Because We're Sonic Heroes
Chapter 13: Frog Forest
"I shall find the answer to who I really am…"
Shadow was mulling to himself, as always, as Team Dark grinded down into Frog Forest. They rode the vines down to stable ground, where they were instantly greeted by Egg Pawns.
The last thing this team wanted to see…except maybe for Omega.
"Annihilate!" yelled the rogue robot, beginning to fire at will. "Must eradicate!"
"Do you have to announce that every time?" Rouge asked, her leg slicing right through the nearest clunker.
As they battled away, Shadow leaped away from the action and perched himself atop a tree. The trees and other plant life rose from the ground and grew to the height of mountains; flowers gave the place a flora feel, and the frogs-
They were huge.
"What in the world…?" Shadow trailed, drifting away from his team and spying on the gargantuan frog. Rouge flew up from behind him and chuckled.
"A big forest has to house big animals you know," she said with a wink. "Be careful not to let them spot you, because they have the ability to make it rain."
"Frogs have the power to make it rain? That's ridiculous."
Rouge simply shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn ya."
"It can't be any more ridiculous than a red streaked hedgehog with hover shoes and chaos abilities."
Shadow made a face and stalked off. "No one asked you, Omega…"
. . .
"Big," Amy began slowly, staring at the environment around them. "When you said you could, er…smell Froggy, did you mean Froggy, or some other frog?"
"Definitely Froggy!" replied Big. "What makes you ask?"
"We're in Frog Forest!" cried Cream. "There are frogs everywhere! How will we know which one's yours, mister Big?"
The lush forest with green as far as the eye could see was not only filled with oversized plants, but at least twelve different species of frogs. Amy could hear them croaking all around as they grinded down massive vines that intertwined with the trees.
"Well…maybe Froggy will be with other frogs," Big suggested hopefully.
"I wonder if Chocola is with him…" Cream trailed. Amy jumped off her vines and suddenly looked thoughtful.
"They were kidnapped around the same time, plus they were together in that photo of Sonic…"
"But Sonic never had them…" Cream winced and grabbed Cheese. "Where do we go from here?"
"Considering we're in Frog Forest," Amy gestured to the nature around them. "Perhaps Froggy really is here… and maybe Big can ask the other frogs if they've seen Froggy or not."
"Yeah!" the round cat cheered, quickly running deeper into the forest to hunt down his best friend. Cream glanced up at Amy, but the hedgehog's face was buried in her palm.
. . .
"WHAT?"
The Chaotix followed their client's orders and headed north, landing themselves in a rather large forest. However, their latest instructions were a bit…puzzling.
"Here's your next mission…" the client repeated, sounding annoyed. "There are huge frogs in this jungle. Once they start to croak, it will start to rain and you'll be spotted easily. Get through the jungle without being detected by the frogs."
The device shut off once and for all, believing that describing the assignment twice was enough.
"What?" Vector guffawed a second time, glaring daggers into the device. "He wants us to dart around a forest and not be detected by frogs? What, does the real Eggman speak frog or something?"
"Relax," Espio ordered, taking the communicator back. "It's probably just a test of not being detected, and using frogs is just the safest way."
"Espio's just saying that because a ninja like himself will have no difficultly carrying out this rigorous task!"
"That's right- wait, what the? Charmy!"
"Heheheh…"
Vector just blinked and stared at Charmy. "I'm amazed he used 'rigorous' correctly in a sentence."
. . .
"…and thus, the expert team made their way into the dense forest, where they found herds of jumbo, rain-summoning frogs in their natural habitat!"
"Sonic," Knuckles growled, causing said hedgehog to snicker a bit. "That is completely unnecessary!"
"Sorry- just trying to set the mood before we get where we're going."
"Yeah, okay…So, uh…where are we going?" Knuckles asked, gazing around at all the trees.
Sonic leapt next to the echidna and snapped his fingers. "Heh, easy! Tails?"
"Well, Eggman's fleet was seen heading north," Tails explained, glancing up and drawing imaginary figures in the air. "So I've managed to calculate which direction was north so we could follow in the same direction."
"…which led us to this forest!" Sonic finished, spreading his arms for emphasis. "Ah, the sweet smell of nature!"
"I'd love to stay and get a whiff of the great outdoors, but we've gotta stop that fleet," Knuckles started edging toward a rather large vine. "So, I get we'd better get grinding."
"No need to tell me twice!" Sonic exclaimed, leaping into the air and landing on the vine in a perfect grinding pose. Knuckles sighed, but with a smile, as he did the same, with Tails ceasing his air drawings and quickly following.
Sonic clenched a fist and grinned, the friendly confidence surrounding him almost becoming palpable.
"Heh, heh…No way off the hook this time, Eggman…"
. . .
Once Amy and Cream caught up with the overly excited feline, their official search through Frog Forest began.
"This place is pretty fun!" Amy laughed, running through the loops that the forest floor somehow managed to curl into. "I feel like I'm going as fast as I was in Grand Metropolis!"
"Any sign of Froggy?" Big asked. He wasn't really paying attention to much else- just keeping his eyes strained for a sign of any frog. Cream was looking around as well, and once Amy stopped dragging the team through loops, she found something.
