Okay, I was pressured into posting another chapter by the reviews. I'm still contemplating whether or not this is a good idea but... if you want more, let me know. The Sonic girls certainly want me to keep posting this for them.
Chapter 4
The Cave of Wonders
Nighttime descended upon the castle dungeon, and Amy still had not managed to slip free of the shackles that held her arms over her head and forced her to remain seated. Finally giving up she sighed and started berating herself. "He was the prince! I can't believe it. I must've sounded so stupid to him!"
"Hello, Amy?" whispered a familiar voice. Amy looked up and saw Cosmo at the prison window, keys in one hand and Amy's hammer in the other. Brightening a bit, Amy called out to the thief. "Cosmo, down here." Cosmo put a finger to her lips, which Amy understood to mean, "Don't talk so loudly." Removing the loose bars she had once cut to break Amy out, Cosmo jumped down into the prison.
"Hey, come on, help me out of these," Amy said expectantly. But Cosmo stared at the keys she'd swiped from a guard and replied, "I could, but should I free a partner as careless as you?" "What's that supposed to mean?" Amy asked, her blood beginning to boil. Cosmo began flexing her arms as though she had muscles. "I am the strongest, fastest, handsomest hedgehog in the world and the prince besides. I'm running away from home and if you help me, you will, no doubt, get in a heap of trouble. So come on, take me home, ask me to be part of your group," –Cosmo immediately shifted from mocking to furious—"and of course whatever you do, don't listen to anything your partner says!"
Amy forced her temper down; Cosmo's anger was understandable. "Hey, come on, he got in trouble for trying to help a homeless boy; how many times have we done the same thing? It just seemed to me that he was a lot like us, and might enjoy joining us." Cosmo walked over to her and started testing the keys. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." "Don't worry Cosmo, we'll never see him again; he's the prince, and there's a law, remember?" Cosmo rolled her eyes; Amy was talking more to herself than to her… again. "He has to marry a princess. He deserves a princess." Cosmo found the right key and the shackles snapped off. "Ta da!" she said, trying to get Amy to stop thinking about Sonic, but it was no use. Rubbing her wrists Amy berated herself; "I'm a… I'm a fool."
"You're only a fool if you give up girl."Cosmo and Amy whirled around and saw wrinkly old bat with a crippled wing, dressed in rags worse than theirs and leaning on a cane for support. "Who are you?" they asked at the same time. "A lowly prisoner like yourselves. But together, perhaps we can be more." Cosmo and Amy shared a skeptical but curious look before turning back to the hag-bat. "We're listening," Amy said raising an eyebrow while Cosmo folder her hands leaning Amy's hammer at her side.
The hag came over to them and began speaking confidentially. "There is a cave, m'gels, a cave of wonders—," she said wiggling her fingers mysteriously. Then reaching into her rags, the hag pulled out a couple of rubies that sparkled in the moonlight. "—filled with treasures beyond your wildest dreams!" "Wow," Cosmo said eyeing the rubies and licking her lips as though they were a delicacy she could eat, and even though Amy was not as wild about shiny objects, she also couldn't help smiling broadly at the thought of a whole cave full of them. The hag-bat put the rubies back among her rags and tottered away a bit adding, "Treasure enough to impress even your prince, I'd wager."
Elaso pushed against the rags so as to speak to Rouge. "Rouge, could you hurry up? I'm dying in here!" But Rouge just gave him a whack to shut him up and turned to face Amy who was trying to point out an observation. "But the law says that only a princess can—ˮ Rouge interrupted, getting right up in Amy's face. "You've heard of the golden rule haven't you? Whoever has the gold makes the rules!" Rouge cackled and stepped back to make sure Amy had breathing room.
"I'm more concerned with why you would share all this wonderful treasure with us," Cosmo put in, obviously very eager, but still cautious. "Look at me," Rouge replied moving over to Cosmo. "I'm old and weak. I need a couple young pairs of legs and a strong back or two to go in after it."
Rouge moved over to a nearby wall while Amy further pointed out, "Just one last thing: it's out there, and we're in here." But Rouge shook a finger at them, tut-tutting. "Things aren't always what they seem," Rouge replied pushing her cane against the wall and revealing a secret exit. "So," Rouge concluded, "do we have a deal?" Amy and Cosmo looked at each other and shrugged.
