Disclaimer: No, I still do not own Pokémon or *sniffle* Sonic the Hedgehog. Why do you keep reminding me? *breaks down and cries*

Chapter 5

What Are These Things, Anyway?

Meanwhile…

"Hello? Anybody out here?" the blue hedgehog called again. "Tails? Amy? Shadow? Anyone?"

He was walking through an unfamiliar forest, as he had been for last half-hour. Somehow, he had been teleported to this world, probably—hopefully—with Shadow and the others. But he was separated from them all now, and he had no idea where to look in order to find them. He didn't know what world he was on, he didn't know how big it was, and he had no idea if there was intelligent life on it or not. All he could do was keep searching.

Sonic kept walking.

A sound in a tree above him made him stop. "Tails?" he asked, looking up. He couldn't see anything in the dark shadows of the branches, but he sensed that someone—or something—was up there. "Hey bud, is that you?"

No answer.

He decided to check it out, then bent his powerful legs and jumped straight up, defying gravity for a short time. He reached a branch halfway up the tree, grabbed it as he flew past, and spun around on it until he could firmly place his feet. Once he did, he set about jumping from branch to branch until he reached the spot where he thought the noise had come from. "Tails? Are you up here? Bud?"

Sonic looked around nervously. Though he couldn't see anything, he had this strange feeling that he was being watched. And not by Tails, either.

He faced the shadows beneath the nearest branches and was startled when the big, round red eyes appeared in them. Sonic backed up a step, pressing himself against the tree trunk, and the thing attacked.

Sonic screamed and curled into a ball with his hands over his head (acting a lot like Tails) as the red-eyed monster flapped around his head until finally it came to rest sitting directly between his ears. Slowly, slowly, Sonic opened his eyes…

And found himself staring into the face of a small round bird with huge red eyes.

It tilted its head in his face. "Hoot hoot?" it said.

Sonic blinked at it and it jumped off his head to stand in front of him. Sonic noticed that, oddly, the bird (which looked remarkably like an Earth owl) had only one leg. It looked at him again. "Hoot?"

"Huh?" Sonic said.

"Hoot, hoot hoot."

Sonic smiled, slightly shaken. "Are you trying to talk to me? You're a pretty cute little guy, aren't you?"

It tilted its head to the other side. "Hoo, hoo hoot." It blinked.

Sonic regained his composure and stood up straight. He continued to smile at the ball of an owl. "Hey, have you seen my friends around anywhere? A fox a bit shorter than me with two tails? There's also a female bat with very big…well, you know; there's a red echidna with big knuckles; a pink hedgehog with a red dress and matching hair band; and maybe a black, broody hedgehog with red streaks and eyes?"

It seemed to smile at him. "Hoot!" It jumped off the branch that it shared with Sonic and flapped it wings. It hovered and looked at Sonic expectantly.

"You want me to follow you?" Sonic asked.

"Hoot."

Sonic smiled and jumped branch after branch down the tree until he was on the ground, with the single-footed owl hovering above him. The odd creature hooted at him once more before turning its attention east and beginning its flight. Sonic followed at a light jog, easily keeping up with the bird. "Hey, where are you taking me?" the blue hedgehog asked with a chuckle after a few minutes of playing 'follow the leader'.

He was surprised, though, when the owl promptly stopped and looked around nervously. "…Hoo…" it said quietly, looking down at Sonic.

"What?" He looked around, trying to figure out what the animal was trying to tell him. All that had changed about their surroundings was that in this particular area of woods, there were huge golden-brown pinecone-type-thingies with two black spots hanging from the branches of the trees.

"What are those things?" Sonic asked the animal, not expecting an answer.

Just then, a low buzzing could be heard approaching the two and the owl turned frantic. "HOOTHOOTHOOTHOOTHOOT!" it screamed, flapping as hard as it could and lifting straight out of the forest.

"Hey!" Sonic called after it. "Where are you going? You haven't helped me find my friends yet!"

The creature ignored him and continued on its way, disappearing over the trees in seconds.

"Fine!" Sonic yelled. "Thanks for nothing! I guess I'll just have to do it on my own, per usual."

The buzzing grew louder as he continued through the trees. Hm…must be coming close to a beehive, he thought to himself and smiled. Maybe that bird is allergic to bee stings…

The buzzing kept growing louder and louder until it filled the air and Sonic frowned. It would take a lot of bees to buzz that loud.

Sonic was in the center of the trees with the pinecones now and the buzzing was so loud the he had to put his hands over his ears. And then he realized where the buzzing was coming from:

Behind him!

He whipped around…

And found himself facing dozens of the biggest hornets he had ever seen. They had huge red eyes, a large stinger in the regular place, and, worse than that, two huge stingers on their hands!

