Sonic X - Journey to a New World
Chapter Four: A New Friend and the Thorndike Mansion
Parking the plane just outside the Thorndike's garage and touching down just in front, Tails was the first off of the plane as Frieda hopped down herself to look up in time to see Sonic flash her down his signature smile as he held on to Cream and Cheese protectively in both of his arms as he then hopped down gently to then sit them both gently down. Perking up their ears, though, they could all hear Ash and Blaze argue in the background as the Thorndike's' car then pulled into the driveway, all with Ash and now Blaze in tow as they had stopped at the edge of the city to find Blaze waiting for them safely, to his sister's request, however with no Jasper in sight. Trusting them in the back of the car with the boy, Sonic had decided against the car ride back as he just enjoyed the rest of the trip atop the Tornado, where he had a good birds-eye view of the others, enjoying the feel of the breeze against his quills as he held on with his foot until they landed safely.
"You jumped off of the Tornado after Tails told you not to?!" Blaze exclaimed in a hushed tone, not really caring who heard him as Sonic only raised an ear to it as he folded his hands behind his head with a curious yet small raise to his brow. "I don't care if it was Sonic. Ash, you don't listen! I'm responsible for you, and …!"
"Please, not now," Ash said, seeing the gaze Frieda gave her out of concern, too, as their friend checked over Cream and Cheese from earlier and followed them inside after the boy who said his name was Chris. Whispering something else in her older brother's ear, his frustration only softened with concern as he watched the solemn look in her eyes soften in seriousness as they then passed by Sonic, who noticed it, too, in silence.
Meanwhile, all of us were drawn to the boy addressing us fondly as he said, "My name's Christopher. Sonic landed in our swimming pool last night and I jumped in to save him."
Watching Ash's eyes go out up at the mention of Sonic and water, she wasn't the only one to look at Sonic for a second as he just he just smiled only in mild embarrassment and respect.
Introducing himself warmly, Tails said, "My name's Tails and I'm Sonic's very best buddy! Right, Sonic?"
"Correct," Sonic said, affirmatively, as he then stood with his arms framed behind his head lounged after a few moments of amusement.
"I'm Frieda," she said, then introducing herself after Chris looked over curiously at her and saw where Ash and Blaze joined them from behind. "I'm Tails' older sister. It's nice to meet you, Chris. These are some more of our friends, and their names are …"
"Blaze. The name's Blaze," he said, before anyone could say different, Ash's snicker saying something different as he shot her a look that made her go quiet. His real name a secret to only them and his parents, Blaze didn't like anyone else knowing too much of his strange past any more than he really let on. "This is my sister, Ashley Coon."
"Ash!" Ash then said, defensively, to which Blaze only chuckled as he received an elbow into his arm as he placed a protective brown-gloved paw on his Ash's left shoulder to calm her down. "Please, just call me Ash."
Finally politely introducing herself and Cheese, Cream then spoke up softly as she then said, "My name is Cream and this is my very special Chao friend, Cheese." Bowing a bit out of thanks, she said, "Thanks for having us."
"It's very nice to meet all of you," Chris said, happy to meet all of us it seemed. "I have a feeling that we are going to become really good friends. Oh, and this is my grandfather."
Meanwhile, who was totally interested in one of Tails' airplanes, his grandfather murmured, "Extraordinary. Tiny, radio-controlled airplanes. Extraordinary."
Flicking his twin tails in pride, Tails said proudly, "We've got lots of unique gadgets." Knowing it was true, Ash and Frieda just shared a look as they both smiled and giggled, until Chris spoke up in slight irritation surprisingly.
"Listen Sonic!" He said, to which Sonic only opened his eyes in mild respect. "This isn't some game we're playing, you know. You could've gotten us all thrown in jail!"
Shooting his sister a look that said exactly what Chris said in a similar way, only to her, Ash only shrugged him off as Sonic looked on at Chris for just a second. Holding up a finger in a point, Sonic only said, "Maybe I could of but I didn't, did I?"
"Couldn't you try to be more careful?" Chris then asked him, only for Sonic to shrug as Blaze just exploded in laughter.
Still talking to Tails about his invention, Chris's grandfather than asked him, "This is an amazing piece of equipment. It goes beyond anything I have seen. How did you develop it?"
"Really?" Ash only asked, to which I only smiled with a smile that said that no one could blame him for being curious.
"It's nothing special," Tails only said, shrugging with a small smile. "Not in the world we come from."
