Cross Collision

Part 3: Making plans

The hedgehog and the human glared at one another; blue spikes and black hair bristling, emerald green and sky blue eyes matching expressions. Both had their feet braced against the ground, and their fists clenched, but not raised any higher than their waists. They eyed each other up, both subtly watching the other for the first movement, both not so subtly vying for the other to back down first.

The fox watched them, edging over to the girl who had stared at him just a moment before; if her friend was that snappy, he certainly wasn't going to talk to him first. The girl sighed, irritated.

"Danny!"

"Huh?" The boy straightened and looked back at her, the harsh glare gone from his eyes in an instant.

"Stop it, you're the one who noticed where we are... or aren't. You should know better than to judge from appearances."

"I like this girl. She uses her brain, Sonic."

"Pfft, he started it." The hedgehog folded his arms and tapped a foot impatiently.

"Don't mind Danny, he's just really jumpy. My name's Sam, I take it you got that chain off of us?" The girl held a hand out to the fox, who put the chain on the floor to shake it.

"Yeah, it was child's play. I'm Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails. Nice to meet you." The fox laughed, waving his namesakes behind him. "That's Sonic the Hedgehog, but you probably know about him."

"Um... not really... We're new around here, I guess..." Sam reached behind her and shook the boy who was still asleep. "Get up, already!"

"Do I have to?" he whined as he stretched, yawning loudly. "Dude I feel like I've been sleeping on the ground."

Sonic burst out laughing, a cheerful, loud note that echoed in the breeze. He relaxed and smirked at the third of the humans, who simply stared, slack jawed at him.

"Well that's probably because you have!" he said, chuckling.

"And this is Tucker."

"What kind of g-" Sam elbowed Tucker in the ribs, motioning to Sonic and Tails as she introduced them. The geek rubbed his chest and waved sheepishly. "Uh, hi... Um... Danny? Sam? Where are we?"

"What do you mean? This is the Emerald Hill Zone, only one of the best Zones ever!" Sonic laughed again. "Where are you guys from?"

"Amity Park..." Danny replied, still looking puzzled as he looked around them. "... which this is not."

"Amity Park? Can't say I've ever heard of it." Sonic rubbed his chin, thinking.

"And we haven't heard of this Emerald Hill Zone." Sam frowned. "What country is it in?"

"Country? No, this is Westside Island."

"Never heard of that, either..."

"Sonic," Tails started, picking the chain up as he got to his feet, "I think we should go back to my place. I need to repair the Tornado before we can leave Westside Island anyway."

"True." Sonic glanced at the aircraft with a hint of irritation, before shrugging it off. He looked back at his friend, while the humans cringed at the cleanly cut wing of the bi-plane. "You sure you wanna trust these guys, little bro?"

"I think we can. They're just lost, it seems."

"Cool." Sonic looked back at them, his gaze passing over the trio as he smiled. "Well, if you guys promise you aren't gonna try destroy and or take over the world, I'll give you a chance."

"Oh? You thought we were gonna?" Sam smiled slightly as she stood up, helping the still surprised Tucker to his feet. "Sorry for any confusion there, we're not up to anything, I promise."

"Yeah, we're just kids, what harm are we gonna do?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Good point. Humans aren't generally strong enough to pose a threat to my world." He looked at Danny, and his mouth twitched, before he chuckled again. "Come on, Tails makes some wicked chilli."

"Chilli?" Danny smiled in response. "Awesome!"

"Did you say food? Then count me in!" Tucker joined in.

Tails groaned. "Why have I been volunteered to cook again?"

Sam sighed. "Boys."

Danny listened to Tucker and Sam arguing in hushed whispers, while he sat to one side, flipping through a book he'd found next to a model rocket. They'd separated from Sonic and Tails after food, as they all wanted to discuss what the animals had mentioned in their attempts to help figure out where they'd come from. The manual, as it turned out, was just a list of basic parts and operation instructions for the damaged plane in the fields. But he read it anyway, in an attempt to stay out of the conversation.

Tucker was trying to get his PDA back from Sam, who had snatched it away and was now holding him at arm's length. Danny rolled his eyes; it was a familiar situation. Mostly. Apart from being in the house of a talking two tailed fox and having just had dinner with something that called itself a hedgehog but looked nothing like one, that is. But when answered with the fact that he was hard for them to see as being a hedgehog, Sonic had burst out in fits of giggles and told them they were far too strange to be humans too.