"Is…that your frog, Big?"
She flew over to a huge frog resting by a hill, and it was almost bigger than her. Big ran over in another fit of excitement and scooped up the frog, spinning around with it happily. Amy stopped running on ahead and whirled around.
"So…that's Froggy?"
"Oh, no," Big replied calmly, tossing the frog back onto the ground. "It just looked a lot like Froggy, that's all."
"You could've told us before bursting into a song and dance…"
"It's okay Big," Cream assured, patting his back. "I'd do the same thing if I saw that resembled Cheese or Chocola."
"Yeah," added Amy, glancing at the ground. "I'd do the same thing as well…"
. . .
Rouge flew her team across gaps and over cliffs, making their way into the forest. She put Shadow and Omega down, Shadow starting to walk away and stare at a supersized mushroom. Omega couldn't compute his actions, so Rouge flew over and laid belly-first on the mushroom.
"You're upset, aren't you?" Rouge asked quietly, Shadow avoiding eye contact.
"So?" Shadow sighed. "I won't get to the bottom of this if I sit around and contemplate…"
"It's better to contemplate on the go, then?"
"At least you'd be moving forward," Shadow pointed out, taking off as he said so.
The albino bat frowned as she and Omega began to follow him, not liking her odds. He looked like Shadow, talked like Shadow, acted like Shadow…but did he really have nothing to remember? Was he just a Shadow Android as well?
"I suppose that figures…" Rouge huffed, closing her eyes and folding her arms as she walked. "The only people that even bother with me are robots. Sigh…"
She then mentally took that statement back- no, Shadow was Shadow, and she would continue to believe so until incriminating proof as to otherwise dared to show itself. Shadow was the same Shadow locked up for fifty years, made a promise to Maria, and saved Rouge's life on more than one occasion.
A sudden crack in the sky caused Rouge to look up, but then turned her head to a frog sitting on the path. She had startled it, causing it to croak. Glancing back up at the sky, just as Rouge predicted, it began to rain.
. . .
Espio darted from hiding spot to hiding spot within the blink of an eye, not taking any chance of being detected. Vector attempted to do the same, but he was much less inconspicuous.
Charmy simply resorted to flying straight through the forest.
"Charmy, if you keep acting so careless, you're going to sacrifice the mission for us," Espio warned, hanging upside down from a tree. Charmy stopped in midair and shot Espio a glance.
"Oh, come on! We've been walking for a while already and we haven't even seen a frog! Our client's clearly just messing with us this time or something!"
As if fate intended to prove Charmy wrong, a huge forest frog jumped out of a bush. Espio caught it before it even made it out of the leaves. He flipped off the branch, dashed over to Charmy in a flash of magenta, and pulled him into the shadows before the frog even landed.
"Hmmm…" Vector pondered, hiding out in a log. "That is definitely a frog. Be careful, boys."
"Thanks for clearing that up, Vector," muttered Espio, he and Charmy emerging once the frog was gone.
"That was a frog? I totally thought it was a toad!"
Vector and Espio stared at Charmy for the longest time before beginning to dart back into the shadows. But as soon as it did, it began to rain…
. . .
"…let go of the ivy when it reaches the highest point of the swing, okay?"
"Shut up, Sonic; my wrist is stuck!"
"How could you get stuck? The ivy vine's in the shape of "U" for crying out loud!"
"He's right, Knuckles- that's a little ridiculous…"
Knuckles made a face, now dangling from his arm as he struggled the wrench his wrist free of the ivy. Tails told him not to struggle as Sonic turned away and snickered to himself.
"Sorry Knuckles- you've got a real bad streak going for ya-"
"Will someone help me down all ready! ?"
"You've got it, knucklehead!" Sonic chortled once more, crouching slightly. His quills sharpened, his feet shifted, and he curled into a ball and flew straight at the vine that entrapped Knuckles. His quills sliced through them with finesse…but Knuckles yelped and fell back to the forest floor with a little less finesse.
"Ooh…great warning there, Sonic…"
Sonic uncurled and alighted back on his feet, glancing over his shoulder and folding his arms at Knuckles. "You told me to get'cha down- you're down, aren't you?"
"Of course, you couldn't have done it in a simple way…"
"For me, that was a simple way."
Knuckles unwound the vine from his wrist then tossed it aside.
"Well, it can't get worse than that, can it?"
Fate decided that then and there, it needed to rain.
. . .
Team Rose ran into many more frogs that resembled the one the power member was searching for. Both Amy and Cream were a little put off by the fact Big had to investigate every single frog that crossed his line of sight, but they could understand.
They were currently swinging from vines, Amy seemingly the only one enjoying it.
"Come on, guys!" Amy exclaimed, releasing her grip on her vine and landing at the base of a tall tree. "Can't do this back home!"
"Of course not," Cream agreed as she landed next to her. "But remember-"
"Take this seriously, I know, I know…" Amy looked away for Cream and up at the sky. "But it's hard to be serious when I'm able to not be serious for the first time, you know?"
"What do you mean?" Cream followed after Amy as the hedgehog walked on, still staring upwards.
"Hard to say…I've been getting kidnapped ever since I was eight, so I've been forced to deal with situations that no little girl ever should."
