Cross Collision

A/N: I hope you all had a great holiday and that everyone has a good new year when it rolls around!

Part 10: Search for an Emerald

Thunder cracked, echoing through the caverns as the small group took shelter in the entrance they had finally found. The rain had continued for hours, and Tails' namesakes were bristling anxiously; both for the fear of the lightning outside, and the worry that they wouldn't find the Emeralds fast enough. Sonic waved a hand calmly to dismiss the latter, while eyeing up the curtain of water pouring down past the doorway.

Danny took his friends further to the back of the cavern to look around at the wall carvings; many of which resembled spiny creatures and giant gemstones. Sam pointed out that a lot of them looked like an ancient story or legend, and Sonic laughed loudly from the front of the cave, the musical noise sounding clearly over the roaring weather outside. The kids glanced over to him and he grinned, before returning to his conversation with Tails.

"Look, we'll be fine, I mean, sure, there's this ghost infestation and stuff. But with our friends all over the planet right now, we can search far easier!"

"Thing is we can't contact some of them!" Tails groaned at Sonic's optimism, but smiled anyway.

"Sure we can, there's always a way to get hold of people."

"Yeah, Amy sure, Knuckles definitely, but Shadow? Big? That nutty badger that lives in the woods? None of them have phones, Sonic."

"Yeah, but Rouge has one, and she can contact Shadow and about a million other people if we need them."

Tails' smile dropped to a flat expression. "Rouge only helps us if money's involved."

"So she'll want a shiny or two, I have a few places I can get stuff from, no sweat."

"And what if Skulker changes his mind?"

"We'll just beat him up."

"Sonic, that's not a sound plan."

"It is for robots. He's wearing a robot suit. Close enough."

"Can we get any other ghosts to help?"

"Ehhh I dunno, the only other ones we've seen are kinda... useless?"

"That's because you've only seen the low level ones, really."

Danny stood next to the two anthros, smiling apologetically. He looked to the roof of the cavern as he started mumbling under his breath, counting names off in his head. Sonic watched him for a while, before he got bored and resumed pointing at Tails' display.

"So, if you can send a message to Amy, and one to Rouge, they'll be able to contact everyone else for us!"

"Okay Sonic."

"Hmm, if we could find out where Technus is, he can help with building scanners and stuff, but he's got this tendency to be evil with it." Danny mumbled, tapping his chin. "And he monologues way too much. Hrm. Frostbite would help... But I dunno if he'd know how..."

"You know way too many dead people."

"I'm not entirely sure they're all dead people, to be honest." Danny glanced at Tails. "Some were born in the Ghost Zone and were always like that..."

"Weird. Ah well, let's just stick with the word ghosts. It's confusing enough anyway."

"Sure."

"So there's no one you can get to help us?"

"Not that I can think of, I'm not exactly popular with them, if I'm honest."

"Not exactly popular? They're trying to kill you half the time!"

"Yeah, thanks for that reminder Tuck, I'll put that under 'not helping'." Danny pouted at his friend, who gave him a lopsided grin.

"You're welcome."

"Ah well, we've collected them all before easy enough." Sonic grinned, ignoring Tails' incredulous glare. "We just need to get my friends all organised!"

"Sonic, those times were anything but easy!" Tails grumbled at him.

"Aww little bro, you know what I mean. But seriously, have Amy or Rouge replied yet?"

Sighing, the fox turned his gaze to his screen and flicked his way across it, only glancing up for a moment as Sam and Tucker approached them too to hear what they were saying. He nodded as he read through the messages displayed on the mileselectric.

"Yeah, Amy replied but she's kinda mad you didn't phone her instead, she said that she'll keep an eye out for us. Rouge hasn't answered yet, she must be busy..."

"Yeah, busy..." Sonic rolled his eyes. "But it's cool, she'll probably get back to us later."

"Who's Rouge?"

