Sonic in Between.
Author's Note: Sorry that the last one-shot wasn't all that great and kind of rushed. I'm considering of going back and editing it in a few places to try and make it better, and it wasn't what I had in mind.
I will do my best with this new story as well as future ones.
Summary of Story 9: While Sonic and his friends spend time on Seaside Island to find a cure for their friend Gaiver the giant Gorilla, they are already running into complications with Sir Argo Barry Tobrokin now attempting to cause more trouble...Not to mention Knuckles and Rouge find themselves stranded due to another brawl with the Master Emerald.
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Emerald-Mania: Ruins of Galandia.
Angel Island, the mysterious floating mass of land done so by the power of the Master Emerald, the giant gem stone which controls all seven Chaos Emeralds when gathered, and the home of Knuckles the Echidna, the soon-to-be seventeen year old Guardian and the last of his kind. Since his earliest childhood memories, the young guardian made it his sworn duty to protect the precious crystal from invaders, thieves and intruders.
His life though became more of an adventure when he first met Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails, but not in a friendly matter due to being gullible enough to be tricked(several times) by the evil Dr. Eggman, back when the scientist was known as Dr. Ivo Robotnik. After a clearing of the misunderstanding and more adventures leading him to team up with the younger Mobians, Knuckles eventually grew to form a friendship with the blue hedgehog, the two-tailed fox and soon many others who made him not so lonely anymore, even though he still sticked to his life-time promise.
...That didn't mean it was always easy. Like today for example.
"If you think you can get your batty hands on MY Emerald, you're more crazy than I thought!" Knuckles snarled at the intruder, standing protectively in front of the giant Emerald while glaring at the usual invader, who was known other than Rouge the Bat, a Jewel Thief, cunning, smart, sometimes manipulative, and cheeky, yet that didn't she didn't have a heart. She was also a GUN Secret Agent, and despite her thieving ways, she has earned at least Sonic's trust to be called a friend.
"Aw, just one little giant beautiful gem, Knuckie? There's not much else for it to do but to be looked at." Rouge grinned slyly.
"No way! You're not getting the Master Emerald and that's final!" The red echidna snapped.
Rouge knew better that Knuckles was completely stubborn, and clueless. But as far as she could tell, the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds were beautiful gems for her to keep as they were nothing more than jewelry to her. Yet the albino bat still did not understand or accept that their incredible powers should never be meddled with in the wrong hands.
Having an idea, she looked up and convincingly pretended to gap in surprise. "Oh, is that Sonic and Tails approaching in the X Tornado behind you?"
"Wait, what?" Taking the bait unknowingly, Knuckles spun around while half-expecting to see his two younger friends coming in.
Only for his rival to cackle softly to herself and flew over before she bonked him on the head, prompting a loud pained 'OW!' from the echidna who fell onto the stone ground face-first. Smirking to herself, Rouge then attempted to lift the Master Emerald as hard as she could despite it being large and, obviously, heavy.
"Ugh! If only there was some way to s-shrink this thing, it would be far e-easier!" Rouge grunted with strain, and even as she lifted it and well aware that by removing it from it's pedestal, Angel Island would come falling down into either the ocean or, more fearfully, somewhere on another island or continent.
As predicted, the violent shaking began to occur which had the bat thief stumble and nearly lose her balance, while Knuckles, also feeling it, looked up in horror and growled angrily as he realized far too late what just happened.
"YOU LYING BAT! Put that Emerald back now!" Knuckles shouted angrily, furious that he has been easily tricked again.
Unfortunately, mistakes can be made when you rush in far too quickly. Because the guardian leaped right onto Rouge who yelped in fright and ended up losing her grip on the Master Emerald which somehow ended up being thrown off the alter ruins and rolled down into the forest and hills of Angel Island as the two Mobians quickly wrestled. Thankfully the island was falling right into the ocean. But the giant gem ended up being rolled and spun in high-speed before falling off the cliff and towards the surface below...
Right towards the mountains of Seaside Island where Angel Island would be crushing next to, but fortunately not into or cause any damage. By the time Knuckles and Rouge finally noticed and gasped in shock and horror, it was too late.
"The Master Emerald!" Knuckles exclaimed in dismay, shoving his rival off of him and made a mad dash to try and find it.
"You mean MY Emerald, Stubborn-Red!" Rouge snarled, flying after her rival to get the gemstone back.
By the time the two treasure hunters reached the edge as the island now rested in the ocean, they skid to a stop and saw that they were near another Island. Which left the problem as the Master Emerald could be anywhere.
"That's just great...!" The sixteen year old echidna grunted. "Guess I'll have to search around Seaside Island since I know this place."
"Oh, really? Then maybe you can give me a tour guide around here?" Rouge teasingly asked with a smirk.
Growling in irritation, Knuckles glared at her. "Well, it's your fault! If you weren't so obsessive with the Emeralds, we wouldn't be in this mess! Thanks to you, I have to go through this all over again, and if you think I'm going to let you near it again at this place, you're more batty than usual! Now, do excuse me, I've got an Emerald to find!"
Ignoring her glare, Knuckles dove into the ocean and quickly swam to reach Seaside Island.
"Not if I get to it first!' Rouge shouted back at him, before she took flight to see if she could get to the Master Emerald first.
Both of them unaware that things were only about to become more complicated in their search.
A few days passed since Sonic, Tails and Amy arrived on Seaside Island where they reunited with their old friends Sun, Star, Manny, and Gaiver, while becoming good friends with Kairi and Sophia, the group spent time relaxing even though the hero of Mobius, due to not wanting to delay his promise to the giant Gorilla, began his search around Seaside Island for a potential cure to shrink him back to normal size.
Except one problem: Clearly as Sun had told the blue hedgehog days earlier, Sir Argo Barry Tobrokin, the infamous thief who was known as the Eggman-Fan, but not as intelligent as the late evil scientist but still a threat enough, and not as cunning or calm as the late Dr. Starline, was quickly discovered as a mad inventor himself. As such, the two hedgehogs and their friends were no a middle of a sudden battle against their near-instant new enemy who, while not world-conquering-crazy, planned on taking over Seaside Island by turning it into a Themepark.
As of now, the group of six hedgehogs, one squirrel, and a two-tailed fox were in a middle of a battle against Argo who was riding in a fix up and recycled Egg Mobile he found and fixed up, redesigning it...with a face of a clown panted green with white big lips and frog flippers for wings, and his own robots who shot out exploding coconuts everywhere.
"This is more excellent than I thought! Why didn't I think of this plan before? Oh, if only I could meet Dr. Eggman, he would be impressed by my brilliant designs!" Argo grinned cheekily, before muttering to himself. "Though, one thing I can't understand though, is why go through the trouble of taking over the world, when one Island is more than enough? At least I can keep other people out and turn it into my own theme park!"
With that, nearby, a large spider-like robot shot out another explode-o-nut, which is what the madman called it, and rolled onto the ground...right near Sonic's legs as the hero of Mobius picked it up with a sigh.
