Chapter 18: A Really Big Oops Yet Convenient

There's a ringing in my ears, verious voices shouting in alarm and panic. My eyes wouldn't focus as I lifted myself off the grassy terrain. My legs felt unsteady as I tried to stand straight.

"S-...! You o...?!" I couldn't make out the voice well, but someone kept me on my feet by grabbing my arm. Finally, everything started to clear up, and I could see more knights looking around like they just witnessed fireworks for the first time.

"Sly!" It was Sora who was keeping me from falling over. He must've recovered faster than me.

"Sora, what just happened?" I had to ask.

"It must've been Chaos Control or something. There's no other way to explain it."

"Agreed. But it didn't seem to work this time. We didn't have any destination in mind... and we're clearly still in Hyrule... strange."

For real," Sora said, scratching the back of his head. "I wonder what even happened when that happened?"

I shrugged my shoulders in response to Sora's question as I look around our surroundings, trying to process as to what even happened now that that light died down. It was clear that Gohma was gone, given how it was disintigrated earlier, but I couldn't wrap my head around what else happened when that flash of light occured.

"What just happened?!" The yell of accusation came from behind. There was Link, bearing an angry scowl on his face as he was looking our size. Aaron was just now getting to his feet, the mould having been disintigrated as well.

"We have no idea what that was," Sora stated. "We swear."

I told everyone, "Things have been moving so fast the last few days. I feel like it won't be long until we find out why..."

"Still, that was quite the impressive display we witnessed," Aaron said with a clearly impressed tone in his voice. "Tell me, how exactly were you able to cause such a bright light to occur, let alone destroy Gohma with such ease with those mysterious Chaos Emeralds of yours?"

"Like Sora said, we have no idea how we even managed to do that," I said. "It just sort of happened out of nowhere and next thing we know, here we are now."

"How peculiar," Aaron pondered a bit. "It seems as if those there's more mystery to those peculiar gems you both have on yourselves than we thought."

"Don't forget that that Link's reacted too," Sora reminded. "All three of them became active at the same time."

"Perhaps then, the mysterious tome could solve that mystery."

"Uh, Sly?" Bentley's link comm came on. He sounded like a mix of dumbfounded and worried. "You two might want to return to the ship. Something's definitely not right."

"Okay, we'll be back as soon as we can, Bentley," I whispered so that the other knights didn't hear me. I turned back to the group. "We need to go, our friends need us back on our vessel."

"Wait, you're leaving?" Link questioned. "After what just happened without explanation?"

I told Link, "Don't worry. After everything that's happened, I think we'll be back here sooner or later. We won't leave friends behind forever."

"Trust them, Link," Aaron calmly reassures the knight. "We should let them handle whatever business they must tend to with their allies. In the meantime, we should use the opportunity to find the answers we seek about why those three gems reacted the way they did."

"Well, I suppose there don't seem to be anymore monsters at the moment after the flash of light," Link hesitantly admitted before giving a reluctant and looking directly at Sora and myself. "Alright. But we expect you to be back soon, understand?"

"We'll be back before you know it!" Sora said optomistically with his usual grin.

"One more thing first," the alchemist interjected. "May we hold onto to the book for a while?"

"What? You want us to leave the book here?" I asked.

"Yes. I am hoping that we can study its contents, since the two of you have no time to digest the information yourselves at this time."

"But you're not able to read all of the inscriptions clearly like us or Link."

"I can help him then," Link offered. "After all, he's stuck with me as long as he has his memory issues."

I told Link and Aaron, "OK then. When we get back, let us know if there is anything important in there. Sora and I have bigger issues at the moment..."

"Take all the time you both need," Aaron insisted.

And with that, I proceeded to hand the duo the book that Sora and I were provided with before the two of us went on to locate a safe spot for us to be brought up to the Gummi Ship without being caught. Hopefully whatever Link and Aaron find in that book while we're dealing with whatever Bentley and the others need us for.

"We're back!" Sora announced. Everyone is gathered on the bridge, looking out.

"Sora, what in the worlds did you two do?" King Mickey immediately started with an intense look on his face.

"It was a Chaos Control! We don't know how it happened! We didn't even have and destination in mind to go."

"Well, what was happening around you?"

"Link, the one with the third Chaos Emerald, was about to be beheaded by this spider beast," I started explaining. "Just before it could sink its jaws-"

"Spiders don't have jaws, they have chelicera," Bentley interrupted.

"That's besides the point, Bentley! It was going to kill him, and that's when Chaos Control happened!"

"And the energy from it destroyed the spider monster!" Sora added on. "Completely vaporized it!"

"So what happened up here?"

"Take a look outside and guess," Carmelita replied. Sora and I approached, and our eyes widened.

The world of Hyrule looked fine, the same as when we arrived. It was everything around the planet that wasn't what it should be. Before it was just space for light years. But I could clearly see another planet just maybe a few thousands of miles away. Not to mention that there's more satellites in the area than before.

