"Hey Gizmo!" Subaru who was hammering something into a machine looked back at the red wolf and asked for something from him. "Can you pass me that wrench?"
"Oh, sure thing!" Rookie responded. He quickly followed directions and then climbed the ladder to the top of the machine with another hammer and started waking at another part of the ship.
It seemed that they were making good progress on what looked like a submarine. The ship was as large as a whole room and seemed that you could fit ten people inside easily. It was hanging from the ceiling over a large pool of water below. It was like a chamber built to transfer devices like this from inside the workshop to the ocean around the island.
Subaru grabbed a welding mask and put it over her face to protect herself from the radiation that was about to blind the fox. Then she took the welder and started to fill in the cracks to make sure that it would not leak any water. Once she was done, she then sighed and looked toward Rookie, "Man, I am glad you are here Gizmo. I didn't know you liked to work on machines as I did."
"Well, to be honest, my brother taught me, but I think you have taught me more overnight than what my brother has taught me in a lifetime," he replied as he laughed.
"You have been more helpful than Cas has ever been while she lived here," she decided to be honest on the situation.
In the meantime, Cas who was standing nearby writing on a whiteboard when she heard her roommate say that about her. She quickly put down her feather writing utensils and stormed over to the fox looking a little annoyed. "You rang?"
"Oh hey Cas, what's up?" her friend asked.
"Subaru, why are you coming after me like that?" she asked. "I help you when you need it and now you're treating me like I'm nothing?"
"I'm not saying that you're useless. It's just you follow your own set of logic more than you should." Subaru responded.
"Let me guess!" Cas replied, "Because Magic is not the answer to life's problems?"
Subaru didn't say anything and just kept looking at the magician. Cas continued, "Man, where have I heard that before? You know what... that's ok... Once I prove that Magic is better then I would show you that spending all of this time collecting materials to build this waterproof ball will not be as worth it as creating magical writings just to make sure you survive underwater."
"I'm pretty sure it's not going to work," Subaru responded.
"Oh yeah?" Cas thought Subaru was baiting her to try. "Let me prove it to you then. Gizmo can I borrow you for a second?"
Rookie stopped hammering and got up on his feet to see the two of them looking up at him. "I'll be right down." He then grabbed the side of the ladder and slid down jumping on the concrete next to Subaru and looked at Cas who in the meantime walked back to her side of the workshop and picked up a chemical and brought it back to the both of them. "What do you need me for?"
"Drink this!" Cas then put his hand behind his back and shoved a vile into his mouth.
"Hey! *glug glug glug*" Rookie couldn't speak as he was suddenly drinking this mysterious formula.
"Cas? You didn't ask his permission for him to be experimented on!" Subaru tried to stop her.
"Wait... you have to ask for permission?" Cas asked then shrugged it off. "Well, it's too late for that."
"What the heck did you just give me?" Rookie asked.
"Oh, you'll see." That response didn't comfort Rookie at all.
"Cas, you might kill him. We need to neutralize him because of your stupid stuff. Quick, let's get him into the medical room."
"Ugg." Rookie got a bad taste in his mouth. Then he pointed at the vile Cas was holding. "What was this stuff you gave me anyway?"
"This... THIS?" Cas then pointed at the bottle and at the same time, power started to be absorbed in her feet. "THIS... IS... MAGIC!" Cas then proceeded to kick Rookie in the stomach with the charge she had. It was like that when Rookie suddenly felt power come off of Cas's foot and enter his body. It was like the juice he just drank was suddenly activated when Cas put her power into him. Rookie proceeded to fall back right into the water below the submarine they were building.
"Rookie!" Subaru tried to run to his aid but Cas quickly grabbed her arm to stop that from happening.
Rookie quickly panicked as he found himself submerged just like the day before. His tool belt weighed him down toward the bottom of the pool and he tried his best to undo it before the water pressure got too high on his body and water forced itself into his lungs.
Rookie hit the bottom of the pool just when he finally got the belt undone. But it was too late at that point because he didn't know how to swim and his body was too light to fight to the top. He struggled and wanted a breath badly.
