Cross Collision

Author's note: Thanks for sticking around during that long break, I've been really busy recently, so I apologise for that. I'll try not to leave a gap that long again in future, but the next update won't be until at least December, since I'm working on NaNoWriMo this month. Wish me luck!

Ps: I've already said enough times that no one has permission to continue my fanfics. Don't. It's terrible manners, write your own stories and don't piggyback on someone else's ideas without their permission, it's very rude and quite frankly it offends me. Stop it.

Edit: Just a quick note- I haven't forgotten this story and have in fact got several new chapters drafted, I just need to revise them before I can post them! Part 8 should be up by the end of May 2015 :) Sorry for the wait!

Part 7: Planning and Proceeding

"And you are absolutely certain this will work?"

"Of course it will work, I'm a genius, you know."

Vlad sneered at the static covered screen, aiming his glare through the waves of noise; towards the scientist with the oversized moustache. "Whatever, just know if it goes wrong it shall be entirely your fault."

"Certainly, since you appear to have very little knowledge in dimensional mechanics yourself" was the amused answer, and the half-ghost rolled his eyes, deciding not to give that remark the dignity of a response. "Now, let's get the last bit started, yes?"

Vlad strolled over to another console across the room, this one connected to the portal. Eggman was relaying directions on how to complete the next stages, and the billionaire found himself grateful that he had his computer automatically recording the scientist's instruction. Eggman seemed to have an annoying habit of rambling as he explained, tending to explain points in further detail than they needed to be. Vlad waited at his console, picking out important things from the dictation, typing them into a clean list.

By the time he'd finished, Eggman had finished chattering and was shouting at something or someone off the screen. The half ghost walked back over to the communication screen, and heard the voice of the robot that the scientist kept yelling at. He chuckled quietly, wondering for a moment why Eggman kept this obvious distraction around, but simply shook his head as his cat climbed up onto the desk, demanding attention with an annoyed mew. The sound of the cat protesting as Vlad lifted her back down to the floor reminded Eggman that Vlad was waiting, and the scientist faced the screen again.

"Well then, shall we begin?" Vlad asked, impatiently.

"Yes, did you get my instructions down clearly?"

"Without a problem."

"Ohohoo, then let's begin. Stage one, initiate."

"It's your turn, Sam!"

"Oh no, I am not being dragged along by you, you'll dislocate my arm or something."

"Fair's fair, Danny and Tucker both got a ride, it's your turn!"

"No way. I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own."

"Go on Sam, you can't laugh at us and not let us laugh at you!" Tucker ventured into the conversation between Sam and Sonic, but he flinched at the girl's glare.

"Whoa nice one. You really could put Shadow to shame with that glare." Sonic laughed, and Sam blinked at him.

"Uh, thanks?"

"Still not getting you out of this, up you go!"

Sonic swept Sam off her feet and into his arms, stating that this way he wouldn't pull her shoulder, but ran off before she could protest further. Danny glared after them for a moment, before Tucker cleared his throat and pointed at Tails, who still had his back to them. Danny gave a calming sigh, then started to walk over to the fox, who was inspecting the tree the halfa had been perching on the previous night. The fox jumped as Danny put a hand on his shoulder, turning around with his tails bristling. He relaxed quickly however, and smiled, brushing the fur on his arm back into place.

"Geez, your hands are cold!"

"Heh, I get that a lot, sorry." Danny glanced over the tree, trying to figure out what Tails found interesting about it.

The fox, as if hearing his thoughts, piped up. "Well, it's strange. This tree's picked up some strange energy, it's kinda like Chaos but not exactly..."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Chaos Energy's this super powerful stuff that's basically in everything, but if you give something too much it can get something like super powers!" Tails laughed, patting the tree's trunk lightly. "Doesn't always work on living stuff, but it usually shows a reaction. Sonic can use it, so can Shadow. I can't, but I have my machines so-" the fox hesitated, tapping the screen of his computer and quirking an eyebrow at it. His attention remained on the screen as he continued to talk. "-sorry, I'm rambling a bit. The point is this tree's got more than usual, you can't really tell if you don't know about it but it's there. But it's not exactly Chaos, which is weird." Tails sighed and flicked through the details on the screen. "But I dunno what it could be. I'd say artificial, but it doesn't seem like it..."