The journey took half the night, and the sandstorm made it all the worse. Nonetheless, around midnight Cosmo and Amy found themselves standing before the lion shaped entrance to the Cave of Wonders. Rouge looked on as the cave guardian repeated the same ritual with them that it had with Fang. "WHO DISTURBS MY SLUMBER?" Amy and Cosmo stood in amazement and shock. Shaking herself back to the present Amy replied, "It is I, Amy Rosaldin." "Uh, and I, Cosmo Oak," Cosmo added. The lion seemed to inspect them and then said, "PROCEED. TOUCH NOTHING BUT THE LIGHT BULB!" And with that the cave guardian opened its mouth wide to allow them passage. "Remember girls," Rouge called out from behind them, "first fetch me the light bulb, and then, you shall have your reward." Trying to show more courage than she felt Amy started toward the cave with Cosmo following along behind.
The staircase inside the lion's mouth seemed to go on for miles. When they finally got to the bottom they noticed a small archway carved out of stone and leading into another chamber that was filled with light. Upon entering, Cosmo and Amy's fear melted away leaving only wonder. The room was filled with mountains of gold, jewels, and all sorts of valuable items. "Wow, would you look at that?" Amy said, though she didn't need to; Cosmo was already gawking at the sight. "Just a handful of this stuff would make us richer than the king." "Forget a handful!" Cosmo replied, "Let's get the whole lot of it!" And with that she charged toward the nearest pile.
"Wait!" Amy knocked Cosmo away from the pile with her hammer. Cosmo lay there for a moment processing this then jumped up and yelled, "What's gotten into you attacking your partner like that." "Sorry," Amy replied, and she meant it. "But you were making a terrible mistake." "A terrible mistake? I'll bet it wasn't as horrid as betraying my partner!" Cosmo yelled back getting more and more furious by the second. Calmly, Amy replied, "I wasn't attacking you or betraying you, I—ˮ "Well, what would you call it if I smashed you with a hammer!" Amy stopped. She knew the honest answer to that, but it was the wrong answer. Deciding to go with a lie rather than tell Cosmo what she expected, Amy replied, "I would ask you why you did that and listen to what you had to say before deciding whether or not you betrayed me." Cosmo raised an eyebrow. "Oh you would, would you? All right, I'm listening; tell me your excuse if you have one."
Amy turned back to the pile of treasure. "Come here and take a closer look at this, but don't touch it." Cosmo walked over to Amy stiffly and examined the treasure. "What do you see?" Cosmo shrugged. "A fortune greater than anyone ever heard of." "Cosmo, I'm surprised at you!" Cosmo turned to look Amy who was beginning to get exasperated. She continued, "You're so consumed by greed right now that you can't see all the danger right in front of you; the treasure is filled with booby traps!" Shocked, Cosmo turned back to the treasure. Sure enough there were booby traps all over the place. If Amy hadn't knocked her away, she would be crippled or dead. Cosmo slowly turned back to Amy, "You saved my life." Amy just rolled her eyes. "Hey, it's nothing I haven't done before. You'd have done the same for me.
"In any case, it seems obvious to me that the only item in this cave that's not rigged is that light bulb the lion and the creepy old bat were talking about." Cosmo nodded. "Of course, 'Touch nothing but the light bulb,' that's what the big lion-head said." "This all has to stay where it is," Amy said sadly, though not as sadly as Cosmo looked. "And if we want to get outta here with anything, we've gotta find that light bulb." Amy started to walk off. Cosmo turned back towards the treasure, reached out a hand and clenched it into a fist. "Such a waste." But she didn't try to take it again. Instead, she turned to follow Amy.
They hadn't gone far, however, when Cosmo got the distinct feeling that someone was right behind her. She whirled around, but saw nothing except treasure, treasure, the puddle she had just walked through, and more trea—wait, puddle? As a Seedrian if she had walked through water, she would've known; it's in her instincts. She hadn't walked through water, and yet there was water. Cosmo checked her back for a creature clinging to it and checked the ceiling for a creature drooling; there was nothing. Cosmo shrugged it off but turned back slowly.