"Don't tell me... we moved an entire planet and several more miles around it... and dumped ourselves here?"

"That appears to be the case," Riku deadpanned.

I told everyone, "The surprises just keep coming. Other than magic Sora isn't familiar with, I see no explanation... Just where are we now?"

"That's an incredibly good question," Bentley said before he begins to look up his files. "Though, I must admit, I don't believe I've ever seen a planet with this many moons surrounding it before."

I mentally agreed with Bentley as I took a look at our new surroundings. From what I could tell, this new planet that we arrived at definitely had a lot more moons than Earth could ever have. I'm sure one of them has to be Hyrule's moon, though, assuming that was teleported here as well.

"So, what's the plan now?" I then asked. "I'm pretty sure telling our new associates about what just happened might be completely out of the question here."

"Do you want the princess to behead you two for technically kidnapping their homeworld?" my brainy pal stated.

"Out of the question."

"Still, there has to be a reason the Chaos Control would bring us here," Kairi pointed out. "Master Yen Sid did say the Chaos Emeralds don't do something without a reason."

I pulled out my white Emerald, as if it could give me a clue of sorts. The itch of the mark suddenly came back, and I couldn't help scratching my covered nails over it. It didn't seem to help, just agitated it a little to the point of discomfort. I pulled off my glove and inspected that peculiar white symbol.

Suddenly, it just clicked into place. There were four similarities between me, Sora and Link. One: We all witnessed a meteor shower; two: We received a Chaos Emerald that same night; three: Those marks appeared on us at nearly the same time; finally four: We can read the strange language in the book as if it was translated into our respective languages.

"Sly? Don't tell me you actually have an idea what could've happened?" Bentley asked, looking at me in pure shock. Because for once, I came up with the theory before he did. That's kind of scary, even to me.

I told Bentley, "I noticed some similarities between the situations that me, Sora, and Link have been a part of. I think the mysterious mark we were talking about back in Paris may have more to do with this mystery we've been trying to figure out than we realize. The meteor showers. The Chaos Emeralds. The marks. What if it's all connected somehow?"

"At this point, I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that they have to have some sort of connection," Penelope said before adjusting her glasses to look at the new planet. "But what I don't understand why Chaos Control would bring us here of all places. Whatever this planet is, anyway."

"Well, if we were able to find another Chaos Emerald on Hyrule, then maybe we were brought here because this planet has another Chaos Emerald somewhere on it?" Sora reasoned. "You've got to admit that there's a very good chance that that has to be the case."

"Uhuh, because didn't that work before?" Goofy reminded.

"Sort of, but that was because we were focusing on another Chaos Emerald at that very moment. This time, it may just be a fluke."

"There's only one way to find out," I stated.

"Hang on, before you two just jump down to an unknown world," Bentley stepped- well, rolled in. "You better take a third person with you. I just detected technological advancement on that planet. It's not on the level Earth is, but it's definitely ahead of Hyrule in terms of machinery."

"Okay then, we'll take you with us."

"Me?!" He flinshed so hard, his glasses slipped a little. "Uh, I'd rather not this time around, Sly! There's also something odd about that planet. Structures that make no sense, unknown energy signatures, I think I'll get a headache if I go down there!"

"But what if we need your technological know-how to, I don't know, keep us from being obliterated by monstrous mechs? Because after that robot invasion on Hyrule, I don't think we should take chances here."

"There's no guarantee that will happen, but I have to agree with Sly on this one, Bentley," the king said.

I told Bentley,"When you stop and think about it, could what we find on that planet really be as odd as our current situation? Finding another Chaos Emerald could be a chance for more intel on everything that's happened."

"Well, I suppose we could find another clue as to what's been happening recently and I do admit that those robots may be a dangerous threat if they happen to be on that planet as well," Bentley says, clearly with a hint of reluctance in his voice before finally giving a defeated sigh. "Alright, fine. I'll tag along with you two this time. We don't know what those robots may be capable of doing, assuming they're on that planet as well."

"There's just one problem, though," Sora then spoke up. "What are we going to do about Link and Aaron? We told them that we'd be back as soon as possible and I know for a fact that Link in particular would get incredibly suspicious of us if we took too long."

"Aaron seems like the mediator of the two. He's probably going to keep that from happening. And I'm sure he'll keep Link busy by having him as a living translator." Sora gave a small laugh at that.

"That is true. But I doubt he can keep him distracted forever."

"Alright then, we'll need to be fast," Bentley stated. "Just for the sake of your appearances."

"Alright, heading to that planet now," Riku announced, getting in the driver seat and guiding the Gumi Ship to the unknown planet with two moons. This world was definitely pretty green and blue like Hyrule, but upon closer inspection, there were signs of technology on the surface.

"Alright, we're in range to teleport down to the surface," Kairi informed.

"No magic forms just like before?" I inquired.

"I don't think disguises will be needed for this world," King Mickey answered. Donald gave a bit of a sigh of disappointment and boredom.

