Chapter Seven: Lost in a magic cave

Miles was the first to reach the cave entrance, and she waited for Sonic to arrive before heading inside. Inside, it was glowing a faint purple from multiple rare crystals inside, and Eggman was no longer in sight. Miles asked, "Are you sure we should be pursuing him?"

Sonic ran up, and stopped right in front of the cave entrance. He said, "I don't know, but I'm going to stop Eggman. I have a feeling he's trying to lose us in this cave so he can come back out here and search for Chaos Emeralds. I doubt he'll find any, though."

Sonic leaped down into the cave, and Miles hesitantly followed. They had just landed on a wooden platform below when the cave entrance was suddenly sealed off. Then they heard Eggman's voice echo through the cave saying, "Fools! I have you trapped here now, and there's no way you can get out. In the meantime, I am setting a bomb here that will blow the whole cave. Think you can find it in time to escape, Sonic?"

Eggman began laughing, and then the voice was shut off. Miles said, "No way!"

Sonic yelled, "We'll get you for this, Eggman!"

Sonic blasted off through the cave, with Miles trailing close behind. At first, he was outrunning her, but then he slowed down to his cruising speed and let her catch up. This cave was huge, with many twists and turns. Along the way, a serpent shaped robot popped out of the wall, going straight for Sonic. He merely knocked it aside with one of his hands and continued on. Miles kept close behind him in order to avoid being bitten by the robot.

They reached an area that was wide open, with multiple little firefly robots flying around, occasionally lighting up the area a little more with their lights. Sonic looked around, and saw that there were a huge number of paths that they could choose from. Sonic sighed and said, "Great. We'll never find him at this rate."

Miles' heart was pounding out of fear and tension. She kept wondering how long they had before the bomb blew, and whether or not they would be able to find it in time to stop it. A thought temporarily occurred to her that he might be lying, but she quickly discarded that thought, deciding that he always meant what he said, no matter how outrageous it seemed.

Sonic called, "Eggman, you're a coward!"

Eggman's voice boomed, "So? Even if I were to show myself to you now, you wouldn't be able to defeat me. You see, this is a cave of illusion. Nothing here is as it seems. Not even my own voice."

Sonic located the source, and found a speaker embedded in one of the walls. However, Miles heard a fainter echo coming from one of the passages, and said, "This way, Sonic!"

She flew over and flew in, hoping that this was the path to Eggman. They arrived in a long hallway with small spikes jutting out from the sides of the walls. Miles was about to rush in, when a badnik started flying up to her. It flew in front of one of the spikes, and then the spike suddenly shot out as a pillar out of the wall and crushed it up against the opposite wall. Then the pillar retracted back into the wall and waited for the next trespasser to come along.

Miles saw that this whole hallway was lined with them, and said, "Wow...how are we supposed to get through this?"

Sonic said, "I could easily make it through this, but with you at your speed..."

Sonic thought for a moment, We don't have that much time left. That bomb could go off at any moment...I don't want to leave Miles, but if Eggman is down this path, then I will have no choice but to go and stop him before this whole cave blows with me and Miles in it. If this isn't the right path, then what? This is a difficult decision indeed...

He decided suddenly. He said, "Miles, go back out and find us an exit. I'll go ahead and see if I can find Eggman down this path. If he's there, I'll give him a piece of my mind and shut off that bomb. After you find the exit, shout periodically so I can find you using the echoes."

Miles nodded, and then said, "Be careful, Sonic."

Sonic grinned and said, "Hey, I'm the fastest thing alive! I'll be alright."

Miles ran off to back into the open area, and Sonic glanced ahead. He grinned and said, "Bring it on, Eggman. You can't stop me."

He burst from his position at a sprint, something he was used to doing when up against Eggman. He reached the end of the room, and heard the pillars smash into place trying to crush him a moment later. He glanced back and called, "You're too slow!"

He then looked ahead into the next room. He saw it had a low roof and the floor was made of stone. He called, "Eggman! You here?"

"Why yes, I am, stupid hedgehog," Eggman's voice reply. It was all around him, preventing Sonic from pinpointing where he was.

Suddenly, Sonic heard a drilling noise above him, and barely managed to leap forward in time to avoid Eggman's mobile coming down, a drill attached to the bottom. The drill swung towards the front, facing Sonic. He grinned and said, "Another drill? You can't possibly expect to defeat me with that."

Eggman laughed and replied, "Sonic, you don't realize something. I've upgraded the boosters on my mobile, so that I can catch up to you easily!"

Sonic beckoned Eggman, saying, "Bring it on."

The mobile sped forward, and Sonic merely jumped when it was a just about to hit him. He hit the glass, and they both knocked each other away with the force of the collision. Sonic landed on his feet and spun under Eggman's mobile. He popped out and turned around to see it dive into the ground. There was a tremor, and several stalactites that he hadn't noticed before fell from the ceiling straight at him.