Man! Why did Cas decide to kill me! Rookie asked himself in confusion as suddenly water finally entered his lungs. He was feeling his consciousness now starting to slip.
"Um... Cas?" Subaru noticed that Rookie's movement was slowing down. "Should we be concerned?"
"Maybe he just realized he can breathe underwater!" Cas started clapping in excitement with the revelation. But that was when Rookie stopped moving entirely.
"CAS!" Subaru made her pay attention to what was happening.
Cas looked down to see what was going on and noticed him now staying still, "Oh crap!" That was when both Subaru and Cas then jumped in together and swam to the bottom of the pool to retrieve Rookie. With Subaru grabbing Rookie's legs and Cas grabbing both of his arms they both swam to the surface and grabbed onto the ledge to figure out the wolf's condition. "Gizmo? Gizmo? Are you ok? I'm so sorry I made you drink that, I didn't know it wouldn't work."
Rookie started coughing up all of the water hard like he was struggling. Just when you think that that magic trick didn't work, apparently it did something that Cas didn't expect. Rookie tried to take a breath to speak but then quickly realized that he couldn't breathe again. He starts choking badly.
"What the heck?" Subaru was confused about what was happening.
"Giz... GIZ, Are you ok?!" Cas was starting to get panicked.
Rookie quickly pointed at this mouth open while gasping for air he couldn't breathe with the last of his energy.
Cas quickly recognized what was happening. "Oh my gosh, he can't breathe air either!"
"Cas, can't you just reverse the spell?" Subaru asked.
"Oh...?" Cas looked at her friend mischievously. "So, now you finally believe in magic to fix this problem?"
"JUST DO IT!" Subaru demanded. Cas took her hand and powered it up then pumped it into the back of the wolf. You could see something disperse out of Rookie as suddenly he was taking a giant gasp of air in relief.
"Gizmo? Are you ok?" Cas asked him as she held on to his body.
"Um... yeah... I think?" Rookie was breathing hard and coughing.
"I am so sorry about this. I need to work on the formula a little more to get it right." Cas looked at the vile she still had in her hands.
"It's... it's ok... I'm used to it." Rookie was not proud to announce that. "I shouldn't be though."
At that point, SNT then walks around the corner to notice them all in the pool trying to calm down Rookie. "Why are you 3 in the water?"
All of them look up at the hybrid to respond. Subaru and Cas then look at each other. The blue fox glared at the magician-like she was annoyed. This forced Cas to answer for the group. "It's complicated and not important right now. What can we help you with?"
"What are all of you doing anyway?" SNT asked.
"Oh!" Subaru got out of the pool and then shook herself off suddenly getting SNT's clothes wet. "This thing is our submarine!" She patted the metal casing and let the sounds of it echo through the room. "I noticed on the Sonichu Ball map that there was a place where there is just sea. So I figured last night I would build this."
"Oh, nice thinking!" SNT was excited. "I wasn't thinking about getting that one today but maybe later on this journey. I would rather go after the easier ones first in which are right on this island."
"Oh, that's no problem! Just follow me." Subaru guided the hybrid toward her computer as she proceeded to start typing on it. "Oh, something I need to tell you. There is something that you need to see!"
"What is that?" SNT asked in curiosity.
The map popped up on the screen and showed all of the locations of the balls. Subaru then asked a question. "How many balls are there?"
"Well, because they are Chaos Emerald Ripoffs," SNT called them, "I believe their 7 of them in total. I already collected 2 so far."
"Ok, then why are there 6 dots on the screen?" Subaru asked as she pointed towards it. SNT took a closer look. Now of course the 2 Sonichu balls she had with her were already on top of the workshop but 6 pixels were lit up outside of the workshop.
"What, that doesn't make sense," SNT mentioned. "I thought there were 7 Sonichu balls, not 8."
