It was a stormy night on Mobius; the sky was an angry gray color, lightning flashed every few minutes, and thunder rumbled loudly. Rain pelted down on the planet below, turning the ground sodden and muddy.
High above, bravely flying through the storm clouds, was a large zeppelin. Inside, three birds were gathered in an office. A green hawk was sitting at a desk, while a swallow and an albatross stood in front of it. All had eyes on the trinket resting on a small pillow; a necklace with a golden chain, and the golden pendant had a small red gem embedded in it. Above the gem was a symbol; a lamp encased in flames.
"We did well today, Rogues, very, very well." Jet announced.
"And you thought my lead was bogus." Wave remarked with a smug grin.
"All that matters is we found treasure!"
"Right, boss!" Storm said.
Wave rolled her eyes with a sigh, while Storm and Jet stared at the necklace with interest.
"Whatta ya think it is?" Storm asked.
"It's a necklace, what else could it be?" Jet retorted.
"Yeah, but look at the symbol on it. We all know what it is, right?"
The Rogues all glanced at the tips of the flame tattoo that ran up their arms. The bottom half was obscured by their gloves.
"I think Storm might be on to something. This thing's gotta have some purpose or meaning." Wave stated.
"Well, we can figure it out later, in the meantime, I think we should land, this storm's getting kinda rough-"
Jet was cut off when the airship suddenly shook, throwing everyone off their feet.
"I see what you mean." Wave muttered as she rubbed her head.
"I…don't think that was the storm…"
The airship suddenly shook again, and tilted a little, sending the Rogues sliding into the wall. Jet glanced up, and to his horror saw Storm sliding towards him.
"NONONO- AAAAAAAGH!"
He was silenced when Storm slammed into him, squishing him between the wall and the large bird. Wave flinched a little, before carefully getting to her feet.
"I'm gonna go straighten the ship out! Try not to hurt yourselves…any more than you already have."
Wave climbed out of the room, and Storm climbed to his feet. Jet gulped in oxygen, before glaring at Storm.
"Sorry boss…"
Jet's glare didn't soften.
"I'm…gonna go check on the kitchen, bye!"
Storm hastily, but clumsily, climbed out of the room, leaving Jet alone. After a couple minutes, the ship finally straitened, and Jet sank into his chair with a sigh. He glanced at the necklace, which had remarkably stayed in place during the whole thing. Picking it up, he swiveled around to face the large window, and examined it for a few minutes curiously.
'I wonder what this thing is, and if really does have some special meaning…'
Suddenly the lights shut off, blanketing the room in darkness, lit up only by the occasional flashes of lightning outside. Jet looked up in confusion, before turning back towards the desk, and pushing a button on the intercom.
"Wave, the lights went out!"
"No duh, Jet! Just give me a minute…"
Sighing, he took his finger off the button, and leaned back in the chair. He drummed his fingers on the wood, waiting impatiently for the lights to come back on, before pausing. He thought he heard something, like knocking, and waited a few seconds to see if he heard it again.
He did, and it came from behind.
He whirled the chair around to look at the window, but saw no one when lightning flashed. Slowly, he stood, and approached the window. He pressed against the glass to try and get a better view. After a few flashes, he saw nothing, but during the next flash, he got the scare of his life; a dark figure was suddenly there, directly on the other side of the glass. Jet yelped, jumping backwards and landing in the chair. The figure was staring at him with unblinking acid green eyes that were visible even during the pauses between lightning.
Jet was plastered to the chair, panting, while staring at the mysterious figure outside. A few seconds later, the lights came on, and the figure vanished. Jet still didn't move from the chair, continuing to stare out the window where whatever it was had been. At least until he was startled by something else.
"Hey Jet, I fixed the lights-"
Jet yelped again, falling out of the chair. Wave and Storm jumped a little at his sudden reaction, and stared down at him with worry.
"Jet, what's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost or something."
"Th-th-th-there was a th-thing out there!" Jet stammered, pointing a shaky hand at the window.
