Author's note: All of a sudden I'm anxious to continue this story. Well, can't be helped.
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Chapter 6: Trouble Believing Me?
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Emerging from the white sphere, Sonic hit the floor in a rather rough landing. This wasn't the forest, that's for sure. A figure that resembled a tiger glanced at Sonic skeptically, and next to him was a birdlike figure who didn't feel the same way.
Sonic got to his feet and looked around.
"What… is this place…?"
Seven small pedestals surrounded Sonic's location in a heptagon shape. None of them had anything on them, but they looked like they once did. The stained glass window on the wall behind Sonic showed a picture of someone who looked like an older version of Blaze.
"Excuse me," Sonic asked the bird figure, "but can you tell me where we are?"
"Certainly," the bird responded. "This is the Sol Emerald display room, in Kettia Palace."
Sonic snapped his fingers. "Aha! So I landed in Kettia, eh? Blaze told me all about this place."
The tiger ran up to Sonic. "You know where Princess Blaze is? I knew it! You kidnapped her, didn't you? What have you done with her?"
"Now just a minute, Marcus," the bird interjected. "That's just like you, jumping to conclusions like that!"
The three of them walked outside together. "Kettia seems like a pretty grand place," Sonic finally said. "I must admit, I feel a little jealous that Blaze is the princess here."
Marcus folded his arms. "I still think you kidnapped Princess Blaze, mister… erm…"
"Sonic," Sonic introduced himself. "Sonic the Hedgehog. If you're Marcus, then the bird over there is Scholar Hawk, right? Blaze told me about you both."
"Yes, that's him," Marcus explained. "Now, what did you do with-"
"Marcus," Scholar Hawk interjected, "lay off. Sonic doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd kidnap a princess."
Even though Marcus ignored him, Scholar Hawk turned and spoke to Sonic. "You'll have to excuse Marcus Tiger. Once he makes a decision, it takes a lot to change his mind."
At that moment, someone- one of the Queen's servants, probably- ran up to the group. "Scholar Hawk, the Queen needs your advice."
"Marcus Tiger and I were just getting to know a new visitor to Kettia," Scholar Hawk explained. "Can it wait a little?"
"I'm afraid not. It's urgent. You must come right away."
"Well… can Marcus and the visitor come with me?"
"Hawk, you know the Queen always wants to talk with you in private. You'll have to come back later. Come right away!"
Scholar Hawk sighed. "Well, okay. You two wait here."
As Hawk left, Marcus and Sonic faced each other. Neither said a word for the next several minutes, and they remained silent. It appeared as if they were waiting for each other to act first.
Then it all ended. Marcus slid forward and raised his hand with an intention to karate-chop Sonic's head in half. Sonic was barely able to dodge the move, but it was extremely close.
"What did you do that for, Marcus?" Sonic demanded to know.
"That's for kidnapping Princess Blaze," Marcus hissed. "Now tell me what you did to Blaze or I'll give you another one!"
"But I didn't do anything to Blaze!" Sonic protested. "As far as I know, she did it to herself!"
Sonic attempted to explain everything, but Marcus cut him off. "You're wasting your breath, blue boy! Prove that your load of bull is true!"
As if on cue, the walkie-talkie beeped. "Sonic! This is Blaze. I haven't heard from you since you went through that portal. Are you okay? Where are you?"
"I'm in Kettia," Sonic explained to Blaze, "and I've met Marcus Tiger and Scholar Hawk. Unfortunately, Hawk has stepped away to advise the queen, and Marcus thinks I kidnapped you, and won't believe otherwise!"
Hearing this, Marcus grabbed the walkie-talkie from Sonic's hands. "Blaze! Princess Blaze! It's me, Marcus Tiger! Where are you? Are you being held for ransom? What did the kidnapper do with you?"
Blaze's response was rather calm. "Calm down, Marcus. You've got to slow down and think about things. First of all, I was never kidnapped. I'm perfectly safe. I think my disappearance was a mishandling of the Sol Emeralds, and that's all."
"So if you haven't been kidnapped, then where are you?" Marcus demanded to know.
"Well, I know this sounds strange, but I've been thrown into a parallel world similar to our own. Sonic is from that world. I'd return anytime, but I have to find the Sol Emeralds first. They were apparently thrown to the other world too."
