So yeah, haven't been too inspired to write Nightmare Before Chaotix lately and college is getting pretty rough, so here's the start to the Travel Series. Though you may notice I'll be using a lot more of the other Sonic characters than usual, so yay :D
But, for all the people waiting for Nightmare's next update, I has a surprise for you at the end of this chapter :3

All recognizable Sonic characters (C)-SEGA, All recognizable Star Fox characters belong to Nintendo, Kaity the Chameleon is mine, and if any other fancharacters are added during the story, I'll be sure to note it in that chapter :3
Also, special thanks to PikaKnight for the concept of this story and the title! :D

Chapter 1: Mysterious Power

"Fox, help! They're on my tail!" Slippy cried. Fox Mccloud couldn't say he was surprised that Slippy Toad, the resident mechanic, was having trouble shaking an enemy pilot.

"I see you, Slippy. Just hang tight." Fox replied, catching sight of the red-hatted green toad in his blue and white Arwing space fighter. Though at the moment they were not in space, they were at a planet on the outskirts of the Lylat system named Bermuda, infamous for its supposed magic, and atmosphere that commonly disrupted mechanical systems until the stratosphere was passed.

Fox barrel rolled to the right as a laser came up by him and had to swerve hard to avoid hitting a rather large tree growing on the planet. The leader of the Star Fox Team spotted his distressed teammate again and flew in behind the tailing pilot in a red and black space fighter known as a Wolven.

"Fooooooooooooooooooooox!" Slippy yelled.

"Just relax, I've got 'em." The leader assured, closing in on the ship in front of him. He recognized the ship as one belonging to the Star Wolf gang, but was not able to see which it was. Regardless, the fox shot a few lasers just to the left of the two crafts, into a bright red plant roughly the size of a Landmaster, and sped off. Not a moment later, an explosion engulfed the Wolven, and knicked the back of the Arwing. In the explosion Fox could see the reflection of his brown, almost orange fur with a streak of white on his head and in his ears, as well as his stunningly green eyes.

"Thanks fox!" Skippy chirped, his green face appearing on a small screen on Fox's control panel.

"No problem. How about you hang back while Falco, Krystal and I take care of the rest?" He suggested.

He could see Slippy's face fall as he accepted Fox's suggestion. He watched the toad's Arwing make an abrupt retreat as the Wolven that had been caught in the explosion appeared back in the sky.

"Fox, watch out!" A feminine voice said as the image of a beautiful blue fox with a white face and blue eyes came onto his screen, "The Star Wolf gang is coming right at you! I'm not sure what they're up to, but don't let them box you in."

Fox nodded, "Thanks, Krystal." The pilot jolted to the side as a Wolven rammed itself into his ship; even through the tinted windows, he could tell that it was the leader of the gang; Wolf O'Donnell. As the space fox thought this, the image of a wolf that looked strangely like him with the exception of grey fur, longer, more pointed ears and a pointed snout appeared. Definitely Wolf.

"Hello, McCloud." His voice seemed to slither from the speaker, "Don't worry, the boys and I are just taking you for a little ride."

As he finished saying this, Fox felt another rough jolt on his other side. This time he looked out to see the damage; their wings were locked with his, there was no way to get out of it without damage and serious hazards. He was not sure who was on his other side, but the third Wolven crashing down onto his top and a video feed of a black panther with yellow eye appearing gave him his answer. "I did not appreciate the explosion, McCloud." He said in an impossibly suave voice. "Allow me to return the favor."

Fox heard another shot ricochet off one of the Wolvens, Panther Caroso's from the sound of it.

"Geez, McCloud, can't keep anyone off yer back, can ya?" A blue falcon with red markings overtook Panther's image. "Dun worry about it, I've got pretty boy." He added before another shot hit the same Wolven.

"Take care of him." Wolf snapped at Panther, "Leon and I will handle McCloud."

Fox heard the panther's ship taking off and go off after Star Fox's ace pilot. He had no doubt that Krystal would be closing in quick to help Falco. 'And,' He thought with a twinge of jealousy, 'Panther will try flirting with Krystal again.' Another hard jolt knocked the fox from his thoughts and bringing him back to reality. And reality was his ship taking a nosedive right to the ground, still locked with the chameleon, Leon, and his rival, Wolf.