Danny sighed, finding it hard to concentrate on the book. Things just weren't adding up.

"-on't you agree, Danny?"

"Huh?" the halfa finally noticed Tucker was actually speaking to him now, though how long he had been doing so he couldn't say. "Sorry, what?"

"Were you even listening?"

"Honestly? No, not really. Was it important?" Danny closed the manual and put it back where it had come from.

"We were trying to figure out what happened." Sam sighed, sounding like she'd been arguing with Tucker, without any help from Danny, for some time. "By all rights, we should be in the Ghost Zone."

"But we're not."

"No, we're not. I don't know where we are. Sonic says he has no idea where America is, but apparently he's been to every part of this planet."

"I don't trust him."

"And Tucker's been pointing that out for the past ten minutes."

"You don't?" Danny blinked at Tucker, who shook his head. "Why not? He seems alright."

"He's got a strange look in him."

"You mean because he's a blue hedgehog?"

"No! I mean in his face! Like he's older than he seems or something. Like he hides things!"

"He says he's a hero and world famous. There's probably a reason." Sam answered Tucker before Danny could input his own opinion. "Danny has his secrets too!"

"Please don't bring me into this one, Sam. I'd rather just lay low at least until we're certain what's gone wrong. These guys aren't ghosts, and I'm not fighting anyone who I'm not certain about." Danny shuddered. "That's dad's job."

"Well, let's recap what we know, now we have your attention, Danny."

Danny helped them build the list; The two creatures they'd met were a fox and a hedgehog, though they acted more like humans; Tucker pointed out that the term was 'anthropomorphic', which got him just blank stares. The place they were in now was a tropical paradise called the Emerald Hill Zone, and Tails lived in a small town near the beach; when asked where Sonic lived, the pair of them had shrugged. They were on Westside Island, in the Southern Ocean, and the world map Tails had shown them bore little resemblance to their own Earth, despite sharing the name.

Then his friends started to argue about whether it was an alien world or an alternate dimension, and Danny lost all interest; only speaking up to suggest support for the dimension idea, with the Ghost Portals being focused dimensional rips. His eyes wandered around the room while he let his friends debate the best way of figuring out a way back home; or at least to the Ghost Zone, since they could figure it out from there.

"Don't you think there's something odd about Sonic?"

"Oh for the love of... Tucker, we're not talking about that!"

"He clashed with Danny like north and north, and they haven't met before!"

"He just startled me, that's all." Danny spoke up with a huff. "One second he wasn't there, the next he was. And I think we confused him just as much, didn't he tell us he thought we were gonna hurt his friend?"

"... That's true..." Tucker scratched his head, trying to think things over. "Do you think we might still be in the Ghost Zone? Just, one of the really normal looking realms?"

"No."

"You sound so certain." Sam commented, and Danny nodded in response.

"I'd know. Besides, if we were, there'd be Skulker or someone hot on my tail." Danny rolled his eyes. "So no, I'm pretty sure we're not." A puff of frost passed between his teeth, and he blinked.

"Wasn't that-"

"Yeah..."

"So we ARE in the Ghost Zone?"

"No, it doesn't work there..."

A shrill scream came from outside the building, and the trio ran to the window, looking for what was causing it. Animal people ran in all directions, as a formless green glob swooped down, chasing them around. Danny frowned, turning away from the window.

"You gotta help them, Danny..."

"How? I'll stick out like a sore thumb and bam, there goes my identity!"

"Danny, they're in trouble!"

Danny looked at Sam, who was still pressed against the glass. Reluctantly, he sighed, and closed his eyes. "... I'm going-"

"-to kick your glowing butt!" came the cry from outside.

The teen broke concentration, and ran back to the window, joining Sam and Tucker and they looked through it. A blur of blue charged past, rattling the glass in the frame, before rocketing in the other direction on the other side of the crowd. Fur and feathers waved in the wind caused by the object, and it stopped dead still a few feet away from the ghost, grinning.

Danny's jaw dropped, before he laughed and ran outside to get a better view, swiftly followed by Sam and Tucker. They stood shock still on the doorway, next to Tails was pinching between his eyes like he was trying to stop a headache, watching Sonic as he folded his arms, waiting...

Then the ghost attacked.