"Is it bad that I'm here now, then?"
"Oh, no," Amy laughed, patting between the rabbit's ears. "That's one of the reasons why this is different. Instead of waiting to be saved, I'm the one that's doing the saving! For once, I haven't felt useless, and…I'm having fun!"
"Me too!" Big stated abruptly, cuddling yet another frog in his arms. It began to croak, all three members of Team Rose staring curiously at it. A loud clap of thunder pierced through the serenity of the forest, and it began to rain. As the water started pouring on them, Amy motioned for them to get a move on.
"I guess we won't find Froggy or Chocola standing here, huh? Let's get a move on!"
Cream watched as Amy skipped through the puddles as they began to form, with Big plunking himself into them afterwards and causing quite a splash.
"Maybe I was wrong about her…"
. . .
"We weren't anywhere near a frog!" Knuckles complained, wringing out his dreads. "How come it started raining?"
"Well Knuckles," began Tails, who was looking much worse off that Knuckles was, with the rain causing his fur to severely droop. "There's more than one frog in the forest, and this is a huge forest...some other frog must've triggered the rain."
Knuckles made a small noise and turned away from Tails. "Whoa…you look like a stray non-sentient cat that was left in a downpour for too long."
Tails made a face and gave an effort to shake off the water. "I can't help it! Makes me enjoy being fluffy…but at least it doesn't look like an octopus or a squid is attacking my head."
Knuckles was about to reply, but then he did a double take. He relaxed a little, and even began to laugh. Tails, still looking worse for wear, laughed too, until Sonic sped by, who had purposely jumped into a puddle and caused a tsunami of a splash.
"Woo hoo!" cheered the hedgehog, his arms flying behind as he sent more water than necessary into the air. Knuckles was pretty sure that most of the water pouring down was from Sonic, and not even the rain. Sonic's red shoes continued to stomp into water, finding a bit of entertainment in doing so.
"Sonic, I thought you hated water," Knuckles said, using an oversized flower petal to try and dry himself off. "Shouldn't you be quaking like a leaf or hiding under an umbrella mushroom?"
"You're hilarious," Sonic huffed, splashing Knuckles and his flower petal just as he said so. "I don't mind rain, Knuckles. What I do mind is being submerged in the stuff. Brrr."
"You mean like this?" the echidna said dangerously, slamming his fist in a puddle and proceeding to give Sonic a taste of his own medicine. Sonic let out a screech and dove for cover behind a rock.
"That is not funny! I could've died!"
"You're totally fine!"
"It's different when you do it to a hydrophobic!"
"I would never do that to a hydrophobe…" Knuckles laughed, still grinning sinisterly. "I simply did so because it was you!"
"You two are impossible together," chuckled Tails, staring at himself in a puddle as Sonic and Knuckles had a water battle in the background.
He did look sort of look like a drenched cat.
. . .
"If Shadow can be so calm about this, then why can't I?" Rouge pondered to herself, unable to fly due to the rain coming down by the bucketful. "Is it because I remember and he doesn't…?"
"I inquire that you should tell Shadow what you know," Omega informed her as Shadow overlooked the forest once more to see where they needed to go. Rouge stared up at Omega, hesitantly shaking her head.
"I dunno…I really want to, but if I do, what if it makes him even more upset, since he won't have any idea what I'm talking about…"
"Either that will be the outcome, or it'll trigger who he really is and his memories will return."
Rouge took a deep breath and slumped. "I…don't wanna risk it. Besides, I've got a plan."
"How likely is this plan to pull through? Statistics, please."
Rouge gave him a puzzled look as her mind scrambled for an answer, but she didn't need to find one- Shadow returned just in time.
"I've got our route planned. Rouge has to fly us across a few gaps, then I'll take it from there and zoom down the path. Then we'll figure out what comes next."
"Had to scan the place to find that out?" Rouge giggled. She then gave a sad smile as she rubbed the back of her head. "But seriously, I can't fly while it's still raining, hon."
"It's got to stop eventually," Shadow grumbled, folding his arms. "Wouldn't a second croak from a logic defying frog reverse the process?"
"Sixty-five percent probability," Omega deduced, processing the possibilities. Shadow nodded, scanned the area very quickly, then pounced into a bush. A distraught croak rang out moments later, and the rain came to an abrupt halt. Shadow jumped out of the bush and casually walked over.
"Problem solved!"
Rouge did nothing but blink at first, but then laughed a little as she flapped her wings, rapidly drying them off. She then assumed flight formation, beginning to follow the path Shadow had mapped out. Omega skimmed across the still damp grass, hopping from one spot to the next until they reached a straight path. From there, Shadow took the lead and raced through the forest, speed taking over. As they all sped around, Rouge suddenly became thoughtful.
"Huh…kinda reminds me of the forest that was once around Prison Island…"
"Prison Island?" Shadow asked, and Rouge's attention snapped to him. "…Why is a whole island an entire prison?"
Rouge's attention to Shadow went down a few notches.
"Yeah, there was a huge security prison located there, surrounded by thick forests. But then it was blown up, and…I was on the island when it happened."
"How'd you escape?" inquired Omega. "This piques my interest."