"And, where exactly is that world, Tails?" He asked, even more intrigued.
"Beats me," Tails said, thinking for a moment. "… but I think we got here through a warp through time and space."
"Hmm, very interesting," said Chris's grandfather, musing. "Not very helpful, but interesting."
Chuckling then, Sonic only rubbed at his ear as Ash blew a piece of her bangs out of her masked eyes in amusement.
"What is it, Tails?" Frieda asked, seeing a peculiar look come across her little brother's face.
"I just thought of something," he said, turning to all of us as he frowned. "If you and me and Cream and Cheese and all of us are here, maybe the others got here too."
Suddenly thinking about it, Sonic replied, "You might be right about that, Tails and if you are, then … that means … maybe …"
Suddenly all of them experienced a mental shared thought as they all finished, "… Eggman's here, too."
"Who?" Chris asked, suddenly curious, to which we all stared at both of them as they waited for us to explain.
"This is going to be a long one," Ash said, suddenly tired as she sat down on the ground and held a shaking hand to her forehead, Blaze immediately coming over to see if she was alright. Looking over Blaze's shoulder, Frieda rushed over, too, in to see how as Ash stumbled against her brother's arm as she just blacked out. "Don't worry, it's just a migraine."
"Is she alright?" Chris immediately asked, immediately gaining Frieda's attention as she immediately saw his own gentility and sense of pure heart. Fully turning around, she saw only kindness in his gaze as she then gave him a small nod of assurance.
"She's fine," Blaze said just simply, picking up his sister carefully and up into his arms. "And with everything that has happened … Let's just say that we've all just had a long experience."
"Come on then, we'll talk later," Chris's grandfather said, all of us looking curiously as he signaled for us to follow him quietly around the other side of the garage where a path to a smaller building built in the back and behind the mansion stood. "I think the best thing now would be to get you all settled in until we figure this out. You can all bunk down in my study for now. It's just up these stairs."
"Thank you, Mr. Thorndike," Blaze said, heading up first at his gesture, with Ash still in his arms, as he watched Ash open up her eyes to look up at him, too, with curiosity. Following behind Cream, Cheese, and Tails and up into his personal study, Chris' grandfather only smiled as he paused for a moment at the top to look down.
"Wings, you going up, too?" Sonic asked Frieda surprisingly, revealing that he hadn't followed them yet up the stairs either. Turning around, she turned in time to see where he had leapt up into a tree to gaze upward, looking fondly up at the early twilight sky.
"Not yet," She said, seeing Mr. Thorndike nod his head at her wish for privacy and simply went inside after the others.
Turning his gaze down briefly towards where he saw Frieda stand alone, Sonic then noticed something in the way Frieda stood in hesitation as he just leaned up in curiosity instead of just laying down on the branch as he asked, "What's wrong?" Only smiling, Frieda shook her head a bit for only him to say, "You wouldn't look worried if something wasn't on your mind. What is it?" Sonic didn't have to ask a second time, but he did it anyway knowing she had something to say.
"Where do you think the others are?" Frieda asked, asking the same thought that was ironically on Sonic's mind, too, as his gaze moved towards the city. "They weren't inside when the Chaos Emeralds sent off that blast. Tails and I were standing with the Tornado, but the others …"
"Don't worry, Wings, we'll find them," Sonic said, closing his eyes partway as he leaned back on his hands once more, still listening but enjoying the slight afternoon breeze blowing across his quills. "Eggman hasn't shown up yet either, but if he does we'll know for sure if he made it, too."
Looking up, they both saw the first stars appear in the sky right as the Sun started to go down. "I can see why you love staying out here," She said, closing her eyes a bit as the breeze blew lightly past her brow, too. "It almost feels like home."
Closing his eyes, Sonic sighed, knowing it was true. Leaving him to rest, Freida had just turned to go inside before she remembered something else. "Knuckles said that the event caused by the Emeralds was …"
"… Chaos Control," Sonic said, yawning a bit as he stretched and leaned back again. "I know."
Only nodding her head towards his answer, Frieda turned to see Chris come back down from his grandfather's study with Chuck right behind him. Pausing to wave at them, Chris flashed a smile at the both of them as his grandfather walked him down to go inside the mansion for the night. "I think I'm going to go check on the others," She said, thinking of Ash.
"Wings, wait," Sonic said, surprising her enough as she turned to see him jump down from the tree and walk over with one of his thoughtful smiles. "Tell Ash I'm not upset with her or about what happened before."
