Chapter 20: The Crew
Okay, this was a large group of colorful people... er, creatures. So many shapes and sizes, even a huge humanoid looking gut in a tacky green suit. The introductions are going o be even longer than just maybe a few hours ago.
Sonic was already with them, no surprise.
"There you guys are!" that blue hedgehog called. Some of the others looked our way, and a small robot with round, green eyes came over to Ratchet.
"What about the Chaos Emeralds?" he asked the feline.
"They're okay, Clank," he assured. This was Clank? I expected him to be a little bit taller. "The barrier should protect them."
I have a feeling this is going to be another very long day, but after everything the Emeralds have put me and my friends through, I think I should be expecting that...time for more introductions.
"So, these guys are those friends of yours that you've been telling me and Sora about?" I asked Ratchet.
"You know it," Ratchet confirmed with a nod, looking down at the robot he had just finished speaking to. "Like this little guy right here. This here's Clank, my closest pal from back where we come from."
Clank... Strange, I feel like I should also know who he is too like how Ratchet seems oddly familiar to me. I can't quite put my finger on it, though... Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter at the end of the day.
"The other three should be able to catch up," Rayman said. Suddenly, a zippy green thing came flying up to my face. Did this thing have a frog face?
"What's this guy supposed to be?" he questioned, circling me like I was a snake.
"Shoo fly, don't bother me," I replied, just not wanting to put up with the rude approach.
"Murfy, leave him alone," the ginger scolded. "How many times have you done that now? No one is comfortable with you doing that."
I tell Rayman, "I wouldn't be surprised if you guys have had to deal with that a lot recently..."
"Believe me, it's pretty much a pain to get the concept of 'personal space' into his head," Rayman sighed. "This is Murfy, by the way. He's something that people around here in my world is called a Greenbottle."
"A 'Greenbottle'?" I repeated. "Never heard of a frog called that before. Let alone a frog that can fly."
"Er, actually, he's supposed to be an insect," Rayman corrected with a nervous chuckle. "I know, he looks A LOT like a frog, but believe me, he's anything but that."
Wait, he's supposed to be an insect? That has got to be the most frog-like bug I've seen in my life...
"Now, the one that's most definitely like a frog is my best bud over there, Globox." He pointed towards a big, blue frog-like creature with a tummy that could rival Murray's. He waved in my direction. "He's, well, a Globox."
How creative.
"Any other friends I should be told?" I asked.
"Just Ly, who's over there." There was a long-eared girl over by a humanoid girl with a red bandana headband, and she had purple pixie-cut hair with a matching, bushy cat-like tail. "She's a fairy."
"Never seen a fairy like her before, not that I've seen a genuine fairy before."
I tell Rayman, "I guess this situation is something I'll have to get used to. Everything was...normal for me before I met Sora and his friends, and now the situation is spiraling out of control. I have no idea why we've been brought together, but I really want to know..."
"I understand what you mean," Rayman nodded with a sympathetic look. "Honestly, even I'm still trying to wrap my head around what's been going on ever since Mario, Sonic and Ratchet arrived here. But I promise we're going to find answers about what's happening one way or another, I'm sure of it. For now, how about we focus on getting you and Sora associated with our friends?"
Rayman did have a point. As much as I want to get to the bottom of what's going on, worrying about isn't going to get us answers any time soon.
"Oh, looks like the others have finally arrived," Sonic informed. There came Mario, Sora and Bentley, and they looked pretty worn out.
"We're... finally here..." Bentley wheezed, trying to catch his breath.
"A guy in a wheelchair?" the big, red-furred guy stated. "No surprise with those teeny legs of his."
"Hey, my friend was crushed by a mechanical bird, you watch it," I couldn't help but snap at the musclehead.
"That was a very rude thing to say, Knuckles," the pink hedgehog with the red headband chided.
"And I bet I can still outrun you even if my legs were working," Bentley stated, sounding pretty ticked himself.
"Sorry about Knuckles, he doesn't think things through," Sonic said to Bentley.
I said, "Bentley has been made fun of due to the wheelchair before. Me and my friends are used to it by now..."
"I guess it must be a very touchy subject for your friend, huh?" the pink hedgehog said before elbowing the beefy, red-furred guy.
