Preface: Hello, again! Sorry for not uploading the past couple of weeks (stupid exams...). To make it up, I'm gonna try to be a little more frequent in uploading. Anyways, this chapter's gonna be a little shorter than the last one, but I hope you enjoy regardless!
FREEDOM PACK
Previously...after discovering a strange vortex in the middle of the night, Sally Acorn, along with Sonic, Tails, and Rotor, investigated it, leading them to a strange world of small mobian-like creatures. After meeting the Pikwik Pack, one of the new worlds' residents, they set out to help deliver a package while also finding the red Chaos Emerald on a farm.
Now...the team approaches a fork in the road...
Roll Call
Sonic the Hedgehog - Issac Ryan Brown: Fastest thing alive. Hero of Mobius.
Miles "Tails" Prower - Kate Higgins: Tech-savvy sidekick. High-flying pal.
Sally Acorn - Navia Robinson: Princess of the Kingdom of Acorn. Leader of the Freedom Fighters.
Rotor Walrus - Benjamin Diskin: Knothole's resident inventor. Mission control.
Suki the Hedgehog - Emma Ho: Pikwik Pack leader. Responsible boat driver.
Axel the Raccoon - Daniel Pathan: Blue-furred speedster. Driver of trucks.
Hazel the Kitten - Molly Lewis: Youngest Pikwik Pack member. Lover of tacos and helicopters.
Tibor the Hippo - Jacob Soley: Softy with a tough exterior. Train operator.
Chapter 4:
Robo Rodent Roundup
[Party Selected: Sonic, Tails, Sally, Rotor, Suki, Axel, Hazel, Tibor]
[Current World: Pikwik Planet]
[Current Location: Outskirts of Tangle Wood Forest]
[BGM: Masato Nakamura - STH2 Option ~ Masa's Demo version ~]
The end of the train tracks approached, and Tibor pulled on the lever to slow down his mighty steam vehicle. "Here we are! Tangle Wood Forest!" the hippo said as the train came to a stop.
"Alright, if I'm remembering correctly," said Sonic, "some of us are taking the truck, and some of us are taking the boat. So who's taking the package?"
Just then, the tag on the package began to glow and make a sound. "To stay on track, the tag will chime when it's Pikwik check-in time!" the Pikwik Pack said at the same time. Suki checked the tag on the package, and the electric cord with a "no" sign animated again. "Right! We can't let it near electricity!" the hedgehog said.
"So that must mean we can't let it near water, either," said Sally. "So whoever's staying on land should take the package!"
"On it!" called Axel. He grabbed the package and hopped into his truck, raring to go.
"I'll go in the truck, too," said Tails, flying onto the top seat. "Rotor, you look for the emeralds on the water, I'll look in the forest!"
"Well, that leaves you and I," said Sonic, pointing to Sally. "I did say I wanted to go onto the truck…"
"But I didn't plan on getting wet today," said Sally. "So how are we going to settle this?"
Sonic smirked, getting an idea. "Odds or evens?"
"Evens," said Sally, immediately understanding. The two put their fists out, counted to three, and each put out their fingers. Sonic's confident smile faded as he realized that there were four fingers altogether, as Sally smirked. "Yes! I'm going in the truck!"
"Alright, alright, alright!" said Sonic, defeated. He ran up to the boat, picked it up, and carefully placed it into the water.
Suki and Tibor climbed onto the boat, donning yellow life jackets. "We'll see you guys on the other side!" Suki said as Sonic hopped on. "Full paddle ahead!" She pressed the lever on the pilot's seat, and the boat's paddle began to spin, moving the boat forward.
Hazel waved goodbye and hopped onto the truck. "C'mon! Let's go! Let's go!" she excitedly shouted, pointing forward.
"Okay, then!" said Axel. Everyone put their seatbelts on, and the raccoon put his foot on the gas pedal. The truck sped off into the forest without another word.
[BGM: Asher Lenz, Stephen Skratt - Lone Star BGM]
"Whoo! This is fun!" said Sally, putting her hands behind her head. "Too bad Sonic's not here! He'd love this!"