"You know what the weirdest part about this is?" Rookie came up from behind SNT. "The anomaly appeared last night while we were working on the sub. It's the one that it's here that is the contradiction." He pointed toward the part of the island which was on the side of the volcano nearest to the workshop. "This ball seems to give off the most power out of all of them which I thought was extremely weird."
"It might be worth checking out!" Subaru suggested. "It might be just a glitch but it may be good to just check to see what it is."
SNT thought about it for a second to try and see what would be worth going after. "I think it's probably a glitch and I don't see why we should waste time on it. Maybe today I would go after the one that is in the village somewhere. It might be easiest to get.."
"I think I will come too!" Rookie announced looking at the hybrid blushing. "I think this will be the first time in a long time that we have adventures together now since I'm not inside you anymore."
"Wait..." Subaru cleared her ears and then put her hand on it. "What did you say?"
"I'm not inside her anymore?" Subaru whistled. "Wow, I knew you both were friends and all but... wow I didn't think you both were that close. Well, you did pick... quite the girl!"
Rookie and SNT didn't get what the tomgirl was saying but after a few seconds, Rookie then blushed hard now understanding where Subaru was going. "Wait... it's not like that!"
"What is she talking about?" SNT asked Rookie.
The red wolf looked at his mechanic teacher. "Listen Subie, I didn't do what you are thinking!" he denied.
"Yeah... that's what they all say!" the blue fox nudged him with her elbow. "So how did you treat her. Did you go hard and fast or slow and steady?"
"What? NOOOOO!" Rookie was trying to get the dirty thoughts out of his mind. That was when SNT finally interjected.
"Enough Subaru, can't you see you are bothering him?" SNT pushed her away. "Come on Rookie, let's go find the next Sonichu Ball," SNT held on to Rookie's hand which was pressed against her chest enough to a point where Rookie could feel the detail of it.
Calm down Rookie, she is just a friend, she is just a friend! She rejected you before and she doesn't want me. Get that through your darn head!
SNT took her wolf friend out of the workshop and both of them started walking together toward the village. Usually, the hybrid would want to get the job done for the day but decided while they were walking to catch up with Rookie. "How have you been?"
"Oh... yeah, I think I have been doing well." Rookie was trying his best to suppress his feeling for the hybrid but was shaking a little.
"You know something?" SNT looked over toward him, "It is such a relief to have you here with me. At least there are a few people on this island that I know extremely well. It is quite disappointing that I can't see any of the friends that I live and work with. But at least I get to be with the ones I barely see."
"Yeah... I see where you are coming from. I didn't expect to be here anyway." Rookie laughed.
"I wanted to ask you," SNT got in front of him and walked backward. "How did you get here anyway?"
Rookie stopped in his tracks to try to think through that question. "As you already know, Eggman has given us a lot to do when he downright destroyed a lot of the world we were in. I started working to rebuild our world and we still have a lot to do even with 90% of the repairs done. I had a mission to transport some supplies to Sunset Heights from Chemical Plant. That morning I was given a mission from the Sonic team to collect those supplies together." That was when Rookie then entered a flashback.
Rookie walked around his plane which was a small Learjet which there was room for cargo. It was now being loaded onto it from a converter belt attached to the back of the plane. The plane itself had the resistance logo on the body and the tail fin the plane. The wolf kicked his tires to check the air pressure when a former general then approached him.
"Gizmo, all of the cargo has been loaded onto the plane!"
"Can you not call me that, call me Rookie please."
"But sir, you are not a Rookie, you are an experienced fighter. Plus we are starting to confuse you with your brother!" he announced.
"Oh great! Looks like my brother has taken my name!"
"Sir, he has always had that name! What kind of name is Rookie anyway, it's like naming someone Nightmare. It's so generic!"
"... This is still extremely confusing. Why are there two wolves in this universe which had almost the same experiences?" The wolf asked.
"I'm not questioning it. You better get back to Sunset Heights. We are so close to rebuilding this world back to its former glory. Godspeed Gizmo... Godspeed!" He then walks off.
