Chapter 10: Unexpected Help

Sonic the Hedgehog hit the ground hard and rolled over several times before coming to a stop. He bit his lip in agony as he let go of the two objects scorching the skin on his left hand. One of them was his golden key that he got from Artemis and the other was the cyan Chaos Emerald. The sound of a loud crash emanated from off in the distance and Sonic sighed with relief, knowing that Po had followed him. He tried to move but all of his strength was gone. This was strange. Normally the Chaos Emeralds gave him strength and power but this time, while it did help him, one of the emeralds had caused him to experience pain and lose practically all of his strength. Sonic tried to get a grasp on where he had traveled to but his vision was incredibly blurry.

"Got to...warn the others. Got to...find...help," croaked Sonic. It was at this moment that he heard the sound of feet shuffling along the ground and he instantly began to breathe quickly. This was it. Slade had found him. It was all over for him and Po.

"Oh my!" said a soothing voice. Sonic couldn't bear to keep his eyes open any longer and he closed them shut. He felt two, hairy hands pick him up and wrap him in a cradle-like holding position. Sonic tried to speak or, at least, open his eyes but he had no strength for neither actions. He felt his savior lean down and pick up the key and the Chaos Emerald. He heard the two objects drop into two separate pockets and then felt movement from under him. He was being carried somewhere...but where? "Do not worry, my friend. You are in good hands."

Sonic knew that he knew this person but he was experiencing so much weakening pain that he couldn't concentrate long enough to the put the voice with a face or a name. Sonic took one last long breath of air and passed out.

Sonic came to sometime later to find himself resting in a warm bed. He slowly opened his eyes and carefully examined the room that he was now in. It was a quaint room made up of wooden walls, a wooden ceiling, and a wooden floor. He was in a cabin, and he was in the very top floor of the cabin. A bear skin rug lay on the ground next to his bed and a bedside table sat a few inches away. On top of the bedside table sat a vase of flowers and an old picture of an elderly man sitting in a chair next to a dog. Sonic slowly sat up and realized that he was now covered in bandages. The room smelled of pine and Sonic loved it. It brought strength back into his bones but he was still pretty weak. He could hear voices downstairs but they were muffled by the floor. It was at this moment that Sonic saw a small, silver bell sitting behind the vase of flowers on the bedside table.

"Should I ring the bell and let those people below know that I'm awake?" Sonic whispered to himself. His eyes flashed back and forth between the bell and the nearby staircase. "If they wanted to hurt me then I guess they would have already done it."

Sonic reached over to the bell and picked it up. He swung it three times and a sweet chime echoed from it. The muffle voices from below stopped and were soon replaced by quick footsteps. Within seconds a red-headed woman in a yellow t-shirt emerged from the staircase. Sonic recognized the woman and gave a long sigh of relief.

"April Jones...I've never been happier to see you," Sonic breathed. April smiled softly and walked over to Sonic. She sat on the edge of the bed and patted his bandaged right arm.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I've been better. At least I'm not underwater or something."

"It's good to see that you're recovering. I expected you to be out longer than you were."

"How long have I been here?"

"Not long. Only around 15 or so minutes."

"Thanks for rescuing me."

"It wasn't me who rescued you."

"Oh? Then who was it?"

April nodded her head to the staircase and Sonic looked to see a humanoid rat in a brown robe. His large claws were wrapped around a long walking stick and a soothing smile was etched onto his face.

"I am glad to see that you have begun recovering," said Master Splinter. The rat sensei walked over towards Sonic's bed and came to a stop a few feet from where April was sitting. "It is fortunate that my vision told the truth."

"Wait. Vision? What vision?" asked Sonic.

"Last night I had a strange dream in which I was walking through the forest that surrounds this farmhouse. I could see the farmhouse in the distance but I then saw you, laying on the ground, injured and battered from some battle. I woke up this morning and decided to investigate further into this vision and...it proved to provide a 100 percent truth. This is very bad."

"Why is this bad? It's wonderful! You saved my life!"

"Yes, but this must mean that my other vision was true."

"Other vision? You had another?"

"Yes. This one involved New York City and Peter Parker."

"Peter? Is he alright?"

