Chapter 7: Land of Mystery
Location: Sand Hill Zone
Ten minutes later...
From atop a towering mesa, Sonic stared out across the desert landscape, he sun beating down upon him as waves of heat radiating up from the endless tracks of sand. He was miles from Station Square, surrounded by nothing but pristine desert that separated him from civilization. If Ramada Refineries had conducted oil drilling within the desert, then there were few signs of it. Mobius' largest oil reserves lay within Shanazar; a desert kingdom located in the eastern most part of the Efrikan continent. Their refineries in the Oil Desert Zone were capable of producing more barrels of oil then Socrates Ramada's company could ever hope to match. Unfortunately, it had resulted environmental damage that had left a choking smog over the kingdom's capital. The pollution had become so bad that Princess Kupacious had been forced to relocate it to Tashistan before her successful annexation of Shamar. The formerly hidden city now served as the kingdom's new capital, after Kupacious' Imperial Guards had pacified local resistance. Growing increasingly bored, Sonic launched himself from the mesa, racing down the rocky surface to the blistering sands below. Once his feet were firmly on the ground, the hedgehog tore his way across the desert landscape. As he ran, he watched a black shadow pass overhead, prompting the hedgehog to stop dead in his tracks, the distinctive sound of the X-Tornado's engines reaching his ears. Sonic turned his green eyes skyward and discovered that the aircraft had passed him by.
"Yo Tails, down here," he said into his wrist communicator.
The X-Tornado immediately banked left, circling overhead up Sonic began waving his arms to get the fox's attention. Transforming the aircraft into its X-Cyclone mode, it descended from the sky, kicking up a large amount of sand in the process.
"Hey Sonic, we're ready to go when you are," Chris called out.
"Yeah, then let's head out," Sonic said leaping onto the exterior of the aircraft.
A press of a button and the X-Tornado took to the sky, heading for the southernmost part of the continent. Twenty minutes into their flight and a pair of Blue Eagles appeared in the horizon, on an obvious intercept course. Suddenly the CB radio crackled to life and a voice; obviously male, came on the line.
"Aircraft, you are entering a restricted area, change course immediately or we will be forced to open fire," the man on the radio warned.
"We must be near Area 99," Chris stated.
It hadn't crossed Tails' mind that their current trajectory might just put them directly in the path of a 'top-secret military base' belonging to the national defense force. Not wanting to fly over open water, Tails banked the X-Tornado to the right without hesitation, heading deeper into the continent.
"Don't tell me we have to go around," Sonic said.
"You wanna get shot down, cause I don't?" Tails retorted.
"True enough, but this'll eat up a lot of time."
"Can't be helped, you know how touchy GUN can be."
"Unfortunately," Sonic sighed.
Location: Murasia
Hours later...
Murasia was a jungle-covered region full of high mountains and plenty of ruins of a once thriving civilization that held little interest in the eyes of the Eggman Empire. The X-Tornado was still a ways from its destination; having to divert their flight path had wasted a large amount of time. The skies had gradually darkened in the past twenty minutes and the wind was beginning to pick up.
"Looks like there's a storm brewing," Chris said, stating the obvious.
"I think we should land," Tails said, "I don't want to try to fly in this weather."
Sonic glanced over the side of the aircraft, staring down at the jungle below when he spotted an elevated area of foliage covered land that towered over the rest of the jungle that was the size of a small city.
"There," Sonic shouted pointed to the mesa, "we can take shelter down there."
The X-Tornado banked and dropped in attitude heading towards the mesa and transforming into its X-Cyclone mode allowing Tails to land the vehicle and maneuver into the forest to get out of the rain that had begun to fall. The forest was humid, but not so much that it was uncomfortable and the canopy was thick enough that it prevented much of the rain from penetrating.
"Well so much for that," Sonic said as he leapt down from the X-Cyclone as it lowered itself to the ground.
"How long do you think we're grounded for?" Chris asked, dropping to the muddy ground below.
"I donno," Tails admitted.
He reached for the pouch at his hip and removed a collapsible table computer that he had stored inside, taking a moment to access any weather satellites that just happened to be overhead. What he found was a slow moving weather system that at the very minimum would eat up another two hours.
"Might as well get comfortable," Tails said.
"Let's just set up camp and wait it out, we can continue onward to Soleanna in the morning," Sonic suggested.
"Your right Sonic," Tails said climbing out of the X-Cyclone, "We'll need some water and firewood. I looked for the water if you want to collect the firewood."
"Yeah! Sure thing, Big Guy."
"I'll grab that picnic basket Ella gave us," Chris announced.
Several minutes later Tails was walking along a well worn path that seem to have been traveled once before with a clear, collapsible plastic water jug in his arms as he for any sort of pond of stream but so far all he had come across was a bunch of crumbling ruins. He stopped and looked around before spotting a small pond that was located just off the path and head over to fill the jug water. Once sufficiently filled he added several water treatment pills, screwed on the cap and turned and headed back in the direction of the campsite. Sonic had been unsurprisingly fast in collecting the firewood, already he had managed to get a fire going to provide them with warmth.
"Here Tails," Chris said, offering the fox a sandwich wrapped in wax paper.
"What did Ella make us?" he questioned.
"Smells like prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella with a hint of pesto aioli," the boy answered.
Tails set the water jug down and accepted the sandwich, taking a seat on the ground so that he could eat.
"How much further do you think we've got left?" Sonic asked, taking a seat.
"A few hours at least," Tails said between bits of his sandwich, "Mmm...I forgot how good Ella's cooking was."
"Too bad Danny and Francis couldn't come," the hedgehog said.
"Well everyone's has plans for summer vacation," Chris stated, "and even if they didn't, I'm not sure Danny and Frances would've been allowed to come with us."
"What are they up to anyways?" Tails questioned.
"Danny's heading out to Empire City, Helen's spending time at the Emerald Coast Resort, and Francis' family has a cottage out in Silver Valley."
"Should we set up camp?" Tails asked, "we've got no way of knowing how long it'll take for this weather system to pass."
"Sounds like a good idea, Tails," Sonic said, "let's give it a bit before making that decision."
