Chapter 4: Sonic Prepares for the Mushroom Kingdom

Somewhere in Empire City...

"So, that's what Bowser is up to! I'm gonna make him taste my fist when I see him again!" muttered Knuckles.

Sonic and his friends were in Tails' workshop, in Empire City. It was also his new home. His house was located near the had gotten back from a rough fight between Bowser and his army.

"He said he was from the Mushroom Kingdom, right?" asked Tails. He was in the kitchen, making some coffee for them.

"Yeah! It's a pretty weird name to call a kingdom." answered Sonic. He and Knuckles were sitting in the living room, watching some television. Knuckles had regained his ability to move when they entered Empire City.

"Man, it feels good to move!" said Knuckles, stretching out his arms. "That wizard guy never gave me a chance to knock him out!"

"Don't worry, Knuckles!" comforted Sonic. "You'll get another shot at it." he patted his echidna friend on the back.

"So, Sonic. Are we really gonna head into the Mushroom Kingdom?" asked Tails, carrying their coffee on a blue tray. He set it on the living room table.

"There's no choice. Who knows what Bowser might do with all seven Chaos Emeralds." Sonic sipped his coffee.

"And the Master Emerald." Knuckles added. Suddenly, the door bell rang.

"I'll get it!" called Tails. He put his coffee on the table and walked to the door way. He opened it. "Uhh...Sonic? I think it's for you..."

"Me?"

"SO----NIC!!" yelled the visitor. It was none other than Amy. She barged into the house, pushing Tails out of the way. "YOU FORGOT OUR DATE!" she screamed.

"Amy!?" Sonic jumped out of his seat. "Look, I'm really sorry, Knuckles called for an emergen-"

"Enough, Sonic!" Amy interrupted. She raised her hand. "You promised me a date and you blew it off for something else!"

"Amy, please understa-"

"No! This is it, Sonic the Hedgehog If you really cared about our date, you would've waited for me and not decided to go on an adventure." she pulled out her Piko-Piko Hammer. "You know, sometimes, I just wish I'd never met you!"

Sonic felt like his heart was pierced with a spear. "Amy..."

BONK!

"Urgghhhh..." Sonic muttered. He felt his head. It hurt a little. He was lying on the floor. "What happened?"

"You got knocked out by Amy's hammer." explained Tails. He helped Sonic up.

"Where is she? I gotta apologize!"

"She left, crying." responded Knuckles. "Boy, Sonic! You really screwed up with her. You know how easily she gets disappointed."

"Yeah..." Sonic sighed. "But I can't believe what she said to me..."

"Oh, right. The, 'I wish I never met you!' statement." said Tails. "That really surprised us."

Knuckles patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, she get around it. You gotta give her time."

"But what if she doesn't..." said Sonic. He looked at the ground. There was a long silence in the room.

"Well, come one! We need to get to the Mushroom Kingdom!" exclaimed Tails. "You can't apologize to her if the world is dominated by a humongous turtle!"

"...yeah. We should get going." Sonic cheered up. "So, how are we gonna get there?"

"Don't worry! I invented a machine that can teleport us anywhere in the whole entire universe!" explained Tails. "It's in my workshop!" He went outside.

"Cool! Come on, let's go!" said Knuckles. He went outside too, with Sonic right behind him.

They went into the garage. Tails pushed a button on a wall, which was behind an old bookshelf. Suddenly, the floor shook under them. An elevater appeared in the middle of the garage. The trio went in. The elevator went down. It was two minutes until a bell was heard. The elevator opened. The first thing they saw was a big room, full of gadgets and gizmos in there. So many inventions were hanging on the walls. Jetpacks, power-ups, weapons. Sonic and Knuckles were amazed. The Tornado I and Tornado II were parked in the workshop. At the end of the room, was a big machine.

"There it is! The Teleporter-tionator 1000!" Tails pointed to the machine. It was as big as an elephant! It had a doorway in it, that opened automatically whenever someone went near it. Inside the machine, were lights that flashed in all different colors.

"We'll use this baby to get to the Mushroom Kingdom!" said Tails.

Knuckles chuckled. "Did you just say, 'baby'?"

"Yeah? So what?"

"Never mind."

"So, how does this thing work?" asked Sonic, staring at the machine.

"Well, you see this screen here on the machine? It shows us the place it will teleport us to." explained Tails. "We can type any location we want and it'll seach for a destination.
It'll show us some results on the screen. We pick the specific destination we want to go. After that, we go into the machine, press the red button in the machine and 'Poof!' we're there!"

