Author's Note: Again, sorry for the long delay, but finally a new chapter of Sonic and the Return of the Wisps is here, and very possibly the final chapter and story to be updated for 2022. Hopefully I'll be able to continue and finish this next year, and update my other stories beforehand as well, yet I'm not sure at this stage.
Also, just a warning that the later part of this chapter may be a bit gross. So fair warning to the readers.
Anywho, without further waiting, here we go!
I do not own Sonic The Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Chapter 11: Big Trouble in Little Ocean.
While Sonic and the Burst Wisp were off rescuing the other Wisps from the Icy Monsters, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Sun, Star, Cream and Cheese, Yacker, Speed, Cutie, Lily, Ghostly, and the Breeze and Red-Spiky Wisps waited despite getting pretty worried that either more monsters would appear to ambush them, or something might go wrong.
During that time, the two former loyal Wisps of Spirit were getting along with the Mobians and with Ghostly and Cutie, were playing with Cream and Cheese.
"Looks like those guys are getting along pretty well." Sun remarked, as he and the others were watching the youngsters play and have fun.
"It kind of reminds me of the children in the Twilight Cage, doesn't it?" Star smiled softly, before lowering her gaze in growing concern. This didn't go unnoticed when the orange hedgehog and soon the others, with Tails analyzing the status of the transformed planet, caught her expression.
"What's wrong?" The former Werehog asked, quickly getting worried.
"It's just...so much has happened, especially for Sonic. And these poor little Wisps. Like the time with the people trapped in the other dimension I was born, there's so much we don't know about. Like with so many other species out there in the universe, I'm really worried that there could be more out there who aren't as friendly as the Wisps." The young lavender hedgehog admitted after a moment of hesitation.
"I get what you mean, Star." Amy replied, her hands clasped together. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything about it."
"Amy's right. For all we know, there could be other good aliens out there as well. Considering how Sonic told us the Octosaurs used to live in peace and harmony, and sacrificed themselves to trap Cormain, keeping themselves within the Prison of Evil for a very long time making sure no other villains who end up there cause any problems, like the Wisps, there's bound to be some." Tails agreed, pausing in his search.
"Hate to admit it, but he has a point." Knuckles shrugged grudgingly, his arms folded to his chest as he gazed at the ocean, with a frown on his muzzle deep in thought. "Though what really surprised me was Sonic's story in making friends with a giant whale of all things when he hates getting wet. Not that I really believe in that part. He's made it all up just to get over his fears, which didn't help much at all."
As though on cue and having been part of the conversation, Sonic suddenly appeared via a blue blur with the Burst, Hover, Cube and Hammer Wisps, casually saying with a smug expression. "It's not a made up story when the big guy's the real deal."
"Would you stop doing that!?" The teenage Guardian grumbled, glaring at his younger friend after he recovered from being surprised by the hedgehog's arrival, while the others including Cream and her playmates who heard the cobalt hero, quickly sighed in relief and approached around him making sure he and the newly rescued Wisps were okay.
"(Is everything alright?)" Yacker asked immediately, as the more rescued Wisps joined in happily hugging him while he giggled, Cutie, Ghostly, Speed, Lily, the Breeze and Red-Spiky Wisps who cooed and cheered on, remarking how Sonic the Hedgehog had bravely saved their lives with the Burst Wisp posing proudly for helping him out.
"Yeah, we had a bit a close call even with a giant ugly sea monster, but fortunately we got some help from an old friend of mine." Sonic reassured, while sharing a warm and loving embrace with Amy who rested her head onto his shoulder. He then chuckled before gazing at the ocean. "In fact, you're about to meet 'im."
"You mean the giant whale?" Tails asked, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Yep! The one and only."
"Isn't he the one who swallowed you up twice only to let you go?" His girlfriend asked, shocked and becoming a bit scared, slightly tightening her embrace with her boyfriend.
The blue hedgehog smiled, understanding her and, judging by his little brother's, Cream and Cheese's frightened expressions, Tails' concerns since they heard the stories of how he was swallowed whole alive, first time being trapped inside the mouth with the air pocket the whale created despite Sonic having worn the Sea Mask at the time, and the second making him go down the throat and dangerously close into entering the massive creature's stomach. Fortunately the gentle giant freed him through it's blowhole to get to the submarine.
'On the other hand, I have entered giant stomaches before. At least twice in reality. Good thing it happened in the White Space and not at home, and I had been lucky with the Dragon being totally sensitive that I kinda feel sorry for the poor guy. And Mini-Me handing me over two of the Chaos Emeralds when I saved Scourge from being Werehog food.' Sonic thought to himself, suppressing the urge to shudder over the memories of being a snack.
Which made him remember his conversation with Soloman again, but the sixteen year old hedgehog quickly shook those thoughts away. Still, if it came down to it, he may have to endure that treatment again. Yet he trusted the Whale as long as one didn't make it furious enough to break that trust between them. Thinking this made him made him worry if Spirit and the rest of the Mischief Five could invoke it.
'Still...I'm not gonna let anything happen bad happen. Heh, man I really am the craziest guy in the universe. But hey, friends are totally worth in risking my life for them. I couldn't ask for better company and being with them and family and exploring is way better than Egghead's miserable lonely and evil life.'
Reminded of how much he deeply loved his friends and family, the cobalt hero knew he would continue to protect everyone no matter what the risks.
"Sure is, but don't you guys worry. He's a cool dude. A little scary at first, but for a giant, big, tough whale, he's a big ol' softie." Sonic reassured warmly, placing a comforting arm around Tails' shoulder.
"Well...If you say so, then I guess it'll be okay to meet him. I did wonder what it would be like to see the giant Whale." Tails reluctantly smiled back, but like Amy who looked unsettled, the two-tailed fox was a little bit scared. When Sonic had told him on their way back to the Egg Bus Shuttle, the young cub could've sworn his heart was about to burst out of his chest.
To hear his adoptive big brother almost got killed throughout their two-day adventure up in Space the last time, being nearly cooked in a giant Blue-Berry Pie due to the hallucination, and swallowed up by the whale who proved to only feast on fish and not other worldly visitors and had trusted Sonic enough to actually help him, the young kit had feared for the hedgehog's life even more. It was sheer luck that got Sonic out of those jams more times than any of them could count.
'I just hope none of that happens again, or even worse. Being eaten whole alive is one of the worst things to happen to anybody.' The nine year old cub couldn't help but shudder over those thoughts. Plus he still had on and off nightmares of how Kaiser the Myth Hunter had died.
Which again had all been Eggman's fault. Everything that happened in the past apart from Cormain, at least in their reality, was a result of the late evil scientist's cruel and corrupted actions.
"So, where is he?" Sun asked, shrugging as like Knuckles, he too was skeptical over his brother's claims of making friends with the enormous sea mammal.
The moment the words escaped from the tangerine hedgehog's mouth, there was a sound of an unusual but musical moaning which caught most of the Mobians and the Wisps. Even stranger that Sonic remained calm with one hand on his hip.
"(What was that?)" Speed asked, glancing around frantically, his eyes widened in confusion and worry.
"(I-It sounds scary!)" Ghostly shivered, hovering closer to Cream and Cheese who held each other a bit frightened, and Star standing close to her.
"It must be another sea monster! I'll handle it!" Knuckles declared, quickly standing in fighting position just as the water were splashed and something huge emerged, towering over the group. The echidna was about to get ready, he ended up stuttering in absolute shock. "Let me at h-h-h-h-him!?"