"Stay safe, you three," Penelope said to us.

"We will. Time for some more recon... I don't think this is going to be a normal job. Bentley, Sora. Expect the unexpected once we arrive."

"Trust me, I've been through some really weird stuff before I met and your friends, so I'm pretty sure this'll be nothing for me," Sora said with a cheeky grin.

"So have we, but something tells me that this'll make our last encounters with the unexpected seem tame in comparison to what we're about to go through," Bentley then chimed in.

"Then I guess it's settled," I said. "Time for us to beam down and see what this planet has in store."

"Good luck," Kairi waved us off, before there was a flash. The next moment, me, Sora and Bentley were dropped onto a gigantic mushroom. After a struggle with controlling the bouncing, we were able to get on solid ground. Unlike on Hyrule where it was an open field, enormous trees towered over us and lots of vegetation grew everywhere. Sunlight made it through the canopy, giving us a bit of light.

"From fields to a forest."

"Looks more like a jungle because of these plant species," Bentley observed. He brought up his digital keyboard for analysis. After typig away for a few seconds, he paused with his jaw dropped. "I... don't know how this is possible."

"What did you already find?"

"This whole jungle is made of this... energy that I have never seen before. Everthing is giving off an energy signal, even the rocks." Sora inspected a crown of striped leaves on the forest floor, and his fingers merely brushed the top and out came a bubble.

"... For a moment, I thought that was a Heartless," he stated, though clearly not startled, just confused.

I told the group, "I have to say, this is not what I thought would be on this planet. Getting used to this could take some time..."

"I concur," Bentley spoke up. "There's something about this planet that feels particularly... Agh, I don't know what's the proper term to describe it!"

"Well, it doesn't seem hostile by any means. But then again, we did just arrive, so we don't know what else there is to see around here."

"Perhaps, but the energy my database is picking up just feels highly unexplainable by modern science's standards. Dare I say it, it's almost... I don't know, dreamlike, if that's the proper term to even describe what I'm seeing."

"Dreamlike?" Sora repeated, looking around us once more. "This doesn't feel like the Realm of Sleep. We're definitely still awake too."

"Tell me you're not serious about that."

"I've been there. Riku too. You only go there if you're asleep, but I doubt Chaos Control can cause that."

"So how do we go about this world?" I inquired.

"Stay cautious for one thing," Bentley said. "Who knows what can happen here. We just need to confirm there's a Chaos Emerald here, then figure out how to send Hyrule back to where it should be."

"Of course!" Sora reached into his pocket and pulled out the cyan Emerald. The gem was glowing with a soft light, though it glowed brighter on one side. "Remember? The Chaos Emeralds are attracted to each other! If mine is reacting like this, then there is a Chaos Emerald on this world!"

I told Sora, "Then we're definitely in the right place. The person we're looking for could be anyone though..."

"Then we're more than likely going to have to be on the lookout for someone carrying a gem-like object that's giving off a similar reaction to the one Sora has," Bentley hypothesizes. "I suspect that the glow emitting from Sora's Chaos Emerald should be pointing in the direction the Chaos Emerald here is located."

"Then if we follow my Chaos Emerald's glow, it should lead us to where the Chaos Emerald here is!" Sora concluded.

"Hopefully the inhabitants here won't be as hostile as Link was when we first met him and Aaron," I playfully joked, prompting a chuckle from Sora.

"One way to find out." With his Chaos Emerald out at arm's length, Sora began guiding us through the jungle. If not for the fact that this word was considered unnatural, this was a beautiful, peaceful place that smelled like untouched woods. I suppose that would mean that this place was untouched by whatever industrial knick-knacks existed here.

Blue butterflies flew by us as our trek stretched on. The jungle just seemed to go forever, and we barely saw anything more than little bugs, odd plants that released bubbles, and small groups of four-legged talking turtles.

Bentley was a little creeped out about that.

Sora's Emerald didn't seem to react beyond the soft glowing, but it started to look like we were running out of forest.

"Hey, there's a clearing up ahead," Sora stated. Our steps and rolls quickened as we went to where there was light between the trees.

When we got out, we were amazed. Towering over all of us was a magnificant tree with a large canopy and vines forming an umbrella over the clear floor beneath it. It had to be the biggest tree I had ever seen.

"I was certainly not expecting this," Bentley commented.

I told Bentley, "Same. That tree is huge. Just who will we find here? It definitely won't be anybody normal..."

"From what we've seen so far, no doubt about that. Seriously, turtles on four legs that speak? Yeesh, and I thought what we went through in Prague was disturbing!"

"Hey, Sora, how does your Chaos Emerald look now?" I then asked Sora. "It didn't seem like it was glowing any more brightly than earlier on the way here."

Sora checked for a moment, but then his eyes widened in surprise.

"Apparently... We have to go up there...?" He didn't sound very confident, as we all looked up.

