Hello! Been a while, huh?

I've decided to move the story to a crossover section because of where Khrista's abilities come from. She's technically part Pokemon, so I have to move it to the Pokemon section of the site. And it's going to stay here, just to let you know. :p

So...onward!

Chapter 2

Khrista shook her head as the light began to fade, leaving spots in her eyes as the world around her darkened to twilight. "Did it work?"

She looked around for her cousin, then found Joshua getting up from the ground.

"I think it did, " Joshua replied. He looked around at the area they were standing in. "How else do you think we ended up in this forest?"

Khrista looked around and realized that Joshua was right - the two of them were standing in a clearing, the oak and cedar trees that surrounded them towering high over their heads.

Khrista let out a whistle in amazement. "Wow. I don't think trees of this kind can get this big at home. Or on the Pokemon world." She grinned at her cousins. "We're probably in the Great Forest!"

"Great Forest?" a voice repeated. "We don't call this place the Great Forest."

Joshua frowned, and he started to look around for the source of the voice, as did Khrista.

"What do you call it, then?" the boy called out.

A Mobian echidna with green fur, golden eyes, peach mouth and stomach, and a white crescent-shape on his chest appeared out of nowhere.

"This place is the Giant Forest," the echidna stated, motioning to the trees for emphasis. The Mobian adjusted the black gloves he was wearing, which matched the boots that came up to his knees. "My name is Verdun, and I don't care much for intruders in this forest." A pair of spikes came up out of each glove, not even tearing the fabric. "Clear out before I make you."

Khrista folded her arms across her chest. "We only just got here, we don't know anything about the geography, and you expect us to leave?"

"That's what I said," Verdun confirmed. "Now, clear out."

Joshua stepped forward, holding out a hand. "At least tell us what's going on around here. My cousin found a robotic Flicky on our world, powered by this." Joshua tossed the power ring in Verdun's direction, the gold ring now dulled - it had lost all its power. "We came by to see what was going on."

Verdun's eyes narrowed as he examined the ring. "And you say you found this in the belly of a Flick-bot?"

"If that's what you call it," Khrista responded with a shrug. "I ran into it during one of my usual morning flights. Name's Khrista, by the way, and this is my cousin, Joshua."

Verdun raised an eyebrow at Khrista's statement, but said nothing as he retracted his spikes and slipped the ring under the cuff of his left glove. "Ivan probably sent the lookalike after you for one reason or another. And from the look of the ring, it was meant to take you out for good. How did you manage to get rid of it?"

"I threw one of my devices at it," Joshua admitted. "It was originally meant to track signals, but it had an unstable core which blew up as soon as it was shaken up and hit the 'bot. We took the ring from its remains."

The echidna looked over the strange group for a moment, then let out a whistle. A red Flicky with a sprig of feathers sticking out of its head appeared from out of the darkness of the closely grouped trees.

"Yes, Master Verdun?" the Flicky asked in perfect English.

"Tell Quill that I'm coming by for a visit," Verdun replied. "And that I'm bringing two others with me."

The Flicky bobbed its head, then zoomed off.

Khrista frowned. "Quill? Who's Quill?"

"A very ornery Mobian," Verdun replied. "It'll take us a few days to get to his place. Let's get moving." He motioned for them to follow, then disappeared into the trees behind him. Khrista and her cousins soon followed.

"How did you know it was a Flicky?" Verdun asked as they left the clearing behind them.

"In our world, we get these books and games that show us events that take place in other worlds," Joshua explained. "One such world is Mobius Prime, which is probably an alternate version to this one."

Verdun looked back at the human boy. "You are aware of what another version of this world is doing?"

Joshua nodded. "Their lives are recorded in books, and the video games cover the lives of another version of them."

The echidna's golden eyes scanned the two humans. "Have you met them?"

Khrista and Joshua shook their heads.

"We only started the whole 'world-jumping' business about a couple weeks ago," Khrista explained.

"...I see. So you two have been to other places?"

"Only one, and we were taken there by an evil tyrant who was trying to create a brainwashed army of Pokemon Trainers."

Verdun turned around sharply. "Pokemon Trainers?" he repeated.

Khrista took note of a nervousness in Verdun's eyes. "...Yeah. We saved the world, though, so they shouldn't be bothering anyone on other worlds anytime soon."

Verdun approached the girl. "You're keeping something from me; I can sense it. Tell me!"

Khrista's eyes widened, and she exchanged glances with Joshua, who nodded in return.

"I'll tell him," the boy said. Turning to look at Verdun, he stated, "The tyrant we saved that world from escaped with his scientist before we could put him on trial or even in a highly-guarded cell. He disappeared using a device that allowed him to teleport to another place - perhaps even another world."

