Anonymous Review Replies!
Purplez the Ink: Eyup, cliffhangers are probably my raison d'être...I think Knuckles is gonna be my fav storyline in this. Glad you like it! :D
Lone Garurumon: Oak is my favourite ditz, so yeah. I do enjoy the 'absent-minded professor' trope a bit too much, I admit. XD
Chapter 5: Strange Saviours
"Ahhh! Get away! Get away, you-!" Amy was already flailing backwards again, but then froze as suddenly an arm had laid itself around her chest, gently but firmly pulling her back to the surface again.
"...huh?" Blinking, wet quills still sticking to her face, Amy tried to twist to see who had grasped her. She relaxed as it became apparent that her saviour appeared to be a blue-feathered Mobian mallard, who was now swimming them both to the ladder, his strokes calm and collected.
"...oh. You're a life guard. Oh gods, thank you," Amy managed, clinging onto his arm gratefully, watching as both the crab and the dragon fortunately didn't make any moves to follow them.
"Oh wow. Thank you. Thank you so much, I have no idea what happened, I..." Amy could feel herself slightly babbling again, some tears as remnants of the spent adrenaline threatening to form in the edges of her eyes, as she had turned to look at the mallard (who appeared to be looking amused, so Amy at least figured that the immediate danger was gone). Now that she got a good look at him, he even looked...sort of attractive, actually, a small part of Amy's brain noted. Mostly like Sonic and Jet in some sort of terrifying way had had a kid.
True, it was a bit strange that he seemed to have a red jewel somehow embedded in his forehead, (and also that he wasn't wearing any clothing, the same small part of Amy's brain now pointed out, the pink hedgehog already able to feel the temperature in her cheeks slowly rising), but, seeing as he was still the first normal person she had seen after having come into direct contact with not one, but two water monsters, Amy honestly found she didn't care that much.
Still wordlessly, the blue mallard then lifted her beneath her arms and put her onto the ladder at the side of the pool, Amy's fingers in their soaked gloves closing around the metal as soon as they could.
"Uh, thanks...listen, I'm so sorry, I have no idea how I got here-" Amy began, starting to climb up, before she paused as she beheld the (now slightly strange-looking) expression on the other's face.
"Uh, say, where exactly are you looking...?"
"Golduck..." the other informed her pleasantly with a grin – and then Amy blushed fiercely as she suddenly realized that the mallard beneath had been staring straight up her dress.
"What the-?!" the pink hedgehog blushed crimson, one of her hands flying downwards to pull her skirt furiously down, her emotions swaying between very familiar anger but also confusion, because she now realized she hadn't actually understood the other's reply. Next, however, she was already distracted, when she saw that there were now three human girls in swim suits running toward her from the other end of the pool, shouting.
"Golduck! Could you pull it out? What is it? What happened?!"
"I can see it! It's a pink Pokémon of some sort, maybe it's a Clefairy-?!"
"Make way, let's get it out!"
"Uh, what?" Amy was blinking at the three girls. The blonde one of the trio, the tallest and oldest-looking, arrived first, knelt down and extended a hand to her. Amy took it out of reflex, letting the girl help her ashore as the other two arrived.
"Good work, Golduck! Thanks for helping out!" the pink-haired, youngest of the three was now waving at the Mobian duck in the water, who waved back cheerfully.
"Golduck, Golduck!"
Amy swallowed as it was now becoming obvious that not only this strange Mobian, but also the three humans were speaking a language completely foreign to her. By now, all three of the young girls had started to crowd around her, looking at her with large eyes in (for humans, anyway) rather unusual colours.
"Hey little one, where did you come from?" the blonde one was addressing her in a friendly voice, asking what sounded like a question. Amy only blinked as she was still unable to understand even a word, but at least could make out that they seemed honestly concerned.
"Oh dear. She must belong to someone, but the challenger said he didn't know her and I have no idea how she could have gotten into our pool..." The pink-haired, youngest girl was looking at Amy while scratching her head.
"She?" The one sporting blue hair and wearing a green swim suit, her age somewhere in between the other two, threw the smaller girl a look. Amy wondered perhaps whether they could be sisters, since apart from their hair and eyes their behaviour and facial features sure seemed similar enough.