He ended up trailing off and, as embarrassing as this was, frozen stiff in fear while Tails screamed, jumping a few feet off the sand with his arms waving frantically, Sun letting out a shocked and bewildered 'Whoa!', the Wisps apart from the Burst, Hammer, Hover and Cube Wisps who flinching and squealing, dumbfounded and terrified, Cream and Cheese and Star gasping in shock, and Amy clinging onto Sonic too tightly which made her boyfriend wince in discomfort.
"T-That's one big whale." Sun remarked with a sweat drop, dumbfounded. Now he finally began to believe Sonic's story, but he never expected the sea creature to be this massive.
"I-It's gotta be approximately 112 feet long!" Tails exclaimed in fright, his heart beating rapidly while he was unable to hold back his whimpering. "Or about 95 at least...!"
Sonic couldn't help but chuckle at his friends'/family's reactions, before introducing them to the giant Whale who gazed at them thoughtfully and vice versa. "Gang, meet my buddy the Guardian Whale of Aquarium Park. Big guy, these are my family and friends: Tails, Amy, Sun, Knuckles, Star, Cream and Cheese, and the rest of our Wisp friends, Yacker, Speed, Cutie, Ghostly, Lily, the Breeze, and Red Spiky Wisps."
The giant Whale gave off another musical sound, this time more gentle, welcoming and kind, sprouting water from it's blowhole, and a soft warm smile which, while most of them were still more than a little nervous, began to feel at ease and relaxed a little.
"It-It's nice to meet you." Amy nervously greeted, once she slowly let go of her boyfriend who mentally sighed as while he loved her in his life and her crushing hugs were becoming less frequent, it had been as though he was being choked to death.
"Hi there." Tails waved a little, with a small nervous smile.
"Hello, Mr. Whale." Cream, recovering more quickly, greeted.
"Um...It's a pleasure." Star muttered.
"Uh...Uh, greetings, big guy." Sun awkwardly blinked, wondering if he really was having a crazy dream. Or nightmare.
The Wisps that never met the giant whale gave out their own greetings, while Knuckles was left utterly speechless, his mouth gaped and hanging open that it almost literally dropped to the ground as though he was gaping like a fish, his eyes as wide as dinner plates and his heart beating rapidly in humiliating fear. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, as all doubts about Sonic's story about the huge sea animal were tossed out of the window.
"Yo, Knux. Aren't you gonna say something?" Sonic spoke up, turning to his older and dumbfounded friend with his arms folded. He tried very heard not to laugh at his friend's hilarious expression but it was a losing battle that the blue hedgehog ended up snickering.
"Um...E-Excuse me for a minute or two..." The seventeen year old held up a hand, before he hurried down to where they all came from which left his friends staring at his sudden departure in confusion.
The moment the red echidna was in the far distance, the next thing they heard was his loud, terrified, bewildered and outrageous scream.
"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!? IS THE UNIVERSE CRAZY OR IS IT ME!" Knuckles shouted, and some of them could of sworn that he was raising his arms upward as though he was asking the all gods above.
A moment of silence...before Sonic couldn't help himself but laugh hysterically with both hands on his stomach, followed by some of the Wisps who found this to be funny, Tails trying to cover his mouth to muffle his laughter, but failed, Cream, Amy and Star giggling, Sun snorting in amusement, and Cheese giggling away while the giant whale blinked in amusement as well as confusion over the Master Emerald Guardian's reaction.
It took about at least ten minutes before the younger heroes ceased their laughter and their older friend finally returning with his face all red, almost matching his fur colouring, panting to calm down after the long amount of screaming over the craziness.
"Geez, Knuckles. You couldn't be any louder?" The sixteen year old hedgehog teased, wiping away a tear of laughter. "I think the whole world heard ya'."
"You mean the whole galaxy?" Sun added with a smirk, nearly setting his brother off into more hysterics.
"Har de har har." Knuckles deadpanned with a sweat dropped, before sighing while shrugging. "I just can't believe you were telling the truth about the whole thing with the giant whale helping you out and that he's actually real."
Sonic snickered. "Dude, I hardly lie about things like this. It's Eggman who's the biggest liar in the whole universe."
"Especially with abandoning in being evil speeches. We've heard that more times than we can count." Tails dully added.
"They're right, Knuckles, and I only met that creep once." Star shrugged in agreement, making Knuckles grunt in annoyance.
"Dr. Eggman always says he would abandon his evil ways, but he never did and that's why he became trapped inside the scary Prison of Evil." Cream sadly agreed.
"And yet, back when he was still alive, every time he'd somehow got you to believe him." Amy sighed in exasperation.
"Alright, alright! I get it, okay!?" The guardian exclaimed in irritation, arms flailing a bit. "I just thought that Sonic was making stuff up about the giant whale!"
He then flinched when he realized that the aforementioned sea creature was still there and, fearing in making it mad while Sonic flinched with a soft gasp and the others panicking a little, the echidna quickly turned to the whale and frantically and apologetically held up his hands, waving them.
"Uh, n-no offense!"
The whale didn't seem to be offended, but he did look rather a bit skeptical as it raised an eye-ridge over the echidna's claimed. Seeing this made the blue hedgehog race over to his older friend and clamped the latter's mouth with his hand.
"Don't take his words to heart, pal. Knux is a great guy, he just has issues with sociality, growing up alone, a slow brain and not knowing when to keep his mouth shut sometimes." Sonic nervously chuckled apologetically.
"Hey-mmph!" Knuckles pulled back a bit to protest, only for his younger friend to quickly shut him up again.
"Shush! Big guy with big heart and ruler of the entire ocean here!" Sonic shushed with a panicked glare.
Fortunately, the whale almost instantly understood the blue hedgehog's concerns. Knowing that Sonic's friends were very close to him in his heart and given their meeting in the past, it trusted the teenager and vowed to never take it's anger out on them or misplace their friendship. Because little did the Mobians know that the Whale actually felt really terrible for forcing itself to swallow him alive and frightening him, yet it was kind of amusing how he told it he wasn't a fish and thought he was about to get eaten.
It just wished they could speak the same language so that the Whale can tell Sonic that it had it's reasons since it didn't have any arms or legs to carry him and it wanted to protect Sonic from Admiral Jelly's Submarine missiles by keeping him inside until it got close enough to set him free.
"We're sorry about our friend, Mr. Whale. I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Tails apologetically and nervously said.
The whale shook his head gently, making more musical sounds and to everyone's surprise, Star blinked before she closed her eyes and held out a hand which, for the first time in months since Sun had been traveling with her and being the first time for Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Cream and Cheese and the Wisps, the lavender hedgehog's hand glowed. The young girl then saw images in her mind as she could see into it's memories.
It's peaceful life within this planet before Dr. Eggman's arrival in capturing it and building the air-tube aquarium town and generator, meeting Sonic who had first been completely terrified of it even when he had been swallowed whole alive twice before being set free to help him, and to what's going on and...a huge amount of sea creatures including that of figures she'd never seen before nor did the hero of Mobius in his last visit.
"Hmm...I see. That's what you mean." Star murmured, the glow on her hand fading and she opened her eyes with an understanding but sad expression. "You poor thing. Dr. Eggman really has made things very awkward, hasn't he?"
