Chapter 19: Follow the Yellow-Green Vine

This bridge stretched on for what seemed to be thousands of kilometers, no end in sight yet.

Just how far was this jungle anyway? Not that I had the heart to ask, watching Rayman being so carefree with no fear of falling to his death with the simple slip of the foot.

I told myself, "Go with the flow. We'll be at the ship eventually..."

"I couldn't help but notice that you looked a little tense at the moment, Sly," Rayman then pointed out with a grin. "I'm guessing you never saw anything like this back in your world?"

Shoot, I guess I looked a lot more nervous than I thought.

"Uh, yeah, pretty much," I admitted. "Believe me, in my world, something like this would be completely out of the ordinary. In fact, pretty much everything here would give people that prefer to come up with logical explanations for phenomenon like this would instantly get migraines trying to make sense of this place."

"Like myself," Bentley pointed out.

"If anything, Mario was the least boggled," Rayman commented.

"I have seen some-a very bizarre things in-a my world," he told us. "Don't-a ask."

"So speaking of our worlds, since we know about the existence of other worlds, why don't we talk about them?" Sora inquired, looking just as undaunted, even smiling brightly.

"As in our respective homeworlds, or the worlds we've been to?" Ratchet asked, to be sure.

I told Ratchet, "I'm thinking homeworlds, since before I met Sora, I wasn't that familiar with what was beyond my homeworld. Sora has done a lot of world travel, though."

"That's right," Sora chimed in. "I don't mean to brag, but I've been to dozens of different worlds in the past."

"You're not the only one that's done a bunch of traveling," Ratchet then responded with a grin of his home. "Why else would my friends and I have a ship to begin with?"

"And what kind of places have you been to where you come from, Ratchet?" I asked out of intrigue.

"Ones that are definitely a lot more technologically advanced than this place, I can tell you that!"

"Killing robots?" Sonic asked with a cocky expression.

"Eh, some here and there. Ever fought a robotic pop star?"

"I battled a robotic skater and boy band."

"Try qiant wedding planning rabbits," Mario tacked on.

I responded, "And I thought I'd seen it all during my career... guess not..."

"Ah, c'mon, I'm sure there must be some interesting stuff you must've seen in your world that we probably never dealt with before, Sly!" Sonic encouraged me with a smile.

"Well, I guess there have been a few things my friends and I have gone through before we met up with Sora and his friends," I admitted, having thought carefully about what I could've gone through to intrigue my new associates.

"Like what?" Ratchet asked with an intrigued look.

"How does fighting a gigantic, mechanical owl, going back through multiple periods in time and even jumping through countless amounts of dimensions sound to any of you?"

Sonic gave a whistle, Mario gave a noise of amazement, Rayman had that look of surprise, Sora was awestruck, and Ratchet...

I suddenly got a high-tech shotgun in my face, causing me to flinch and actually fear for my life.

"I should arrest you for causing such abuse in the space time continuum!" he shouted, completely enraged. "Do you not know how serious of a crime that is in my worlds?!"

"Crime. I'm used to hearing that word by now, because I'm a thief in my world. Just so you know, my family was in great danger at one point. It just so happened that time travel was the best way to fix the issues in my family's history..."

"Ratchet, seriously, cut the guy some slack," Rayman sternly said to Ratchet with a look of disapproval. "It sounds to me like he had good intentions for doing all of that time traveling. Besides, it's not like he'd know that's a serious crime in your worlds considering he's from some place else entirely. With different laws, might I add."

"We seriously apologize on Ratchet's behalf," Sonic said as he scratched the back of his head. "He really does mean well, but he can be really hotheaded as you can tell."

"Well, I can see where the risks are," Sora defended. "I would say Ratchet's anger is reasonable. It's still the laws of worlds after all."

"And too much can actually damage the continuum," the feline added.

"Calm down, we took apart the Continuum Jumper after that fight with an evil Sly," Bentley informed.

I responded, "It was for the best. We didn't want to know what could happen if we kept it around..."

Ratchet still held a very heavy glare at Bentley and myself before he eventually gave a reluctant sigh before putting his weapon away, still essentially glaring daggers at us.

"Fine," Ratchet said with reluctance. "I'm trusting you both on this. But I'm going to keep my eye on you both, got it?"

Why do I get the feeling it was going to be hard getting on his good side given how hotheaded he seems to be?