"Well…" her gazed shifted to Shadow, but she looked away before he could catch her. "I guess I was saved in the nick of time."
. . .
It hadn't rained for very long, though it left all teams completely soaked. If Amy had been complaining about a stain at one point, it came as a shock to Cream that she was totally fine with being wet.
"My fur's all matted up…"
Big was the first to complain, trying to smooth out his ruffled purple coat.
"It can't be that bad," Amy said, wringing out her dress. "It was just a small downpour…but I wonder why it happened so suddenly?"
"Well, just in case it happens again...I've got my umbrella!"
He pulled it out and opened it, as if he needed to prove his point. Cream, meanwhile, looked over the edge of where they were. There was a path down below, and she got to thinking.
"I think we should go down there!"
Amy glanced down as well as shrugged. "Okay, then. Big?"
It confused him, but Big eventually realized what she meant and jumped off the side nevertheless. Amy proceeded to jump down after him, with Cream flying down and landing on top of the umbrella. Amy grabbed onto Big's arm as she fell, the three of them all falling down to a lower area of the forest.
They landed on something that resembled a rather large mushroom. Big bounced a bit as he landed on it, with Amy releasing his arm and for Cream to flutter off the umbrella.
"Huh…this area's a little more open than the previous ones, huh?" Amy realized, gazing out into the distance. There weren't as many trees as before, but the afternoon blue sky could be visibly seen, the canyon they just left rested on the skyline, and green stretched across whatever was left.
"It's really pretty," Cream stated, smiling to herself.
"Yeah, if Froggy really was taken here…well, I'm glad it was a place like this!"
Amy folded her arms and grinned. "I suppose that's one way of looking at it."
. . .
Now that the rain ceased to fall, Sonic created a whirlwind around his team to dry them off at sonic speed. Knuckles looked normal, Sonic made sure there wasn't a drop of liquid on him, and…well, Tails was definitely fluffy again.
"I look like a puff ball!" the fox yelped, trying to get his fur to flatten out.
"Relax," Sonic said, waving his hand. "It'll go back shortly, buddy!"
Tails moaned impatiently, but he knew that it wouldn't be long either. Thus, Sonic pointed toward the direction they were about to follow and marched on.
"…you don't know where you're going, huh?"
"Not a clue!" Sonic replied to Knuckles. "But that's what makes it fun!"
He then began to run blindly down the first path he spotted, Knuckles and Tails flying by beside him. The path eventually led up to a dead end, blocked by a tree. This did not deter Sonic, as he just jumped on the mushrooms sticking out and bounced his way toward the top. Knuckles chose to climb up instead, while Tails flew to the top with his extra fluffy double tails.
"Still have no idea!" laughed Sonic, hanging upside down on an ivy vine. "Are we even going north, Tails?"
"I think so," replied the fox, his fur now back to normal. "With the wind direction, the way the clouds and leaves are swaying, plus the color of this moss over here-"
"Yes, we're going the right way," grumbled Knuckles, grabbing Tails and pulling Sonic down from the vine. "Now's let's keep going the right way."
. . .
Team Dark stopped once again, not just to brutally destroy a few more Flappers and Egg Pawns, but to find out their next course of action.
"Where are we even going anyway?" Rouge wondered, performing a tornado kick on a Flapper. "I mean, we have no Eggman to follow since that last one was a fake, his base is destroyed, and we have no idea where the real one is located at…how'd we even end up here?"
"Omega-" began Shadow, punching into a metallic torso. "-calculated that we should go north. He said that a lot of activity was headed this way."
"My sensors never miscalculate," Omega stated, almost in a proud tone.
Shadow and Rouge went back to back, finding more of the robots closing in on them. The moment the circle of fiends took a step closer, Shadow's arms locked with Rouge's as he began to spin, the bat's legs cleanly slicing through the metal like thin air. Shadow finished his rotation and skid to a stop, releasing Rouge and smirking to himself.
"That was resourceful," Rouge said with a coy smile.
"Yeah…I just wish I weren't so lost right now…"
"Still feeling bad about having no memories?"
"Well yeah- but I was talking about getting out of this forest. We're seriously lost."
. . .
"Are you sure this is the right way, Vector?" asked Espio. Vector waved a hand, as if that was all it took to assure a fully trained ninja.
"Of course I am! Just follow my lead!"
"Well, following your lead a few times before developed some interesting results."
Team Chaotix was currently grinding down a long vine draping off of several trees, with the resident chameleon scanning every inch for a frog. He really had nothing to worry about- being so high up prevented any frog from detecting them. Even though the rain had stopped, it had still left the vines slippery. The Chaotix knew a frog was nearby, for that was the only way it could have suddenly rained…
They continued until they reached a giant mushroom, which bounced them when they jumped onto it.
"Cool!" chirped Charmy, beginning to hop around like he was on a trampoline. Espio's eyes flickered about, searching for any sign of an amphibian.
"Don't call so much attention to yourself. You know there could be-"
"Espio, you're acting a little paranoid," Vector declared, slinging an arm over his shoulders. "The frogs in this area are huge; there's no way we can miss them if they're around."
"I'm not paranoid- I'm being cautious. Paranoid would include glancing over my shoulder every time there's an insignificant sound."
