Author's Note: Again, sorry for the long delay. But thanks to my friend TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3, who has given me a new idea on how to continue this, I've combined that with an original idea I came up with earlier and this is the end result!
Happy reading!
I do not own Sonic The Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Chapter 9: Helpful Dream and Tropical Frost?
After leaving behind the newly restored Sweet Mountain with the first piece of the Lunania Comet Shard in their possession, now with them being challenged by the Mischief Five to find the rest with Sonic's freedom on the line, the young heroes, despite Knuckles wanting to tell them something very important regarding to the transformation of Spirit and the other four naughty Wisps, decided to sleep for a little while with the Blue Typhoon on Autopilot until they've woken up.
However, while Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun, Star, Cream and Cheese and the Wisps that traveled with them, such as Yacker, Speed, Cutie, Ghostly and Lily, all slept after the fun aftermath despite the concern for the Mother Wisp and all the other cute little aliens across the galaxy, Sonic found he just couldn't sleep at all. In his room of the huge flying fortress, the hero of Mobius just couldn't get his mind off of today's events and how this mess all started.
The words from the Mischief Five, namely Roller and Spirit which haunted the sixteen year old, and the words from the giant alien mother, which were comforting, and the words from Yacker's confession but selfless knowledge and understanding, which was reasonable considering how much they all had been through, echoed in the teenager's mind.
"IT'S GREAT TO FINALLY MEET YOU, SONIC. YOU'RE EVERYBODY'S HERO!"
"You should know how now little brother Yacker and Mama always wanted you two to stay, because you belong to us. You will stay with us forever. Planet Wisp is were you belong...You are one of us now. You have saved our family, who want to thank you...by keeping you with us in our world."
"(You are a hero, yes, but it is wrong to force you and your friend to stay with us. I know you both have a family and a home to go back to, and I would feel horrible in taking you away from where you belong.)"
"(...We knew that it was wrong to force you and Sonic to stay. And after seeing how many friends you have and how beautiful your world is, Mama and I knew that you wanted to go home, because like us, you have family waiting for you. We didn't want to be like Baldy Nosehair. We're sorry.)"
"(Sonic...Never forget of who you are, or what you have learned. Everything will be alright, and please, do not blame yourself. You are still young, and still growing. You shouldn't hold the burden all on your own.)"
With a sad sigh yet knowing that while Spirit and the Mischief Five were obviously his top fans that along with other young Wisps that heard many stories about his heroics wanted him to stay forever, Yacker and his mother were right. As much as Sonic still felt responsible for this whole mess, the burden was taking a heavy toll on him. At the same time he had his friends to support him even though he wanted to make sure they were all safe and happy.
He had considered on surrendering himself to the more Mischief Wisps, that the blue hedgehog himself would allow all of the cute little aliens to keep him forever and never let him go, but that would mean he would be leaving his friends and family on Mobius behind and heart-broken. Sonic didn't want that, and even though Yacker and the Mother Wisp did admit they wanted him and Tails to stay, they understood and pushed away those desires, knowing that the hero of Mobius and his best friend/little brother had family and friends waiting for them to come home.
Even though Sonic felt terrible about denying the desires and wishes, there are times even he had to firmly say no, and he will figure out how to make the Mischief Five and all of the Wisps that were brought into the idea of keeping him for themselves understand that they can't always get what they want.
"I may be a hero and I'll always choose to help others 'cause it's the right thing to do, I'm only a Mobian, even I can make my own choices like everybody else, and never take anything for granted. Not ever again. I'll do what my heart tells me to do, for my friends and family, for Mobius, and for the universe." Sonic muttered to himself, narrowing his eyes with determination. "And I'm gonna find a way to save Spirit and try to make him understand. I won't let my guilt, fears, and other negative feelings get to me again."
Calming down and knowing that he still had a chance to fix this mess up, with a renewed confidence and knowledge, Sonic yawned as he finally felt sleepy enough to tuck himself in and switched off the night lamp. Tails had set up. Snuggling in his blanket and pillow, the blue hedgehog soon drifted off into dreamland.
"Sonic...Sonic the Hedgehog..."
"Huh?" Blinking his eyes open at the strangely beautiful, familiar and almost singing voice, the cobalt teenager found that he was not lying on his bed in the Blue Typhoon, but on a grass field that looked oddly familiar. Confused and alarmed, the blue hedgehog looked around to find he was on an alien planet that wasn't Planet Wisp.
Has he been here before?
"Hey, where am I?" Sonic asked aloud, looking around before a loud groan was heard. Gasping softly, he turned to his right and to his shock, down hill far in the distance but a little close, was a Colossal Rex that Soloman showed him three weeks ago, and yelped in fright. "Whoa! Where'd that come from?"
"Do not be afraid, Sonic. They will not harm you. You are simply asleep." The gentle female voice spoke once more.
Confused, Sonic looked up to his left and his eyes widened when he saw a familiar Wisp he never thought he would see again, at least not this incarnation of one; a small pink Wisp that had several eyes and tentacles. Almost instantly, he knew what kind of alien this was.