"Huh?" Everyone else gaped in surprise and confusion.
"You understand what he's saying, Star?" Sonic blinked, dumbfounded while releasing Knuckles who held a puzzled expression.
"Mm-hm. From what I'm understanding, everything had been peaceful here with this whale being, as you had said, Sonic, the guardian. I could also see that he was asking for help hoping to solve the problem despite that it had to be careful on who to trust and how to save it. The moment he saw you, he was watching you destroy Dr. Eggman's robots and save the Wisps." The young explorer explained with a nod.
"So he wanted to make sure that Sonic wasn't just some tourist or on Ro-butt-nik's side?" Sun shrugged, and his girlfriend nodded to confirm it. The orange hedgehog frowned thoughtfully as he folded his arms. "Huh, I'm surprised. Do whales really sense that?"
"Whales are intelligent in their own way, Sun. They may not be able to speak the same language as humans and Mobians, or Wisps, but they can find their way around and communicate based on their lifestyle." Tails explained wisely.
"Considering both Eggman and the stupid darkness from Cormain messed up the Wisps' peaceful lifestyle, it's no wonder the universe needs help." The blue hedgehog shrugged, while making sure that the annoyed Knuckles wouldn't snap or say anything else that could potentially cause more problems between his friendship with the giant whale.
The giant whale seemed to understand where the Mobians were coming from while surprised how Star somehow saw through it's memories with her hand magically glowing, before it made another musical moan while gesturing it's head upward towards the traveling heroes and the Wisps who, at first confused on what it was talking about, shared glances.
However, Cheese and Sonic somehow understood, to which Cream noticed her little Chao chirping away before the little seven year old rabbit girl blinked in surprise. "Wow! Cheese says that Mr. Whale seems to wants to help us get to where we need to."
"Ah, so you wanna give us a ride, huh?" The sixteen year old hedgehog smiled knowingly, placing a hand onto his chin. He felt a case of deja vu while the giant Whale nodded with a beaming expression.
"Really?" Amy smiled surprised, feeling excitement flow into her as she clasped her hands together thoughtfully. "I've always wondered what it would be like to ride on top of a whale that is sweet and friendly."
"This will be fun!" Cream exclaimed in agreement, imagining how amazing it would be to ride on top of a giant but very kind whale.
"Awesome!" Star said, bowing slightly. "Thank you so much."
Sonic chuckled, finally letting go of the even more dumbfounded Knuckles who stared as the older teenager couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Thanks, pal. We're gonna need all the help we can get."
"Well, this should be fun. Better than Vector's driving, anyway." Sun shrugged, though he was a little uneasy.
Tails though felt uncomfortable over the idea of riding on top of a massive sea creature, murmuring. "I'm not so sure I'm gonna like this."
'I think I'd rather swim.' Knuckles thought to himself, though this time he decided to be very careful in keeping his mouth shut. If he said the wrong thing and invoke it even by accident, he could end up ruining Sonic's friendship with the giant whale who could potentially swallow them up.
He wasn't looking forward to this at all.
"(Whoa! Riding on top of a giant whale? Now THIS is super fun!)" The Red-Spiky Wisp beamed as he, the excited Speed, the Breeze and Hammer Wisps flew over to take first ride. "(Shotgun!)"
"(Hey, wait for us!)" The Hover Wisp protested, pouting as it, Yacker, and Lily, who sighed in exasperation while shaking her head with a shrug, used their powers to help their Mobian and Chao friends by lifting them up flew over to join their brothers and sisters, and Ghostly yelped, panicking as she didn't want to be left behind before flying over to join her family and friends.
Once Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun, Star, Cream and Cheese and the Wisps were all onboard on top of the giant whale who made sure everyone was firmly on the flat part of it's head, it then turned to swim out into the open sea.
"Say, big guy. Think you can tell us if you know where a piece of the comet's shard is?" Sonic inquired hopefully, pulling out the first piece from his quills. "It looks like this and we're not sure if it's close by."
The giant whale nodded, before it swam a bit faster while making softer sounds as though telling it's passengers to hold on tight. While Sonic thought it was still pretty slow, by water standards this was really fast and as far as the blue hedgehog was concerns, much faster than a yacht as he felt the speed to his heart's desire. He along with some of the Wisps, Amy, Star, and even Knuckles all cheered on while Tails, Sun, Yacker, Ghostly, the Hover Wisp and Lily all yelped in fright while trying not to fall off, and Cream and Cheese were beaming along happily, giggling.
"YEAH! Now this is more like it! Gimme a ride on a fast whale than a slow cruise anyday!" Sonic exclaimed, laughing as he stood up and spread out his arms, feeling the warm breeze against his face and quills.
"Hey, this is more fun than I thought it would be!" Knuckles admitted, grinning in surprise and delight.
"This feels so great! The air and the sun feel nice and comfortable." Amy sighed, her eyes closed in bliss.
"Wheee! This is really exciting!" Cream cheered.
"I agree!" Star added.
Speed, the Red-Spiky Wisp, the Breeze and Hammer Wisps cheered on excitedly, saying in Wisp language. "(Whoo hoo! Yeah! Faster, faster, faster!)"
"I-I think this is fast enough!" Tails screamed, quivering as he held on as much as possible for dear life. He liked going fast himself, but being on top of a giant whale as well as having the potential dangers of slipping off and falling into the ocean was more likely to happen and it scared him.
"Well, at least it still beats Vector's lousy pilot skills." Sun remarked nervously, shivering a little as he hoped that they would fall off either. When he glanced at the other four Wisps, he could tell that they didn't exactly like this sort of thing either.
As the passengers were either enjoying the ride or silently begging to get off or at least slow down, the whale gave another musical toot, and even jumping a little out of the water with a splash which made Sonic and his friends scream either excitedly or frantically, though the blue hedgehog yelped in fright as he nearly lost his balance. When the while landed back into the ocean, he sighed in relief.
"Uh...O-on second thought, maybe a slow ride would be a little bit better." Sonic admitted a little shakily, his heart racing over the terrifying ordeal of nearly falling off of the whale who, hearing him scream and whimper, sweat dropped in embarrassment before making a soft and apologetic moaning before slowing down a little as it briefly forgot how the young hedgehog feared water.
"Maybe standing up on a whale is not such a good idea." The former Werehog suggested with an awkward smile and one-shoulder shrug.
"Yeah well, I'm so used to twists and bumpy rides that I normally have a pretty good balance." Sonic shrugged in return before bending on one knee and gently rubbing the whale's head. "Sorry for screaming like that, pal. And I guess we both kinda got carried away, huh?"
The whale made off a sound which sounded quite sheepish as though it was saying, 'Yeah, we kind of did.', while Knuckles sighed, exasperated yet understanding the dilemma and everybody else blinked, knowing of Sonic's fears.
"Sonic, I hate to say this, but you really gotta get over your phobia with water." Knuckles pointed out, firmly while attempting to ignore the annoyed glares from Amy and Tails and even from the Wisps. "I know you hate getting wet, and you can't just keep on avoiding it and whether you do have the Sea Mask or not, you have to face it sooner or later. Otherwise it will end terribly."
While Sonic felt a bit hurt over this, he knew that deep down his older friend was right, lowering his gaze as his heart sank. As much as he really was still scared of water, forcing himself to face it several times, another realization dawned onto him. What if he can't save his friends if they end up in trouble with water and he can't even swim? He'd been lucky a few times in the past, but things are changing rapidly for him. Sooner or later, like his fears of Eggman winning which were now false, Sonic had to face another challenge to overcome this.
