Sonic in Between.
Author's Note: First off, I want to apologize for the long delay for continuing these mini-series stories. Secondly, I had trouble with how the previous chapter turned out so I want back and changed it into a new one-shot story, so the Lost Infant Arc for Sonic In Between is cancelled, but this story isn't.
Thirdly, this mini-series story will take place on Seaside Island as will the next one and quite possibly the one after that.
In the meantime, here's another new one-shot story based on yet another one of my childhood memories.
Summary of Story 8: *Approximately one and a half months before the events of Sonic's Space-Time Adventure*. With many crazy adventures seemingly behind him and Mobius in peace, Sonic, Tails, and Amy, and surprisingly both Sun the Hedgehog and Star Amantha, are visiting Seaside Island and help out Manny, Kairi to de-clutter Sophia's home. But they will soon find that it is a big mistake.
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Never Throw Everything Out.
Across the ocean from the mainland, rested Seaside Island, the beautiful tropical island filled with nice people even if some were a bit wacky, legends not many would believe in that are very true, and of course, full of fun and adventure. Today was no different, except that it was an exciting time. Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Amy Rose were flying across reaching the land on the Tornado 1 with the blue hedgehog calmly standing on the wings with his arms folded and a proud smile on his face.
The three friends, with Amy's birthday having passed a few days ago and the pink hedgehog was now finally an official teenager just like her 'boyfriend', having waited for so long ever since the blue hedgehog became one three years earlier, were going to visit their old friend Manny Milestone, the fun-racing green hedgehog who dreamed of becoming an Extreme Gear racer champion just like his idol Manic the Hedgehog.
Eventually Tails carefully lowered the plane while Sonic held on to avoid in falling off until they all landed safely on the beach and the hero of Mobius leaped off onto the sand as the two-tailed fox turned off the engine. The cobalt hedgehog stretched out his arms as he breathed in the fresh, sea-salt air.
"Man, it's feels like ages since we've last been here." Sonic remarked happily.
"You're telling me. I wish we could come here more often." Amy beamed a smile, as she carefully climbed out, with Tails following shortly after.
"I can't wait to see Manny again. I wonder how he's been doing since Sun and Star were here?" Tails said, standing by his two hedgehog friends' sides.
"Who knows? I mean, I still feel bad since we weren't there when those Hybrian creeps showed up. But it's a good thing Sun and the Chaotix were." The blue hedgehog shrugged. Since Sun told him and the nine year old fox over what happened nearly four months ago, Sonic felt guilty for not helping out, but as the orange hedgehog had pointed out, he wanted him to take a break since he was still healing from the Dark Gaia crisis a month earlier.
Sonic them hummed as he gazed up at the trees and mountain. "Hmm, come to think if it, I wonder how Gaiver is doing? I did promise we'd help him find a cure, even though he told Sun to tell me that he'll be fine somewhere around here...I wish I'd known sooner or later and not having to have gone on our adventures beforehand."
"It's not your fault, Sonic." Amy reassured softly, knowing what her beloved hero was thinking as well as feeling. "They wanted you and Tails to have fun and not worry so much. Besides, it isn't like when those Iron Empire creeps held Mrs. Vanilla hostage."
"Amy's right, Sonic. Plus, we did call Manny to check up on him a day after we got home from Isalenna." Tails added in agreement.
That was true. Right after returning home from their adventures, Sonic did call Manny since they had each other's phone number as Gaiver, because of Sun's actions in saving his life from Dr. Starline, permanently moved to Seaside Island to the mountains after helping to fix up the area, and despite wanting to find a cure for him to shrink him back to normal size, the young Extreme Gear rider was told by the giant gorilla to not rush into helping him and to take as much time as he needed.
In truth, Sonic had thought that maybe he'd find a cure in Soleanna, but he forgot due to the Sun Stone incident and other things that had happened. Each day he'd call up to check on him and while he hated delaying his promises, there really wasn't any immediate danger like the time when Cream and Cheese were targets for Eggman's brother Julius.
"Yeah, well, maybe it's high time I did find that cure for the big guy. First, I'm gonna check up on him. Just gotta ask Manny where he is." Sonic sighed, a linger of guilt rising up in his chest.
Tails and Amy both shared a worried glance as they feared that the cobalt teenager could go through another guilt-ridden episode again. However, seeing their expressions made the soon-to-be-sixteen year old smile softly before he placed his arms around both their shoulders and grinned.
"But hey, I'm not gonna be all gloomy about it all day. Maybe I'll find a clue around here while we're having our vacation. With no Eggman or any other creeps to worry about, what could possibly go wrong?" He declared, perking up again almost instantly.
Despite being worried for their best friend's mentality, they could tell that even with the other adventures happening, Sonic remained true and was just as happy as he had ever been. While he did look sad for not keeping to this promise, the fact that Gaiver was safe and in a new area where not many would see food from him and from what Sun was mentioned, the island had plenty of food supplies so it wasn't much of an issue...
Unless the Mobini Monkeys get terrified of him.
Nodding softly in agreement as they decided to join him to meet with Gaiver even though Sonic and Sun were both more familiar with him as Tails and Amy never met the giant Mobian before, the three friends headed off to the Unnamed Village, only to find a group of Mobians walking back and forth to a certain place. Sharing a glance of confusion, Sonic, Tails and Amy hurried to see what was going on and blinked in surprise when they stopped by a large tree house perfectly inbuilt, and that there seemed to be a yard sale, with Mobians looking around for everybody items, and an annoyed Manny standing by with Kairi selling things, an just as upset female squirrel girl, Sophia, and even more surprising, an uncertain Star and a super annoyed and bored Sun the Hedgehog.
