Cross Collision
Part 4: Haunted
The wind blowing around the street wasn't natural; it was focused in one area, spinning into a cobalt twister in the centre of the road. The crowd watching had to back away as it drew nearby bits of debris into it, only to shoot them out of the top and have them rain back down to the road a distance away. Flashes of green could be seen within the spiral, and as Sonic stopped suddenly, the blur that had traced his movement faded away, leaving the glowing blob spinning.
Sonic grinned at it once it stopped moving and wobbled around in the air dizzily instead. The hedgehog took a step back and ran at the creature, but rapidly found himself breaking inches from a nearby wall. The tip of his nose tapped it and he blinked at the brick, before whirling around and jumping into the air as a hand formed itself out of the creature's side, swinging towards him as a fist.
Sonic kicked his heels in mid-air to change direction, and span directly down at the top of the creature, as it vanished. He yelped, more in surprise than in pain, as he uncurled before his spin started to burrow underground. He landed on his feet, and looked all around, confused.
"Hey, ugly, where'd you go?" he said, cracking his knuckles together, "we aren't done playing yet!"
"Sonic, if you keep attacking it head on you're gonna get hurt!"
"Psh!" Sonic shrugged the notion away.
"But you can't hit it!" Tails insisted.
"That's why they invented improvising!"
"Sonic, stop!"
"No way, I got a job to do!"
Sonic jogged on the spot and his legs began to blur, creating a sound like a revving engine, before he rocketed forwards in a flash of blue and a gust of wind. Tails shut his eyes just before the sound of shattering glass and a yelp was heard. Then there was silence, so he slowly opened them again. Sonic wasn't seen, but one of the nearby buildings had just lost a window. Tails gaped at it as Sonic climbed out, brushing glass fragments from his spikes.
The glob laughed, loudly, but Sonic ignored it as he cleared the shards from his gloves.
"Uh... does he always try and head-butt things like that?" Tucker leaned towards the fox to mutter it.
"Well, yeah. Those spikes don't work at a range, after all." Tails waved at Sonic, who ignored him too.
"You know that's not gonna work right?"
"Obviously... But Sonic's not usually one to think about the obvious." Tails turned his attention back to his friend, who was revving up again. "Sonic! Blue tornado seems to be the only thing you can do to it, it just phases you through it otherwise!"
"I did notice that! Okay, one super speed spin cycle coming right up!"
As Sonic bolted forwards and caught the creature in a spin again, Tails scratched an ear and looked confused, half watching Sonic and half trying to think of a solution. Tails didn't really know what the thing was, just that it didn't seem too bothered by Sonic and that it wanted to torment the locals. He flicked the other ear backwards to listen to Sam muttering something to Danny in a low voice, and turned his head in time to see her pull a... lipstick from a pocket on her skirt.
The fox frowned; the green tube was practically the opposite of the purple gloss she was wearing already, and while he didn't complain about the fact her, and Tucker and Danny, weren't worried about the glowing green thing that was leading Sonic on a runabout, it just didn't seem the time to be doing her make up.
"Allow me."
"Sonic! Drop to the floor like, right now!" Tucker shouted.
"Allow you to wha- whoa!" Tails ducked as Sam swung the tube above his head, shooting a beam of energy out of it.
Sonic had stopped running a split second before the beam hit the creature, knocking it back into a wall. He blinked at the dazed glob, watching it vanish from view. Scratching his head, he turned back to the humans and Tails, seeing Sam blow smoke from the top of the gloss and put it back in her pocket, while Tails stared at it until it left view. Shrugging, the hedgehog zipped across to them, saluting as he stopped.
"I think it's gone."
"Mhmm..." Danny mumbled in agreement, and the hedgehog glanced at him, before looking back at Sam and Tails.
"What was that?"
"That's what I was gonna ask." Sonic added to Tails' question.
"Fenton Lipstick." Tucker grinned. "It's pretty nifty, you can fight ghosts and keep your lips moisturised at the same time!"
