Adventure in the Dimensional Woods.

Alan runs across grasslands, on the way to a special forest. Jewel was reminding Alan of his mission on the way.
Jewel: As I told you, Tails has detected odd readings from this region. Your mission is to discover what’s going on. I wish I could have sent Srish, but you were the only one available.
Alan: Yeah, they were going to that one amusement park again today. Not my thing.
Jewel: Make sure to get in contact with the Magic Spirits. They may know what’s going on.
Alan: Right, right.
Alan immediately made it to the place he’d heard called the Ether Forest, and ran in.
Dimensional Woods Zone
Alan: Alright, Srish said this place was peaceful, so this shouldn’t be that exciting.
Alan is immediately proven wrong when he spotted two Egg Pawns walking towards him, though they seemed strangely transparent. He immediately broke them, but as they released similarly transparent animals and broke into transparent scrap, both turned to ethereal dust right after.
Alan: Found something. Weird magic Badniks that don’t seem made of anything physical.
Jewel: That’s not good. Could it be Eggman?
Alan: I’m not so sure. Call it just a hunch, but I think these are some sort of spirits. They’re not the Magic Spirits, but something else.
Jewel: Well, either way, you have to find the source of them.
Alan silently nods and continues onwards. As he does, he finds more Spirit Badniks, mostly Egg Pawns, but also some Motobug ones and others. Stopping to make sure they were actually aggressive, Alan found they very much were, and broke them as he went along. Soon enough, he found a river, and remembered a special property of the water Srish had told them about.
Alan: I wonder…
Alan put a finger in, and got a static shock, pulling his hand out to find a water drop he could manipulate, for a couple of seconds until the power ran out. Wanting to test more, Alan stuck both his hands in, and was able to manipulate some fire and electricity for a couple of seconds, before the power ran dry.
Alan: Guess I’d need a lot of this to truly make it work.
Alan then continued forwards, soon running across a clearing, where he saw some Egg Pawns, some with weapons, fighting the Spirit Badniks. 
Alan: Jewel, found proof those Badnik things aren’t Eggman’s.
Jewel: Really? What is it?
Alan: A pack of Egg Pawns are fighting them, and oh, they just lost.
As Alan watched a pack of Spirit Badniks seemingly guide away the animals from the Badniks, they noticed him, and attacked. Alan decided to just leave.
Alan: Okay, and now those Spirit Badniks just helped out the animals in the Badniks.
Jewel: Curious, some sort of forest guardians? You need to continue on and find out where they’re coming from.
Alan obliged, and continued down the path. As he ran by, the tree line cleared up, and he noticed Badniks battling in the sky against Spirit Badniks. On the ground, however, some spike traps, probably laid out by the Badniks, were on the path, requiring Alan to sidestep them. As he was doing that, to his right, a river ran, which some Areo Chasers flew down and right into Alan’s path, flying above in their typical formation. 
Alan: Ah great, Eggman had some Areo-Chasers scout the forest.
As Alan was about to destroy them with the Suncutter Claws, however, some blue orbs flew past and seemed to go into the three Areo-Chasers, soon emerging and assuming their form, before using their cannons as makeshift clubs to slam the Badniks into the ground. Alan ran and sliced open the downed Badniks, and then continued on, keeping an eye on the Spirit Areo-Chasers. Instead of attacking though, the machine copies flew off elsewhere.
Alan:(So they can understand.) 
As Alan continued down the path though, a pack of Balkeries noticed him, and proceeded to bombing run him. Alan shot them down easily, until a Spirit Gun Flapper flew past and got the rest. As Alan reached a bridge though, he saw it was out, a Spirit Buzz Bomber breaking more of it by crashing into it. Forced to pursue an alternative, he spotted a massive tree, and ran towards it, hoping to find something to cross the massive river canyon he’d stumbled across. Running through the grass, Alan soon reached the tree, which had a pathway carved through it, oddly enough. As he ran up the path, he found a waterfall at the end of it, with a spring that would launch Alan through it to whatever was on the other side.
Alan: Sonic always said if a spring seems like the only way forwards, it probably is. He also said to watch for Eggman logos on springs. 
Alan checks, and yep, a normal spring. With no other way forwards, Alan jumps onto the spring and is launched through the waterfall, onto a vine rail. Due to the extreme circumstances of landing on the rail, Alan almost fell off, but managed to balance himself, only to get launched from the other end of the rail onto a floating platform above the river canyon. Alan landed in a Spindash, but banged his head against another platform… Wait, a Spindash? Alan got up and looked himself over, only to find that not only was his Wispon missing, but that his entire body had changed into Sonic’s.
