"Sonic?"

"Sonic!"

"C'mon, wake up!"

Sonic slowly shifted, opening his eyes, slightly. He saw a very confused Mario and Zelda in front of him. Upon seeing this, the hedgehog stretched and stood up. "Mornin', guys...how's everybody doin'?"

"Oh, like you don't know?" Zelda said bitterly, "Our stuff is missing!"

"What? Did Fox take off with everything?" Sonic teased. Zelda stared at the hedgehog, accusingly. "Listen, Sonic! Either you tell me what happened or else!"

Sonic stared at Zelda, puzzled. "Hold on...do you guys really think I did this?" The hedgehog asked. Mario wasn't sure how to answer this. "Listen, you were the only one outside the tent, last night...so you'd be the logical one to ask."

"Wait, what?"

"So tell us, Sonic," Zelda said, placing her hands on her hips, "Where is our stuff?"

"I honestly don't know!" Sonic exclaimed, frantically waving his hands. "Listen, if you're so upset by this, I'll go ahead and look for everyone's stuff."

"Really, now?" Zelda grumbled as she raised an eyebrow. Sonic nodded, "I'll find everything faster than you can say 'Leave Luck to Heaven.'"

Before Mario or Zelda could protest, Sonic dashed out of the campsite, leaving behind a blue trail of light. Mario looked up at Zelda. "OK...so now what?"

Zelda looked back at the tent. "Well, we should probably wake up the other two animals."

"True," Mario said with a light nod. "Let's just hope SOnic doesn't get himself killed."

A moment later, Diddy came out of the tent, his eyes were half-closed. "What's with all the yelling?"

Mario chuckled nervously, "Well...that takes care of one Smasher..."

Sonic was dashing through the plains, trying to find the missing items. He noticed the sleeping Bulborbs as he dashed passed them. The winds blew sharply in the hedgehog's face as he ran. He had to find the bags, one way or another. They couldn't have just disappeared into thin air.

Sonic stopped running as he heard some sort of song being hummed out. The humming sounded like it was coming from small creatures. Feeling skeptical, Sonic followed the noise, which led him near a shrub. He peaked inside the shrub, he saw the carrot-like plants were exploring Fox's bag. Two purple plants were playing Fox's 3DS while a white and three yellow plants were examining a bag of potato chips. A rock-like plant was watching as two red plants were fighting over Diddy's hat.

"Pikmin!" Sonic mumbled before swiftly placing his hands on his mouth. This gained the Pikmin's attention. They all screamed in fear as they scattered, getting away from the hedgehog. Sonic raised an eyebrow before he picked up the items that spilled out of Fox's back pack. He figured that if there were bulborbs around, he would find Pikmin. And if there were Pikmin around, then that ment that Olimar and Alph weren't too far behind.

"Well, that takes care of that," Sonic said as he placed Fox's backpack over his shoulder. "I wonder if Ollie has everyone else's bag?"

Still, it was hard to imagine Olimar or Alph were to completely abandon their Pikmin without reason. But considering the circumstances a majority of the Smashers were in, Sonic couldn't really say he was surprised. However, the Pikmin didn't seem to have any dark aura like Falco or Luigi did, which was strange.

Sonic began to search thoroughly through the plains, he would often find Pikmin hiding in the grass, most of which seemed a bit troubled. It wasn't too hard to spot Pikmin, though...considering that in this world, Master Hand made them (and the captains) the size of young children.

"Let's see..." Sonic spotted a lone tree. He walked over to it, trying to see if anyone else's bag was left there...and sure enough, there it was. The hedgehog was about to climb the tree. However, he felt a rock hit his face. Sonic looked up, there were Yellow Pikmin and Flying Pikmin, staring down at him within the leaves. These Pikmin looked very aggressive, their beady eyes glared at the hedgehog. For whatever reason, Sonic felt uneasy around these Pikmin, but he had to get that bag, somehow.

Sonic began to climb the tree. A Yellow Pikmin with a flower on its head began to take command of his brethren.

(All right!) The Pikmin had its arm raised, (Ready...aim...FIRE!)

After it brought its arm down, the other Pikmin began throwing Rocks at Sonic. He tried to brush them off, keeping his face down in case a rock hit his eye.

Sonic climbed onto a branch, the bag was within arm's reach. He tried to reach it, but two winged Pikmin grabbed it and placed it on top of the tree.

"Aw, come on!" Sonic complained as the yellow and pink plants laughed. Sonic rolled his eyes at the Pikmin. "Yeah...keep laughing, because I'm sure your captains love this, too!"

Sonic starting climbing the tree, again. This time, he jumped from branch to branch. The Pikmin didn't seem phased by this, however. They continued to throw rocks at him. The hedgehog almost fell off one of the branches, but he hung on with one of his hands. He slowly tried to climb back up the tree, but an electrified rock whacked him in the forehead, once again sending him onto the ground.

