Chapter ten: jeweled showdown.
"Ah, Emerald Coast!" Sonic said.
"The most relaxing beach, this side of Everfree!" Sunset added. Indeed, those two along with Shadow(who wanted to see a shark attack), Fluttershy (who wanted to scuba dive to see marine life,) and Knuckles(who had lifeguard duty) were all at the beach, everyone else either had plans or just didn't want to come.
"Alright, We're here to have fun, but remember I'm on duty so only moderate rulebreaking," Knuckles said locking his jeep, he was the only one with a license, so he was driving everyone. At the moment he was wearing a white tank-top, red trunks and had intentionally put sunscreen on his nose.
Sonic, who was wearing a back and blue swim shirt, and navy blue, Hawaii trunks, pulled a surfboard out of the back, "I'll be fine as long as there's killer waves and zero orcas."
"Yeah, with all the magic mishaps, it'll be good to finally relax!" Sunset said. she was in a black bikini with an orange towel around her waist.
"Last one to the water is a rotten egghead," Sonic said taking off.
"You'd obviously win because you have super speed!" shadow sighed, he was wearing a black and red version of sonic's swimsuit, their mom had the tendency to try and get them to embrace the "twins" thing.
"Oh, I can't wait to see all the fishes, and sea turtles, and all the other cute creatures," Fluttershy said as she tried to grab her scuba gear, but couldn't quite reach it.
Knuckles grabbed it for her and handed her it, "allow me."
"Thank you, Knuckles," Fluttershy said.
Sonic was now at the edge of the beach, keeping his eyes on the waves. He chuckled to himself as he thought how he used to be scared of the water, now it was just what was in it. He went back a few feet, then ran forward at full speed, through his board ahead of him, jumped and landing on it, the momentum of this causing it to speed forward out into the best wave zone. Far enough to catch waves, but not too far that you drift away from shore.
"Whoo!" he said looking for the perfect wave, eventually one came into sight.
"So," Shadow said, "who wants to bet he face plants?"
"Knock it off, Shadow," Sunset sighed. Shadow rolled his eyes, of course, SHE would defend him.
Sonic paddled his board over to the wave, as it picked up speed, he jumped to his feet. The wave sped up, he kept his balance, kept his eyes on the beach, wouldn't want to hit anyone. He jumped up, spinning his board, and landed perfectly, at this point he was showing off, but that was half the fun of surfing.
"The guy's got moves," Knuckles said climbing the Lifeguard tower.
Sonic decided to hang ten for a moment, wasn't like anything had gone wrong so far, but then something happened, a familiar face came into view. Sonic's jaw dropped, he quickly lost balance, "aw, crap."
And with that, he was thrown into the drink. Knuckles and Sunset ran to his aid, being followed by Shadow and Fluttershy, they found him coughing, and getting to his feet.
"You okay, man? I can't have anyone drown on my watch, especially my bros," Knuckles said helping up.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sonic coughed, "but that's not important."
"What do you mean that's not important, you just wiped out!" Sunset said.
"I think what he mean's is we have bigger fish to fry, literally," Shadow said shaking her shoulder and pointing.
The remaining three looked where he gestured and saw two, very familiar girls. All five of them got an angry expression, even Fluttershy.
"Hey," Sonata said waving. She was in a violet, one-piece bathing suit and followed by the one and only Adagio Dazzle who was wearing a purple bikini with black sunglasses hiding her eyes. A majority of the Dazzlings were back, the third nowhere to be seen. Shadow's hands started to spark green, seeing them definitely ticked him off, but that couldn't compare to sonic's inner rage, no one noticed, but his hair darkened the moment Adagio was in sight.
"Uh, hey… Sonic," Adagio said nervously.
"What are you doing here, Adagio?" Sonic said with venom in his voice.
"I… uh, came to…" Adagio started, "I came to apologize, well I want to apologize anyway, we're only in this specific location because sonata wanted to go swimming."
"I wore her down," Sonata smiled.
"Yeah, right," Shadow said, "you're just here for revenge."
"Yeah, uh… lady," Knuckles said, "Not gonna lie, never really learned your names."
"Look, I know you're all mad, you have every right, but I am truly, deeply sorry, it's like once I got a hold of Sonic's magic, I went completely mad with power!" Adagio said, "Sunset, the same happened to you, you know what I'm talking about!"
"You went mad with power because you were already power hungry!" Sonic said getting angrier.
"Wait, sonic, she's right," Sunset said.
"What?" everyone said at once.
"Don't get me wrong, I wanna knock her face in just as much as anyone, but if she's telling the truth, we should at least give her the benefit of the doubt," Sunset said.
