City by the Sea

It had been a few days since Tails and Cosmo had returned with the Chaos Emerald. That made three in their possession, one in Metal Sonic's, a big fat zero for Dr. Eggman, and three more unaccounted for. Well, two actually. Sonic and Tails were on the bridge discussing their next destination, which Sonic had picked out, when they discovered the location of another Emerald. Tails brought up his map screen, but instead of the usual flashing dot that would normally mark an Emerald's location, a small box appeared surrounding an island not far from their current location.

"That's weird," Tails remarked, "The Emerald is somewhere in that area, but my tracker can't get a fix on it..."

Sonic recognized the place immediately, and made a quick decision. He turned to the fox and said "Hey, Tails, since we have to go that way anyhow, why don't we make this my destination?"

Tails was a bit surprised by the sudden change, "Are ya sure, Sonic?"

"You bet, buddy!" Sonic replied "Since we've got three groups looking for the Emeralds now, we've gotta speed things up, and I've been meaning to visit that island anyways. You know where that is, don't 'cha?"

Tails thought for a minute before he too recognized the island they would be headed for. The fox had been there several times himself, and was surprised that he hadn't recognized the little island right off the bat. He was also a little surprised that Sonic would want to take them all to a place that was so important to him. He set a course for the island and activated all of the ships communication channels so he could speak to the rest of the crew, "Attention everyone, there's been a slight change of plans, and we'll be arriving at our next destination within the hour. Please come to the bridge for a quick briefing."

When Tails flicked off the communicator, Sonic spoke to him, "Hey Tails..."

"Yeah, Sonic?"

"Don't tell the others anything about where we're goin'. I want it to be a surprise," Sonic said with a quick wink.

Tails nodded, "Sure thing, Sonic."

During their quick meeting, Tails had informed the others of the situation. He'd told them that Sonic knew the area, and since the ship was unable to pinpoint the location of the next Emerald, Sonic had volunteered to make this his chosen destination and lead the search for the gem.

Shadow, of course, wasn't content to simply follow Sonic around. He decided he would split off from the others to look for the Emerald, and told them as much. Rouge, as usual, decided to go with him, and Mighty did as well, since he thought splitting up was a good idea. Shadow didn't know much about the armadillo, but he'd seen him fight. The black hedgehog would never admit it, but he knew he might need help if Metal Sonic and his goons showed up again, so he agreed to let Mighty tag along.

The first thing the group noticed when they saw the shoreline of Christmas Island was the enormous lighthouse that the area was famous for. The structure was beautifully designed, and looked somewhat like a giant white chess piece. Sonic was more interested in the town that lay just beyond that structure. When he was very young, the place had been no more than a small village. It had no name, and still doesn't. When asked where they lived the town's residents would simply say "Christmas Island" and leave it at that. Very few people lived outside of town, so anyone who lived on the island probably called that place home. It had changed in the years since Sonic had left, and while the place was still small compared to a city like Soleanna, it had grown much larger since Sonic's childhood days. He had left that place years ago, wanting to see the big world outside, but every time he returned to this island he found that he kind of missed way things used to be.

The two groups split up when they got to the dock. Shadow, Rouge and Mighty went out into the wilderness, while Sonic and the rest searched the town.

It was a short walk from the dock to the edge of town, and when they got there Sonic leaned over to Tails and said, "Can you start the tour without me? I need to take care of something."

Tails nodded in response. He'd been here enough times to know where everything was.

"Be back in a flash, guys!" Sonic said as he ran off.

"Hey!" Amy screamed indignantly. He was well out of range by now, though, so she just crossed her arms and growled, "I swear, Sonic can't sit still for even a minute! And he ALWAYS leaves me behind!"

"Let's just start looking around, guys." Tails said, ignoring her tirade, "I've been here before, so I'll lead the search until Sonic gets back."

They walked through the streets, with Tails leading them on a sort of sightseeing tour while they searched for any sign of the Chaos Emerald. It was a small town, so the place didn't have all that much to see, but there were a few old buildings and monuments of interest.

Though Cosmo found the town to be a pleasant place, she was also quickly becoming very uncomfortable. There were Mobians everywhere, and unlike in Soleanna where most people had been too busy to notice her, several people they passed turned to stare at the plant girl. She was a stranger in a strange place, and strange looking at that. Being around all of these curious people made the seedrian acutely aware of the fact that she was literally an alien here. She wanted very much disappear right now. She would have loved to just grab Tails' namesakes and hide her face in their bulky fluff, but he was leading the search for the Emerald, and she knew if she let on how she was feeling it would distract him. She didn't want to be a bother.