"On the contrary, I happened to have become very well adapted to my confinement to this wheelchair of mine over the years," Bentley explained. "Especially after a couple of technological modifications I've made to it to help me maneuver around much more efficiently to my liking in this thing."
"I take it you're the brains of your operation," the short yellow fox- with two tails to my curiosity- commented. "That's good, we'll need all the tinkerers on deck for this fix-up."
"And I take it you're Tails. Sonic told us about you."
"That's me." Well, this one was sur glowing with pride. Were all of the people on Sonic's world like that?
"I'm Bentley, by the way. Over there in the blue is one of my oldest friends, Sly."
"That would be me, ladies and gentlemen," I announced with a comical bow, just something different. I got a few chuckles and giggles.
"At least this one knows some manners," the pink hedgehog commented.
"Hey, we were all polite, Amy," Ratchet pointed out.
I said, "I've had to go through the process of introductions a lot recently...it's good that this round seems to be going well."
"'This round'?" Amy asked with an confused look. "What do you mean by that?"
"Er, long story short, we didn't exactly leave a good first impression when we first met them," Sonic explained with a nervous grin. "We kind of ended up attacking Sly and his friend, Sora, over there when they arrived at the tree."
"In our defense, though, we thought that they were after the Chaos Emeralds," Rayman chimed in.
"So this pretty tall human is Sora, huh?" Tails inquired, looking at the spiky brunette.
"Hah! He's short compared to a lot of his friends," I stated.
"Hey, they're all just freakishly tall!" Sora rebutted in defense.
"He's tall compared to Mario."
"Oi!" That wasn't well received by the Italian.
I told the group, "Remember, other worlds. I think we all have different expectations for what is considered normal..."
"Yeah, fair point," Ratchet chimed in. "Trust me, coming from a place with multiple different planets, my pals and I have seen plenty of different species over the years."
I can only imagine what kind of creatures Ratchet could've seen back wherever he comes from.
Mario, did you come here alone?" Sora asked the short man. It was true, none of these people looked like they could be from Mario's world.
"Yes, my-a main nemesis Bowser sent-a me here," he explained with a shrug. "Not the first-a time he sent me to some-a random location." Sounds like he had been through this enough times to see this as completely normal.
"How about another planet?" I inquired.
"Actually yes, he did once. It-sa long story."
"And once we get the Phoenix fixed, we can get you back your world, Mario," Ratchet assured, picking up some parts that I had no way of knowing what they were for.
"Well, now that you're back, Ratchet, we can get started," Tails announced.
With that, I told the group, "Then let's let the brainiacs do their thing, and hopefully we'll get some idea of what we're dealing with when it comes to leaving this place."
"Trust me, with two brainiac like Tails and Bentley on our side, we're sure to get the Starship Phoenix Mark II back up and running in no time!" Ratchet confidently said.
"I will admit, however, that now that I'm getting a closer look at this ship, the technology used to make it is definitely something even I lack experience with," Bentley admitted as he adjusted his glasses.
"Believe me, even I was baffled that technology this advanced existed where Ratchet and his friends come from," Tails chimed in.
"We can lend you some pointers, if you want!" the feline happily offered.
"Are you nuts?!" Sora suddenly shouted. "Normally, I'm the one scolded for this, but even I know that you can't just pass on that kind of knowledge!"
"And why not?"
"Oh right, world order," Bentley stated, rubbing under his hat sheepishly.
"World order? Since when are worlds in order?" Tails teased.
"Not like the alignment of planets, but the knowledge of other worlds in the first place. Kind of like disturbing the space time continuum. Disrupt it like that, and you can send a whole world into chaos."
"Exactly. Even Heartless follow that rule, and they don't have brains," Sora pointed out.
I told Ratchet, "We don't know the specifics of what would happen if we break that rule, and no one is willing to find out..."
"But don't we need more hands to help fix up our ship?" Ratchet questioned. "I mean, what would be the point of bringing you guys here to help patch the ship up if we can't tell you how things work? Besides, don't we need the ship like, as soon as possible?"
I opened my mouth to try and counter Ratchet's argument before I ended up backing down, getting lost in thought. Ratchet did bring up a good point. If we're going to find a way to get Link and Aaron's world back to where it initially came from before anything catastrophic started happening to it, then we needed the ship to get everyone else out of here and to get to Hyrule as soon as possible. I doubt the Gummi Ship would be able to fix this many people in one space.