"Yo, Sun! Manny! Star!" Sonic called out, as he and his two best friends hurried to greet them, causing the said trio and the other two girls to look up and gaped in surprise to see them approach.
"Sonic! Tails! Amy!" Star waved happily in return, giggling as she and a laughing Amy clasped hands together, jumping up in down in excitement, while Tails and Manny high-fived and Sonic and Sun, finally smirking with orange and green hedgehogs' moods lifting, sharing an arm-bump.
"Hey, my dudes and dudette! Long time no see!" Manny greeted.
"Hey there, guys. Been a little while, huh?" Sun grinned.
"Yeah. I can't believe you guys are here, bro. What brings you two back to Seaside Island?" Sonic grinned back, chuckling.
"Just here for a visit. Star came by to meet up with these guys, and I decided to tag along." The former Werehog explained, adding in a whisper. "Also came by to check up to see how Gaiver's doing."
"Well, that makes the three of us. We came here for the same reason." The hero of Mobius explained.
"So you're the Sonic the Hedgehog we've hearing about?" Sophia, as she and Kairi approached, spoke up smiling. "I've seen you around but never got the chance to say hi for real."
"That would be me. And you must be Sophia and Kairi, right?" Sonic responded, with Tails and Amy noticing.
"That's right. Pleased to meet you, Sonic, and Tails and Amy. We've heard a lot about you." Kairi nodded in return, beaming.
"Pleasure to meet ya's!" Sonic winked, while his two companions also gave out their own greetings.
"So, what's going on here? Why are you guys having a yard sale?" Tails asked, curiously.
The instant the two-tailed fox asked that question, Sophia growled while folding her arms as she gave Kairi a mean look of accusion. "Ask her! She's the one who's selling all of my valuables!"
"Now now, Sophia. I told you before, you have too much stuff that we needed to do something with your basement." The said yellow hedgehog gently reminded with a soft scowl on her expression.
At the traveling trio's confused blinks, Manny groaned as he rolled his eyes, whispering. "Translation: All of this junk is Sophia's she got cluttered in her room which Kairi only noticed today so now she thinks she's become a pack rat."
Flash-Back: Around an hour ago...
Kairi and Sophia were both inside the latter's home which the main house at the bottom of the tree itself with stairs leading up to her bedroom above, and from there was a secret clubhouse filled with things that the young Mobian squirrel refused to reveal due to her paranoia.
"Come on, Sophia. The White-Sand Lake isn't going to stay open forever!" The yellow hedgehog pouted, waiting on a seat.
"Huh? Since when did White-Sand Lake close?" Sophia asked, dumbfounded.
"It's just an expression." Kairi shook her head.
"Oh." Her friend nodded, understanding now. "So um, what you got inside your purse and what should I bring in mine?"
"Things that a lot of girls would need, especially on this island. Compass, Map, Lip Balm, Cell Phone..." Kairi trailed off as she pulled out each item before putting them back, then paused when there was a photo of a green hedgehog that looked similar to Manny, but with wild hair style, an earring on his left ear, an orange vest, white gloves with black cuffs that had spikes, and black boots with a highly styled Extreme Gear, and a futuristic city behind him.
The name Manic the Hedgehog was written on the bottom right corner.
"Uh...A starting shopping list I may need for tomorrow..." She lied in embarrassment, quickly putting the photo back inside as she didn't want anybody to know that she had a huge crush on Manny's idol.
"Okay, okay, yeah, thanks the info." Sophia dismissed with wave, before zipping into her basement and began searching around in a huge pile of junk, closing the door behind her.
While she knew it was rude to go in without people's permission, Kairi, deciding to see if her friend needed help locating the purse, went inside herself...only to gasp in shock as she saw piles upon piles of a lot of things.
"AH! What is...!?" The cream-yellow hedgehog exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hands.
"Now, where is it? I know it's around here somewhere." Sophia was muttering to herself, carefully moving things without causing an item avalanche.
Kairi stood there frozen, before groaning in dismay as she shook her head. "Sophia...I love you as a friend and all, but why do you have all of this? You're a pack rat!"
"I am not!" The brown-orange squirrel girl protested with a glare. "This is all of my collection and important things in life!"
Her friend just stood there, before sighing. This was getting way too far. Something must be done or else more junk would be added in until the whole house was covered in random stuff. There was only one thing left to do.
End of Flash-Back:
"And she asked us to help her sell all of these unneeded accessories to de-clutter it." Star added, even though she wasn't too certain with this either.
"So now we're all stuck here with this while Sophia's trying and failing to not sell all of this junk." Sun concluded, facepalming himself.
"I...see." Tails muttered a little uneasily as he and Sonic both stared blankly.
"Well, with all of this coming in and out, I can see why." Amy on the other hand, agreed with Kairi's argument, her hands on her hips, much to the boys' shock. "Holding too much can turn you into a pack rat and I say this is a good idea."
"Why am I getting a feeling she's gonna join in?" The blue hedgehog whispered to his best friend/little brother.
"I was just thinking the same thing." The two-tailed fox responded softly.
"So here's what we'll do!" Amy declared, pulling both Sonic and Tails close to her as they yelped. "We'll help you sell of this stuff and together we can beat it!"
"What!?" The two boys exclaimed, bewildered.
"You would?" Kairi asked, hopefully.