He had to overcome his fears of water, whether he liked it or not.
"You're right, Knuckles. I...I can't keep up with being this freaked out like a baby forever." Sonic replied, feeling so ashamed with himself for all the years of getting his friends into trouble regards to water, or even just annoyed with him. Even with the Sea Mask, he had to learn to get over it.
"Sonic..." Tails and Amy both whispered, worriedly while Sun and Star shared an uneasy glance, Cream and Cheese along with Yacker and Ghostly snuggled into the blue hedgehog to give him as much support as possible.
Even the Whale, quite surprised over how sincere and upset the teenage hedgehog was, held a sympathetic expression while feeling utterly guilty for scaring Sonic like that, and even three months ago when it had swallowed the back-then-fifteen year old up twice in order to help him to save this world.
"But I'll be okay. Just gotta-"
Before the blue hedgehog could continue in an attempt to reassure everyone that he'll be alright, there was a sudden loud noise which felt like the ocean was becoming so rough that Sonic this time fell onto his bottom with an alarmed cry, nearly crashing into his friends who tried to hold on for fear life, screaming away and nearly slipping off of the giant whale's back, while the enormous sea creature was caught a bit off guard himself when the waves became so dangerous all of the sudden. Everyone screamed, hearts hammering, Amy, Cream and Cheese holding onto Sonic and Tails who tried their best to hold them, Yacker, Ghostly, Cutie, Speed and Lily tight, Star and Sun doing the same, and Knuckles ended up being cuddled by virtually all of the Wisps who shook in fear in Wisp language.
So much so that they almost covered the teenage echidna entirely like a big poofy coat, and he grunted in discomfort.
"H-hey, guys! Look, I know that you're scared, but y-you're suffocating me!" The seventeen year old wriggled and squirmed a little and if the situation had been any different, it would have been hilarious.
"Hey, what's going on!?" Sonic shouted, now really nervous as the ride was suddenly getting more and more dangerous. Deep down he was terrified that they could all end up falling into the ocean and unable to use their Sea Masks in time, they were all in real big trouble...
Unless the whale saves them by swallowing them up, and keep them inside it's mouth until they reached another dry land. That made him whimper a little over the thought despite that it was the only good case scenario to prevent them from drowning.
"Oh no! Look!" Tails screamed out panicking, pointing up ahead which made his older brother and their friends to look up as something began to emerge from the ocean in front of them.
They all gasped in shock and horror with Tails, Amy, Cream and Star screaming, Ghostly hugging Cutie as the two female wisps quivered violently in fear, Yacker's eye widened in shock while Speed flinched, the Burst, Cube, Breeze, Hover, Hammer, and Red-Spiky Wisps tightened their grip on Knuckles who grunted in discomfort, Lily screamed out loudly, Cheese chirped with his eyes widening, and Sonic left speechless. Because coming out of the water was another half-giant sea monster, but looking a bit like an ugly dog-fish with a long nose for a head, an muscular upper body covered in coral and two tentacles for arms, the lower part of it's body made of muddy sand capable of being restrained from water, a dolphin like tail, and a shark's fin on it's back.
It snarled with a look of pure anger and hate, forcing the Whale, who was still larger than the monster as it was no bigger than a two story foot building, to come to a near stop which almost forced it's Mobian and Wisp friends forward, making them cry out in alarm once again. As they quickly recovered, the group stared in shock at the sight of the beast, but it was then that Tails noticed something shining from within it's chest that made him gasp in shock.
He wasn't the only one, as Amy and the Wisps could also sense it, their eyes widening in horror: They had seen it before, back inside the pizza monster who had the Lunina Comet's shard inside it's body.
"(Sonic! Guys! There's a shard inside that thing!)" Yacker screamed out frantically.
"I can see it! The Lunania Shard's gotta be the main reason why this planet is turned into a tropical frost!" Tails exclaimed, unable to believe it himself.
"WHAT!?" Sonic, Sun and Knuckles shouted simultaneously, sharing incredulous looks.
The sea monster, apparently the leader of all of the sea monsters with several more appearing, roared and began to surround the group including the giant whale who glared hard as did Sonic, and most of the others while the rest of them stared on fearfully.
"We're trapped!" The teenage Guardian hissed, his violet eyes narrowing in dismay. How were they going to get out of this one?
"Not for long!" Sonic declared, eyes narrowing with determination as he made sure his Sea-Mask was secure, careful to not break it since he didn't want Tails' hard work in making it go to waste or get damaged. While his heart ached for having to rely on the Wisps, he knew there wasn't much of a choice, so he turned to the cute little aliens. "Think you can help me with this?"
"(You bet we can, Sonic!)" The Burst Wisp saluted as it and the other aliens, even the nervous Cutie and Ghostly, all held the same determination to help out despite not liking to be in a battle.
"We'll help out too!" Amy had already summoned her Hammer, not willing to allow her boyfriend to get hurt or killed, or even fight alone despite that they were surrounded by deep water, while Tails, Knuckles, Star and Sun readied themselves once more.
Even the Whale looked ready to fight, making more musical sounds which caught the Mobians' attentions before the larger monster roared in garbled language. The smaller monsters then charged, jumping out of the water to attack.
"Let's do this!" Knuckles grunted, and to his surprise this time the Burst Wisp decided to share it's power with him. While he yelped in surprise, stumbling back a little at the unexpected aid, he then remembered what Sonic told him when the Rocket Wisp merged with him back on Sweet Mountain.
He hissed at the urge to burn or explode overcame his senses, before the red echidna transformed, shouting loudly, "BURST!" and like with Sonic, the Guardian of the Master Emerald flew like a huge flaming orb, bashing and hitting several of the monsters who, flinching at this and attempted to hit him back, were burst into flames as they gave out cries of agony before vanishing, particles falling into the sea.
While this was going on, the sea monsters gave Sonic a heated glare while the hero of Mobius shared a glance with a couple of the Wisps, smirking with determination and excitement despite being stuck surrounded by his worst nightmare. Thankfully this time the Whale could save him either way.
"Hope you weeds are ready, because we're the sea-fertilizers!" The hero of Mobius teased with a grin. "I bet you guys can't even wrap around a rock! Heh, no wonder you get tangled up like a pile of seaweed! And washed up on a beach most of the time. Ha ha!" He laughed over his joke as did the Wisps who tried not to get too distracted.
That only made the sea monsters steamed up over the hedgehog's insulting words, roaring garbles like mad as they prepared to kill him and his friends. Unfortunately like some of Sonic's enemies in the past, this was exactly what he had intended because they were opponents he can handle with.
"Here we go!" Sonic jumped while sharing a high-five with the Hover Wisp who then glowed alongside the blue hedgehog, because unlike previous transformations, they merged easily.
"HOVER!" He shouted, while bashing into five sea-weed monsters, thrusting them into the air before sending them flying. Just as the hero of Mobius returned to normal, the Hammer Wisp quickly flew towards him and with a reluctant nod just as he was about to fall, the little grey alien went inside him.
This time Sonic had the feeling of hitting things to set things right, while going front ways and back ways, surprisingly without falling. Unlike most Wisps, the Hammer Wisp gave the sixteen year old the feeling of being light and righten things up, similar to how Amy would use her Hammer...