"Well, she looks like a girl pokemon..." the youngest of them trailed off.
Amy mostly stood there, dripping, her arms hugging her torso, aware that she was utterly out of her depth.
"Uh..."
"I...don't think she's a water Pokémon, guys," the blue-haired girl was saying something, looking at Amy like she had finally reached a conclusion. "She looks really uncomfortable. We should get her somewhere she can dry."
"Should we take her to a Pokémon centre?" Now the blonde seemed to be suggesting something, before abruptly turning away. "I'll tell the challenger that the gym is closed for today, anyway. One moment."
Amy's head turned as the blonde was suddenly hurrying away to another human standing at the further edge of the pool, who also seemed to be a calling out to the unconscious water dragon. "Alright, she needs to dry and get out of her clothes," the pink-haired girl said at this point, indicating something to her probably-sister, "I mean, look at the cute dress her owner put on her, I don't think she's a fighting Pokémon at all."
"She *just* defeated a Gyarados with a single attack." For some reason, the blue-haired girl's reply sounded rather flat.
"Uh. Right. Perhaps a good thing that she doesn't seem to be a fighting pokemon, then...?" The younger one gave her sister a lop-sided grin as she rubbed the back of her head, and Amy once again only wished that she understood what the heck was going on, when the blonde one was already returning.
"Fighting Pokémon or not, guys, we should get her dry and warm. Hey, you, come along, okay?"
This last bit seemed to have been addressed to Amy again, because the oldest girl was bending forward slightly and extending a friendly hand toward her. Amy couldn't help but feel reminded of the human foster mothers at the orphanage she had grown up in – they had generally treated her well, so now she gladly took the proffered hand, taking refuge in something familiar even if she had still no idea where she was. The blonde girl smiled at her, and, slinging a slightly wet towel around her neck, started to walk off to a door, leading Amy and her sisters along.
Walking through the door, they actually seemed to end and up in what looked like normal human house of all things, for some reason directly attached to the giant indoor swimming pool. Amy was gazing around in slight amazement at what seemed to be a carpeted corridor, walkways leading off into a living or dining room standing halfway open.
"Here, you need to get dry," the blonde girl was saying now, putting the towel she'd grabbed on the floor beside Amy. "First, let me get that soaked little dress off you-"
"Ah! What?!" Amy yelped as there was a hand suddenly grabbing onto the rim of her clothing and made an attempt to pull it up. "Stop that!" The pink hedgehog immediately swatted the human's hand away and took a defensive step backwards, pulling the hem of her wet dress down firmly. "I can do that by myself, thank you!"
When all three of the girls only seemed to look at her in mild confusion, Amy let her gaze quickly travel around the corridor until to her relief her eyes locked onto a door that looked like an entrance to a bathroom. Nimbly, she snatched the towel from the floor, and then quickly walked into there, shutting the door with determination.
Still in the hallway, two of the girls stared after her, looking slightly flabbergasted, but the youngest one could only burst into laughter at her sisters' expression.
"Well guys, looks like we caught ourselves a grown-up Pokémon!"
xxx
"Hmm, okay. So, apparently we need to be close to the translator for it to work. I'll have to make it a portable version if you're going to be here longer," Oak said, scratching his head after he had heaved the boy onto the medical bed he had earlier tried to place Sonic on. The kid's pet mouse was sitting next to its owner's head attentively, while the pink thing was cheerfully humming something and placing a wet cloth on the boy's forehead.
"But first things first. What is your name?" Oak asked, bent down somewhat closer to Sonic's eye level, note pad once again at the ready.
"Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. But-"
Oak scribbled onto the paper. "ASSFACE. Right."
"Excuse me?!" Sonic stared at him. "What did you just say?!"
"Errr...'Sonic'. That's your name, right?" Oak blinked at him, seeming a bit surprised at his visitor's sudden offended expression. At his reply, though, the hedgehog's anger melted into a more confused frown.
"Um...yeah. But I thought I'd just heard you repeating something else."