But at the same time, would it really be worth breaking the world order in order to accomplish that? Then again, I'm still a bit lost about the concept, so I wouldn't know how to answer that properly.
"Well, I suppose if it means restoring world order for anther world, we can make an exception," Sora said slowly, like he was piecing together his answer carefully. "As long as you don't share what you learn to other inhabitants, it should be okay."
"Then it's settled," Tails stated. With a wrench in hand, he took off from the ground, using his two tails like a chopper propeller. And I thought Rayman's hair being a chopper was strange. That takes energy.
I said, "I guess Tails is getting right to work. After the current situation stranded some of us here, I can't blame him..."
"Speaking of being stranded, how exactly did you guys end up here?" Amy asked. "Do you guys have a ship of your own that crash landed here too just like Ratchet and his friends?"
"Not exactly," Sora explained. "We came here on our own ship that's currently orbiting outside this world. We would let you guys on it, but I doubt it'd have the capacity to fit all of us at once, considering that we already have tons of friends of our own on board."
"Speaking of ending up here, what about you, Sonic?" I then asked the hedgehog. "I don't think you think explained how you and your friends found yourselves here yet."
"Egghead stole my Chaos Emerald, then tried to use its energy to send me and my friends to another dimension with a laser like device," he explained. "I managed to smash it and get the Emerald back, but then the machine acted up and sent us here."
"By that time, Mario and Ratchet's ship were already here," Rayman added.
"It did say in that book we mentioned that the Chaos Emeralds are attracted to each other," Bentley pondered. "Perhaps due to several of them being in one place, Sonic's Emerald simply brought him and his group here. Then, the same happened with us."
"Which because of the massive amount of energy released from three Chaos Emeralds instead of one, it not just transported the three users but the whole planet and everything in its orbit," Clank concluded.
"So that's how Link's world got here," I said, finally able to understand what happened.
"Which means this can be reversed once we get the trick of Chaos Control down."
"But we won't get much ground on that if we're still on the ground of this world," Ratchet reminded, waving a giant wrench weapon as he was starting to repair what looked liked a wing of the ship. "Everyone needs to pitch in for this to work."
I responded, "Deal. There's so much we don't know about the situation, but I'm not worried..."
"Then let's get to business," Ratchet said with a grin. "The faster we get this ship fixed, the sooner we get to your pal's world and find a way to get it back to its solar system before start to go downhill for them. Don't worry, my pals and I will run you guys through on how things about this thing work!"
"The more tips on how we can help that you guys can give us, the better!" Rayman said.
"Where would you like for us to start, by the way?" I then asked. It felt only natural considering we're dealing with something from an extremely technologically advanced place. I know that I'm not that much of a tech savvy guy in comparison to Bentley.
SKSKSKSK
"Ah, Blarg!" Ratchet yelled angrily. We've been making great progress with the interior now safe to walk around in after cleaning it up and fixing the appliances. Looked like Ratchet didn't find something he liked.
"What's wrong?" Sora asked, carrying a crate of broken wires.
"The 4 and a half pentagonal nut for the main control panel was knocked loose. Without that, the steering's a bust."
"That's specific," I commented. "Where do you keep the spares?"
"Are you kidding? You're lucky enough to get even one of those blasted things. They're always out of stock because every ship uses them. And we can't use one from another part of the ship, or else we could blow up as soon as we leave the planet's atmosphere."
I asked Ratchet, "Is there anything we can do? I definitely don't want to be hurt because of this..."
"Unless your planet happens to make a nut that's exactly like the one we're missing and you're carrying it on you, I don't think we're going to be going anywhere anytime soon," Ratchet shrugged. "And I seriously doubt this world of all places could have one lying around somewhere."
"But you said that it got knocked loose, right? I know it seems extremely unlikely, but maybe it could be somewhere lying around here."
"I guess, but like you said, it's extremely unlikely. Besides, we'd need the whole team to pitch in looking for the thing and we can't really afford to waste time looking for one single piece if we want to get to your friend's world as soon as possible."
Hmmm... This was going to be tricky.
Wait. Brainstorm. Wow, that's usually Bentley's thing.
"Do you have anything magnetic?"
"What?" That got him to look at me like it was completely out of the blue. Granted, it was. "Why would you need that?"
"Not for me, for Bentley. I can explain later, but is there a magnet or something you don't need to use right now?"