"... Ghosts?" Tails burst out laughing, dropping to the floor in fits of giggles. "G- ghosts... ahahah! Oh my gosh that's priceless!"
"Tuckerrrrr." Danny sighed under his breath. "Now the talking animals think we're crazy or something!"
"And if you said that to your sister, she would too." Tucker snorted.
"I don't think you're crazy." Sonic chuckled. "Tails just hasn't seen ghosts before and doesn't believe me when I say I have. But that thing can't have been one, I have to agree with him there!"
"Well it was. That's why the Lipstick hit it." Sam folded her arms, and Sonic held his hands up.
"Hey, if you guys say ghosts are green, and I can't hit the thing that's green, then who am I to argue?" Sonic smiled and nudged Tails with a toe. "Get up little bro, I told you so!"
"You told me the things you saw looked like flying bedsheets." Tails giggled, sitting up reluctantly. "And I still think they were just that! Sheets on strings! That green thing was probably just a hologram Eggman sent to bother you."
"Don't underestimate the bedsheets!" Sonic pushed Tails over again, where he promptly started laughing once more. The hedgehog sighed. "So, are you guys certain that was a ghost? Cause we don't do the whole haunted thing in Emerald Hill, it'd ruin the tourism!"
"My parents are ghost hunters." Danny answered, somewhat reluctantly. "So we deal with them all the time."
"Ahhh... Yeah, now see, that I have some trouble believing. You can't touch ghosts to hunt them, you just leave them alone." Sonic chuckled.
"Well you can touch them where we're from so they need catching, or they hurt people."
"Really now? Well, I can't let that happen. Soooooo," Sonic leaned forwards, grinning up at them, "let's see that gizmo you had!"
"Well, I guess it can't do any harm... Would it be okay, Danny?"
Sam pulled the make up from her pocket again as Danny nodded, and handed it to the hedgehog, her hand looking minuscule in comparison to Sonic's much larger ones. Danny watched as Sonic eyed it over, flipping it over in one hand while scratching his ear with the other. The hedgehog was shuffling awkwardly, as if he was anxious to move to another spot. He was leaning slightly to the left, most of his weight on that foot, and Danny guessed that if something were to startle him, Sonic would be able to start running from a standstill in that position. It reminded him of his own ready stance, where he stood dropped down slightly as he prepared to take off flying if he had to. Sonic flipped the Lipstick into the air, before catching it and firing it at a nearby tree; one of many planted in rows along the road they stood on; and shot a leaf off of a branch with it. Emerald eyes glittered as he smirked, passing it back to the humans. Danny took it off of him instead, while Sam was staring incredulously at the leaf fluttering towards the ground.
Danny shuddered under Sonic's unblinking stare, though it lasted only a second, it seemed like forever. Tucker was right, there was something unnerving about it. The hedgehog's laugh broke the momentary tension though, as he pointed a gloved finger at the weapon Danny held in his hand. Tails was eyeing it up now, while Tucker was watching Sonic cautiously. Sam simply looked offended that Sonic had attacked the innocent tree.
"That's an interesting weapon." Sonic commented, bluntly. Tails blinked at him.
"Sonic, you hate weapons."
"Tails, I'm sure I know that." The hedgehog rolled his eyes, and smiled back at the humans. "Just don't go burning your faces off by mistaking it for a real make up, or something."
"We haven't yet." Danny smiled, relaxing as Sonic grinned and turned around, waving at the crowds that still lingered.
"Dudes, show's over!"
"Sonic! Can I have an autograph?"
"Uh-"
"Can you take a photo with me?"
"Well I'm kind of busy-"
"Who are they, Mister Sonic?"
A curious little rabbit walked over to them, with some sort of blob of blue wearing a red bow tie sitting on top of her head. Danny watched as the crowd dispersed reluctantly when Sonic paid attention to the little girl, obviously he knew her and was going to talk to her over the crowd. He smiled nervously at the tan rabbit, who waved happily back at him. The blob on top of her head waved too, and Danny grimaced at its deep black eyes. Tucker smiled at it though.
