emerging from a waterfall. Mark and Sonic attacked the robot, but to their surprise, it was incredibly durable, and withstood their attacks. Eggman flew it behind the waterfall, and quickly emerged again. It shot balls of fire at them, which were easily avoided. After several more attacks, the vehicle exploded, Eggman escaping once more.

"Get back here Egghead!" Mark said, running, only to stop once he caught sight of the Echidna from before.

"Take this you Thieves!" He shouted, pressing a button on the ground, causing him to laugh. The ground beneath the trio gave way, causing them to fall. They fell into some weird water filled place, which Mark and Sonic immediately disliked.

"Of course there's water." Sonic complained.

"Why does he keep calling me a thief? I'm The Guardian of the Chaos Emeralds, I would never steal them!" Mark said, shouting the last part up to the Echidna, hoping he would hear him.

"I don't think he can hear you from all the way up there." Tails remarked.

"Yeah, but it was worth a shot." Mark replied. Unfortunately, in order to move ahead, they had to go underwater. They ran as fast as they could with the water slowing them down, and found a switch. They pushed it, and the wall in front of them opened up. The water rushed in to fill the space, and they were swept away in the current. They were deeper underground, and there was no way to surface for air. Mark was certain that if Sonic COULD say something right now, it would probably be something sarcastic, or at the very least a general comment on how terrible their luck was. Up ahead, they saw some bubbles of oxygen, and ran towards them. They stuck their heads inside, and greedily sucked in the air. They continued to hold their breath, and run forwards. They kept running, and saw a strange Monitor with a bubble icon on it. Unfortunately, it was much too deep in the water, and they were sure the pressure would cause them to run out of air faster and drown.

They pressed onwards, and were suddenly forced upwards. They ended up getting shot out of a pipe, and while they were still underground, they were no longer underwater.

"God, I thought we were gonna drown!" Sonic gasped, his lungs taking in as much air as he possibly could.

"You know, I think this might be a good time to ask this, what do you think Eggman's intentions are?" Mark asked.

"I don't know." Sonic said with a shrug.

"I'm not sure, but let's hope he isn't successful. He's not here to research a new ice cream flavor." Tails said sarcastically.

"I'm a little worried though, before I flew over the land and got punched somehow, I saw something that looked strange, I didn't get a good look at it though." Mark said.

"Hmm, we should probably check that out then, even if it's just to make sure Eggman doesn't get it first." Tails said, thinking.

"Tails has a point, no matter what he's here for, it can't be good!" Mark stated.

"God, why can't Eggman take a vacation or something?! Maybe then he wouldn't be so angry, if he just got outside or did whatever he does for fun. I feel like making death machines can't be his hobby." Sonic said.

"You never know, it could be." Tails pointed out.

"We should keep going, standing here isn't going to accomplish anything." Mark said, refocusing the trio. They kept going, and they were forced to run on water to cross a certain point (thankfully, they were very fast and could do so with ease). As they continued, they came across a hidden area, in which the Blue Chaos Emerald was hidden. They pressed forward, and ended up in a pit with a small amount of water. One of Eggman's robots flew down, and charged at them. The robot was spherical, and had four barriers floating around it in order to protect itself.

Mark simply rushed it, and tore it to bits in a few attacks. They decided to not call attention to the fact of how weak the robot was, and just continued onwards. The wall behind them moved forward, as if attempting to crush them. They ran ahead, until they were safe. Then they ran some more, until they found another hidden area, where the White Chaos Emerald was hidden.

"Just one more left." Mark commented.

"Yep, then we can just stop Eggman." Tails continued.

"And I can go on Vacation." Sonic finished.

"Somehow, I don't think that's all it will take." Mark mumbled to himself. They pressed on, until they encountered Eggman in another machine.

"Right on time, Mark! And it seems you brought your insufferable little friends too!" He shouted. "You see, this brilliant invention-" he began explaining.

"Hey, what's Silver doing?" Sonic asked, interrupting him.

"Can twist wat- Silver? Why do you care?" Eggman asked, curiosity in his voice.

"Well, definitely not to interrupt your monologue, that's for sure!" Sonic replied.

"Last time I saw him, he was bench pressing a tree in the training room. I don't even know how he fit it through the door…" Eggman answered.

"Knowing him, he probably just forced it through the door, and then fixed it so you wouldn't notice." Tails suggested.

"What?! How would he do that without me noticing?" Asked Eggman.

"Because he's Silver." The trio answered simultaneously with a deadpan expression.

"Enough about that fool, he isn't even here! Right now I'm going to crush you and your friends to dust!" Eggman said, stirring the nearby water into a mini hurricane. They all jumped above it (flew over it in Tails' case), and launched a counter attack. The machine blew up after a few hits.

"I'LL BE BAAAAACCCKKK!" Eggman shouted as he flew away.

Everyone sweat drops. "I swear, Eggman just keeps on doing the exact same thing, and we all have to stop it!" Sonic said.

"Well, you gotta give him props for his persistence." Mark said.

"Regardless, we need to move on, he is getting away!" Tails said.

However, before they could continue moving, a strong current pushed them upwards.

To Be Continued

Mark The Gamer of Grima: and that's the end of this chapter!

Silver The Swordsman: Hello! And yes, that's the end of chapter 7!

Mark The Gamer of Grima: yep! We both hope you're enjoying this fanfic! This stuff takes a lot of work to do! Speaking of "work", Silver, if you would?

Silver The Swordsman: I got my first job last week! And while I may have already released that on my fanfic, now you guys will know too! I should have finalized my schedule, so you guys will know when to expect updates. We should have time to write on Wednesdays and Sundays, cause that's when I'm free. Fridays are reserved for SLVR.

Grima: you two Fleshlings should probably finish this up! I can feel someone trying to break through the barrier as we speak!

Mark The Gamer of Grima: oh dear, seems like we will be expecting someone random to appear in the next chapter, anyway, see you guys next time, for Chapter 8 of Mark & Sonic: Heroic Partners!

Silver The Swordsman: See you guys next time, bye!