"Wa-hoo!" Swoops cheered as he flew the group through the sky.
Inside, Crusher felt his stomach grumble in nervousness.
It had been years since he had been To Mobius. What if no one remembers him after all those years? Or even recognizes him?
"Hey,"
Crusher snapped out of his worries to find Blaze and Pickle surrounding him comfortingly. The red truck was holding his tire with a smile.
"You alright?"
"I… I guess I'm just… nervous," Crusher hissed. "I… I haven't been in Mobius for years now… and I don't know how much has changed there…"
"You also nervous with your family?" Pickle asked. "And how you're going to reunite with them?"
"Yeah, that's another thing," Crusher sighed.
"Hey, it's okay," Blaze assured him. "I'm sure that even if it's been years, your family would still recognize you,"
"I know they will… it's their reactions that scare me," Crusher whimpered. "Especially Mom and Dad's reactions. Dad… he watched me get taken away and thrown off the waterfall… to see me again would make him go haywire!"
"I wouldn't think so," Blaze told him. "I'm sure that you're family's going to freak out, yes, but that's a normal reaction, right?"
"I… I guess…" Crusher sighed and leaned into their holds. "It's just… I don't think I'll be ready to face them that easily,"
"Here we are! The Island!" Swoops announced as they landed down on the beach. "Good luck on your mission, guys!"
"Thanks, Swoops!" Blaze waved over at their friend as they all jumped down from inside.
"So… where's this Great Forest?" Starla asked.
"Through this cave," Blaze pointed over to the nearby cave. "Come on!"
They all headed towards the cave. They made it to the end of the cave and slid down the slide, heading down towards the forest. They landed on it with a thud on the ground.
"Well, could've been worse…" Darington groaned as he forced himself up.
"Yep," Stripes hissed. "Now, where's this guardian with the sunstone?"
"Follow us!"
Blaze and AJ led them through the forest, with Crusher and Pickle sticking close to them. They soon found Roarian at the field, playing with the rest of his animal friends.
"Roarian!"
"Hello, friends!" Roarian greeted as they approached him. "What brings you back to the Great Forest?" He then spotted Crusher and narrowed his eyes. "Not stealing my Sunstone again, I hope?"
"Eh, I have a better gem," Crusher shrugged.
"Roarian, we need help," AJ told the flying lion. "There are some dangerous humans planning to destroy our city and and all of the monster machines in it!"
"What?" Roarian's eyes widened. "But why?"
"They were deemed 'dangerous' because of bias from the leader of the dangerous people, Commander Abraham Towers," Megan explained.
"And also because we have this," Stripes held out the Chaos Emerald.
"A… A CHAOS EMERALD??" Roarian's jaw dropped. "How do you have that?!"
"For starters, it's MINE." Crusher snatched the emerald from the tiger truck's tires. "And second, I got it from Mom. We need to find the rest of the Chaos Emeralds to defeat the evil humans,"
"Each Chaos Emerald is wielded by a powerful guardian," Roarian told them. "If that IS yours, Crusher, then you are one of them,"
"Powerful guardian? I had this when I was, like, 2!" Crusher stared at him in disbelief. "Mom and Dad were just spreading out the emeralds to me, my siblings and my cousins,"
"All seven chaos emeralds? Even the Master Emerald?"
"The Master Emerald is guarded by my cousin Kermit, son of my Uncle Manic, who was my Mom's brother, and my Uncle Knuckles, who was the first guardian of the Master Emerald, so… yeah, pretty much," Crusher shrugged.
"We've been told that there's a way from the Great Forest to Mobius," Darington spoke up.
"Is there?" Sparkle asked.
"There is, indeed," Roarian nodded and flew up. "Follow me,"
The flying lion turned and took off to the skies. Crusher held out his emerald, eyes glowing green before lifting everyone up to follow after the other.
"Woah!" Watts gasped.
"When Crusher learn how to make friends fly?!" Zeg cried out.
"From Dad," Crusher shrugged and headed off after the flying lion.
Roarian led them over the mountains and trees, over the fields and lakes, over the rivers and streams as well. They soon made it to a cave at the edge of the forest, full of animals and trucks of stone and metal outside of the cave. They landed on the ground in front of the cave, with most of the group shuddering at the sight of the beings.
