Song of the Pack: Pt 2

Sonic awoke to the blurry sight of the morning twilight sky and the sound of three mobian voices chuckling.

"Boy, youz gonna get it now this time, hedgehog." Nac chortled. "This is going to be your last ride."

"You said it, Nicnac." Bean replied tossing a bomb up and down gleefully. "When those boom-booms I put under him go kablooey, there'll be bits of hedgehog everywhere."

"You've bitten your last chili dog, Sonic." Bark growled waving one of the spicy chili dogs in his face before shoving it into the surprised hedgehog's mouth.

"Why you little – mmph." Sonic said but was cut off by the food stuffed in his face.

"We're done here, boys. Time to go into what's left of the caves and collect out reward." Nac proclaimed.

"See you later, hope your trip ends with a bang." Bean stated. As the three left, Sonic struggled against the ropes tied tightly around his body. If he could just pull himself together enough to form a spindash, he could cut his way out of this mess, but the ropes bound him too tightly. Below him, Sonic could hear and see he fuses on the three bombs that Bean had left circling the set up with the spark burning each section.

"Uh oh," Sonic quipped. "Looks like I got to get a way out of here and fast."

Finding a still open entrance to the cave, Team Hooligan descended into the caverns below. Breaking the wick off of one of his bombs, Bean lit the fuse and held it above his head as a torch. Then, he did the same thing with three other wicks arranging them into a crown and put it on his head.

"Really spooky!" Bean statd.

"What's wrong with him?" Bark whispered to Nac.

"I think he was dropped on his head as a child." Nac replied. "Either that, or he's haunted."

As the trio descended deeper into the cave, they heard a sound that reminded them of a tribe of wolves chanting. But there seemed to be no source of the sound.

"The ghosts of the wolves' ancestors." Bark stated nervously. "This place is haunted."

"Oh, you are just imagining things." Nac told him, brushing it off. "Now come on, let's find that emerald and get outta here."

"It is dangerous to trespass on sacred ground." A deep and husky feminine voice growled. "All intruders shall pay the ultimate price."

"What was that?" Bean asked starting to shake in his webbed feet. "This place is spookier than I am."

"You were never spooky to begin with." Bark growled rolling his eyes.

Suddenly, the glowing light of the chaos emerald appeared in the tunnel before them. Slowly moving forward, the emerald seemed to float on its own in midair.

"AHHHH! IT'S HAUNTED!" Bean sheirked jumping behind Nac.

"Oh, give me a break. There's no such thing as ghost." Nac rebuked the two of them. "It's just that wolf chick playing tricks on us."

"This is no trick foolish mortals." A wolfish voice declared. Stepping out of the shadows, team hooligan saw a ferocious female wolf. Her eyes and hair ablaze with a golden flame. The grey female's piercing gaze seemed to stare into the three criminals' souls. "You didn't leave when you had the chance." She pointed a claw at them accusingly. "Now, you shall face that guardian of the emerald."

Behind where the ferocious figure stood, Knuckles picked up a large bottle of sugar he had gotten out of the wolf tribe's pantry.

"This is a trick I learned when Snively was babysitting me." He stated popping the cap off. He proceeded to pour the entire bottle of sugar down his throat. Suddenly, the young echidna's pupils dilated. His entire coat seemed to glow with a golden shimmer.

"BEHOLD!" He screamed as he racing forward into past Lupe. "THE POWER OF HYPER KNUCKLES!" The three members of Team Hooligan almost wet themselves in shock.

"Hey, what the…" Bark said, but never got a chance to finish. Knuckles grabbed the surprised polar bear's ankles and proceed to swing him high into the air, smashing him into the floor on all four sides of himself.

"OWW! OHH! EEEIII!" Bark stated. "NAC, HELP ME!"

"Put 'em down, jacked echidna." Nac stated clicking the safety on his gun. "Or I'll blow you…" Knuckles ignored him as he threw Bark at Nac. "What?" The two went flying backwards.

"You may have gotten those two, dreadhead. But you aren't going to get the best of me." Bean answered, twirling a bomb on his finger. "Say 'hi' to all the other echidnas for me."

"It will be you… Who will see your ancestors today." Lupe stated pulling out her claws. She slashed the duck across the face leaving a set of red marks and slicing his bomb in half. Reaching into his pouch and picking out another bomb, Lupe shoved the bomb into his bill, grabbed the crazy Knuckles and dashed off down the cave. "Happy landings, Team Hooligan."

Outside of the mountain, the struggling Sonic saw a small explosion tear out of the cliff face with three mobians sent flying off into the distance.

"That stupid hedgehog's friends got us again." Nac cried out as hey hurled into the sky, vanishing over the horizon. Sonic would have smiled if he didn't only have a few moments left before these bombs went off. Pulling against the ropes, Sonic desperately tried to even break one of his bindings.

"Hey Sonic, looks like you could use some help." A voice cried out from above. Looking skywards, he heard the whirling sound of two tails helicoptering over him. "Team hooligan get you in a bind?"

"Boy Tails, I'm glad to see you." Sonic answered gratefully. "Can you give me a hand with these ropes?"

"Sure thing." Tails stated landing on top of the captive hedgehog. "This should take a second."

"It better." Sonic replied. Pulling at the knots, Tails grumbled.

"We didn't have to deal with one this tough in fox scouts."

"JUST HURRY IT UP, TAILS!" Sonic pleaded desperately. The little fox managed to undo the tightest knot just as the fuses were burning back into the bombs. Quickly spindashing and cutting the ropes, Sonic and Tails leapt away from the exploding bombs just as the mountain's summit went up in a giant fireball.

"Talk about cutting it close." Tails remarked as he carried his spiky blue friend to safety. "Team Hooligan almost got the better of us this time."

"Yah, Tails. But we have an even bigger problem to worry about." Sonic replied. "Seems like Breezy is going to be a really big headache for us from now on."

Once the group had gotten back together again in the valley below, Lupe told Sonic how they had tricked and beaten Team Hooligan.

"And all I had to do was shine a flashlight behind the chaos emerald so it would glow, and make a bunch of spooky noises and talk in a creepy voice." Lupe laughed. "I would have had those three running away with their tails between their legs if Knuckles hadn't jumped on them like a hyperactive hyena."

"Hheeeyyyyy, guuuyyyyyyss." Knuckles stated tiedly. "Hhooooooowww's iiiiiit gooooooing?" He almost tripped over a root that was obviously there.

"Looks like somebody just got down from being high." Sonic remarked. "Don't worry, Knucklehead. We'll get you a nice soft bed when we get back to Knothole."

"Sorry about all the damage we did to your village, Chief Lupe." Tails stated looking around at the explosion ridden canyon. "It's probably going to take you a real long time to get all of this repaired, huh?"

"Don't be silly, Tails." Lupe laughed. "That was the old caves we used to hide in during Robotnik's rule. We got the new city that just finished construction on the west side of the canyon. You save us all the costs of demolition of the old caves. Now, we can put our new swimming pool and gymnasium in."

Tails just stood there dumbfounded as Sleet and Fockerwolf brought the Tornado out.

"She's all refueled and ready to go." Sleet told them. "Have a nice trip back to Knothole Village."

"A safe journey my friends." Lupe exclaimed hugging the three of them. "I hope the emerald will be of some use to you."

"Hey, wait a sec." Sonic noted looking around. "Does anyone else get the feeling we're forgetting something?"

"Guys?" a voice called out in the caves. As a pink hedgehog with a hammer stumbled around in the darkness. "Where did everyone go? I need to use the bathroom."