Vector noted that Espio did not hesitate to turn and glance over his shoulder at the sound of the wind blowing.
Eventually, Espio deemed it safe to carry on, and Charmy took the lead. As the bee proceeded to fly his group over a gap, his head snapped to the source of a foreign sound.
"Did somebody croak?"
"Charmy!" Vector gasped. "What a thing to ask in the middle of the forest!"
"I think he's talking about a frog, Vector," Espio huffed, shaking his head. Charmy nodded.
"Yeah, what Espio said! It came from…well, down here!"
Charmy was actually going to set them down gently for once, but in the opposite circumstance, Espio caused the disturbance. He wrested out of flight formation, causing Vector to plummet downwards and left Charmy dumbstruck in midair.
"What're you doing? !" Vector roared, finding himself slung over a rock. Espio pointed up before going invisible.
"Anytime a frog croaks…" Lightning struck the sky. "…it begins to rain. And we're easier to spot in a downpour."
. . .
Knuckles was still hanging onto Sonic and Tails, and whether this was a good or bad thing depended on who you were talking to. A few stray Egg Pawns came into the area, and Knuckles felt the need to destroy them by hurling Sonic and Tails very forcefully.
"TAKE THIS!"
"Please, no!" wailed Tails, crashing into a clunker and breaking it on contact. "I can't take much more of this!"
"The power of friendship, Tails!" Knuckles protested, swinging Sonic repeatedly into a different Egg Pawn. "It overcomes all evil!"
"I think friendship would work better if my head wasn't being used as a battering ram!"
"I'm just taking your advice-"
"I never said use me as a living weapon, man!"
Knuckles dropped Sonic and finished off the robot himself, Sonic wheezing on the ground and rubbing his head.
"Why is that your preferred method of attacking? There're spikes on your fists for crying out loud!"
"I've no idea," Knuckles replied, staring at his palms. "It's like there's some force telling me otherwise…"
"Whatever…" Sonic arose to his feet and looked around. "We're never getting out of here. Whose idea was it to chase the Egg Fleet through a forest?"
Knuckles pointed at Tails.
"What? Hey, if you two didn't run off instantly, we could've thought this through a little more!"
"You were admiring the Eggman robot too long," Knuckles pointed out.
"But it wasn't-"
Thunder began to rumble, and lightning began to crack…
And once more, it started to rain.
. . .
"Wow, I can't believe this flower can actually fly!"
Team Rose was currently hang gliding via a while flower; Amy was gripping the stem, Cream hung onto her back, and Big held onto them both.
"That just makes this place even better!"
"I feel like I've become one with the flower!" laughed Cream.
"Um…it can't fly forever, can it?" asked Big, cautiously glancing down.
"I don't believe so, Big," Amy replied. "Why?"
"Just because we're flying above a really large and hollow stump."
As if on cue, their flower chose then and there to conveniently stop flying.
"Why do these things always seem to happen? !" Amy wailed on the way down.
They didn't fall freely for very long, since Cream quickly flew around and assembled the team into flight formation. Now being lowered at a safer speed, it was easier for the team to take a look at their surroundings.
"We've could've landed in mud," Amy realized, blinking as they descended into the dark stump.
A few leaves growing on the inside brushed against Big, causing the cat to giggle.
"It tickles!"
They finally reached the bottom of the stump, where there was luckily an opening to get out. Amy took the lead and rushed back into the rain, leading her team into the search once again.
. . .
Team Dark was still unable to move on, but very shortly they found out that the frog's croaking could be advantageous. They had rushed by one frog so quickly that it had startled the amphibian, causing it to begin to rain. Rouge sighed, as her wings were wet once again. Before she could despair for long, they all realized that the amount of rain was just enough to cause two large stalks to grow. The stalks then sprout leaf-like platforms, rendering them to get across safely.
"That's what I call miracle grow!" Rouge giggled, causing Shadow to roll his eyes. The hedgehog then proceeded to leap across the platforms, hoping to lead his team out of the forest and to the answers they so desperately wanted.
Or treasures and revenge, to be more specific.
The rain didn't last forever, as what was to be expected, and Rouge smiled as her wings began to dry off. The speed they were moving helped out too, but Shadow suddenly came to an abrupt stop, with Rouge and their one-ton robot ramming right into him.
"Why have you ceased moving functions?" Omega demanded to know, oblivious to the fact that he was crushing his teammates.
"Where were my moving functions supposed to go?" Shadow replied sarcastically, one of Omega legs lying on top of him. "It's a dead end."
"Oh, please move Omega…" Rouge wheezed, clawing at the ground before her. Omega complied, removing himself from his teammates and looking around. Shadow helped Rouge off the ground, and took a look at his surrounding as well.
And that's when he saw the white daisy.
. . .
"Don't you think that rain would make us harder to spot?" Vector asked, doing the best he could to follow after the still camouflaged chameleon. They splashed in the puddles that began to form by the second, and Vector was careful to watch just where the frogs' eyes were gazing.
"Do you really want to take that chance?" Espio's voice replied. "Just stay close to me, and the frogs shouldn't be able to spot us."
"How is that supposed to work?" Charmy asked, hovering over what was supposedly Espio's shoulder. "You're the only one that's invisible!"