"You would return anytime? How?"
"There's this strange portal that looks like a glowing white orb. Sonic jumped through it, and that's how he got to Kettia."
"Yeah, now that you mention it, there was something in the Sol Emerald display room. So, you were kidnapped by someone from another wor-"
"FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME, MARCUS, I WASN'T KIDNAPPED!"
At that moment, Scholar Hawk returned. "That was fast," Marcus commented, pretending as if that last squabble had never happened.
"The queen only needed to be reminded of how to properly address an envelope," Scholar Hawk explained. "Without her daughter, the Queen has a hard time doing anything."
Sonic laughed a little. "Marcus still thinks I kidnapped Blaze. I think I'd have to pay HIM a ransom to shut up about it."
Scholar Hawk turned and faced Marcus. "Enough of this, Marcus. If Sonic says he didn't kidnap Princess Blaze, I believe him. Now show a little trust."
Marcus finally backed down. "Well, all right. I guess I'll trust him for now. But you should've heard what I was told about Blaze's whereabouts…"
"Really?" Marcus asked. "What was that?"
Sonic and Marcus explained everything together. Marcus tended to exaggerate details and stretch the truth, so Scholar Hawk finally asked Marcus to be quiet and let Sonic tell the whole story.
"So now that that's all cleared up," Sonic finally finished up, "why don't the two of you tell me about yourselves?"
Marcus went first. "Eh, sure. You already know this, but my name's Marcus Tiger, and I'm a master at marital arts. Watch this."
Approaching two rocks sticking out of the ground (Sonic swore there was a pair of rocks just like it back in the forest), Marcus drew back and struck one of them with a well-aimed karate chop. The rock cracked and split in two.
The walkie-talkie practically jumped out of Marcus's hand. "Sonic! It's me, Tails! A rock in the forest just cracked and broke all by itself. It doesn't seem to have been caused by anything… Do you know, Sonic?"
Sonic snatched the walkie-talkie back from Marcus. "Did the rock break right in half, and was there another, similar rock right next to it?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Then that must be one of those flux effects caused by Blaze's presence in my world. Marcus Tiger just broke a rock in half with a karate chop."
"Aha!"
"Hm… Tell Knuckles to break the other rock with a punch."
Putting away the walkie-talkie, Sonic pointed out the other rock and told Marcus and Scholar Hawk to watch it. Suddenly, CRACK! The rock broke in half right down the middle without any apparent cause.
"So the flux works both ways," Scholar Hawk deduced. "We had better be careful; who knows what could cause changes between worlds."
"While that may be true," Sonic figured, "I think we might be able to use it to our advantage. If there's an obstacle here we can't do anything about, we have Blaze and my friends find the same spot in my world, do something, and bang, the flux takes effect and clears the obstacle away."
Scholar Hawk snapped his fingers. "Yes! It would work the other way, too. Your friends get stuck, we do something and get them unstuck with the flux's effects."
Sonic glanced at Scholar Hawk. "You sure know your stuff, Scholar."
"Thank you. I am the Queen's top advisor, and I know more about most subjects than anyone else in the kingdom. I spend a lot of time in my study, where Princess Blaze visits me often."
By now, the group of three was behind the palace. The stained glass window in the Sol Emerald display room was visible, and the light from the portal gave it an eerie glow.
Sonic pointed up at the figure displayed in the stained glass window. "That looks like Blaze. Is that Blaze?"
"No," Marcus explained, "that's actually the Queen. You know that Princess Blaze is the Queen's daughter." Sonic admitted that he noticed the resemblance.
Scholar Hawk showed Sonic and Marcus a map of Kettia. "Look here. This is Kettia's main water treatment plant. It's gigantic, with all kinds of waterways and so on. It looks like an ideal place to start looking for the missing Sol Emeralds."
Marcus and Sonic agreed, and they started pacing toward it.
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Wow, that was a long chapter. Well, that's all for- wait a minute, I think I hear voices.
"Robot Turquoise reporting. Robot Yellow has been destroyed, and I have found some odd glowing orb in the forest."
"Interesting. What are its coordinates?"
"3895-2913."
"Thank you. I'll send Robots Silver and Pink in to investigate it. Just keep watching this Blaze character."
"Will do, sir."
Oh, that can't be a good sign.