Anonymous Review Replies!
Guest: Yeah, I figured it would be fun to play with the language barrier! :) I'm not sure whether Ash is speaking Japanese (seeing as I chose to go with the English names instead of calling him Satoshi) but yeah, they're definitely both speaking a language that doesn't exist on the other's respective planet. As for what the others are up to, well this chapter features the first glimpse...;)
LoneGarurumon: (Digimon fan reviewing a pokemon crossover, eh? ;p) Heh, thanks for your first review! :D And yeah, some writers have anonymous reviews disabled, but I definitely welcome them :) I just have to write my replies here instead of in a PM...and yeah, as always, life was crazy busy, but now it's summerrrr break and I've had this fic sitting on my laptop for ever. Glad you like it, hope you enjoy the new chapter, too!
Matrix the Hedge: Here you go! :)
CuzImCoolBro: Oh boy, did he ever. Not that it's gonna get much better, though XD Now if they could actually get to that translator...;p
Chapter 2: Encounters of the Sticky Kind
"NO!"
"Pikapiii!"
Sonic's eyes went as wide as the boy's when the branch crashed down on top of his head and the child immediately crumbled. That hadn't been the plan.
The yellow mouse was already racing toward the fallen boy, fight with Sonic forgotten as soon as its...owner? Friend? Sonic had no idea about their relationship, but it was obvious that there seemed to be a very definite loyalty between them, judging by the desperate demeanour of the pet now. Sonic cautiously approached the pair, just a remnant of carefulness in his movements in case the little yellow mouse was now suddenly bent on revenge, but that didn't seem to be the case.
"Piiiii-! Piiii-!"
Instead, the boy's pet was now rather desperately heaving at the big branch on top of the human, its entire tiny body trembling with effort, ears and tail upright and vibrating with strain as if even they were pulling. In fact, if there hadn't been a person buried beneath the branch, Sonic supposed it would have looked rather comical.
"Pii...pii..." now the thing was panting, though, ears and tail drooping, the tree not having budged much. Sonic realized that for all the fighting power the little mouse packed, this apparently didn't translate into physical strength.
He sighed.
"That ain't working. Lemme try."
At the sound of his voice, the creature immediately whirled around, growling at him on all fours, tail threateningly waving as it built itself up protectively between Sonic and the human kid, even if it was obvious by how exhausted it was that it wouldn't stand a chance in a continued battle
"Pika...pikachu...!"
Sonic rolled his eyes.
"Oh for Chaos' sake, I'm trying to help you! I don't leave someone to die even if they attacked me, okay? Damn, you should be glad you ran into me instead of Shadow..." Sonic grumbled the last bit under his breath, only briefly wondering where, indeed, his friends had landed (if they had come with him at all). He wasn't overly worried, though – Sonic trusted that all of them were capable enough to look after themselves for a while, and it was his principle to deal with whatever was directly in front of him instead of worrying about other things.
"Let me help him? Please?" Sonic tried, and even while the yellow mouse still looked at him suspiciously, it still edged slowly to the side, probably reacting more to his tone than to his words, Sonic thought. He bent his legs – that's where the real power for this would have to be coming from, anyway - grabbed the main branch with both hands and heaved. The branch crashed to the side.
"Pika!"
The little mouse immediately bounded over to the head of the unconscious human, who fortunately didn't look too bad, no injuries visible at first glance, and was also breathing steadily.
"Pik! Pik! Pik!"
Sonic raised an eye ridge as the first action of the yellow thing was to lift up the much larger human's head by his bangs and start to ineffectually swat at his cheek with his other front paw. Once again, the action could have looked comical if Sonic hadn't been seriously concerned for the boy's health.
"Stop that. We need to check for injuries." So saying, he grabbed the pet-thing unceremoniously by its tail and lifted it up to place it two feet away so he could get a look at the injured human.
"Pika?!"
The mouse reacted first with a squeak of surprise at the handling, and then immediately rammed its little fists into its sides and glared up at Sonic, looking for a moment so puffed up with injured dignity that the hedgehog briefly wondered whether next would come the retaliation. But then it fortunately deflated again, apparently understanding that right now the hedgehog wanted to help. At least, Sonic supposed it trusted him now, seeing as it let him this close to its injured master/friend/Chaos Knows What when he was injured.
"Right..." Sonic scratched his head as he took stock of what he could see. He was no doctor, knew less about medicine than Tails, but he was proficient enough in First Aid – you had to be, in battles.
Even if I've hardly ever tended to an injured human.
Nevertheless, Sonic took his pulse (it was slow, but then humans generally had a slower one than Mobians) checked his breathing, felt for broken bones, and when all seemed to be normal, rolled him on his side into a stable position and breathed a cautious sigh in relief. Next, he carefully took off the boy's baseball cap, also intending to look for a head injury and grimaced slightly when he found it. There was blood leaking out through the bushy black hair and Sonic's snout briefly crinkled as it seeped into his glove when he felt for and confirmed the swelling around the wound.