"Stop calling me that!" he responded. Rookie then proceeded to walk up to the back of the plane to make sure that everything was fastened in. Then he walked up the stairs to get to the cockpit. Once the stairs were retracted he then started the engines. Once Rookie then puts on the headset, he is now tapped into Traffic Control back in Sunset Heights.
"Hey bro!" said a familiar voice. "How was your journey?"
"Oh... it was fine." Rookie responded. "I should be there later tonight."
"Hey, for once, you are useful!" his brother said. "Gizmo, one day, you will be like me. But still, you have a lot to learn about becoming a true hero!"
"You say that every time. And you don't have time for me, you know that?" he responded. "I never really learned all that much with you because you have all of the cool adventures."
"It's not a big deal anyway, just because I have more experience than you doesn't mean that I'm better than you."
"Well, you are implying that you know? Well, whatever, just get off the line and let me talk to a real controller!" Rookie demanded.
"You know I am a controller for the resistance right?" his brother said over the line.
"Then do your job!" At that point, Rookie then lifted the plane off the ground and looked down at the Space Port part of the Chemical Plant again then up into the blue sky. He asked his brother a question. "Hey, what's the weather in Sunset Heights?"
"The weather is partly cloudy with the wind blowing at 270 degrees from the north at 15 miles per hour. The weather is mostly fair and by the time you arrive, it should be about the same. The weather is predicted to be good from the Chemical Plant.
"Alright, I'm on my way." Rookie put the plane in full speed ahead and then ascended further into the atmosphere. He quickly then got it up to maximum cruising speed and set the course to the south. The flight was going to be about 4 hours so Rookie set the autopilot and let it fly through the air.
In the meantime, his brother Gadget was looking at the flight plan that his brother was flying looking forward to his return. Not expecting anything to happen he reclined in his chair and relaxed.
"Hey, Gadget!" said a huge voice. Gadget looked over and saw a large crocodile stand over him. "This is no time to be relaxing. Aren't you trying to make sure your brother comes back safely?"
"He's going to be a fine Vector. Weather is clear and I'm not expecting anything to happen to him." Gadget said with confidence.
"If you say so!" he replied. At that point, suddenly a red light then starts pulsing next to the screen. When Gadget then looked at the radar to see what was up. He noticed the weather changing drastically. There was a storm that was suddenly forming over the ocean without any warning. Every time the radar passed over it with another scan it was getting worse.
Gadget quickly located the storm then looked around it to see if anyone was flying into it. "That's weird, we were expecting no storms today. Why is one developing rapidly?"
"That must be a computer glitch," Vector guessed. "Let me check the computer room!"
Gadget then looked at the screen again as the storm was starting to get more defined on the radar. Then he looked at where his brother was flying and noticed that the storm was right in his path. He picks up the Microphone and starts speaking in it. "Hey, Gizmo, You need to change course!"
"What's up, is the airport closed in Sunset Heights for another bomb threat from Cubot?" Rookie asked.
"No, there is a rapidly intensifying storm on the radar that is right in your path. You need to divert course and go around it." his brother warned.
"Alright, thank you for the warning. I would like to request permission to go to an altitude of 50 thousand feet and change course to 120 degrees from the north?"
"Permission granted, just avoid the storm and try not to crash the plane like I crashed my ex-girlfriend's date," Gadget responded in relief.
Rookie started to flick some switches in the cockpit then he grabs the oxygen mask hidden under the controls and puts it on and starts getting used to breathing in it as the plane wasn't designed to have full oxygen at that height above the planet.
Gadget then starts to watch the storm closely as it then starts moving more to the east to a point where it didn't seem that his brother could avoid it. What was extremely menacing about this storm was the fact that it moved quicker than normal and every time the radar scanned the core, it seemed to never look the same. Gadget noticed that a large eye suddenly formed in the middle. That was when the brother made the realization that this was an unimaginable storm.
"Gadget!" Vector came back to tell him the bad news, "It looks like that storm is no glitch, It does exist on all of our radars. Even in Metropolis's computer room, the storm exists."
"What is that thing?" the red wolf was confused. "That storm is the fastest forming storm I have ever seen. Is it even a hurricane?"