"Okay, okay, let's not escalate any tensions between us," Rayman suggested, trying to diffuse the situation. "At the end of the day, they did what they needed to do and it more than likely was for good intentions given how they apparently fought an evil version of Sly using this 'Continuum Jumper' thing. For now, we should really focus on getting towards the ship."

"But walking at this speed is going to take forever," Sonic stated, revealing his irritation. "Why don't I just take each of you one by one-"

"Ah no, you nearly caused me to spit up my lunch when you did that," Ratchet interrupted. "You're a hedgehog, not a ship that can hyper jump. I don't have the stomach tolerance for that without a cockpit."

"Interesting fact about your ship, straight out of a sci-fi movie," Bentley commented. "Though I think anything in Ratchet's worlds is at this point."

"That's exactly what Tails said," Sonic chuckled. "You two are really going to get along."

I responded with, "Hopefully someone at the ship can get us closer to answers about our situation... we have to figure things out. And with another tech wiz for Bentley to bounce ideas off of, that may not take very long..."

"Trust me, you guys will are gonna be impressed with Tails when it comes to technology!" Sonic said with a big grin. "He's easily one of the smartest people my pals and I know! If there's anyone your friend there will be eager to talk about tech stuff with, it's definitely him!"

"I suppose I'll be the judge of that," Bentley said. "But from what I hearing, I can't deny that I have high expectations to see what this 'Tails' person you know is capable of."

"Of course, they're not going to get far enough in repairs without Ratchet here," Rayman pointed out. "He is the captain, despite the 'title' belonging to a certain oaf. Plus, the guy's a mechanic."

"Well, I wouldn't know what's broken without Clank," Ratchet replied with a grin. "He points it out, I fix it."

"Who is Clank, by the way?" Sora inquired.

"My best pal since we first met when he crashed his pod on my homeworld. Don't let his size fool you, he's the most calculated companion someone like me could ask for."

"And he's a robot," Mario tacked on.

"Who's apparently part energy being called a Zoni," Sonic added.

"Now that sounds like a complicated story," I commented.

"Let's just say he and I have gone on all sorts of adventures over the years," the feline chuckled.

I told Ratchet, "And I think we would all like to hear about some if we find the time. I have a feeling that your story can't be more complicated than the story of what Sora was doing before he met me..."

"Eh, depends on what Sora went through to make you say that," Ratchet shrugged.

"Honestly, when he calls my adventures with my friends 'complicated', it's pretty much an understatement in my big," Sora admitted. "Believe me, you guys would be scratching your heads trying to make sense of everything we went through. Even I'm still kind of lost about how a few things worked back then after all of this time."

feeling Rayman would understand, at least half of the story," I said.

"Maybe," he replied. "Hey, speaking of understanding, what are you anyway, Sly? We don't have people that look exactly like you here."

"You don't have raccoons? But you have talking turtles that walk on four feet?"

"Yeah, this world has a lot of strange creatures, and that's coming from someone who is a native of probably the most plain world out of all of us," Sonic joked.

"Okay, what about Rayman and Ratchet? Because I already know Mario's a human."

"I'm a Lombax," Ratchet stated. "Identified by our long ears, big eyes and stripes. We're a desert species, but we can adapt."

"Cool," Sora said. "And Rayman?"

"Hybrid," the other three replied before the ginger could.

"My mom is a fairy and my dad is the guardian of this world," Rayman said with exhaustion, as if he had to repeat that several times (no doubt he did).

I told Rayman, "I know how you feel. Back when I met Sora's friends from his worlds, I got a little tired of telling my story so much in such a short amount of time..."

"Trust me, we all have a lot of explanations that we pretty much ended up getting exhausted repeating to each other's friends after a while," Sonic sighed.

"I can only imagine the stories this 'Link' person you and Sora know must have when we go to his world later considering the last Chaos Emerald we're looking for is there," Ratchet said.

The conversations about our worlds seemed to make the trek to the ship a lot shorter, or at least more bearable.

"So, you all said you encountered Heartless, right?" Sora brought up.

"Yeah, and nothing was useful against them except this powerful laser Tails invented," Sonic said.

"Out of all the weapons my ship has, not one could even leave a dent in them," Ratchet stated.

"Yep, definitely Heartless," Bentley said worriedly.

"So only powerful light can destroy them, of course," the pilot said, with a face of realization. "That's why the Chaos Emerald completely obliterated all of them."

"You instigated a Chaos Control? By yourself?" I asked. It was the same that happened to me.

"That must've been how your ship got here in the first place, Ratchet," Bentley said. "That's how Sly got sent to Sora's worlds, and Link's planet here."