"Some of these beings had attempted to enter Mobius and were harshly punished for trespassing," Roarian spoke.
"Yikes, that's awful!" Sparkle held onto her mother's tire.
"But at least we know how protected Mobius is from villains," Phoenix assured her.
"Psh, as if," Crusher huffed. "The villains are ALREADY in Mobius,"
"Why are some of these beings stone while others look like… deactivated robots?" Darington wondered.
"At a point of time, I had witnessed a tyrant turn trespassers into what you call robots as a punishment," Roarian replied. "It had stopped temporarily until it returned, even with the tyrant gone,"
"That sounds like Uncle Ivo, alright," Crusher chuckled.
"Do you think we'll be able to get in without getting petrified or robotocized, Roarian?" Blaze asked.
"Hopefully so," Roarian nodded and marched forward. "Come, and stick by me,"
They all made their way inside the cave, the darkness of it surrounding their visions so much that the only sources of light were Roarian's Sunstone and Crusher's Chaos Emerald. They went deeper and deeper into the cave until they heard a bold voice nearby.
"WHO GOES THERE?!"
"AAAAH!"
Sparkle, Gabby, Pickle and Darington screamed all at once, causing Sparkle to hide behind her parents, Gabby to hide inside Watts's driver seat, Pickle to hide behind Crusher and Blaze, and Darington to hide behind Zeg and Stripes. Crusher sighed, patting Pickle's head comfortingly, then headed to Roarian's side. The flying lion looked prepared to fight, which only made the dark blue truck sigh more.
"Okay, I'm dealing with this…"
He headed into the cave, where the voice came from. Blaze noticed this and gasped.
"Crusher, wait, be careful!"
Crusher nodded and headed inside. He soon came upon a giant egg-shaped robot machine. On top, a man with spiky, dark brown hair with a mustache and a pair of inventing goggles on his eyes stared down at him.
"WHO ARE YOU, YOU TRESPASSER?! LEAVE OR I WILL ROBOTOCIZE YOU!"
"JC, cousin, it's me," Crusher held out his Chaos Emerald. "It's me, Shadic. You know, you're baby cousin?"
"Wh-What?" the man was taken back. "No, no, that can't be. He's dead."
"Who's dead?" AJ asked as the group managed to catch up with Crusher.
Crusher sighed and closed his eyes, his emerald giving a glow as he levitated into the air. The man, JC, looked stunned as the dark blue truck opened his eyes, revealing glowing emerald green eyes.
"Chaos… Control."
With that, he disappeared in a flash. JC was taken back and yelped as Crusher reappeared behind him.
"Surprise."
"GAH!" JC turned to him with a gasp. "Wow… it… it IS you…"
"Yep," Crusher nodded. "And we need to get in Mobius to get the seven chaos emeralds to defeat Towers,"
"THAT ASS IS IN THIS WORLD?!" JC snarled. "Even JB hates him!"
"Towers's own nephew hates him? Wow," Crusher laughed.
"Yep, and we'll need to catch up sometime, but I have a feeling that you're in a hurry?"
"Yeah, we are," Crusher gave a nod.
"Then step this way,"
JC made his robot step out of the way to reveal a portal pathway. Crusher held out his emerald at it, murmuring 'chaos control' under his breath, which caused a blast to occur before the portal opened up.
"Thank you, son of Robotnik," Roarian gave a bow.
"Uh… just JC is fine," JC winced. "I'm not even a Robotnik anymore, anyway,"
"AAAH! YOU MARRIED JB ALREADY?!" Crusher's jaw dropped. "Man, I missed a lot after all these 13 years!"
"Yes you did, but like I said catch up later," JC let out a laugh.
"But how many weddings have I missed??"
"Well… a lot, admittingly. But hey, at least you hadn't missed ONE wedding…"
"GALAHAD'S DOESN'T COUNT!" Crusher whimpered. "I was only three that time…"
JC laughed and patted his back comfortingly before motioning him to the portal. Crusher sighed and headed into the portal with everyone else as JC waved them goodbye.