"Huh..." Danny scratched his head. "Wow, that's real interesting, but is it, y'know, important?"

"Oh? No, not really, I was just curious." The fox stood up, folding the Miles-Electric shut, and smiled. "I've got all the data on here so I can look at it properly later. Come on, we should really catch up with Sonic."

"Uh, yeah, I don't see that happening."

"He'll stop eventually." Tails chuckled, and started to walk ahead.

Danny watched him gain some distance, before shaking his head and looking over at Tucker. "Let's go."

They caught up with Sonic at the edge of a nearby lake. He was laying on his stomach with a hand to his eye and his ears pinned back, muttering discontentedly. Tails, Danny, and Tucker looked to each other, then back at Sonic, then they all started laughing. The hedgehog pouted as he sat up, rubbing his eye.

"It's not funny."

"Lemme guess, Sam decided she didn't want to be carried any more?" Danny asked between giggles, and Sonic nodded. "Yeah... we did try to warn you."

"Yeah, but did she have to punch me in the eye?! I need that!"

"Be glad she didn't kick you, those boots of hers are heavy." Tucker grumbled.

"Where's she gone, anyway?"

"She's just over that hill there, sulking or something. Eh, fine, she can just walk the rest of the way."

"I'm sure she'll be grateful for that wise decision, Sonic."

"Whatever." Sonic got to his feet, smiling once more. "Let's keep going, apart from those friends of yours attacking, it's been pretty quiet, and that usually means trouble from Eggman."

"Yeah, I'm surprised he hasn't shown up to see what all this is about." Tails agreed.

"Well I don't wanna find out what this guy's up to, so lead the way." Tucker piped up, receiving nods of agreement from the animals.

Tucker looked over to Danny, who mentioned that he'd go get Sam and they'd catch up quickly, as long as Sonic didn't run off again. The hedgehog simply chuckled at the final remark, and gave him a thumbs up, leading Tails and Tucker onwards at a far more relaxed pace. Danny waited until both the locals' backs were turned, before he shifted into invisibility and flew towards where Sam was, indeed, sulking. A quick swooping motion and she was in the air in his arms, blinking in surprise.

Sonic twitched an ear backwards at the muted laughter behind them for a moment, before rolling his eyes and glancing over at Tails, holding his hand out for the computer that the fox was still playing with. Tails smiled and passed it to him, letting the hedgehog see what he had been reading; Tucker leaned forwards slightly to get a look, to see it was the page full of information that the fox had gathered from the tree which had interested him. It was all nonsense to him, trees just weren't that interesting. He groaned and straightened up, stretching, while only partly listening to Sonic and Tails share their current topic of interest. Well, Tails was doing most of the talking. Sonic didn't really seem to be paying much attention.

"Boo!"

Tucker yelped as fingers jabbed him sharply in the sides, and he writhed away from his friends, who had crept up on him while he was distracted by Sonic and Tails' conversation. Though he was pretty certain they'd been cheating to aid the sneaking part.

"Aww come on guys, that wasn't fair!"

"Toldya we'd catch up."

"Yeah yeah."

"Everyone here now? Cool!" Sonic spun on his heel and grinned. "Now, before we go any further, I wanna warn you guys; if Eggman comes along and tries to do the whole 'chill dude I'm a good guy' thing, don't listen to him. He's pretty good at it but wow, if I end up with you lot as hostages or whatever I'm gonna feel really bad about it."

"Sure thing, Sonic."

"Just wanted to be clear on that, you have no idea how boring it gets after the seventh time." Sonic rolled his eyes and Tails nodded.

"Shall we?" The fox said, motioning onwards. "It's not too far now, relatively speaking. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can get you and these 'ghosts' of yours home."

"I'm cool with that." Danny said, nodding.

Tucker watched as they walked ahead of him. He always trailed behind a bit so they didn't pay much attention, but he was thinking. Thinking about home, thinking about all his stuff in his room, thinking about lunch. Lots of little things, to stop himself from thinking about that possibility that this only plan wouldn't work. He looked up to see Danny glance over his shoulder at him, and in the way that only best friends could, they both knew they were thinking the same things.