"I've scaled ice walls in Canada, battled a kraken in the Carribean, and did parkour on a sinking ship in Arabia, but climbing that wooden behemoth? Even I'm intimidated," I admitted.

"There's got to be an easier way than climbing the exterior," Bentley argued, though he didn't sound any more confident than Sora.

I told Bentley, "Agreed. I think something important is up there, but climbing this thing probably isn't the answer..."

"It's gotta be the Chaos Emerald," Sora said, this time with more confidence his voice. "As much as I think it's weird, I doubt there's any other reason why my Chaos Emerald is reacting to this tree."

"Yeah, but if that really is where the Chaos Emerald is, the bigger question is finding a way to get all the way up there. I'm no botantist, but I'm pretty sure trees usually don't come with elevators that lead all the way to the very top of them."

"Honestly, considering what we just saw on the way here, just about anything seems to be possible in this world at this rate," Bentley joked. Well, he's not wrong, I'll give him that.

Well, no time like the present. We started circling around the tree to find some easier way to get up to the top. There didn't seem to be any way to get up there, but there's no way we could ask the others to bring the Gummi Ship here. It would raise too many alarms to anyone in this place.

"Bomb!" Bentley suddenly shouted, which startled me. I looked up and it definitely looked like a bomb was falling down onto us. I immediately jumped out of the way, same as Sora and Bentley, the BOOM! It went off the second it hit the forest floor.

"Someone's definitely up there!" Sora yelled, pulling out his Keyblade.

"Great, we're at a complete disadvantage!" my green friend stated the obvious.

I responded to Sora with, "And I don't think they are friendly... I'm not sure how long we can stay down at this level."

"But there's got to be a way for us to get up there somehow!" Sora says. "Besides, why exactly are we being attacked?! We didn't even do anything!"

"Assuming that it's the one that's currently in possession of the Chaos Emerald here, they must be really desperate to make sure no one gets close to them or the Chaos Emerald if they're dropping bombs on us!" Bentley hypothesized.

Sora did bring up a good point, though. If it really is the person that has the Chaos Emerald we're looking for, then there has to be some way we can get up to their level if they managed to get up there themselves.

Though blaster bullets were not what I expected next.

"They're heavily armed, whoever they are!" I yelled, jumping out of the way of a blast. That nearly hit me. This sharpshooter was a professional, no doubt. "You got an idea, Bentley?"

"None! At this rate, we can only retreat back into the woods until-" Bentley cut himself off when he moved out of the way of a large, heavy fruit, which it then was smashed into juicy pieces on the ground. If that were me... I shivered at the thought.

"Hey, I found our way in!" What? Right where Bentlety braced himself against the tree was a doorknob of sorts, and he easily opened the hidden door which lead to a wall of ivy that looked worn out form people climbing on them.

I told everyone, "I'm really wondering what's going on up there. I'm a bit nervous to find out as well, but we may not have a choice. You guys ready to get climbing?"

"Well, I most certainly am ready to climb up to staggering heights to get to the bottom of this," Bentley then starts before his voice almost instantly goes flat in tone. "Provided I wasn't stuck in this wheelchair, that is."

"Shoot, right, completely forgot about that," I admitted with a nervous smile as I rubbed the back of my neck. How could I possibly forget that because Bentley was permanently crippled, he couldn't really do much without his wheelchair?

"Can't you ride on our backs?" Sora questioned.

"My arm strength isn't like Murray's."

"Why would I want it to? The big guy looks like he could snap my neck on a whim." He did have a point. Murray didn't exaclty control his strength when it came to his hugs.

Then it just hit me.

"Get inside and give me a few minutes." The three of us went into the small hollow in the tree, and I quickly started removing vines that weren't worn down. It took some frustration and remembering craft times from back in our orphanage days, but I was able to make an impromtu net using the green trendils.

"You can on my back as ong as you're in this," I announced, showing them my handiwork.

"I'm not a baby, Sly," Bentley stated, eyes narrowing behind his glasses.

"You have a better idea?" He quickly deflated.

"It's all we have, right?"

Sora said, "I have a feeling this is going to be a long climb, but we don't have many other options..."

"If we're all going to be able to get up there, then we're going to be creative with what we got on us," I argued before flashing Bentley a cheeky smirk. "Unless you want to spend all of your time dodging falling bombs and fruits while me and Sora handle the rest."

"Ugh, alright, fine," Bentley finally caved in with a dejected sigh. "Just try not to drop me on the way up, okay? I don't want to break any more parts of my body. My losing my legs was bad enough."

Bentley withdrew into his shell to make it easy on me and Sora to pick him up and put him in the netting with hole for his head facing up.

Akh! I forgot how heavy his shell was by itself. I had to take a moment to steady myself after stumbling to my feet. With Bentley secure, Sora and I began our ascent. It was easy to see where to step by the wear and tear of the vines. Surprisingly, they're still steady.

The climb was just quiet, not a word said. Then, Sora made a pause and carefully pulled out his Chaos Emerald. The glow of the gem was more intense than before.