"Fox, just hang on, I'm coming." Krystal assured, urgency dripping in her voice.

"No, go help Falco, there's nothing you can do to help me." Fox replied, attempting to pull his ship up to no avail.

"Quit bein' all noble, McCloud." He heard Falco scoff as the Arwings and Woven drew closer, "You just don't want Krystal to see you've peed yourself." He laughed.

Fox blushed a bit as he heard Krystal giggle at this. Of course he had not wet himself, he had been through more dangerous missions and come back dry. But the thought of Krystal laughing at him in what would be his most embarrassing moment…

"Foooooooooooooooooox!" Skippy's voice grated from the speaker.

Fox felt the slightest of twitches at the sound of Skippy's voice, sounding just a bit more nagging than usual. "What's up, Skippy?" Fox asked, doing well at hiding his annoyance.

"Peppy says something weird is coming up on the monitors, even R.O.B. can't identify them!"

"How come I'm not hearing this from Peppy?" Fox asked, wondering why he had not crashed into the ground yet. He looked, the ground was startlingly close, but did not seem to be coming in very fast. He also noticed that everything looked strangely green. Though Bermuda was naturally a very green planet with its vegetation and plant life, this green seemed to…glow.

"Fox, Skippy's right, there's something strange about this light." Krystal reported, "It's almost as if everything around us has slowed down…"

"Or great, trapped in slow-mo with these mooks." Falco scoffed. Fox assumed he was talking about Star Wolf, but then again, Falco was never the nicest of birds.

Then another thought came, "I haven't heard from Skippy, did something happen?"

"It must have," Krystal said, "Our connection is just fine."

Suddenly, Wolf's voice came out of Fox's speaker, "What is this, McCloud?" the enemy snapped, "Some new toy of yours?"

"I've got nothing to do with this, Wolf." Fox snapped back. "How do we know this isn't something of yours?"

"Both of you stop!" Krystal half shouted, startling both pilots, "Listen, obviously something strange is happening, and we'll have to work together to figure it out."

"I agree," Panther purred, "You and I should be partners in this…investigation, Krystal."

"Now is not the time, Panther." Krystal retorted curtly.

"Ooooooooooooh, shot down!" Flaco laughed.

"Quiet bird, or I'll pluck your feathers." Panther hissed.

"That a challenge, Pretty Boy?"

"Hey, something's happening." Leon's voice sounded as slippery as he looked. But he was right; the green glow gave way to a bright white light that overtook the Arwings and Wolvens.

OoOoO

Sonic danced out of the way of a robot firing squad's lasers and bullets with ease. "Missed me," He taunted, "You're closer than last time though." He added cheerily. The current location was Angel Island, and, as usual, Eggman was up to no good and attempting to steal the Master Emerald. Luckily, the blue hedgehog had picked that same time to visit with and annoy his red rival, Knuckles the Echidna.

While Sonic and Knuckles bashed Eggman's robots on the ground, Tails had taken to the skies in the original Tornado and battled with the robots in the sky while Eggman quickly evaded a very angry Knuckles and attempted to steal the Master Emerald from the alter. Needless to say, it was not going well for the evil genius.

"Sonic," Tails started into a communicator, "Eggman's robots are getting pretty close to the emerald and Knuckles is a bit distracted…"

"Say no more, little bro," Sonic said cheerfully, "I'll keep it well protected."

"Just don't try and pick it up like last time, because-"

"Yeah, I remember what happened last time, Tails…" Sonic's cheer seemed to have faltered a bit at the mention of Eggman's last attempt on stealing the Master Emerald.

Tails felt bad for taking away any of Sonic's cheer during a battle, but when Sonic had run off with the M.E. the last time, the entire island nearly hit the water before Sonic was able to put it back in place.

The fox's ears pricked as four blips registered on a heat scanner he had recently installed in the Tornado; the four barely registered, but the boy genius knew exactly who they were, "Oh no, not them…" Tails groaned. Team Chaotix, though they were gradually becoming more and more well known for their detective skills, outside the crime scene they were all but bumbling; if one tripped, the rest fell over them. More than once they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. More than once, they'd been responsible for Eggman escaping…granted, not with what he had went to take, but still, he escaped from them without problem.