Alan: Wha-What?!
Jewel: Sonic? What are you doing in the forest?
Alan: Something weird happened. I’m actually Alan, but in Sonic’s body. I think going through a waterfall back there caused it.
Jewel: Is it a bad thing that I’m not surprised by that?
Alan: Of course not, means you’re learning to expect anything.
Jewel: Well, even if your form’s changed, you should continue on. 
Alan: Well, I can’t go back the way I came, so that’s a given.
Alan got up and jumped across the floating platforms, eventually coming across a gap with a few Spinners. On the other side was a vine that could lead back to solid ground. Left with no other choice, Alan went for the Homing Attack, finding that it was actually rather simple to do in Sonic's body, and crossing the gap, before using a Homing Attack to swing off the vine. This sent him to a path on the other side of the canyon, and since it was relatively flat, Alan started Boosting through it, blasting through fighting Badniks and Spirit Badniks on the way. At the end of the path, though, were springs, and being unable to stop in time, he bounced off them, right back into the canyon and landing on some more floating platforms.
Alan:(Man, Tangle would love this crazy place.)
Alan, undeterred, continued forwards and soon found a Badnik group in the middle of conflict with Spirit Badniks, with what appeared to be a pulley that Alan got the sense would release upon the destruction of the Badnik group, which is just what he did. Unfortunately, it didn't release, but the Spirit Badniks decided to help him up. With that problem sorted, Alan crossed even more platforms until reaching a spring that launched him into a dash panel on the side of the tree, sending him up it. Once on the tree's branches, he ran afoul of another dash panel and was sent along the branch, launching off it's end and onto another dash panel on a branch, which led to another weird tree opening, and the momentum caused Alan to launch off a spring and through a waterfall, before landing on a floating platform.
Alan: And am i back to normal?
Alan checked, and no, he was not back to normal.
Jewel: Judging by your voice, you're now Tangle.
Alan: Of absolutely course.
Alan, figuring he could probably use Tangle's abilities to cross the woods like he did with Sonic's, quickly figured out Tangle's tail, before seeing there were branches big enough to swing across, and using them to swing through the canyon, before reaching a set of floating platforms occupied by Spirit Badniks. Conveniently though, there were some Spirit Buzz Bombers within reach, so Alan just used them as more targets to swing with, even bypassing a spring that would surely take him to the other side again as swinging was just so much fun, and there happened to be a aerial conflict within swinging distance. A few swings later, and Alan had made it to another open tree, and as thanks for being such good aerial swinging targets, Alan grappled a Flapper with his tail, and threw it at another.
Alan:(Man, all this switching is starting to remind me of ASD. Hope i can get a handle on it.)
Alan attempted to take the spring through the waterfall, but it turned out there wasn't one, and instead Alan stepped on a unique dash panel that forced him to run down the tree, though near the base was a spring. Bouncing off, Alan landed, and checked on his body, finding it to be his.
Alan: Yay, i'm back to... where's my Wispon?
Alan checks if it's mounted on his back, and only finds a sword with mirrors attached to the base. This gives him a clear picture.
Alan:(And now i'm ASD. Well, i am at the river now, there's worse forms to be stuck with.)
Alan finds, like the other forms and their abilities, switching his form was confusingly natural, and with his body now Srish's, he was off down the river. Of course, the memo that Alan in all his forms was a hero had not reached the river's Spirit Badniks, and Alan soon found himself having to swerve around Spirit Choppers in the water. As he ran, he saw what were clearly the remains of a Mega Flapper, with some damaged normal Flappers among the wreckage.
Alan: Stupid river Badniks!
Jewel: Oh, you've taken Srish's form now, Alan? 
Alan: Yes and no. You remember hearing about ASD?
Jewel: A bit. Some alternate version of you, Srish and Dria stuffed into one body, right? You're it now?
Alan: Mhm. Am i getting close to the energy, Jewel?
Jewel: If you exit the river to the right now, you should be able to run straight there!