"No way...Singarina?" The hero of Mobius whispered in disbelief, as the small incarnation of Yacker's Mother hovered before him, gentle, friendly and cute looking as she floated over to him.
"Hello, Sonic. It's been a while, hasn't it?" Singarina, the very first incarnation of the Mother Wisp, small and young, greeted with a gentle look in her eyes.
What shocked Sonic even more was that he could understand her, or maybe it was because she was speaking English. "What're you doing here? Are you speaking English, or am I somehow understanding you?"
"This is a dream, Sonic. That is why you can understand me." The little Wisp answered.
"Well, that explains something. But I thought you couldn't travel forward through time and, I just met up with your, um...reborn, giant self a little while ago." The blue hedgehog shrugged, before a linger of guilt began to rise up in his chest which made him lower his gaze, his ears drooping. "But then again, you must know what's really going on, right? Spirit turning himself into...an evolved alien I guess and that he and the other newer Wisps want to keep me and Tails forever in their home world...and everything that's happened. That it's...all my-"
Singarina gently cut him off by placing a tentacle onto his lips, shushing him which made Sonic blink in surprise.
"Shhhh...It's not your fault, Sonic. It will be alright." The small Wisp informed him. "As for why I am here, your connection with my precessor and your heroic deeds have allowed me to visit you at least this once. To inform you what has happened. Your friend Knuckles the Echidna only knows part of what has happened to Spirit, Roller, Whacker, Dancer and Racer."
Realizing that like the Mother Wisp, Singarina was so forgiving and even she knew that the blue hedgehog wasn't to blame even though he felt that he should have prevented this from happening if he had dealt with Eggman a lot sooner and been more careful, but that still left the problem with Mobius being in worse danger.
Instead, Sonic scratched the top of his head after Singarina removed her tentacle. "Yeah, Knuckles did try to tell me and the others something earlier, but we're hopin' to find out after our nap. So, do you know what's goin' on, then?"
"I do. The evil beast Cormain's small speck of darkness."
"Cormain!? But my other self in the alternate reality and I destroyed him!" Sonic exclaimed, shocked and horrified.
Singarina shook her head. "He is erased forever, yes. But before you and the other Sonic did, before you both and all of your loved ones were imprisoned in the Timeless Realm, the one you call White Space, when he was being imprisoned by the Octosaurs, a small piece of his darkness was accidentally cut free from his body and unknowingly set through time, growing slowly and weakly until it would find a host to corrupt their thoughts and opening up their desires."
"Spirit..." Sonic realized, becoming more horrified. Terror mounted onto terror as he asked, shakily. "H-He's not gonna turn completely evil, is he?"
"There is still light within him. But as he is young, he is not strong enough to fight off that darkness. Spirit is being consumed by the thoughts of wanting to keep you and never let you go. The darkness entered his heart a day after your sixteenth birthday. It is also the effects of the Falling Star you call the Lunania Comet, that will trigger powers and if those becoming corrupted by their powerful desires come into contact, it will cause problems to selected worlds as well as to them. He will not turn evil, but the darkness will continue to corrupt him and he will not stop until you and your friends help him to find his light." The little alien explained.
"Hmmm..." While Sonic was relieved to hear that Spirit wouldn't turn evil, he was still worried that he would have to fight the Wisp, just like he did with the Mother Wisp when she lost her Hyper-Go-On and transformed into Nega-Mother Wisp. "If that's the case, then maybe me and my friends should find the Chaos Emeralds to cure him and the other Wisps. It worked on your Mother self before."
"You will not need to, Sonic." Singarina said, confusing the blue hedgehog. "My current incarnation and Yacker will provide you and your friends help to free Spirit. Once you find all of the Comet's shards and restore the worlds to their original state, open your hearts and the darkness will release him, then you must destroy that darkness with the great power of friendship and love you have for everyone you cherish. The light in your heart alone will overcome that."
While he didn't fully understand that, Sonic felt that she was right. Plus he can't just rely on the Chaos Emeralds forever, he didn't want to rely on power and this wasn't like when the Hyper-Go-Ons were stolen. His eyes then widened as he realized that the Wisps' powers were also their light. They were like the Chaos Energy within himself, Shadow and other Mobians capable of using the Emeralds.
"Not sure how I can use my light, but I'll save Spirit and beat the last of that nasty monster. My friends and I will make sure everything will be okay. I promise!" Sonic declared, smirking as he now felt there was still hope and that it was Cormain's actions that started this.
Now he will finish it and then there won't be a single trace of the evil Space-Eater.
Singarina nodded with a beaming and grateful look as she then hugged him, making Sonic laugh while being slightly tickled, before he hugged her back, feeling relief and knowing what to do now form inside his chest, vowing to keep to his oath to never let his negative emotions take over him.
"Thanks, Singarina. You were a big help." Sonic whispered.
"You are welcome, Sonic the Hedgehog. Thank you, as well...and please, always remember who you really are and never blame yourself for what you have not done. You have such a pure heart..." The small alien's words echoed and seemed to fade as did the rest of the beautiful scenery...