"I can understand Argo wanting to be a thief, but to really turn into an Eggman-Wanna-be? Does anybody else think these ideas are more weird than Egghead's?" Sonic asked, disappointed to having to now go through the trouble of keeping Argo under control which was, to his dismay, delaying his promise to help out Gaiver even further.
The blue hedgehog quickly tossed the explode-o-nut to Tails who whacked it away with a club as it exploded in the air, before he answered flatly. "Yeah, these ideas are more annoying than Dr. Eggman's were."
"I did say that he reminded me too much of Ro-butt-nik." Sun shook his head, punching and throwing more of the exploding pieces of fruit away while Spin Dashing into several of the Spider-Bots before they could create more explode-o-nuts, grunting in annoyance. "Only he's more of a comical idiot who has mother issues."
"I don't have mother issues!" Shouted Tobrokin, irritated by the insult on what the orange hedgehog had just said.
Amy and the others, who were also nearby, were quickly bashing away more of the spider-bots who attempted to attack them with their drills, only for the pink hedgehog to squash them or bash them away with her Hammer, grunting in annoyance, while Star flipped and air-kicked another with a loud battle cry, knocking it over towards more which caused them to crumble. Kairi whacked more with her Club downward and sideways, swinging to her right when she sensed another attempting to sneak up at her, and Sophia tossed her boomerang at five more, knocking them down.
"Every time we seem to go on vacation, something always manages to ruin it!" Amy snarled angrily, growling before she screamed out in frustration. "This is totally unfair! Just when we thought we didn't have to deal with anymore craziness since Eggman's gone, now we have to deal with a stupid copy-cat who wants to drive people out of their homes and build his amusement park! Why can't he just build it on another deserted island!?"
"I am not a stupid copy-cat, either! At least be grateful that I don't want to rule the world! Do you know how hard that is to conquer everything?" The mad thief shouted, before pushing a button which his, erm...Frog-Mobile(?)'s bottom hatch opened up and dropped more of the explode-o-nuts which surrounded and seemingly trapped Sonic and his friends in a ring, threatening to explode any minute now.
Sighing in exasperation with a shrug, Sonic nodded to Sun who returned it and thrust his fists against the ground and causing all of the explode-o-nuts to be thrust into the air. Using this to his advantage, the fifteen year old jumped and in a perfect sync, he kicked all of the fruit one by one which ended up flying straight towards Argo who's eyes widened as he realized, to his dismay and horror, he was about to lose in a humiliating way.
"...Mommy." He whined childishly.
BOOM!
The nut-bombs exploded around him and caused damage to the Frog-Mobile, and charring Argo who coughed, covered in soot and his clothes tattered and ruined.
"Curse you, brats! I just had this and my clothes all cleaned!" Argo shouted angrily, before he flew away...or at least he tried to, as his Mobile had trouble staying afloat.
"Man..." Sonic began in growing disbelief, after he landed and dusted his hands off. "That guy really is more of a clown than Baldy McNosehair was."
Though the way he said it made Manny snicker in laughter, while Kairi and Sophia were both confused, as the green hedgehog snickered. "B-Baldy McNosehair? Dude, where'd you come up with that?"
"Me and Tails heard it from a friend of ours a couple months ago." The blue hedgehog shrugged with a smirk. "Actually, he and a lot of his friends and siblings called Egghead "Baldy Nosehair" since they didn't know his real name at the time. I just added the Mc part."
"Maybe we should call Argo "Crybaby McNosehair" or something." Sun suggested jokingly with a grin, causing his brothers and friends to all burst out laughing.
All of the sudden before the conversation could continue, Sonic felt a strong pulse of familiar energy which made him blink in shock, confusion and surprise, as he and the others heard a loud rumbling with a slight quake rocking the island. This caused the eight Mobians to cry out in alarm just as it stopped along with the rumbling.
"What's that!?" Sonic exclaimed, looking around.
"Sonic, look!" Amy gasped, pointing upward.
Confused on what the pink hedgehog was looking at, the rest of the group looked up to see something huge, green and diamond shaped somehow flying across the sky above them and fall towards deep within the mountains of Seaside Island itself, the sun reflecting on it's surface giving it a sparkle for a brief moment.
"What on Mobius was that? A giant green diamond or something?" Manny asked as he blinked, bewildered over the unusual thing that seemed to have fallen from the sky.
"Maybe it's a the Wishing Stone coming to grant us wishes?" Sophia asked, hopefully as her hands clasped together and her eyes sparkled with excitement.
"I...don't think it's that." Kairi pointed out, skeptically.
"Is it just me, or do any of you guys think that looks familiar?" Sun asked to the others, feeling the case of deja vu somewhat.
"I'm not sure, but maybe." Star said, uncertain.
Sonic, Tails and Amy though, all felt that the orange hedgehog was right as the two-tailed fox felt a sense of dread and worry grow inside him, while saying. "I don't know about you guys, but it looked like...the Master Emerald."
"But how can that be?" The hero of Mobius asked, shrugging cluelessly before a sudden realization formed as he softly gasped. "Unless..."
Deciding to quickly investigate, Sonic and his friends hurried to the beach as the only ones completely confused over this whole situation were Manny, Kairi, Star, and Sophia. By the time the eight of them arrived, they all gasped in shock, awe and disbelief to see, unbeknownst to at least three of them, was Angel Island itself.
"Where did that new island come from!?" Manny exclaimed dumbfounded, his eyes wide.
"Maybe it's an alien invading island, coming to replace Seaside Island and take over the world!" The young squirrel grunted, her eyes narrowing. Though this only earned her skeptical expressions with raised eyebrows and sweat drops from the rest of her friends.
"It's Angel Island!" Tails cried out.
"Angel Island?" Kairi asked, confused over the unfamiliar name.
"It's a giant floating island powered by the Master Emerald, and our friend Knuckles guards it. The Emerald itself is what controls all seven Chaos Emeralds." The nine year old cub explained, surprisng the three islanders.
"Speaking of Knux, I think I know why this has happened." Sonic spoke up, suddenly exasperated as he held a dull expression while staring out at the ocean.
When the others looked up ahead to see what he was talking about, they all saw the aforementioned red echidna swimming his way towards the land, and just behind him beginning to overtake him, was none other than Rouge, the two both looking determined to get to the Master Emerald first. It soon quickly became clear to Tails, Amy, Sun and even Star on what happened as they too all sighed with groans, the former Werehog facepalming himself, Amy sighed, and Star shook her head.
By then, Knuckles and Rouge, attempting to overtake each other while trading insults, almost instantly noticed the younger Mobians watching them and blinked in surprise before they reached the shores.
"Sonic? Tails? Amy? Sun, Star and Manny?" Knuckles greeted, blankly as he approached them, soaking wet but ignoring it, while Rouge landed next to him.
"Hey, Knuckles. How're you doin', Rouge?" Sonic returned the greeting with a wave. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that your squabbling this time caused this to happen and the Master Emerald flew right above us?"