Verdun's eyes narrowed.

"The only clue we have of where he might have gone was a K carved into the device," Joshua added.

Verdun's eyes became slits. "We're going to postpone that visit to Quill. You kids need to see the Guerrilla Union." He turned and took off at a jog through the trees, Khrista and her cousin following mere moments behind him.

"What do you think the Guerrilla Union is?" Joshua contacted Khrista through telepathy.

"Probably a version of the Freedom Fighters," Khrista responded in kind. "At least, I hope. Scourge, an evil version of Sonic, had his own brand of Freedom Fighters, only they suppressed it instead of fought for it. If this world is like Scourge's, we're in trouble."

Joshua nodded. "We'll have to keep our guard up."

Khrista turned her head to look at Verdun, her mind drifting back to think about what had occurred in the Pokemon World - or Neo-Mobius, as one of her neighbors had insisted on calling it. Over the past few weeks back on Earth, the teen had often found herself mulling over what had taken place, as well as what her cousin had done. Joshua had somehow managed to gain IQ almost overnight, and his family's basement had been turned into his own personal lab. Khrista's cousin's telepathy ability had increased in strength as well...

Up ahead, Verdun suddenly came to a halt, Khrista barely managing to stop before she could have run into the green echidna.

"We're here," Verdun said calmly.

The pair of humans looked ahead, Khrista's eyes widening in surprise.

"What is this place called?" Khrista asked.

"TreeShroud Village," Verdun replied.

As Verdun led the two travelers across a rope bridge, Khrista tried to take in the view: a gigantic tree growing out of a huge crater, its branches wide enough for a couple Volkswagon beetles to drive past each other without worrying about falling off. The houses, which were made of branches and huge leaves from the tree itself, were scattered throughout the tree's branches, and were camouflaged well enough that Khrista didn't notice them until Verdun had pointed one out.

"This is incredible," Khrista murmured,

"Does the Prime world live like this?" Verdun asked, curious.

Khrista shook her head. "They live on the ground."

Verdun raised an eyebrow. "Not the best idea. They could be picked off easily."

"They're trees don't grow this tall, and if one did, it could have been knocked down easily in a lightning storm." Khrista shrugged. "Ah, well. To each their own, I guess."

"Perhaps the ground is safe in their world, but it isn't in ours after dark," Verdun stated. He led them into the center of the tree, ignoring the looks they were getting from the Mobians nearby. Khrista couldn't help but notice that the Mobians in this world came in colors that she hadn't seen in the comics.

"Hey, Verdun!"

The mentioned echidna turned as a white female fox with golden eyes and two tails peeking out from under a dusty blue dress ran over. She was wearing yellow gloves and matching sandals.

"Where have you been?" the fox demanded. "Sarah was starting to wonder if you had decided to go out bot-hunting after dark again."

"I would have," Verdun replied, "but these two suddenly appeared out of nowhere." He motioned it Khrista and her cousin. "They claim to be from another world."

The fox looked Khrista and Joshua, curiousness in her eyes. "They certainly don't look like they're from around here. Tell me, please - what are your names?"

"I'm Khrista," Khrista replied readily, holding out a hand for the fox to shake. "My traveling companion is my cousin, Joshua."

The fox accepted the gesture. "I'm Venice." Releasing Khrista's hand, she added, "Verdun's my adoptive sister."

"Adoptive?" Joshua repeated.

Venice nodded. "He saved my life, and his dad took me in." She looked over at Verdun. "They're in session right now. I was about to head out and find you. Sarah wanted your opinion on finding the Chaos Rings."

Khrista and Joshua exchanged glances.

"Chaos Rings?" the two repeated.

Venice took note of their confusion and giggled. "You really aren't from our world, are you?" She gave the group a smile. "Chaos Rings are these really powerful rings made out of different crystals. It's been said that if you manage to get all of them together, a miracle happens!"

Khrista's eyes widened slightly. "How many of them are there?"

"According to legend, there are nine total," Verdun responded. "We only have one to show for it, though, and Quill is guarding that one. And then there are the fakes that Ivan's been making." He looked at Khrista for a moment. "You kids might want to listen in on this meeting that Sarah's called." He motioned for the group to follow him, then walked up to a large hut nearby and pushed the door open, leading Khrista and the others inside.

Within the hut, it looked like it could have been a log cabin, were it not for the leaves that covered the ceiling. The hut itself appeared to have two rooms - there was a shut door that Khrista could only guess was a bedroom or bathroom - and the main room had a table and eleven chairs as the only pieces of furniture.