And Sonic woke up a bit startled, blinking in surprise as he sat up, a little disoriented before realized what happened and rubbed his eyes. The dream didn't scare him, but it sure left him surprised.
"Whoa...That was some dream. I can't believe I dreamt up seeing Yacker's Mom's past self again." Sonic tiredly said, as he yawned. Still, he remembered it clearly and thought about the meaning of it.
'Singarina did say that when the Octosaurs were using their magic to imprison Cormain, a piece of that monster's darkness escaped and traveled forward through time into the future, but it's still not strong enough to bring that guy back, but it's strong enough to mess with Spirit's thoughts and upgrade it into taking things into his own hands...Or um, his tentacles, really.' The blue hedgehog thought deeply to himself.
That, and what Knuckles wanted to say made Sonic realize it was connected. The whole mess started with Cormain, and while it has been complete peace when the Mother Wisp rebuilt her life by creating her home world and all of her children including his alien friends, Eggman just made things more complicated. Now it was up to the hero of Mobius and his friends and family to set things right.
"I'll save you, Mischief Five, and I will win these games. I won't give up!" Sonic vowed, determined now more than ever.
He knew what he had to do.
Ten minutes later after Sonic dressed in his gloves and shoes, he met up with his friends in the cafeteria room where they had breakfast of eggs, bacon and ceral, the blue hero told them of the dream he had and, a little reluctantly, he told Yacker and the Wisps of what he knew of their mother and her past self, which shocked and amazed them.
"Singarina knew about this and it was Cormain's darkness that broke free that corrupted Spirit?" Tails asked, shocked yet understanding at the same time, feeling that it made perfect sense. "So that's why Spirit's acting strangely. Cormain's darkness is part of him, therefore it is still able to corrupt minds to welcome in their deepest desires."
Sonic nodded, confirming his little brother's assumptions. "Cormain started the whole mess and forced Singarina to be on her own when Soloman and his people sacrificed themselves to trap that monster. That's why Spirit was the way he is."
"Now I see. That's what the other Wisps meant." Knuckles realized, gazing low a little as he too understood what really happened. When his friends looked at him expectedly, the red echidna explained. "They told me that for three weeks now that Spirit has started to get unusual and crazy ideas on wanting to bring you and Tails back to their planet, Sonic. It disturbed them greatly and I think even the Mother Wisp knew that, but even she wasn't sure what it was."
"Because Scourge's wish must've had Cormain's darkness to arrive at that moment..." Sun trailed off.
"A day after my birthday, just like Singarina said. It was the small piece of Cormain's darkness." Sonic corrected in realization.
"(I knew something weird was going on! I dunno who that mean Cormain guy is, but I wish I could give that monster a piece of my mind!)" Speed ranted on angrily, making movements as though he was punching an invisible enemy with his for arms. "(I wanna smack 'im so hard that he'll be seeing dancing flowers and maybe even decorate him with real flowers! Yah! Whack! Boom!)"
Despite that everyone was in agreement with the cobalt Wisp, some of them couldn't help but laugh awkwardly as Sonic chuckled reassuringly. "Easy, buddy. Let's not get too excited. I've already beaten guy into next week, so he won't be causing problems anymore."
"Still, if Cormain's darkness is behind Spirit's behavior, then we need to find the shards and save him and the other Miscief Five." Star stated, as she knew that the situation was more complicated.
"Maybe we should find the Chaos Emeralds to be on the safe side." Amy suggested, worriedly.
But Sonic shook his head firmly. "No, Singarina told me that while the darkness from Cormain is dangerous, Spirit's light is still there. It's going to take all of us and the Wisps' Mom to get straight to him and once the darkness lets him go, then we all combine our bonds and strengths to beat that thing for good. I don't know how yet, but I don't want to rely on the Chaos Emeralds forever."
As he said that, he thought back to what Singarina told him.
"My current incarnation and Yacker will provide you and your friends help to free Spirit. Once you find all of the Comet's shards and restore the worlds to their original state, open your hearts and the darkness will release him, then you must destroy that darkness with the great power of friendship and love you have for everyone you cherish. The light in your heart alone will overcome that."
"It's going to take our hearts to save him." The blue hedgehog concluded, smiling softly, gazing at everyone in the room. "Put it this way, we didn't need the Emeralds to beat Eggman's robots all the time, and we've beaten those black creatures before Shadow had to use them to beat Black Doom. And we didn't need the Emeralds to fight off against those Dark Gaia monsters, only for the big bad himself with Chip's help."
Realizing that he was right, despite the concern for all of this, Tails and the others all nodded in agreement and now felt new hope to solve this crisis.
"So whaddya say? We put up against those challenge and save the universe?" Sonic declared boldly as his excitement once again began to grow, with only a linger of misplaced guilt still there but he was determined to not let that get to him this time.
"YEAH!(YEAH!)" Everyone except for Sun and Knuckles who both smirked with nods, all cheered excitedly and equal determination, with Cheese chirping happily, just as they all heard a blaring sound which startled them.
"That's our cue! We've arrived at the next world!" Tails immediately realized.
Five minutes later...