"Hey, it looks like a tamagotchi!" Tucker grinned.
"A... what?" Danny blinked. Tucker did the gadgets, not him.
"Huh? Oh no mister, this is a Chao, his name's Cheese! I'm Cream, it's nice to meet you!" she bowed politely at them, and Danny chuckled.
"Cream and Cheese?" Sam voiced, cringing at the terrible name combination.
"That's right. Um, may I ask what your names are?"
"Uh... I'm Sam, this is Danny and this is Tucker."
"Sam's a boy's name." Cream noted, with Cheese nodding in agreement, and Danny and Tucker both burst out laughing as Sam scowled. Even Sonic and Tails had to grin at the child's bluntness. "It's nice though! I think it suits you!"
"Um... thank you, Cream."
"These are some friends, Cream. What are you doing out here anyway?"
"Well, mother and I were in the shops when the thingy appeared. I thought I could help but you made it go away before I could get mother to let me out of the store."
"Hey, that's cool by me kiddo, wouldn't want you to get hurt, your mother would string me up by my tail if you did." Sonic waved at the older rabbit that had just emerged from a store nearby. She bowed her head at him. "Go on, 's all cool here Cream, if I ever need your help then I'll make sure to let you know, okay?"
"Okay Mister Sonic!" Cream smiled and bowed. "Have a nice day, you too Tails, Sam, Danny, and Tucker!"
Unsure what to do, Danny led the way and bowed back, his long fringe flopping over his face as he did so. Cream giggled as his friends followed suit. She bid them a fond farewell, and with Cheese flying behind her, suspended by little pink wings, she ran back over to her mother. Sonic walked past the humans and back into Tails' house, collapsing into the first chair he found. The others followed in after him, and sat around the room, watching the hedgehog who, for all purposes, looked like he had just fallen asleep.
"She's very polite." Sam commented, "but do you really mean you'd call her if you needed her help? What would she do, cheer you on?"
"Actually, yeah." Sonic opened one eye and smiled at her. "She has this way with Chao, and they have all sorts of interesting abilities. She's also pretty good at talking robots out of their programming."
"Robots?" Tucker's attention picked up, and Sonic watched him dart his attention between Tails and himself. "Actual robots? Like, moving, walking, laser firing death machines or those remote controlled things that fight on TV for fun?"
Sonic laughed. "Sometimes the radio controlled ones, but usually AI controlled death machines."
"You let a child fight robots?" Danny's eyebrow raised sceptically until Sonic grinned.
"I don't see a problem with it. Besides, me and my buds keep her out of any real trouble."
"I guess that's okay then..."
"Come on, back up, what are these robots like? How big are they? What do they do? Can I get one anywhere is it compatible with my PDA will I be able to program it and-"
"Dude!" Sonic threw his hands in the air to silence Tucker before he launched into a Tails class rant. "I don't talk about the 'bots. You wanna talk about them, chat with my buddy here when I'm not around, old Eggman's sent enough of them at me that the novelty wore off years ago and now they just bore me."
"You talk to them when you've broken them."
"Tails! I thought we agreed never to mention that again!" Sonic's flail at the small fox made the humans laugh, and Sonic groaned. "Oh come onnnnnn! This isn't fair! If you guys don't stop laughing I won't share my plan to get you home!"
As the laughter slowly died down, the humans turned their attention to the hedgehog, who was still bristling slightly at Tails, and listened as Sonic divulged his plan. They didn't understand a good amount of it, but they wanted to know as much as they could. The only words that caught on their minds were 'Special Zone' and 'Chaos Drives'.
None of the people in the room noticed as a tiny spherical robot entered the open window and hid in the corner of the frame, focusing a miniature lens on them.
"BEWARE!"
The cry echoed throughout the store, and the pink hedgehog ducked as yet another pair of stilettos flew towards her, to embed themselves in the wall behind her. The floating human shaped thing flailed to the side as she swung the giant mallet she was holding into several pairs of shoes, propelling them through the air towards him.