"Blame the bat. She's the one who caused all of this." The red echidna grunted as he glared at the aforementioned thief who glared back.
"You're the one who tried to stop me! Once a jewel, always a jewel." Rouge argued darkly.
"That's what you always think about! Why can't you just get it in your head that the Master and Chaos Emeralds are not just pieces of shiny stuff to look at or even wear?" Knuckles snapped.
The two heated rivals then shared a heated glaring contest with sparks flying while the rest of the group watched with unease or sheer annoyance.
"Here we go again..." Sonic shrugged with a sweat drop.
"...Does this happen all the time?" Manny whispered to Tails, since he had no idea about Knuckles' situation with Rouge or even who the female bat was.
"Sadly, all the time." The nine year old fox grumbled.
"And every time, this seems to happen but this is the first time they ended up crashing Angel Island while losing the Master Emerald." Amy grunted, eyes closed.
"They sure don't look like friends to me." Sophia remarked, gazing at Rougue suspiciously. One thief which was Argo Barry Tobrokin was bad enough, but to have a bat girl who steals powerful jewels made the squirrel girl feel very uneasy.
"Well, now what do we do?" Kairi asked, not sure what to make of this.
Eventually it took Star and Sonic to break the argument between the two treasure hunters, who, realizing that they weren't getting anywhere with this, explained what happened and it took Sonic to get them to fully stop.
"Okay, so the Master Emerald is somewhere up in the mountains and it's going to take all of us to find it and put it back onto Angel Island to get to float again before something else happens." Sonic spoke up firmly, arms folded to his chest. "We just need to figure out which way it went and take it from there."
"To do that, we're gonna have to ask people to see if they saw where the Master Emerald crash landed." Tails reminded, gazing up to the jungle. "Even though Seaside Island isn't all that big, it's still pretty big enough to get lost in."
Manny, remembering a certain adventure, gulped nervously as he gazed up at the mountains while muttering. "Just hope it didn't end up in that same place where we had to find the Meroke Crystal and deal with the evil ghosts trying to kill us."
"Ghosts?" Knuckles blinked, and while he managed to mask his fear, just the mention of the word made his blood run cold and he unintentionally formed a small sweat drop while mentally gulping. 'Nobody said anything about this place being haunted with ghosts...'
He then had a horrible thought as he suddenly became pale. The red echidna began to fear that the ghosts could arrive and use the Master Emerald to do many horrible things or something. He had to get it back before it was too late!
"A Meroke Crystal? And ghosts?" Rouge questioned skeptically while folding her arms. Even though she was skeptical about the ghost part, the Meroke Crystal on the other hand really caught her interest.
"Don't even think about it, Rouge!" Amy said sternly. "That thing isn't what you think it is, and it's what keeps the power supply on Seaside Island active."
"It also keeps the ghosts at bay to stop them from possessing people." Sonic added. "Believe me, we had to deal with that two years ago, especially when one of them possessed Chris' Mom."
"And possessed me!" The green hedgehog shuddered, hugging himself. "I thought for sure I was a goner back there."
"Hmm..." Star began thoughtfully, making her friends turn to her curiously as she said. "If I'm correct, the Master Emerald flew over the direction above the Jungle we were at, right?"
"Yeah..." The blue hedgehog trailed off.
"And we weren't exactly too far from where Gaiver was either. There's one area where he usually goes to find fruit to eat and to help to stock up supplies for the village." The lavender hedgehog continued.
"So you think Gaiver might know where it is?" Sun asked as he and most of the others realized where his 'girlfriend' was coming from.
"Isn't Gaiver that giant Gorilla guy you once told me about?" Knuckles asked, skeptically at not just the orange hedgehog, but also to the hero of Mobius and the young fox genius. "I thought you said he disappeared."
"He disappeared to another place, which was right here." Sonic shrugged, a little sheepishly. "Actually, we were hoping to find a cure to turn him back to his normal size 'til that weirdo Argo Tobrokin showed up today and attacked us with his own sets of robots, but he's more of a theme park crazy guy than anything else...and a thief too. Let's just say that he's the new Eggman."
"Huh?" Knuckles and Rouge both blinked, before sharing a glance. Though at the thought that this Argo person was another thief and a weird version of Eggman made the former very uneasy.
'Great. Now I have to deal with two thieves. That Argo guy better not be getting to the Master Emerald!' The red echidna grunted to himself.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go ask him!" Amy declared, deciding that the sooner they found the Master Emerald, the better.
"Yeah, before Argo finds out about this." Sun nodded in agreement.
"And he could use the Master Emerald for his own gains." Tails added, unknowingly thinking along the same lines as Knuckles.
Gasping softly in realization that his best friend/little brother was absolutely right, the hero of Mobius narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Then we don't have much time here. C'mon! Let's find Gaiver and then look for the Master Emerald! And Rouge, you're coming with us. But no stealing the Master Emerald again after that, alright?"
"You sure know how to spoil a girl's fun, Sonic. But I guess I will help out." Rouge sighed, annoyed and disappointed to be told what to do, but seeing how that, even though she can fly across the ocean, she would never be able to live this one down. Plus she was a little curious about this Gaiver person and maybe, as a friend and ally to Sonic, Tails and Amy, she can help finding a shrinking cure for the giant Mobian.
Knuckles and Sophia both glared at the bat with distrustful expressions and gave her the 'I'm-watching-you' gestures with their hands.
Once forming a group(and a truce with Rouge who, slightly reluctantly, promised to be a good girl and not steal the Master Emerald again), Sonic and his friends hurried into the jungle to locate Gaiver to ask him if he had seen where the Master Emerald went to. Manny, Kairi and Sophia took the lead since they knew where to look, eventually leading the group to a large area which was full of endless kinds of tropical fruit, much to their amazement: Bananas, Oranges, Coconuts, Grapefruit, Manderanes, all that sort of thing.
"Look at all that fruit!" Tails exclaimed in awe.
"They all look so fresh and delicious!" Amy stated, as her mouth was starting to water.
"I'm getting pretty hungry just by looking at them." Sonic admitted, his stomach actually rumbling a bit.
"That explains why Gaiver manages to make all of those amazing Banana flavoured cookies." Sun said, surprised.
"Banana flavored cookies, huh?" Rouge questioned thoughtfully, smiling a little. "That sounds delicious."
"I remember seeing this once. This island is so full of the fresh fruits that they seem to grow in every season during the year. Because of that, there's never really a shortage in food supplies on Seaside Island at all." Star smiled happily.
Knuckles expected the ground carefully, gently running his gloved hand on the soil and stated. "That's because the soil around here is fresh due to the environment." He then looked up while adding. "With nature this green, it's no real surprise at all."
"Just like South Island, Westside Island and even Angel Island, right?" The fifteen year old hedgehog asked curiously.
"Most likely." The older Mobian nodded, standing up straight. "I've only been here once, so I guess I wouldn't mind exploring it if I had the time."