After quickly cleaning up the dishes, Sonic and his friends hurried back into the cockpit to see what world they reached now, with Tails and Star both analyzing their location which had the second Lunania Comet Shard. But what shocked them and everybody else was that it was another familiar world...
But with only one small part of it being familiar, yet it was somehow changed to be a mixture. Almost everywhere, some parts of it had islands with tropical beaches and trees, while somehow merging with an icy cold continent which reminded Sonic, Sun and Tails of Holoska for one part that was the only place big enough to fit the blue Typhoon.
"What is that pretty world?" Cream asked curiously.
"It's the Aquarium Park!" Tails exclaimed, before adding awkwardly with a sweat drop. "Or uh...It used to be. The only thing that's the same is the water, but it's partially dryed up with islands and frozen in ice like the atlantic parts of Mobius."
Sonic, having not been looking forward in reaching Aquarium Park again, let alone this soon, gulped nervously with a sweat drop of his own as he murmured. "Welp, at least we all got out own Sea-Masks to keep us from drowning."
This wasn't going to be a fun trip.
Within the planet that was once Aquarium Park, now transformed into part tropical, part frozen world. There was a huge ice castle near the shores of the beach and part of the desolate ice-lands, while underwater close to the more tropical parts was another castle, looking a bit like Atlantic in the Little Mermaid stories, with Wisps flying or swimming around in confusion, curiosity and fear...and in the ocean swimming about was a giant whale, gazing worriedly at the newly transformed world. The local fish and sea life were either frozen in ice stuck inside or had to try and avoid in getting stuck in the shallow parts of the beach.
Yet when the giant Whale saw something flying above the surface come into landing in the more frozen parts of the world, it felt that help has arrived and even from the distance, it could sense a familiar hero whom he had helped out a few months ago. The giant sea mammal then knew, it had to do something to solve this unusual mystery.
"Of all the places big enough to land, it just had to be the freezing, cold, frozen water that'll turn us into popsicles." Sun grumbled once the Blue Typhoon landed, but Tails had set up the ship's submarine/water ship mode just in case as he didn't want to take any chances.
"Well, at least we don't have to jump out high from a plane this time. Besides, snow maybe freezing but if it's deep enough, it softens your landing." Sonic reassured with a smirk once he and the others, including the grumpy orange hedgehog went to the exit of the ship. In the meantime, he had already put on his Sea-Mask which rested on his forehead, and Tails had made more, for himself, Knuckles, who had his rest around his neck, Amy, Sun, Star, Cream and even Cheese who were all wearing theirs the same way Sonic and the two-tailed fox did for easier convenience.
"Yeah and then turn you into an ice cube." The former Werehog agreed sarcastically.
"Oh, stop whining. It'll be back and forth between the snow and the beaches anyway." Amy scolded, as she, Cream, and Star were all dressed up in their snow gear that they packed. "It's good thing Mrs. Hedgehog adviced us to pack our winter clothes."
"Sometimes I think my Mom's a psychic." The hero of Mobius chuckled fondly. "She's always good at stuff like that."
The moment the side hatch door was opened, the Mobians and the Wisps were hit by a chilling gust of wind which nearly knocked them over. The little aliens in the meantime, not used to the cold, all whimpered and shivered, hugging themselves as best as they cold.
"(Whoa! It-It's f-f-freezing out there! I feel like I'm about to turn into an ice cream or something!)" Speed shivered. Yacker, Lily, Cutie, and Ghostly all shivered in agreement.
"Aw, the poor Wisps are feeling cold." Cream murmured sympathetically, as she wrapped a tiny little scarf around Cheese's neck with the small Chao shivering slightly as well.
"I know how they feel." Sun said, rubbing his arms as he still wasn't used to the cold weather either.
While Sonic felt sorry for his Wisps friends, he knew that everything would be alright. Nodding to himself and gazing outside of the transformed planet, which he decided to call the Tropical Frost, he declared with a hint of a joke. "Let's get this snow on the road!"
"Ugh! Seriously?" Sun facepalmed himself over the joke.
Sonic just laughed and jumped out first, expecting to land easily.
"It might be..." Star trailed off as too late, the blue hedgehog landed alright, but ended up accidentally diving into the snow where it went up to his ears...only slightly. "Deep."
The poor cobalt teenager was a little stuck, as he realized his mistake and struggled to dig himself out, shivering in the cold and his voice muffled. Sun and Knuckles tried hard not to laugh while the Wisps, seeing their favorite blue Mobian's current situation, couldn't help but burst out laughing even though Yacker flew over to see if he could help dig Sonic out.
"Sonic, your Mom also gave us snow shoes to wear too." Amy called out to her boyfriend, just as he, with Yacker's help as the curl-headed Wisp pulled at his quils, managed to at least get part of his head out.
"Got any ear muffs?" Sonic queried, his voice still muffled as he had a look of annoyance.
Now equipped with snow shoes that were easy for even Sonic(after digging him out of the deep snow) to run around in and surprisingly they were also water-proof shoes that Uncle Chuck had built two weeks ago for future adventures, the teenage blue hedgehog and his group ventured out across the snowy part of the transformed Aquarium Park hoping to find clues to where the next Lunania Comet Shard went as well as looking out for potential dangers the piece created from the world.
