Chapter 3: True Blue
"Top of the afternoon to you, you little pests," Dr. Eggman sneered. "I've been looking for you all over. You have something that I want."
"What?" Sonic snapped. "The Chaos Emeralds?"
Eggman almost fell out of his pod laughing. "Holy shoot, that was incredible!" he chortled. "I had no idea Tails could do such a good impression of Sonic!"
"It's not what it looks like," Tails growled, but that only made Eggman laugh harder.
"It seems you've switched bodies!" Eggman sneered once he got a hold of himself. "This will only make my work all the easier! Come on out, Chaos!"
"Huh?" Sonic and Tails looked around, puzzled. Then they saw a puddle of water move towards them and materialize into a humanoid liquid creature.
Sonic gasped. "You again!"
"This is Chaos," Eggman sneered, "a being composed of liquid Chaos energy. He grows stronger when I feed him Chaos Emeralds, and I know you have one somewhere around here. Of course, while I tear this place apart to find it, I'll let you get acquainted with my new friend!" With that, he dropped an emerald down to Chaos, who gratefully devoured it and subsequently changed form. He looked stronger now.
"This should be no problem," Sonic smirked, curling up...and tripping over his tails. "Aw, great! Just when I mastered the homing attack technique!"
"I got this!" Tails told him, shaking his butt at Chaos. Chaos just stood there and sweatdropped.
"Uh, Tails?" Sonic looked at his friend awkwardly, "What...are you doing?"
"Drat! I forgot," Tails looked sheepish, putting a hand behind his head to scratch, but he wound up poking himself instead. "Ow!"
"I sure hope we can find a way to reverse this," Sonic grumbled. Chaos snatched both of them in his liquid grip, holding them up a good three feet above the ground. "Let's just get through this first!"
"Got any ideas?" Tails asked.
"I'm stumped!" Sonic replied.
"Oh, no," Tails groaned. "What are we gonna do?"
"This is bad," Sonic shuddered.
The water holding them high began to slowly consume them, so that soon the only part of them that wasn't wet was their heads.
"You see?" Eggman sneered. "You're no match for Chaos!"
"No!" Sonic struggled. "We're just not in tip-top shape!"
"And now this golden opportunity will reap me excellent profits!" Eggman chortled. "Chaos! Finish them off!"
"Oh, no," Sonic muttered as the water crawled around him.
"Very, very bad," Tails shuddered.
The water now had only to consume their faces. "Tails! Hold your breath!" They squeezed their eyes shut. It won't be long now!
"Three…" Eggman's grin was wider than ever, as victory was already in reach! "TWO…"
"PIKACHU! USE THUNDERBOLT!"
The next thing everyone knew, a huge bolt of electricity erupted from seemingly nowhere and struck Chaos, coursing through his body and forcing him to let go of Sonic and Tails.
Sonic and Tails, stunned, opened their eyes. "What?!"
"What the devil was that?!" Eggman roared in fury, but he was knocked over by a sudden weight slamming into him. When he looked up, he saw a huge, fiery, bird-like creature standing over him, a menacing gaze in its eyes.
"Now, Blaziken!" another voice came. "Use Blaze Kick!"
The creature's foot started blazing with fire and then, with one swift move, fried Eggman and knocked him into the sky.
"What was that?!" Tails exclaimed.
"Urgh!" Eggman snarled when he landed. "Chaos! Get them!"
Chaos, coming to from the electrocution, jumped up and rushed them, but a large, plump, duck-like creature stood in front of them.
"Ludicolo!" a third voice called. "Use Protect!"
The plump creature held up its palms, and Chaos was thrown back when he ran into it.
"Guh! Pull back!" Eggman snapped. "I already got what I came for!" With that, he and Chaos dashed away, Chaos holding onto the ship. "No! Don't drag me down, you fool!"
"Whew!" Sonic huffed, dusting himself off. "That was a close one."
"I'll say," Tails nodded. "We need to be more careful."
"Hey, are you two all right?"
They turned and saw four locals standing over them. "I think so," Sonic replied, still in Tails' body.
"Who was that mustachioed freak?" the smallest of the bunch wondered aloud.
"You mean the giant talking egg?" another one with a yellow rodent on his shoulder asked.
"Yeah, who was that?"
"That was Dr. Robotnik," Sonic explained, "or, as we like to call him, Eggman."
"But who is he?" the girl asked.
"A mad scien–" Tails started, but Sonic quickly stopped him.
"I think we should solve a certain problem with our personal hygiene before we take this any further. Whataya say?"
Tails looked down at Sonic's body and agreed, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Besides, we don't even know who these locals are. They might spill the beans about us!"
"Right! Let's get inside!" With that, the two dashed into Tails' workshop, leaving four confused humans and a confused Pokemon in the dust.
"'Spill the beans?'" Ash wondered aloud. "What, that they're rare Pokemon or something? What would we say about them?"
"They seem to be outgoing," May muttered. "Even friendly. I bet if we made friends with them they wouldn't run away like that."
"I think you're right, May," Brock agreed. "But before we go any farther, we should figure out what's going on with them."
"Pika!" Pikachu agreed.
"Well, I guess that worked," Sonic, now back in his own body, shrugged.
"Just waiting it out, of course," Tails groaned. "I hate those kind of effects."
"Now, what about those locals hanging outside?"
"I don't know if we can trust them."
"Tails," Sonic reminded him, "they saved our lives."