"I can see why this is called the Tangle Wood Forest," said Tails, looking around. "These vines look like spiderwebs!" He looked back at his Miles Electric. "Alright, it looks like the next Chaos Emerald is in the middle of the woods."
"Then we better keep an eye out for it," said Sally. She peaked ahead of the road and saw what was sure to be a hazard. "Spikes!"
"I see them!" said Axel. "Looks like a job for Whammy Wheels!" He pressed a button on his control panel, and the wheels changed from their usual ridged look to a smoother, bouncier look. The truck began to bounce up and down, making the ride very bumpy.
Hazel giggled from the bouncing. "This is so much fun!" she shouted. In her joy, she failed to see a long, mechanical arm reach out from the trunks and take the package from right under her until it was too late. "Hey! Where'd the package go?" she said, opening her eyes.
Tails looked up and noticed the culprit was a small, squirrel-like robot. "Hey! You give that back!" the fox shouted in irritation. He unbuckled his seatbelt and twisted up his tails, flying up to the squirrel-bot. The robotic rodent responded by running across the vines, prompting Tails to chase after it until it vanished into a tree trunk. "No! Come here!" he said, trying to reach into the trunk to grab the squirrel-bot.
Axel stopped the truck to see what was happening. "Who took the package?" he called up to Tails.
"Some kind of squirrel robot," Tails explained, flying back to his seat. Checking his Miles Electric again, the fox began to track the package due to its similar energy readings to Chaos energy. "Looks like it's heading to wherever the Chaos Emerald is."
"Then we better keep following that signal," said Sally. The others nodded as the truck resumed its path. Tails and Hazel kept an eye on the tracker, while Sally and Axel kept their eyes out for any flashes of yellow.
After five minutes of driving around seemed fruitless, Hazel proposed a thought that no one else had. "Maybe our little buddy's in the leaves?" she said, pointing to the treetops.
"Well we've basically checked everywhere else," said Tails, "and the tracker does say we're right where the emerald is. But besides me airlifting the rest of you, I don't see how we can get up there."
That's when Sally noticed some loose vines lying around. "Hmm…maybe we can tie these into some kind of trampoline," she said.
"And I can use my Whammy Wheels," added Axel, "to bounce up to the trees! Axel-lent idea!"
The four wasted no time in gathering up the vines and tying them together. With all of them working together, they had a nice, large trampoline in no time. "Care to do the honors?" Sally asked Axel.
The raccoon gave a thumbs-up and climbed back into his truck. Switching to the Whammy Wheels, he counted down "3, 2, 1…" and bounced into the air. Everyone jumped up and hit the vines just as the truck landed, and the combined force caused everyone to go flying into the treetops.
"Wow! We went up, up, and a yay!" shouted Hazel as they landed in a strange chamber hidden within the leaves. The branches served as footholds in a carved-out area where the package and the yellow Chaos Emerald sat. "Hey! The package and the jewel!" said Hazel.
Everyone ran up to their prizes. "Alright, looks like our little thief isn't here right now," said Tails. He carefully grabbed the emerald as Axel grabbed the package. "Let's get outta here before…"
[BGM: SEGA Sound Team - Boss (Sonic 3 & Knuckles)]
His words were interrupted by the squirrel-bot abruptly climbing into the room. "Hey! This guy looks like that little buddy that took our package one time!" said Axel, chuckling. "I guess he's just as mischievous as the real deal!"
The squirrel-bot wasted no time in leaping at Tails, trying to grab the Chaos Emerald, but the fox simply stepped out of the way. "No way are you getting this thing again!" he shouted. "Come on! Let's try to throw him off our tail!" The four piled back into the truck and Axel activated the Whammy Wheels, causing the truck to fall through the branches, bounce on the homemade trampoline, and continue on its way.
Unfortunately, the squirrel-bot was not having that. And as soon as the truck got away, it began to reshape itself…
Meanwhile, the group thought that they managed to get away. "Huh, it doesn't look like our thief decided to follow us!" said Sally, shrugging.