I told everyone, "Well, at least I'm not the only one who activated the power of the Emeralds by myself. Although our situations do appear similar... I have a feeling we're missing something."

"Right?" Rayman agreed. "Like why did the Chaos Emeralds appear in our worlds and Link's world specifically. It just all feels, I don't know, too coincidental in my mind."

"If-a only we had-a some kind of clue that could help guide us in-a the right direction," Mario chimed in, getting lost deep in thought.

"Actually, there is one thing that might help us a bit," Sora then spoke up. "But we left it in Link's custody before we came here."

Ah, of course! That book that only us, Link and Aaron could read!

"What is it, and why?" Ratchet asked, sounding like he was suspecting something.

"It's a mysterious book that was in a language no one knows about. We left it with Link because only a select few can read it. Link, Sly and myself can read the words perfectly, while a companion of Link's can only read some of the words."

"And the words themselves appear to miraculously translate into our respective written languages," I pointed out. "Not to mention it talks."

"Huh, that's actually a new one on me," Rayman said, intrigued.

"I just found that out earlier today. It nearly gave me a heart attack when words suddenly started appearing before my very eyes. Not to mention it knew about secrets in my family legacy that only a few know about."

"And you think it can tell us what we need to know?" Sonic inquired.

"Or we give it a Q&A just to get the answers straight from whoever those mysterious words are coming from."

I said, "Hopefully Link has found something on those pages... whoever wrote that book knows more about what's going on than any of us. It could very well be a key to figuring things out."

"Then we've gotta get the repairs done on my ship soon," Ratchet said. "The sooner we fix up my ship, the sooner we can bring Link's world back to wherever it came from and get some answers from that book he has on him."

"How much farther is it to the ship, by the way?" I asked Rayman. "Not that I mind the cardio or anything, but if feels like we've been going down this path for a good while now."

"There's your answer coming this way," the ginger replied, pointing to something coming from the sky. It looked like a small orb with a propeller. The orb opened for a lens, which scanned all of us. When it got to me, Sora and Bentley though, an alarm blared.

"Whoa, Tails, it's cool!" Sonic quickly jumped in. "They're with us."

The alarm stopped immediately.

"That startled me," Bentley confessed.

"It was just defense in case one of our enemies appeared," Ratchet explained.

I told Ratchet and Sonic, "You guys were taking precautions. I can respect that after everything that's happened."

"Believe us, we definitely wouldn't want anyone like Eggman catching on to whatever it is that we're doing," Sonic said. "Especially when it came to the Chaos Emeralds."

"So since that weird device belonged to your friend, then that means we've gotta be close by now!" Sora said enthusiatically.

"Exactly," Ratchet confirmed. "We don't have time to waste. Let's get to that ship!"

"Race ya!" Suddenly, Sonic had sped farther down the vine in a blur. Wow, he was faster than I thought.

"Hey! No head starts!" Ratchet's boots began quickly propelling him forward after him.

"Bentley, if those things weren't loud, those could be useful," I told my brainy friend.

Bentley said, "Agreed. You heard Ratchet...let's get going. This chain of events could lead us to answers. What form they may take, I have no idea."

"Then let's-a hurry!" Mario said before, much to the surprise of myself, Bentley and Sora, taking off quite a distance by performing what appeared to be a series of long jumps. "Come on! Let's-a go!"

"Hey! Don't forget about me!" Rayman shouted as he ran off afterwards.

"C'mon, Sly! Last one there's a slowpoke!" Sora teased me with a big grin before darting down the vine after everyone else.

"They all think like you," Bentley groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses.

"Why do I suddenly feel old compared to everyone?" I couldn't help but say.

"That's just the married life."

"Don't let Carmelita or Penelope hear you say that. Let's hurry after them."

I broke into a sprint, even though I knew I should reserve my stamina. Bentley was spinning his wheels as fast as he could behind me.

Oh man, I was already running out of breath by the time I caught up with Sora and Rayman, who were neck-and -neck. Mario, Ratchet and Sonic were just up ahead.

I told the others, "I thought I was fast, but it turns out that I've been outmatched today... nice work."

"Trust me, even all of our speeds combined is nothing compared to Sonic," Rayman said, trying to keep his breathing in control. "Apparently back in his world, he's known as the fastest hedgehog alive! He could circle the entire planet without breaking a sweat, from what we've seen!"

"I didn't even know hedgehogs could run that fast!" I said. "Definitely not like the hedgehogs back home in my world!"