Amy Rose sighed, resting her head in her hands. The ghost had given up after she'd pelted him with her hammer for the thousandth time, and she'd got her jewellery box back, only to have him take the box with her favourite pastry in it instead. He'd regret that one. But she'd been running around after him for hours, and had to rest for a while. Trying to negotiate around walls rather than through them made things take longer than they should.

She shook her head and stood up, stretching. She hadn't called Sonic since that ghost guy had started messing around with her stuff, so she pulled out her phone and dialled Tails' number. When he didn't answer, she groaned; that meant they were probably out on an adventure. Again. The pink hedgehog hung up, and started scrolling through the features in her phone, before she found the one she wanted.

Tails, and everyone around him, soon enough found themselves listening to Amy ranting on about losing her favourite pastry to the Box Ghost. Well, until he flicked the Miles-Electric into mute anyway. He only un-muted it once her mouth stopped moving for a moment, which was when she noticed the trio of humans standing behind them.

"Ohhhhh were those the people you guys had over yesterday?"

"Yeah, these are Danny, Sam, and Tucker. We're helping them get home."

"Aww that's sweet of you two. Hi guys! My name's Amy Rose!"

"Hi Amy," Tucker piped up first, grinning, "did you get the Box Ghost eventually?"

"Uh, kinda. I got my trinket box back, but then that jerk stole the box with the pastry I'd bought for my breakfast in it. I haven't slept all night because I've been following him around, and when I catch him he's getting a hammer shoved so far up his-"

"Thank you, Amy, we get the picture!"

"So where you guys heading?"

"To old Eggman's place. Gotta borrow some stuff."

"To help them get home? Can't they just take a plane?"

"Inter-dimensional air travel is pretty hard to come by." Tails laughed.

"Ohhhh." Amy nodded. "I get you. Well good luck with that... Do any of you know what I can do to get this guy to stop bothering me?"

"Throw a ball at him or something, he hates round things." Danny laughed. "We'll see what we can do about him when we can for you."

"I'll give it a shot, thanks! I'll call you later guys!"

"Okay Amy," Tails chuckled, "but get some sleep before you do, or you'll end up looking like a zombie."

"Bye Tails. Bye Sonic!"

"Yeah, bye Amy, have fun with that!" Sonic waved behind Tails' head, and walked away again.

Tails shut the call off, and sighed. He turned to Sonic, who shook his head. The fox put the tablet away, and took off, flying above the group to get a good view of the area around them. Over on the horizon there was the edge of a large industrial area, and that was where they were heading. He dropped down to stand next to the others, who were squinting in the direction he'd pointed.

"You guys won't see it from down here, but I can see the factory now when I'm flying. It's still pretty far away, but it won't take too much longer to get there."

"That's cool!" Sonic grinned at the humans, who smiled back. "Hear that? We'll have you guys home soon!"

"Awesome!"

Jack Fenton looked out at the street below the ops center, frowning slightly. Vlad had sent the plans for the portal over, but they hadn't heard from him since. Jack knew he was a busy man, so he didn't mind so much, but a few extra hands would have helped in the repairs.

He turned his attention back to his embroidery; a happy little ghost was slowly forming in the stitch work. He was supposed to be examining the portal research, but so far he'd found nothing helpful so was taking a break. Jack had tried to find his son to start blathering on about ghosts, but the boy had been nowhere to be found. He was good at that lately though, so the large man didn't think anything of it.

A shriek from the road below caught his attention, and he tossed his embroidery onto the table, grabbing an ectogun and charging down the stairs like a bull. He met up with his wife at the bottom, and they both bounced out of the door, armed and ready to shoot the attacking ghost.

Except it wasn't a ghost.

"What the heck is that?"

The large, robotic wasp hovered over the street, its wings creating a metallic drone as a plasma ball formed at the tip of its stinger, aiming at the hapless bystander who was in front of it.

"I don't know honey, but we've gotta stop it."

Maddie Fenton cocked her own rifle-like weapon, and took aim. Jack followed suit.

"I toldya we needed a bigger can of bug spray." he muttered.

TBC