"Looks like we're almost there," he said.

I told everyone, "Be careful, guys. Hopefully the bombs were a misunderstanding... I'm still a little bit nervous."

"You're not the only one," Sora said. "We should be reaching the top soon. Hopefully whoever we encounter up there won't be spooked by the way we look."

"Honestly, after everything we've seen about this place? I'm pretty much convinced that our appearances are the least of our worries. On the plus side, though, it seems like we're not having anything else dropped on our heads on the way up, so that's probably a good sign."

"Just tell me when we're there," Bentley said from behind me.

"You'll feel it, buddy." Thankfully, I was used to climbing like this. Any other person would've been feeling pretty sore before they got even halfway.

As we continued, I was starting to see a lot of light flooding into the top. Rainbow like light, to be more precise There was some red, yellow, blue, and purple, and they seem to mix together in the center.

"Could the Chaos Emerald be right above us, Sora?" I questioned. He checked again. His Emerald was glowing just as brightly as when we met Link.

"Yes! They're right there!"

"Finally! Well, let's pick up the pace then!"

With a final push, we reach the top of the vines, and into a hollow that looked like a large room. It was fashioned with rug-like moss on the floor, yellow and lavender flowers growing in from the the large exits that lead to a maze of branches, and lo and behold, A Chaos Emerald in each corner of the room.

"That... was easy finding all of them," Sora commented, a little surprised that the other Chaos Emeralds would all be gathered in this tree.

"What?" Bentley sounded most surprised, finally poking his head out to look for himself.

I said, "I think we're all surprised at this... Whatever's going on here means we don't have to go through a long search. Some good news, if you ask me."

"Still, I wasn't expecting to find the remaining Chaos Emeralds here of all places," Sora commented. "I wonder how the people around here managed to get their hands on the last four when we were able to get one of them each and the last one appeared in Hyrule?"

"We should probably try to find the people who live here, for starters," I said. "If they're willing to cooperate with us, they should have the answers we're looking for. If we can find out where they are around here, that is."

"Duck and cover!" Bentley suddenly screamed. Sora and I quickly made a dive to the floor just as fireballs whizzed over us. That was too close. Where did that even come from?

"Looks like they were attacking us from up here!"

"But I don't see anyone!" Sora stated. It truly looked like we were the only ones here. However, those fireballs were definitely not our imagination. Suddenly, a blue blur charged in from outside and knocked me over as I was standing.

"Wah!" Ouch, I fell to the floor again, only without a chance to brace myself. Thankfully, Bentley didn't fall out of the carrier.

"What was that?!"

"It was so fast, I couldn't make out what that blur was!" Bentley panicked.

I responded with, "First we get attacked by a shapshooter, and now we're dealing with fire and what appears to be super speed. This has not been a normal day..."

"Well, whatever the case, I definitely don't think we're welcome here!" Sora said as he summonded his Keyblade.

"But why? What did we even do other than approach this tree? It's not like we were causing any harm!"

"If I had to guess, they probably think that we're after the Chaos Emeralds stored in here!" Bentley hypothesized. "It'd make sense given how valuable the Chaos Emeralds are!"

Bentley did have a point. The fact that there's four Chaos Emeralds in this very room and we just entered here without any warning... No doubt whoever's in this tree believes that we're intruders trying to steal them for ourselves. But that's obviously not what we're trying to do!

"Then what should we do?" I then asked as I scrambled onto my feet. "Maybe they'll stop attacking us if we show them that we have Chaos Emeralds of our own and explain our case to them! It worked with Link and Aaron when we met them!"

But we had Aaron to mediate the encounter, remember?!" Sora pointed, quickly blocking another fireball. "I don't know if that's going to happen here!"

"Incoming, Sly! 8 o' clock!" Bentley warned. I only had a moment to react, and I was able to block the blur this time with my cane. It just kept going, like it was a saw blade. Jeez, this thing was persistant!

My feet were starting to skid back from the force of this blue thing. I didn't think I could hold this thing off for much longer.

"We're running out of room here, Sly!" We must be almost up against the wall. That would be game over.

"Hang on, Sly!" As if his shoes had suckers on them, Sora actually ran up the wall and jumped off before he touched the ceiling, and he shot a spell that created a stream of water. It was able to knock the blur away, and it crashed to the floor.

"You've got to teach me that," I commented. Being able to run up short walls? I wish that was in the Thievious Raccoonus.

"Some other time then," Sora replied with a proud smile.

"Great, I didn't come here to get soaked!" Our attention snapped back to the blur, who was actually a short, blue furred hedgehog with large, green eyes, a brown bandana around his neck, white gloves, red and white shoes with white socks, and a weird aesthetic with bandages wrapped around his limbs.

"That's what you get for attacking, you... hedgehog?" Sora didn't sound sure with that.

"He's a hedgehog," Bentley confirmed. "Though obviously not from our world."