"MULLET!"
Transforming into a large blue and grey/silver hammer that can actually fly, Sonic sped across more sea monsters who threw their spears at him, but he knocked them away by bashing them aside as though they were just sticks. The army sweat dropped before they were all bashed and whacked on the heads and chests, screaming away in fear and pain before hitting the water's surface hard in defeat.
By then, the teenage hero safely landed back on top of the giant whale who swam faster to bash into the sea-weed army who attempted to stab it with their weapons or claw it's skin, but were knocked away easily like bowling pins, with a look of pure determination, using it's head to bash hard at the slightly harder ones.
"Whoa! You go, big guy! Talk about a tough sea-warrior!" Sonic half-jokingly remarked, wobbling a bit yet thoroughly amazed by the giant whale's attacks and now somewhat smooth the ride actually is. And really fast!
The Whale smirked it's thanks at the teenage hedgehog, refusing to not do anything in order to help the Mobians and Wisps with their quest.
"HAAAH!" Amy yelled a battle cry, repeatedly bashing away enemies that attempted to get too close to her and the others. not even holding back on her strength. She then charged at a couple that landed on top of the whale, but flinched when they saw her holding an angry fiery look. "No stowaways allowed on this gentle and kind whale!"
The sea monsters panicked with their eyes widening frantically, seconds before they were smacked so hard they flew away, vanishing in a twinkle. The pink hedgehog girl wasn't done, as she quickly went to help Ghostly who used her power to transparent herself, causing six monsters to charge only to crash into each other, and Cutie, Speed, Yacker, and Lily flying underneath them to flip the enemies over and become stuck in a pile of, well...seaweed.
She then thrust so hard right at the pile once she made sure none of the cute little aliens would get hurt or accidentally hit, that she smacked the piled-up monsters straight into the ocean far, far away as they screamed, landing with a huge ker-splash in the distance.
"Yeah! That'll teach ya's not to mess with the wrong heroes!" Amy cheered on, while the four cute and brave little Wisps twirled and spun around happily.
Tails, a little frightened in being surrounded by more monsters, quickly used his namesakes to lift himself up just in time before he spun around and whacked two of the sea-weed things back, narrowly avoiding in getting caught as he yelped a little. The nine year old fox cub then stomped onto another and surprisingly did his own axe-kick at the fourth right in the face, sending it stumbling. Then having a cheeky idea, the young inventor quickly grabbed hold of it despite it being taller than him, held it over the water and simply dropped it casually while it screamed and splashed, disappearing upon impact.
"Bye bye." The twin-kitsune mocked, before sensing movement behind him which made his neck hairs prickle and he slowly looked his shoulder, before crying out in alarm when two more monsters began to advance on him with weapons and sea-weed arms ready for an attack.
As though acting quickly and seeing that he needed help, the Breeze Wisp quickly came to the young fox's rescue as it, much to Tails' surprise, fused with him this time. Screaming in alarm while being caught off-guard, feeling the strange sensation of light rainbow energy flow into his body, shivering at the bitter cold power, he then remembered how Sonic described in using the Hyper-Go-Ons and for the first time in his life, now finally understood despite having used the energy from the Chaos Emeralds once alongside his big brother and Knuckles.
"W-Whoa! ICE!" Tails screamed out, transforming into the icicle form and spun around and around the two monsters who flinched in shock upon seeing this, and with dumbfounded and terrified expressions, were frozen in ice before sliding off of the giant whale, never to be seen again.
Meanwhile, Sun was punching and kicking at incoming monsters that tried to attack him, Star who used her martial arts, air-kicking them, and Cream and Cheese who done their best to knock them away, and with a grunt of frustration as more kept on coming, the former Werehog used his Homing Attack to bash away and slice through the rest of the enemies.
"If you guys weren't so slimy and gross, I woulda cooked you up and use you for sushi!" The tangerine hedgehog grunted, Spin Dashing into two more sea monsters who growled, but were bashed away as they flew into the distance in agony, vanishing from sight.
By this time, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails all returned to normal with the Hammer, Burst and Breeze Wisps fusing out of their bodies, and while the blue hedgehog, still feeling guilty for using a lot of the Hyper-Go-Ons, gave an apologetic but grateful smile at the Hover and Hammer Wisps, the red echidna panted a little as he wiped his forehead while the two-tailed fox shivered and felt dizzy, wobbling a bit which caught Sonic's attention.
"Tails? You okay, bro?" The cobalt teenager asked worriedly, quickly catching his younger sibling when the cub stumbled into his arms.
"Y-Yeah, I'm okay...Whoa, talk about a rush...and a freezing one at that." The nine year old placed a hand to his head, groaning a little as he tried to clear his senses, before letting out a couple of sneezes. "W-What the first time burrowing the Wisp's p-power felt like you were dizzy or something?"
"Maybe a little." Sonic awkwardly smiled, having seen what happened and was completely shocked that the Breeze Wisp had decided to let Tails burrow it's power this time. "It takes a while in getting used to."
"Yeah, a lot of getting used to." Knuckles grumbled under his breath, but none the less turned to the Burst Wisp and smirked. "But thanks for the help, little guy. It sure came in handy."
"(I just wanted to help out, Mr. Strong Guy!)" The Burst Wisp saluted proudly, making the teenage echidna chuckle.
"Now we just gotta take out the big monster." Sonic declared, once he knew that all of his friends were safe as they all turned to glare at the giant sea monster along with the Whale who, after bashing away the other monsters, knew the biggest monster would be the hardest to take out.
The giant monster leader growled, before it swam towards the heroes who stood ready while some of them felt really scared but tried to be be brave. The giant whale snarled, determined to help his young friends before it could get the chance to hurt them and keep them safe. But to everybody's shock the sea monster made a huge splash of a tidal wave which while it wouldn't engulf them, it would cause more problems as Sonic and his friends all gasped in horror.
"Brace yourselves!" Sonic shouted, doing his best to cover and hold onto Tails and Amy along with some of the Wisps who gathered around, using their powers to shield them, Sun who covered Star, Cream and Cheese, and Knuckles and even onto the giant Whale who was forced back by the massive tides, all of them screaming while hanging on for dear life.
Than, as the Whale was forced to let out a huge roar of shock while struggling to remain in position without flipping backwards, with it's mouth open, the giant monster that held the Lunina Comet Shard used this to it's advantage and literally dove right inside, much to Sonic and Star's shock as they and Tails, who also saw this, all gasped in horror and to make things worse the Whale, feeling it, accidentally closed his mouth and while he tried to spit the creature out, the gentle sea creature could feel it swim towards it's throat which unfortunately forced him to swallow it up.
"OH NO!" Sonic exclaimed in dismay.
"The giant sea monster forced itself to be eaten by the whale, with the Lunania Shard still in it!" Tails screamed, distraught. Everybody else gasped in horror with the Wisps frantically flinching while the waves calmed down.
In the meantime the Whale, feeling this and felt his own heart freeze up in terror upon realizing what he has done, squeezed it's eyes shut and let out a musical moan. To the surprise of it's tiny friends of other worlds, it glowed in a light blue colour as deep inside it's throat, the sea monster entered the entrance of the stomach, yet there were two more which lead to other passages, the deep fleshy pink walls glowing and the sea monster, frowning in confusion, jumped in alarm with it's eyes widening as it slid down to it's left where the entrance there squeezed shut before the whale ceased it's revealed power.