"Of course! Anything to help a friend who needs help in learning how to let go of things that are not as important!" The pink hedgehog beamed happily. "Right, guys?"
"Amy, I don't think-"
"Right!" The thirteen year old girl interrupted Tails, and pulled out a whistle from out of nowhere and blew it loudly, causing all of her friends except for Kairi to cover her ears. "Let the Yard Sale commence!"
"...Kairi and Amy are becoming too take-charge, you know that, right?" Sun grumbled to Sonic who groaned in sheer annoyance. Manny looked just as annoyed as ever.
"Women." The blue hedgehog sighed.
This was going to be a long agonizing day.
Few minutes later the group of eight friends stood behind counters and moved aboud things to help wandering costumers to buy Sophia's things, against the squirrel girl's wishes.
"How much for this Handsome-Bee-Warrior Statue?" A female Walrus asked, gazing at the item.
"No, you can't take this! My grandmother gave it to me!" Sophia protested, clinging onto her precious treasure protectively.
"Then, how much for this Skull Photo Frame?" The older Mobian questioned, gazing at the black frame itself with a Cat Skull on top.
"Nuh-uh!" The female squirrel held it back. "It helps to scare away intruders!"
The lady Walrus frowned, before gazing at a cushion shaped like a crescent Moon. "This Crescent Moon Pillow?"
"I was given that from my mother when I was a baby! It holds precious memories of her of all the times she loved me! Do you know hard it is to keep things like this to hold the bond with your parent?" Sophia shook her head.
Finally having enough of Sophia's stubbornness and far too attachment, Kairi stood in front alongside Amy, the former hedgehog saying. "Five bucks for all of them."
"And not any higher." The pink hedgehog added.
Much to Sophia's dismay, the Walrus lady was satisfied and handed her change to the two young hedgehog girls and took all three items in a large bag.
"Sorry, Sophia, but it's for your own good." Kairi whispered apologetically.
"Just breathe." Amy whispered, as the young squirrel was close in screaming out in frustration.
Nearby, Tails and Manny were both examining on the items that were surprisingly decent stuff as far as the boys could tell.
"Man, I heard that girls can keep a lot of stuff, but this is beyond ridiculous!" The green hedgehog scratched the top of his head, dumbfounded.
"Guess it goes to show that girls are always hard to figure out." The nine year old cub remarked, before something caught his eye and he blinked curiously. On the pile of books, one stood out almost as clear as day. He picked it for a closer look and found that it was a blue hard-cover book with a picture of an island with a tower of sorts in ruins, and the title just above it.
The words "The Mysteries of Moon-Shine Islands" were imprinted.
"Moon-Shine Islands?" Tails murmured curiously, deep in thought. "Hmmm...This is interesting."
"Whatcha got there, little dude?" Manny asked, leaning over slightly.
"Oh, this book. It may be a documentation of the legendary Moon-Shine Islands. These kind of books are very rare and some even detail on not just those islands, but also others that are full of strange secrets nobody knows about. Sunrise Islands before they sank beneath the sea and Moon-Shine Islands aren't explored as much." The young kit explained.
"They say that these islands were once neighbors, but since the Sunrise Islands disappeared, and Moon-Shine was left alone despite that it was the only lands that were left untouched." He continued, before gazing at the book's cover again. "I wonder where Sophia actually got this."
The green hedgehog paused for a moment, before guessing randomly. "Maybe something happened to Sunrise Islands that could be the cause of this?"
While the two were briefly examining the mysterious and wondering if they should ask the squirrel girl or not, near by them and four girls, Sonic and Sun were leaning against the counter with the former against his back, and the latter on his left side with one hand onto his left cheek, both looking bored and annoyed with this yard sale. The blue hedgehog yawned loudly.
"I hate yard sales. This is the most boring job ever." Sun groaned, feeling like he was about to fall asleep.
"You and me both, dude. You and me both." Sonic sighed, slumping a little. All he wanted to do was get this over with so that he can go on and do more exciting things, like check out the island again as well as see if Gaiver was alright.
Sonic then noticed movement at the corner of his eye and blinked in shock and suspicion to find a human man with a military general body build, with sleek short black hair, and strangely enough looked like Eggman, only the guy had a belt around his torso and shoulder that was yellow, military-style red shirt with black pants and boots, long white gloves that went just stopping at his elbows, a darker brown mustache and dark-blue pez sunglasses.
'Eggman? No, it can't be. He's been dead for over two months already. Who is this guy? Well, only one way to find out.' The blue hedgehog narrowed his eyes, getting bad vibes about this new character. Not as bad as the previous villains he has faced over the years, most of the time being the evil scientist, but a bit of a sleezy higher up than Jerome Wise.
The man in question was seemingly civil enough as he looked around the yard sale, until a comic book caught his eye. Glancing around carefully, he made to steal it, but as he picked it up and was about to turn around to leave...
"Hey!"
"Yipe!" The man yelped, almost Eggman-like but more comically than anything else, and spun around to see a teenage Mobian hedgehog.
"May I ask who you are, mister?" The blue hedgehog requested.
"Oh, my, I beg your pardon, young hedgehog." The taller human responded, having a voice strangely almost identical to Eggman's, a little nervously to be in the presence of, as he realized, Sonic the Hedgehog himself, the hero of Mobius. "I am Sir Argo Barry Tobrokin. I am new and have just moved a few months ago into the nearby Island close to the old forbidden manor, you see."