"That's all I want, I regret everything I did, I'm not asking you to forgive me, I just want to make it right," Adagio said.
"Yeah, right. I stopped believing you after you used me for magic I didn't even know I had, you ripped my heart out of my chest, Adagio," sonic yelled.
From a distance, a cloaked figure was getting tired of this.
"All that power and he spends his time in petty, little squabbles," he scoffed, "this world has made him soft."
He gazed at the red jewel in his clutch, "well, I suppose now's as good a time as any to collect the emeralds."
"So yeah, not happening," Sonic shunned the former siren.
"Sonic, please," Adagio said.
"Oh Sonic please, please forgive me, blah blah blahdity blah, I feel like I'm watching a soap opera," a voice said. A person in a black cloak landed in between the two parties, nothing of his face could be seen except his percing red eyes, "forgive me for the interruption, but I'm afraid you have something I require, give them to me quietly or there will be… complications."
Everyone just stared at him for a moment, then shadow said, "first of all, you're clearly evil, your whole thing just screams sith-lord, secondly, what are you talking about?"
"The Chaos Emeralds, give them to me, Now!" the stranger demanded, pointing toward sonic and shadow's pendants with a clawed gauntlet.
"Why do you want our pendants?" Sonic asked. Then at that moment, Adagio realized something, "because they contain your magic!"
"Smart girl, yes, the Chaos Emeralds grant anyone who wields them imense power, power I need, last chance to hand them over quietly, before I take them," the cloaked person said.
"Oh, yeah? You and what army?" Knuckles said, everyone then looked at him with a "you moron, you never say that!" look, even Sonata.
"How about this one," the figure took out a red, hexagonal jewel about the size of his palm, it glowed for a moment, then an earsplitting sound went through the air, as the world gained a red tint, it faded out and an army of crab-like robots, bee robots and what sonic thought was basically pac-man robots started appearing.
"Looks like this guys got magic of his own!" Sunset said.
Knuckles smirked, "Won't stop me!"
The redhead leaped forward and tried to punch the figure, but he grabbed his fist and swung him over his head, sending him flying, and crashing into someone's cooler.
"You ok Knux?" Sonic asked.
"Finland!" Knuckles yelled. Everyone around the beach took this as a sign leave.
"You ain't taking our pendants without a fight!" Sonic said taking off, raming some of the bots into each other.
(Begin playing live and learn I am all of me remix.)
"Sunset, Fluttershy, get everyone out of here," Shadow said as his hands we engulfed in green energy, "I'll deal with this."
He began to blast the robots as Sunset and Fluttershy began directing everyone away. Sonic began running in a circle around some of the robots, the following wind had enough force to create a small tornado sweeping a good number into the air.
"I got the bots, you deal with Cloaky McManiac," Sonic said rapidly punching one. His brother nodded, then turned to the figure. He fired a few blasts, the figure dodged everyone.
"It's a shame, I thought you would have put up more of a fight," the figure sighed before an eardamning screech filled the air. Shadow covered his ears but the screech continued, sonic was lucky enough to be moving faster than sound so he could barely hear, but did notice, "Shads!"
"You're pathetic, I think Maria would be disappointed," the figure said, shadow felt like he just got stabbed in the heart. Before either of them could do anything, the figure was in the head with a chair, knocking him a couple of feat. Sonic, shadow and the figure all looked at Adagio who was holding the remains of the chair.
"Don't mess with my friend's brother," She said angrily.
"Why you-" he said before getting knocked from behind by sonic, " look who's pathetic now!"
"Ergh," "Hey" the figure turned to shadow who said, "You ain't done with me yet!"
His hands radiated a deep red, then he fired a huge blast of energy strait at the figure. When it faded, all that was left was a tattered cloak, the remainder of the robots disappeared into thin air.
"Oh, yeah, I just killed somebody!" Shadow cheered.
Sonic turned to adagio, "I guess you're a better person than I thought."
The former siren paused, "remember after you and the Rainbooms beat me, I told you what I said prior was the negative energy talking, I meant it, I'm sorry, and for what it's worth, I do like you."
"Eh, I'm willing to give you a second chance, but I swear to Chaos, if you pull that junk again..." Sonic said.
"You have my word, by the way, Think we can get a do-over?" Adagio asked.
"I'm free on friday," Sonic answered.
Adagio smiled, "then it's a date."
What they didn't know was that the figure hadn't been destroyed, at the last minute, he used the phantom ruby to escape the blast, leaving the cloak to make them think he was dead.
"Perhaps I underestimated them… Oh who am I kidding, of course, I did, thats why everyone fails," he sighed to himself, "Of course this cheap knock off can't compete with the actual emeralds… good news is, there are still five left."