"We can talk about snacks later. What we really should be doing is find Gaiver and the Master Emerald." Sun reminded impatiently, tapping his foot.
'Geez, sometimes Sun's almost as big of a party pooper as Knucklehead.' The cobalt hedgehog grumbled to himself, but hidden it.
Before the conversation could continue, the ground trembled again and caused everyone to gasp in alarm, with each quake like a footsteps with birds flying out of trees chirping and tweeting in fear, and a few number of Mobini Monkeys screeching as they ran away and passed the ten Mobians. When Sonic and his friends looked up with slight nervousness while Knuckles and Rouge were both quickly on their guard, the latter two's eyes widened in pure shock and attempting to hide their own fears when, unbeknownst to them, Gaiver came stomping carefully into the opening and stopped in front of the normal-sized group, looming over them.
"AAHH! W-what the!?" Knuckles exclaimed, unable to believe what he was seeing and then quickly wondered if he was having some sort of strange nightmare.
The rest of the group though, even as Rouge was rendered speechless in disbelief, relaxed and Sonic went up to the giant Mobian, waving casually. "Hey there, Gaiver."
"GOOD AFTERNOON, SONIC, SUN, STAR, TAILS, AMY, MANNY, KAIRI AND SOPHIA." Gaiver nodded in greeting. "IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?"
"Besides now having to deal with Argo deciding to cause trouble and act all Eggman-like, we're, things are pretty cool. Unless you count a not-so-Earthquake that happened about half an hour ago as not alright." Sun shrugged nonchalantly.
"I THOUGHT I FELT THE UNUSUAL TREMOR, RIGHT AFTER I SAW A STRANGE GREEN GEM FLY BY." The giant Gorilla hummed thoughtfully, which got everyone else's attentions. "DO ANY OF YOU KNOW WHAT HAS HAPPENED, AND WHO THESE TWO YOUNG FRIENDS OF YOURS ARE?"
"Well...Pretty much. It's kind of a long story and we actually came to find you to see if you saw that gem fall, and where it landed." Sonic shrugged sheepishly, before he and the others introduced their huge ally to Knuckles and Rouge, explaining what happened and parts of what they knew about Angel Island and how it ended up in the ocean near Seaside Island, with the gem being the Master Emerald.
Once they were finished and the group quick to defend the white bat that even though she is a jewel thief, she is also a friend and an ally who helped out more times than any of them could count. While Gaiver did give Rouge a suspicious hard stare, the fact that she seemed nothing like the chimps from before nor was she that much trouble like Argo did make him relax a little.
"I SEE. THAT WOULD EXPLAIN THINGS THEN." Gaiver finally responded after a moment of silence.
"Yeah, well, Rouge's the one who caused this mess to start with." Knuckles, still a little uncertain with the giant Gorilla as though he was facing a real King Kong, shrugged with one shoulder.
"You're not going to let this go, are you?" Rouge deadpanned, her arms folded once more.
"Well, it's your fault!"
"Guys, please stop fighting. This isn't really the time for this." Amy sighed exasperated, not wanting to go through this all over again. While she couldn't blame Knuckles for this and Rouge was a jewel-fanatic, this was getting far too ridiculous now.
The giant Mobian blinked over how the two rivals, who glared before turning around daring not to look at each other, were bickering, before he turned to Sonic and asked. "DO THEY...ALWAYS FIGHT LIKE THIS?"
"When it comes the Master Emerald...Yeah, they do have a big rivalry relationship but they can be civil when they want to." The blue hedgehog sighed, one hand onto his head. He then realized something and gazed up. "Hey, can you pick me up so I can tell you something? Just in case."
Surprised by this request before realizing what the teenage Mobian meant, Gaiver nodded and lowered his right hand which allowed Sonic to hop on even though his friends were a little wiry, but calmed down when they saw how gentle the huge Mobian was. The Gorilla then carefully lifted the blue hedgehog towards the left side of his head before the fifteen year old leaped onto his shoulder and whispered something into his ear, informing him that Argo, despite his humiliating defeat, could be listening in and may try and steal the Master Emerald.
"THAT IS UNDERSTANDABLE." Gaiver agreed once Sonic finished whispering. "I CAN TAKE YOU ALL TO WHERE I SAW IT LAND. FORTUNATELY, IT LANDED FAR FROM THE TEMPLE OF THE MEROKE CRYSTAL AND THE GHOSTS."
"Thanks a bunch, Gaiver." Sonic smiled gratefully, which made the others sigh in relief when they heard this as well.
"AND DO NOT WORRY ABOUT FINDING THE CURE STRAIGHT AWAY, SONIC." The giant Gorilla continued softly, surprising the teenage hero who blinked, and when the latter lowered his gaze in slight guilt, the former carefully rubbed the boy's left arm with his finger to calm him down, making Sonic look up at him once again as Gaiver smiled. "YOU SHOULDN'T PRESSURE YOURSELF OVER THIS OR EVEN RUSH IN FOR SOMETHING THAT I HAVE BEEN USED TO FOR A LONG TIME."
Sighing, Sonic smiled sadly in return. "I know. I just like helping other people, and you had been a growing giant for years. If it were me, I'd go stir crazy."
Once they all knew that Gaiver would take them to where he believed he saw the Master Emerald ended up in, he carefully held the rest of the group in his hands while Sonic remained on his shoulder for the time being, and carefully ventured off up to the mountains.
Unfortunately they were unaware that Argo, who had also seen the light earlier, was also making his way through the jungle in an attempt to find the shiny light as well.
"Those heroic children may have defeated me, but once I find out about that falling star, or wishing stone or whatever it is, I'll use it's mysterious power to charge up my latest creations, come up with a plot to get them and everybody else off the island and create my Theme Park!" The crazy thief whispered to himself with a grin, now sporting an exploration equipment and travel gear.
He then paused while adding to himself, "And if it has no power, it'll be a shiny addition for my lovely base. Maybe for a Tobrokin Museum Exhibit for my Park someday."
With that thought in mind, Argo carried on towards his latest goal to find the gemstone before Sonic's group did.
By the time Gaiver took Sonic and the others to where he noticed the Master Emerald crash landed, the eleven Mobians noticed that the side of it had two tunnels. One leading into a cave at the base cliff, and a newly made hole just above it, both leading deeper into the mountain.
It was a nice green mountain covered with trees and moss, with rock formations make it quite remarkable.
"THIS IS IT." Gaiver announced, making the younger Mobians look to see for themselves and gaped in awe.
"That must be where the Master Emerald crashed into." Knuckled remarked in realization.
"Let's go check it out." Tails declared excitedly.
The rest of the group nodded, as the giant Mobian gently placed them onto the cliff close to the lower tunnel, while Sonic jumped off of his shoulder, before Gaiver said. "I SHALL STAY HERE TO KEEP WATCH IN CASE ANYONE ATTEMPTS TO CAUSE TROUBLE. NOT ONLY THAT, I CAN'T FIT INTO THIS CAVE ANYWAY."