"No, I think you're the one who should 'beware'!" she said, in a mocking impression of his voice.
"You cannot harm me, small pink and spiky one, for I am the Box Ghost, master of all things cardboard and square!" the creature screamed back at her, oblivious to the bemused expression on her face. He raised his hands, levitating several more boxes in front of him. "Now, face the wrath of my shoebox based DOOM!"
"Shoes? Cardboard boxes? Seriously?" Amy Rose swung her hammer, smashing every launched shoe back at the so-called ghost, who yelped and ducked. "Get lost, you're ruining my shopping trip!"
"Uhhmmm... VERY WELL! But only because you cannot be defeated by foot based weaponry!" the Box Ghost dropped the empty boxes on the hedgehog's head. "BUT I SHALL RETURN, and you will know the true power of the Box Ghost! BEWARE!"
The creature flew out through the window, leaving the store behind him in a mess. Amy's eye twitched as she looked around, hammer held in one hand while the other was balled up into a fist. The shop keeper peered over the top of the counter, followed by other customers who had hid with him. They watched the raging pink hedgehog nervously, until she noticed them, and put her free hand behind her head.
"Ahhh... sorry about your store... I'll... uh... be going now... Oh, I think I hear my darling Sonic calling me, lemme know if that creep comes back, I'll pound him into next Tuesday, okay bye!"
Amy rushed out of the door, dragging her hammer and the bag of clothes she'd brought in with her behind her, before the store's owner could ask her to help tidy up. She wondered where the floating freak had come from, before she decided that it made as good an excuse as any to give Sonic a call. Once she'd made it a good distance down the street, she pulled a cellphone out of her boot and flipped it open, dialling Tails' house.
"... hello?" came the hesitant answer from the fox. In the background there were two voices, arguing loudly.
"Is that Sonic shouting? Who's he shouting at?"
"Uh, no one special Amy..."
"If that's Amy, tell her to go away, I'm busy-" came the muffled scream in the background "-gimme my dog back, kid!"
"Nu-uh, Tails made it and said I could have it!" came a second voice Amy didn't recognise. She dismissed it as both Sonic and the stranger yelled and there was a loud crash.
"What did you want to say, Amy? You don't really call me." Tails mumbled, sounding fed up.
"Oh, there was some freak attacking Station Square and-"
"You can handle that can't you?"
"Let me finish Tails! Gosh!" Amy groaned. "Like I was saying, I couldn't touch him with my mallet! I think he called himself 'the Box Ghost' and demanded we hand over all shoe boxes in the shop 'unless we wished to suffer a demise most boxy.'"
"'The Box Ghost'?" Tails repeated, giggling. "That sounds-"
"-did you say 'Box Ghost'?"
"Aw yeah, I win!" Sonic shouted in the background, oblivious to the stranger's input in her call to Tails. Amy put her face in her hand as she continued.
"Mhmm... Who's with you Tails? Does he know this creep?"
"I... uh..." the was a moment of whispering, which Amy couldn't quite make out. "Yeah, we gotta go, I'll call you soon, Amy."
"Tails, wait-!"
The fox hung up, and Amy Rose found herself staring at the phone in confusion. Great, now what was she going to do?
Gloves reached through her bag and an overall wearing figure flew past, clutching her new trinket box in his grasp. She screeched in frustration.
"Give that back, freak!"
"BEWARE!"
Doctor Eggman tossed the tiny screwdriver aside, grinning at the small device in his hand. It looked like a tiny robotic cockroach, though with a vaguely human shaped face. The scientist was curious; as far as he knew, he was the only person on Earth who could build devices of this complexity, bar Sonic's foxy friend, who usually designed things to resemble either himself, that annoying hedgehog, or any other of his friends, not humans. Another scientist would not have escaped his attention.