"(It-it's so cold...)" Cutie whimpered, having been resorted to having Amy carry her to keep her warm from the cold weather.
"Maybe some of us should've waited back at the Blue Typhoon. Poor Cutie's freezing out here." Amy murmured, doing her best to try and keep the poor little Twirl Wisp as warm as possible.
"(I'm s-sorry for b-being tr-trouble, eve-everybody...)" The light-yellow Wisp shivered, feeling guilty for being a burdern right before she let a little sneeze, as the pink hedgehog cudded her and wrapped her around with a scarf, with Yacker and Lily going over for their support, before they both began to glow while holding out their arms, and to the surprise of the Mobians, so did Cutie. Before long, they stopped and she sighed in relief. "(Phew...Thank you, Big brother Yacker and Lily.)"
"(You're welcome, Cutie. It was nothing. And you're not trouble at all. It is really cold out here.)" Lily reassured, gently nuzzling against her sister.
"Did they just warm Cutie up with their Hyper-Go-On?" Tails asked, blinking.
"(When Mama gave life to more of us, some of the new Wisps that can use Icy powers sometimes play around and it gets cold at night. So we practiced with new powers to keep each other warm until the Burst Wisps make everything warm again. This is our first time in being in snow without the Breeze Wisps making them...and seeing this whole lotta of it too.)" Speed explained, while gesturing at the entire freezing wasteland all around the group.
"Breeze Wisps, huh?" Sonic murmured thoughtfully, before remembering what Sparkle did when the little Star-Beam Wisp helped him with his power. "They wouldn't happen to be the ones that use the Ice power that Sparkle burrowed or whatever, would they? I haven't seen them before."
Speed nodded, confirming the blue hedgehog's suspicions. "(Yeah. If the air is cold enough, they can make the white fluffy stuff that Mama called snow, and Big brother Yacker told us a bit about if from you and Tails when you guys saved everybody from Baldy Nosehair.)"
"And, if the Star-Beam Wisps get involved...?" Sun trailed off, starting to get a really bad feeling about this as he felt a different kind of case of deja vu.
A moment of awkward silence besides the wintery breeze blowing and whooshing.
"(Uh...Good question.)" The cobalt Wisp waved his upper right arm in front of his face, with a sweat drop. "(It's not cold enough back at home so, I have no idea.)"
That made Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese, Star, and even Sun and Knuckles nervous as they and the other Wisps, with Ghostly and Cutie looking frightened, shared uneasy glances, coming to realize that they may be in for bigger and icy cold trouble, all of them having sweat drops forming.
"Let's hope the Snowmen around here are more friendly than the Yetis back at home. Not that they weren't friendly, but still..." Sonic murmured uneasily, remembering how Kaiser wrecked the peace between the people of Holoska and the Snow Tribe, and how the blue hedgehog himself had to face Korso's challenge for the fate of humanity and their trust.
"Let's not jinx it, Sonic." Sun cautioned, remembering the same thing. When his brother fought against the giant Yeti who had caught the hero of Mobius during the battle, the former Werehog thought Sonic was going to be killed.
"We should get moving before we run into any sort of trouble." Knuckles firmly advised, and his friends all nodded in agreement, with Sonic taking the lead as they all continued onward to find the comet's shard.
But as the group moved on, the ground suddenly began to rumble which alarmed them as they cried out as the quakes quickly got even worse, with Sonic nearly screaming. "Hey, what's going on!?"
"AH! OH NO! AVALANCHE WITH MONSTERS!" Tails screamed, as he noticed something was coming up head, prompting his adoptive big brother and their friends to notice and they all nearly screamed in horror and shock.
Coming straight towards them was a trio of giant snow balls rolling straight towards them with a trail of an avalanche attempting to swallow the Mobians and Wisps up, with the snow balls being that of newly created and transformed monsters with thing legs and arms, coals for eyes and tiny mouths. Above them were at least five snow-flake shaped monsters with angry looks flying and making icy cold gibberish noises.
"...Me and my big mouth. I jinxed us." The hero of Mobius said, nervously as he tried not to sound too terrified while attempting to shove down his fear.
"SONIC!" Amy screamed as she looked behind them when more noises and rumbling came from there. Sonic and the others looked over their shoulders as they gasped when they saw, coming from around the corner they just passed about ten minutes ago was another wave of the monsters and avalanche about to capture them, yelling out even louder.
"We're trapped!" Knuckles grunted, horrified and angrily.
"What do we do!?" Cream screamed, terrified.
"Chao, chao!" Cheese squealed in fear.
As Sonic and his friends tried to figure out how to escape from the icy monsters created from the Lunania Comet Shard, Sun noticed another path leading towards an glacier pass that was big enough for maybe fifty people to fit through and leading towards a make-shift cave.
"Through there!" The orange hedgehog instructed quickly, as his friends got the message quickly and immediately agreed.