A few seconds later the feeling came back. Cosmo spun around even faster than last time, specifically checking for water on the ground behind her. There wasn't any, but the puddle from the previous time had also disappeared. Then she noticed a pot that was teeter-tottering and ended up falling over. Water spilled out. Water…
Cosmo ran to catch up with Amy who was by this time a little way ahead of her. "Amy, wait." As Amy came to a halt, and Cosmo came running up, she said, "This is gonna sound crazy, but I think we're being followed by water." Amy raised an eyebrow. "What?" "I think we're being followed by water." Amy's face became reproachful. "Now Cosmo, this is no time for practical jokes, we've got a job to do." "But—ˮ "Knock it off, will ya?" Cosmo was furious at that, but when she thought about it, it did sound rather dumb. Followed by water? That made no sense. Deciding that she must be imagining things Cosmo resumed following Amy.
Behind Cosmo, the water that came out of the pot reformed into a winged, liquid beast of some sort. It stretched out its wings and silently snuck up behind Cosmo again. As Cosmo once again felt as though someone was right behind her, an old saying came into her mind; "once could be nothing, twice could be a coincidence, but thrice is a guarantee". Nonetheless, Cosmo hadn't made up her mind whether or not to look before she felt a moist hand tap her on the shoulder.
As Cosmo whirled around, the water-creature flew up and over Cosmo to avoid being seen. Next it tugged on the back of Cosmo's dress. Whirling around again, Cosmo still couldn't see anything, because the creature was now directly over top of her. Cosmo was panicking when she felt a wet hand lift her home-made flower-crown off of her head. Cosmo turned her head once more and saw… the watery creature wearing her flower-crown.
Instantly, Cosmo screamed and ran to get Amy while the liquid creature panicked, dropping the flower-crown and flying the other direction. Amy turned around as Cosmo ran into her. Amidst Amy's protests, Cosmo picked her up and turned her to face the watery being. The creature was watching them cautiously and curiously. "What is it?" Cosmo asked, thoroughly spooked. Amy, however, was in awe. "I… I think it's a Chaos." "A what?" Cosmo asked confused. "Come on, we won't hurt you," Amy said to the Chaos before turning to Cosmo and replying, "They're mythical creatures that are said to sometimes be found guarding Chao colonies. They can take various forms, though I've never heard of one that could fly before now."
Cosmo looked around and started to notice the small, blue, teardrop-shaped creatures that were staring at them with frightened curiosity. Meanwhile, the Chaos reached into the treasure, setting off several booby traps that didn't seem to have any effect on it, and pulled out a gold-handled feather duster. Then, flying over to Cosmo's flower crown, the Chaos picked it up, and dusted it off before throwing the feather duster back into the gold mound. When the Chaos started walking over to Cosmo, she flinched, hiding behind Amy. "Hey, take it easy Cosmo; he won't try to hurt us, as long as we don't try to hurt the Chao."
The Chaos offered Amy the flower crown. "Thank you," Amy said before turning around and handing it to Cosmo. Cosmo in turn slapped it onto her head and proceeded to reprimand the Chaos… in Seedriss. "ÐÏ€Éƌ Ø€ßƌ æçÕ€ð!" The Chaos couldn't understand what Cosmo said, but it didn't have to to know that Cosmo was mad.
As the Chaos started to walk away sadly, Amy stopped it. "Wait, don't go; maybe you can help us." The Chaos perked up immediately, doing a sort of victory-spin around them. Amy laughed at the Chaos's exaggerated display of happiness while Cosmo just kept glaring. When the Chaos backed off to hear what it could do, Amy added, "See, we're trying to find this light bulb." The Chaos perked again and beckoned for them to follow it. Amy turned to Cosmo grinning; "I think he knows where it is!" "That's-ˮ Cosmo gritted her teeth. "-marvelous."
As the Chaos led them down a dark cavern, the Chao started to come out of hiding. Not only that, they were very friendly and quickly pulled Cosmo out of her anger against the Chaos. Finally the cavern opened up into another large chamber; this one was almost completely filled by an underground lake and the light bulb could be seen on an island in the center. The only way to get to the island seemed to be hopping across some very narrow stepping stones.
Cosmo looked at the stepping stones and shook her head. "I think I'll just swim." "No, wait, look!" Amy yelled pointing at the water. As Cosmo looked, she noticed bubbles on the water, too many to be fish. "It's boiling!" she exclaimed, backing away from the water's edge. Amy nodded and turned to the Chaos. "Do you think you could fly us over?" The Chaos shook its head and before Amy could ask why some of the water suddenly shot up into a pillar of steam. Cosmo shivered. "Underwater geysers? I didn't even think that was possible." Amy shrugged. "Maybe it isn't; the cave entrance was magical, maybe the water is too."
