A/N: All right, chapter four! Thanks to all of you who favorited, followed, and reviewed!

Chapter 4: Turning the Tide

The pirate captain, a man of horrid halves with a patch eye and a hook for one hand, certainly wasted no time getting to the point. "Taking my emerald, are ye?" he murmured, looking like a snake ready to catch its prey.

"Who said it's yours?" Sonic said. He had a feeling it was a bad idea to say it, since the pirate captain had him cornered, and he was armed. Sonic, you could say, was unarmed, since he had no way to run to get up to speed in order to spindash him, and if he tried, he would surely be sliced to pieces, by the looks of that wicked sharp sword.

"I did," the pirate captain continued, moving his sword somewhat restlessly, his good eye trained on Sonic, as if trying to decide how he wanted to slice him up. "And rats like you have no business in taking it."

"Well," Sonic said, trying to buy himself enough time to find a way to get out there, "actually, it could very well be my business. You're a pirate, right? So you steal things?" He scanned the room for something useful.

"Of course I am! I am the greatest pirate that ever sailed the seven Mobian seas, Black Eye! I've stolen treasures that have made me rich beyond yer wildest dreams! What are ye, stupid?"

Sonic stiffened slightly at the pirate calling him stupid, but then he thought of a good way to buy himself time. "No-I mean, perhaps, but you'll have to excuse me for that. I know precious little about pirates, you see, because I live on the mainland, far away from anything that might tell me about you…" The statement wasn't a lie. Sonic liked to run along the coast, and he heard stories here and there, but unless he was flying in the Tornado over it with Tails, that was about as close as he ever really got to the ocean. And to pirates.

"Hmph," Black Eye said. "A landlubber, eh?"

Sonic had no idea what that was supposed to mean. It sounded somewhat familiar, from the stories, but he said nothing.

"Well, ye'll have no chance of defeating my men, then. They're the trustiest crew that ever sailed. We've been through a lot together. We've fought blah blah blah blah blah and blah blah treasure blah blah…"

Well, that's what Sonic heard. He didn't believe any of this nonsense. They were just stories, too ridiculous to have been without some degree of exaggeration. Apparently, these pirates had been told of these "previous exploits" and believed them. And they probably had bad memories too, what with all the whiskey and rum they drank. Sonic was happy, quite frankly, to be a "landlubber". Whatever that was. He just tried his best to look mildly interested while really looking for an escape.

The lanterns could be removed. Sonic knew that traditional lanterns were lit with oil. If he smashed them, then…

"Hey, are ye even listening?" Black Eye barked. Sonic jerked his attention back to the angry bearded pirate.

"What? Um, yeah, of course I've been listening!"

"Arr, yer lyin'! I can tell!"

"No! I was listening to the whole thing!"

While talking to the pirate, he raised his hands in his defense. He backed up into the now-defunct machine. It fell to the ground with a great crash, but not before it had knocked over three lanterns, shattering them.

"Whoops! How clumsy of me!" Sonic said, trying not to smirk as the fire spread to the floor of the room.

"Arrgh, you clumsy landlubber! My boots!" Black Eye turned to his boot and struggled to stamp out the fire already licking at his feet. "You're going to pay for—" He turned to look at Sonic. Well, at least where he should have been.

"Hey, over here!" Sonic called.

Black Eye whirled around. "You…How did ye get over there so quickly?!"

Sonic had taken his opportunity with Black Eye's distraction to escape to the doorway of the room. He teasingly tossed the Chaos Emerald up and down in his palm. "Since you're a pirate, I'll cut you some slack, since you might not have heard of me. On land, I'm known as Sonic, the fastest thing alive. If you want this—" He caught the emerald and waved it at Black Eye. "-you'll have to catch me first. See ya!" He dashed away.

Black Eye just stared after him for a minute. He had seen many things, but never, in any of his travels, or any of his ancestors', had he heard of such a crazy thing as this "Sonic".

"Oh, yeah, and one thing I forgot…" Sonic was already back, poking his head back into the doorway. He smirked at the pirate. "I'm a hedgehog, not a rat."