"Okay...That was weird." Sun blinked, bewildered.
"Can somebody please tell me what just happened?" Amy asked, shaken.
"The Monster made Mr. Whale eat it up." Cream remarked in horror.
"Chao, Chao..." Cheese chirped, once again in his best friend's arms.
"And it's got the shard! Just great." Knuckles grunted in frustration.
"What happened, big guy? Are you okay?" Sonic asked, worriedly as his heart dropped. If by miracle, they can get the shard which wasn't digested, except now a full horrifying realization dawned onto him.
In order to get it back, they would have to go inside the giant whale's stomach...Meaning that it would have to eat them whole and swallow either one or a few up to get the Lunania Shard back. That was a terrifying adventure and the blue hedgehog had to force himself to be eaten quite a few times before and had hoped to never go through that experience again.
His giant friend nodded, wincing a little as it felt uncomfortable movement inside it's body, which the blue hedgehog and the rest of the group noticed.
"Guys...I think the sea monster's starting to make our friend feel hurt and sick." Tails remarked worriedly.
"And with the Lunania Comet Shard also trapped inside it, that's even worse. If we don't get out, who knows what will happen." Star agreed, shuddering over terrible possibilities that could cause dangerous side-effects with the Whale.
"(What do we do? Will Mr. Whale be alright?)" Cutie asked, two of her tentacle hands on her face with her eyes tearing up.
'No...This can't be happening...! I gotta save our friend and fast! C'mon, Sonic! Think! There's gotta be a way to save him without getting digested it!' Sonic felt completely helpless, and with time quickly running out, he tried to come up with a safer way to get the shard back before the sea monster inside the whale's stomach could kill it. He squeezed his eyes shut in guilt and desperation.
"Anybody got a bright idea?" Knuckles asked, shrugging in concern.
"Unless you want to risk in being the big guy's unwilling dinner, I'm stumped." Sun sighed, shaking his head desponded.
As much as Sonic didn't want to go back inside the giant whale and had hoped to avoid in being swallowed whole after the crazy adventures lately, especially three weeks ago on his sixteenth birthday which could have been the last birthday he would ever have, seeing his gigantic friend in a uncomfortable state and with the sea monster holding the power of the Lunania Comet Shard, he feared more for the gentle creature's life and unless something was done quickly...
The whale could die. The blue hedgehog couldn't let that happen, not when the sea guardian had helped him so much and had saved his life along with the lives of his Wisp friends. The sixteen year old squeezed his eyes shut, forcing down his fears as the fate of his friends mattered to him much more than his own life.
"I'm goin' in." Sonic finally declared, snapping his eyes open with determination.
"WHAT!?" The rest of his friends all gasped bewildered. Even the Whale made a bit a jolt of shock upon hearing what the blue hedgehog had just said.
He was willing to risk his life to go inside and get the shard back? By being eaten!?
"ARE YOU CRAZY!?" Sun demanded in disbelief. "You'll just be digested!"
"Sonic, you can't! It's too dangerous!" Amy pleaded fearfully, tears beginning to form in her eyes, fearing for her lover's life.
"Look, I don't like this anymore than you guys do, but if we don't do something and if the shard and the sea monster survive being digested, they could cause major problems to our friend...Maybe even kill him." The hero of Mobius firmly said, hesitant upon doing this at the potential cost of his life, before narrowing his eyes once more. "I won't let the whale die! Even if it means being a fish-snack."
"Sonic..." Tails murmured worriedly, before yelping as the Whale then made a slight movement with another musical sound.
While the giant sea mammal held an expression which told them almost immediately that even it didn't like the idea of having to swallow Sonic the Hedgehog once again, this time in order for him to save it's life as well as getting the shard back, it tried to communicate with them to tell them something very important.
"Doesn't look like the big guy wants to eat you just to get the shard back either, Sonic." Knuckles remarked and frankly, he didn't blame the giant creature.
"I know, big guy. But I don't want you to get hurt." Sonic smiled softly, sympathetic as he gently rubbed the giant whale's head. "You're a great pal, and helped us out a whole lot, and I can't thank ya' enough." He then smirked with determination. "So now, it's my turn to save you!"
"(Sonic, you can't do this!)" The Breeze Wisp protested, as it and some of the other Wisps shook their heads, begging him to not go through with it.
"I wish I didn't, guys, but it's the only chance we got. It's a big risk, I know." The blue hedgehog sadly smiled at the gentle little aliens.
"(Wait, I think Mr. Whale is trying to tell us something.)" Cutie spoke up, and while she too was scared for Sonic's life, she then flew down to hover in front of the whale's face. Thinking of an idea, the white-yellow Wisp then gently touched the soft skin of it and glowed, with the Whale then doing the same which amazed everybody else who wondered what was going on.
"What's she doing?" Sun blinked in confusion.
"(Oh! She's attempting to use her power to help in understanding the whale's language.)" Yacker realized, surprising the Mobians who gaped at him. "(Whenever there's a language that is harder to pick up, we sometimes use our Hyper-Go-On power to make it a bit more clearer.)"
"Whoa...That's pretty cool." Sonic murmured in awe.
By then, Cutie and the Whale stopped glowing before the latter blinked and made sounds which the cute Twirl Wisp understood clearly this time, surprising the giant once more. The two then communicated while Sonic and the rest of his friends waited until she gaped in surprise.
"(Huh!? Really?)" She suddenly exclaimed in disbelief with a sweat drop, with the Whale nodded with reassurance despite still not wishing to put Sonic at risk. While Cutie wasn't liking it either, she seemed to relax a bit before flying up to her friends who heard her.
"What did he say, Cutie?" Amy asked, curiously.
"(You won't believe what Mr. Whale just said! He says that he has not one, but TWO tummies inside his body.)" Cutie explained frantically.
"HUH!?" Everybody else gasped in shock.
"Two!? Are you kidding?" Sonic's eyes widened, unable to believe what he was hearing.
Cutie shook her head, continuing. "(Nope, I'm not, Sonic. He says that while he does eat fish, he doesn't dig...degu...digu...digus...Urm...)"
"Digest?" Tails blinked, dumbfounded.
"(Yes, that! Um...What's...digest?)" The little alien asked, while the other aliens shared a puzzled look, and the Mobians sweat dropped uneasily. Especially with Cream and Cheese around.
"Maaaybe we should explain that another time, Cutie." Sonic nervously suggested, before asking in surprise. "Wait, if that's the case, then he actually just stores food?"
Blinking in confusion on why Sonic and the other Mobians didn't look comfortable in mentioning it, Cutie shrugged and answered. "(Uh-huh. He says that he can only...keeps the fish he eats inside the main tummy to keep himself healthy. The other tummy is to hold in something he ate that either was by accident and let's them go through another tunnel with his blowhole by using magic, or could make him sick, like seaweed. He even uses magic to make sure the things he eats by accident doesn't get stuck...)"
She then paused before adding nervously. "(Except sometimes the things or non-fish he does eat and store in his other tummy have to wait until he gets water to let them out, and if they do end up inside his main tummy and get stuck, he brushes his face into seaweed to make himself sneeze them out. Sometimes he has to use that method to get them out that way from the other tummy too.)"