That quip seemed to have peeked the hedgehog's attention, because he looked at us in surprise.

"So you guys aren't working for that Egghead and Tincan?" he asked.

"Who again?" I inquired.

"A human named Eggman and a robot named Nefarious," the hedgehog rephrased.

I responded with, "Oh. Tincan. That's a new one. I think I'll be using that. When we met Eggman and Nefarious, we actually struggled to stop laughing at Eggman's name. If that's going to be a reoccurring thing, I don't know what we'll do..."

"Heh, I guess I can admit that it's worth seeing the look on his face whenever my pals and I call him that," the hedgehog said with a smirk before getting up onto his feet. "So I'm guessing that means you guys aren't working with those two?"

"That's right," Sora confirmed. "We didn't want things to end up like this, but in our defense, you did attack us suddenly out of nowhere."

"Sorry about that," the hedgehog apologize with a sheepish smile. "We pretty much assumed that since you two were approaching the tree and managed to get yourselves in here, you were after the Chaos Emeralds just like Eggman and Nefarious are."

"Uh, we?" Bentley questioned.

"Hey, guys. They're cool, come out already," the hedgehog called out.

A human short in stature compared to Sora and definitely Rounder but not on the scale of Eggman was the first to step in from one of the branches. He had brown hair under a red cap with an "M" on it, a nicely done mustache that would put Bentley's fake one to shame, and he was dressed mainly in reds and blues.

The second one was... pretty unusual. He... I'm sure it's a he... didn't have arms, legs, not even a neck. But his hands, feet and head hovered close to his purple middle with a red hood and a white ring symbol in the center. His hair looked like rabbit ears and he had a nose the size of a squash.

There was a third who... I didn't know how to say this, but he seemed familiar? He was yellow furred with a cat-like face minus the whiskers, but with large triangles ears with three brown stripes. His eyes were large and a brighter green than the hedgehog's. The feline was dressed like the perfect mix of a mechanic and a pilot, and he had a striped lion-like tail behind him.

"Wait, how did you know the gems are called Chaos Emeralds?" Sora pointed out in confusion. My eyes widened at the fact.

"The Egghead told me before I got sent here."

"Wait a second," Bentley interrupted. "Are ALL of you from other worlds?"

"Yes," the short human replied. Wow, that one word was enough for me to pick out that Italian accent of his. I could feel Bentley glaring into the back of my skull to not break into my fake accent. "Except Rayman here." He pointed a gloved hand to the strangest of the bunch.

"This is my homeworld," he informed.

I told everyone, "I'm somewhat familiar with other worlds, but I wasn't expecting to meet so many otherworldly people at once..."

"Trust me, you guys have no idea how taken off guard we all were when we realized that expect for Rayman, we all come from different worlds like you two are," the cat-like being said. Seriously, why does this guy look so familiar to me? "Er, I'm assuming you two are from different worlds too, anyway."

"You've got that right," I confirmed. "My name's Sly. Sly Cooper. This turtle riding around on my back is Bentley from my world, and this guy next to me is Sora."

"Sly, Bentley and Sora," the hedgehog repeated as if to briefly recap our names. "Nice to meet you guys. The name's Sonic. Sonic the hedgehog. And you were just introduced to Rayman over there."

"The fruit thing was me, sorry," the ginger said sheepishly.

"No harm was done."

"Name's Mario," the obvious Italian introduced himself. Mario, why was I not surprised. A classic Italian name.

"And I'm Ratchet," the feline finished, twirling a strange pistol in his gloved hand. He stopped and quickly put it away. "Er, I think it's now self-explanatory who was trying to blast you guys."

"You have to be from an advanced world to have something like that," I commented. Dah, it's probably nothing.

"Uh..." Ratchet raised an eyebrow, looking right me. "Why do I feel as if I should know you?"

Okay. It wasn't me.

"No clue. But I'm getting deja vu myself."

"I must've hit my head harder in the crash this time around," he concluded. "I should have Clank check me for concussions."

"By the way," Sonic brought back the attention, "How did you three know that the gems are Chaos Emeralds?"

"A wizard friend of Sora's told us," I explained.

Sora said, "When my wizard friend first told us about the Emeralds, we were made aware of a great threat coming that could possibly be related to them. Ever since that day, we've been trying to track the Emeralds down, keep them safe, and possibly figure out what he meant."

"So I'm guessing that's why you two are here, then?" Rayman then asked.

"You've got that right," I confirmed with a nod. "We noticed the Chaos Emerald that Sora has with him reacting in the direction in this tree. We were expecting to just find one of them here but not the remaining four we were looking for!"

"You guys have Chaos Emeralds too?" Ratchet asked, his feline-like ears perking up.

"Yep," Sora confirmed as he pulled out his Chaos Emerald and I did the same afterwards. "One cyan one that I got back home on my island while Sly here got a white one where he's from."

"Meteor shower?" Mario asked. Yep, I saw where this was going.

"Yes."