"There is something else that is going haywire!" Vector announced. "The computer room technicians that Tails trained have detected a time-space imbalance. The imbalance is off of the scale!"
Gadget then put two and two together. "Wait... the imbalance of the universes is..." He then looked at the eye of the storm and walked up to the big screen to touch the place the hurricane was. "This must be where it is!" He then looked at his brother's plane which was once again in the path of the storm after a few minutes passed. "We need to call off my brother's flight until the storm passes!" Gadget then runs to the computer and gets back on the microphone. "Gizmo, are you there? Answer me!"
"Yeah, I'm here! What's up?" Rookie answered.
"Listen, you need to *BUzzzzzzzzzzzzz.z...zz...* As soon as *buzzzzzzzz...z.z.z...z..z.z Shhhhhzzzzzzzz*!"
"Hello? Gadget... Gadget, HELLO!" Rookie replied. "Crap, the radio went out again! Well, when I get back I guess I have to get that fixed." He continued on his way flying above the clouds.
After a few minutes of flying, there were no transmissions attempted from Sunset Heights which was a little weird but not too out of the ordinary. Rookie did notice a large cluster of clouds ahead of him. The on-plane radar then showed the rainfall that was ahead which was nothing out of the ordinary but because he increased his altitude, he didn't expect anything to be bad.
Rookie looked down at the ocean below the plane and adored its blue shiny color. "I love the looks of the ocean. Man would it be nice to be on the beach today!" He smiled to himself. "I kinda want to go swimming today."
The light rain started to collect on his windshield but it was normal. Nothing was striking him out as odd. Rookie was calm until the navigation cut out.
"Huh?" Rookie tapped the navigation on the plane which was now spinning in circles. A few seconds later, the clock started to spin as well.
"I hope that's nothing too much I can handle. Maybe the software is fine?" Rookie hoped. But that was when it suddenly got worse. The wind gust blew the plane off course along with the combination of the autopilot suddenly forcing the plane into a steep incline.
In a matter of a few seconds, Rookie then turns off the Autopilot and takes manual control. "What is going on?" He asked as he then fought the plane even further into the sky. He didn't have a lot of time to be in this climb because if he didn't force the nose down, he would be in a stall. But the updraft of the wind was forcing the plane upward and it was hard for Rookie to get the plane to point down.
The stall warning on the plane which took the form of the steering wheel on the plane shaking just like its momma gave it was panicking the wolf in the cockpit. "Darn it, come on!"
Suddenly the plane stopped gaining altitude and suddenly started to fall back to the ground just like a child dropping a toy from a far distance. Rookie was finally able to get the nose to point directly down to give the wings lift and then started to pull up to get the plane back on course.
Once Rookie felt that he was back in control, just at that point, he was now deep in the storm with the wind blowing against him which made him overspeed. Extreme forces were acting on the plane and the wolf couldn't see where he was going. All he was trying to do was try and turn around and get out but it seemed that he was on a rollercoaster.
"Come on, Come On, COME ON!" Rookie pulled the steering wheel of the plane along with pressing hard on the rudder to try and turn the plane. "I promised on coming back alive and I am keeping it!"
Just when he said that, a crack of thunder flashed in the cockpit which suddenly took out power in the plane for a brief second. Rookie felt the wind on the outside still trying to control the plane but he was not allowing it.
Eventually, it got to a point where suddenly, the tailfin of the plane broke off causing the plane to spin out of control. Hydraulic fluid suddenly was leaking out of the plane. Rookie suddenly noticing this happen quickly realizes that he was doomed. "Darn it!" He felt himself get dizzy as the plane was suddenly spinning around and around like a spinning top. Rookie wasn't able to do anything about it but weight for his timely demise in the middle of the ocean. The last thing he saw before passing out was falling out of the clouds now in what seemed like the eye of the storm and suddenly hitting the water extremely hard now sinking in its depth.
"And that was when I woke up noticing you swimming toward me trapped deep underwater," Rookie explained.
