Chapter 3 – A New Face
We must have been walking for a long time. Strangely enough I didn't feel tired. I felt as if I could go on forever which I found a little strange. Klim on the other hand was a totally different kettle of fish.
"How much further is it?" he moaned.
I was getting slightly annoyed at Klim's constant moaning. I had been tempted a couple of time to trip him over with my tails but hadn't. I took out the map and looked at it.
"Well according to this it should be right in that jungle there." I replied pointing.
Klim's jaw dropped slightly.
"That place is huge! You could loose New York in there!" he said staring at the jungle.
The jungle was certainly a little on the big side but if there was a Chaos Emerald in there I had to go in. As much as this world fascinated me I wanted to go home.
"Quit complaining. If Eggman's dumb robots went in there so can we."
"Right." Replied Klim.
I pressed forwards into the jungle. At first the undergrowth was thin and close to the ground but it soon changed. Giant vines and creepers started to block our path. I took out my sword and took a few slashes at them. Our forward progress started to get slower.
"If we keep in a straight line we should be fine." Said Klim.
I nodded at him. That was obvious. I had a pretty good sense of direction anyway and a few creepers weren't going to affect that. Just then the undergrowth got a bit thinner and we found ourselves at the edge of a clearing. I blinked at the scene. A red and white cat was tied to a post and was surrounded by a large group of chao. They didn't look friendly, in fact they almost reminded me of the "devil chao" from Sonic Adventure 2. The cat was mumbling to himself quietly but I was surprise that I could here it.
"I'm gonna die. I just know it." He said to himself.
"What we gonna do?" asked Klim turning towards me.
"I'll rescue him while you distract those chao." I said quickly.
Klim nodded and a second later had charged out of the undergrowth into the clearing. I watched as he skilfully booted a chao in the head sending it flying into the air. I had to act quickly. I leaped forwards drawing my sword as I did. I was surprised how short a time it took me to reach the cat. He looked very surprised at our sudden arrival but wasn't about to turn down a rescue. I took a quick slash at the ropes and they fell away. I turned to see Klim taking a broad swipe with his spear and sending about ten chao flying.
"Thanks mate. I owe you one." Said the cat as he leaped forwards.
He ran across the clearing and drew….a frying pan! I was totally stunned by this. What good would a fryi………
I got my answer very quickly. A chao had leaped onto Klim's back and was about to strike as the cat swung the pan round and clobbered the chao hard. A loud "bong" sound echoed around the clearing. The cat and Klim exchanged a few words and then started to fend off a few more chao. I spun quickly and took off into the village to have a look around. I ran into a building and stopped. At the end was a fairly large statue with a green coloured gem imbedded in its stomach. It was the Chaos Emerald.
"KLIM!" I yelled loudly, "I've found the emerald!"
It only took a few seconds and Klim entered the building. He walked over to the statue and pulled the Chaos Emerald from its stomach. I quickly pulled it out of his hands.
"Hey this one's mine." I said half as a joke, half seriously.
"Ok then fine!" moaned Klim, "But the next one is mine."
Just then the cat entered the building.
"Hey guys." He said cheerfully.
"Any problems?" asked Klim.
"Nothing big." Replied the cat.
I looked over at Klim and noticed he was studying the cat closely.
"Hey! Wait a second!" he suddenly said, "You're Kit Kat aren't you?"
The cat looked slightly startled. Kit Kat? For some reason that name rung a bell.
"Yes I am. How'd you know?" asked the cat.
"Let me introduce ourselves." Said Klim, "I'm Klim and this is Lynx. You might know us better as XPERT and MTP."
Kit Kat's eyes suddenly went wide.
"XPERT!" he said quickly, "I'm here because of you!"
I shook my head in surprise at the statement. How many others had XPERT trapped here?
"But I only sent the email to Lynx here." Said Klim.
"I didn't get here through an email. I just clicked on your profile." Replied Kit Kat.
I turned to Klim who turned to look at me. This wasn't good. If all you had to do was click on XPERT's profile then.…..
"We have to move it! The quicker we find the Chaos Emerald the faster we can get out of here and stop others from being sucked in." I yelled and sprung forwards.
"You coming Kit Kat?" asked Klim as he and the cat followed me out of the building.
"You think I'd say no? I need to get out of here too you know. Another adventure, whoopee." Replied Kit Kat.
The three of us raced into the jungle, which on closer inspection wasn't a smart thing to do. Kit Kat said he knew the area so I decided to let him navigate out of here. This was our second mistake. I stopped and banged my fists against a tree.
"I thought you said you knew this place!" I yelled at Kit Kat.
We were lost. Well lost.
"BANZAI!" came a cry.
We looked up to see a small chao leaping out of the undergrowth. Klim stepped forwards and angled a punch directly at the airborne chao. It hit perfectly and sent it flying back into the jungle.
"Those things are getting more annoying than those Omochao things!" said Klim to himself.
"Well at least those things could tell us how to get out of here." Said Kit Kat.
"Yeah." Replied Klim.
During this time I had slumped to the floor. I sat with my back to a tree thinking. I held the Chaos Emerald in my hand. It puzzled me slightly. Not a lot of detail had been released about the Chaos Emeralds by Sega. I had heard people speculating about them though. Some people said that each Emerald had a different elemental property. Green…..maybe it had something to do with healing or life energy?
"One of Eggman's robots!" yelled Klim.
My attention was instantly back on the now as I sprang to my feet and raced to his side. Kit Kat was already there. I stood and looked. The robot was leaning deactivated against a tree. It was covered in a purple goo of some sort.
"What do you think that is?" asked Kit Kat with a shudder.
"I dunno." I replied, "But I don't like it. The sooner we get out of here the better."
Just then Klim sprung forwards and started to climb a tree.
"What you doing?" I asked.
"If I can get above the tree tops I can see how to get out of here." Replied Klim.
"Good idea." Commented Kit Kat.
"So long as he doesn't break his neck in the process." I said quietly.
I waited for Klim's directions.
"If we go that way we should be able to get out." Shouted Klim pointing.
Klim climbed down and soon afterwards we were walking out of the jungle. I let my shoulders slump. I really felt tired now. The sky was getting darker as we stopped by some rocks.
"That was too easy." Said Klim sitting down on the ground, "But I'm still tired. Let's stop here for the night."
I nodded and sat down next to him. Kit Kat frowned at us,
"You gonna sleep on the ground? Try this instead." He said reaching into his pocket and pulling out three small balloon like objects.
"What good are balloons going to do us?" asked Klim sitting up.
"They're not balloons, they're air mattresses." Replied Kit Kat.
I laughed in my head. This guy was a joke. Frying pans and now air mattresses. Man!
"Think it'll take long to blow up?" said Klim.
"Why not find out." Replied Kit Kat throwing on of them to him.
Klim groaned and started to blow his up. Kit Kat passed me one and I started to blow it up also. I usually had a good lung capacity but I was worn out and blowing this thing up was hard. About an hour later we had all done and we collapsed onto our mattresses. Klim fell asleep almost instantly. I didn't. I was slightly cold. A sudden memory came to me. I remembered a picture I had seen from Sonic Adventure one where Tails was sleeping and had his tails wrapped around himself. I nodded to myself and then brought my nine tails round and folded them around myself. One of them went behind my head as a pillow. I felt better already. I slowly fell asleep.