The nasty, bearded pirate growled at him, thoroughly aggravated by his adversary's cheekiness. How dare he trick him like that? How dare he say things like that to The Great Black Eye? His shock evaporated, and he quickly gave chase to the evasive blue blur.

"Oh, come on, you'll have to do better than that!" Sonic called behind him, speeding back along the corridor. His tiredness had somehow evaporated, now that he had someone on his tail, the extra adrenaline pumping through him. He had a feeling he was going to regret it later, but for now, he didn't care. Now there was a Chaos Emerald on the line.

He skidded onto the pirate ship deck, turning so quickly that Black Eye nearly ran into the mast of his own ship. "Tails! Tails!" Sonic called, still running, climbing back onto the cruise ship deck.

"Sonic, what is it?" Tails called back, flying over from the chaotic battle going on around them.

"Look what I got!" Sonic said, waving the green Chaos Emerald.

"What?! How did they get one of these?!" Tails exclaimed, taking the gem from Sonic, turning it over in his hands.

"That's what I asked. I have no clue, but it was powering their health generator."

"Their WHAT?!"

"They had these pods in a white, high-tech room below the deck of the ship. My guess is that the tired pirates would simply step into it, and the energy of the Chaos Emerald was converted into energy for them to absorb, so they felt better."

"Whoa! Can you show me?" Tails looked excitedly at Sonic. If it was everything Sonic said it was, it would be amazing and solve a lot of problems! He wanted to take a closer look at it to see if he could build replicas.

"Uh, not really…" Sonic nervously looked away from Tails.

"Why?"

"Because…I kind of…sort of…busted it up to get the emerald out."

Tails looked somewhat disappointed. "Well, never mind, I might be able to salvage it later…"

Sonic looked even more nervous. "And I set the room on fire."

"You did WHAT?!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that the emerald was powering it, so I just thought busting it up would stop it…"

Tails shook his head and sighed. "At least they can't use it either, right?"

"Yeah, that's good for us!" Sonic cheered up, knowing that Tails wasn't entirely disappointed in him. He just had that thought, when he heard a dreadful voice shouting at him.

"There ye are, ye miserable blue rat!"

Tails and Sonic both whirled around to see where the sound of the voice was coming from. "Sonic, who's that?" Tails said, taking his turn to be nervous.

"Oh, just a guy I ran into while taking the emerald. He happens to be called Black Eye, he's the captain of the ship…and he's kind of mad at me now." Sonic replied, somewhat nervous himself. Turning to Black Eye, he shouted, "Hey, Black Ear, long time no see. How's it going?"

"It's Black EYE, you horrid little landlubber! And ye'd better gimme my jewel back, before I take YOUR eye out!"

"How about I just keep it?" Sonic called back teasingly. "It's mine now." He whispered in Tails' ear, "Run. Now."

"Arrgh, no ye don't!" The pirate lunged at Sonic and Tails, but the two of them had scattered in two different directions.

"Cowards! Face me like men!" Black Eye screeched after them, immediately giving chase to Sonic, because Tails had already flown up far beyond his reach.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled, giving Tails just enough time to turn his head before throwing the emerald towards him. "Catch!"

The emerald soared gracefully in the air over Black Eye's head. The pirate made a quick snatch at it, but Tails was faster. Tails' reflexes weren't as fast as Sonic's, but after hanging out with the blue blur for many years of his life, he had learned to be prepared for anything. He caught the spiraling gem easily and flew out of the way before Black Eye could blink his one good eye.

"No!" the pirate yelped, desperately making a snatch at Tails' legs in order to try pulling him down. Sonic jumped onto him, wrestling him to the ground.

"Yes!" Sonic said, knowing that Tails would keep a better eye on it than he could. He was probably taking it to a safe spot now.

The captain grunted. Taking advantage of the distraction, he pushed Sonic off and rolled on top of him instead. He looked down at Sonic, smiling his horrid black teeth. "Look who's stuck now, rodent. What do you have to say?"