"Let's get outta here, quick!" Sonic shouted, scooping up Amy with one arm and held onto Tails with the other, while Sun picked up Star, and Knuckles held both Cream and Cheese. They then all quickly ran with the Wisps flying with them as the girls and Tails all screamed, hoping for the better and that they wouldn't get caught again.
As awkwardly as possible, Knuckles and Sun both held onto the hands of the two-tailed fox and the pink hedgehog, giving Sonic, who hold them to hang on, speeding away straight into the pass with the red echidna and orange hedgehog screaming their heads off and the Wisps flying with equal speed, narrowly avoiding the two sides of the icy monsters and the avalanche hitting them.
The monsters, realizing too late, all shouted in alarm before colliding into one another, the snow balls accidentally destroying each other by turning into a large pile of snow which was fused into the avalanche, and the snowflakes falling into the newly larger wave of snow. The large amount of it then went sliding straight into the fissure after the heroes who were already further in attempting to escape from being buried alive. Sonic's group attempted to race away into the cave when suddenly above them standing on top of the two glacier walls were more ice monsters that formed and tossed snow balls down towards them.
"Incoming, Sonic!" Tails shouted as he saw this, when his friends also looked and they all gasped in horror, their hearts pounding in their chests as the snow balls were about to engulf them.
"WHOA!" Sonic yelped, doing his best to keep himself and his friends out of the way by side-stepping as the others held on for dear life, screaming in alarm and unable to help in at least bashing away the snowballs. To make things worse the avalanche was starting to pick up speed which didn't help, so the hero of Mobius had to keep on moving out of the way while not losing his companions or end up decreasing his speed.
But the monsters, yelling out to not let the 'intruders' escape as like the Food Monsters, they were given life under the command to capture anyone outside of their world and even those who lived in the new warmer part of the transformed Tropical Frost, tossed more snow balls to decrease the cobalt teenager's speed and let the avalanche swallow him and his friends and family up.
"Hey! Stop throwing giant snowballs at us! That is so not cool!" The blue hedgehog shouted at the monsters, getting more and more irritated by the second and attempting to not panic for the sake of his friends. 'This is getting on my nerve! I wish we had a sled or something!'
"How about not doing a pun at a time like this!?" Both Sun and Knuckles shouted, as they and the others cringed over Sonic's angry remark.
"Look out!" Amy and Star both screamed out as they looked up ahead. When they others saw what the two were pointing at, they gave out cries of alarm and horror as while they were nearing a cave, three more snow monsters were above it and tossed the snow balls to block the entrance.
"OH NO!" Sonic screamed in dismay, knowing that he would be forced to skid to a stop and then they would all be buried by the avalanche and either be killed, or captured by the monsters and taken to wherever. Or worse, the Mischief Five would come and take them, to kidnap Sonic himself as well as Tails for 'failing' to pass the test and keep them both for themselves.
Just as the group thought they were done for, Yacker, feeling horror rise inside him yet unwilling to allow this to happen again, narrowed his eye with determination as he refused to allow the monsters or the Mischief Five to capture them. The little curl-headed Wisp then glowed with Hyper-Go-On energy before flowing himself into Sonic's chest, causing the blue hedgehog to gasp when he and the others saw what just happened. Before the hero of Mobius could cry out to his friend, he almost immediately felt the extra power of speed as he then realized what the little Wisp was doing.
"BOOST!"
Holding onto his friends who did the same while screaming at the extra speed that was faster than the blue hedgehog's highest speed ever, Sonic Wisp-Boost even faster than ever as he left behind a rainbow trial and even with the snowballs blocking their way, the cobalt speedster burst straight through the pile of snow and into the cave with his companions and didn't stop while the avalanche now blocked the entrance, yet the group kept going through the icy cave and through another entrance just to be on the safe side.
"Hold on, guys! It's gonna be really tricky in here!" Sonic instructed, as he continued to race through the cave, avoiding icicles falling from the ceiling and ice stalagmites on the ice floor which he had maneuver around without getting his friends hurt or losing them along the way. He also smashed accidentally into a few icicles that shockingly had three groups of Wisps each trapped inside but thankfully not having been frozen yet just held captive, three White Wisps, three Hover Wisps and three Cube Wisps who all flew around happily now that they were free.
"Hey! Hi there!" Sonic greeted as the nine Wisps tried to keep up with him and his group, but due to Yacker sharing his boost power with the blue hedgehog, he couldn't stop to have them thank him properly. "Sorry, can't stop right now, but we'll meet up later! You're welcome, by the way!"
The hero of Mobius continued to run off after giving the Wisps a wink with a smirk, the nine little cute aliens, seeing their favorite hero, waved at him happily in gratitude before flying off to find a way out and return home to Planet Wisp as well as figure out what was going on.
Unfortunately, just as he was about to slow down once he felt that they were somewhat safe after passing by all of the icicles, the snow floor gave way when the blue hedgehog came to a slope within the cave, making him lose his footing and his grip on the others who ended up letting go and they all went sliding and/or tumbling and rolling down the snow and ice slide, screaming away in fear while trying to stop. Except for most of the Wisps who, seeing this and squealed in alarm fearing for their Mobian friends, quickly flew down to try and save them.