"Wow! For once I could understand your techno babble!" assured Knuckles. "I think..."

"Oh! I could tell you how I made it to work! You see I-"

Knuckles stopped him. "I'm already getting a headache."

"Nice invention, Tails!" commented Sonic. "But how would we get back to our world then?"

"It's simple" said Tails. He took out a remote-control that was on the machine. It had one big red button on it. "Once we're in the world we wanted to go to, and we needed to go back, all we do is press this button! A portal will appear and we just jump into it, taking us back home!"

"Oh, so going to the world takes some massive preparations, but going back home just takes one simple push of a button!" complained Knuckles.

"Apparantly!" answered Tails.

He slapped himself on the face. "Technology is so complicated..."

Sonic clapped his hands together. "Alright guys, let's get ready! We leave in a couple of hours. Knuckles, prepare food and drinks. Tails, call anyone who might be interested in helping us out!"

"Call? Why?" asked Tails.

Sonic grinned. He crossed his arms. "This is gonna be a tough job! Not even the three of us could do it by ourselves! We're gonna need all the help we can get!"

"Alright, Sonic!" Tails gave him a thumbs up. He gave one back.

"Oh, so you give me the boring job!" whined Knuckles. He started walking to the elevator. "So much for being a friend!"

"Don't worry about him." said Sonic "Now, you should start calling people. If they're interested, tell them to come to the workshop."

"What are you gonna do, Sonic?" asked Tails.

"I need to apologize to someone..."

Amy's House...

"No, Sonic! I won't forgive you!" Amy screamed at the top of her lungs.

Sonic was at Amy's house. The two were at the doorway. "Look, Amy. You have every right to be mad at me." said Sonic. "I was stupid, wrong, selfish. But I just want you to know, I really care about you."

Amy didn't answer. Sonic stared deeply into her eyes. Unexpectedly, she hugged him. "Oh, Sonic! What was I thinking!"

"Hey! Whoa-"

THUMP!

The two landed on the grass. Amy still embraced Sonic. She was on top, he was on the bottom. "I'm sorry for what I've said to you, Sonic!" Amy apologized. "Will you forgive me?"

Sonic thought for a moment. He was surprised for Amy's action. "No. As I said before, you had every right to be angry." He looked at Amy. "I just want you to forgive me."

"Alright, I forgive you." she said, in her sweet, gentle voice. Sonic smiled. He was happy everything was now okay between the both of them.

They both looked at each other for a long time. Then, Sonic's back started to hurt. "Umm, Amy? Do you think you could get off me now?"

Amy smiled. "Sure." She got off Sonic and stood up, then helped Sonic get back to his feet.

"Look, Amy. There's something else I need to tell you."

"What is it?"

Sonic told Amy what had happened in the last couple of hours. He explained how Bowser and his army stole the Master Emerald from Angel Island and how him, Tails and Knuckles tried to defend it. He also told her that Bowser obtained all the Chaos Emeralds and plans to use them to rule the whole universe.

"So me, Tails and Knuckles thought that we needed to get the emeralds back from him in the Mushroom Kingdom." finished Sonic. It was tiring for him to explain stuff to people.

"I wanna come." said Amy. Sonic was surprised.

"But, Amy! You can't go! It's too dangerous!"

"I know, but you've save the world, and me, so many times without expecting anything in return. I want to help, Sonic. It's the least I could do!"

Sonic thought for a moment. He looked at her. "Are you sure?"

She nodded, then smiled.

He smiled back.

"Okay then! You're in!"

"Thanks, Sonic." she hugged him.

"Amy..." Sonic said. He usually didn't like getting hugs, but at this moment, he actually enjoyed it. "We should get back to Tails workshop."

She let go of Sonic. "Carry me?" asked Amy.

"Sure."

Tails' Workshop...

"Alright everyone! Listen up!" announced Knuckles.

Everybody put their attention on Knuckles. They were the people called by Tails who wanted to help retrieve back all the stolen emeralds from Bowser.

Shadow was there. Tails had called him when he was home, asleep. He came right away when he heard that all the emeralds were stolen. Rouge was there too. She thought they could use her help. Her spying skills would come in handy. Silver was there. Blaze came with him. Tails called them, thinking that their telekenisis and pyrokinetic abilities would be helpful on their journey.

"Okay everyone listen up! I've got an important announcement!" hollered the red echidna.

"Since when do you have important announcements?" asked Shadow.

"Since right now!" responded Knuckles. "Anyway, I have something important to say. I ran out of tuna for the sandwiches, so I bought ham and cheese instead!"