"Ninja trade secret."
Espio wasn't completely invisible- if you looked closely, you could see the outline of his form. Vector tried to focus on that as he grabbed Charmy and leapt after the ninja. He seemed to know what he was doing, so Vector allowed him to lead for a little longer.
Espio ran up and down the weaving paths of the forest, dodging behind the backs of any frog that happened to sit in his way. He jumped across mushrooms and tree stumps, and swung across vines somewhere along the way. He did so with grace and agility…things that Vector and Charmy seemed to lack, considering Vector had trouble making the leaps and Charmy had his foot twisted in a vine.
. . .
The grass squished beneath the shoes of Team Sonic, Sonic leading the way but they weren't moving very fast. The forest was now dark, wet, and had a very disappointing atmosphere. It was a stark contrast to what it had been before. Surprisingly, Tails was the one with a leaf over his head, though Knuckles was slightly snuggled underneath it as well.
"Since when does it rain on adventures?" Sonic questioned, more to himself that to his teammates. "That's, like, the one thing that rarely happens on adventures!"
"I dunno," Tails shrugged, shifting under his leaf. "It was much more fun the first time around…"
"It wasn't cold last time, either," Knuckles sighed through his chattering teeth. "The frog that caused this can't croak forever…"
Sonic did nothing but mumble incoherently, picking up his speed a bit. It was probably dangerous to run at top speed, because the hedgehog was not immune to slipping on wet ground. Luckily, they didn't have to go far to find…a flower?
Whatever anyone was feeling before that point was instantly replaced by confusion. Sonic felt the need to splash over and poke the flower.
"It looks like it can…fly!" Tails exclaimed. "Sonic, you should be able to get it going with your Tornado jump!"
"You want me to fly a flower-copter in this weather?" Sonic gasped, gesturing to the sky. A frog's croak rang out, and the rain stopped once again. Knuckles and Tails promptly discarded their giant leaf. "…never mind."
Sonic encircled the flower several times until a blue funnel uprooted it right out of the ground. It hovered above the ground slightly, and Sonic jumped at it, pushing off the cliff and finding himself dangling from a flower stem at a severe height in the air. Tails and Knuckles grabbed on as well, and Sonic took in the situation.
"…hmm. Of all the things I've done in my life, flying a flower up to a giant hollow tree stumps get a big fat sticky note at the top of my "Craziest things ever" list."
"What other lists do you have?" Tails asked, out of curiosity.
"Well, at the very top of my "Worst near deaths ever" is that time Knuckles almost crashed our spaceship into the ARK-"
"You're really never going to get over that, are you?"
"Dude, that's the only time, after all my endeavors, that my life actually flashed before my eyes. I'm sorry I can't let it go."
. . .
"I'm bored," whined Charmy, sitting slumped over on Vector's head.
"Well I'm starving and I'm not complaining."
"You have plenty of other things to complain about though, Vector!"
Espio eventually came to a stop at the base of a cliff, fading back into visibility. Vector and Charmy, in the midst of their argument, ended up crashing into Espio.
"Charmy, activate that flower over there," Espio requested, ignoring the fact that his team just bowled him over. Charmy flew up from the ground, saw the purple flower jetting out of the cliff, and happily hovered over to it.
"No problem," the bee assured, laughing as the flower began to bloom.
Then, a strong wind suddenly began to blow, causing the three of them to spiral upwards. Vector wasn't currently chewing any bubble gum, so floating safely back down wasn't an option. It was then that Espio saw a white flower hovering next to them, and instinctively thinking, he grabbed onto it.
"If you two value your lives, grab onto me!" cried Espio, struggling to hang onto the flower himself. Charmy grabbed Vector and tossed him toward Espio, the crocodile latching onto Espio's boot. Charmy then flew over and clung to Vector's tail.
"Please tell me you know how to steer that thing!" Vector begged.
"We've just gotta go with the wind!" exclaimed Charmy. "And look on the Brightside- it stopped raining!"
"Yeah, now we just need to make sure we don't splatter into the ground."
. . .
"What an amazing flower!"
Rouge's outburst was not an understatement- Team Dark was currently using that flower to fly themselves to a higher part of the forest.
Though it was a little ridiculous- especially considering Shadow was the one actually steering the thing.
"This flower is engineered like a helicopter," Omega announced. "It should be sufficient enough to get us where we need to go."
"Where we need to go…" Shadow trailed, looking for a good place to land. "..is definitely the question."
He then released the flower without warning, Rouge screaming and Omega letting out a few inaudible beeps. Shadow simply yawned and pointed downwards.
"Calm down- do you really think I did that without reason?"
"I wouldn't put it past my internal processor."
As a low growl built in Shadow's throat, Rouge glanced down, and realized that they were passing through the very same stump as the teams before them had. Shadow extended his hand and flew down like a superhero, while Rouge and Omega had a rather bumpy fall, landing on the large leaves and being flung back into the air. Rouge eventually had enough of being battered around and simply resorted to flying- Omega, unfortunately, didn't have this option.
CLUNK!
"That would be painful if I wasn't made of metal."
. . .
After one trip on a flower, Team Sonic was not quite ready for another one.
