10. Two Searches Commence

Sonic the Hedgehog stood on the sand at Emerald Beach, well above the high tide line. "I don't know what you think you're going to find," he said, for about the tenth time, "I flung it out as far as it would go. If it's not sunk to the bottom, it must have washed away in the current." Shadow, wading carefully through the surf, ignored him. The black hedgehog stopped short as a larger wave came in, foaming around his knees high enough to submerge the flashes of red fur on his outer calves, then stepped carefully forward again when the water depth dropped back to ankle-height. Sonic wasn't certain if the other's uncertainty about the waves was consoling (since it justified his own concern) or laughable (since the Ultimate Life-form was nervous about mere water). "Shadow, do you know how to swim?"

It took a moment for Shadow to realize that this was a new question, then he raised his head and gave the blue dokan a thoughtful stare. "Yes, I know how to swim," he said finally, "but it was in my flash training I was given before I woke up. I've–" he broke off as an unusually high wave whacked him at waist-height, forcing him to spread his arms for balance. "I've never actually tried it," he concluded quietly, shaking salt water from his striped quills. "And if you'll forgive my saying so, you're not really the person I'd prefer to have standing by if I'm about to get washed out to sea. Do you think it's getting rougher?"

Sonic considered the waves. He wasn't particularly offended by Shadow's last comment, because he could see his point. And he had to concede that it took more courage than he was currently showing to wade into the water knowing you might get into trouble and didn't have anyone to rescue you on hand. "Yeah, I think it is. The waves are certainly faster, and the angle has changed. Look, why don't we go find Knuckles? He can swim, and even if he won't help search, he will be able to jump in to save you if you need it. And I don't think I can afford the bill if GUN decides to charge me with losing the Ultimate Life-form."

Shadow snorted as he stepped clear of the waves and tried to shake the water off his feet. He hiked up the beach to join Sonic and picked up one of the socks he'd left tucked into his hover shoes, then paused. He looked at the sock, and then at the now-sandy sole of his foot. He tried to brush off the sand, and found it adhered to the damp fur and skin (and now to his glove as well). He took a swipe at his foot with his sock, then realized that he now had sand on the sock as well as on his foot, and it wouldn't brush loose from either site. He put his foot down and realized he'd just replaced whatever sand he had brushed off - and then some.

Sonic laughed. "Welcome to the eternal dilemma of the beach. Try these." He offered Shadow a pair of red-and-white flip-flops. "You really don't want to put that sock back in your shoe until you get the sand off; you'll get blisters. There's a shower up by the street where you can rinse it and your feet off."

He led Shadow up the beach to the public shower. After the black hedgehog had rinsed his feet off and his sock out, he put his hover shoes on and the two hedgehogs headed for Station Square, so named because it was the area around the local train station. Weaving their way through the tourists that had recently disembarked for fun in the sun on Emerald Beach - with perhaps a few side trips to Casinopolis or the night life downtown in Night Babylon - they reached the ticket counter. Shadow pointed out a notice posted overhead. "Look Sonic, it says there aren't any trains running to Mystic Ruins until next Tuesday."

Sonic shrugged. "That shouldn't be a problem for us. Excuse me, sir," he said to the human at the counter, "why aren't the trains running to Mystic Ruins for the next few days?"

"Oh my, you're Sonic the Hedgehog!" The young man, who had been looking seriously bored, straightened up at once. "Um, the trains? Oh, they're doing some minor repairs on the bridge over the water - nothing serious, but they can't get the equipment out on the bridge while the trains are crossing it every few hours. So the track is closed until Tuesday. Um, um, I hate to bother you, but . . . . "

"What would you like me to autograph?" asked Sonic with a cheerful grin, recognizing the signs. Scrawling his name on an eagerly proffered sheet of paper, he said to Shadow, "See, Shadow? The train can't go out, but we can get past the equipment just fine. And using the tracks means we can go directly across the bay rather than the long way round. Here," he abruptly thrust the paper and pen at the black hedgehog, "you should sign this too." Shadow blinked at the paper, which now had 'Best wishes and keep running! Sonic the Hedgehog' written across it. He glanced at the young man, who had a hopeful look on his face. He looked back to Sonic, clearly having no idea what he was being asked to do. "C'mon, Shadow," encouraged the blue hedgehog, "just sign your name."