"Ohhhh yeah you guys haven't met her. She's this super hot bat, hangs out with Shadow a lot. Or Knuckles. Or Eggman." Sonic grinned. "She's got connections so it's useful to know her."

"Sonic, don't let Amy know you said that."

"What? Super hot? Well she is, pretty sure Amy knows that too."

"Wait wait wait, how hot is super hot?" Tucker interrupted, jokingly. "Got a pic?"

"Well I could find one I suppose..."

Tucker glanced at the screen as Tails turned it to him, the fox's face wearing an expression of mild irritation. The teen whistled. "Oh yeah, naa, Sonic's right, she's totally hot."

"Toldya."

"Wow, guys, can we get back to the problem at hand?" Sam called loudly over the group. "How are we gonna find these Chaos Emeralds? Do you even have a plan?"

"Oh, right, a plan. Uhm, Tails lemme borrow that a sec."

"Sure thing Sonic."

Sonic pulled up a world map, the display adding tags pointing to specific locations on it. He pointed out their current position, then tapped various other places on the map in quick succession. Danny tried following the movement of his fingers, but gave up. Sonic drew hasty lines across the screen, and handed it to the humans, a pleased grin on his face. They grouped around it as he pointed to the different sections he had marked off.

"Right, me and Tails already have the, uh..." Sonic glanced over to his friend.

"We have the red and yellow ones."

"Right, the red and yellow Chaos Emeralds. That takes these two areas out of the question." the hedgehog scribbled hasty lines over some of the sections he'd marked off, leaving four on the screen. "The others'll each be found in one of those, except for the purple one, which goes wherever it feels like. Normally it's pretty close to one of the others though."

"I sent Skulker to scan for the blue one, it's in the section nearest us."

Sonic drew a cross through another section. "Cool, that's one down. Now, ignoring the case that other people may have picked them up, the others are in fairly easy places to get our friends to search."

"Sonic, these areas are enormous."

"We're all experienced at hunting them, don't you worry about that."

"Now, we'll be looking in this section here..." Tails took the computer from Sonic and tapped the screen in the area north of where they were; the one they were in having been crossed out by his friend to start with. "The white Emerald should be there."

"What about the others?"

"Well, Rouge will likely be on the mainland somewhere. She'll know if Shadow has an Emerald and which one he's got, if she ever replies."

"What about Amy?"

"She'll go to the island section and look for the Cyan one."

"How's she gonna get round there?" Tucker waved his hands over the general area. "That's a lot of ocean."

"She's got a transforming car." Tails said, casually.

"Ohhhhh cool!"

"How about this Eggman guy?" Danny shook his head. "What if he's got one?"

"Then I'll just take it from him. But we gotta find him first."

"You don't know where he is?"

"Nope, sorry Sam. Like I said, I don't really keep track of the guy unless he's causing trouble."

"Well that isn't very helpful."

"That's just how it is!"

Tucker took Tails' computer and scanned the screen carefully. His smile dropped as he realised just how much ground there was to cover, and he passed the device back. They may only have had to look through one section, but there was no guarantee there was an Emerald there in the first place. He groaned out loud and sat down, complaining about that exact realisation. Sonic chuckled and nudged him with a toe.

"Oh cheer up Tucker, it'll be fine. We've literally collected them on the brink of disaster before, they show up if we need them."

"Then why aren't they here now?"

"I don't mean literally, they just make themselves easier to find. They're almost sentient I guess."

"Sentient rocks?"

"Well, why not? Is it that odd?" Sonic chuckled at Sam's sceptical comment. "Okay fine, you guys don't have magic rocks in your world, I get it."

"So, where do we start? And when?" Danny pointed out the cavern entrance. "It's still coming down a lot out there, even with the umbrellas we're gonna get soaked."

"Eh, guess now's as good a time as any. Might be drier in the next zone over." Sonic waved for them to follow. "I ain't walking in this, I'll run ahead. It's literally a straight line that way;" he pointed to the left as they stood in the cavern entrance, "There might be an underground path, but if you don't mind getting wet then you can follow me overground so you don't get lost down there."