Sonic sighed as Tails chattered on about the way the cut of an emerald refracted light or something. The hedgehog wasn't an idiot, but he left all the technical stuff to the fox for a reason. After the fifteenth bored groan didn't dissuade Tails from continuing, Sonic concentrated on the chilli dog he'd swiped from the table when the humans had asked to be left alone a moment.

He wasn't worried about them causing trouble, they seemed alright enough and he trusted his, (or, in this case, Tails'), judgement when it came to strangers. Though the way that one boy had jumped to his feet in a smooth movement had startled him, he guessed he'd just been a more athletic human. He had relatively the same build as Sonic did, given the species and size difference, of course, so the hedgehog wasn't too shocked by it. Humans were usually pretty dull, so these strange ones interested him.

"They're taller than most of the other humans, aren't they?" A casual observation.

"Well, except Eggman, and the Soleannans." Tails answered, smoothly shifting from a theory about dimensional travel to the conversation. "Do you think they might have come from there?"

"No, they seem pretty certain they came from that other place." Sonic shrugged, looking up from his half eaten snack at his friend. "I think they came from the Special Zone."

"Sonic, no one actually lives there."

"That we know of. That place is huge, Tails." Sonic smiled back, wagging a finger. "Not that it matters. The kids say they're lost, and we'll help them back home. Simple!"

"And what about you and Danny's little altercation?"

"My wha-? Oh. He surprised me, that's all. I guess he thought we were going to hurt his friends. You know, for humans who claim to have never seen anything like us before, those three are taking the whole 'entire planet of us, you humans are the odd ones out' thing pretty well."

"Maybe they're just hard to confuse."

"Maybe..."

Sonic ran a gloved hand under his chin, pondering things over. He supposed if he'd ended up in a world full of humans, he might have had the same, instantly defensive reaction that the teenagers had had. Sure, they seemed harmless, and he was quite happy to trust their promise, but there was something strange about them. Sonic couldn't tell what, exactly. Maybe it was just a lingering effect from them having arrived by Chaos.

"Sonic, how do you think we can get them back?"

"Get another Star Post part, get another of those Chaos Drives, smash them together?" Sonic shrugged. "It worked once, it might work again."

"But we don't know why it worked like that, and the Special Stage never came with a green light before."

"Eggman said that Drive was experimental. So maybe we can just borrow another one from him."

"You mean steal one."

"No. Borrow. I'll give it back afterwards. It just might be in a few pieces, that's all!" Sonic laughed.

"Well, I suppose we could give it a try." Tails scratched his ear, thoughtfully. "But how do you suggest you're gonna get one? Smash your way through steel doors that were built specifically to keep you out?"

"Yup!"

"Sonic, you really need to think these things through better. We have to plan this."

"Or I could wait until Eggman builds another of those crazy gun things and nab it again."

"Or that."

Tails sighed as Sonic started to list the ways he knew to bother Eggman, trying to think of a good way into the base, as he counted them off on his fingers. The fox wasn't even certain that it would work, but it was their only idea for the time being, and Sonic wasn't much for thinking up back up plans before he needed one. He couldn't deny that the hedgehog worked better on the fly, making up ideas as he went. It frustrated Tails and the rest of Sonic's allies to no end, but it usually worked out just fine in the end.

He turned his head towards the dining area, where the door had been closed between the rooms to give the children some privacy as they spoke. Like Sonic, Tails wasn't worried about the humans, he was more curious. They'd explained where they'd come from; a place called Amity Park, in some place called America, in an alternate version of Earth where foxes and hedgehogs didn't talk. Tucker had taken an interest in the Miles-Electric, so Tails had let him look at it, showing them a map of the world on it. When their faces had fallen at seeing it, he'd felt a little guilty, though it wasn't unexpected. His question to Sonic earlier had been to humour his observation; any fox worth his tail could see the humans were completely out of place.

Sonic watched Tails as he thought, waiting for the next question about his plan, but the moment the little fox opened his mouth, a chorus of screams broke out. Tails slammed his jaws shut, looking befuddled for a moment, before the pair of them realised the screaming was coming from outside, not the fox's dinner. Sonic flicked his ears, and ran outside. He had barely stepped off the doorstep before he had to stop and stare at the cause of the commotion.

"Oh man, awesome. Tails! You gotta come see this!"

"What is it, Sonic?" Tails saw it and stopped at Sonic's side. "Whoa..."

"I know! I wonder what it is!"

"It's probably dangerous. Sonic, we have to think this-" the fox face-palmed as Sonic ran forward, heading straight for the glowing green glob, "-through..." he finished, talking to himself.