And they all looked mad.

Then he realized what the 'pinecones' were.

The babies.

Sonic had gotten between these massive insects and their larva.

He drew a nervous breath. "H—hey fellas," he said shakily. "Are these you're babies? Don't mind me; I was just—"

"Beedrill," the one closest to him cut him off.

He scratched his head. "Huh?"

"Beedrill!" it repeated, obviously angry. It advanced on him, its stingers out menacingly. The other mutant hornets followed its lead. "Beedrillbeedrillbeedrill!" the entire group of insects buzzed.

Sonic nervously backed up a step, ready to run. "Uhh…I'll just go."

The mass of insects suddenly sprung forward with amazing speed. The one in front swiped at him with its stingers and Sonic dodged it just in time. "Hey, watch it!" he said. The hornet jabbed again, and this time nicked Sonic's right arm with the tip of its back stinger. Immediately the cut began to itch and burn as a small drop of red oozed to the surface of the skin.

Deciding it was time to get out of there, Sonic turned presently and took off as fast as he dared to go in the dense forest. And even going at that speed, he narrowly avoided crashing into a few trees. He was a fast runner with fast reflexes, but it wasn't very often that he had to dodge something with every step. He was used to running in a straight line and making quick ninety-degree turns. It didn't help that in this forest, roots jutted from the ground, the ground was soft and covered in slippery moss, and there were more strange creatures he kept tripping over—one of which was a drooling mushroom that sprayed him with something smelling worse than skunk. Besides all that, these bugs were fast and determined and angry. The hornets had the upper hand this time.

The hedgehog glanced behind him and noted that the swarm was no more than thirty feet away from him, but the distance varied with every obstacle that came his way.

I'd better lose these guys… fast! he thought, briefly turning to run backwards. Time to stop playing around, Sonic! Get your head in the game. It's only a bunch of big…freaky…mutant…bugs…with really…big…stingers…

"Hoot!"

"Huh?" Sonic whipped around just in time to dodge a tree and found that the owl that had ditched him was flying just a small ways ahead of him.

"Hoot!" it said again, swivelling its head to look at him.

Sonic smiled, knowing what it was doing. "Alright, you're the native," he said, speeding up briefly to catch up with the owl. As he increased speed, so did the hornets, buzzing angrily.

The bird led Sonic through the remaining forest, across a field, and through more trees before Sonic heard something besides the constant buzzing of the hornets. At first, he thought he was imagining the sound of running water over the monotone roar of the insects. But as they kept moving, the sound grew louder and louder until it was unmistakably the roar of a running river. Sure enough, a few seconds and a few trees later, Sonic found himself staring at the white rapids and black stones of a wide river.

The owl hovered just over the water in front of Sonic, waiting expectantly.

"What?" Sonic asked. The owl tilted its head and Sonic realized what it meant. "I'm not jumping in that!" he declared.

"Beedrill!"

Sonic whipped around and found that the swarm of giant insects had caught up and were angrier than ever.

"Hoot hoot!" The owl sounded desperate behind him.

"I don't like water!" Sonic hissed to it.

The lead hornet advanced again, jabbing viciously with its back stinger and driving Sonic backwards. The rest of them closed in on every open side except in back of him. In just another moment, he barely had room to move.

The hornet swiped again but Sonic had had enough. The anthromorph jumped straight up so he was over the insects' heads, then rolled into a ball and attacked. Propelling himself straight downwards towards the head hornet, he slammed into its head and knocked it to the ground.

Apparently, that was the wrong move. Immediately, the other hornets lunged at him, covering him where he landed and poking at him with their stingers—both hands and rear. Mostly rear.

Man… Sonic thought, gritting his teeth as he tried (and failed) to dodge all the stingers. What are these things, anyway?

"Hoot!"

The nervous cries of the owl caught Sonic's ear over the overwhelming buzz of the giant hornets. Another stinger barely poked his eyebrow, and by now, he was itching and burning all over.

"Get your pointy butts out of my face!" Sonic yelled, jumping straight up and finally breaking free of the swarm.

Once in the air, he saw why the owl was crying out. The lead bug had recovered and was now jabbing at the bird with a few others of the mutant insects. Sonic knew that he could—eventually—take out all of these over-sizes hornets, but he couldn't risk that little creature getting hurt in the process. Besides that, he still had to find the others. And so, the hedgehog used momentum from gravity pulling him back down to push off of one of the insects' heads towards the brown bird.