Alan, not wanting to transform while running on the water, looked for dry land, but only found a tree dead ahead. Using ASD's enhanced speed, Alan managed to run up the tree, but as he switched to Dria's body and jumped off to fly ahead, he got embroiled in midair conflict with a bunch of flying Spirit Badniks. Using ASD's daggers, the Spirit Badniks were soon torn to dust, but still disoriented, Alan crashed directly into a spring within a tree hole, flinging him through the tree's waterfall and causing him to bang his head against a floating platform, thankfully falling onto another floating platform. As he shook the pain off and got up, he noticed who he'd turned into.
Alan: Jewel, anything odd happening on your end?
Jewel: What? Why are you asking me that... Oh, you're me now. No, i'm still me. 
Alan: That's good to know, but i'm going through the falls for another dose, cause, and i mean no offense, your form isn't helpful in adventuring.
Jewel: None taken.
Alan:(Alright, let's try that again. Please, revert me back to ASD, or even a flying Badnik. Anything that can fly and fight.)
Alan used the wings from Jewel's form to go through the falls from the side, and turned into a Eggrobo equipped with a laser gun.
Alan:(Ooh, fine! Let's just get on with this.)
Alan uses the Eggrobo's built-in jetpack to fly over the canyon and off to find a waterfall in the proper forest, not only not wanting to be a Badnik much longer, but more he couldn't speak in this form, and needed to communicate with Jewel to figure out where he was actually going. As he flew over the forest though, he caught the attention of the Spirit Badniks, and was forced to fight them off. Normal Badniks, however, seemed to ignore him, likely due to being one of them in a bodily sense. As he kept going though, he was suddenly hit with one of the formless spirits, which made him feel oddly full, until it broke off in it's own Spirit Eggrobo form, and opened fire. Sensing this couldn't last, Alan desperately looked for a waterfall, finding one just in time.
Jewel: You're close to the source of the energy! Alan?
Alan:(One second, need a mouth. Man, with how this is going, i wouldn't be surprised if i became Espio or something.)
Alan dashed straight through the waterfall, and came out the other side in a Spindash. As he got to his feet, he saw that he was Espio now, to his lack of shock.
Alan: One second, Jewel.
As the Spirit Badniks came through the falls and aimed at Alan, he used Espio's invisibility powers to confuse them, before maneuvering himself out of the cave without going through the falls.
Jewel: So you're Espio now. Alright, you should see a mountain nearby, the source of the signal is near.
Alan: Got it!
Alan ran up the mountain, which thankfully wasn't that large, while invisible to avoid the Spirit Badniks. As he climbed it though, he noticed some ships of the Egg Fleet inbound.
Alan: I see Egg Fleet ships. They must be trying to take the forest!
Jewel: We'll handle that later, see if you can find the source.
Alan acknowledged, and quickly ran to the top. As he looked around though, he found the mountain was open, with a path along the rocky wall that lead down to a water basin. Though as he looked down into it, he noticed a few extra things, such as waterfalls draining into the basin from presumable underground rivers, and a odd... something at the bottom. With a path readily available to him, he ran down the path, watching the path for broken sections as he passed by waterfalls, presumably of the same type as everywhere else in the woods. Soon enough, Alan made it to the bottom, riding on a zipline this time instead of bouncing off a spring, landing in the shockingly shallow basin, where a Goal Ring waited, before vanishing on contact. As the odd feeling of the water from the river near the entrance filled him, he elected to ignore it and looked around. What he saw were lots and lots of portals. They seemed to make up the wall of the basin, as opposed to rock.
Alan: I think i know what the readings were about. Portals. Lots and lots of them.
Jewel: How could there be so many?
Alan: Ask Tails for the answer to that one. Hold on one moment, actually.
Alan looked again at the center of the basin, and saw a portal in the ground. Looking down into it, Alan saw lots more portals within where the portal led, as well as a lot of darkness, which meant all of one thing.
Alan: No way...
Jewel: What? What is it?
Alan: I think i found a Dimensional Hub gateway.
Jewel: That can't be right, isn't the only way to access it by using Dimensional Travel Suits, or Fital's help?
Alan: Yeah, i thought so too. Hang on a moment, i'm going to look directly.
Alan walked over to one of the waterfalls.
Alan:(Alright, please give me Fital or Eror!)
As Alan walks through the falls, he notices his body change into the distinct coloring of Eror, and confirms it with couple thrown energy blasts.
Alan:(Ask and you shall receive.)
Alan jumps straight into the ground portal, and is thrown off for a second as he spins about for a moment on the other side, only to adjust. As he does, he confirms for himself this is in fact the Dimensional Hub. Jewel then chimes in, though the imperfect dimensional tuning causes the signal to become slightly fuzzy.