'But still…' The twin-tailed fox looked out over the fight, more robots were coming, 'We really could use a bit of help…'

OoOoO

As the four detectives arrived, a blue and yellow plane landed by them, Tail's plane. The fox hopped out and smiled at them, "Hi guys! What're you doing here?"

"We came to see Knuckles!" Charmy Bee said cheerily.

Espio, the resident ninja of the group nodded after looking warily at the battle going on close by, "What's happening here?"

"Looks like a fight." Kaity, a female chameleon that looked astoundingly like Espio, noted.

"No kidding." Espio nearly snapped at the girl.

Vector could not help but grin, The female chameleon seemed to have the ability to bring out the worst in everyone just by talking. It was quite a feat when she finally got Espio to snap at her. "You guys need any help?" The green croc asked, "Looks like you're getting outnumbered."

Tails glanced back at the battle, stalling his answer. "Yeah…" He said after looking back at the four, "we may need a bit more ground support."

"We can help!" Charmy said, doing a flip in the air, "Let's go get 'em!" With that, he zipped off and into the fray, Vector and Espio chasing after him to make sure he did not hurt himself before they even started fighting.

Kaity grinned and followed her fellow detectives, "This is gonna be awesome."

OoOoO

It did not take Sonic and Knuckles long to recognize the three reptiles and insect that had joined their side.

Sonic, being himself, shouted a loud greeting to the detectives. Three of the four shouted back the same greeting.

The battle went on and, as it did, three mobians started to feel an odd pull from what each assumed was the Master Emerald. The first was, most obviously, Knuckles; as the guardian by bloodline, he naturally had a connection with the mystical gem.

The second was Sonic, he did not have a strong connection with the emerald, but his pure intentions at every use of them seemed to be pulling him toward the gem.

The third was Kaity; like Sonic, she had no connection with the Master Emerald, or had ever used its power for anything, but, thanks to Tails' research, no one could deny her connection to Chaos Energy was a powerful one. And she, like the others, felt the sudden pull.

The three suddenly abandoned their battles, much to the confusion of their enemies and darted for the Master Emerald. Then, almost as if it had been rehearsed, the mammals and reptile took places in a triangle around the Master Emerald and each placed their hands on the gem. Immediately after Sonic, who was last to touch the emerald, had placed his hands on the gem, the three felt what could only be described as a jolt. Not of electricity, but of something else. Nonetheless, the three cried out sharply as the pain rushed through their arms and bodies.

Tails, still in the sky, was the only one who watched the entire event, and was the only one who screamed his hero's name as the three were launched away from the gem and a while light engulfed the group, including him and his Tornado.

Yay, the beginning :D

Also, for everyone waiting for Nightmare, here's a part of the next chapter :D That's currently nameless.

"This is horrible," Jack groaned, "I'm the only person standing between Oogie and having every Holiday Leader captive."

"Yeah, but that gives us the edge." Kaity said, "Assumin' Oogie did kidnap Santa."

At Jack's confused look, Charmy chimed in, "Yeah! And we're detectives so we can find out if it was him!"

"Detectives?" Mrs. Clause seemed surprised and impressed, "But you're both so young…I think…" The last part was added quieter than the rest, but the mobians caught it anyway.

"Yep, I'm six!" Charmy said proudly, "And Kaity's fourteen."

"Anyway," Kaity started, shoving the bee away from her, "Charmy and I can take a look 'round if ya'll let us. See who took yer husband."

"Oh, could you?" Mrs. Clause asked in a relieved tone, "Thank you so much!"

"Yeah, whatever. Ya haven't touched anythin', right?"

"Not at all."

"Good. Stay 'ere with Jack, we'll take a look 'round."

At that, the two detectives walked farther into the room and silently surveyed the room. "They didn't go any farther than this room." Charmy told his companion, "This room is the only one that's messed up."

"So Santa must not be a good fighter." Kaity noted with a hint of amusement, "Or 'e can't take on three kids." She added, picking up a discarded, or perhaps dropped, orange and black lollipop. "Wasn't that skeleton kid eatin' somethin' like this before?" She wondered out loud, poking the lollipop's center. Her glove stuck for a moment before releasing. "It's still wet, so they can't be too far." She added, tossing the candy down.