"That's probably the safer bet." Tails nodded, picking up one of the umbrellas. "It's too heavy for me to fly in so I'll keep with these guys."

"Cool, we'll meet at the Chaos Forests."

"Sure thing Sonic." Tails waved as his brother ran off into the distance, rain scattering with the sonic wind following him. The fox turned to the humans and smiled. "Come on, it's gonna take a while to walk through this mud. Let's get going."

Together they left the cavern, their umbrellas sagging under the weight of the downpour outside, and they walked northwards, following Sonic's muddy trail across the field. A small robot wasp followed them, its rapidly beating wings unheard over the sound of the rain.

"Hey, you!"

"Oh no, the angry pink girl returns! Do not bother me, spiky one, I do not want any more trouble with you!"

Amy swung her hammer slightly above the surface of the road as she followed the Box Ghost along it, the translucent blue man looking far less amused than he had in their previous meetings. He yelped as the pink hedgehog slammed the hammer into the ground in front of her, shaking a nearby tree to startle him. He stared at the leaves for a moment, before turning around to face his pursuer reluctantly. She simply smiled sweetly up at him.

"Not gonna hurt you, creep, I just wanna talk."

"You did not want to talk before!"

"You were stealing my stuff then!"

"I was relinquishing you of the boxes!"

"Fine, whatever, let's ignore that a minute. I wanna ask you something."

"Oh?" The Box Ghost blinked in surprise. "And what is it that you wish to ask the mighty BOX GHOST?!"

"For a start, can you stop shouting your name like that? It's creepy."

"GOOD! BEWA-"

"Cut it out or I'll hit you with my hammer again." Amy waved the hammer in a warning until the ghost lowered his arms. "Right, you. What's this about the Special Zone and the Ghost Zone?"

"You do not know? That is how I got here! But how did you know about my home? No mortal creature can know about-"

"Doesn't matter. Tell me what happened."

"They smashed together, I do not know how, and there was a bright light. The next thing I know, there were strange fixtures and elaborate walkways appearing all around our lovely home, and I was pulled out of one of those strange portal posts! Your Special Zone has been crushed into the same box as the Ghost Zone and there is no bubble wrap! The delivery courier will damage everything!"

Amy watched the ghost move his hands to demonstrate packing too many things into a box that he summoned from thin air, and he shook the box to exaggerate his meaning. As he turned it over, small clouds of dust fell from the open top and the box vanished once more. Amy blinked, trying to comprehend what she'd just been told. The Box Ghost floated lazily in front of her, frowning as she figured it out in her head, before losing patience and shouting his exact meaning.

"Everything is getting squashed together and smashed up in there, and soon there will be nothing left to smash because it will all be dust!"

"What?! You guys can't let the Special Zone be destroyed!"

"We had nothing to do with it and we do not know how to fix it!"

"Ugh. Right, let me think..." Amy pressed her fingers to her forehead, muttering under her breath. "... Sonic asked if I knew where the Chaos Emerald was... You haven't seen one around have you, box guy?"

"My name is the BOX GHOST!" He yelled back, irritated, but calmed down pretty swiftly. "But what is a Chaos Emerald?"

"Shiny, very colourful gemstone that glows slightly. About this big?"

"Oh, those. Well if you had said earlier that you needed it I'd have thrown it at you because it's in one of my boxes, let me just find the right one..." Box Ghost summoned a large stack of assorted containers, and Amy's face fell as she saw how many there were. "... this could take a while."

"Ugh, bring some of those to my height, I'll help look."

Shadow floated through the chaos in the crossed zones, having had the Fentons' portal shut behind him he'd been left without much option. Growling under his breath, he used the jets of his skates to propel him through the miasma, scanning the environment around him cautiously. Ordinarily he'd have warped straight back to his own world, but the colliding chaotic space had distorted his feel for it, rendering him helpless in the direction department. With a sigh, he examined the next landmark he found, hoping of find some sign of a Star Post in the mess around him.