He ran a chubby finger across the back of the robot, flicking the wing cases open and turning the device on. It whirred slightly, before turning invisible on his hand. Eggman chuckled, this little device was a source of intrigue. He did wonder if maybe the alternate dimension version of himself he'd encountered before had built it, but it didn't seem like his style. It was too subtle, and didn't bear the trademark moustached insignia both his counterpart and himself loved to put on their devices. He'd already noticed the lenses that made up the device's eyes, and the tiny microphone built in place of a mouth, before it had turned invisible. It seemed this thing could communicate to whomever had built it. He hadn't yet found evidence of speakers, but he was sure he'd find out soon enough whether it had them. He shifted his hand to ensure the device still rested there, the tiny weight was present despite it being perfectly transparent.
Grinning, Eggman cleared his throat loudly.
"Well well well, I don't know who you are there, but I've taken the liberty of fixing this little tracking device of yours..."
Eggman let his words trail off, as he waited for any sign of a response. This would tell him if it had speakers or not, and he put it down carefully on his workstation, where a red and black sphere opened up and looked down at it in as condescending a manner as a static faced robot could muster. Eggman ignored his assistant's quizzical noise as the robot flickered back into view, instead turning his attention to a nearby screen where he tinkered with the plans for a new device to stop Sonic.
"And what, pray tell, would that be, Master?"
"Hrrm?" Eggman had almost forgotten that Orbot had activated. "Oh, some little trinket I found whilst dealing with that pesky hedgehog today. I'm waiting to see if whoever made it can hear, and respond, to me."
"Why? It appears to be at a primitive level compared to your own designs. In such a circumstance normally you would dispose of it."
"True, but I am curious. I found it where Sonic found those humans." Eggman pointed at a window in the corner of the screen, which displayed a video of the hedgehog and his new friends in a room full of furniture.
"They're just children. Sonic talks to children all the time." Orbot responded, sarcastically.
"I know, but these kids came out of nowhere and the dark haired one intrigues me. Him and Sonic don't seem to get along, and I wonder if I can use that to my advantage."
"They're having tea together and they're fighting over a... ugh, chilli dog."
"Are you second guessing me, SA-55?" Eggman scrutinised the robot through blue glasses, and it leaned away. "Good."
Orbot was about to come up with another sarcastic response, but it gave a startled whirr as a tinny voice sounded out from some part of the robot. Eggman turned to face it once more, the wide smirk playing over his features.
"Don't you dare dispose of my robot, it cost a small fortune to make!" The adult male voice sounded rather offended at the idea, and Eggman gave an amused laugh at it.
"Ohohoho!" He chuckled, and leaned towards the device. "I do wonder, can you see me and my wonderful creation here?"
"Wonderful? You flatter me, Doctor."
"I was talking about my laboratory, imbecile."
"Hmph!" Orbot folded its arms indignantly, turning away from the device.
"No I can't, who are you, and who was that?"
"Pay him no mind. And I think I'm the one who should be asking you that question first. But, since your device is in my world, and I wouldn't want to be an ungracious host, I am the illustrious Doctor Eggman."
"Hmm. Vladimir Masters, at your service, good sir. Now, if you can just explain..." the voice, this 'Vladimir', sounded curious, "... what exactly you mean by 'your world'?"
"Ohohoho, first I want to know something I believe you may be able to answer."
"Will you repair the cameras on my device?"
"Of course, and I'll even attempt to find a way so that I may observe you too, mister Masters. It only seems fair..."
"... Fine..." Masters sounded irritated by this exchange, but obviously realised the potential for both parties. "What was your question, Doctor?"
"Tell me, who are the children that you had this tracking device on? And why are they in my domain?"
The sound from the device cut out as Eggman listened, waiting for Masters to come up with the best way to answer his question. The scientist grinned, this was becoming a most eventful day. First he'd discovered a whole new source of energy, which even Sonic seemed unable to distinguish from the more familiar Chaos energy, and now he had a potential ally that he could exploit. Of course, there was always the possibility that the answer Masters came up with would be a lie, but Eggman could out-lie the best of them.
He listened with baited breath as the speakers crackled back into life...
...This was going to be an interesting day indeed.
TBC