He had an easy time dodging them, as they fell as slow as any normal object would, which was slower than him. He wasn't worried about the stalactites, however. He was looking around for Eggman, and was hoping that Eggman wouldn't pull some cheap trick. He was worriedly saying, "C'mon, Eggman. Show yourself, and let's settle this the normal way..."

Soon, all of the stalactites that had been shaken loose had fallen. He stopped dodging and looked around. He heard the drill behind him and did the first thing his impulse told him to do. He leaped upward, and hit the glass of Eggman's mobile. He bounced off of it, and kicked off of the roof. He ran and dove down into the hole that Eggman had went into, and then blasted through it. Even though it was pitch dark, he didn't care. He was about to give Eggman a hard time. He heard Eggman boring through the ground near him, and bounced backwards away from the noise. He head Eggman come through and shoot into the other wall, probably wondering where he was. Sonic grinned as he outsmarted his opponent with ease, and continued on through the way that Eggman had came.

He stayed there for a moment, and then heard Eggman call, "You can't hide forever, blasted hedgehog!"

Sonic said nothing, instead silently laughing. He thought, He sure is gullible. I bet I can scare the...

He was aware that something next to him was beeping. He turned to see the bomb that Eggman had set. There were only thirty seconds left on the timer. Sonic dove towards it, and desperately began trying to disarm it. He opened up the compartment and found the wires inside. He had done this sort of a thing before, so he knew what he was doing. He looked at how they were wired briefly, using the red light from the electronic timer to help him see. He quickly pulled one and then found that there were only ten seconds left on the timer when it stopped.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and then heard the drilling noise again. It was coming down into the passage he was in! He decided to finish this, and hoped that Miles had found an exit. He took the bomb and waited for the mobile to come down. He landed on the front above the drill and slammed the bomb onto the front. He replaced the wire and called, "See ya later, doc!"

He dashed out and began running. He heard an explosion, and then the whole cave began rumbling. He kept running, hoping that he could get to where Miles was before the cave collapsed on both of them. He heard Miles shouting, and followed the shouts to the best of his ability. He reached where Miles was standing, and found her next to a ladder leading out. He called, "After you, Miles! This cave is collapsing!"

Miles began quickly ascending the ladder, and Sonic followed. They reached the top, and managed to get away from the cave before it utterly collapsed. Sonic turned around and said, "Nice try, doctor."

For a while, Miles just stared at the rubble, saying nothing. Then, she asked, "What happened?"

Sonic replied, "I got in a scuffle with Eggman using a drill machine again. He was burrowing through the ground, and had actually set the bomb under the ground inside that cave. I found it, temporarily disarmed it, and then rearmed it right on his mobile. I wonder if he got away or not?"

Miles said, "So that's why the cave collapsed..."

Sonic asked, "Is there something wrong, Miles?"

Miles shook her head and said, "No, there's nothing wrong. Sonic, I have a question, though."

Sonic asked, "What is it?"

Miles hesitated before asking, "Would you take me touring with you? You know, take me across the entire world?"

Sonic seemed surprised, and then said, "Sure! That'd be great, Miles! I'm glad you asked!"

Miles seemed surprised, and then a bright light appeared in her eyes as she said, "You would really do that?"

Sonic grinned and said, "Hey, everything is more fun with you around, Miles."

Her face lit up with joy, and she cried, "Oh, Sonic! Thank you!"

She ran over and, overwhelmed with the joy of being accepted, she embraced him, not even thinking about it. Sonic was nearly knocked off of his feet by surprise, and for a moment just stood there. Then, Miles realized what she just did, and backed off, blushing like mad. She said, "Oops...eh...sorry, Sonic. I hope I didn't...embarrass you or anything."

Sonic laughed uneasily and said, "Heh heh...it's okay. It's just...I wasn't expecting that is all."

Suddenly, Eggman's smoking mobile blasted out of the wreckage. Sonic saw him, and said, "Great. There he goes again."

Miles asked, "Where too, though?"

Sonic said, "We follow him and find out. Let's-"

He tripped on something right as he stepped forward. Miles rushed, picked up what he tripped on, and then helped him up. She asked, "You alright?"

Sonic said, "Yeah, I'm...another Chaos Emerald!"

He pointed to what she was holding, and indeed it was another Chaos Emerald. Miles was shocked, and then laughed as she said, "I just picked this up! I didn't even know what it was!"

Sonic said, "Keep it 'till I need it. I think that splitting the Chaos Emeralds between us will help us a lot in the long run."

Sonic turned around, and said, "Alright, now let's get moving!"

He ran off after Eggman, with Miles close behind him. Sonic thought, I know she likes me now. She wouldn't have hugged me like that if she didn't...and I've already made up my mind on her. What's my decision? The world will see soon...

Hope you liked some of the action in this. I think I'm getting better with the romance as I go along...though I'm not sure. If you could provide some feedback on what you think of the romance between them so far...that would be much appreciated. Thanks, and have a great time reading this story as it comes.