"Chaos Emerald out of nowhere?" Rayman added.

"Yes," I replied.

"And last but not least, you had to fight some black creatures," Ratchet threw in.

What.

"Yes, and no," Sora answered worriedly, pointing at me first and then himself. "Did these black creatures look like shadows with yellow eyes?"

"Yeah, Eggman was commanding some," Sonic replied. "We couldn't do anything against them."

"And they attacked all of you at some point?" Bentley screamed.

"Because of them, the ship my friends and I were in crashed here," Ratchet stated. "They had come out of nowhere."

"I haven't seen any for myself, but I had to fight off something close enough," Rayman explained himself.

"But yes, we've seen them," Mario said.

"There's no way that's coincidence," Sora stated.

I stated, "Agreed. Sora has experience with those black creatures, and they are dangerous. The day we spent fighting them off when they attacked my homeworld was long..."

"You're telling me," Ratchet said with an exhausted sigh. "I have no idea how my friends and I managed to get out of that situation with them alive, but it has to be some kind of miracle that we did. Just what were those things anyway?"

"They're known as the Heartless," Sora explained. "They're creatures that are born from the darkness in people's hearts and seek out the hearts of others. Trust me, my friends and I fight them on a regular basis, so seeing them around is pretty much not that big of a surprise for me."

"I can imagine, given your past experience with these 'Heartless' things," Rayman commented.

"Well, now that we know where al seven Chaos Emeralds are, we should head back," Bentley stated.

"Bentley, we can't just leave these guys stranded here," I told him. "Besides, what if Egghead, Tincan and Windbag go after them?"

"Pfft, Windbag?" Sonic held back a laugh. "I'd love to know where that guy got his name."

"He's a skunk."

"Of course," Mario commented with no surprise. " I take it-a the skunk is-a your enemy?"

"Not say archnenemy, but he's definitely not a breath of fresh air. And he seems to be working with those two."

"Speaking of the first two, which of your worlds did they come from?" Sora inquired.

"Eggman is my world Mobius," Sonic stated. "He's this mad genius that wants to destroy me and take over the world."

"Not surprising, giving that monologue he did back when we met him."

"As for Nefarious, he's from my region of the universe," Ratchet explained. "He's the #1 Most Wanted Supervillain where I come from."

"That bucket of bolts?" I asked incredulously. "He sounded like a complete joke the way he was arguing with the fatso."

Ratchet responded, "It takes a while to get used to his personality, but Nefarious is more dangerous than you would think. He hates organic life, and tried to turn people into robots when I first went up against him..."

"Then it's a good thing he didn't get the chance to do that with us then because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't look that good with metal plastered all over my body," I joked.

"By the way, Bentley, was it?" Rayman then addressed my turtle friend. "You mentioned that you knew where all seven Chaos Emeralds were but from what we can see, there's only six of them here. You guys know where the last one is?"

"Ah, shoot, me and my big mouth," Bentley groaned, having just realized his slip of the tongue from earlier.

"We should tell them where the last Chaos Emerald is, Bentley," I said afterwards. "Considering that they're also trying to keep the Chaos Emeralds out of the paws of our enemies, we might as well let them know that the last one is in good hands."

"The last Chaos Emerald is in the hands of a knight we met named Link," Sora explained. "We just came here straight from his world, Hyrule."

"Which we, uh..." I hesitated, wondering if we should tell them about that little accident.

"Don't tell me you caused pandemonium on someone's planet," Ratchet said, looking serious.

"Uh... Maybe... If you count accidentally teleporting a planet to a completely different solar system a kind of pandemonium."

"You WHAT?!" That got the strongest reactions out of Sonic and Ratchet.

"Are you saying you transported a planet out of its respective orbit to here in this galaxy, and you left it behind?!" Ratchet yelling, looking pretty angry.

"We promised Link we would go right back once we figured out what happened with the Chaos Emeralds!" Sora assured, looking pretty nervous at the feline's outburst.

"Do you realize what you've done?! If it's not in a placement by star in which the life on it can be sustained, do you know what will happen?!"

I told Ratchet, "No, but for the record, we have no idea how it happened. Between the people over on our ship and you guys, a lot of people have been surprised by that today."

"Come on, Ratchet, don't be so hard on them," Rayman said to his ally in an attempt to calm him down. "It's not like they wanted that to happen. Heck, other than Sonic, we don't know that much about these Chaos Emeralds or how they work anyway. So I doubt they could've known that they were able to do something that big."

"I'm just as shocked as you are that they were somehow able to use the Chaos Emeralds to transport a whole planet of all things, but I have to agree that we should cut them some slack over this," Sonic then chimed in, though noticeably still trying to process about what we unintentionally did.

The yellow-furred, cat creature gave a tired sigh.

"Sorry for overreacting, the same once happened to my homeworld Veldin and it turned from a desert to an icy wasteland until it was placed back," he explained. I couldn't blame Ratchet for reacting like he did after hearing that. Heck, I would probably be the same if that ever happened to Earth.