Something else, however, quickly caught his eye. Instead of the glittering swirl of a Star Post exit, he found a curious, pale green whirlpool; not unlike that of the portal the Fentons had. Carefully, he made his way across the debris of an enormous, yet shattered, purple door in order to get closer to the portal. Just as he was about to peer through it, a distinctive whirring of motors prompted him to hide behind a blue orb that floated nearby. A full formation of Buzzers rocketed through the portal, and Shadow glanced between the two for a moment, before opting to follow the robots. After all, they had the most chance of finding their way back.

If he had stayed a moment longer, however, he'd have seen something else pass through the portal, and follow the Buzzers too; an interested smirk on its blue skinned face as it saw him ahead.

"That's impressive. There's not a spot of rain on you!"

"Just lucky I guess!"

"You gotta show me how you did that. Did you hold the umbrella a specific way or something?"

"Maybe some other time, Tails."

"Spoil sport." Tucker mumbled to Danny, who grinned sheepishly. "So, where we going to look first, Sonic?"

"Hmm... How about... Over there!"

Sonic ran ahead of them into the depths of the woodland, jumping high into the air to grab a vine and swing around a tree with an ecstatic laugh. The others were so focused on him, that they almost fell down the sudden ravine in the ground before them. Danny staggered on the edge of the grass for a moment, until Tucker grabbed his backpack and yanked him back onto solid ground. Tails chuckled at their gasping, motioning to the deep, dark woodlands around them.

"Welcome to the Chaos Forests. In front of you, is Green Forest." The fox spun his tails, launching skywards and flying over the air in front of them. "There's a lot of different ecosystems here, Green Forest happens to resemble a deep ocean trench without the water!"

"That's great, how do you expect us to cross it?" Sam frowned at the fox, who scratched his head, chuckling.

"Um, normally we swing around it like Sonic does. Guess you guys'll have to take the long way across..."

"Nope! Incoming!"

Sonic's voice echoed shrilly for a moment before a loud cracking and rustling noises drowned it out. The humans dived aside quickly as an enormous branch crashed down on the place where they had been standing moments before. Sonic came dropping out of the canopy after it, and landed on the branch with a big grin on his face, waving at the group still on solid ground. Tails glanced at the makeshift bridge, then disapprovingly at the hedgehog.

"Sonic, what did we say about destroying trees?"

"Yeah I know, but this one was already damaged, I smashed a robot that was cutting it while I was up there, and the whole branch came down. Figured we could use it."

"You're impossible, you know that right?"

"Yep, pretty much!"

"Is it safe to walk across?" Sam glanced down past it into the dark depths of the ravine below them, and shuddered.

"Oh yeah, it's still partly connected to the tree, so it shouldn't collapse or anything, don't worry about that at all." Sonic shrugged. "Come on up, I wanna show you something. You'll have to climb through the canopy though!"

"Climbing isn't really my thing guys."

"Don't be a baby, Tuck."

"It's fine for you, Danny!"

"Oh come on you two, haven't we argued enough here? Let's go see what Sonic wants."

"Ah! I know what it is!" Tails grinned happily. "Go on, you gotta see this!"

Tails led them across the felled limb and up to the trunk, before whirling his tails and taking off, landing on several branches on his way into the leaves above. He vanished from view, and the trio sighed, looking at the trunk. Sam was the first to start climbing, easily finding herself some footholds as she went, and Danny followed her. Tucker took his time, working his way up slowly, following them carefully. As he finally cleared the top of the canopy, he found himself standing on a platform made of marble, staring out over the top of the trees. In the distance, and enormous island hovered in the sky.

"Whoa... That's cool." He said, gaping at the view.

His smile didn't last long as a swarm of wasp robots emerged from the trees around them, aiming their stingers at them. Sonic groaned audibly at the front.

"Oh, great."

TBC