"Thanks, big guy. We'll be back soon." Sonic waved in gratitude, to which his giant friend nodded in return, before the former and his friends headed inside to check it out.
They didn't go terribly far as they quickly found a dead end, much to their disappointment. Rouge though began to aspect it before a realization dawned onto her.
"Looks like the impact of the Master Emerald not only made a new hole, but it caused the main part of this tunnel to be blocked off. You see?" The white bat explained calmly, pointing at the rocks blocking the path.
"Hmph. That won't stop me!" Sonic declared, and was about to use his Spin Dash to dig his way through, when Sun quickly grabbed hold of him to stop the blue hedgehog.
"Whoa, not so fast, Blue!" The former Werehog cried out, glaring at him sternly. "Need I remind you of our adventure in Holoska? If you try that, you'll just end up burying us in here."
"He's right, you could just trap us for all we know." Knuckles agreed instantly.
Blinking as he realized his mistake which, he mentally thanked his orange brother for stopping him, Sonic chuckled sheepishly while facing the others. "Right. Sorry."
Thankful that he didn't do anything too stupid, the group sighed before Rouge noticed another tunnel while calling out to them. "There's another tunnel here, but it's pretty narrow."
"Huh?" Sun murmured as he and the others peered through, before he narrowed his eyes. "Looks like we can only go in at least one at the time."
"Let's see where it goes." Sonic suggested, and allowed Rouge to take the lead, with Knuckles, the blue hedgehog, and the orange hedgehog following which left Manny, Tails, and the girls behind.
"Hey, what about the rest of us?" Manny whined, pouting over the fact that he wasn't going with.
"Maybe Gaiver can lift us up to the other tunnel." Tails advised.
"That's a good idea." Sophia agreed, even though she raised an eyebrow while questioning. "Still, can we really trust that Rouge girl? She has the eyes of 'trouble' if you ask me."
"Rouge can be a good person. She just can't help herself when it comes to jewels, and the Chaos Emeralds have always been her top favorite." Amy answered, shaking her head with a sigh before gazing down into the narrow tunnel while thinking to herself. 'Sonic, I hope you and the others will be okay.'
While the others returned to Gaiver outside, Rouge, Knuckles, Sonic and Sun traversed their way down the tunnel which soon became darker the deeper they went until it was nearly pitch black and they almost couldn't see anything...resulting the red echidna and orange hedgehog to hit their heads against the ceiling.
"Ow!" The two boys grunted painfully, making the female bat softly gasp, startled before she realized what just happened.
"Careful. You three have big heads. Good thing they're hard." Rouge half-sarcastically cautioned, which made her rival grumble and the former Werehog to roll her eyes.
As they slowly walked through the tunnel which thankfully became larger, the four Mobians came across a large cavern and Sonic breathed in awe to see it all lit up by unusual glowing lights coming from the walls.
"Is this...green stuff doing this?" Sun asked, surprised as he gently ran his gloved fingers against the soft, green, plush of earth moisturized along the walls.
"It's some kind of fluorescent moss." Knuckles answered, gazing up to the ceiling.
"The moss is doing this?" The orange hedgehog blinked, surprised. Well, that was new to him and he had been going to different places quite a few times over the last few months.
"How'd you know that?" Rouge asked, curiously.
The red echidna smirked as he began to explain proudly. "Easy. When you're a great treasure hunter like me, you've been to all kinds of places and-"
"Let's go, boys." The white bat cut him off and gestured Sonic and Sun to follow him as the trio walked away, even though the tangerine hedgehog had been pretty interested in hearing the Guardian's story. As far as the GUN agent was concerned, Knuckles' bragging and story were too long and boring.
"I see!" Knuckles grunted, severely annoyed and insulted for being ignored and just when he was getting to the exciting parts. "It's three against one now!" He then hurried to catch up to his friends and rival.
Short time later, the guardian of the Master Emerald took the lead as he and the others slowly climbed their way down another tunnel which was a sheer drop. They were all pretty nervous and took it easy.
"Guys, these rocks are slippery. We have to watch our step." Sun cautioned, his heart racing as he hoped that none of them would lose their step and fall down.
Sadly, Murphy's Law happened because no sooner had the words escaped from the hedgehog's mouth, Rouge mistraced her step and lost her footing. She screamed while falling, accidentally crashing into Sun, Sonic and Knuckles who all screamed as well until they all crashed at the bottom of the tunnel and into another cave. Most of them groaned at the hard landing.
"Oopsie." Rouge smirked in amusement, since her landing was softened by the two hedgehogs and red echidna who all glared up at her, annoyed. Sonic had one hand under his chin with both his brother and ally on top of him, while he was on top of Knuckles who was unfortunately at the very bottom.
"Do I look like a pillow to all of you?" The sixteen year old grumbled, glaring at the three of them.
Once the four travelers recovered, they once again let Knuckles take the lead as they crossed a stone narrow bridge as he, Sonic, Sun and Rouge crossed very carefully, before they all eventually came across a dead end, with a large underground lake going pretty deep into another tunnel below. The red echidna went in to see if there was a way through, while the rest of them stayed at the edge of the water...though it set off the teenage hero's hydrophobia once again.
"It's...so wet." Sonic muttered nervously, his heart racing as he tried not to whimper in fear. While he did bring his Sea-Mask with him, he thought that he wouldn't be needing it today. Plus Tails needed it to finish up the rest of the Masks which the two-tailed fox left at the hotel shack he and the others were staying at for a while.
Of all the days he needed it, it had to be today.
Moments later, Knuckles resurfaced and informed the others. "It's too deep to wade across, we'll have to swim."
The others didn't like that.
"But...It will spoil my make-up." Rouge complained, not wanting to get wet or have her beautiful face ruined and messed up. This earned her looks of disbelief and irritation from the red echidna and Sun who groaned.
"Well, I guess there's no helping it. I really oughta take more swimming lessons from Espio." The orange hedgehog murmured, sweat dropping a little as he too couldn't swim very well either, considering he was born as Sonic's clone and everything.
Sonic on the other hand, terrified and trying to make up an excuse to avoid in going under, maybe even race back to get his mask, said while trying to remain calm. "Maybe I should go keep Tails and the others company."
"Hey, not so fast!" Knuckles grunted, sick and tired of his younger friend's refusal to face his fears, and grabbed hold of him to prevent the blue hedgehog from leaving. "The bat can rot in this cave for all I care, but you're coming with Sun and me!"
"Let's just...stick together, okay?" Sun suggested, taking hold of the scared Sonic's hand, before the trio pulled and dragged the hero of Mobius bodily into the water.
"H-hey! Let me go, please!" Sonic cried out pleadingly, before he was forced to hold his breath as the blue hedgehog was quickly pulled underwater.
Rouge glared angrily over Knuckles' words which instantly changed her mind and snarled. "You're not getting rid of me that easy!"