"I'm not sure. I sent my sons to go and investigate further into this matter. I can only hope that they and Peter are safe and sound."

"By the way, Sonic. What happened to you?" asked April.

"This hasn't been the best day for me...or Po," Sonic replied. April and Splinter looked at each other, curiosity and fear woven into their eyes, and then turned back to Sonic.

"Po? What's happened to Po?" asked Splinter.

"I should probably start at the beginning," said Sonic. "I set out this morning to go and find the cyan Chaos Emerald because Vector accidentally lost it while transporting it to Tails. On my way I bumped into Po who began telling me how some of Dr. Eggman's lackeys have been seen around the Valley of Peace. I promised him that I would help him look into it after I found the Chaos Emerald. Anyway, we eventually found it but were attacked by Slade."

"Slade? You mean that guy that Robin and the others are always fighting?" asked April whose eyes were now becoming wider.

"Yeah. He told us that he was there to collect us for his boss. We fought him but Slade had new...devastating abilities. There was a magical aura to him. It felt foreign and uncanny. Like his powers weren't that of his own world. Po and I fought him and were badly injured. He was about to take us when my key touched the Chaos Emerald. Next thing I knew I was hitting the ground hard and finding myself in the middle of a dark forest at night. Po must have followed me here because I heard a crash earlier. He must have fallen onto something."

"There's an old tin shed out there that used to belong to Casey's grandfather."

"That must have been it."

"So that's the crash that Casey and I heard earlier."

It was at this moment that April's eyes became extremely wide and she jumped up from Sonic's bed.

"Casey! How could I have forgotten about him? He's been gone for nearly half an hour and I've just been sitting around having smalltalk!" she panicked.

"Do not fret, Mrs. Jones. I'm sure that Mr. Jones is alright," said Splinter. Splinter took April's hand and rubbed it softly. April slowly calmed down and sat back down.

"Sorry. I'm just worried about him."

"You're just like Amy," Sonic chuckled. "She's always thinking the worst has happened when I'm gone for too long."

"She'll probably have a heart attack when she finds out that you were attacked by Slade."

"Probably."

"Anyway, should we go out and search for Casey and Po?"

"I'm sure that Mr. Jones has already found Po and is dragging him towards the farmhouse as we speak," Splinter inquired.

"That...or they've found trouble," said Sonic.

"What kind of trouble could you be thinking of?" asked April.

"What if Po and I weren't the only ones transported here? What if...Slade came too?"

"We need to find them now!"

April jumped up again and began to walk towards the staircase. The farmhouse then shook violently and April looked out the nearby window. A large fireball rose into the sky about a mile away. A smoke column rose after it and soon a storm of burning wood began raining down outside the farmhouse.

"What the hell is going on?" screamed April. She grabbed a Federation blaster, which had been hanging on the wall, and began making her way down the stairs.

"Mrs. Jones! Wait!" pleaded Splinter as he chased after her. Sonic tried to follow them but his injuries were too great and he couldn't find the strength to walk. He fell back into his bed and looked out the window. The burning pieces of wood continued to rain down and the enormous smoke column billowed in the wind like a long black cape. He looked towards the ground and could just make out the outlines of April and Splinter running off into the trees towards the site of the explosion.

"I sure picked a bad night to get injured," Sonic chuckled nervously. He continued to watch the mayhem going on outside for the next few minutes until he heard strange noises from behind him. He turned around and faced a small doorway that led into, what Sonic assumed to be, a closet. The door began to shake slightly and a weird light began to form around the edges of the door. "That sure looks familiar."

Sonic slowly picked himself off of the bed and carefully edged his way towards the end of the bed. The pain in his feet had healed slightly in the past couple minutes but the pain was still intense. Sonic was about to reach the end of the bed but, by some random stroke of bad luck, he caught his foot on a loose floorboard and fell forward. He rolled over twice and looked up to see that he had fallen down just a few feet from the door.

"Stupid injuries," he groaned as he tried to pick himself up. Just then, the light around the door lit up like a spotlight for about three seconds and then disappeared. The door creaked open and Sonic held his breath. The closet door opened entirely and a smile grew on Sonic's face. Hermione Granger and Holly Short looked down at him from the doorway, shocked expressions carved into their faces.