"Huh. Thought I'd seen another island somewhere. Kinda looks like a Themepark mixed with Dr. Eggman's base. No offense." The fifteen year old remarked.
"Yes, well, for you see, I know that you're Sonic the Hedgehog, and while I am not a criminal, I kind of like Dr. Eggman's style for his dream of opening up a Themepark, only less deadly."
'Another Eggman fan...I'd better be careful with this guy.' The blue hedgehog narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"That so? Then what do you think you're doing with that comic book?" Sonic questioned, folding his arms with a calm but firm look.
"Oh, uh I was, erm...going to buy it?" Argo flinched, and grinned sheepishly.
Not trusting this Tobrokin guy, the cobalt teenager was about to respond when Sun approached and sighed. "Are you trying to steal junk again, Tobocan?" Sonic blinked at his brother in surprise.
"Oh no...It's you again, Sun-ball." Argo growled, before correcting the former Werehog. "And the name is Tobrokin, not Tobocan! And I'll have you know as I have said to this young hero Sonic, I wasn't going to steal this comic book. I was going to buy it.
Sun raised a skeptical eyebrow, before he held out a hand. "Ten bucks."
"TEN BUCKS!?" Argo exclaimed, shocked. "Highway robbery!"
With that, the Eggman-wanna-be angrily placed the book back down and he and the two hedgehogs, with Sonic still in surprise that his brother knew this guy already, walked off.
"Sun, you mean to tell me you already met that guy?" The blue hedgehog whispered, shrugging. "Who is he? And why is he a fan of Egghead like that Starline creep?"
"Yeah, I ended up encountering him after the world was saved from Snakehead. He reminded me too much of Ro-butt-nik only he's more of a crazy clown and a slow-witted idiot. He causes no end of hassles and would pretty much steal anything as well as build his own park with heavy damages to the environment. It's only that he doesn't want the rule the world which is a good thing." The orange hedgehog explained, exasperated.
"Hmm...I can see why you call him Tobocan. It's like he's a bit of a combination of Baldy McNosehair and his dumbots." Sonic murmured, looking over his shoulder only to stop short with a soft gasp.
At Sun's questioned humming, the hero of Mobius narrowed his eyes which made his former clone to glance over and groaned with a sweat drop when they both saw Argo attempting to steal the book again by sneaking it into his shirt.
'Okay...the coast is clear...' Argo thought to himself, attempting to sneak away...
"AHEM!"
Jumping in fright, the stupid thief spun around to see the two hedgehogs right there again, catching him red handed which made him cringe hopefully. "Um...Two bucks."
"No." Sonic and Sun both chorused.
This went on for quite a while as the group of friends, except for Sophia who tried to stop Kairi and Amy from selling her things just to make room, continued to sell most of the unneeded accessories, and Star felt sorry for the young squirrel. All the while Sonic and Sun continued to stop Argo from stealing the comic book since they didn't trust him, while Tails and Manny sorted things out and moved things around.
"Pretty soon she'll have plenty of space to put things on actual shelves she can buy instead of just leaving them all over the place." Kairi said happily to herself, going over to the last few things that were left there.
Including an old wooden surf board which was hanging at the very back wall with a strange symbol on the back. Wondering why Sophia would keep something when she never even surfed before, the yellow hedgehog decided to worry about that later and attempted to pull it off, only to find that it was pratically glued on.
"Hey, Kairi. You need help with anything else?" Amy asked as she came in.
"Yeah, maybe you can help me pull this off, please? I think it's stuck." Kairi nodded sheepishly.
"Not a problem!" The pink hedgehog smirked, and grabbed the other end of the surfboard. "Ready?"
"Ready."
"Annnnnd...PULL!"
The two hedgehog girls pulled and tugged hard, just as Manny called out from outside. "Yo, Kairi! How much for this old looking bicycle?"
"Be right there! Just grabbing the last of this stuff!" Kairi called back, just as she and Amy finally yanked the board free.
"Yeah! We got it! Girl power!" The Piko Piko Hammer wielder cheered, sharing a high-five with her new friend who laughed happily. "Now let's go sell this to somebody who can really use it for surfing."
"Yeah."
But as the two girls began to walk away, there was a strange sound of moaning or a chant echoing from behind the wall, the symbol now being identified as an unusual face. But when Amy and Kairi paused to try and see what it was, it stopped. Sharing a glance, the two shrugged and walked away...unaware that it happened again and what they did would prove to be a terrible mistake.
Back outside, Sonic and Sun both caught Argo off-guard again and when the human grinned by holding his hands up suspiciously, the two friends shook him by the shirt as several everyday items including gum, pens, a notebook, a cell phone, a hair-comb, an extra pair of sunglasses, photos of himself, a bunch of bottle caps(Huh?) and finally, the comic book itself.
"Erm...Three and a half bucks?" The human shrugged.
"I'd pay you three and a half bucks just to see you leave." Sun grunted.
"I know we haven't known each other for long, but I can't trust you. Sorry." Sonic added.
"Ugh...I hate kids. And I hate hedgehogs." Argo grumbled to himself.
In the meantime, Sophia sighed, heart-broken that all of her things she kept for most of her life were gone in an instant.
"I'm really sorry, Sophia. I wish there was something more we could have done for you." Star sympathetically rubbed her friend's back, feeling terrible for having gone through this.
"Oh, she'll be alright. As Sonic would say, things like everyday items can be replaced, but people can't." Amy reassured brightly.
"Yeah, but memories of certain items can't be replaced either." The miserable squirrel pointed out, her arms crossed as she looked away from the hedgehogs.