"And there it is! The exit!" said Axel. "We're nearly there, team!" Just then, two vines wrapped around the front wheels, stopping the truck in its tracks. "What the heck?" shouted Axel, struggling to move forward. "Who caused that?"
"Uh…I think it's our little…thief…" Tails gaped in awe as the now-colossal size squirrel-bot pulled the truck into its tracks. "Looks like he grew up a bit…"
The squirrel-bot extended its arm over to Hazel's arms and tried to pry the package from the kitten. "No! I'm not letting you steal this again, you meanie!" cried Hazel, struggling to keep a hold on the package.
During the struggle, Sally looked at the vine keeping the truck from moving and got an idea. She unbuckled her seatbelt, jumped onto the top seat and sliced a chunk off of the vine with her Holo-Blade. The squirrel then whipped up the vine like a lasso and tossed it around the squirrel-bot.
"Wow! That was impressive!" shouted Axel. He smirked. "And now I know just what to do!" As Sally kept a hold on the vine, the raccoon began to do donuts around the squirrel-bot, which slowly began to be tied up by the vine.
Realizing the robot's arms were free, Tails took the opportunity to distract it. "Hey! Want the package and the emerald?" the fox cub called, grabbing Hazel. He twisted up his tails again and began to fly into the air. The squirrel-bot was too busy trying to grab the two that it was not able to untie itself.
Finally, the vine was completely tied around the robot. "Okay, Tails! We're good!" shouted Sally, giving a thumbs-up.
"Got it!" Tails called back. "Hold on tight, Hazel!" The fox gripped onto the kitten harder as he began to charge a Spin Dash in midair. The squirrel-bot could only watch in horror as the fox and the kitten zoomed right through its chest, leaving it no longer operational.
[BGM: End]
Tails and Hazel landed right on the top seat of the truck. "That was so awesome!" shouted Hazel. "I've never felt so excited before in my life!"
"Yeah! That was really Axel-lent!" Axel added. He pressed another button, which activated the firecracker on the truck, which tossed confetti into the air.
Sally smiled. "Y'know, we really do make a good team," she said. "Nice job out there." She pressed her communicator's microphone to her mouth. "Rotor, we got the yellow Chaos Emerald and are heading right to the Blackout Woods!"
"I read ya, Sal!" Rotor said on the other end. "Sonic and I are still looking for the next emerald. We'll meet ya at the forest!"
As Sally turned off the communication and Axel set back out on the trail to the Blackout Forest, she noticed something strange: both the yellow rhombus and Chaos Emerald were sparkling. Didn't the same thing happen with the red ones? she thought. I wonder if there's something more to this…
To be continued...and next time: trouble on the high seas!
Next chapter: "Swarm on the Seas" Now that Axel's crew are out of the forest, it's time to check in on Suki! A nice, leisurely travel on the sea gets interrupted by a giant whale robot! If Sonic and the others are going to stop their aquatic adversary, they'll need a little help from Suki's swashbuckling hero...
Postface: Chapter complete! Well, even with the shorter length, I'd say there was still quite a bit of action and character development in here!
Trivia time! This chapter was mostly an homage to the episode Lone Star, where Axel decides to try making a delivery on his own. The location in this chapter, the Tangle Wood Forest, was taken from that episode, and several of the applications on Axel's truck appear, including the Whammy Wheels and celebratory firework. As for the squirrel robot, that was based off of the squirrel that antagonized the Pikwik Pack in the episode "Fuzzy Little Buddy". I've heard he reappears in a later episode, but Disney never aired that one, so I decided to use a robot based off of him instead to avoid misrepresenting the little furry faker. And also, Sally's noticed the weird connection between the package and the Chaos Emeralds! What could it be? Hmm...
That should be it! Please read, review, and share around, and I'll see you all next time for the trouble on the seas! Stay diamond, everyone!
-Alfred
~The Pikwik Pack and everything related to them are properties of Guru Animation Studio, LTD. Sonic the Hedgehog and everything related to him are properties of Sega Corp. No copyright infringement with any of these companies nor financial gain was intended in the making of this story. Any resemblance to real-world people or events are either coincidental or done fictitiously.~