Diving in, the white bat then followed the boys as they waded underwater, while Sonic, whimpering while trying very hard to hold his breath as he was once again trapped in his worst nightmare, and without his mask for the first time in months, held hands with Sun. He really hated being in water, the sheer terror of drowning almost overwhelming his senses, so much so that he fought down the urge to panic. But it was the reassuring hands from his brother and Knuckles, who held his other hand and feeling guilty for having forced the blue hedgehog for doing this, that made it okay...but just a little.
Finally after what felt like forever, though in reality it was no more than maybe five or seven minutes, the group found the way out and emerged, climbing out and back onto dry land. Sonic, gulping and breathing in oxygen, collapsed onto his front and coughed, wheezing as he was relieved that it was all over.
"That was a nightmare." The blue hedgehog breathed hard, frightened. Sun, also having been coughing, managed to recover a bit more quickly and knelt beside the hero of Mobius while rubbing the teenager's back to comfort him.
While Rouge felt a bit bad for having put Sonic through that given his fear of water and that he can't swim, she knew that standing and lying around here wasn't going to solve anything. Even Knuckles felt guilty, but shook his head.
'He's going to have to get over his fear sooner or later. Sonic can't keep on staying away from water all the time.' The red echidna thought to himself, but like his thieving rival, he knew that now wasn't the good time to help with the blue hedgehog's dilemma.
"I hear a waterfall close by." The white bat said, listening very carefully.
Hearing this made Sonic perk up almost instantly as he stood up, listening in and realizing that she was right, so he followed the sound. "That must be our way out!"
"Sonic, wait up!" Sun cried out, hurrying to chase after his best friend.
But when the two hedgehogs reached the waterfall, it was leading downward to a dark abyss leading to nowhere.
"Looks like a dead end." The orange hedgehog sighed, disappointed as Knuckles and Rouge caught up with him and the fifteen year old.
However, while the boys were attempting to figure out what to do now, the female bat looked up when she noticed something and, seeing as an alternative, she flew up high to another cliff which made the trio look up.
"Huh? Where are you going?" Sun called up, confused.
"Hey, wait!" Knuckles exclaimed, thinking that she was leaving them behind and abandoning them...only for his rival to drop one end of a strong vine which landed roughly on his head and causing him to fall onto the ground with a grunt.
"Thanks, Rouge!" Sonic called up, before he took hold of the vine and began climbing his way up, followed by Sun as the two realized what their friend was doing.
"Grr...I'll get that bat." The sixteen year old echidna growled under his breath. This was definitely not his day.
None the less, he climbed up the vine and reached the top shortly after his friends and met up with Rouge. They could see a small hole leading to outside of the cave, except they were all trapped.
"Our exit seems to be this way, but it's blocked off." She stated.
"No sweat. I can dig us out!" Knuckles grinned, as he was an expert for being a digger. He reached into his quills and slipped on his shovel claws, much to Sun's surprise.
"Never seen you with those claws before." The orange hedgehog blinked, a little bewildered.
"He uses those Shovel Claws in case of emergencies." Sonic explained with a shrug and a small smirk, earning a puzzled look from his brother. "Better shield your eyes, bro. It's gonna be pretty intense."
While not understanding what Sonic meant, Sun decided to take his advice as they and Rouge raised their arms to their faces. Knuckles then dug quickly into the rock and dirt with tiny traces of it flying everywhere until light peered through a larger hole he'd created. As the red echidna stopped, Sonic then Spin Dashed into the hole and making it even bigger, landing on the other side. What he saw stunned him in shock.
"No way!" The blue hedgehog exclaimed as his companions followed him out, and just above them from another hole, Tails, Manny, Amy, Star, Kairi and Sophia carefully climbed down and onto the ledge just near them. Like Sonic, all of his friends were just as shocked at what was below them.
This seemed to be a valley deep within the mountain, with the ceiling covered with thick giant tree vines and branches, the sun shining through to provide light itself. The area itself looked beautiful with some sort of ancient ruins with temples and such, giant statues of ancient Mobians and humans in random parts of the area, and at the near end of it was a giant tree about the size of half a mountain, branches with fresh green leaves, beautiful lavender flowers full in bloom and pink pieces of fruit that looked like pears.
"You've gotta be kidding me...!" Sun breathed in awe, wondering if he was having some sort of dream.
"It's beautiful!" Amy exclaimed in awe, as she and the others quickly joined up with Sonic's group.
"I know this place. It's the Ruins of Galandia." Star remarked in disbelief, her eyes wide in amazement.
"Galandia?" Tails asked, curiously.
"What's Galandia?" Manny asked, puzzled as not even he, or Kairi and Sophia heard of this before and they all grew up on Seaside Island.
"A sacred place thought to be myth and hidden from the rest of the world in the ancient times. The historians say that many people would come to this area for those worthy to find a cure for any and all kinds of illness, spells, curses or man-made substances seemingly impossible to fully be ridden of, while also harnessing a produce to allow whomever wishes to use their curse or spell for special good use whenever they want. But they that invaders forced the people to abandon this place and ensure nobody else would find it again, because the map and location of Galandia were forever lost." The lavender hedgehog explained.
"Say what? You mean that kind of cure can really fix up anything?" Sonic asked, shocked and surprised as while it was very unlikely and he knew he shouldn't get his hopes up, maybe there was a way to actually cure Gaiver here after all.
"Well, nobody really knows since it was thought that Galandia was a fairytale." Star shrugged, before gazing at the valley once more. "But to think that it's actually real, it's amazing."
"So if Galandia is real, then the cure should be too!" Tails realized hopefully.
"Maybe we can use it to cure Gaiver." Amy said happily.
"So when we find the Master Emerald, we can find what we need to help out the big guy." Sonic nodded, turning to Star and asked. "Do they say what the cure looks like?"
"From what I read up, they say that the cure is a piece of fruit which can be either the size a Mobian or a normal fruit size." The young hedgehog girl answered.
"Judging from that big tree with the beautiful pink fruit over there, I'd say that might be it." Rouge suggested, pointing at the huge tree up ahead while smirking. "And I'd say that's where the Master Emerald is too."
When the others turned to see what she was looking at, instantly Knuckles sensed the familiar energy of his precious gem and closed his eyes while holding out his hand, focusing on it's power with his Chaos senses. Even though his Chaos Energy isn't as strong as Sonic's, he grew up knowing how to locate the Master Emerald even though it didn't always work out the way he wanted. In his mind's eye, he could see it shine just in front of the enormous tree, shining with it's power calling out to him.
"She's right. I can feel it." He finally agreed, snapping his eyes open. "It's right underneath the tree."
"How'd you know that?" Manny asked, blinking in surprise.
"I can sense where the Master Emerald is. As it's guardian, I have this ability to feel where it is. Not sure how or why, though. There's still a lot of things even about Angel Island I don't know about." The red echidna explained.
"Great! Let's go!" Sonic declared, smirking with determination. "To the Tree of Galandia!" He dramatically pointed at the tree up ahead.