Well, too bad for them.
"I'd hate to say I'd rather take the rain," Sonic huffed, turning away from the plant.
"You're the only one who can fly it, Sonic," Tails pointed out. "Knuckles and I are unable to launch it into the air…"
Sonic scratched his head as he pushed around a smaller leaf with the toe of his shoe. "Um…can't you just fly us over there?"
"No, it's a little too far…I might be able to make it by myself and maybe one person, but there's no way I'd make it with you both."
"A round trip, maybe?"
"Sonic."
Sonic glanced at Knuckles for help.
"Nuh-uh. I can't glide up- only down. I can't defy gravity like Tails can…and apparently you can with a flower."
"Fine," was the only word Sonic released before disappearing into a blue blur. Bringing the flower into the air, Sonic grabbed on again, along with Tails and Knuckles. They all looked around for a spot to land, but just like the others, that giant mushroom was too mind-boggling to ignore.
"Wow!" gasped Tails. "I've never seen a mushroom that big before!"
"I've got big mushrooms on my island…but not that big!" exclaimed Knuckles.
"Just hang on guys!" Sonic pulled left on the flower, causing it to descend. "The flower's headed straight for it!"
It was a bit of a crash landing, since Sonic somehow managed to smack him and his teammates against the side of the stalk. He released the flower, causing it to fly away once more. The trio peeled off and landed on a platform.
"Sonic, you're never driving a flower again," Knuckles groaned, dusting himself off. Sonic wasted no time in copying Knuckles.
"I certainly hope I don't have to…sheesh!"
Once everyone was thinking straight, Sonic pointed forward, and his teammates allowed him to lead the way.
. . .
Omega was currently tuning up his minor dents as Shadow took the lead. He was a black blur, bounding off of trees in a flash and skipping over mushrooms and platforms in the blink of an eye. Anytime he stopped to determine the next path was when Rouge and Omega would catch up.
"Flying vegetation detected up ahead!"
"Should we make it fly again?" Shadow asked, staring at the plant curiously. Rouge bowed a bit and gestured toward it.
"Be my guest."
Groaning, Shadow picked the flower from the ground and latched onto the bottom. Rouge grabbed onto Shadow and Omega grabbed onto Rouge. The flower then got caught on the breeze, and Team Dark was whipped right into the air. They too were beginning to fly around the giant mushroom, and naturally Rouge was the one to notice.
"Look at the size of that mushroom! Never seen one so big…"
"The winds are taking us straight to that mushroom," Omega realized after analyzing the wind direction.
Shadow struggled to maintain control of the flower, but eventually he got the group close enough to a place to land. They alighted on a platform jetting out of the mushroom, and now they just needed to make their way up.
"Let's go," said Shadow, swinging across vines and maneuvering over the gaps. Rouge giggled and simply flew across while Omega managed to effectively swing on the vines as well. Shadow hurried forward, bounding off a rail and beginning to grind on a different vine. Rouge followed him shortly, with Omega taking up the end.
. . .
"Hey…we're actually flying!" Charmy realized, the flower the Chaotix was hanging onto now suddenly soaring to new heights. Espio finally managed to get it to go where he wanted, and Vector was actually impressed.
"Espio sure is handy…Thanks, Espio!"
Espio simply shrugged- Vector rarely complimented him, so he wasn't sure how to react.
"Well…don't thank me yet," he finally said, looking down. "We might be in for a rough landing."
The flower began to descend, so Espio just let go. Vector and Charmy were caught by surprise, the two of the beginning to plummet.
"Charmy, flight formation!" Vector yelped. Charmy nodded, quickly grabbing Espio. He lowered down to Vector, who grabbed Espio as well.
"I'll take the lead!"
Charmy descended downwards, not realizing he was slowly bringing his team into a large stump. Vector and Espio brushed against the leaves, causing Vector to sneeze and breathe fire. Espio twitched and pulled up his legs, even though Vector was still attached.
"Watch where you're aiming that."
"Sor-ry! You know what pollen does to me…"
"They're leaves, Vector."
"Well…there was something on them."
When they reached the bottom of the stump, they shifted into speed formation, and Espio bolted off.
"That was relaxing, but now we're back to the mission…"
"Look out for frogs, boys," Vector agreed, looking ahead. "We've come too far already…"
. . .
Team Dark was now at the base of a tall tree, running around it several times to dispatch the robots that had taken shelter there.
"Where do we go from here?" Shadow wondered, kicking the head of a robot clean off.
"It's too high for me to fly you boys up…" Rouge trailed, fiddling through a bush. "…but hey! I found a spring!"
She jumped onto it, ascending into the air and onto the top of the tree. Once Shadow and Omega finished with the robots, they bounced off the spring and took off after Rouge. Shadow took the lead again and began grinding on "mysterious vegetation" once more, as Omega put it. It was easy to see that they were at the top of the forest, considering there were beautiful flowers, trees, and various other plants as far as the eye could see. Rouge smiled as they continued the descent.
"I guess I was wrong," she smirked, her expression not faltering even when it began to rain. "This place is better than the forests on Prison Island!"