Sonic struggled, but the pirate had his arms and legs pinned down. But, being Sonic, he was never one to look scared in the face of danger. He cracked a joke instead. "Ugh. Somebody needs a breath mint." He pulled his own pearly white smile back at the pirate. "When was the last time you brushed your teeth?"

"What? What would a pirate like me need to brush his teeth for?" Black Eye growled.

"Maybe they should call you Black Teeth," Sonic replied. "But in answer to your question, well, it would make you look better for starters."

Black Eye just growled.

Continuing on, Sonic said, "Your crew wouldn't shy away when you talked or breathed."

"But pirates are meant to be feared!" Black Eye screamed, spraying spittle into Sonic's face.

"Sheesh, say it, don't spray it," Sonic mumbled. "But anyway…your teeth are stronger and more rooted in place when you take good care of them. So they won't fall out as easily when I do this—"

The one thing that the pirate hadn't bothered to pin down was Sonic's head. But this was all that he needed. After spindashing all those robots all these years, he had grown used to bashing things with his head. Which was exactly what he did.

Before Black Eye could even register what had happened, Sonic thrust his head straight into the forehead of the pirate with such force that they both ought to have been sent sprawling on the ground with major headaches, as well as knocking out a few teeth. And that was how it happened for Black Eye, crouching over Sonic with half his teeth missing and a possibly cracked skull. Sonic, on the other hand, was perfectly fine. Like Amy often shouted about when she was angry, Sonic had a truly hard head. And his teeth were still intact, to boot.

Black Eye's pain had caused him to instinctively bring his hands up to his face, freeing up Sonic's arms. Sonic went further, shoving Black Eye off of him, chucking him into a nearby crate. He got up, dusting himself off and surveying the broken pieces of the crate and the unconscious pirate. "And that is why, kids, you should always brush your teeth," he laughed to himself.

But now was not a time to be standing around, cracking jokes. He noticed a sword lying on the ground. "This might come in handy," he said, picking it up. And with that, he sped off again, in search of more pirates' skulls to crack.

The battle was going much better for Sonic's friends now that Sonic had gotten rid of the pirates' main advantage. Tails, Amy, and Knuckles, now renewed by the victory Sonic had gained for them, fought their hardest in order to be rid of these pirates. The pirates fought harder than ever, but with no way of being replenished, the exhaustion hit them, and they dropped harder too.

"NOW we're getting somewhere!" said Knuckles as he bashed his fists into the pirates; their heads, their limbs, their guts. He fought with renewed vigor now that he knew they had possession of the emerald. Tails had showed it to him in not long after Sonic had taken it from the pirates' ship.

"Yeah, that's right!" Amy chimed in, swinging her hammer, knocking the pirates down like bowling pins, or dominoes. "That's what happens when you mess with—Eeep!" Someone had caught her from behind. She yelled, "Knuckles! Help!"

Unfortunately, any noise she made was muffled by the blasts of the cannon and the bloodthirsty yells of the pirates. Amy struggled against her captor, but with no avail, and soon, she was thrown into the darkness of oblivion…

Sonic sped his way around, taking as many pirates as possible. Now that he had a sword as well as his speed, he could take them down in close combat or long distance. The way that this was going, this battle would be over in a matter of minutes. He was just about to have a cheer of victory to himself when he was interrupted by a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream.

"AAAAHHHHH!"

Sonic whirled around to look where the scream had come from. It was coming from the direction of the pirate ship. He swept his eyes over the ship, turning his eyes to the mast, to the source of the noise…

It was Amy.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" Sonic looked in horror as Amy continued to screech at the top of her lungs. "SONIIIIIICCCCCC!"

She was hanging from the mast of the pirate ship, her hands and body bound with rope that was surely chafing her skin. Right next to her was Tails, his namesakes limp, his head lolling with a huge, ugly-looking lump on his forehead. Two particularly ugly-looking pirates, whom Sonic assumed to be the first and second mates, stood by, grinning in an abhorrent, grotesque way.