Luckily it wasn't a very deep drop, but they did end up sliding with twists and turns like those very high and long slides in amusement parks, each ending up in separate ones two or three each with Sonic and Tails going onto one, Amy, Cream and Cheese going on another, and Sun, Star and Knuckles going for the third, sliding into loops. While most of his friends were terrified, Sonic began to have fun as he started cheering on in excitement.
"Woooo hooo! Yeah! This is more like it!" Sonic cheered on happily even as Yacker came flying out and, for a concerned measure, went flying alongside him and Tails who, besides Cream who began to cheer on in excitement herself due to her age, along with everybody else were screaming their heads off in terror.
"Wheeeee! This is fun!" Cream squealed.
"You guys might think this is fun, but I don't!" Tails screamed in panic.
"Doesn't this thing end!?" Sun shouted, frustrated and terrified.
"I can't take much more!" Amy groaned in fear, and starting to feel a little bit sick...even though a small smile was beginning to form on her face as the longer this went, the more she slowly realized that this was starting to become fun.
As did Star despite feeling dizzy, while Knuckles wished the slide would end already.
Finally after what felt like forever, the end of the slides came into view as all three were at the same area, and soon the group went sliding off to a stop and landed in multiple 'omph's as they all ended up landing into the huge pile of snow within the cave, partially buried but otherwise okay. Yacker, Speed, Cutie, Ghostly and Lily, worried about their friends, flew over just as Sonic, Tails, Amy, Star, Cream and Cheese emerged one by one, with snow powder on their heads and bodies and clothes, coughing a little as they groaned while recovering.
"Oh man! That was fun!" Sonic laughed as he sat up, pulling himself out before dusting him off. "It was much better than the snow trip in Holoska."
"I...guess it was. At least we had a nice soft landing. The good thing about huge piles of snow is that it always breaks your falls." Tails admitted, being pulled to his feet by the blue hedgehog who came over to him and held out a hand to help him up, before going over to Amy who dusted herself off.
"Yeah, that was kinda fun, except for those monsters and the avalanche." Amy admitted in agreement.
"Agreed." Star added.
"Is everybody alright?" The blue hedgehog asked, once the Wisps, seeing that their friends were alright, were glad everyone was fine.
While most of them replied that the were, Cream noticed they were two members short and asked in confusion. "Where are Mr. Sun and Mr. Knuckles?"
"Right here, kid." Came Sun's muffled grumble. The group turned to find the orange hedgehog half buried in the snow...upside down with is legs sticking up, before he grunted and after a couple of tries before Sonic and the others could help him, pulled himself out with a 'plop', landing on his butt. The tangerine hedgehog groaned while rubbing his head. "Ugh...I hate snow."
Just then, there was a big lump next to him that suddenly moved, startling the group who jumped slightly in fright with Sonic standing protectively in front of his friends, shielding them with one arm and the Wisps hovering nervously, when the snow was removed from the lump to see that it was just Knuckles who had ended up being fully buried, and managed to get his head out.
"Ugh, finally! This is worse than the Ice Cap Zone." The red echidna grumbled. But what he didn't even notice that some of the snow ended up covering his quills that looked white and a broken Palm Leaf ended up stuck on his muzzle around his mouth, also partially white that made it look like a beard...and made him look like Santa Claus.
To which Sonic and the others noticed, and all snickered while trying not to laugh.
"Huh?" The seventeen year old blinked cluelessly, noticing the weird looks his friends held on their faces. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?"
That did it, as the group all burst out laughing at just how ridiculous the Guardian of the Master Emerald looked.
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Sonic and the rest of the group laughed loudly, with the blue hedgehog, Sun, Speed and Lily pointing at the echidna, the sixteen year old having his free hand placed onto his stomach, while the girls and Tails tried to cover their mouths with their hands to hide their giggling but failed.
"(You look silly, Knuckles!)" Cutie giggled.
"(Really funny!)" Ghostly added, giggling in agreement.
"What's so funny? Think you can stop chuckling long enough to get me out of here?" Knuckles demanded in annoyance, and then got louder when his friends just couldn't stop laughing. "Hey, come on! I mean it! Get me out of here, guys!"
"O-Okay, okay! Just give us a sec, Knux. Heh heh heh..." Sonic chuckled while trying to get a hold of himself, wiping away a tear of laughter.
A few minutes later...
After pulling Knuckles out, who finally noticed what the others were laughing at, grumbled before pulling the leaf off and dusted away the snow.
"I don't get any respect around here...No respect." Knuckles grumbled under his breath, annoyed.
"Ah, relax, buddy." Sonic reassured, nudging his friend's arm with his elbow, teasingly adding. "Think of it as good practice to dress up as Santa Claus for a Christmas Parade in Mobotropolis this year."
"Yeah, you make a fabulous Santa's helper, Knuckles." Tails couldn't help but chime in, making the girls, Cheese and the Wisps giggle again while Sun snorted in amusement.
"Har dee har har." The red echidna responded sarcastically, then said firmly. "Now that we're safe for the time being, how about we get going and find that shard before more of those monsters come out to play?"