"It will be fine, Sophia. When this is over you'll feel so much better. A clean house is a happy house." Kairi reassured, before gesturing at the surfboard. "Now then, how much for this old surfboard?"
"Hmm...it looks pretty old and made with fine piece of wood. Like a very rare wood." Star remarked as she gazed at it, gently running her gloved hand against the wood surface. "This is a fine ancient piece of work. Clearly unbreakable and way too worth for even 20 Mobiums."
"Whoa, really!?" Amy softly exclaimed, her and Kairi's eyes widening. "No wonder Sophia didn't want to sell it! This thing must be worth a fortune!"
While Kairi now felt shocked and guilty for almost selling something that would set her friend up for life, Sophia, hearing what the three other girls were saying, suddenly turned pale in pure horror as she gasped.
"Wait a second...that wouldn't be the surfboard that was on the wall, would it?" She asked, fearfully. "That one that was made the ancient wood blocking the door with a monster face on it?"
"Yeah, why?" Both Amy and Kairi replied.
Now really panicking as her worst fears had come true, Sophia immediately raced back into her house, causing the three alarmed female hedgehogs to share a glance before hurrying after her. By then, the Mobian Squirrel leaned up against the door as the mysterious sounds continued to echo and to make things worse, the door began to shake.
"This door is the only thing blocking the other most dangerous threat besides the Ghosts against all of Mobius!" Sophia screamed out. "The evil Grass-Cobblers Grasshopper Clan's cave is on the other side that my family kept shut for centuries! That surfboard was the only thing keeping it closed!"
Before Amy, Star and Kairi could respond to what their friend was talking about, suddenly the door burst open to reveal a large swarm of giant Locus-like creatures, looking partially Mobian, but without wings for some reason yet all dry-skinned, and were the height of Vector the Crocodile. They swarmed around the girls who cried out in alarm, and Kairi realized with horror of her fatal mistake.
"Uh...Whoops." Kairi muttered sheepishly, earning a glare from Star and a frantic look from Amy.
Back outside, Sonic was just putting the comic book back, when he, Sun, Tails and Manny heard Amy's terrified voice scream out from the tree house. "SONIC!"
"Amy!?" The blue hedgehog exclaimed, immediately sensing that something was wrong and raced inside instantly with his three other friends following him. "What's going on!?"
To the boys' shock and bewilderment, the swarm of giant grasshopper-like-creatures were nearly engulfing the girls who tried to shove and push them back into the cave on the other side of the wall.
"What the!?" Sonic cried out, with a sweat drop along with the others.
"What-What is this!?" Sun exclaimed, before he and the rest tried to help the girls into shoving the over-grown insects back.
"Kairi and Amy both-both ook down the surfboard, which was the only thing protecting us from the clan of Grass-Cobblers Grasshopper invading from the very bowles of the world!" Sophia screamed out.
"It was my fault! I asked Amy to help me!" Kairi exclaimed, now guilt-ridden for having caused this mess to happen in the first place.
The group quickly tried their best to shove the new enemy's back, only to be failing quickly and becoming overwhelmed with Sonic attempting to Spin Dash into them back, and Sun punching them. Yet the two of them were soon surrounded and even had trouble getting the Grasshoppers off.
"Whatever you got for the surfboard Kairi, it was totally worth it." Manny grunted, sarcastically.
"Oh! Here's the only thing between and a horde of evil monsters." Sophia exclaimed in equal sarcasm, with her eyes wide in terror. "I'll just sell that for three bucks."
"Because a clean house is a happy house." The green hedgehog added.
"Okay, okay! I said it was my fault! You don't need to rub it in!" Kairi shouted.
"Uh, guys? We could use some help here!" Sonic nervously cried out with a grunt, struggling as he was starting to become partially buried, and he hoped that they weren't about to get even more swarmed than they already were.
"Yeah, if they're done scolding Kairi for her slight stupidity!" Sun grunted, trying shove the giant insects back.
It soon became too much that four of the Grass-Cobblers snatched up both Kairi and Sophia who both screamed and soon they were taken right into the cave with the rest of the horde racing back in, much to the horror of the rest of the group who cried out to them. But by the time Sonic and Sun raced towards it, it was too late as the door closed behind the creatures.
"They took Kairi and Sophia!" Amy exclaimed in horror.
"You think!?" Sun responded in heavy sarcasm.
"We gotta save them!" Tails cried out.
"And save them is what we'll do." Sonic declared with determination.
"To do that, we'll need a lot of equipment because even with our skills, I don't think it will be enough for the swarm of giant grass-hopper creatures standing in our way." Star reminded him, deeply concerned.
"Hey, we can handle it!" The hero of Mobius pointed out, gesturing back outside. "We've got a whole lot of stuff to make what we need."
"Then what are we waiting for! To the junkyard of weapons!" Manny declared, only to earn skeptical and dumbfounded expressions, which made him shrug sheepishly. "Sorry. Trying to sound heroic, here."
Knowing that the the blue hedgehog was right and time was running out, Sonic and his friends hurried to fully prepare themselves. Tails was using his scentific genius mind to creature a cannon-like weapon that wouldn't cause too much harm, but to freeze opponent temporarily, and glue-guns made out of crystal rocks and such. Amy and Star were both racing around collecting beehives while kindly being careful with the Mobini Bees despite nearly being stung by them. Sun was adjusting his grapple hook belt while making a pair of shield-like gloves around his wrists and smirked.