Khrista quickly identified the eleven Mobians sitting around the table: a dark green echidna wearing white gloves and footwear that looked like a black version of Knuckles' shoes; a yellow hedgehog sitting with his back to them, wearing white gloves and white shoes with a red stripe; a black hedgehog with white stripes and Shadow's style of shoes; a purple chameleon with golden eyes and shoes and gloves like Espio from the Prime Zone; a green crocodile who Khrista almost mistook as Vector; a bee wearing an aviator's hat and goggles, looking identical to Charmy; a blue armadillo who looked like Mighty; a light brown rabbit and a white bat, both wearing grubby clothes covered in oil stains (despite this, their gloves were clean); an orange cat with a sword at his side and a dark green, elf-like uniform; and a white Mobian who Khrista thought might be a fox, but she couldn't see the Mobian's tail because the Mobian was staring directly at the door.

"Verdun," the white Mobian said, deep blue eyes flashing, voice clearly feminine, "who are those with you?"

"Travelers," Verdun responded. "I ran into them down below with this." He slipped the ring from under his left glove cuff and tossed it onto the table. "They claim they know the monsters."

All the Mobians in the room stared at Verdun, then turned gazes to Khrista and Joshua.

Khrista gave Verdun a curious look. "You're having problems with Pokemon?"

"Is that what they are called?"

Khrista turned her gaze to the white Mobian, who had taken hold of the ring in a dusty blue-gloved hand.

Placing the ring inside the golden jacket she wore, the Mobian continued, "We refer to them as the monsters they are when they attack in the night." The Mobian looked out a window nearby, where leaves partially obscured a view of the stars. Standing up, she made her way around the table to stand in front of the two humans, revealing three fox tails, as well as the dark blue boots on her feet. "I am Sarah Tripletail; you met my cousin, Venice, outside."

"I'm Khrista Langstrom," Khrista responded. "This is my cousin, Joshua."

Sarah frowned slightly and walked around the two, studying their appearances. "Verdun says you know about the monsters. Would you care to...demonstrate?"

Khrista smirked, only for her shirt to shift to gold, losing the yellow and white sphere and red coloring that had been there a moment before. Without moving physically, Khrista unzipped her backpack and brought out her PokeDex.

Snatching it out of the air while the Mobians stared, she stated, "A Magmortar, which is among some of the stronger Pokemon, could easily burn down this tree without a second thought. If I had brought one here and ordered it to do that, that is." Waving the PokeDex, she continued, "This device had data on about 650 different species of Pokemon, including Magmortar." After messing around with the device, Khrista brought up a picture of Magmortar. Showing it to the white fox, she stated, "That's the Pokemon that could destroy this entire place with a single breath."

"That creature..."

Khrista turned her head slightly upon hearing the new voice and caught sight of the orange cat in the Robin Hood-like outfit staring at the Dex with wide, emerald eyes.

"That monster looks exactly like the ones that patrol near Kintobar's place!" the emerald-eyed cat exclaimed.

Khrista and Joshua exchanged a quick glance, which Sarah took note of, but said nothing about.

"Verdun mentioned someone named Ivan earlier," Joshua noted. "Is this...Kintobar the same guy?"

Sarah nodded. "We have been having been trouble with the creatures for the past few weeks. Quill said that Ivan had claimed that he had grown them in a lab."

"Well, he might have," Khrista responded, "but the DNA came from the Pokemon world." Her eyes went around the room as she closed her PokeDex, a look on her face that meant she was trying to think of something.

"Well, you know who we are. Can you tell us who you are?" Khrista finally asked.

The orange cat looked the group over as the other Mobians exchanged glances - and the dark green echidna restrained the yellow hedgehog.

After a moment, the orange cat held out a white-gloved hand.

"I am Hannibal," the cat stated, "the captain of the Royal Guard."

Khrista accepted his gesture and gave the hand a shake. "I suppose there's a king or queen somewhere around here?"

"My parents were killed by Kintobar," Sarah stated flatly.

Khrista's eyes widened, and she held up her hands in a defensive maneuver. "S-sorry. I didn't know."

"I like to keep it under wraps, but it is all right."

The yellow hedgehog suddenly sprang up, blue eyes sparking. "I'm Kambei, and this is my older brother, Hambei."

The black hedgehog's red eyes moved to Khrista as Kambei continued, "We're part of the remnants of an ancient hedgehog tribe that used to live to the south of here."

"Ivan decided to wipe out the rest," Hambei said coldly. Khrista wondered if he was Shadow's counterpart, but decided against calling him that until she was certain.

"Does this guy have anything against hedgehogs?" Khrista asked. She knew that Ivan Kintobar was probably a version of Eggman, and she wondered if he had the same dislike for a specific species that the Prime Zone's Robotnik had.

"He ran into them first," the dark green echidna explained. "These two had been out camping the night Ivan had turned their civilization to rubble." He stood up, dark purple eyes on the humans. "I am Sabre, Verdun's father. We're sharing our home with these ground-dwellers until this threat is taken care of."