"The truth is she does feel responsible for what happened Sonic. Everything from when Eggman got the Emerald to now," She said, seeing him nod his head in understanding. "She still does. I could tell her that, but I have a feeling she would feel a whole lot better if it came from you."
"I think you're right," Sonic said, letting a grin form as he gave one of his signature winks and followed her up the stairs, too, after Chuck handed them the key to secure the door in case they needed to, to which Sonic only raised a brow at.
After going inside to join the others, Cream met them with a smile but gently shushed them enough to point out that Tails and Blaze were already asleep. Seeing that Tails had fallen asleep on the edge of Chuck's bed and that Blaze had made himself comfortable on one of the bigger beanbag chairs, Sonic then simply walked past the both of them to where he saw Ash was settled. Resting with a compress to her head for headache, she stirred enough to smile at Sonic, to which he only smiled and rested a hand against her shoulder in care and with a relieved smile. After watching those two whisper something between them for a second before Ash finally closed her eyes, Frieda settled down on a cushion that Cream had found and pulled out for her to lean back against. Staying with the others for a while, Sonic made himself comfortable on the ledge by the window, watching the night with a look that said that he knew there was still more of the mystery that laid in front of them all. Two of their friends were still missing and Doctor Eggman … Wherever he was, Sonic knew in the back of his mind that, if Eggman did arrive also, he would show up soon enough. However, despite everything else, they all knew now that they would have to find their way back home.
Meanwhile, on a desert island somewhere off of the coast somewhere, a base stood strong and foreboding in the distance and all together with a series of orb-shaped robots surrounding the base tower on all sides, occasionally rotating at secure angles to scope out and fully observe the area around it.
"Interesting," someone familiar said, watching the screens inside the base. "So, we were transported into this world by Chaos Control. Very well then, I'll rebuild the foundation of the Eggman Empire here, and soon I will rule the entire universe!" Laughing, the entire base filled with a malicious echo that was soon amplified with the supporting approval of his robot minions, who helped to serve his every need and take care of the base. "Conquering this puny planet will be a picnic! As an appetizer, I'll finish off this city!"
"Which robot will you use, Doctor?" Decoe asked him, handing him a pack of battle-ready robot cards.
"Hm, let's see," Dr. Eggman sarcastically mused as he mildly shuffled through them briefly. "They all look so lethal … Mm, I can't choose." Pushing through a shuffle compartment in one of his card slots, he pulled the switch and smiled when it landed on a familiar machine. "Ah, Missile Wrist! Perfect!"
It wasn't long before, the very next morning in fact, Dr. Eggman caused it to start rampaging at a nearby beach, terrorizing a whole group of parents and tourists who had settled down for a new day of activity. Meanwhile, however, two familiar figures were trying to find their way underground and around the city in the most unlikely of places – the city's sewer drain system.
"This whole thing is Sonic's fault!"
"Hey," Amy said, trying to talk plainly in contrast to Knuckles' complaints as he forged on ahead in their trek down one of the tunnels. "All Sonic did was try and stop Eggman. He didn't mean for us to get sent here."
Still walking, Knuckles then said, "Even if Dr. Eggman is the one to blame, Sonic shouldn't have pushed him so far."
Stopping, Amy challenged Knuckles enough to say proudly about Sonic, "He's not afraid to fight back!"
Looking over his shoulder, Knuckles stood stoic as he said, "Sonic just likes getting into fights for kicks."
"I'm not going any further if you talk trash about Sonic," Amy said, crossing her arms.
"I don't have time for this," Knuckles said, irritated and not in the mood to indulge idle arguments. "See ya."
Worried about being alone in a strange place, Amy reached out partly towards Knuckles to say, "You're not going to leave me alone down here, are you?"
Leaving the decision up to her, Knuckles kept walking as he lamented, "Do what you want. That's your business."
Exasperated and worried, too, Amy then said, "Oh, this is going to be impossible." Making up her mind to follow Knuckles, Amy then ran slightly to catch up with Knuckles' strut and to say, "Hey, come on, Knuckles. Don't be mad! Wait up!"
In all actuality, though, Knuckles was just as worried as she was, only for personal and other reasons that he chose not to share. Blaming the issue at hand on Sonic's eagerness for the battle stunt that landed them there, all Knuckles had on his mind was his own problems as they forged on ahead, not too far from the chaos that was starting to merge out into the city and the new day ahead.