Sonic was laying down, sprawled across the ground. Again the Pikmin laughed at him. Sonic felt as though he was hit with Pikachu's thunderbolt.

After being humiliated by these Carrot-like creatures, Sonic stood back onto his feet, looking up at the Pikmin with crossed arms. "So...you guys really aren't letting me up there, huh?"

The Pikmin didn't care, they just continued to laugh. Sonic shook his head in disapproval. "Well...I'd hate to do this, but you leave me no choice."

Sonic curled up, turning into a fast ball of light. The Pikmin screamed as they moved out of Sonic's way, though some of them ended up falling out of the tree. The Winged Pikmin quickly grabbed the bag and tried to fly away with it, but Sonic managed to use his homing attack and brought the Pikmin down, along with the bag.

The Pikmin now looked at Sonic with fear in their eyes. Unsure of what to do, the Pikmin began to scatter, leaving the tree and fleeing from Sonic.

"Geez," Sonic muttered under his breath. After seeing so many Pikmin flee, Sonic couldn't help but wonder what's gotten into such small beings. Just what were their captains up to? Pikmin weren't usually this skittish. At any rate, the sooner Sonic finds Olimar and Alph, the faster he can get rid of their mind control.

Meanwhile, back at Camp, the tent was being taken down by Mario. He was having an easier time taking it down then he did putting it up. Across from Mario, Diddy was trying to pry the Bulborb from Fox's tail, though the Bulborb wasn't reacting, at all.

"How long is this thing gonna hang on!?" Diddy said, still trying to pull the Bulborb off. Fox shrugged, "I honestly expected him to go away over night."

"Well, let's just hope he gets hungry and goes away," Diddy said in defeat.

"Yeah...I hope so, too." Fox said with a groan.

Zelda looked a little worried, Sonic was gone for two hours, which was something that seemed out of character for him. The Hylian looked over at the male Smashers. "Do you guys think I was too harsh on Sonic?

Mario chuckled, "Well, I wouldn't say 'harsh'...I'd say you were more..."

"More what?" Zelda asked, playing her hands on her hips. This earned another chuckle from Mario. "It's say you were more...'jarring'."

"Well, I guess you're right," Zelda said, "Maybe we should look for Sonic? I hope he hasn't gone too far?"

"I'll go look for him," Mario offered, Zelda gave him a troubled glance. "Are you sure? He might be in danger."

"I'll be fine," Mario said, happily. "Besides, I'm sure he'll be happy to see one of us."

"Well...if you insist, then I won't stop you," Zelda said. "But I think you're going to need this."

Mario gave Zelda a puzzled look. The princess handed him a black crystal with orange markings. The plumber looked up at the princess. "It's a crystal...what am I supposed to do with it?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out," Zelda said nonchalantly. "Besides, I think Link dropped this back in Hyrule."

"Right...Well, I'll see what I can do~!" Mario said in an excited tone. He began to head out into the plains in search of his hedgehog friend.

"Hey, Zelda! What about us?" Diddy asked. Zelda turned to face the animals. "We'll catch up to them later. But for now, let's take care of the tent."

Diddy groaned. Out of all the times Sonic had to go missing, it was now. C'mon, Mario...please find Sonic so we can leave

Sonic ran through the plains. So far he's only managed to find two bags, he only needed to find two more.

He spotted a duck on the ground. The duck looked like she was talking with a blue Pikmin. Sonic slowly walked up to them until he noticed that they were guarding another bag. Sonic smiled, this looked too easy. However, the pikmin noticed Sonic instantly. Because of this, the duck faced Sonic, rapidly flapping her wings at the hedgehog.

Sonic began to wave his hands in front of the duck, "Whoa! Take it easy!"

The duck lunged forward, trying to attack Sonic. The hedgehog dodged out-of-the-way. The duck quacked in annoyance.

"What's gotten into you!?" Sonic grumbled. He recognised this duck. She's the sidekick of Mr. Peepers, the Duck Hunt Dog. Like the many Pikmin he's encountered, the duck didn't have any dark aura on her, either. So why is she attacking?

Sonic grabbed the bag and made a run for it before the duck could attack, again. The blue Pikmin looked up at her, feeling sympathetic. It knew what the duck was doing. She was trying to scare Sonic away before the captains take notice, though she didn't do a very good job.

The sound of a whistle echoed through the plains, followed by a loud bark. The Pikmin quickly responded and headed to where the whistle came from. The dUck felt hesitant, however. She really didn't want Sonic to get hurt. After a few seconds of pondering, the duck started to follow the Pikmin to their captains.

Sonic: All right...so how many times has the word "Pikmin" been used in this chapter? I've counted somewhere around 32.

...and that's a lot for a small chapter.