"Sorry fellas," he said as he bounced off of the three hornets attacking the owl in a spinball attack, "but I don't have time for this. Maybe we can finish this some other time." With that, he grabbed the shaking owl and continued through the air until his momentum wore off and he landed with a splash in the rapids of the river.

Meanwhile, downriver…

"Come on out, Starmie, Seadra," the red-haired, blue eyed girl said, releasing her two pets/best friends from their Pokéballs. Misty smiled at them as they materialized from the red beam of light. "Go have some fun, guys. We have time enough for a break."

At that moment, another red beam of light shot out from inside her backpack and her most disliked Pokémon also materialized. "Psy psy?" the yellow duck with the stubby arms and big eyes said.

Misty sighed. "Fine, Psyduck, you can go play too."

"Psy aye aye…" It turned and wobbled away, holding its head from the constant head-ache it always complained about.

Misty couldn't help but chuckle at her Pokémon as the three of them splashed and squirted each other in the calm waters of the river. They were always so happy, and she was glad that she could keep it that way. Even Psyduck, who often got on her nerves and was subject to most of her yelling, was always happy, and in truth, she didn't really dislike its annoyingness. It had grown on her after a while.

She leaned back in the afternoon sun and closed her eyes with pleasure, listening to the splashes of her playing Pokémon and remembering a certain boy, whom she had met a few years ago. There had always been a friendly rivalry between the two, with him constantly teasing her just to get her aggravated with him. She'd come to like it after a while. She'd come to like him. But she had had to leave if she ever wanted to become a gym leader. Sure, they ran into each other now and again, but they could never have the same adventures now.

I wonder what you're doing now, Ash…

Misty noticed that the splashing from her Pokémon had ceased and she opened her eyes and sat up. She immediately saw that they had stopped playing and were staring at the other side of the river, seventy feet away. "What's up guys?" she asked, watching them curiously. That's when she saw it.

Floating down the river fifty feet away from them was a spiky cobalt-blue animal that was thrashing and playing in the water with a Hoothoot.

That's strange, she thought. What's a Hoothoot doing playing in the river with this…this…What is that, anyways?

She whipped out her Pokédex and pointed it at the two wild Pokémon in the river.

"Hoothoot," the mechanical voice said, "the owl Poké—"

Misty pressed a button to cut it off. "Not that one," she said aloud. She pressed another button and waited for the scan.

"…Species unidentifiable," the machine finally said.

Misty smiled. "So we have a new water-type Pokémon, huh? In that case, I'm going to be the first to have it. Seadra, use Hyperbeam!"

The Seadra looked at her, but did not do the attack.

The blue-eyed gym leader frowned and repeated. "Seadra, Hyperbeam now!"

The Pokémon hesitated, but eventually did exactly as instructed.

Sonic splashed to the surface with the owl's help for the millionth time, spitting out the cold water that somehow always found its way into his mouth. "Th—Th—This is why I h—h—h—hate water," he muttered through a chattering jaw to the bird that so far was the only thing keeping him from sinking to the bottom of the lake. "It's c—c—c—c—cold and w—w—wet and there's n—n—never an—any end!"

"Hoothoot," his companion agreed tiredly.

Sonic wasn't all about complaints, though. In one way, the water was a good thing. It soothed the burning and itching from the hornets and made the swelling go down. But he still hated being in it.

Sonic wiped the water from his eyes and glanced at the shore that they couldn't seem to get to…

And saw something he did not expect to find in this world.

"Hey, it's a human!" he said with tired excitement.

The owl looked too, and suddenly seemed to have a lot of energy. "HOOTHOOT!" it shouted, frantically flapping and trying to get the attention of the human.

Finally, to Sonic's relief, it seemed to work. The human sat up and pulled out a little hand-held machine of some kind, then looked at both of them and smiled. She stood and said something to one of her pets, then pulled out a red and white ball from her pack.

What's with the ball? Sonic wondered.

When the seahorse-dragon-looking-thing suddenly turned to them, unease replaced Sonic's relief. What's going on?

And then a sudden beam of bright light exploded from out of nowhere in front of the seahorse and shot towards the two companions.

"What the—?" Sonic started, but was cut off as the light connected with him square in the chest. His breath was knocked out of him as the beam delivered what felt like a tremendously powerful kick to his abdomen, and he was thrown through the air and away from the owl that held him afloat. He hit the water again and sank beneath the surface immediately.