Manny was making a wooden shield out of a broken couch and a table. Sonic in the meantime was stretching out, while carrying three clubs and strapped them in a make-shift steath.
"Time to take IN the trash!" Sonic announced once he and his friends stood ready.
"Really?" The former Werehog gave his brother a dull expression. Why did the cobalt hedgehog always have to make weird announcements or whatever?
"Shh! Don't ruin the dramatic moment, dude." The green hedgehog whispered, as he liked what the hero of Mobius had just said since it sounded really cool and different.
Deep within the cavern was hundreds of the Grass-Cobblers of many kinds, an older one with a rough-like look stood before a giant statue of a huge bird-like creature. Both Kairi and Sophia, the former being frightened a little, were tied up with rope and gagged, placed onto a flat altar.
"Oh, Mighty Terror Bird-Thymus! We offer you these sacrifices to spare us on this day." The Grass-Cobbler Leader called forth boldly, as the two female Mobians struggled to break free. "With these as your meal instead of us, our agreement from long ago shall be surfice! And you shall release us from our prison from so long!"
The rest of the swarm cheered, before he leaned forward to Sophia and removed her gag, whispering with an evil grin. "Any last words for you and your friend, oh furry-child?"
Hissing angrily, the young squirrel bit the Grass-Cobbler on the right hand hard, making him scream out in agony, which made her grunt before she snapped. "You got a lot of nerve for living in my basement and kidnapping me and my friend, you over-grown cricket!"
The rest of the swarm gasped in horror.
"You beast!" The Grass-Cobbler snarled. "There is only two of you, and one hundred of us!"
"Uh, Jumper, sir?" A nervous, chubby Grass-Cobbler spoke up nervously, earning an annoyed 'what?' from the leader, allowing him to continue. "I'm not much of a fighter and Bobby is Home-Sick."
A moment of pause.
"Fine, there's less than one-hundred: 98, in fact." Jumper, the Grass-Cobbler leader, rolled his eyes, before continuing. "None the less, little girl. What chances do you have?"
"THIS!" Sonic's voice shouted, startling everyone who looked up to see what was going on, only for something to hit Jumper on the head, making him fall to the ground dazed.
To the swarm's shock and the relief of Kairi and Sophia, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Sun, Star, and Manny stood above from the entrance.
"Let our friends go!" Star commanded.
The Grass-Cobbler Leader grunted before he snarled in angry and shouted at his people. "Intruders! GET RID OF THEM!"
The swarm quickly held up bows and arrows before opening fire. Fortunately, Manny quickly held up the shield at Sonic's order, protecting all six of them from the attacks. He and the blue hedgehog then quickly went flying down on the Extreme Gear before the blue hedgehog leaped and Spin Dashed right into Jumper who grunted in agony before being sent flying right into the statue with a thud, making his people gasp in horror. The fifteen year old quickly untied the girls who sighed in relief while Manny landed near them.
"You girls alright?" Sonic asked immediately.
"Yeah, we're fine. Thanks, guys." Kairi replied smiling.
The rest of the swarm attempted to race up to the remaining heroes, only for Sun to jump and punched several of them while knocking them out with his new shield gaunlets, and both Amy and Star cheekily tossed the beehives at those that came too close only for the giant grass hoopers to get hit and flee in terror back down while getting stung by the Mobini insects. Tails opened fire at four Grass-Cobblers with his laser cannon, which he dubbed the Hyper Exo Manifier, and froze the creatures in place.
"Yeah! Tase my new Hyper Exo Manifier, you creeps!" The nine year old cub grinned, before he quickly used his glue-gun to open fire at another, causing the warrior to get his feet stuck on the ground. The two attempted to break free, but to their dismay, they were unable to.
"Here, pal! Here's a giant frisbee!" Manny declared, tossing the shield at five more of the creatures as they cried out in pain and fear and grinned. "Yeah! This fighting training stuff is paying off!"
Sonic in the meantime Homing Attacked into several move, knocking the Grass-Cobblers over like bowling pins before returning to Kairi and Sophia who fought against the rest with their own skills.
"I think you ladies need these." The teenage hero grinned, handing over the two clubs at the yellow hedgehog and the young squirrel who smirked.
"Thanks, Sonic." Sophia grinned, before she and her best friend walked over to Jumper who, groaning and regaining consciousness, was clobbered on as he screamed out in agony.
"That was for kidnapping us!" Kairi snarled as the Grass-Cobbler groaned, holding a hand to his head.
Once he knew that the swarm were surprisingly down to count despite the numbers, Sonic called out his friends. "Come on! Let's blow this grass-hopper stand!"
Sonic scooped up Sophia while Manny allowed Kairi to hang onto him on his Extreme Gear, the two hedgehogs then racing back up to the rest of the group who hurried back out. The blue hedgehog made sure that they were all out before he then slammed the door shut and had Sun, Tails and Manny to hold it while he raced back outside and came back in a second later with the surfboard.
"Nail and glue it!" The cobalt teenager instructed. "Time to seal this door forever."
Using whatever they could find to once again seal it since the surfboard wasn't sold, thankfully, the eight friends glued, nailed and even drilled it back into place and for extra safety precautions, Amy, Kairi and Star shoved a heavy shelf in front of it.
"Designer shelving, sturdy, and functionary." Amy said proudly.
"Phew...Man, those guys were just plain crazy." Manny sighed in relief, wiping his forehead.
Back on the other side of the door, Jumper and his swarm, once again trapped with no way out, looked up in despair as the leader fell to his knees and wailed. "Nooooo! We were so close!"