"Hmm. Must still be a few kinks in the translation there." Oak frowned at the machine, rubbing his chin. "But nothing we can't work out - if you would like my help with anything, that is. I'd gladly provide you any assistance I can."
"...thanks, doc." Sonic managed a smile. He knew he'd have to start figuring any number of things soonish, and a science-type helper in those kinds of situations was always a great start. "I'll have to check whether any of my friends also came with me to your world and then figure out a way to get us back. If you wanted to help with that, that'd be cool."
"My pleasure," Oak assured him. "Can I ask you a few more questions meanwhile? This is really quite fascinating to me."
Sonic, hopping up onto the bed next to the kid's feet again, shrugged. "Sure. Fire away."
"Thank you. Uh, first, actually..." now Oak actually seemed a bit embarrassed, before he then bent forward until his own nose was only inches apart from Sonic, staring at the hedgehog with squinty eyes.
"Are you a boy or a girl?"
xxx
Is this real?
Tails was staring up into the slender face of the fox above him with eyes as wide as power rings. She seemed to be a cross between a feral and a fantasy creature, far larger than any animal fox Tails had ever seen in his life. The nine tails swishing majestically behind her also definitely marked her as a being that could not have hailed from this world.
Well.
That and the fact that not two minutes ago, she had been spewing freaking fire.
"Who...who are you?" Tails managed to croak, staring up at the larger fox, dumbstruck and still unable to move. For her part, the white-gold vixen now simply cocked her head, gleaming red eyes seemingly considering the confused fox boy before her. Then she seemed to come to a decision and started to hold him down with her forepaws, while also beginning to bite through the cocoon.
"Woah! Careful, please!" Tails called out, startled to have the vixen's teeth suddenly so close to his belly, but more than glad to feel how the threads tore under her bites and his legs and arms were finally able to move again.
"Thank you," Tails managed with a timid smile as the other fox had sat back again, now once more seemingly studying him as he sat up and tried to massage feeling back into his numbed leg and tail.
"Ninetales," his saviour replied, a strange sound for an animal, Tails thought, but now it actually sounded amused. Then, something else seemed to catch her attention and she stood up to poke her snout at his namesakes that the fox kit currently had put across his knees, first touching one, then the other.
"Ninetales?" looking back up, she cocked her head at him, now seeming genuinely puzzled.
"What? Are you surprised I only have two?" Tails asked, his lips twitching. "That's twice as many as everyone else I know has," he pointed out, feeling a bit strange to talk with a fox creature that he wasn't even sure understood him. She sounded different than the feral foxes he had encountered, but it definitely wasn't any language he recognized, and whatever she was, she wasn't a Mobian.
"Thank you for the save, again," Tails managed, heaving himself to his (still slightly wobbly) feet with effort. "Do you maybe also know the way out of this forest?"
"Ninetales?"
"Yeah, that's what I figured," he replied with a weak smile. "I'll try to find my own way as soon as I've got the feeling back in my tail. Wish me luck, okay?" So saying, Tails lifted one hand to briefly pat the white-golden vixen on her head, and then made to turn around and stride past her, to walk further along the way that he had come. The other fox was still staring at him, now looking confused.
"See you around!" Tails called, waving – and then was aware for the first time that he maybe had miscalculated somewhat here, when suddenly he was tackled back to the ground.
"Ninetales!"
"Omph!" Tails exclaimed as he hit the forest floor for the fourth time that day and then immediately tried to twist around under the larger fox' paws, who was staring down at him, looking agitated.
"Ninetales!"
She also appeared to be trying to tell him something.
"Uh, I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean-" Tails tried, now also slightly worried as he was trapped again by some strange creature and didn't have an inkling on what to do about it.
"Ninetales..."
"Wha-oh!"
And then, Tails' eyes abruptly widened as the fox above him first rolled her eyes, and then promptly dipped her head downward to lift him up by the fur of his neck between her teeth.
"Mimetalef," she informed him (somewhat muffled) and then they were suddenly already gone, the vixen leaping at incredible speeds and heights, flying away through the forest, one very confused hedgehog side-kick dangling from her maw.
Um. Help?
To be continued...