"So that's how you got here?" SNT asked. Rookie nodded in response. "That's unfortunate, but at least you have me."
"I was starting to think I am in heaven. A Place where there is no time sounds like I departed the world for good." Rookie admitted. "Subaru told me she had a similar story to me, You should talk to her about it."
"Don't say that!" SNT stopped him. "There is a way off of this island. This is why we are collecting the Sonichu Balls in the first place."
"Why would those things even exist in this world anyway?" Rookie asked. "Something isn't adding up. I never see heaven to include Sonichu's balls."
"And this is why it's not heaven," SNT replied in a sarcastic tone. "Shocking right?"
Rookie laughed, "I'm happy that you are here with me though. I enjoy having you around." Rookie then started to blush.
"Aww... thank you," SNT responded as they then start arriving at the village. That was when SNT decided to bring something else that was on her mind. "You know something?"
"Huh?" Rookie looked at her.
"I am kind of looking at everyone here and I am noticing something." the hybrid thought carefully. "It seems like almost everyone in this town... they look kind of familiar."
"Really... Do you think you know them?" Rookie asked.
"Well, I already knew Saki and Alicia. But Cas and Ashlyn, are both characters that it seems that I should know but I can't remember them. I don't know why they are familiar but they just are."
"Hmm... that's... odd." Rookie responded.
"I know right... maybe I met them previously but I just can't remember when. Maybe I should ask them later." SNT added. Just when she finished that statement. The hybrid looked at her watch while in the middle of the village. "Alright, according to the GPS, the next Sonichu Ball should be here in the village."
Rookie looked around them and noticed all of the houses around them and everybody around walking. This included the large place Princess Elise lived in. Rookie then looked at SNT's watch and then noticed the foggy signal coming out of it. "Are you sure that there is something here?"
"That's what it says!" SNT responded. "I know it's a weak signal but it has to be here somewhere."
Rookie then thought to himself of a second to try and pinpoint where this object was. "Maybe... it's under the village?"
"Under?" SNT questioned. "You know what, that would explain the weak signal. Subaru mentioned that there are a lot of caves on this island. Maybe it's in one. Well, I guess the first thing we need to do is find out how to enter the underground."
Rookie then noticed the ancient text in the middle of the ground which made up the town square and started noticing the mistakes in the legend. "Man, whoever wrote this doesn't know how to write. Who wrote this?"
"Probably Sonichu." SNT guessed but it would make sense with all of the misspellings Elise had to try and say the other day.
While SNT walked over to Rookie to try and figure out if there were any clues, suddenly something under her feet sounded weird. It was like a curtain tile on the ground was hollow on the inside. SNT quickly stepped on it to figure out if it wasn't just her. Then she hopped on it and compared it to the next tile which was rock solid.
"What's up?" Rookie asked.
"I wonder." SNT then quickly looked at the title and noticed the picture on it was the Green Sonichu Ball that she collected yesterday. She quickly got it out of her pocket to compare it. Its shining glory memorized the red wolf.
SNT was suddenly covered by the power of the Green Sonichu Ball. Her body felt an override of power that it seemed that was trying to control her. "What... what's happening to me?" Eventually, SNT couldn't hold in this power anymore and then realized it on the tile
SNT used Leaf Blade
The hybrid impacted the tile at an extreme speed causing it to shatter in half and collapse in on itself revealing an opening leading deep underground.
"Wow!" Rookie was impressed. "Where did you learn that ability?"
"I don't know, I just sort of... did it?"
"Well good job SNT, let's go get that Sonichu Ball!" Rookie then proceeded to run and jump into the newly created hole in the ground.
"Wait Rookie, don't jump blindly down there!" SNT panicked. "Ugg! Well, I guess to make sure he doesn't get hurt. Turanamo!" She yelled as she then dived down the hole.
As both SNT and Rookie dive into the unknown, both of them are unaware of what they would expect next. The mysterious zone that laid in their way was hiding the Sonichu ball somewhere inside. The sense of adventure filled them with determination as they didn't know what to expect.