The rest of his people all gasped in horror, before the leader snarled at the blocked door and hissed darkly. "You think this is over, blue hedgehog? Someday, we'll get you for this! We'll get you...and your friends too!"
Only except he and his people will only end up blocked for the rest of their lives, never to see the world or get their revenge on Sonic and his friends ever again.
Back outside, Sonic and his friends emerged from Sophia's house as Kairi once again apologized for her mistakes, to which the group responded that it was fine as everything was back to normal...
Except that Sonic and Sun both noticed Argo was once again attempting to steal the comic book without them even seeing. Sharing a look, the two brothers sighed in exasperation with a shrug and hurried over to the Eggman-Wanna-be.
"Ahem." Sun grunted, startling the human once more as the latter spun around, once again caught red-handed.
"Erm...$3.75?" Argo asked, hopefully.
"You know, this won't end until he gets that stupid book and while he is pretty suspicious, I think we should give him this much." Sonic whispered, finally conceding that the book wasn't worth the trouble anymore.
"Fine." The orange hedgehog groaned in agreement, holding out his hand.
Pleased with the results, Tobrokin handed out the change and walked away, sitting by a tree to read his new book happily...Only for a couple of Mobini Grass-Hoppers to fly in and to the man's horror and dismay, literally ate the book to shreds.
"Ooooh! My book!" Argo wailed childishly.
Short time later, Sonic and Sun both decided to finally give Gaiver a visit with their friends joining them, and thanks to Manny, Kairi and Sophia, they knew exactly where the still giant Gorilla was. Fortunately, thanks to Sun and Star's actions, he stopped growing and was now about at least 89 feet tall. The group headed towards a really big built wooden tree house in the middle of the jungle far from the Unnamed Village.
"This is it." Kairi said.
"Whoa...this place is huge." Tails remarked, a little nervously.
"A-Are you sure coming here is safe?" Amy asked, uneasily.
"Hey now, Gaiver's a friend. He wouldn't mean any harm." Sonic shrugged in reassurance.
"And what happened back then wasn't his fault." Sun nodded in agreement. "He was brained-washed by Starline's weird glove-thing. Plus Gaiver helped to fix things up."
"Yeah, the big guy felt terrible for what he did even when it wasn't un purpose." Manny folded his arms, sighing over the memories. "That's why he couldn't go back to his old home anymore."
"And the cure is still out there somewhere. He just hasn't been able to find it yet." Star nodded in agreement.
The blue hedgehog sighed, feeling guilty for having wasted time for his and the two-tailed fox's adventures in Isalenna. But time and time again he was told to just enjoy himself and there wasn't any danger for the giant Mobian.
'Maybe now's a real good time to find a cure. Gaiver might be fine now, but I've wasted enough time just relaxing.' The hero of Mobius thought to himself, before nodding and pulled at the string attached to a fairly large bell that the people of Clocksworth had given Gaiver for a door bell.
BING BONG!
The moment Sonic did, he and his friends felt the ground shake a little which made the young Mobians gasp softly which quickly got stronger and stronger until it stopped when the huge door opened. Suddenly on edge, the fifteen year old stood protectively in front of Amy and Tails, while Sun did the same for Star and Sophia, and even Manny doing so for Kairi as the familiar figure of Gaiver loomed over them, now wearing a cream-yellow sweater with a white shirt underneath, light blue cargo pants, and leather brown boots at his current height of 85 feet tall.
The moment the giant Gorilla saw them, he blinked in surprise when he almost instantly recognized five hedgehogs and a little squirrel while not familiar with the pink hedgehog and a young two-tailed fox cub.
"SONIC? SUN? STAR?" Gaiver greeted with a small pleasant smile.
Sensing no danger from the friendly gorilla, Sonic and most of their friends relaxed their posture and the blue hedgehog smiled with relief. "Hey, Gaiver. Long time no see!"
"How have you been?" Sun greeted.
"It's good to see you." Star added happily.
"IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU ALL AGAIN TOO, AND YOU, KAIRI, AND SOPHIA AS WELL, MANFRED." The huge Mobian greeted back.
"Same here, big dude. And, I told ya' before, you can just call me Manny." The green hedgehog grinned sheepishly as the two aforementioned girls waved and gave their own greetings.
Gaiver nodded, before gazing at two of Sonic's companions before remarking. "AND I SEE YOU HAVE BROUGHT MORE FRIENDS WITH YOU."
"Yeah, they're actually my best buddies. I've known them for years." Sonic responded, gesturing at his two closest friends to come closer.
"I-it's nice to meet you, Mr. Gaiver, sir. My name's Miles Prower, but all of my friends and family call me by my nickname, Tails." Tails greeted, still a little nervous but beginning to relax.
"And my name is Amy Rose. Please to meet you." Amy said, still wiry but attempting to hide her fear.
"WHY, HELLO, MILES AND AMY. MY NAME IS GAIVER AND IT IS A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU BOTH AS WELL." The giant Gorilla replied, already liking the young Mobians. "WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE TODAY?"
"We just wanted to visit to check up on ya', and...well..." The hero of Mobius trailed off, much to all of his friends' concern. At Gaiver's concern and questioning expression, the cobalt teenager sighed apologetically. "I...really wanna apologize for not finding a cure for you like I promised. And for not checking up on you again after what happened to you."
Sonic closed his eyes in remorse. "I'm really deeply sorry, Gaiver."