Tails thought this over a moment, and then nodded. "That's true. I guess we can give them a shot, but if they spill any information –"
"Yeah, no worries," Sonic cracked his knuckles. "They won't get away with that."
Ash sat outside the workshop, twirling a Pokeball in his hand. Brock, Max, May, and Pikachu were playing a short distance away. Normally he'd join them, but today he felt like resting instead.
"I only have two symbols left to obtain to finish off the Battle Frontier," he mused. "That'll be swell, but then what?" He looked up at his friends, an uneasy look on his face. "By that time, May will probably have finished her Grand Festival. There'll be nothing left for us here." He sighed. "That will be the end of this adventure, which probably means everyone will go home for a visit. But then what happens after that? It'll just be me and Pikachu again…"
He smiled as he watched his best friend jump around, trying to catch a frisbee, while Max caught it, then quickly tossed it to May, who tossed it back to him, then he handed it off to Brock. Just as he caught it, Pikachu had the frisbee.
Ash rolled his eyes. "I'm never gonna figure that one out," he chuckled, adjusting his position. As he did so, he felt something in his pocket poke him. Curious, he pulled it out and found a ribbon: well, half of one. It was pink with white edges, and a half-medal that resembled the sun adorned it.
He sighed once again, pulling the brim of his hat over his face somberly. "Hopefully I can meet up with Brock again, and we can travel together. I have yet to have an adventure without him," he chuckled. "I don't know about May and Max, though. Max might go home after this, but what about May? Will she travel with us again? Will she want to?" Immediately after thinking this, he slapped himself. "Ash, you idiot! What kind of a stupid question is that?!"
"Whoa! Where did this come from?"
Ash looked up and saw a blue hedgehog standing right beside him, a frisbee in hand. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, I just saw your friends over there tossing this frisbee back and forth. First she had it, then lil' greeny had it, then she had it again, and the next thing I know, it's in my hands!"
Ash leaned back and laughed. "It's all right. I don't get it either." The blue hedgehog chuckled with him, tossing the frisbee away. "By the way, I don't think we ever introduced ourselves."
"Well, what are you waiting for, Baseball Head?" the hedgehog smirked. "What's your name? Tails and I are dying to know."
Ash looked surprised. "Baseball Head?" he repeated.
"Your hat."
He looked up and shrugged. "Deal with it.
"Anyways, my name's Ash."
The blue hedgehog smiled. "Nice to meet you, Ash. My name is Sonic: Sonic the Hedgehog!"
"Nice to meet you, too!" Ash returned the smile.
"Well, now that that's out of the way," Sonic shrugged, sitting down next to his new friend, "what are you doing over here?"
"We were trying to get to another town," Ash explained, "and we stumbled on this little oasis, so we figured we'd get a little rest...and water."
"Okay, that makes sense. You didn't know about Tails' workshop?"
"No, we didn't."
Sonic nodded. "So, out of curiosity, why did you do what you did back there?"
"Huh?"
"You know, against Eggman."
"Oh, you mean the giant talking egg?"
Sonic chuckled. I can tell Ash and I are going to get along just fine. "Yeah, him."
"Well, I saw he was trying to kill you guys, so I couldn't just let him do that."
"Okay...why else?"
Ash opened his mouth to speak, but in the end he just grinned, "Do you always need a reason to help someone?"
Sonic grinned likewise. "No. No, you don't." Yep. We're going to get along just fine. "So, why aren't you with your friends?"
Ash shrugged. "I don't know. Sometimes I just want to kick back a while, rest, and maybe think. This is just one of those times, I guess."
"Think? Ash, think? That's a novelty!"
The two new friends glanced up and saw Max standing over them. "Max?" Ash raised an eyebrow, "What are you doing over here?"
"I came to get the frisbee," Max pointed at Ash's head. He looked up, felt his head, and found the frisbee resting on there.
"Good grief," Ash rolled his eyes. "I thought it was going to land in May's hands."
"Nope!" Max chuckled as he skipped off to continue the game.
"Is that frisbee magic or something?" Sonic wondered aloud.
"Nah. It's just trippy."
"You can say that again." They chuckled.
"So, um, Sonic, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Er…" Ash stuttered, unsure of how to phrase his question, "Where exactly do you come from?"
On hearing this, Sonic shifted uneasily. Should I tell him? He seems trustworthy, and he did save us, but still…
"Well," he shrugged, nervous, "it's a long story."
"Mine's a long one, too," Ash shrugged, "although probably not as long as yours."
"Right," Sonic shrugged, still a little tense. "Well, then…"
He trailed off, worried that this might affect his other friends. He could already tell that he and Ash thought very much alike, but that didn't mean he could be trusted to keep a secret.
"Would you rather not tell me?" Ash raised an eyebrow, continuing before he even got an answer, "That's fine. Your friend didn't seem to trust us earlier, and we've only just met, so I can't really blame you."
Sonic breathed in relief. "I can appreciate that. Y'know, hearing you say that makes me think I can trust you."
"Well, it's the right thing to do," Ash shrugged, an innocent grin on his face. "Seriously, though, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"Well I would," Sonic shrugged, "but I have friends who might not take so kindly to it."
"I see."
A sudden clattering from inside the workshop jolted them back to the present moment. After that, they heard a thumping noise growing louder and louder until the door swung open, revealing an irate Tails.
"What the heck was that all about?!" he glared at Ash.
"What?"
Tails scowled and held out a frisbee.