'Whoa...So it's way similar to the dragons in Bamboo Jungle in Moebius, only the big guy can control what he can eat and shouldn't eat and let's them go.' Sonic thought to himself, and while he was still a little uncomfortable with this whole thing, he did feel a little bit better. "Heh, guess that means he's on a strict diet."
"That doesn't make this any better, though." Knuckles frowned, disapproving Sonic's decision. "I don't like this idea."
"Hey, if the big guy placed the giant sea monster in his storage stomach, then I'll be able to get out once I get the shard back and beat that overgrown seaweed." The blue hedgehog shrugged, despite that he was nervous.
"Hold on, didn't the Whale guy say he could sneeze things out, though? Why not just sneeze the sea-monster, then?" Sun shrugged in realization.
Blinking in surprise, the group turned to the Whale who thought about it, but given it's expression and gave a sad moan to which the Wisps listened very carefully before they all sighed with Speed, the Breeze, Red-Spiky, Hover and Burst Wisps slumping, Yacker facepalming himself, the Hammer and Cube Wisp sharing a glance, and Cutie, Lily and Ghostly murmuring in disappointment.
"What's the bad news?" Sonic asked, wirily.
"(Mr. Whale said he can't do that right now, because all of the seaweed is gone in the ocean. The moment the Planet transformed, the seabed were either turned into the palm trees on the sandy beaches, or into those monsters, or even frozen and impossible to get to.)" Yacker answered, much to the Mobians' dismay as they mimicked the disappointment from their Wisp friends.
"Dang..." The blue hedgehog groaned, slumping. "And nothing else can make him sneeze?"
"(Not underwater, no.)"
Sonic sighed, rolling his eyes. "Oh well, it's worth a shot. Plus it's not like Aquarium Park had anything above the surface 'til this whole mess started."
"Are you sure you'll be okay going in Mr. Whale's tummy, Mr. Sonic?" Cream asked, beginning to fear that she and the rest of the group may never see him again if Sonic did go inside the whale and be eaten alive.
Seeing the tears beginning to form in her, and practically Amy and Star's eyes ached Sonic's heard, but he smiled sadly, and gently patted his youngest friend on the head. "I'll be okay, Cream. And I'll be outta there before you know it. I promise."
"And...If the can't get you out with a sneeze or the blowhole? How can you do it?" Sun asked half-sarcastically.
"Heh heh...Sea Turtles." The blue hedgehog laughed teasingly, attempting to lighten the mood. It did work because Tails couldn't help but giggle over that, Amy tried to muffle hers, while the rest of the group sighed even though Cream and Cheese and the Wisps were even more confused. Yet they knew he was trying to cheer them up.
"That's it. No more movie-quotes from you." The tangerine hedgehog shook his head.
"(I'm going with you, Sonic.)" Speed, realizing that he could help with his power despite that he knew that the blue hedgehog still felt uneasy in burrowing the Hyper-Go-Ons, announced bravely. "(With me, we'll get outta there no problem!)"
"Speed's right, Sonic. With the Jumping Wisp, we can teleport out without waiting." Tails suddenly agreed, with renewed hope.
While Sonic realized that the cobalt Wisp was right even though he didn't want to risk the lives of his friends, at his best friend/little brother's words, the teenage hedgehog gaped at the fox cub in shock when he said the 'we' word. "Tails...You're not-"
"I'm going too, and it would be better since the Miles Electric could be a use of help since the WCS wouldn't work as well in the dark, even with Speed's power to glow." The nine year old kit replied, and while he was scared of actually going inside a giant whale's belly, he was determined to help out his older brother no matter what.
"Don't think you boys are leaving me behind!" Amy declared, much to everybody else's shock. She narrowed her eyes with bravery. "There's no way I'm missing out on giving that sea-weed a big lesson."
"No way, guys. This is too dangerous. I can take Speed with me, but you guys should stay out here just in case something happens." Sonic however firmly denied. If anything happened to his little bro and girlfriend, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.
"Sonic, you're gonna need all the help you can get. Besides, I'll worry myself sick if I stay out here and wait forever." The pink hedgehog argued, folding her arms. "Whether you like it or not, Tails and I are going."
"I know we're worried about is, big bro, but the seaweed monster is unpredictable and it will take more than your abilities and Speed's power to take it down without causing more problems to the whale." Tails agreed.
"(And if you guys are going, then I'm going too. I promise I'll be careful with my icy powers.)" The Breeze Wisp agreed, and was quickly joined by the Hover Wisp who saluted cutely.
As much as the sixteen year old hated to admit it, and fearing for the lives of his friends and family, Sonic knew that they were right. He would need all the help he could get and the giant sea monster did prove to be quite a difficult challenge, given how the other sea monsters were hard to beat. Despite the protesting looks from everybody else, he knew that like himself, Tails and Amy's minds were made up.
"Okay...You win. But we have to take it in carefully, okay? We're goin' into the belly of the whale and we need to make sure we don't hurt him or end up trapped as his fish food." Sonic finally sighed, conceding defeat. He quickly turned to the Whale itself who still looked uncertain. "No offense."
The giant whale made another musical sound, indicating that he wasn't offended yet he still felt very uneasy over this. With that, it made a questioning sound on if the blue hedgehog was willing to go through with it.
"I know you don't wanna eat me or my friends, big guy, and we're worried about hurting you. But we'll make you feel better before you know it. I promise." The hero of Mobius, somehow understanding what the giant whale was attempting to say, carefully patted his larger friend's head once more.
Once knowing that Sonic wasn't going to change his mind, while Cream, Cheese, Star, and the rest of the Wisps shared uneasy glances, Sun and Knuckles both sighed in frustrating defeat.
"You really are the craziest guy in the universe, Blue." The orange hedgehog shook his head.
"Yeah, I know." The sixteen year old shrugged, chuckling nervously. Steeling himself up, he turned to Tails, Amy, Speed, the Breeze and Hover Wisps, asking. "You guys ready? This is gonna be unexpected."
"Just nervous, but yeah...I-I think so." Tails replied, wondering if Sonic's craziness was rubbing off on him as well.
"Anywhere you go, I'll go, Sonic." Amy declared, just as nervous but wasn't going to sit by and lose her boyfriend. Not when they had made it official a few weeks earlier.
Sonic smiled fondly at his little brother and girlfriend, sensing that he even made the people he loved do many crazy things too. When the Wisps nodded that they too were ready, he turn back to the Whale, asking. "Ready, big guy?"
The giant Whale nodded, preparing itself to allow it's small friends to venture inside it's body and journey towards it's second stomach. It had already used it's power to ensure that the non-fish it would eat whole and swallow them alive would end up inside the storage belly and once they were done in destroying the sea monster and claim the Lunania Comet Shard, it would swallow gallons of water to let them go through their blowhole. Yet it felt it's insides shape uncomfortably outside of it's two stomachs within it's throat as though the shard's power was transforming it from inside out.
"Good luck, guys. And be careful." Knuckles reluctantly encouraged, patting Sonic's shoulder.
"Please come back safely." Cream added.
"Chao.." Cheese gave a sad little chirp.
"Hang in there." Star whispered, with Yacker, Ghostly, Lily, Cutie and the Cube and Hammer Wisps wishing for the best as well.
"Thanks, guys." Sonic smiled softly, willing himself to calm down. "Well, let's do it."
