Chapter 10: Sinbad

They left Sandopolis and landed outside the city, far away from the scorpions. Tails looked at Shadow and saw that he was still in shock.

Knuckles waved a hand in front of his face, "Hello? Shadow? Anybody home?"

"We're gonna have to get moving if we're going to find your counterpart," Tails said. Knuckles nodded.

He looked at Shadow. The hedgehog must have a phobia of scorpions if he was acting like this. Knuckles looked at Tails for advice.

Tails shrugged, "I don't know. He seems worse off than Sonic is with water."

"How do we get moving if he's frozen? We need to find my counterpart and HE...isn't helping!" Knuckles exclaimed, pointing at Shadow.

Tails sighed and thought about it. Shadow must have a high fear of arachnophobia.

"Do I have to drag him?" Knuckles asked, frowning, slightly,

Tails laughed and then stopped, "I think you may have to...or carry him."

Knuckles nodded and picked up Shadow. They began the long journey away from Sandopolis, Tails and Knuckles looking at each other and then back at the city, feeling guilty of leaving it with the attacking scorpions. Tails and Knuckles sighed and looked at Shadow, wondering why he was this fearful of scorpions.

But they continued on. Tails looked at Knuckles. "You think we'll find him? Your counterpart? There ARE a lot of places here like back home."

Knuckles shrugged his shoulders, "Who knows. We may even come across him or he may come across us."

Tails nodded. He remembered Ali Baba telling Knuckles that Sinbad sailed the seas, which must mean he's on a ship on the ocean. The trouble was, how were they going to get there? Unless sometimes he came to shore to get supplies from a city near the sea, but they don't know where that is. They would have to ask someone. The group continued on until they saw another city, and walked towards it. The ocean could be seen in the distance. Tails' eyes widened. This couldn't be the place after he just thought about it? Right? He continued to look around, and saw someone on the port near a ship. He walked up to the person and spoke.

"Hi, do you know where we can find someone by the name...um...Sinbad?" Tails asked, nearly forgetting his name for not hearing it in so long.

The person turned around, and Tails started. Standing in front of him was an echidna who looked exactly like Knuckles.

"I am Sinbad," the echidna said. Who are you?"

"My name's Tails and this is Knuckles and Shadow." Tails pointed behind him at Knuckles and Shadow. Sinbad glared at the other red echidna.

Knuckles shifted Shadow on his shoulders and then, finally, threw him off, hearing the hedgehog groan. "You were starting to hurt my back now get up and walk there aren't any scorpions here, Shadow!"

Shadow landed on the ground and looked up. "Where are we?" He asked.

Tails looked around, "That's right. I don't know."

Knuckles shrugged, "All I care about is that we're FAR away from scorpions so we don't have to carry him." Knuckles pointed at Shadow.

The black hedgehog stood up and glared at him "I have Arachnophobia, okay?"

Knuckles shrugged, "Whatever. You're worse than Sonic with water." Shadow growled had clenched his fists, he really wanted to punch the echidna.

Sinbad heard the name and looked at them, recognizing the name 'Sonic'. "How's Sonic doing?" He asked. "I assume you are all friends of his?"

Knuckles nodded, and looked at Sinbad.

Tails looked at Sinbad, "Sonic...isn't doing that well at this moment."

"What do you mean?"

Tails' ears bent back, "Just recently...he was turned into a genie by someone called Erazor."

Sinbad gasped. "What?"

Tails nodded sadly. "And we also met his recent Master, who looked like me," Tails said, ears still pinned back.

"Ali Baba?" Sinbad asked. "What happened? Please, explain everything."

Tails nodded, "Alright." He lowers his head and Sinbad saw the fox was getting upset.

Knuckles sighed, "Tails..." the fox looked at him. "...I think I'll take from here."

Tails smiled, "Thanks, Knuckles."

Knuckles nodded and looked at Sinbad. "We were transported here accidentally by Sonic. We found out that his Master was Ali Baba and found out some information about this world as well. We later, went Sandopolis, but...a scorpion stung Ali Baba," Knuckles explained.

Sinbad's eyes widened. "I assume he died?"

Knuckles nodded.

"What happened then?"

Knuckles sighed, "After Ali Baba passed away we came back a few hours later and saw someone had stolen Sonic's lamp."

"Someone stole the lamp?" Sinbad asked, shocked. "Who?"

"We didn't know at the time. Not until we saw a giant scorpion with an army of other scorpions." Shadow shuddered and Knuckles rolled his eyes. "We found out it was an old enemy of ours that stole Sonic's lamp."

"And with his evil influence has changed Sonic into one too," Tails said.

Sinbad seemed shocked at the news. "That is terrible," he said. "What do you want me to do?"

"We need to know information about this world as we don't know much about it. Sonic and Ali Baba were our only resources and we lost them," Tails said.

"But we need to get Sonic back. He probably doesn't even know what he's doing!" Knuckles exclaimed.

I agree," he said. "But a genie's power is unlimited. If Mephiles is Sonic's master, there is nothing we can do now."

"Who is Sonic's new master?" Sinbad asked, confused.

"A very evil person we know called Mephiles," Knuckles told him.

"How did he get here?"

"He said that Erazor teleported him here by accidence, but wouldn't tell us anymore than that," Knuckles growled.

Sinbad nodded. "We need to find the seven World Rings. They can help."

Tails, Knuckles and Shadow looked confused and Tails spoke, "What are the 'World Rings'?"

"They are seven rings that grant powers," Sinbad said. "And hold certain emotions."

The three looked at each other. "They sound kinda like the Chaos Emeralds," Knuckles said.

"But why do we need the World Rings?" Tails asked.

"They can help us try and defeat Mephiles."

Knuckles looked at Sinbad, "How?"

Sinbad smiled. "Let us go to King Shahryar. He will tell us."

Tails looked at Sinbad, "Well, if he's a King...he must be able to help us?"

Knuckles raised a brow, "Will he? Or is he one of those ruthless, power-hungry types?"

"He's a good king. Although you may be shocked when you see him."

Tails, Knuckles and Shadow were all confused. Tails was the one to answer though. "What do you mean?"

Sinbad grinned but said nothing more.

Tails looked at Knuckles, who frowned, "He seemed a little agitated at not being answered.

Sinbad sighed. "I will take you to the palace but we'll have to go by sea."

Tails looked at Sinbad in shock. "Go by sea? Mephiles may have taken over...I don't know how much of this world when we get back!" Tails exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air.

"It won't take long," Sinbad said. "The king's palace is on an island not far from here; we'll be there in a few days."

Tails hesitated, and then nodded. Sinbad smiled and walked to his ship, letting the others get on. Shadow hesitated, looking out at the water. Knuckles and Tails frowned.

"Don't tell me! Now you're getting a fear of water too!" Knuckles exclaimed, groaning.

Tails looked at Knuckles and then at Shadow. "This is...very unlike you, Shadow."

Shadow ignored them and stepped on to the ship. "I've always had a fear of water," he said. "I just pretend that I don't have any fears."

Tails stared at Shadow in shock, "Wow, Sonic will get a shock when he finds this out." Shadow growled in anger. He didn't want that faker to know he had any fears.

"Whatever," Shadow said. "Let's just go."

Sinbad nodded, and they sailed out into the ocean.