"A ghost?" Storm asked nervously.
"I-I don't know what it was! It was there one minute then gone the next!"
"What did it look like?" Wave asked.
"Well, all I saw was its eyes, and they were a really freaky green color. Other than that I couldn't see anything else."
"Hmm, interesting…well, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because you're still on the floor."
Jet looked around him, and hastily got to his feet, attempting to hide his embarrassment.
"I wonder what that thing was…"
"Maybe the necklace has a ghost attached to it." Storm said.
"I doubt it Storm, there's no such thing as ghosts."
"How do you know?"
"I just do!"
"Know-it-all…"
"Humph…"
Jet rolled his eyes with a sigh, before looking down at the amulet in his hand. Whatever was outside his window earlier, it hadn't just had eyes on him, it had also been studying the amulet.
'What was that thing, and why would it be interested in this?'
Oh well, he'd figure it out as he went.
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The next day, the sky was clear, and the sun was shining brightly.
Sonic was racing across the grassy plains of Mobius; his destination, Tails' house. The fox had called earlier, saying he made an interesting discovery, and wanted to show him and Knuckles.
Sonic wasn't too fond of running on mud and soggy ground, and after last night's storm, the ground was soaked through. But, Tails practically begged him over the phone, so who was he to say no to an excited 8 year old? He wondered how he managed to talk Knuckles into actually leaving Angel Island.
Finally, he arrived at the kitsune's house, and knocked on the door. The door opened, revealing a smiling Cosmo.
"Hello Sonic, glad you could make it."
"I didn't have much of a choice, Tails was practically begging me to come." Sonic replied with a grin.
"He's very excited; he discovered some ancient texts near the…what were they…Giga Rocks?"
"Gigan Rocks?"
"Yes, that was it! He said it had something to do with the Babylonians."
"Huh, haven't heard about them in a while. Well, let's get in there,"
Sonic stepped in, shutting the door behind him, and headed for the stairs leading down to Tails' lab.
"So, Knuckles here yet?"
"Yes, he arrived some time ago. He's been very nice."
"Has he been yelling impatiently for me to hurry up and get here?"
"…Yes, many times."
"Typical Knuckles."
They headed downstairs, and found Tails and Knuckles sitting around the lab.
"It's about time you got here!" Knuckles grumbled.
"Hey Knux, nice to see you too."
"Sonic, you're here, great!" Tails greeted.
"You didn't give me much of a chance to say no."
"Sorry, this is just really cool! Check this out!"
Tails turned on a projector, and it displayed a stone wall with strange looking writing and pictures engraved.
"You remember Babylon Garden, right?"
"Yeah, I remember it; floating, treasure, black hole that nearly destroyed the world, hard to forget."
"Well, I translated the text, and discovered something awesome! There was another floating island besides Angel Island and Babylon Garden!"
"Another floating island?" Knuckles asked.
"Yeah, and this is the kicker; we all thought space was the true home of the Babylonians, right?"
"Right, Babylon Garden was like a space ship thing, right?" Knuckles asked.
"Well we were wrong. This writing tells about the real Babylon!"
"The real Babylon?"
"Yeah; it disappeared over thousands of years ago, when the Nocturnus and your clan was still around. Babylon was their home; they musta been using Babylon Garden as a way to explore Mobius and space!"
Sonic whistled in amazement, and glanced at Tails.
"Pretty cool stuff. You know, I think the Babylon Rogues would be interested in this."
"I know, I was planning on contacting them."
"The Babylon…Rogues?" Cosmo mumbled in confusion.
"Yeah, they're a team of treasure hunters we met a long time ago. They're descendants of the Babylonians." Tails replied.
"Better call 'em quick, you know how they get when there's somethin' about Babylon and nobody tells them about it," Sonic stated, before glancing at Cosmo, "And don't even get me started on Jet, he's more impatient than I am!"
"Don't worry, Sonic, I'm on it!" Tails announced, turning to his computer.
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