"Yeah!" Tails, Amy, Manny, Star, Kairi, Sophia, and even Sun cheered on excitedly. Finally, they were getting somewhere. Not only did they manage to help Knuckles to find the Master Emerald, but today also helped them to unexpectedly find the potential cure for Gaiver to finally return him to his normal size after years of growing bigger and bigger due to Starline's interference.
Back outside of the mountain, Gaiver, who had helped Tails' group to reach into the new opening, was still waiting for the young Mobians to return with the Master Emerald while keeping an eye out for intruders.
'They seem to be taking their time. I certainly hope nothing has happened to them.' The giant Gorilla thought to himself, deep in thought over the welfare for Sonic and his friends. Despite the few times of scaring them due to his massive size, the huge Mobian was relieved over their kindness and friendship towards him, especially when the hero of Mobius wanted to help him return to his normal size.
The size that Gaiver never thought he would be able to go back to ever again, and accepted the grim reality of spending the rest of his life this way. It certainly has it's problems, being a giant and all, but it also worked to his advantage by keeping intruders and thieves away. Even though he didn't fully trust Rouge the Bat, at least she wasn't as troublesome as Argo Barry Tobrokin. Or those two chimps back in Abhat.
While deep in thought, the giant Mobian was unaware that Argo himself was still attempting to locate the direction where the Master Emerald ended up in. But when the Eggman-Wanna-Be noticed Gaiver, he tried not to gasp in horror as he peered through the bushes.
"Ah! Oh no, it's that King-Kong-Wanna-be! What is he doing here?" Argo whispered frantically in horror, as he feared the giant gorilla's fearsome size. 'How am I going to get past him?'
As the mad inventor thought on how to avoid in being seen by Gaiver, he then realized that the giant seemed to be standing there simply doing nothing. It was then he realized that perhaps he is guarding the entrance to where the gem was and grinned wickedly to himself.
'Of course...If I am right, then the meteor or whatever it was must have gone through there in that tunnel. All I have to do is sneak past him without that overgrown ape noticing me and then that mysterious item will be mine. Sir Argo, you are a brilliant man.' The stupid man thought to himself, attempting to sneak by, on tippy-tip-toe, though that left one small problem.
There was no pathway leading up to the cave. Meaning that he would have to climb his way up, much to his dismay.
'Oh, great. Just when things couldn't get more complicated. Now I have to climb my way up? Ugh, I hate climbing.' Tobrokin frowned, before turning to where Gaiver was and sweat dropped nervously, before he mentally gulped and looked back up again. 'Well...here goes nothing...Oh please, don't make me fall.'
Saying his prayers, Argo then, very awkwardly, tried to climb up the very steep rock wall, grunting, wheezing and panting, barely even reaching up to the first rock. For a good five or ten minutes, he panted and wheezed as he felt he was slowly getting there.
"T-this...is...a lot...higher and hard-er than...I...have...thought. I must have at...least reached...a quarter by now." Argo panted, pausing for a moment or two to try and rest for at least a few seconds.
Though in reality he hasn't even moved an inch off the ground.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, ARGO?" A deep, huge voice questioned loudly.
"AIE!" The human man yelped in a high-pitched squeal before he spun around, and gasped in horror as Gaiver, who has heard the would-be-scientist attempting to climb up, and loomed over him with a disappointed, annoyed and angry expression.
Shivering in terror and fearing for his life, Argo leaned back quivering. "Erm...J-Just getting some...exercise?" He responded weakly with a fake smile.
Unfortunately for him, Gaiver didn't believe the man, and groaned before he reached out his hand, grabbing the now screaming human who pleaded for his life and to be let go. Ignoring him, the giant gorilla simply walked off several feet away from the mountain's sight before using a couple of vines to tie up Argo and left him hanging upside down.
"I HOPE THIS WILL TEACH YOU A LESSON FOR ATTEMPTING TO SNEAK BY. NOT TO MENTION THAT YOU ARE QUITE LOUD, TOBROKIN." Gaiver deadpanned, before walking off back to the cave to continue waiting for his young Mobian friends.
"Hey! You can't leave me hanging here! Put me down this instant, you giant monkey!" Argo demanded, attempting to free himself from his trap, but ended up tangling himself even further. He then stopped as he saw how high he was and gulped. "Ooh...I hope I don't fall on my head too hard. I wish I had a parachute or something...!"
His attempts for finding the gem ended in an embarrassing failure.
Back in the Ruins of Galandia, Sonic and his friends managed to reach the giant tree after going through the bushes and ruins which thankfully there weren't any traps around, so it was thankfully a safe passage this time. When they did, they saw that the massive tree was bigger than they thought.
"Whoa! This tree is huge! Almost like a beanstalk." Sonic remarked in awe, as felt like an ant compared to the tree before him.
While most of the group admired the tree, Knuckles, seeing the Master Emerald, immediately hurried towards it and felt utterly relieved when he saw that it was undamaged and safe. Nodding to himself, as the others finally noticed and approached, the red echidna closed his eyes while placing a hand onto the giant gem.
"What are you doing, Knuckles?" Manny asked, curiously, while he and the others who had never seen the Master Emerald before were stunned at just how big it is.
"To move the Emerald in a safer way." Knuckles responded, before he remembered something and glared hard at Rouge who was waiting expectingly. "And don't even think of stealing it again, Rouge!"
"He's right, you know. I think you should really take a break from stealing the Master Emerald." Sonic folded his arms in agreement.
When she noticed that everybody else were glaring at her, the white bat sighed even as she felt terrible for having caused this to happen. The fall of Angel Island, putting Sonic and the others at risk by going through the cave and having the hero of Mobius wade into the water which was one of his worst nightmares, she knew then and there that she messed up big time.
Plus she didn't think that Sophia liked her that much.
"Okay, you got a point. I'll be a good girl." The GUN Agent conceded. Maybe she should take a vacation somewhere. Then again, Seaside Island did seem like a nice place for a tropical holiday.
"There's a few problems I just realized." Sun asked, gazing at the Emerald and then at the giant pieces of fruit. "How are we gonna carry all of these back outside?"
"I know how to carry the Master Emerald. Watch." Knuckles answered, turning his focus back to the giant gemstone and began chanting. "The severs are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart... the Controller is the one that unifies the Chaos...Oh, Great Master Emerald. Hear my thoughts and prayers, for the sake of my friends and the world. I ask to lend me a little bit of your power."
As soon as he finished making his plea and chanting, the Master Emerald glowed brightly which amazed those who has never witnessed anything like this before, before the red echidna focused even harder and before their very eyes, the giant emerald began to shrink until it was the size of a Chaos Emerald. Sighing as it did drain him of some of his energy, Knuckles opened his eyes before he slowly reached out for the shrunken Master Emerald and placed it securely into his quills.
"How...did you do that?" Kairi asked, stunned with awe.
"It's a long story. I had to do this once a couple years ago at the Space Colony ARK." The sixteen year old explained. "It takes great amount of energy for me to be able to shrink it and then grow it back to it's normal size."