Looking out into the street from the stairway, Freida felt something off and foreboding that she wasn't sure of in the air, taking a moment to rest against the rail in idle thought. Looking down, she saw her brother and Chris's grandfather, Chuck, overseeing the care on the Tornado. Smiling at them both, deep down she was glad Tails had someone on his level to talk to, a kindred spirit just like him.
Hearing a small pair of steps below her, Freida looked up in time to see Chris run out of the garage to search around the house and peered up into some of the nearby trees, almost bumping into Blaze as the wolf pup just sidled past him to amble into the garage, eager to find anything he could focus his nerves on.
"He's looking for Sonic, isn't he?" Ash said, just above Freida, not surprisingly, as she looked up to see Ash comfortably sitting on the roof just above her. "What?"
"It would seem so," Frieda said, reading Ash's expression. "You know something."
"He honestly took off this morning is all I know," Ash said, chuckling a bit, the both of them looking down to hear Tails telling Mr. Thorndike just how much pride in care he shows to make sure the Tornado stays nice and clean. Not too far from Tails and Chuck, Cream and Cheese sat at a little garden table and were snacking on a small platter of donuts that Chuck had brought out for all of them to enjoy, a little sweet treat after breakfast he called it. "He doesn't like staying still for long."
"Neither do you," Freida laughed, earning a chuckle from Ash also as she grinned. "I'm not surprised that Sonic would want to explore. This world is just as beautiful as our own back home, and just as innocent and mysterious."
"Which side of the board are you on, Wings?" Ash asked, meaning it as a joke but only mildly turning away from the view with a grimace. "We got blasted here, and all from our own world and into this one, by an uncontrollable surge of Chaos Control, the same kind of blast that … well, you remember. You were there. I don't know what happened with my Dad, but this was something I could have never predicted was possible with the Emeralds, much less one. Uh, just thinking about it is enough to give me another headache."
"Not matter how it happened, you heard Sonic and others," Freida said, trying to comfort Ash as she hovered absent-mindedly, her ability kicking in with her itch of agitation. Reaching up to grab Ash's outstretched hand as she channeled her power, Freida pulled down her friend to stand on the stairway instead as she said, "We'll find a way home. Be like Sonic, if it makes you feel better. Get to know this one in the meantime. We already have a couple of new friends that can help us do just that."
"Right," Ash said, taking into account just how true her friend's words rang in her ears. Looking back down, though, they saw Chris approach the others after a minute looking more worried than ever, especially when they saw Blaze poke his head out of the garage to signal for them to come down to hear what they were talking to Chris about. "Get us down there," she said immediately, Freida already gripping her hands to propel her down with a few careful cautious flaps of her twin tails, folding her knees a bit to allow enough sway to the skort that allowed for her tails to do their work.
"You know, I'm really going to thank your Mom for thinking of this for me," Frieda whispered, landing with Ash just inches from where they heard Chris say, "If the police spot Sonic, they'll try to catch him."
"Catch Sonic? I don't think so," Tails said, knowing it was hard for anyone keeping up with the hedgehog.
"I just hope he's careful," Chris said, obviously worried.
"He shouldn't be worried," Ash said, not surprised that Blaze had joined them at their side with a wrench in his hand, curiously. "Sonic can take care of himself."
"Mmm, that's not his style. Sonic likes danger," Tails replied, once again stating the obvious when it came to Sonic.
Suddenly afraid for him, Chris shouted, "We have to bring him back! Right away!"
"Chris worries about Sonic too much," Ash whispered, seeing Tails and his Grandpa hesitantly agreeing, well Tails anyway who agreed that he would use the Tornado to search from the air for him. "We all know Sonic can take care of himself."
"Mostly, but don't forget there were a couple of close calls," Blaze said, remembering some things that included water. Unfortunately, Chris looked back at them when he heard that, worry even more etched across his face as his Grandfather placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him.
"Blaze, he's just worried about Sonic. I think it's sweet," Frieda said, getting up to check on her brother as he started the plane. "Tails, mind if I tag along?"
At her brother's nod, Freida hopped into the plane with him, as he waited for Chuck and Chris to get into the sedan, saying that they were going to check the park.
"Let us know if you find him," She heard Blaze say over Ash's communicator as she and Blaze stood by Cream and Cheese and watched them leave, Ash only smirking a bit as the others could only guess where Sonic could have gone. Of course, with a 700 hundred-miles-an-hour hypersonic hedgehog as their leader, they knew, that he could have been anywhere.
