Adventure in Dreamland - Sonic + Kirby Right Back At Ya

Chapter 6 - Whispy Woods

"The woods? Why do you need to go there?"

Tiff, Tuff, Fololo, and Falala were pulled aside before breakfast that morning by the two hedgehogs.

"We got a call from my buddy Tails back home, and he tracked the Chaos Emerald I lost on the way here in the woods. If we can get it back, we can get my friends here and find a way to get me and Faker home."

"I told you to stop calling me that or it'll stick."

"Heh, whatever, Faker."

Tiff seemed rather relaxed. She had a plan.

"We have a friend there in those woods. I'm sure he'll be a big help for finding that Emerald."

The ebony hedgehog nodded in understanding.

"That will make things much quicker. We've quite overstayed our welcome."

"Yeah, and I don't trust that King Dedede guy. Seems kinda fishy he'd just let us stay here."

Tiff nodded, her expression firm.

"Yeah, he's plotting something. He always is. It's best if we stay clear of him. We can get some breakfast to go and head over to the woods."

Sonic pumped his fist in excitement.

"Aw yeah! This is going better than I thought! Let's get Kirby and head over there!"

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"You sure this is the way there, Tiff?"

"Positive, Sonic. We're almost to him."

Shadow seemed a bit skeptical, as always.

"And who is this 'he'?"

Tuff stopped and spun around to face the hedgehogs.

"Whispy Woods, of course!"

Sonic scratched his quills in confusion.

"So that's not just the name of the place?"

Tiff pulled her brother along as they reached a clearing.

"You'll see. Anyway, you two stay back here for a bit. Whispy might be difficult to introduce to strangers, especially anyone that isn't native to Dreamland. We'll talk to him, first."

Everyone except Sonic and Shadow stepped into the clearing, while the hedgehogs hid behind trees.

Beautiful flowers were surrounding a large apple tree in the middle of the clearing.

"Hey Whispy!" Tuff shouted.

The tree seemed to have a face, and appeared to be very delighted to see the children and Kirby.

"Hello there, it's good to see you again. What brings you here?"

Tiff stepped forward, careful not to step on any of the flowers.

"We have a bit of a situation. A portal from another world got opened and someone fell out. They dropped something on the way here that we need, and they have the information that it's somewhere around here."

Whispy appeared very understanding, trying to keep his cool.

"Who is this stranger?"

"We brought him along. Come on out, Sonic."

Sonic turned to his ebony counterpart. "Stay here, Faker."

The blue hedgehog stepped into the clearing, careful to mind the flowers as well.

"Hey there. Name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."

Whispy stared at him for a brief moment before speaking again.

"So you're the stranger Tiff talked about? If these children trust you, I suppose I have no reason not to. I am Whispy Woods, the caretaker of this forest. What is it you're looking for?"

Sonic did his best to keep his cool and not act too brash, as not to startle the talking tree and mess up their chances of getting the Emerald.

"Well, I fell through a portal in the sky with a gemstone called a Chaos Emerald. It's a red gemstone, you seen anything like that around here?"

Whispy seemed intrigued by his description.

"Oh, I think I know what you're looking for."

One of his roots reached out of the ground, wrapped around the Emerald.

"This fell out of the sky into one of my branches a couple nights ago. I sense a strong abundance of power from it, so I kept it safe so it would not fall into the wrong hands, such as Dedede."

The tree dropped the Emerald into Sonic's hands.

"Be careful with it. I can assume that you know far more about this Emerald than I do, but you should make sure the King does not find it. It could spell disaster for Dreamland."

Sonic looked down at the emerald, then back at Whispy.

"Thanks, Whispy. We'll keep it safe." Sonic said, finishing it with a wink and a thumbs-up.

The tree chuckled softly.

"Anytime, Sonic."

As the group made their way out of the forest, Sonic seemed rather excited.

"Yes! We got it! Now I don't have to worry about Knux clocking my face in."

Shadow reached into his bag and pulled out the green Emerald he had brought with him.

"We're going to need some extra protection while we're under surveillance from the King. Do you know anyone that could help?"

Tiff nodded. "When you came to Dreamland through the monster delivery service machine in Dedede's throne room, you got confronted by Meta Knight. We can clear up the misunderstanding and ask Meta Knight to help protect the Emeralds. Breakfast should be over by now, so we can go ask him!"

"Alright! When the emeralds are safe, Faker and I will contact Tails and get everyone here to get a machine ready to help us get home!"

Tiff and Tuff nodded before Tiff spoke once more.

"Alright, let's get going!"

"Poyo!"

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"Hey, D-Meister, what can I do for you today?"

"Can the small talk, we got a problem here!" Escargoon replied to the salesman.

The snail grabbed a photo of Sonic taken without his knowledge and held it up to the screen.

"This lil' spikeball Sonic's been teamin' up with Kirby and took down that hunk a' junk Smackdown!" Dedede yelled. "He ain't from here and I need a monsta' to get rid o' him!"

The salesman seemed intrigued.

"He isn't from Dreamland? What else do you know?"

"He's been hanging with Tiff and the other little brats in this castle to get back to where he came from, and we can't launch a single monster at Kirby with that pincushion wrecking all of them!" Escargoon said.

The salesman got far more serious as he stroked his chin in thought.

"Hmm... How about a deal? We'll throw in some monsters and a plan to use Sonic to our advantage to take down Kirby. He could prove very useful if he's been destroying the monsters with such ease."

Escargoon still didn't back down.

"But Sonic's too fast, and all your monsters are slower than molasses!"

"Yeah, how am I supposed ta' catch him?"

The salesman smirked.

"We'll send you a monster that'll get us all the info we need to catch Sonic. This one's free of charge, but don't get too used to it. When he beats it, we'll catch him and get rid of Kirby once and for all!"

Dedede, Escargoon, and the salesman laughed evilly in unison, their plan about to unfold.