Jewel: Did y-u fin- out?
Alan: One second.
Alan returns through the portal he came through, and then confirms.
Alan: Yep, that's the Dimensional Hub alright.
Jewel: And you took Eror's form to check it out.
Alan: Right. Now i can return-
Alan is cut off though, by the water subtly flashing, before new spirits emerge from it. As they do, they, and spirits who notice through the many portals connected to the cave, come together to form a Mega Flapper, with Flapper compliment.
Alan: Ah great.
Alan glides along the ground as the Spirit Mega Flapper opens fire. Quickly deciding that using the portals is more trouble than it's worth, he attempts to fly out, but the Spirit Gun Flappers keep him down
Alan:(I don't want to hurt these spirits, but i can't not if they cut me off at every turn! Don't wanna transform here either. Back up the way i came it is!)
Alan then flies to the spiraling path and goes up along it, the Spirit Gun Flappers trying and failing to cut him off, as the Spirit Mega Flapper flies up the center and fires at Alan, though the gun can't keep pace with Alan. Quickly, Alan makes it to the top and flies off to the Egg Fleet ships, with the Spirit Flappers in hot pursuit, and soon joined by other spirits.
Alan: Change of plans. I'm taking out the Egg Fleet ships with Eror's power.
Jewel: Be safe!
Alan nods, and continues on, dodging fire from the Spirit Badniks, and then the Egg Fleet. Though as the Egg Fleet fires, the Spirit Badniks focus on it instead of Alan, allowing him to board one of the ships and start destroying the cannons. As the cannons went down, the Spirit Badniks assisted with the specific ship's destruction, blasting the bridge and engines, anything that seemed vulnerable. With one ship soon going down, the other ships blasted at it, in a attempt to fry Alan, who had assumed as much and ditched the ship when it started taking fire, turning to the others and boarding the closest, repeating the weapons destruction. This time though, the other ships immediately went for Alan, despite him being on board, and he was caught up in a couple, the energy shield he had formed off of memories of Eror having one and the powers of Eror's form defending him, though he was knocked down. The Spirit Badniks decided to help him though, a swarm targeting the cannons and drawing fire, as a Spirit Eggrobo helped him up, allowing him to finish the second ship and destroy the remaining cannons of the third.
Alan: Nice one!
As he went for the fourth though, he noticed spirits in their base form swarming it, before copying it, and firing on it, as the Spirit Badniks dealt with the cannons. Soon enough, Alan watched as the cannons went down, before realizing the Spirit ship might get aggressive. It didn't though, and in fact, the Spirit Badniks seemed to want Alan in Eror's form to follow them, and so he did, curious about how this would go.
Alan: So, the Egg Fleet ships are ruined, and the spirits seem to want to show me something. 
Jewel: Alright. I've told Tails all you've told me, and he's inbound to check it out.
Alan: Tell him to be cautious, i'm sure the spirits don't like outsiders.
Jewel: Alright. See you back here soon.
Alan followed the spirits all the way back to their mountain, where a lot of them and Spirit Badniks had gathered. They then started making noises which sounded jubilant, and the Spirit Badniks seemed happy.
Alan: Glad to help. Just, be calm.
Alan jumped through one of the waterfalls with the express desire to return to his normal form, and thankfully, it worked, returning to him his Wispon and Wisps, who immediately popped out to see everything and greet the spirits, who didn't get hostile, thankfully enough.
Alan:(I was starting to get the suspicion that these falls worked off thought.)
The spirits thankfully seemed to put two and two together, and didn't get suddenly aggressive. With the calm, Alan looked through all the portals to find one that would lead to somewhere near the forest entrance, and found the right one, using the Laser transformation to go through it without breaking a bone on the landing. He then left the forest, waited for Tails, helped introduce him to the spirits so they didn't get aggressive, then left back to the Restoration. Much later, his friends arrived back to find him in bed with a phone.
Dria: Well, well, well, you finally learned to relax?
Alan: Not in this dimension. I had a big confusing adventure while you were gone, and I've had too many forms today to deal with any more adventure.
Srish and Silence:... What?
Alan: Let's start from the simplest point. Srish, remember the Ether Forest? It's now more like a Dimensional Woods Zone.
Srish: What? How?
Alan: Started earlier today...
Alan began explaining the adventure to his friends. 
The End.
Category:Sonic Postgame(Hero of Team Dragoon's AU)
Category:Story