Sonic opened his eyes and the water stung them. He noticed a small round shadow doing circles around the surface where he had gone under, but didn't have the time or energy to wonder what it was. He tried to pump his legs, to put to use the weeks of attempted swim-training from Tails, but he found that he was practically unable to move, due to the shocking blow from the beam of light. His lungs burned, empty of all air from the impact, and he sank further and further… Finally unable to keep the water out any longer, he opened his mouth and let it gush into his lungs, releasing the last bubble of air that he had between his cheeks. His eyes closed, and the last thought he had was: I lied…THIS is why I hate the water…

Misty stood on the shore with a smile on her face, waiting for the Pokémon to resurface so she could finish the capture. After a few seconds, though, she started to worry. And why was that Hoothoot flying in frantic circles directly above where the new Pokémon had gone under?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a tap on her leg and she looked down to see Psyduck staring back at her.

"Psyduck!" it said forcefully, pointing to the spot in the water where ripples were still forming.

"Is something wrong?" she asked it.

"Psy aye aye."

A thought popped into her head and she asked Psyduck, "Can water Pokémon drown?"

The Psyduck just stared at her and she looked back at the Hoothoot, trying to make sense of what was happening. The blue Pokémon still had not surfaced, and the unease continued to grow in the pit of her stomach. She felt that her Pokémon were uneasy as well. And then suddenly, without even thinking about it, Misty kicked off her shoes and ran into the water, diving when the water was deep enough.

She resurfaced directly below the Hoothoot a few seconds later. "Is that thing in trouble?" she asked.

"HOOTHOOTHOOTHOOTHOOTHOOTHOOT!"

Needing no further motivation, she dove again, shooting through the water like a bullet and searching for the cobalt Pokémon. In a moment, her Seadra and Starmie were joining in the search. Just then, a single bubble of air floated up in front of Misty and she peered into the darkness of the water. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she made out the odd shape of the Pokémon she suddenly felt responsible for. It took her a few more seconds to reach it, and as soon as she did, she wrapped her arms around the limp creature and started for the surface.

With the help of her Pokémon, she reached it in a few moments; the blue animal still sagging in her arms. She held onto Seadra with one hand and the new Pokémon with the other as her faithful friend pulled them both to the nearest shore, which was opposite from where she started from. The Hoothoot landed beside her as she dragged the cobalt creature onto the shore.

Ohno!ohno!ohno!ohno!ohno!ohno!ohno! she thought desperately as she knelt beside the unmoving animal. What do I do now?

The Hoothoot answered for her as it suddenly jumped onto the Pokémon's abdomen and drove its feet into its chest as hard as it could.

Misty jumped, startled, when the blue creature's eyes snapped open and it gasped, then gagged and coughed up more water than Misty thought to be possible. She helped it roll onto its stomach to make the flow of water come more easily, but then sat back, not sure of what else to do. When the blue creature had finally cleared its lungs, it collapsed again for a moment before stirring.

Sonic the Hedgehog opened his eyes slowly, almost certain he was dead, and blinked at what he saw. He was staring into the red eyes of his friend the owl, but hadn't he just been underwater? Had he not just been drowning?

He had started to push himself up when a voice behind him spoke.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Startled, he whipped around to face the red-haired girl with bright blue eyes. He shifted until he was seated cross-legged in front of her.

"Um…yeah, I guess so," he said.

She looked surprised. "You can talk?"

Sonic just smiled. He (and every other Mobian, with the exception of Eggman) seemed to have that effect on humans. He remembered when Chris had dragged him out of the pool on that night that seemed so long ago…which brought up a question.

"Hey," Sonic said, "how did I get out of the water? Did you…?"

The girl turned red. "I'm sorry. That was my fault in the first place. I didn't realize that Pokémon could drown, and when you didn't come back up—"

Sonic cut her off. "Whoa, Pokémon?"

She stared at him blankly. "Um…yeah…you know…Pokémon."

The hedgehog laughed and stood up. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The girl stood as well, but continued to stare at him. "…You don't know what a Pokémon is," she said, trying for any clarification.

He shrugged. "Maybe you can explain it to me some other time. Right now, I gotta go find my friends. Thanks for the help. I'm Sonic, by the way."

She blinked, finally breaking out of her stupor. "Uh…I'm Misty. And it wasn't a problem at all…It was really the Hoothoot…"

He nodded, making a mental note of her name and face, then turned to the bird. "Is that your name, buddy?" he asked with a smile.

Misty blinked at him.

He turned to her and gave her his signature thumbs-up. "Thanks again, Misty. Really, I wouldn't be here now if it weren't for you and my new friend here. I'll see you around."

Before Misty had a chance to respond, the creature was gone in a flash of blue and she was left wondering if any of that encounter had just happened.

"PSYDUCK!" a scream sounded from the other side of the river and she turned, seeing her Psyduck waving for her to come back and get it.

She debated with herself whether or not to leave it there, but then she remembered that her shoes and pack were on the other side as well and she dove back into the water for the swim to the other shore.