Cream was the first to notice her friend's discomfort, and walked over to her. "Are you alright, Cosmo?" She quietly asked.

Cosmo jumped a bit, seeming surprised to hear someone speaking to her. When she'd regained her composure she said, "Yes, yes I'm fine, thanks."

Cream smiled. Cosmo wasn't a very good liar, so even the young rabbit could see through her words. Cosmo just didn't want to tell her what was wrong, so Cream decided it would be best simply to try and take her friend's mind off of things, "How are you enjoying the trip so far, Cosmo?"

The seedrian smiled at her, "I like it a lot! Your planet has so many interesting things to see!" That was no lie. She very much enjoyed travelling from one exotic place to the next on the Sea Storm. It reminded her of her time on the Blue Typhoon.

"Yeah, it's really nice here, especially when Dr. Eggman's not doing anything nasty." Cream told her, "but you know, this isn't just our planet now. We all want you to feel at home here, too!"

Home… for Cosmo, home had always been a spaceship. She was born in space, and had lived there ever since, first with her people, and then with Tails and the others on the Blue Typhoon. Her mother had told her stories of how their people had once lived on a beautiful planet, in homes of their own, and Cosmo had always wondered how that would feel. Now she was here, on a beautiful planet, sharing a home with someone she loved, and she was happy, but she felt out of place. Her whole life had been spent gazing out of windows at the passing stars, a pastime her sister had often teased her about. Now the sky was blue all around her, and she was surrounded by animals rather than other seedrians like Galaxina. It just felt… off, somehow.

A gust of wind quickly blew by Tails and the others before stopping right in front of them. "Hey, guys!" Sonic said with a grin, "Did ya miss me?"

"Sonic where were you?" Amy asked irritably.

Sonic put his hand on the back of his head and explained, "I was just out prepairin' a little surprise for you guys!" He turned back to Tails, "Didja find anything?"

"Not yet, Sonic," Tails answered him, "We've only searched around for a little while, though, so I'm not ready to give up yet."

"Maybe we should ask around," Sonic said, "Everyone here is pretty friendly, so I'm sure if anyone's seen anything they'll tell us."

"Then let's split into groups to make things faster," Tails said, "I'll finish up this side with Knuckles and Cosmo, while you take Amy and Cream to the other side of town and check there."

"Okay, and we can meet back at my old house when we're done," Sonic replied.

"Your house? You used to live here, Sonic?" Amy asked, a little unnerved that she'd missed this in her years of Sonic obsession.

"Yup! That's how me and Tails know the area so well!" The blue hedgehog explained.

After the two groups split off they searched for hours attempting to find the Emerald, but nobody in town had seen it, and Tails still couldn't figure out why his tracker wouldn't work. Sonic and Tails both had friends in the area, and they each stopped by to chat and see how things were. It was during one such visit that Knuckles noticed something, or rather someone familiar. While Tails was talking mechanics with an old walrus named Rotor, the echidna spied a purple figure with a brown hat and boots turning around a corner. If that was who he thought it was...

"Hey!" Knuckles yelled as he ran after the figure. However, when he reached the corner that his quarry had turned, the person was nowhere to be found. He looked around in confusion. Had he been mistaken?

"Knuckles, what's wrong?" Tails asked as he and Cosmo caught up.

"Must've been my imagination..." Knuckles muttered as he turned to the other two, "So, what now?"

"I guess we head back and meet up with Sonic and the others," Tails replied.

"Hopefully they've had better luck," Cosmo added.

The two groups met by the front gate of a house on a fairly large property. Having both met with failure, most of the crew seemed somewhat dejected. The lone exception was a cocky, blue hedgehog.

"Oh, well," said Sonic, "We'll find it eventually. Right now I've got that surprise I promised for ya!" He went up to the door of the house and knocked loudly. A moment later, a pale purple hedgehog came to the door. Sonic grinned and greeted her, "Hi, Mom!"

There was a collective shout of "MOM!?!?" from everyone except for Tails, who had already been introduced to Sonic's family.

"Hello, Sonic! These must be the friends you were telling me about," Sonic's mother said sweetly, "Well, come on in. Dinner's almost ready and your father's setting the table as we speak."

Author's Note: Back! That took waaaay longer than I wanted it to. Now that I've finally gotten this story mostly done, I can start posting again. I'll probably be posting every other day rather than every day like I was, just to make sure that I have time to polish the chapters before I get them up.