But still. The boy's temperature was normal, he wasn't sweating or pale, and was breathing normally, so Sonic assumed that for all that had happened, it seemed like he would be okay in the end. Sonic stood up.
"Well, that's that, I guess," he said, addressing the yellow mouse while dusting off his hands. "I'll leave you to it. He'll wake up eventually."
"Pika?" The mouse blinked at him. Then it reached out a furry little paw and took hold of the cuff of Sonic's sock.
"Er, what? Look, buddy, I would love to stay and chat, but-"
He tried to turn away, free his foot from the grasp of the creature, but all at once, its noises now actually turned panicky and it started to babble.
"Pika! Pika-pikachu, pikapi, pika-Chu-!"
"Look, whatever language you speak, it isn't mine!" Sonic snapped, even if it was increasingly obvious what the monster wanted.
Please help my friend.
"Piiii-kaaaa-!" it then started, electricity beginning to crackle around its strange, red-painted cheeks, but green eyes abruptly narrowed.
"Stop that. Threatening me isn't making me any more likely to help you," Sonic snapped. „'sides, you should know you can't hit me. And now if you'll excuse me, there are lost friends of mine and..." he started to walk away as he said that, when suddenly...
"Pi..ka..."
the thing sounded so pitiful the blue hero basically cringed in his tracks.
"What-?" Sonic turned around, looking at the spot where the little mouse sat next to its fallen friend on its hindlegs, head bent as it stared up at him pleadingly, ears folded backwards, chin trembling, tiny paws clasped over its belly, looking like the saddest little pudding in history and its large black eyes were suddenly so much bigger, and shinier-
"Are you...are you crying?" Sonic asked disbelievingly. Could these things even do that, whatever it was? And how on Mobius had this monster suddenly turned CUTE in freakin seconds...?
"Pi..." it raised its little paws pleadingly toward the hedgehog.
Gah.
Sonic sank into a crouch, hands in front of his eyes and groaned.
"Okay, stop it. You've won."
"PIKA!"
And it flung itself right at Sonic to hug his knees.
I swear, one day this hero thing is going to be the death of me.
xxx
"Uuuuh...Sonic, I think something about that ice cream was off, I think my brain wants to crawl out my ears...Sonic?"
Tails was slowly blinking himself awake, mumbling into the fur of his arm as his discomfort started to make itself known to him. He then realized that far from his own couch, he was lying on a forest floor, where the ground was incredibly soggy, the trees around him where still a bit wobblier than trees generally should be, and his head felt like the Chaotix had used it as an acustic stage.
"Ugh...what happened?" Tails groaned as he tried to sit up, blinking at his surroundings. Memories were rushing back at him, and he gasped. "Egghead's base! Sonic! Everyone...!" he rapidly turned his head back and forth (which, as the immediately exploding stars behind his eyes indicated might have been a mistake...) but at last managed to scramble unsteadily to his feet. His shouts were swallowed up by the foliage without a sound. Blinking, Tails scanned the greenery around him, but there was nothing to indicate that there was anything even resembling a base near him, or any of the others he had come with to enter it this morning. Tails bit his lip.
"Shoot."
The mind of the young fox was already going through the most likely scenarios at light speed – a Chaos Control transportation most likely, to another part of Mobius, to a parallel dimension, a pocket universe, anything was possible. For some reason he had also had recurring nightmares for the past two years of just such a scenario, all of them ending in a world where some weird, brown-haired human would constantly hog Sonic's attention until the blue hedgehog wouldn't even recognize Tails anymore-!
The twin-tail tried to breathe very deeply and deliberately to calm himself down.
No. Relax. You're almost nine now, freaking out about nightmares is something for little kids. You just need to figure out where you are and find the others. That's what Sonic would do. Yeah.
Tails exhaled, and then started deliberately walking forwards. The forest he was in was very dense, humid and slightly swampy in places, its canopy thickly threaded through with ivy, lianas and vines everywhere, so he probably would have to find a clearing or way out of the forest first before he could start flying in search of the others. The sounds surrounding him were of no help whatsoever, only the noises of insects and some birds in the distance, despite the young fox keeping his large ears pricked in all directions.
Oh man, I hope I'm not too lost...I don't think this is still Emerald Hill Zone, even if it looks similar…I wish there was at least any helpful hint around here where this is…
"Rawr?"
"Huh?" Tails blinked, as suddenly, a small green thing had dropped down from the tree above. The fox kit stared at it with wide eyes as it uncurled and revealed itself to be something like...an extremely oversized feral caterpillar? Tails wondered. By now, the insect had uprighted itself and both the little fox and the small, green creature were blinking at each other, looking slightly confused.