Amy examined the stepping stones and turned to Cosmo. "Jump time?" Cosmo shook her head emphatically. "I'm not jumping across those; there's too much margin for error. I'm likely to overshoot the jump and land in the lake." Amy sighed exasperated. "The one time I'm actually prepared to jump, and you don't want to! Fine, I'll go by myself." Cosmo grabbed Amy's wrist. "Now hold on, you're not leaving me behind." Amy rolled her eyes. "Can you make the jumps?" "Well, I don't know, bu-ˮ "Then you're staying behind," Amy finished matter-of-factly. Cosmo hesitated and then nodded and let go. "Okay, but be careful."
Amy readied herself and leaped across to the first stone. Her landing was a bit shaky, but she was pleasantly surprised to find that the stone was somewhat larger than it had appeared. Cosmo watched as Amy leaped to the second stone and then the third before turning away; it was too nerve-wracking to continue watching.
That was when Cosmo noticed it, a golden statue holding a beautiful red ruby. And no sign of any booby traps. Cosmo glanced over her shoulder at the Chaos. It was still watching Amy, who was beginning to move a bit more quickly. Cosmo glanced back at the ruby. Well, it wouldn't hurt to take a closer look, right?
As Cosmo started walking towards the jewel, Amy reached the island and began walking up the stairs toward the light bulb. The Chaos turned to look at Cosmo in relief only to notice that Cosmo wasn't there. After taking a moment to look around, the Chaos spotted Cosmo heading towards the ruby with a hungry glint in her eyes. Panicking, the Chaos flew over to Cosmo and tried to hold her back.
Meanwhile, Amy finally reached the light bulb. Hesitantly she reached out, picked it up and examined it. The light bulb, as stated in the prologue, was pitch black so that it was impossible to look inside of it. In all other aspects, the bulb was completely unremarkable and this one oddity only served to make Amy wondered if it could even give off light when turned on. "This is it? This is what we came all this way to-ˮ
At that point, Amy heard a strange sound like someone screaming in pain underwater. She turned around to see the Chaos trying one-handed to stop Cosmo from grabbing the ruby. "Cosmo! No!" But it was too late. The Chaos lost its grip and Cosmo took the stone from the statue's hands. "No worries!" she called back. "It wasn't a trap."
But even as she said it, the gemstone started glowing and the voice of the cave guardian came booming into the room. "INFIDELS!" "Uh, oh," Cosmo said as she felt heat coming from inside the crystal. "YOU HAVE TOUCHED THE FORBIDDEN TREASURE!" Cosmo tried to put the ruby back on the statue, but the jewel in question seemed to have gained a mind of its own; the statue started to melt and the ruby slammed into Cosmo's stomach knocking her backwards. "NOW YOU SHALL NEVER AGAIN SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY!"
Amy started running down the stairs, pocketing the light bulb as the top of the island erupted like a volcano. Abruptly, the stairs morphed becoming a slide. Caught off guard, Amy slipped and slid down the slide which threw over the lake which was now glowing red as lava started came up to the surface.
Amy started to fall toward the lava when her fall was interrupted; the Chaos had swooped in to save her. What happened next was roller coaster of fire, water and fleeing Chao, and Amy was in so much confusion that the only way she knew up from down was by the eerie glow coming from the lava. Forcing herself to concentrate, Amy started searching for Cosmo. She soon noticed Cosmo hopping across the only land that seemed to be left in the chamber, the stepping stones, but the rocks in question were starting to explode and Cosmo had nowhere else to go.
Amy grabbed onto the Chaos's wings and yanked on them, steering the Chaos like a plane. Just below them, Cosmo started panicking. The rock ahead of Cosmo exploded and then the one behind her exploded and her own rock started to heat up. "Cosmo!"Amy held out her hammer; Cosmo grabbed onto it and was swept up mere seconds before the rock exploded.
There was no time to celebrate because immediately after this a tidal wave of lava formed behind them and started coming after them. "Whoa!" Amy yelled upon noticing it. "Chaos let's go!" she declared releasing the Chaos's wings and giving it control of the flight. The Chaos immediately redirected their course out of the cavern dodging stray fire balls and falling rocks.
