#mazuri

The Assistant explains that the Professor has been kidnapped by Eggman a few days before the Earthquake. Sonic and Knuckles look pissed, while Tails and Chip are concerned. Tails is worried for the Professor’s safety (and wasting time getting to Spagonia just to find out he’s been kidnapped), while Chip is terrified that he’s starving to death. Tails reassures Chip that even Eggman isn’t cruel enough to not feed his prisoners.

The Assistant says that they can stay in a dorm room at the University for the night so they can fly out to save the Professor tomorrow morning, but Sonic (finally out of his raging ramble about Eggman) sighs and predicts that Eggman is about to move the Professor somewhere else. He ambushed them getting here, so he’s gotta know that they’re looking for him now. If they don’t find him by the end of tonight, they might never get him.

The 4 head outside of the University to ask the civilians if they might know where Eggman took the Professor. Sonic got distracted when he came across a candy shop, deciding to restock Tails’ constantly dwindling pile of mints. He also spots some Chocolate Bars, and buys a few to see if Chip would like them.

As predicted, the little fairy loved it.

Knuckles finds intel that someone heard a radio from one of Eggman's Badniks that he was going to Mazuri. So after everyone picked up a quick sandwich for dinner, they hopped onto the Tornado-1 to fly over to Mazuri.

MAZURI October 2-3

While flying out to Mazuri, Tails attempts to apologize to Sonic for wasting time, but Sonic simply wasn’t having it. Pointing out that this is Eggman’s fault, Tails didn’t know there was something Gaia related, and he didn’t know that the Professor got kidnapped. Tails thinks to himself that he’s the smart one, he’s supposed to know everything for the team, but just agrees to not upset Sonic anymore.

They had to make a quick landing just a town over to the very obvious base Eggman has built so that Sonic can change form without the fear of him accidentally falling off the plane.

Sonic nervously waits for Knuckles’ reaction, but he just asks if Sonic’s hurt. He signs ‘no’ and they continue on their journey on foot. Knuckles does have many questions, but they have a time sensitive mission at stake and questions can be put on hold until then.

>Mazuri Night Act 1

(Basically exactly how the original game went down, but Tails and Knuckles are there to help you fight now. Knuckles is a good hitter for the base enemies and grabs their attention away from Sonic while Tails does chip damage and hits arial enemies. There is plenty of dialogue in the level.) Through the dialogue, Sonic begins to slowly warm up to the idea of the werewolf form (they're still debating on what to call it) while Tails tries to lift his mood.

Once they make it to Professor Pickles prison, he starts a long monologue about how bad Eggman makes his Cucumber Sandwiches. Knuckles comments about how bland it sounds and the two quilled brothers talk about how they’d improve the sandwich while Tails flies over to help the Professor get out, muttering to Chip that it’s an acquired taste, but he does add that he throws a little bit of mint to his sandwich whenever the Professor doesn’t look.

After the Professor is saved, Knuckles ends up having to stop him from storming up to the Mad Doctor himself to say a few words about his culinary catastrophe.

Meanwhile, Sonic gets the map from the vault, knowing that if Eggman has anything locked away that it must be important.

Now that the Professor is saved and that they’re heading back to the University, Knuckles feels that he can finally ask the questions that have been plaguing his mind. Pretty much every single question is Dungeons and Dragons related, but a few are about how strong Sonic is now. In short, it was a long flight back to Spagonia for the speedster.

SPAGONIA October 3

Finally back at the University with the Professor and Gaia Manuscripts in hand, the group head over to Professor Pickles Office to get as much information from him as possible (and enjoy some tea).

The Professor tells of a repeated legend that has been going on since the planet was born. That there is an entity in the planet's core that has caused all of the monsters to show up and the planet splitting apart.

Tails is keeping note and asking questions such as ‘How do we put the planet back together?’ and ‘Do you think this could be connected to why Sonic changes into this form every night?’ 

The Professor then tells about the mythical ‘Temples of Gaia’ which used to house the Chaos Emeralds thousands of years ago. He points at a part of the scripture and says that it tells of a being that traveled to each Temple and restored the planet's pieces.

He claims that he has managed to translate and spot one of the Gaia locations, but still has yet to decipher the rest. The Professor then turns to a map on his wall and points at a pinned location. Tails and Sonic immediately realize that it’s ‘Mazuri’.

Before the duo could high-tail it back to the Tornado, they’re stopped by Knuckles and Chip at the door, demanding that they get some rest. Knuckles reminds everyone that the Assistant gave them all a dorm room to rest up in, and they have all deserved a rest after today.

So after they wash up (with Sonic promising he’ll do it in the morning when he knows he won’t clog up the drains), they all get comfortable on the bed and rest. It seems that the Assistant gave them a room fit for Mobian sized well… Mobians. So it became a tight fit with Sonic taking up extra space. He suggested that he could just sleep on the floor, but Knuckles immediately sits down next to him with Tails by his side. So no escape, huh.

With Sonic being slightly more comfortable with his nightly form (aka feeling like he might not immediately harm someone by accident), he’s a little more okay with Tails being closer. But he still makes sure to keep his mouth firmly shut and his hands far away from the others.