"Hey ugly!" Sonic shouted as he ran around the crowd, setting up a tail wind that blew fur, feathers and accessories all over the place. "You know what?"

The scream from the creature was Sonic's only answer, and he laughed.

"I'm going to kick your glowing butt!"

He charged on another circuit of the street, before skidding to a dead stop in front of it, staring it straight in its beady red eyes. A roar of cheering rose up from the crowd, and Sonic folded his arms, standing perfectly still, inviting the blob to make the first move...

… He noticed the kids at the door, and winked at them, as the beast dived towards him.

Vlad Masters grumbled to himself. First he'd broken his portal; that blasted half-ghost had probably done it somehow. Then he had lost said half-ghost; his tracking device may have been still transmitting video and audio, but it had lost all location data. Then, the tracking device itself had stopped working. And now, Jack Fenton was on the phone, babbling on about ghosts and fudge. And, at least once, about a ghost made out of fudge. Vlad couldn't even figure out how the ghost hunter had got his number in the first place. The only reason he hadn't hung up on him yet was he could hear Jack's wife in the background.

All in all, Vlad was not having a good day.

He listened to Jack talk to his wife; the man had put a hand over the mouthpiece or something, as both voices were muffled; but the mere fact they were conversing irritated him to such an extent that the pen he was holding snapped in his grip. The big buffoon shouted back down the phone, as if he'd thought Vlad had put it down. He hadn't, but it was tempting. He cried out and rubbed his ear; being half-ghost himself his hearing was sensitive enough as it was, without being yelled at.

"WHAT?" Vlad snapped back down the phone, once he was sure he could hear again.

"Vladdie, you know all those Ghost Portal notes you took back in college? Do you still have them?"

"The ones before you completely ruined my life?" Vlad hissed venomously, but Jack didn't seem to notice. "No, I lost them." He lied, none too subtly. "Why do you want to know?"

"Well I... uh..." Jack trailed off, obviously attempting to think. Vlad gave an unimpressed snort at the thought of it. "Maddie? Why did we want to know again?"

Vlad held his breath as he heard Maddie take the phone off of Jack, and she snapped harshly down it. "Because we can't open the Portal, not that you care. We have inventions to test and if you're not going to help, Jack can hang up. Right. Now."

"Oh Maddie..." Vlad started, but found himself talking to Jack again. He coughed. "Well... I can have another look, since you're such dear friends..." he dragged the last two words out sarcastically, in an attempt to point out to Jack that he was definitely not his friend, but the tone went unnoticed by the ghost hunter.

"Awesome! Thanks, Vladdie my man! Let me know what you find, okay? Okay! See-"

Vlad hung up before Jack could finish his sentence. Or start talking again. He walked across the halls, hands clasped behind his back, as he thought over what the idiot had said. If there was one thing he knew for certain about the Fentons, it was that their portal was stable. They'd had to build a shielded door to close the thing, but from the way they'd had to ask their old college classmate, he guessed it was more than the door being stuck.

Vlad phased through the wall and into his secret lab, heading directly for his own portal. He'd used the notes, and some stolen information from Fenton Works, to create his copy, and had been lucky enough to find a spot where the portal would be just as stable as the Fentons' one. Well, aside from that little accident earlier, that is; he was thankful that the Fentons hadn't yet noticed Danny's absence, Jack had, to date, been the only guy to resist his powers and beat him down. If the idiot found out he was behind making his son disappear, Vlad would have to make sure he was as far away as possible. The readout next to the doorway showed it had restarted successfully; at least Jack's call had been enough of a waste of time. Shifting into his ghost form, he commanded his automated systems to attempt to start the portal.

"Portal active, dear heart." the synthesized copy of Maddie Fenton's voice echoed.

"It isn't open. What's going on?" Vlad stared at the tunnel that went a few feet back into the wall; the machine wasn't even giving off the humming it would normally.

"Unknown, my love."

"Well well well, I don't know who you are there, but-" Vlad turned around with a start; the new voice was an older man's, not that of his computer. He flew over to the console it was playing from as it continued; the video was still showing static, but the sound was playing, albeit run through with crackling from being transmitted from wherever it was. "- I've taken the liberty of fixing this little tracking device of yours..."

"Who... Hmm..." a wicked smirk played across Vlad's face as he considered the meaning of this strange new voice.

The day had just got a little better...

TBC