"Ratchet, you sound like you're most familiar with traveling between worlds," Bentley pointed out. "And I remember you mentioning about you crashing your ship here."

"Yeah, that's right. Crash landed on the other side of this forest."

"You got an idea in there, Bentley?" I asked my friend.

"Yeah. How about we help repair Ratchet's ship and figure out how to get everyone stranded here off this world to help put Link's world back where it belongs?"

"Oh, tech saavy, are you?" Sonic inquired with a grin. "You sound my best bud, Tails. He's currently with Ratchet's partner, Clank, trying to get that thing running again."

"How big of a ship are we talking here?" I asked.

"About the size of this tree, if not twice its size," Rayman estimated. Wow. Now THAT's a big ship.

"Don't tell me you're a military warmonger!" Bentley shouted in worry.

"Nope, just a ranger working for the intergalactic police, helping take down supervillain plots, destroying the hard work of evil masterminds, keeping galactic peace, that whole thing," Ratchet said like it wasn't a big deal. "Been in the business since my teens and haven't been able to step out of it since."

"In other words, an intergalactic hero who has maybe too much time on his hands and too much cash to spend," I couldn't help but summarize it like that.

"Hey, that ship was funded by the Polaris Defense Force, and I'm actually not paid to take down supervillains on a day-to-day basis! Practically charity work, and I'm fine with that!"

Yikes, I struck a nerve.

I told everyone, "Bentley's plans have gotten me and my friends out of some tough situations in the past, and I think this is one of those times...let's go see what remains of the ship."

"You've got it," Ratchet said before making his way towards the entrance that Sora and I came in from. "With any luck, we should be able to find some way to get your friends' planet back to whatever solar system it originated from before things start to get a little too crazy for them."

"By the way, where exactly is this ship of yours anyway?" Sora then asked. "Hopefully it's not too far from here because we did kind of promise to our friends that we'd be back as soon as possible."

"Don't worry, you'll know soon enough when you see big, broken down pieces of a spaceship that sticks out like a sore thumb around here."

"Whoa, Ratchet, you're going to go the long way," Rayman called with an air of amusement as he went up to the feline. "Do you still think we get around here by simply climbing everywhere?"

"I didn't see a portal," Ratchet pointed out.

"Well, we don't need one." Being whatever he was had its perks, like when he threw a hand like any other punch and it flew until it grabbed the purple Chaos Emerald and just as quickly returned. Still, that was pretty impressive.

"So what do you propose?" Mario asked.

"You're the resident here," Sonic added. Rayman gave a mishievous chuckle.

"If you want to make a one-way trip to anywhere outside the radius of the Snoring Tree, there's an easier method to it," he said.

The Snoring Tree? Why did the people of this world call this the Snoring Tree?

The ginger walked out to one of the many branches, and brought his fingers up in a whistle. And just like that, a bunch of green and yellow, almost hair-like vines coiled around each other and stretched out rapidly in a single direction. And now we had a bridge that went over the entire jungle.

My jaw wasn't the only one to drop, looking in the corner of my to everyone else.

"How...?" Oh no, Bentley was talking this really hard.

"We just stopped asking after a while," Sonic simply stated.

I responded, "I think it's going to be a while before we understand what he is. Until then, I'm not questioning what just happened."

"Trust me, it's pretty much better that you go with the flow of my world since you guys aren't from here," Rayman said with a chuckle.

"Uh, so, where exactly does this bridge lead to?" I then asked after finally managing to compose myself.

"Exactly to where we need to go to find Ratchet's ship," Rayman explains. "As long as we stick to the path this bridge takes us, it shouldn't take us long to be able to reach the crash site of the ship. It definitely beats having to take the longer route all the way there!"

"I don't think we have a choice unless we want to drop to our deaths," Sora said, pointing out the obvious distance between the bridge and the ground, even with the trees.

"What about the other three Emeralds?" Bentley inquired.

"The tree has a special barrier in this room," Rayman explained. "The only way in is through where we all climbed up. One entrance, many exits."

Guess that made sense. Sort of.

"Alright! Next stop, the Starship Phoenix!" the ginger announced with enthusiasm.

Suddenly, a vine rose from the bridge and it was holding... Bentley's wheelchair. Huh. Convenient. And I had almost forgotten that we had left it at the bottom of the vine ladder.

"Hey, that's mine!" my turtle friend shouted. The vine simply moved into the room and placed the wheelchair right in front of me.

Mario, Sonic and Ratchet didn't look sympathetic at the very least as I carefully moved Bentley back into his own wheels. Rayman, on the other hand, looked curious as to what Bentley was sitting in. Guess they didn't have wheelchairs in this world.

"Well, now that I'm properly situated, let's get to that ship," Bentley proposed once he was comfortable. Rayman stuck close to Bentley, examining his wheelchair as we all started to walk across the VERY long bridge.

End Chapter