"Good! I hate tuna..." muttered Shadow.

"Come on, Shadow! Be nice to him." said Rouge.

"So, who's the one who stole the Chaos Emeralds?" asked Blaze.

"Some guy called 'Bowser'!" Knuckles answered. "He says he's from the Mushroom Kingdom. He rules this army called the Koopa Troop."

"What is that? Italian?" joked Silver. As an answer, he got elbowed in the chest by Blaze.

"Silver, this is serious." said Blaze.

"Sorry..."

"Hey, guys! How long do you think Sonic will be back?" asked Tails. He was preparing the machine.

"Hmph! So much for being the fastest thing alive!" complained Shadow. Then, the elevator opened. Sonic walked out, with Amy right behind him.

"Sonic! You're back!" shouted Tails. He saw Amy with him. "Hey! You apologized to her!"

"Apologized? For what?" asked Silver.

"Ehh, they got into a fight earlier." answered Knuckles, eating one of his ham and cheese sandwiches.

"Don't worry, guys! Amy and I pulled stuff together." said Sonic.

"You two love birds are finally back together! Big deal!" Shadow said.

Sonic walked towards him and gave him a look.

Shadow looked back.

Everyone was silent.

Sonic closed his eyes for a moment, then quickly opened them again. "Is everyone ready for the trip?" asked Sonic.

"I bought the food and some water!" said Knuckles. He was carrying a huge backpack on his back.

"I bought some snicker doodles!" added Silver. Blaze let out a small laugh.

"I bought my gun!" said Shadow, holding up a large handgun in the air.

"Shadow! We're not gonna kill the turtle! We're on a mission to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds!" reminded Sonic, taking the handgun out of his hand.

"Fine! But I can't unleash my full potential without something to shoot with." argued Shadow.

"Don't worry, Shadow! Here, you can have this!" Tails handed a small raygun to Shadow. "It's something I made in my spare time. It shoots out an electric jolt that can temporarily stun enemies!"

"You had me there at 'shoot'!" exclaimed Shadow, putting the raygun in his pocket. "Alright, Tails! Start up the machine!" commanded Sonic. Tails nodded and input the location, "Mushroom Kingdom".

"Sonic, look!" Tails said, pointing to the screen. Several results showed up.

"Mushroom Kingdom: Toad Town"

"Mushroom Kingdom: Moonview Highway"

"Mushroom Kingdom" Princess Peach's Castle"

"Try the third option!" said Sonic. "That may be Bowser's location."

Tails did as he was told. He chose the third option. "Mushroom Kingdom: Princess Peach's Castle". The machine made a few technologic sounds and made a ding noise.

"It's ready!" exclaimed Tails.

"Alright! Everyone get in the machine!" announced Sonic. Everyone walked into the machine, feeling reluctant about it. The machine door closed behind them.

"This better not get us killed, Sonic!" complained Shadow.

"Don't worry! We'll be fine! Right Tails?"

"Absolutely!" answered Tails. "Atleast I think..."

"What was that last part?" asked Shadow.

"Nothing!"

The machine started to make more technological sounds.

"Ugh! This machine is driving me crazy!" said Knuckles.

The lights insde the machine flashed a bunch of colors.

"I think it's working!" exclaimed Tails.

"You think?" worried Knuckles.

"Oh come on, Knuckles! Tails knows what he's doing!" comforted Amy.

Suddenly, all the lights started flashing red. A voice started repeating in a robotic voice, "DANGER! DANGER!"

"What's happening! What's going on!" shouted Silver.

"Tails! Do something!" told Sonic. He looked at his fox friend.

"I can't! Once the machine starts, it can't be stopped until it's done teleporting us!" explained Tails.

The machine started to shake uncontrollably.

"We're gonna die, we're gonna dire, we're gonna DIE!" repeated Knuckles. He was sitting down, rocking back and forth.

"I told you this was a bad idea!" scolded Shadow.

"It wasn't such a bad idea when I called you on the phone!" complained Tails. Shadow ignored him.

Steam started to shoot out of the machine. Everyone was panicking. Silver, Blaze and Rouge were banging on the machine door, hoping it would open. Knuckles was still in fetal position. Amy was holding on to Sonic. Tails tried pressing the button on his remote. Shaadow stood there doing nothing.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light engulfed the machine. Everyone screamed...

.

.

To be continued...

Uh oh! Something terrible has gone wrong with Tails machine! What'll happen to Sonic and his friends? Stay tuned!