"To do that, we have to find a way out of here." Star reminded, as she looked around now in concern. "Those monsters took us off course from where we were going in the first place and forced us to come into this cave."
Realizing that the fifteen year old girl was right, the group looked around to see if there was an exit until they heard splashes of water nearby, sounding a bit distant but close at the same time, with the temperature strangely warm coming from the same direction as the noise.
"Do you guys hear that?" Amy asked, curiously.
"It sounds like waves at the beach." Cream remarked, puzzled.
"Chao..." Cheese squeaked, confused.
Sonic placed a hand behind his right ear to listen more carefully, and thanks to his sensitive hearing, he could hear a bit more further, but not as good as Shadow, yet close enough. His eyes widened in bewilderment as he muttered. "That's because it is a beach. That must be our way out!"
The blue hedgehog went up ahead to take a look, with his friends quickly following as the waves got louder and louder, with signs of light shining around the corner, the warmth becoming a bit stronger that Amy, Cream and Star began to feel too hot due to their winter clothes. By the time Sonic and his friends finally found the exit of the cave, the snow strangely merged with white beach sand, the ice cave merging into a cove's cave, and the moment the hero of Mobius emerged, he had to shield his eyes with one hand to avoid in getting blind. The sight he saw made him gasp in awe.
"No way!" Sonic exclaimed in disbelief. His friends also emerged and all gaped in shock and awe.
Before them was the tropical side of the transformed world, ocean waves hitting the shores of the beach nearby, a couple of islands in the distance also having forms of ice and tropical fused together, the sun shining down brightly from above, little crabs waddling in and out of the sand and water, sea turtles swimming by, and quite a few times dolphins would jump out of the water playfully. Ice cubes floated about in the ocean, and the water itself was just as blue as the Sapphire Ocean back on Mobius, sparkling under the sun's reflection.
"Whoa..." Sun murmured in awe.
"Unbelievable!" Tails exclaimed, shocked.
"Wow! This is much better than the Sapphire Ocean!" Amy breathed in awe as her eyes, as well as the eyes of Cream and Star, Cheese and the Wisps sparkled.
"It's gorgeous!" Cream said in glee.
"For a transformed world, this is one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen!" Star agreed, her hands clasped together.
"But how is this place merging with beaches and ice structures without the snow melting?" Knuckles asked, dumbfounded.
"It must because of the Lunania Comet shard's power. It's merged two sides of the ice cold and hot weather into this place, mostly preventing the ice from melting and parts of the beaches from freezing." The nine year old cub theorized. "Therefore, the psychics of mother nature's law doesn't apply like it does in other worlds."
"Makes sense to me. And I'm gonna say that when we find that shard, all of this will disappear and go back to being an ocean planet, right?" Sonic folded his arms, thoughtfully.
Tails nodded. "Exactly."
"Well, at least we won't have to spend that much time in the water at the moment. This place is cool right now, but as much as I don't wanna drown or get wet, I'd feel better once Aquarium Park is back to normal. Especially for all of the sea creatures living here." Sonic smirked, rubbing his nose as he decided to take this opportunity to avoid diving into the ocean as much as possible, before gesturing his friends to the right. "C'mon. Let's get moving."
His friends all nodded in agreement and quickly followed the hero of Mobius to continue their search while watching out for anymore monsters that may come and attack them, and find Wisps which they haven't even noticed yet, hoping that the little aliens were alright.
Unbeknownst to the group, high above them standing on top of the tall glacier of the cave, the Mischief Five were watching them, four once again in ghostly forms, but rather than Roller this time, even though the former Burst Wisp looked rather worried and guilt-ridden, it was Whacker who was allowed to be in this world as the former Hammer Wisp held a mischievous look on his face. He turned to Spirit who smirked evilly.
'You're even better than I thought, Sonic the Hedgehog. But even when you do find all of the shards and return these worlds back to normal, you will soon realize that you were always meant to be with us ever since you saved our kind long ago. Just as brother Yacker and Mama always wanted.' Spirit thought to himself, as before he, unknowingly, absorbed the darkness that began to corrupt his desires, he had wanted to meet Sonic and try everything they could to keep him...Forever.
"I can't believe it. Sonic the Hero of the Wisps is taking up your game! Can we really keep him if he doesn't find the Falling Star shard?" Whacker whispered excitedly, grinning like mad as he had always wanted to fully meet the blue hedgehog and the very thought of keeping him was much more delightful.
"Whether Sonic the Hedgehog fails to locate it and restore this world back to normal or not, he is ours for taking. Then again, we won't make it that simple." Spirit chuckled, gazing over the horizon as he continued, mentioning about this world's newly created monsters. "Neither will they..."
This game was only just beginning and Sonic and his friends were about face more complications and dangers, as well as more helpful allies. Both old and new.
A/N: I've decided to make this chapter shorter since I can't keep writing long ones forever. I apologize about that in advance.
To TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3: The rest of the suggestion you gave me about how this world will play out will continue in the next and future chapters. Again, thanks so much for all of the help and I hope this chapter was lighter than the previous ones.
See you later!