At first confused on what Sonic was talking about, Gaiver soon realized that the young hedgehog was still feeling guilty for not curing him even though he didn't want to burden the teenager. So the larger Mobian sighed before he knelt down to the group's height level, making them all nervous as Sonic looked up again with a soft gasp, but relaxed when he saw no hostility from his giant friend.
"SONIC, I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE. THERE WAS NO NEED TO FIND A CUR EFOR ME. I HAVE BEEN USED TO MY SIZE FOR TWELVE YEARS. AND FROM WHAT I HEARD, YOU WERE STILL RECOVERING AND DID NOT NEED ANYMORE PREASSURE PUT ONTO YOU. I SIMPLY DO NOT MIND BEING THIS WAY FOR A WHILE LONGER." Gaiver gently reassured.
While he still felt guilty now that he thought of it, and the blue hedgehog had gotten into his head that everything would be fine and he'd find a cure one way or another once he relaxed enough, things had gotten quite busy lately outside of saving the world from other evil threats, that fact that nothing more terrible happened to Gaiver and things had been quite peaceful apart from today at the yard sale, it did make him feel a little bit better.
"Thanks, big guy. But if you don't mind, I think I'd like to stick around for a little while and maybe this time we'll find a cure for ya'. Maybe even hang out before me, Tails and Amy head back home." Sonic smiled warmly.
"I wanna stay around for a little longer too." Tails decided excitedly.
"Me too! I've always wanted to see more of Seaside Island." Amy agreed, her hands clasped together.
"I think I'll stay here for a little while too. It does feel great to be back." Star nodded.
"Yeah, think I'll stick around for a little bit. Got nothing else to do anyway." Sun shrugged, scratching the top of his head.
That made Manny, Kairi and Sophia cheer on that their friends have decided to stay for a little while, and even Gaiver, while again not minding as he really didn't want to pressure Sonic despite that he did want to return to normal size one day, smiled at the idea of the young travelers staying in Seaside Island until they were ready to go back to the mainland.
"YOU ARE ALL WELCOME HERE ANYTIME YOU LIKE. YOU WOULD LIKE TO COME IN?" The giant Gorilla nodded.
"Sure! No problem!" Sonic agreed, and both he and the other five Mobians relaxed while Amy and Tails softly gasped in a bit of a fright when Gaiver lowered his hand to them and laid it out flat for all eight of them to ride on. Seeing the duo's reactions made the blue hedgehog smirk. "Don't worry, guys. He's a nice guy. Trust me."
A little hesitant, his two oldest friends nodded before they and the rest of the group boarded onto the giant gorilla's hand while Gaiver carefully lifted them up and carried Sonic, Tails, Amy, Sun, Star, Manny, Kairi and Sophia inside, closing the door behind him.
Around ten minutes later the normal sized Mobians were seated on a giant table which had quite a few normal tables and chairs, having delicious tea and banana-flavored cookies with Gaiver seated near them in his own giant chair with a huge mug of coffee for himself.
"I never thought we'd have a tea party like this." Amy remarked, still a bit nervous but feeling more and more relaxed. "It's almost like we're all toys but having fun at the same time."
"Yeah, ever since Gaiver moved her, me and Sophia would play games with him in many fun ways." Kairi confessed with a giggle.
"INDEED. I HAVEN'T HAS SUCH FUN OR PLAY TIME SINCE I WAS A CHILD." Gaiver nodded in agreement WITH A CHUCKLE.
"Well, if things were calm, I bet you woulda been a famous movie star as a giant heroic gorilla without all of the expensive CGI or animatomic stuff." Manny said jokingly.
"I do not think that would happen, as I am not a movie hero." Gaiver chuckled. "I am relieved that I did not end up shrinking to the size of a toy."
Hearing this made Sonic, Tails and Amy flinch a little, before they all chuckled in embarrassment which earned a confused glance from all of their friends.
"What's wrong, guys?" Star asked, curiously.
"Oh, nothin'. It's just that, one time two years ago, me, Tails, and even Eggman and his two dumbots Decoe and Bocoe ended up shrinking into toy sizes for half a day and boy, was that a nightmare." Sonic shrugged.
"I remember that." Tails shuddered. "Just glad that nobody actually bought us and took us home for kids to play with."
"Oh, don't tell me. Eggman tried to shrink you guys but did that yet ended up shrinking himself and his two robot-dumbheads, right?" Sun groaned, exasperated.
"Dude, how did he do that?" Manny asked, shocked.
"Oh oh! Tell us, tell us! How did that happen and how did you turn back to normal?" Sophia asked, excitedly to hear a story.
"Sophia, I don't think Sonic and Tails want to tell us if they're uncomfortable about it." Kairi gently scolded.
Despite this, Sonic and Tails shared a glance with Amy, before they decided their friends deserved to know with a shrug.
"Well, okay. It all started around the first year of our time in Station Square..." The hero of Mobius began.
As he and his two friends retold their adventures, Sonic and everybody else began to fully enjoy each other's company as their Seaside Islands adventures for a short while were only just beginning.
For the hero of Mobius himself, he now vowed to help Gaiver even though the giant Gorilla wasn't in any form of danger and was in no hurry to return to normal.
Sonic's Next Adventure Awaits...
A/N: Not the best of one-shots, but I've decided to have Sonic's new little adventures set on Seaside Island before his next great big adventure in "Sonic's Space-Time Adventure" which is already finished. After that, who knows what will happen and the future one-shots or mini-stories may take place after that and before the events of "Sonic and the Return of the Wisps".
That is still debatable.
See you later!