"You didn't want to go?" Cream asked, seeing Ash's expression change as she yearned for some action. Not knowing how she wanted to explain what she was feeling in front of Cream, she looked up in time to see Blaze secretly pull out one of the military portable police scanners that they had both seen their mutual acquaintance use after he sheltered them in the abandoned city warehouse the night before. "What's that?"
"Just a gift from someone who helped us learn about Area 99, where you were," Blaze said, tuning a couple of the nobs on the side of it.
"He got it from a friend of ours," Ash said, fingering the key that Chuck had left in their care for them to take Cream and Cheese inside. "He took care of us, too, that night before. Just like how Chris encountered and saved Sonic, I guess you could say he hid us when we came to in the city when the police were looking for Sonic. We didn't know where anyone was, but it wasn't like we woke in the middle of a traffic jam like Sonic did, either."
Finally getting a signal, Blaze turned in time to overhear a bit of the conversation on how Jasper found them, which to that he automatically shushed as he said, "Alright, that's enough. Sorry, Cream, but we got to get you inside. We're a little too exposed out here. Look." Pointing to the where he saw a shadow cross over one of the windows of Chris's villa, Ash and Cream only nodded in agreement as they made themselves scarce and raced back up to Chuck's study, right as Blaze got something on the radio that made all of them listen with trepid shock as the door shut and locked right behind them.
Meanwhile, in the air, Frieda was using a set of binoculars to look for any sign of any fast movement as Tails looked over the side while flying over the city and said, "This is like looking for a hedgehog in a haystack!"
"I know, but Chris is worried about Sonic," Frieda said, still looking, as Tails flew subtle aerial circles over the area around the parks and the edge of Main Street, where right underneath them Chris and his grandfather tried to call his name among the patrons of the park. Seeing the billboard of the toothpaste advertisement, Frieda pondered about the mountain tip of the snow mountain in the background for only about a second right as Tails swerved to the left, trying to keep pace with the Thorndike's' sedan as Chuck exited the park. "Whoa!"
"Sorry, you alright?" Tails asked, peering back only a bit as he steadied the plane, trying to see where Chris and his grandfather were going next.
"Yeah, but … Wait a minute!" Frieda said, seeing smoke and both of them tensing up hearing gunfire in the distance. Looking through the binoculars, Frieda said, "Tails, there's smoke. Something's happening downtown and it's big!" Feeling that sign of anxiety rise up in herself, again, she shuddered when she got a good look at him.
"What?!" Tails said, turning his head with his sister's in time to see a missile fire straight through a series of buildings about twenty from the middle of the square, a sight that even had Chris and Chuck stopping their sedan a couple of seconds later. "What's going on?"
"Tails, you two get back to the house!" Chuck hollered up at them over the Tornado's engine as Tails lowered it enough to hear the message. "We'll meet you there!" With a nod, Tails flew them both back towards the estate as the sedan sped up and pulled into the mansion's driveway in no time at all. Meanwhile, a certain hedgehog was exactly at the place that they had passed in the ad and while on the top of a faraway snowy-tipped mountain cliff, Sonic jumped off into a crevice, shouting at the top of his lungs and knowing his fast steps would ease his fall.
While Eggman continued to have his robot rampage through the city, Amy and Knuckles were still making their way through the city's underground sewage system right as Amy started to labor and asked her stoic companion, "Hey. Knuckles, can we take a break?"
"You can take one if you want, but I'm not stopping," Knuckles only says, continuing ahead down the tunnel.
Groaning upsettingly, she thought to herself for a second on how she could engage in a more casual manner. Getting an idea, she asked, "So, what do you think our chances are of getting back home, Knuckles?"
"We'll get back, for sure."
"How can we?" Amy asked, curious to know herself.
"I don't know, but we will. Somehow, we will. No matter what it takes, I have to get back. It's my mission to guard the Master Emerald. Nothing's going to stop me from doing my job! You can count on it! Until I find a way back, I am not going to rest or get side-tracked," Knuckles started to say, before they felt the ground beneath them start to shake. "Huh? What's that?" Suddenly hearing screams and the chaos above them, they weren't the only ones to notice the mayhem that they were soon going to find out who was behind it.
More of a filler chapter, next up we'll see the epic return of Dr. Eggman and his robot, Missile Wrist. Knuckles and Amy make their appearance as we all know they will show up very soon, but of course, I know this chapter starts a bit too short. Thanks for reading this, and until next time.