Still looking doubtful, Shadow took the pen and wrote 'Shadow the Hedgehog' in beautiful copperplate script. After a brief pause, he quickly added 'The Ultimate Life-form' beneath his name, and thrust the paper back at Sonic, who read it, smirked, and handed it to the clerk. "Oh thank you!" gasped the clerk, and hurriedly put the paper somewhere under the counter. Suddenly formal he straightened and said, "Have a good day, and I'm sorry I couldn't help you with your travel plans." Following his gaze, Sonic spotted a uniformed man approaching, whose posture said 'boss'.

"That's all right," said Shadow, "you've been most helpful." He grabbed Sonic's arm and pulled him away. "You do realize that it's illegal to travel on train tracks if you aren't a train? Or at least an employee of the rail company?" he muttered.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, but I do it all the time; I can get off before the engineer ever sees me, and I always watch where I'm going. Besides, it really is the fastest way."

"I understand that. My point is, you just told an employee of the rail company that we were going to be running on the tracks."

"Oh. Well, I don't think he'll tell on us. Come on, we should get out of town a bit before we head for Mystic Ruins. Don't want any kids to see what we're about to do." Sonic jogged off; Shadow shook his head, but followed after.

It was a nice day for a run, and before long Sonic was running along between the rails with Shadow gliding just outside them. "This reminds me a bit too much of that stupid base Doctor Eggman had," muttered the black hedgehog.

"With the rails going every-which-way through the canyons?" asked Sonic. "That was a bit odd even for Eggman, but did you see those cannon things with the crazy capsules? Knux and I never did figure those out, but Tails thought it might be some sort of emergency escape device."

"Those were - how did Omega put it? Oh yes, those were 'high velocity supply transfer devices'. We actually got ourselves fired off through one of them."

"Yeah, we did too. You gotta admit, Eggman does at least keep life interesting. Look, there's the bridge." A few minutes later the two hedgehogs were vaulting over several trucks and trailers parked on the bridge, without a workman in sight. Sonic noted in passing that the vehicles had railcar-type wheels that were currently riding the tracks, with normal ones raised to the sides. He'd seen them before, but Shadow slowed for a closer look. Sonic started to slow, himself, but a swirl of green motes below caught his eye. "Look, Shadow!" Sonic pointed to the green blobs, which were rising quickly through the air towards the two hedgehogs. "Ever seen green seahorses before?" He sped up again, and Shadow caught up, while the oversized seahorses tried to catch up.

"They must be Nightmarens. But didn't you say they were supposed to be targeting Tails?" The seahorses, a rather nauseating green splashed with pink, were blowing streams of large bubbles that closed in on the two dokan in blithe disregard of comparative speeds and wind direction.

"Apparently they don't care who they go after in the real world," replied the blue hedgehog as he dodged several bubbles trying to surround him. And then vaulted over an equine head rising between the railroad ties

Shadow batted at one pastel bubble and grunted. "Don't touch them," he warned Sonic, "they'll make your hand go numb."

Sonic's eyes went wide as he jumped and hopped from side to side as bubbles swirled around him. "It's not my hands I'm worried about!" A cold chill ran along his spine at the thought of the bubbles numbing his legs and sending him sixty feet down into the deep water. Somehow he didn't think the seahorses would go away and let him cling to the track supports, and he doubted that the bay held any convenient air pockets or bubble streams.

"Watch it!" Suddenly Shadow yanked him sideways, almost throwing both of them off the track. Sonic opened his mouth to complain, then realized that the bubble he'd been about to brush past was actually a fish, which raised nasty-looking spikes as the hedgehogs slipped past. Shadow shoved Sonic back to his side of the track and hissed, "Run!" Suiting action to words, the Ultimate Life-form practically vanished in a blur of golden light. Sonic dodged a second puffer fish and kicked into high gear himself. Even dreams couldn't keep up with Sonic the Hedgehog at top speed.