"Grar?" the stubby little pink feelers on top of the large head and eyes of the caterpillar were twitching as if in curiosity as it tilted its head segment. "Ronk?"
"Hah! Who are you, then?" Tails had to laugh a little at the human-like expression of the little insect. "I'm Tails, can you maybe help me find my friends?" he asked with a smile, even if he did not in fact expect an answer. "Can't say I've ever come across an animal like you before, though...but you are kinda cute."
"Mrrr," the caterpillar replied, actually looking happy as Tails carefully stretched out a hand to tentatively give the little insect a pat on the head. If he hadn't known any better, it now sounded as if the animal was actually purring as he petted it, closing its large black eyes and rubbing its head against the squatting fox' palm.
"Heh, aren't you a charmer," Tails gave the little caterpillar another wide grin, petting its head and feelers some more. "I'd honestly love to play with you some more, but I gotta go find my friends now. You take care of yourself, okay?"
"Mrrra," replied the insect cheerfully – and then proceeded to spit a whole load of sticky stuff right at Tails' face.
"Ronk!"
"GAH!" Tails reared backwards in shock, flailing to keep his balance and claw at his face at the same time – it was some sort of webbing, clinging to his eyes and partially obscuring his vision.
"What the heck, what are you-?! AH!" he stammered, but then yelped again as the caterpillar had now leapt forward and sprayed the stuff at him again, letting his hand now stick to the side of his face.
"NOmpf!" Tails yelled, but didn't get far until the third shot of spray hit him, and this time straight across his mouth. Blue eyes were widening in panic as the (now decidedly less cute and more disturbing) caterpillar-thing was leaping toward him with increasing enthusiasm.
"Arrr!"
"S-shtay amway!" Tails cried through the sticky webbing still gluing his hand to his mouth. Blindly, he stumbled backwards, and then yelped as he promptly fell over something.
"What-?!"
"Metapod," the green, two-eyed alien lump on the forest floor his feet had caught on informed him. Tails screamed again.
Oh gods. Oh gods. What the hell, oh gods. The young fox was now frantically trying to upright himself again, get onto his feet with one arm still immobilized against his face that had just been rolled through the soggy earth, mud now caking his formerly white and golden fur.
"Rrrru! Rrru!" To his horror, there were now more of the green caterpillar-things starting to crawl out of the bushes, or lowering themselves from the tree above like spiders, soon also joined by a yellow, horned variant. Tails had barely gotten to his feet again, heart racing as he was stumbling away, desperately looking for a way away from this place as he was rapidly becoming surrounded, more creepy-crawlies descending from strings even from above. One of the yellow monsters reared up as he tried a step in its direction.
"Wheedle!"
"OW!" Tails howled in pain as the horned worm had actually shot something at him and hit him straight in one of his namesakes. The appendage abruptly started to go numb. And Tails decided to abandon ship and panic for real.
"N-no! Help! SONIC!" the fox screamed, trying to whirl around and escape the clearing now crawling with bugs, but as soon as he had turned around the way he'd come, there was a giant, angrily buzzing bee in his face, and then another painful sting hit his thigh, and his knee buckled, sending him sprawling onto the moss-covered, slippery ground.
"AH-!" The breath was driven from his lungs at the impact, so even his cry became more of a hacked cough. Tails threw his head back, looking up at the insect monstrosity hovering above him in terror. Red, multifaceted eyes were staring back down at him utterly without mercy, and, sweet Chaos, its upper legs ended in the biggest stingers Tails had ever seen. Now it was lifting one of them.
This can't be real.
The little fox by now felt like he was trapped in a nightmare. It was only his fast reflexes from years spent adventuring with his older brother that saved him as he twisted himself sideways on the ground and the stinger of the bee-zilla impacted into the earth where he had lain a second ago.
"Beee!"
"HELP!" Tails yelled again, flailing to get to his feet with one paralyzed leg and one uncooperative tail while from all sides the caterpillar-things were already advancing on him, nudging their heads against his prone body, nibbling at him in Tails' panic-addled mind, and then they started spraying, immobilizing his lower limbs and gluing his arms against his sides, enveloping him into an ever harder sticky cocoon, and suddenly there was a pull at his feet, and what had to be the wrathful bee-goddess of the insect horde was starting to pull him upwards, into the trees, probably into their nest, Tails thought, and it was at this point that he actually started screaming his head off like he had never before in his life.
To continued...
There you go, hope you liked! As for Tails' fate, well this IS a Taranea-fic, so really, poor guy should be expecting it at this point...;p Still, hope you're having more fun than he is, and if you read, please review! :D