Cosmo seemed to have phased out, looking with a paralyzed fear at the lava wave behind them with the glowing ruby still attached to her stomach. After one particularly close call, she snapped out of her motionless state and grabbed onto Amy. "I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! We're gonna die!" and on she went apologizing and bemoaning their fate. Amy, whose eyes were stuck under Cosmo's arms tried to pry her loose. "Cosmo-Cosmo this is no time to panic!" she said managing to free her eyes by time she finished talking. But then they both stopped. Ahead it appeared as though there was nothing but a dead end. "Start panicking!" Abruptly, just before they would've hit the wall, the Chaos dived straight down towards the archway at the bottom of the cliff. Cosmo and Amy grabbed onto each other and the Chaos; their screams mingled as they saw the lava above them and the ground rushing up to meet them.
The girls could never fathom how the Chaos managed to get them through the arch without crashing into the floor, but somehow it did, and the three of them found themselves in the treasure room with the lava passing below them. All around them, Chao were flying as high as they could to avoid the lava flow and fireballs, and when the Chaos started to do the same thing, Amy started to believe they were home free.
But Cosmo didn't; she started tugging on Amy and pointing below them. "L-look out! Th-th-there's a-ˮ Cosmo didn't get any farther than that because at that point a column of fire burst up in front of them. Acting instinctively, Amy grabbed the Chaos's wings and steered them around the flame geyser, barely avoiding it. A second flame geyser appeared before them, but this time Amy was more prepared, successfully weaving them around it without any difficulty. "Geeze!" Amy shouted. "It's like this place is targeting us!" At that point Cosmo noticed that the burning sensation in her stomach was not just a fear of fire. Glancing down, Cosmo finally saw the oval jewel glowing on her chest. "Uh, oh. Amy, it's not targeting us; it's targeting me!" And with that, Cosmo grabbed the ruby and started trying to pull it off.
Amy, however, had other things on her mind. They had gotten close enough to the cave entrance that she could hear the lion roaring in fury… and anguish? It didn't matter; what mattered was that they were almost out. Amy pointed the Chaos straight towards the exit and the three of them started zooming at it, closer, closer, closer. They were hit! A rock falling from the ceiling smashed into the Chaos, knocking it away and scattering it into several sections. Amy reached out and managed to grab onto what was left of the staircase leading out of the cave with both hands. Cosmo grabbed onto Amy's leg with one hand and then caught her hammer in the other.
Seeing Rouge above them, Amy yelled, "Help us out!" But Amy's life was of no concern to Rouge who called back, "Throw me the light bulb!" Cosmo started struggling to find someplace to put Amy's hammer so she could use the hand holding it to get out. This added imbalance caused Amy to start slipping faster. "I can't hold on," she said to Rouge. "Give me your hand!" "First give me the bulb!" Amy reached out to hand the light bulb to Rouge while Cosmo finally settled on placing the hammer's handle between her teeth. She then grabbed onto Amy's other leg with the hand that had been holding the hammer, preparing for a risky move.
Rouge reached out and took the light bulb from Amy. Then completely forgetting about her, Rouge laughed and held the light bulb above her head. "Yyeess! At last!" she declared, cuddling the light bulb before pocketing it. At the same time, Cosmo pulled hard on Amy's legs, throwing herself up onto the ledge. "Cosmo!" Amy lost her grip, but Cosmo was ready, holding out the hammer for Amy to grab. However, this got Rouge's attention and before Cosmo had finished pulling Amy up, Rouge knocked her away and grabbed Amy by the wrist. "What are you doing?" Amy screamed, although she feared she already knew the answer. "Giving you your reward." Rouge stopped disguising her voice and pulled out a knife. "Your eternal reward."
But Rouge had made a major miscalculation; she had forgotten about Cosmo, who came charging in with Amy's hammer and knocked the knife out of Rouge's hand. Screaming in pain, Rouge let go of Amy who immediately started falling. Cosmo instinctively ran over to the ledge. "Amy!" A sharp kick in the back from Rouge sent her falling too.
Rouge didn't stay to see whether or not the girls survived the fall because the cave entrance was collapsing. The cave guardian, having fulfilled its duty, was dying and Rouge had no intention of ending up like Fang. Zooming out of the cave entrance, Rouge watched as the lion head dissipated, this time not even leaving behind a sand dune. The Cave of Wonders was no more.
Rouge giggled to herself. "It's mine," she declared rubbing off the make-up that made her look wrinkled. "It's all mine. I-ˮ But when Rouge reached into her pocket, she didn't feel anything. "Where is it?" She dug deeper into her pocket but still found nothing. "No." She checked everywhere she could think of, but the light bulb had disappeared. "Noooooo!"