Nodding and more than ready to risk their lives, the Whale, noticing a large sand dune connected right towards another icy continent and all around them in the far distance, an ice palace loomed with the waves gently crashing into the shores of the sand and the snow, and then swam towards it before stopping close by. Once that was done, the three Wisps then used their powers to once again create a shield which surrounded around themselves, Sonic, Tails and Amy who, after activating their Sea-Masks just in case, held each other's hands, the blue hedgehog giving those who would wait a confident smirk.
"Here we go!" Sonic declared, and Speed, the Breeze and Hover Wisps then levitated all of them off the Whale's head and straight towards it's face, while the giant sea mammal, with a deeply concerned expression and hesitation, paused. "It's gonna be okay, big guy. I trust you. If we have to, we'll make our own way out. Now, open wide please."
Sensing that the small blue hedgehog was telling the truth, the Whale felt a little bit better despite being worried. None the less, it held a look which told the teenage Mobian and his friends to be careful. So it did as Sonic requested, and opened it's mouth to reveal it's giant chamber within and entrance to the throat. For a split second as the heroes shuddered nervously, the hero of Mobius forced himself to remain calm since he had overcome this fear, though he hoped that this would be the last time he would actually allow himself to get eaten.
"Well, down the hatch!" Sonic said, sightly tightening his grip on Tails' and Amy's hands as all three of them squeezed their eyes shut while Speed, the Breeze and Hover Wisps nervously floated all six of them inside and towards the throat...
Just as the Whale, feeling guilty with his heart aching to do this without much choice, slowly closed it's mouth firmly shut, leaving Sonic, Tails, Amy, and the Wisps now trapped inside alongside the sea monster. Shuddering and out of habit, while the rest of the Mobians and Wisps waited anxiously, they all felt their hearts drop with soft gasps, the giant sea animal, feeling them somehow fall onto it's tongue rather quickly and inadvertently, reluctantly gulped the six young heroes and it could briefly hear their screams in alarm.
"You'd better come back out alive, guys. What you're doing is extremely dangerous." Knuckles whispered in a prayer, narrowing his eyes. Sun gazed at him before looking back to where his two brothers and four of their friends had been.
'I wish there'd been another way to get the sea monster out...Sonic, Tails, Amy, Wisps...Be careful.' The orange hedgehog thought with a nervous sweat drop.
"I sure hope they make it out safely." Cream murmured gravely, as Star attempted to calm her and Cheese down.
All they could do now was wait for Sonic's group to return...If they can get out of the whale's non-food stomach.
The moment Sonic, Tails, Amy and the Wisps entered the mouth, they all felt their hearts pace quicken, almost instantly becoming quite scared but knew that they had to save the giant whale from being killed. The group of friends hesitantly looked over their shoulders just as the massive creature slowly closed it shut, blocking out the blue sky and sunshine of the outside world and trapping them, making the entire chamber quite dark.
"M-Man...I never thought I'd actually be inside a giant mouth before." Tails shuddered, whimpering a little. It was pure luck that the Wisps' bodies were already glowing to provide some light.
Not that it would help ease his nerves.
"Now I know how you felt, S-Sonic. And the stories of Pinocchio." Amy shakily remarked, frightened.
"Yep. Being eaten whole alive is never a fun experience. But we gotta do this." Sonic replied, sweat dropping as memories of the previous times came back to him.
But just as the Wisps' shield made to head towards the throat, the Hover Wisp suddenly felt it's face itch before it let out an unexpected high-pitched sneeze which cause it, Speed and the Breeze Wisp, who along with the Mobians, flinch in fright, to lose concentration and the shield disappeared. This made Sonic and his friends to accidentally fall with alarmed cries and landed right onto the massive tongue close to the throat.
"Omph!" The blue hedgehog grunted, glad that the landing was soft and squishy, but he was reminded that tongues were always slimy and disgusting.
When the two Wisps cast a glare at the Hover Wisp, the little green aliens blushed sheepishly with a shrug. "(Sorry. Got a tickle on my face.)"
"EW! This is gross!" Amy exclaimed in disgust, shuddering.
"Well, at least it was soft." Tails remarked awkwardly.
"Yeah, and there's no water in here..." Sonic nervously chuckled in agreement.
Unfortunately, while the Wisps quickly flew to see if the Mobians were alright, the impact of the two teenagers and the two-tailed fox cub landing made the Whale feel them and when they felt the massive surface begin to shift, they yelped just as they were being lifted upward.
"W-What's happening!?" The thirteen year old hedgehog screamed out, fearfully.
"The tongue's moving!" The nine year old fox exclaimed.
"Whoa! Brace yourselves, guys! He's swallowing us!" The sixteen year old hero screamed, mentally gasping as he realized they accidentally landed on the back of the giant tongue.
With a flip of the giant tongue, the six heroes which included the Wisps who were shoved by it, were all tossed tossed right down into the throat itself.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Sonic, Tails, and Amy screamed, and the Wisps being spun repeatedly as they were flown right into the fleshy tunnel, landing onto the floor and slid down the rest of the way.
However, the Wisps quickly regained their balance and used their powers to create another brief protective shield to slow the group's descend, before they came to a stop in the middle of the throat. Panting and thankful that they weren't going to be swallowed down quickly as they wanted to make sure they landed in the right stomach where the sea monster was, Sonic and his friends all sighed in relief.
"Man, that was close. I thought we were gonna be accidentally sucked down to the food storage." The blue hedgehog placed a hand to his chest.
"Well, it can't be that far. The only way to go is straight down and to the two stomach areas, right?" The pink hedgehog asked, standing up along with everybody else.
She and her friends gazed from where they came from which was like a mile away from their perspective, knowing that they were all to remain inside as the Whale's unintended food until they got the Lunania Comet Shard back and the giant creature would let them go. But for now, their massive friend would be forced to keep them inside with no way of escape.
"Maybe not." Tails made a quick analyze with his Miles Electric which was thankfully waterproof. He scanned the inside of the creature and sweat dropped nervously. "The Lunania Shard inside the sea monster is slowly changing the inside of the whale into a labyrinth of some kind. I think the sea monster is trying to protect itself and maybe even try to possess our friend to do what it wants."
The Wisps gasped in horror, with Speed exclaiming. "(We'd better hurry and stop that thing, fast!)"
"Speed's right. We don't have have much time left." Sonic agreed, gazing down at the further tunnel ahead of them with narrowed eyes. "Let's go."
His friends all nodded in agreement nervously, before carefully but quickly racing towards their destination, hoping to get through this before it was too late.
'Hang in there, big guy. We'll get the shard out as soon as we can. I'm not gonna let anybody die. Not on my watch.' The teenage hero thought, determined to save the whale.
As well as hoping that they can get out before they were forced to wait for the sea guardian to recover and leaving them trapped for a while until then.
A/N: Sorry to leave this in a cliff hanger, and I hope I did okay with this part of the chapter. The rest of the adventure inside the whale will continue next time, which will most likely be early next year at the earliest. It took me ages to come up with an idea how to continue and this is the result.
Also, thanks TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3 for helping me out. Sorry that some of your ideas weren't able to make it into this chapter, but I may be able to use them in the future, whether or not I may edit this chapter depending on how it goes.
The adventure in Aquarium Park may end up being a bit longer this time as several more adventures are lingering and it will take a while before I can come up with an idea of Team Sonic's quest in the next world.
Until then, Merry Early Christmas and an early Happy New Year!
See you later!