"Well, no animal I know from my world is as tall as you, Sly," Sonic stated, eyes looking me over again. "Not even Knuckles comes close to your height."

"If you want tall, get our pal Murray. He's a hippo."

"Ahem, if you're done talking about species," Ratchet called, bringing our attention to him.

"We're here!" Mario cheered. Oh yeah, we're about at the end (Finally!) and there was now clear signs of a crash there. Lots of trees are all over, the ground was scraped of all greenery, and there was the LARGEST spaceship I had ever seen at the end. Scraps of metal, broken glass and wood were scattered all over the crash site, Down below, there were many people gathered, probably a combination of the four's own pals.

"It's HUGE!" Sora exclaimed with excitement. "I wish our Gummi Ship was that big!"

"Well, it is the Starship Phoenix Mark II," Ratchet said. "The first is in another galaxy, in case you were going to ask."

I told Ratchet, "I was expecting a big ship, but I wasn't expecting one that big. I'm impressed."

"Believe me, coming from a place filled with technologically advanced planets, you easily have access to only the best state-of-the-art equipment you can find!"

"Meanwhile, it looks like there are a bunch of other people down there," Sora pointed out. "I'm guessing those guys are your friends?"

"You know it," Sonic confirmed. "Definitely a colorful cast of characters, if you ask me. I can only imagine what the friends that you, Sly and Bentley know are like, Sora!"

"Just as colorful, I'll tell you that much," I answered.

"Shall we head down then?" Ratchet suggested.

"I'm winning this time!" Rayman exclaimed before he jumped down.

Was he crazy?! The forest floor was hundreds of feet below!

Then, his hair started rotating like a propeller, and he was falling slowly to the ground. O... kay.

"I said no head starts!" A rope like device appeared in Ratchet's hand, and soon he was singing off the vine to the trees.

"Oh, I'm not losing this time!" I couldn't help but shout, jumping off and pulling out my paraglider.

I told the others, "I've seen some creative ways of getting around today. Mine is just...plain by comparison."

"Well, at least you-a have a safer way down-a there," Mario called out to me as I made my descent before giving a nervous chuckle. "Me, I think I'm-a just take the safer path-a down there. I don't-a really have any flashy ways to get-a down there without breaking my legs."

"Yeah, I think I'd rather stay on the safe side too rather than try to be all flashy getting down there," Sora nervously chuckled in response.

"Excuse me," I suddenly heard Penelope over my com. "I heard that, but Donald just told me that Sora would free fall without anything and land without a scratch."

"Probably didn't want the others to feel bad," I chuckled.

But something suddenly slammed into my back, knocking me off course.

"Ow!"

"Ow! Hey!" I saw Ratchet glaring at a blur of blue. What the heck, Sonic?!

I told Sonic, "I don't know how long it's going to take for my back to recover from that. Try not to do that again, OK?"

"Sorry!" Sonic shouted. "Once I get in the zone, it's hard to make me slow down for a second!"

"Well, maybe NOT try to bounce of us while we're trying to make our descent too-" Rayman started before giving a loud yelp as he sharply flew out of the way just before Sonic could slam onto him as well. "Sheesh, that was too close for comfort..."

Seriously, this guy must have way too much energy for ANY living being.

After a little bit of gliding and getting back on course, I landed safely on the forest floor. Ratchet wasn't too far ahead, and neither was Rayman.

"The ship is just beyond this bit of trees," the ginger told us. I looked up at the vine, noticing Mario and Sora continuing on its route.

I responded, "Finally! The trip down here took longer than I thought it would..."

"Yeah, it's not really the shortest route in the world, but it is the quickest," Rayman admitted. "At least it beats having to jump through hoops and climbing up cliffs just to get all the way here!"

I'm... not going to press him on what the normal route would've been if we took that direction.

"I'm just hoping that your friends don't treat me and Sora as threats considering they've never met us before."

"Don't worry about it, Sly," Ratchet said. "Since Sonic told Tails earlier that you're with us, there 's no doubt that he must've told everyone that you're on our side by now."

"Let's hurry up then so we can get everyone off this world and help Link," Rayman stated. "I am looking forward to meeting him."

"Way ahead of you!" Gah! Sonic, knock it off! He had stopped right next to me before darting past us, nearly giving me a heart attack in the process.

"Remind me to ask Bentley to switch his shoes for lead ones," I said to the two. I actually got a hum of approval from them as we headed to the wreck.

End Chapter