Sonic clenched his teeth. "Tails, Amy! Hang on!" He jumped onto the deck, glaring at the two pirates. "Let them go!"

"Arrgh, if ye want yer friends back, you'll have to give me that emerald, then," a voice came from behind him.

Sonic whirled to face the speaker.

"Set fire to me ship and me boots, eh? I won't let ye get away from it that easily, rat," Black Eye growled, looking more grotesque than ever with the new wound that Sonic had given him. In one hand, he carried his trusty sword.

On one side, Sonic was thinking, Wow, this guy is tougher than he seems. Not even a bash to the skull could stop him! But on the other, he was thinking, What's up with this guy and his boots? In the end, he just rolled his eyes. "I can get you some new boots and fix up your ship; that's easy. Just let my friends go."

Black Eye seemed to brighten at the prospect of new boots, but he just snarled. "I don't want yer help. I want that emerald."

Sonic shrugged. "Whatever."

"Not whatever. I've got your friends. If you don't give me that emerald, I'll take it."

Sonic shrugged again. "I don't have it."

The snarl on his face evaporated and turned into confusion. "What?"

"I don't have it. Knuckles has it; I gave it to Tails, and he gave it to Knuckles." Sonic nodded towards Knuckles.

Suddenly, two pirates popped out of nowhere and began wrestling Knuckles for the emerald.

Black Eye chuckled to himself. "I have yer friends, and my men are willing to do anything to take that emerald. Even if it means breaking your friend apart, bone by bone. Yeh might as well give up and give it to me."

Knuckles grunted while wrestling with the pirates. "Don't give it to him, Sonic!" he managed to get out.

Sonic looked around, at Amy looking desperately at him, Tails hanging limply beside her, at Knuckles being wrestled to the ground. "Fine…I'll give it to you."

Amy and Knuckles' faces fell. "No, Sonic…"

"If you take me on in a duel." He smirked, pulling out his borrowed sword, his friends' expressions changing to those of confusion. "You've got my friends. I've got the emerald. I don't know much about pirates, but if I'm not mistaken, they do like a good fight, right?"

"Arrgh, that we do," the captain responded.

"Okay then, I'll make you a deal." Sonic twirled the cutlass once in his hand. "If you win, you get the emerald back, you get whatever "booty" you can find on the cruise ship, and you can do what you want with me, so long as you let my friends go back to shore. I'll buy you new boots, fix your ship, whatever."

The greedy pirate's eyes lit up.

"And if I win, you let my friends go, I get to keep the emerald, and your crew has to fix up whatever damage you did to the cruise ship as soon as we get back to shore." He played with the sword again. "Since I don't own it. We fight until someone surrenders." He stuck his free hand out towards the pirate. "Deal?"

The pirate considered for a moment, but he agreed. "All right then. I agree to yer 'deal'". He put his sword in his scabbard, took Sonic's hand with his, and they shook on it.

"Lay off the red one," he said to the two wrestling with Knuckles. They did, rather reluctantly, and Knuckles got up, rubbing his sore arms and wrists. But as soon as he dusted himself off, they latched onto his hands and forced them behind his back, so that he was about as useful to Sonic's fight as cracked eggshells— which is to say, absolutely useless.

"No, Sonic, no!" Amy yelled. She sincerely thought that this was impossible, but Sonic had a higher chance of losing now that he was tired, and if Sonic lost, that meant the pirates got to do whatever they wanted to Sonic. She couldn't stand the thought of giving him up to the likes of them, no matter how minute the chances were.

"Shut up, girl!" Black Eye snarled at Amy. "This is between me and him. We shook on it, didn't we, Sonic?"

Amy looked beseechingly at Sonic. There was no way Sonic would actually fight this guy and give himself up like that, right?

Sonic didn't even look at her. He just stared into the pirate's face, green eyes fixated on the beady black one. "Bring it on, Black Eye."

A/N: Reviews, please?

bearvalley3365: ...Surprises? Well, the whole story is already done, so I already know all the "surprises". XD