"You feeling okay, Knux?" Sonic asked, as he, Tails, Sun, Star and Amy approached their older friend while the blue hedgehog gently placed a hand onto the echidna's shoulder.
"You really shouldn't go through that, Knuckles. It's pretty risky." The two-tailed fox reminded worriedly.
"I'm fine, guys. I just a bit more practice with it." The Guardian of the Master Emerald reassured, sighing to get some of his stamina back.
"You sure know how to make giant magic gemstones shrink and grow, huh?" Sophia remarked, before she gazed up at the tree once more and wondered aloud. "Do you think Gaiver could do the same if he ate these fruits, if they are the cure for his big problem?"
"Only one way to find out. Let's pick a big one and a couple of small ones." Sonic suggested, gazing back up at the tree.
Knowing what to do even though the fruit did look delicious enough to eat normally, Tails and Rouge both flew up while carrying Sonic and Sun who both volunteered to bash the big one down. The two hedgehogs then made to cut the huge stem of the giant-sized pink fruit, and at the same time the two-tailed fox cub and the albino bat picked some of the normal ones before they flew back down. The giant fruit in the meantime was cut free from the branch and began to fall. Fortunately, Knuckles, despite having some of his strength drained, managed to successfully catch it with ease, while both Sonic and Sun landed safely on the ground.
"Yeah! Got 'em! Now let's head over to Gaiver and go home." Sonic declared happily.
All of his friends nodded in agreement, glad that their little adventure was almost finally over.
By the time the group made it back outside by going through the hole the Master Emerald created, after they re-sealed the original entrance despite it being awkward due to the fruit being a bit heavy, Sonic and his friends finally made it and met up with Gaiver who was glad to see them the moment he spotted the young Mobians climbing back out again.
"YOU HAVE MADE IT BACK. I'M VERY RELIEVED." Gaiver greeted, smiling.
"Yeah. It wasn't easy getting to the Master Emerald, but we did it." Sonic replied, as he, Knuckles and Sun pulled and pushed. "Plus we think we finally found something to cure you from your giant growth-spurt."
"OH?" The giant gorilla blinked, holding out his hand to allow his smaller friends to climb on, even though the red echidna and Rouge both felt a little uneasy being held in the palm of the giant, and he noticed the pieces of fruit. "WHAT ARE THOSE?"
"Fruit of the Galandia Ruins, hidden within this cave." Manny declared happily. "These babies are said to cure people from anything and all kinds of sickness. They can also grant you a wish if you wanna use your problem to your advantage as well as stay normal whenever you want!"
"At least, that's what I heard. We're still not sure, but we thought it would be best to give it a try anyway." Star quickly added, not wanting to get their hopes up only for everybody to end up disappointed.
Even though Gaiver had gotten so used to being a giant, it had always been his desire to return to normal someday. To think that it was finally becoming a reality, it was like he was having a wonderful dream. At the same time, though, a small piece of him felt saddened to be leaving his giant form he has gotten used to. But perhaps, maybe, if the legends were true, he could use his enormous size only for emergencies.
"DO YOU THINK IT WILL WORK?" Gaiver asked, uncertain but at the same time really hopeful.
"Only one way to find out." The hero of Mobius winked, hoping for the same thing.
"Let's see if they can really help you, Mr. Gaiver. We brought some small ones just in case the big one doesn't work out." Tails suggested.
"ALRIGHT...WE WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS, THEN." The giant gorilla finally nodded.
Despite not wanting to get his hopes up, Gaiver gently put his friends back onto the ground at the bottom of the mountain, while surprised to hear about the Master Emerald having been shrunk by Knuckles, before the huge Mobian picked up the bigger piece of fruit as well as the two small ones the group collected. Eying it curiously and with caution, he gazed back to Sonic's group who nodded, before he sniffed at the fruit and then plucked the two small pieces with one gulp and took a bite out of the larger one which seemed normal-sized to him, mentally making a wish to return to his original size after twelve long years of waiting, while also hoping to turn his form into a new power only to use it in case of emergencies.
The fruit tasted rather sweet, like peaches. By the time he finished the fruit, he was unaware that, to the amazement, shock, disbelief and pure relief, that the giant gorilla was actually shrinking, clothes and all, to the size of a normal-sized Mobian Gorilla until he looked up and blinked in surprise when he noticed that Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, Sun, Star, Manny, Kairi, and Sophia were staring at him...and didn't look small anymore from his perspective.
"It worked! It really worked!" Tails cheered happily, with the others, also realizing this, all cheered in celebration.
"YEAH!" Sonic jumped excitedly, relieved that Gaiver was back to his normal size. At long last since meeting his new friend, the Mobian Gorilla was back to his original form.
"I...am finally normal size again." Gaiver blinked, gazing at his hands. He almost couldn't believe it. After years of accepting his life would never go back to normal, it felt like a dream come true. So much so that tears began to form in his eyes, his heart swelling up in relief. He gazed with a warm smile at the blue hedgehog's group, as the fifteen year old approached him. "Sonic...I cannot thank you enough."
Sonic shook his head, utterly pleased with results and now more than ever feeling just as safe and happy for his friend. "No need to, big guy. Your smiling face is all the thanks that I need. Plus, I had help from my friends."
He then chuckled and turned to Knuckles and Rouge. "In fact, if it weren't for these two's bickering, I don't think we woulda found that cure. All things considered, everything turned out great in the end."
"He's right. Good things do happen in awkward situations." Rouge smirked, realizing that her friend had a point.
"I guess it does make sense." Knuckles reluctantly agreed, shrugging.
"Even so...Thank you. All of you." The Mobian Gorilla nodded, and gently hugged Sonic who laughed and returned the embrace. They were soon joined by everybody else except for the red echidna and white bat who, despite their fight earlier today, shared a warm smile as they felt glad to have unexpectedly helped in curing a Mobian from Starline's formula.
From that point on, Rouge decided to take a break and left Seaside Island while Knuckles returned to Angel Island to place the Master Emerald back to where it should be, but decided to have his land hang around for a little while longer as he decided to hang around despite being told of Argo being a threat, but it wasn't much to worry about for the group as they felt, together, they can handle anything. As did Sonic and his friends, now really beginning to enjoy their time on the Island.
What more adventures awaited for our heroes during their stay here, once thing's for certain, Sonic was happy to have restored Gaiver who, after experimenting, gained a new power to grow and shrink at will...But only for real emergencies.
As for Argo...well...Let's just say that he will be minor problem for the group for a while. Once he could get out of the tree he was stuck in.
Sonic's Next Adventure Awaits...
A/N: While the cure for Gaiver is finally found, the adventures on Seaside Island aren't quite over yet for Sonic and his friends as they are in for a few more unexpected slight surprises. What they will be, only time will tell.
I also forgot to mention: Sir Argo Barry Tobrokin is pretty much a new bumbling OC villain based on Eggman's Boom incarnation, but having the hair-style from his Movie-Counterpart, and Tobrokin is a new diagram for "Robotnik" and "Kintobor".
See you later!