Once they'd left the floating seahorses and porcupine fish behind, the two dokan reduced their speed slightly, but didn't really return to what most people would consider a 'normal' run until they reached Mystic Ruins. Sonic had already spotted the snowcaps of Angel Island hanging over the jungle, although as they drew nearer the cliff between the arrival area and the jungle had hidden them from view. Dropping down off the railroad bridge, Sonic took a confident lead toward the mineshaft that penetrated the cliff. Shadow looked dubious when the blue hedgehog climbed into the waiting mine car, but joined him without protest. Several bumpy minutes later they emerged on the other side of the cliff into the bowl that had once held the capital city of the Echidnan Empire.

Sonic grinned at Shadow's stunned stare. He had to admit, it was a pretty impressive view. He'd seen plenty of scenery in his travels, but nothing quite compared with the huge sweep of jungle, surrounded by a three-quarter arc of vertical cliffs, with the open side dropping straight down into more jungle. This latter area, actually a basin formed when the land mass now called Angel Island was ripped away from the rest of the Echidnan capitol, was currently overshadowed by the island itself. The island's ground level was probably a quarter mile above where it had originally been, but the central snow-capped peak and its smaller fellows were easily visible above the variegated jungles, and a flash of gold near one edge marked the island's small, incongruous desert.

Shadow gaped at the view, and then at the island itself, then looked around at the encircling cliffs again. "A caldera?"

Sonic nodded. "That's Tails' theory. He says either that or an ancient meteor strike, but favors the caldera because of the remaining volcano on Angel Island."

The black hedgehog blinked, and stared at the island again. "That flying island - has a live volcano? You're kidding."

"No," Sonic was mildly surprised. "Don't you know about Angel Island? I mean, I thought Gerald did a bunch of preliminary research there."

Shadow hesitated, then frowned in puzzlement. "Actually, it's rather strange. Professor Gerald did do research there, and I know where he was and what he discovered . . . but I don't have anything in my flash training or since I awoke about the island itself. I've only ever seen a picture of it after - after Doctor Eggman woke me up, I think."

Sonic looked at his companion curiously, but decided this wasn't the time to pursue the matter. He knew that if Shadow didn't 'think' he'd seen the Island before his time in suspension then he had not seen it; although the strain of the fall from the ARK and Shadow's recovery at Eggman's hands had caused a temporary amnesia, the Ultimate Life-form also had an ultimate memory. Which made Sonic very uncomfortable at the thought of certain of Shadow's memories - some things shouldn't be remembered too clearly. "Well, we'll have to get Knuckles to give you the tour then, once we get this dream-business sorted out. You want to take the ladder down, or go the quick way?"

"The quick--" Sonic barely heard the question; scorning the hundred-foot climb, he'd already dashed off the edge. Momentum and a quick jump enabled him to land in the closest tree, and from there the blue hedgehog worked his way along a massive limb to an intersecting one. The jungle vegetation was tall and thick enough that one could travel on it for a fair ways, but Sonic dropped to the ground at the first path he came across. Shadow caught up with him a moment after, trailing behind as Sonic jogged down the leaf-strewn trail.

Eventually Shadow asked why the trail was there. "It's one of the old roads from the Empire," Sonic explained. "The path itself stays clear because there are these big stone blocks still down there, under the leaves and dirt, and Big patrols the area and keeps the branches and vines cut back. And there are human explorers out here too, from time to time, and they clear it as well. Knuckles has said they can't cut any new paths, or any of the big trees. There's a lot of political debate over whether he's got the right to say such things or not, but most of the people that actually come here go along with it."

"I'd imagine a good look at his fists would tend to be persuasive for most humans."

"Yeah. Hey, look at that!" Sonic stopped as he reached a stream that was bank-to-bank fish. "I've never seen all these guys before. We could just about walk across them and not get our feet wet." He crouched down to get a closer look

Shadow leaned past him, snatched a fish from the writhing mass, and studied it a moment. "Golden salmon," he said in a slightly distant voice. "Sometimes called king salmon. Originally runs occurred along a five hundred-mile stretch of coastline, but now the only intact runs occur in the Greater Tarnish River and in the Mystic Ruins. It is still unclear how the fish reach the Mystic Ruins, but several creeks appear to cross under or through the cliff surrounding the bejungled hollow."

"I wish you wouldn't do that," said Sonic with a shiver, as Shadow put the fish back down. It flopped along the backs of its brethren for nearly three feet before finding room to get back into the water. "That tone of voice gives me the creeps."