"And we thank you for it," Sarah stated.

The purple chameleon stood up next, the crocodile, bee, and blue armadillo mimicking his movement. "My name is Espio, and these three are Vector, Charmy, and Ceryl. I am the leader of the Chaotix."

Khrista nodded in greeting, relieved to see some slightly familiar faces from the comics she knew.

"They help guard our storage of Rings, all of which are artificially made," Verdun explained to the travelers.

"We would keep an eye on the real one, too, but Quill's got a hold of that one and he's not letting it out of his sight anytime soon," Vector grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair.

"Speaking of which..." Khrista looked around the table at the assembled Mobians. "What kind of Mobian is Quill?"

"All in good time," Sarah replied calmly. She moved over to stand in between the rabbit and the bat, the former which Khrista now realized couldn't have been much older than another rabbit she knew from the video games.

"These two would be our mechanics, Naomi and White Fang," Sarah explained. "They've been trying to figure out how Kintobar has been creating those Rings."

Naomi - the rabbit - scratched the back of her head, looking a little embarrassed. "We've only figured out to recharge them, Miss T. The only way to figure out how to make them would be to tear them apart, and the only way for that to happen would be to do it the way that Kintobar's been threatening to destroy the forest."

"We will find another way," White Fang encouraged. She sounded older, more experienced - fourteen or fifteen years old, at least. "Without the nuclear power Kintobar uses."

"Nuclear?" Khrista repeated, her eyes widening slightly. "Kintobar's threatened to destroy this place with nuclear weaponry?" She looked over at Sarah. "Could you fill us in on what's happened so far?"

Sarah blinked, but then frowned slightly. "How do we know we can trust you? You could be spies from wherever it is that Cyrus came from."

The two humans stiffened upon hearing the suggestion, and Khrista gained an annoyed expression.

"If anything, the only thing we would by looking for would be that wanted criminal," Khrista growled as her blue eyes narrowed. The brown-haired teen slammed on the table at a spot between Sabre and Kambei, who looked at her in surprise. "Cyrus tried to take over our world, but he escaped with Charon before we could put him on trial. We found proof that they ran here, and you've proven that twice over by mentioning Cyrus." She glared at Sarah, who was looking at the PokeHuman with a slightly surprised expression.

"We're also aware of what different versions of Kintobar have done in other worlds," Joshua continued, getting the Mobians' attention. "As he has already destroyed a tribe of hedgehogs, it's obvious that he has no ambition of learning from you or becoming an ally. Because he's partnered himself with our enemies, I find it likely that he will try to annihilate you as soon as he can."

A grim silence fell over the room upon hearing Joshua's statement.

"How can you be sure?" Ceryl finally asked. The blue Mighty-like armadillo gave Joshua a dark look.

"We've seen it in other worlds before," Khrista spoke up, turning her blue eyes from the white fox to the blue Chaotix member. "Comic books, video games, TV shows-they all show that Robuttnik will do anything in order to get rid of the thorns in his side. There are even places where he's succeeded."

Khrista stepped away from the table, her shirt shifting from gold back to red with the yellow and white sphere on her chest. Her blue eyes went around the table as she added, "And we're not going to let it happen to you guys."

The Mobians sitting and standing around the table exchanged glances upon hearing Khrista's declaration. Some of them frowned and shook their heads at one another, but most looked at Sarah with curious, expectant faces.

The white, triple-tailed fox looked around the table, her face not betraying any of her thoughts. Finally, she looked back at Khrista and Joshua. "And you're absolutely committed to your cause? You're more than willing to assist us?"

"Cyrus and Charon need to face justice for their crimes against their own world," Joshua replied smoothly. "We'll help you take care of the problems they've caused."

Sarah considered this, then gave a nod. "Very well, you can help us. However, we won't be able to fill you in on our situation now. I suggest you get some rest-it's going to be a long day ahead of you." The white fox turned to look at the echidna who had brought the two humans. "Verdun, they're going to need to stay somewhere for the night. Do you know of a place where they may be able to sleep undisturbed?"

The green hedgehog thought for a moment, then gave a slight nod. "I do. There's a hut at the top of the tree that has yet to be claimed. I doubt these two would mind sharing."

"So long as there are separate beds," Joshua responded.

"I believe that can be arranged." Sarah motioned towards the door. "Go. I'll fill you in tomorrow morning."

Khrista gave a slight bow. "Thanks. Good night." With that, she followed Verdun and her cousin out of the building.

Hee hee. What do you think of my alternate Mobians? I'm going to post short entries on my profile for each of the Mobians. I'll post the next chapter later sometime.

See ya!