"It is very impressive, if you look at it from a nature angle," Shadow admitted, jumping off the vine and peering over the edge of the tree they now stood on. "Hard for me to judge though- I haven't seen many forests in my lifetime."
Rouge gave him a light punch in the arm. "Oh, stop. Just enjoy it- remember what I said?"
"First time for everything?"
Rouge winked. "Always, hon."
. . .
Team Chaotix didn't have too much trouble after falling through the stump- they grinded on vines and darted over tree stump paths.
But Espio stopped them once again. Vector already began to ask what the matter was this time, but Espio shushed him and gestured to the path ahead. It was filled with frogs and Charmy yelped.
"Oh great," Vector groaned, throwing his head back. "How are we supposed to get past that?"
"Just leave it to me," Espio assured, suddenly surrounded by a tornado of leaves. When the whirlwind of greenery died down, Espio was gone, but his presence wasn't. "Stay close."
Vector and Charmy did their best to stay by Espio; miraculously, it made it so the frogs couldn't detect them, even if they walked right in front of them! However, for precautious measures, Espio still jumped over and swayed around them just in case. Once they got through the hordes of huge frogs, Espio returned to sight and scratched his head.
"…isn't that same flower?" he wondered, walking up to the white flower and investigating it. Charmy pushed him out of the way and shook his arms excitedly.
"Who cares? ! Espio, make it fly! Fly, little flower!"
Espio gave Charmy a bewildered glance before uttering, "All right then…"
Espio ran at it, plucking it right from the ground and grabbing the bottom. The flower got caught on a gust, carrying the team into the air once again. However, they didn't get very far when they ran into something…huge.
"What IS that thing?" Espio asked, not quite sure what it was.
"I knew jungle mushrooms were big…but not THAT big!" cried Vector.
Sure enough, the huge fungus lumbering over them was indeed a mushroom. Needless to say, it was several times larger than the Chaotix combined…but they were headed to the top of it anyway.
. . .
Team Rose noticed that less and less frogs were appearing, and those that did appear were not Froggy. Amy figured that the part of the forest that the frogs lived it was reaching the end, meaning that it was possible that they were on the verge of being lost.
Of course, Amy wasn't going to share that information with Cream and Big…especially when they were distracted by robots.
"There are so many of them!" Cream cried, tossing Cheese and destroying three robots consecutively.
"Not for long," Amy assured, hearts flying around her as she spun around like a pink tornado. She aimed herself at all the robot, her outstretched hammer smiting them with gusto. Big helped out as well, practically fishing for robots and casting them into the valley below the treetops.
Right when there was just a few left, it inexplicably began to rain, short-circuiting the remaining Egg Pawns. Amy quickly twirled over in their moment of weakness. As they all shattered into pieces, Big opened up his umbrella once again and ushered his team under it.
. . .
The Chaotix spiraled up the side of the mushroom, Espio taking the lead and plowing through vines, robots, and behind any peeping frogs. He remained invisible the whole time, Vector and Charmy following the distortion in their vision.
"It's not much farther now, boys," Vector noticed, seeing their intended destination at the end of the path. "Keep it up, Espio!"
"With pleasure," came the reply, the chameleon it belonged to bounding and dodging away from frog eyesight.
A few minutes later, they had reached their rendezvous point.
"Good job boys!" cheered their client, somehow knowing they had completed the task. "You didn't even get detected once! Amazing!"
"Well, we couldn't have done it without Espio," Vector admitted, throwing an arm around his pal. "Looks like his stealthy and silent ways pulled through for us after all!"
"Yeah, Espio, that was almost as cool as that fight back in Grand Metropolis!" laughed Charmy. Espio just smiled a little bit.
"Glad I could be of assistance."
. . .
Team Sonic was a little more content now, peacefully riding down a vine and letting the vegetation lead them. Sonic dared to glance down and whistled at the view.
"This place is where Mother Nature has done her best work, I think," he chuckled. "There's even a river!"
"I never took you to be a guy that appreciates nature," Knuckles admitted, the ends of his lips turning up only slightly.
"Sonic might like to rush around all day," Tails explained. "But he does know when to stop and smell the flowers."
Sonic jumped off the vine and braked to a stop, coming to a small patch of daisies. He plucked one and gave it a sniff, winking at Tails.
"Heh, got that right Tails!"
Tails began to laugh as Knuckles shook his head and simply walked off. However, a frog suddenly lunged out of the bushes and pounced on the echidna, beginning to croak. Knuckles instantly wrestled the amphibian off of him and bolted for cover.
"No way! I refuse to get wet again and be blow dried by Sonic!"
"Lighten up, Knuckles," Sonic stated, lounging on a mushroom smack dab in the middle of the shower. "Don't let your parade get rained out!"
"I don't know, Sonic," Tails said, huddling next to Knuckles. "I'm with him on this one!"
"Okay…" Sonic hopped off the mushroom and trotted away. "But when it rains on your parade, look up instead. Without the rain…"
The rain slowly trickled to a stop, becoming a drizzle before halting altogether. Knuckles and Tails pulled out of their cover and glanced up; both of their eyes widening in surprise. Sonic simply smirked and closed his eyes.
"…there would be no rainbow."
And sure enough, there was one, and its colors painted the entire sky with its hues.