Shadow shrugged. "Sorry, I thought you wanted to know about the fish." He jumped across the creek. "Shall we continue?"

Sonic jumped over the water and took the lead again. Just when I think he's halfway normal, he goes and does something like that again. Sheesh. He led Shadow past the Echidnan temple without slowing down, then the path emerged from the jungle to run along the edge above the deeper valley. Angel Island loomed above them. Sonic waved a hand at a corroded metal arch that tailed off into a few scraps on the very brink of the pit. "That used to be one of Eggman's bases, until I shut it down. Now, somewhere along here should be that elevator Tails adapted . . . ." His voice trailed off as he started searching through the bushes near the ruined door.

What he found was a pair of bright red shoes with blocky yellow fasteners. "Lose something, Sonic?" said Knuckles. Sonic jumped upright and glared at the echidna, hearing Shadow's snort of amusement behind him. The echidna had a string of the golden salmon in one hand, and a net full of wild grapes over his shoulder.

Sonic ran a hand through his quills and imagined himself combing off his irritation. He needed Knuckles' help, much as it galled him to have to ask for it, and making the echidna mad would be counterproductive even if entertaining. "Actually, I have," he said. "You say you're a good treasure hunter, and I've lost a small but apparently valuable stone."

"A gem?" Knuckles' eyes lit up at the prospect of a treasure hunt, but his tone said he clearly didn't see why Sonic would be looking for treasure.

"Not exactly." Sonic sighed, and gave the red echidna a summary of the Dreamcaster, although he didn't say that he'd been the one who'd tossed it into the ocean. Fortunately Shadow forbore to add that fact, although even Knuckles could probably work it out from the rest of the story.

If the echidna noticed the omission, he didn't comment on it. He put down his net and lay the fish on top of it, eyes half-closed in thought. "Emerald Beach, huh? The currents there would have moved it right down the coast." He turned and looked at the cliff separating the Mystic Ruins from the train station. "Could be out in the bay, actually. Probably went right past the Emerald Coast resort the day after you tossed it out. There's a raft we can use moored under the station; they use it to check the pilings, but I don't think anyone will notice if we borrow it for a bit."

Sonic agreed readily, but Shadow objected. "You're suggesting we steal the raft from the station?"

"Not steal," Knuckles waved the idea away, "borrow. There's usually not anyone at the station to ask, anyway; we'll just borrow it and have it back before anyone needs it. Why shouldn't we use it if no one else is?"

Shadow seemed rather dubious, but Sonic agreed with the echidna. "You saw the trucks and things on the rails, Shadow, without a soul in sight. With no trains coming in, there won't be any workers at the station either, and there's no sense in running all the way back to Station Square - or wherever the headquarters are, most likely - to ask some bureaucrat to borrow a raft he's never seen or heard of. We're not going to damage it, so where's the harm?"

"Those nightmare things might damage it," pointed out the dark hedgehog.

Sonic sighed in exasperation. "If they do, I'll pay for repairs, I promise. Now can we go?" Who made Shadow a policeman anyway? I thought he said he'd turned G.U.N. down!

"Very well." Shadow gave in. "But I'll hold you to that promise." Sonic rolled his eyes.

Storm thudded along the deck of the Babylon airship, wishing that something interesting would happen. The Egg-human had told Jet his plan: to hold a series of hoverboard races to both distract this Sonic-Hedgehog person and trick him into turning a Chaos Emerald - whatever that was - over to the Egg-human. That would be fun, even though there really wasn't anyone out there who could give the Babylon Rogues a good race on their hoverboards. But first, the Rogues had to find an Emerald of their own to enter the race with. "To show good faith," the Egg-human had said. Storm wasn't certain about the difference between good faith and bad faith, but he was certainly getting very bored. Jet was alternately prowling about the ship playing captain or sitting in his chair daydreaming of victory, and Wave was hunched down in the control room over some thing of the Egg-human's that was supposed to lead them to an Emerald. Both were snarly when interrupted, so Storm had come up to patrol the deck, even though there was really nothing to guard against. He stopped as the deck hatch flew open - was something happening at last?

Jet's head rose through the hatch. "Storm! Stop stamping around like that; you're shaking the whole ship. Can't you find something useful to do?" The head withdrew and the hatch slammed shut again.