"... Well..." A different gun than the one he was using before suddenly materialized in his hands. "There is this, my old Mag-Net Launcher. I don't really use it that much anymore, maybe to stun some enemies for a little. It works with certain crystals in my galaxies which create an electromagnetic field."
I didn't know much about the finer details, but I knew that's just what I'm looking for.
Bentley asked me, "Just what are you planning, Sly? Usually I'm the one that does the planning..."
"Well, obviously the nut we're looking for has to be made of metal, right?" I explained. "I was thinking that if you got your hands on something magnetic, you could probably work your magic on it to try and utilize it in a way that could help us find it without all of having to search for it at once."
"And you think my Mag-Net Launcher will do the trick?" Ratchet asked with a raised brow.
"Bentley can make anything he puts his mind to. I'm sure an impromptu metal detector is on the list."
"Given the layout of this jungle, it would come in handy in picking up any loose parts that may have broken off from the ship," my intellectual friend stated, sounding amazed. "Let me take a look at that device, Ratchet."
"Okay, but I don't believe the nut is made out of raritanium," Ratchet said before tossing the device to Bentley, who caught it easily with the robotic arms.
"Tell me that thing is not alive," Rayman called in alarm, looking over at Bentley with wide eyes.
"Nope, just the robot arms I installed on this baby, one of my many improvements to it," he replied proudly.
I told Rayman, "The tech on that chair has come in handy more than once. Custom made for one of the smartest people I know."
"Wow, I wonder what other kinds of stuff he's capable of making, in that case!" Rayman marveled.
"I would show you what else my genius is capable of, but that'll have to wait," Bentley said, his chair's mechanical arms dropping the device into his own. "For now, I have a metal detector to make. That nut isn't going to find itself!"
It only took him twenty or so minutes to figure out how Ratchet's device worked, and half the time to take it apart and back together into something I knew how to use.
"This alien tech is incredible! It should be able to detect even the smallest piece of metal for miles!"
"Hey, you don't any of us calling you aliens," Ratchet yelled from where he was working from ceiling on a grapple.
"Right, sorry. The confirmation of other life forms out there was still a far out goal where we come from." Bentley handed the device over to me. "Judging by the angle of the crash, I would look in that general direction of where the ship skidded across the ground to start."
I responded, "Let's see what we can find. I don't know how much time we have before things get crazy in Hyrule, but I think everything's going to work itself out."
"If my calculations are correct, we should be able to use this device I've invented from Ratchet's Mag-Net launcher to pinpoint accurately where the part we're missing could be located out here," Bentley deduced. "With some luck, we should be able to locate the part we're missing in a matter of a couple of minutes."
"You never fail to impress, Bentley," I complimented him. "C'mon, we've got a missing ship part to find."
"Well, I obviously can't go because I need to help repair more of the ship. Maybe take one of the locals of this world with you, they know the jungle better than we do. You know, in case you run into trouble."
"The only thing to worry about are the monsters called Nightmares, which there haven't been many around for a while," Ly stated, helping by using her magic to pass on tools to Tails. "They're weak at the very least, just whack them with something."
"I'm... going to assume you're not talking about the Nightmares I'm familiar with," Sora said worriedly, carrying an arm's load of rather large bolts. I wasn't going ask what he meant.
"I'll keep an eye on him," Rayman offered. "I'm the only fighter among the four of us."
"I can fight!" Globox argued with a pout (kind of a weird expression for him).
"And you nearly got flattened by Ales' new 'pet.' So no, you're sitting this one out."
I responded, "Well, someone's coming with me. I don't think I can do this alone..."
"Don't worry, Sly," Rayman reassured me. "I know the Glade of Dreams like the back of my hand. Just stick with me and I'll show you where to go around here!"
"Thanks, Rayman," I thanked him with a smile. "It could be a good opportunity for you to tell me more about world, actually!"
"Believe me, I could go all day talking about the sights that I've seen around here!"
Looked like I had a new buddy to explore with.
"Just follow me, and you won't get lost!" With that, he was off. He really was full of energy for whatever he was. Doubt it's from his mom who's supposedly a fairy.
I quickly followed behind him, which wasn't hard given the large clearing of fallen trees and the humungous ditch in the ground. Here's to hoping we could find any lost parts along this route.
End Chapter